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This article is copyrighted by Fearless Parent™ 2016
by Louise Kuo Habakus
We received a comment from “Anonymous” in response to a recent post who expressed dismay that she had to rely on other parents to vaccinate their children in order to keep her immunocompromised daughter with Selective IgA Deficiency safe.
I was moved to respond. And then I hesitated.
Is Anonymous a real mom?
This may sound like a cold question but our savvy readers know that the CDC and other pro-vaccine stakeholders routinely pay “mommy bloggers” to write (and comment) about the benefits and advantages of vaccination. Here’s an ad circulating last month from Megan Media:
Megan Calhoun of Megan Media was a “public relations executive at leading firms where she specialized in healthcare.” After making the social media rounds via outraged parents, this ad is no longer accessible to the general public but others will surface. It’s just one of countless such opportunities. You can also read a 2011 CDC presentation about their mommy blogging program.
Whether this mom is real doesn’t matter because the message — that all children must be vaccinated to protect the immunocompromised — has been so avidly promoted by pro-vaccine interests that scores of parents believe it to be true.
So let’s assume that she’s real.
Dear Anonymous. You’re not alone.
My heart is with you and I’m saddened to read about your daughter’s pain.
Our readers include countless parents whose children have a wide range of pediatric chronic, autoimmune, neurological, and developmental conditions. In fact, most parents can relate to your family’s situation with empathy, not just sympathy, because sick kids have become the new normal. And many of these children, like your daughter, have some form of immune dysregulation. They navigate their worlds — whether socializing, learning, communicating, eating, sleeping, exercising, and/or breathing — with difficulty and oftentimes at significant personal risk.
When we say that we feel your pain, we truly do. It’s terrifying.
There’s a temptation to think in terms of right and wrong, to take sides and dig in. Rather than framing the issue in terms of “you versus me,” it’s really just us. If we speak to each other, mom to mom, I know we’ll find that we care about the same things: healthy children, a healthy society, a hopeful and bright future.
We may have an honest disagreement about vaccination but we can still engage respectfully. And at the end of the day, we’re on the same side.
My journey led me down some surprising paths
My views about vaccination probably weren’t so different from yours.
As a child, I received all recommended vaccines. As an adult, I happily extended my arm, not just willingly but proactively, and exhorted everyone I love to do the same. As a parent, I vaccinated my children with required, recommended, and optional vaccines. Nothing would’ve stopped me because my belief in vaccines was unexamined, reflexive, and integral to a broader belief system.
Nothing except one thing. My children. They suffered serious reactions to their vaccines. Here’s where people like to ask: “How do you know it was the vaccines?” and I reply: “I know.” I saw what happened; I researched; I read the studies; I spoke with doctors, scientists, and other parents; I drew from my own experience as a senior corporate executive for a couple of multibillion dollar companies. But none of that really matters. I’m their mom; I place their interests above all else; and that is all.
When I came to grips with what happened, I was able to help them.
On my journey, I learned things that I did not want to learn. I experienced loss, mostly in the form of relationships with loved ones, friends, neighbors, and colleagues who could not meet me in the space of open and compassionate inquiry. It was too threatening.
But I discovered new people, smart parents, asking hard questions. I opened the PubMed vault with a few clicks of my mouse. I spoke with researchers at conferences. I unearthed mountains of scientific literature, marketing materials, package inserts, corporate correspondence, FOIA requests, government documents, and more. I stopped sleeping and started reading with the desperation of a mom who needs to help her children.
Maybe you can relate because you burned the midnight oil, too, studying about your daughter’s diagnosis.
What I wish
I hear the despair in your comment… a prayer, really, that more people understood your daughter’s plight. I feel the same. Almost no one truly understands why they vaccinate. They just do because they think it’s what good, responsible parents do. I wish more parents would blindly trust less and study first before vaccinating their children but I know it’s not realistic. Who wants to do that? Who has the time? At first, I felt like Cassandra from Greek mythology… no, not because of her gift of prophecy but because no one believed her. I learned that vaccination was more taboo than sex or money… and eyes would glaze over in 10 seconds flat. People could not run away from the topic fast enough. It was almost funny. No, it was horrible.
There are deeply embedded assumptions about vaccination that simply aren’t correct. These views are not well-understood because they are not aligned with commercial interests.
I don’t have the budget to hire Megan Media.
I’m going to tell you what I wish people understood about this complicated, messy issue that can’t be distilled into pat soundbites.
The universality of parental anguish
You and I share the pain that parents feel when their children aren’t well. Whether it’s children with life-threatening allergies, severe asthma, or autism… children on a feeding tube or with a tracheotomy… children with cancer, thrombocytopenia, a rare inflammatory condition, or immunodeficiency disease… it doesn’t matter. There is no contest, no competition, no rivalry. No one wins. When I meet the parent of a sick child, my heart splits wide open.
What is very different, however, is that vaccine injury is not acknowledged. Parents want their vaccine injured children to be recognized. Vaccine injury is real, as is the deep pain, grief, anger, and resentment of the families who — vaccinating their children with great trust and the heart-centered belief they were doing the right thing — witnessed their children plateau, decline, regress, or disappear with heart-stopping injuries. Some paid the ultimate price.
Our children matter, too. What an odd thing to say, you might think. Why do you doubt this, you might ask. It is because we live in a society that privileges the lives of some children over others. Any parent who would demand that all children submit to a medical intervention that carries with it the known reality that some will sustain catastrophic brain damage or death in order to protect her child does not grasp the monstrous enormity of the request.
A parent that understood would never ask.
Immunocompromised kids can be vaccinated
The CDC says that your daughter can be vaccinated. Who knew? Most people don’t. You have a choice whether to follow the CDC’s guidance. Before calling on others to take risks to protect your child, this is something you should know.
The most common genetic condition causing primary immunodeficiency disease is Selective IgA Deficiency, which your daughter has. There aren’t any vaccines on the childhood schedule that school-aged children with Selective IgA Deficiency can’t get.
Further, the CDC advises that there aren’t any vaccines that children with kidney or spleen failure or asymptomatic HIV can’t receive. In fact, there are only three shots which children with organ transplants or those currently undergoing chemotherapy can’t have: the live virus MMR; chickenpox; and nasal FluMist vaccines. And the latter can be replaced with injectable flu shots.
Before asking other children to receive MMR and chickenpox vaccines to protect your child, you might also want to read the package inserts. There you will see warnings that transmission [of disease] through close personal contact with the recently vaccinated is possible. Immunocompromised people of all ages, including children, are encouraged to avoid people who have recently received certain live virus vaccines. Some hospitals explicitly offer this guidance. Schools and daycare centers do not.
Ironically, it might be vaccinated children you encounter who pose the greatest risk to your daughter.
Ironically, you might find that parents like me are advocating for your daughter because we firmly believe in vaccination choice. Consider this scenario:
Let’s assume that, despite crystal clear CDC guidance that your immunocompromised daughter can be vaccinated, you prefer to avoid or delay some or all shots for your daughter because of her medical condition. Let’s also assume that you are denied a medical exemption because the government says your daughter can and must be vaccinated now and your state health department overrules your daughter’s physician.
Then what?
Who gets to decide?
The scenario I just described happens… a lot more than people realize.
(For more information, read What About the Immunocompromised?)
Everyone must be vaccinated
When you ask people to vaccinate, you are reinforcing a prevalent, well-funded message. What’s surprising is that the exhortation is not accompanied by research about safety and effectiveness, or by disclosure of the tradeoff with vaccine injury. Take a peek. Beyond the obvious (protect yourself, protect loved ones, protect the immunocompromised), here are the CDC’s other top reasons people should be vaccinated:
- You’re too busy to get sick.
- You don’t want to miss what’s important to you.
- You’ll have to pay for medical care if you get sick.
- You like to travel.
- You want peace of mind.
- You don’t want to feel “crummy” (their word).
The National Foundation for Infectious Diseases adds:
- Your loved ones and co-workers need you.
These are not good enough reasons to abridge fundamental rights and mandate one-size-fits-all vaccination in the absence of a legitimate public health emergency.
This alarmist CDC brochure warns parents about the risks and responsibilities for those who fail to vaccinate; again, with not one word about the dangers or precautionary measures that can be taken, and no mention about who’s accountable when vaccine injury happens.
Public health interests assert that vaccination is “safe and effective” but…
- There’s no mention of the federal government’s National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program. Do you ever wonder about the thousands of families who were awarded billions of dollars for death and catastrophic vaccine injury? Who are they? Why don’t we ever read about them? What can they tell us about why and how vaccine injury happens?
