BY J.B. HANDLEY June 16, 2016

PORTLAND, Oregon — First, a disclaimer: I’m not a doctor, and the final decision about vaccinating your child should take place between you and your healthcare provider. I’m not giving you medical advice; I’m stating my opinion.

I am a dad. And, I write this without benefitting in anyway from what is said here. I have no book to peddle, no profits to protect, and there’s no doubt that writing this will result in some amount of hate directed in my general direction for challenging a popular narrative that vaccines are only safe and effective and should be administered the same way to all children without consideration for the unique biology of each and every child. So be it.

About the title

How could this be the only vaccine guide you’ll ever need? Like the old adage about teaching someone to fish, I believe my words will help you to do two things that can put you in control of the vaccine decision for your child and family:

1. Do your own research. Understand the risks and benefits of everything you are putting into your child.

Every single person is different. There is no part of medicine where “one size fits all” is a good idea.

If you understand the harm vaccines can cause in some children and the benefits they provide, you won’t be intimidated by any pressure or judgment being placed on you by others.

2. Find a healthcare provider who doesn’t believe “one size fits all” when it comes to vaccines

The relationship between you and a doctor when it comes to vaccines is critical. There is a lot of shame and intimidation used in the healthcare profession to goad parents into vaccinating. This is wrong on so many levels, and there are also many healthcare providers who don’t believe one size fits all, who do believe every child is different, and who work with parents to provide the best plan for each child. Find that doctor. (And if someone shames you or tries to coerce you, run away fast!) They exist in every region of the country — network with parents until you find one. They might be a naturopath, a D.O., or a chiropractor, just find one!

That was easy, right? Do those two things (your own research, find a great healthcare provider) and you will be in great shape.

So you know, I did neither of those things when I had young kids in the early 2000s. I did no research. I went with the local pediatrician everyone else seemed to use. I regret those choices deeply, which is why I’m writing this to you right now*.

(*like tens of thousands of other American parents, I watched my son decline into Autism after following the vaccine schedule perfectly.)

I’m going to do 2 more things with this post to hopefully get you on your way to a better understanding of vaccines:

1. I’ll share with you ten truths about vaccinations that most people — and especially new parents — don’t typically know
2. I will go through every vaccine currently recommended for American children by the CDC and give you my opinion on their risk vs. benefit

Ten truths about vaccines most people don’t know

1. The U.S. vaccine schedule has gone up 15-fold since the early 1960s

The numbers can be very confusing, but this chart accurately shows the difference between the vaccine schedule in 1962, 1983 and the vaccine schedule in 2016 recommended by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control. Please note on the chart that it looks at “doses” rather than “vaccines” so that a single DTaP shot given for three separate illnesses (Diptheria, Tetanus, and Pertussis) is always counted as 3 doses. With that apples-to-apples comparison, we can see that the vaccine schedule in the United States called for 5 total doses in 1962 versus 72 total doses today (that’s not a typo).

2. Even today, other first world countries often give far fewer vaccines to children than the U.S., and avoid many altogether

The most recent study I could find on this topic was done several years ago, but I think it’s very eye opening. Of 30 first-world countries looked at, no other first world country besides the U.S. recommends Hepatitis A vaccine. Only one other country (of 30) recommends the flu shot, only 2 other countries recommend Rotavirus, and only 3 other countries recommend the Varicella (chicken pox) vaccine. Why doesn’t England vaccinate for chicken pox? Why doesn’t Sweden give babies Hepatitis B? It goes on and on, I hope you take a close look.

Why should you care how other first world countries vaccinate their children? I think it will empower you to look at EACH vaccine and weigh that vaccine on its merits. If no one but the U.S. gives the Hepatitis A vaccine, perhaps that will cause you to take a closer look as to WHY that is true, and further to consider IF it’s a vaccine that is truly necessary for your child. What’s true? The U.S. is #1 in the world for total vaccines given.

3. Vaccines injure children, and the U.S. government has an entire division set up to compensate families for that injury

Most people struggle to believe a vaccine can injure a child. The narrative generally used is that vaccines are “safe and effective.” Yet, the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program is very much alive and well and run by the U.S. government. As the program itself explains:

“In very rare cases, a vaccine can cause a serious problem, such as a severe allergic reaction. In these instances, the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (VICP) may provide financial compensation to individuals who file a petition and are found to have been injured by a VICP-covered vaccine.”

