Hundreds of years of scientific thought and the lives of some of the worlds most intelligent laureates have been dedicated to prolonging human life. Vaccines were a milestone in this effort. Like Thomas Edison’s creation of the light bulb – just as we are not lighting candles and moping around in the dark, we are also not dying of measles, mumps, rubella, smallpox, chickenpox anymore.
Vaccines have everything to do with this achievement. In fact, the smallpox vaccine worked so well that it doesn’t exist anymore. Unfortunately, we still contend with many other diseases. Honestly… we really do. Have you ever seen someone afflicted by Polio? In the last five years I’ve met two adults who survived Polio with lifelong consequences. A few countries in Africa and the Middle East remain Polio endemic.
If enough people refuse vaccines we will begin to see outbreaks of some of these preventable disease right here in the USA. Oh… wait. We already have. Think measles aren’t a big deal? Well, it still kills about 1,000,000 children each year in developing countries. A million. It’s also the leading cause of blindness in children in Africa. And recent outbreaks due to vaccine refusal include other illness too: Pertussis (particularly in California), Mumps, Hepatitis A, B… it goes on.
Think you’re safe via herd immunity? Some people assume that since everyone else is vaccinated, they are safe from the disease. Well, that’s just irresponsible – both socially and for the individual. Until a communicable disease has been completely eradicated, it remains a threat. Keep in mind that outbreaks primarily affect those who cannot be vaccinated (newborns and the immune compromised) and those with declining immune systems (elderly).
Despite all of the lives saved, vaccines are constantly facing controversy and criticism; the most publicized of which is the perceived association with autism. There is no scientific evidence for the association of vaccination with autism. There was some suspected correlation until the author came out and said he made the whole thing up. This is an issue that is well-studied by pediatric gastroenterologists (that’s me!) because Wakefield’s made-up theory contended that the powerful intestinal immune system when exposed to the MMR vaccine is responsible for creating an autoimmune disease leading to diarrhea and autism.
Vintage polio vaccine add; polio was so prevalent that a foundation was started just for paralyzed infants.
The other main controversy was brought to us by former presidential candidate and supremely uneducated moron Michelle Bachman. To distinguish herself from the other GOP candidates, she decided to declare herself opposed to the HPV vaccine, claiming that she met a woman whose daughter is now mentally retarded after getting the vaccine (the AMA has no record of anyone becoming mentally retarded as a result of this vaccine). The risk of serious side-effects from vaccinating against a disease are so exceedingly rare that they are far outweighed by the risks of allowing a preventable disease from occurring in an individual or spreading through a population.
Other controversies regarding vaccines include preservatives such as thiomersal, which contains mercury. Mercury is, in general, not good for you. You can ask your pediatrician if they are distributing vaccines containing thiomersal, and if they are, just leave because that’s weird and archaic. Other preservatives show no evidence of harmful side-effects. In fact, as the quantity of preservatives have gone down in vaccines, the rates of autism have actually gone up! Quick put the preservatives back in to the vaccines! No – also not how science works. What causes autism is another blog entry all unto itself.
So is there any bad news with vaccines? We have simply gotten so good at creating them that there are too many! Until recently, most vaccines were given in a single injection. Now some are combined and given as a single injection (DTaP = diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, MMR = Measles, Mumps, Rubella).
Is it okay to space them out to spare the child? Should we space them out? It is okay, but not recommended to space out vaccines. The longer you wait to vaccinate, the more time you have to contract the disease. Having said that, some kids, such as my niece, literally pass out with each shot. In such cases, just come back in one week for a nurses visit for the next shot.
Pediatricians are smart people, for the most part. They know which outbreaks have occurred near them, they know if Hepatitis A is endemic in your region, they know that there is some herd immunity with Polio. They have figured out alternative schedules and alternatives to the alternative.
This is important: immunocompromised people should not receive live vaccines because there is a small but significant risk of reactivation of live viruses in these individuals specifically. For example, it would not be good to give someone with HIV or someone taking steroids the chickenpox vaccine, MMR or flu-mist (nasal flu shot). The flu injection is good for everybody.
In English: Vaccines are good for us – your child won’t remember crying and you can always catch up if it’s too many for one visit. Don’t be lulled into a false sense of security just because you don’t see people with these communicable diseases. The risk of contracting one of these diseases far outweighs the risk of side effects from the vaccine.
As Thomas Edison once said, “The doctor of the future will give no medicine, but will interest his patients in the care of the human body, in diet, and in the cause and prevention of disease.”
Sprouted Health 
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