A polio patient from the 1950s – wearing an iron lung
by PETER BOWDITCH
I recently spent a few weeks on crutches because of a broken ankle, and I had a vaccination against pneumonia today. These reminded me of my earliest memory of being vaccinated.
Shortly after my twelfth birthday I was rushed to hospital to have my appendix removed. Back in those days it wasn’t the simple keyhole job it is today so I had to spend a few days in the hospital to recuperate.
Another thing about the olden days was that there was no gender separation, and one of the other patients in the children’s ward at Hornsby Hospital was a girl about ten or eleven years old.
I can still remember what she looked like.
She had a round face with very pink cheeks. Her hair was red, and even though it was cut short you could see that it had a curl in it. I can only remember her face and hair and not what the rest of her looked like because the rest of her was enclosed in a steel box. The steel box was an iron lung, and it was doing her breathing for her because she had been infected with polio.
A screenshot from “The Sessions” a 2012 film based on the true story of Mark O’Brien, a poet who was paralyzed from the neck down as a result of polio.
She was quite cheerful, which must have been difficult. I don’t know what happened to her later and she may very well have been one of the lucky ones who through intensive rehabilitation was eventually able to survive outside the box, but at the time the general expectation was that once someone went into an iron lung they spent the rest of their life there.
Meanwhile my best friend in primary school was one of the lucky ones. He walked with a limp but he didn’t need the leg callipers that were on at least one child in every primary school class.
I still remember how we had to make allowances in playground games for the kids who weren’t quite as mobile as the rest of us. I also remember that an entire age cohort missed out on swimming lessons because of a fear that public swimming pools were places where polio could spread easily.
A couple of years before my appendix decided that it needed removing the vaccinators arrived at my school. All the kids who hadn’t shown any signs of contracting polio (and even those who had) lined up for the shots. A nurse painted our arms with iodine and another one injected us from a stainless steel syringe. Many children cried, both before and after the injection. Some might even have fainted afterwards.
Polio patients.
Nobody objected. There were no exceptions, there were no conscientious objections. There was a universal feeling that this was something that had to be done to protect children from an incurable disease that came on suddenly and left death and disability behind.
Most people today have never seen a case of polio, and this includes doctors. That is why we have the luxury today of arguing about the value and safety of vaccines. Yes, there were people who objected to the polio vaccine when it was first introduced but they were treated with the ridicule they deserved, just as anti-vaccinators should be treated today.
Anti-vaccination zealouts will try to convince you that polio was never eradicated by vaccination. Instead it was renamed. Oh really? If that were true, where are the leg callipers and iron lungs? I’ve seen the world the anti-vaccination fanatics want our children to live in and I don’t want to go back there. All I need do is remember a little red-headed girl in hospital who could still smile at a boy who, unlike her, could run, breathe and play games. Like any child should be able to do.
Peter Bowditch writes for several skeptical and scientific publications and runs the web site at www.ratbags.com. In real life he is married with two daughters and pays the bills by being an IT consultant and TAFE teacher.
Comments
292 Comments so far
I put vaccinations in the same basket as education and voting.
It is a priviledge. Can you imagine ANY parent in a third world country turning down immunization!!! People should be grateful for what they have available to them and not look for the negative in every situation.
I take a huge amount of medication to suppress my immune system (One tablet 4 times a day, Another tablet every second day, Another two tablets a week that in simplest terms are a small dose of the same medication that they use for chemo replacement in cancer patients and injections of biological agents).
I’d rather not take these but I am glad they are an option instead of allowing my body to slowly destroy itself.
I didn’t make the decision to take any of these lightly, especially when you look at the side effects of them, but I spoke to my GP and my specialist and to other people with the same disease who take them and I read articles from scientific and medical journals ( which tend to be peer reviewed and either done as an independent study or they have to declare if they receive funding from anyone with a vested interest).
Educate yourself using reputable information, and be happy that you can.
Be grateful that you have the vaccinations available to prevent your child from these horrible diseases because not everyone does.
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An excellent article.
When I shared it, I received a response from a stranger stating “Those who oppose vaccination do not wish disease on others! #fearmongering”. Perhaps not consciously and very likely not maliciously, but unarguably a consequence of vaccine refusal and promotion of anti-vaccination misinformation is spread of disease.
