I. CHILDHOOD VACCINATIONS: THE BIOMEDICINE PERSPECTIVE
A. Recommended Vaccinations
Immunizations are one of the first decisions that parents will make for their child. As of July 1999 this is the recommended course of childhood vaccinations by the American Academy of Pediatrics:
B. Vaccination Safety, the Bioscience Viewpoint
In 1997, the last full year for available statistics, 11,365 vaccine adverse effects were recorded by the CDC compared to 7,535 cases of vaccine-preventable disease.
The number of adverse events reported in 1991 was 9,953, when cases of disease totaled 20,900. The government's Vaccine Adverse Effects Reporting System documents estimate that 15% of the adverse reactions resulted in "life-threatening illness, hospitalization, permanent disability, extended hospital stay or death." The remaining reports are described as milder reactions such as fever, local reactions at the injection site, transient crying or irritabilty.
There are two problems with these figures: One is cause and effect: did the vaccine cause the reaction? The other is a CDC study which showed that most adverse reactions aren't reported at all.
Some of the contents of vaccine are a concern. The present hepatitis-B vaccine contains thimersol-which contains mercury. A mercury-free version is due out next year. The oral polio contained a weakened virus, but that has phased out in favor of the safer injection with a dead virus.
Information of vaccinations is available from the CDC at www.cdc.gov or at 800-232-2522.
Sources for sections A and B: Condor, B. "Parents need to stay informed regarding childhood vaccinations" Chicago Tribune August 1, 1999.
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C. The Unvaccinated and Disease Outbreaks
In Seattle, schools closed and hastily vaccinated 200 students when children of Russian immigrants were diagnosed with rubella. It was a particular threat to pregnant faculty members: rubella causes birth defects. Other outbreaks were recorded in Texas, Kansas, and suburban New York.
Pertussis outbreaks in Utah and Arizona appeared in conservative Mormon communities that opposed vaccination.
Whooping cough once killed four thousand children annually in the US is still with us. Alameda County California reported 80 cases in 1998.
The strangest was an infant of a 'new age' mother who treated her baby's umbilical cord with 'healing clay.' After long hospitalization, the child survived.
Source for section C: Chase, M. "Authorities Are Urging a New Series of Shots to Keep Kids Healthy" Wall Street Journal January 25, 1999.
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II. OPPOSITION TO VACCINATIONS
A. Should All Children be Immunized Against Childhood Diseases?
Currently, all 50 states require children to be vaccinated before enrolling in school. Exemptions apply for children whose parents' religious beliefs prohibit vaccinations. Some children are exempt for medical reasons, which must be certified by their doctors.
The safety of various vaccines, particularly DPT continues to be the subject of debate. Although endorsed by the American Academy of Pediatrics and the U.S. Public Health Service, many parents and health providers consider the DPT vaccine to be risky.
Manufacturers are less willing to produce vaccines for fear of lawsuits by parents of injured children. There is an active anti vaccine movement in this country as the next section will illustrate.
Source: Daniel, E. Taking Sides 4th ed Guildford: Dushkin/McGraw-Hill, 1999
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B. The Backlash: Saying NO to Vaccination!
(My note: the article on which this section is based was published in 1988 which makes it somewhat dated. I have included it here because of its feisty opposition to mandatory testing. The new article in the 4th edition Taking Sides doesn't stir the reader's emotions like this one does; therefore, I've used the older 3rd edition for this presentation.)
The American Academy of Pediatrics, the Federal Centers for Disease Control, and the American Medical association endorse vaccination programs. They conclude that public health policy should override the wishes of parents who oppose vaccination of their children. Their argument is that vaccination programs are a success and that voluntary participation will undermine them.
Today's vaccines use either live or killed infectious agents, usually a virus or bacteria. They are typically injected.
There are no Federal vaccination laws; however, the fifty states are fairly uniform in their requirements for mandatory vaccination. Children must be vaccinated against the five traditional childhood diseases of mumps, measles, rubella, diphtheria, and pertussis, plus tetanus and polio.
Not everyone agrees to cooperate, especially members of 'DPT', Dissatisfied Parents Together. DPT shots, among all the vaccinations, produce the most adverse reactions. Opponents of DPT vaccinations estimate that 943 deaths, 11,666 cases of long term neurological damage, and 10,377 episodes of post shot screaming episodes have been recorded.
Before 1985, parents were never adequately advised (if at all) of the potentially harmful side-effects of DPT. After half a century, no acceptable protocol for pre screening hypersensitive children has been developed. Critics say that pediatricians downplay adverse reactions even when symptoms occur withing hours of the injection.
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Holistic health providers are finding alarming grounds for connecting today's auto-immune anomalies and a weakened immune response with vaccines. The American Academy of Pediatrics dismisses these claims as 'groundless speculations.'
Richard Mascots, an MD homeopath is one of many holistic practitioners who says that all vaccinations may be injurious to the functioning and integrity of the immune system. (My note: I'm not aware of hard scientific evidence to corroborate that statement.)
All fifty states allow a medical exemption for high-risk children. Washington State which has licensed naturopaths allows them to do vaccinations--and to grant exemptions. Florida allows chiropractors to write medical exemptions.
An exemption from vaccinations based on religious belief is permitted in all states except West Virginia and Mississippi. New York sought to narrow that exemption by requiring the litigant to belong to an organized religion. That narrow view was defeated in court back in 1982, and it has been affirmed in other courts that church affiliation is not necessary for exemption.
Twenty-two states now allow exemption on the grounds of personal or philosophical belief. How many exercise the option? A study in Vermont showed that 0.7% of students have an exemption. Medical authorities concede that such a small number are not a threat to public health. In California, of 475,000 new pupils each year, about 3,000 take the philosophical/religious exemption and about 1,000 take the medical. California officials say that these low numbers are not a medical/epidemiological risk.
Does an individual have the right to oversee his/her own immune system (and that of the children)? Is the medical establishment correct in NOT recognizing the right of a parent to subject a child to an infectious disease? How do we balance the rights of the individual against the perceived needs of society?
In the United States, the movements for free choice in health care now include not only such groups as DPT, but also the supporters of midwifery, home birth, homeopathy, and even the right to die. People wish to decide on their own!
..... CJ '99
Resources
Daniel, E. Taking Sides 2nd ed Guilford: Dushkin, 1999.
Daniel, E. Taking Sides 4th ed Guilford: Duskin/McGraw-Hill, 1999