<p>Thanks, maidenMom. Experience has taught me that people who are anti-vaccine are mostly parents who just want the best for their kids. They are not overwhelmingly anti-science, nutjobs or conspiracy theorists, though you might think so because of that group’s stridency. The groups that really get my goat are those who claim that vaccines never helped curb infectious diseases at all (some of that nonsense in the “article” cited above).</p>
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<p>You need to educate yourself on what exactly herd immunity is and why it is important because you clearly don’t understand it. And based on your comments about “live viruses,” you also don’t have an understanding of immunology and how vaccines work. Nurses who work with immunocompromised patients are allowed to get vaccines with live attenuated viruses. They don’t spread the disease to even this vulnerable population.</p>
<h1>150 made a very nice comment and then was jumped all over for not understanding herd immunity as it was expressed in#151.</h1>
<p>I think several did a thorough job of explaining the concept to lmkh70.</p>
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<p>Herd immunity is a beneficial external effect of vaccination. It is an example where you can help yourself (reduce your risk of getting the infectious disease) while helping others (those who, for medical reasons, cannot get the vaccine, or whose immune systems did not produce a strong enough response to the vaccine to become immune).</p>
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<p>Polio, measles, tetanus, diptheria, pertussis, meningitis, influenza, pneumonia, etc. are all considered significantly more severe than the common cold.</p>
<p>Don’t know if that reference to “voodoo medicine” was in reference to my quackwatch link, cartera, but I’ll take a stab. Because that was EXACTLY my point. As jaylynn as pointed out, some have legitimate personal reasons for desiring to decline immunizations, but there is a lot of junk out there posing as science that cries out against immunizations with no valid research to support it. We already know that the good Dr. Andrew Wakefield from Britain, now in Tx, who claimed to have produced data to prove the link between immunizations and autism, has been found to have falsified the data and IIRC has lost his license to practice medicine</p>
<p>[Andrew</a> Wakefield - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Wakefield]Andrew”>Andrew Wakefield - Wikipedia)
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<p>ok- can I just make an aside comment? I think I keep reading, or maybe its my imagination? and, if so, I apologize in advance, (nuances are so hard on CC), but anyway, I kep hearing slight judgmental ? echoes about my ripping up homework. This was done once or twice when he was 8 or 9 to make a point about doing your best and, if you’re not going to do your best work, then have the cojones to go up to the teacher and say, " You know, Mrs Smith, I didn’t feel like doing the English assignment lst night, I wanted to watch TV. So, I’m taking the F on the homework assignment. It doesn’t matter that you tried to give us interesting homework. I don’t care about school." The point I was trying to make was don’t go and turn a C/D grade paper because you are lazy. I ripped up the homework after watching days of declining work. I got my point across. Please don’t imagine a cowering 8 yr old being abused by his overbearing tiger mother. As you can see from my above laments, he stands up for himself extremely vigorously when he believes he is in the right. I’m sure i will never win any parent of the year award, but, my family is very close. We’re all just very dramatic and, what works in one family might not work in another. (remind me to tell you the story someday about the time one of the older ones got an F in chem). So far, I got 2 through BU and Northeastern and both are happy, productive young men with whom I’m extremely close ( sunday lunches) gainfully employed rt out of college. I also screamed regularly at them when they screwed up in school/ univ. None of us are perfect.</p>
<p>Perhaps it would have been helpful for me to clarify Quackwathc’s mission, and my reason for linking it (to provide information that addreses the junk /quack pseudo science out there).
