Even before I had children, I was surprised to hear about so many new vaccines becoming mandatory. Then when I had my first baby and actually saw the current US vaccines schedule, I was floored. How had the amount of mandatory vaccines tripled since my childhood? And how could it possibly be safe to give so many injections to infants whose body is still in a stage of rapid development? Heck, I already decided not to give my children any of the new vaccines well before I came to the conclusion that all vaccines, including the ones I received as a child, carry more risks than benefits.
The current US vaccine schedule attempts to keep our children healthy by requiring 48 doses of 14 vaccines by the age of six. This is the most of any industrialized nation and the authorities seem to have no qualms about adding more vaccines to the schedule – even though there has never been a large-scale scientific study to prove that the schedule does in fact improve the overall health of our children. To my way of thinking, NO vaccine should be added to the schedule as mandatory UNTIL a proper long-term scientific study has been conducted to validate its safety and effectiveness.
So what does having the highest number of required vaccines mean for the US? In 1960, the United States’ infant mortality was ranked 12th in the world. By 2005, the US rank had declined to 30th. Today, we have fallen further to 34th . Six out of every 1,000 live births will die before the babies reach their first birthday. Even though the United States spends more on health care than any other developed nation, 33 other countries have better infant mortality rates than we do.
How is that possible? How is it that as a nation we continue to increase our spending on healthcare and increase the number of childhood vaccines, yet continue to fall in the infant mortality ranking? The obvious answer to me is that we have serious problems with the current accepted medical paradigm and the accepted expectation that vaccines will keep us healthy.
There are multiple factors contributing to the poor infant mortality rate in our country, like the increasing number of pre-term babies being born. But one study published this year points to something the government can easily test by changing the US vaccine schedule. focuses on the connection between vaccines and infant mortality. It found that the infant mortality rate tends to increase as the number of vaccines given to infants under a year old increases. In other words, nations requiring the most vaccines for children under a year old have the highest infant mortality rates. Babies in the United States are given 26 doses of vaccines – twice as many as infants in Sweden and Japan, who rank 1st and 2nd respectively in infant mortality rates.
After reading the report, my first thought was how can our government continue to mandate so many vaccines be given to our infants? Even if the report doesn’t provide enough evidence for the pro-vaccine groups to be convinced, its findings do show a reasonable doubt that our current vaccine schedule is not in the best interest of keeping children healthy. And to my way of thinking, if public health and safety are really our nation’s top goal in requiring so many vaccines, then reasonable doubt should be enough to reduce the number until conclusive studies can be done.
After all, vaccines added to the schedule in the late 80s and early 90s aren’t for new diseases. Those diseases existed during my childhood and my generation seemed to deal with them without many problems. Since there are 33 nations who require fewer vaccines than the US, our required vaccines can’t really be mandatory for public health. If they were, then all nations would require them all for their populations as well.
Vaccines have become such a polarized topic in the US and many, including myself, have lost faith that the government really has the best interests of our children at heart. Not all children can survive the current vaccine schedule without developing life-altering conditions. If vaccines really are to live up to the promises made, then show me the unbiased, sound, scientific studies and let those results speak for themselves. Don’t make all vaccines mandatory and take away my right to decide what is best for my family. Reducing the current vaccine schedule would definitely be a step in the right direction and one that I think the government needs to make immediately.
To learn more about the dangers of vaccines visit http://www.healingourchildren.org and take charge of your family’s health by saying no to vaccinations.