- There’s no mention of the federal government’s Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System. Do you ever wonder about the hundreds of thousands of cases reported? There are over 607,223 incidents reported as of 6/14/17. This represents only about 1% to 10% of total estimated injuries since most doctors don’t report injuries and most people don’t know they can.
- There’s no mention of the vaccine makers’ package inserts, with their surprising, eye-opening, and disturbing disclosures. (Everyone who intends to vaccinate should read them.)
Doesn’t that seem strange?
Influence is spelled with a capital “I”
Do you imagine what could be possible for your daughter and others with immune dysregulation if real money could be invested to learn the causes and find a cure? I feel this way about vaccine injury. World class researchers have already started to draw links between vaccines and autoimmunity, as just one example. So much more can and should be done.
Alas, seduction has always been sexier than precaution. The CDC spends about 1/2 of 1% of its total budget on safety. Let’s take a look at the stakeholders on the promotion side. They include the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, state health departments, the National Institutes of Health, the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the World Health Organization, vaccine makers, and insurers, in addition to the mainstream media, hospitals, universities, and numerous charities, NGOs, writers, bloggers, and others who operate at their behest, in their service, and under their patronage.
- Pharma spends $27+billion on drug promotion and $3+ billion on direct advertising to consumers
- NIH line item funding estimates* = nearly $30 billion* (vaccine related; immunization; infectious, emerging infectious, rare, vector borne diseases; pneumonia; influenza; HPV, malaria, TB, AIDS vaccines; hepatitis)
- State health agency funding $11.5 billion
- CDC budget $11+ billion
- Five drug companies control 70% of global vaccine sales revenue:
- Merck $6.25 billion
- Sanofi Pasteur $5.85 billion
- GSK $5.26 billion
- Pfizer $4.48 billion
- Novartis $1.53 billion
- World Health Organization budget $4.4 billion
- GAVI global vaccine alliance cash proceeds from donors and investors $1.4 billion (GAVI/vaccines are the biggest investment of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the largest charitable foundation in the world)
- AMA lobbying spend ranks #2 (read this fascinating article from the NY Review of Books)
- AAP protects the professional interests of its pediatrician members, with an annual budget of $75-80 million
Together, we’re talking about the kind of direct and indirect clout that can be purchased and brought to bear by organizations and individuals (including the richest man in the world) that collectively control and deploy hundreds of billions of dollars. This may seem like overkill until you remember that vaccines are a $33+ billion global business that’s projected to reach $61 billion by 2020.
* NIH spending on autism? $216 million. Urologic diseases? $548 million.
Who’s looking out for the children?
Over half of U.S. kids have chronic, autoimmune, immune, neurological, or developmental disorders. This includes your daughter and my boys. Why is there no sense of urgency to help our children?
Not one of these organizations prioritizes answers for our children above all else.
Not one of these organizations is paying more than lip service by devoting serious resources and intention to uncovering why there are so many sick, allergic, ADHD, asthmatic, autistic, OCD, and otherwise behaviorally-, socially-, learning-, metabolically-, and/or immune-compromised children.
Not one.
Their top priorities include shareholder value, executive compensation, scientific renown, commercial success, philanthropic cred, professional advancement, and the amorphous, sounds-great-but-what-does-it really-mean-and-how-do-you-calculate-it “greater good.”
Motivations may be varied but they have coalesced around the singular objective to promote vaccination, taking it upon themselves to make the risk/benefit tradeoff for us all.
Unnamed casualties in a pro-vaccine world
Beyond sick and injured children, there are numerous other unnamed casualties in a pro-vaccine world that mandates vaccination and increasingly endorses varying degrees of bullying, social stigma, and coercion:
INFORMED CONSENT
Informed consent is the international human rights standard. It is a hallmark in the ethical practice of medicine and a non-negotiable expectation synonymous with freedom, justice, decency, and transparency.
PARENTAL RIGHTS
Parental rights encompass the responsibility and privilege of parents to direct the upbringing and make decisions in the best interests of their children.
RELIGIOUS FREEDOM & CONSTITUTIONAL INTEGRITY
There are vitally important reasons we protect religious exemptions to vaccine mandates that have nothing to do with vaccination. Compulsory vaccination is coercion through the exercise of governmental power. It compels our submission to state authority. The Constitution is one of enumerated powers. Government derives its power from the people, not the other way around.
DOCTOR-PATIENT RELATIONSHIP
The physician’s Hippocratic Oath, to do no harm, has resonated for over 2,000 years. The trust and confidence that doctors will place our needs first is a keystone of care. The erosion of this relationship is part of the healthcare crisis. The system requires doctors to prioritize public health and insurer directives to the detriment of the individual.
MEDIA INTEGRITY AND FREEDOM OF THE PRESS
The U.S. has been plummeting in the world press freedom index (from 20th in 2009 to 49th in 2015). Our media is compromised by consolidation and corrupted by industry advertising, as evidenced by the circulation of false information that’s designed to engender confusion, fear, and panic… like this story and this one when the truth is more like this. There is no freedom and no democracy without a free and open Internet and a truly free press.
HATE SPEECH
Your comment, that parents who don’t vaccinate make you sad, was respectful (thank you). But I wonder if you know that it is part of a much broader narrative that demonizes a group that holds a minority view. There is tacit societal endorsement, whether proactive circulation or passive silence, of a kind of hate speech directed at parents who question vaccines. The language is so mean-spirited and vitriolic, it’s not far-fetched to wonder if the intent is to incite violence. We hear that parents who choose not to vaccinate are stupid, irresponsible, parasitic, deceitful, idiots, jerks, assholes, freeloaders, and unworthy of consideration who should be shunned, punished, sued, incarcerated, shut up, fired by their doctors, threatened, and relieved of their children.
This kind of abusive rhetoric is uninformed and harmful. It is also cowardly bullying and should not be tolerated. We’re better than this. There’s too much at stake.
It’s time to roll up our sleeves
It takes courage to voice honest disagreement but you did it and others parents do, too. Many more are quietly supportive and fervently hope that others with — you name it, more money, brains, beauty, celebrity, or credibility — will follow suit. And they are speaking out, with more to come. As the conversation expands, we must resist the temptation to respond with sarcasm or self-righteousness. Our kids remind us what needs to be done. This is the kind of work that will make the world a better place for our children.
DO THE RESEARCH
There are serious questions about vaccine safety and the answers must inform vaccine policy. Three groups are urgently in need of serious scientific inquiry:
- Those vulnerable to vaccine injury — who are they and how can they be identified prior to vaccination?
- The completely unvaccinated — what are their short- and long-term health outcomes and how do they compare with the fully vaccinated?
- The vaccine-injured — what do we know about them and how can they be helped?
There’s more than enough money and this is long overdue. I strongly believe this research can help your daughter, too.
MAKE AMENDS
Governments have a bad habit of taking too long to say sorry and failing to do it properly. People who are injured by government-mandated vaccines are entitled to respect, remuneration, and care. This is what the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of 1986 was supposed to help accomplish.
NO VACCINE MANDATES
We can make vaccines safer but we cannot make them safe. This is why there must be choice — there should be personal belief and religious exemptions in all fifty states. Parents must decide for their children. Vaccine mandates undermine our societal fabric by eroding our personal, religious, conscientious, parental, and human rights.
JUSTICE FOR THE VACCINE-INJURED
The spirit and execution of the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program have fallen woefully short of Congress’s original objective. The goal was to provide expedited and non-adversarial resolution of claims with a lower hurdle for proof of causation to give injured families — who vaccinated at government behest and were injured through no fault of their own — the benefit of the doubt. There’s no reason to abandon this. Proper implementation will allow many families to receive compensation where they would otherwise be boxed out by their inability to retain counsel. Here’s what’s needed:
- Educate about vaccine injury and VAERS reporting, and mandate provider submission with enforced penalties.
- Update the injury compensation table to include newer vaccines and injuries.
- Implement the original intention for the program — make it expedited and non-adversarial, remove conflicts of interest and other obstacles.
- Restore access to legal recourse by removing industry liability protection for families who do not receive satisfaction in the administrative compensation program.
