Sometimes, I swear I talk to people and what they hear is "I'm a backwater inbred hick without an ounce of understanding and I hate my kids."
When instead what I said was, "Other people would lump me together with anti-vaxers."
This is a multifaceted and extremely complex issue that I think both sides overly vilify the other over. I've wanted to talk about it when things were more calm, but people get crazy worked up about it so it's hard to find a good time.
So let me start with a quick setup to the question: "Why would other people lump me together with anti-vaxers?"
The unfortunate answer is because I dare to ask some basic questions about the current vaccination schedule. That's it, the big dark secret is out for the whole world to see, how dare I question my betters?
While I have many, many, many questions that unduly get strangers yelling at me through the wonderful power of internet anonymity let me narrow this down to only the three most worthwhile ones.
1) Do vaccinations have hazardous side effects?
No, no, no stand down keyboard warriors. I'm not talking about Autism, though that is what most people usually have in mind when they talk about this. Undoubtedly, you've seen some chart like this one
Whoops, sorry I meant to show a chart linking vaccinations to autism. Oh well, this one is just as relevant. The problem with this chart and the vaccination to autism charts is they seek to overly simplify complex issues by saying "This and this alone is the cause for that".
I do not believe that vaccines causes autism. I think that the real underlying issues around the increase in autism are related to a decrease in infant mortality, women having children later in life (sorry that's just science for you, and is in no way meant to be any kind of personal opinion on how late in life women have kids), and, most importantly, the increased range/better identification of autistic trends.
What I mean is that when vaccines are tested they are done individually. Test subject A get's vaccine A, observed result is X repeat 10,000 times. When it's done we have a good understanding of the expected side effects of that vaccine. But when vaccines are actually given they are often given in large groups. For example, according the to CDC vaccination schedule at your child's 2 month checkup they should be given the following vaccinations:
1) Rotovirus
2) DTaP (which is a combo vaccination that protects against diphtheria, tetanus, and pertussis (whooping cough))
3) Hib (Haemophilus influenza type B) (Fun side note when first discovered in 1892 this guy was erroneously believed to be the cause of influenza)
4) PCV (pneumococcus)
5) IPV (Polio)
6) Hepatitis B (Second Dose)
How do these shots interact together? What are the known side effects? We don't know. To the best of my knowledge there is no significant testing done on how shots interact together nor is there any requirement to report side effects that may be a result of a combination of shots instead of a side effect of one specific shot.
That's a problem that the CDC or WHO or some other responsible medical group needs to tackle to ensure that the schedule is having kids get shots as safely as possible.
2) Why should we do a one size fits all schedule?
When you go to a doctor for treatment they take the time to get your weight, height, and age at a minimum before prescribing any kind of treatment. But so help you if you deviate one iota from the all powerful vaccination schedule. It's like some people know that schedule better than they know the 10 commandments. Come on, now!
A rational person should immediately recognize that inherent dangers of blindly adhering to a one size fits all medical regimen. But not only do people try to shame those who say, "You know what little Timmy really doesn't need vaccine X right now", but we try to legislate control of a child's health out of the hands of the parents and into the hands of the state! That's insanity.
No vaccine is so prevalent on the CDC vaccination schedule in America that we are any more at risk of having a disease mutate by having a subset of the population not vaccinated against it than we are having it mutate in the already existing subset of vaccinated kids who still end up getting the disease. For that matter, we're not any more at risk for having it mutate because a subset of Americans don't get vaccinated for it than we are at risk having it mutate outside of America for the portions of the world who do not have access to the vaccination at all.
3) What's up with that vaccination schedule?
If you look back at that list above, at a child's 2 month check up, they are due for an amazing 6 different shots totaling 8 different vaccinations! By the time your child is 2 they will have needed a total of 24 shots, that means at 2 months you get 25% of the total shots your child needs by their 2nd birthday.
By the time they're 4 months old they will have received half of the shots they're supposed to get by the time their 2. In fact, I'm being generous by saying two years old. If you look at the schedule, they could (and often do) get all 24 shots by the time they are 1 years old.
This question really ties in with the second question. The schedule is far too aggressive for the average kid. There are certainly cases where this schedule would need to be followed (i.e. kids who are going to be abroad), but for the average kid, do they really need to worry about getting the polio vaccine at 2 months? A disease which the CDC reports has been wiped out from America since 1979?
Or for that matter does every newborn really need the Ilotycin eye ointment at birth? (it vaccinates against Chlamydia and Gonorrhea as well as prevents pink eye if the mother had a vaginal rupture)
Let me be clear, I fully support vaccinating kids. I'm not going to tell you how we did it with our sons because it's none of your business.
But the mere fact that I look at this and go, "You know what? I can talk this over with his doctor and together we can administer these vaccines in a manner that doesn't needlessly overload his system." by default lumped me into the anti-vaxxer camp.
Which is pure insanity. Parents have enough on their plate without having to worry that their friends or the government is going to attack them because they are pursing sound medical advice by tailoring the vaccination schedule to meet their child's needs.
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