Gretchen Perry 1

Gretchen Perry with her children, Parker and Paige. Perry, a Rochester resident, stopped vaccinating her children 10 years ago, saying she feared it was undermining the children's health. (Photo courtesy of Gretchen Perry.)

(Gretchen Perry)

A registered nurse who once worked in the pharmaceutical industry, Gretchen Perry didn't question the potential risk of vaccinations until she became a mother.

Her son was born 11 years ago, and was a sickly infant and toddler, she said. He had a series of gastrointestinal issues, didn't sleep through the night until he was in kindergarten, and showed language delays and socialization problems consistent with autism, said Perry, who lives in Rochester.

Her daughter, who is now 10, had similar problems, although not as severe, she said.

Perry said she thinks her children were born with compromised immune systems and suspects vaccinations were aggravating their health problems.

She swore off vaccines a decade ago, and says her children's health has improved considerably, thanks to their diet and health supplements that have "detoxified" their systems.

"I'm a staunch believer in keeping healthy and building the immune system from the inside out," Perry said.

Perry's skepticism of vaccines is not unique in her community. One of every eight kindergartners in Rochester Public Schools last year had a parental waiver last year exempting them from mandatory vaccinations.

"Most people around me don't vaccinate, or they selectively vaccinate," Perry said.

Statewide, about 6 percent of Michigan schoolchildren have vaccination waivers, which equates to about 150,000 children who are unvaccinated or undervaccinated.

Many are clustered in affluent communities such as Rochester, and have well-educated, health-conscious parents who buy organic food and eschew antibiotics in favor of a homeopathic approach to illnesses.

They fear injecting so many viruses into their children could do more harm than good, and see widespread immunizations as being driven by "Big Pharma," which they see as more concerned about profits than public health.

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Their views are reinforced by anti-vaccination websites and alternative medicine gurus such as Dr. Joseph Mercola, a Chicago-area osteopathic physician, who has a popular website that promotes dietary supplements, and Dr. Robert Sears, a pediatrician who has written a number of well-known parenting books and has expressed skepticism about the number of vaccines that children receive.

Perry said the Internet has allowed parents such as herself to connect with each other and look beyond the mainstream medical establishment for counsel and advice.

"We all talk about this, and we're all on social media reading the information from the good nonprofits that educate us on the dangers of vaccination," Perry said, adding her belief that the mainstream medical establishment "ignores the very real adverse events" associated with vaccinations.

While vaccines are touted as safe and effective, experts acknowledge they are not 100 percent safe nor 100 percent effective. Some people who are vaccinated still get the disease, albeit in a milder form, and a few experience a serious adverse reaction from an immunization, such as anaphylactic shock.

The latter is why the federal government has a Vaccine Injury Compensation Program. Since 2010, the program has adjudicated an average of 1,264 claims a year and paid out on an average of 283. The average award was $719,000.

However, to put that into context, more than 100 million Americans get immunizations each year, including childhood vaccines, adult boosters and annual flu shots. And still, there are thousands who die every year from vaccine-preventable diseases, including influenza, pneumonia, meningitis and hepatitis.

"Vaccines save lives," said Dr. Jevon McFadden, medical epidemiologist at Michigan Department of Community Health.

"We know vaccines are safe, they are the highly scrutinized and there is a significant surveillance effort ongoing that is unlike surveillance for any other medication," he said. "They are way ahead of safety regards to any other medications."

Heather Stevens, the mother of a preschooler in Oakland County, doesn't buy those assurances.

She has a master's degree in environmental engineering and has helped conducting human health risk assessment for environmental pollutants. She says vaccine safety studies are typically conducted by pharmaceutical companies who have an interest in downplaying safety issues, and says there hasn't been adequate research into the "cumulative and sometimes synergistic effect of chemicals on the human body," especially over the long term.

"The media tends to stereotype us as this random, scared/fearful, mob-crew bunch of crunchy hippies," Stevens said. "At least speaking for myself, and my parent friends that choose to selectively vaccinate or not vaccinate at all, we are all very well-educated prior to becoming a parent and have spent a significant amount of time researching vaccines for the most important people in our life."

Stevens added that "so much of this is a gray area" and she recognizes the downsides of going unvaccinated.

"It's something I continually look at and re-evaluate every single day," Stevens said.

Marcel Lenz, a Traverse City resident with two young children, shares similar concerns.

"I thought vaccines were magical, but then I started looking into it," said Lenz, who has a doctorate in horticulture and a big interest in homeopathic medicine.

He said he was particularly influenced by books written by Sears and Neal Z. Miller's 2008 book, "Vaccines: Are They Really Safe and Effective."

Lenz said he was struck by Miller's contention that while vaccine-preventable diseases were once prevalent and deadly, the threat of such illnesses has ebbed considerably in the era of modern medicine.

Sue Allasio of Detroit and her daughter Grace. (Photo courtesy of Sue Allasio.)

"The probability of getting one of these diseases is low, and even if you do get something, it's probably not going to be that severe," Lenz said.

Hollie Heikkinen, of Howell, also says she carefully weighed the risks in deciding not to vaccinate her four children, ages 7 to 19.

She said the idea of injecting viruses into her children seems like "playing Russian roulette," and thinks it's far better to ward off disease by living an "extremely healthy lifestyle."

She acknowledged that some parents are critical of her decision.

"There's a couple of people who don't want their children playing with mine, but if your child is vaccinated, why should you worry?" Heikkinen said.

Experts say the cause for worry has to do with "herd immunity" -- keeping the vaccination rate high enough to prevent outbreaks that could infect infants too young to be vaccinated, those with compromised immune systems, such as the elderly and people on chemotherapy, and the percentage of the population where the vaccination isn't effective.

"I've heard people saying I'm putting the herd at risk," Heikkinen said. "But ultimately, I'm responsible for my own children and I'm not willing to risk health complications."

Sue Allasio of Detroit has three grown children in their 20s who did not receive childhood vaccination. She said first heard concerns about vaccines through other moms in the La Leche League, which promotes breastfeeding.

Allasio was further convinced after hearing about a potential link between vaccines and autism and reading a book by Dr. Robert Mendelsohn, a pediatrician and well-known critic of Western medicine in the 1970s and '80s.

"I'm not saying you should never vaccinate, but you should weigh the risks," Allasio said. "I don't think kids need to be vaccinated against whooping cough and measles," adding that, in her view, the diseases aren't that serious.

Sue Waltman of St. Clair Shores, agreed, saying she grew up in the 1960s when almost every child had measles, mumps and chicken pox.

"Most of us survived. The death rate from those diseases was going down even before they had vaccines," Waltman said.

Her skepticism led Waltman founded Michigan Opposing Mandatory Vaccines in the early 1990s, when the state Legislature was considering a bill to limit the ability of parents to get a vaccine waiver.

Today, her group has a mailing list of about a thousand parents, and is a leading voice in Michigan for those skeptical of vaccines.

She says much of the research into vaccines is by pharmaceutical companies. "It's not the right kind of research that make help people make good decisions," she said.

She said she's not convinced that vaccines aren't linked to autism and other neurologic disorders.

"I think we need to be honest. Vaccines may be doing more harm than good," Waltman said. "Common sense has you asking: Why inject viruses into my child with hopes of preventing a disease down the line?"

Getting "vaccinated is a very important decision," she said. "I believe everyone has the right not to do it."

Julie Mack is a reporter for MLive.com. Reach her at jmack1@mlive.com.