10 Reasons Why I Said No To Vaccines For My Children
I am a mother who said no to vaccines for my son and daughter. I am also a health writer and researcher. While many doctors, pharmacists, and vaccine industry employees are known to not vaccinate their own children, many are bound into silence by their profession. You won’t find them sharing their research or story publicly, and so, despite being slightly off the main topic of this blog, I felt compelled as a health writer to share my story with you here. In this article I share a summary of the research and the top 10 reasons why I have said no to most vaccines for my children.
Why I Decided Against Vaccination For My Children
When my son was born I said no to routine vaccines recommended by the CDC — the shots that are standard in nursery wards and hospitals across the nation. This decision was not one I made lightly, rather I had been obsessively researching the vaccine debate and science for months while my first born was growing in the womb. As a new mother I wanted nothing more than to give my baby the best shot at a healthy happy future.
As a passionate health researcher, I knew I had the skills to make informed decisions for my new baby’s health. I went to work researching the health and safety of vaccines that are routinely given to new born and young babies. The questions I found raised are: why are so many vaccines given routinely to babies today? Are these vaccines effective at preventing disease? What are the risks of vaccinating? And, do the benefits of vaccination outweigh the risks? I checked out numerous books on both sides of the debate, watched an educational video series on the subject, and attended a live debate on the topic with health professionals in San Francisco. One of the books I devoured was The Vaccine Book by pediatrician Dr. Bob Sears. I felt Dr. Sears gave a genuinely concerned and unbiased overview of the pros and cons of vaccines and helped me understand more about the diseases that are vaccinated against in the U.S. today. But just this summer Dr. Sears had his medical license suspended for 3-years precisely because he has allowed his patients to opt-out of vaccines. The vaccine debate is hotter than ever and the stakes for thousands of children are higher than ever. In this climate of ever-increasing mandatory vaccine doses and suppression of doctors who dissent, it’s more prudent than ever for any new parent to ask questions and understand the risks. Below I share my top 10 reasons for opting-out of the routine vaccine schedule for my American babies.
10 Reasons Why I Chose Not to Vaccinate
1. Vaccines Don’t Make You Immune to Viruses or Disease
I grew up being told that vaccines are necessary for preventing dreadful viruses known to afflict humans. The basic vaccine theory is that by injecting small amounts of dead or living viruses, the body’s immune system can be primed so that it will successfully defend itself against a future infection. Parents are told that if they just follow the schedule of shots recommended by our government, that their child will be immune to many of the worst human sicknesses. But is this really what is happening with the current compulsory vaccination in America?
An important thing to understand when considering what benefits your child receives from vaccines is that vaccination does not equal immunization. Vaccinations are not a perfect defense against viruses. It is quite possible for immunity to wear off which is why booster shots are often given to maintain protection against a certain virus over time. Just how long any particular vaccine offers protection is impossible to know. The risk remains that even if you vaccinate, your child could still be infected by the virus years down the road. It is also possible for a vaccine to simply be ineffective. Further, it is important to consider that there are many fewer vaccines than there are viruses.
2. Most Human Viruses Have No Vaccines
An important thing to understand when considering the benefits of vaccination is that most human viruses have no vaccine at all. Vincent Racaniello, professor of virology and publisher of the Virology Blog, explains the concept of the zoonotic pool, or the collection of all viruses on Earth. Racaniello writes that his colleague Dr. Stephen Morse from Columbia University’s School of Public Health has estimated there are about one million viruses infecting vertebrate animals. Racaniello writes,
“Here are Dr. Morse’s calculations: assume that there are 50,000 vertebrates on earth, each of which harbors 20 different viruses. That gives a total of 1 million vertebrate viruses. We have only identified about 2,000 viruses; therefore over 99.8% of vertebrate viruses have not yet been discovered!”
There are currently 15 viruses that are part of the CDC’s Immunization Schedule for 18 months to 18 years old. There are certainly many many more viruses out there, but considering just how many other viruses exist can help us put into perspective the cost/benefit analysis of vaccination. The journal of the American Society of Microbiology published a study that estimated 320,000 viruses exist that infect mammals. But what about viruses infecting humans? How many are there? A 2012 paper published in the journal Philosophical Transactions of The Royal Society B Biological Sciences reported there were 219 viruses known to infect humans. The first to be discovered was the yellow fever virus just over a century ago in 1901. Three to four new human viruses are discovered each year. Of the viruses infecting humans, two-thirds are known to also infect nonhuman animals—mostly mammals and sometimes birds.
