Wednesday, May 18, 2005

3 Dead Babies + 2 Hours of Insomnia = 1 New Film Idea

3 Dead Babies

So disturbing, reading news from Ontario that three infants, all two months old, died in January from sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS). It was my biggest fear when my son was an infant. I just can’t imagine the grief those parents must be feeling.

What makes this story newsworthy is the fact that the Coroner’s office that is investigating these deaths has found that all three infants had been vaccinated in the two weeks before their deaths. According to the story, no link has been made between the vaccines and the deaths, however.

2 Hours of Insomnia

As I was laying awake, pondering the fact that a ten-pound, two-month old infant who’s immune system is not even close to fully developed receives two vaccines that contain nine viruses and diseases, I wondered how any immune system could be expected to fight all those bugs without having some kind of negative reaction.

In most Canadian provinces and U.S. states, the vaccine schedule is the same: at two, four and six months of age the baby is given two needles containing active ingredients that are meant to produce antibodies that will protect the infant from:

  1. diphtheria (a disease of the skin, nose and throat)
  2. pertussis (whooping cough)
  3. tetanus (lock jaw)
  4. polio
  5. HIB (haemophilus influenza type B)
  6. pneumonia
  7. meningitis
  8. infections of the bloodstream and
  9. infections of the middle ear

For the vaccine to work, the body must react to the disease in some way, to create the desired antibodies that are supposed to provide immunity. Isn’t that a lot of work for a very small body that is still only partially developed in terms of its immune, digestive, neurological, sensory, (etc., etc.), systems? Admittedly I’m not a doctor, but I know that I sure wouldn’t want to be fighting polio, pneumonia and meningitis at the same time.

1 New Film Idea

So here’s my crazy idea. I’d like to do a documentary film about the most high-profile vaccine supporters, from doctors to journalists, health policy-makers to vaccine manufacturers, military seniors to the executive directors of pro-vaccine charities. They all claim vaccines are, if not entirely safe, so safe that risk of an adverse vaccine reaction is one in a million (the most repeated stat around vaccinations that ever there was.)

I would like to get them on record making their assertions of safety. And then, I’d like them to put their own immune systems where their mouths are: to sit down, roll up their sleeves and take the same vaccinations given to our infants – BUT – adjusted for their weight. So, a 150 pound doctor would receive 15 needles-full of each of the shots given to the two-month old. And then she’d get the same 15 needles again two and four months later. Kind of a Supersize Me for vaccines.

Anyone who wants to help out on this project is welcome to contact me at adisen@shaw.ca. It’ll be a great film! We just need to find the funding….maybe an unrestricted educational grant from Merck? I’ll look into it…

1 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Sounds like a letter to the editor of the nearest major paper, if you ask me.

May 18, 2005  

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