Whose American Life?

By Becky Estepp

The December 19th episode of “This American Life” on Chicago Public radio was titled “Bad Apples.”  You can hear the broadcast HERE.

The following is the description of this episode off of the “This American Life” website:
Ruining It for the Rest of Us

Stories of people who ruin things for everyone else...or who are accused of that.  Like the San Diego parents who didn't vaccinate their child for measles.  When their seven-year-old caught the disease on an overseas trip, this decision became a whole community's problem.  The outbreak infected 11 children and endangered many others.

Being a resident of San Diego County, I was eager to listen to this episode.  Much to my surprise, I was included in the report without my knowledge.  Due to this fact, I decided to reach out to the reporter, Susan Burton.  The following is the letter I sent her.  I had a few questions for Susan after I listened to the broadcast.  I sent her this letter on January 3.  She wrote back to me on January 8 without an answer to my question.  Interesting.  And really, this question is not only for Susan Burton but for any of our communities' critics.

Hi Susan,
 
I recently heard your December 19th report on "This American Life".  I found your piece very interesting. You brought up several good points to the controversial and hotly debated vaccine topic. I live in San Diego and my sons are not immune to the measles.  The outbreak of measles last spring was of concern to me.
 
I am not sure if you are aware of this or not, but you used my son and I in your piece.  My son Eric had a vaccine reaction as a toddler.  After that injury, his immune system started failing and his development went off track.  Eric was later diagnosed with autism. One of the news reports I have done in the past must have ended up on YouTube. I am the "You Tube" mom you reference that explains what happened to her healthy baby after receiving shots.
 
As I said before, this subject is extremely controversial.  It is also very complicated and there are still many unanswered questions about the cause of autism. One thing I found missing in your report was a discussion with a family that has a child that has suffered a vaccine injury.  Perhaps that was due to time constraints.  I think input from such a family would have rounded out your report very nicely.
 
I have a question for you. Your story was under the "Bad Apple" title. There was definitely an accusation of not being a responsible member of the community for parents who did not vaccinate their children.  My son had a vaccine reaction.  My husband and I later took him to an immunologist who ran a titer test to look at the anti-bodies in his blood.  Vaccines were supposed to provide him with immunity. My son received the full schedule at the time of this testing.  We found out the only diseases he is completely immune to are the mumps and rubella.  Every other vaccine did not provide him with full immunity.  Measles was the lowest response. The lab had to use the quantity .01 in that report because something had to be recorded. But the sad reality is that he can get the measles along with the other diseases he was vaccinated for.
 
So my question is, "what do I do?" You said that you are a mother.   You painted yourself as a “Whole Foods Mom” in your report. So I know you are a mother that goes the extra mile. I would like your opinion. Do I keep vaccinating my son and his younger brother (who also showed evidence of vaccine damage) even though it has harmed them for the sake of public health? Are my children supposed to be sacrificial lambs? If you were in my situation, would you keep vaccinating knowing that your children’s immune system doesn’t work with these vaccines? Could you sacrifice your children’s future by exposing them to a known risk for a theoretical benefit? 
 
My husband and I made our choice. We decided to look at the risks versus the benefits of vaccinating our children.  Luckily, because of a more reasonable vaccine schedule in the past, many of these diseases that children are vaccinated against are practically history in San Diego. We decided not to vaccinate our children any further, but I also decided to take on this issue.  I am not wiping my hands of this problem. I want to be part of the change that makes vaccines better.  I am not anti-vaccine.  I want the CDC to make the vaccine schedule safer. They can do this by using single dose vials, slowing down and spreading out the schedule and not vaccinating children when they are ill.  Parents like myself are asking the CDC for reform of the vaccine schedule. We are not asking to get rid of it.

I heard your host use the phrase, “you are ruining it for the rest of us” in the beginning of this episode.  Is that what I am doing? Am I a Bad Apple?  I actually feel that I am quite the opposite.  I am trying to make the CDC adopt a safer vaccine program to benefit all children. How is that “ruining it for the rest of us?”

Yes, my husband and I decided not to vaccinate at this point. But it is my hope that the vaccine schedule can become safer to where we will feel more comfortable vaccinating our boys. 
 
Happy New Year,
Becky Estepp
TACA National Media Manager

Comments

[Lisa]

Most folks (outside the autism community or vaccine injured groups) cannot fathom we would intentionally or knowingly hurt SOME kids or that harm could EVER happen.

Susan (the reporter on American Life) is sitting there thinking "Why wouldn't everyone vaccinate their children??" In honesty - I thought this way 12 years ago.

Today, I have different opinions. With additional research of the VAERS database I can clearly see I am far from alone.

[Becky Estepp]

Jennifer F.,

Susan emailed me once and said that I was not allowed to post her response in any public forum. I emailed her back and pointed out that she did not answer my "what would you do in my situation" question. I have not heard back.
It is so disappointing. My question is fair. I am not trying to antagonize. It is a valid question. What would Susan do if she saw her child have a vaccine reaction and then receive medical reports that showed immune system dysfunction followed by another report that showed that only two vaccines worked on him or her? Would Susan, in the name of public health, vaccinate her child again and subject that child to more injury so that other children could theoretically remain healthier? Is she comfortable with her child being collateral damage in the war of public health?
This is a fair question. I have asked it before and I never get an answer, except from parents whose children have been damaged.
I think this question should be asked a lot more to our critics, to our reporters and to our politicians.

