The reason behind this moment of “enlightenment” is this -
Today my son had to get a vaccine. We thought he was up-to-date with his vaccines, as is required by law. When we submitted his immunization card to the school, they said that he was missing seven vaccines! I pulled out his immunization card, since I knew he was up-to-date with his vaccines, the letter from the school and the state department of health, and one of those self-education books on immunization. I wanted to compare all documents to ensure that I would not be giving my child duplicated and unwarranted vaccines. I tried, I really did try, but it was all too confusing. What I came up with is that he DID have all the required vaccines; however, I was still not 100% sure.
Then, it got more obscured. The health form that is required of all school aged children was finally completed (I say "finally" completed, because we submitted the form to his pediatrician in November 2009 and received it just a couple of weeks ago). This form claimed that my son was still missing one vaccine. Now, I had it on good authority, or at least I thought I did, that my child needed only one vaccine to make him up-to-date.
At my son's appointment, I met with the doctor, and it turned out that my child already had the "missing" vaccine. The doctor upon looking at my child's medical chart noticed that he did not receive the flu vaccine and another vaccine (which to date is not mandatory. The doctor started advising (some might say lecturing) me on how safe vaccines are. He felt it necessary because I told him that we opted not to give our son the flu vaccine (the flu vaccine is not the vaccine in question), because our child is healthy. The doctor advised/lectured me on the fact a child is healthy and the need the vaccine is unrelated. He then went on to say that, there are no links between autism and vaccines, that the correlation was actually a fraudulent claim made by a scientist some years ago. This scientist was faced criminal charges.
Through all my readings on the link between autism and vaccines, particularly the MMR vaccine, did I ever come across this piece of information? I have not yet googled for this, and would I? You bet.
It seems that everyone has an agenda; does this doctor have an agenda? Does he really have my child's interest at heart? Does pharma have our best interests at heart when they are developing the vaccines? Have you ever considered what goes into making a vaccine? I am not trying to take the responsibility off of me, do not get me wrong, I will continue to research and educate myself on all kinds of issues, especially where it concerns my child. But I also have to listen to the experts - the doctor, in this case - to do what is good for my child. After all that, I have to weigh all the facts and make a judgment call.
I was vaccinated as a child, did my parents for once consider not giving a vaccine, because of what was in it or ever doubted our pediatrician? Probably not; and all three of us turned out a-okay. So, what is the problem here? The saying goes, "knowledge is power," but it can also be debilitating, because now you have no idea what to do: on one hand, you are protecting your child from possible diseases/infections and protecting others; and on the other hand your child can react negatively to the vaccine and the outcome can be severe as death.
These types of decisions are not isolated to the health/medical aspect, for the entire well-being of your child. We recently had to make a decision on which school our child should attend, and even though we have committed to one school (which we love), we are in a quandary now as to whether the school is a good fit and whether or not he will receive a good education at this school.
As parents or as individuals I think we MUST take it on good faith that we are making the right decisions, and if it turns out not to be, then we recognize the mistake and move on. Let us just hope that there is room for correction, in some instances there may not be.
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