Funny, I don't remember there being a Mexican bobsled team this year. Could it be that Canadians are just a racist as Americans?

WTF dude? What does Mexico have to do with this???

LMAO, oh I suspect there was a spike in that as well

Yikes.

Totally agree

There are three reasons people do not get vaccinated:

1. Ignorance

2. They have been pursuaded by fearful, misguided groups (Jenny McCarthy and all) who publicly state that all we need to do is"strengthen" our immune system enough to protect from dreaded communicable diseases such as Polio, Small Pox, Diptheria, Chicken Pox, etc. Some believe it is more toxic than getting the diseases you're trying to avoid and leads to autism.

3. The government and schools allow for too many vaccination exemptions, putting everyone at greater risk.

Most young people in Canada and the USA have no experience with these "historical" diseases and some foolishly gamble with their children's health, theirs and their communities. Because our populations are so large, epidemics can become common, a seen with the return of small pox.

I knew people in college who had been infected with measles before they were born or soon after. Too bad that the collective history has forgotten what the disease can cause. The fear of giving birth to blind, deaf and/or otherwise handicapped children has been greatly reduced by vaccines.

Wonder what Jenny McCarthy and Co. have to say about the report that in the United States, autism is linked to wealth.

http://autism.thesocialnetworkguru.com/2010/08/study-confirms-link-between-autism-wealth/

Hope she doesn't find that out, ElkMeadow

you are an absolute idiot you should not be allowed to speak unless you live with a child with autism everyday. you should be arrested for saying she should be injected with infectious diseases. go play with your barn animals.

Mommy....while I understand your point of view this is a free country and the cool part about being an American is the fact that we all can share our points of view on forums such as this one. While I agree that sheilding your kids away from vaccines is an irresponsible parenting tactic, justified because of fear over what the vaccines might do to your child. Think about that the diseases will do to them and thier freinds without them. If 2% of children have reactions to the vaccine does that make it right to keep it from the other 98% of kids who wont have a reaction....No it does not. Thats what Jenny is doing is trying to convince people to stop vaccinating thier kids. Thats very irresponsible and irrational if you ask me. Lets just welcome back the bubonic plague while we are at it.

I am appalled by the idiocy of these statements. Have you ever read the insert by the manufactor of the vaccinations? Do you know how many kids die each year from vaccines? Have you used your brain and done any research about them or you just spouting off something someone else told you? Being a parent is a responsibility and it is our responsibility to research everything that goes into our kids bodies. Including the things the goverment and doctors tell us is OK. For example thalidomide. If you acctually did some research (and not at your doctors office) you will find there is more benefit to your child having a strong immune system, getting measles and being immune for life. Something else I bet you don't know.... just because you have been vaccinated you can still get measles ( about 50% rate) but if you get measles you can never get them again. And if a woman had measles as a child she in turn pass her immunity via bresat milk to her child until the child is at an age they can handle the disease, (in a healthy baby & mother).

Take a moment and google measles and see exactly what you are suggesting we all subject our children to. Measles aren't like chicken pox where the majority of cases in children are mild and major complications are rare. Measles can kill and is even listed by the World Heath Organization as one of the leading killers of small children. Last I checked, vaccination wasn't. In fact, I tried to goodle measles vaccination deaths and all I got was a bunch of information on how measles deaths have dropped dramatically since vaccinations have increased.

Also, you must have missed the news that scientists have conclusively proven there is no link between autism and suspected mercury levels in vaccinations. They have found that the cases of autism have continued to rise dispite the removal of the preservative advocates were blaming as the trigger. Even if there were, I would rather have an autistic child than a dead one, and this is coming from the aunt of an autistic child, so don't bother telling me I'd understand if I knew the suffering of a parent with autism. My sister-in-law and brother suffer plenty to give their son as great a life as possible, but they also don't go around pointing fingers randomly at whatever the latest celebrity genius has come up with to justify why she doesn't have the perfect child she expected. Autism was around before vaccinations. Thankfully, measles-related deaths only exist in non-vaccinated homes, so mine is safe. How about yours? And remember, parents who chose not to vaccinate are not only making a medical decision for their own children; they are also risking the health of every person who comes in contact with their children, so remember that the next time you praise yourself for being such a concerned and thoughtful parent. Just because someone doesn't agree with you does not mean that we are either ill-informed or uncaring parents.

enraged: Do you know anyone who had measles, I grew up where many did, fortunately they also came out with polio vaccine when they did, horrible disease. If you want to expose your children to these diseases go ahead, but keep them away from mine. Been vaccinated, children been vaccinated. The crap you folks read on the internet is amazing. In these cases the cure is NOT worse than the disease.

At least there is one intelligent person on the board who does research. It wasn't until the 1990's that thumerisol was taken out of vaccinations (high mercury content which was poisoning our babies). To the poster that believes that chicken pox is a deadly disease must fear the common cold too. Some have died from chicken pox, but in reality, many many more have died from the flu. Measles isn't deadly; only those with weak immune systems have any complications.

