Shots in the dark

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http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=46868

Shots in the dark

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Posted: October 17, 2005

1:00 a.m. Eastern

© 2005 WorldNetDaily.com

Your doctor firing you?

Uh, yes, and it's not a joke. It has nothing to do with a

disagreement about treating an illness. It has to do with preventive

procedures – namely, routine childhood vaccinations.

As if parents didn't have enough to worry about.

It's hard enough finding a competent doctor these days, with all the

restrictions of health plans. Now some pediatricians are laying down

the law: If you don't do what they say about vaccines for your

children, they will fire you!

Tough luck, lady; do as I say or hit the road.

The reality became public when the results of a nationwide survey of

randomly selected pediatricians were published in the Archives of

Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine.

The purpose of the survey was to look at the attitudes of

pediatricians concerning parents who refuse some, or all, of the

vaccinations recommended for children.

The results showed that 54 percent of the physicians faced total

vaccine refusal by parents during a one-year period.

How would they handle it?

Thirty-nine percent said they would dismiss the parents for total

refusal.

If a family refused certain selected vaccines, 28 percent said they

would dismiss the family.

" We didn't expect this high a number, " said Dr. A. Flanagan-

Klygis. She's assistant professor of pediatrics at Rush Medical

College in Chicago and was the leader of the study. According to

her, this reflects the issue of trust between doctor and patient.

She interprets the decision of the physicians to dismiss patients as

reflecting that they didn't think " they would be able to forge a

relationship with a family like that. They felt they would not have

the trust they needed to have to move forward. "

I don't know – why do I think that the threat of lawsuits is more in

their mind than " trust " ?

Remember, at the recent White House meeting about flu vaccine, one

of the provisos wanted by the drug companies is immunity from

lawsuits. Physicians worry about that, too. Ask them about

malpractice insurance costs.

There's no doubt there are parents who refuse shots for their

children. Some refusals are based in religion but more and more,

doctors find those refusals are based on questions about the

efficacy, safety and even necessity of the shots. Why give hepatitis

B to an infant when the disease only affects the sexually

promiscuous or drug users?

These parents must deal with school-entry requirements for their

children, and while there are opt-out provisions, it isn't easy to

accomplish and the system works against them.

Autism is rampant, as are the variety of attention-deficit disorders

and auto-immune diseases. There are many questions about the

connection to vaccines, and while the " official " stance of doctors

is that there's no relationship, the truth is we – and they – really

don't know for certain. Parents don't like playing Russian roulette

with their child's health.

Even the study results address the uncertainty. Standing out among

the conclusions: " This willingness to dismiss refusing families is

inconsistent with an apparent ambivalence about newer, yet

recommended, vaccines. " (my emphasis)

So the next time you're told flatly, " It's safe, " remember that even

medical people have doubts about the new and recommended shots. Ask

yourself, who's recommending and why?

There can be violent reactions to vaccines. Some children have

suffered brain and nervous system damage; some have died. The

Centers for Disease Control has a reporting system for adverse

vaccine reactions – a voluntary reporting by doctors who encounter

such reactions.

That parents are concerned is understandable. That they need full

education as to the vaccines being recommended (note: recommended,

not required) should go without question.

We're told to " trust " our doctor. Yet we're advised to seek a second

and third opinion in diagnoses. Does that show a lack of trust in

the first physician, or does it show that ultimately patients should

have a hand in their medical care? It is their body, their health,

their life and their money paying for it all.

Doctors firing their children patients. It would be funny if it

weren't so serious. The whole issue of vaccines is rife with

questions and doubts and ultimately, politics, money and government

control.

So, what else is new -- except at the heart of this is parental

rights concerning the health and care of their children, individual

rights over one's own body, and the heavy hand of the state,

influenced by the pharmaceutical industry, and ultimately, the

United Nations.

If it sounds like a can of worms, it is. With all those big guns

aimed at families, their position -- our position -- is not

enviable.

Remember when the administration raised the issue of the military

being involved in a possible quarantine due to avian flu? Not the

health department – the military.

Would a vaccine be voluntary for adults and children, or mandatory?

Who would enforce it?

Research is being done for an AIDS vaccine because of worldwide

contagion. How better to support providing that vaccine to poor

countries than to require richer countries to mandate it?

The United Nations last week released a report on worldwide

vaccinations. Dr. Salama, chief of immunizations for UNICEF,

says more money is needed to insure that 90 percent of children

under 1 year of age worldwide are immunized against childhood

diseases by 2010.

We're told the $1 billion now spent on the effort isn't enough. Dr.

Salama says $1 billion more is needed and that donor nations must

renew their efforts and provide more.

The core issue may be protecting children, but it boils down to rich

countries, primarily the United States, giving more cash and

product. But nothing is free. When pharmaceutical firms " donate "

vaccines to third world countries, they need to make up those costs.

It's done by having a secure market at home. And they do.

Here comes government. Under the guise of public health, citizens

are required to use the vaccines. Every baby born is a new customer

and, as the number of vaccines grows, so does the market need. What

happens when they develop one vaccine for 20 or 30 diseases? It's in

the works. How soon before it's mandated? What happens if doctors

won't treat you unless you comply? What happens if you refuse?

This is not science fiction.

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Barbara Simpson, " The Babe in the Bunker " as she's known to her KSFO

560 radio talk-show audience in San Francisco, has a 20-year radio,

television and newspaper career in the Bay Area and Los Angeles.