Vaccination:
Let’s put the judgement to rest.
|by Anne Michelsen
Any debate can get ugly. The vaccine debate
just did. Recent stories in the mainstream
media stories – including articles published by
USA Today and The Washington Post – dish
out the blame, accusing parents who don’t
vaccinate of being “hysterical,” “hostile,” “irrational”, and a threat to public health. Horror
stories abound, featuring babies and children
maimed for life or killed by vaccine-preventable diseases.
On the other side of the issue, anti-vaccine
proponents offer plenty of horror stories of
their own. The entire scene has begun to
resemble a football game, where parents are
expected to root for one team or the other.
Bring on the nachos!
Pressure From Both Sides
Unfortunately, when the “ball” is your child, it’s
hard to know which side to take – or whether
to take sides at all. No matter what decision
you make, someone is bound to tell you you’re
wrong – implying, of course, that you’re a horrible parent. No wonder so many parents feel
pressured and confused about vaccination.
The problem is that instead of supporting
parents to weigh the evidence and make the
best possible decision for their own families,
this “ball game gone bad” atmosphere tends
to pressure them into choosing a position and
defending it . Sadly, children are rarely the winners when this happens.
The following true stories illustrate my point.
Possible Vaccine Injury
Goes Unreported
When I first met McKenzie,* she was a bright,
active two year old. She was highly verbal and
loved to play and laugh. The next time I saw
her, she could not speak or even swallow on
her own. Her muscle control was erratic, and
she no longer responded to her name. McKenzie had suffered a bout of encephalitis, shortly
after a routine MMR vaccination.
Was the vaccine at fault? No way to know.
McKenzie’s mother refused to question her
doctors’ and nurses’ assertion that there could
not possibly be a connection. She undoubtedly
couldn’t face the thought that her decision to
vaccinate could have led to her child’s injury.
This is totally understandable, but what if
there really was a connection? If so, allowing the incident to go unreported could potentially contribute to additional tragedies,
since vaccine safety improvement depends
largely on feedback from the field. Also, if
McKenzie’s illness was determined to have
been vaccine-related, her family might have
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