“Mercury is in the earth’s crust, and always has been in inorganic form,” Dr. Offit said. “If you live on this planet, if you drink anything made from water on this planet, you will be exposed to methylmercury. The quantity of mercury that you ingest every day is logarithmically greater than anything you would get from vaccines. You are at no greater risk of neurodevelopmental problems, including autism, from being vaccinated than if you did not receive any vaccines containing thimerosal.”
Parents may argue that drinking a substance is different from injecting it, but in fact, “mercury is very well absorbed in organic form,” Dr. Offit said. “If it’s ingested, it will cross cell membranes.”
And while thimerosal-free vaccines are available, “advertising these vaccines as safer is not true,” because the small amounts of thimerosal in current vaccines do not pose a health risk, Dr. Offit said.
Why is my child getting hepatitis B vaccine at birth? My child won’t be at risk for a long time.
“The hepatitis B vaccine first came on the market in the early 1980s, and was originally recommended only for high-risk groups,” Dr. Offit said. “For 10 years, the incidence of hepatitis B in this country did not budge. Then it was recommended as a routine vaccination for newborns, because every year, there were 18,000 cases of hepatitis B in kids under 10 years old.” Only half these cases were a result of exposure to hepatitis B virus in the vaginal canal during delivery, he emphasized. The rest resulted from “casual contact with someone who was infected and did not know it, such as a kiss on the lips from an uncle.”
Parents also should understand that chronic hepatitis B infection is associated with a high risk of liver cancer or cirrhosis, Dr. Offit said.
I’m Catholic, and I see that a number of vaccines contain cells that are from aborted fetuses.
In the early 1960s, cells from elective abortions in Sweden and England were used to make vaccines such as hepatitis A, varicella, rubella, and rabies, Dr. Offit noted. Some vaccines are still made in cells that have grown or descended independently from these aborted fetuses, he said. The Catholic Church teaches that Catholics should ask for alternatives when available, but are morally free to use vaccines prepared in cells descended from aborted fetuses, because the greater harm is to the unvaccinated child. The National Catholic Bioethics Center, which derives its teachings directly from the Catholic Church, states, “ The risk to public health, if one chooses not to vaccinate, outweighs the legitimate concern about the origins of the vaccine. This is especially important for parents, who have a moral obligation to protect the life and health of their children and those around them.”
I don’t want my child to receive vaccines because natural infection is better for the immune system.
The infections against which vaccines protect can be fatal, cause serious illness, and lead to long-term disability, Dr. Offit emphasized. “The fact is that vaccines are good enough,” he emphasized. “The immunity is good enough. You just need it to be good enough to protect you long-term.”