Vaccinations are not as Effective as Advertised

Vaccinations are usually given credit for the reduction of disease in developing countries. People fear that without them, many people will start dying from diseases such as polio and that the only reason they no longer exist is because of vaccinations. In some places, a child requires mandatory vaccinations before he or she is accepted in to public schooling. Infants also are sometimes given dozens of vaccinations to "protect" them from horrible diseases. This is a website with a vaccination plan for children Vaccination schedule for children. But vaccinations are not really the primary reason that there is a reduction in diseases today compared to 50 years ago.

To start off with, vaccinations are actually very controversial. Most people do not know that many debate over the effectiveness and necessity of vaccinations, and just accept what they are given without looking in to what is contained in the needle. This web page, Vaccine Ingredients, has a list of the ingredients in vaccinations and what they cause, as well as other information about the ingredients. It is no wonder why some people pass out after taking vaccinations, and why supervision must be given for 15 minutes after receiving a shot. Although it is interesting to look in to the ingredients, most of my reasoning for not vaccinating myself is not here, as I feel this is where the endless debate is.

There are other causes for the major reduction in disease in developed countries over the last 100 years. Most of the reduction comes from superior living conditions which prevent the transmission of diseases. Eating a healthy diet strengthens your immune system which helps prevent disease transmission.

Proper Sanitary Conditions
Sanitary conditions have recently been improved with flushing toilets and greatly reduce the risk of transmitting diseases. Living arrangements in developed countries are not abundant in decomposing animal waste and are usually very clean. Compared to in the past and to developing countries, people have better living conditions that do not promote the spread of disease. Proper drainage and waste product disposal decreases the likeliness of disease and keeps people healthier and stronger to combat disease. Proper sanitary conditions is probably the biggest disease killer in modern developed countries.


Overcrowding
It is become normal for most people in developed countries to live in conditions that are not affected by overcrowding. Overcrowding can cause poor sanitary conditions and can hasten the spread of disease amongst a population by people being in close range with each other. If one person catches a disease it is likely that someone who comes in to contact with them will. The less people that the person comes in to contact with regularly, the less chance there is of the disease spreading.


Eating Enough Food
People in developed countries now eat plenty of food and are not malnourished, compared to people living in third world countries who are not always properly fed. Having enough energy for your body to combat disease is important in the reduction of disease as a whole as having the disease for less time gives less opportunity for it to spread. This is a big difference between the disease spread in developed and developing countries, as some incorrectly assume that the reason there is more disease in third world countries is that they don't get vaccinated as frequently. That is a big assumption and ignores the living and food conditions and is usually just used to support vaccinating in developed countries.


Eating a Healthy Diet
Eating a healthy diet is often overlooked as a form of disease reduction. It is far more effective than receiving vaccinations because it strengthens the whole immune system, not just supposedly make you immune to one specific disease. You can increase your immunity to every disease, not just to the ones there are vaccinations for.

As for keeping an infant healthy and avoiding disease, it is important that the breast feeding mother is as healthy as possible for herself and the infant. It is not necessary to give so many immunisations(which translates to partial immunity, not full immunity) and it is more important to be healthy and live in healthy conditions. While I do not feel vaccinations directly cause autism themselves, it is not outrageous to claim that having so many injections will have negative effects to the infant later on.


This is not to say, never take a vaccination. It is just that the main cause of the reduction in disease is not from vaccinations, it's from the change of living conditions. There may be some cases where it could be useful, such as if you are travelling to a place with a specific disease and you want an extra boost in immunity against that specific disease. But for general disease reducing purposes, vaccinations are only a minor contributor.