Safe and Effective and should they be government mandated?
Published on March 16, 2008 By lulapilgrim In Current Events

Vaccinations--Pros and Cons

Safe and Effective and should they be government mandated?

The number of available vaccines are increasing and so are the questions of parents and concerned individuals who want to be enlightened about the pros and cons.

On another forum, KFC noted that some parents in Belgium are being jailed for refusing to have their children vaccinated against polio. According to a Lifesite news report, 2 sets of parents have been sentenced to five months in prison as well as a hefty fine for their crime. It’s a crime because the polio vaccine is legally mandated in Belgium and France. The article didn’t reveal why the parents have refused to vaccinate their children. However, vaccination has long been a subject of health and ethical concern, especially since the discovery that numerous vaccines, including several versions of the polio vaccine, are made using tissue from aborted fetuses. It’s unclear whether or not Belgium's polio vaccine has been tainted with fetal tissue.

While no vaccine is 100% safe, medical experts and health officials have long insisted the risk of diseases far outweigh the risks associated with vaccines. And that’s where the rub lies. It’s a small percentage, but what if it happens to you? Various anti-vaccination groups argue that long-term health concerns for children who have received vaccinations have not been adequately addressed, with some claiming that vaccination shots can lead to medical problems such as cancer, autism and even SIDS, "sudden infant death syndrome".

In 1986, due to pressure from parents who children had suffered devastating problems after being vaccinated, the government created the National Vaccine Compensation Program and since then has paid out more than 1.2 billion dollars in settlements to compensate families or individuals in which vaccines killed, caused brain-damage or otherwise seriously hurt children.

Right now, we have pretty much employed a "one size fits all" vaccination policy and as specified on the Universal Childhood Immunization Schedule our children as early as only a few days old are required to get certain vaccines. Besides that, there is a concern about the practice of giving a child as many as 6 separate shots or one super shot containing as many as 9 vaccines (some containing mercury) in one visit. It seems that 75% of the settlements cited above concerned the DPT vaccine given to babies at about 2 months old. Turns out they are linking many multiple learning disabilities as a result of a negative reaction to DPT.

In an effort to make this world a better place, and with a billion dollar budget, the drug industry and the medical community are racing forward developing all kinds of vaccines. Case in point is the new HPV vaccine which is supposed to protect against certain strains of human papillomavirus (STD) which lead to cervical cancer. Problem is only a fraction of that budget goes to fund independent studies of side effects and that finally has come to the attention to some in Congress.

Who decides what drugs are forced on children? One parent group based in Ohio supports allowing parents to opt their children out of vaccines and as a result, a dozen or so states have granted a limited medical exemption, a religious exemption, and a philosophical (conscientiously held belief) exemption. Unfortunately, great pressure is put on parents who choose to exempt their children. That happened to me in the case of the small pox vaccine a couple of years ago. The school insisted....and threatened to oust my child...the pressure was on.....and, as for me, I was aware of the medical, religious and philosophical exemptions.


Comments (Page 3)
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on Jul 21, 2011

Surprise, surprise....the UN is involved in the STD Vaccine issue..more deliberation this September. 

..................................................................................................

 

UN wants billions for STD vaccination scheme

 

NEW YORK, May 5, 2011 (C-FAM) - The UN is about to ask governments to fund the vaccination of every girl in the world against the sexually transmitted disease, the human papillomavirus (HPV). The controversial campaign could cost as much as $300 per person, totaling billions. 

Dignitaries who launched the campaign at the UN in mid-April included a prominent African first lady, leaders from the UN Population Fund (UNFPA), the American Cancer Society, and the contraceptives manufacturer PATH. 

UNFPA and PATH want donor nations to buy the vaccine at $14 per shot. Three shots are required over a period of six months, totaling $42, and the treatment is only good for five years. Seven treatments would be required to cover each woman’s reproductive lifetime.

Advocates warned the assembly that the idea would be contentious. Casting the campaign as an effort to eradicate cervical cancer rather than a massive vaccination program against a sexually transmitted disease will help steer clear of political resistance, they said.

