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Vaccinations in Canada: Political Immunity
by author Kerstin Peterson

Vaccination is big business in North America, and so the powers that be imply that vaccination is mandatory.

Nicholas Pasay was a healthy baby boy developing normally until he received his first routine vaccination at four months of age. Three weeks later, he was unable to hold his head upright for extended periods and his eyes involuntarily rolled back in his head. Alarmed, his parents took him to the hospital, but the attending physician concluded there was nothing wrong with Nicholas. His symptoms persisted, and his parents continued to seek medical help.

When Nicholas was admitted for testing, his symptoms were attributed to a severe seizure disorder. While he had been experiencing up to three brief seizures per day, he continued to develop normally. This changed dramatically when he received his next vaccination. Only four days after his second shot, Nicholas’ seizures increased to as many as 10 per day, some lasting as long as 45 minutes. Repeated increases in his medication gave him no relief from the seizures, which doctors predict will increase in duration and intensity as he ages.

The Pasays are convinced Nicholas’ condition was caused by his exposure to vaccines. At the age of two, he functions at the level of a six-month-old infant. He cannot sit unaided. He doesn’t crawl, walk or speak. He kicks at his toys with his feet but doesn’t use his hands to play.

As the Pasay family has learned, there are risks associated with any drug–and vaccines are no exception. Proponents of vaccination argue that vaccines prevent infectious illnesses by helping the body’s immune system build antibodies against the disease. They credit vaccinations with the decline of many infectious diseases during the last century. However, there is continuing contention on these two points and others.

The Canadian Medical Association’s 1998 edition of the Canadian Immunization Guide reminds physicians that "providers should be aware of the incidence and nature of adverse reactions to immunization agents. Parents and patients should be informed about the benefits and risks of vaccines as well as the risks of the diseases to be prevented." Yet government health authorities and mainstream doctors alike do not question the dogma provided by pharmaceutical companies that vaccines are necessary to protect our children. Vaccination is big business in North America, and so the powers that be imply that vaccination is mandatory. What medical professionals may not tell you is that you have the legal right to refuse vaccinations for your children.

Vaccines suppress children’s immune systems at a time when they should be strengthened by the normal course of childhood diseases such as measles and chickenpox. Vaccines also contain dangerous additives such as thimerosal, a preservative that contains mercury, and aluminum, a neurotoxin that has been linked to Alzheimer’s disease. Short-term, serious reactions to vaccines include fever, high-pitched screaming, seizures, brain damage and death (sometimes recorded as sudden infant death syndrome, or SIDS). In the longer term, associations have been made between vaccination and autoimmune diseases such as asthma, diabetes, autism and arthritis.

Did you know that vaccine providers are required to have the manufacturer’s product inserts available for you? It’s your right to request information on what’s being injected into you or your child’s body and the possible consequences of those ingredients.

What happens to the families who are the victims of the "acceptable risk" inherent in vaccines? Between 1990 and 1997, the US National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program spent more than $802 million compensating American families after their children were brain damaged or killed by vaccines. In Canada, as Nicholas’ family found out, there is no such government fund. There is not even a reliable system for recording reactions to vaccines.

Systematic monitoring for adverse reactions to drugs was not undertaken during the years before 1965, when many vaccines were being introduced in Canada. It was not until the disaster of thalidomide use in pregnancy, when babies were born with missing limbs after their mothers took the drug for morning sickness, that surveillance programs were created to monitor drugs, including vaccines, after their introduction to the market.

Kerstin Peterson is a freelance writer and editor. She lives with her healthy, unvaccinated daughter in Prince George, BC.

Source: alive #239, September 2002