The line has been drawn. There are pro-vaxers on one side and anti-vaxers on the other.

Let’s look at each side. The website, ProCon [1], sums it up pretty well.

PRO-VAXERS

All children should be vaccinated according to the AAP schedule.

There should be no exemptions because unvaccinated children risk public health.

Vaccines prevent serious illnesses and death and have, throughout history, eradicated diseases.

Vaccines are 90 to 99 percent effective. If a vaccinated child does get a disease, it’s milder and less serious.

Vaccines are safe. They do not cause autism.

The risks of not being vaccinated outweigh the risks of vaccines.

Vaccines generate about $20 billion a year in the U.S.

Vaccines save society money. Every dollar spent on vaccines saves the public $18.40, or $42 billion, in medical costs, missed work, disability, and death. (This amount is from a 2003 article. I’m not sure if it is accurate for today and whether it’s a per-year figure or not.) [2]



ANTI-VAXERS

Parents should have the right to make an informed choice about vaccines, including refusing them. The government shouldn’t intervene.

Forcing parents with religious beliefs against vaccines to vaccinate their children violates their First Amendment rights.

Many diseases were eradicated or almost eradicated before vaccines were available, mostly due to better hygiene and nutrition and clean water.

Vaccines create artificial immunity, which damages the natural immune system and leaves children more susceptible to diseases of all kinds. Diseases strengthen the immune system and leads to natural immunity. Recent disease outbreaks, such as measles and whooping cough, are mostly among vaccinated children.

Vaccines can cause serious and sometimes fatal reactions. They can lead to autoimmune disorders and cancer as well as brain inflammation, which can cause autism or death in some children.

Since diseases aren’t usually life threatening, the risks of vaccines outweigh the benefits.

The lifetime cost to care for a person with autism is approximately $3 million.

NO QUESTIONS ALLOWED

Many so-called anti-vaxers are really not against all vaccines. Most of the people I talk to would like to see a schedule that includes only absolutely necessary vaccines that are safe, given one at a time, spaced out, and started later (definitely skipping the hep B vaccine at birth). They have reasonable questions and concerns about the safety of the current schedule. If forced into an all-or-nothing choice, they say no to all of them. Hence, anti-vaxers. This is neither fair nor reasonable. If you question the safety of Tylenol for your young child, are you anti-Tylenol? If you question whether your five-year-old should be allowed to have a Nintendo DS, are you anti-DS? If you have questions and concerns about starting your child with diabetes on insulin, are you anti-insulin? If you’re looking for a new car and asking questions at car dealerships or doing research online about safety, are you anti-car?

Why can’t you just have questions about the safety and necessity of injecting dozens of known toxins into your baby’s bloodstream? More than four dozen doses from birth through kindergarten. Who wouldn’t question that?

Why isn’t there another option when it comes to vaccines? Such as pro-safe or pro-choice? Here’s something I’ve personally never understood. Unborn babies can be legally murdered on the grounds that the mother has the right to have an abortion. She has that choice. But if a mother chooses to not vaccinate her child, she risks the child being taken from her, vaccinated against her will, or thrown out of school.

ASK ANYWAY

If you dare to ask questions, you’ll be called all kinds of things. You’ll be an official anti-vaxer. If you are a parent who is pondering vaccines, I strongly suggest that you risk the putdowns and the label and ask yourself—and your doctor—these questions.

What is the incidence of all these diseases my child is being vaccinated against?

What’s the chance that he will contract one (or more) of them?

If he does, what’s the chance that he will suffer a serious and possibly permanent illness or death? (I’m talking about children who have access to clean water and food, not children who are starving and dying in the streets of a third-world country. At the risk of being a target of Bill Gates’ new anti-vaccine surveillance and alert system [3], I’ll ask this question: Instead of planning to vaccinate all those children, how about feeding them and giving them clean water?)

How can all children need the same vaccines in the same dose? How can a 7-pound baby be given the same dose as a 200-pound man? How can one size possibly fit all?

