When I Can Do Nothing
The Environment of Medical Intervention

SmartVax: A Website to change the Discourse on Vaccines

SMARTVAX_LOGOv1
By Scott Laster, SafeMinds

SafeMinds was founded to raise awareness, support research, change policy and focus national attention on the growing evidence that environmental triggers contribute to neurological disorders such as autism, attention deficit disorder, language delay and learning difficulties. Our mission is to restore health and protect future generations by eradicating the devastation of autism and associated health disorders that are induced by environmental triggers. A portion of SafeMinds' focus is on the role that vaccines may play in environmentally-induced autism, and SafeMinds members have participated in various governmental vaccine-policy and autism research committees to encourage research in this area. During these efforts it has become increasingly frustrating that public health officials discourage the smart science necessary to determine the mechanisms of vaccine-injury, and often provide incomplete information on vaccine risks and benefits to the public. 

SafeMinds is launching a new website, SmartVax, to change the discourse on vaccines in a manner that will create a positive environment where consumers are informed and scientists are encouraged to pursue the necessary research to gain new scientific understanding of mechanisms of vaccine-injury and vaccine effectiveness.  The current media use of “anti-vax” and “pro-vax” labeling in vaccine discourse is unhelpful and misleading, since generally organizations do not advocate for no vaccines; this website proposes instead that the prevailing philosophies are more accurately described as “SmartVax” and “Max-Vax”, with both supporting vaccines but with SmartVax placing an emphasis on conservative scientific research to understand mechanisms of vaccine-injury and vaccine effectiveness.  On the contrary, the website submits that the “Max-Vax” philosophy prevalent amongst public health officials is suppressing scientific research, and providing incomplete information about risks vs benefits to parents, because of a belief system that maximizing vaccine utilization is the best way to improve children’s health.  But science is not about merely accepting beliefs; instead, it is about pursuing the science by rigorously questioning and testing the assumptions.  To change the discourse, the SmartVax website provides the following:

  • A Weigh The Risks quantitative analysis of vaccine risks versus benefits in 21st century America which indicates that vaccine-injury risk (1 in 13 children) is currently quantitatively higher than disease-risk, with and without a USA vaccination program.  The point of this analysis is not to argue against vaccination, since disease risk without a vaccination program would be unacceptably high, but rather to dispel the unproven assumption that vaccines’ benefits always exceed risks in the USA today and to issue a siren call to scientists for research to dramatically reduce vaccine-injuries.
  • An Overview describing how the Max-Vax philosophy gained power and how the SmartVax philosophy differs in a manner that is more likely to produce the best health benefits for children in the long-term.
  • A SmartVax Approach to Vaccines that empowers prospective parents with information so that they can make informed decisions on vaccination, including a downloadable spreadsheet tool for creating an individualized vaccine schedule, risks-vs-benefits information on each vaccine and associated disease, and questions for the pediatrician.
  • Guidance on how the public can Take Action for Children's Health to create an environment where the necessary checks-and-balances are created to ensure that the research is performed to understand mechanisms of vaccine-injury and vaccine effectiveness so that smart decisions are made regarding vaccination.

Follow SmartVax on Facebook and let us know what you think in the online conversation there.  Share the website information with the public, including prospective parents.  We plan future articles to explain aspects of the website in more detail. 

 

 

 

Comments

Ray Gallup


Kathy,

You are right on.

I'm anti-vaccine as well because I have seen first hand the effects of vaccines especially the MMR and in your case the DPT. Vijendra Singh noted that in his studies but of course the pro-vaccine lobby ignored his studies and focused their attacks on Andy Wakefield. The moderates in the community are basically kissing up to the pro-vaccine lobby. The moderates are timid and don't support families and kids, unfortunately by their timid behavior.

None of us can change this behavior because these people are afraid of their own shadows. So families and kids will continue to suffer because of this cowardly behavior....on the part of parents/organizations.

Shameful. We can expect it from vaccine companies....but can we expect it from parents and autism/vaccine organizations????

Apparently so!!!

When I ran The Autism Autoimmunity Project from 1998 to 2005, parents knew where I stood, that I was anti-vaccine.....I didn't play around about my stand, I didn't duck and weave.....never.

A lesson that could be learned, if there are parents/organizations with guts that really want to help their kids and others. If not, give it up. You are going nowhere with caving in to those that screwed families and kids. They are laughing at you!!!!!!!!!!!!

Twyla

What an excellent site -- full of information, and organized so clearly.

