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I've never had an immunization shot. I think it has benefited me in some ways. Yes,
I did get some bad diseases that could have been prevented and were potentially
fatal, but my immune system is much stronger for having gone through those illnesses.
When
I was four years old, my oldest brother caught Whooping Cough from a schoolmate
who’d had a live pertussis (whooping cough) shot. I think most of the things I
came down with (maybe all) were caused from the medical interventions of
others. My case of whooping cough was particularly bad and my parents were
seriously worried. I was given small doses of red wine and anointed with olive
oil while my parents prayed for my recovery. I think they suffered as much as I
did – maybe more – they had five kids down with whooping cough! I remember
those days, maybe weeks, when my then five-year-old brother and I slept in our
parents’ bed and stayed in bed most of the days. I spent hours staring at the
popcorn ceiling and imagining different objects, animals, and shapes moving
around. They had a Japanese painting hanging over their bed of a sailboat on a
moonlit night, but I kept imaging that the sailboat was really an evil witch.
I
will never forget my first day of ninth grade. I woke up feeling off and
assumed it was first day of school jitters. I couldn't stomach the thought of
eating my normal breakfast of cheerios (the breakfast I have eaten nearly every
day of my life from the age of four until now), and decided that Ramen noodles
would be just the thing. I had Spanish second period and I remember sitting in
my plastic chair feeling like the teacher was speaking from miles away. My head
was spinning and I was sweating. I couldn't get her attention to ask to leave
the room, but I was so ill, that I left anyway. I walked into the school office
and asked to call home, but the secretary just waved me off and said it was
just nerves. She told me to sit down and went back to her work. I immediately
began vomiting in the metal wastepaper basket. By time all of my undigested
noodles were out, the secretary had my mom on the phone.
It
was disappointing to miss the first two weeks of school. I had planned to take
school seriously when I got to high school. I always heard that grades don’t
really count until high school, and here I was out sick. My teachers sent work
home, but I was in no position to focus on anything. I had a bad case of the
mumps.
In
eleventh grade, I came down with German Measles. That knocked me out of
school for nearly three weeks. Whenever an outbreak of German Measles came about,
the women at church who were pregnant, might be pregnant, or might get pregnant
had to stay away from church and the public, in general – unless they’d already
had German measles. I guess I also had Chicken Pox when I was a toddler, but I
don’t remember it.
I
don’t get sick much now. I have traveled in twenty countries and on four
continents and have never had to get inoculations.
My immune system is strong. Last summer, I got a notice from my graduate school adviser stating that I needed a current physical and a record of shots.
Although, it is no longer against my religion to get immunizations, I didn't feel that it was a necessary procedure, so I requested (and was granted) an exception. I have natural immunity to most
infectious diseases, so why have extra chemicals forced into my system?
Here is the thing.
ReplyDeleteThe "toxins" in vaccines are often so miniscule in quantity that your probably come into more contact with them from sources you often considered harmless.
Your tuna sandwiches contain more mercury in a more dangerous form than the flu shot. There is more formaldehyde created by your body everytime you take a wiff of paint solvent or antifreeze or use a campfire lighter or camp stove. Or hell, if you drink a single beer...
The entire point of vaccines is that they reduce incidence of disease. They are actually SUPERIOR to getting the disease.
Let's take measles for example. Measles is MAINLY harmless. It however prior to the invention of the vaccine killed 8 MILLION people across the globe. AIDS only kills 1 million, measles deaths were considered not just unavoidable but a fact of life.
Today it kills around a million people a year. A huge number but a far cry from what it used to do. All down to the vaccine. The drop in measles mortality rates in the west are not matched in the east. Measles kills 1 in 6000 people it infects and it is an ubiquious disease if you do not vaccinate.
It also causes deafness. There are fewer deaf and indeed fewer birth defects due to the MMR. There are straight up fewer mental retardation cases due to the vaccines since a lot of congenital mental retardation is due to vaccine preventable diseases. Even things like SIDS are lower in vaccinated children.
