Monday Medley: New vaccine information

Every year, we become privy to new information released due to the Freedom of Information Act—information that’s been around for at least 30 years (my lifetime) that we simply couldn’t access for some reason or another. So there’s always bound to be something shocking released every year, right?

Well, the international NSNBC website released some pretty upsetting news about vaccine information cover-ups this week. I’ve never been anti-vaccine; hospital staff saved my daughter and me when we were dying and I trusted them, and their vaccines. I even paid $500 a month for Synagis vaccines when she was a preemie, back before it was pretty much standard procedure. This information, however, gives me pause.

There’s evidence to suggest that the vaccines themselves don’t work (at least, not how we think they do), that they contain really gross materials (why is that? Can’t that, at the very least, be changed?) and that they can even cause harm to children—which is why our government actually has funds set aside to pay victims’ families. At the very least, I think there needs to be more investigations and improvements regarding these vaccines.

In a similar outrageous fashion, there is news of ADHD’s inventor claiming he made up the disease before he died. So far, I haven’t been able to find a great source for this material, but I think it’s so important to consider. The most controversial thing I’ve ever said as an unschooler, I think, is that I don’t buy into ADHD. I think it’s a direct symptom of our schooling system, not a problem with children (not to mention all of the crap put in everything from food to furniture that’s proven to wreak havoc on our developing bodies).

We aren't meant to sit still for hours at a time—especially while we are children—BUT, even if it is a true disease, it’s so widely diagnosed and medicated in the US—around 10 percent of kids, I think, at last count—that we know there is a problem going on here. In France, for example, fewer than .5 percent of kids have ADHD and are medicated for it—and it looks like French doctors aren't trying to mute kids’ behavior but help change their environments.

You may have heard about Abercrombie’s awful message to the “cool kids” of the world (which, by the way, is several years old—why is this stuff surfacing now?), but have you seen Ellen’s priceless response?

If you’re like me, you have stopped saying “no” over and over again—only to replace it with, “In a minute,” or, “Not right now.” Here are some alternatives if you’re sick of your own response!

On that note, does the average American parent have it backwards?

Photo courtesy of Wikipedia