So at my local LLL conference I attended a great workshop held by Dr. Bob Sears. I had been looking for some sort of information that wasn't explicitly pro or anti vac, but that gave the facts and had considered all the research out there. I think he did a fine job imo. So, I have made a few posts about this, and finally found my sheet that he gave us all, with my notes. Some might find it helpful. I am not anti vac, but I do want more information, and want to be fully informed when I make my decisions, something so far I have not.
Dr. Sears looked at each shot individually and asked several questions of each one.
Is the Disease common?
Are the risks of the disease severe?
Are the vaccine ingredients safe?
Is the side effect profile relatively safe?
What is the public health risk? Especially if suddenly no one was vaccinating against the disease (herd immunity issues).
He then gave detailed information on each shot, number of cases reported each year in the US, seriousness of hte disease, vaccine tyupe, worrisome ingredients, animal tissue used, side effects, reasons to use, reasons to question its use, public health risk issues, and then rated its importance on a scale of 1 to 5.
He discussed the routine vaccine schedule, proposed a selective schedule and the reasons why he thought it was best, discussed the diseases that are serious for young infants, diseases that are serious but not very probable that your child will catch, diseases that are common and not serious, and diseases to be concerned about for teens, or if you are considering traveling outside the US. He also gave nutshells of each shot. It was a HUGE amount of information, and seemed well balanced, took into account all the research, the concerns, the diseases themselves, and some of the hype on both sides.
I can go into the detailed information for each shot if you want, but its late and I will just put a few things out at first.
His proposed selective schedule is as follows-
2 mo DTaP, Prevnar
4 mo DTaP, Hib
6 mo Hib, Prevnar
9 mo DTaP, Prevnar
12 mo Hib
15 mo Hib, Prevnar
5 years Tetanus booster
He recommended giving them only 1 or 2 at a time to decrease the chances of side effects, and talked about the use of Vitamins A and C prior to and after the shots to help decrease the chances of a reaction.
He considered Meningitis and Pertussis to be the most possible and most serious for infants.
He considered Meningitis possible AND serious for toddlers, but rare beyond age 2.
He considered polio, heb b, diptheria, adn tetanus as diseases that are very serious, but that your young child would NOT catch them.
He considered Measles, Mumps and Rubella as rare adn not serious for infants and toddlers.
He considreed chickenpox to be common and not serious.
He said that if you plan to travel outside the US, that the following shots were important,
Polio- Africa and Asia
Tetanus- wounds more likely on vacation, and less access to a shot while traveling
Hib
Diptheria- check with CDC
He said to consider the following shots for your teens-
Hep B
Chicken pox
Rubella- important for women of child bearing age
Tetanus- boosters every 10 years
He said to ask for blood tests to see if the teen had developed natural immunity already to Measles, Mumps, Rubella, and Chicken Pox.
His nutshells
Hib, rare but serious meningitis. safe ingredients, side effects minimal, no mercury, rated 4/5 score , recommended
DTaP, pertussis serious under age 1, side effects minimal, beef extract the only worry, tripedia vaccine is low mercury in single vial dose (less than .3 micrograms). Most cases of pertussis are unvaccinated. recommended for pertussis, 4/5 score recommended
Prevnar, common and serious meningitis, safe ingredients, more chance of side effects, 4/5 score recommended
MMR, disease usually mild in kids, fairly rare, side effects and ingredients considerable, 50 cases of Measles per year in CA, rubella shot can cause arthristis in women, this shot has the most serious side effect profile. 1/5 score
Heb B, STD, rare in kids, but serious if caught, side effects considerable, ingredients safe, does contain residual formyldehyde, kids 2/5 score, teens, 3/5 score
Chicken pox, disease mild but common, side effects and ingredients considerable, used to have 55 deaths per year, disease waning, kids 2/5 score, 3/5 score for teens
Polio, diseases not in Western Hemisphere, side effects safe, but ingredients questionable, 2/5 score
Of all of these, the serious concerns to public health risk if most decided not to vaccinate, would be Diptheria, Pertussis, and Hib. Obviously Diptheria is not a problem currently, but we would see cases of Pertussis and Hib meningitis increase rapidly if we saw a sudden drop of vaccinations against these diseases.
Anyway, interesting workshop, and it helped me a great deal. I hope it helps others.