In short? There aren't any toxins in vaccines. You may think your immune system is bullet proof but it's not you who suffers. It's those whose immune systems are weak who require the protection. The very young and the very old. The flu is a week off and miserable to you. To my nan it's something that can kill her.
That's why we vaccinate. We break the cycle of disease.
In the 1950s just after WW2 the UK had an infant mortality rate of 40 per 1000 (The USA at 50 per 1000). Healthcare may have improved a lot but the mortality drop is MAINLY due to vaccines in our countries.
Remember, to you the Mumps is a comical disease. To a man it's a chance of sterility. Mumps can cause sterility and low sperm counts in men.
I remember when we had whopping cough. You and steve had it so bad that mom was with you all the time and dad was when he was home. they said when you coughed hard you tried to swollow your tongue. i was worried about you guys too.
Deleteeven though i had those childhood diseeases when i went to the university in california they required i got my vaccines. there was not a clause for a religious exemption. karin
"The entire point of vaccines is that they reduce incidence of disease."
DeleteThis might work in some cases (speculative), but in others the immunological attack/response causes a worse condition than would have existed without the vaccine. Even if the subject didn't contract the disease for which he/she was immunized, the defense system is itself weaker in other ways that it wouldn't have been otherwise.
Injecting a host of foreign toxins into the bloodstream of a new baby in order to make it stronger (when its immune system is already sufficient for that season of life, if the baby is breastfeeding) is just ridiculous to my senses. Attacking the defense system of a baby can only compromise what safeguards it from common maladies. And it's not like north American babies are susceptible to contracting much of what they're being injected with in the first place (ever meet a child with rotavirus or polio?).
From birth to 15 months old, here's what our society's geniuses would inject each baby with: hepatitis B, diphtheria, tetanus, whooping cough, Haemophilus influenzae type, pneumococcal disease, polio, rotavirus, flu, measles, mumps, rubella, chickenpox, hepatitis A. Good grief. That's just the first round of attack for little babies.
How in the world did the human race ever get along without smacking our babies with 15 foreign toxins by the time they are barely one year old?
Please let your children make the decision for themselves when they are able to weigh the consequences.
"And it's not like north American babies are susceptible to contracting much of what they're being injected with in the first place (ever meet a child with rotavirus or polio?)."
DeleteSeriously Fools4Christ? The reason people don't get polio any more is because of vaccination. And, rotavirus is still the leading cause of diarrhea in infants and young children. Between 55,000 and 70,000 U.S. children are hospitalized for rotavirus every year and it kills over 600,000 world wide each year. By the time children are 5, almost every kid has already had rotavirus, if they have not been vaccinated. Most likely your kids have had the virus and you thought it was the flu.
If you have not had the polio vaccination and you come into contact with the fecal matter or saliva of someone who is infected (i.e. shake hands with a carrier who hasn't thoroughly washed their hands), you are still at risk of contracting the disease. Cases of imported polio still occur in the US. It doesn't matter if you are from North American, South American or Africa. If you are not vaccinated, you are still susceptible.
When the vast majority of a group or population is vaccinated against a disease, then there is room for a small number of that same population to go without the vaccination and still be somewhat protected. However, when that group becomes too large, then the unvaccinated group is at a much higher risk of infection. That is why we are seeing a reemergence of so many diseases that we have not heard about in decades. All you have to do is look at the serious Whooping Cough outbreak currently happening in Washington. While most children will survive Whooping Cough, it is extremely dangerous for pregnant women and babies.
You are free to make decisions about vaccinations for your children, but don't pretend that these diseases aren't a real risk to your kids. Unless you keep them in a bubble, there is always the possibility that they will come into contact with someone who is carrying a disease for which they have not been vaccinated. If you can live with that chance, then that's your choice.
At the same time, you are also increasing the chances that your children will infect others who have not been fully inocculated yet, like small babies. For many of these diseases (like Polio), if you are not vaccinated, you can carry and spread the disease without showing any symptoms yourself.
Kim
Kim, you make it sound like polio is just waiting at your doorstep, about to pounce on the poor fool who wasn't smart enough to get his shots as a baby. And not a single one of my five children has ever gotten rotavirus (funny how my oldest is nearing adulthood without the shot).
