Should New Yorkers have Vaccine Choice?

By Mary Mucci

For a generation, no one doubted that giving a child a vaccine was a good idea.  That’s not so now.  Too many children are damaged and we have traded infectious disease for chronic disease and disability according to Barbara Loe Fisher, President of the National Vaccine Information Center.  One in every 143 babies dies, 1 in 450 becomes diabetic,  1 in 150 becomes autistic, I in 9 suffers with asthma and 1 in every 6 is learning disabled.  That a worse record than twenty seven other countries.

 At a recent conference about vaccine choice, Fisher seemed to lay blame squarely on the more than sixty five doses of vaccines given to our children between birth and the age of 18.   Fisher says that, “Vaccination is a medical procedure performed on a healthy person which carries an inherent risk of injury or death.  That risk of harm is greater for some than others and there is no guarantee that vaccination will in fact confer immunity.”   

Dr, Larry Palevsky of East Northport took it one step further with, “Vaccines are not safe have never been proven to be safe and are not adequately tested using the highest of scientific standards we are taught to uphold, despite what we are told.”  So, is it the mercury, the aluminum, the MSG or other additives?  Dr. Palevsky said all of it and more.  We are injecting these substances right into the bloodstream of a young child with an immature immune system.

Of course there were speakers who favor the current government guidelines.  Dr. Debra Blog, the Head of the State Health Department, made it clear she thinks the current policy is just right.  “Personal belief exemptions mean more unvaccinated children, more unvaccinated children mean more disease, more disease means more hospitalizations, disabilities and death and that certainly in my mind is harm.”

Other speakers included a prominent pediatrician who also favors the current schedule.  He pointed out we are already exposed to aluminum, mercury and formaldehyde in our food and our environment….and, of course, he is right.  Vaccines are hardly the only source of the countless toxins our children are exposed to.  But parents I spoke to wonder …why increase the exposure with a vaccine when there are more natural ways to protect a child’s health.  Homeopathic remedies was the suggestion of one mom who said she’d like to pick and choose the vaccines her child will get.

I agree that New York should allow a philosophical exemption.  Eighteen other states already allow parents to opt out.  One of those is Vermont, which is considered the healthiest in the nation, despite, or perhaps because of, the lower immunization rates.  

The conference was called by state Assemblyman Mark Alessi { D 1^st Assembly district} and Richard Gottfried {D 75^th District } who is the chair of the House Health Committee. Alessi says we are beginning to identify those children who are at risk for having a bad vaccine reaction.  And because we can identify them we need to find a way to allow their parents to avoid vaccination.  But Gottfried favors making the current religious and medical waivers easier to get.  

That would be good news to Rita Palmer, who has spent the last two years fighting for her religious freedom.  She says she has been forced to vaccinate against her will to keep her boys in school.  Palmer became so incensed at her loss of religious freedom that she started a web site and a lobbying group in an effort to effect change.  If you’d like to learn more go to www.mykids,mychoice. Fortunately, none of her children have been adversely affected by vaccines.

To Your Health,

Mary

Contacts:

Rita Palmer,  parent activist

www.mykidsmychoice.com

Dr. Larry Palevsky, holistic pediatrician

[email protected]  631 262 8505 , Northport

Barbara Loe Fisher,  President of the National Vaccine Information Center

www.NVIC.org  this group has a great website,  it is not strictly anti-vaccine but rather pro vaccine safety

and vaccine choice

Comments

[John]

It is, by definition, not a philosophical objection to vaccination if you want to "pick and choose." In fact, the very idea worries me, since there's simply not enough information available for experts to pass judgement on a particular vaccine, let alone an untrained parent. What are they supposed to base their rational decision on, alarmist rhetoric coming from people with a financial stake on both sides? On how "scary" things sound? On media reports that may have been blown out of proportion?

That said, it is worrisome that the FDA has seemingly shifted interest from protecting the populace to acting as mandatory personal shoppers. Only epidemics should really have mandatory vaccination, to stop the spread. Anything else is just an attempt to change the environment without thinking through the consequences.

But if you want to be even more paranoid about vaccines, check out the literature on Gardasil. Sterility, paralysis, and crippling pain to stop a few strains (of many) of a disease that's usually not so bad. And yet, the huge marketing campaign invoking the mighty cancer has people trying to mandate it for all girls...and occasionally the factory spills it into town water supplies. Very creepy, even if one doesn't have children.

[Carol Noran]

Mary -

Please update your research and check your facts. There are now 20 states which allow exemption to vaccinations based on philosophical, personal, or conscientiously held beliefs.

In many of these states, individuals must object to ALL vaccines, not just a particular vaccine in order to use the philosophical or personal belief exemption.

Thus, when you write:

"...Homeopathic remedies was the suggestion of one mom who said she’d like to pick and choose the vaccines her child will get..."

This would not be an option for the above cited mother, based on the current law passed by the 20 states which have recognized philosophical, personal, or conscientiously held beliefs.

I am surprised you didn't know that.