More Vaccine Info

Here is some good info I recently read on Dr. Sears' website.

U.S. News and World Report February Issue Features Dr. Bob’s Alternative Vaccine Schedule

It's under the paragraph about the separate doses of MMR being available. Note - I was wrong when I said it was now available again. According to this, it will be available in 2011. If you're planning on getting the M-M-R shots separately, you might want to look more into this to determine if it is worth the two-year wait for you.

In this write-up, Sears discusses how the Centers for Disease Control is looking at vaccines and vaccine research differently, especially addressing the NEED for more/better research and touching on how vaccines enter the public domain before enough trials are done to ensure any sort of safety, such as the Menactra vaccine and an older version of the Rotavirus vaccine that was pulled after enough babies had bad reactions (after it was given to millions). And the Gardisil vaccine is questioned as being safe, as well. The need for better research on vaccines is HUGE. The VAERS database that Dr. Sears mentions is the CDC's Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System. Information of severe side effects are used with this database to determine when vaccines should be taken off the market (and yes, it does happen...such as with DTP which caused shock/collapse, screaming, and high fevers, live-virus oral polio which caused paralysis, RotaShield which caused life-threatening intestinal blockage, as mentioned above). There are problems with how the VAERS database is run, though, as is mentioned in the article Sears is reffering to here. He discusses this in his book, as well. Either way, I'm glad the CDC is taking this serious look at vaccines, even if the AAP is not. Sears states that this article is not one taking sides on vaccines being "good" or "bad."

Here is the article that Dr. Sears is referring to:

A Parents' Guide to Managing Vaccinations

What to do if you don't want your child to get 8 vaccines at once

It's a short article - shorter actually than Sears' write-up about it. Take a look at it and share your thoughts!

By the way, Sears mentions the vaccine/autism issue and the case where vaccines were ruled to have "triggered" autism in a child that had a mitochondrial disorder. While I have not jumped on the "vaccines CAUSE autism" bandwagon, I do think that there is some value in the "vaccines can TRIGGER" some of these issues, especially because vaccines can affect the immune system, which is why we do the alternate schedule and do not have Aiden vaccinated if he is sick. Just throwing that in. There is still a lot to learn, though.