Soapbox

Generally, I like to keep my blog a happy place, free from inflammatory opinions, political commentary and other stuff that people might find offensive. But sometimes I come across something that I feel so strongly about that I have to get up on my soapbox and preach.

A week or so ago I heard about an outbreak of pertussis (whooping cough) in California. Pertussis is a bacterial disease that is characterized by violent coughing spells where the sick person makes a "whooping" sound as they struggle to breathe in during the coughing fit. The last numbers I saw were somewhere in the neighborhood of 900 known cases and 4 or 5 deaths of infants in CA. This is amazingly sad, especially since pertussis is a completely preventable disease. All you have to do is get your children vaccinated. That's all!

It's beyond me that some parents don't vaccinate their kids. I know there are celebrities that swear on their Botox that vaccinations cause Autism, but there is absolutely no basis in fact. Granted, there was ONE study done that found a correlation between the MMR vaccine and Autism, but that study was later discredited when the guy who published the study was found to have acted unethically while conducting the study. (see http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/02/02/lancet.retraction.autism/index.html) I have to say that if you are raising your kids based on what some former Playboy model says (she's NOT a doctor, people! She has NO clue what she's talking about!), then you should have your head examined. If you're going to risk the lives of your children, please do your own research.

Then there are the parents who worry about Guillain-Barre syndrome. This is an adverse reaction to flu vaccines where the person receiving the vaccine experiences paralysis, starting at the feet and working its way up the body over the course of a few hours to a few days. In the most severe cases (about 30% of the time), the person may stop breathing, and require a ventilator until the reaction subsides and they can breathe on their own again. Eighty percent of people with Guillain-Barre recover completely. Now, Guillain-Barre is an actual thing that can happen if you get a flu vaccine, but it only happens to one person in a million. To give you an idea of how this works out in real life, there are about 8 million people living in New York City, the largest city in the US. If every single person got his/her flu shot, that would mean 8 people would suffer some degree of Guillain-Barre syndrome and 3 of those would need a ventilator.

I know there is also a movement in the US toward organic, green, more natural living, reducing your carbon footprint and all those other buzzwords. I'm totally fine with free-range eggs and conflict-free diamonds, and whole-wheat socks. I would love to be able to afford food with a philosophy! But please don't take it so far that you become afraid or morally opposed to all modern science. I understand and respect the choices of people who are into herbal supplements. I know there are things that modern medicine misses and some prescription drugs can be more brutal on your system than natural alternatives, but vaccinations work and they save lives! Just because our ancestors died from whooping cough doesn't mean we have to!

To me, the choice seems clear. Yes, there are some weird, rare side effects and yes, we don't actually know what causes Autism (maybe it really is the MMR shot, who knows?), and yes, we can do a lot for our health by eating good food and getting plenty of sunshine. But from the information I have, the risks are minimal compared to the benefit of knowing that my kids won't be one of those 900 in California who got whooping cough. They also won't get polio or diphtheria or Hepatitis B.

I love my children so I choose to vaccinate them.