The Vaccine Injury Compensation Program even includes a Vaccine Injury Table that spells out typical injuries sorted by vaccine. For example, here’s the table of injuries for just the Hepatitis B vaccine:

Mary Holland, a Harvard and Columbia-educated attorney and NYU law school professor and legal scholar, is the co-author of Vaccine Epidemic, and she explains:

“It is important to remember that as a legal matter, all vaccines are considered ‘unavoidably unsafe.’ In other words, all vaccines, like the illnesses that they’re intended to prevent carry inherent risks. People are injured by vaccines. More than 3,800 people have been compensated by the federal government for vaccine injury, including death. So brain damage and death are common side effects of the vaccine, just as they are of the illness.”

4. In most states, you have a choice on whether or when you give your child vaccines

The CDC recommends vaccines. But, you the parent, with consultation from a healthcare provider, are the one who decides what vaccines are injected into your child. Here’s a great chart which shows exactly what types of exemptions from vaccines are available in each state. (Note: You always have a choice as to whether or not to give a child a vaccine, in some states they may preclude them from being able to attend school.)

The NVIC explains further:

There is a difference between federal vaccine policies and state vaccine laws. Federal public health officials at the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) make national vaccine policy recommendations for children and adults. With the approval of state legislatures, public health officials in state health departments make and enforce vaccine mandates. That is why vaccine laws and legal exemptions to vaccination vary from state to state…

While vaccine policymakers in the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) make vaccine recommendations for children and adults, the bottom line is that your state may not require all federally recommended vaccines as a condition of employment, and school or daycare attendance.

5. There will be a permanent supply of disease “outbreaks” because the vaccines for measles, mumps, and pertussis have serious efficacy issues.

Have you ever noticed that “outbreaks” of pertussis (whooping cough) mumps, and measles seem to happen every year? There’s a pretty simple explanation for this, and it’s not necessarily what you think. Put simply: the vaccines don’t work that well. As the Associated Press reported in 2013:

“A government study offers a new theory on why the whooping cough vaccine doesn’t seem to be working as well as expected. The research suggests that while the vaccine may keep people from getting sick, it doesn’t prevent them from spreading whooping cough — also known as pertussis — to others. “It could explain the increase in pertussis that we’re seeing in the U.S.,” said one of the researchers, Tod Merkel of the Food and Drug Administration.”

During the 2014 flu season, the CDC already came out and said this year’s flu vaccine is not every effective:

“Scientists are concerned about what they’re seeing so far this flu season, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Thursday, a day after the agency advised doctorsthis year’s flu vaccine is not as effective because the current strain of the virus has mutated.”

It’s also true that the reporting on measles and other outbreaks rarely explains that the majority of people infected with pertussis or measles have been vaccinated.

From Los Angeles:

Of the pertussis cases in Los Angeles County, 8 percent were individuals who had never been vaccinated. Experts say the number is not a significant factor in the spread of pertussis.

From New York City:

“Get the measles vaccine, and you won’t get the measles — or give it to anyone else. Right? Well, not always. A person fully vaccinated against measles has contracted the disease and passed it on to others. The startling case study contradicts received wisdom about the vaccine and suggests that a recent swell of measles outbreaks in developed nations could mean more illnesses even among the vaccinated.”

From Baltimore:

“Baltimore, Maryland, is still officially free of the wild-type measles after the genotype testing from the measles virus revealed that the 12-month-old baby who ended up in the ER on January 21 with measles-like symptoms was simply experiencing a reaction to her MMR vaccine.”

How about the mumps outbreak at Harvard University just a few weeks ago?

Zoback said the infected students had all been vaccinated against mumps, as required by law. It’s possible the vaccine didn’t work in some people, or that the virus mutated in ways that made the shot less effective. The mumps vaccine fails to induce immunity in about 12 percent of people who receive it, so mumps outbreaks occur occasionally even in highly vaccinated populations.

Note: There is a whistle-blower lawsuit against Merck in Pennsylvania, the maker of the mumps vaccine, claiming Merck hid the efficacy data on mumps, because it was showing that the vaccine often didn’t work:

“As noted previously, the former virologists charged the drug maker knew its vaccine was less effective than the purported 95% level, and alleged senior management was aware and also oversaw testing that concealed the actual effectiveness.”

6. A public health technique, spearheaded by the CDC, is to create “Concern, Anxiety, and Worry” like we saw during the Disneyland measles scare.

I wrote a post called, “Concern, Anxiety, and Worry: Getting played by the CDC (and others)” where I explained that generating fear and anxiety is part of the CDC’s strategy for getting parents to vaccinate their babies and children. In 2004, Glen Nowak, Director of Communications, CDC, made this abundantly clear in a presentation he gave: