vaccine vs. getting disease naturally

[vagabonder]

Dd is 18 months and not vaxed so far. I have researched off and on since I was pregnant with her and overall am hesitant about vaccinating her. DH and I are just starting the discussions together to come to agreement about whether she should get any at all or do some selectively. He has not researched much, but he has a science background and so understands immunology and diseases much better than me. For months he has been saying that kids get too many vaxes nowadays, but I opened the discussion with chicken pox and he thinks she should get the vax for it. He feels the vaccine works in the body the same way as getting the disease naturally, so it is better for her to get the vaccine. This sounds completely wrong to me, but I am just clueless on this subject. Does anyone have any links to how vaccines work vs. getting the disease naturally?

I am arming myself with the ingredients and side effects of the vaccine as well, but want to cover all my bases before I start the discussion again. I am also stating that the life of the vaccine is unknown and she may need a booster when older, but he feels that other vaccines work lifelong so this one likely does as well.

[Marnica]

Good for you for doing your homework! I have to say however, that your DH is wrong about the CP!!! Of all the vaccines out there, he thinks this one is an important one to get??? That truly floors me. Many people have sceince backgrounds and are completely clueless about vaccines!

There is NO vaccine that works in the body the same way as getting the disease naturally. This is scientifically impossible and plain common sense.
Vaccines bypass all the body's natural immune defenses (the gut, the skin, the mucous membranes) and the bacteria or virues is injected directly into the body...THIS WOULD NEVER HAPPEN IN NATURE. I think your husband thinks that both a vaccine and a natural disease can create the presence of antibodies, so that this means they work the same way in the body....NOT SO!!

Also there is no vaccine that gives lifelong immunity to a disease...only getting it naturally can do that. Some vaccines are "thought" to give immunity to said disease for many many years but the bottom line is they do not know. Also creating antibodies does not correlate to immunity all the time. Many people who have been vaccinated never show antibodies when their tites are tested, they may or may not develop the disease if they are exposed. Similarly, there are people who have no antibodies via prior infection or vaccination to a disease and do not become ill when exposed.

read these articles for more of un understanding about vaccines, how they work and immunity/the immune system

http://www.compwellness.net/mp/How%2...ons%20Work.pdf

http://www.compwellness.net/mp/Vacci...20Smallpox.pdf

I would also suggest you and DH look into the disease itself... Chicken Pox is a benign childhood disease that most every child got when I was a kid (probably you too). It RARELY causes complications in otherwise healthy children and they gain life long immunity to it. The same can be said of many of the diseases we vaccinate for. It wasn't until the CP vax came out, that it all of a sudden became this scary disease.

[ZoeyZoo]

You DH is wrong on this one. If you pick up any basic book on immunology and vaxes you'll find out that they trigger the immune system differently. First they trigger different responses - level 1 versus level 2. Also the adjuvants used in vaxes are toxic chemicals such as aluminum, mercury, and now squalene which are designed to get the immune system to respond as much as possible. This doesn't happen in natural disease.

This is an article from Mercola. It's about vaxes in people over 50 but they work the same way for everyone. It is one of the most friendly articles I have read explaining some of the different issues with vaxing to non-scientific types. He has some other great articles on the subject.
http://articles.mercola.com/sites/ar...er-age-50.aspx

The chicken pox vax is one that scares me because they don't really understand it and it isn't a deadly disease for most. First they thought people would have lifetime immunity to it like a natural exposure. They are finding that immunity wanes possibly in as little as 10 years. So these kids are going to have to have boosters their whole lives. Then they don't understand how the vax exposure is morphing into shingles in these kids. This doesn't usualy happen in kids in a natural exposure.