Oh, this vaccination issue gets me all riled up. Primarily because mothers are so judgy about it. I am pro-vaccination all the way. I have been ATTACKED, not just asked about it, but ATTACKED by other mothers that find out that I am vaccinating my twins. Whereas, I have never attacked a mother who doesn't vaccinate, although I think she is wrong. The thing that frustrates me is that I am taking all the right precautions to protect my children from these diseases and because other people aren't there is still a chance that my children could not only be exposed but infected by one of these scary diseases. The sad part is that this is all because of some crazy man that decided to make up his findings. I would really like to hear a good argument against vaccinations that has nothing to do with autism since that has now become a non issue thanks to many medical professionals coming out and saying the truth. No one can ever tell me any reason to not vaccinate besides autism.

There is one thing that always gets stuck in my head about this whole debate. People criticize and tell parents how their child is going to get sick or develop autism blah blah blah because they vaccinated. But look at it from a different perspective. Those who DO vaccinate are protecting the other, non-vaccinated kids from a whole host of communicable diseases. Because the vaccinated children aren't passing around these illnesses... the non-vaccinated children are more likely to stay healthy. So the next time I hear a parent criticized for vaccinating (even in the light of this current development).... I'm going to want to say to that parent: you can thank these parents for keeping your non-vaccinated kids healthy. I'm just sayin....

It's interesting there are no anti-vax responses yet...I'm curious if they just aren't sure what to think/say, etc..or are really trying to wrap their heads around this. I would really like to hear from those who have not vaccinated and how they are taking this news. I vaccinated. Like Classy says...It not only protects my child, but those that are unvaccinated! I'm doing two-fold protection, lol. The problem with the "herd" mentality, is that everyone else DOES need to vaccinate for your child not to be at risk. I was wary of vaccines. Not b/c of autism in particular, but yes, there are some scary ingredients in them. No, I don't care about eggs and livers and all that stuff, I mean, frankly, that's typical food around here, lol. As I looked into it (and talked to chemistry experts!) I could see that the amounts offered posed very little threat, and even the possible reaction issues were low. I would rather have my kid limp (I did for a while after a vaccine when I was 3) than die! Society is more transient, our produce comes from all over the world, people can carry diseases (Typhoid Mary anyone?) and get you sick, without having symptoms themselves! If my kids lived & died in the same small town...I might reconsider, I might have said, "No," to vaccines. But they're not going to. I knew at the minimum my kids might take off one day and decide to tour the world! I would hate for a lack of vaccine to be their end in a jungle far away...Turns out my husband joined the Army! Now we're around people who HAVE traveled the world...and picked up who knows what in their immune system that if my kids are exposed to, might cause them extreme harm. Do we over vaccinate? Maybe. But, sorry, could someone please point me to the local Polio clinic? Oh, wait...there isn't one. Interesting.

I have a friend who's spacing out the vaccines out of fear for autism, and it's like a part-time job for her. I had considered going this route, out of my general distrust of the medical profession, but the stats really point to vaccines being safe and having been safe for a while. My hippy friends thought I was nuts, though. "You had a home birth but you're vaccinating?" Yes, I guess I broke the crazy-person mold there!

Naturally there are still children who will suffer reactions to vaccines and who may even die from a vaccine. But that doesn't mean that people shouldn't vaccinate. It's kind of like using a car seat: it provides superior protection for your child, and just because some children die in their car seats in accidents doesn't mean car seats are "dangerous". As far as the "debate" about vaccines, it's kind of like the "debate" about evolution: the only people debating it aren't scientists.

I wavered, I held my breath, I debated spacing, because I was scared to death reading about the possible horrors if we vaccinated and she had a reaction. We went through with it anyway, and I was terrified. The MMR retraction came out about two weeks after my friend's 8 week old son died from pertussis (whooping cough). He was too little for the vaccine himself, and contracted it from an unvaccinated person. Between this retraction and my friend's horrible, awful, gut-wrenching nightmare (a nightmare from which she cannot wake up)...I'm now unashamedly pro-vaccine. And I'm not going to be scared off anymore.

I remember hearing people call bullshit on this since way back before I even thought about having a child. So, when I got pregnant, I did a LOT of reading on the subject. I was *pretty* sure it wasn't true, but like Daphne said, I was still scared. In the end, I read one reliable account of a condition being linked to a vaccine, and about a zillion that said there was no relationship, aside from the causal relationship of children who are already destined to be autistic having the process sped up by the mercury in some vaccines. (But even that is hotly debated.) When it came time for the shots, my pediatrician sat me down and told me everything. The risks, the benefits, how the benefits GREATLY outweigh the risks, and in the end I made the decision to vaccinate. I wasn't surprised that he was fine. I know that a mother with a sick child needs a scapegoat, I'm so certain that I would too. But, it's time to face the facts: the MMR is not your scapegoat. There's so much more that we need to learn about autism, and I wish we hadn't wasted all that time focusing on vaccinations.

I think this should draw attention to the fact the celebrities are NOT a good source of medical information. Perhaps McCarthy's book could be expunged as well? :)