Leading vaccine injury attorney Robert J. Krakow says:
The Vaccine Program has fallen short of expectations. While it is good there are some individuals who receive compensation in the most clear-cut cases, the more difficult and troubling issues surrounding vaccine injury are not receiving the legal attention and fair process they merit. This is because the lack of discovery shielding the pharmaceutical industry prevents injured persons from learning the true facts about vaccine design and production. In addition, although the Vaccine Act contains provisions allowing injured persons to sue the vaccine manufacturers, the Supreme Court of the United States effectively eviscerated that provision by interpreting the law as providing almost complete liability protection to the manufacturers. This is unprecedented in American law — the only other example is the liability protection legislation Congress provided for firearm manufacturers. Sweeping liability protection like this undermines the historical and time-tested legal check and balance that encourages manufacturers to behave responsibly by making products such as vaccines as safe as possible.
Societal failure to address injustice is neither amorphous nor harmless. History is a grim and honest teacher. Every person who understands this issue has a responsibility to speak out. Injustice for one can so easily escalate into injustice for all.
THE FUTURE OF MEDICINE
Our attention must be towards the future. More parents are seeking providers who are likeminded and value a different kind of doctor-patient relationship. Growing numbers of physicians are answering the call and others will follow suit. A free market will sort it out and some waiting rooms are going to be very empty. The transition won’t be easy or pretty. Our job as parents is to remain steadfast and demand practitioners who respect our beliefs. Some will give excuses but the doctors we want will rise to the higher standard. It’s time that medicine stood up for itself.
***
Thank you, Anonymous, for posting your comment. It challenged me to respond in a way that honors our shared humanity. I welcome an ongoing conversation.
And I send peace, light, and love to the growing numbers of people who work in myriad ways to bring positive change to the more beautiful world our hearts know is possible. Consciousness is already shifting. Keep holding space and finding strength in community ❤️
Louise Kuo Habakus is the founding director of Fearless Parent™, lead host and producer of Fearless Parent Radio™, and mom of two. She is a published author and runs the non-profits Center for Personal Rights and Health Freedom Action. Louise was a Bain consultant and a C-level executive in the financial services industry. She holds two degrees from Stanford University.
Brilliant post. Just brilliant.
The news media, encouraged by industry and public health officials, has been pitting parent against parent for some time now. It’s one of the oldest political tactics in the books, and we really need to stop allowing them to manipulate us–ALL OF US, ON BOTH SIDES–in this way.
I second the motion. A thorough, concise and powerful post.
Louise,
This is a fabulous article! It is so important that people read it to discover some very important aspects of the responsibilities of parenting. Thank you for the wonderful work you are doing with such courage, wisdom, and kindness. Our families and loved ones need the kind of truth that you obviously pursue.
Thank you Louise Kuo Habakus. A well thought out response to an often asked question.
Louise, this is amazing! Well written, as usual. Some exciting developments happening here. I can’t locate your email address for some reason? Could messenger me with it so I can fill you in and run a big idea by you please wink emoticon thank you for this article! Love and light to you my dear
Wow. I shared. You are an amazing human and I am so proud to call you my friend.
Respectful and informed debate is exactly what the CDC and the vaccine industry are aggressively seeking to suppress.
It’s become a personal effort because it’s a moral issue. If we are not allowed to place our children’s lives above any self-serving rhetoric, then that alone tells us where their priorities lie.
Where there’s no conscience, there is no respectful dialogue. smh
It’s funny because this page itself suppress respectful and informed debate.
You know that all we’ve heard throughout the past eight decades is pharma’s side only. This page actually provides the side deliberately suppressed by the pharma industry, for the past eight decades.
Twisted, right? smile emoticon
Any thinking person would understand the logic, and embrace the effort to know more. After all, it is a moral debate, wouldn’t you agree? Critical thinking skills are necessary, for the sake of our children.
Science without religion (morals, ethics, conscience) is lame (a con); religion without science is blind.
Albert Einstein
It is, therefore, scientific to question everything. Science is never settled. To believe that to be true, and not explore further, to shut down investigation and query, is anti-science.
Hilarious. The comment has been deleted so the reply makes no sense. What happened to ‘respectful discussion’?
Maybe we’re tired of the lame and mindless rhetoric, void of morals. Maybe we’re just tired to know that you and your ilk forget to place our children, their safety, into the discussion. Maybe we’re just tired of hearing nothing original.
Again, this is a moral debate. Yet you and your ilk place ego, arrogance, into this.
I suppose what sets us apart is that we’re led by a moral compass. We care nothing about ego, paycheck, titles, or degrees.
We place our children first. And we question everything that affects their lives.
Let’s start with stating that no disease is caused by lack of drugs, which automatically means that synthetic, man-made drugs cannot prevent any disease. The whole concept is pretty absurd.
And we end with the most basic empirical truth, no Ph.D. required.
Humans are organic, born from nature. We’re not artificially developed in a lab. We thrive from nature; we’re compromised, eventually destroyed, by all that is synthetic.
Science without religion (morals, ethics, conscience) is lame (a con); religion without science is blind.
Albert Einstein
The Immune system. Feed it right, that’s nature’s vaccine.
What an excellent response!
Louise is the Founding Director of Fearless Parent, Executive Director and Co-Founder of The Center for Personal Rights, and Author of ” Vaccine Epidemic” She is formerly pro-vaccine, but due to first-hand knowledge and experience changed her opinion on the safety and efficacy of vaccines. Like the rest of us who have TRULY investigated the issue. This woman is a force-of-nature, and I’m proud to say I know her. Thank you, Louise, for once again nailing this issue. heart emoticon
Brilliant-thank you for saying what we’ve all wanted to and just didn’t have the words?
Excellent article via Louise Kuo Habakus and Fearless Parent.
Brilliant Louise Kuo Habakus! As I try to build awareness for the NON-CHOICE of 500,000 Foster Children in the US, I would love some sharing and comments for your post and my comments on Fostering Nutrition from all you amazing people on this thread. <3 #hopeitsoktoask #fosterkidsmattertoo #everyonedeservestobehealthy
i’m carrying comments over to the blog and i embedded your FB page link. LMK how i can help
Ditto how can I help?
Thank you! Awareness is huge and Getting foster parents and others to speak is helpful. It’s so taboo that these kids fall through the cracks. We need to reach the state and workers to identify immune compromised kids to stop vaccines and to build awareness!
Very well researched and thoughtful in depth discussion of all of the relevant issues. Bravo!
My son is immunocompromised because of vaccines. Policy would insist we continue to vaccinate him.
This makes me so sad. I’m so sorry Lesly! Praying for your son.
How ironic right? The parents of immunocompromised kids who insist everyone around their child gets vaccinated…….maybe they want more company in their sadistic thinking?
LOVE. <3
Really a terrific article, maybe the best I have seen on the subject. Thank you for all your hard work helping to educate parents on the topic of vaccines.
Very beautifully stated.
Love this!
Perfect
When my husband was stage 4 we were told to keep all recently vaccinated children away from him and out of the house.
I am now immune compromised due to my flu shot injury. I love when people tell me I should get shots to stay healthy. I then list off the numbers of my flu shot injury. 24 days in a hospital, 4 years no feeling in my legs, $560,000 in medical bills to date, two surgeries with another pending to fix my legs, had to tell my kids twice I was going to die, I would never want anyone to vaccinate to keep me safer. I would rather die than risk another persons health
Thank you Louise Kuo Habakus for this EXCELLENT article. Educate Before You Vaccinate. Watch #VaxxedTheMovie near you, #TraceAmounts Documentary, The Greater Good Documentary. Think For Yourself.
Thank you so much for this article. It will be saved and shared.
Louise,
Thank you for a very thought and educated piece. I have lived this battle personally as a father of two girls, my oldest was completely vaccinated and never showed any adverse reactions. My youngest however showed progressively worsening reactions the last of which was very frightening and heartbreaking for both her mother and I. After very careful consideration and research she has not received any vaccines since age one. Since making the decision to discontinue the vaccine program her mother and I have both suffered the criticism, isolation and hate from friends, family, schools and the medical community. My youngest turns 5 this week and after her apparent regressions in nearly every category she now seems to be on catching up and appears lucky to not have suffered permanent damage. It is my personal belief that at some point in the future the government forced vaccine program will be identified as its greatest injustice to it people. Thank you for your work and bravery.
This may be the BEST thing I’ve ever read on this topic. Thank you.
I agree. So well written and respectful. Thank you so much for writing this Louise.
Beautifully written. I am repeatedly shocked at the backlash I get when I speak up in this topic. It was actually scary but I’ll never stop. I’ll never take my child in for another vaccination, I will continue to educate my friends and family – anyone who will listen for that matter.
thank you Louise!
Great article, Louise!
