It truly is a small world after all..

I wasn't going to enter the Vaccination ring. I actually swore to myself that I wouldn't but there are certain elements that keep dragging me back into this vicious ring of rotating assumptions, generalizations and the worst kind of comments.

Now, anyone that reads my blog or follows my page on facebook, knows I am a very open minded person. Whatever your style of parenting is, that doesn't bring harm to yourself, your children and the outside world is fine by me. I don't care if you are  bottle feeders, breast feeders, cloth diapers vs disposable ones. Circumcised or not. I honest don't care.As none of those choices, impact my life. None. But the same can't be said about the choice to vaccinate or not. As that does have an impact on not only my life, but my children's.

Since"Vaccinationgate"has been opened, yet again, thanks in part to the person who brought Measles to "Its a Small World After All", I have been asked on several occasions now, what my stance is on vaccinations, since I have two children that are on the spectrum. Vaccinations did not cause my children to have autism. One, is that one of my children has a genetic disorder that exhibits Autistic like qualities. My other child, showed signs well before the "dreaded" MMR shot was given to her. Now I know that thanks to Dr. Wakefield and a certain McCarthy, we have now have a nice little hysteria going on concerning vaccinations. Now before anyone gets on my case about McCarthy, I will say this about her, she did help make sure vaccinations were more stable. Other than that, I don't take advice from someone who clearly doesn't have a MD at the end of their names. And even with that, I still always do my own research. As not all Doctors are created equal.

Now I am all for clean vaccinations. They should be at the highest quality any medication given to a person should be. But it has been clearly documented over and over again that the vaccinations given are just that. I am a hardcore do your research kind of person. Not the whole Web MD thing, but anytime I have medication given to myself or my children, I research the shit out of it. Pros, cons, side effects or is this a good match for myself or children. When I do my research, I do it with an open mind. Yeah there are going to be sites, that lambaste medications. But I look further. I look at the number of people that have benefited from it. How many people has this helped feel better? I have done the same for the vaccinations my children have received. I look at the disease itself. Measles, Mumps, Pertussis, Polio and the countless other ones that are on my children's Immunization Card, and I think what would the world be like if one person just stopped caring about those diseases? If that one person was me? Your answer is in third world countries. The countries where things like small pox and polio are still raging. Listening a mother describe how her child died a death that was preventable puts things into perspective. As no parent should have to watch a child die from something that can be stopped. Seeing pictures of my parents and grandparents generation in Iron lungs is something I would never want my children to have to endure.

I know that people have their reasons for not wanting to vaccinate their children.  The quality of vaccinates, the idea that they are not needed, the threat of autism and or developmental disorders or even the rare chance that person is allergic to a vaccination. With all that is out there to debunk those myths, the science behind it all, that has proven, that vaccinations don't cause autism, that they are needed to prevent the spread of diseases or that the quality of them has gotten better and even the slight chance that someone would have an adverse reaction to any one of them, we still don't see how that one choice can effect those around us.

A child or an adult who is battling any form of Cancer can't have vaccinations, nor people who have certain auto immune diseases, are they supposed to live in a bubble? What about their livelihood? Its not fair to them if they are living in constant fear of getting something that is preventable? But yet that preventable thing can kill them.

I am not writing this to shame parents. I am writing to inform. For the week or so, it has been a non stop debate. At times it has turned political and even worse racial. We all want what is best for our children. There isn't a doubt in that. But I think most of us have to ask ourselves, is this choice going to impact the lives of other people? And if it doesn't, well go on about your merry way. But if it does, all I ask is to educate yourself. DO more than the basic research. Look at statistics. Does this benefit society or not. And if it does and it helps the greater good, then that is your answer.

Sadly, the Disney outbreak has proven that it truly is a small world after all. And with in this small world, one choice affected a good number of people.