Thank you to Dr. Bob Sears for Sticking Your Neck Out For Children
Managing Editor's Note: Dr. Bob Sears has been an advocate for all children
and a friend to the autism community for many years. Whenever a mom-to-be asks me about how to study up on vaccines, I recommend Sears' The Vaccine Book (great baby shower gift, sure beats needing that Diaper Genie for 15 years) as a good introduction to vaccine issues including informed consent and choice. The LA Times, Dr. Paul Offit's West Coast friend, castigates Sears in this article below for daring to educate parents and step outside of the Church of Immaculate Vaccination.
Read the full article and comment at the LA Times. Vaccination controversy swirls around O.C.'s 'Dr. Bob'
Maureen Viereck arrived at Dr. Bob Sears' Dana Point office with her 4-year-old son, having driven from San Diego to meet the pediatrician and discuss her concerns about vaccines.
She worries that immunizations cause health problems, and friends had told her about Sears and his book.
"I'm vegan," she said, and in her circle, word of Sears "sort of traveled through the grapevine."
That same day, Karissa and Richard Sandoval of Corona showed up at the pediatrician's office with 2-month-old twins Andrew and William.
"You don't find too many alternative-friendly doctors where we live," Karissa said.
In the seven years since "The Vaccine Book: Making the Right Decision for Your Child" was published, it has sold more than 250,000 copies and Sears has become a celebrity among parents who see danger in immunization.
While the vast majority of physicians are troubled by the anti-vaccination movement, Sears, 45, lends a sympathetic ear. About half his patients forgo vaccines altogether. To others, he offers "Dr. Bob's" alternative and selective vaccination schedules, which delay or eliminate certain immunizations.
At a conference this year in Rancho Mirage, Sears told a roomful of pregnant women, new mothers and healthcare professionals that vaccines work well and are responsible for the nation's low disease rate, something parents who don't want to immunize can take advantage of.
"I do think the disease danger is low enough where I think you can safely raise an unvaccinated child in today's society," he said. "It may not be good for the public health. But … for your individual child, I think it is a safe enough choice...."
I used to think ok, vaccines one at a time. That's safer. People can agree to that. Then I researched more...and more... and more...
I realized there is no such thing as a safe vaccine.
You are still bowing to the same people who force vaccines. This is a war. THE Cdc has shown us that by not responding to the fraud.
We can no longer straddle the fence on this issue. Vaccines are dangerous period.
Posted by: tara | September 13, 2014 at 07:39 AM
Hand,
I've also seen maps that show how the incidence of autism is higher the closer to industrial areas it is. And the one autistic Amish boy lives close to a mercury-producing electrical plant. I agree with you that the Roundup, GMOs, etc., play a supporting role in causing autism. I would really love to see a real vax/unvax study, a really detailed, comprehensive one, to see what vaccines and how many the autistic ones got, and also the role of the other toxins you mentioned. In our case, it was more cut and dried. The hep-b vaccine caused encephalitic brain damage, and the DTaP booster at 18 months erased her only two words immediately (encephalitis again, I guess), and she was diagnosed with autism two months later.
I looked at my review of The Vaccine Book on Amazon, and you were right. There were a lot of favorable comments on my comment, including from parents investigating the vaccine question.
Posted by: cia parker | September 12, 2014 at 10:53 PM
@Cia Parker
I commend you for posting your summary and review on Dr Sears' book on Amazon. I am sure it has saved at least one person from the abyss of autism as it features very prominently in the review and your non-judgmental and non-accusatory tone comes across as authentic. Your "always at the ready" command of the facts re individual vaccines have a directness about them that also rings true.
Vaccines are the major culprit of course, but GMOs play
a role as well, IMO. There is a bar graph comparing the introduction of glyphinosate (Round-up) pesticide and the increase in autism. The bar graph is almost an identical match. {Google Nancy Swanson and Dr. Seneff (SP?)}.
I DO NOT think that glyphosate or glufosinate can cause the autism epidemic without the vaccines priming the body's immune system. Vaccines definitely cause the immune system crash and without vaccine injury, I believe the glyphosate would not in and of itself, cause the autism but I am personally convinced it is definitely fueling the autism epidemic.
Research neurosurgeon Russell Blaylock on neuroexcitotoxicity if you haven't already. His lectures are on YouTube. There is also an MIT scientist (Seneff?) who is diligently looking into the glyphosate-autism connection. I believe she posts here on AofA on occasion.
