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Barbara Loe Fisher
Vaccinations
My daughter is almost 16 months and she is due for her next set of shots, however, my husband and I are very hesitant on having her get the DTP shot. She had a VERY bad reaction to it when she was about four months old. If a child reacts badly to a particular shot, it seems obvious that the right thing for a parent/parents to do is to NOT get that shot again. I have been told by many people that if we opt not to have our daughter receive that DTP shot, we would have to fill out some type of waiver. Is that correct? What is the waiver about?
If your daughter is now 16 months old and was vaccinated from birth in the US, she should have received DTaP and not DPT vaccine. The whole cell DPT vaccine was replaced by acellular DTaP in 1996. DPT was a crude highly reactive vaccine that was available in the US (mostly in public health clinics) until about 2001. DPT was known to cause brain inflammation in one in 110,000 DPT shots and permanent brain damage in one in 310,000 DPT shots. One US study showed that one in 875 DPT shots was followed by a convulsion or collapse shock reaction.
The purified DTaP vaccine now used by American children from two months through adolescence, causes fewer cases of brain inflammation, convulsions and permanent brain damage. However, if a child is genetically or otherwise biologically vulnerable to vaccine induced brain and immune system dysfunction, DTaP can cause brain inflammation and permanent injury.
The same contraindications which apply to the old DPT vaccine also apply to the newer DTaP vaccine. It is very important for parents to be aware of the signs and symptoms of an acute reaction to DTaP (high fever, collapse/shock, high pitched screaming, inconsolable crying for hours, deep sleep/unconsciousness, convulsions) or subsequent mental regression, physical deterioration or emotional behavior changes in the days and weeks following vaccination.
If your child has suffered vaccine reaction symptoms or health deterioration after receipt of DTaP or any other vaccine, it may be a warning sign that further vaccination could produce the same or a worse symptoms. The most tragic cases of vaccine-induced brain and immune system damage occur when parents and doctors ignore signs and symptoms that a child is not tolerating the process of vaccination and is becoming sicker after each round of vaccines. In the face of worsening health, it can be very risky to continue vaccinating with DTaP or any other vaccine which has been associated with illness after a previous vaccination.
As I explained in my answer to a previous question, all states require your child to receive certain CDC recommended vaccines in order to attend school. If you do not want your child to receive DTaP or any other vaccine or combination of vaccines, you will have to comply with the laws in your state and file a medical, religious or philosophical, personal belief or conscientious belief exemption to vaccination.
Your child's pediatrician is not required to have you sign a "waiver" if you do not vaccinate your child. However, as a matter of policy, some pediatricians in private practice require parents to sign a waiver in order for unvaccinated children to continue to be treated in the practice. Some waivers state that the parents have declined vaccination for their child and the pediatrician assumes no responsibility for what happens if the child becomes ill with a vaccine preventable disease and dies or is left with permanent health problems.
Many HMO's and the doctors who participate in them are rated higher by quality assurance evaluators if most or all of the HMO participants are fully vaccinated. Some are penalized financially for low vaccination rates. Therefore, recently HMO's and other medical insurance carriers have dropped families who do not vaccinate their children from medical insurance plans.
Despite the pressure for parents to vaccinate children even in the face of vaccine reactions and deterioration in health, many educated parents are protecting their children from vaccine damage by seeking out enlightened health care professionals who support the right to informed consent to vaccination. It is essential that you entrust the care of your child's health to a doctor who treats you with respect and will discuss your vaccination concerns in a supportive way. At the end of the day, you are the one who will have to take responsibility for the vaccine decision you make for your child and live with the consequences of that decision.
I stopped vaccinating my son because I believe he had a severe rash due to a vaccine. I have done some further research and I am strongly opposed to any more vaccinations, even for any child I may have in the future. I am concerned for the possiblity of child protective services coming to my door and trying to take my son. Do they have the power to take my children and force vaccination? Furthermore, the last pediatrician I went to refused to treat my son because I did not want to continue vaccinating. Can a practitioner force vaccination on my family or report me to child protective services for declining vaccines?
