just like it did for Polio, TB, and chicken pox? Go get an education.

Vaccinations do not make people incapable of fighting disease. Please link to one credible study that supports that conclusion.

Vaccinations train the immune system to respond appropriately to disease. What makes you think that they somehow impede the immune system?

If a child is NOT vaccinated, they CAN get the disease and pass it on to others. If they are vaccinated, then the chances are good that they WON'T get the disease and by extension, they won't pass it on to others. Sometimes if they're vaccinated, they might get some form of the disease, but it's typically weaker.

The chances of getting the disease or not, varies with the form of the disease. Some diseases have well-known forms that are covered by the vaccination, some, such as the influenza virus mutate often and the shot may not protect against the mutation that happened to come by this year.

In the case of DPT, it was first thought that one shot would cover you for life. That's since been disproven, and you need a booster shot every so often. In case you haven't heard the news over the past few years, there's been lots of instances of Whooping Cough (Pertussis) in schools, and then by extension - adult populations who catch it from kids. It's shut down school's, and impeded business. People with various other conditions can die.

So get the initial shot. Get the booster shots. Stay healthy.

Case study shows:
"TIV did not provide any protection against hospitalization in pediatric subjects, especially children with asthma. On the contrary, we found a threefold increased risk of hospitalization in subjects who did get the TIV vaccine." http://www.unboundmedicine.com/pedscentral/ub/citation/22525386/Effectiveness_of_trivalent_inactivated_influenza_vaccine_in_influenza_related_hospitalization_in_children:_a_case_control_study

Hey, if Marilyn looked like Jenny McCarthy (which I'm pretty sure she doesn't) I might just listen to her......

Polio wiped out by vaccines? Great. When can we stop injecting children with 4 shots of it??

Chicken pox is actually pretty serious. If you get it as a kid (say under 17), you get the pox, itch for a week or so, and get over it. Hopefully with few pock marks from popping the things that itch. If you get it as an adult, you can get shingles - very, very painful.

I WISH they had the chicken pox vaccine when I was a kid...

As for whooping cough being rarely fatal - talk to someone who's asthmatic. The last thing you need to be doing is coughing up phlegm... Besides, these things MUTATE over time. If you hit them, hit them hard, and wipe them out - you take care of that mutation problem. The CURRENT whooping cough virus may not often kill people, but it's airborne, and as it passes through multiple hosts, it can and will eventually mutate. When it does that, it could be that it becomes deadly. Gonna get the shot then? Don't believe the mutation issue? Look at tuberculosis and what's happened there with people who didn't finish the course of medication prescribed, etc...

Please tell my 19 year old son who was given the varivax as a child and now has a painful case of shingles that his childhood immunization protected him from getting shingles. I think he will be hard to convince.

Sorry to hear about your son's difficulties, but the vast majority of people who get the vaccine don't get the chicken pox. Some people get shingles at various points in their life - no one knows why. There's a vaccine out for shingles, but it's not recommended for people until later in life (the 50's I believe) because that's when these issues typically crop up. Why it happened for your son when he was 19? I have no idea, but an outlier case doesn't mean that the whole immunization program is for naught.

David Greenberg, there is so much wrong with the opinions you write as if they were fact. Let's start with the fact that pertussis (whooping cough) is not a virus...it's caused by a bacteria. The vaccine is either not working or actually causing spread of the illness. In either event, it would make sense to stop using a vaccine that is causing an increase in whooping cough. In any outbreak the record shows that those who are vaccinated are more susceptible and the greater number of "boosters" the greater risk of developing whooping cough.

Sympathies to your son, Mary Carol. Shingles was unheard of in children, teens and young adults before mass use of the chicken pox vaccine. The CDC did a study (VASP) from 1995 to 2003 to see what happens to the population with mass indiscriminate use of the chicken pox vaccine. The found that it created a new strain of disease, the vaccine derived varicella zoster, caused shingles in children and would cause shingled in adults to become a full-blown epidemic. It's playing out just as they predicted. Merck convinced them not to pull the chicken pox vaccine because they wanted to sell their new vaccine, Zostavax for shingles that is largely ineffective and risky, especially that it is a live virus vaccine.

Virus v. bacterium: I fully understand the differences. Chalk up the word "virus" in my 10:26PM posting instead of using "bacterium" due to a regrettable oversight on my part. But it doesn't make anything else that I said any less true. The BACTERIUM mutates as well.

There was a period of time before the vaccine when we had thousands infected with this disease. That dropped to about 30 in recent years. Has there been a spike? Yes. Is it explained yet? No. But I'd be willing to bet that it's due to a mutation not covered by the vaccine. Why did that mutation occur? Who knows for sure, bacterium are crafty and do their best to survive. Unless they're wiped out entirely, the survivors come back stronger - witness the problems with MRSA in hospitals, Vancomycin-resistant TB, etc. Maybe someone chose not to get the vaccine, got infected, a mutation occurred, and now here we are with one or more strains that are vaccine-resistant.

One thing seems to be pretty certain - having more people sickened with a disease only means more opportunities for mutation to contend with. Get the samples, perform the differential analysis on the genetics, create a new vaccine then kill it, wipe it out fast before it gets a chance to mutate again. Look at smallpox.

Dvid Greenberg said, "I WISH they had the chicken pox vaccine when I was a kid..."

