Are Vaccinations Dangerous?

Parents across the country make the decision each year to vaccinate their children. You, I and children for years to come will be most likely be vaccinated without much thought. Vaccination has never been a large debate, but there is growing evidence linking vaccines to certain childhood problems. This link is beginning to bring about a very important debate surrounding the chemical dangers associated with childhood vaccination.  Certain risks associated with immunizing children are evident, and I believe mandatory childhood vaccines should be repealed because of the serious risks and side effects.

Every year, millions of children across the country are vaccinated for preventable diseases such as measles and polio. Generally between the ages of 6 months to 6 years old, children will have several different vaccination appointments to immunize them from these illnesses. As the author stated in the article “The Wrong Message on Vaccines,” many of these appointments go very smoothly, with only about 0.05% of all recipients of vaccinations experiencing side effects. In modern medicine, a 0.05% chance of side effects might seem small. This small amount, though, can add up quickly. With tens of millions of children receiving vaccines every year, 0.05% equates to over 500,000 affected children each year (Blaylock).  Researchers have determined that the main cause of these complications is related to the Mercury that is in many vaccines (Blaylock).

For those who don’t know, Mercury is a naturally occurring element found in air, water, and soil, that in its purest form is referred to as Quicksilver (Medicinenet).  Many vaccines contain Mercury in the form of a preservative named, Thimerosal, which is 50% Mercury by weight (Vaccine Safety and Availability).  Over the past decade a lot of debate has been created surrounding the potential toxicity of Thimerosal.  With some effects of Thimerosal still unclear, the FDA has begun working with vaccine manufacturers to remove Thimerosal from vaccines, proving there really is some innate danger to these vaccinations (Vaccine Safety and Availability). The largest effects seen from Thimerosal have been seen in infants and children under the age of six, illustrating the increased danger mandatory childhood vaccinations causes (Vaccine Safety and Availability). Problems caused by the Thimerosal and more specifically the Mercury in it, have been linked to various developmental problems in the brain and kidneys.

At this point, it may yet be clear how real some of the dangers of vaccinations are. Yes, the side effects sound serious, but with only a fraction of a percent of people experiencing this side effect, this won’t happen to anyone you or I might know, right? Well just understand this: For every 100,000 people in the United States, 50 will experience vaccine related complications; alternatively, per every 100,000 people in the U.S., 11.4 will die in a car accident (FARS Data Tables). Imagine, if you will, all the money and time spent on preventing fatal crashes in our nation. All of the “click-it-or-ticket” commercials you see on T.V. and all of the money it took to create those. We see these things every week, sometimes every day, but imagine if you saw vaccine warnings five times as frequently as that. Every hour of T.V. would almost certainly include some sort of PSA talking about vaccines, and millions of dollars would be spent warning against them. It would seem odd though, to have the government recommending vaccines, and at the same time also warning against their dangers. This presents a very interesting conflict of interests.

Within his article, the main observation that Blaylock illuminates is the tendency for politicians to be backed by large companies, and large pharmaceutical companies are not excluded from this trend. Blaylock argues that vaccines are not being investigated completely because if there were to be serious dangers associated with vaccines, pharmaceutical companies would lose billions of dollars (Blaylock). As many people know, politicians claim to do what’s best for their constituents but this is not always true, and Blaylock’s argument is that the vaccination problem is another unfortunate result. Blaylock explains that in order to put themselves in the best position for re-election, politicians listen to their donors more than their constituents when making political decisions. In this example of political tom foolery, the hundreds of thousands of children each year are falling prey.

This debate is unfortunately not easily settled today. Without concrete answers from researchers, which rarely if ever happens, it is hard to determine the true innate risks to vaccination. Yes, Thimerosal is present in many vaccines today, but is that reason enough to stop the millions of vaccinations done each year? I would say yes, but I am obviously not in a decision to make this change happen. This decision will be up to all of us, me, you, parents, teachers, neighbors, and family members. Everyone will have to come together and take a look at the facts to decide what is best for our nation’s health, and until then, many children may be taking unnecessary risks with these unknown toxins.

 Works Cited

1. Blaylock, Russell. "The Truth Behind the Vaccine Cover Up (Part 1 of 5)." Mercola.com. Mercola, 22 009 2004. Web. 3 Oct 2011.

2. "FARS Data Tables." Data Resource Website. National Highway Traffic and Safety Administration, 2007. Web.

3. "Mercury Poisoning." MedicineNet n. pag. Medicienet. Web. 4 Oct 2011.

4. "Thimerosal in Vaccines." Vaccine Safety and Availability 31 003 2010. n. pag. U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Web. 4 Oct 2011.