Immunizations–What Do You Think?

Hi all. My daughter asked me to ask people how they feel about immunizations for a paper she is doing for a college class. She would love as many people as possible to answer the following questions. Please help! So far she has only four responses. Every opinion is appreciated. Please feel free to write as much as you want.

Also, if you work in the medical field or know someone who does, please let us know that when you respond. She would really love to have a few doctors and nurses say what they think (so far we neither of those have answered). If you know a doctor or nurse that she could e-mail, please let me know rachel@rachelannnun.com.

THANKS SO MUCH!

Questions:
1. What is your opinion on immunization and vaccines?

2. Should babies and young children be vaccinated? Why or why not? How early should they receive their first immunization? From birth? One year? Five years? At what age would you begin?

3. If you have chosen not to vaccinate your children while they are living with you, do you vaccinate them before they leave for college?

4. Are there certain vaccinations you avoid? Why?

5. Has your doctor ever told you or anyone you know to postpone immunizations or avoid them altogether?

6. Do you know anyone who’s child(ren) have suffered side effects from a vaccine? If yes, please explain.

7. Anything else you would like to add?

10 Responses to “Immunizations–What Do You Think?”

  1. katie

    Neither me or my brother received any immunizations and we never got sick. We never had runny noses like so many kids either. I have no intention of vaccinating any of my kids. If you study the way they are made it is so not natural.
    I believe if you are going to immunize wait till your children are older. Babies will develop natural immunity, especially if you breast feed as they get mothers immunity also.
    I agree with Noble M Standing. There is mercury in them, I believe they are the cause of the raising stats of children with autism and I have also heard that manufactures and some doctors don't ever immunize.

    Reply
  2. Catia Nunes

    Thank you all so much for all the information! It really helped.

    Reply
  3. Darci Johnson

    p.s. – the mercury is found in thimerosal, an ingredient which is still in some vaccines. It was supposed to be removed from vaccines several years ago, but only some did. It was even in a flu shot I got just a couple of years ago (kindly, the nurse was honest enough to tell me when I asked).

    Reply
  4. Darci Johnson

    My general feeling is that immunizations are important. However, to give a tiny baby or child multiple vaccines in one sitting seems like an obvious poor choice. They should be spread out. My biggest gripe with vaccines is that there is still mercury in some of them. I don't care how many people say they don't contain mercury any longer – they do!!! It's used as a preservative. I believe there is a direct link to this and autism. Really bugs me that there is so much misinformation out there about this.

    Reply
  5. Noble M Standing

    1. What is your opinion on immunization and vaccines?

    I don't believe vaccines work as they should. While they do protect from disease, so does hand washing, and things like quarantines. I do believe that assaulting a infants immune system with more than one at a time is completely wrong even for those who believe in vaccinating their children.

    2. Should babies and young children be vaccinated? Why or why not? How early should they receive their first immunization? From birth? One year? Five years? At what age would you begin?

    No. A babies immune system is designed to develop over time as they are exposed to different diseases. Granted, serious diseases can kill small children, but modern technology and hygiene have almost eliminated a lot of the common ones. Assaulting their immune system with more than one toxin is too much. if you choose to immunize, I would suggest waiting until the child is school age and vaccinate one at a time.

    3. If you have chosen not to vaccinate your children while they are living with you, do you vaccinate them before they leave for college?

    I will do some vaccines at that time. MMR tetanus and Meningitis come to mind.

    4. Are there certain vaccinations you avoid? Why?

    All of them, especially the newer ones. They damage children and the newer ones are untested.

    5. Has your doctor ever told you or anyone you know to postpone immunizations or avoid them altogether?

    Yes because of immune compromised adults in the home, or children with certain types of conditions like congenital heart defects.

    6. Do you know anyone who's child(ren) have suffered side effects from a vaccine? If yes, please explain.

    I have an 18 y o that we think suffers from high functioning autism. He had a severe reaction to the DTP. I don't know if they are related, but I can't ignore the possibility.

    7. Anything else you would like to add?

    If the executives of the companies who manufacture the vaccines don't immunize their children, we as consumers should be wary.

    Reply
  6. Sherry Ann Miller

    Questions:
    1. What is your opinion on immunization and vaccines?I believe they are essential to a healthy community.

    2. Should babies and young children be vaccinated? Why or why not? How early should they receive their first immunization? From birth? One year? Five years? At what age would you begin?
    I would go with the recommendation of the CDC, they are experts in this field and would know better than I.

    3. If you have chosen not to vaccinate your children while they are living with you, do you vaccinate them before they leave for college?
    My children are inherently connected to Reyes Syndrome, which follows the flu and can be deadly. Although they are now grown, as children, they always received a flu shot.

    4. Are there certain vaccinations you avoid? Why?
    No.

    5. Has your doctor ever told you or anyone you know to postpone immunizations or avoid them altogether?
    No, quite the opposite.