If you had been vaccinated against chicken pox instead of coming down with a case of it, your immunity would be short lived and weaker than the immunity you gained from a full blown case of chicken pox. If you had been vaccinated against chicken pox instead of coming down with a case of it, you would be much more vulnerable to chicken pox now.

Yes, actually we should. Unless you are trained to in the medical field you are not qualified to draw any conclusions. People that ignore scientific facts to further their own agendas absolutely should be ridiculed and marginalized. People in the anti-vacination camp are responsible for a lot of dead and disabled children. Perhaps you have never seen a child with whooping couch but its not something I would wish on anybody.

RonnieTheLimoDriver, if you are a limo driver, and if you believe that "Unless you are trained to in the medical field you are not qualified to draw any conclusions," why are you even posting any comments?

Twyla, that is the point. My opinion is we should listen to trained medical professionals. Trained medical professionals recommend the shots so I get them.

But Ronnie, you are drawing conclusions based on your own thoughts and experiences such as, "People in the anti-vacination camp are responsible for a lot of dead and disabled children. Perhaps you have never seen a child with whooping couch but its not something I would wish on anybody."
Yet, you believe that "Unless you are trained to in the medical field you are not qualified to draw any conclusions."
That is inconsistent.

Exactly how do you think homeschooling protects your child? Do you think homeschooled children are never allowed out of the house? They play in the same parks, go to the same churches, shop in the same stores and play on the same soceer teams as children from public schools.

Of course homeschooled kids are allowed out of the house. But I hazard a guess that they encounter less children their age as a result of being homeschooled. There's more than a few studies out there about the social development ramifications of homeschooling (and I'm not saying homeschooling is bad, so please don't read that into this anyone).

The transmission vectors are greater in an enclosed space where there are carriers and recipients w/o immunity (either natural from genetics, exposure to the disease when they had it, or immunizations) - we've seen what happens when kids w/o vaccinations go to school and a disease runs rampant around the building because everyone wasn't vaccinated somehow. It's an economic and public health issue - so we require vaccinations.

Would you bring a sick child to the Park? Church? The Store? Or allow the kid to play Soccer and infect everyone else? I'd like to think you're not saying that...

Homeschooling is not an option for many.

Well actually our country WAS built on complaints and criticism about government. Have you read the Declaration of Independence lately? It's one big complaint about an overbearing government that didn't listen to it's own citizens and did whatever it wanted to do. How can you teach political science with no understanding of history?

You don't want us teaching our children our misaligned political views. You say we should keep our mouths shut and let them decide for themselves. Are you taking your own advice? Do you let YOUR children decide their political views on their own, with no input from you? Do you keep your ideas to yourself when teaching or do you take the chance to teach them your world view? And just who are you to decide whose political views are misaligned? Full disclosure please. Give us your world view.

You come on here with your elitist arrogance and tell us we're not qualified to teach our children how the world works, immediately after showing us your political bias while demonstrating you know nothing about your own area of expertise.

I am teaching my children to be wary of teachers like YOU! Your bias, your contempt, your arrogance, your condescension, your political hackery... your incompetence. You will not catch them off guard.

Jon: I agree we should research our leaders before voting them into office - unfortunately that doesn't often happen because of a variety of reasons (many of which you might have covered in your Political Studies course).

But I disagree that this country wasn't built on complaints and criticism. In fact the whole Revolutionary War was based upon complaints of regarding actions undertaken by and on behalf of the British Crown. We complained, we weren't heard, things got worse-so we said "Enough!" formed our own "more perfect Union", and the rest is history.

As those who know me well, know: I welcome a healthy and vigorous debate of all sides of the issue. I may not agree with someone's point of view, but I'll fight for their right to present it. It's one of the things that makes this Country Great.

As for children - they're subject to all manner of influence-"good" and "bad"-all day, every day from all manner of sources. Parental, Familial, Friends, Neighbors, "Enemies", Media (and that runs a pretty large spectrum), and even Governmental (Legislative, Executive, Judicial, and yes, even Teachers). Hiding things from kids doesn't make them better or happier - from my own observations, it makes them crazy because at some point they discover there's other points of view, and they're upset that they were hidden from them. Keep them age appropriate-but don't be afraid of the conversations-embrace them and help guide them in understanding other points of view.

The only aluminum you need is for the foil you wear on your head to protect you.

nb. toni bark is(was ) a bad( my opinion) comedienne. Did a lame show about growing up Jewish in Skokie. Really makes her an authority on this subject, and she doesn't look like Jenny either. Take advice from the real doctors, like the state does. Ever heard of "herd immunity"? Remember...this is about public health and not about specific individuals.

D'skidoc, Toni Bark is brilliant and knowledgeable.

Yes you have the basic human right to be ignorant. Don't force everyone else to suffer for your ignorance or stupidity. If you don't want vaccinations, then withdraw from society where you can't get the disease and can't therefore infect anyone else.

I am sorry for your child's autism, but aluminum has nothing to do with it. What is this treatment you go to to remove the aluminum? Is it provided by a medical doctor? No, it is not. I am sure you keep paying for the treatment right? Sorry you are getting scammed. The whole vaccine and autism debate has long be solved, except for amongst a few people desperate for treatments. I wish that those in the anti-vaccine camp would donate all the money they spend to real research by accredited professionals amongst the mainstream.