When I was a child, I used to accompany my mother to a rehabilitation hospital, as she was undertaking physiotherapy. I was a toddler at the time and have some rather formative memories of a man who lived at the hospital, Paul Berry. Paul contracted polio as a young man in his twenties and was severely paralysed, requiring an iron lung to breathe. Initially he was confined to it full time, but as decades passed, he was able to spend several hours a day out, a portable breathing machine by his side for when he needed it.
Paul had a little movement in his toes and took up painting. I used to visit him in the occupational therapy room where he sat and painted landscapes. It didn’t occur to me at the time that his confinement probably meant that he’d never see the vistas he painted. Paul passed away in 2005, having spent almost fifty years living at the hospital.
It’s much easier to dismiss the importance of vaccination when you haven’t been exposed to the reality of vaccine preventable diseases, particularly in epidemic proportions. I am thankful that you have shared your memories, Peter.
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Is there a petition around to suggest the government get rid of vaccination payments to non-vaxxers?
Surely it is a budget cut we could do with.
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I actually made a campaign suggestion to GetUp under their old scheme last year about this – to lobby the government to get rid of conscientious objection with regard to vaccinating kids. I’m sure it will surprise no-one that according to the AVers I am at the same time a nazi and a wannabe Stalin for suggesting this.
It was actually gaining some momentum but GetUp changed their way of deciding how to take on causes – you used to be able to vote for whichever causes people put up, but they changed it. I think there are petitions calling for the same/similar on change and avaaz.org though.
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A nazi and a wannabe Stalin? Wow. Since Hitler hated communists almost as much as he hated Jews, that is quite clever of you to be both! Not sure what vaccinating your kids has to do with genocide or secret police, but interesting point of view I guess!
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Yes, just one of the many interesting points of view held by anti-vaxers, MOTCM!
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“Not sure what vaccinating your kids has to do with genocide or secret police…”
Meryl Dorey linked to an article once that explained exactly that. In short, the swine flu vaccine was to be used by the Illuminati (a race of lizard people, I believe) to inject mind-control chips into the American population in order to commit genocide on demand.
The article, by David Icke, was very, very long. You’ll easily find references to it and Meryl’s promotion of it if you’re interested in learning more.
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The reason that would never get up Kris2040 is because you have no right to force my child to be vaccinated. Just like I have no right to go to your house and force your children to do something I think your children should do. I am my child’s parent, you are yours. Surely you see how dangerous it would be to start forcing all parents to do something based on what some parents think?? What would come next? When will you all just accept that you can’t control everybody on this!
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You have no right to expose my child to preventable diseases but you allow that to happen by not vaccinating your kids by choice. I’m not the only one who thinks it should be mandatory with the only exemption medical.
What reasons do you have for not vaccinating?
Why do you think it’s some trying to force many? Thankfully the ranks of the antivaxers are still relatively small and hopefully will remain so. Obviously those of us on the pro-vaccination (or more correctly anti-anti vax) side don’t want people to get sick, but it’s really starting to look like that is in fact what is going to have to happen to get people to understand that it’s not a civil bloody rights argument about rights and choices, it’s about looking after people and stopping them dying from preventable diseases.
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You have no right to expose my child to preventable diseases but you allow that to happen by not vaccinating your kids by choice. I’m not the only one who thinks it should be mandatory with the only exemption medical.
What reasons do you have for not vaccinating?
Why do you think it’s some trying to force many? Thankfully the ranks of the antivaxers are still relatively small and hopefully will remain so. Obviously those of us on the pro-vaccination (or more correctly anti-anti vax) side don’t want people to get sick, but it’s really starting to look like that is in fact what is going to have to happen to get people to understand that it’s not a civil bloody rights argument about rights and choices, it’s about looking after people and stopping them dying from preventable diseases.
My suggestion didn’t get knocked back, it actually got a great deal of support, but the way in which the suggestions were taken up was changed. But since when have any of you let truth (that I openly explained in the post you responded to) get in the way of anything?
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Kris2040 I applaud your passion on this topic, you obviously feel really strongly about it. But sometimes you just have to say, hey, you gotta live in the world. We all share communicable diseases every day, colds, flu, gastro which cause some to die or get very sick. Asthmatics must hate winter but we don’t all rush and get a flu shot for them do we?? It is life in the human race and you have to let people make their own decisions. Yes if these diseases come back with a vengeance, all anti-vaxxers may be running to get the jab. Until then, I simply cannot imagine a law being introduced whereby people are literally dragged kicking and screaming to a doctor’s office to get
immunised. We are far too civil a society for that.
