Beware of vaccine bullies

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> POSTED AS A COURTESY FOR:

> WORLD NATURAL HEALTH ORGANIZATION

> <http://www.wnho.net>http://www.wnho.net

>

> Beware of vaccine bullies

>

> By Michelle Malkin

>

>

http://www.townhall.com/columnists/michellemalkin/mm20040204.shtml

>

>

> Why on earth should we vaccinate our newborn baby

> against Hepatitis B -- a

> virus that is contracted mostly through intravenous

> drug use and sexual

> contact? That is the question my husband and I had

> for the doctors and

> nurses at the hospital where our son was born two

> and a half months ago.

>

> We didn't get very good answers. It was

> " convenient, "

> " recommended " and " routine, " the medical staff

> assured us. We wanted more

> information. A nurse gave us a brochure, which

> explained that babies whose

> mothers had the Hep B virus were at high risk of

> developing acute Hep B

> infections. Well, I tested negative for Hep B. The

> Centers for Disease

> Control named unprotected sex, IV drug use and being

> stuck with a needle on

> the job as the likeliest routes of Hep B

> transmission. Well, my husband and

> I both work primarily from home, our two children

> stay at home, and neither

> we nor our 3-year-old daughter nor our baby (for

> heaven's sake!) live the

> Kid Rock-and-Pamela Anderson Lee lifestyle.

>

> When we told the hospital staff that we simply

> wanted more time to think

> about giving the Hep B shot to our son -- doesn't

> " informed consent " mean we

> should be truly informed? -- we were badgered

> aggressively. Some lectured us

> about the need to " get on the proper vaccination

> schedule. " Others warned

> that Maryland, like more than 40 other states,

> requires all schoolchildren

> to be vaccinated for Hep B. Teachers, however, are

> not subject to the

> mandate, which is driven not just by altruistic

> concern for children's

> health. Ohio legislator Dale Van Vyven snuck the Hep

> B mandate into a 1998

> hazardous-waste bill at the behest of

> profit-maximizing vaccine

> manufacturers' lobbyists.

>

> The " everybody does it " and " for the greater good "

> arguments worked when we were overcautious,

> over-trusting, first-time

> parents who submitted our daughter to every single

> vaccine without question.

> This time, we resolved not to be rushed or bullied.

> We declined to give our

> son the politically correct Hep B shot, decided to

> do more research, and

> then took up the issue with our pediatrician.

>

> Boy, were we in for a rude awakening. Our doctor

> parroted the American

> Academy of Pediatrics line and mindlessly emphasized

> the efficacy of

> vaccines in eradicating childhood diseases. Well, we

> weren't questioning

> their collective efficacy. We questioned what the

> individual health benefits

> and health risks to our newborn were. Physicians

> have blindly plied vaccines

> before that have done more harm than good. A

> childhood rotavirus vaccine,

> for example, was approved for widespread use in 1998

> and withdrawn from the

> market less than a year later after causing an

> increase in the incidence of

> painful bowel obstruction among infants.

>

> Our doctor, however, pooh-poohed our inquiries about

> potential side effects.

> He seemed to have no idea what those risks were and

> no interest in finding

> out. He was also incredibly condescending: " 95

> percent of what you read on

> the Internet " is unreliable, he sermonized, as if we

> were too dumb to

> separate scientific fact from fraud.

>

> In the end, we concluded that some of the vaccines

> were more worth the risks

> than others. At my son's two-month checkup, the

> pediatrician expected him to

> receive a triple-combination shot called " Pediarix "

> (consisting of Hep B, inactivated polio, and DTaP,

> which covers diphtheria,

> tetanus and acellular pertussis), as well as HiB

> (for certain bacterial

> infections) and Prevnar (for meningitis and blood

> infections). I reiterated

> my refusal of Hep B, accepted DTaP and HiB, and

> asked to put off polio and

> Prevnar. In response, I received a threat: Get all

> the vaccines or get out

> of our practice.

>

> " Informed consent " ? Ha. This was uninformed

> coercion.

>

> We're leaving for another practice, a little bitter

> but wiser. The

> strong-arm tactics of the medical establishment

> mustn't intimidate parents

> from challenging the universal vaccine orthodoxy.

> When it comes to

> protecting our children's health, skepticism is the

> best medicine.

>