One advocate advised the dignitaries that when they are asked why children should be vaccinated against a sexually transmitted disease, the UN should use the precedent of infant vaccinations against Hepatitis B.

When American local governments tried to mandate inoculation of school girls against HPV several years ago, popular outcry quashed the initiatives. 

While none of the UN speakers addressed the issue, cervical cancer is caused by HPV infection, which is spread through sexual contact.  The panel lamented a dramatic increase in the cancer in the developing world, but were less clear on the reasons for its rise, sidestepping issues of sexual behavior and focusing instead on gaining political will to fund the vaccination program.

Of the half million new cases of cervical cancer each year, more than half of the patients die, usually because they did not know they had the disease until it had reached advanced stages.

UNFPA deputy executive director Purnima Mane said UNFPA would spearhead the campaign.  If approved by UN member states, UNFPA stands to receive a significant boost in funding, given the fact that there are billions of women and girls who would require the $42 treatment every five years. 

The funding would reverse a decline in donations for international population programs, which have fallen from a high in 2008 due to the global economic downturn and plummeting global fertility rates. The Obama administration had to marginally cut UNFPA funding for 2011 during budget battles with U.S. lawmakers, but promised to increase it to $50 million in 2012. PATH likewise received $50 million, about a fifth of its funding, from the U.S. government in 2009. 

Critics are concerned that the vaccination scheme will subsume the fight against cancer into the already well-funded reproductive rights agenda at the UN. They warn that because UNFPA aggressively promotes “sexual rights” for minors, the effort will not address sexual behavior or parental rights regarding medical decisions and could lead to an increase of the disease rather than its cure.

UN member states will deliberate the issue September 19th and 20th at the UN High Level Meeting on Non-communicable Diseases.

Reprinted with permission from c-fam.org.

on Aug 15, 2011

Here's the latest from la, la California land....

California mulls giving 12-year-olds STD vaccine Gardasil without parental consent

 

WASHINGTON, August 12, 2011 (Lifesitenews.com) - The California legislature is now pushing through a bill to remove parental notification for children as young as 12 to receive the dangerous STD vaccine Gardasil.

The American Life League reports that each treatment of the HPV vaccine Gardasil, has an average cost of over $360, a sum that would be footed by taxpayers.

Gardasil, the most popular HPV vaccine, has been found to cause dangerous side effects and as many as twelve deaths in the United States alone.

The state had attempted but failed in 2007 to mandate HPV vaccinations for all girls entering junior high.

Dr. Diane Harper, a former lead researcher for the controversial vaccine, told CBS in 2009 that serious side effects could prove riskier than the HPV the drug purports to prevent, and that “young girls and their parents should receive more complete warnings before receiving the vaccine.”

“The known medical risks and controversy demonstrate the true nature of this legislation: Sexual zealots in Californian politics believe that 12-year-old boys and girls are sexual animals that have no need or ability to control their own behavior,” said Paul E. Rondeau, director of communications for American Life League.

“The premise is that children will and should have sex regardless of what parents believe is best for their own sons and daughters.”

Hearings on AB499 are expected starting on August 15. If passed, California governor Jerry Brown is widely expected to sign the measure.

“Sexual politics is not about the health of children and families: Sexual revolutionaries grow their careers, manufacturers of so-called sexual preventions and cures like Merck grow their market, and distributors like Planned Parenthood grow their profits,” said Rondeau.

American Life League is sending an Action Alert to all its constituents in California, and urging its 115 national Associates to support the defeat of AB499.

 

on Aug 19, 2011
Perry is 'man of his word' -- apology sufficient
Charlie Butts - OneNewsNow - 8/19/2011 10:10:00 AM

GardasilTexas Governor Rick Perry, now a candidate for the Republican presidential nomination, has revisited an incident from 2007, when he issued an executive order to administer Gardasil to young girls.

 

Merck is the corporation that sells Gardasil, the vaccination designed to limit vulnerability to a sexually transmitted virus that can lead to cervical cancer. In 2007, Perry ordered that it be given to all sixth-grade girls in Texas. Cathie Adams, former director of the Texas Eagle Forum and former chair of the Texas Republican Party, fought against the order. She feels his recent confession to his mistake was a sufficient response to his actions four years ago.

