Retracted Autism - Vaccine study - news again?Follow

This must be true because you typed it on an internet forum.

Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought that they typically advertise that they kill 99% of bacteria, not viruses.

Would you believe me if I were to tell you that I am a locally renouned pediatric doctor at St. Jude's here in Nashville?

**** on you.

Totally worth it.

Whether I would or not was irrelevant to my statement, because you weren't participating in the discussion at the time. I never claimed to be the most qualified on the board.

I don't generally like to deal in hypotheticals, but at least I would not assume you were lying. I'm always skeptical though.



What level? I thought there was one here, but since most (that I know of) aren't biomed/pharmacology I wagered that you weren't either. I'd guess vaccines are pretty tangential to your area of study, but I'd like to hear your thoughts on the subject if you have something to say.



I think we were talking about the commercials. Granted this is a ****-around topic anyway, but I don't expect them to wax semantical by saying "kills bacteria and mold and deactivates/destroys viruses." We could have an equally meaningful discussion about whether or not the plural of virus should be viruses or something truer to the Latin origin.

I feel very strongly about these things!

So, I'm guessing you don't understand my original post, then.

You're kidding, right? We've only been using the vaccine for 15 years. The rate of "serious" reactions to it are very low (like .002%), and most of those are allergic reactions to components of the vaccine itself and have nothing directly to do with the virus itself. In this case, we have a mother who has contracted chicken pox three times, a statistical anomaly by itself. Her first child had an extreme reaction to the chicken pox vaccine. Now, it's possible that he happened to be the 1 in 50,000 who will have such reactions and it's all just a coincidence that two incredibly unlikely and seemingly related things happened within one family and we're perfectly safe treating them as a statistical norm. But it's also possible that there is something else going on that is outside what we track in our statistics.


In this case, it's prudent to at least take greater caution with the next child. All of your arguments assume that we're talking about everyone as though they are statistically equal. But in medicine, you treat the patient that's in front of you, not a statistical average of all past patients. Or at least good practitioners do. It's nice of you to give us a glimpse into the medical world that you seem to idealize though.

Edited, Jan 18th 2011 5:08pm by gbaji

Haha I had no idea my comments made such a splash. I usually see smash go off on his tangents and zone out since I know he may believe a part of his stance but the rest is just flash and sleight of hand to get people riled up. But for once I'll say gbaji actually gets it.

Here's a rundown of the history so people can hopefully get a clear understanding of why I made *MY* choice for *MY* kids. I'm not looking to change anyones mind, just give the facts to show my decision is not made on scare tactics like many parents do when faced with vaccines in general. Keep in mind too, this is only for the Chicken Pox vaccine for *MY* family:

8 years ago the vaccine was still fairly new and only recently had become mandatory to have when going to a public school. With my history of Chicken Pox I was nervous, but there wasn't much information out about side effects and my pediatrician assured me that by my child having the vaccine he would be saved from going through what I went through. Add on top of that that without it or a natural occurrence of the Pox my son would not be allowed in school unless I home schooled him. Thats how it was presented to me, a new parent. So he got the vaccine on his 12 month check up.

A week later he came down with a high fever, broke out into spots and had swollen black spots all over his mouth and gums. We took him into ER in a panic and he was hospitalized for a serious case of Chicken Pox and pneumonia. The Chicken Pox in his mouth had also formed an infection. No one could tell us if it was pure coincidence he got pneomonia at the same time but aside from that, the Chicken Pox itself was serious enough to send in all historical data on myself and Xavier to the state for statistic information, and an investigation into the batch of vaccines Xavier got his from, was started.

Of course as a new parent that gives you a scare, especially when no one can answer you if it was a fluke from the vaccine or due to my own history. My ped back in MA at that point in time, told me because of the lack of information, it may be something to consider natural innoculation for future kids, just in case. We did go over all of the statistics in regards to pros and cons of not vaccinating our future kids and the reality is that while Chicken Pox can kill, it is also the least deadliest of all diseases being vaccinated for and fatality from Chicken Pox is very very slim. Compared to the common flu, which 2009 statistics show killed roughly 30,000 people in the US generally, in 2009 mortality rate for Chicken pox is 50-100. Both have vaccines for them. And even though the vast majority of flu deaths are the elderly, the numbers for children who died to the flu are significantly higher than chicken pox fatalities.


When Xavier was 5 and getting ready for kindergarten our Pediatrician at the time told us that there was new information that had recently come out about the vaccinations for Chicken Pox. Originally it was thought that the vaccine would give permanent immunity. However it had recently been found out that the vaccine was only temporary. What this means is that as the child gets older, their chances for contracting Chicken Pox even after immunization is what it was before the vaccine anyways. And unless the child contracts Chicken Pox naturally, *at that time in the vaccinations* a child who was vaccinated had a higher chance of contracting Shingles later on in life if the vaccine was not kept up to date.

So talking with our Ped, and keeping the discussion current now with our new Ped down here, we have been weighing the pros and cons as the vaccine continues to gather more documentation. As it stands now, it is still a good possibility of the vaccine wearing off after a few years, which gives a greater chance for a child as an adult to get Shingles. And with my own history of having Chicken Pox 3 times, and Xaviers bad reaction, our current Ped feels that as it stands right now, it's best to at least hold off on vaccinating my kids until the very last minute for school documentation, and in the meantime, if I can find a way to get them Chicken Pox naturally, I should do so.


I definitely did not go into this choice blindly, nor did I make a decision and forget about it without keeping the conversation with our doctors current. It's a constant discussion with my pediatrician when we are there for check ups.






Edited, Jan 19th 2011 8:33am by DSD

Ah, that's cool. I hope you stick with that. I wish I had paid more attention to my micro-physiology courses, but at the time they were an afterthought. Still are, I guess, but I find it all more interesting now.

Well, I'm not a Doctor, but I play one on TV.

In the land of the blind, a one eyed man is king?

What does it take to become "locally renowned" in Nashville? Did you introduce washing your hands after you wipe your *** and improve infant mortality rates by 400%? You taught them that amputation isn't the only cure for a head cold?

Nashville is not exactly small-time. Maybe comparable to some place like LA, NYC, or Chicago, but having some clout in a small big city like Nashville isn't nothing.