I grew up taking (as far as I know) the full vaccine schedule of the time, and also grew up with asthma--thankfully a mild to moderate severity. Now doctors have found, apparently, a correlation between asthma and aluminium in vaccines. The obvious question, given that I also grew up eating food that was cooked in aluminium pans, is that would be the effect of other sources of aluminium. Other studies apparently do not find a correlation between other sources and asthma, so what we could have is a statistical anomaly or an interaction of aluminium and the immune system.
That noted, it strikes me that prior to mass vaccinations, polio killed 2000 annually and paralyzed 1600, and then you've got measles,mumps, rubella, diptheria, pertussis, and other diseases we no longer fear due to vaccination. So even if aluminium is a fairly significant contributor to asthma, I think I'll take my chances with vaccines for now.
(side note; yes, I am very aware that one major reason infectious disease isn't as bad as before is that we no longer live in tenements and boarding houses, thank God. But there's a good argument that vaccines have been pretty helpful, too)
2 comments:
I would like to go back to sanity land, where we take the chances with the vaccines based on a cost/benefit ratio. Asthma vs. polio - asthma definitely wins. (My mom tells me about mandatory nap time in summer to stay healthy before the vax).
In sanity land, we also say, "gee this vax ingredient seems to have some problems. Can we fix that and reduce side effects?" Because in sanity land, we are constantly improving things and making them safer. The folks on the ragged edge of development aren't necessarily the same folks on the "sand off the rough edges and make it perfect" team. That's fine, we need both.
Sadly, too many vaccine proponents simply refuse to present the actual data. As an engineer, it drives me nuts. Same basic thing with people endorsing seat belt usage--they do these things called "crash tests", and you can compare the accelerometer measurements. Why not share the data?
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