Should we, or should we not vaccinate our kids? Even getting the flu shot is controversial. In working with Autistic children and kids with other challenges, time and again I run into parents who point to the time when they began to notice their kids having challenges, even regressing, soon after being vaccinated. These parents present a convincing argument against vaccination and their anger at the system they trusted to protect them letting them down so dramatically can border on fury. Additionally, given that nothing has changed, it is difficult for them to forgive, as new families are apparently being violated every day, and they feel that their concerns are not being addressed in any meaningful way.
On the other hand, we live in a relatively disease free world as a result of vaccinations. Millions of small children are vaccinated without any apparent side effects. The Spanish Flu in 1920 killed perhaps 60 million people (10% of the world population) whereas today we are assaulted with virulent bugs like SARS with casualties in the hundreds. When a large enough segment of the population is vaccinated against a specific pathogen, it cannot “break out” and will whither away regionally. Consequently, it can be said that it is part of our social contract to have our kids vaccinated, and that the parents who elect to forgo vaccination are getting a free ride on the backs of the parents that do.
What happens in a vaccination is that the immune system is presented with a signature of a bug and then launches a protective response. Vaccination essentially tricks the immune system into “jumping the gun”, and responding as if the host has suddenly become violently infected. We have no way of knowing what other challenges the immune system is facing at that point in time, whether it is eliminating environmental exposure to toxins in our foods, is hyperactive from social stress or perhaps actively engaged in eliminating another bug. These factors and many more influence the immune system response. The more the immune system has to do, the more challenged it becomes distinguishing self from non-self. Our array of auto-immune diseases is the consequence of this confusion(not specific to vaccination). In a rapidly developing infant or small child, the progression of changes it is engaged with on an hourly basis only has to be sidetracked momentarily to change their developmental trajectory. The immune system only has to attack self for a short period of time to influence the foundation our later development is built on.
Our level of understanding what actually occurs in immune function is comparable to our understanding of global geography 300 years ago. We know the outlines of some of the continents, but much of the detail has yet to be filled in. We know vaccination is a very successful strategy for increasing lifespan and quality of life. Our implementation of this strategy lacks caution and demonstrates a cavalier attitude to the complexity of what occurs during development. The way vaccinations are undertaken seems to have more to do with convenience and cost. This is particularly apparent with the MMR vaccination (measles, mumps and rubella), where the immune system is instantaneously challenged by three virulent pathogen signatures.
Given that there is some evidence of profoundly detrimental side effects, it seem prudent where possible to exercise as much caution as possible when having your child vaccinated. Consequently, I recommend the following steps:
1) Wherever possible, avoid vaccines attenuated with Mercury (Thimerosal), which is a neurotoxin and may in itself compromise rapidly changing nervous system development, at the same time the immune system is mounting a protective response.
2) Spread out your vaccinations as much a possible. This is a real hassle, as it involves more trips to the doctor. Avoid the MMR vaccine, especially in conjunction with other vaccines.
3) Don’t hesitate to cancel a scheduled appointment for vaccination if your child is fighting a bug or even if they are going through a stressful period. It is essentially common sense that challenging the immune system from a place of peaceful calm is likely to produce a more positive outcome. There is a growing body of clinical research(1) linking our feeling comfortable and safe to immune system function – that the experience of fight / flight / freeze correlates to a hyperactive immune response.
Effective alternatives to vaccination at the societal level do not exist. Even though developmental issues may not show up for years and are thereby impossible to correlate to vaccination, the risks are very small relative to both the personal and social good they deliver. It seems likely that a portion of small risk associated to immunization can be ameliorated by proffering the immune system respect for the immense undertaking it is vigilantly, unrelentingly committed to – protecting us.
(1) Stress and Disease: New Perspectives By Harrison Wein, Ph.D.
Relevant Papers:
Researchers Link Vaccine Effectiveness to Gut Bacteria
Did Chinese Scientists find Autism’s missing puzzle piece?
“In the early 1950s, there were four vaccines: diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis and smallpox. Because three of these vaccines were combined into a single shot (DTP), children received five shots by the time they were 2 years old and not more than one shot at a single visit.
By the mid-1980s, there were seven vaccines: diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, measles,mumps, rubella and polio. Because six of these vaccines were combined into two shots (DTP and MMR), and one, the polio vaccine, was given by mouth, children still received five shots by the time they were 2 years old and not more than one shot at a single visit.
Since the mid-1980s, many vaccines have been added to the schedule. Now, children could receive as many as 24 shots by 2 years of age and five shots in a single visit (up to 70 vaccines total). The result is that the vaccine schedule has become much more complicated than it once was, and children are receiving far more shots than before.”