Vaccinations and Inoculations
Wed., May 28, 08:27 AM
I am not trying to prove anything here, as much as to consolidate some things I already know or suspect. ’Cause what happens now didn’t used to happen.
I grew up in a state where children cannot be registered for public school without proof of vaccination. The diseases covered have changed over the years, but the basic requirement did not.
Two serious illnesses have been greatly reduced by this practice, diphtheria and polio. As a matter of fact, there are some doctors who have never actually seen a case of either disease, and that could result in delayed or incorrect treatment while they try to identify the symptoms. Or you might have someone like Dr. House, who could just about kill you with tests!
I never saw a case of diphtheria either, but I know it’s still around. We were doing throat cultures in a bacteriology class, and we isolated a sample of Corynebacterium diphtheriae from my throat. It was probably a weakened strain, and I had been immunized anyway, so I was not sick. But what if I had coughed or sneezed on someone who was not immune? You can’t assume it is no longer dangerous.
I do remember polio, then called infantile paralysis, and how frightened parents were. During the hot weather one avoided crowds, especially at beaches or public pools; it was considered a worldwide epidemic until the development of polio vaccines. A cousin of mine had the non-paralytic type, where he was very sick for a couple of weeks and then got better. More commonly, you saw patients who had recovered from the paralytic type, with braces on their legs and crutches or wheelchairs. Patients whose chests were paralyzed were confined to “iron lungs,” large machines that helped them breathe. It was scary.
When I went to school, you just needed proof of your DPT and your vaccination scar. I don’t know at what age children got their shots; I do remember a shortage of physicians because so many able-bodied doctors had been drafted into the military. Mother took us to a doctor if we were really sick, but for shots I remember her taking my younger siblings to the Health Department, where a nurse took care of such things. (The nurse would even come to your house if your kid was sick.) Notices sent home from school announcing what day a doctor would be giving booster shots at the school lead me to believe that a lot of parents didn’t get their kids inoculated until it was time to register them for school.
I do know that my brother and sister shared a case of whooping cough (also called pertussis, the P in DPT). Believe me, in that small house, we always shared being sick. I do not know whether that was before or after their shots, or if perhaps they had a less serious case. We all had measles and we all had chickenpox. Two of us had mumps and two had German measles (rubella). The polio vaccines weren’t developed until I was a teenager; I got mine during my physical for college.
Thirty years later, my own kids were vaccinated. Lots of things change; for one, they had a pediatrician whom they saw regularly. Dr. Bob wasn’t perfect, but he was one of the best pediatricians around. The kids got their DPT shots and their oral polio vaccine as babies. Sometime after their second birthday, they were inoculated for measles, mumps and rubella. I was glad my children would not have to suffer the illnesses we did.
Now I’ve just described two generations of state-wide inoculation without ill effects. (Well, M.D. did have elevated temperatures after all her shots, but she had wild temperatures whenever she had a cold too. Not particularly indicative of specific problems.) There was no sudden outbreak of symptoms of autism or similar disorders. Sure, I saw kids who were hyperactive or ADD, as well as some who were just plain spoiled… that’s another post altogether. So what happened?
I cannot dispute the observations of any mother who saw behavioral changes in her child after shots were administered. Those effects are real, just as real as the reduced incidence of childhood illnesses. Something has changed, obviously. Have doctors changed their guidelines? Such things have happened before; not everyone has a Dr. Bob. I find myself wondering about the pharmaceutical industry. Did someone, putting the interest in saving a few dollars over the well-being of the children of our country, outsource the vaccines without testing the product? Have medications been mismarked or stored improperly?
Above all, why don’t more pediatricians care about the children?