Could say more but the Handthatrocksthecradle is also the handthatbuystheschoolsupplies and the Handthatdoesthechores.
You get the picture.
Posted by: Handthatrocksthecradle | September 12, 2014 at 05:27 PM
Handthatrocksthecradle,
I agree. I don't see why Dr. Sears is thought to stick his neck out for children. He doesn't try to force parents to comply with his vaccine recommendations, and that is good, but it's what all doctors are supposed to do. Doctors who attempt to use compulsion to force patients to do their bidding are criminals and bullies, while those who are respectful are what should be the expected baseline. I agree with you that he isn't giving parents a complete picture of the risks and benefits of vaccines, which it is critical that they have before making the vaccine decision. And I don't think it's true that many roads lead to autism, vaccines being only one. Mercury from sources other than vaccines can occasionally cause autism, but it is rare in western societies to be exposed to that much mercury apart from vaccines. I don't think there is any other route. The Amish, as a culture in which most people have never received vaccines ever, in any generation, have no autism. Fetuses may be exposed to the toxins their mothers have been exposed to, but it cannot be said that any child is conceived with it even in those cases.
Dr. Bob has a moral obligation to give parents more of the known facts about the dangers of vaccines than he gives in his books. He has said that if vaccines really do cause the conditions they are "suspected" of doing, then they would definitely be more dangerous on the whole than the vaccine-preventable diseases. He appears to be delaying the public recognition of the fact that at this point, it is no longer a suspicion, it is a well-documented fact, but he, as well as all other doctors, needs to do so to avoid grievously harming any more patients.
Posted by: cia parker | September 09, 2014 at 05:04 PM
I would not impose my views on anyone else, nor would I be suspected of pandering to parental fears with middle-of-the-road solutions that do not stand up to close scrutiny. If there is truth in your statement that "there are many paths to autism", it would bolster the argument that it is even more critical not to weaken the body's innate immune system with vaccines intended to unnaturally manipulate an intricate, exquisitely designed immunological response system so that it may be better able to withstand whatever combination of pathogens and toxins that are leading to this autism epidemic. That holds especially true of children under 2 years of age whose immune systems aren't fully developed yet. Any mommy with at least a GED who has enrolled an infant or toddler in a day care setting would be able to school you in that regard.
It is and should remain your choice to confide in your "vaccine friendly" doctor. I am questioning why and who appointed him the authority on the relative safety and efficacy of individual vaccines when the information he provides contradicts several other FREE studies warning of the dangers. Your loyalty has been noted but it is superfluous as I do not think it is the intent of anyone to malign him. However, in the interest of a "COMPLETE VIEW" of vaccines, check or re-check the package inserts of some of the vaccines your "vaccine friendly" doctor recommends.
Also, many pediatricians support and respect parental choice regarding vaccines. Nothing extraordinary. They're just not writing any books about it.
Posted by: Handthatrocksthecradle | September 09, 2014 at 04:25 PM
Wow, it seems even those who try to advocate for education, are vaccine friendly, and stick their neck out for our kids and our families are still not good enough for some people. That's really tragic. Fundamentalists do little to win over public sentiment.
I love Dr. Bob, my unvaccinated children have seen him for years, and I appreciate a COMPLETE view of vaccines (because vaccine injury is not every story). I support any doctor who encourages parents to research for themselves, which is exactly what Dr. Bob does. I have seen Dr. Bob help children recover, and both of my boys made a tremendous amount of progress under his "moderate" care.
Not everyone's journey is mine...so I would not presume to know what is best for everyone. There are many roads that lead to autism. Vaccines are only one of them.
Posted by: Cindy Facteau | September 09, 2014 at 03:01 PM
Portraying Sears as "an advocate for all children" and "a friend to the autism community for many years" is not only presumptuous, it is so very wrong - on so many levels.
You definitely do not speak for many, if not most of us parents of vax injured children who are advocating for FULL and ACCURATE information for parents before even considering extremely risky vaccines like DTaP, to name one of the vaxes Dr. Sears deems safe or safe enough.
To suggest otherwise is just feeding into the vaccine disinformation machine.
Posted by: Handthatrocksthecradle | September 08, 2014 at 07:26 PM
Headline from this morning's NBC Today Show:
FOOD ALLERGIES INCREASED 50% from 1997 to 2013.
The segment was about how parents should communicate with their child's school to ensure no harm from such allergies.
