Parents in Calgary are receiving the ‘dreaded’ measles letter. Alberta Health Services has teamed up with the public health education system to ‘tag’ all children whose parents have made an informed decision to be vaccine free. Now, though, every family is receiving the letter, not just the vaccine free families.
At one point, some folks were made to understand that the choice was ‘vaccinate with MMR or go home on quarantine.’ Turns out, it is ‘vaccinate AND go home on quarantine.’ I have yet to hear from parents who attended public meetings. (If you, as parents, have attended one of these meetings, please share. My understanding is that the meeting was not for discussion but for vaccinating on the spot. Tell me if I have this wrong.)
First off, let me be clear…vaccination is your choice. Please be informed BEFORE you get the ‘dreaded letter’ — you will have that much more confidence when stating your choice to the public health nurse who is giving the vaccines.
The Vaccine Free: Now What? teleseminar course was created with this current situation in mind. Be confident in your choice to be vaccine free. Know the diseases. Know the possible complications of each infectious illness (whatever an illness can cause, a vaccine can cause – plus a vaccine can also cause other chronic inflammatory reactions). Know the symptoms. Know how you can use homeopathy to help support healing if your child gets an infectious illness. Know when you need medical support.
The pressure is going to get worse. Get ready for the hype with the new flu vaccine this year. I will be offering a free class on influenza, so be sure to sign up for regular newsletters to keep up with class dates!
Today’s post will give you as much information as I can put together in the hopes that it saves you some time. Put everything in a binder, read it, and take it with you to the meeting at your school or with the administration.
For me personally, I weep more for the families struggling with autism. THIS is an epidemic/pandemic and a travesty that needs to be addressed. If 1 in 68 children in North America has autism, then what does that mean in a city of one million like Calgary? WAY too many. This measles outbreak that the media is hammering away at? Eight. Count them. Eight individual cases.
1960’s: When Measles Was Normal
Measles was a normal part of my childhood. Five kids, one after another, came down with measles and my mom turned to Dr. Spock for support. And every mom in the neighborhood knew their kid would likely come down with measles too — anticipated and accepted as a normal part of childhood and part of growing up and developing. My siblings and I were part of the group in the 1960’s to see the last of the measles outbreaks…at least a couple of years before the vaccine was introduced. We all survived.
What was the result of having naturally acquired measles? Lifelong immunity.
When I vaccinated my boys in the 1980’s (being a good mother and good mothers listened to the doctor), I was told that this meant immunity for life. It is not. My thirty-something adult male children, who are having children of their own now, are not immune to measles or mumps. Vaccines are not immunity. There is no way to determine who is susceptible to measles now and who is not if you are over the age of 15…which is why the big push for MMR vaccination/revaccination in high school.
The Numbers Crunch
Thank you to Dawn Babcock Papple, writer for Everything Birth, who posted a guest blog on VaxTruth.org. This is for those (not me) who love to number crunch the before measles vaccine and after the vaccine stats. I just get a headache even looking at the graphs, but she does a decent job of the math…I think. You tell me!
Graphs and numbers are handy but do read her blog in its entirety.
Another EXCELLENT blog on herd immunity. This is the argument that is presented to support revaccination and vaccination of those who are vaccine free.
If I could edit the photo’s last statement, I would. I would leave out ‘at her.’ Laugh at the misconception of herd immunity, not the person.
WHAT YOU’VE BEEN WAITING FOR…or Get On With It Already
Gettin’ Down to the Nitty Gritty of ‘Be Prepared’: Point Form
Download, print and put in a handy-dandy binder:
1. National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC) and click on the tab ‘Ask 8 Before You Vaccinate.’ If you have ANY family history of neurological disease, you must consider the next steps very carefully.
2. Priorix by GlaxoSmithKlein is the MMR vaccine used in Canada. Read the full product monograph. You will find all the constituents listed (includes antibiotics, aborted fetal tissue, sorbitol, hydrolyzed gelatin and more).
Good Research
If you only do these first two items, you will be well informed on the contraindications for the MMR vaccine for your child. You will also learn what the adverse effects are.
Better Research
Download, print and put in your growing binder. Take the Adverse Event form with you and have the nurse fill it out if you are choosing to have your child vaccinated.
3. Go to Health Canada Vigilance Adverse Reaction Online Database to find out adverse vaccine reactions to the MMR vaccine. Most adverse reactions go unreported, so should you decide to have your child vaccinated, it is important that you report any adverse reactions. See item 4, which is the form to take with you to the vaccination. Have the public health nurse or whoever is giving the vaccine fill out the form.
4. Adverse Events form. If your child should have an adverse reaction to the MMR vaccine, you will want this information at the time of vaccination. Looking for the DIN (Drug Information Number), batch number, lot number, etc. AFTER your child has a reaction will involve way more phone calls. If you thought your time researching before a vaccine was time consuming, simply imagine the time needed after the fact!
Best Research
Download, print and add to your now 2” binder!
Legal Issues
A big shout out to Edda West of the Vaccine Risk Awareness Network in Canada! She has worked for as many years as I have been researching compiling information and resources for Canadian parents.
6. Legal Exemption Forms Canada
Ultimate Research
7. Institute of Medicine Report: Adverse Events Associated with Childhood Vaccines: Evidence Bearing on Casuality (1994)
It will take some time to plough through but well worth it when you get to the discussion of ‘causal relation.’ For your reading pleasure, I am including a link to the Measles and Mumps portion of the report!
And that’s almost enough for this week!
Warning: A Common Adverse Reaction to MMR (Rubella component) in Teenage Girls
Before signing off, though, here are some adverse reactions to be aware of with the MMR vaccine, especially the Rubella component if you are a female teen. Be sure to report if you experience this possible side effect. This information is from the Center for Disease Control. The whole document is worth reading.
“Joint symptoms are associated with the rubella component of MMR. Among susceptible persons who receive rubella vaccine, arthralgia and transient arthritis occur more frequently among adults than among children and more frequently among postpubertal females than among males. Acute arthralgia or arthritis are rare among children who receive RA 27/3 vaccine (187). By contrast, arthralgia develops among approximately 25% of susceptible postpubertal females after RA 27/3 vaccination and approximately 10% have acute arthritis-like signs and symptoms (188,189). Although rare reports of transient peripheral neuritic complaints have occurred, insufficient evidence exists to indicate a causal relation between RA 27/3 vaccine and peripheral neuropathies (149,190). When acute joint symptoms occur, or when pain and/or paresthesias not associated with joints occur, they generally begin 1-3 weeks after vaccination, persist for 1 day to 3 weeks, and rarely recur. Adults who experienced acute joint symptoms after rubella vaccination usually have not had to disrupt work activities (189,190,191).
A 1991 report by the IOM (this is your number 7 Ultimate Research link) stated that although some data were consistent with a causal relation between RA27/3 rubella vaccine and chronic arthritis among adult women, the evidence was limited in scope and confined to reports from a single institution (149). Several more recently published studies have found no evidence of increased risk for new onset of chronic arthropathies among women vaccinated with RA 27/3 vaccine (192-194).”
Read. Be informed. Choose. Oh yeah…bump up your Vitamin A (cod liver oil) and Vitamin C if your child gets measles or if you decide on vaccination.
Yours in health and healing,
Donna
P.S. To friends and readers in the USA and other countries all over the world, please use the numbered steps and source/Google/research the equivalent organizations in your part of the world. I wish I could research that information for everyone of you.
