Parents: Why NOT Vaccinating Your Child Could Be A Terrible Mistake

Quick question: What do soldiers on a battlefield, pawns on a chessboard and fitness professionals like me have in common?

We are the first line of defense.

A military can have the most advanced tanks, war planes and drones in the world, but when they need to secure buildings, maneuver in very rough terrain or deal with hostage situations, having trained human beings on the battlefield becomes crucial. Furthermore, pawns on a chessboard can not only provide a strategic line of defense, but if used correctly, can amplify the usefulness of the other, more versatile pieces.

And as for fitness professionals, we use intelligent workout and nutrition programs to help our clients to move better, feel better, have more energy, reduce their chances of falling sick, and provide whole host of other benefits that can increase their quality of life. This keeps hospital beds free for when they are needed the most – during emergencies.

In a similar fashion, family doctors armed with vaccines are the first line of defense against contracting seriously contagious diseases such as measles, mumps, rubella, tetanus, influenza, polio, and more. And yet, there’s been a disturbing trend circulating lately where certain parents are flat-out refusing to get their children vaccinated.

Why?

Because they fear it may cause autism, cancer and/or lead to other complications. But is there any truth to this?

Well to find out (and to put an end to this debate once and for all), I got in touch with two doctors to help me sort through the science in order to bring you the real facts about vaccines; their risks, their benefits and the horrific consequences that can arise when someone gets infected.

About The Doctors

 “Family doctors armed with vaccines are the first line of defense against contacting seriously contagious diseases” (Tweet This)

How Vaccines Actually Work

Vaccines are drugs which are created to reinforce the body’s immunity to diseases. They work by mimicking an illness to a very mild degree, which then forces the body to manufacture a horde of defensive cells that learn how to fight off the invading virus. The beauty of this, is that once the defensive cells learn how to fight a particular virus, they’ll remember how to do so for a long time. This means that should a real threat ever enter your body, the defensive cells will be able to recognize, target and eliminate the virus.

So basically, vaccines help your body create mini, highly trained, virus-killing assassins. But when you get vaccinated, you’re not just protecting yourself, you’re protecting others at the same time through the power of what’s known as “herd immunity,” which I’ll let Dr. Trevor explain further:

“Herd immunity is a very important concept. If more people are vaccinated against these diseases, then those who cannot be vaccinated for various reasons such as being immunocompromised or an allergy, can still be protected by way of less chance of exposure. People sometimes make the argument that it is “their choice whether or not to vaccinate their children,” but they fail to realize that it should not be their choice to expose someone in a weakened state to a deadly virus. Individuals with congenital diseases, cancer patients on chemotherapy, AIDS patients, and even the elderly are all at greater risk for succumbing to diseases that a healthy individual may be able to overcome.”

 

Herd immunity has helped eliminate some of the most infectious and dangerous diseases in the history of humanity; in 1979 The World Health Organization declared smallpox as globally eradicated. During that same year, the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) declared polio as eradicated in the USA. Tetanus and whooping cough are also a dying breed which are soon to be on this eradicated list… assuming we keep saying “yes” to getting our defenses up.

“When it comes to vaccines, what I only want is for you to get answers to whatever scares you. What are the fears? Is it the unknown chemicals being injected into your child? Is it some bad reaction that someone on the internet told you about? There are answers to your questions, and before you decide to go against vaccines, please be educated about the benefits and risks.” – Dr. Spencer Nadolsky

So Why Do People Think Vaccines Cause Autism?

In 1998, Andrew Wakefield (a former doctor) from the UK released an article in The Lancet where he took 12 kids (9 of whom had autism) from his son’s birthday party, paid money to draw their blood, and then fabricated lies about what he discovered – leading to false conclusions by the public, about the safety of vaccines.

Now you have to realize that during this time period, almost every child in the UK received the MMR (measles, mumps & rubella) vaccine within 12-15 months of birth. And when it comes to diagnosing autism, the initial symptoms generally don’t appear until a child is at least 15-18 months of age. As you can see, this creates an inconvenient overlap.

So what happened in Wakefield’s case, is that the parents of these 9 children reported seeing signs of autism a short while after receiving the MMR vaccine… not realizing that this was purely coincidental. On top of that, what Wakefield published could hardly be called a study; a sample size of 12 is hopelessly small to draw any conclusions from. It’s like flipping a coin – say you flipped it 12 times and it just so happened to land heads-up 9 of those times. Well based on this paltry amount of data, you can’t go around making statements such as: “Hey everyone, when you flip a coin, it will land heads-up 75% of the time!”

However, flip it a few thousand times and you’ll have a more solid database which will reveal what we all know: that there’s a 50-50 chance of it landing heads-up. But the small sample size of Wakefield’s study was just one of its core problems. This “study” wasn’t randomized or controlled in any way shape or form either! I mean gosh, even CrossFit has some sort of standards.

So what got published in The Lancet was basically an opinion based on the hunch of a few disgruntled parents, pointing their blame-finger in a direction that was uncalled for. To combat Wakefield’s shoddy work, a mountain of real studies were conducted to produce data that would (hopefully) help the public regain their confidence in vaccines. It was a massive undertaking.

“…basically, vaccines help your body create mini, highly trained, virus-killing assassins!” (Tweet This)

I’ll give you one example of the meticulous attention to detail the experts had to go through (god bless them): In 2002, The New England Journal Of Medicine published a study which looked at data from over 500 thousand children born in Denmark between 1991 and 1998. Obviously, these children had received their standard MMR vaccines, and if it truly caused autism at the level that Wakefield said it did, then 2/3rds of this group of kids should have suffered from it.

So what did the data reveal? That there was absolutely no link between the development of autism and the MMR vaccine. Not a single one. In light of this (and other large studies with came to the same conclusion), what happened to Wakefield? I’ll let Dr. Trevor explain:

“The American Academy of Pediatricians, experts in the field of taking care of children, have organised numerous panels of independent scientists with no financial incentive, to investigate the coincidence. No evidence has been found supporting an association between vaccination and autism. Vaccines do not cause autism. Period.

The findings of Andrew Wakefield’s study in The Lancet in 1998 that began the concern about MMR and autism has since been retracted by 10 of the 13 authors. In 2010, The Lancet retracted the study entirely, citing ethical misconduct on the part of Wakefield. Journalist Brian Deer has written several articles which have been published in the British Medical Journal, describing the ways that Wakefield’s study was inaccurate.

The truth of the matter is that experts do not know of a single cause of autism yet. It is likely multifactorial and likely genetically based. There is no contracting of autism. Children are born with autism if they are going to have autism.”

For those that don’t deal with scientific literature often, you should know that for a Journal to retract a research paper from its archive is a big-friggin-deal. It was a loud and clear sign that Wakefield goofed up.

A Doctor No More

It’s one thing to forgive a person’s mistake – as humans we make them all the time. Yes, even doctors. But in Wakefield’s case, this was no mistake. As Brian Deer found out, the entire anti-vaccination movement was a smear campaign designed to make MMR out to be the bad guy.

Why?

So that they could sue the vaccination companies for large sums of money. Here’s a more direct quote:

“…While Wakefield held himself out to be a dispassionate scientist, two years before the Lancet paper was published – and before any of the 12 children were even referred to the hospital – he had been hired to attack MMR by a lawyer, Richard Barr: a jobbing solicitor in the small eastern English town of King’s Lynn, who hoped to raise a speculative class action lawsuit against drug companies which manufactured the triple shot. Wakefield had been secretly payrolled to create evidence against the shot and, while planning extraordinary business schemes meant to profit from the scare, he had concealed, misreported and changed information about the children to rig the results published in the journal.” – BrianDeer.com

As you can guess, the scientific community doesn’t look too kindly upon quacks and sell-outs like Andrew Wakefield who blatantly make stuff up. As such, Mr. Wakefield lost his license and was (and still is) banned from practicing medicine in the UK. He was also publicly ripped apart on news channels, an example of which you can see in the video below:

While this seems like good news, the sad truth is that the damage he caused was irreversible for a long time – his made up “study” led to an epidemic of fear, guilt and anger in the general public which resulted in a decade-long health crisis in the UK.

Ten friggin’ years!

That’s how long it took for them to recover due to the foolishness of one man, and the worst part is that if we in North America don’t smarten up, we are doomed to repeat history. Speaking of being doomed by not smartening up…

Enter Jenny McCarthy

This actress and former Playboy model has recently been trying to spearhead the anti-vaccination movement after she wanted someone and/or something to blame for her child’s autism. As Dr. Trevor stated earlier, one cannot just “get” autism – if a human being is genetically predisposed to this condition then they will be born with it, and there’s nothing that anyone can do about it (at least not as of this moment).

Speaking of my good buddy Dr.Trevor, here’s what he thinks about a former Playboy model attempting to talk about a subject she has no real knowledge in:

“Unfortunately, an individual with no scientific or medical training of any kind was given a voice that has helped lead to a resurgence of deadly diseases that could have been avoided. For example, There has been a recent outbreak of measles affecting 102 people in 14 states as of January 30th. Two out of every 1000 individuals infected with measles will die from respiratory or neurological complications.”

