Catholic Teaching and Immunization Policy

[Myles_Falworth]

I’m not saying it’s the party line everywhere. Watch the news sometime. Or pick up any newspaper article about vaccines. Or watch late night comedy shows, or look in parenting magazines. The media is universal in it’s agenda to misinform people of the ABSOLUTE safety of all vaccines for all people.

 

[Myles_Falworth]

For anyone who would like to peer into the lives of a family with an autistic child, I still know of no better film than “Beautiful Son,” by Don and Julianne King. Beautifully produced and fairly balanced. It also shows the confusing array of treatment options parents are exposed to, and the vaccine safety movement at its beginning.

You can order it from this site. http://www.beautifulson.com/

 

[pnewton]

It must remain lawful in the US. If we truly want compliance, we could start by being more flexible for the nervous among us.

You raise an interesting point. Why can’t a parent vaccinate on a slower schedule if they choose? I see no barrier. Vaccinations are not required to be done all at one here. The are only required to be completed by the time a child enters Kindergarten. This may vary from district to district though.

 

[blackforest]

I took that Pax Christi vow of non-violence, so alas, I’m unable to tear you to shreds. ((Whistling sheepishly)).

 

[Mtatum1958]

I do not disagree, but what would be the actual advantage?

 

[blackforest]

Me too. Sigh.

 

[pnewton]

I do not know of any advantage, except to allay the concern of a parent about having too many vaccines at once. The poster above said government should be more flexible with the vaccine schedule.

 

[blackforest]

I’m not sure why my car analogy deserves to be dismissed summarily. Each time you pile your kids into a car and drive away, you put their lives at risk–and the risk is much higher than getting autism from vaccines (if there is such a risk at all). And yet there is no hand-wringing over piling your kids in a car. Why not?

I’ll grant that it’s a lot more dangerous to put kids in a car than to vaccinate one’s children.

But I can turn that one around on you. It’s also much higher risk to put kids in a car than to forego certain vaccines. I buckle my kids into the car on an almost daily basis, and where car accidents are a leading killer of children in here in the U.S. Nobody bats an eye at that, but everybody loses their minds when they learn that we’ve postponed the Hep B vaccine indefinitely.

There’s study after psychological study indicating that as humans, we’re terribly irrational about assessing risk.

 

[pnewton]

I was reminiscing today about a autistic boy I knew growing up. He was not diagnosed or treated, and my brother befriended him somewhat. He simply was who he was, not a category or disease. The church understood and everyone helped him with loving patience. I guess times have changed. There is also another autistic boy in our scout troop and all the boys take care of him, though he never goes far away from his father. I can see where at least some of the rise of autism is in recognition. I also noted the the rise continued after ethyl mercury was removed as a vaccine preservative, though the CDC did the right thing (better safe than sorry).

 

[PetraG]

I also take issue when the complaints turn to some area I know to be unscientific, like the introduction of “chemicals” into the body, criticism of preventative medicine, or the whole idea of homeopathic medicine by dilution.

Oh, and don’t get me started with “homeopathy,” either. How people who are so worried about whether or not something has science to back it up can run to believe someone who tells them to ingest colloidal silver (?!?), I have no idea.

I have relatives who are into this stuff, and I just shake my head. Their thinking is so internally inconsistent! They are convinced that the big companies are going to kill them with poison to make a buck but for some reason they believe someone selling them “dietary supplements” that have ZERO evidence of effectiveness only have their best interests in mind and only lack medical endorsement because the whole “system” is rigged. They don’t know that it is the companies who sell the supplements who fight having to meet the same standards of proof for their claims that is required for medications. Every one of them has graduated from college, too. It beggars belief.

 

[Erikaspirit16]

But I can turn that one around on you. It’s also much higher risk to put kids in a car than to forego certain vaccines…

There’s study after psychological study indicating that as humans, we’re terribly irrational about assessing risk.

No argument from me.

 

[Pup7]

I also noted the the rise continued after ethyl mercury was removed as a vaccine preservative, though the CDC did the right thing (better safe than sorry).

It was more to try and stop the rise of nonvaccination. It wasn’t a matter of uncertainty, because the vaccine in question - the MMR that everyone blamed - never contained it to start with.

 

[Pup7]

Their thinking is so internally inconsistent! They are convinced that the big companies are going to kill them with poison to make a buck but for some reason they believe someone selling them “dietary supplements” that have ZERO evidence of effectiveness only have their best interests in mind and only lack medical endorsement because the whole “system” is rigged.

