Sick sick sick sick sick sick sick, thoughts on the flu vaccine
Cristopher and Holly and I are freaking sick again. My family has been getting sick literally every couple of weeks. I know that living with two small children and having a family business which puts you into contact with all sorts of different people every day really takes its toll, but this seems insane. I actually seriously thought about getting a flu vaccination today. It's something which I have been strongly against for years now, but I thought that I would at least reconsider the option given the circumstances. So I talked to some people and did some research and... no, I don't think I'm going to. I'd rather just deal with being sick 24/7. My reasons being:
-All of the documented serious side effects of the flu vaccine and other vaccines (ie: autism, high content of mercury, formaldehyde, and other toxic substances, death, probable heightened risks of cancer and many other diseases, etc.)
-All of the not as of yet documented serious side effects. These haven't even been in use for very long and we really don't know what effect they are having on us in the long term.
-There are many cases of vaccines being infected with other diseases accidentally (or, occasionally, on purpose)
-Vaccines have been used to test the side effects of new drugs, vaccines, or even birth control methods without the patients' knowledge
-Your immune system will become much stronger by fighting viruses off on its own than by being given a shot
-The flu vaccine is not updated as regularly as it should be (as far as I can tell), and the strains that it immunizes you to are not necessarily the ones that will be prevalent that year.
There are actually several others, but I can't remember them at the moment and I'm very tired so I'm going to try to get some sleep. I'm not saying that all of these things are necessarily likely, and it is possible that after a little more work the flu vaccine could be perfectly safe. It's just that right now, until we know more about it, it's not worth the risk to me. I would love to hear anyone else's opinion on this subject though. I admit that, while I know more about this topic than many people, I by no means consider myself well-informed in regards to the flu vaccine. And I know that my personal prejudices against Western medicine are influencing my standpoint to some extent. Not that I think this is a bad thing, but still.
Oh, and for anyone else who isn't getting their comments emailed to them, this link is very helpful:
http://www.livejournal.com/tools/recent_comments.bml
-All of the documented serious side effects of the flu vaccine and other vaccines (ie: autism, high content of mercury, formaldehyde, and other toxic substances, death, probable heightened risks of cancer and many other diseases, etc.)
-All of the not as of yet documented serious side effects. These haven't even been in use for very long and we really don't know what effect they are having on us in the long term.
-There are many cases of vaccines being infected with other diseases accidentally (or, occasionally, on purpose)
-Vaccines have been used to test the side effects of new drugs, vaccines, or even birth control methods without the patients' knowledge
-Your immune system will become much stronger by fighting viruses off on its own than by being given a shot
-The flu vaccine is not updated as regularly as it should be (as far as I can tell), and the strains that it immunizes you to are not necessarily the ones that will be prevalent that year.
There are actually several others, but I can't remember them at the moment and I'm very tired so I'm going to try to get some sleep. I'm not saying that all of these things are necessarily likely, and it is possible that after a little more work the flu vaccine could be perfectly safe. It's just that right now, until we know more about it, it's not worth the risk to me. I would love to hear anyone else's opinion on this subject though. I admit that, while I know more about this topic than many people, I by no means consider myself well-informed in regards to the flu vaccine. And I know that my personal prejudices against Western medicine are influencing my standpoint to some extent. Not that I think this is a bad thing, but still.
Oh, and for anyone else who isn't getting their comments emailed to them, this link is very helpful:
http://www.livejournal.com/tools/recent_comments.bml