"I am absolutely sure that Governor Perry is a man of his word. He did not intend ill. He was listening to a lot of voices, but not quite enough," she notes. "And when he realized that this was a mistake, he did back off from that."

Cathie Adams (Texas Eagle Forum)In fact, a short time later, Perry signed a law passed by the legislature that overturned the executive order. But throughout the debacle, Perry was criticized for imposing the vaccine without providing an opt-out provision.

"He was listening to some parents, but I don't think enough parents, and so he was looking out for young girls who had been sold on the claim that Gardasil [was] a product that was going to prevent cancer," Adams adds.


As Michelle Malkin points out in her recent column, Perry's former chief of staff, Mike Toomey, is a top Merck lobbyist whose mother-in-law headed a group funded by the businesses to sell the vaccination mandates to states. But Adams concludes that Perry has done well in admitting his mistake, and she is delighted that he is running for president.

on Aug 19, 2011

His decision in 2007 was wrong.  His explanation/admission/confession doesn't quite cut it with me.  Good intentions don't excuse unethical &/or dumb behavior any more for a Republican than they do for a Democrat.  Parental prerogative should have been the overriding principle from the beginning.  The crony-capitalism involved has a rather foul odor as well.

Perfection not being possible, I would still vote for him rather than Obama, should Perry end up the nominee.

on Aug 19, 2011

Daiwa,

I totally agree with you.

Given Gardasil's history, I think Perry's life and career would be entirely different had he not have had a legislature that overturned his executive order.

 

 

 

 

 

on Aug 24, 2011

lulapilgrim
Here's the latest from la, la California land....


California mulls giving 12-year-olds STD vaccine Gardasil without parental consent

virginia already does.

on Aug 24, 2011

Dr Guy
virginia already does.

I didn't know that.

Hmmmm....maybe that's why they got hit with the earthquake!

on Oct 14, 2011
Parental Rights Seen as Heart of Controversy on HPV Vaccine
California Archbishop Laments New Law

By Kelly Luttinen

LOS ANGELES, OCT. 13, 2011 (Zenit.org).- The archbishop of Los Angeles says that a new law permitting 12-year-olds to get a vaccination against cervical cancer is a "serious erosion of parental rights in California."

Last Sunday, California Governor Jerry Brown signed into law a measure that allows children as young as 12 to get the HPV vaccine without parental consent. Human papillomavirus (HPV) is the leading cause of cervical cancer and it is transmitted through sexual contact.

The archbishop of Los Angeles, José Gómez, lamented the new measure because he said that children as young as 12 shouldn't be asked to make medical decisions without parental support.

"Children are not mature enough to think through the consequences of complicated medical decisions," he said. "As a result of this law, children will now face these decisions without parental guidance -- and likely under pressure from adults and corporate interests that have financial and other motives to promote these medications.

"Rather than excluding parents, our government should be working to support and assist them in making the best decisions possible for their children, especially when serious medical and moral issues are at stake."

Green light?

Much of the controversy surrounds the Gardasil vaccine, given to prevent certain strains of the human papillomavirus.

Catholic radio show host and author Teresa Tomeo made the claim that giving the HPV vaccine to young girls is the same as giving them permission to engage in sexual activity. Others such as Randy Thomasson, a spokesperson for conservative watchdog group SaveCalifornia.org, interpreted it in the same vein, as encouragement to engage in sexual activity.

Others disagree.

"With this vaccine we are talking about something else entirely," said Cathy O'Connell Cahill, senior editor of U.S. Catholic. "The vaccine is suggested for 12 year olds because, in fact, yes, a certain percentage of them will soon be sexually active."

She continued, however: "The HPV vaccine protects even those young women who will not have sex until their wedding night! (...) The HPV vaccine protects our girls whether they have sex for the first time at 16 or 36. Are people seriously suggesting that parents should pass up the vaccine because they think their child will see it as some kind of permission to become sexually active?"

Money matter?

Chairman of Catholics for the Common Good, William May, pointed to another issue, warning of "squandering resources, as well as undermining families." 

