By: Nate and Kat Gross, 30/October/2024
Contrary to the mainstream narrative, not all pediatric vaccines are completely safe and without drawbacks. As the usage of vaccines have become more common and the number of vaccines have increased so has the occurrence of allergies, autoimmune disorders and autism [1] [2]; though most of this is correlation, research is starting to immerge showing the causation.
The authors recognize that there are many factors that have the potential to negatively impact our children’s health these days, vaccines and their overuse being just one. As an example, the MMR Entered the market around 1975, RoundUp (glyphosate) herbicide entered the market in 1974 [3]; when graphed, immunizations, glyphosate, and autism all appear to corelate, rising from less than 1 in 1000 to 1 in 36 today [4]. It is our belief that parents have a duty to make informed decisions regarding the health and rearing of their children, and they should look at all aspects, but for this discussion we will only be considering the impact of vaccines.
CDC Recommended Vaccine Schedule [5]:
| VACCINE | DOSES BY 18 YEARS |
| Respiratory syncytial virus | 1 |
| Hepatitis B (HEP B) | 3 |
| Rotavirus (RV) | 2 |
| Diphtheria, tetanus, & acellular pertussis | 5 |
| Haemophilus influenzae type b (HIB) | 5 |
| Pneumococcal conjugate | 4 |
| Inactivated poliovirus | 4 |
| COVID-19 | 1* |
| Influenza | 1* |
| Measles, mumps, rubella | 2 |
| Varicella | 2 |
| Hepatitis A | 2 |
| Tetanus, diphtheria, & acellular pertussis | 1 |
| Human papillomavirus | 3 |
| Meningococcal | 2 |
| Respiratory syncytial virus vaccine | mother, during gestation |
| Dengue | 3 |
| Mpox | optional |
| Respiratory syncytial virus | 1 |
* Recommend annual or bi-annual boosters.
Risk/Reward Analysis and List Narrowing:
Our first filter to narrow the list of vaccines we would keep was to look at the effect of the disease if the child contracted it in a first world country with access to hospital resources. If most cases result in medical intervention at a minimum or in hospitalization, then the vaccine was kept on the list. Another consideration was if the risk of the disease was moderate to low, and the vaccine risk was low such as Polio, then it was left on the list. The table below is our final list of vaccines to keep or consider further.
| DISEASE | SEVERITY |
| Hepatitis B | (MEDIUM) Infants are more likely to develop long lasting complications, though risk of infection is low for most. In high insight, we would probably skip this one today. |
| Diphtheria | (LOW) Would not have made the list except that it was linked to Tetanus and there by required a look. |
| Acellular Pertussis (Wooping Cough) | (HIGH) Contracting this can easily lead to complications and in severe case the mortality is 34.2% [6]. |
| Tetanus | (HIGH) without treatment, 1 in 4 infected dies [7]. |
| Pneumococcal conjugate (PCV) | (MEDIUM) Death rate for Pneumonia is 5-7%, blood infection is 20%. This disease is common, but the use of the vaccine can be argued both ways. |
| Haemophilus influenzae type b (HIB) | (MEDIUM) Death rate is 3-6%, 20% of survivors have permanent hearing loss and other complications [8]. |
| Polio | (LOW) Severe infection only occurs in 1% of those infected [9]. |
| Measles | (LOW) Highly contagious, but generally very treatable with anti-biotics and fever suppressants. According to the CDC, it can have a 1 to 33 in 1000 mortality rate. |
| Mumps | (LOW) The mortality rate is 1.6-3.8 per 10000 infections. However, orchitis is reported to occur in 25-50% of males, of with 30% leads to partial or full infertility; and oophoritis in 5% of women [10] [11]. |
| Rubella | (LOW) Up to 85% of infants infected in first trimester will have birth defects, young women should get vaccinated before conception [12]. The risk to children with access to medical services is low [13]. |
Ethical Consideration:
As Christians, we are pro-life, anti-abortion, that rules out any vaccine developed directly or indirectly with fetal cell lines such as PER.C6, WI-38, HEK 293, and MRC-5 [14].
Some vaccines utilize fetal cell lines to test and manufacture vaccines, and sometimes even include the cells in the actual vaccination. Most of these fetal cell lines have been derived from babies that were electively aborted and their bodies redirected to medical use. If they had died of natural causes, we would not have a moral issue with their body being put to medical use.