You were wise to do your own research after you suspected your son had a reaction to a vaccine. I have always encouraged women to listen to their mother's instinct and get more information when they sense their children are in danger but are being told to ignore their instincts and obey the doctor's orders. That mother's instinct, the biological imperative which helps us protect the health and well being of our young, can be as helpful in making a vaccination decision as reading a book or listening to an "expert."
In the US, vaccine laws are state laws. What is not defined in the US Constitution as a federal activity defaults to the states and public health laws fall into the state activity category. In the US, all 50 states have mandatory vaccination laws which are enforced to a greater or lesser degree depending upon how the state law is worded, what kinds of exemptions are allowed, and how the state's health, education and social services agencies implement the law.
All states offer a medical exemption to one or more state required vaccines. A medical exemption must be written by an M.D. (medical doctors) or D.O. (doctor of osteopathy), the two types of doctors licensed by states to perform surgery and prescribe drugs. These medical exemptions are often reviewed by state health officials, who determine whether or not they conform to narrow contraindications considered by the Centers for Diease Control (CDC) as valid reasons to not vaccinate.
In recent years, more doctors in private practice are declining to write a medical exemption for a child even when they believe the child is at high risk for suffering vaccine-induced brain and immune system dysfunction. Doctors are afraid they will be second-guessed by state health or education officials and harrassed for writing medical exemptions that allow a child to attend public school without receiving all CDC recommended vaccines.
All states but two (West Virginia and Mississippi) allow religious exemption to vaccination for children whose parents have sincerely, deeply held religious beliefs opposing vaccination. In order to file a religious exemption, you do not have to belong to a church with formal tenets opposing vaccination. Because the US Constitution protects the right to worship freely while ensuring a separation of Church and State, you only need to hold personal religious beliefs rather than adhere to the tenet of a specific religion or church.
However, in order to legitimately take a religious exemption to vaccination, you should truly hold personal religious beliefs opposing vaccination of your child as you could be asked by the state to defend the exemption in court if the exemption is challenged by state officials. Some parents have discussed their vaccination decision with their pastor, priest, rabbi or other spiritual advisor and obtained a letter from them attesting to their sincerely held religious beliefs in the matter of vaccination. This may be advisable as there are increasing reports of certain states, such as New York, pulling religious exemptions on file or denying religious exemptions after state officials grill parents for hours on the sincerity of their religious beliefs. Some of these cases are now making their way through the judicial system.
In about one-third of the states, you may object to vaccination of your child for philosophical, personal or conscientious beliefs. These states come the closest to allowing informed consent to vaccination, informed consent being an ethic which recognizes personal autonomy and the right to self determination when making a medical decision involving a risk of injury or death. (Vaccination is a medical intervention which carries a risk of injury or death).
States offering religious and/or philosophical belief exemptions may require parents to sign an affidavit and agree to take unvaccinated children out of school during outbreaks of infectious diseases. Most exemptions to vaccination govern the right of children to attend state funded daycare, pre-school, elementary, secondary and college education programs. However, some state vaccination laws simply require certain vaccines by a certain age and do not link vaccination requirements to the state education system.
Unfortunately, doctors in positions of authority in a state's health, education or social service system can report parents for failing to vaccinate their children according to state laws and charge parents with child medical neglect. If they persuade a judge to order it, a child can be forced to be vaccinated according to state laws. This does not happen frequently, but it does happen, especially during divorce cases involving child custody battles between parents. It is also more likely to happen when parents take a child to a hospital or clinic for an illness and, when asked if the child is up-to-date on vaccinations, the parents say "no" and then refuse to have the child immediately vaccinated. Some hospitals and clinics have a policy that requires attending personnel to make a report to the state social service agency when parents refuse to vaccinate a child.
During the past two decades as more parents have become more aware of vaccine risks and the CDC and American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) have doubled the number of recommended vaccines for children, pediatricians have become defensive when parents ask questions about vaccination. Instead of discussing vaccine risks with parents, pediatricians are increasingly taking a dictatorial approach and refusing to treat families who want to use some, but not all, vaccines or do not want to vaccinate a child at all. Usually pediatricians will simply throw the family out of the practice but, on occasion, they will report parents who do not vaccinate their children to state child welfare authorities.
