I would like to briefly give my view of the non-vax perspective, just so you have another viewpoint. I am not here to argue, and hopefully whether you disagree or not, you can at least realize what a difficult decision this is regardless of what choice you eventually make.
I fully vaxed my first child, as I didn't know any different back then. That was many, many years ago. With my daughter (second child), I had read much literature presenting both sides of the vax argument. I held off on vaccines as long as I could, but when I found myself panic-stricken every time she coughed or someone in the grocery sneezed (I was absolutely terrified by the description of whooping cough in babies, I couldn't take it and had her vaxed for dtap. Unlike my first child, whose vaccines went just fine, my daughter shrieked a high-pitched shriek for the entire evening after the vaccine. I was unbelievably horrified, as that is how most parents who have filed vaccine law suits describe the beginning of the end for their child after receiving vaccines. She ended up fine and is fine today, but that was the first and last vaccine she received.
With my third child, not only did I read every book, article, and study I could get my hands on, I also asked the doctor for the DOCTOR (not patient) inserts that come with each vaccine. They describe what's in the vaccine, adverse affects and reported rates of each, and descriptions and incidences of each disease, including death rates. I was thoroughly convinced that the vaccine risk was eons higher than disease risk. He has never been vaccinated. I just couldn't bring myself to take my healthy baby boy to have a doctor inject him, straight into his bloodstream, with egg albumin, fetal tissue, mercury, formeldehyde, and other ridiculous toxins that now, years later, escape my memory.
That was a decision that I thought was highly personal, and one that I knew I had to live with. I have spent many nights in agony, over the years of my motherhood, trying to decipher what is the right thing to do. Whatever you think of non-vax parents, it is agonizing, especially in today's info-overloaded culture, to know what best to do for our children. Now I have heard the arguments against non-vax parents, and I just want to share my own thoughts on those topics.
1. Putting all children at risk: I didn't think that I was getting a free ride based on other people putting their kids at risk through vaccination. I did think that there are plenty of people deciding, through their own free will, to vaccinate their children, and because they make that decision it makes my decision easier. But if that is the decision you make (to vaccinate), you should stand by it. No one is forcing you - all 50 states allow exemptions of some kind. Unlike when these diseases were rampant, we now have clean water, healthy food, tons of knowledge about boosting immunity and nutrition, and much more medicine and medical knowledge to treat disease. How many people TODAY die or have lasting repercussions from these illnesses when they get them? To me, my decision-making process not only included whether these diseases were even around, but whether they are a threat like they once were before today's state of health, safety, and medicine. Am I taking advantage of the fact that I live in a society with clean water to drink, and plenty of access to nutritious foods, immune-boosters, and such, and low incidences of disease? Yes! I have to make this decision right here, right now, for my child. And though both sides are scary and the decision is difficult, I cannot bring myself to take my child to someone and ask them to inject known toxins and known carcinogens into his bloodstream when he is not at much risk in the first place! I'm sorry that so many people see this as selfish, but this is a much more complicated issue than you all are making it out to be.
2. While it seems that the repercussions of more and more people not vaccinating may end in a cataclysmic upswing in these diseases, or a revolt that results in no more mandatory vaccines, I am hoping that it will spur on more research into creating safer vaccines and other ways to prevent or cure these diseases in the first place. Why are we complacent with vaccines that are dangerous? Rather than demanding that we not have to use them at all, why not demand safer vaccines? The reason no efforts are being made is because the manufacturers are already making billions of dollars each year. Why change? The mercury was lowered because there was such a drop in profit ( so much so that vaccine manufacturers threatened to stop producing vaccines and the government stepped in and took over the financial responsibility for adverse effects resulting from unsafe vaccines).
I say, as parents, we all need to stand up to make our world a safer and safer place for our children. That won't happen by attacking each other for agonizing decisions that we don't agree with. And it won't happen by choosing the lesser of two evils. We've got to make our leaders and decision-makers put people before profits!