It’s like multivitamins. 99% of healthy and average Americans don’t need one. There are some supplements we could use, but the small amounts in a multi aren’t enough of the specific ones - like D and calcium, especially, and of course folks low in iron and folic acid for women of childbearing age, so there are exceptions. But literally, for the most part, no one needs one.

Know what happens to most of that pill? You flush it - you literally urinate it out. You never even use it. You’re paying eight bucks and up to turn your toilet a different shade of yellow. I’m not kidding.

But it’s a billion dollar industry. We are the best fed people in the world with the widest variety of food available and a huge percentage of it fortified already, and we still buy multivitamins. And I’m not excluding myself here - I do, but I don’t use birth control in the ever waning hope that I might have a baby here before the curtain falls forever (after over a decade I get it’s wishful thinking, but my time isn’t quite over yet, lol!), so I know I do need folic acid (especially since I just don’t eat a lot of bread or pasta, which in the US is fortified). But it’s insanity that I do it except for the folic acid - and I don’t even buy that separate!

 

[Pup7]

Pup7, It’s clear to me that you mean well. I would like to show you a book which I read many years ago which got me thinking in this direction. It’s by an Emergency Medicine doc whose son was diagnosed with Autism. I’d really appreciate your thoughts on it. Dr. Jepson said in 2008 that it needed to be revised. I hope he will someday. https://www.amazon.com/Changing-Cou...sr=8-1&keywords=changing+the+course+of+autism

I gave a copy of this book to my son’s pediatrician and she read the whole thing. She told me it was a wonderful way to begin a conversation. I really love our doctor!

Yep. That’s a great book to start a conversation with.

That’s theory, by the way, not proven. If it works for you, fantastic. But it’s not mainstream, and is still being researched. It’s not proven.

 

[Pup7]

Myles_Falworth:

It must remain lawful in the US. If we truly want compliance, we could start by being more flexible for the nervous among us.

You raise an interesting point. Why can’t a parent vaccinate on a slower schedule if they choose? I see no barrier. Vaccinations are not required to be done all at one here. The are only required to be completed by the time a child enters Kindergarten. This may vary from district to district though.

Insofar as I know, you can - where I’ve lived so far allows that. A lot of parents do, and to me that reasoning is sound, even though there’s no evidence to support that it makes a difference. It’s a reasonable request. I’ve seen pediatricians with mixed opinions on it, but the bottom line is the children are being vaccinated.

 

[Whitney]

Why can’t a parent vaccinate on a slower schedule if they choose?

Some people have to work before their children are in kindergarten. Thus upon entering daycare they have to either be up to date or you had to refuse them (where I live).
In my area you can refuse all vaccinations for moral religious or personal reasons and still attend school. You can refuse them individually as well, like choose which vaccines. But you can’t delay the vaccines unless you write that you refuse them one year and then turn in the form that you changed your mind and gave them the next year!
Interestingly my archdiocese doesn’t allow any waivers, although the public schools allow, as I said all kinds of waiver. So even to attend a catholic preschool you must be up to date on vaccines without exception including the hepatitis B vaccine.
I do wonder what these (and all) schools think is happening in kindergarten?

 

[Myles_Falworth]

Here’s a preview of “Beautiful Son” The father, Don King, was an underwater photographer for the TV series “Lost.” The documentary is shot in Hawaii, where they live.

And here’s another video which provides a little bit of an update on Beau King.

 

[Myles_Falworth]

Have you read it?

 

[Pup7]

Pup7:

Why can’t a parent vaccinate on a slower schedule if they choose?

Some people have to work before their children are in kindergarten. Thus upon entering daycare they have to either be up to date or you had to refuse them (where I live).
In my area you can refuse all vaccinations for moral religious or personal reasons and still attend school. You can refuse them individually as well, like choose which vaccines. But you can’t delay the vaccines unless you write that you refuse them one year and then turn in the form that you changed your mind and gave them the next year!
Interestingly my archdiocese doesn’t allow any waivers, although the public schools allow, as I said all kinds of waiver. So even to attend a catholic preschool you must be up to date on vaccines without exception including the hepatitis B vaccine.
I do wonder what these (and all) schools think is happening in kindergarten?

Just making sure folks know that wasn’t me who asked that question. So weird how it does that.

 

[Pup7]

I’ve read the theory that it discusses. A lot of that inflammation cascade stuff gets discussed for a lot of different conditions. It doesn’t mean it’s valid and it doesn’t mean there’s not something to it. But it’s theory.