An Updated Version: Breaking Up Is (Not) Hard to Do
Parents feel like they’re backed up against a wall when it comes to vaccines. With how the news continues to bombard the public with inaccurate information about vaccines, especially the measles (MMR) vaccine, I can understand why some parents are concerned. If the public was properly educated about measles, vaccines and health care rights, parents would probably not be as confused and concerned as many say that they are.
Since I have been fielding questions from young mothers about these important vaccine topics, I thought I’d revisit this post, which ran two years ago, and share it with updates today. If you have any positive responses that will help educate parents on their vaccine rights, please we welcome you to add them to the comments section below.
Cat
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When you have a chronically-ill child such as I have, and when you know that some of the problems started from measures that could have been prevented, you tend to read everything that crosses your path about those measures. So, it’s no surprise that when I saw the title of this article two years ago that it piqued my interest. I was actually giddy thinking that CNN might shed a positive light on why parents should consider firing someone like their pediatrician. Since so many pediatricians seemed to have turned a blind eye to vaccine injury, and since parents report feeling bullied by doctors about vaccines, I was lured to read more from this mainstream news source.
I was like many others growing up – it was second nature to show respect toward doctors. Lab coat or not, we were taught (or maybe just assumed) that ‘doctor knew best’ no matter what. We were not to question them. We were never to doubt them. We were to trust them and to only trust. Well, I don’t mind sharing that some of my son’s doctors were more human than they were medically savvy. Those doctors, the ones who contributed to Ronan’s decline, were fired by me from treating Ronan because of their unprofessionalism, because of their inadequate knowledge, and because of how utterly disrespectful they were to me and to my son. Their years of schooling, their thick medical textbooks, their professional title and the recognizable initials that followed their name meant absolutely nothing when they didn’t see that, or care that Ronan is first a little boy, and second, has some serious and complicated medical needs.
Making the decision to walk away from Ronan’s doctors wasn’t a quick decision. It was made with careful thought and always after weighing several factors. It took a great amount of thought, but I have never regretted letting them go. With that, here are five reasons to let a pediatrician go. Here is what I have learned has become an all-to-common scenario parents are facing in pediatricians’ offices across the country:
A young couple begins to question their pediatrician’s ______ (knowledge, motivation, ethics) regarding vaccines after their baby’s recent _____ (vaccination; series of vaccinations; adverse reaction) to a vaccine.
The timing of this questioning comes soon after the young couple watches their _____ (newborn; 2-, 4-, 6-, 9-, 12-, 15-, 18-, 24-month old) begin to deteriorate.
Side Note – does anyone find it curious that SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome) seems to most occur around those same well-baby/vaccination administration timeframe. Interesting data on SIDS and vaccine timing has been reported and will hopefully continue to be monitored and shared with those who choose to vaccinate.
Deteriorate could mean one, or several, of the parents’ following observations or concerns:
Jonny is no longer as ‘engaged’ as was.
Lacy is acting ‘a little slower’ than before.
My baby looks ‘sort of out of it’ now.
Timmy used to speak…Jamie used to crawl…Charlie used to look right at me…Macy was such a social butterfly…but now there is nothing…no words…unable to talk…has a blank stare…seems as if the curtains were pulled and they are now ‘in their own world’.
All of the above statements from this scenario conclude with Mom or Dad saying, “Something isn’t right, Doctor. Could it…could it have been the vaccines?”
#1 – It Can’t Be
If the doctor’s response is, “The Vaccines? Pshaw! You ___ (misinformed, silly, uneducated, dumb) parents. Vaccines are ___ (safe, effective, well tested, for the greater good, required)! Everyone should get them.”
*Note – the doctor’s response might also include non-verbal body language like a raised eyebrow, a crossing of the arms, a shaking of the head. The doctor may not resist adding a “Have you been reading bunk on the internet again?” sort of remark. He may go so far as to warn parents that shouldn’t be listening to a Hollywood actress for their vaccine information.
When a parents’ concerns are ignored or doubted and a condescending answer is offered instead, what can Mom and Dad do?
Consider finding a new pediatrician.
