Natural Immunity: The Road Less Traveled

Stephanie-Jaskot13By: Stephanie Jaskot – July, 2015

Making the best decisions for your family isn’t an easy thing to do. Questioning the ‘norms’ in America can cause you to be degraded and shut out by others who don’t share your views. What people fail to understand, is that when it comes to our children, parents will (and should) do what they think is best regardless of what others may think.

This includes choices in what they eat, the schools they attend, friends they associate with, and yes, vaccines. Now, according to some of you, vaccines may not be comparable to the other decisions parents have to make. Why is that? Whether a child receives all of the “recommended” vaccines, refuses some, or refuses all; is solely the parent’s choice to decide. We all need to work together to keep our rights of informed consent.

“Informed consent” is a patient’s required consent for medical procedures, after the facts are fully explained and understanding the risks involved. If our right to refuse vaccines gets taken away, what will be next?

How Much are They Giving You? In 1995, the “recommended” vaccine schedule for adolescents, listed on the CDC (Center for Disease Control) website, included 5 strains of 18 total vaccines. The current schedule for 2015 includes; 13 strains of 45 total vaccines. Throughout the last 20 years, 27 new vaccines were added to the recommended immunization schedule. It is not unreasonable to ask yourself, why so many? There are many concerning factors regarding vaccines, their safety and their effectiveness.

HOW IMMUNE ARE YOU?

A common misconception about vaccines is that they provide 100% immunity. Those who are vaccinated can still contract the disease they were vaccinated for, and can still pass these diseases onto others, vaccinated or not. Regardless of their reasoning, everyone should have the power of choice, especially about medical decisions.

You DO have a choice, even though it may not seem like you do. There are exemption forms if you decide against vaccinating. Everyone should know their rights, do their own research and make the decision that is best for them.

It may seem like I am an ‘anti-vaxer’ or even a ‘conspiracy theorist’ to some, but this could not be further from the truth. I guess I can be considered ‘pro-choice’, believing that our freedom to choose what happens to our bodies should not be taken away. If laws are passed requiring everyone to be vaccinated, the government is taking away our basic human right to informed consent, plain and simple.

What other medical procedures will they force on us next? This is what we have to think about before making a major decision on taking away our rights. Instead of tearing each other down for our differences over these decisions, we should be having healthy discussions and standing united for one main cause: our freedom.

Name-calling and making accusations against people who share different beliefs does nothing but divide us even further and solves nothing.

SO ARE WE PRO CHOICE OR AREN’T WE?


An article written by “Health Impact News” about vaccines was recently posted on Tom Duggan’s Facebook page. The article goes on to explain how CDC senior vaccine scientist, Dr. William Thompson has confessed that the CDC has withheld key information linking vaccines to autism.

 

This post sparked harsh comments, including one by Ben Flagg of Methuen, who wrote, “Anti vaxxers are the worst thing to happen in America in a while. Science denial at its finest”.
Comments like this are common, but show the true ignorance of the main issue at hand. In another comment made on the Facebook post, a user went on to say that even if vaccines weaken your immune system, “isn’t that better than getting measles?”

The risks associated with vaccines are real (not made up like the CDC wants you to believe) and could happen to you any time you receive a vaccine. Also, that in your lifetime, you most likely won’t ever come into contact with anything you would be vaccinated for. Even if you were exposed to any of the diseases, being vaccinated does not ensure immunity, which in turn means potentially still contracting the disease, and spreading it to others.

In response to that particular comment, Facebook user Josh Flagg tries to use this ‘comparison’: “Why would anyone wear helmets? You probably won’t ever crash your motorcycle, and even if you did a helmet doesn’t guarantee you’ll survive”.

Even though I understand what he was trying to say, his point is invalid when referring to vaccines. Are there any risks associated with wearing a helmet? No.

Are there risks to injecting vaccines directly into your bloodstream? Yes, there are hundreds of potential adverse effects, which you are risking happening when you get vaccinated.

We can all agree to disagree about vaccines, continuing to make our own decisions and living our own lives. One thing we SHOULD all agree on, is protecting our rights of “choice” and maintain the right to decline any medical procedure, whether or not it include vaccinations.

It will become a scary world to live in, knowing that not only do we have no rights, but no rights to our own body! Now that’s a “pro-choice” cause everyone should stand behind.

Stephanie Jaskot is a Methuen resident. She is a mother and a graduate of Northern Essex Community College. You can email her at sjaskot754@gmail.com.