Words with a Ventura County Reporter about a recent article she wrote!

[Guest guest]

You have got to check this out. I was in Ventura for a DAN! appointment for my son and also caught a presentation for informed consent on vaccine. I thought it was ironic that in my favorite local Rag of a publication, right on the cover, was a big article of why parents are so hesitant about vaccine. I read the article and replied to the writer, in hopes of maybe her printing the other side of the story. Well, this is what happened! Start at the bottom! I replied by saying, maybe she should take care of my vaccine injured child for a day and then tell me who has done the heavy lifting! I am appalled!

Candyce

Candyce:

In all honesty, I am appalled at how the pharmaceutical companies behave. I am deeply angry at how they steal our money, put out drugs that they know are not as safe as they should be, how they will bribe any scientist with a palm on the FDA to green light their worst products, etc. I am also horrified that our government, especially since 2000, has given their blessing to the the drug companies to force seniors and others to chose between life-sustaining drug treatment and paying rent. I am keenly aware of the influence Rumsfeld, as a former and now again current top dog at a drug maker, has been able to impose on the entire country the sky-high price of drugs.

I also know the tremendous good that most of the drugs have done for people. I know that heart medications keep hearts beating, blood pressure meds keep strokes at bay, and all of the rest. It is not all or nothing. It is about making choices and weighing the benefits and the risks. I try to make informed choices. But that requires thought and deliberation and analysis. You might investigate some of the factoids that you are so convinced are the truth that the rest of us are clearly too stupid to see. As I said, you don't see people dropping dead from the vaccines, but you do see them dying from the diseases. Small pox and polio have been eliminated because we all took the vaccines, and I mean ALL, Now you, who would refuse the vaccine, will never need to worry about catching those hideous diseases. We did the heavy lifting and you are reaping the benefits.

Apparently, I just don't get it. I think you take a lot of things for granted and you are more than welcome to choose to have dental work without drugs, or to just let an infection get out of control instead of using Bactine. But most of us know that absolutely nothing is pure or perfect. It is up to us to make the best decisions we can based on the best information we can find. But that does not make me or others shills of any industry. It makes me a smart consumer of health care.

Joan

Not all of the people who have been vaccine injured are McCarthy followers. There are plenty of medical doctors., scientists and researchers that are straight up about their findings. There are plenty of research studies that have proven a link. Big pharmaceutical companies should be paying you if they aren't already.

Candyce

Candyce:

Thank you for taking the time to respond to my article. I am familiar with the claims of the studies which were cited. I would like to respond to that material.

First of all, McCarthy is not qualified by education or any other measure to be compared with the mainstream American medical studies and knowledge. Her only claim to authority in medicine was having a child who she says was autistic and then who she says was cured by her methods and who she says was given autism by his vaccinations. The other authority which approved of her claims was Oprah. This, from the woman who gave the world "The Secret."

Secondly, of the studies from which only small quotes were pulled, of the 52 authors and a phone survey, only 4 were MDs, and only two of those from this country. Some of the studies were quite old, going back to 1998. A study is only as good as the methodology which was employed, the size and scope of the study, and those conducting the study. No evidence of any such criteria was presented. Anyone can write a study. Anyone can pull what they want from a study. So I am afraid this was not convincing. And I know that you can cite and produce a zillion other studies. I have seen many such cites. But have you read the studies and facts about the odds of side-effects versus the odds of getting sick? Have you spent any time seriously listening to those whom you are so quickly dismissing? ?

However, the point of my article was not about any of the above issues. It was about a contagious illness that can and is killing children. It was also about weighing the risks with the benefits of immunization. Since the flu has killed 540 children as of mid-October and no children have been identified as being killed by the vaccine, I think the weight is on the side of medical science. Thimerisol-free vaccinations are available.The live virus in the nasal spray is an attenuated virus. That means it has been greatly weakened prior to administration and as soon as it is exposed to the temperatures inside the nasal passages, it dies. So the theory of a live virus which can cause harm is simply not true.

As for saying that all immunizations are harmful, I would ask whether you think the diseases that they prevent are harmful. Have you ever seen a child go through the pain and often permanent damage of the mumps? It is living torture. That is how I remember the experience. Do you know what the measles can do to a survivor? Brain damage, blindness, heart disease among other things. Did you know that pneumonia can be of the hemorrhagic variety, a rare but existing secondary infection which has been associated with the current H1N1. You bleed out of your eyes, nose, mouth, ears, and can eventually drown in the accumulated blood in your lungs.

I sincerely believe that McCarthy is doing a dangerous disservice with her website and campaign by using her marginal celebrity to publish books and hit the talk show circuit with unproven and unscientific theories as she urges other parents to follow suit. Science is about replication. If she was able to cure her autistic son, it has not been replicated. She is not liable for whatever may happen to those who listen to her. She has nothing to lose and apparently much to gain. As you said, follow the $$$...

I do hope that you will put some effort into reading about the diseases that you believe are less harmful than the vaccines. Please learn about the horrors previous generations lived with and suffered with and lost children to. Please know that there few families left untouched by the 1918 flu pandemic. Two countries on Earth had no flu deaths in 1918, one being American Samoa. Eskimos and Pacific Islanders were wiped out. Seven million people died in Spain in one month. Six times more American soldiers died from the flu than were killed in the war and WWI completely stopped for a while because no one was left on the front lines who could fight, they were battling the flu. This was the H1N1 flu, albeit a far more virulent strain. Please learn about these things before throwing away the opportunity to protect yourself and your children. Learn exactly what it is that you are willing to risk.

I would not be spending so much time explaining these things to you if I did not care. I write because I care. My dearest hope is that what I write will cause readers to think and be motivated to learn the facts for themselves.

Joan Bien

I think it is honorable and a service to our children to really think twice before vaccination. Informed consent is valuable information, that most parents don't get because it's not offered or the pediatric office doesn't know and are just taking orders from the American Academy of Pediatrics, who are taking orders from the FDA and they are being paid off by the drug companies. Follow the $$$...

Candyce Estavehttp://www.fourteenstudies.org/ourstudies.html