Regarding talking to people about this controversial subject, I am trained and experienced in public relations and investigatory logic. I have read The Art of War nine times. However, my interaction with a real professional who goes head to head against Big Pharma is that there are a lot of things that I don’t know. That said, I recommend making friends with people who are worth knowing, WITHOUT trashing their reality. Suggesting to people that they read the package inserts on vaccines such as MMR could be a good start.
Relationships FIRST honoring their Cognitive Dissonance and ONLY using the Doggy Door versus barging in the front door after they have told you you are unwelcome.
Thank you for writing this Louise! As the mother of a child who was vaccine injured, but through years of holistic care to reverse his injury had made great strides, I have to attest to the fact that those who are immunocompromised face much more inherent danger from the recently vaccinated that those who are unvaccinated ( and the vast majority of children with ASDs are immunocompromised in some manner IMHO–although they may have no official diagnosis as such. During the swine flu epidemic in NYC in June 2011, all NYC public schools were vaccinating children for the swine flu. Of course, I did not have my son vaccinated, but others in his class were. In less than 20 minutes after the rest of his class returned to the classroom, my son’s teacher called me in great alarm. My son who previously had not tics had suddenly begun to twitch and jerk so violently that he could not even see or write. The cause and effect were obvious. It took two years to get over his propensity for this reaction through homeopathy. Each year in October with the start of flu vaccine season we saw horrible tics, full body jerking, and other symptoms consistent with a diagnosis of PANDAS (Pediatric Autoimmune Neuropsychiatric Disorders Associated with Streptococcus). I considered pulling my son out of school, keeping him away from church, etc. to protect him from the recently vaccinated. Fortunately we were able to overcome the propensity with homeopathy. But it begs the question, how many children with PANDAS or with sudden intense regressions in ASD are really victims of exposure to the recently vaccinated?
This is fantastic Louise Kuo Habakus! Thank you for all the great work you do to advocate for the truth!
Louise Kuo Habakus–fabulous piece. Well-written. Full of facts and compassion. Thank you.
Great job!!
And if you don’t know, now ya know.
Nice quote! Show love, it’s the Brooklyn way.
Man, that’s good!!
Thank you. I’m saving this. What a great read. I feel like the anti-vaccine side and the pro-vaccine side are both extreme (and people speak to others in bullying ways). There are so many more people somewhere in the middle.
This. Is. Great.
Also – my NT daughter was just dx’d with CVID. There is a blog in me (or a book maybe, we shall see) about this.
Author Desiree Rover, she has written books in regards to vaccines and did a lot of digging about the history of vaccines, it “should” make people rethink what our government is forcing us to put in our children and ourselves.
You should also read Dr. Mary’s Monkey! I trust nothing the gov’t has to say, nothing! At the end of the day it’s about parental rights to “informed consent” and if we say no, it means no!
That was wonderful Louise Kuo Habakus! What an article!!!
Respectful and informed debate. Intellectually written.
Having met a severely vaccine injured young man yesterday, this resonates even more…
The compassion in this letter is a wonderful reminder of how I should be, though I’m not.
Me too.
This compassionate letter to any parent who thinks it is your obligation to society to vaccinate is the most important thing you will read today.
So beautiful. It angers me then breaks my heart every time I see a child with “measles” put on a sacred pedestal but any child who had a threatening reaction to MMR completely ignored. Proof some kids are more important than others. Some kids are just expendable, I guess?
Excellent article Louise Kuo Habakus. Well done! ???
Thank you so very much for this. Beautifully written. I hope it gets shared far and wide. heart emoticon
Louise Kuo Habakus speaks for me! Brava! So well written!
Thank you for taking the time and thank God for giving you the brilliance to write such a perfect piece on this issue. It should be spread far and wide.
Spot on Louise Kuo Habakus! Point by point, with so much grace and intellect. Thank you.
Remember we all want the same thing whether it is vaccines or elections. Clean water, clean food, happiness, love, healthy children etc
So the Pharma industry is paying people to blog “pro vaccination” messages. How desperate they must be to avoid people finding out that vaccines dont actually work. And never have. And kill people. And sicken and maim the survivors.
If vaccines are your god, you should read this.
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Thank you for sharing!
Following you 🙂
Who is looking out for the kids???
Thank you so much for sharing this.
this is brilliantly written.
My son was injured in 1994 by a vaccine, and I am frowned upon, have no voice if I mention it….. Respectful conversation doesnt happen, because the industry promotes unreasonable fear in people.
Your tweet is now featured on my @RebelMouse *bump it* rbl.ms/1tm3Ccu — Reiki Master Marie
Imagine if we worked together
Great read
This is a long read but oh so worth it, especially for parents of young kids. I found myself several times wishing that I had written it as her story and experience resembles my own. Then I saw the name of its author and know her to be an awesome parent in the autism community. Thank you Louise Kuo Habakus
Holly died from the MMR at 5 years old, I drove in a snow storm to make sure she had all of her shots done for kindergarten. Today I am a more knowledgeable, extensively researched parent trying to share the truth, but what’s insane is that most people don’t want to believe what you and I have learned the hard way (for various reasons, that could be another article for you to write). Brilliant summary of the illogical argument from the other side concerning the most utilized reason for removing the religious/philosophical exemptions in order to have mandatory vaccination for all. I am so glad that you addressed the fallacy that vaccination protects the immunocompromised in the population. Also, thank you for discussing what DOES need to be addressed in this conversation. Much respect and love to you Louise. <3
One of my heroes, Robin Rebrik Stavola — brave and beautiful inside and out. You’re doing so much to help people. One day, they’ll understand. God bless…
Louise~ well said. Robin~ we’ve never met in person, however, I too consider you one of my heroes, so blessed our paths crossed.
The feelings are mutual for both of you. I don’t like to accept the title of hero, I feel that those who have died from vaccine injury and those who are still suffering daily from vaccine injury are the heroes, we are their messengers trying to share the truth. We are all in this fight together and possess similar goals, and we all share the capability to defeat the opposition. I am so blessed to have the support and friendship from the both of you Louise and Melanie. Thank you!
Robin Rebrik Staviola and Michael Belkin, thank you both for your tireless efforts to educate others. I didn’t want to believe that vaccines could cause such harm, even after all 3 of my children had had adverse reactions, until I read testimony from parents like you, and especially your testimony. Please know that your advocacy is helping so many of us to learn the facts we need to know to protect our children from further harm.
I only wish I could have helped you protect yours.
<3 to you & your family Robin…
Sins of Omission & Co-mission~ One day we will know the whole deal
A well written and compassionate article speaking to both sides of the vaccine controversy. It presents logic that many people don’t apply.
I <3
Bravo!!!!! Absolutely the best read on this heated topic!!
Glad to share it!!
Thanks 🙂
I use Genetic disposition to protect my kids from any FURTHER harm. We ALL have Mito dysfunction, which explains A LOT. Prior, there was nothing we could use, and two of my girls have some different issues that directly arose after vaccination. After I ran genetics and combed through I was horrified and upset (I am a nutrigenomics practitioner and a health/wellness coach). I have had to work 10 times harder to protect us, than should be needed. We have the right to choice in medicine, period. Thank you so much for posting this.
Thank you for the carefully, wonderfully written article. It is the best explanation I have ever read. I will save it on my computer and with your permission, share it as needed.
You were far more diplomatic than my response would be. I especially loved the part of your letter where you pointed out that the CDC recommends that it is okay to vaccinate her immune compromised child. I guess she’s got no argument now.
Bravo! Bravo!
My oldest son almost lost his life to a series of vaccines in 1988. Thankfully, he survived, but he lost his ability to walk, talk, and feed himself. We are even one of the rare families that have won a settlement from VICP. My son is 29yrs old today and still suffers from ongoing vaccine-related health issues to this very day!
Up until all of these proposed vaccine mandates started sweeping our nation, I had never been met with such hateful rhetoric before. The pharmaceutical bought media has done a fantastic job of pitting parent against parent when all any of us really want, on either side of this fence, is for our children to remain happy and healthy for many years to come. Those who support vaccine mandates forget that there has never been, nor will there ever be, a such thing as a “one-size-fits-all” medical treatment plan for the masses. There will ALWAYS be a risk and with that risk must come choice. For those who have already endured the pain and agony of a vaccine injury in their family, this risk is 100%.
Parents are quickly dismissed if they even remotely hint at the possibilities that the precious vaccines caused their child(ren) harm tho’. We are told “correlation doesn’t equal causation” time and time again. Yet, with THOUSANDS of similar stories out there, how can you deny them? And once these families have suffered, they want to compound the issue by demanding we continue to vaccinate? I have seen and lived the dark side of this story. I will continue to advocate on the side of informed consent and parental choice.