#2 – Actions Speak Louder Than Words
Same scenario—parents present the doctor a “first this, then that” observations (i.e., baby was fine, baby got vaccines, baby’s not doing so well after vaccines, and baby is getting worse). Instead of addressing a possible vaccine connection, the doctor says nothing about the vaccines and tries to end the conversation:
“Boys are slower to develop than girls…”
“That high fever is normal…”
“Just give some Tylenol and let her sleep it off…”
“He’ll be fine…don’t worry so much.”
Saying something about vaccines is at least a response (even if it is the ‘Pshaw’ response above). But to say nothing of them is troubling. Not acknowledging that Mom or Dad made a logical conclusion of what they witnessed is a slap in the face. Why? Because Mom and Dad are with the baby 24/7.
Moms are told all of the time that they know baby best. One would think that Mom’s daily observations are as valuable (if not more so) than the doctor’s brief interactions with the child. Completely dismissing the concerns and the observations that parents present about their child is not only unfair, it can delay treating very real symptoms known to accompany a vaccine reaction. What can Mom and Dad do?
Consider the breakup process sooner rather than later:
#3 - It’s Not Me (Doctor). It’s You (MOTHER)
Instead of slowing the vaccine schedule down despite several “if this (vaccine at 12-month appointment caused high-pitched screaming, high fever and an ER run), then that” (sunken eyes, severe gut problems, loss of beginning language)” events, some providers will continue to choose to blaze full speed ahead with the vaccine schedule. They do this while trying to assure a now very worried Mom and Dad who, yes, are reading as much as they can on the internet and elsewhere, that vaccines are nothing to worry about.
Parents may soon find themselves at an emotional breaking point. They’ve begins while they second guess themselves. “I was only following what my doctor told me to do…” may be running through their minds. Worry, doubt, and mistrust also begins to surface and doesn’t go away.
That good ol’ ‘trust the doctor’, ‘he knows best’ and ‘don’t buck authority’ upbringing can cause major turmoil for parents.
They want to respect authority.
They want to trust their baby with this highly educated person.
They instinctively want to believe the doctor knows more than they do about vaccines.
But when a parent isn’t being heard and when they aren’t feeling confident about their provider’s responses or actions, Mom and Dad may be forced to question not only themselves, but to also question the professional, his knowledge, and his worrisome delay tactics.
The wait-and-see response that many parents are offered when they suspect their child has reacted negatively to a vaccine gives parents false hope for a window of time that might not exist. What will happen if they wait any longer and agree to the doctor’s suggestion of adding more vaccines? Well, that window is going to slam shut.
What is the non-medically trained yet highly-observant parent to do? Question authority? Absolutely! Why? Because of a very important statement parents are told all of the time, “You know your child best!”
Sadly, parents are shut down repeatedly. They are shut down and put down. Not until I read my son’s medical record did I realize that my questions and my concerns were being shot down and that I was being put down. I found that my words were being used against me and that anecdotal reports were transcribed with harsh, finger-pointing language,
“MOTHER states…”
“MOTHER insists…”
“MOTHER wants…”
“MOTHER refuses…”
I was crushed. The person I trusted my son’s life with turned on me once we left the exam room. What can a MOTHER or a FATHER do when faced with that discovery?
Politely request the medical records, and search for a different doctor.
#4 – One Size Does NOT Fit All
Now, for the introduction for the next reason why someone may want to seek a different provider, I’m going to be a little bit nosy. I have to ask though. Did your pediatrician ask you for a family medical history prior to talking to you about vaccinating your child? Full medical history means just that—a thorough, share everything, and I mean e-v-e-r-y-t-h-i-n-g, about your family’s past medical history and from BOTH sides of the family. That full, bare-it-all medical history can play a role in how a child responds to certain standard measures that pediatricians might offer.
Think back through your family line. Recall every relative and also their health. What you know about these people and their health?
Did you and your doctor discuss your chronic fatigue syndrome?
Your husband’s borderline ADD?
Your oldest child’s life-threatening allergy?
How about you other child’s autoimmune disorder?
Did you talk about your nephew’s seizure activity that started after getting booster shots?
Did you tell them that Uncle John has diabetes?
Or your brother-in-law’s heart condition?
