Taking a closer look at Vaccinations
I did some research when looking at the seasonal flu vaccine last year for my son who was 2 years old and in daycare 5 days a week. He is exposed to so many viruses every day and his chances of exposure to the flu virus are high especially during the winter months when it seems everyone around him is getting sick.
To keep him healthy in general we had been following a nutritarian diet from Dr. Fuhrmans book Disease Proof Your Child but at a doctors checkup we were faced with the question of vaccinations. So lets examine this question together so we can draw our own conclusions about the flu vaccine and not rely on someone else to feed us their opinions.
Primarily we were concerned about mercury in vaccines in general, but we learned from the pediatrician that a flu vaccine without mercury is available, and that the actual amount in the vaccine is negligent and compares to him having a serving of fish.
The doctor also pointed out that the flu vaccine can lessen the severity of the flu in children if they do get it.
So is that true? Is having your child get the flu vaccine twice a year equal to eating a serving of fish in terms of ingested mercury? Lets find out!
If my child was eating fish, say he had some tuna. Given a serving size of 4oz of chunk white tuna, he will be getting 35 micrograms per gram of mercury (1). In comparison the fluzone vaccine contains 25 micrograms of thimersol (mercury) per dose (2). So yes, in effect the this means that eating a few oz of tuna is exposing him to about the same level of mercury as getting a flu shot.
Is that so bad? Yes! If he is allowed 1.13 micrograms per day based on his weight (25) that's like 22 times the epa recommended level (1) in a single shot. There is a nifty calculator that is a bit easier to use since it gives the allowed oz for weight. I plugged in weight of 25lbs and selected canned tuna light and I came out with maximum dose of 2.3oz per week. But let's not get carried away with the fish thing since I already know that by eating fish, he is getting plenty of mercury. Checkout my post about eating fish.
The mercury is not so negligent in the flu shot! The good doctor should reexamine his sources...
Ok, so even if we aren't concerned about mercury, since there is a new fancy schmancy vaccine, that we need to special order, is available without mercury; what are the other ingredients in these flu vaccines we should be concerned about?
formaldehyde, Chick Embryo, Octoxinol-9, Triton X-100,Gelatin,Sodium Phosphate,Sodium Chloride(Salt) (3)
Also what about the danger of getting this vaccine done twice each year for life as they recommend?
I suspect that those other ingredients will cause some kind of a reaction in all people. Some kids immune system are better able to deal with them, and other are not so lucky and they get very sick and some even die. Here is a database you can search yourself for reported vaccine reactions
Next lets look at the flu vaccine Effectiveness.
Given all their hype, they must work pretty well right? The doctors say that some years they are more effective then in other years and the formula changes every year based on a vote of which strains should be included. So if your child is under 2 years old they will get this live attenuated influenza vaccine (LAIV) and based on what I see it's only 28%-36% effective and efficacy 59 - 65% which is similar to placebo. (6,7)
If your child is over 2 years old they will get (IIV) inactivated influenza vaccine so I looked at the data (4,5,9) for various years, it suggests the effectiveness for IIV 33%-38% and efficacy 79 - 82% Which means it's chances of (prevention of influenza-like illness) are about 1/3, very poor.
So would you get this vaccine if you knew that it's effectiveness historically is roughly 33%? What if you knew that there is a chance that you may become very ill from it's side effects? I also learned that vaccines relative safety had not been fully studied (4 5). Shocked?
If you are not convinced look at this Reviews for (children, elderly, people with illnesses) where the authors conclude For healthy children:
Influenza vaccines are efficacious in children older than two but little evidence is available for children under two. There was a marked difference between vaccine efficacy and effectiveness. No safety comparisons could be carried out, emphasizing the need for standardisation of methods and presentation of vaccine safety data in future studies. It was surprising to find only one study of inactivated vaccine in children under two years, given current recommendations to vaccinate healthy children from six months old in the USA and Canada.. If immunisation in children is to be recommended as a public health policy, large-scale studies assessing important outcomes and directly comparing vaccine types are urgently required.
Ok, so how about in adults? Lets review Vaccines for preventing influenza in healthy adults (Review) where the authors conclude
There is not enough evidence to decide whether routine vaccination to prevent influenza in healthy adults is effective.
Bottom line is although the vaccine works pretty well under lab conditions (efficacy) it is not effective enough (33%) to warrant a flu shot and risk the side effects and exposure to the chemicals in the actual vaccine. Unless I misinterpreted the data somehow Nevertheless I believe the best protection is trying to adhere to the nutritarian diet and feeding your kids right. When your kids eat a disease-proof diet, they are eating for health; and if they do get sick, it's no big deal and they fight it off with their natural immunity
Here are some links to check out while you are looking at vaccines