Delete"You are free to make decisions about vaccinations for your children, but don't pretend that these diseases aren't a real risk to your kids." Whatever is a risk for my children is all the more so for those who've had dozens of toxins introduced as babies. Your deep belief that such things help is disturbing and truly a step of faith.
"...if you are not vaccinated, you can carry and spread the disease without showing any symptoms yourself." Please. This is impossible to prove. In this quack scenario anyone could be a carrier, so don't blame it on those who don't drink the kool-aid. None of us is under any compulsion to inject something for the supposed good of society (unless we are living in a totalitarian state).
Immunizations are not kool-aid, you know the difference. Anyone that denies that immunizations have saved lives is simply ignoring reality and engaging in delusion. Polio would be waiting at your doorstep if there was no immunization. It is only because of immunizing children through the sixties, seventies and eighties that polio is not a risk to your children.
Delete"Even if the subject didn't contract the disease for which he/she was immunized, the defense system is itself weaker in other ways that it wouldn't have been otherwise."
DeleteThis is completely false and untrue.
I have seen many, many children with measles and chicken pox after being vaccinated. So why are they contracting the disease?
ReplyDeleteOur children when they are born should have the mother’s immune system, so why not wait with all these shots until you know if your child has any kind of reaction to foreign substances. For example there are people who have deadly reactions to the simplest of medications, penicillin and antibiotics. Now they maybe extremely effective to most people to others there is a deadly allergic reaction.
I believe today there is a rush by parents and doctors to give children all these immunizations because children at a very early age are sent to daycare instead being cared for at home there first few months. It’s unfortunate but it is reality.
I am in the opinion to wait until you know if your child’s system can handle the immunizations one at a time instead of all in such a short period of time.
I just watched a sermon called "Warning: vaccinations are dangerous" on YouTube, check it out, do a little research, look into what they put into those things!
ReplyDeleteOur country is ran by the big drug co.'s. Why do you think diabetes has not been cured? Insulin is one of if not the most profitable drug ever mad. What would happen if the drug co's cured diabetes.... Or told you that all your vaccines wern't neccesary. It all boils down to the drug co's bottom line and most people are just there little pigy bank waiting to get cracked open.
ReplyDeleteSorry, Suz. Love you to bits but I'm going to stick with science and history on this one.
ReplyDeleteDitto what Rob said. :)
ReplyDeleteGot to love commerce.
ReplyDeleteLike most things, I think the answer lies somewhere in the middle.
ReplyDeleteI was a child in the late 50's - 60's, a time when it was still common to see polio victims wearing braces or sitting in wheelchairs, and it seemed like everyone knew someone with a family member who was bedridden because of it.
A member of my family had a very mild case of it. She is in her 70's now, and she recently told me she still has to exercise daily to prevent disability from the damages it caused her.
A nurse once told me that there are a lot of drawbacks and disadvantages to vaccinating children and adults, that occasionally there is a bad batch or an adverse reaction in isolated cases which she admitted are very unfortunate, but that all she could say was that "anyone who is totally against immunizations has never worked in a polio ward".
I think the very fact that we are all healthy enough that we feel safe in debating the point says a lot. I remember when what I believe were the first polio immunizations were handed out in OC at the old high school, everyone turned out to get their little white paper cup containing two sugar cubes and were very grateful to be getting them. We have had the good fortune to outlive that humble perspective, but we should keep in mind that an ever-present danger is that some new disease - or new strain of an old disease - will become epidemic, and once again it comes down to survival of the fittest.
Hey Suzi, i read in one of your blogs that you had written a book, and i was wondering, how can i buy a copy of your book?
ReplyDeleteJ...
My book is not under publishing contract yet (working on it). I will post more when I have an update.
DeleteThanks for your interest in reading it :)
You’re very welcome… :)
ReplyDeleteJ...
