A pediatrician takes the anti-vaccine movement head on April 24, 2009 X

KevinMD Live Q&A today at 2:00pm Eastern Would you rather have your kids get measles or autism?

 That’s the choice that anti-vaccine proponent Jenny McCarthy lays out on the talk show circuit. But in a LA Times column, pediatrician Rahul Parikh comments,

“At best, that’s a false choice; at worst, it’s a sick, horrible wish for her or anybody else’s child.” He further observes, rightly, that the anti-vaccine movement has done a much better job communicating their agenda, and utilizing social media, than doctors have.

 That’s one reason why their message is gaining traction and resonating with confused parents.

 And despite the staggering amount of evidence demonstrating the safety, vaccines will always have a target on their back. “After we spend millions of your healthcare dollars to disprove these hypotheses,” Dr. Parikh writes, “they’ll move the target to something else.

” Indeed, “as they run out of ingredients to blame, they’ve turned their ire against pediatricians, painting them as some monolithic group of people who march to the beat of drug companies, both parties bent on making profits from vaccines at the expense of children.” In other words, no amount of data will convince those who refuse vaccines.

 Rather than fighting a reactionary battle with them, it’s wiser to spend money proactively promoting the benefits of vaccines, or even better, convincing parents what will happen if more begin to refuse them for their kids.

The thought behind vaccines is different now than it used to be. It is now just like all the other drugs they bring on the market. Most of them with terrible side effects and then pulled off the shelves a few years later. Pharma companies will be bringing out vaccines for every imaginable thing soon. They have it made, now you are a typhod Mary if you dont get your vaccine for this and that. And the CDC and the WHO play right into their hands. The vaccine for polio and other diseases were life savers. But vaccines for everything is going to be very dangerous. Here is a story from AP yesterday.

MARIETTA, Pa. — Malaria. Tuberculosis. Alzheimer's disease. AIDS. Pandemic flu. You name it, the pharmaceutical industry is working on a vaccine to prevent it.

Many could be on the market in five years or less.

Contrast that with five years ago, when so many companies had abandoned the vaccine business that half the U.S. supply of flu shots was lost because of contamination at one of the two manufacturers left.

Vaccines are no longer a low-profit niche in a booming drug industry. They're starting to give ailing pharmaceutical makers a shot in the arm.

The lure of big profits, advances in technology and growing government support has been drawing in new companies, from nascent biotechs to Johnson & Johnson. That means recent remarkable strides in overcoming dreaded diseases and annoying afflictions likely will continue.

"Even if a small portion of everything that's going on now is successful in the next 10 years, you put that together with the last 10 years (and) it's going to be characterized as a golden era," says Emilio Emini, Pfizer's head of vaccine research.

Vaccines now are viewed as a crucial path to growth, as drugmakers look for ways to bolster slowing prescription-medicine sales amid intensifying generic competition and government pressure to cut down prices under the federal health overhaul.

Unlike medicines that treat diseases, vaccines help prevent infections by revving up the body's natural immune defenses against invaders.

Investment in partnerships and other deals to develop and manufacture vaccines has been on a tear — and accelerating since the swine-flu pandemic began. Billions in government grants are bringing better, faster ways to develop and manufacture vaccines.

"What was essentially 25 years ago a rounding error now has become real money," said Robin Robertson, director of the U.S. Biomedical Advanced Research Development Authority.

That jump is because of a couple of new blockbuster vaccines and rising use of existing ones. The government's list of recommended vaccines for children has more than doubled since 1985 to 17.

 

Montana I checked the CDC site for recommended vaccinations and if you include the flu it is 10 vaccines NOT 17.  

  Problem is there is just as much money in the anti-vaccine movement as there is in the vaccine business.

 It is a sick game of greed playing with people's lives, and so many out of sheer frustration and confusion just say no to all vaccines, and some devastating epidemics will re-emerge costing many many lives.

I am not going to get vaccinated for everything that comes along, including the flu vaccine, but there are some diseases that do need to be vaccinated for, along with promoting healthy living and strong immune systems. 

 

There just isnt any trust anymore. We consumers have been lied to just too many times. Big pharma says vaccines are safe and needed, well they've said that about a lot of things over the years. Diet pills for one thing. Here is an article about more than 50% of Americans dont want the flu vaccine.

