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Public Affairs coverage from our award-winning staff |
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Vaccine Choice, or Risky Move?
Produced by Gabriel Spitzer on Friday, September 05, 2008
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Federal health authorities revealed yesterday that Chicago lags behind the state and the country in childhood vaccinations. Many kids don’t get their shots because parents decline them. Public health experts say that’s led to the resurgence around Chicago of a disease that had been nearly snuffed out.
Illinois saw 32 cases of measles this summer – more than any year since 1994, and the most of any state. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention concluded most were unvaccinated – and specifically, unvaccinated kids who are homeschooled.
A group of south suburban homeschoolers meet regularly in a Matteson park. Among them is the family of Africa Porter-Ollarvia. She says vaccinations don’t fit in with their philosophy about health.
PORTER-OLLARVIA: With us being ethnic vegetarians, taking vitamins, minerals and herbs daily, we opt to get all of what we need from our natural resources. So we don’t necessarily need those shots, that kind of give you some things, side effects and things you don’t need anyway.
Like a lot of vaccine skeptics, their wariness is tied up with distrust of a lot of big institutions – here’s Africa’s husband Jason.
OLLARVIA: There’s money that’s being made off these vaccinations. The education system, the medical industry, pharmaceutical industry and the food industry, they all work in conjunction to make money.
They’re also worried about side effects. And this conversation with a fellow homeschool mom isn’t helping matters.
HOFFMAN: She totally broke out everywhere. It was horrible. She spiked a fever, it was a freakin’ nightmare. …
Lynette Hoffman is telling her about the Hepatitis and Flu vaccines her 5-month old just got.
HOFFMAN: Yeah, it was disgusting.
PORTER-OLLARVIA: Was she, like in pain?
HOFFMAN: Yeah, she was screaming her head off …
Lynnette is conflicted about the shots … but she says she’s not convinced it’s worth turning them down.
HOFFMAN: Statistics show that children who are vaccinated just don’t get tehse diseases. That’s just the honest to God truth, they just don’t. So I personally still choose to vaccinate. That was a horrible, horrible experience, but I will probably more than likely continue out the series.
Kids in Illinois can’t go to school without getting vaccinations. But the number of exemptions has more than doubled in the last decade. The law doesn’t even apply to homeschoolers, and the state doesn’t track how many forego vaccines. The Cook County Public Health department’s Catherine Counard says the number is growing, and that’s set the stage for outbreaks like this summer’s.
COUNARD: The last time we had a case of measles was in the late 80s, in suburban Cook County.
Counard says this year, the county had 11. She says parents underestimate the disease, which can cause blindness, brain swelling and death. Still, families who choose not to vaccinate can often find sympathetic doctors. One is Dr. Mayer Eisenstein, of Rolling Meadows-based Homefirst Health Services. He says his practice sees about 15-thousdand families … more than half are homeschooled, and 9 in 10 don’t vaccinate.
SPITZER: What kind of incidence of the communicable diseases that we vaccinate for regularly do you see in your practice?
EISENSTEIN: Virtually zero! Virtually zero!
Eisenstein rejects the well-established science that has shown vaccines work. But he says the main reason parents don’t vaccinate … is autism. Any connection between vaccines and autism has been widely rejected by mainstream scientists. Just this week, another peer-reviewed study published in the journal PLoS One concluded that no link exists. But Eisenstein, who’s been a licensed physician for 35 years, is unconvinced.
EISENSTEIN: The American Academy of Pediatrics has made one of the most unscientific arguments I’ve ever heard. We have no clue what causes autism, but it’s not vaccines. I mean, have you heard anything more silly?
It’s that kind of question that has parents playing it safe, and skipping the shots. But that’s an illusion of safety, says Cook County’s Catherine Counard. And more than that: she says it’s selfish.
COUNARD: This is not a personal choice that they’re making. They’re making a choice for the entire community. Because they’re putting others at risk. And if their children become infected and expose a newborn infant who then dies, that’s a pretty serious consequence.
Overall, immunization rates remain high in this country. But where most doctors see life-saving shots, thousands of families in Illinois are deciding that the treatment is riskier than the disease.
I'm Gabriel Spitzer, Chicago Public Radio.
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Dan Mendoza, Portage Park // Friday, September 05, 2008 @ 9:19 AM
I am really disappointed with the coverage in this story. You quote a physician as stating that it is unscientific to say "we have no clue what causes autism, but it's not vaccines." Unless I'm mistaken, the scientific method consists of making a specific hypothesis, testing that hypothesis, and either proving OR disproving it. Several studies have tested in different ways, and all have disproven, the hypothesis that MMR vaccine or thimerosol is associated with autism. NO scientific study has proven an association.
The argument, then, is as scientific as they come. So much of science is not about what we know for fact, but what we can rule out.
In not questioning his statement or offering an alternative physician voice, you imply that his opinion is more valid that it truly is. His voice is very much in the minority among pediatricians, thank goodness. Most of us understand the difference between real science and anecdote. Most of us realize that while side effects from vaccines such as rash, fever or pain are unpleasant, they are miniscule when compared to the symptoms of the diseases they are preventing.
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John Humphrey, Bucktown // Friday, September 05, 2008 @ 10:56 PM
The “coincidence” between cases of Autism as a potential side effect of DTaP and MMR
Vaccinations is overlooked only at the peril of your child’s health. I’ll take the common sense of the statistics over denial from the medical community and studies conducted by the people earning billions selling vaccinations to todays children. Children in U.S are vaccinated more than quadruple the children of any other country on the planet and yet the number of cases of various communicable diseases remains pretty standard among industrialized nations worldwide. Vaccinations are not bulletproof vests- any shot still
leaves you with the chance of getting the disease regardless, while the percent chance of all harmful side effects is obvious greater with obscene number of vaccinations delivered.
Children with harmful side effects ( Autism, Epilepsy, not rashes) from vaccinations are through the roof and you don’t hear about them as they swept under the rug, while the “safety” of vaccinations is sold via public relation firms hired by the companies who sell you drugs.
Disregarding the suspect connection between FDA /Pharmaceutical companies, the AMA
and the existence of pediatric clinics (aka- shot mills) I’ll take my first hand experience over medical misinformation spread by lazy journalists. I choose not to vaccinate my children not because of religious reasons or militant health regimens but because of what I’ve seen with my own eyes. I not anti-vaccination, I am against- our governments current health care system, when and if that’s reformed maybe we will return to a practical common sense approach to vaccinations, I don’t recall ever having a shot until I was three, under our current system they want to give your kids 2 dozen injections by the time they are two and then claim there is no connection between toxifying tiny bodies and harmful side effects.?? In my opinion the AMA has lost its way and has forgotten the first law of medicine. “do no harm”.
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Frankie Milley, Porter Texas // Saturday, September 06, 2008 @ 9:05 AM
My only child, Ryan died from a vaccine preventable form of meningococcal meningitis.
As more and more parents op out of vaccines for their children we are sure to see return of epidemics of deadly debilitating diseases like those in countries today where vaccination rates are low. Countries where thousands of children die each day from diseases that could have been prevented.
Had Ryan been vaccinated, I would not have had to stand by and watch him die a horrible death. Ryan went from perfect health to blood coming from every orifice of his body and death within 14 hours .
I will never be called mom again, be a parent at his wedding or hold a grandchild. His name and photo reside on a cold piece of granite in a cemetery. The pain of his needless death lives in my broken heart.
No infant, child, teen or adult should have to die from a vaccine preventable disease.
I along with other parents in the United States who have lost children to meningitis, pertussis, chicken pox, pneumococcal disease, influenza and other vaccine preventable diseases can prove what took our children.
Can those who claim the dangers of vaccines truly, factually , scientifically prove what they say? Or is it merely speculation?
Will they be responsible when other parents listen to them and refuse to vaccinate and their children are debilitated or worse die from a vaccine preventable disease?
Everyday, I regret the fact I was not aware of a vaccine that could have prevented Ryan's death. Parents are aware now.
Facts: One simply has to walk around an old cemetery, see the countless infants, children and teens buried there to see the value of vaccines. Vaccine preventable diseases can kill and debilitate. Vaccines save lives.
Parents should research for themselves the true proven facts, science and talk to their health care provider before opting out of immunizations and risking the life of their child.
Frankie Milley, Mom to Ryan
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Deb S, Bolingbrook // Saturday, September 06, 2008 @ 8:10 PM
Frankie - my condolences on your loss. Please know there are plenty of parents that have lost their children to vaccine-injury through autism, seizures, SIDS and allergic reactions. Autism makes the news because there are plenty of children still alive with autism who are in a fog. Parents and specialists (DAN! doctors) are discovering that in addition to the preservatives in vaccines, their children's immune systems are unable to process and eliminate the combination shots. These children have the mercury, aluminum, viruses, etc, stuck in their bodies causing neurological reactions (seizures, OCD, autism, etc). When they work together to clean the kid, it's discovered they never developed the immunity to the vaccinations through a titer blood test. Autism is a cummulitive outcome from diet, enviromental, immunity and injected toxins.
Sincerely, I feel for your loss. We need to "clean our vaccines" and also make sure they're effective. This is why so many educated parents have stopped vaccinating. I only hope more journalists will expose this issue so we have more support and less criticism.
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Kim, Lisle // Saturday, September 06, 2008 @ 9:41 PM
"Any connection between vaccines and autism has been widely rejected by mainstream scientists. Just this week, another peer-reviewed study published in the journal PLoS One concluded that no link exists."
This study looked at 38 kids and was looking for an association between GI abnormalities and getting the MMR, and subsequent onset of autism.
Since when is a study size of 38 subjects, of this type especially, considered impressive, conclusive evidence that vaccines don't cause autism?
Autism very well may not be linked to the MMR specifically, but to say there is no vaccine link whatsoever and to point to this study as proof is not a sound argument.
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