Not likely it will get published. The only demographic she has are other ex followers. Zusanne is delusional if she thinks she'll sell more than 50-100 books. Her story is not that interesting and the REAL struggles that people go through every day make the fact that she thinks people will care about her life very conceded. From war torn countries to hurricane victims and 911 survivors there are millions of more moving stories than hers. Just writing a book about your teenage life with a group of people that you didn't fit in with won't get you published. If it does congrats, but get real people no one cares about the foc exept exfollowers and current members.
ReplyDeleteThe state of Oregon says different. The entire state passed a law that you still refuse to follow. The story of the worthington's, beigly's, hickman's, and the wylands have made local, regional, national, and world news. People are entested in the workings of CULTS and people who get out of them. So don't be a hater. Like with Sara's super baby time will tell
ReplyDeleteToo funny! ^
DeleteI think there will be many people who want to hear about this group of people. This made news all over the Nation. No one has ever spoke this public about the FOC. I think you may be asked to do interviews. People are really curious about them. I grew up there and I don't talk to people very much because no one really believes me. It has never really been exposed before. Only when a child is involved do the police get involved. If they only knew! I hope you can get it published soon.
DeleteWasn't that book about the Good Mormon Wife a bestseller? I think this one will do just as well.
ReplyDeleteWas it the book called "Secret Ceremonies: A Mormon Woman's Intimate Diary of Marriage and Beyond" ?
DeleteI put my son in school and did not have a copy of his vaccines because we are from a different state. the funny thing was the school didnt care they just told me to check religious exception.
ReplyDeleteComparing a book about Mormons to one about the foc is stupid. Your talking about a huge group of people that everyone in the u.s. knows and a tiny group that has most likely been forgotten by most people by now. You people are ridiculous!
ReplyDeletethe difference between the Mormons (and nearly every other religious group in the United States) and the FOC is that anyone can join the Mormons / other groups and become an insider. People cannot join the FOC, they must be born into it. What makes this story different is that it is unique and cannot be told by an outsider.
DeleteYou could join in idaho, Oregon city has no minister if they the doors would be open again.
Delete1 It seems you were being less than candid to Suzi when you had written…
ReplyDelete2 “Zusanne is delusional if she thinks she’ll sell more than 50-100 books.”
3 When I had written my book of Juicy Fruit and wrote…
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4 “Eccl 12:12 Of making many books there is no end…”
5 “In the library: every year, thousands of books, get shuffled in, and shuffled out, because no one is reading them... and the librarian must assume that no one ever is going to read them.
6 If the writer of the book is lucky: maybe a few friends will read their book, and when it hits the library some book worm zap will find an interest in it passing by: and decide to read it.
7 In the end: these books get tossed into the fire, because... demand for them is not there, and there is no need, for them to set, on the shelf’s anymore; collecting dust, and taking up space.
8 This... coming generation: has the social media era... Facebook, MySpace... blog sits... writers can, publish their writings, see how many people have viewed it, liked it; etc…
9 Like many books; people give... these writers... the ending line response, from of the second bestselling book... next to the bible (or so we heard) before they even read them,
10 Because they lack the catering that the reader desirers…
11 “Frankly my dear: I don’t give a dam.” (Gone with the wind)”
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12 I was just telling the “CANDID” truth of about a lot of books (my own included).
13 Not to be derogatory to any writers out there, but to be quite honest… god did not want our writings to be written into eternal history like the men and women of the bible.
14 You are correct about what you wrote concerning the F.O.C… “no one cares about the foc…” Very few people know who the F.O.C is (they will probably never will for that matter)…
15 Even tho they made the news for a brief time… they were dismissed in the memories of people just as quickly…
16 As far as saying… “Her story is not that interesting and the REAL struggles that people go through every day make the fact that she thinks people will care about her life very conceded…” Is untrue!
17 I care little for major events of the here and now like what you wrote about and consider these events highly insignificant in the grand scheme of things.
18 Suzi you have proven yourself to be a very capable writer: and I hope the hater mail does not discourage you from your efforts of completing your book.
J—
Thank you J-- and others for your support. No amount of mean-spirited comments can stop me, as the book is already complete and I've moved on to another writing project.
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