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Christina R. Quinlan DPT- Do the Benefits Outweigh the Risks? Vaccines have been miracle potions for most Americans, sparing children and adults alike from deadly diseases. Today, however, certain vaccines are worrying some pediatricians, parents, scientists, and federal researchers as an increasingly troublesome treat instead of preventative medicine. Society has been taught to believe in the wisdom of vaccinations. But how much do parents, or even scientists and doctors really know about the crippling side effects?
Particularly in the case of the pertussis vaccine, which has been the most controversial of the childhood immunizations. Do the benefits outweigh the risks? Vaccines have been a part of childhood. Schools require them; parents trust them. A theory of vaccinations states that by giving a person a mild form of the disease through immunizing agents, specific antibodies are produced that will protect us when the real thing comes along.
This sounds simple enough, but nobody seems to inform us that these vaccinations may also create new deadly diseases along with other adverse reactions. The vaccine against diphtheria, tetanus, and pertussis (whooping cough) are usually administered in a one shot called DPT. The P part in the vaccine protects against whooping cough and has been linked to permanent brain damage, Excessive Screaming Disorder, extreme high fever, and crib death (James 11). Quinlan 2 Neustaedter described: During the recent polio epidemic in Oman the problem of paralytic polio infection s onset soon after the DPT vaccination occurred again. In this epidemic, seventy children aging five to twenty four months contracted polio during 1988 - 1989. When compared to a control group of children without polio, it was found that a significantly higher percentage of these children received a DPT shot within thirty days of the onset of polio, (41, 42).
In a Shot in the Dark by Harris L. Coulter and Barbara Fisher, parents tell their horrid experiences with the DPT vaccination that devastated their families. One mother writes how her two-month-old son was killed by the DPT inoculation: Ritchie had died thirty-three hours after he received his first DPT shot I am a nurse. I watched my son die that day, and I didn t even know what was happening (18). Ritchie experienced several seizures, high pitched screaming, and he fell in and out of deep sleep. When his mother phoned his pediatrician, she was reassured that these reactions were common side effects of the vaccination.
After thirty-three hours Ritchie died in his mother s arms. Ritchie s mother goes on to tell how difficult it was to follow through with an autopsy, and the coroner s hesitation to name the cause of death. She writes, He said he couldn t write down on the death certificate that Ritchie s death was due to a DPT shot reaction because the State s standing on immunizations would be in an uproar (19). Eventually, Ritchie s death certificate was filed with the state, and the DPT vaccine was named as the cause of death. Quinlan 3 A recent figure on the reaction to the DPT vaccine indicates that one in one hundred children react with convulsions or collapse or high pitched screaming.
One out of three hundred will remain permanently damaged. In terms of precise numbers and percentages, it is difficult to assess the numbers of vaccine-related injuries in the United States because doctors seldom report them (James 12). American doctors continue to insist that the benefits of the pertussis vaccine outweigh the dangers. Although the outbreak of pertussis is almost extinct, we are still injecting our children with foreign toxins. According to Neustaedter, most vaccines are grown in formaldehyde, aluminum, infectious animal tissue, and mercury (45, 46). The eventual injury from these five substances alone should at least raise some theoretical inquiries form the professionals.
This triple antigen is administered to babies as young as six weeks old in a number of prominent countries. The United States, Canada, France and Australia have mandatory DPT vaccination laws. However, many countries omit the P part of the shot because of its adverse reactions and ineffectiveness it has on preventing whooping cough. How many American know Western Europe dies not have mandatory pertussis immunization laws? Coulter and Fisher maintain that, Even Japan who implemented United States technology began using a safer pertussis vaccination in 1981 (2). Immunization: the Reality behind the Myth, by James Walene tells us that the demise of small pox, diphtheria, and whooping cough began long before immunizations ever came into the scene (32).
The Bubonic Plague, and Typhoid declined without any immunizations. Mass production of vaccinations does not Quinlan 4 prevent outbreaks. Better sanitation, healthier habits, and the survival of each generation builds a stronger immunity to infectious diseases. So why are we continuing to immunize? Society insists that parents who do not vaccinate their children play a risky game. Jon Abramson, chairman of pediatrics at Wake Forest University School of medicine at Winston-Salem, NC concludes that death caused by vaccines is extremely rare (Shultz).
If you raise the subject of immunization with any medical doctors they will probably tell you that vaccination is the most effective intervention of modern medicine which prevented more sufferings and saved more lives that any other medical procedure (Schreiber xvii). One set of statistics frequently used to document vaccine efficiency is the increase in pertussis incidents when vaccine administration is stopped of decreased. This has occurred in Britain, Japan, and Sweden (Neustaedter 61). However, to conclusively diagnose pertussis requires special cultures or antibody tests that many laboratories can not perform, and many doctors rarely take the trouble to order them, reports Moskowitz (Neustaedter 62). Making an informed decision when faced with the reality of immunizing our children should be favored and respected.
As parents, we are conditioned to believe that all childhood immunizations are necessary. We are not provided with information that raises doubt about the safety of vaccines, nor do doctors share the concerns of the fatalities that may occur because of them. Within eight days of their DPT inoculation, eleven infants died in Tennessee. Nine of the eleven had received their vaccines from Wyeth Laboratories.
Four of the eleven were dead in twenty-four hours, reported in the Fresno Bee Quinlan 5 (Tennessee Cluster 8). All the deaths were classified as crib deaths. Thousands of babies die every year of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome in so-called developed countries. The age at which most crib death happens is between two to six months. Most doctors usually say that this is coincidental with vaccinations. However, the fact remains that crib death has been a mystery to society for decades.
Why are specialists so quickly to rule out vaccinations as the cause? Schreiber indicates that when Japan began vaccinating children at two years old, crib death, following DPT injections disappeared in that country entirely. Japan zoomed to the lowest incidence of infant mortality in the world (Coulter &# 038; Fisher 263). Raising questions and challenging physicians about the terrifying effects of immunization may save lives. It would be unethical not to try a new safer vaccine. We give our children everything we have.
The time has come to decide whether or not our children are benefiting from these so-called lifesavers, or is our government and the pharmaceutical companies cashing in at our children s expense. Quinlan 6 Works Cited Coulter, Harris, Barbara Fisher. A Shot in the Dark. Garden City Park: Avery. 1991.
James, Walene. Immunization: The Reality Behind the Myth. Westport: Bergen &# 038; Gallery, 1995. Neustaedter, Randall. The Vaccine Guide. Berkeley: North Atlantic, 1996.
Schreiber, Viera. Vaccination. Victoria: Australian Print Group, 1993. Schultz, Stacey. Parents Who Don t Vaccinate Play a Risky Game. U.
S. News. 23 November 1998: 65. Tennessee Cluster Stirs Inquiries. The Fresno Bee. Dec. 1984: 2 - 4.
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