Anti-Vaccinatory Psuedo Science

Just the other day I was at my pulmonologist's office getting my lung work up when she asked me if I had gotten my flu shot yet. This was a question that I had been asked almost every hour while I was in the hospital recovering from my gall bladder surgery. My answer to the pulmonologist was the same as it was then. No.

At the hospital they just took it as it was and the subject didn't come up again until a new nurse or doctor came in, but my pulmonologist apparently didn't want to take no for an answer, I needed a good reason to not have the shot.

Now, I'm not one of those zealots who think that vaccines cause autism and think that immunizations are terrible. I'm also not like the girl in the video that claims her vasculitis (CNS brain vasculitis) was caused by her Guardasil vaccination. Even her neurologist is saying that this is what caused it forgetting one of the biggest tenants in science. Correlation does not equal causation. Even as a psych major, someone from a "soft science" I get that.

Funny, considering the fact that CNS, like most all other forms of vasculitis, has no known cause. The closest they can come to giving a "cause" for any vasculitis is a genetic predisposition triggered by an environmental influence such as an infection, stress, or a specific agent. You could argue that maybe the vaccine was her trigger, but they won't say when her symptoms started in relation to when she got her last shot.

Granted, everything I've said about this girl comes from this blog and watching the trailer for the documentary that she is featured in. But, there is very little evidence to support vaccinations being a direct cause for any of these diseases that people claim  they do. The biggest claim is that vaccinations cause autism which has been proven to be false!

I am willing to support the notion that some children might be allergic to things in the vaccine which may cause high fevers that can result in brain damage or other diseases which brings me back to my original topic of me vs the flu vaccine.

I don't get the flu vaccine and I never have, because my mother is allergic to the egg used to make the vaccines. When they gave my older sister one after they had her she too was allergic to the egg used to make the vaccine and had a reaction to it. Because of this the doctors decided that the risk of an allergic reaction is higher for my brother and I so it would be best not to try it. Besides, with the Imuran I was told that I wasn't even supposed to be around someone who recently got theirs, let alone get one if it contains the live virus.

No, people need to get their children inoculated. Not only for the protection of the child, but for the protection of the people in society that cannot, for various reasons, get those inoculations themselves. 


Also, please remember to Vote for Vasculitis it goes until the 22nd and apparently their was a hacking incident with some of the groups so we've lost a lot of the votes that we worked so hard to get. This could lead to research that might tell that girl from the documentary just what caused her CNS!