Here’s something else you should know: Jenny McCarthy claims that toxins like formaldehyde (which are in some vaccines) also increase the chances of your child “getting” autism, and puts their general health at risk. Technically speaking, she’s right about formaldehyde – it has been declared a toxic substance in Canada since 1999 and is a known carcinogen (cancer-causing substance).

Now before you go raising your pitchforks, realize that just by eating a regular-sized apple, you’d be taking in more formaldehyde than you would from a vaccine shot. As doctors say, “the dose makes the poison,” and in the case of vaccines the amount of formaldehyde is so insignificant, it’s nothing to get worried about.

But while Jenny is on a rage about the dangers of “toxins,” she’s is more than happy (and publically recommends) that women inject their face with botulinum, to look extra pretty. And botulinum is one of the most dangerous and lethal toxins we have available today. Oh and incase you haven’t figured it out yet, botulinum is much more commonly known as Botox.

Why anyone would continue to listen to such a hypocrite is beyond me.

“No evidence has been found supporting an association between vaccination and autism. Vaccines do not cause autism. Period.” (Tweet This)

What About The “Other” Risks Of Vaccines?

Besides “toxins,” the other substance most anti-vaccination cultists point to when trying to prove a link between MMR and autism is thimerosal.

What exactly is thimerosal?

It’s a mercury-based compound that’s used as an antiseptic and antifungal agent in vaccines, nasal products and even tattoo ink.  The next question is, should we be worried about it? Well according to Dr. Trevor, definitely not:

“The components of vaccines that are often brought up in the argument against their safety such as mercury, thimerosal and other preservatives are in such small amounts that they are not harmful.

And just to further drive the point home, my research lead me to a report released by the Immunization Safety Review Committee, which came to the following conclusion on this whole vaccination and thimerosal mess:

“The committee concludes that the body of epidemiological evidence favors rejection of a causal relationship between the MMR vaccine and autism. The committee also concludes that the body of epidemiological evidence favors rejection of a causal relationship between thimerosal-containing vaccines and autism. The committee further finds that potential biological mechanisms for vaccine-induced autism that have been generated to date are theoretical only.”

Yet even after thimerosal was found to be safe, they decided that its use in vaccines should be completely phased out. It hasn’t been in circulation since 2003. Why did they do this? Did they actually have something to hide? Not really, they simple decided to play it safe, as Dr. Trevor explains:

“…Because vaccines have a massive reach in terms of public health, they are some of the most highly scrutinized forms of medications in the United States. As such, thimerosal was removed from many of the vaccinations that you know about today.”

But did this do anything to curb Autism? Nope, the rate of Autism has continued to climb even in the absence of thimerosal. It seems the anti-vaccination supporters are always looking for some type of ingredient to blame. The sad news is that they’ll keep looking, and continue to be wrong because there is no link which exists.

The question is, are you going to join their circle of insanity? Or are you going to look at the facts that have been presented to you, and do what is right?

If at this point you still aren’t convinced for whatever reason, let’s take a look at the suffering we could end up facing when vaccination is refused (and the once powerful concept of herd immunity completely falls apart).

Consequences Of Not Having Your Child Vaccinated

Back in 2000, measles was declared “eliminated” – which means that it wasn’t spreading or being actively transmitted. But that all started to change. In fact, just last year there were 644 reported cases of it, which is almost ridiculous to think about because it means we’ve gone backwards. Instead of making progress, we as a modern civilization voluntarily degressed and make ourselves sick. When I heard this, I instinctively facepalmed myself.

Of course, this degression lead to an outbreak. On Jan 7th of this year, officials released a statement to the public stating that a park visitor from Disneyland was infected with measles. Then on Jan 9th, The Orange County Healthcare Agency said that five more people who visited Disneyland had been diagnosed with measles, bringing the state-wide total to 12.

Now if you remember what Dr. Trevor said, herd immunity can help those who can’t be vaccinated (like babies who are too young or patients with specific illnesses), but only when those that can get immunized choose to do so. Unfortunately, many parents in California chose not to get their child vaccinated and thus, countless young children ended up with the life-threatening disease. Let me introduce you to a couple of them:

Maggie

This precious girl was diagnosed with cancer. And because of the chemotherapy treatments that she has to go through, she cannot be immunized against measles until the treatments have been completed. Unfortunately, due to the piss-poor choice of ignorant parents, she recently got infected with measles by being exposed to an infected child. To save her life, doctors had to give her 3 shots of measles antibodies, just so she could have a fighting chance.

