The Green Parent

To Vaccinate or Not To Vaccinate

I am not a doctor. Nor do a play one on TV.

Over the years, that has been my standard response whenever anyone asks for my opinion on whether or not to vaccinate their children. It’s such a huge issue, and probably one of the most contentious issues facing new parents these days. And frankly, it wasn’t really one that I felt qualified to answer. Instead, I always felt it was important that parents find a health care provider that they trust who will listen to their thoughts and concerns and offer advice accordingly.

Still, I can’t deny that the vaccination debate comes up quite frequently in my sphere in the form of blog comments, emails, twitter messages, and even on Facebook. So rather than continue to pass the buck, I’ve decided to face it head on. I’ve been compiling research on the topic for years, and it was my intention to write a series of blog posts highlighting both the pros and the cons of vaccination and offering readers a list of sources where they could follow up for more information.

So a few weeks ago, I sent out a query (using an awesome free resource for reporters called ,) asking to hear from parents who felt strongly about vaccination on one side or another.  I expected the standard responses…parents who are convinced that vaccination saves lives and parents who are convinced that vaccinations are more likely to take lives than save them.

As expected, my inbox was literally flooded with emails…and many were just as I expected.  But there were also a large percentage of responses that did not fall into column A or column B…and these were the ones that I hadn’t expected at all.

Take for instance the email that I got from a mom who feels strongly in favor of vaccination, but whose own son cannot be vaccinated because of an allergic reaction he has to certain medications.  Her email conveyed the powerlessness she feels at having to rely upon the decisions of strangers to protect the health of her son.  Another one I didn’t expect was the email from the mother who’s baby stopped breathing on the day she was immunized.  Talk about compelling evidence!  And I was completely thrown for a loop to receive an email from a polio survivor who lost many family members and friends to the disease.

I had originally planned to start the vaccination series today.  But I can now see that the vaccination debate is not as simple as for or against…and to be quite honest, it will take me longer than I thought to sort it all out.  Give me one more week, and hopefully I’ll have a series of posts ready that give you the pros and the cons as well as all of the gray areas in between.  And in the meantime, feel free to drop me a line if you’d like to voice your own opinion on vaccination.  Here’s where to find me:

Email: jenn[at]thegreenparent.com
Twitter: @thegreenparent
Facebook:

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