On Wed, 11 Oct 2000 08:44:47 -0700, Cheyenne Loon <[log in to unmask]> wrote: > >My first impulse is to agree with those who have made the decision to >avoid vaccines for their children. But I can't help but feel that >these children are only safe because everyone else around them is >vaccinated, ensuring they'll never get exposed to these viruses/germs. This is not true. From the Center for Disease Control's web site: "...no vaccine is 100% safe or effective. Differences in the way individual immune systems react to a vaccine account for rare occasions when people are not protected following immunization or when they experience side effects." I know many people, including myself and my wife, that received vaccine shots as children and showed no immunity to certain diseases as young adults and adults. Vaccination does not guarantee immunity to disease. >But what happens if the number of unvaccinated children rises in the >future? Other than smallpox, none of these diseases has really been >eradicated. So if no-one is vaccinated, everyone becomes vulnerable. >Has the anti-vax movement addressed these questions effectively? > Not everyone is vulnerable. Children with poor diets and living in poor sanitary conditions are more vulnerable to all diseases, rather than just "vaccine-preventable" diseases. If a healthy child contracts a "vaccine- preventable" disease, there is a great chance that the child will be fine, and his immune system will be greatly strengthened from the experience. For breastfeeding children, immunity is obtained through the breastmilk, and the nutrition obtained further strengthens the immune system. My 5.5 month old girl has not been vaccinated, and never will, and is exposed constantly to other children, people, things, places, etc. which helps to strengthen, rather than weaken, her immune system. The rise in autism and other autoimmune disorders is due to a combination of poor diet (particularly formula and junk-food), the number and frequency of vaccinations at such an early age, and other factors. In Japan, children do not receive vaccinations until after the age of two. Here is a post I made to another list regarding vaccines: The human organism expects to encounter a vast array of different bacteria, viruses, etc. after 3+ million years of evolution, and is adequately equipped to deal with these diseases given good health and sanitary conditions. It is only within the last 10,000 years that many of the diseases, that we now vaccinate against, have appeared. We have not had adequate time to build a naturally strong resistance to these diseases. These diseases have arisen generally as a result of animal husbandry, humans in close, regular contact with animals that carry a strain of the viruses. Because farmers/herders were generally less healthy than hunter-gatherers, and sanitary conditions were poor until the latter-half of the 20th century, humans were very susceptible to these diseases. The Black Plague, for instance, killed one-third of the affected population and was successfully combatted by improved sanitation in many instances. No one ever talks about the 2/3 that survived the disease. My point with all this is that our bodies expect to be healthy, expect to encounter bacteria and viruses (through the mucus membranes, our first line of defense), and expect to build resistance. We compromise this expectation when we are not healthy, do not eat healthy foods that strengthen the immune system, do not live in sanitary conditions, etc. In my opinion, if these conditions can be met, there is no good reason to vaccinate. Vaccinations bypass the mucus membranes and introduces potentially harmful toxins into the body for which there is not always a defense. Vaccinations are in no way similar to contracting the disease naturally. Our culture believes that we must eradicate all diseases. We continue to identify diseases, and develop vaccinations for them. When will it end? When our children receive vaccinations for hundreds of diseases? My 2 cents... Brad