As if that wasn’t stressful enough for her parents, they’re now forced to:

1) Leave her in isolation

2) Hope that her condition is stable

3) Hope that she doesn’t show any signs or symptoms of measles.

In other words, there’s a chance that the antibodies she received might not work. The only way she could have been protected against measles is by relying on (you guessed it) herd immunity. How can someone sleep at night knowing they made someone’s already difficult situation, even worse? It baffles me.

Mobius Loop

I found this little guy’s story on Facebook. Here was the description:

“This is Mobius Loop. He is the son of my dear friends Ariel Loop and Christopher Loop. He has measles. It was just confirmed. This is real, this is awful and these two photos are 24 hours apart. The good news? He’s getting better. Quarantine ends tonight and the baby seems to be recovering well. The bad news? This was caused by one thing only, total and complete ignorance and selfishness of the anti-vaxxers. Because of people not vaccinating their kids (and when I say “people”, I mean much of the upper crust westside of Los Angeles) this little sprout (who was too young to be protected) fell sick to a HIGHLY CONTAGIOUS epidemic that up until recently, had been a thing of the past. This is infuriating, sad and worst of all, needless.”

What you see above are two very real cases where the choices of others caused the unnecessary suffering of the innocent. But it’s not just babies or young children that are at risk, adults can suffer just as badly. While measles is highly contagious, and the MMR vaccine seems to be the victim of choice, it is not the only one.

From what I’ve seen, the anti-vaccine crowd will soon come after every type of immunization drug they can, and as a result, set humanity back by god knows how long. If that happens, here’s what we have to look forward to:

 

 

 

The Bottom Line On Vaccines?

As a parent, is it natural to keep a keen and watchful eye on your child, ensuring that no harm comes to them. But you have to remember that just because two instances occur within a similar time frame (i.e., signs of autism around the same time MMR vaccines are given), does not mean they are related. And jumping to conclusions without getting your facts from experts can end up being a very costly mistake for you, and everyone your child comes in contact with.

In my opinion, if it’s socially unacceptable to let parents bring peanuts to a nut-free facility, then why are we letting those that refuse to vaccinate their kids within a hundred feet of any public gathering? Just so they can help spread on one of the most contagious diseases we’ve ever encountered? I think not.

There should be serious consequences and hefty fines for such an action because measles is no joke. It can survive airborne for up to two hours, and all it needs to spread is someone who hasn’t been immunized. What’s more, 6-20 percent of the people who get measles can suffer from ear infections, diarrhea, or pneumonia, and one out of a thousand can suffer life-threatening complications that lead to death.

But that’s just my 2 cents. To really conclude this article, I’m going to let each of my guest experts provide their own closing statements. First, from Dr. Spencer Nadolsky:

“I am not going to be one of those doctors who tells you that you are out of your mind for even considering not vaccinating your children, but from my view point as a family physician, vaccines are one of the greatest medical breakthroughs ever in the history of medicine. Yes there are risks, but the benefits far outweigh them. The mere fact that anyone is afraid of vaccines at this time is testament to how powerful they are since people don’t remember the awful diseases they protect us from. Not only that but when most of the population gets them, those that are unable to receive them are protected as well”

And here’s what Dr. Trevor Pfaendtner has to say:

“As parents, your job is to protect and provide for your children. You want them to be happy, intelligent, and above all, healthy. No parent wishes for their child to suffer from the hardships that can come with having a neurodevelopmental disorder such as autism which is characterized by social impairments, communication difficulties, and restricted, repetitive, and stereotyped patterns of behavior. Similarly, no parent wishes for their child to suffer from painful, debilitating, and potentially deadly diseases. In fact, it is a parent’s greatest responsibility to protect their children from the potential of harm.

I assure you, there is no conspiracy and I am not on the “Big-Pharma” payroll. I am simply a concerned physician who cares about the well-being of others. Please vaccinate your children and help to shift society’s opinion of vaccination back in the right direction so that efforts can be diverted back to moving forward in research.”

In closing, I hope my friends and I have provided enough evidence for you to make the right decision when it comes to vaccinations. But don’t forget – the power of vaccines lies in achieving herd-immunity, and we can’t get there unless you help spread the word, and raise awareness about the truth. As such…

Please share this article with all of your friends and family members so that we can finally place these diseases where they belong – on the permanently eradicated list!

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