If you choose to selectively vaccinate your children or use no vaccines at all, you should be aware of the laws in your particular state and the vaccine exemptions allowed. You should also be prepared to hire a lawyer if you are charged with child medical neglect for failing to vaccinate your child with all state required vaccines.
Finally, if you truly believe your child is at high risk for suffering vaccine-induced injury or death, you have the moral right as that child's mother to fight to protect your child from harm. Become well educated about vaccines and infectious diseases and you will be better equipped to do that. (You can do further research on the website of the National Vaccine Information Center at www.nvic.org) If more mothers and fathers stand up and demand the right to informed consent to vaccination for their children in every state, pediatricians and government officials will have no choice but to become partners with parents in preventing vaccine reactions.
I have a 3mos old daughter who currently is not vaccinated. I am a teen mother and am having difficulties finding a doctor who takes my questions seriously. Would you know of a way to find a doctor in my area (Toronto, Ontario) that is well educated about vaccines? Also, I have seen on drug companies websites that it is possible to have my daughter passively immunized by seperating the components in each vaccine. How can I get access to THOSE vaccines without help from any of the 3 doctors I have already approached with my concerns?
It may be difficult to find a doctor who will treat your child if you question vaccination; want to give your child fewer vaccines; or use a different schedule than the one recommended by government health officials. The best way to find an open minded doctor, who wants to be a partner with you in making health care decisions for your children and is sensitive to your concerns, is to contact health professionals in the prepared childbirth, breast feeding, nutrition and wholistic or alternative and complimentary health care fields.
I am not certain what you mean by getting your daughter "passively immunized." The term "passive immunization" usually refers to the process by which a person comes into contact with the body fluids of another person who has recently received a live virus vaccine (such as live oral polio vaccine) and the live virus transmission confers or "boosts" the immunity of that person. Another type of passive immunization is the use of intravenous immune globulin after a person has been exposed to a disease such as tetanus. Immune globulin contains antibodies from the blood of persons who are immune to a particular disease.
The idea of separating combination vaccines (such as live MMR vaccine for measles, mumps, rubella) into their single components has been in the news during the past decade because of the debate about whether exposing a child simultaneously to three live viruses in the MMR vaccine can cause autism. Although government health authorities deny the MMR vaccine can cause autism, parents continue to report an association between receipt of MMR vaccine and their child's regression into autism. Therefore, some parents prefer to give their children the three separate vaccines singly spaced apart as a precaution. Because few doctors in the U.S. stock the separate vaccines, American parents have reported they must buy a multi-dose vial of each of the three vaccines from a pharmacy and take them to their physican for administration.
If you make the decision to vaccinate your child with one or more vaccines, make sure you read the product manufacturer insert and consult other sources of information so you know what kinds of vaccine reaction symptoms to look for after your child is vaccinated. Remember that vaccine reactions can occur from minutes to hours, days and weeks after vaccination depending upon the vaccine(s) given.
And if you choose to vaccinate, go to the website of the National Vaccine Information Center at www.nvic.org <http://www.nvic.org> where we have a list of eight questions to ask yourself BEFORE your child gets vaccinated. Becoming educated about diseases and vaccines will help you make the best vaccination decision you can for your child.
We have only vaccinated our children against tetanus. In New York thereare religious exemptions. Will we not be able to claim our religious exemption because our children have received the tetanus vaccine?
In order to claim a religious exemption to vaccination, you must hold sincereligious beliefs opposing use of vaccines. There beliefs must be basedon religious, not secular (scientific or medical) grounds. Although youvaccinated your children in the past with tetanus vaccine, if your religious beliefs have changed since that time and are sincerely held,you should be able to freely exercise them under the law.
In thepast few years, New York has demonstrated a lack of tolerance for thoseexercising religious exemption to vaccination. There are pending casesin NY courts right now involving parents who have had religiousexemptions for their children revoked after being harrrassed andinterrogated for hours by school and health officials about the depthand sincerity of their religious beliefs regarding vaccination.
Some parents exercising religious exemption to vaccination for theirchildren obtain a letter from their minister, priest, rabbi or otherspiritual counselor attesting to the sincerity of their religiousbeliefs regarding vaccination. This letter can be filed with the statealong with a statement by the parent declaring that vaccination violatestheir religious beliefs and practices.
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