More on Vaccinations

Dear Madame L, 

I want your take on vaccines. As someone who has lived in multiple countries around the world, who has probably had actual real life experience with some of the diseases vaccinated against (polio, right?), and as someone who seems very knowledgable in the scientific fields. 

When I was pregnant with the first, it never even dawned on me that anyone would choose not to vaccinate. I was blown away by the fact that there are people out there who wouldn't do it for their kids. It seemed so simple. It'd be like if your child had cancer and you chose not to fight it. This made me want to figure out why. I've read the vaccine manufacturer inserts, studied the effectiveness of some of the vaccines available, read about what they actually prevent or don't prevent, read about the actual diseases that the vaccines are meant to protect against and their symptoms and mortality rates, learned about the different possible side effects of the vaccines, read people's studies on why some children are affected in such terrible ways and others are not, toxins from the vaccines pass directly through the blood brain barrier (which I'm still reading about) and I have learned that not all vaccines are created equal, as I once thought. 

Vaccine injuries are real. Many babies and toddlers are permanently damaged by them. People have filed lawsuits against the government for whichever country they live in and the government has admitted fault to the vaccine injuries and end up paying for the child's medical care for the rest of their lives. 

The diseases they fight to protect us against are real. People have suffered and died because of them, and continue to do so. Some in the USA and a lot in other countries with less sanitation. 

So what's your take on vaccines? Are there some you think are very important and others that aren't? Are there some that you believe are more of a risk to have than the disease itself?

Then of course, there's the claim that vaccines are causing the rates of autism to continue going up. 

One doctor, Dr Natasha Campbell-McBride has researched the link between neurological issues and our gut flora. Basically finding that when you have a healthy gut flora your body has the tools and health to fight off things such as autism, add, ADHD, schizophrenia, even allergies and other issues. She says that vaccines aren't the cause of these issues, just another contributor. Things such as antibiotics, lack of breastfeeding to pass on the mothers antibodies, and the lack of nutritious foods are also contributors to the decline in the health of our gut flora. She has a special diet full of probiotics and fermented foods that she recommends that, over time, builds the gut flora back up. She actually had a son who was diagnosed with autism whom she fed these things to and he was later symptom free. 

I think her findings make the most sense to me, out of everything I've read so far.

She suggests that people can simply test their gut flora to know if they are at risk of developing issues. If they are, she helps them repair it before continuing on with recommended vaccination schedules. 

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2011/07/31/dr-natasha-campbell-mcbride-on-gaps-nutritional-program.aspx

What's your take on all of this? 

Sincerely, 

The person who keeps driving her mother crazy throwing all my findings at her in an effort to bounce ideas off someone.


Dear Person,

Thank you for your detailed question. Madame L apologizes for taking so long to getting around to addressing your questions and particularly appreciates your thorough research on the topic. 

Yes, it's true that Madame  L had polio as a child, along with her older sister and younger brother.

It's also true that as soon as the polio vaccine became available, Madame L's mother took her and her brother and sister to the public health clinic to get them vaccinated. Even after someone told her that her children probably didn’t need the vaccine if they’d already had the disease, she reasoned that they might have had a mild version that didn’t completely protect them from further outbreaks or that they might have had had a different version than whatever would be going around in the future. In any case, she did everything she could to make sure her children would be safe from any disease, any harm.

Madame L realizes that you are doing exactly the same thing for your children: everything you can to make sure they are safe from any and every disease and harm. Madame L hopes you'll continue reading every bit of valid --- and Madame L emphasizes the word "valid" --- research you can find on the subject of the safety of vaccinations.

Madame L has read many articles and books suggesting that good nutrition will help prevent or even cure all kinds of illnesses, ranging from blindness to multiple sclerosis. Yet none of those articles and books has included scientific, statistically valid, unbiased, replicable studies to back up the authors' conclusions. And, in fact, Madame L notes that in almost all those cases the people writing those books have some ulterior motive or bias; this may include simply that whatever they're selling worked for them.

Addressing the article you mention in your question: Madame L does not have access to, nor does she think most other people have access to, a doctor who will test their gut flora to see if they've been infected with or are in danger of getting a disease for which a vaccine exists. In fact, this whole notion strikes Madame L as more than ridiculous. If a person has been infected with the mumps, for instance, the last place to check for evidence of the disease is in their gut, even if antibodies could be found there. Madame L knows there are many explanations for apparent spontaneous remissions of many diseases, including diet, but Madame L isn't counting on anything like that happening for millions of Americans.

Further, as you know, the doctor who published the study most often cited about vaccinations and autism has withdrawn the study and has been thoroughly disgraced, as he has had to admit that the study was flawed and his conclusions were invalid. Madame L is glad you haven't jumped on that bandwagon, which many people are still tooting their horns on, even though it's got four flat tires and a broken-down engine. Madame L found a good video on this topic, which she thinks you'll find informative.

So, what are we left with? If we discard bad science, money-making science, tricks-with-words-by-doctors-who-are-selling-books-and-supplements-and-lab-tests science, government-scientists-are-probably-lying-and-it's-all-a-government-conspiracy science, and celebrity science, we are left with good solid evidence for the efficacy of childhood vaccines and for the value of getting those vaccines on the government-medical-science-recommended schedule.

Madame L recommends this Web site, AntiAntiVax, for summaries of that good solid science and links to pages with more detail.

Madame L hopes you'll read this information, discard the information that comes from unqualified and biased writers, and conclude, as she has, that the best thing you can do for your children is get them vaccinated according to the schedule recommended by the Public Health officials who are concerned for the health of everyone in our country.

Sincerely,

Madame L