Did you know that it would be important to share that sort of information? Family history beyond your immediate family can provide insight to making medical decision, including making decisions about vaccines.
When as much as could be revealed was shared with the doctor, was enough time given to discuss the pros and cons of vaccinating knowing those conditions, disorders, and chronic ailments play a role in family members’ health?
Did they counsel you on which vaccines are contradictory?
Did you go home and review those findings on your own?
Did you research the vaccine, its ingredients and its history (i.e., has it ever been recalled)?
Did you review vaccine reactions, vaccine injury, the vaccine injury table, and vaccine court?
Did you take notes about all that you learned and prepare questions for the pediatrician?
It’s a lot to think about. But, if you didn’t know that you had to think about all of that, how else could you get a complete picture of your child’s health history and how it might respond to something like a vaccine? When you go back to speak to your provider, you might want to:
-discuss each and every vaccine and each and every ingredient of each and every vaccine
-go over each package insert (in layman’s terms, the package insert is the vaccine “label”) line-by-line
-ask for data about long-term studies
-review and understand what the reported adverse reactions are for each and every vaccine
-note the effects of the vaccine on certain populations within their listed control groups
-understand that reported information includes what was not studied (i.e., like that the flu shot and the DTaP vaccine, which are offered to many pregnant women despite limited studies on pregnant woman and their unborn child)?
-feel fully informed about the decision to vaccinate knowing that should a reaction or an adverse event occur, that you are completely on your own unable to legal action for that reaction or adverse event
A great amount of useful information, when shared respectfully, can allow parents to be fully informed but only if they know to look for it, to ask for it, and to be given time to comprehend it.
So many parents report today that they wished they knew now what they should have known then. These days it’s easy to look things up, but for many of us with older vaccine children, back in the day, we relied on the doctor’s good word (or no word if they kept mum) about vaccines and about adverse vaccine reactions.
This scenario is quite lengthy, but before concluding Reason # 4, here are just a few other things to consider and some examples of what I would hope every parent to know prior to certain vaccinations:
Were you told the Hep B vaccine is intended to prevent a sexually transmitted disease and that the vaccines’ efficacy could fade by the time baby grows up and is sexually active?
Were you informed that a live-virus vaccine (like the MMR) can shed can infect others?
Did the doctor tell you that the varicella (chicken pox) shot, even though it was intended to prevent chicken pox, has actually done the opposite?
Were you made aware that the vaccine schedule is recommended and not required as is commonly stated?
Side Note – only some states require vaccines; NVIC is one place to search for more information.
Did the doctor tell you that that old argument “but he needs his shots for school” is not completely true and that one of three types of vaccine exemptions are available in every state?
Were you offered to space vaccines (which means not getting 9 shots in one day)?
Side Note – Merck took away a parent’s choice to get the single doses of the Measles, Mumps and Rubella vaccine. Parents are now forced to get the multi-vial vaccine, the MMR vaccine, if they choose that for their cihld. If complications arise, it would be difficult to know which of the three vaccines caused the issue. That is the true for the DTaP also, another three-in-one vaccine. These vaccines, the MMR and the DTaP, tend to be given with other vaccines, like the Hep B, Prevnar and Polio vaccines. They are given at the same time despite no studies having been conducted on how each of those vaccines works when given together.
Now, once those types of questions are answered, and after a parent has done their own thorough research based on their family’s history and conditions, their vaccine pro and con list should be well supported with detailed facts. If more information is needed, like any important decision, I’d encourage parents to continue to discuss what needs to be discussed until all of their questions are answered.
If, after all of the discussion and after the doctor clarified what needed to be clarified, does he or she respected your concerns and your input? Is he or she willing to slow down or completely stop the vaccine schedule until you are more comfortable to vaccinate? If yes, you found a great doctor who sounds like they are ready to work with you.
But if you have the slightest hint of an unsettled feeling about vaccinations, what’s a parent to do?
Before you get fired from the practice, start looking in the yellow pages for a doctor who you feel will be willing to talk with you, to walk with you, and to help alleviate some of the struggle that can accompany making a vaccine decision.
