[KatiesEd-dad]

While I'm not trying to start the heated debate I do want to get one point across in this post.

First off, I want every one over the age of 35 to look at their left arm, between the elbow and the shoulder, on the outside of the arm......ok......everyone done checking.....you should see what looks like a small round scar....is it there???

That is the scar from the small pox vaccine. Routine vaccination for small pox was stopped in the early 1980's because the CDC and the WHO had determined that small pox had been eradicated in the wild. The only place that it is known to still exist is in the labs of the US Government and Russia. When the disease was eradicated, they stopped vaccinating. We still vaccinate for measles, mumps, rubella, varicella (chicken pox) and a host of other diseases. These vaccinations are not done just because. They are done because the viruses still exist in the world and there are still outbreaks of them today, especially in the third world where vaccinations are not as common as they are in the developed world. Everyone still with me???

Some cite the horrible consequences that a very small percentage of vaccine recipients will incur. Did you know that with the small pox vaccine that 1 out of every 15,000 will contract actual small pox and die? This is why the CDC has decided that they would not prophylacticly vaccinate for small pox again in the post 9/11 world. There plan is that if there is an outbreak, they will vaccinate and re-vaccinate health care providers who can then vaccinate the general population.

We have become spoiled in this country. We have not seen the large scale effects from disease in our life time largely due to the vaccination efforts during the 50's, 60's and 70's. Most of the physicians working today have never witnesses rampant disease in their patient population. I realize that the parents who choose not to vaccinate are thinking that they are doing what they think is best but if we all adopted that attitude then, in about 20 years, we would have a nation that was rampant with diseases that would kill thousands if not millions.