Need more info for DH (warning -- long)
I haven´t posted much and am still learning about the vaccine issue. I have compiled quite a bit of information and am talking to my husband about it. Most of what I have is coming from the CDC and PubMed, as well as info from the Statistical Abstracts of the United States (current and historical data). DH is very willing to consider delaying/discontinuing vaxing but wants to make an informed decision. Here is my problem. I need stats on vaccine complications. The CDC Pink Book has numbers for the MMR and DtaP, but not for all VPDs. To me, that is enough but DH wants stats so that he can compare apples to apples, so to speak. Would VAERS be the best place to get numbers? I know that VAERS is not a complete resource, but I can´t think of anything else off the top of my head. Another issue is the rate of incidence and death. I found the page on the CDC site covering the years 1950-2005 and I have the MMWR from the last week of 2006. DH looks at the numbers and says that "Yes, the desease rate was going down prior to vaccination, but it is hard to deny that vaccination has significantly wiped out these diseases." Any advice on how to answer that?
Finally, DH is an attorney. He says that if vaccines were such a danger and causing so many problems, that there would be attorneys jumping all over the issue and suing right and left -- he is a bit of a cynic when it comes to his chosen profession. I told him about the compensation fund (I will be printing off info about it today), but he says that even with government protections (worker´s comp, for example) there are usually legal cottage insustries suing. He says that he is not aware of one for vaccinations. He used the Vioxx lawsuits as an example of what can happen to the pharma companies. I´m going straight to the source about the compensation fund, but is there anything else I should be looking at on that front?
DH is a small government type of guy and is definitely not a big fan of government intrusion into small matters. He does think that it would have to be an awfully big conspiracy among many people to keep the "secret" about vaccine dangers. But he is willing to look at all of the information available and make a decision from there.
Thanks, in advance, for any help.
