SmartVax: Creating an Individualized Vaccine Schedule
By Scott Laster, SafeMinds
SafeMinds has launched a new website, SmartVax, to change the discourse on vaccines in a manner that will create a positive environment where consumers are empowered and scientists are encouraged to pursue the necessary research on vaccine-injury and vaccine-effectiveness. The website includes a SmartVax Approach to Vaccines section that provides several steps for prospective parents to educate themselves to make informed decisions on vaccination such as Vaccine Decisions to Make During Pregnancy and Preparing for the Pediatrician Visit (which includes a list of SmartVax questions for your pediatrician for download).
Additionally, information to empower parents to Define an Individualized Vaccine Schedule is provided. This information includes a downloadable “Individualized Vaccine Schedule” tool that can walk a parent through the decisions to be made. The tool provides links to the CDC-recommended schedule, risks and benefits of each individual vaccine (for example, A SmartVax Discussion on the HepB vaccine), and FDA information on each vaccine. A parent can use the downloadable tool to choose the vaccines to be administered and the month in which each vaccine-series will begin. Consideration on the month in which a vaccine-series begins is important in light of evidence that there may be a 1 in 13 risk of vaccine-induced asthma that could be avoided by delaying one vaccine by three months (see Vaccine-Induced Asthma).
Follow SmartVax on Facebook and let us know your thoughts and suggestions in the online conversation. If you find the information useful, please share the website information with prospective parents, family, and friends.
I actually think this is a good idea. Although I have not intention of giving any vaccines to my 6 kids EVER again, I am in the extremely tiny minority of moms I know who choose not to vaccinate. The reality is that many blindly follow the recommended schedule.
How this site can be valuable is that it will be a resource for those that (wisely) want to do further research. Now, because it is not blatantly anti-vaccine, it will attract the curious. My guess is that once they start looking into the side effects and weigh the risk vs. benefits, many may actually decide to adopt a more cautious, prudent schedule for their children.
This will hopefully lead to less adverse reactions (especially in those that choose to delay or seperate shots) and increased awareness that there ARE risks involved. I support their efforts...SmartMinds is being very smart using this approach!!!
Posted by: Janet | July 21, 2011 at 09:24 AM
Barry, education about vaccines and disease risk is always smart.
Posted by: Schwartz | July 20, 2011 at 08:06 PM
Here's my suggestion. If you give one more dime to a vaccine pharmaceutical company, it's one more dime they shouldn't have, especially because they cannot guarantee a safe vaccine or a safe schedule, and more largely, they damaged millions of children, including mine. Why are we being so complacent, why are we being so kindly to these murderers? Are we afraid to stand for the truth, that no vaccine is safe? And are we afraid to appear to zealoutous, or are we afraid to "hurt" someones sensibilities, that the world is not after our better interest? Isn't a firestone faulty tire just as worthy of us not buying one more firestone product, as a vaccine from Merck or any other vaccine for that matter? The very premise of vaccines is faulty, endangerous, and risky. I will never tell people to take away their choice of partaking or not, but I sure as damn well not be complacent about the science, and my own experience behind them. I for one thing there is no sanity to vaccines, therefore the very premise of a SANE vax, is ridiculous. I like organizations that say it, such as VACCINE RESISTANCE movement. No confusion there. Once people know the truth, it's not hard to convince them the whole paridigm is faulty. Why be a part of their paridigm, to vaccinate, even slowly, even lately, even at all? I am a living testimony that vaccines cause autism...my kids, and my grandkids who are not vaccinated living testimonies of what ultimate wonderful health truly is.
Posted by: kathy blanco | July 20, 2011 at 01:08 AM
Oh, Not an MD, it's so much worse than that...
I read yesterday (http://www.drbicuspid.com/index.aspx?d=1&sec=sup&sub=orc&pag=dis&ItemID=308054&wf=911) about the ACIP's discussions about whether to recommend the HPV vaccine for boys. Check out the quotation from one of the ACIP members:
"I think it's reasonable to recommend the vaccine for boys," Dr. Sawyer told DrBicuspid.com. "Giving them the vaccine before they become sexually active makes sense. Children and parents could get used to the idea that you go in and get a series of vaccines for adolescents."
****Children and parents could get used to the idea that you go in and get a series of vaccines for adolescents.****
Something about the way that's phrased truly gives me the chills. It's not about helping people make smart decisions (like telling your eleven-year-old son not to go down on every girl in his class). It's about selling a never-ending series of products to an endless stream of consumers. Just get them used to the idea!
Although I personally don't believe the good Lord intends for me to vaccinate my family, I do think it's a good idea to move the conversation to individualized schedules. Some parents will decide not to vaccinate at all, and some will decide to skip the truly insane and WTF vaccines (like Hep B for newborns). In any case, if parents truly become responsible consumers and consider the risk/benefit profile of each offered product, the possibility of vaccine injury will be reduced.
Posted by: Theresa O | July 19, 2011 at 12:56 PM
Scott, you forgot to add the latest vaccine industry would like to add for pregnant women to your pregnancy vaccine decisions list: HPV vaccine. A recent "study" indicated a desire to offer that vaccine to pregnant women and their newborns as well. Here's the link: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0264410X11006074
This study makes me feel sick. Soon pregnant women will be advised to take a flu shot (already being done), a TDaP (for the pertussis component only), and an HPV shot, and then give another HPV shot to their newborn immediately after giving birth to him/her. When does the madness end? Why is there no upper limit as to how many vaccines you can "safely" give to a human being before the person drops dead from an overdose?
Posted by: Not an MD | July 19, 2011 at 07:48 AM
I'm a big fan of the Smart Minds organization, but I disagree with them, and anyone for that matter who contends that vaccinating is smart in any way.
I was brought up believing that vaccination were a medical miracle, and never had cause to doubt what I was told until they injured my children in a way was nothing short of criminal.
Vaccine injuries make no sense in the context of their supposed purpose, but they make nothing but sense when you realize that they are NOT intended to improve our health.
Vaccines are sold by companies that will only profit when we're ill, and vaccines are the tools that they use to make sure we stay that way.
There is no such thing as smart vaccinating.
Posted by: Barry | July 19, 2011 at 07:14 AM