Obama–maybe–was suspicious seven years ago. He isn’t, now.
It is unclear to me whether those opposed to vaccines are claiming the actual antigens are harmful or believe the traces of thimiserol or formaldehyde used as preservatives are the problem.
My first child had a severe reaction to a vaccine while in the doctors office and had to be taken to the hospital. I was told it was most likely a reaction to the thimiserol. I of course researched the issue to death and found that I was able to order vaccines that were free of both thimiserol and formaldehyde. I had to bring my child in the day the vaccine arrived and had to pay an additional fee out of pocket for the special order. This is what I did with both my children after the first incident.
So if its the preservatives they object to, it appears there is a workable solution.
I’m suspicious too. Not just of autism either. There had been an uptick in lymphoma and leukemia cases that we cannot explain. Could it be vaccines? Yes, possible.
But when taking a bunch of suspicious vs hard facts that lead to deaths, the numbers are clear what the best course of action is for a large group of people and for those most vulnerable.
HarvestMoon, that must have been so scary.
I remember when my oldest was a baby, I insisted that she get the injected form of polio vaccine, not the drops (live). It was a hassle for the doctor’s office but I insisted. By the time my second kid came along, the doctor was only using the injected form. So I agree parents should have some leeway.
I also asked for longer (staggered) spacing between shots, instead of getting a whole bunch every well baby visit, even though that meant bringing the baby in more often. I didn’t like the idea that I would not know which vaccine the baby was reacting to if she did get a reaction. The doctor agreed since she trusted me to show up. She said the vaccination schedule is mostly based on a “get their shots in while you have them in the office because who knows when you might see them again” schedule.
McCain and Clinton expressed concern about a possible vaccine/autism link
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-kirby/obama-climbs-on-the-vacci_b_97969.html
So, if POTUS and the like…those beneficiaries of the best education and social means this County can provide, have expressed concerns within the past few years (over a vaccine which has been around for about 50 years)…then how can we have any ill will towards lesser mortals.
The irony being …the above individuals will encourage both the religious, off the grid Waco nuts and the raw goat milk drinking, I raise my own soybeans and pick them during the light of the full moon so that I can press my own soy formula for my special snowflake crowd. Just about pulls 'em all into the ring of crazy.
A little off topic but…
A couple of years ago I came down with an itchy, spotty rash half a day after attending my niece’s baby shower. I made an emergency appointment with the dermatologist thinking, “S***! What if this is rubella or some other infectious disease and I just exposed my pregnant niece, her two pregnant friends and the newborn who attended the shower?” After an examination and conversation the dermatologist diagnosed it as an allergic reaction to all the blue dye in the food at the “It’s a boy!” themed party!
@dietz199 - in this case it is the kids who come into contact with public health through Medicaid, the county health departments and/or WIC who are MORE likely to be vaccinated your “flooding across the boarder” kids likely fall into this group
In studies meant to investigate this issue, they switched to a new reason as soon as one was disproved. The belief is independent of any actual reason.
I can barely trust politicians speaking on subjects in which they have documented expertise, I am not sure why anyone would trust a politician of any stripe speaking on something about which they know just about nothing.
Hopefully their better informed spouses made the vaccination decisions!
I agree with the staggering. I also ordered the MMR separately, but am not sure you can do that anymore.
But even that is a bit of a strawman, imo, at least as it relates to educated individuals who are capable of researching issues.
First of all, formaldehyde is a substance produced by the human body on a daily basis, in amounts far more than in many vaccines combined. It doesn’t build up in the system over time/multiple vaccines, it’s cleared rather quickly. It’s a normal and necessary part of human metabolism.
Secondly, not all vaccines have even the minute doses of formaldehyde that are present in other vaccines. It cannot be present in certain vaccines because of its antimicrobial processes, which would render certain vaccines useless. It is not present in MMR, varicella, and rotovirus, and some of the flu vaccines, to name a few.
In the vaccines in which it is present, once it inactivates the antigens, it is diluted so that the actual amounts present are miniscule.