I also don’t see it happening that conscientous objectors be denied their government funding because then there would be debate about whether people who choose to terminate a pregnancy due to problems should be entitled to the baby bonus, or those whose baby died get paid maternity allowance. These are all hard-fought rights that should be protected and if we start demanding the withdrawal of those rights, where does it end?
Maybe you should focus instead on getting more education out there and petition for the publication of good scientific research that helps anti-vaxers overcome their suspicions. That is one thing you can do!
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I agree with you in that I don’t think it is the government’s role to mandate vaccination. I think you should be free to refuse a medical proceedure. However with rights comes responsibility, so if you choose not to vaccinate to reduce your risk of infectious disease then why should you get the government handout. As for your, distasteful, examples about getting the baby bonus following a termination for medical reasons or getting maternity payments/leave with a dead child, both of those are out of the parents control. It is a parents choice to vaccinate or not, a right I firmly believe in, but if you choose not to vaccinate then you don’t get the government payment, perhaps a more accurate example would be the medicare levy, if you don’t take out private health insurance (ignoring the means testing etc) then you have to pay more tax.
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An anonymous anti-vaxer! What a surprise…
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Who cares? If I made a decision not to vaccinate a couple of welfare bucks wouldn’t change my mind.
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That wasn’t my point. They shouldn’t get money for doing nothing.
I would be so ashamed to accept the money without vaccinating. Unless you had a legitimate medical reason.
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Yeah, I don’t think you should be able to spend social security benefits on cigarettes and alcohol either but it’s really none of my business according to some.
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Because it’s my tax dollars too ‘r’!
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It’s the willingness to give yourself up to an Internet conspiracy theory which confuses me the most. When you think about it, a conspiracy between the government, doctors and big pharma to poison and disable everyone’s children is not actually very plausible. Yet that’s what anti-vaxxers firmly believe is happening, in the face of extensive evidence to the contrary.
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Yes, all the demands for PROOOOOOOOOF don’t gel with the “I did my research” (ie I googled a bit) and TOXINS!@!!3! stuff. Especially frustrating seeing actual proof offered and denied because the conspiracy theorists go into overdrive about pharma shills and the NWO.
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Nice one, Peter.
‘I Can Jump Puddles’ should be compulsory pre-natal viewing.
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My perception of anti-vaxxers is that they are kidding themselves into believing theyve got some control over this crazy world. I trust scientists (haven’t heard of many scientist anti-vaxxers) and doctors because I know I can’t know everything. We can be informed and educated, but cant be in control all the time.
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I had no idea you could still claim the vaccination allowance without getting your kid vaccinated! That’s ridiculous and a little like saying that it’s discrimination that an able bodied person can’t collect disabilty benefits because they stubbed their toe! I hear you about wanting to protect your baby though. My baby just had his six month vaccinations but for 6 months I didn’t take him anywhere I deemed to be high risk. I’ve been labelled as a nut job, overprotective and a helicopter parent by my in laws (because I wouldn’t let them visit til they had their pertussis booster) but I’m just really aware of the fact that most diseases are contagious for a good period of time before symptoms appear. Having a baby is like having a vital organ wandering at will outside your body. I wouldn’t treat my kidney with complete disregard for its continued health and well being so why would you imagine I’d take those risks with my child’s life?
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Great article, Peter. Growing up, I watched my mum’s cousin (who was like an Aunt to me) struggle with the disability she was left with after contracting polio as a child. Whilst always cheerful, her life was far more difficult than what it would have been without the polio; and ultimately, her life was shortened because of her post-polio virus and other illnesses. She is very much missed by her children, husband and broader family.
What strikes me in the anti-vaccination debate, is that we are having this discussion in a time where we don’t see diseases like polio. I do believe that this has lulled some into a false sense of security. In developing countries, would we even be having this debate? Or would we all be too busy trying to save our kids’ lives by getting our vaccinations? We are privileged to live in a country with excellent immunisation rates and great herd immunity, and we can keep it this way by vaccination programs. Don’t use the excuse that you’ve read some rubbish article on a rubbish website about mercury or autism or that vaccines don’t “feel right”. Not many people like jabbing their kids, or risking an adverse event, or making them cry; but how terrible would you feel if they contracted a vaccine preventable disease and ended up with long-term disability, or heaven forbid, died? I could never, ever forgive myself.
