re: #78 Hecuba’s daughter

My reactions may be a result of personal experience: one of my nephews was born with serious neurological problems: one pediatrician advised against the Pertussis part of the DPT shot, another pediatrician was fine with the entire combination and that was what was administered. My nephew had convulsions shortly after receiving the vaccine and suffered permanent damage. At that time (almost 40 years ago) there wasn’t the same type of guidance as today as to who should have medical exemptions.

Medical recommendations and contra-indications are based on actuarial studies and the doctors’ professional experience. It is impossible to say any medical procedure, drug or vaccine is 100% risk-free for all patients. We can say that for *most* patients something is *mostly* safe. That is all we can do.

It’s a question of weighing the risks of treatment or vaccination. Pertussis, as an example, is no longer as common in the American population as it was 100 years ago, because most people have been vaccinated against it. It is then harder to contract it “in the wild.” But the risk of dying from pertussis still exists, and we need to maintain the “herd immunity” of the general population to prevent outbreaks, so the CDC and most doctors recommend children be immunized against pertussis before they enter school. While adverse reactions can happen, those risks are far less than the risk of catching the disease, and potentially dying from it, and also spreading it to others.

Putting it another way. If 1 person in 100,000 has an adverse reaction to pertussis vaccine, it does not mean the other 99,999 should not have been vaccinated.

I’m sorry your nephew had a bad reaction. But questioning the wisdom of vaccinations in general based on one incident that happened 40 years ago is just not clear thinking.

Pertussis is a nasty disease, and children can die from it. Schools used to close and people would stay at home isolated from neighbors because of whooping cough outbreaks. The doctor could have reasoned the chances of the kid dying from pertussis were greater than suffering adverse reactions.