What is the chance of my child suffering a serious adverse reaction and maybe even dying after getting a vaccine or a combination of vaccines? (For some answers, you don’t have to look any further than the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System [4] and the Federal Vaccine Court which, by the way, has paid more than $2 billion to families of vaccine-injured children since 1989. [5] How does our government create a FEDERAL VACCINE COURT and still deny a link between vaccines and autism? It’s ludicrous.)

Why hasn’t our government funded a study of vaccinated versus unvaccinated children? That’s the first thing you think they would have done. If they are so sure it would prove that vaccines are safe and don’t cause autism, wouldn’t they have done it by now? And why has there never been a study on the safety of the combination of vaccines given to a child at the same time? Here’s why. Because they know what the studies will show. And that is that the incidence of autism is far less in unvaccinated children. That they are healthier overall than vaccinated children. That none of the ingredients in one vaccine is safe, let alone all the ingredients in the combination of vaccines. And when all these truths come out, their multi-billion-dollar industry will crumble.

FOLLOW THE $20 BILLION TRAIL

I’m tired of the name calling and insults. Not that I’m personally offended, but it’s a waste of time and energy and doesn’t begin to address the problem. We are forced to be all or nothing. We either get our kids all the recommended vaccines or we’re anti-vaxers. If we question the safety or necessity of vaccines and choose not to vaccinate our kids, we’re putting other children’s lives in danger. We belong to a cult. We are conspiracy theorists. We have blood on our hands. We are ignorant.

Here’s my response. All of us ignorant cult members/conspiracy theorists with blood on our hands are following the money trail. The $20 billion trail. We follow the studies claiming that it’s been proven that vaccines do not cause autism. We know they are often funded by the vaccine manufacturers. We know that the articles describing such studies are written by doctors with ties to pharmaceutical companies. We know that Paul Offit made somewhere between $13 and $35 million off his rotavirus vaccine patents. [6] We know that the AAP receives millions of dollars from vaccine companies. [7] We know that Bill Gates pays the media and groups that write medical articles to portray him in a positive, almost “saintly,” light for his global vaccination campaign. [8] We know that in 2011 Merck CEO Kenneth Frazier made more than $13 million. [9] These are just a few examples, but the evidence is clear. The people who promote vaccines are making big bucks.

People who question the necessity and safety of vaccines aren’t getting a piece of the pie. For the most part, they are parents of kids with autism, and they’re broke or soon will be. There’s no financial gain for them in vaccines. They have no hidden agenda. Their purpose is to help their own children as well as other families with vaccine-injured children. The CDC can’t say the same thing. The AAP can’t. Neither can the FDA. No one else can. Just follow the $20 billion trail.

WHAT’S IN A WORD?

We can be called cult members and conspiracy theorists. Whatever. We’re not letting anyone inject our children with toxins. If that makes us anti-vaxers, then so be it.

“If you mixed mercury, aluminum phosphate, ammonium sulfate, and formaldehyde with viruses, then got a syringe and injected it into your child, you would be arrested and sent to jail for child endangerment and abuse. Then why is it legal for doctors to do it? And why would you let them?” [10]

REFERENCES

1. http://vaccines.procon.org

2. www.ecbt.org/advocates/economicvaluevaccines.cfm

3. www.infowars.com/dirty-tricks-bill-gates-to-target-anti-vaccine-advocates-with-smear-campaign

4. http://vaers.hhs.gov/index

5. www.safeminds.org/news/documents/Holland%20Conte%20Krakow%20Colin.pdf

6. www.ageofautism.com/2009/12/counting-offits-millions-more-on-how-mercks-rotateq-vaccine-made-paul-offit-wealthy.html

7. http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2011/12/19/pediatric-association-censor-vaccine-truth.aspx

8. http://alternatenewsmedia2012.wordpress.com/2012/08/31/bill-gates-using-media-to-portray-him-as-a-saint-and-target-anti-vaccine-advocates-with-smear-campaigns

9. www.aflcio.org/Corporate-Watch/CEO-Pay-and-the-99/CEO-Pay-by-Industry

10. Note: I saw this on Facebook, but I can’t find the source. My apologies.

Photo Credit