Childhood Vaccinations, The Moral Dilemma

Making an informed choice.

Hello everyone, and thank you for your comments on my blog about vaccines. I wish to share with you clarifications on several points. I will be writing about autism in a future blog, as it is such an important topic and deserves my main focus.

LOS ANGELES, CA (Rise Above Health Blog) - In my 35 years as a RN, I have personally never seen a child who has had an issue with childhood vaccines other than redness at injection site or mild fever. In fact, while I was nursing in northern Canada, I witnessed first hand the incredible power of "community immunity".  In many of these remote northern areas, illness often meant death. There is limited access to medical care, and the dedicated incredible nurses that work in these areas, are caring for the individuals, the families and the entire community. Vaccination has saved many lives, and families.

I have a daughter-in-law who is a nurse practitioner in a large pediatric clinic. She told me she has also never seen a child with a severe reaction to vaccinations.

Vaccinations are not injected directly into the blood stream. They are given by several methods, intramuscular (IM) injection, subcutaneous (SC) injection, intradermal (ID) administration, intra nasal spray (IN) and orally (PO).

Informed consent is a law in the United States. This requires the complete disclosure of facts needed to make decision intelligently. For informed consent to take place, the information that is given must be understood.  Since the doctor won't know what you don't understand unless you ask about it. The patient, parent or legal guardian must have the chance to consider the information and ask questions. There are times that informed consent can be waived, but vaccination is not one of them.

Thimerasol, is an organomercury compound and is bacteriostatic.  It is used in some multi dose vials of vaccine, Single dose units are made without thimerosal, because they are meant to be opened and used once. For example, thimerasol protects against staphylococcus infection that, in one 1928 incident, killed 12 of 21 children inoculated with a diptheria vaccine that lacked a preservative.

U.S. health agencies (The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and the National Institutes of Health (NIH)) have reviewed the published research on thimerosal and found it to be a safe. Three independent organizations [The National Academy of Sciences' Institute of Medicine, Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), and the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP)] reviewed the published research and also found thimerosal to be a safe.

It is a fact that the MMR vaccines are made on fetal cells obtained in the 1960's. This fact has never been hidden from the public. While those cell lines originated in aborted fetal tissue decades ago, there is no aborted fetal tissue itself in the vaccine. What it contains is attenuated virus cells.

Before the widespread use of a vaccine against measles, its incidence was so high that infection with measles was felt to be inevitable. Today, because of vaccinations, the incidence of measles has fallen dramatically to less than 1% of people under the age of 30 in the United States.

One year after the introduction of the vaccine in 1963, the number of cases fell from hundreds of thousands to tens of thousands. While there were sporadic outbreaks of measles in 1971, 1977, and in the early 1980's the number of cases reported each year since 1997 has been less than 200 per year. [8,9,10]

The benefit of the measles vaccination in preventing illness, disability and death is well documented.  An estimated 52 million cases of measles was prevented in the first 20 years of the vaccine.

During 1999-2004, a strategy led by the World Health Organization and UNICEF led to improvements in measles vaccination coverage that averted an estimated 1.4 million measles deaths worldwide.[12]

Measles is endemic worldwide. Although it was declared eliminated from the U.S. in 2000, high rates of vaccination and good communication with persons who refuse vaccination is needed to prevent outbreaks. Of the 66 cases of measles reported in the U.S. in 2005, slightly over half were attributable to one unvaccinated individual who acquired measles during a visit to Romania. [14] This individual returned home, and to a community with many unvaccinated children. The resulting outbreak infected 34 people, mostly children and virtually all unvaccinated; 9% were hospitalized. A major epidemic was averted due to high rates of vaccination in the surrounding communities.  [13]

Mumps is another viral disease of childhood that was once very common. If a male who is past puberty acquires mumps, a possible complication is bilateral orchitis which can in some cases lead to sterility.

Rubella or German measles fell sharply when immunization was introduced. The major risk of rubella is in pregnancy. If a pregnant woman is infected, her baby may contract congenital rubella, which can cause significant congenital defects.

All three of these diseases are highly contagious.

The MMR vaccine was introduced in order to vaccinate less painfully, more efficiently that three separate injections.

In 2012, the Cochrane Library published a review of scientific studies. Its authors concluded, "Existing evidence on the safety and effectiveness of MMR vaccine supports current policies of mass immunization aimed at global measles eradication and in order to reduce morbidity and mortality associated with measles, mumps and rubella."

Now on to the moral issue of giving this vaccination to our children.  We as parents have a moral  obligation to protect them and our communities. We also have to make our choices with our moral conscience. I am bringing information and data to help you make an informed decision.

I implore each and every one of you to carefully read, from introduction to conclusion, the June 2005 document from the Vatican 'Moral Reflections on Vaccines Prepared from Cells Derived from Aborted Human Foetuses' [1]

I have enclosed a link to this article in my references (footnotes). [1]

I personally want all children to be safe and healthy. It is up to us, as parents to safeguard them and our communities. Please make an informed choice regardless of the side of the vaccination fence you live on. Know all the facts on both sides of this huge debate, then decide. Deciding with knowledge, not emotion is imperative.

Once again, this is just one nurses evidence based view.

References (Footnotes):
1.  http://www.cogforlife.org/vaticanresponse.htm
2.  http://www.nvic.org
3.  http://www.drwile.com/lnkpages/render.asp?vac_abortion#f4
4.  Michael L E McDonald and John F Paul; National Health and Environmental Effects Research       Laboratory, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency,www.all.org/pdf/McDonaldPaul2010.pdf
5.  Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Questions submitted during immunization satellite broadcasts or through NIPINFO. March, 2008.
6.  http://autism.about.com/od/medicalissuesandautis1/f/vaxfetal.htm
7.  Autism Society of America Website
Autism Spectrum Disorders (Pervasive Developmental Disorders) National Institute of Mental Health, 2004
8.  Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Summary of notifablediseases United States. Published October 21, 1994 for Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report 1993; 42 (No. 53)
9.  Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Summary of notifable diseases-United States, 2007 Published July 9, 2009 for 10.  10.  10.  Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report 2007; 56 (No. 53)
11.   Bloch AB, Orenstein WA, Stetler HC et al. (1985). "Health impact of measles vaccination in the United States". Pediatrics 76 (4): 524-32. PMID 3931045.
12.  Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) (2006). "Progress in reducing global measles deaths, 1999-2004". MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep 55 (9): 247-9. PMID 16528234.
13.  Parker AA, Staggs W, Dayan GH et al. (2006). "Implications of a 2005 measles outbreak in Indiana for sustained elimination of measles in the United States". N Engl J Med 355 (5): 447-55. doi:10.1056/NEJMoa060775. PMID 16885548.
14.  Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) (2006). "Measles-United States, 2005". MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep 55 (50): 1348-51. PMID 17183226.
15.  http://www.thecochranelibrary.com/view/0/index.html
16.  Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Epidemiology and Prevention of Vaccine-Preventable Diseases. Atkinson W, Wolfe S, Hamborsky J, McIntyre L, eds. 11th ed. Washington DC: Public Health Foundation, 2009

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