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LETTER: Vaccination conversation filled with misconceptions

The discussion of non-vaccinated children being suspended from school certainly raised a lot of discussion today. Let me comment on a number of misconceptions out there.
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(tbnewswatch.com file photograph)

The discussion of non-vaccinated children being suspended from school certainly raised a lot of discussion today.

Let me comment on a number of misconceptions out there. First off, let me say that as an educator of physicians and other healthcare professionals, as well as a practicing healthcare professional, I have discussions about healthcare all day, every day.

My students, colleagues and friends also do. We work very hard to read countless research articles and get the best information. That is what we do. We aren't on any company payrolls for "Big Pharma" nor are we advocating vaccines for "kickbacks."

Second, vaccines make the pharmaceutical industry very little money. Their money is made in other drugs, fancier drugs. Vaccines are long past their patents, meaning that nearly any company can make them and charge very little for them to undercut each other to sell.  And they are very easy to make.

Third, autism and vaccines. No. Not even remotely.

Andrew Wakefield was publicly charged, thrown out of the medical profession and his research was investigated and retracted. He admitted to faking the research because he had shares in a new vaccine and he wanted to cast doubt on the old MMR vaccine so the new one would sell better, making him money.

So no, there is absolutely no link between autism and vaccines. Even Jenny McCarthy has retracted her statements.
Fourth, do vaccines have risks? Yes. Anything you do, from being bitten by a mosquito to drinking water has risks. What is the level of risk? Two per cent chance of minor side effects (small fever, fatigue or sore arm for about 24-48 hours), one per cent chance of nausea, rash or headache, or infection from the needle stick, 0.0001 per cent chance of seizures or coma. You have a greater chance of winning the Powerball or getting struck by lightning twice in the same year.

Fifth, do you have a "right" to not be vaccinated? No. Why? Because my child has a right to be protected from deadly illnesses that are preventable and that trumps your right to not have a needle or be paranoid about something you don't understand.
Sixth, if my child is vaccinated, why would I be concerned about you given them polio or the measles? Some people have medical conditions that prevent them from being vaccinated (immunocompromised patients, chronic liver disease, transplant patients, etc). They rely on "herd immunity," or the fact that so many people are vaccinated that the disease is unlikely to occur near them.

This usually requires about 85 per cent of the public to be vaccinated. Also, in some cases, the vaccine isn't effective (about five per cent of cases), but the person doesn't know it.

Seventh, why is this so important? Ninety per cent of the population are too young to have seen these diseases, don't remember what they look like or how scary they can be. If you know anyone with Post-Polio Syndrome, ask them about their experience.

Chances are they are in their 80's now and were three or four at the time. But they will probably tell you that their mother sat for days at their bedside hoping they would live.

Then spent months hoping they would walk again. Then spent years hoping they would have a life, be able to get married and have a family, work and make a life for themselves with the disability they were left with.

Many people did not live. In 1912, Spanish flu killed four per cent of the entire world population. In terms nowadays, that would be 280 million people dead. Almost the entire USA killed. This was a rapidly spreading illness which was controlled in those days only because we did not have international travel like we do now.

Travel from one continent to another would involve weeks of boat travel. Now, one infected person could transmit the disease to 1,000 people in less than four hours. In less than one week, the disease would be in every country in the world at pandemic proportions.

It would be unstoppable. This is what the CDC and Health Canada are trying to fight. This is why we speak out, trying to educate and assuage fears.

Constant judging by small groups bent on calling vaccines "poisons" while living the life that was provided to them by the very thing they are looking down at doesn't dishearten us. Accusations that we are in a company's "pocket" for promoting vaccines and vaccination, while those same people run to the ER when they are having a heart attack, stroke, have cut themselves badly or cannot breathe doesn't stop us from doing everything we can to continue to educate and help.

These same people have no problem with the "chemical infused stitches" we put in to stop the bleeding of a cut, the injection of TPC to break up the clot causing the stroke or heart attack, even though those  medications make the pharmaceutical industry tons of money.

People, we can protect you from many things. But we cannot protect you from your own ignorance and apathy.
Despite what many think, none of us got into health care for the money. I am not writing this for money. I write this to open up a door and shine some light on a topic that needs to be taken seriously. You have just as much responsibility for your health as any health-care professional.

It is time to act like it. Get vaccinated and stop believing the tomfoolery, Facebook Medicine or Internet Medicine.

Please believe me when I tell you that despite how much you read on the Internet, I have read more reliable information, have learned how to interpret the good vs the bad and make my recommendations based on the information that has either been shown through research to work, or that the information shows is the most logical choice.

Oh, and I have a bit of education on how the human body works as well. That helps when practicing medicine.

Trust your health-care professional. Ask questions. Learn. We are here to be your resource.

Do you trust your family doctor, or INTERNETDOC53@YAHOO.COM ??

 





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