Childhood Vaccinations – Necessary or Overkill? Sequal Thread

Can I point out that no vaccines are given to babies at one hour old. Usually vaccination begins at 3 moths of age at the earliest. The reason for this is that newborns have immature immune systems which are unable to respond to antigens. That's why very young babies have higher mortality rates for infectious diseases - they can't fight the infection. This also means that they can't respond to a vaccine and gain immunity from it.This is one of the reasons why vaccination is so important. For groups such as newborns who cannot be given immunity by vaccination, the only protection is herd immunity i.e. the more people immune to a given disease, the less chance the disease has of encountering a susceptible individual. This minimises spread.

Since when did Edinburgh move to the other side of the Atlantic??? I'm on the same frigging side of the pond as you!The HepB vaccination is not a routine innoculation and is only given to babies whose mothers are HepB positive. Since the baby will have been exposed to the virus during birth they try to do whatever possible to minimise the risk of infection for the newborn. You will also note from your American schedule that HepB requires 2 subsequent boosters and this takes care of the minimal protection which newborns get from the initial early vaccine.On my side of the pond I am not aware that HepB is routinely given to children. I have never come across this, my son wasn't offered it. I was because I worked in a high risk profession

I'm sick and tired of the constant accusations that big pharma, scientists and medics care ohnly about the money they can make, be it from a pro-evolution stance or use of vaccines.I'm a parent. I'm a scientist. I had to make the decision about giving my son the MMR jab in 2000. Yes, I had reservations because of all the nonsense from Wakefield and the subsequent hoo-haa in the media. Yes, I worried that I might make the wrong decision. So I set out to READ FOR MYSELF the primary research. I had already read the orighinal Wakefield paper and closely studied the methodology, results and conclusions drawn. Being a research scientist myself and having peer-reviewed many papers I'm reasonably good at spotting flaws in methodology, sampling and odd or biased results.The Wakefield paper was atrocious and I put no stock in that. I then looked at all the subsequent studies done and the overwhelming picture that emerged was that the MMR vaccine was safe.I consider that I was lucky to have been in a position to really dig into this matter. I looked for all the subtle effects that people have talked about and I found none, other than a few anecdotal stories which I had to disregard in the face of the evidence. However, most parents are not in this position and don't have the necessary scientific skills to do what I did.For this reason, I try to pass on to others what I discovered myself when I looked at the evidence. The thing which most of the anti-vac crowd miss is that many of the scientists who say that vaccination is safe do so from the position of a parent, not just as a scientist. Just because these parents use their scientific education and skills to analyse the situation, it doesn't mean that they put big bucks before the health and well-being of their children. This seems to be totally forgotten by the anti-vac crowd who continually insult the motives of those scientists who choose to vaccinate their children.The point I'm trying to make is that if I have a burst pipe I call a plumber. I don't call the local crystal healer to come and spin stones over the pipe. Neither do I try to fix it myself because I know next to nothing about plumbing. No-one can be an expert in every field so we have to rely on those who have become expert in a given field to advise us, based on the extensive knowledge they have on their subject. However we also have to remember that those experts are still people and will approach the question of vaccination from the position of scientist AND parent.Oh and yes, my son did get his MMR and yes, I worried about it, but I knew that the worry came from the mother part, the safety of vaccination came from the scientist.

I understand what you're saying and have no objection to you trying to optimise your immune system to stay healthy. However, there are times when it doesn't matter what you do, your immune system may be lowered for other health reasons and also there are times when it doesn't matter how good your immune system is, you'll get ill and the consequences can be dire.For example, tetanus can actually be very easy to aquire. Now, I personally would rather have tetanus toxoid injected when I have a penetrating wound than rely on VitC megadoses.I would also rather have by tetanus shot up-to-date so that if I get a small puncture wound that I don't notice, I am not at risk of getting tetanus.If I lived in an area where typhid was endemic I would rather be vaccinated against it and not trust to hygiene alone. My hygiene may be fine, but what about the person who gives me my change in a cafe?Yes, if you're healthy and well nourished you have a better chance of coming through an infectious disease with no sequelae, but it's not a chance I want to take and I certainly don't want to be responsible for the deaths of a number of immunocompromised individuals that I may have infected during the incubation stage. For example, you can be infectious for 14 days prior to the onset of symptoms with chickenpox. How many small babies can you come into contact with in 14 days of routine daily life? Did you visit anyone in hospital? How many immunocompromised people did you have contact with in the shopping mall? How many pregnant women did you have contact with?There is also the case to be made that unvaccinated females run a high risk when they are pregnant. Since the immune system is very low towards the end of pregnancy (and broccoli won't help that) the mother can experience very severe infection and infection of the fetus had quite a high mortality rate. Infection in early to mid pregnancy can result in some horrible congenital malformations. What does an unvaccinated mother say when her baby is born with congenital defect due to chickenpox? "Hey, my baby might be deformed, but at least my mother didn't run the risk of me having the chickenpox vaccine."