What Are Other Moms Doing When It Comes to the MMR Vaccine?

Personally - I am passing. The Risks are too high for me for diseases that are so rare.
Do your homework and see if it even makes sense for your family.

In regards to the study, consider the source. It was a study from the CDC that has close ties to the companies the create the vaccines. Why would they denouce it.
And as far as Herd Immunity, that is a theory. Vaccines are not 100% safe and effective so what does it matter to those in the herd that are not vaccinated. The unvaccinated child will have a stronger immune system anyway. If Vaccines were 100% safe, why do we have 1 in 150 kids with autoimmune and neurological problems, A database to compile vaccine reactions, vaccine court. Some of these diseases that they are suppose to protect kids from are so rare and many are not life threatening. But on the other hand if people want to gamble knowing the real facts, then by all means.. Shoot them up.

Too many drugs and vaccines! Let's pull the wool up people, it is a BIG BUSINESS and we the people and our children suffer for it.

MMR - ingredients: neomycin ( antibiotic) sorbitol ( chemical) Animal and Human by products, hydrolized gelatin, chick embryonic fluid, human diploid cells from aborted fetal tissue

Vaccines: Why Fear Sells

Sherri J Tenpenny, DO - June 17, 2007

It's interesting how a discussion about vaccination can quickly become heated and sometimes even hostile. Would the same debate rage over an antibiotic or an antihypertensive medicine if there was evidence the drug was causing harm? When it becomes obvious that thousands have been injured by a drug such as Vioxx, it is removed from the market. We stop the use of drugs until they are proven safe. And we sue.
Not so with vaccines. Vaccines are promoted with fanfare until they are statistically proven to cause harm to a large number of persons. The thousands of individuals who suffer from vaccine reactions in proportion to the millions who have been vaccinated are not considered to be a mathematically significant statistic. However, the more than $1billion that has been paid to vaccine-injured persons shows that safety is not all it is promoted to be. Why the double standard?
Vaccination is built around a "belief system." We believe vaccines are safe; we believe vaccines are important to health; we believe the stories that vaccines are solely responsible for the elimination of smallpox and polio. And we really want to believe that our doctors have read all the available information on vaccines – pro and con – and are telling us the complete truth about vaccines.
But belief is based on faith, not necessarily on fact. For example, we want to believe that vaccinating our children will keep them from getting sick with measles or chickenpox, while a plethora of information says this is not necessarily so.
Why is there an almost desperate need to defend the current belief – and trust – in vaccines? The public’s view of disease seems to be similar to our current view on terrorism: random attacks that are potentially deadly. The media hawks this view of childhood illnesses and the need for vaccines. Pharma sells it, doctors push it, and educational institutions reinforce it. They keep selling it because most people readily buy into it, without question. There is a "just in case" or "better be safe than sorry" mentality when it comes to vaccination and illness with children.* After nearly 200 years of use, fear still sells vaccination.
What do we really know about vaccines? A review of the literature and CDC documents reveals the following:
1. Vaccine safety studies are relatively small and include only healthy children. When a vaccine trial has been completed, however, vaccines are given to ALL children, regardless of the condition of their health, family history or genetics.
2. Vaccine safety studies are short. Most clinical trials monitor for side effects a paltry 21 days; sometimes, only for 5 days. It can take months before immune system complications appear. This arbitrary deadline, established by the FDA, precludes associating vaccines with chronic health disorders. "Safe" is a designation based on limited information.
3. Vaccine safety studies do not use a true placebo. One of the gold standards in medical research is the "placebo-controlled" trial. An inactive substance such as a sugar pill is given as a placebo to one group of participants, while the treatment group is given the new drug. The data is analyzed to compare the number of side effects that occurred in those given the drug compared to the numbers of side effects that occurred in those given the placebo. However, the "placebo" used in vaccine research is not an inert substance such as sterile water; it is another vaccine. Inert, sterile water doesn't cause a reaction; as substitute vaccine can. If both groups of babies in a trial have the same number of reactions, the study reports that the vaccine "is as safe as a placebo." This is deceptive science.
4. Vaccine-induced antibodies do not correlate with protection. In fact, the esteemed journal Vaccine stated this clearly: "It is known that, in many instances, antigen-specific antibody titers do not correlate with protection." The full reference can be found at PMID: 11587808

Vaccination has been accepted as safe, effective and protective. The shots can be described as a medical "sacred cow," by definition, "a medical procedure unreasonably immune to criticism." The strong response is a reaction to the suggestion that the "medical cow" should be "sacrificed." It is heresy to suggest that the status quo is wrong.
When Copernicus insisted that the sun, not the earth, was the center of the solar system, his belief went against the philosophical and religious views of medieval times. And when two other Italian scientists, Galileo and Bruno, embraced Copernican theory, their comments were considered blasphemous. Bruno was tried before the Inquisition, condemned and burned at the stake in 1600. Thirty years later, Galileo was brought forward and, in front of his "Betters," forced to renounce his beliefs under the threat of torture and death. Even after his confession, he was sentenced to imprisonment for the remainder of his days.
The more one investigates vaccination and studies the adverse effects that have been attributed to vaccines, the more one becomes a Copernican heretic. I have personally invested more than 8,000 hours in revealing the truth about vaccines. If the result of this inquiry and exposure is to be called a heretic, then I am in wonderful company.
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Three separate autism-related studies recently published, resulted in media headlines that suggested vaccines do not cause autism.

