This blog post is not to be taken as criticizing or condemning vaccines, as vaccines have helped to eradicate debilitating and horrifying diseases. Rather, it serves to educate on the less advertised negative effects associated with vaccines.
Before my education at NCNM I had never thought to question the safety, reason or timing of vaccines. Although I had questioned many other government mandated occurrences, vaccines had always been presented by my community and physician as safe and as an unquestionable milestone in a child’s life. Here are a few basic facts regarding vaccines:
Vaccines are not simply a killed or altered pathogen, most vaccines have various additives to enhance the immune performance or sterilize, kill and preserve the vaccine. These additives are often ill understood and under-studied resulting in negative side effects. Perhaps the most “famous” of the additives has been thimerosal (contains Mercury) which was taken out of all childhood vaccines from 1999-2004.
The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) vaccine schedule is created for the most vulnerable of all children, and thus subjects the children with the most protective immunity (and even complete immunity in some cases) to the dangers found in vaccines. For example, passive immunity to Haemphilus influenze B can be conferred through a mother’s breast milk.
The CDC schedule is based on childhood wellness visits, the majority in the first year of life, as this is the most guaranteed and frequented period of healthcare visits in a child’s life. In doing so, the schedule does not correlate to the development of the child’s immune system, largely incompatible to an appropriate immune response until AFTER the first year of life.
In light of the above, I have come to believe that the CDC vaccine schedule does not parallel the advances in scientific understanding of human development nor does it take into consideration the risks, health and socioeconomic standing of each child. I encourage all interested parties, especially those undertaking the enormity of parenting in the near future to consult the advice of a Naturopathic physician well versed in the art of vaccination, as each vaccine has its own complex matrix encompassing patient family history, environmental factors and a multitude of other risk factors. One should also become familiar with the CDC’s website (http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/) on vaccines, your state’s laws concerning vaccines and their exemption, and the Adverse Reporting System for Vaccines (http://vaers.hhs.gov/)
The following chart summarizes the major differences between the CDC based vaccine schedule and the Naturopathic Vaccine Schedule:
A neutral and reliable source for more information can be found at John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health: http://www.vaccinessafety.edu
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