Poll: Majority of adult Americans don't want H1N1 shot STORY HIGHLIGHTS CNN poll shows 55 percent of adults don't want to get the H1N1 vaccine Many believe the vaccine has dangerous side effects, polling director says Poll shows number who were turned away is higher than number who have gotten a shot Washington (CNN) -- More than half of all adult Americans say they don't want to get the H1N1 flu vaccine, according to a new national poll. The CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey released Wednesday also indicates that the number of adults who have tried to get the vaccine but were turned away is higher than the number of adults who have gotten a swine flu shot. According to the poll, 55 percent of adults don't want to get the swine flu vaccine and don't plan to get a shot. Another one in five say they want to get inoculated but haven't taken any steps to do so; 14 percent want a shot and have tried to get it but have been unsuccessful. Just 7 percent have been inoculated for H1N1. Why are more than half of all Americans shunning the vaccine? "The perception that the vaccine has dangerous side effects is the top reason," says CNN polling director Keating Holland. "Roughly half of those who don't want a swine flu shot say that the possibility of side effects is one reason why they don't plan to get the vaccine. That works out to 28 percent of the adult population who don't plan to get inoculated due to the risk of dangerous side effects." So far officials of the National Institutes of Health say they've seen no serious side effects in clinical trials and that study subjects who have been immunized have generated a good response. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends the vaccine for certain high-priority groups because they are more likely to have serious complications if they develop swine flu. These groups include: pregnant women; caregivers and household contacts of children younger than 6 months; everyone between the ages of 6 months and 24 years; and people ages 25 to 64 with existing health problems. Most frequently asked H1N1 questions One in four American adults say they don't plan on getting a shot because they are not in a high-risk group, with 21 percent indicating they don't plan on getting vaccinated because they only go to a doctor when they are sick. Most of those respondents are men. What about the 14 percent who have unsuccessfully tried to get the vaccine? "Some say they don't know where to go. That works out to 4 percent of the total adult population who want to get inoculated but haven't been able to locate a medical facility that is giving swine flu shots," Holland said. "A bigger group, 5 percent of the total population, say that they found a facility with the vaccine but were turned away because they were not in a high-risk group or for some other reason. And 3 percent of all adults say they found a facility that had the vaccine but it ran out before they got there." Add together those last two groups, and the number of Americans who actively sought the vaccine but were turned away for some reason is 8 percent of the total adult population, roughly the same number as the 7 percent who have been inoculated so far. The CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll was conducted November 13-15, with 1,014 adult Americans questioned by telephone. The survey's overall sampling error is plus or minus 3 percentage points. CNN deputy political director Paul Steinhauser and senior medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen contributed to this report

I know, but it isn't just the big pharma companies lying, it is individuals also.   Some of the people who are promoters of movements make millions also.

On the H1N1 I don't intend to get vaccinated either.

SURE ITS SAFE...SO WERE CIGARETTES IN THE 50'S...ASBESTOS A GREAT INSULATION.... Batch of H1N1 vaccine pulled after bad reactions 20/11/2009 7:30:42 AM CTV.ca News Staff More than 100,000 doses of the H1N1 vaccine are being withdrawn across the country, after Manitoba health officials announced Thursday they'd noticed a higher-than-usual number of allergic reactions from one batch. Vaccine manufacturer GlaxoSmithKline has asked several provinces to set aside the 170,000 doses from the questionable batch. GSK say the batch recall is a precaution an they will investigate to see whether there is something wrong with the batch. "GSK is taking this cautionary action because the Public Health Agency of Canada has received a higher than expected number of reports of anaphylaxis in this lot number compared to other lots," the company said in a written statement Thursday. One or two allergic reactions are expected in a batch that size. But health officials recorded six severe allergic reactions and alerted GSK. Dr. Joel Kettner, Manitoba's Chief Medical Officer of Health, urged people not to be alarmed, noting the anaphylaxis reactions were short-lived and all the patients recovered. "We've been asked by the manufacturer GlaxoSmithKline not to use this vaccine at this time, pending further investigation," said Kettner at a press conference Thursday. "We are being cautious and following the advice... to hold onto the remaining stock until we get further information." About 1,500 doses of the vaccine were sent to Ontario, but officials say none were administered. Officials are now shelving them until the investigation is complete. The Alberta government has stopped giving out doses from the same batch, although it says it has not seen a jump in allergic reactions. Health officials say the batch being investigated is fairly small, so it should not have an impact on the overall supply. Earlier this week, the country's chief public health officer, Dr. David Butler-Jones, noted that of the 6.6 million doses of H1N1 vaccine given so far to Canadians, there have been 36 serious adverse reactions reported. Most involved allergic reactions that began within minutes of vaccination. All were treated promptly by medical people at the vaccination site. Milder side effects, such as nausea, soreness, headaches and fever, have also been seen, which is not unexpected. Seasonal flu vaccines have been known to cause such reactions every year. One person is believed to have died from an anaphylactic reaction following vaccination, but Butler-Jones stressed the death hasn't been conclusively linked to the flu shot. "It's important to remember that just because a medical event follows vaccination, it may not have been caused by the vaccination; it may have been caused by other factors, as unfortunate events continue to occur with or without vaccine," he told a news conference Tuesday.

Barbara Jones:

I know, but it isn't just the big pharma companies lying, it is individuals also.   Some of the people who are promoters of movements make millions also.

On the H1N1 I don't intend to get vaccinated either.

Some of the people who are promoters of movements make millions also. You mean algore with his climate change, I'll sell carbon credits scam?