Letter from Hilary Butler in response to "Debate on
childhood vaccination" (see below)Dear Sir,
In response to Anna G Rubin, Who states: "Why put your children and the rest
of us at risk?" perhaps she should re-consider her current
unthinking dogmatic position.
As the wife of a man, who had had five injectable Salk vaccines, and three
oral Sabins - and who then went on to get sub-clinical bulbar polio, which
left him in excrutiating agony for nearly a year, she should recognise, that
there is a different side to the story which she has not experienced.
As a mother, who had wonderful rubella titres 6 months prior to my first
pregnancy, and who subsequently contracted clinical rubella at 8 weeks
pregnancy, I have first hand experience and proof, that so-called
vaccine-induced immunity does not always work.
If vaccines protect "the rest" ...meaning..., those who have had the
vaccines, then why should unvaccinated children be a risk to the
vaccinated? After all, wasn't that what vaccines were made to do? To
protect those who chose to have them, from the "worst" that diseases can
throw at them? The fact is, that this issue is not a simple as she would
make it out to be.
Perhaps she should consider a quote from Drs Petr Skrabanek and James
McCormick's book "The Follies and Fallacies in Medicine." on page 41.
"Since life itself is a universally fatal sexualy transmitted disease,
living it to the full demands a balance between reasonable and unreasonable
risk. Since balance is a matter of judgement, dogmatism has little place."
Sincerely,
Hilary Butler,
New Zealand.
Debate on childhood vaccination
9/19/2002
S
THE MOTHER of two young children and a professional who works with polio
survivors, I was interested to read your article about West Coast mothers
choosing not to vaccinate their children against pertussis, or whooping
cough (''Parents weigh decision to vaccinate,'' Page A3, Sept. 9).
This issue is alive in our area as well. Some of the women in my mothers
group have debated giving their children vaccines against common childhood
ailments, fearing the side effects. I, for one, see in my daily work the
devastating lifelong repercussions of polio and cannot fathom putting my
child at risk for polio, whooping cough, or even chicken pox.
I feel fortunate to live in a country where we have access to vaccines
against these potentially life-threatening diseases. Why put your children
and the rest of us at risk?
ANNA G. RUBIN
Framingham
The writer is education and outreach coordinator of the International
Rehabilitation Center for Polio.
This story ran on page A16 of the Boston Globe on
9/19/2002.
© Copyright
2002 Globe Newspaper Company.