Researching vaccination safety/effects/etc online has pretty much given me a headache. I think I’m going to have to get some books. The pro-vaccination sites and the anti-vaccination sites are VERY VERY adamant, they claim to have all the studies to back up their position, and I’m sitting here very irritated for feeling like, what, do I need to go to those actual studies and look them up?

I did want to save this link for future reference, however. The Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) National Vaccination Injury Compensation Program. As one person on a forum pointed out, this is an official government page, not propaganda (for either side).

It is interesting to see how many cases were upheld and paid out on, despite the CDC’s website stating that serious side-effects were “so rare it is hard to tell if they are caused by the vaccine.” (Stated under risks of the DTaP vaccine, and several others – the HRSA site reports 226 injury and 58 death claims were filed – 61 of which were upheld and compensated.) Under risks of the MMR vaccine it says “Several other severe problems have been known to occur after a child gets MMR vaccine. But this happens so rarely, experts cannot be sure whether they are caused by the vaccine or not. These include: Deafness; Long-term seizures, coma, or lowered consciousness; Permanent brain damage.” HRSA reports 724 injury claims filed, 50 death claims filed, and 271 total claims upheld.

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Den and I had a pretty good conversation tonight. We don’t completely agree (we never do) but it was a very thoughtful conversation and we didn’t argue or get angry at all. (This rarely happens with us!) He is a biology major, so he pulled out some of his old textbooks (Immunology) and flipped open to the vaccination chapter. The textbook itself is 10 years old, so it mentions a slightly older vaccination schedule than is used today, but it was more about what vaccinations do, how they react with the body, how they produce immunities, what they’re made of, etc. Very interesting indeed.

Some of the reading I did online tonight was about recent outbreaks of mumps and measles. Apparently there have been multiple incidents in the past several years of school-age and college-age kids contracting these viruses and spreading it. The interesting point was that most of the people who got it had been vaccinated. It’s important to remember that vaccinating does not guarantee immunity. Most vaccines are cited (on the official documents) as having around 90-95% success in creating immunity. Another possible cause of the outbreaks is the suggestion that childhood vaccinations are creating immunities that are only temporary.

One forum linked to this article: A User-Friendly Vaccination Schedule, by Dr. Donald W. Miller, Jr. One MD’s viewpoint, based on multiple published studies (which he cites/links to), on limiting the number of vaccines given to children to pertussis, tetanus, diptheria (all given separately) and inactive polio, as well as starting vaccinations at no earlier than 2 years of age. He is not a fan of the MMR vaccination, because it is an active (live) virus vaccine (Den gave me a lecture on how viruses are either “active” or “inactive,” they are not live), because of the possible links to autism and other disorders, and because he wonders if the vaccine is really helpful in the long run. He explains:

“With rare exception, a well-nourished child who contracts measles will recover smoothly from the infection. Fifty years ago almost all children in the U.S. had measles. And after contracting this disease, one has life-long immunity to it. The protection provided by vaccination is temporary. Adults who contract measles (when the protective effects of the vaccine wears off) are much more likely to have neurological, testicular, and ovarian complications. Likewise, rubella is a benign disease in children, but if a woman acquires it during pregnancy fetal malformations may develop. One can argue, heretical as such an argument may be, that it would be better to let children have measles, at an age when the infection helps the adaptive immune system mature in a balanced Th1/Th2 fashion and complications from this disease are minimal, rather than vaccinate them against this disease (especially considering the risks of vaccination).

“Pertussis and Diphtheria are a different matter. These diseases are more virulent. Children who contract whooping cough (pertussis) can be incapacitated for more than a month. Polio can be devastating in susceptible individuals. And no one wants to get tetanus (lockjaw). A user-friendly vaccination schedule would include vaccines against these diseases.”

Another paragraph I found particularly noteworthy is something that came up in Den and my discussion. Den’s textbook mentioned the “herd effect.” Dr. Miller puts it very nicely:

“A communitarian ethic increasingly governs health care in the U.S. It places a greater value on the health of the community, on society as a whole, than on the health of particular individuals. Public health officials have put together a vaccination schedule designed to eliminate infectious diseases to which the population is prey. These officials recognize that these vaccines will harm a small percentage of (genetically susceptible) individuals, but it is for the common good. The communitarian code posits that it is morally acceptable, if necessary, to sacrifice a few for the good of the many.”

I pointed out to Den that the “big picture” – the ones the doctors and health officials and lawmakers are working with – is very different from the view of one parent. In the population say you reduced the occurrence of a disease overall (say one that isn’t fatal, but can have serious, long-lasting side-effects) by maintaining a high percentage of vaccinated children. And say 5 out of 2 million children get a very horrible side effect and die. Well, as an entire population, you’re better off with all that vaccination! You’ve prevented a huge amount of horrible things.

However, now you’re the parent looking at that situation. The overall risk of your child catching the disease is next to nothing at this point. And the risk of your child dying from a horrible reaction to the vaccination is 5 in 2 million. That’s not a very good chance… but it would really really suck to be one of those 5.

In the end all any of us really wants is a healthy child.

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One more link, an article by CBS that doesn’t make any motion to prove anything one way or another, but just lists the questions and concerns that are keeping people uneasy. Autism: Why The Debate Rages