This is an incredibly intelligent article, beautifully articulated by Louise Kuo Habakus. A must read heart emoticon
Thanks Louise Kuo Habakus great article!
If you are pro vaccination dont down the antivax for you truly dont realize till you are having to watch your child suffer from a vaccine. I didnt want to vaccinate but was forced with fear of Dss knocking at my door but that day is completely regrettable because I watch my daughter seizure and lose ability to walk for days on end while she cries in pain which started the day of her vaccines on October 15 2015. Yes my mom informed me of frankincense which has helped my baby so much with her seizures but only the bad ones during the day now when she closes her eyes to sleep she seizures all night long with eyeballs rolling and body twitching. I never know if when I wake up in the mornings if she will have made it through the night, you know the pain as a parent when you see your baby sick with a fever over the common cold but imagine if your heart broke daily knowing your childs brain is frying through every seizure she has at night, is constantly in pain, and not knowing if she will wake you up asking for that cup of milk first thing in the morning…just imagine before you judge! Vaccines do more harm then good and I am not the first to witness that. Luckly Jasmine is from what we see in the outside as fine but idk whats really going on inside and lily doesnt have the horrible seizures but she hurts all the time and walking longer then 10 minutes hurts her legs and she must be carried. I have 2 vaccine injured children it just so happens my 3 year old wasnt strong enough to fight of the heavy metals and chemicals as good as my other 2.
shared
Oh my, you covered so much ground here! THANK YOU for this and all the time and reading you did to get you to this point. You have reflected the concerns so many of us have now, but you have done it with more love than most of us (aware of Pharma’s power) could ever have mustered.
Excellent!
Yet, it now is recommended by IDSA that even “immunocompromised” children be vaccinated. The link below, from 2013, has been updated, w/a direct link in the article to the updated version. After all, what is “good medicine” for the healthy goose now is just as “good” for the not-so-well gander … Those parents with immunocompromised children are fearful that vaccinations either (a) won’t work or (b) will make their children ill? Well, tell them to welcome themselves to the crowd!
“An international panel of experts prepared an evidenced-based guideline for vaccination of immunocompromised adults and children. These guidelines are intended for use by primary care and subspecialty providers who care for immunocompromised patients. Evidence was often limited. Areas that warrant future investigation are highlighted.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
These guidelines were created to provide primary care and specialty clinicians with evidence-based guidelines for active immunization of patients with altered immunocompetence and their household contacts in order to safely prevent vaccine-preventable infections. They do not represent the only approach to vaccination. Recommended immunization schedules for normal adults and children as well as certain adults and children at high risk for vaccine-preventable infections are updated and published annually by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and partner organizations. Some recommendations have not been addressed by the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) to the CDC or they deviate from recommendations. The goal of presenting these guidelines is to decrease morbidity and mortality from vaccine-preventable infections in immunocompromised patients. Summarized below are the recommendations made by the panel. Supporting tables that provide additional information are available in the electronic version. The panel followed a process used in the development of other Infectious Diseases Society of America guidelines, which included a systematic weighting of the quality of the evidence and the grade of the recommendation (Table 1). The key clinical questions and recommendations are summarized in this executive summary. A detailed description of the methods, background, and evidence summaries that support each recommendation can be found in the full text of the guidelines.”
http://cid.oxfordjournals.org/…/2013/11/26/cid.cit684.full
More on this news: But, but, but parents of immunocompromised children do not like the fact that these recommendations have not been made based on any adequate research or that the IDSA members have conflicts of interest here? Well, tell them to welcome themselves to the crowd:
“Disclosure: The guideline authors report various financial relationships with Abbott, AiCuris, Amino Up Chemical, Astellas Pharma, Clinigen, Cubist, Dyax, GlaxoSmithKline, MedImmune, Merck, Nutricia, Pfizer, Roche, UCB, UpToDate Inc., Vical and ViroPharma.”
__________________________________________________
New guidelines released by the Infectious Diseases Society of America stress the importance of the influenza vaccine and other vaccines for immunocompromised patients, including those with HIV and cancer.
According to the guidelines, which were published in Clinical Infectious Diseases, vaccination rates are lower among these patients partly because their physicians may be concerned about the safety and effectiveness of these vaccines. There has not been a comprehensive set of guidelines that addresses all vaccinations.
“The guidelines provide ‘one-stop shopping’ for clinicians caring for children and adults with compromised immune systems and includes recommendations and evidence for all vaccinations, from influenza to chicken pox,” Lorry G. Rubin, MD, director of pediatric infectious diseases at the Steven and Alexandra Cohen Children’s Medical Center of New York in New Hyde Park and professor of pediatrics at Hofstra North Shore-LIJ School of Medicine, said in an IDSA press release. “Previously, the recommendations were difficult to retrieve because, in most cases, information had to be accessed individually by vaccine, rather than by the category of patient disease.”
Most vaccinations are covered in the guidelines, including Haemophilus influenzae type b, hepatitis A, diphtheria-tetanus-acellular pertussis, tetanus-diphtheria-acellular pertussis, HPV, influenza, measles-mumps-rubella, meningococcal, pneumococcal, polio, rotavirus, varicella and zoster.
Among the most notable recommendations is that most immunocompromised patients aged at least 6 months should receive an annual influenza vaccine, but not the live-attenuated vaccine nasal spray. Patients who are receiving intensive chemotherapy or who have received anti-B-cell antibodies within the previous 6 months may not benefit from an influenza vaccine. In addition, the guidelines recommend vaccines for immunocompetent individuals who live with immunocompromised patients.
The patients/conditions covered in the guidelines include:
Congenital immune deficiencies;
HIV/AIDS;
Cancer;
Solid organ transplant;
Stem cell transplant;
Chronic inflammatory conditions (such as rheumatoid arthritis and Crohn’s disease);
Sickle cell disease and asplenia;
Cochlear implants;
Cerebrospinal fluid leaks.
IDSA guidelines urge vaccinations for immunocompromised patients,
Infectious Disease News
I love you Louise Kuo Habakus thank you for all that you do to save our children you are one of the most amazing women I have met in this lifetime …I will always be your fan xo
Big love right back to you, Nourhan. So grateful for your support. xo
Yeah I wondered about the ” public health” argument on vaccines. Could it be driven by greed rather than the desire for collective health ?
Some people get paid to propagate propaganda some do it from from their own brainwashing this people are the real Tragedy ..!
Sorry, I’m responsible for my kids and your responsible for your own. Keep my unvaxxed kids out of it.
Great article. It’s too often that this is such a misunderstood debate.
One of the best written articles I have had the pleasure to read.
… meanwhile the package inserts say not to . . . .hmmmmm
*applause*
Fabulous!
Yes!
Great post Louise! Will share with my members and parent groups in Westchester. Fantastic read, thanks <3 Blessings!
Thanks Louise Kuo Habakus!
How can you be honest with a bunch of liars.
It’s one of the most thoughtful and well-written pieces I’ve read on the subject–thank YOU. <3
Thank u Louise Kuo Habakus U are a solid rock star! So much love and appreciation for all u do <3
Excellent read by Fearless Parent
This is the best article I have read so far about the vaccine discussions! It is excellent and objective and very relevant! Thank you!!’
I really don’t understand how some parents impose and attack people who are anti-vaccinated or pro-vaccinated. IT’S YOUR CHILD. I see parents give them their kids total crap food and have them on devices in their strollers, but I don’t say anything to them because that’s not my kid. Somehow people feel the need to tell other’s how to raise their child. For me personally, that’s the fastest way to leave my life..is to tell me how to raise my child in a way that comes across as belittling, insulting or judging. I view it as immaturity at it’s finest. Just RESPECT ONE ANOTHER and let them do what they feel is best for their own family. How is it that hard?
The pro-vaccine people are afraid that there will be all these outbreaks because people are not vaccinating as much. They are also afraid because so many immigrants are moving into north america with all sorts of old and new sickness. It is all fear-based, not informed decisions, thank the media and big pharma for all this.
I can see the fear and understand it, but that won’t make me all of a sudden vaccinate. After researching and reading the Vaccination Book our family made the decision to not have our baby in child care and to breast feed until age 2.
I think the tricky part comes when you have little ones mixing together and the combat of beliefs happen. Anti vaxxers could be afraid of the shedding and pro vaxxers have their own fears.
I have a 12 year old daughter and this was never an issue with her. I stopped vaccinating her at 18mos after I became aware of the risks. Her immune system is STELLAR and she has been on antibiotics roughly 3 times in her entire life.
