No problem.

Vaccines carry risks and catching the disease or becoming seriously ill as a result happens.  There are those parents whose children have gotten sick after being inoculated. I remember back when millions of Americans were given the Sabin oral polio vaccine and a percentage of those people contracted the disease from the vaccine. As a result the Food and Drug Administration urged doctors to give the injected Salk polio vaccine becasue it did not contain live viruses and didn't carry the risk of the person's contracting polio.  

I've read about kids suffering seizures after receiving a DPT shot and whole cell pertuissis vaccines caused a higher rate of adverse reactions.

Ever heard of the rotavirus (infant diarrhea ) vaccine? Even though in pre-licensure trials for the rotavirus vaccine, some babies suffered obstructed bowels and some required surgery to remove a portion of the intestine, a painful condition called intussusception.  It was approved in 1998 and licenced by the FDA and CDC recommended. Within months after government approval, 1.5 million vaccine doses were given to infants. The most common side effects listed were moderate fever, increased irritability and decreased appetitie.

In 1999 it was suddenly withdrawn from the market and the public was led to believe there was new info about harmful side effects. It took a hearing conducted by Rep. Dan Burton (R) for the factors and truth to come out. Turns out most of the work done by the CDC advisory committee was behind closed doors without public scrutiny. Yea, 6 out of 10 of the working groups  had financial ties to pharmaceuticals that made the rotavirus vaccine and those on the voting committee had financila ties to manufacturers and owned stock in vaccine patents or in pharmaceuticals.

Anyway, the data was concealed, and the public didn't learn of the problem until more than 100 cases of intussusception were reported, including one death.

Then why didn't you?

There is no zero-risk path.  There are only two paths - lower risk and higher risk.

Choosing to withhold immunizations from your children is choosing the higher risk path.  People are free to take that gamble (at least in my book) but it's a bad bet.

I know.  But at the same time we can't put our heads in the sand and pretend there is no problem with vaccines.

Risks are not something that government in a free society should ordinarily force people to accept.   Yet, who mandates these vaccines and forces medical care on healthy people? Who decides what drugs are forced on children? Is the process that produces these mandates scientifically, bureaucratically, legislatively, politically honest and open to public scrutiny and peer review?

Parents have a moral obligation to secure the health of their children and for some families that involves withholding selected or all vaccines.

I believe parents should be told of the risks and be given the option of refusing to have their children immunized with no prejudice attached.

As it stands right now, all children must be injected with up to 33 immunizations before they can be admitted to schools or daycare and some of these injections are given to infants withing the first hours of birth and the first weeks of life. These vaccinations are under the federal government's mass vaccination policy..the current one size fits all....that treats individuals like a herd ignoring individual size, age, race, genetics, etc. You and KFC may be fine with that....I'm not. And I'll never be OK with vaccines developed from the fetal tissue of aborted babies. I think it's evil that the health of our children can be insured through the death of other children.

I'll sum it up by saying the whole premise of government one size fits all vaccine mandates is disturbing to those who value freedom.

I understand your libertarian bent, something I certainly appreciate, but none of us live in isolation.  If you want your child to attend school with my children, I have a legitimate basis for insisting your child be vaccinated.  If my child chooses to go to college & live in a dorm, the risk of meningococcal meningitis, a potentially fatal disease, warrants immunization against it.

I did...read the following.

With this, as far as this discussion, I've said all I plan to. I've made my point and I get yours...which is to deplore any criticism of vaccines implying that the objections must be based on ignorance, be unscientific or non-sense.

No, you didn't identify any child or group of children who should not receive a vaccine.  Because you can't know in advance.  The notion that no child should be vaccinated because some may have an adverse reaction ignores the clearly demonstrated benefits of vaccination for the overwhelming majority of children.

Those are your words, not mine.  I've only said, essentially, that the overwhelming body of data support the net benefit, safety and efficacy of vaccines and that there is no sufficiently convincing contrary data to persuade me otherwise.  Certainly not the speculation you quoted from Dr. Deisher.

On the radio yesterday I was listening to an interesting story by the President of Compassion.  His name is Wes Stafford.  Anyhow he was telling this story about growing up in Africa as part, I'm assuming, of a missionary family.   He said  when he was very young, there was a big measel outbreak in his village and children were dying all over.  He said one out of four that contracted this disease died.  He saw many of his young friends die. 

So he went to his dad asking when he was going to die.  His dad showed him the scratches on his arm and asked if he remembered getting his immunization.  He said because he had those scratches on his arm he would not die of this disease.   He was safe. 

Wes said then he has been overjoyed at seeing hundreds of thousands of children who now have those scratches on their arms.  Those scratches saved millions of lives. 

Most vaccines do just that.  But like all things in life, nothing is perfect, so some do suffer.  It is like Daiwa says - you are playing the odds when you get vaccinated.

But the fervor of vaccinations has gone too far.  Now they are vaccinating against things you cannot get by normal social interaction.  But not giving you the option - mandating it!  I agree with vaccinating children (had all of mine vaccinated), but not for things where the mortality rate is less than that of taking the vaccine!

Such as?

HPV for young girls.

EPA Administrator Claims Regulating Drinking Water Supply Prevents Kids from Getting Autism

That's funny.  And sad.  And infuriating.  Sometimes it's hard not to despair for our future.  This is one of those times.

oh boy...here we go again.  It's the water!  I knew it!   

I was hoping you would stop by and comment.  I find it distressing for 2 reasons - the ignorance of the statement - and the fact that liberals can say such stupid things and get away with it.

Well - I have it on the best of authority that you can get pregnant (or make your wife so) by drinking from the same fountain as a pregnant woman - after all, how do you explain the baby booms at some companies?