Vaccination programs are a PUBLIC health measure. It’s not just about my kids, or your kid, it’s about everyone’s kids. That includes the very young (who are too young to be vaccinated), the very old, the immuno-suppressed, and those who do not manage to acquire immunity against disease for whatever reason. We need to protect those people too. And we need to remember people like my mum’s cousin, and the people in those iron lungs in the picture, and never, ever go back to those terrible times.
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People who don’t have the choice whether or not to vaccinate are desperate to vaccinate their children. I recently read a tweet from Bill Gates that went along the lines of (please forgive me for inaccuracies, but I am paraphrasing as I can’t find the tweet) in Pakistan 5 years ago 27,000 children either died or were affected by polio. Due to vaccination, this was reduced to 45 in 2011. There is NO argument to that.
In any event, anti vaxxers bang on about choice. Their children, and children who come into contact with them, don’t have any choice, this is foisted upon them by their demented parents.
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It’s a strange paradox that it’s usually the ‘helicopter mums’ who are anti-vaxxers!
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I get so mad when anti-vaxxers talk about side effects of vaccinations. Yes there can be some, but they are mostly very minor and compared to getting and spreading a disease is nothing at all.
You wanna know about side effects? A bad side effect of CHOOSING not to get your kids vaccinated is them spreading a disease to people like my niece who CANT have some immunisations due to severe allergy.
It isn’t just your kids health that you need to be concerned about. People DIE from stupid parents fed full of LIES.
GET YOUR KIDS VACCINATED PEOPLE! Listen to HEALTH PROFESSIONALS not con artists with a platform and a microphone, because if you don’t, you might be choosing severe illness or even death for our little Maddy.
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I’m epileptic and have had a couple of seizures (not very serious ones) from getting vaccinated (once when I was about 4 and the other time when I was about 10). It didn’t have anything to do with the drugs themselves, it was more me fainting from the NEEDLE and then it lead to a seizure. I was fine afterwards, and still get booster shots and other necessary vaccinations i.e whooping cough booster when needed. My parents and I would rather a seizure than a horrible illness like whooping cough!
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Good for you H!
Its all about weighing the evidence up. Yes, its terrible that side effect sometimes happen but the consequences of not vaccinating can be so much worse.
I think people who don’t want to vaccinate should have to meet people with these diseases to see exactly what the side effects of being a dumb-ass, new-age, everything-is-a-conspiracy parent can lead to. Makes me SOOO mad. can you tell?
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I’m old enough to remember seeing people with calipers for the rest of their lives as a result of polio.
I’ve nursed children with whooping cough and it ain’t pretty.
I remember getting mumps, rubella, measles and chicken pox and even though I’ve recovered and have full immunity, I was pretty miserable at the time. I also remember telling the nurse to no avail that I’d already had it when I got my rubella shot.
My sister got measles a couple of years ago and has had memory issues ever since. She also got whooping cough (crap immunity and no boosters as an adult) and has ongoing balance issues. However, her vaccinated kids living in the same house didn’t get either of them.
My kids didn’t get whooping cough from a friend who coughed for weeks before he got diagnosed…..Says it all really.
I think there should be a concerted campaign to get more adults to get boosters. I imagine these diseases would get less of a foothold if adult vaccination improved. I’ve had my boostrix.
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“I think there should be a concerted campaign to get more adults to get boosters. I imagine these diseases would get less of a foothold if adult vaccination improved. I’ve had my boostrix.”
I’ve never understood why there isn’t an adult campaign either. So many adult family and friends I’ve discussed vaccinations with either didn’t know they are supposed to get boosters, or didn’t think they “needed it”.
Surely a few TV commercials, and print ads wouldn’t break the government bank?
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Small point – adults need to pay for their shots. Hep A + B costs $80 per shot, and you need 3! Others are less expensive though.
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Boostrix, is a one off and that protects you against diptheria, tetanus and whooping cough. I’m not sure about MMR for adults, because I immunize kids but there has been a surge in measles cases and given the risk to pregnant women (or rather their babies) with rubella, I would imagine it would be offered with the three. Fortunately, I don’t need them, cos I’ve had the diseases.