^ just to clarify I’m speaking about my baby that I’m currently carrying and my 12 yr old.
You can see which people are choosing vaccines….
oh goodness sums up our life recently.
Brilliant ??
A real conversation instead of parroting corporate lies would be a good place to start.
Thank you for sharing, Jan <3
Thank YOU for your tireless work on behalf of parents and children who are discarded, marginalized or demonized because people are blind to the pervasive corruption and fraud of our own government, media, and medical institutions (WHO, FDA, CDC).
Respect differences. Clean up and lessen up vaccines. These are babies already. We were not designed for this. Common sense.
it’s such an eloquent piece. great work, Louise! it must be read by all!
It’s a great compilation!
This is great!
<3 and ️thank you for your encouragement back when you came to LA to speak at the Weston Price event. With your and Laura's boost of confidence, I've been active and vocal ever since!!
Can you come to my rally in Atlanta this weekend? It may be impossible for you but would LOVE to have you there! ❤️ Thank you Louise, I have great admiration, love and respect for you! ??? http://www.cdcTRUTH.org
Wonderful to have you here Louise Kuo Habakus! (on Navigating Vaccines FB page) I’m a huge fan of your work. 🙂
As an immunocompromised person the last people I want around me are the recently vaccinated with LVV. They aren’t protecting me, they are potentially putting me at risk for illness.
I also see the anti-vaccine groups hating on the parents who choose vaccines. It goes both ways and isn’t right either way. Nobody should be attacked for making an informed choice no matter what that choice is… We are all doing the best we can with the knowledge we have.
They can call parents who refuse to vaccinate their kids whatever they want. At least these parents have healthy children.
Honest disagreement and the respect that allows each to pursue their own ideology without harm is a lost art that needs to be remembered and practiced again
And the words “I’m not anti-vaccine, I’m pro safe vaccines” are never ever heard
I read A letter from a mother of a immune compromised child. It’s stated that her doctor informed her not to vaccinate her other children. She was informed that her child was under greater risk from others newly vaccinated, Since they carry the live virus!…… She ended her letter with don’t put The blame on us!….. I think everyone should fight for safe vaccines
I vaccinate my son, but couldn’t give two shits what other people want to do to theirs relative to the subject. Not my child, not my problem.
Goed geschreven en onderbouwd artikel. Echt de moeite waard om te lezen. ?
Het begint met begrip voor elkaar. Elk leven telt.
Translated from Dutch:
Well written and researched article. Really worth the trouble to read. ?
It starts with understanding for each other. Every life counts.
I respectful, and informed, debate is exactly what the CDC and the vaccine industry, are aggressively seeking to suppress.
For us, it’s become a personal effort because it remains a moral issue. If we are not allowed to place our children’s lives above any self-serving rhetoric, then that alone tells us where their priorities lie.
Think less, feel more. Apparently that’s too much to ask for our children. Where there’s no conscience, there is no respectful dialogue. smh
You know that all we’ve heard throughout the past eight decades is pharma’s side only. This page actually provides the side deliberately suppressed by the pharma industry.
Twisted, right? smile emoticon
Any thinking person would understand the logic, and embrace the effort to know more. After all, it is a moral debate, wouldn’t you agree? Critical thinking skills are necessary, for the sake of our children.
Science without religion (morals, ethics, conscience) is lame (a con); religion without science is blind.
Albert Einstein
It is, therefore, scientific to question everything. Science is never settled. To believe that to be true, and not explore further, to shut down investigation and query, is anti-science.
[Editor’s note: civil discourse is welcome but intolerance and disrespect are not. This comment was response to comments that were removed]]
Maybe we’re tired of the lame and mindless rhetoric, void of morals. Maybe we’re just tired to know that you and your ilk forget to place our children, their safety, into the discussion. Maybe we’re just tired of hearing nothing original.
Again, this is a moral debate. Yet you and your ilk place ego, arrogance, into this.
I suppose what sets us apart is that we’re led by a moral compass. We care nothing about ego, paycheck, titles, or degrees.
We place our children first. And we question everything that affects their lives.
Let’s start with stating that no disease is caused by lack of drugs, which automatically means that synthetic, man-made drugs cannot prevent any disease. The whole concept is pretty absurd.
And we end with the most basic empirical truth, no Ph.D. required.
Humans are organic, born from nature. We’re not artificially developed in a lab. We thrive from nature; we’re compromised, eventually destroyed, by all that is synthetic.
Science without religion (morals, ethics, conscience) is lame (a con); religion without science is blind.
Albert Einstein
It is scientific to question everything. Science is never settled. To believe that to be true, and not explore further, to shut down investigation and query, to intentionally harm mankind, for profit, is anti-science.
Louise, you’ve managed to hit it outta the park once again! I am so impressed with the wealth of information contained here. And I love the previous post by Iris Figueroa. So true…
We all have the same goal – to raise our children to be healthy, happy adults. How great would it be if we all focused our energy on finding answers instead of creating divisive monikers such as “pro” and “anti?” We are ALL “pro-children!”
My deepest desire is for people to wake up and learn more about the amazing effects of homeoprophylaxis being used around the world for protection from epidemics and childhood diseases. Living WITH other organisms and finding the proper balance is the most rational solution to saving both our species and our planet.
The government can’t force you to vaccinate. There is almost always a waiver available for every vaccination requirement.
They do not make it easy for you,,I had to vaccinate my child in order for him to go to public school,,I was then told I could do religious exemption but that wouldn’t be a promise either,,,theses vaccines are not safe,,it’s not the point of vaccinations to get rid of diseases it’s what’s in the vaccinations that’s causing these problems to children,,,, if they were made much safer people wouldn’t have a problem,,,,I hope the movie vaxxed opens up a lot of people’s eyes
The waiver in IL for a religious/moral exemption is not automatically approved (the board gets to decide if you’re “sincere” enough), and it includes language stating that you acknowledge that you are putting your child and those around you in physical danger. So, they could, if they wanted to, at any time come and take your children because you admit you’re putting them in danger. How is that not force?
That’s a good point. We are from IL, and moved to MI, and have only a little knowledge of DCFS in IL. It would probably take a good lawyer, and some time, but I think that with the recent court victories against vaccines, that a state action to take your children would be unsuccessful.
The irrational premise of herd immunity start with the fact that vaccines don’t work. So pro-vaxxers have to destroy the health and lives of everyone around them with the hope they would have some illusions of protection.
If vaccines do really works and only fail sometimes as they pretend, all pro-vaxxers have to do is to take as many shots as necessary to make sure they finally work for them, and leave others alone.
IF VACCINES DO REALLY WORK, NO UNVACCINATED PERSON WOULD BE A DANGER FOR VACCINE ONES!
Said so well ???? I wish I knew what I know now ! Mine are grown ! I have leukemia since 2011 the oncologist & my doctor drive me crazy about the flu shot !!!! No thank you ! I’v been fine ” I told them you let me worry about that !!!! Now I’m doing a Ketoginic diet now my life style ! I’m off two blood pressure pills & thyroid ” sleep like I’m 20 at 55 and my life is good again ! As for the leukemia I took myself down to 1/2 my meds & blood work is fine ! The oncologist said the kind I have is a fluke ?? I don’t think so ! My have been vaccine ? Who knows ! I’v done more for my health in one year than any of my doctors ! They can’t cure any thing ! I hate paying for crap health ins ! We can only use MDs ! Not fair at all !!!! Sorry for the rant ! Felt good ?
I love you woman.
Wonderfully written article.
Excellent article
THIS WINS THE INTERNET THIS WEEK.
Please read.
And share.
Ask any mother of a vaccine-injured child if vaccines are worth the risk.
Great article! Thank you
I choose to vaccinate….irradiation of illnesses such as polio is enough to convince me that the value out weighs the risk,as well as the resurgence of measles amongst the unvaccinated. I have researched topics such as Autism and mercury in vaccines, and spoken to many parents that believe their children were forever changed after receiving vaccinations. I have worked with and loved many children affected by autism, and still I decide to vaccinate my own children. We cannot say for certain that vaccines play a role in the development of Autism or other neurological disorders, but we can say that diseases that once stole the lives of countless children have been mostly erased. My child is part of the herd, and I am ok with that.
You are amazing and I thank you from the bottom of my heart for your courage and enthusiasm to keep this going for a better future <3
A respectful, and informed, debate is exactly what the CDC and the vaccine industry, are aggressively seeking to suppress.
<3 U Louise!!!!
