Thursday, January 29, 2015

All about Vaccines - An Essay

As a parent, one of the hardest decisions that I have had to make was if I was going to get my children vaccinated. It is not what you think, I'm not a member of the anti-vaccine movement, but I was not immunized as a child by my parent's persona choice. The biggest reason that this was a hard decision for me, was all the superficial and in some cases, inconclusive information. After a lot of reading and research, I made a decision and I wanted to provide the information to you all.

From my research, the people who dislike vaccines have pointed out three re-occuring themes:
  • The use of Thermisol which can cause Autism. 
  • Vaccinations are only temporary immunity while surviving the disease is a permanent vaccination. 
  • To many vaccinations overload a child's immune system. 
There are a bunch of other, minor things, but I wanted to cover the major points that many proponents use are the ones listed above. My goal is simply to show you what I have learned so whoever stumbled upon this can make their own educated decision on what they should do with their children. So, please take this article as simply a research essay. All my references will be provided at the bottom. 

1. The use of Thermisol, which can cause Autism. 

One of the first things I have heard by friends and family that oppose vaccines is that they use Thermisol. So what is this thermisol that we hear so much about? Thermisol is a "mercury-containing organic compound" and has been used in preservatives for years in the United States. (CDC, 2014) One of the biggest reasons that people are concerned is the use of the word mercury, as we all know is dangerous in the long term for our bodies. That is where research shows that Thermisol is different. Thermisol, when process by the body becomes a substance called Ethylmercury, which is gotten rid of from the body very quickly, while Methylmercury is the dangerous byproduct of naturally occurring mercury for nature. (CDC, 2014)

So, does that mean it still causes autism? Though there isn't any scientific proof that Thermisol even caused autism (Luntz, 2014), the point was rendered moot when the Food and Drug Administration(FDA) in cooperation with the Pharmaceutical companies removed Thermisol from vaccines. Since 1999, Thermisol has not been used in vaccines except for the few, rare influenza vaccine preparations. (Offit, 2007)

In discussions that I have had with some co-workers has always brought up the study preformed by Dr. Andrew Wakefield that had supposedly linked MMR vaccine with Autism, but I must point out that his report was discredited years ago as he had a conflict of interest and lied on the report. (Cohen, 2011) The medical journal even retracted the entirety of the article in 2010. (Lancet Editors, 2010)

2. Vaccinations are only temporary immunity while surviving the disease is a permanent vaccination.

I was just a bit skeptical about this one cause I could not only see where proponents were coming from, but this feels like a small scale look at the situation. Yes, one may become stronger for surviving the real decease, but when measles claim 16 people per hour and a 2013 study shows the MMR vaccine has lowered measles deaths by 87%. I think that shows that temporary immunity is better than permanent if more people can survive it. (World Health Organization, 2014)

I am not going to say more on this as there has yet to be any major research projects to end this question with facts. Most of the information I could find are conjecture and even my own words above are just deduction from what I have read. 

3. To many vaccinations overload a child's immune system. 

The last point I want to cover is the concept of vaccinations overloading our children's immune systems. This was the biggest concern of mine when it came to my own children. I, personally, do not believe the doctors and companies are coming up with ways to hurt my children, but time has shown us that new technologies and ideas might have unintended consequences. 

What I have found on this subject as scientific study has shown that "In the face of these normal events, it seems unlikely that the number of separate antigens contained in childhood vaccines ...would represent an appreciable added burden on the immune system that would be immunosuppressive." (Stratton, 1994, p. 63)

I think this speaks for itself as I have not found anything to refute the 1994 article.


Ending

All I wanted to do is to provide some research information for my readers or anyone who stumbled upon my blog. Being informed about what people say is the most important thing you can do and to make sure that you can verify what people are telling you when it comes important things like immunizations and your children. May you make your decision, whatever it maybe, wisely and informed! 