Lin

While I do love to see all of the differing opinions here, I also respect each difference in opinion. I think it is important to remember that we each bring our own personal experiences into this arena. We are each at a different time and place in life and in those experiences. Therefore, it is imperative to not exclude nor drive away anyone new to wading through vaccine safety and personal choice. We must keep their opinions and personal views in mind as well so far as to not exclude them nor drive them away, running in fear the OTHER direction. Many are not yet where many of us are and we absolutely must reach out to them, help them along, guide them, respect them and hopefully help to inform them. Just my .02 for what it's worth.

oneVoice

Thank you Kathy,you said it well. Boycott is the only way to go,that is the only thing they understand,because it cuts into their pockets - the 35 billion dollar vaccine industry,that had destroyed our children.

Bayareamom

Kathy,

GREAT post!!! You've said what needs to be said; you've spoken the TRUTH.

Media Scholar

Green vax. Smart vax. We never seem to learn our lesson, do we?

Beware of government funded programs that take from the needy and give to the greedy.

kathy blanco

Here we go again, the spineless approach to this worldwide epidemic, yeah, let's be politically correct now? Not. Although I appreciate the EFFORT, to appear non aluminum foiled hatted, I know without a shadow of doubt, that it is and can trigger autism in our children. I believe NO vaccine has value or efficacy and so do top experts who have any job left. Perhaps when they read the site they may as in BIG may come to that conclusion. However, I have come to the further conclusion, that as not only a recipient of a damaging vaccine in my children (which sways opinion/vested interest, no lying), but, that the science does not support they are safe in any way, shape or fashion. That means the crowd that ashews no mercury, etc, are in fact, half right and half wrong. And I am afraid the mixed message of compliance, we can work with you attitude, is like saying, a murderer can get off or out of jail after good behavior. These people KNEW it was causing damage, and there is the bigger item for interests, and to be frank...the average parent gets the narly vision of a double breasted suit wearing liar in a vaccine regulatory chair/aka dollar signs, rather than explaining by statistic how this or that would cause or MAY cause something in their child. I think people sense the lying on pharma adds, and see the double standard business as usual stance on vaccines. Since we have started this "workable" parent routine, more vaccines have been added to the schedule. Do you know what they really don't want to happen? Take a guess, it's called the pocketbook. It's called a general boycott, furthering exemptions or keeping them. That's what they listen to. Not our sad puppy eyes, signs of damaged children at a march. Not even lawyers get them going. They know they are protected from damage claims even by the highest levels of our government, and they will continue their carnage until we finally get it, or they have completed their mission of the "soft kill". The reality is...we are the consumers, and not consuming their garbage will stop their lying son of a gun asses. Sorry, thats this mommies humble wordly view of it. I tried to many years ago, to illuminate what child would become autistic if given a vaccine, just like this website, however, I had the balls to say it, no vaccine is safe, and don't experiment on YOUR child. I know this won't go pass the moderator, but it makes me feel better just typing it. What I was doing however, was suggesting to an unknowledgable average citizen, is that vaccines represent an immune challenge for which our children, in general can not handle, even on it's premise, is the fact it is never tested in immune damaged children. And how can one "determine" such...it is more than autoimmunity in the mother, a a whole HOST of factors, generally felt by all in our community at large (toxic poisoning of our bodies by industry), that is WIDELY felt. No one goes unscathed. So therefore, no vaccine is safe. None. Deleyed reactions, of course, it's called oncogenicicity (cancer forming), or to put it more mildly, chronic immune activation, and more mildly, WITCHES BREW.

Lin

Nicely done, Scott. We truly appreciate your hard work!

Heidi N

This is a good idea. They know they are guilty, but won't even admit it to themselves. But, if we stop blaming them, they may come around quicker to improve our current affairs. I am seeing some inching on their part. It's like the whole world has now heard of vaccine problems, so it's not like they can win this vaccine war. But, all in all, we just want change as soon as we can get it, and frankly, there are no clear-cut answers. Vaccines could be very helpful. Frankly though, until vaccine makers are able to be sued I don's see how or why they will have an incentive to spend the money to do the research needed. But, I am seeing more and more speaking out about vaccines coming even from universities and all. There are just too many ill people now, with autism, CFS, etc. that the scientists, professors, and doctors with such family members are looking for what's really going on. When it's your own family member, some people take the time to learn.

oneVoice

Max-Wax? You must be kidding.I vote for delayed,selective
well researched green-wax if one becomes available down the road.Smart-wax -is there such a thing? With the parents trusts are evaporating fast maybe no-wax is going to be the trend with home schooling.Sorry I will never trust again.

pass the popcorn

This looks like a terrific website- the kind of site I will very likely refer parents to. It's also nicely designed and user friendly. My only question is the word "safe." There are no safety guarantees, whether you choose to vaccinate or not - both decisions carry risks. I think it would be more accurate to replace "safe" with "safer."

veritas

I agree with Elizabeth. Only no vax guarantees the total safety. All pediatric infectious diseases are trivial at our time, as can be treated or managed with antibiotics or proper care. I would not risk my child life with any vaccine now. They become more and more toxic and we have no idea what is in them. Experience of EU, where only a small fraction of parents vaccinate, is the best evidence that mass vaccinations are not needed and harmful. More children now die from vaccines than from infectious diseases; although tens of thousands vaccinated or not get sick from infectious diseases, they very rarely die in developed coutnries. The reverse is true with vaccines. You can recover from infectious diseases, but it is very difficult to recover to recover from vaccine-induced injuries, such as diabetes, asthma, chronic encephalopathy, autism, etc.

