The Vaccination Myth

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Majority Support Parental Vaccination Choice According To New Harris Poll

 

Over Half Of Parents Say Pharmaceutical Industry Has Too Much Influence Over Government Vaccine Mandates and Support More Safety Research

CHICAGO, May 24 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — A new Harris Interactive poll shows a majority of American parents believe they, rather than the government, should have the final say in which vaccines their children receive.

The poll, commissioned by the Center for Personal Rights, queried a representative sample of American parents about vaccination.  The survey was conducted online within the United States by Harris Interactive on behalf of the Center for Personal Rights, Inc. from May 5-11, 2010 among 1,144 parents of children age 17 years or younger.

Poll results indicate a majority of American parents, 52%, believe that “parents should have the right to decide which vaccines their children receive without government mandates.”  

Parents answered other questions consistently.  54% of parents are “concerned that the pharmaceutical industry has undue influence over government vaccine mandates.”  54% agree that “the government should fund an independent scientific study of fully vaccinated vs. unvaccinated individuals to assess long-term health outcomes.”  48% of parents are “concerned about serious adverse effects of vaccines.”  This poll answer on adverse events is slightly less than the number found in a recent study published in Pediatrics magazine that found that 54% of parents are concerned about serious adverse effects (http://tinyurl.com/2dmx63q). 42% of parents agree that “all children should receive 69 doses of 16 vaccines before age 18, as recommended by the federal government.”

These parental views are broadly consistent across gender, age, income, number of children, educational levels and regions of the country.  Notably, older parents, aged 35 and above (57%), are significantly more likely than their younger peers (47%) to agree that the pharmaceutical industry has undue influence on vaccine mandates.  Single parents are more likely to agree than parents in two-parent families across the range of vaccination questions, perhaps reflecting their greater vulnerability to the risks from vaccination adverse events.

“These poll data should be a wake-up call to the government and the media that a majority of American parents believe that parents, not the state, should decide when and whether to vaccinate their children,” said Mary Holland, co-founder of the Center for Personal Rights.

The American Rally for Personal Rights in downtown Chicago on May 26 www.americanpersonalrights.org reinforces what the Harris poll shows – that parents are concerned about how the government’s vaccine policy may be affecting their kids, according to rally organizer, Louise Kuo Habakus. “Parents who question vaccine mandates and vaccine safety are routinely marginalized or depicted as fringe in the mainstream media, but this Harris poll proves just the opposite. This poll shows that the majority of American parents believe that parents, not government, should make these decisions; that we need more science and that pharma has undue influence.”  

Information on Survey Methodology

This survey was conducted online within the United States between May 5-11, 2010 among 1,144 parents of children age 17 years or younger by Harris Interactive on behalf of the Center for Personal Rights, Inc. via its ParentQuery omnibus product. Figures for age, sex, race/ethnicity, education, region, household income, and age of children in household were weighted where necessary to bring them into line with their actual proportions in the population. Propensity score weighting was used to adjust for respondents’ propensity to be online.

Respondents for this survey were selected from among those who have agreed to participate in Harris Interactive surveys. The data have been weighted to reflect the composition of the parent population. Because the sample is based on those who agreed to participate in the Harris Interactive panel, no estimates of theoretical sampling error can be calculated.

For poll results and complete survey methodology, including weighting variables, see the 78-page full statistical report available at http://tinyurl.com/2da43dr or contact Kitty Kurth at 312-617-7288.  For information on the May 26th rally, contact Louise Kuo Habakus at 917-553-4634 or louise@americanpersonalrights.org.

Contact: Cheri Jacobus
202-547-7358
CheriJacobus@aol.com

SOURCE Center for Personal Rights, Inc.

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http://www.americanpersonalrights.org

This poll illustrates the deeper, wide-spread feeling that most people have about the excessive control and manipulation we suffer at the hands of the pharmaceutical industry and the Government.

Individual free choice is such a fundamental need in terms of living in a healthy inner and outer environment, and the question of vaccines is increasingly a hot button for many people.

Breast-fed babies less feverish after immunization

Anne Harding

Wed May 19, 2010 1:22pm EDT

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Breastfeeding may protect babies from post-vaccine fevers, according to a new study in the journal Pediatrics.

Health

It’s not uncommon for an infant’s temperature to climb soon after immunization, Dr. Alfredo Pisacane of Universita Federico II in Napoli, Italy, and his colleagues note.

“Immunization is something like a ‘mild’ disease,” Pisacane explained via email, “and the immune system responds with local (pain, redness, swelling) and systemic (fever, decreased appetite) reactions.”

Babies will receive three rounds of shots during their first year of life, he added. “Post-vaccination fever is usually mild and of short duration. Nonetheless, 1-2% of infants can have high fever, which can represent a stress for them and their families.”

Breast and bottle-fed babies are known to respond differently to vaccines and to illness, Pisacane and his team explain, so they decided to investigate whether breastfeeding might protect against fever after a shot by having 450 moms keep track of their baby’s temperature for a few days after immunization.

Once babies had received the first or second set of two combination vaccines (against diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, hepatitis B, polio, Haemophilis influenzae type b, and pneumococcal infection), mothers took the infant’s rectal temperature that evening and daily for three more days.

One hundred twenty infants were exclusively breastfed at the time of immunization, 154 were partially breastfed, and 176 were bottle-fed. Babies receiving the vaccine for the first time were about three months old, on average; those having their second set of shots were about six months old.

One-quarter of the exclusively breastfed babies, 31 percent of the partially breastfed babies, and 53 percent of the bottle-fed babies developed fevers of at least 38 degrees Celsius (100.4 degrees Fahrenheit) after being immunized, Pisacane and his team found.

For 90 percent of the entire group, fever occurred in the first day after immunization; three-quarters had fevers lasting just one day. Just eight of the infants – four partially breastfed, and four not breastfed – had fevers above 39 degrees Celsius (just above 102 degrees Fahrenheit).

Risk of fever for the breastfed babies was 54 percent lower than for the bottle-fed babies, while partially breastfed babies were at 42 percent lower risk. The apparent protective effect of breastfeeding remained even after the researchers accounted for factors like mother’s education and the number of other children in the home.

Breast milk could reduce the production of inflammation-promoting proteins released after immunization, the researchers note, while breastfeeding itself could also comfort feverish children and encourage them to eat. Pisacane and his team point out that bottle-fed babies have been reported to consume fewer calories after immunization than breastfed babies do.

“When infants are sick and after a vaccination shot, they need not only water, food and a calm environment, but also to be protected,” Pisacane told Reuters Health. “They need the warm body of their mothers. Breastfeeding provides all what an infant does need during illness.”

He added, “Also, partial breastfeeding is useful to protect infant health and to ensure a warm relationship between a mother and her infant.”

SOURCE: here ds.2009-1911v1 Pediatrics, online May 17, 2010.

Health

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This is an interesting study which, among other things, illustrates the power of breastfeeding to be beyond the mechanical provision of nutrients. The “warmth organism”, in terms of our Dynamic Physiolgy, is very dependent on having certain factors present for development, and can be easily damaged through vaccines and other traumas.

Nicely animated piece based on a real-life interview of a mother by her 12-year old Asperger’s son.