The Vaccine Controversy: Skipping Your Flu Shot

As many of you consider lining up and paying for a flue vaccine this season, you should strongly consider the risks associated with the whole concept of mass vaccination.

Below please find some information from Wikipedia on the Vaccine Controversy. Inform yourself, it's the least you can do before you pay the pharmaceutical companies to inject chemical concoctions into your body.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaccine_controversy

The vaccine controversy encompasses many issues over the benefits and risks of vaccines.

Vaccines are widely credited with reducing the prevalence and consequences of many diseases. National and international public health organizations have made vaccination a central part of their strategies. The consensus of health organizations and medical doctors is that mass vaccination campaigns have been an essential and effective component of eradication or control of several deadly diseases via individual and herd immunity.

Critics question the claimed efficacy and safety of such programs. The medical community, however, overwhelmingly supports vaccination as an effective and safe means of preventing the spread and reducing the impact of infectious illnesses. The majority of public health advocates holds the opinion that the benefit to the public justifies mandatory programs.

Research continues into both the development of new vaccines for a broadening array of diseases and the efficacy and safety of vaccines already in common use.

Criticism of widespread vaccine policy
The practice of vaccination has been opposed by some since its inception in the late 18th century, but criticism has become more visible in the US and some other developed countries in recent years, roughly paralleling the widespread availability of online information. While positions vary from outright rejection of the practice to calls for more selective and cautious use of vaccination, one or several of the following arguments are typically invoked:

Critics claim that the public health benefits of vaccinations are exaggerated. They further claim that the mortality rates of some illnesses were already dramatically reduced before vaccines were introduced, and claim that further reductions cannot immediately be attributed to vaccines.

Secondary and long-term effects on the immune system from introducing immunogens directly into the body are not fully understood.

The recommended vaccination schedule does not consider the cumulative effect of being exposed to multiple immunogens at the same time and at a young age.

At least some vaccine studies did not include such young children (e.g., 5 week old infants, 2 month old infants)[citation needed], yet vaccination schedules start with newborns. There can be a vast difference between the weight and all around development of a newborn baby versus a toddler, yet this is not accounted for.
Opponents of current vaccination policy question whether vaccinations actually create immunity against the targeted diseases, since some people who have been vaccinated still contracted the illness.

By not exposing children to common childhood illnesses, they may be more susceptible to diseases at a point when their immune system is weakened, e.g., at an old age or when sick for other reasons.

As is true with any medication, adverse events to the vaccine (even when rare) may be worse than the disease itself, and there are isolated reports of serious health damage and even death, within hours or a few days of vaccination. Although there are now various national databases where reported reactions can be recorded, anti-vacinationists claim that serious adverse events are grossly under-reported.

There are a number of possible conflicts of interest that may affect the research design, findings, and opinions about vaccines, including financial interests of companies, the self-regulatory mechanism of medical doctors, and fear of the consequences should vaccines be found to be dangerous (see 2000 Simpsonwood CDC conference for example of such fears). But there are also concerns that opponents of vaccines may be seeking to enrich themselves through litigation or the sale of alternatives, by spreading fear and misjudgment among the public.
Religious objections, by certain churches and by Christian Scientists to all forms of medical intervention.

The MMR controversy
Controversy has arisen regarding the safety of the MMR vaccine, because a handful of scientists and parents argue that the vaccine is the cause of the increased incidence of autism noted in western countries and Japan, and bowel disorders such as Crohn's disease. A theory advanced by proponents of the link is that the MMR vaccine overwhelms an immune system they assert is already struggling from the effect of thimerosal contained in previous vaccines. They assert that live measles virus in the formulation of the MMR is detrimental to susceptible individuals in a fashion in which wild measles never was.

During the 1980s and 1990s, a number of lawsuits were brought in the United States against manufacturers of vaccines, alleging the vaccines had caused a variety of physical and mental disorders in children. While these were inconclusive, they did lead to a massive jump in the costs of the MMR vaccine, as pharmaceutical companies sought to cover potential liabilities by lobbying for legislative protection. By 1993, Merck KGaA had become the only company willing to sell MMR vaccines in the United States and the United Kingdom. Two other MMR vaccines were withdrawn in the UK in 1992 on safety grounds arising from the strain of mumps component.

In September 1995, the Legal Aid Board in the UK granted a number of families financial assistance to pursue legal claims against the state health authorities and the vaccine's manufacturers, claiming that their children were killed or seriously injured by the MMR vaccine. A pressure group called JABS (Justice, Awareness, Basic Support) was established to represent families with children who, their parents said, were "vaccine-damaged."

In 1996, in New Zealand claims by an academic from Melbourne University that MMR contained a human blood product, serum albumin, and could therefore spread Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease caused anxiety.[citation needed] This did not last, since serum albumin was not an ingredient of the MMR vaccine.