[FLPERMACULTURE] vaccines and public health/personal choice

[Bethany Schroeder]

Thanks, Krys, for your response and your family history.

I do indeed know that experiences are varied. My own have been varied.

Because I wasn't vaccinated against rubella as a child, I became ill
with the disease as an adult and was seriously sick and quarantined for
several weeks. Even so, my titer didn't rise to an acceptable level, and
I had to be vaccinated thereafter, in order that I could return
to work and school (I ran an Emergency Room in those days, and of course
I was loathe to communicate the disease to anyone, much as others were
loathe to see me do so).

I also contracted meningitis as a teenager and nearly died; although I
didn't have any of the ordinary risk factors for getting the disease,
somewhere along the line I got it and was hospitalized for a month and
on bed rest for four. I didn't have many qualms about getting my 
daughter vaccinated, when the time came.

I don't advocate forced vaccination. I would prefer that people make the
right decisions because the decisions are right for the community--or at
least don't run risk of hurting unwitting people.

I also recognize that all vaccinations are not the same. Some vaccines,
like tetanus, have no direct bearing on the health of the community, in
the sense that the infection is individual rather than grossly
communicable.

I completely agree with skepticism related to the transparency and
conscience of pharma and the entire medical profession. Motives in
practice are mixed and values across boundaries are inconsistent.


Bethany






Krys Cail wrote:
> Thanks, Bethany,
> 
> That was a very thoughtful post about vaccines and public health.
> 
> It is, indeed, a very complex and difficult topic, which is made more 
> difficult by our profit-driven medical establishment in the US, and the 
> influence of corporate money in government.
> 
> I did want to just add my own family's experiences, as sometimes it is 
> easy to see the experiences of others who share our point of view, but 
> more difficult to be aware of the experiences of those who are a bit 
> different from us.  My brothers' families, each with 7 children, were 
> not vaccinated as young children due to their religious objections.  
> Both families were raised as fundamentalist Christians, home-schooled, 
> and came into contact with very few other children (or adults) who were 
> not a part of the same subculture.  Nationally, most parents who do not 
> vaccinate their children fall into this category, I believe.  All 14 of 
> those nieces and nephews have now reached adulthood. As children, 3 of 
> them suffered from Whooping Cough (Pertussis), although only one has 
> been permanently disabled due to lung damage from the disease.  When 
> there was an outbreak of Pertussis, which was mostly within the 
> fundamentalist Christian community in the Northeast, most of the others 
> (other than the 3 who contracted it) were vaccinated.... not clear how 
> many of them would have come down with it if they had continued to 
> refuse vaccination.  The 3 nieces and nephew who contracted the disease 
> were in the family who maintained some contact with the outside world 
> (i.e., allowed the children to go to stores with parents, play with 
> non-fundamentalist children in the neighborhood, etc.).  Conceivably, 
> the complete isolation in which the other 7 children were raised might 
> have kept them from contracting the disease even if they had not been 
> vaccinated (although, it did also lead to serious social maladaption and 
> various anti-social behavioral problems, including serious crime and 
> teen pregnancy, in late adolescence for most of them).
> 
> Cases of pertussis have increased recently, primarily in this subculture 
> that does not vaccinate children.  This does have public health 
> implications for all of us... as, if the disease continues to find hosts 
> and thrive, it can mutate into forms that the vaccine will not protect 
> us from (the anti-social and criminal behavior of children raised in 
> isolation has some costs, too... and, of course, many of these parents 
> also refuse medical care when the children are ill, due to their strong 
> belief in prayer-based healing).  Keeping children safe from contracting 
> disease through social isolation also has its impractical sides-- for 
> instance, my mother's older sister (who I never knew, as she died as a 
> child) was badly burned at age 2 in a kitchen accident.  She contracted 
> contagious meningitis in the hospital while recovering, and died of the 
> meningitis. A fundamentalist family might have prayed over her instead, 
> and had her die of burns.... and been liable for serious child abuse 
> prosecution from a state that also prosecutes medical malpractice 
> (although differently).  Or, a family today might choose the meningitis 
> vaccine instead.  But, if it is a matter of personal choice, some 
> subcultures will keep the disease cultures alive and spreading in the 
> population.
> 
> Complicated business.  Definitely takes a village to raise a child, 
> IMHO.  New parents often learn too late that the accumulated wisdom of 
> others is worth some consideration.  At some level, US sensibilities 
> seem to overvalue the individual and undervalue the group-- an outgrowth 
> of our religious and cultural heritage, certainly, but contrary-wise to 
> the ecological principles that science shows us make the world work as 
> well as it does.  Some parents will always stray too far into exerting 
> control, based on their personal beliefs and opinions, over their 
> children's lives-- and it will always be a tricky business to determine 
> where the line is, what kind of parenting is not fair to the children 
> involved (abusive) and what kind of parenting poses undue risks to the 
> community (raising risk of need for social controls/aides such as 
> prisons, healthcare and financial support for the permanently 
> disabled).  But, the parental choice process should ideally have 
> consideration for both the well-being of the individual child and the 
> public health of the community.
> 
> Krys
> 
> -- 
> 
> 
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
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