He said 73% of teens who sign up to receive the Gardasil vaccine never complete the series of three shots. To be effective, the vaccine is administered in three doses over a three month period, costing about $120 each.

In response to those who have called the drug "dangerous," the American Academy of Pediatrics released a statement saying: "Since the vaccine has been introduced, more than 35 million doses have been administered, and it has an excellent safety record. The American Academy of Pediatrics, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the American Academy of Family Physicians all recommend that girls receive HPV vaccine around age 11 or 12. That's because this is the age at which the vaccine produces the best immune response in the body, and because it's important to protect girls well before the onset of sexual activity. In the U.S., about 6 million people, including teens, become infected with HPV each year, and 4,000 women die from cervical cancer. This is a life-saving vaccine that can protect girls from cervical cancer."

Rick Perry, Texas Governor and presidential candidate, went so far as to mandate the vaccine for all young girls in his state, then later called this decision a mistake.

Big decisions

The drug is not without its risks, and the decision whether or not to receive it should be made carefully, says gynecologist Dr. Daniel Greene, who works at Crittenton Hospital and Medical Center in Rochester, Michigan.

Greene suggested to ZENIT that the real issue in the California legislation is that children do not have the decision-making ability to weigh the risks versus benefits of such health care decisions. Echoing the misgivings of Archbishop Gómez, the doctor noted that all vaccines, including Gardasil, have inherent risks, from minor side effects such as pain and swelling at the injection site or fainting, to more serious effects in some reports such as neurologic complications or a higher risk of blood clots formation.

"Studies have not revealed yet whether these more serious side effects are directly attributable to the vaccine, but there is a potential link and this needs to be considered as part of the informed consent process," he said.

According to Greene, all the best study results on the effects of Gardasil were done in teens age 16 and older, and the data was then "extrapolated" for ages 9 through 26. 

"Studies show the younger a person receives it, the more robust the immune response, so I understand the reasons they want to do this, but this is not the way to go," the doctor said. "A 12-year-old child can't decide the risks and benefits of such a decision. They don't have the level of decision-making skills necessary. I can tell a 12-year-old the risks and benefits, and they are not going to get it."

He pointed out that the influenza virus "kills more people than HPV ever will." 

"So then," he asked, "why does a 12-year-old need parental permission to get a flu shot?"

on Oct 14, 2011

California has no shame.  The legislature's on shrooms and Brown is senile.

on Oct 15, 2011

Replacing parents with the State is so destructive. We are witnessing the decay of society right in front of our eyes.

on Oct 15, 2011

It's the 95/5 problem that infiltrates so many aspects of our lives - we effectively punish/constrain/limit/enslave/control/(insert favorite pejorative verb here) the 95% of people who are not the problem in a futile effort to deal with the 5% who are the problem and who won't comply anyway.

on Oct 15, 2011

Seems strange doesn't it? The few have control of the many? 

on Oct 15, 2011

All thanks to lawyers, some of whom I like very much, especially when I need them.  Problem is, they're needed too much.

on Oct 17, 2011

Notice that HPV Vaccine is being pushed in California, the land where "anything goes".

Here is an article from 2007 which imo, gets to the heart of why this vaccine is being pushed to children without parental knowledge or approval...

IT'S ALL ABOUT

Socializing Sexual Risk

Socializing Sexual Risk

A movement has started in this country that ought to permanently dispel the myth that liberals embrace a right to privacy.

Here is the issue: Can the government compel a pre-teen girl to undergo an invasive procedure she does not want and may not need, whose long-term adverse affects cannot yet be known and which, according to the Food and Drug Administration, opens her to the already demonstrated, albeit minor, risk of certain short-term adverse affects?

You might think that liberals would rank an invasion of privacy of this magnitude right up there with, say, warrantless eavesdropping on al-Qaida. Strangely, they do not.

Why not? Well, the specific procedure envisioned here is a series of injections to immunize girls against the Human Papilloma Virus (HPV). Unlike the measles, which a girl could give to a classmate simply by showing up at school contagious, HPV can only be transmitted by intimate contact of a sort that as far as I know has not yet become officially sanctioned classroom activity even in the most progressive school districts.

