Vaccination & epidemic

[lumberjim]

Back in 1999, our first pediatrician (a large practice) stopped seeing us because we decided not to get the mmr. The doctor that was trying to convince us to get it was maybe 27 years old. She said she had seen so many kids die of measles, and it was a horrible killer.

I think there were something like 60 cases of measles reported per year in the US at that time and 0 fatalities. I think they had a dog in the fight. Maybe she lied. Maybe she had been living in India. ... but she was clearly deceptive.

Do doctor's practices keep statistics of how many patients are/are not vaccinated? Are there financial ramifications or rewards involved?

Anyway, to answer the question... if my kids were going to India, or another high risk area, I would seriously consider it. ... but while they are in school, if they get ANY immu, they have to get ALL, because we would lose the philosophical exemption. They are both strong and healthy. If, by some freak vector, they did contract measles or mumps, they would receive prompt medical care, and have an excellent chance of surviving it anyway.

Once they are adults, if they go into the medical profession, or join greenpeace or something that would put them in contact with nasty things that could be thwarted by vaccines, then I would probably encourage them to research the vaccines, and go about getting select immunizations.

It is 100% risk reward in my opinion. So far, the risk is greater than the reward.

[orthodoc]

Originally Posted by lumberjim

Back in 1999, our first pediatrician (a large practice) stopped seeing us because we decided not to get the mmr. The doctor that was trying to convince us to get it was maybe 27 years old. She said she had seen so many kids die of measles, and it was a horrible killer.

I think there were something like 60 cases of measles reported per year in the US at that time and 0 fatalities. I think they had a dog in the fight. Maybe she lied. Maybe she had been living in India. ... but she was clearly deceptive.

Do doctor's practices keep statistics of how many patients are/are not vaccinated? Are there financial ramifications or rewards involved?

It's not unlikely that she had indeed been to India or Nigeria or some other country where children still die of measles. When I was in university, in Canada, we didn't spend time overseas; now most students do. And there are many opportunities for American medical students to spend time in countries where they would see many children die of preventable diseases. You can't assume she was being deceptive.

There are no financial ramifications or 'rewards' involved in trying to provide the best possible health care, which is PREVENTIVE health care. Which includes immunizations. Immunization is possibly the single most important advance in medical history. It began with protection against smallpox, a global scourge at the time.

You resent any implication that you may be 'dum' (something I never suggested), yet you're comfortable smearing every physician who busts his/her balls to provide proven, tested care to people who need it. We don't often go for alternative medicine, because alternative medicine, once, tested and confirmed effective, is simply MEDICINE. The other stuff is charlatanism.

But you live in the Land of the Free and you're free to regard measles as an 'of course children get it and it's no big deal' disease. Trouble is, you're wrong. It kills; when it doesn't kill, it causes blindness and encephalitis. The physicians who had to watch their patients suffer this disease were wholly on board with immunization programs.

Would you sneer at TB? It's still out there and we're susceptible. Infectious disease is a global issue now; it takes less than 24 hours for an airborne disease to circle the globe. Both measles and TB are airborne diseases.

FFS. I don't know of any physician who is 'in league' in any way with vaccine companies, who has a dog in the fight. We just read the fucking medical literature and realize that the numbers speak the truth.

You made a choice for your kids and they have to live with it. Chances are, if they stay in the US, they'll fly under the radar because others protected them. But immigration and visitation patterns change all the time, and they may not be protected. If they get these diseases as adults, not only will they have a more severe form (remember, measles kills and blinds in children); they'll communicate the disease to vulnerable people before they even know they have it.

That's your freedom; that's your choice. As long as you realize that you're playing Russian roulette with not only your children's lives, but their children's and those of others as well, and you're comfortable with that, knowing that not ONE concern about vaccines has stood the test of careful scrutiny.