Consider for a moment that less than 7% of the known viruses affecting humans are routinely vaccinated against. Then consider than viruses are always changing and evolving with new strains coming into existence.
3. Today’s Vaccines Are The Dead Viruses of the Past
When you want to protect yourself against risks, it’s important to know what risks you actually face. You wouldn’t wear hockey gear to climb a mountain, you’d bring ropes and a harness. Likewise you wouldn’t lather on sunscreen to go out in a hailstorm, you’d be better off carrying an umbrella. So when we consider vaccines, let’s think about what risks our children are actually up against, and how do we best offer protection against these.
In the world of viruses and risks to human health, the landscape is always changing – so to should our health defense strategies. It’s not accurate to describe all vaccines as bad, or to say that all vaccines are good. It is certainly true that vaccines have helped eliminate some viruses of the past almost completely. It is also true that vaccines have helped save many lives. The chart below shows the number of deaths during the 20th century for many of the viruses vaccinated against today. Next to the death toll column is the number of reported cases of the virus in 2010. You can see for yourself here that several of the viruses have been virtually wiped out, while the others have been dramatically reduced.
When I considered what risk these viruses pose to my children, it was apparent to me that, for most of the viruses, the risk was virtually zero. According to the data, for many of today’s vaccines, the virus it protects against no longer exists in the real world. For the other viruses, it appeared to me that the risk of my children coming into contact with the virus was very small. I looked at the severity of these few viruses and came to the conclusion that the overall risk these viruses pose to my children is pretty small. From my years of researching public health, I am well aware that there are many diseases that pose a much greater risk to my children. I have focused my effort on preventing the true risks to their wellness.
4. The Real Risks To Health Today Are On the Plate
Consider all the other hazards to your health such as obesity, diabetes, heart disease, and cancer—the leading causes of preventable diseases today. These diseases claim the lives of millions ever year, and yet the easy nutrition know-how that prevents them is largely suppressed by the mainstream medical establishment. The primary subject of this blog is demystifying nutrition science to help people heal chronic disease at home, but there are many similarities between the suppression of basic truths in regards to nutrition science and vaccines. Both improper diet and vaccination can have deadly consequence for the health of your family. The meat and dairy industries have long lobbied the government for policies that favor their products and enrich their profits at the expense of public health. Now the vaccine industry is in a similar position using their large profits to influence politics in their favor. Meanwhile, it’s every-day parents and children who bear 100% of the risk that vaccines pose.
5. Vaccine Risks Outweigh the Benefits
The most basic question I have asked about vaccines is: do the benefits of this vaccine outweigh the risks? Any concerned parent would consider the risks and benefits of any medical procedure their child receives, so why should vaccines be any different? When I explored the science and data I discovered that while vaccines are promoted as a public safety initiative, today they could more accurately be described as a public racket. The data on vaccines reveals that today they are causing more harm than good.
Babies born today are expected to get shots starting within moments of their arrival on into Earth’s atmosphere. Within minutes of being born babies are often taken for their first dose of Hepatitis B, a sexually transmitted disease. This vaccine is pushed on parents including those who are adamant about being virus-free and in a long-term monogamous relationship. But Hepatitis B is just the start. By the time the typical American baby is 3 months old today, they are expected to have received 8 doses of vaccines. In their first season on Earth a new baby will be injected with 8 different dead virus components. By the time they finish school, the “up to date” child will have received 69 doses of vaccines. This is roughly triple the number of doses as I received as a child. The number of viruses vaccinated against has more than doubled since I was being faithfully taken to the pediatrician to comply with school immunization requirements. When you consider what exactly is being injected in babies and children, this large number of doses is cause for concern.
6. What’s Inside Vaccines is Scary
It is frightening to look at the ingredient lists of today’s vaccines. Today’s vaccines have never been tested for impairment of fertility, mutagenesis (gene mutation that causes cancer and autoimmune diseases), and carcinogenesis (ability to create cancer). Meanwhile vaccine manufacturers, distributors, and doctors cannot be held liable by law — the vaccine industry has effectively lobbied the U.S. government to ensure that they are not held accountable for the thousands of adverse reactions attributed to the injections. The growing number of vaccine death and injury cases is attributed to the cocktail of chemicals, heavy metals, and living cells that make up vaccines today. Consider that one Pediarix vaccine contains 850 mcg of aluminum. According to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) the safe amount of aluminum for a two month old is just 25 mcg.
