I can't be the only mom who heaved a giant sigh of relief after her kid's 4-year check-up with the pediatrician. Aside from the yearly flu shot, we were looking at no more vaccines for a good long while, and she was safe from all sorts of nasty diseases. And then the CDC had to go ahead and release a vaccination report today that makes me want to run straight into my daughter's first grade classroom, throw a surgical mask on her, and run out with her in my arms.
Turns out pediatricians' offices aren't necessarily storing vaccines correctly. So ... there goes all my faith that showing up at every well child visit was enough to keep my kid safe. How about yours?
The problem is, they put out this scary report, but they don't really give parents solid answers.
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So here's the skinny: when the Department of Health and Human Services' Office of the Inspector General reviewed 45 different healthcare offices back in 2010, they found as much as 76 percent of them were storing the vaccines at the wrong temperature -- either too high or too cold. Thirteen of those offices (about 29 percent) even had expired vaccines mixed in with the good stuff.
I should point out their sample size was pretty small. Just 45 offices. And the investigation focused specifically on clinicians in its special Vaccines for Children program, a project that provides funding to give low-income kids their shots for free.
We're not talking an epidemic here. Buuuuuuuuuut, they're using the data to warn all healthcare offices about proper storage because of what it means for kids.
Exposure to inappropriate temperatures can reduce vaccine potency and efficacy, increasing the risk that children are not provided with maximum protection against preventable diseases.
It's the nebulous words they use that freak me out here. "Risk." "Reduce." "Maximum."
If they could just tell us "yup, your vaccinated kid is really unvaccinated," we'd know exactly what to do. But it's a whole bunch of maybes and possibilities. And parents don't even know how many offices are screwing up. Is this report indicative of what most of them do? Or is it a drop in the bucket?
If there was an easier way to tell than, say, waiting around until the kid comes down with a case of measles that I thought she'd been protected from, maybe this would stress me out less. My original pediatrician retired, so I can't even go check out his office fridge to see if he keeps the temperature in line.
You can ask your pediatrician to do what's called a titer, a blood test to determine if they have antibodies in their system. But that means another needle being poked into your kid's arm. And we don't even know that OUR kid's vaccine was one of the bad ones.
So we just get to wait. And wonder. And worry. Which is pretty much why we took the kid in to get a vaccine in the first place!
Are you worried that your vaccinated kid could be at risk?
Image via Andres Rueda/Flickr
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Comments 56
Seems like everyday there's a new study that shows what "might" cause autism. A few weeks ago I read about a study that showed obese women were more likely to have autistic children, then yesterday I read about a study that links low level intake of folic acid within the first couple of months of pregnancy. I also think that autism is becoming over diagnosed, like ADHD. My niece has been diagnosed with autism and the only thing she has is a speech problem that is commonly associated with the disorder. As far as vaccines go I'm not a big fan of them, however where I live in order for my son to go to public school he has to have them. I do not vaccinate him against the flu or any other things that are not required by the school district.
there is a way to check. You get their blood tested for the antibody and it will show up if they are immune. I know i'm immune to hepatitis b because I have the antibody for it in my blood.
I think some vaccs are unnessecary
Wow, the complete sheeple mentality is hard to swallow with this group. You really think Polio is eradicated in the US? You really think Small Pox was eradicated through vaccination? You really think using your child as a government science experiment is the best for them? Do more research. Polio has been classified into many subsets. They no longer use the classification "polio". They don't say, "I'm sorry ma'am, your child has contraceted Polio." Instead there are acute paralytic diseases. Like acute flaccid paralysis. Look at thepolio rates induced by the OPV all over the world. Especially India's current pandemic. Find the true statistics (listed on the CDC website) which shows acutal acquisition of antibodies after vaccination. Most are as low as 60%. All of you who are adults and berating people for not vaccinating your children, have you had ALL of your boosters to 'protect' your children and your neighbors children? I suspect not because you'd have to get them frequently and then have your titers pulled. By the way, positive titer does not mean immunity. It simply means you have a sustained level of antibodies on the cellular level. These viruses are not the wild strain of disease.
..cont. They are laboratory concoctions which use the certain proteins and components along with adjuvants and medium to go right past all of our bodies natural barriers like skin, hair, mucus, natural bacteria and gut flora and they inject straight into our blood stream and into the blood brain barrier. This causes permanent damage on a cellular level and even changes our very DNA. That is fact and science. I know not everyone went to medical school, studied biology, infectious disease, immunology, and not everyone can understand medical journals and break down of statistics, etc. But you can understand exactly what chemicals are listed and that they are harmful to your children. Would you put things like aluminum, polysorbate 80, thimerasol, formaldehyde, chicken embryo, bovine (cow) serum, etc. into a sippy cup and have your child drink it? Even if it is only in the amounts given to your child? Then do it repeatedly at every visit? What if the doctor told you it would protect them for life? Why not?
cont..Because when it is out of site and out of mind, wrapped up in that tiny little needs, no one thinks about it because they don't see the warning labels on the box or in the pamphlet. All you get is that handy little paper that says this shot will protect your child forever but you need to come in and get boosters every two month-10 years. It's safe except this list of side effects you need to look out for but are rare. The CDC lists vaccines as a "necessarily unsafe medical procedure'. They know that children have reactions. It's just a matter of how bad the reaction is. People who demand all to be vaccinated have never had a severely injured child. You show me one person who has suffered through a bad vaccine reaction and watched their child lie in a hospital bed gasping for breath or who had a child die following vaccination from anaphylactic shock who would willingly continue with the rest of her children. Not everyone can be vaccinated. People shouldn't judge those that don't vaccinate. You don't know the story. And most of us don't feel we have the need to tell you close minded people anyway. My children are unable to receive vaccines due to a medical condition-an autoimmune disorder to be exact. But I would never force my neighbor to do so.
cont. The blood on your hands is too thick so you cover it with these happy gloves and claim your child won't be the one to have a reaction. Well, I hope for their sake they never will. But for the rest of the people who live every day with an immunocompromised child who is forced out of school because we aren't granted exemptions until we play russian roulette and see what happens, for those who have vax injured children - and I'm not just talking autism here- who have to live with things like vax induced encephalitis causing epilepsy, or severe mental retardation, or heart failure, or stroke, or a number of other reactions or those who already lost one child to death from an anaphylactic reaction, etc. we will continue to hope above all hopes that you learn compassion and your children are never affected. I am not scared of any diseases we vax against, I am scared my children will have a horrible reaction and die because their immune systems can not handle something like a vaccine that you take for granted and truly believe works.