    6. Do you know anyone who's child(ren) have suffered side effects from a vaccine? If yes, please explain.
    No.

    7. Anything else you would like to add?
    I was a Nurse's Aid for a number of years in my youth, and two of my children had Reyes Syndrome. As a result of these experiences, I would have been a neglectful mother had I not insisted on my children receiving their immunizations (not that I needed to insist — Reyes Syndrome patients and their family members are STRONGLY advised to get flu shots).

    Reply
  7. Anonymous

    Questions:
    1. What is your opinion on immunization and vaccines? Personally I think some are necessary such as Polio etc. Will explain at the end.

    2. Should babies and young children be vaccinated? Why or why not? How early should they receive their first immunization? From birth? One year? Five years? At what age would you begin?I actually would rather see them wait until a child is a bit older than a baby but not sure what age really…maybe right before school starts for them.

    3. If you have chosen not to vaccinate your children while they are living with you, do you vaccinate them before they leave for college?
    I really can't answer this one because all of my children were vaccinated. My mother didn't believe in it because of her religion at the time so it was devastating to both my brother and I.

    4. Are there certain vaccinations you avoid? Why? I would avoid those that they have proved that they are not necessary not sure at the moment which ones are because I am 66 so I haven't really kept up on them.

    5. Has your doctor ever told you or anyone you know to postpone immunizations or avoid them altogether? No

    6. Do you know anyone who's child(ren) have suffered side effects from a vaccine? If yes, please explain. No, but I have heard there has been. I would think there would be some genetic link that could determine which are susceptible and which are not so those who are not can get what they feel is necessary.

    7. Anything else you would like to add? Yes, my mother was a Christian Scientist when I was growing up and she would not allow my brother and I to be vaccinated at all. In fact, finally she was ordered by the court to have us vaccinated so she made them do it on our legs instead of our arms and I have no earthly reason why. I do know though that I contracted "virus Polio" at the age of 16 because I wasn't able to get the vaccine. That is one reason why I am not totally against them. I feel there are instances where they are needed and polio is definitely one of them. I was very ill for 45 days so missed so much school I had to take another year. Also, at 18 mths my brother contracted poliomyelitis and meningitis and had to learn how to walk all over again. I hope this helps you somewhat.
    Diane Fallis, Idaho Falls, ID

    Reply
  8. Laura

    Questions:
    1. What is your opinion on immunization and vaccines?
    I feel that they are good to help keep many diseases from becoming rampant again.

    2. Should babies and young children be vaccinated? Why or why not? How early should they receive their first immunization? From birth? One year? Five years? At what age would you begin?
    I think that they should start being immunized when they are a year old. I feel that at that point, the body is better able to handle any possible side effects.

    3. If you have chosen not to vaccinate your children while they are living with you, do you vaccinate them before they leave for college?
    N/A

    4. Are there certain vaccinations you avoid? Why?
    No, I even had my youngest son get the Rotovirus vaccine.

    5. Has your doctor ever told you or anyone you know to postpone immunizations or avoid them altogether?
    No

    6. Do you know anyone who's child(ren) have suffered side effects from a vaccine? If yes, please explain.
    Yes,I had a friend's daughter that had a seizure after getting immunizations. She had a very high temp, and she was around 12months old.

    7. Anything else you would like to add?

    Reply
  9. Jen

    Questions:
    1. I think immunizations, especially in children and older adults, are important for the prevention of many diseases. However, there are some limits that I would consider.

    2. I believe they should be vaccinated as soon as possible. There are guidelines with vaccines pertaining to age, and I agree with those.

    3. N/A

    4. As a general rule of thumb I do avoid medications and vaccines that aren't well-tested. For example, I was offered the HPV vaccine, but declined because it was still a relatively new drug and side effects in the general population wasn't well documented.

    5. The only people I know that have been told to postpone vaccines were parents that had very sick children that had compromised immune systems.

    6. I do know quite a few people who recently had the TDAP (Pertussis with Tetanus) vaccine that had some side effects from it, mostly muscular in nature.

    7. Maybe it's because of my background (I am a research coordinator at Stanford and my career focus has been children with Autism) but I have found quite a few articles that argue the link between children with Autism and vaccines. Personally, I feel that the benefits of the vaccine outweigh any possibility of the disease occurring, and most of what I have read seems to reinforce there is not a solid connection.

    Reply
  10. Graham Bradley

    1) I think we should take advantage of them–they're a great safeguard against things that infants and newborns can't fend off on their own.

    2) Yes, but I haven't done enough research into it personally to put an age on it. Before the age of 2.

    3) N/A

    4) Nothing comes to mind.

    5) Nope. Quite the contrary, a good friend of mine went through med school and had this argument with her sister-in-law, who "read somewhere" that vaccines cause autism, which Heidi (my friend) refuted with all of her doctoral knowledge.

    6) I don't.

    7)It's a tricky position to take, however I do believe that if people don't immunize their children, and their children then contract and transmit a contagion to other children, there's a level of social responsibility to be taken for it.

    Reply

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