Aluminum isn’t the only potentially scary ingredient in vaccines, there are numerous other ingredients which might raise an eyebrow. According to the website VaccineCommonSense.com, “If you follow the CDC/FDA/Big Pharma vaccine schedule, in the first six years of life your child receives the following: (mcg = micrograms)
- 17,500 mcg 2-phenoxyethanol (antifreeze)
- 5,700 mcg aluminum (a known neurotoxin)
- Unknown amounts of fetal bovine serum (aborted cow blood)
- 801.6 mcg formaldehyde (carcinogen, embalming agent)
- 23,250 mcg gelatin (a variety of ground up animal carcasses)
- 500 mcg human albumin (human blood)
- 760 mcg of monosodium L-glutamate (causes obesity & diabetis)
- Unknown amounts of MRC-5 cells (multiple male and female aborted human babies cells)
- Over 10 mcg neomycin (antibiotic)
- Over 0.075 mcg polymyxin B (antibiotic)
- Over 560 mcg polysorbate 80 (carcinogen)
- 116 mcg potassium chloride (used in lethal injection to shut down the heart and stop breathing)
- 188 mcg potassium phosphate (liquid fertilizer agent)
- 260 mcg sodium bicarbonate (baking soda)
- 70 mcg sodium borate (Borax, used for cockroach control)
- 54,100 mcg of sodium chloride (table salt)
- Unknown amounts of sodium citrate (food additive)
- Unknown amounts of sodium hydroxide (Danger! Corrosive)
- 2,800 mcg sodium phosphate (toxic to any organism)
- Unknown amounts of sodium phosphate monobasic monohydrate (toxic to any organism)
- 32,000 mcg sorbitol (Not to be injected)
- 0.6 mcg streptomycin (antibiotic)
- Over 40,000 mcg sucrose (cane sugar)
- 35,000 mcg yeast protein (fungus)
- 5,000 mcg urea (metabolic waste from human urine)”
7. Over 3,000 Vaccine Injuries Are Reported Each Year
The questionable cocktail of ingredients in today’s vaccines is blamed for thousands of serious injuries, including autism and brain damage, every year. It is quite easy now to go onto YouTube and find story after story of children who became autistic, suffering permanent brain damage, following vaccination. You can hear parent after parent describe how their child was developing normally, but then changed drastically after a routine vaccine shot. While it is easy for skeptics to discount a single testimony, it is more difficult to discount the thousands of tragic tales that have accumulated. According to Dr. Sears, over 3,000 serious reactions occur annually in the U.S.. Dr. Sears derived this figure from cases reported to the CDC’s Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS). VAERS is a database maintained by CDC that collects reports of bad reactions and illness immediately following vaccinations. The system allows doctors, nurses, patients, or parents to enter information. But the CDC cautions anyone viewing this data with the following:
“When evaluating data from VAERS, it is important to note that for any reported event, no cause-and-effect relationship has been established. Reports of all possible associations between vaccines and adverse events (possible side effects) are filed in VAERS. Therefore, VAERS collects data on any adverse event following vaccination, be it coincidental or truly caused by a vaccine. The report of an adverse event to VAERS is not documentation that a vaccine caused the event.”
Still, VAERS provides critical insights into what may be serious risks posed to some by vaccination. If you are skeptical of Dr. Sears figure, he isn’t the only one who has dug through the data to estimate the number of annual serious reactions to vaccines. In an article for Politifact.com, Sharockman used a different method of analyzing the CDC’s data, yet his results still yielded an average of over 2,000 serious reactions resulting in hospitalization, disability, or death each year. It is also wise to consider that there is most likely an underreporting of actual vaccine injures. Parents whose child experiences symptoms after a shot are often told by their doctor or nurse to simply not to worry, that the reaction is completely “normal,” or that the symptom is not related to the vaccine.
8. Protecting My Baby—$3.7 Billion Has Been Paid to Those Injured by Vaccines
Another way of facing the reality of vaccine risk is to look at how many cases have sought and won compensation through the courts. According to the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention, between 2006 and 2016 over 2.8 billion vaccine doses were injected into U.S. children. During this time the U.S. government’s Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (VICP)—the fund setup to divert liability away from vaccine manufacturers—adjudicated 4,528 petitions. Of these 2,962 received some amount of compensation for their injury. So for every million doses of vaccine, there is on average one child that will receive financial compensation from the government for their vaccine-induced injury. Since 1988 when the program began, 18,426 petitions have been filed with the VICP. Of these, 16,555 petitions were adjudicated and 5,581 received compensation. The program has paid out $3.7 billion since it began.
