Who Says All Doctors Endorse Vaccines?

One of the things those of us of who work in the scientific world have to admit is that controversy and differences of opinion are unavoidable. As a general rule, different people have different perspectives about everything--even about things that one would think are self-evident, clear or supposedly "indisputable."

Of course, it's understood that the social sciences aren't meant to impart one-size-fits-all compartments and truths. Differences of opinion are not only accepted, they are expected. In some cases, differences of opinion complement each other, sometimes leading to discoveries that advance (as opposed to hinder) progress.

In psychology/psychiatry, for example, mental illness may be approached from totally different angles (i.e. psychotherapy and medication); it's not that one treatment methodology is right and the other is wrong but the fact that, sometimes, a problem may be approached using more than one tool or school of thought.

Isn't Science Supposed to Be Different?

When it comes to more concrete areas of science (physics, chemistry, medicine, etc.), however, it is often thought that facts are not as elusive or open to interpretation. The fact that aluminum, for example, is much lighter than lead is not a matter of opinion; nor is it something that calls for different points of view.

While most of the concepts, materials and laws of science reside in equally clear and well-established parameters, there are, nevertheless, things that do not enjoy such black-and-white and calculable/well-established properties. In fact, it can be said that science, while it may heavily rely on factuality, is not completely about facts and figures; it too, like the social sciences, sometimes leaves room for interpretation.

The pathogenicity or toxicity of some substances and phenomena to human beings are glaring examples. Ionic radiation, for example, can impart disease, but often not in predictable ways. Enough exposure can lead to sure death--that much can be said. In lower dosages, however, it can apparently be tolerated for long periods of time. In some people, such low dosages may be enough to lead to cancer (or some other form of disease) but, again, every human being may possess a different tolerance capacity.

Yet another example is the safety and efficacy of vaccines. Are vaccines as safe and efficacious as the mainstream media in the US claims? The fact that just about every major magazine, newspaper and health organization/agency's website seems unable to find any glaring problems/deficiencies with vaccines is suspicious enough, when you consider that many independent scientists and doctors continue to allude to potential problems.

Are all these doctors and scientists just imparting false information or is it possible that the mainstream media is only voicing what those who peddle vaccine and profit from them want them to say?

To put it more bluntly, is this a glaring case of the American mainstream media simply being up for sale, reporting not on what science says but what they are being paid to say?

Shouldn't Journalists Be Reporting The News--Not Creating It?

Read on to Page 2

2/24/2015 10:00:00 PM
Fred Fletcher
Written by Fred Fletcher
Fred Fletcher is a hard working Consumer Advocacy Health Reporter. Education: HT-CNA; DT-ATA; MS/PhD Post-Graduate Certificates/Certifications: • Project Management • Food Safety • HIPAA Compliance • Bio-statistical Analysis & Reporting • Regulatory Medical Writing • Life Science Programs Theses & Dis...
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Comments
You need an editor. You are verbose, repetitive and state obvious things as though you just revealed a deep meaning. I like your enthusiasm though Fred.
Think succinct.
Posted by Douglas Finlayson MD
I don't have a lot of time at the moment so forgive my incomplete comment. I believe the problem is that when you hear that vaccines work you are often hearing an epidemiological argument. If you vaccinate 1 million people you save 1000 lives let's say, only for round numbers. If you don't vaccinate, you lose 2000 lives. Obviously you should vaccinate! EXCEPT: those aren't the same lives! they are different people who would have had the response. That's why individual choice comes in. Do you want to roll the dice and trust your body and modern day treatment or do you you want to inject the potential damage upfront?

By the way, the numbers aren't anywhere near that lopsided. In fact, suffering a side effect from a vaccine for say small pox is statistically much much more likely to harm you than your current chance for getting small pox. I picked that one on purpose because it's not controversial right now.

I also would like to add that the media blaming anti vaccine thoughts on Wakefield and MMR and autism isn't true in my case. You can tell where I stand. I have had this opinion for 25 years and could give you many more reasons than that

Freedom of choice is big. We want individual freedoms. Strap people down and forcing them to vaccinate is something out of a Sci Fi movie and should never become reality...

Like any product on the market, make it safe, make it effective and people will buy it. Cover up safety issues, pay a companies liability insurance for them and make them immune to lawsuit, why bother doing real research.

By the way, do they still break up the lots and ship them around the country in case they cook a hot batch? They used to so they don't create a scare. I haven't heard this in a while but I know that pediatricians used to have to record the lot number. That made me wonder.

Enough from me. Nice site, nice people discussing. Blessings. I got a little long.

Posted by Rick A
This is a very interesting and ongoing debate. One that I have been entrenched in since 2007 when my wife and I had our first child. This debate was largely fueled by Andrew Wakefield, a former surgeon and medical researcher who published a fraudulent research paper in 1998 that claimed there is a physiological link between the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine and autism. In 2010, 12 years after publishing his fraudulent paper, it was determined that the facts of the paper had been falsified. But the damage had been done.

Twelve years of fear and scare tactics is not easily undone. Especially when we're talking about parents' instinctive nature to protect their children. Marry that with a growing distrust of all things governmental and we have a situation where many parents simply DO NOT trust what the government, the CDC, the pharmaceutical companies, and even their doctors tell them. We question everything, AS WE SHOULD.

That said, I think it's in our childrens' best interest to question and research OBJECTIVELY. It's hard to do because you don't know what to believe anymore. It's certainly not easy for a parent to conduct their own investigation into the validity of any research paper or scientific claim. We have to rely on other organizations to do this, ironic isn't it?

We HOPE that there is some entity out there that sincerely cares about the kids. As a result, parents make what they think is the best decision based on what they have heard and read. And that's where we are today, with good parents on either side of this debate, doing the best they can to protect their children in a climate of distrust.

What I find most sad about this debate is the contempt I see from a lof of pro-vaccine parents towards anti-vaccine parents. Parents who don't vaccinate are doing the same thing that parents who do vaccinate are doing - they are doing what they think will best protect their children (unless they are not vaccinating due to religious beliefs, that's a separate issue). No one should judge parents who don't vaccinate. Many or most of them are very fearful that the poisonous chemicals contained in those vaccines will harm their precious little children (short-term or long-term). Who can blame them?

My wife and I questioned the MMR vaccine specifically because of Wakefield's study and other claims "out there." We ultimately got the MMR vaccinations for our children but we delayed many of the other recommended vaccinations and got them on a more spaced out schedule. We decided to vaccinate because, in our opinion, the available science supports their benefits.

So our kids are vaccinated, but it wasn't an easy process on us, it was even very stressful at times. We even dreaded some pediatrician visits where we knew we were going to tell our pro-vaccination doctor that "we're gonna' wait on that vaccination for another 3 months." Good luck to all you parents out there struggling with this debate. I don't think it will end anytime soon.
Posted by Bryan Moore
Fred this is one of the more controversial topics in health today. I'm not a parent and honestly have no idea what I will do when and if I become one. Many credible people believe that the anti-vaccine stance has allowed diseases once believed to be eradicated to make a comeback. I haven't heard the term measles since I was a kid and yet it's in the news every day now. What do we say to this?
Posted by Rob Greenstein
For me as a mom it's really confusing Fred what to use. Some sources are for, some are against it. Friends say yes, internet says no. Wikipedia shows statistics and non-verified sources show anti-statistics.

Who is right and who is wrong? Can't there be a group of pediatricians that would investigate this once and for all? Are all pediatricians afraid to get out from the shadows and speak out about this?

Thanks
Posted by irene

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