Vaccination Rant

In my Microbiology class a couple weeks ago, we were discussing vaccinations. A vaccination is basically a weakened strand of bacteria or protozoa that we inject in to our bodies so that our immune systems can easily destroy it and hopefully recognize any future infections by this bacteria and destroy them as well. As far as modern medicine goes, vaccines are probably the greatest discovery and most effective life saving invention of the past century. This being acknowledged I must say that this is just a broad concept of what you might encounter at your doctor's office. Big time pharmaceutical companies have embraced a business-profit structure that borders on some of the most evil philosophies ever known to man. If you knew that you had a more than 50% chance of dying before old age if you did not buy something, chances are you will buy it. This fact has generated mind blowing profits based on human desires for self preservation. In order to generate more profits and fulfill more sales strategies, pharmaceutical companies have been designing their vaccine cocktails with shelf life in mind, as opposed to human health. Mercury and other harmful substances have been put in various vaccines so that they will not have to dispose of expired product as often as normal life-span of weakened microorganisms should require. A vaccine may prevent you from becoming infected with measles, but it may also contribute towards potentially toxic levels of chemicals building up in your kidneys and brain. Generally the levels of these chemicals in vaccines is not fatal or really that harmful to the human system, but when combined with atmospheric, dietary, water reservoir and cleaning products which all contain these chemicals as well, we run the risk of doing long term damage to our bodies. There is also this fact to consider: a vaccine is an act of purposely infecting someone. In a lot of cases, people's immune systems are not strong enough to fight off the microbes in the vaccine and this results in a full blown disease that was not there before. As a nursing student and future health care worker, I am not dumb enough to suggest that I will not vaccinate myself before working in a hospital with numerous amounts of diseases floating around. However, my main qualm is when politicians (which are funded by pharmaceutical lobbyists) enact laws mandating that myself or my future children take these substances. This is not a new topic of discussion, but one of my classmates made an argument that I just can not stop thinking about. She argued that all children should be required to have the full spectrum of vaccinations in order to attend school, and if their parents did not want to expose them to the risks, the parents should send their children to a private school. Now this sounds a little backwards to me. In America we are supposed to be living in the "land of the free". Government telling me that I have to buy something, believe something or teach my children something is fundamentally against the principles that millions have fought and died for. If you want the "benefit" of having your child in an all vaccinated environment, YOU are the one who should start a private school for your children. Do not tell me what I have to do with mine.

(full disclosure: I do not have any children, but I have nieces and nephews)