Vaccinating Our Children

"Have you touched the vaccine debate on your blog? I don't think it's really a religious debate, but might be interesting to see your viewpoint. I thought this was an interesting article, 'Growing Up Unvaccinated'. 

It seems like all anyone is talking about these days is vaccines and measles so I'd be interested to see your take on the matter!"

-- Annie

Annie is my daughter, and that Munchkin drawn above is her daughter.  She also has a little boy, and that all means I have grandkids.  She is one great mom, and I couldn't be prouder of her.  Back in September of 2013, I was working on a post, Breast Feeding Controversy.  I knew she had thoroughly researched this prior to her own motherhood and would have great input so asked her to include her own opinion in my post.  So, in kind, she is asking for my humble opinion on childhood vaccinations.

First off, it actually is a religious, as well as secular, issue.  I point anyone interested in the religious issues to visit this link, http://www.immunize.org/concerns/religious.asp, where you will find a fairly comprehensive list of references to other links on the subject.  When there are Christians who would risk their health, and that of their children, on their faith in God, you bet your buns we have need of serious religious conversations amongst not only the Christian community, but every religious organization.  It is hard to eradicate plague in the world unless the world is on the same page about the cure.   There are many cultures and religions that believe in alternative and naturopathic healing to the exclusion of all else.  Is this a healthy mindset?  I have had this discussion more than once.

Where faith is concerned, I would hate to risk the life of a child on my questionable faith in God.  Not to say I don't have faith, but what if God requires the faith of a saint for such a miracle?  I am no saint, so the child is forfeit due to my unworthiness.  Miracles happen for reasons known only to God.  I think that if you ask for Gods divine intervention, look for a doctor to walk through the door with a needle.  God gave us a brain to develop medical science, so this is us praying for something already slapping us in the face.  What if there is no ready cure?  Start praying that we either find one or God feels like bestowing a random miracle.  God has given us the gift of a brain to achieve all that we need.  To deny a child the resulting product of God's gift would seem rather ignorant and selfish, not to mention slighting God.  And what if the medicines don't work?  Sometimes the big picture eludes us.  Sometimes it is all part of the greater plan.  Most people would say that is pure bullshit.  I would ask how strong their faith is.

Let's set faith and religion aside, however, and just look at the issue of vaccination as a whole.  Where have vaccinations brought us to in the world?

The first smallpox vaccine was developed in 1796, and for obvious reasons it took until 1979 to finally eradicate the disease that killed up to 60% of infected adults and over 80% of infected children.  To put it in perspective, it is estimated, in just those first 79 years of the 20th century, 300 million people died of smallpox.  Was the vaccine worth the effort?  

But what about the side effects we don't know about?

When I was just a child I remember getting the oral polio vaccine at school.  We were trying to eradicate this menace to society as well.  The downside of the early, cheaper, vaccine was the risk of contracting polio through it.  One case per 2.4 million doses and those were often due to an immune deficiency; little solace for those who contracted it, but were the risks worth it?  Polio was all but eradicated in the U.S by the 1980s.

My point here is the old concept of risk versus reward.  Is the risk associated with a vaccine worth the reward of not contracting the ailment?  I think the risks need to be weighed and solid information on those risks needs to be made available so informed decisions can be made.  The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) do a good job of tracking vaccines that may be violating the risk/reward concept and stop vaccinations or limit them to those people not at risk to any side effects.  As we have seen with the latest flu vaccine, information was made available as to the efficacy of the available vaccine.  It wasn't so much the risk/reward as it was achieving any reward, as it was not all that effective against the current flu virus.  For most of us older folks, the chances of dying from the pneumonia epidemic that seemed to be plaguing us was greater than preventing the flu.  I figured I could survive the flu only if I didn't have pneumonia, so I got the flu shot but made sure I got the pneumonia shot as well.  If the flu shot didn't work, at least I had a fighting chance against it if I could breathe.

As adults most of us can make educated judgment calls concerning our own health.  I'm not sure we can make, or maybe have the right to make those same judgment calls for our children.  Do we have the right to withhold a vaccine that may save our child from diseases that sweep through our society when an inoculation that has a 1:2.4 million chance of harming them is available?  Risk/reward would say no; give the child the damned vaccine!  But, as a grandparent, that statement alone is enough to give one reason for pause.

I think medical science is doing to best they can to ensure our health and survival.  Suing the drug companies that develop these lifesaving vaccines do no one any good.  Luckily laws have been passed to shield these companies from the 1:2.4 million that might die.  Institutional Review Boards are one element of checks and balances used to ensure patient safety by tracking adverse events due to new pharmaceuticals and medical devices that come to market.  If too many events occur, the parent company and the FDA are notified and a decision is made to pull the dangerous item from use.  This is but one safeguard in the risk/reward criteria.