#5 - Sign on the Dotted Line
We are given warranties on high-dollar products many times throughout our lives—on our homes, on the appliances that we buy, on the cars that we drive, and on professionals we employ for services rendered. A growing practice that took me completely by surprise was when our pediatrician’s office asked me to sign a document about vaccinating my child. Well, in this case, about not vaccinating him.
The form makes clear that the parent is not following the recommendation of getting vaccines. The form states that the parent is declining the vaccine(s) which go against the doctor’s strong recommendations. Fine. But, wait. At this point, the doctor should already know the child’s complete medical history, right? And they should be fully aware that, for this child, vaccines are not fine. In fact, some vaccines and their ingredients may add more risks than benefits.
Common sense would show that that would be an incorrect form to offer a parent because that child’s pediatrician should already well understand that with the family’s history (of autoimmune diseases, mitochondrial dysfunction, chronic illnesses or the severe allergies and increasing attention problems for example) and that vaccines should not be considered. Plus, for the majority, vaccines are recommended. With that recommendation comes an option: to say, “Yes, thank you”, or to say, “No, thank you.” Options should not require refusal forms.
So, why document a refusal when such a refusal isn’t warranted? And why document a refusal of a something that, for the majority, is not requirement?
If you are asked to sign the form, maybe you could offer them something like this one instead. I don’t wish a standoff to occur, but I wonder if a, “I’ll sign yours if you sign mine” reply might help a parent who is questioning the number of vaccines being given and the timing of each. If a doctor says that they’d be happy to sign it and that they will be held accountable responsible for any and every adverse reaction, then you have yourself an honest man. If not, what’s a parent to do?
Remember that breaking up, while it may initially sting, it is not hard to do.
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If someone is causing pain or whose actions bring about suffering to a child, wouldn’t it be in the child’s best interest to remove that someone? Parents don’t usually let other professionals railroad other important decisions they make. They should be confident with whom they choose to care for their child. If they are not confident, if they do doubt, if they do walk away feeling bullied, be it a nurse, doctor, therapist or educator—having an unsettled thought or constantly questioning someone’s motives might indicate that it’s time to shop around for someone else.
From a very young age, many of us were taught to respect doctors and nurses. They walk as if on hallowed ground. Some doctors and nurses work with the most vulnerable and precious of human beings—babies! That all should be vaccinated is the latest message that’s coming out of many health departments, medical organizations and the media. I find that message disturbing. I know that a lot of other parents feel that same way.
A lot of parents I run into are asking to be educated by their providers. But I hear more upsetting stories about vaccine education than comforting stories. Once these parents remember that they are ultimately responsible for their child and for his health, I believe that more of them will find the courage to say, “Thanks, Doc. But you’re fired.”
Cathy Jameson is a Contributing Editor for Age of Autism.
Thanks Mary - We all adored The Two Ronnies in the UK, (Ronnie Corbett still going strong). For the uninitiated, someone talking a load of 'cobblers' means he/she is spouting rubbish. Not sure about the Cockney slang origin. I will ask my SIL. Another good one is 'Pony and Trap' (crap), usually also used to describe press/ media/ verbal nonsense as 'What a load of pony'!
Posted by: Jenny Allan | February 03, 2015 at 03:22 AM
Dear Jenny Allen, Forgive me for "teaching" you something you already know way better than I.
Cockney is fascinating. My husb used to like the word "cobblers." I think he saw it on a Two Ronnies skit that said "Cobblers to the Queen." (No offense meant, of course.)
After I published my vaccine story at
http://gumshoenews.com/2015/02/02/dr-sherri-tenpenny-bound-for-botany-bay-until/#more-3148,
a commenter oped mine eyes about the "troublemaker" who is supposedly on the side of the angels (i.e., Tenpenny's side). i wonder if the poor sod knows he's being set up to be the next Haron Monis (of Sydney siege fame). What a world.
Posted by: mary w maxwell | February 03, 2015 at 02:08 AM
Hi Mary - Sorry, my singing voice isn't good enough to record your song, but I was hoping someone else might take up the challenge, maybe a group of parents with vaccine damaqed children?
By the way-I'm Scottish not American, but love the rhyming slang. My Cockney Son-in law keeps me informed. My favourite is 'porkies' as in porky pies -LIES!!