 
References

CDC. (2014, August 20). Frequently Asked Questions About Thimerosal (Ethylmercury). Retrieved January 29, 2015, from http://www.cdc.gov/vaccinesafety/Concerns/thimerosal/thimerosal_faqs.html

Cohen, E., & Falco, M. (2011, January 5). Retracted autism study an 'elaborate fraud,' British journal finds. Retrieved January 29, 2015, from http://www.cnn.com/2011/HEALTH/01/05/autism.vaccines/

Editors, Lancet (2010, February 6). Retraction—Ileal-lymphoid-nodular hyperplasia, non-specific colitis, and pervasive developmental disorder in children. Retrieved January 29, 2015, from http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(10)60175-4/abstract

Luntz, S. (2014, May 19). Huge Meta-Study Of Vaccines Reveals No Link To Autism. Retrieved January 29, 2015, from http://www.iflscience.com/health-and-medicine/huge-meta-study-vaccines-reveals-no-link-autism

Offit, P. (2007, September 27). Thimerosal and Vaccines - A Cautionary Tale. Retrieved January 29, 2015, from http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp078187#t=article

Stratton, K. (1994). Immunologic Reactions. In Adverse events associated with childhood vaccines evidence bearing on causality (p. 63). Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press.

WHO. (2014, November 1). Measles. Retrieved January 29, 2015, from http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs286/en/

Monday, January 19, 2015

Those Great, Not so Secure, Computers We Love!

We love our computers, don’t we? I mean, they have made our everyday life so much easier and being able to play cool games anytime is also a plus! I mean, Star Wars: The Old Republic anybody? So, what am I talking about this blog post? There is a good chance that I just started to ramble on this digital piece of paper with the intent of stealing that precious two kilobytes of bandwidth it took to load this up from you, but that’s not the case….this time.  

Some of you might know that I am pursuing a college degree in Information Systems Security. That is pretty much learning how people can break in to systems, steal and destroy your data. It is scary how easy it is to do! I participated in an online lab for one of my courses that showed me how simple it was. I was able to execute an attack against a port and slip in to the backdoor of a Linux machine and get root privileges! (Pretty much, I controlled that machine). Of course this was a school environment and it was their own computers, so nothing malicious happened, but it was a demonstration that how simply leaving one port open allowed someone to execute an attack that got inside!

Now, I’m not trying to scare you or anything like that. I just wanted to give you food for thought about how insecure computers can be. To leave you with a bit of peace, make sure your windows firewalls are on, you have spyware control on there (I recommend Spybot Search and Destroy) and that you have a virus scanner on there. (I love Norton, but for those of you who are cheap, take a look at AVG Free).
!

Just be careful where you go on the internet and make sure you really want to be clicking on that link. You do not want to accidentally let someone in. 

Tuesday, January 13, 2015

Facing those Insurmountable Odds

Have you ever decided something and when you finally sat down to put it in to action, you were completely struck by the insurmountable odds in front of you? Well, that is what just happened to me when I decided to not only get back in to writing, but also to try and make it pay. I have always loved writing and after a recent string of jobs that I just could not fit in, it dawned on me that it might be time to try my hand at something that I once loved.

The hard question is, could I do it? For so long, writing had been my only passion and now it has be reduced to a bunch of scribbles on the back of receipts. The feeling of creation had completely left me and some days I just stare at a blank page just wishing the words would come out of my fingers. Could that ever happen again?

I sometimes wonder if it is that line that all writers hit. When you move away from looking at it as a hobby and an “art” to realizing it has to be a business if you plan to make money at it. Sometimes I wonder if I cannot accept the fact that writing is going to be a chore and inspiration is never going to hit me every time I sit down at my computer to tap words out.

So, why is this blog on the failing writer that I am? Well, this blog post is the first step into the New Year to go from being a scribbler on the back to receipts to a freelance writer who has gotten a renewed love for writing. I want to get back the excitement and the adventure of this wonderful craft and leave behind the awful, horrible, writer’s block that has haunted me for years.


So, this is to my future freelance career and I hope you all (if anyone is out there reading this) will join me for the ride!