This is fabulous, thoughtful, quite brilliantly presented important information for all parents. This question I have is in finding ways to present it to the parents who really need to read this; they are the parents who don’t/won’t read this blog and have such barriers to opening themselves up to these truths. Like one of your respondents, who still vaccinates her child because she is not sure that there is a connection between autism and vaccinations (hundreds of studies that she obviously hasn’t read say differently), but she believes that vaccines were responsible for eradicating diseases (much evidence to show otherwise that she hasn’t/won’t read). So much investment in the myth of vaccine safety!!! The only answer I have to my question is one by one. One parent or set of parents at a time. I know for sure that I have influenced 4-5 parents in their decisions about vaccinations by presenting them with the information and research that is already out there. Maybe in turn, there can be a geometrically increasing impact.
I love your work. Thanks for writing.
Hi Louise, I am overwhelmed by the accuracy, depth and truth in your article. “Honest Disagreement in a Pro-Vaccine World” is truly a gift to those of us that are looking to help other’s understand the magnitude of information (and mis-information) on the vaccination system and a reasoned voice of respect and intellect. I could not be more grateful for the time and effort you put into this article and all of your advocacy. If my son had words he would thank you too. Best Regards, Joyce DeMio
Such an informative well written article. Thank you for all you do.
Just a fantastic article! Thank you <3
Another brilliant article from my brilliant friend Louise Kuo Habakus!
This is a fantastic post by Louise Kuo Habakus! If you’ve ever heard that unvaccinated children put immuno-compromised children at risk, you need to read this post…from the first word to the last. Louise lays out a powerfully logical and respectful argument as to why this claim is something to dig deeper into and fully understand. Get the big picture. Understand the role this industry plays in that carefully crafted comment and rhetoric.
Thank you, Louise, for your level-headed posts, for your willingness to calmly share knowledge and for consistently educating in a way that we can easily share with those we love and care about. I appreciate you, your voice & your advocacy so much!
Amen!!!
Excellent!
She took the words right out of my mouth with this quote:
But I discovered new people, smart parents, asking hard questions. I opened the PubMed vault with a few clicks of my mouse. I spoke with researchers at conferences. I unearthed mountains of scientific literature, marketing materials, package inserts, corporate correspondence, FOIA requests, government documents, and more. I stopped sleeping and started reading with the desperation of a mom who needs to help her children.
You can read our story here: http://www.hormonesmatter.com/autoinflammatory-syndromes-adjuvant-induced-pfapa-cyclic-fever/
Great Read, so happy to see more and more people shining light on this topic!
This is a beautifully written post on a difficult topic. It’s long, but worth the time to read and consider. Thank you Louise Kuo Habakus for sharing your experience and knowledge with so much care and respect.
Totally!!! Why “some kids” have to be sacrificed? Is all or nothing! Only the parents should have the ultimate decision to take ANY risk with THEIR children! And other parents don’t like it! Too bad! This is one world and we all live here and have the same rights! Nobody can be impose others life styles just because of their paranoia!
Beautifully and brilliantly written. Yes. We all want what is best for our children. The vitriol that is spewed forth by those who actually hate those of us who research and choose a delayed schedule of vaccines or even no vaccines is sad, hurtful, and unjust. I have never heard an “anti-vaxxer” demand the incarceration of a “vaxxer.” Yet, I have had to stop posting even small articles about “doing your research” on vaccines because people at my job and the parents of the friends if my children were making life difficult. Just as there is not a one size fits all when it comes to other medicines, the same is true for vaccines. And whenever the Vaccine Court has higher standing than the Supreme Court, well then we have an issue. Keep writing these well written, fact filled, beautifully stated blog posts!!! I will share where I can!!
Doing your own research is key. These people know a tremendous amount about this topic. It’s valid information.
Thank you! I’m going to read this. The older they are getting, the more I find myself saying no to all these new ones & pointless ones. Then I saw that one about the MMR which I refused last week just because I had an “off” feeling. Scares the crap out of me!
The problem here with the vaccines is all the crap that’s in it if they would create a safe vaccine that wouldn’t cause any side effects and just get rid of the diseases then I feel everybody wouldn’t have a problem because they are loaded with such unnecessary stuff ,,,things need to change and people need to make a change,,our children are paying the price
If u have children or are going too..please read..please become educated about vaccines
Immunocompromised people aren’t supposed to drink fluoridated water either but the health “leaders” don’t bat an eye, told us their numbers are too small and they’ll have to avoid the water on their own.
This is fascinating but I’m not finding a reference for it. Dental sites are still gung ho for fluoride for the immunocompromised. But I did find this CDC reference about not drinking tap water because of a parasite.
http://www.cdc.gov/healthywater/drinking/bottled/
Don’t know about a link, but during the fluoridation debate here in Portland there were many who testified they are immuno compromised and can’t tolerate the fluoridation chemicals.
Wonderfully well written. Thank you for being an advocate in such a hostile environment.
I really appreciate how well written and informative your article is. I am an RN and used to be fully immersed in the kool-aid. After witnessing the schedule grow for benign diseases like the chickenpox and vaccinating for Hep B within the 1st 24hrs of life, I began to question the motives of the US health care system. It seemed unlikely that there was a world wide conspiracy of disgruntled parents claiming their children were injured by vaccines and more likely there is a cover up by the pharmaceutical industry that profits billions of dollars a years on our complacency. Too bad there aren’t more people able to open their minds and see the truth.
In our home the vaccine debate became very real with the birth of our daughter. My husband is pro vaccine and pro whatever the governement pushes.
The one thing that tilted him towards the no vaccine for her, was the fact that there is too much money and finacial interest tied into vaccines. He believes in vaccines, but the financial aspect made him very hesitant…
Maybe we’re tired of the lame and mindless rhetoric, void of morals. Maybe we’re just tired to know that you and your ilk forget to place our children, their safety, into the discussion. Maybe we’re just tired of hearing nothing original.
Again, this is a moral debate. Yet you and your ilk place ego, arrogance, into this.
I suppose what sets us apart is that we’re led by a moral compass. We care nothing about ego, paycheck, titles, or degrees.
We place our children first. And we question everything that affects their lives.
Let’s start with stating that no disease is caused by lack of drugs, which automatically means that synthetic, man-made drugs cannot prevent any disease. The whole concept is pretty absurd.
And we end with the most basic empirical truth, no Ph.D. required.
Humans are organic, born from nature. We’re not artificially developed in a lab. We thrive from nature; we’re compromised, eventually destroyed, by all that is synthetic.
Science without religion (morals, ethics, conscience) is lame (a con); religion without science is blind.
Albert Einstein
The Immune system. Feed it right, that’s nature’s vaccine.
Maybe we’re tired of the lame and mindless rhetoric, void of morals. Maybe we’re just tired to know that you and your ilk forget to place our children, their safety, into the discussion. Maybe we’re just tired of hearing nothing original.
Again, this is a moral debate. Yet you and your ilk place ego, arrogance, into this.
I suppose what sets us apart is that we’re led by a moral compass. We care nothing about ego, paycheck, titles, or degrees.
We place our children first. And we question everything that affects their lives.
Let’s start with stating that no disease is caused by lack of drugs, which automatically means that synthetic, man-made drugs cannot prevent any disease. The whole concept is pretty absurd.
And we end with the most basic empirical truth, no Ph.D. required.
Humans are organic, born from nature. We’re not artificially developed in a lab. We thrive from nature; we’re compromised, eventually destroyed, by all that is synthetic.
Science without religion (morals, ethics, conscience) is lame (a con); religion without science is blind.
Albert Einstein
The Immune system. Feed it right, that’s nature’s vaccine.
google sv-40
Stellar sentiments elegantly shared, wonderfully inclusive, and so very therapeutic. Thank you Louise Kuo Habakus!
I hate vaccines. I never know what to do. I want her to be protected but I don’t like the side effects and giving her anything in the first place. ?
“If drug companies and medical educators were really providing education, doctors and academic institutions would pay them for their services. When you take piano lessons, you pay the teacher, not the other way around. But in this case, industry pays the academic institutions and faculty, and even the doctors who take the courses. The companies are simply buying access to medical school faculty and to doctors in training and practice” Marcia Angell, former editor, The New England Journal of Medicine
Like..this kind of post that blatantly disrespects those of us who do not believe in benefit of vaccinations? Like this kind of disrespect?
Martin Piper
April 8 at 9:10pm
https://www.facebook.com/martin.piper.180/posts/10154126945929532?pnref=story
It seems some anti vaccination groups are pushing their agenda, from ultra conservative America, here in Singapore. They don’t have any valid scientific evidence. Simply put they put our children at risk because of their dogma. They are sometimes trying to use the church networks to promote their message with false claims of vaccination being against their idea of what God says.