Infection with some forms of this venereal virus can lead to cervical cancer.

Several states, as well as the District of Columbia, are now contemplating legislation that would mandate these injections for girls enrolling in 6th grade. The Lancet, a prestigious British medical journal, recently editorialized that the injections ought to be mandated for boys, as well.

On June 8, 2006, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved Gardasil, an HPV vaccine manufactured by Merck, for use in females 9 to 26 years of age. It costs about $360 per three-shot series, and protects against four types of HPV, two of which cause 70 percent of cervical cancer. This year, the FDA is reportedly likely to approve another HPV vaccine, manufactured by GlaxoSmithKline. It will target just the two forms of HPV responsible for most cervical cancer cases.

Shortly after the FDA approved Merck's vaccine, the federal Centers for Disease Control added it to its list of immunizations recommended for routine administration to children. In this case, CDC limited the recommendation to "females 11-12 years of age."

CDC's recommendation paves the way for insurance companies to cover HPV vaccination and for the federal government to pay the cost of immunizing children whose families are uninsured.

On Jan. 8, Business Week cited an analyst with T. Rowe Price who estimated that sales of Merck's HPV vaccine "will peak at $2 billion per year, but could go as high as $4 billion if the states require it." Fortune magazine reported that Merck's and GlaxoSmithKline's HPV vaccines are together "projected to spawn an $8 billion-a-year global market by 2010."

 

on Nov 07, 2011

The following article is WRITTEN by Chuck Norris entitled:

THE VENOM IN THE FEDS VACCINATIONS

 

 

Monday, November 07, 2011 1:10 PM

While most mainstream news covers presidential campaigns or economic conditions, the feds are going under the radar and your skin – literally – with something that could be detrimental to your children's and your health. And news just broke about the cover-up, but few, if any, agencies passed along the wire.

According to the Centers for Disease Control, or CDC, one in 110 children have autism spectrum disorders, or ASDs, which is strikingly higher than ratios just two decades ago. (ASDs are a group of developmental disabilities that can cause communication, behavioral and social challenges.) The National Autism Association, or NAA, calls the 644 percent increase of ASDs among all U.S. children since the early 1990s "a tragic epidemic of autism."

Many attribute the increase in numbers of ASDs to children being exposed to significant quantities of thimerosal, a mercury-based compound that has been used since the 1930s as a preservative in certain vaccines and pharmaceutical products to prevent bacterial and fungal contamination.

According to its own website, however, the CDC stands by its conclusions that, "To date, the studies continue to show that vaccines are not associated with ASDs" (emphasis on "CDC's" conclusions). CDC added, "The most recent and rigorous scientific research does not support the argument that thimerosal–containing vaccines are harmful. … Is thimerosal in vaccines safe? Yes."

But last week a PRNewswire release reported that the Coalition for Mercury-free Drugs, or CoMeD, exposed a federal cover-up between the CDC and vaccine researchers. Despite that the CDC possessed a 2002 communication that revealed a causal relationship between the removal of thimerosal from vaccines and a decline in autism rates, the CDC published a 2003 cornerstone article in Pediatrics that ignored the Danish data and misled the medical community and public by insinuating that thimerosal in vaccines does not increase the risks of autism.

Almost inconceivable, the Pediatrics article actually purported that autism rates increased after thimerosal was removed. And to add insult to injury, the PRNewswire report noted, "One coauthor, from Aarhus University, Denmark, was aware of the omission and alerted CDC officials in a 2002 email, stating, 'Attached I send you the short and long manuscript about Thimerosal and autism in Denmark … I need to tell you that the figures do not include the latest data from 2001 … but the incidence and prevalence are still decreasing in 2001.'"

The deliberate avoidance and falsification of scientific medical data to support CDC bias is heinous enough, but the fact that such information is manipulated to practice medicine on our nation's children is monstrous malpractice and even premeditated malevolence. I agree wholeheartedly with Lisa Sykes, president of CoMeD, on her summary of the CDC cover-up: "This type of malfeasance should not be tolerated by those who are entrusted with our children's health and well-being."