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Some occupations can get free or subsidised Hep A and B shots, depending on your state eg teachers in some states can get free Hep B shots as their risk of getting it is higher
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I believe vaccination (at least for the main diseases – MMR, DTP, Polio, Smallpox, Hep B) should be compulsory, and forced onto objectors (unless they have medical grounds for exception). Take away medicare benefits from unvaccinated children and disallow school and childcare enrolments. Most people if pushed into the corner, will change their tune. I say lets change the way we think about “rights” to object, and think of it as a responsibility. A responsibility to protect children. Just like we’d protect them from any other kind of abuse or neglect.
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Mentioning the concept that with rights come responsibilities never fails to get a “I’d never thought of that” comment, Lucinda.
I completely agree with you about immunisation being compulsory. Medical reasons excepted.
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The problem with that is most parents who are anti-vax do believe they are doing the responsible thing. They believe they are doing it to protect their children (just like they’d protect them from abuse or neglect). I don’t think they’ll ‘change their tune’ if forced. Further education would work better than forcing people.
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Agreed, anon.
I’d even go as far as to say that groups who push anti-vaccination misinformation contain people who, to varying degrees, do what they do because they fear that childrens’ health is at risk. Applied to a legitimate cause instead of one that is dangerously wrong, these people may well do a lot of good. It’s a tragic waste of noble efforts.
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Wow. Forced vaccinations. Just for children or adults as well? We all know that babies are more likely to get whooping cough from adults that other children. So, for the adults as well? Take the Medicare benefits off unvaccinated adults? Does that then mean we don’t have to pay the levy? So many questions.
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I would advocate for yes. Is that a problem?
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It is for me. I’m fully vaccinated and so are my children but I find the idea of the government taking over my (or anyone elses) bodily autonomy pretty scary.
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Perhaps not for you but for me yes. You cannot force people to undergo medical proceedures no matter how necessary you think they are. It is simply a violation of human rights.
What next? Being forced to go through with a pregnancy because government has decided that its best for us? No thanks.
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Why does your “right” to bodily autonomy trump the rest of society’s right to expect everyone to do what they can to stop preventable diseases? Rights come with responsibilities. What reason would you give for not getting a booster as an adult??
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Why does your right to bodily autonomy trump the right of your unborn child? Seeing any similarities yet? Choice. Yours is different to mine. My kids may not be vaccinated but at least they were born.
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I really should have done that word doc to copy and paste.
Intent. Intent. Intent.
I make no secret of the fact that I am pro-choice when it comes to abortion. I exercised that choice twice – once to have an abortion and once to have the baby, my daughter.
So now I have that daughter, I do everything in my power to make sure that she is OK and getting myself and her vaccinated is part of that. Actually, before I had my daughter, I did my best to make sure I kept my jabs up to date and was dumbfounded by the selfish and frankly ridiculous arguments (like yours) put forward by anti-vaxers.
What are you basing your choice to not vaccinate on? I can guarantee that someone’s decision to abort will make infinitely more sense.
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Actually there was one case recently where a set of parents were forced by the court of law to vaccinate their baby against Hep B as they were infected with it and putting their baby at unneccessary risk. I advocate for yes. We are not talking about violating adult rights, we are talking about protecting the right of innocent children to remain safe. They can’t make the decision about immunisation themselves. Not vaccinating children is negligent and parents have no excuse whatsoever.
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It is for me too. Like I said in an earlier comment – can you imagine people being rounded up kicking and screaming to be vaccinated against their will? That’s the sort of thing that happens in brutal dictatorships.
It is also against the principles of UN Declaration of Human Rights, Kris.
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I’d certainly advocate yes, as Kris would. I’d like to see free boosters for all adults, at least for whooping cough, and especially those working with children. Make them free and there is no reason they can’t be compulsory as well. I am all for it, call it part of being a responsible Australian citizen
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Free adult boosters with a decent promotional campaign as to why adults should get them would be fantastic. But I’m not convinced any one in Canberra (or states) sees this as an important enough issue.
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Who takes responsibility for the “neglect and abuse” (your words for not vaccinating) of those ‘minority’ cases in our society who do suffer adverse effects from vaccination?
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I have seen pro-vaxxers call for no-fault compensation for just such cases.
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Great work as always, Peter. Can someone explain how the Iron Lung actually works? I’ve seen them used for polio sufferers in pictures and movies and stuff, but don’t know how they actually work?