Here’s what you should do to protect our children.
1) Collect whatever information they are promoting. Get names and addresses of who is leading these groups if possible.
2) Report it to the Ministry of Health
3) File a police report for false advertising of health information, child endangerment and sedition.
These people need to be arrested for promoting harmful lies that cause children to die.
And also the kind of engagement where you are asked whether you are a medical doctor? Are they saying we have to be doctors to be alert? Well, f’ them.
Yes, the vaccine injured AND the about-to-be-vaccine-injured have no voice, no status, no recognition! !!
Amazing article.
Great article sister the rabbit hole is very deep few dare to go down it but once you start to things make more sense… depletion of our soil, poisoning the water with chemicals, full on war against our body and mind… too many useless eaters egomaniacs run the show. Once the trance is broken their little dog and pony show will be over and we can then have peace on earth live free and independent but that won’t happen if we don’t conquer our Kingdom fist then the change can happen from the inner to the outer .
An article that should be read by all parents. Thank you very much. And I love this …. “I’m their mom; I place their interests above all else; and that is all.”
http://anthraxvaccine.blogspot.com/2015/05/immunocompromised-children-what-are.html
Immunocompromised children: what are their infectious risks from the unvaccinated?
In the last few days (I wrote this in May 2015) there have been multiple news articles and testimonies in the Maine and Vermont legislatures about the need to impose vaccine mandates to protect immunocompromised children.[1] [2] I attended the vaccine bills’ hearing in Augusta, Maine on May 11, which lasted into the night. I also attended the Vermont Senate hearing 3 weeks earlier. The Vermont Senate committee said it would only hear testimony from physicians, which is why I was invited. Not very many doctors are familiar with the vaccine literature. Vaccines are, surprisingly, an arcane area of medicine.
Unfortunately, I heard not a single expert (at either hearing) provide any data about the magnitude of the problem that vaccine mandates are supposed to fix. In fact, I was quite surprised to learn that helping the immunocompromised seemed to be the major justification to remove vaccine exemptions.
I heard no one mention the fact that vaccine efficacies of 40%, 60%, 80% (approximately correct for influenza, diphtheria, mumps vaccines) might also pose some risk to the immunodeficient. (These are just examples; most other vaccines have efficacy in the 60-90% range.) Actually, any statistician could tell you that low efficacy poses considerably more risk than exemption rates of 1-5% in Maine (depending on which required vaccine we are discussing). Vaccines with low efficacy make the claim of herd immunity a joke–but did even one “expert” at the hearings know or care?
How much risk is actually posed by “vaccine-preventable” diseases to the immunocompromised? I reviewed the most common infections seen in those at highest risk: stem cell transplant recipients[3] and leukemia patients.[4]
Here is what I found.
“The limited data show that community acquired respiratory viruses (CARVs) and herpesviruses are the most common pathogens. Among the causes of CARV respiratory tract infections, a preponderance of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and parainfluenza virus (PIV) are reported, followed by influenza virus and human metapneumovirus (HMPV). In the herpesvirus family, the incidence of herpes simplex virus (HSV) and varicella zoster virus (VZV) infections as well as cytomegalovirus (CMV) diseases have significantly decreased because of effective prophylaxis. The reports on human herpes virus (HHV)-6 diseases are increasing…
Other viruses, such as herpesviruses and adenovirus, may also result in respiratory infections… Herpesvirus pneumonia is usually caused by reactivation of latent viruses which occurs in severe immunosuppression.
… viral encephalitis was mainly caused by human herpes virus (HHV)-6, followed by EBV, HSV, JC virus, CMV, VZV in the recipients of allo-HSCT. Our data showed that herpesvirus-associated encephalitis was mainly caused by EBV followed by HSV, CMV and VZV…
The most frequent pathogens of viral hepatitis are hepatitis B virus (HBV) and hepatitis C virus (HCV). Besides these, other viruses such as CMV and HSV may also result in hepatitis. Hepatitis B and C can be caused by either virus reactivation or blood transmission…”
There are also many bacterial and fungal infections they may develop: too many to list. Of the many infections these patients tend to develop, the only 3 infections commonly seen, for which there exists a vaccine and which spread between children, are chickenpox (varicella zoster virus or VZV), influenza, and rotavirus.
Rotavirus is a relatively mild gastrointestinal virus and mortality, even in those with impaired immunity, is rare.[5]
Influenza is a real concern, but influenza vaccines are notoriously ineffective. This year, CDC said the vaccine had 19% efficacy.[6] (A Canadian study found no efficacy for this year’s flu vaccine.) Over the past ten years, CDC’s efficacy estimates for influenza vaccines averaged 40%.[7] So even if everyone in America was vaccinated, you could not generate herd immunity for influenza. You could not achieve the desired “cocoon” for those most vulnerable.
Chickenpox is caused by a virus that, once you have been infected, will live forever in your nerve cells. The vaccine virus also does this. Immunocompromised patients developing chickenpox/VZV infections are usually reactivating latent virus long present in their own bodies. Only very rarely are they “catching” chickenpox virus from someone else. Fortunately, we have antiviral drugs and immune globulin to prevent and treat these common reactivations.
Let me repeat: vulnerable, immunodeficient children are susceptible to many viral, bacterial and fungal infections, but these are very rarely caused by child to child spread of microorganisms for which we have vaccines. They are listed in footnotes 3 and 4.
It is troubling that vulnerable families have been encouraged to fear and stigmatize unvaccinated children, when the rates of primary and secondary vaccine failures (i.e., number of vaccinated kids who lack immunity despite their vaccinations) are far greater than the rates of children lacking vaccinations. [CDC’s 2012-13 kindergarten vaccine exemption rates by state ranged from a low of 0.1% to a high of 6.5%.] In fact, the vaccine failures pose a much larger risk. But are the immunocompromised suffering and dying due to other childrens’ vaccine failures? We are not hearing about it. If the vulnerable are not being harmed by vaccinated children who lack immunity, then it follows they are not suffering from exposure to the unvaccinated, either.
Don’t vulnerable families have enough real problems, without adding unfounded and unjustified fears? Isn’t it time to drop this canard?
As I said in an earlier post, the last measles deaths in the United States (there were 2) occurred in 2003. One was elderly; the other was aged 13 and had had a bone marrow transplant. I was unable to learn if his infection was from a vaccine strain or wild-type measles virus. Not a single American has died from measles since.
We need to know if vulnerable, immunocompromised children are catching and dying from vaccine-preventable diseases, and from whom they are catching these diseases: from the vaccinated, from the unvaccinated, or from their own latent viruses? From vaccine strains or wild-type infections?
How many children are affected? Where are they? Which diseases are killing them? I am not finding evidence of a problem in the medical literature.
Before we “fix” it, can someone describe the dimensions of this problem? Does this problem even exist?
[1] Portland Press Herald http://www.pressherald.com/2015/05/10/a-maine-teen-has-to-ask-is-everyone-in-this-room-vaccinated/
[2] Vermont Public Radio http://digital.vpr.net/post/passions-flare-hearing-proposal-eliminate-philosophical-exemption
[3] http://www.jhoonline.org/content/pdf/1756-8722-6-94.pdf
[4] http://cdn.intechopen.com/pdfs-wm/39664.pdf
[5] http://www.jhoonline.org/content/pdf/1756-8722-6-94.pdf
[6] http://www.cdc.gov/flu/professionals/vaccination/effectiveness-studies.htm
[7] http://www.cdc.gov/flu/professionals/vaccination/effectiveness-studies.htm
THANK YOU for this respectful piece!!! Well done!!!
I do not know how this amazing and through piece of writing escaped me!!! You left no stone unturned. As a fellow Author I applaud you. I will be sharing this and printing it out for skeptics to read!!! Thank you from the bottom of my heart. You are a difference maker!!!? So priviliged to know you and work in the most important cause of our lifetime.
wow.. thank you for your time to shared this! I love it.
Louise. I just read your “Honest Disagreement” Piece. I am so proud of you, and I don’t even know you. THANK YOU for writing a piece that accomplished everything that’s ever been missing in formerly written and thoughtful articles on the subject. I believe you navigated an almost impossible task with tremendous grace and courage and compassion. BRAVO to you. BRAVO.
What a lovely comment, Monica. Thank you. It makes me happy to know that ever larger numbers of parents are looking for ways to express their feelings and concerns about this topic.