The more I look into this, the more I feel the need to question the hype around vaccinations. It seems that up to 440,000 people in the US die every year from medical errors that would not have died if there were no errors, or even if they avoided going to hospital altogether. Medical errors are now the third leading cause of death in the US, coming in after cancer and heart disease. More people die from medical errors than car accidents, diabetes, and so on.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/leahbinder/2013/09/23/stunning-news-on-preventable-deaths-in-hospitals/
Deaths from the side effects of drugs is pretty high too. In 2008 the number of deaths and injuries from drug side effects in the US was 4,825 dead, and nearly 21,000 injuries. Interestingly, that’s only what was volunteered to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). It seems that reporting on the deaths and injuries resulting from side effects of drugs is an entirely voluntary process that has less than 10% of the actual fatalities and injuries actually reported by medical authorities. Assuming that is true, then it could be up to 48,000 dead and 210,000 injured – just from the side effects of prescribed drugs, in the US alone.
http://articles.latimes.com/2008/oct/23/science/sci-drugs23
And yet apparently very few die from vaccines. Isn’t that interesting? So just getting treated can result in death from medical error, and side effects from various drugs kill tens of thousands of people and injure hundreds of thousands of people, but apparently vaccines are the safest drugs in the world and cause very few deaths or injuries. That’s just amazing.
What’s truly amazing is that the actual statistics for deaths from vaccinations is a well-maintained mystery. You can’t actually find official information about ‘deaths from vaccinations’ anywhere. Instead, there’s lots of official obfuscation talking about the benefits of vaccines, and discussions and media hype about the ignorace amongst the ‘conspiracy theorists’ that are against vaccinations, and lots of articles presenting information designed to inspire fear amongst any that would consider opposing vaccinations.
I find it impossible to believe that vaccinations are the safest forms of medication in the world, and that despite the deaths and injuries resulting from normal hospital visits and side effects of drugs, that vaccines result in few injuries and even fewer deaths. It can’t be true. Something’s not right. The truth is being hidden, and I find that quite concerning.
One of the most reputable websites I can find with information going against the agenda seems to be nvic.org (National Vaccine Information Center), which is an organisation that’s been around since t1982 and providing information about ‘vaccine safety and informed consent’ in the US. There’s a lot of interesting information on their website, including this article: Can Measles Vaccine Cause Injury & Death?
http://www.nvic.org/vaccines-and-diseases/measles/measles-vaccine-injury-death.aspx
According to the information in that article, as of Dec 2014, there’s been 329 deaths from the Measles vaccination since 1990. If we remember that less than 10% of information is reported by the medical authorities, this could very well be over 3,000 deaths from just one type of vaccination in the US.
However, on the flip side…
After saying all of the above, there’s also the information that in 1980 there was an estimated 4.2 million cases of measles around the world from measles, which was reduced by vaccinations to 1.3 million in 1990, and only 55,700 in 2014.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Measles
How accurate is that information? I don’t know. There’s discrepancies on that wikipedia page between tabled information and described information, so I really have no idea. However, it certainly looks like vaccines have resulted in less people dying today than ever before.
If we’re willing to accept hundreds of thousands of deaths from medical error (probably millions around the world), and tens of thousands of deaths from drug side effects, surely we should be willing to accept thousands of deaths from vaccinations, especially since they seem to be of so much value to the world and keeping people alive?
In conclusion
In conclusion, the summary of my research and my thinking about this is that even though there may be deaths and complications from vaccinations that are hidden from us by pharmaceutical companies and those authorities that support them, the world is still a better place today because of vaccinations.
However, in alignment with my values of the freedom to make choices, I don’t think vaccinations should be mandatory. I think that it should always remain a parent’s right to not vaccinate their children, but if they don’t vaccinate to help protect themselves, their children and the community, then they shouldn’t get benefits from the community, like access to public schools or welfare payments.
There needs to be stronger incentives for people to vaccinate, and there needs to be better education, more oversight about the results of vaccinations and the risks, and better compensation for adverse affects of vaccinations.
Thanks for reading! Please add your own thoughts below.
Don't forget to subscribe for new posts sent to you by email!