Not a word about why the SUDDEN increase -- for example, about food allergies' likely connection with the increase in mandatory vaccines, how we grow our food (pesticides, etc.), higher intake of GMOs and processed foods, etc.
And now we learn about a new respiratory virus in western states that is hospitalizing children, especially those with asthma. CDC tells us that asthma is increasing - wonder whether vaccines and our food has anything to do with that? Connect the dots, my friends!
Posted by: Barry Stern | September 08, 2014 at 06:56 PM
Well said Laura Hayes! I would add a few well-referenced books on the subject of vaccination which would leave no room for equivocating on such an important issue..
Dr. Tedd Koren's "Childhood Vaccination: All Questions Parents Should Ask"
Dr. Tim O'Shea's "Vaccination Is Not Immunization"
Dr. Robert S. Mendelsohn's (pediatrician) classic "How To Raise A Healthy Child...In Spite Of Your Doctor"
Posted by: Stand Up! | September 08, 2014 at 01:20 PM
I think it's good for parents to read Dr. Sears' The Vaccine Book, but it is very important that they not stop there. It is imperative that they also read the books on vaccines by Randall Neustaedter, Aviva Jill Romm, and Suzanne Humphries. I've been rereading The Vaccine Book, and have once again been shocked by all the information Dr. Sears leaves out: not a word about all the studies, including the Manitoba study, which proved that the pertussis vaccine now causes asthma in one out of every nine vaccinated American children, and not a word about the Hib vaccine causing peanut allergies in one out of fifty, a fact extremely well documented by Heather Fraser in The Peanut Allergy Epdidemic. Or how many vaccines can cause every kind of allergy and other autoimmune diseases: not a word about how the immune system often reacts to vaccines just as part of the expected inflammatory reaction with encephalitis or allergic sensitization. Sears expresses uncertainty about whether or not vaccines can cause autism. He supports the administration of the DTaP, Hib, Prevnar, and rotavirus vaccines to infants, and the HPV, Tdap, hep-B, and meningococcal vaccines for teens. While it is good that he is willing to support parental choice, if parents are not completely informed as to the dangers, they cannot give informed consent. Many now think the HPV vaccine is THE most dangerous, a place contended for by the hep-B, pertussis, and flu vaccines.
He has done our community a favor with his research on the extremely low incidence of hep-B in children before the vaccine, and with his research on the high levels of aluminum in many vaccines, and its dangers. He has not done us a favor by not including more complete information on the most common dangers of many vaccines, including those which he included on his selective vaccine schedule. If I read his book, which I have just done again, and had read no other on the subject, I would enthusiastically adopt his selective vaccine schedule and then be baffled when my child got autism or allergies anyway.
He says, for example, on p. 41 of the second edition of the Vaccine Book, "About one in 1000 infants will suffer nonstop crying for three or more hours (which indicates encephalitis). About one in 14,000 kids will have a seizure reaction. About one in 16,000 children will have a fever greater than 105 degrees. Severe allergic reactions occur in only one in one million doses. Brain injury, coma, and severe seizure disoders have been very rarely reported. The vaccine PIs state that the IoM has determined that any tetanus-containing vaccine can very rarely cause brachial neuritis (dysfunction of the nerves in the arm)or Guillain-Barré syndrome (a temporary muscle weakness or paralysis)." Since one in a hundred children now has a seizure disorder, one in 36 autism, one in 12 ADHD, and one in six a learning or behavioral disorder, it seems inadequate not to warn parents that his low figures may be from inaccurate reporting and recording of the much higher incidence in reality of these disorders caused by vaccines.
Posted by: cia parker | September 08, 2014 at 12:55 PM
Dr. Sears,
If you happen to read this, I can't urge you strongly enough to read and research further, Vaccine Illusion and Dissolving Illusions, for starters. Delaying and/or spreading out vaccines is still a very dangerous recommendation, and it pains me to know that you are still giving out such recommendations to trusting parents.
For parents on the fence, I caution you regarding accepting any type of vaccine schedule, be it the CDC's or Dr. Sears's. Vaccines cannot be made safely, they are inherently dangerous. They are not effective, and do not provide true immunity. They are irreparably harming and ruining the natural, God-given immunity of the human race, and the consequences of doing that are dire.
Instead of focusing on fear of germs, parents need to shift their thinking to the promotion of health and proper development in their children, and vaccines play no part in either of those 2 goals.
Posted by: Laura Hayes | September 08, 2014 at 12:16 PM