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It’s simply a form of negative pressure breathing, and was one of the early designs of an artificial ventilator. The iron lung reduces the air pressure around your chest, causing your lungs to fill will air (because the atmospheric pressure outside is greater). Then it increases the pressure again, forcing the air back out of your lungs.
Modern ventilators blow air into your lungs instead (positive pressure breathing) They’re much less unwieldy and restrictive.
But to an ardent antivaxer, all this “sciency sounding stuff” is totally irrelevant.
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They’re negative pressure devices. When the pressure outside the body gets lower than the lungs, they expand and fill with air, which leads to the lung air pressure becoming lower than outside the body, so they empty, which becomes a continuous cycle. I’m guessing the iron lung is a sealed container which helps chest wall muscles and the diaphragm do this, because of the paralysis polio causes.
I would imagine these days that iron lungs would be replaced by positive pressure machines like cpap etc.
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Thanks guys! I’m sure I wasn’t the only one wondering. CPap is what I know as making someone breathe – I figured the iron lung would be similar to what you have both said, using pressure from outside the body, but wasn’t sure, as I’m sure I’ve seen in movies where you can have breaks out of them?
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I was totally curious about the iron lung too, I imagine it was pretty uncomfortable. My daughter was a premmie and had chronic lung disease/respiratory distress syndrome and had to be on a ventilator for a few days then CPAP. I tried the CPAP myself to see what it is that she would be feeling. It is not terrible, but pretty strange and slightly annoying. But the ventilator – wow, she hated that. She actually managed to extubate herself it distressed her so much. In the end to get her off it they had to sedate her to stop her fighting against it.
It. Was. Heartbreaking.
I cannot in my wildest nightmares imagine knowingly risking putting my child through that at any age. It was necessary for Lucy, but hideously awful to watch for her family.
Vaccinate.
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My nephews were in the NICU and same as you had – one had to be sedated to let the CPap breathe for him. He was fighting it and gave himself a pneumothorax, so they doped him up for a few days to get it all happening. It was scary.
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I really loathe the uneducated, pseudo-scientific (anyone can string a bunch of long words together and sound smart), bizarre and bulls**t arguments against vacination. I loathe that, where I’m from, vaccinations are provided for children free of charge, and yet the government STILL has to offer financial incentive to get their kids vaccinated. I go almost incandescent with rage when I hear the statement ‘injecting your baby with ‘live’ disease is bad for them.’ Know what else is bad for your kid? Encephalitis secondary to measles. Asphyxia secondary to whooping cough. Cervical cancer secondary to preventable HPV. Dehydration secondary to rota virus. Finally, I loathe those conscientious objectors who ride the coat tails of herd immunity provided by everyone else’s vaccinated child, whilst decreeing things like ‘polio was never wiped out, just renamed’ or ‘its only a childhood illness’ or ‘I don’t want my kid to get autism’
I’m a paediatric nurse and once had the honor of being with a 5 year old as he died from encephalitis secondary to measles. It was horrific – and preventable. No one should die like that, much less an innocent child too young to make his own healthcare decisions. And in this day and age, in this society when we have access to such good, free or low cost healthcare and preventative medicine, no one should be dying from the measles or whooping cough or hepatitis anyway!
An acquaintance of mine recently put forth the argument for not getting her kids vaccinated that she liked to know exactly the ins and outs of the process and couldn’t find unbiased information and so didn’t do it. She couldn’t ask her GP because he gets PAID a consultation fee to inject her child so it isn’t unbiased. My counter argument – he’d earn loads more were her child to contract whooping cough and be under strict medical supervision for six month or longer, or to have some form of complication from a preventable illness requiring ongoing medical intervention.
Anyway, brilliant article Peter and I’ll end my rant here.
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Brilliant comment.
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What I find funny is that your acquaintance did not trust the unbiased information from her doctor but I am sure she trusts the “unbiased” information that the AVN spill on their website and facebook pages.
And for the record even if you don’t vaccinate your child you can still receive your centrelink payments as normal all you have to do lodge a form to say why you won’t be vaccinating your child. Apparently the government cutting payments would be taking away antivaxxers freedom of choice. Disgustijng!!!! what about my freedom of choice of wanting to protect my newborn baby from diseases that they are not old enough to be vaccinated from yet. I feel for Dana Macarthy’s family who thought they were doing everything in their power to protect their daughter from whooping cough by being vaccinated themselves but unfortunately they live in a area with a low vaccination rate and as a result they lost their baby girl, sad very sad.