Even if you added up all the formaldehyde present in several vaccines given in a single sitting, it’s still only a fraction of what an infant produces in her body in a single day. There is no functional difference between vaccine injected formaldehyde and that produced by the body.
http://www.fda.gov/BiologicsBloodVaccines/ScienceResearch/ucm349473.htm
@Nrdsb4 - don’t confuse us with your science and data and so forth. Formaldehyde, scary, dead parts, you know. 
I have an even better one for the Jenny McCarthy’s of the world: If vaccines were responsible for autism, cancer and who knows what, then explain something to me, these vaccinations are not new, I got them growing up back in the dark ages of the 60’s, as did most of the kids growing up in the ‘baby boom’, and if it caused these things, how come suddenly we have an epidemic caused by vaccines? If anything, the vaccines we received were probably less safe, so how come there weren’t epidemics of autism, cancer and so forth? If they were that bad, 50 years of statistics should have shown a huge increase back then, not in the last 15-20 years.
Among other things, one of the things the wingnuts don’t bother to figure out is that autism is a lot more broad spectrum than back then, kids are being diagnosed and labelled as autistic because the criteria have changed. In some ways it kind of reminds me of some shall we say people of the ‘religious’ school of things, who tell me that the number of gays and lesbians have increased because of permissive society, that back when they were growing up, they didn’t know anyone who was gay or lesbian, now they are all over the place…didn’t dawn on them that the people had always been there, just were hidden and not labeled as such, same way with autism, that maybe, just maybe, if we applied current criteria to back then, would have seen a lot more cases of autism, too.
As far as Potus saying he believed that autism was caused by vaccines, not a big surprise, in the end he is like most politicians, where they will say anything if they think it will get them votes. If Obama said he believed vaccinations were behind autism, he probably was saying it in front of an audience likely to believe that and he was trying to get votes…it is funny, politicians are ducking global warming these days, especially the far right GOP types that have been the biggest claimers it wasn’t real, by saying “I am not a scientist”, yet the same politicians will claim that they believe autism is caused by vaccinations even though they aren’t trained in the field and those trained in it say it is hogwash.
One of my concerns is that this is such a political issue, both sides are starting to appear ridiculous. For example, a lady was on the radio defending vaccination, and said something like “thimerosal has ethyl mercury in it, not methyl mercury which is toxic to humans. They are totally different, and ethyl mercury can’t be as toxic as methyl mercury, can it?”. She was trying to defend vaccination but had no idea about the science.
My son may have been harmed by a vaccine, but it was given incorrectly. However, if his autism-like symptoms were caused by one particular dose of the polio vaccine, it is NOTHING compared to polio. We took a risk and he had a side effect.
I have enough of a background to make decisions about vaccines on a case-by-case basis. We don’t get the flu vaccine because of the way it is handled year-to-year (and we were told “good thing you didn’t get it this year - it was a total miss” by our doctors), and my kids will not get the Gardasil vaccine until they can choose logically on their own at age 16. Which is what we did with my son, who did choose to get it after reviewing the prescribing information and doctor handouts. Hurt like #%*^#^ for each shot, and he couldn’t participate in sports after each shot, so he almost regretted it.
She may not have fully understood the science, but she wasn’t wrong.
http://www.cdc.gov/vaccinesafety/Concerns/thimerosal/thimerosal_faqs.html#b
Hmm. When was it that McCain, Clinton, and Obama were running for the presidency?
“So, if POTUS and the like…those beneficiaries of the best education and social means this County can provide, have expressed concerns within the past few years (over a vaccine which has been around for about 50 years)…then how can we have any ill will towards lesser mortals.”
Cut it out, dietz. You know darn well that Obama, Clinton, etc. are proponents of science, not mommy-woo.
And McCain, too, really–at least, he used to be one of the biggest proponents of meaningful action on climate change.
One of the huge failings in this whole vaccination thing has been that the scientists, medical professionals have not come right out and said that, yes, there is a chance that the vaccines can do harm. Anytime one injects things in the body, there is that risk. The larger risks are what the focus should be on.
But really, there are people who simply don’t care. And they are proud of it. I know one in my area. He’d trample on anyone and do just about anything he could to give himself and his any advantage. Watch him do it all of the time.