Forewarned is forearmed. Informed decision about vaccines

Story at-a-glance

• Thirteen percent of parents are now using an alternative vaccination schedule, and two percent refuse all vaccines for their children. Still, 28 percent of parents following the childhood vaccination schedule think it would be safer to delay the use of vaccines.
• In German children, 11 percent of those vaccinated reported having ear infections, compared to less than 0.5 percent of unvaccinated children. Similarly, sinusitis was reported in over 32 percent of vaccinated children, while the prevalence in unvaccinated children was less than one percent.
• There are important, basic differences between naturally-acquired immunity and temporary vaccine-induced antibody production. As a parent, you need to educate yourself on each individual disease and corresponding vaccine in order to make an informed decision about the risks and benefits of the choices you make.
• An important vaccine safety review was issued by the Institute of Medicine (IOM) in August. According to this review of over 1,000 independent studies on vaccines, they were unable to determine whether or not vaccines are a causative factor in over 100 serious adverse health outcomes. In short: the research available is insufficient and cannot be used to confirm nor deny causation for many poor health outcomes and vaccinations.