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I have a friend who asked me whether she should give her children a certain vaccine. I said I would, but she needs to speak to someone more qualified than me – so I said to speak to her GP or the Pharmacy department of the local Children’s hospital about side effects etc. She said that she wouldn’t – as they would be pushing ‘an agenda’ – so she asked her naturopath. Go figure.
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Oh naturopaths, that’s where a lot of this nonsense starts…
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I once had a naturopath (unsolicited) tell me to stop giving my 5 week old antibiotics for an infection, upon telling me not to vaccinate and stating she did not vaccinate her children I stopped the conversation and asked her to step away from my child as I did not want to risk him catching a preventable disease off her.
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That’s terrible Rin but from what I’ve heard/read, quite normal!
Mamamia – would love an article on naturopaths, they get off quite lightly but are often the first ‘anti vaxxers’ that people meet.
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Oi Vey, naturopaths! I know there are many who are sane and do a great job, and there is certainly a place for holistic medicine. This isn’t it. I came into contact with many as a personal trainer. I fmake sure I am very open minded about specialists and professionals that could aid my clientele and assist my goal of helping them achieve their goals. I stopped listening to naturopaths when 3 in a row recommended ketosis as a means to lose weight to my clients. As in creating insulin resistance. Like simulating diabetes.
I think its one of those professions that was once valid but has been corrupted by people pushing snake oils for weight loss, immunity and curing back pain.
Gets my goolies.
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I went to school with someone who now calls herself a naturopath and her qualifications basically came out of a cornflakes box!
Sure, I understand for complementary and wellbeing treatments they can be wonderful, as other alternative therapies can be, but for life threatening diseases and cancer, anyone who relies on their treatment and advice is running from the reality of real treatment and taking terrible risks. Which can be awful, but is proven to be the most effective.
I want the health of my family in the hands of the smartest kid at school, not a hippie!
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Yeah because naturopathy is only based on …2000 years of Chinese medicine! Each to his own.
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Chinese medicine may well be based on 2000 plus years of history but I’ll put my faith in antibiotics and vaccinations rather than sun bear gall bladder, rhino and elephant horns/tusks, tiger bits, manta ray gills etc. But hey, each to their own.
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and people were so healthy 1000 years ago weren’t they?
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One of my friends has had some “interesting” conversations with her BIL, who is a chiropractor. Some of them can be mad as meat axes too and I see a chiropractor.
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Totally. Some people swear by them and it works for them, but some chiropractors are just dangerous. I put osteopaths in the same boat. I once had a client tell me if she didn’t take her 4 kids to the chiropractor every week their behaviour became aggressive and they were difficult to control. Expensive.
There are some good ones out there but a lot of fruit cakes too.
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I’m just about to make an appointment to see an osteo (I’ve seen her before and she did fantastic things for my back). I asked her about vaccination as I’d seen osteos mentioned in the same breath as nutty chiros, and she said “What? How is that even supposed to work?? That’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard”. I saw a chiro last year and mentioned that someone here had suggested adjustments to “cure” mastitis, and he agreed and said by manipulating my spine it would release the infection. No antibiotics. I didn’t go back to him. The mags with Jenny McCarthy on the cover at a rally didn’t fill me with confidence either…
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Brilliant. Just brilliant. Thank god for others with common sense. You’ve made my day.
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Great article. I feel for the children of antivaxxers who don’t get to choose whether they want to be vaccinated. Their health relies on the community being vaccinated! Ironic?
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Excellent article and so true. Thank you, I found this really interesting to read
!
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Couldn’t agree more..because of anti vaccination parents my 4 children and husband who unfortunately wasnt immunized contracted a bad case of chicken pox 2/4 are immunized against it my eldest 2 are not and got it bad due to some zealot who.decided it wasn’t necessary I am pro vaccinations! I DONT understand how parents could want their kids to contract these horrible diseases and pray they DONT get.chicken pox when they get older as it was dreadful for my 30 year old husband ….
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Wait…..your 2 kids and husband weren’t immunised and you’re blaming someone else for them contracting chicken pox? Is that right?
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I’m not completely against vaccines but I am cautious and reluctant. Gone are the days when the medical industry’s word was as good as gold. There are so many side effects, some unknown when it comes to taking drugs which are created to help us from the pharmaceutical industry. I found out this the hard way when I took roaccutane in my teens and am still suffering side effects 10 years later. I prefer keeping on top of health with a healthy lifestyle and yeah antibiotics when I really, really need them.
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When has the medical “industry”‘s word been as good as gold? If you don’t trust the pharma companies, do you then trust the research done by people who are experts in their field and still prove that vaccines are safe and work?
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Well at the time of taking said drug my Dr assured me the only side effects were dry skin and sensitivity to sun. Fast forward a few years later and you now have to sign a disclosure if you want to take accutane as it is so damaging- side effects can include kidney damage, colon damage (one guy had his colon removed and successfully sued the company for 25million), ulcerative colitis, hair loss, hearing loss, depression, direct links to suicide.
The point I’m making is that no; I don’t trust the research done by people who are experts in the field. I learned this the hard way. I was told a drug was safe to take and now I am paying for it with a poor quality of life.
I’m not against vaccinations but I’m not completely pro vaccinations either.
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Aleks, I’m with you on this one. My mother has the unfortunate tag of being an original ‘Dow Corning’ implant survivor. I’m lucky to have a doctor in the family who I can ask questions and receive honest answers because I don’t trust drug companies, doctors or the stupid TGA after my mothers 15 year court battle. I vaccinate, but reluctantly.
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Unfortunately a healthy lifestyle cannot prevent many diseases, like those mentioned above. Im with Kris2040- the image painted of the medical industry being untrustworthy is seriously troubling, but if you looked further into some of the amazing independent scientific research being done in this country you may have second thoughts. Even just check out past scientists who’ve won Australian of the year, or involved in nobel prize winners. Seriously amazing work.
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“I found out this the hard way when I took roaccutane in my teens and am still suffering side effects 10 years later”
I’m not sure when you took it, but roaccutane has had big flashing warnings over its use for years and years now. There might be knowledge or uncertainty gaps for new drugs, but vaccinations are not new.
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I get what you’re saying but roaccutane is a completley different ball game. I too have been on this and the warnings around roaccutane were very VERY clear. I had to have blood tests once a month and all sorts of check ups whilst on the medication. Vacciniations are not nearly as “risky”. While every sort of medical treatment has associated risks, you dont have to keep coming back every 4 weeks for blood tests etc after a vaccine.
I am slightly reluctant and cautious when taking strong drugs too but I believe that vaccines are a safe and vitally important prevention for our children.
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Fantastic post Peter.
The internet is a wonderful tool and resource to communicate ideas and information and to connect people with the same ideologies, unfortunately in the wrong hands it has become a platform for those with bogus conspiracy theories and no scientific evidence to communicate fear and mis information about vaccines.
Alot of those people have bought into the hype of the conspiracy theory (and this is just one of them) that vaccines are a “population control method” by the governments of the world – by a one world order. These people are in the same group of religious zealots in the sense that they will always have an argument against vaccination and give you references to websites that have absolutely no credibility to them, there is no proper research to back their theories (they will say any research against their arguments are null because those research studies have been funded by large pharmaceutical companies who have everything to lose if they are proven wrong) they will send youyoutube montages of unfounded research and pure scare monger tactics to convince you otherwise. Personally i think these people have too much time on their hands, the internet is allowing people / general public to lose their sense of common sense and critical analysis and just because its on the internet – doesn’t necessarily mean its true. These days any clown can set a word press blog and call themselves a subject matter expert – just like any clown with photoshop and a D-SLR camera calls themselves a photographer.
My thoughts are – these doctors and scholars have undertaken years of study to be qualified professionals. Leave your trust in the hands of a credible expert to advise on the health of you and your child, not some Kelloggs Cornflakes qualified internet conspiracist….We live in a first world country, where people from third world countries would love to have the opportunity to vaccinate their children and offer them a better quality of life.
As for those that will probably comment and argue against – you are entitled to your opinion and thoughts, I will listen but unless you have credible evidence and credible research I won’t be converted – especially with ridiculous theories about vaccination and population control by a one world government crap and how my views are from brainwashed and controlled media exposure by one world government. Get a life! Get off the computer, and go live and experience life.
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At 20 years old, I’ve never known much about polio. And reading this article i am extremely grateful this is the case.
There is no real argument against vaccines and it is stunning articles like this that will continue to remind people of this.
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