9. Research Shows Unvaccinated Children Healthier Than Vaccinated Children
In 2017 a groundbreaking study was published that is the first to compare the health of vaccinated versus unvaccinated children.
Vaccinated children were found to have 30 times the rate of allergies as unvaccinated children as well as higher rates of learning disabilities, ADHD, Autism, and other health disorders. The researchers conclude:
“In conclusion, vaccinated homeschool children were found to have a higher rate of allergies and NDD than unvaccinated homeschool children. While vaccination remained significantly associated with NDD after controlling for other factors, preterm birth coupled with vaccination was associated with an apparent synergistic increase in the odds of NDD. Further research involving larger, independent samples and stronger research designs is needed to verify and understand these unexpected findings in order to optimize the impact of vaccines on children’s health.”
With so many injuries occurring every single day because of vaccines, and increasing evidence of the health risks they pose, why are so many essentially mandatory for children growing up in the U.S.?
10. Vaccine Companies, Doctors, Place Profit Over Public Health
Vaccine companies are private businesses who are interested in profit over public health. In 2014 the vaccine industry was estimated to be worth over 32 million dollars and was projected to grow to 59 billion by 2020. In a business where every baby must by law consume your product, as the population grows so does your profit. If you can add more vaccines to the government’s schedule, then profits grow ever bigger. The industry has effectively lobbied the government to ensure policies that guarantee sales, and eliminate risk. What business wouldn’t want a guaranteed customer base?—now nearly every American baby must consume their product or not be admitted to daycares and schools. What business wouldn’t want to operate risk free?—by U.S. law, vaccine companies can’t be sued for damages their products cause. Which other businesses do you know that receive such support from the government?
Doctors Are Bribed To Push Vaccines on Patients
Health insurance companies work hand in hand with doctors and vaccine manufacturers to ensure consistent sales. Doctors are essentially bribed with financial pays and other incentives to push vaccines on their patients. In 2017 Blue Cross Blue Shield physicians were paid $50 for every child given the flu vaccine, but only if 83% of the doctor’s patients were up-to-date with flu shots. The incentive was a part of their Performance Recognition Program and is displayed in the image below.
Doctors aren’t the only ones being rewarded for their compliance with compulsory vaccination, children and parents are also being bribed to comply. While most will simply consent to the shots so that they are allowed to attend daycare or school, some might be enticed by ice cream cones and apples. McDonald’s of Central Indiana gave coupons for a free ice cream cone or apple slices as a “reward for your efforts” to people who got “immunized.”
I Said No to Today’s Vaccines
When I felt I had a good understanding of the issue, risks and benefits, I made the decision not to vaccinate my children. I choose not to vaccinate because I believe in a natural holistic approach to healthcare and the body’s ability to fight disease naturally with support of plants and trained practitioners. I choose not to vaccinate because I am protecting my children from being the next victims of vaccine injury or death. I choose not to vaccinate because many of the diseases vaccinated against no longer are a real threat or are not that serious. I choose not to vaccinate because I see mandatory vaccination as a profit-racket that enriches a few, rather than a public-health program that helps the masses.
Pro-Parent’s Choice to Opt-In
This decision has never been an all or nothing thing for me. If a deadly virus arises in the population that I assess as a risk to us, and a vaccine is available, we would gladly and gratefully accept the protection. When I first decided not to vaccinate my baby, I was not necessarily swearing off any and all vaccines forever and ever, but I was opting out of the compulsory vaccines because I judged the risk to my children was much greater than the benefit to my children. It felt like a logical decision. I believed I had throughly researched and considered the issue. I was acting in the best interests of my children, I was protecting them from a risky medical practice, and I was acting as a concerned and loving mother.
My children eat a healthy nutrient-dense plant-based diet and are virtually never sick, exuding an aura of healthy energy. People frequently comment how happy and healthy they look and they have excelled at schooling. Since my babies were first born there has continued to be more and more people speaking out about the life-altering injuries that can result from vaccines. I also found an increased effort by the medical establishment is underway to eliminate a parent’s right to informed consent—effectively making a risky product mandatory for America’s most vulnerable—babies and young children. As my children have been growing up healthy, I have continued to push back against those who try to push unnecessary medical procedures like vaccines on my family by saying—no thank you, not for us.
I have never regretted my decision not to vaccinate my children. I am grateful to have two healthy-developing intelligent beings that it is my duty to love and protect. Educating myself about the vaccine debate helped me make an informed choice. Weighing the risks I decided the healthiest safest choice for my children was to say no to today’s compulsory vaccine schedule.
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