The Vaccine War

2010, Health  -   16 Comments
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Ratings: 5.00/10 from 32 users.

Sixteen diseases are now preventable thanks to one of the marvels of modern medicine - vaccinations. But a conflict is steadily brewing between the medical community, concerned parents and other anti-vaccination activists. Do the potential harms outweigh the benefits? The PBS Frontline documentary series examines this controversial and contentious issue with The Vaccine War.

While vaccines have been credited with the eradication of smallpox, polio and other once calamitous diseases, a growing number of parents are refusing them altogether. The number of required pediatric vaccinations has grown over the years, and this community of dissenters questions whether they do more harm than good.

The film speaks with representatives from all sides of the issue. A mother of four bemoans the fact that her oldest child was almost administered a vaccine for a sexually transmitted disease as an infant. She has since refused vaccinations for the remainder of her children. This parent, and others like her, believes that some childhood illnesses are a necessary rite of passage.

Another parent wholeheartedly embraces the gift of vaccination. In her view, a failure to administer these vaccines is tantamount to neglect. "It's an outbreak waiting to happen," she claims. One unvaccinated child could put countless others at risk. In recent years, this type of scenario has been seen in some regions with the spreading of measles.

Then there are the members of the medical community who are desperate to stop the spread of disinformation. For them, the necessity of vaccines is apparent as is any tool that helps prevent hospitalization, suffering and untimely death.

The filmmakers also spotlight the insights of researchers and other vocal critics who believe these vaccines - especially when administered in combination - could overwhelm a child's immune system. In their view, this could result in autism and other cognitive impairments. Epidemiologists refute this claim.

The film's diverse panel of interview subjects also discusses the ingredients of popular vaccinations, the erosion of trust among patients and physicians, and weighing the decision made for one child against the benefit of the entire pediatric population.

The Vaccine War is a clear-headed examination of a high-stakes issue.

Directed by: Jon Palfreman

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16 Comments / User Reviews

  1. Rachel Marchant

    They are missing the point. Why are parents against vaccination? Because there are real side effects that can occur. I believe it's a parent's choice to either risk "chicken pox" or risk "autism". Even if autism is a rare side effect of vaccination, until the medical community is honest about the risks and develops supports for families of children who develop autism..., well we know that isn't going to happen anyways. Autism is linked to vaccinations. I'm not saying every case of autism is but as a parent, you know your child and if there is a drastic change in development and behaviour after a medication, come on we know It's no coincidence.

    1. TheElz

      as someone with undiagnosed autism, I believe the rise in autism is due to 2 factors, the recognition of it & the internet.
      autistic people (Im aspergers or whatever its called now) have problems with small talk, its pointless & makes no sense logically. on line dating & social media means you have something to talk about ( online/texting 1st then meeting).
      Often these types of people are drawn to each other, causing autistic offspring.
      Autism starts to show when a child starts to develop social skills ( a few years old) & often gets more noticeable with age. a lot of vaccines are done past this age.
      I agree medical vaccines could be harmful in the long term (the use of fetal cells MRC-5 in a lot of them use cancer as a propagator, cancer is basically cells that multiply out of control, which is what you want in a vaccine) & its believed these could be causing cancer in the long term. triggering cancer genes.

  2. Devil Travels

    The science behind vaccines is well proven, yet far too many people with no medical training continue to believe the pop culture memes of con artists looking to sell their book.

    1. Joseph

      When someone tells that something is well proven or he had enormous evidence you can bet on it that there is nothing well proven and no big evidence...

  3. Sara

    outbreak waiting to happen? disease? in my childhood it was called a normal illness, no one died in my town, I never heard of anyone dying from measles until vaccines made MEGA profits. I am so grateful there was no measles vaccine when I was young. Having measles, mumps and chickenpox when i was young was no big deal.