Posted by: Jenny Allan | February 02, 2015 at 11:31 AM
Yes Jenny, please record the song. I've now correct the last line from “immunity system” to “immune system.” (What could I have been thinking?) Please see my mention of you in today’s lead article at gumshoenews.com. I called you a Seppo but that is nothing to worry about. I myself am a Seppo and I love the name. It’s rhyming slang for Yank. That is, septic tank. Just like we call Sydney “Steak and Kidney.” There is no connection between the people or the architecture of Sydney and the pie known as steak-and-kidney. Sydney/kidney. Yank/tank. All in good fun.
(P.S. The new line for that last verse should be: "The immune system is the Lord's handiwork." i make no copyright claim if it is used as I wrote it. My autism book can be had without copyright, too. I am a cheap date.)
Posted by: mary w maxwell | February 02, 2015 at 07:44 AM
TryGrit says:- "Forget this nonsense of poems and songs and limericks."
I was a teenager during the 60s; these were the protest song days of Bob Dylan, Ewen McCall, Pete & Peggy Seeger and a host of others, of both local and international renown. They wrote and sang about current affairs, injustices, and man made and natural catastrophes. They lobbied against nuclear weapons, wars, including the Vietnam war, racism and discrimination. Politicians who refused to listen or engage with these issues, often found themselves the unflattering subjects of songs about them!!
The main theme song was that anti racist discrimination anthem, which applies to all important human oppression issues:-
We shall overcome
We shall overcome
We shall overcome one day
Oh deep in my heart
I do believe
We shall overcome one day
If this strikes a (guitar) chord with anyone, then let's get Mary W Maxwell's Botany Bay parody on You Tube. It's an easy song to accompany with simple chords, and a very catchy tune.
Posted by: Jenny Allan | February 02, 2015 at 02:11 AM
To John Wayne,
You say "Challenge our elected representatives."
Believe me they are more 'challenged' than we ever dreamed could be possible.
It's a nightmare. They are not consciously acting in bad faith.
They just ain't THERE.
Posted by: mary w maxwell | February 01, 2015 at 11:41 PM
I would recommend that parents make choosing a pediatrician the highest priority when making the decisions around the birth of a child. The pediatrician choice might also determine the hospital and all else. My daughter who is vaccine injured resulting in celiac with some ataxia, dyslexia and chronic tonsillitis knew she was not going to vaccinate her child and so she picked a pediatrician open to choice on vaccines. He agreed also to supply the vitamin K by mouth option which is not available in the hospital and the hospital might keep you until you take the vitamin K shot. She ended up having a C section because she had had so many infections in her life, but the baby was fine. Her boutique pediatrician is expensive but well worth it. Her baby is rarely sick, but when she is she doesn't have to fear going to the doctor or fear crazy pressure to vaccinate or to try to explain why she isn't.
No parent wants to have a chronically ill child. The cost of a sick child may send the family into bankruptcy. A chronically ill child may destroy the marriage leaving the mother alone and without support. Chronically ill children take all of the mother's time and so that means the end of any normal kind of social life, or career. Vaccinating a child raises the risk of chronic illness. Unvaccinated children have hundreds of thousands of years of evolution against disease to back up their immune system; and the immune system really does work.
There was a story going around when my children were young about adapting to the unexpected. Two women are pregnant and both think they are going to Italy but one ends up in Denmark. First of all, all those pregnant friends that landed in Italy as expected lose interest because you are in Denmark and it's a different place. Yet having a chronically ill child is not really Denmark or any other place on earth. It's more like falling through the cracks of all the social safety nets onto the street. Most of us landed there because the information was not out there at the time. Now the information is out there. Get a great pediatrician who believes in supporting a mother's power, not in degrading her for profit. It's worth the effort and the expense because chances are you will actually arrive where you planned to go, the metaphoric parental land of Italy.
Posted by: kapoore | February 01, 2015 at 10:46 PM
Excellent article, but a couple of corrections:
1) The varicella vaccine has not resulted in an increase of chicken pox, but in an increase of shingles BECAUSE it decreased the number of cases of chicken pox.
2) The MMR is not a multi-vial vaccine, it is a multivalent vaccine.
You are absolutely right that the doctors are turning on us, sometimes even before we leave the exam room.