Jeff C.

Congratulations Scott, I know how hard you have been working on this. Well done!

Scott Laster

By design SmartVax does not make any specific recommendations on vaccination, but instead is designed to provide information for parents to empower them to reach their own decisions regarding vaccination. For example SmartVax doesn't state that children with a personal or family history of reactions or auto-immune disease should not be vaccinated, but does provide information to parents indicating that such a family history raises the risk of vaccine-injury and should be considered by parents when making vaccination decisions.

Jeannette Bishop

I still have more to read, but this looks like an extremely helpful site.

Some numbers on the "Weigh The Risks" page seem counter-intuitive, the risk of injury that is lower than the risk of death from disease in highly vaccinated populations?

The missing data of vaccine risks is what stands out for me though, particularly with the observable amount of increased immune injury in our children. I don't understand how those with a "MaxVax" viewpoint can expect us to accept they can't study this retrospectively. It's not like the general bias of the industry is likely to lead to an over-representation of vaccine risks. I begin to think that they don't care so much what people like me think, but they do fear losing that bias.

Scott Laster

Cia -- thanks for the comments. As clarification, the analysis on the SmartVax website calculated a 1 in 13 risk of vaccine-induced asthma, not vaccine-induced autism (as you wrote, the website states that there are insufficient studies to calculate the risk of vaccine-induced autism).

Cia Parker

Sorry, I made a mistake in my previous post, Smartvax said that the risk of ASTHMA, not autism, was one in thirteen in a vaccinated child, and the risk for autism could not be quantified because of the lack of a vax/unvax study.

Cia Parker

I have just read the information on the SmartVax website, and it is excellent. It advises that parents weigh the risks, and it explains the risks in a way that I have never before seen on an official website. It says the risk of vaccine-induced autism is one in thirteen in a vaccinated child, and gives information on the studies which have shown an increased risk of autism, ADHD, etc., but says that accurate figures cannot be given since no vax/unvax study has been done. It says that children with a personal or family history of reactions or auto-immune disease should not be vaccinated. In fact, after reading its stance on each of the childhood vaccines, I don't think any parent would consent to any of them being given. I was looking for a list of the vaccines that the site recommends be given, but there was none. I give a thumbs-up to this site!

Cia Parker

I agree with Elizabeth. All the vaccines on the recommended schedule are either for diseases that are usually not very severe (measles, mumps, rubella, whooping cough, chicken pox, hepatitis A) or very rare (meningitis, hepatitis, and polio). Both my arms were paralyzed for two days from a tetanus booster (DPT) when I was nineteen, my daughter got encephalitis from the hepatitis-B vaccine at birth and later lost her only two words after a DTaP booster at eighteen months. Injecting pathogens and chemicals into the body in a way that the immune system has never seen before in its millions of years of evolution causes COUNTLESS malfunctions in the nervous and immune systems. My daughter struggles with autism, I struggle with multiple sclerosis. Both these diseases are auto-immune and were never seen before the advent of the smallpox vaccine over two hundred years ago. A Swiss nobleman at a friend's funeral was the first person on record to suffer a dramatic attack of multiple sclerosis, from which he gradually recovered. He had undoubtedly been vaccinated for smallpox, and undoubtedly if anyone had ever suffered attacks this severe from which they recovered it would have been recorded. I am fatigued all the time, could it be that vaccines cause a mitochondrial disorder in which the mitochondria cannot generate energy efficiently, and that this is what causes the heretofore unexplained fatigue of M.S.? There are many areas which genuine scientists could explore, if only they were not held captive by their fear of discovering something Big Pharma would not approve of (see story of Andrew Wakefield).

There are no safe vaccines. Now that people have been warned that SIDS, asthma, learning disabilities, ADHD, seizure disorders, bowel disease, and childhood diabetes are auto-immune diseases caused by vaccines, even though it may be some time before they manifest, I think people are going to pay more attention to the chain of cause and effect. We will take responsibility for our children's health (and our own) back into our own hands, regardless of the bullying of the medical industry.

Elizabeth

The only SmartVax is no vax. Why do we have to keep pretending someone can possibly make a safe vaccine?

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