Hope this helps.</p>
<p>jym, I was referring to the post #130 that linked to the Mercola site.</p>
<p>Just to weigh in on vaccine effectiveness and them not working…as a nurse, I have to have a hepatitis vaccine. When I changed jobs a number of years back, they wanted a hep titer to assure I had coverage. My titer was negative. I went through the series of hep vaccines again. And was re-tested. Titer still negative. </p>
<p>No, they did not make me go through them again. But some people just do not have the expected reaction to a vaccine. It ids one more reason that herd immunity is important.</p>
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<p>This might help explain some of the students I’ve had where they do great all term, then start to get overwhelmed by the amount of work they have from all of their classes and hand in nothing for the last few weeks of the semester. Sometimes triage is the best method to get by.</p>
<p>Ahh, thanks for clarifying Cartera. I would imagine that article is discussed on the quackwatch site.</p>
<p>Cheekymonkey-- it wouldn’t be CC if there wasn’t blatant judgement about your parenting, lol! But be assured that most parents here understand the stresses of parenting, and we all do the best we can. </p>
<p>Andrew Wakefield messed up my practice (or at least me trying to keep on schedule with well baby checks) for years!!! I became the local go-to pediatrician for autism issues partly because checking out his claims made me somewhat knowledgeable about anti-vaccine issues. He certainly freaked out a certain several years’ worth of parents! He’s been totally discredited, his co-authors have distanced themselves from him, and he cannot practice medicine in the UK. So he lives here in the US, lol.</p>
<p>Cheekymonkey, there has been a lot of judging going on here, which is not unusual unfortunately. I have been trying to ignore those posts, hoping they will just peter out. The majority of us here admit to being imperfect parents doing their best, and would not feel comfortable with calling out another parent. </p>
<p>Personally, I think you sound like a great parent who knows her own child best and parents accordingly. Don’t allow anonymous posters on a forum to make you feel anything less. ((Hugs))</p>
<p>You are all so sweet. And now I’m going back to my regular parents thread. Enjoyed reading the posts</p>
<p>Force it on him. Tell him he should go get some ice cream, and end up driving him to the doctor’s. There, tell him he should go inside to get a checkup, then have the doctor tackle him, and pull him into one of the rooms for the shot. I did this for my kid, and he thanked me 17 years later.</p>
<p>Jaylinn, I am also a pediatrician, now retired. As you know, pediatricians are the lowest paid MDs and make essentially no profit on vaccines, in fact administering some at a loss. The only incentive we have for recommending vaccines is that we know they are in the best interests of our patients. If I were to list three problems that tend to take the fun out of pediatrics, they would be 1) dealing with insurance companies, 2) persuading parents that antibiotics are not necessary for most common illnesses, and 3) dealing with the misinformation about vaccines that is now so prevalent in the media and on the internet. I am old enough to have seen measles: it is not a mild childhood illness. I have seen children admitted to the ICU with complications of chicken pox. I have had patients who survived meningococcal illness but with permanent disability such as loss of limbs. I have had patients who were not that fortunate: meningococcal meningitis is often fatal. In India there are people permanently crippled because of polio. Diphtheria used to be a major cause of fatality in infants and young children. Pertussis remains a problem because the reservoir is now adolescents and adults who have not had the recommended booster. Vaccines are not perfect. Some individuals will not sero-convert; a few will have side-effects; a very small number will have very serious reactions. My heart goes out to them. Research to create safer and more effective vaccines is ongoing, and should be supported. Charlatans like Andrew Wakefield have done great harm and bear considerable responsibility for the resurgence of measles in Europe and North America.
To parents I would say this: if your pediatrician recommends the meningitis vaccine or Gardasil, she or he is doing so because they believe, based on the best scientific information available, that it is the best option to protect your son or daughter against some very nasty illnesses. I assure you that your pediatrician is not doing this for personal gain. The only reason we go into pediatrics is that we love children.</p>
<p>Well said Irishdoctor! I appreciate the knowledge shared by professionals like you and jaylynn.</p>
<p>A girl in my dorm in college died from meningitis. I’ve never hesitated about a vaccine for me or my kids since.</p>
<p>Amen, Irishdoctor. The worst night of my residency was watching a little girl (too young for the vaccine, actually) die of meningococcal sepsis right before my eyes. It haunts me. And yes, all those years when esp the MMR was given in the office at a loss, I would wince at the irony that we were losing money giving a vaccine that some people questioned us for giving…</p>
<p>Thanks, pacnwmom!</p>
<p>Quachwatch has a ton of comments/ article refuting Mercola’s claims and the sale of his supplements. This is pretty entertaining. Take a gander at the house/grounds the supplements bought him [FDA</a> Orders Dr. Joseph Mercola to Stop Illegal Claims](<a href=“http://www.quackwatch.org/11Ind/mercola.html]FDA”>http://www.quackwatch.org/11Ind/mercola.html)</p>