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RE: Children Vaccinated At Birth For Hepatitis B in Australia! Why?

in #health7 years ago

I can understand the concern but honestly, there is mo conern to be had. The reason doctors give a hep b vaccine so early is because you never know when someone might be exposed to it. It is safe and effective. Please follow the schedule. To your question about why worry if a few aren't vaccinated, it is called herd amunity. Research shows if a community has a 5% unvaccinated population, that 5% can of course get infected, but then the virus has a chance of mutating and might be able to get past the vaccine protection. Have you seen what measles or polio does to some one.
Here is what happens when you don't vaccinate:
http://www.sciencealert.com/the-us-is-in-the-middle-of-its-biggest-measles-outbreak-this-year

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john,

why is breast milk good for infants?

Tons of nutrients, proper levels of fats, proteins, and carbs. Also, it does pass some antibodies to the child. Also, studies have shown an increase in intelligence for children that were breast milk feed.

So why do infants need antibodies?

Their immune system has not been as exposed to illnesses like their parents have. Not enough time in the world yet. Thats why we use vaccines, so that the immune system will know the illness and be able to eliminate it before it causes harm.

Close.

Why do we do ridiculously thorough workups on kids with fevers less than 3 months old but are much more tolerant of fevers in older kids?

Same reason. Younger kids haven't had the time to build up their immunities. My one year old daughter getting a gever can be more life threatening than my 7 year old having the same issue. Applies for the elderly too, their immune system is slowing down due to age.

Also close. It's because their immune systems are much less effective. Not because of naivete, but because of ineffectiveness. You are exactly right, that's why the very old and the very young can be septic without fevers, why they die from infections at rates much higher than those in the middle.

But that begs the question -- why try to stimulate immunity against a (mostly) adult disease at a point when the immune system is really incapable of mounting much of a response? (which is why it takes 3 serial attempts to get much immunity from the whole process...)

The answer is that the medical community has a bias, a standard perspective which states that immunizations in general have very little capacity to create harm. So they figure, why not?

That's the headspace that the proponents of early immunization come from.

So -- do the proteins in hepatitis B vaccines cross the blood brain barrier, or do adjuvants in the hep vaccine cross the blood brain barrier?

Thank you very much for taking the time to write this comment @john1981!

The girls are my nieces so the schedule of their vaccinations is up to their parents.

I also appreciate you explaining "herd amunity"- I just looked it up and I think "amunity" was a typo and I think you mean: herd "immunity"? Or am I mistaken?

Either way your comment made me think about something.... Australia's current population is 23.78 million people. Australia currently receives 8.46 million visitors a year. Australia does not require vaccinations to visit and does not vaccinate people on arrival (although it is evident that this would be profitable for the Pharmaceutical companies).

With a yearly influx of almost 30% of the population of potentially unvaccinated tourists I wonder how this impacts "herd immunity"? Does this negate "herd immunity" or Australia should vaccinate on arrival? It would devastate tourism if they insisted on this!

What do you think mate?

Cheers! =)