Vaccine Wars

Vaccines.

This topic evokes strong emotions from two sides, two factions, that heartily oppose each other on the topic of vaccines. For years, since I added many new people to my Facebook network, I have seen countless posts about the dangers of vaccines. Some even bluntly call vaccines evil and of the devil. I have seen accusations of the Government using the promotion of vaccines to "make us all sick." If you use Facebook, you may have seen such posts. The controversy seems to be here to stay.

What Am I Talking About?

When we picture or think about vaccines, we probable think mainly about having a pediatrician vaccinate his/her young patients. That's a huge part of it. But this raging controversy also extends to vaccines that are available to us adults, such as flu vaccines and to extra vaccines that are available to senior citizens. Yet the major focus is child vaccines because it is children who receive the most vaccines. When I was growing up, in the 1960s and 1970s, in St. Louis, MISSOURI, I do not remember that any vaccine controversy existed. I became aware of it only some time after my daughter was diagnosed, at close to age three, with Pervasive Development Disorder-Not Otherwise Specified (PDD-NOS). I didn't know what to make of it.

Why the Vaccine Controversy?

This controversy seems to have begun when Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASDs) became an official diagnosis and was added to the DSM-IV in the late 1990's. Before then, autism had never, to my knowledge, been seen as a spectrum and the diagnosis was restricted to those who showed severe autistic traits. These people fit the "rain Man" in the famous movie by Dustin Hoffmann. With the rise of the ASD diagnosis, the rate of diagnosed children soared. Studies indicated that vaccines were to blame for this sharp rise, though evidence did not seem to support that. Still, anti-vaccine activists, then and now, have remained staunch in their determination to purport the danger, even moral evil, of vaccines. We are being called to allow our children to "tap into their natural immunity" and the shun the grave evil of vaccines. Vaccines have come to be blamed not only for autism, but also are taking a sharp rap for setting our children for future cancers, diabetes, and heart disease. Vaccines are now taking a rap for other childhood illnesses. To a point, I see the point of these strenuous arguments against vaccines (or any medications for that matter).

What We May Be Overlooking

Granted, vaccines do have side effects. All medications do, for that matter. In a perfect world without any disease, vaccines would not even be an issue. But they are. We know that, for decades, we have allowed our children and ourselves to be vaccinated from diseases that have been determined to be preventable with the use of those vaccines. I don't remember that anyone in my growing up days questioned the use of vaccines to prevent diseases in our children or ourselves. Our doctors and the health experts told us that we could prevent many disease with vaccines, and this has been the case in many ways. Yet now we live in a media and digital age where we question everything, including the Government and experts. We realize that we need to research matters and not blindly accept anything we are told. This is good! We should not be naïve or gullible. Those against vaccines are totally right when they tell us to educate ourselves before we get our children or ourselves vaccinated. We should do our due diligence before making any important decision. I get that!

What Should We Conclude?

We do need to do our due diligence on vaccines, as we need to do on all important decisions facing us. I know all of you, especially those of you in the autism community, hold strong opinions on vaccines and whether to use them or not. Wherever you stand on this, you need to weigh both the pros and cons of using vaccines, and why you hold your position. Vaccines may indeed set us up for future diseases like cancers, heart disease, and diabetes. At the same time we are seeing a rise in the flu epidemic and in flu deaths. Last year, the flu killed at least 20 children. This year it is soaring in areas like my own. AS in all things, there is risk in using vaccines. There is also risk in not using them. We cannot have it both ways.

Thoughts?

The above photo is by James Gathany (CDC, PHIL #2676) and is courtesy of Wikipedia Commons. It can be found here. This image has been used under this license.

Article Resources

Safe Minds

Exposed: The Truth About Vaccines

Centers For Disease Control

Do Vaccines Cause Autism?

Vaccine Information