One of the arguments used in favor of using these cell lines is that the evil was committed years or decades earlier and the cell lines are just being cloned today. But fetal tissue harvesting is a multi-billion dollar per year industry [15] and using the old cell lines funds and motivates the perpetuation of this evil.
Vaccine Technology:
Another filter was to investigate the technologies used in the manufacturing of the vaccines available in the U.S., that are authorized by the CDC/FDA.
| TYPE | DESCRIPTION | EXAMPLE |
| Inactivated | Contain an inactivated or killed pathogen | Polio vaccine, influenza vaccine |
| Live-attenuated | Contain live pathogens from either a bacteria or a virus that have been “attenuated,” or weakened | Measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine, varicella (chickenpox) |
| Messenger RNA (mRNA) | RNA material teaches our body how to make a specific type of protein that is unique to the virus | Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine |
| Subunit | Made from a piece of a pathogen, not the whole organism | Haemophilus influenzae type B (Hib) vaccine (conjugate), pneumococcal vaccine (polysaccharide or conjugate), shingles vaccine (recombinant protein), hepatitis B (recombinant protein), acellular pertussis, MenACWY (conjugate) |
| Polysaccharide | Target an immune response to pathogenic bacteria that are encased in a layer of sugar | |
| Conjugate | Contain a polysaccharide component, but that sugar is stuck to a protein | |
| Toxoid | Use inactivated toxins to target the toxic activity created by the bacteria | Tetanus vaccine, diphtheria vaccine |
| Viral vector | use a harmless virus to deliver to the hosts cells the genetic code of the antigen you want the immune system to fight | Ebola vaccine, COVID-19 vaccine (AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson) |
SOURCE: https://www.pfizer.com/news/articles/understanding_six_types_of_vaccine_technologies
The main technology we had concerns over is mRNA. This technology is very new and relatively untested, especially over the long-term. Though popularized by the COVID-19 pandemic response, mRNA technology had concerns before and many have emerged quietly in the aftermath of the pandemic.
As previously mentioned, we are Christians and our faith teaches that we are “made in the image of God”, and there are questions as to how deep the mRNA changes the fundamental structure of what makes your body you (other than the soul) [16].
Even looked at from a strictly secular/scientific angle, mRNA is redirecting the operating system of your cells to perform a new un-natural task. Is this redirection temporary, what are the short and long-term consequences of this? When the COVID-19 vaccine was released, the authorities assured us that the mRNA only lasted about 48 hours in the body and that the new instructions it carried would only be present in the cells for about a month, but we now know that this is not always the case [17].
As of the writing of this article the only mRNA vaccine for children is the Pfizer COVID-19, but influenza (flu) and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) are in phase 3 clinical trials [18].
Vaccine Additives:
Vaccines contain many components [19] one of which is mercury. Thimerosal a methylated mercury molecule used as a preservative, though it has fallen out of common use in pediatric vaccines since the 2000s, parents should still be aware of its possible presence. Mercury exposure has been linked to neurodevelopmental issues and heart disease [20], prompting the NIH to set the normal blood concentration level to 20 mcg/L or lower [21].
The CDC recommends that a child receive their first Influenza (flu) vaccine by 18-months of age with boosters to follow. While not all Influenza vaccines contain thimerosal, about 80% do at about 25 mcg of mercury per dose [22]. This means that a 22 pound child is exposed to 25 times the amount of mercury considered safe [22], this issue is compounded by the fact that the half-life of mercury in the blood, the time it takes for half the mercury to be purged, is up to 7 days [23] and up to 45 days for the kidneys [24]. Oral thimerosal can take much longer than injected forms.
While most influenza vaccines contain mercury, not all do and not all other vaccines do either, you will have to investigate each one and ask your pediatrician what brand they use for each. One way to be more certain that Thimerosal is not an issue is to request a single dose version of the vaccine, since it is not required to keep the remaining contents of the vial sterile.
There are also other agents such as aluminum salts, also known as aluminum-based adjuvants (ABAs), are used as stabilizers in many vaccines to enhance the immune response. The most common types of aluminum salts used in vaccines are aluminum hydroxide, aluminum phosphate, and potassium aluminum sulfate [25]. Though aluminum is generally considered safe, there is research that indicates some risk [26] [27].