  4. Ruth

    Stop being silly and think of babies who can get these and die from it. Why is that not your problem

    1. Sarah Lawry

      Hi Ruth, so called 'anti-vaxxers' are thinking of 'babies' and all folk who are offered/ mandated vaccines that have not been tested for safety or efficacy. There are no placebo controlled trials for any vaccine - vaccines are tested against existing vaccines rather than inert substances. Fraud within the industry is rife, as evidenced by whistle-blowers such as Dr William Thompson and the current court cases that Merck are fighting in regard to the MMR vaccine. If you Google 'Corvelva Study on the chemical composition profile of Infanrix Hexa' you will see that independent labs have found "chemical contamination from the manufacturing process or cross-contamination with other manufacturing lines;

      ● chemical toxins;
      ● bacterial peptide toxins;
      ● insoluble and indigestible macromolecule that reacts to the protein assay, but cannot be recognized by any protein databases.

      We have not found:

      ● Protein antigens of diphtheria toxoids, tetanus, pertussis, hepatitis B, haemophylus influenzae B, Poliomyelitis 1-2-3;
      ● Formaldehyde and glutaraldehyde, phenoxyethanol, antibiotic residues indicated in the composition;”.

      Other reports by Corvelva have found vaccines contaminated with retroviruses such as HERV-K, other adventitious viruses and hundreds of chemical contaminants which no one can identify as they are not found on any known database of chemicals. 100% of 43 vaccines that were tested by Corvelva were found to be contaminated. These contaminants could explain why 55% of US kids have an autoimmune condition/ disease. Please take some time to investigate such claims for yourself.

  5. Sarah Lawry

    Quote from Paul Offit: "You can never really say that MMR doesn't cause autism but frankly when you get in front of the media you better get used to saying it because otherwise people hear a door being left open when a door shouldn't be left open".

    This is the man who designed the RotaTeq vaccine. It was found not to work for children who were being breastfed. Their proposed solution? Stop breastfeeding your child. Do not trust your and your children's health with such people. They know how corrupt the system is and benefit from it to the tune of millions of dollars. The dead and injured do not figure in their calculations.

  6. Sarah Lawry

    My comment including a link to a You Tube clip of Paul Offit admitting that vaccines cause autism has not been published by Top Documentary. In case it is because I posted the link, people could put "Paul Offit Accidentally Speaks The Truth About MMR and Autism" into the You Tube search facility and view the 10 second clip for themselves.

  7. hank

    Super documentary.....I was unaware that the controversy was still ongoing?!!!
    [reminds me of "climate change"] And, I am unquestionably in favor of vaccines. A little understanding of science, and what the medical literature authenticates would be the ideal.

  8. CLD

    I love how the pro-vaccine side never admits there have been absolutely ZERO safety studies done on vaccines.

    1. Laurens

      I love how the anti-vaxxers admit they would rather stand a chance of 1 in 1000 of dying from the measles rather than a 1 in a million chance of vaccine side effects.

    2. Sarah Lawry

      Hi Laurens - the statistic you quote is a fraud. CDC research has shown that only 1 to 10% of adverse reactions are reported to the VAERS database. Therefore, you can add one or two zeros to the numbers of adverse reactions recorded. 55% of US kids have an autoimmune disease/ condition. We are trading our innate immunity for diseases, disability and premature death. The reduction in measles (and other infections/ diseases) in the west has been due to improved sanitary conditions, diet and access to clean water.

    3. CactusBadger

      Fact check: Measles is transmitted through the air and the virus can live for up to 2 hours outside the body.
      Opinion: No amount of hand washing or clean living will protected from breathing in the virus in a public place. The increase in auto-immune problems is more likely to be related to the change in life expectancy that has occurred in the last 100 years. As people stopped dying of the 'normal' diseases due to better treatments, and other conditions rushed in to fill the void. In this age of low infant/child mortality we have forgotten how many children a typical couple would have, and still have in some countries, in the hope that one or two would survive to adulthood.

  9. GunnarInLA

    ...Frontline..?
    ...not anymore...

  10. lulie

    Horse pukee...fake science for the masses. Sadly it keeps people fooled as babies die fro 72 !! Yes 72 useless vaccines. Just start looking at Eugenics, the population agenda is to kill many people.