To Vaccinate Or Not To Vaccinate The Choice Should Be Yours

To Vaccinate Or Not To Vaccinate The Choice Should Be Yours specialedpost.org A lot of people cringe away from talking about their opinions on vaccines because it can become a very heated subject, especially if you are against them. Vaccines scare the crap out of me, and while I’m not saying that you shouldn’t get vaccinated, I hope this article will make you stop and think before just letting some doctor inject something into your body. I’ve never been the type of person who just goes along with something without question. While this isn’t always the best of qualities, I always liked finding things out for myself instead of just going with what the majority was saying, even when I was very young. The main thing that triggered this attribute was an incident that happened to me when I was thirteen. When I was twelve, I went to the doctor for a check-up before my family and I were going to move to Malaysia for a year, and they told my mom about a new vaccine called Gardasil. image via videodemonews.wordpress.com Gardasil is used to prevent four types of human papillomavirus (HPV). This is supposed to help with certain types of cervical cancers and genital warts. Sounds good right? One of my mom’s very good friends has cervical cancer, so she was quickly convinced by my doctor that I should get the vaccine. It comes in three doses, which should be given over six months. The doctor then explained that only girls between 9-26 were  eligible  to get it  (guys can get it now as well, but this was when the shot first came out.) The fact that the shot was new and that only a certain age range could get it freaked me out a bit, but I didn’t want to get cervical cancer so I allowed the nurse to administer the first dose without much fuss. The shot was probably one of the most painful shots I ever experienced, and I couldn’t move my arm for two days. I decided to consult Google about the vaccine, and found out that there were many horrible side effects associated with the shot. I can’t find the exact one that I was looking at when I was twelve, but according to this article: ‘“Between May 2009 and September 2010, 16 deaths after Gardasil vaccination were reported. For that timeframe, there were also 789 reports of serious Gardasil adverse reactions, including 213 cases of permanent disability and 25 diagnosed cases of Guillain Barre Syndrome,’ Judicial Watch reported.” Other side effects include, seizures, speech problems, paralysis, short term memory loss, blindness, Guillian Barre syndrome, Pancreatitis, Ovarian cysts, and though it may protect some cervical cancers, you can still get it because there are over 100 types. No one is warned about the side effects; they are just bullied into vaccinating their children, and if they don’t they are seen as “bad parents.” image via voices.yahoo.com So after reading up on what the shot could do, I didn’t want to continue the sequence. We went to Malaysia and then when we came back to the states, I had to go in for another check up. I told my mom again that I didn’t want the second shot, which I had mentioned about a dozen times on the ride to the doctors office. She assured me that it would probably be too late anyway, since the series was supposed to be completed within six months. This made me relax. At the very end of the check-up the doctor told me I would be getting three vaccines, Tetanus, DTaP, and the second Gardasil shot. Before I had a chance to protest, she was out of the room, telling the nurse to get them ready. I looked to my mom, telling her that I didn’t want the Gardasil. She hesitated, because she knew I didn’t want it, but she wanted to keep me safe. When the nurse came in, I told her I didn’t want the Gardasil shot, but the nurse told my mom  that the shot was already filled and we would have to pay for it either way so I might as well get it. The nurse didn’t look at me when she replied, even though I was the one who told her that I didn’t want it. I pleaded with my mom, who was caught in a tug of war. I started spurting out how the shot was bad and had killed people, and the nurse laughed and told me that the shot was good for me, and that I shouldn’t believe everything that I read on the Internet. She tried to lunge at me with the shot, but I spun out of the way; I wasn’t going down without a fight. She told me that if I didn’t cooperate, then she would have to get back-up. I told her I would cooperate for the other two vaccines, but not for the Gardasil. The nurse went on to ration with my mom, pretending like I didn’t exist. After two more failed attempts of her trying to administer the shot, she got three more nurses to help her. Two of them grabbed my legs and the third pinned me down to the table, as I screamed for them to stop. It was my body, and therefore my decision, but they didn’t care. My opinion didn’t matter because to them I was just some stupid kid who was probably afraid of needles, and who was disrupting the flow of their day. They injected all three shots into the same armâ€"which they weren’t supposed to do because Tetanus and Gardasil are both very painful and should have been put into different armsâ€"and then patted themselves on the back for giving me the vaccines. One of the nurses who held my leg jokingly said that she would have to put me on her calendar for when I got the third shot because I was a workout. I could have punched her. image via www.macquirelatory.com The doctor came in and gave my mom a card for a psychiatrist who specializes in helping kids get over their fear of shots. That’s the part that angers me the most. I wasn’t scared of the needles. Sure, they aren’t exactly my most favorite things in the world, but that wasn’t the point. The point was that I didn’t want the poison of Gardasil in my body, but they thought I was stupid for thinking medicine could hurt me instead of help. I was treated like I wasn’t a person, like I wasn’t capable of having my own thoughts because I wasn’t eighteen. As I was writing this and revisiting this memory, I almost cried, because it still holds such an impact. I was forced against my will to get something that I didn’t agree with, and that is wrong. The thing is, a lot of people never question shots, because they’ve never had a reason to. Max Meyer, a second year business management economics student at UC Santa Cruz, said, “since vaccines are tested, they are more than likely going to help each person instead of harming them.” I’m definitely not saying that vaccines are bad; I do agree that they can do a lot of good and have helped prevent diseases from spreading. I do, however, think that we ourselves should know more about the vaccines we are getting. Calvin Sainz, a third year neuroscience student at UC Santa Cruz, said “if there was a way for people to want to infect others, they could just tamper with the medical vaccines at the free clinics, so they can be scary.” A main controversy that gets brought up when it comes to vaccines is whether or not they can cause Autism in children. Mary Medeiros, a second year MCD biology student at UC Santa Cruz, said “ a lot of people think that vaccines cause autism, but I don’t believe that at all. Vaccines help prevent diseases, and if you don’t vaccinate your children, they can die at a younger age.” Meyer agreed with Medeiros in saying that vaccines don’t cause autism, that he knows of. This is one of those things that you will have to decide on your own. I think it is important to vaccinate children, though I think that they give too many vaccines at once and therefore autism can be a factor. image via snarkecards.com Basically what I want you to take from this is to know you have a choice, and you should never let someone bully you into doing something that you don’t want to/don’t feel comfortable with. I have now switched to a new doctor, who will listen to me, give her opinion, but also respect mine and not make me feel bad if I don’t want to do something. Have a story to share? Get your voice out there on the Vaccine Freedom Wall.