Some folks have been trying to link vaccines to autism.  I have heard this is bunk, and there is no concrete evidence of such.  I think this might fall under the predisposed due to an immune deficiency, or perhaps it was a fault in the vaccine batch, than to just blatantly point a finger at vaccines as a whole.  Until I hear this from someone I respect that can validate their comment, this kind of fear mongering is just irresponsible in my view. 

But, pooh happens.  Sometimes pooh happens to good people, by good people with all the right intentions.  We have safety valves in place to stop things from going very wrong, but things do go wrong.  This is all part of the risk/reward.   To say we don't know this when we, or our children, get the vaccine, is being a tad delusional in my view.  But, how does blaming the company developing the cure solve anything, unless they're guilty of seriously egregious misconduct in failing to look out for human safety?  Have you actually read the possible side effects for the aspirin you take or the cough medicine you spoon down your child's throat?  Be real, we risk our lives, and our health on a daily basis.  We are only human, and we can only hope we learn from our mistakes.

The biggest concern I think anyone can have would be the genetic problems we create that might not be caught for several years, or might present in some insidiously subtle fashion.  Damned if you do; damned if you don't.  The decision is a tough call at the best of times, much less when Ebola threatens to burn its way across the globe.

Do your homework; listen to the "experts," then weigh the risk against the reward.  At the end of the day the decision is yours.  As for me, if I feel I'm at risk, or if I'll pose a risk to anyone around me, I'll take the vaccine.  I think it is criminal negligence tantamount to a crime against humanity, not to self-quarantine yourself when you're at risk of having been exposed to Ebola.  I'll take the vaccine, and pray.  As for anything else, well... it's just the flu, right? 

That's my take on vaccines and children, or anybody for that matter.  I emphasize that this is just my opinion, and may not reflect that of people more knowledgeable on the subject, doctors, researchers, pharmacists, virologists, lawyers, and my mother.  Further information about vaccines might best be gleaned from somebody that actually knows what they're talking about.  My 17 years with an Institutional Review Board was spent more doing corporate liaison work, and less on the regulatory side of the house.  As a start I think I'd be asking mega questions of my family doctor come vaccine season.  The Centers for Disease Control has also compiled a list of vaccines and their side possible effects.

Those interested in the history of vaccines might check out this site, www.historyofvaccines.org.  Instead of restating what they've already written, I have excerpted the description and mission statement explaining something about the site.  I found it rather interesting:

Background:  The History of Vaccines is an award-winning informational, educational website created by The College of Physicians of Philadelphia, one of the oldest medical societies in the United States. A group of prominent Philadelphia physicians, including Declaration of Independence signer Benjamin Rush, established the College in 1787 “to advance the science of medicine and to thereby lessen human misery.”

Mission Statement:  The College has created The History of Vaccines to provide a living, changing chronicle of the compelling history of vaccination, from pre-Jennerian variolation practices, to the defeat of polio in the Western Hemisphere, to cutting-edge approaches to novel vaccines and vaccine delivery. The site aims to increase public knowledge and understanding of the ways in which vaccines, toxoids, and passive immunization work, how they have been developed, and the role they have played in the improvement of human health.
The site also discusses some of the controversies about vaccination and some of the challenges, difficulties, and tragic events that have occurred in the use of vaccines. 

Much of the historical material that appears on The History of Vaccines comes from The College’s Historical Medical Library and its wealth of rare books, medical journals, manuscripts, and archives.

Editor's Note:  

Before you go getting your panties in a bunch, it is essential to understand that this is just an opinion site and, as such, can be subjected to scrutiny by anyone with a differing opinion.  It doesn't make either opinion any more right or wrong than the other.  An opinion, presented in this context, is a way of inciting others to think and, hopefully, to form opinions of their own, if they haven't already done so.

It is my fervent hope that we keep open and active minds when reading opinions and then engaging in peaceful, constructive, discussion and debate in an arena of mutual respect concerning the opinions put forth.  After over twenty years as a military intelligence analyst, planner, and briefer, I have come to believe engaging each other in this manner and in this arena is the way we will learn tolerance and respect for differing beliefs, cultures, and viewpoints.

We all fall from grace, some more often than others; it is part of being human.  God's test for us is what we do afterward, and what we learn from the experience.
  

Pastor Frank Anthony Villari

Pastor Tony is founder of the Congregation for Religious Tolerance and author/editor of "The Path," the Congregation's official blogsite.