A list of vaccines and their ingredients is listed as footnote [19] and as appendix “A”.
Economic Incentive Bias:
One other aspect that parents need to consider is that your doctor may be biased, as patients and guardians, we should never blindly adhere to their advice. Pharmaceutical companies, insurance companies, and even the government all offer incentives to doctors and patients to take vaccines. Money is a powerful motivator and can lead many to blindly do and not stop to ask why [28] [29] [30].
Conclusion:
In the end, parents will have to weigh the risks and rewards and make a plan that works for them. While it is the authors opinions that some of these lines are firm and not up for discussion due to moral and religious beliefs, many of them are blurred and you will need to use your best judgement.
References:
[1] A. J. Wakefield, “MMR vaccination and autism,” The Lancet, 11 SEPTEMBER 1999. [Online]. Available: https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736%2805%2975696-8/fulltext. [Accessed 05 AUGUST 2024].
[2] A. Coghlan, “Autism rises despite MMR ban in Japan,” NewScientist, 03 MARCH 2005. [Online]. Available: https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn7076-autism-rises-despite-mmr-ban-in-japan/. [Accessed 05 AUGUST 2024].
[3] R. Mesnage and M. N. Antoniou, “Facts and Fallacies in the Debate on Glyphosate Toxicity,” National Library of Medicine, 24 11 2017. [Online]. Available: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5705608/#:~:text=Glyphosate%20(N%2Dphosphonomethyl%20glycine),in%20the%20global%20agrochemical%20market.. [Accessed 24 10 2024].
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[5] “Child and Adolescent Immunization Schedule by Age (Addendum updated June 27, 2024),” U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 16 NOVEMBER 2023. [Online]. Available: https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/hcp/imz-schedules/child-adolescent-age.html?CDC_AAref_Val=https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/schedules/hcp/imz/child-adolescent.html. [Accessed 24 OCTOBER 2024].
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[12] “Rubella,” World Health Organization (WHO), 14 MAY 2024. [Online]. Available: https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/rubella#:~:text=Once%20a%20person%20is%20infected,Vaccination. [Accessed 28 OCTOBER 2024].
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[14] J. Piper, “Can I Take a Vaccine Made from Aborted Babies?,” Desiring God, 4 JANUARY 2021. [Online]. Available: https://www.desiringgod.org/interviews/can-i-take-a-vaccine-made-from-aborted-babies. [Accessed 28 OCTOBER 2024].
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[19] U.S. Centers for Disease Control And Prevention (CDC), “Vaccine Excipient Summary: Appendix B,” ImmunizeBC, 1 NOVEMBER 2021. [Online]. Available: https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/pubs/pinkbook/downloads/appendices/b/excipient-table-2.pdf. [Accessed 30 OCTOBER 2024].
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[21] B.-J. Ye, B.-G. Kim, M.-J. Jeon, S.-Y. Kim, H.-C. Kim, T.-W. Jang, H.-J. Chae, W.-J. Choi, M.-N. Ha and Y.-S. Hong, “Evaluation of mercury exposure level, clinical diagnosis and treatment for mercury intoxication,” NIH: National Library of Medicine, 22 JANUARY 2016. [Online]. Available: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4724159/. [Accessed 24 OCTOBER 2024].
[22] R. Rutledge, “City of Milwaukee,” !@ NOVEMBER 2007. [Online]. Available: https://city.milwaukee.gov/ImageLibrary/Groups/healthAuthors/DCP/PDFs/grsThimVacc/JSArticleMostflushotscontainmercury.pdf. [Accessed 24 OCTOBER 2024].
[23] “Thiomersal vaccines,” World Health Organization (WHO), 27 JULY 2012. [Online]. Available: https://www.who.int/groups/global-advisory-committee-on-vaccine-safety/topics/thiomersal-and-vaccines/thiomersal-vaccines. [Accessed 24 OCTOBER 2024].
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[28] L. Levy, “Pediatrician Takes On Anti-Vaxxers’ Misconceptions With 1 Powerful Post,” PopSugar, 27 APRIL 2017. [Online]. Available: https://www.popsugar.com/family/doctor-explains-why-he-gets-money-giving-vaccinations-42575027. [Accessed 28 OCTOBER 2024].
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Appendix A: