So, I've been wanting to write this entry for a couple days now, but I needed to take a breather from the vaccine stuff. All this reading and research is exhausting! Anyway, this entry will hopefully educate you a little bit about the chickenpox vaccine, so that you can make an educated decision on whether to do it or not for your kids.
The chickenpox vaccine, in my opinion, is one of the most ridiculous vaccines! Kyle was given the chickenpox vaccine at his 12 month well check, and I am so mad now about it! By the end of this entry, hopefully you will understand why. Of course I can't dwell on the past, and all I can do is make decisions for the future based off of the information I now have. I hope you will find the following information useful, and for convenience of writing I will make a numbered reference guide on the left side bar (you may have to scroll down a bit to get to it), so that I don't have to write the title of every book I have referenced, every time.
What is Chickenpox?
"Chickenpox, or varicella, is a contagious disease caused by a virus. The technical name for this virus is varicella-zoster, a member of the herpes virus family. Chickenpox is considered by many experts to be a relatively harmless childhood disease. Symptoms include a fever, runny nose, sore throat, and an itchy skin rash which can appear anywhere on the body. The rash and disease usually disappear after one or two weeks. The disease confers permanent immunity, the child will not contract it again." (1)
Okay...I had chickenpox when I was little, and yes it sucked. But, it was short lived, and now I have immunity for life. The vaccine does not provide immunity for life, in fact, no one even knows yet how effective the vaccine is, because it is so new. The FDA thinks that they are at least effective for the first 5 years, until the next booster shot, but aren't sure yet.
"...the FDA does not know how long beyond the five years immunity will last. "The only way to sort that out is going to be to see what happens after the vaccine is introduced," said Philip Krause, M.D., a senior research investigator in the FDA's Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research. The FDA asked Merck to follow several thousand vaccinated children for fifteen years to determine the long-term effects of the vaccine and to see if there would be a need for a booster shot. Unfortunately, the results of that research will not be available until at least 2010." (2)
"According to the vaccine manufacturer, "The duration of protection...is unknown." (5)Not only does that mean that we don't know how long it will last, but we don't know what the long term effects of the vaccine itself are. Essentially, our children right now are the experiment subjects for this vaccine!
"No one knows the possible effects of latent vaccine virus stored within the nervous system. Varicella-zoster virus may be a cause of cancer. This association has never been proven, though varicella-zoster-invected human cells have transformed mouse cells to cancerous cells in a laboratory setting and varicella-zoster virus-infected cells produced cancers when inoculated into hamsters, which also developed viral antibodies. ..... The possible long-term effects of this herpesvirus vaccine remain unknown." (4)
How is the Varicella vaccine made?
"The virus was taken from an infected individual decades ago and placed in a culture of lung cells from human embryos. The virus used the lung cells to multiply. The viruses were then removed and placed in a culture of guinea pig embryo cells for further growth. Finally, they were put in a culture of human diploid cells (in human tissue) to multiply even more. These viruses were then taken to Merck's laboratories. Merck keeps the virus replicating in a different human diploid cell culture nourished with serum from a cow fetus (the liquid part of the cow fetus's blood) and removes batches of the virus to go into the vaccine. The viruses are put into a solution of saline, sugar, electrolytes, MSG, and gelatin. The virus is whole and living when injected, so it can potentially cause chickenpox." (3)
"In other words, children vaccinated with the chickenpox shot are mobile carriers of the virus, and can spread this highly contagious disease to every susceptible person they come into contact with." (1)
"The DNA and proteins from the human cells are an unavoidable byproduct of this particular manufacturing process. These aren't known to be harmful, but some parents find it a little odd to inject unknown human DNA into a baby." (3)
Personally I think this is gross! And "unknown human DNA" is being put into my baby...? I wonder if most people know how the vaccine is made and that their kids are carrying the disease around just from the injection...? Do parents of this generation realize that their kid is a guinea pig for this relatively new vaccination...? I didn't have a clue when we vaccinated Kyle! These things aren't discussed in the doctor's visit, unfortunately.
The next set of information is most disturbing to me. This disease is usually harmless for young children, but can be very serious and even deadly for teens and adults. That's why parents used to have "chickenpox parties" to get their kids sick when they were young, so that they would have lifelong immunity and not get sick when they were older (and it was more dangerous or deadly!). The vaccine was originally created because chickenpox can be especially dangerous for children who have a weakened immune system, such as those who have leukemia or other cancers. But, here is the bottom line of why we are all required today to give our kids this vaccine (whether they are healthy or compromised).....
"Prior to licensing the chickenpox vaccine, an important study concluded that a national chickenpox vaccination campaign would shift the age distribution of chickenpox cases from children, who are not likely to experience problems with this disease, to teenagers and adults, who have higher complication rates. Yet, this did not stop authorities from licensing and mandating this vaccine, because "the U.S. could save five times as much as it would spend" on this shot by avoiding the costs incurred by moms and dads who stay home to care for their sick children." (1)This fact was mentioned in every 5 of the books I have referenced (although in different wording of course). I am not siting from anti-vaccine books, by the way. Most of these books are written by doctors who are simply giving the facts (and for both sides). Just wanted to make that clear. Anyway...
I am a stay at home mom! If the whole reason why parents are pushed to vaccinate for the varicella virus is to save money so that mom's and dad's don't have to miss work...then Kyle should never have had that vaccine! I am home to take care of him if he gets sick! Why is this not a discussion at the doctor's office prior to vaccinating? It is "routine" to get this vaccination at 12 months of age, and again at 5 years. Why...? Oh yeah, because it makes a lot more money for the manufacturer if you give it to all children, and not just those who have compromised immune systems!
Now knowing how it is made, and really thinking about all the information I have shared with you...it makes me furious that Kyle was vaccinated...I know, I authorized them to do it! I should have looked into this more before it was time for the vaccine! I just trusted our doctor, and that he is pointing us in the right direction. But that is all water under the bridge, and Kyle will not get the booster shot at 5 years.
"...adults are 10 times more likely to require hospitalization and 25 times more likely to die from chickenpox than children. Yet, this did not stop authorities from licensing and mandating this vaccine.
Before the vaccine became available, more than 90 percent of people entering their 20's were immune to varicella, mainly due to natural chickenpox infection. Thus, very few adults contracted this disease. Infants were usually protected as well because their mothers, who contracted chickenpox as children, had protective antibodies that they passed on to their babies in utero (during pregnancy). However, as more children receive the vaccine and lose the opportunity to acquire natural immunity, moms will no longer be able to protect their babies and the disease is likely to shift to infants, another age group at greater risk for complications. Anyone who doubts this possibility merely has to look at what officials did with measles. Before the vaccine was introduced, less than one-half of one percent of all babies contracted measles. Today, following years of mass immunizations, about 30 percent of all measles cases now occur in babies under one year of age." (5)What makes me so mad is that we are keeping our kids from getting sick with the disease while they are little (and it is mild). This makes it possible for them to potentially get seriously ill or die from the disease in their teen or adult years (because they do not have the life long immunity)! Again, the reason for this vaccination (like many others) is to save $$$. Other than that, it is actually doing harm by pushing the disease into the later years, and who knows what other side effects will come to the surface from the vaccine itself. Not to mention that there are already lots of reports of adverse reactions and even death from the vaccine. Then there is the whole discussion about giving several vaccines at the same time. I won't get into that in this entry, you can read more about that if you wish to do so. And finally there is the issue of long term problems and diseases from the crap that is in the vaccines, that we have yet to discover in the years to come. There's just too much to even mention in this one little blog entry!
For those of you with little girls, you need to think even more about this one. It is very dangerous for a woman to get chickenpox when she is pregnant. (You can do more reading on your own if you are curious about the details.) I didn't have to even think about this when I got pregnant, because I did have chickenpox when I was a little girl. Also, if a pregnant woman hasn't received the natural immunity to the disease, they can not pass on the antibodies to their babies. Again, something I didn't even have to think about when I got pregnant. But, unfortunately this new generation of girls are going to have to think about all these things as they get older and come of child bearing age!
Just a few things to think about moms and dads! Start researching these vaccines and asking more questions! The information is out there, but unfortunately you have to go looking for it on your own. :(
Bottom line...we don't know that the varicella vaccine is safe or effective long term...and it is not necessary!!! I do hope that despite the vaccine, Kyle will get chickenpox naturally while he is young, so that I don't have to worry about him getting older and having no immunity to it. I know it will be a rough week or two for all of us if he does get it...but long term it's worth it!
Anyone know where the "chickenpox party" is being held this week...?
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