In reality, and despite headlines such as “Vaccine not linked to autism” and “Thimerosal Vaccine Proved Safe,” the studies may have been tainted by conflict of interest. For instance:
A study published in Pediatrics that claimed thimerosal was not a cause of autism was funded by the National Institutes of Health (which would be negatively impacted if a link was found). Also, the study’s researchers were reportedly paid by vaccine manufacturers for past consulting.
A study in the Archives of General Psychiatry that reportedly disproved the mercury-autism link may have had financial ties to vaccine manufacturers.
Meanwhile, just prior to the release of the studies, ABC ran an episode of “Eli Stone” that showed a jury awarding over $5 million to a mother who believed her son’s autism was caused by a vaccine.

There is now speculation that the studies, and resulting pro-vaccine media frenzy, was a carefully orchestrated attempt to minimize the impacts of this anti-vaccine TV episode.

Finally, while the pro-vaccine studies received major media attention, a study in the Journal of Child Neurology actually found that "significant relation does exist between the blood levels of mercury and diagnosis of an autism spectrum disorder” -- yet it received little media attention when it was published several months ago.
Sources: Associated Content February 12, 2008

Research: Additional MMR Research and Links:
http://www.newmediaexplorer.org/sepp/2008/03/05/mmr_vacci...

I totally understand your concern, especially when the media takes the rumors to such an extreme, as well as the recent issues with the FDA and certain drugs on the market that are not as safe/effective as we were told. I work in medicine and it's been a difficult time as we are having to question EVERYTHING out there. That said, I will be vaccinating our daughter according to the recommended schedule and she'll be getting the usual MMR vaccine. It has been out for ages, it has been tested and re-tested, probably more than any out there, and I feel more comfortable knowing that she'll be protected against the infections. Also, having had to fill out hundreds of school forms for kids, it's a nightmare if they don't get their vaccines on schedule. Schools won't even allow them to attend without documentation (Although you can opt out with certain criteria like religious beliefs against vaccines). Because most of the kids WILL have had the vaccinations, an occasional unvaccinated child would still be somewhat protected by what is called "herd immunity" . Hope this helps a little bit.

I really like what Angela D already shared! I have heard similar things from doctors and pediatricians. I am a school nurse I strongly recommend getting you child vaccinated. Any medication has some side effects and rare problems. Vaccines are designed for children and have been carefully tested for that age group. The school systems require vaccine use because the benefits greatly outweigh the risk. I plan on having my son (11 months) vaccinated according to the suggested schedule for MD.

Please keep in mind that the media wants a sensational story (ratings). When a positive story occurs it is often not mentioned or only briefly addressed, fr example: research that shows how helpful a vaccine is or disproves scare stories already mentioned by Angela I saw mentioned only one night. Good stories don't help ratings or make good teasers. The opposite is also true, the bad/scary autism news makes great teasers and initiates lots of discussion. Therefor the demand to know more (out of concern or fear) puts it in the news again.

I would suggest that you talk to your sister/in-law about what early symptoms your niece had, so you can be more comfortable watching for those in particular. Also, share that particular concern with the pediatrician you are seeing, they may have a different perspective you would want to hear.

It has also been suggested to me that you get your child vaccinated on Friday afternoon (assuming you work outside the home) and then take the rest of the day off to stay with them. The normal fussiness, achy-ness, etc. that can occur with all vaccines in little ones is often soothed just by knowing mom is near and/or Tylenol (I like to use that but talk to your doctor first). This also will assure you that any signs of a problem can be monitored for by you and not a busy daycare person.

Read this article, it discusses the more recent research:
http://www.med.nyu.edu/patientcare/library/article.html?C...

Keep being proactive with your daughter's best interest at heart. These questions need to be asked and addressed before your sitting in the office looking at a MMR needle. :-) Good luck!

I like you had issues with the MMR vaccine, mainly from hearing about it in the media. I raised this issue with our pediatrician, in fact I did it systematically with several doctors in the practice. All of them told me that recent studies refuted the MMR/autism link. They said the original study that created that link was done by a doctor in England with a population of 9 kids, which is too low a population to conclude anything. And this English doctor's credibility has been compromised by the fact that he owned the patents for the individual vaccines for MMR, hence his recommendation to adminsiter them separately. My doctors also told me that you just can't get the vaccines separately. They were willing to write me prescriptions for them individually, but they had been down this path with other mothers who just could not get the vaccines. Also, the cards are stacked against you if you want to put your baby in daycare, they have to be vaccinated otherwise they cannot go. So after weighing the perceived risk of autism vs. the other damage that getting measles, mumps and rubella could cause, I decided to go ahead with the combined MMR shot. In the end it boiled down to trusting my doctors as the experts who stay abreast of the latest in their field, which is why I chose this pediatrics practice in the first place. My son is almost 14 months, he got the shot two months ago and he is fine. I hope this helps.