Pressure to vaccinate regardless of consequences

Back in the late 90’s when the acellular whooping cough vaccine was first introduced onto the schedule there was a forum held at the Women’s and Children’s Hospital in Adelaide for the public to ask questions. We asked a couple –

"If a fully vaccinated child can still come down with whooping cough, how can we prevent the spread of this disease?"

The answer came from Anne Kemp, the then Head of the Immunisation Unit of the South Australian Health Department and she said something along the lines of –

“If you put every child on an island and surrounded it with a big wall and a moat then you might have some chance”. She sounded somewhat resigned to the less than ideal protection from both the whole cell vaccine (which was withdrawn and replaced because of side effects) and the new acellular version.

The second question proved to be the last coming from our section of the lecture theatre and it related to the discussion about adverse events associated with the vaccine. You know the drill, Panadol for the fever and a warm towel for soreness at the injection site but the question related to the revelation that occasionally babies go floppy after receiving the vaccine.

I asked – “What do you do if a baby goes floppy?  You can’t administer Panadol then can you?"

The answer again from the then Head of our Immunisation Unit was – “No you can’t but it can be reassuring to put your ear to their chest and hear the fluttering of their heart.”

The level of deception, the overwhelming dismissal of adverse events, whatever they are, and the complete lack of any mechanism to repair the damage done by vaccines is bad enough.  Now the heart wrenching experience of watching your baby become unresponsive or scream in a high pitch for days following vaccination MUST be repeated if you want your child to attend childcare or preschool.

That story is 20 years old and here is another one from Laurel Lainio who has been kind enough to let us share her story.

'Here's my story. I had my first child nearly 20 years ago. He was vaccinated at 2 & 4 months and both times, within 4-5 hours he was bleeding into his nappy with this horrible smelling, mucousy stuff. We had all these tests etc, including the doctors starting to talk about the possibility of leukaemia.

I went to the library and started looking up possible causes with regard to the vaccines and started reading some really scary stuff about the history of vaccines (remember the internet wasn't a big thing yet 20 years ago lol). So I went to my GP, who I LOVE (he's been my GP since I was 14) & started asking him about some of the info I had found. Considering he knew my family well, my sister’s autoimmune issues, the fact that MTHFR gene defects and allergies etc run through our family (I have a cousin who was most likely disabled by DTP when she was a toddler), he was a bit concerned that vaccinating my son further wasn't a good idea. But he couldn't answer most of the questions I had regarding vaccine history etc. so I went to the Child & Youth Health nurse. When I asked about the things that were concerning me, they basically got shitty with me and told me to just DO IT!  We're always told 'talk to your health care professional' but what do we do when the healthcare professional can't allay our concerns? Or doesn't know the answers to the questions we have?

Now 20 years ago, Conscientious Objection was a relatively easy thing to get. My mother had started researching the ingredients in vaccines due to my son's eczema that had suddenly sprung up. She was concerned about me vaccinating her grandson further and based on the fact that my doctor, who knew my family history well and SAW the amount of blood in my son's nappy, was dubious about me vaccinating him again, I didn't!

Over the years I've done more & more research, both on the vaccines AND the illnesses, and I have never come across a health care professional who could actually answer my concerns in a way that made me feel better about vaccinating! & believe me, I WANTED them to convince me! It's not nice, as a young Mum, feeling like you're different from others or having people angry with you for not doing what THEY thought is right. But I can't just go against my mother's instinct, especially when the research I have done backs up my instinct, just because someone tells me to. I couldn't put my child at risk when it just really feels so wrong to me. I don't think any parent should!

The main thing that concerns me about No Jab No Pay is that doctors are no longer allowed to make the sort of call that my doctor made 20 years ago. A GP who knows the family history and has an instinct themselves, from all their years of training & experience, that vaccination may not be safe for that specific child. They now have to go against their training, against their better judgement and vaccinate the child anyway. That kinda ruins the doctor/patient trust circle too because we now can't trust doctors to tell us if they think it's not a good thing for our child, or even just what the real risks are, because they've been threatened with losing their license etc.. 

Anyway that's my long rant done. I'm not trying to change anyone's mind, I just want people to understand WHY I have the concerns that I do and why I feel so strongly that the decision should be made between a doctor and a patient ONLY and that forcing and coercing the issue is not helping. '

 Laurel makes some great points about the consequences for the doctor/ patient  relationship.  At the end of the day despite admission at the highest level of our medical system that vaccines are flawed and unavoidably unsafe it is parents who are responsible for their choices and inflicted with the consequences.

It's human nature to protect your child and give them the best start to life you can."

​Our thanks goes to Laurel for sharing her story and thoughts.

KS