A shot in the dark?

Well, Jane Brody answered all the vaccine questions asked by well-intentioned parents in her Oct. 10 column, “Safe immunizations can’t be discounted.” And now I am to go forth and fearlessly vaccinate my children?

I have spent the last 13 years reading all I can about the not-so-well publicized information regarding vaccines.

There are so many questions that haunt me: Is it worth vaccinating my child when they have connected a 60 percent rise in juvenile diabetes to the DPT vaccine? And why, in recent whooping cough outbreaks have 50 to 70 percent of the infected children been fully immunized? What about the studies showing that children’s leukemia rates have been on the rise since the introduction of vaccines? And how about the fact that auto-immune diseases are highest in highly vaccinated populations? Could the vaccines be causing those diseases? Has she looked at the asthma rates of vaccinated children? It goes on and on.

Then, there are the chemicals used in vaccines. Yes, I know, small amounts. But I just can’t get to where I feel OK about even a small amount of formaldehyde, acetone, aluminum compounds or numerous other toxic chemicals being injected into my child. Many of these chemicals are known carcinogens, many are known to actually suppress the immune system.

What will the long-term effects of vaccines be? What are the long-term effects of vaccinating for so many diseases at one time when the body is naturally set up to recognize and fight one thing at a time?

As I read Ms. Brody’s column, I found myself wondering if she had really done any research or was she just a mouthpiece for the pharmaceutical companies and the American Medical Association? If she was truly informed, she would find out what I have discovered: The vaccine question is not as cut and dried as we all would like it to be.

Stanwood