Should states require all parents to immunize their children?

Let me tell you something....My oldest daughter (now 8) was fully immunized at age 5. I had no issues and didn't question the process at all. My second (and youngest) child was born, we started the same process. After her first shot, she was miserable for a week. The injection site was hard as a rock and that didn't dissipate for months, even when the next injection was due the injection site from the last one was still hard....so rather than question this the so called educated doctors and nurses who "had my daughters best interest at heart" just used a different area on my daughter for injection. The same thing happened again. I was questioning this the whole time. With the polite "this is normal in some children". NORMAL!!!!!! Then my daughters 15 month shots were administered and she stopped talking. COMPLETELY stopped talking. We immediately took action and went to many doctors and specialists. She was tested for autism - and we were told that she didn't even fall on the spectrum. But she went from over 50 words at 15 months old to NONE. HHHHHhhhmmmmmm - is there any correlation to the fact that she was just immunized??? I THINK SO. After months of appointments one of Upstate NYs best developemental pediatricians was able to see her. He tested her for everything possible. Still no real diagnosis. When I stated that this was due to the vaccination he said that "statistics say that there is no relation to these developemental "flukes" and the vaccine itself." I said to him "if this was your child, if you were going through this would you think it was the vaccination, would you continue to vaccinate this child???" and replied with "Yes I would assume they are related and NO, I would not vaccinate my child any further!" I had enough information at that point to know I would no longer be an advocate for immunizations of any kind. I have not since that time vaccinated either of my children. They are healthy, happy, and by the grace of God here! My youngest went through almost 2 years of speech therapy to get back to age appropriate speech. I will also note here for all those naysayers that my daughter while being tested for different issues scored 4 months advanced cognitively and 5 months advanced with fine motor skills - so this is not a case of a "slow" child with parent denial. This is a very bright child. If you go to the CDC website you can read in black and white the reports of vaccination mishaps and accidents. This new Gardisil vaccination for girls is horrible. People fainting on injection, more than 6 instant deaths, and multiple other issues. This vaccination is a joke for one - since it doesn't even protect against all forms of cervical cancer and a simple yearly papsmear will detect more than what this vaccination covers without the tragic side effects. The flu vaccination is a crap shoot. They decide this year what 3 - 5 varieties of influenza will be in your "zone" next year and based on that guess you get a shot. Not considering if you travel not only will you be exposed to other varieties, but will also transport them. In addition to the fact that there are only about 150 strains of the flu and once you have one - you are immune from it. So you might be getting an injection of something you are already immune from. What are the studies on that???? In addition to the fact that it is only like 75% effective...?!?!? That is my take on a small portion of this....I could go on and on about the dead animal blood in the vaccinations, the aborted fetal tissue, the toxic bonders....you make your decisions for your own reasons, but taking someone elses opinion because they were taught something about a product from the person who is selling that product is not a good enough reason, doctorate degree or not. I will take what information and knowledge that is beneficial to me to make my then informed (multifaceted informed - ie - informed from many different areas) decision.

You obviously don't understand the concept and importance of trying to immunize as many children as possible. First of all, vaccines are not 100% effective, so even if 100% were vaccinated, there would still be some infection, therefore those who choose not to vaccinate their children do put some vaccinated children at risk. Secondly, there are children who cannot be vaccinated either because they are not old enough yet, allergies, or immunodeficiency. If a one month old is exposed to your 5 year old with whooping cough (pertussis) they are unprotected. Babies still die of this every year.
I'll leave it at that because I've found that people with your beliefs would rather believe Oprah and Jenny that doctors and scientists that work long and hard for prevention and treatment of disease. You can hate the establishment, but there are real people working on these vaccines.

There are obviously a lot of ignorant people here, you as parents may all choose to have your children vacinated or not. Then swear that every pharm comp and dr is out to get us all! I can guarentee as soon as anyone falls ill especially your infant child the FIRST place you run to is your doctors office and you take every piece of sound advice, prescription he/she gives to make your baby better.

We are not Drs, we are not scientist. Until any one of you goes and gets you doc degree I think you should continue to follow his/her advice. Let’s think about it...for some reason your healthy, living, walking, talking so I presume you had your shots as a baby!!!!

Why take the chances to let these diseases, which some have been practically whipped out of the human race, back?? Back not to hurt you, but attack your defenseless child’s body, because you had to stomp your foot around and kick up some dust like an immature teenager trying to prove a point....congrats to the women last year who wins the title in California, her son didn't get his shots so without the immunization he caught Diphtheria and died from it.

Be wise, be smart, love your children, research well and remember not everything you read on the internet is factual.

You are absolutely right! I couldent have said it better myself. I cringe when I here of people who believe what the "Health" authorities tell them. I say to each parent, Do your own in depth research into the safety of vaccines and make up your own mind instaed of just listening to mass media and those damn conventional doctors! They dont know squat! Alternative medicine is where its at!

I do feel all states should make a list of mandatory vaccination for certain diseases/illness. If parents do not want their children vaccinated, then they should homeschool their children so as to protect younger children from contracting vaccine preventable diseases. I have an 8 month old baby and a 7 year old and feel that I should be able to send my 7 year old to school or push my 8 month old in a swing at the park without having to worry that my baby especially may contract some preventable life threatening disease because someone else's child is around us without the protection of vaccinations.

I do feel though that parents do have the right to choose, but they should be prepared to live with those choices and not place all of society at an increased risk. Though some may not see some diseases as serious, like diptheria or pertussis, I don't want my baby getting them from some kid who does not have the benefit of protection. Our country is too wide open with air travel, immigration (both legal and illegal), and really just those of us who can afford to go on a vacation to another country, all of these scenarios have the potential to bring unwanted illnesses.

Though I do feel that the current vaccine schedule has a lot of shots on it that aren't necessary, I do feel that states should made certain ones like DTaP and Hib, especially, mandatory. Hib still kills a lot of babies and the more children who are vaccinated against it would prevent a lot of those death. I also feel that too many adults don't get our boosters and wish that more of us would get them done on a regular basis as well in an effort to protect the weakest among us like young children and the elderly from these diseases.

This is a ridiculous debate for a number of reasons.
1) It shouldn't matter to the parents that vaccinate their children if other children are vaccinated or not. If your kids are vaccinated, then they shouldn't get the disease. This is fear mongering to believe that your vaccinated kids will still get the disease from playing with non-vaccinated children. If so, then why did you get your kids vaccinated if the vaccines don't work?
2) Parents that choose to not have their children vaccinated are making a personal choice as the children's legal guardian. The parents are responsible for taking care of their children possibly for the rest of their lives whether they get a debilitating illness like autism from the adjuvant in the vaccines or something else.
3) The parents that choose to not vaccinate their children understand the risks from being vaccinated or not being vaccinated and have chosen the non-vaccinated. These parents are prepared to deal with the slight possibility that they will get one of the diseases that children are vaccinated for, like the chicken pox, the flu, or measles and to be sick for a while (and the slight possibility that they may not fully recover or die). These parents have weighed the risks on both side and have chosen what they believe is the safer course for their children.
5) Medicine is first supposed to do no harm. The vaccine research and science has been shady (i.e. hidden government records, etc.) I wouldn't trust what the pharmaceutical companies say, remember vioxx and the 60,000+ people that died. Pharmaceutical companies obviously have a conflict of interest in wanting to increase their profits by making crappy cheap vaccines that may kill a few children here and there, but increase their bottom line and put them into the black.
6) The mercury in the thimersol is not likely the problem it is the adjuvants the other chemicals and metals that hyperstimulate the immune system to react the the diluted amount of antigen (the antigen is expensive so they just dump more adjuvants, which also happen to be neurotoxins to increase the immune reaction). I'd be wary of pharma and their buddies in the CDC and FDA.

You are my favorite.....Not only cant you use your spell check, but you think your protected children will get sick from our non protected children. If you buy into all thevaccinations providing your kids with a super man cape of immunity, then why do you care if we chose to give our kids shots or not?

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