The Alliance for Natural Health commented that this is not the first shady behavior to be exposed in the CDC. ANH explained, "This is not the first scandal to hit the CDC in recent years. Earlier this year, Dr. Poul Thorsen, one of the co-authors of the Pediatrics article and "scientist-in-residence" at the CDC from 2000 to 2002, was indicted in Atlanta for fraud and money laundering in relation to his $11 million grant from the CDC. And just last week, Dr. Kimberly Quinlan Lindsey, a top CDC official, was arrested and charged with two counts of child molestation and one count of bestiality."

And just when you think vaccination news couldn't get any worse, last week the San Francisco Chronicle reported that the National Biodefense Science Board, which advises the federal government on bioterrorism issues, voted 12-1 to recommend that the Health and Human Services Department endorse and sponsor a study to test the anthrax vaccine in children! (Do these advisory panels not think 36 federally recommended vaccinations for children by age two are enough to add anthrax to them?)

To regress, the latest correlation revelation between vaccines and autism will fly in the face (or at least may cause some confusion) because of a 2011 August report from the Institute of Medicine, the nation's bastion of authoritative health and medicine advice, just cleared children vaccines as autism culprits.

But the truth is, as the NAA reports, "There are over 1,500 studies and papers documenting the hypoallergenicity and toxicity of thimerosal (ethylmercury) have existed for decades," with most recent research revealing commonness of speech delays and tics. The NAA added, "Recent studies have confirmed the association between the use of thimerosal and autism has moved from 'biologically plausible' [in 2001] to a 'biological certainty.'"

Hence, justification for thimerosal's inclusion in any product is unwarranted at best and dangerous at worst. Or, as the NAA categorically states in its series of warnings about thimerosal, "Mercury is hazardous to humans. The use of a toxic poison as a preservative is undesirable, unnecessary and should be eliminated entirely."

That is why the United Nations Environmental Programme is proposing a global treaty ban on mercury in vaccines, something SafeMinds.org, the parental advocacy group, applauds based upon its longevity in trumpeting the dangers and links of thimerosal.

But the facts are, according to a recent PRNewswire report, despite that thimerosal is not used in vaccines for measles, mumps, oral polio, yellow fever or tuberculosis, it is still found in in many diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, hepatitis B, and influenza (or flu) vaccines, especially in Third-World countries.

Since 2001 in the U.S., no new vaccine licensed by the Food and Drug Administration, or FDA, for use in children has contained thimerosal (except influenza). Nevertheless, the CDC continues to recommend some routine vaccines for children younger than 6 years of age with "trace amounts of thimerosal."

The FDA has approved many seasonal flu vaccines, which come in both multi-dose vials and single-dose units. Those that are produced in large quantities and are in multi-dose vials contain thimerosal, while the single-dose units (including nasal spray) do not contain thimerosal because they are opened immediately and used only once. (So if you or yours insist on seasonal influenza shots, ensure it is a single dose.)

But do we really want to swap the flu bug for thimerosal? And isn't "Centers for Disease Control and Prevention" a total misnomer when it allows "trace amounts of thimerosal" in our children's soup of medicines? Are we really going to allow our children to be mercury-laced vaccinated guinea pigs? At the very least, shouldn't we avoid all thimerosal-containing products solely because of precautionary measures?

Dr. Jose Dorea, professor of nutritional sciences from the Universidad de Brasilia, hit the health nail right on the head when he recently said, "The evidence continues to mount that mercury in vaccines is not safe, that negative effects happen even with vaccine levels of exposure. We must end the use of thimerosal as soon as possible. No pregnant mother or child should have to trade getting mercury injected into them for the prevention of an infectious disease."

So buyer, beware! Or should I say, booster, beware! Don't check your brain in at the door of your family's health, nutrition or medical care. And don't ever be afraid to ask the hard questions of your health practitioners, like, "What are the exact ingredients in that syringe?"

It is your health, and they are your children, entrusted to you by God, so be bold in ensuring their safety and welfare. You still have the constitutional right to refuse any health care you deem unnecessary.

 

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