How the Anti-vaccine Movement Empowers Children

I really felt I had to respond to the Press Release from The American Academy of Pediatrics. There is so much scare mongering in the press. 

I decided to take a look at the following two Paragraphs.

"The pertussis epidemic in California is just the latest example of a disease that has taken a foothold thanks to low immunization rates. In 2008, 11 children around San Diego were infected with measles after an unvaccinated child returned home from Switzerland with the infection. In 2009, five children in Minnesota contracted Hib meningitis – a vaccine-preventable infection – and one died. Several cases and at least two deaths were also reported in other states."

"We are at a crossroads," said Dr. Offit. "If population immunity continues to break down, the door will open wider to diseases that we thought had been vanquished by vaccines."

1. The reason that Pertussis (Whooping Cough) has taken hold is that for many years women have been vaccinated as children with DPT and therefore have no natural immunity to pass on to their new babies. Whopping cough used to be a diease in children from 4-7years old.  It was not a nice disease, but it was rarely fatal.  However, because women have no immunity and we are not feeding children with the nutrients to ensure a strong immune system, younger babies are getting the disease at an age when they are less equipped to cope with it.

2. Were the children infected with Measles vaccinated with MMR? If so, how come they caught measles from one child.  Did they even come in contact with the child?  Maybe the parents wer happy they got it. Mothers used to hold Measles Parties to make sure their children caught the common childhood diseases at a time they were healthy and could cope with it.

3. Again were the children who got Hib Meningitis vaccinated? If they were, how come they got the disease? Vaccines do not give immunity to diseases. The only true immunity is a healthy immune system.

4. Population immunity was growing even before the introduction of vaccines. The rate of decline of diseases is still seen in countries where they did not introduce vaccines.

5. Diseases are not vanquished by vaccines, the infectious agents mutate and change their presentation, so they get called another name.