OT-Jody vaccines and autoimmune diseases

[Guest guest]

Hi Jody-

I guess what I was trying to say is that Tom feels strongly that

vaccinations are a good thing and I know he doesn't get kickbacks. He did

also feel strongly that RAI wasn't harmful and changed his mind. While some

doctors do get kickbacks I don't think it's a common practice here otherwise

Tom would have some indication that it goes on. He deals with hundreds of

Peds and FPs and he's never heard about this. I have to be honest though.

Tom does get free pens, notepads and samples from drug companies but there's

no way that a free pen will influence the way that he practices medicine.

If he thinks a drug is good, he'll use it. If he doesn't, no amount of

freebies are going to change his mind. He'll still use the pen.

He's a member of our local medical society and heads committees and goes to

dinners with all these docs. He thinks their views on vaccinations were

because they were taught medicine the same way he was and since he thinks

it's the way to go they do too since you don't concentrate on a specialty in

medical school.

I don't know what the future holds for Tavis. I'm not as worried about him

as I would be about a girl since autoimmune disease is rarer among boys. He

is very smart and healthy though. He's far above grade level in everything

except handwriting. He's only in the 1st grade but he already reads at 160

words/min. The average 5th grader reads at 110wpm. He's rarely sick (he

missed 1 day of school last year), is an average sized kid and has no

allergies. I always attributed this to breastfeeding him for 2 years and

starting him reading at 2 1/2. He is a behavioral problem at school which

has perplexed his father and I since we were both good citizens. And we are

strict with him (maybe that's the problem-he does have a grandpa that was a

discipline problem so maybe that's where he get this). But I always felt we

had to be otherwise he'd run all over us. So, I don't know, things may

change in the future but, so far, the vaccinations that Tavis has received

don't appear to have harmed him.

If I had it to do over again, I wouldn't have had Tavis get varicella and

Hep B vaccines. Chicken Pox is rarely harmful except in the very very young

and people over 12. Tom and I did get it when we were 24 and 25 and we were

very ill (both of our mothers tried for years to get us infected when we

were young). I was on ATDs at the time and was much sicker than Tom was (he

brought it home from the hospital where he worked). I didn't get Hep B

vaccines until I was 30 and teaching Anatomy because I had to dissect

cadavers. I can't imagine a little kid exchanging bodily fluids with others

in natural circumstances so I'm holding off on Hep B for the twins.

Varicella too.

Sanitation does decrease the frequency of transmission of some diseases.

But when you have situations when a pathogen is aerially transmitted, you

can wash your hands all you want and be squeaky clean and still get the

disease.

I agree with boosters being given too frequently. Once our dogs are past

the age of 5, we don't give them yearly boosters (we do keep up on rabies).

Our horses haven't been vaccinated in years (we stopped them around ages 6

and 7. They are around horses that come and go in the next pasture but our

horses haven't picked up anything from them in the years that they've been

exposed to them. When our dogs and horses get elderly and their immune

systems start to shut down, we'll probably vaccinate them intermittantly

again for deadly diseases only.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that this has to be approached with

caution. If we try to do completely away with vaccines with no research

backing us up (for example, our children and grandchildren had opposite

anecdotal experiences with vaccines), it could have quite the detrimental

effect. There is a lot of good research backing vaccinations. Are they

given too frequently? Probably. At too early of an age? Probably. I wish

they'd do some really thorough studies related to this. And with all the

outcry about vaccines, I think that they will eventually. I couldn't

possibly jeopardize my babys' lives without good studies backing them up.

They don't only vaccinate here in the U.S., but in all developed countries

whether they have socialized medicine or not.

You're right. Tom and I are in a different situation. He is exposed to

many things other people are not and we have a large migrant unvaccinated

population here. So I don't feel that we have the options that people in

another situation may have. For example, if my husband didn't work in the

medical field and we didn't live in the area we do, I'd hold off on almost

all vaccines until the age of 2 and then give them one at a time with some

down time between.

Whew! Sorry for yapping so much but I feel a responsibility for us to make

sure that all views (both sides, yours as well as mine) are aired because we

have so many people that read the list. Both views are very important.

There has been a huge increase in autism and they don't know why. They

recently completed a big study that supposedly negated a relationship

between vaccines and autism, I haven't read it, but I don't see how you can

come to that conclusion when there wouldn't be an unvaccinated comparison

group with all the other variables controlled. But, again, I haven't read

it.

Take care,