[Jennifer F]

Becky-
I would be very interested in reading the response you received from Susan if it's possible to post.

YOUR letter was exceptional! I don't know how you wrote such a calm piece given how that report must have made you feel.

[Nancy Naylor]

Good letter!! Actually this was the most balanced program on the topic of vaccines that I have ever heard on NPR. (I'm not saying it was balanced. It just came closer than the other programs.) If you really want to see red listen to these NPR programs: Defending Vaccines: Actress Dispels Link To Autism, Parents Protest Increase In Required Vaccinations and Vaccines on Trial for Alleged Link to Autism. This "reporting" was so extraordinarily one-sided it makes the head spin.
I recently went to a NPR sponsors luncheon and brought up the topic of vaccine biased reporting to Lynn Neary. I was "assured" that there was a firewall between the reporters and the NPR sponsors. I said I didn't buy it and pointed out that David Kirby had been told "Take us off your mailing list" I was told I should write the ombudsman. When I told her I had done so and I got no response, she said "You can write them again."
Gee Thanks! I won't be sponsoring NPR next year.

[Dr. Gary Erkfritz]

Becky,
What a fine response to this person. My congratulations on being so constrained. As one person pointed out, (theoretically) those who are affected are those with unvaccinated kids. Supposedly, vaccinated kids are not at risk (of course, we've all found THAT not to be true).
Until the various institutions can demonstrate genetically that children can't be harmed (remember - "do no harm"?) by the large number of vaccines scheduled for our children, I would say either skip them or space them out - one at a time.
I work with kids who have neurobehavioral disorders, ranging from ADD to autism. The parents of the autists almost always noted a negative change in behavior after a vaccine incident. Although a "smoking gun" hasn't been discovered, the preponderance of evidence points to modifying the vax schedule.

[Christna Liberatore]

The article talks about measles rates being higher than ever and because of
non-vaccinated kids this is the case. Neither of those two statements are true. This is the propaganda that gets spread. Becky is doing all she can do with the information she has. She has to protect her kids from any more harm. If you know somehting is not good for your kids, you are not going to keep giving it to them (or their siblings). You can't in good conscience. Great letter.

[Mom4truth]

Chicago Public Radio is affiliated with National Public Radio which has received boatloads of $$$ from pharmaceutical companies. Wikipedia lists Merck as a major donor.

[anonymous]

Here's a better link

http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/recs/vac-admin/contraindications-vacc.htm
Recommendations and Guidelines:
Contraindications to Vaccines Chart

Note: "Under normal circumstances, vaccinations should be deferred when a precaution is present. However, a vaccination might be indicated in the presence of a precaution because the benefit of protection from the vaccine outweighs the risk for an adverse reaction."

[Gatogorra]

I'm not shocked at all to hear (yet) another pro-pharmaceutical-product "story" on "This American Life". To date, I've heard many. I've never heard a segment, though, that criticized a pharmaceutical product or described adverse effects.

One TAL segment was of a woman with a developmentally disabled brother who was put on Prozac. The parents of the disabled man and the narrator felt this was a positive choice and they were given air time to discuss this. The sister had doubts and it sounded as if her comments might have been cut out of the broadcast. After being on Prozac, the disabled man's behavior began to decline quite terribly, but no connection was made.

There was another story of a woman with a developmentally disabled boy with a rare cognitive condition that sounded as if it could have quite easily been caused by something environmental, perhaps vaccines. He had fits of violence and was put on an antipsychotic while still a tyke. All was rosy (of course, without follow-up, drugs usually seem quite rosy at first until serious side effects set in).

I've heard so many of these pro-drug stories on "This American Life" that I've come to view the segment as a promotional spot for the pharmaceutical industry, no different than "The Infinite Mind" was (before the former-NIMH-head host, Fred Goodwin, was busted for taking a fortune in kickbacks from pharma under the table).

Susan Burton didn't answer your questions because she knows which side her bread is buttered on. She's a bad apple in a barrel of bad apples at that network-- no one would know which set the others to rotting.

[Kristin]

I am not surprised she didn't have an answer for you, but wish she had tried to give you one. When the public mostly believes that vaccines are safe and that they are not connected to adverse reactions like autism, they view us as selfish and dangerous because we refuse to keep vaccinating our injured children. Most people don't know that you can be vaccinated and still get the disease anyway.

Unfortunately stories like hers make their way to people's ears without giving any other side to the story. Hopefully, you gave her someething to think about and she won't be so quick to judge parents who choose to stop vaccinating, or never start, in order to protect their child.

[jen]

Susan Burton sounds like she has no class (or humanity) Good for you to write such a classy, honest letter to her when I bet what you wanted to do was spit tacks at her. We shall overcome...

[Jo]

Well, that's a of crap. It only "ruins things" for those who did NOT immunise, so what's she bitching about? Those who elected not to vaccinate already know the risks and accept it.

[Lisa Blakemore Brown]

It's very interesting Becky that even though you had your son vaccinated he was not immune to many of the diseases -because the vaccines don't work for him. Except of course in making him vulnerable to adverse reactions.

So those vaccines for your son (and how many others?) won't do ANYTHING for so called herd immunity! But they did cause damage to him.

Seems to me there should be a huge public effort to alert families of the need to do the sorts of tests you had done.