Vaccines.....

Greetings, all!

Lately, largely due to the Rubella outbreak in Norwich, I've been seriously thinking about the issue of to vaccinate or not. And it's a big question. Sarah seems to have less doubts about it than I do. And it's a terrible dillema-- Do you vaccinate, and potentially protect your children from all sorts of harmful diseases (conventional wisdom) or not vaccinate and protect your children from a whole host of potential side effects (the dissenters). Either choice, you're trying to protect your children.

And now, the outbreak in Norwich.

All this would be relatively harmless (Rubella, from what I've read, is pretty much on par with Chicken Pox), except for the number of pregnant women that have now been exposed to it and, assuming they have not been imunized, there are now a number of unborn babies at risk of growth defects or even miscarriage.

So when does one person's decisions about their health cross into the realm of public safety?

I don't know. But I have just found out yet another angle on this complex issue.

Apparently a number of popular MMR vaccines, both in the U.S. and Canada, are manufactured using inactivated human diploid cells, derived from aborted fetal tissue. It's not the only one, either. There are also polio, tetnus (sp?) and rabies vaccines manufactured using the same process.

I'm trying to find out which brands are used here in Ontario, and if they do indeed use this process.

These are the thoughts that I've been having of late about this issue. I thought that I'd share them, as this Norwich situation has probably got some of you wondering how Sarah and I have been reacting to this.

Some web-references are below.

Steve

To find the relevant sections, press ctrl-f and type in fetal or diploid.

http://www.eadshome.com/vaccines.htm

http://autism.about.com/cs/vaccinations/l/blvaccsecret.htm

http://www.thenhf.com/vaccinations_06.htm (questionable)

http://www.aspartame.ca/page_vaccs1.html#Vaccination%20Myth%20#1: