Vaccinations: What to do? FIGHT!
Posted: Fri Apr 16, 2004 4:33 am
When I was adopting my 3 year old from Pakistan, I looked into
vaccinations and vaccination waivers. In some states in the US it is
a
nightmare, but fortunately in my state, Washington, parents can get a
vaccination waiver for all of the school required vaccinations--
for medical reasons, or religious reasons, or inte
llectual/philosophical reasons.
When someone immigrates to the US, they have to have a medical exam
done by clinics vetted by the US Embassy. I assumed this
would involve an HIV test, TB test and chest Xray, Hepatitis test.
Amazingly, for a small child, none of those tests were required.
What they were going to do, however, was give a perfectly healthy 3
year old vaccinations for 14 diseases in an hour! Imagine that!
We've got healthy adult soldiers coming down with all sorts of
syndromes due to the multiple military vaccinations, and they're
thinking (and obviously, this was something they do all the time)
they're going to give a little child 14 shots at once.
But I had researched and I knew that one can get a waiver of the
required vaccinations required by the US Immigration Service (now
they are known as Homeland Security, of course...the English
translation of Gestapo. But I digress.) It costs $132 or so.
Armed
with this knowledge, I argued with the people at the clinic, who
thought I was a nutcase -- they said, "Complications are very rare."
I
said, "This is the one little boy I get in my life, and I will
protect him. And if he were one of your 'rare" complications, I will
have to take
care of him the rest of his life, not you." The argument which
really hit them was when I said, "There are 'hot' batches of
vaccines, you
know. And do you think the pharmaceutical companies will just throw
them away? No. They won't. They'll dump 'em in the 3rd
world." That got their attention. (This was just before the
invasion of Iraq, so it didn't take much...) The head doctor did not
have any problem with signing a waiver of vaccinations, these were the smaller
fry I was arguing with.
I prepared to do battle with the US Embassy in Islamabad, but they
did not bat an eye, nor did they require the particular waiver form
or the $132.
If I had not been a native-born American -- and from Detroit, no
less, you know what I'm sayin' ? -- I would not have had the guts to
stand up to them. When I think about how intimidating the whole
immigration process is, I cannot imagine very many foreigners
fighting for their right not to be vaccinated. The other thing I
want to bring up, is that so often on adoption lists you read things
like, "And then it turned out he/she had learning disabilities, or was
autistic, etc", and I wonder if the child was normal until they had
14 vaccinations AT ONCE, just to get their American visa.
As for Golden's schedule, I agree that it is just mimicking the allopathic fear schedule.
vaccinations and vaccination waivers. In some states in the US it is
a
nightmare, but fortunately in my state, Washington, parents can get a
vaccination waiver for all of the school required vaccinations--
for medical reasons, or religious reasons, or inte
llectual/philosophical reasons.
When someone immigrates to the US, they have to have a medical exam
done by clinics vetted by the US Embassy. I assumed this
would involve an HIV test, TB test and chest Xray, Hepatitis test.
Amazingly, for a small child, none of those tests were required.
What they were going to do, however, was give a perfectly healthy 3
year old vaccinations for 14 diseases in an hour! Imagine that!
We've got healthy adult soldiers coming down with all sorts of
syndromes due to the multiple military vaccinations, and they're
thinking (and obviously, this was something they do all the time)
they're going to give a little child 14 shots at once.
But I had researched and I knew that one can get a waiver of the
required vaccinations required by the US Immigration Service (now
they are known as Homeland Security, of course...the English
translation of Gestapo. But I digress.) It costs $132 or so.
Armed
with this knowledge, I argued with the people at the clinic, who
thought I was a nutcase -- they said, "Complications are very rare."
I
said, "This is the one little boy I get in my life, and I will
protect him. And if he were one of your 'rare" complications, I will
have to take
care of him the rest of his life, not you." The argument which
really hit them was when I said, "There are 'hot' batches of
vaccines, you
know. And do you think the pharmaceutical companies will just throw
them away? No. They won't. They'll dump 'em in the 3rd
world." That got their attention. (This was just before the
invasion of Iraq, so it didn't take much...) The head doctor did not
have any problem with signing a waiver of vaccinations, these were the smaller
fry I was arguing with.
I prepared to do battle with the US Embassy in Islamabad, but they
did not bat an eye, nor did they require the particular waiver form
or the $132.
If I had not been a native-born American -- and from Detroit, no
less, you know what I'm sayin' ? -- I would not have had the guts to
stand up to them. When I think about how intimidating the whole
immigration process is, I cannot imagine very many foreigners
fighting for their right not to be vaccinated. The other thing I
want to bring up, is that so often on adoption lists you read things
like, "And then it turned out he/she had learning disabilities, or was
autistic, etc", and I wonder if the child was normal until they had
14 vaccinations AT ONCE, just to get their American visa.
As for Golden's schedule, I agree that it is just mimicking the allopathic fear schedule.
)