Posted by: Taximom5 | February 01, 2015 at 08:40 PM
TruGrit:
Where have you been!!!
We have done it all - the science -- I use to collect science magazines and articles - went to the University libraries at least a couple of times a year - then joined a loose grouu of parents on the internet - then a better organized group Age of Autism. I have written letters to everyone could think of -- thousnads.
This has been going on 30 years for some of us.
You must get it That - we are up against - something that is unreasonable, tyrannical, Stubborn, --------- I need words to describe -- but few words would do it.
Mary Maxwell - these are good lyrics and I hope it is song by someone - somewhere - and catches the hearts and minds. It is needed.
Posted by: Benedetta | February 01, 2015 at 07:57 PM
TrueGrit
Let me guess - your real name is John Wayne? When are you going to take the Alamo?
PS I didn't know Gardasil had mercury in it.
Posted by: John Stone | February 01, 2015 at 07:50 PM
Action is what is required in this Hg-enocide .
Challenge your elected representatives .
Show them the clear neurological damage before and after just one vaccine (eg Gardasil that no sane person can dispute) .
Forget this nonsense of poems and songs and limericks .
Action will win the day .
Expecting AoA to censor this comment .
Posted by: TrueGrit | February 01, 2015 at 06:34 PM
But really, rather than face all the problems when it's too late to do anything about them, or try to make sure the child has no conceivable risk factor before vaccination (would that apply to anyone?), it would be better to just say no to the vaccines. There is no VPD that is both serious enough and common enough to take the risk (except maybe tetanus as a dT, no pertussis).
Posted by: cia parker | February 01, 2015 at 03:59 PM
Hmmmm, there's a new meme out that says something like, "if I can't send my child to school with peanut butter sandwiches then you can't bring preventable diseases with your unvaccinated child." Of course it's a huge logic fail because it's those over vaccinated children that tend to have those horrendous allergies in the first place.
Posted by: Concerned momma | February 01, 2015 at 11:57 AM
It's very sad Dr Tenpenny has decided to cancel, not only her speaking engagements in Australia, but her planned holiday as well. The venue hosts were being threatened and the organisers could not guarantee the safety of attendees including some young children.
These are threats of violence and thuggery pure and simple. It's illegal, but the Aussie police plainly don't want to know, at least when vaccines are being questioned. A similar scenario in London a few years ago, when Dr Wakefield was principal speaker, forced a last minute venue change; everyone fled to another secret venue and the talk went ahead, but it was nasty. Again the London Bobbies were uninterested. A family day in the US, at a Ritz Hotel, also featuring a talk from Dr Wakefield, was threatened by thugs, but the hotel management (very much to their credit) responded with extra security.
http://naturalsociety.com/dr-sherri-tenpenny-vaccines-bomb-threats/
Dr. Sherri Tenpenny announced that she has cancelled speaking appearances scheduled for Brisbane, Sydney, Adelaide, Melbourne, and Gold Coast. The reason was due to pro-vaccine extremists calling for violence and making bomb threats against venue owners and their families in some cities originally scheduled for the healthy living seminars.
Fellow vaccine lecturer Stephanie Messenger, who jointly decided to cancel her appearances along with Dr. Tenpenny, states that:
“We have reached a point where we can no longer guarantee the safety of those attending the seminar. Some people were planning to bring babies. The threats have been persistent. We are not able to insure that the attendees would be safe from harm.”
Posted by: Jenny Allan | February 01, 2015 at 11:35 AM
@ mary w maxwell -Love it!!
(Chorus)
With a toorali oorali additee
and a toorili oorili aay
Safe vaccines for all is a fallacy
When big profits and bribes win the day!
Posted by: Jenny Allan | February 01, 2015 at 11:16 AM
Terrific advice to parents Cathy, and I would also recommend Dan Olmstead and Mark Blaxil's new book.
I live in the UK, where vaccines are not mandatory and the child vaccination schedules contain fewer vaccines. We still have year on year frightening rises in autism cases, which no one in authority wants to even talk about, let alone address, although we are still bombarded with the autism MMR vaccine connection being 'debunked' by that very flawed Madson et al Danish paper, instigated by co author, Poul Thorsen, indicted in the US on several counts of misappropriating vaccine research cash. I think we can all assume Thorsen, living well in Denmark as a free man, will NEVER be brought to justice in the US alongside those colleagues who must have colluded to perpetrate this fraud on US taxpayers and charity donaters.
My daughter KNEW -as mothers always know - her son regressed into autism shortly after receiving MMR vaccine at 12 months old, (1992) but there was certainly a 'conspiratory of silence' going on in 'official' Government health circles at that time, including suppression of all papers concerning the dangerous Urabe mumps MMR component. Jackie Fraser started JABS, Justice Awareness and Basic Support, after her son Robert was severely disabled by MMR vaccine. The Daily Mail publicised these concerns in several news articles. Unfortunately internet copies are not available, but these predated the Lancet 1998 paper by several years.
This is from Mail writer Peter Hitchen's response to the UK Welsh measles outbreak 2013:-
"Here I will reproduce the very first thing I recall writing on the subject, and the earliest of my writings about it that I can find in any archive, which was in the Mail on Sunday on 28th January 2001. It was published under the headline ‘ Is it Really Our Duty to risk our children’s lives with this Jab?’, and it followed Anthony Blair’s refusal to say if he planned to let his small son Leo have the injection, at the height of the controversy over its safety. It read ‘Many mothers would die to save their children's lives, and many would kill anyone who threatened their young with danger. But now they are being asked to risk their own offspring for the sake of others. You may be worried about your own child, say the authorities, but your fears are groundless and actually rather selfish. Be responsible. Overcome them. Trust us, for we know better. This is an astonishing piece of State bossiness in an age that has seen a catalogue of mistakes, panics and mysteries in the world of disease and medicine."
Yes -that says it all doesn't it-and Mr Hitchen's wrote that in 2001, three years after the publication of the Wakefield et al Lancet paper.
My daughter was determined her elder son was NOT getting an MMR booster, due around 2005, at the height of the controversy over the Brian Deer Times articles and Channel 4 documentary. This was not as easy as refusing consent. The jabs were administered at school, and there were several cases reported where children were administered booster doses of MMR vaccine in spite of parental withheld consent. These were put down to 'administrative errors' and whatever happened to the child, there was NOTHING the parents could do about it. In the end my daughter kept her son off school on vaccination day and to this day is very glad she did. Her son's younger sibling has been immunised (we hope!!) with expensive private monovalent vaccines.
Parents - if you have serious doubts about any of the vaccines due to be administered to your child, DON'T allow them to be jabbed 'by default'. You have to be very pro-active to stop this, and I am aware this is even more difficult in the US.
Posted by: Jenny Allan | February 01, 2015 at 07:35 AM
Botany Bay for the Vaccine-Cautious
(to the tune of the convicts’ song, We’re Bound for Botany Bay)
I’m Sherri Tenpenny, a doctor,
I hail from the US of A.
They invited me to go on a lecture tour,
So I was bound for Botany Bay.
Chorus: Singing toorali, oorali, addity
Toorali oorali-ayy Singing toorali, oorali, addity
I was bound for Botany Bay.
Then a rumpus broke out in the media
I never made it to Melbourne or Perth,
But is Hep-B an honest necessity
When your child’s just an hour from birth?
Not everyone knows about Jenner
The inventor of vaccine was a fraud,
He caused much more smallpox than he prevented
And it’s like that today, swear to God. Chorus
Some doctors have questioned my sanity
The Gold Coast and Brisbane did, too.
But where is the commonsense in all of this:
Twenty shots before your child reaches two?
Pharmaceuticals provide package inserts
You’ll find them quite shocking, I say.
They admit they’ve done no safety studies!
That’s what I must tell parents today. Chorus
Adelaide thought about cancelling me.
They said “You’re not for freedom of speech.”
I said “That’s true, I am going to Adelaide
Simply to surf at their lovely West beach.”
Now mind, all ye young dukes and duchesses,
Better listen what I’ve got to say,
Your immunity system is God’s handiwork,
It’s got no plans to be going away. Chorus
The tune is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aEYseM_R6Hk
Posted by: mary w maxwell | February 01, 2015 at 07:29 AM