To all the rest of you idiots who don't research, keep using that antibacterial soap too.

If measles isn't deadly then why is it listed as a top killer of children by the World Health Organization? And those with weak immune systems you so casually refer to as being the only ones who "have any complications" are all children under 2, people with suppressed immune systems due to cancer or other medical treatments, the elderly, and just about anyone who happens to be fighting a cold when they contract the disease, so that's not exactly a small group. Oh, and just so you have a difiniteve idea of how many "Measles isn't deadly" victims are out there, the WHO data says that in 2008 (not 1950) there were 164,000 measles deaths across the globe, the vast majority being in countries where there is no or little vaccination. I'd like someone to show my the paperwork listing 164,000 measles vaccine deaths that year, or any and all years combined. Now, who's the idiot who doesn't research?

Real, your making sense. It must be the antibacterial soap. Better keep you and your kids away from the unvaccinated crowd so they dont catch what you have.

Stop the hypocrisy

Real nice cave man statement! It has a sort of Hitler sound with a touch of Jim Jones vengance to it! True to humanity statement, get even or torture those who don't follow what someone else wants them to do!

Can someone explain how to "strengthen" your immune system? I'm not sure that eating anti-oxidants, drinking red wine, purchasing from Whole Foods, etc., will enhance my immunities. Last I read, exposure to a disease, whether you get it fullblown or from a vaccination prepares the immune system against future exposures. The alternative solutions have little scientific merit or reason. Finally, much of the advice from modern medicine is too advanced for parents to understand. A responsible parent should accept this and leave matters, like this, in he hands of professionals. There is no medical conspiracy to harm our children.

WOW, you do know your math and reading.

"fewer than four" would be 0,1,2 0r 3 unless the are cases of fractional measels.

robby and gretchen,

Wow... Thanks for ruining my sarcastic rhetorical question.

gretchen,

I'm well aware what "fewer than four" means. I'm also aware the statement was probably referring to the average cases of measles per year. Therefore if you have 3 cases the first year and 4 cases the second year, its an average of 3.5 cases, therefore, fewer than four.

So next time you feel the overwhelming need to educate someone, at least make sure your response includes all possible variables, not to mention spelling measles correctly. Fractional measles? really?

Not worse but they are probably more worried about potential large outbreak that can tax hospital, the personnel, etc... Just shows a need to keep this potential small by continuing vac. If suddenly 5000 people got measles in a certain area ... you get the drift.

Yes, there were, and are, deaths from measles. Taken from the WHO site:

"Measles deaths worldwide fell by 78% between 2000 and 2008, from an estimated 733 000 in 2000 to 164 000 in 2008."

So...733,000 deaths worldwide in 2000...one can surmise that deaths in the decades before measles vaccination were significantly higher. And from Children's Hospital Boston website:

For the generations who grew up before the 1960s, contracting measles was an accepted fact of life. Spread by an infected person's sneezes and coughs, the highly contagious viral disease wasn't just an annoyance that caused high fevers and an itchy rash: it killed people. In the decade prior to the start of the measles vaccination program, it is estimated 3 to 4 million people in the United States were infected each year, with 48,000 hospitalizations and nearly 500 deaths.

But due to a successful measles vaccination program beginning in 1963, measles was all but eradicated in the U.S., and many parents and doctors have never even witnessed a case. Because of this lack of familiarity, and a vocal anti-vaccine movement among parents who feel - despite a paucity of scientific evidence -- that there are connections between vaccines and autism, some parents have chosen not to vaccinate their children, leading to an increase in measles cases. According to recent data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, measles cases are at the highest level in more than a decade. In the first seven months of 2008, 131 cases were reported in the U.S.

We tend to become ignorant when not faced with the reality of what these diseases were.

and every person who came down with the measles has AT LEAST on scar from it, usually on either their face or arms or stomach or leg. Measles scars do not go away, and they enlarge as the child grows. I had the measles as a child ... I was born in 1955. Luckily, unlike my cousin, i did not come down with polio. He did and has been in a wheel chair the rest of his life. I also has the chicken pox and german measles, a different form of measles. They were NOT fun. Some of my few memories when I was under 8 years of age are of the pain and itch of those measles and the chicken pox. They entail not only the pain but also having to lay in bed in the dark (sunlight while having them can damage the eyes and the skin is extremely sensitive to sunlight when you have them) while I was broken out with them. Try today to keep a 7 or 8 yr old in bed all day in the dark for a week ... if the kid doesnt drive you crazy Social Services will get you for child abuse and the medical community may get you for medical neglect because the child isnt hospitalized (depends upon the severity).

PS: the lower the age of the person suffering from measles and chicken pox, the less the severity of the case which is why is can be deadly for an adult more so than for a child.

Scarlet fever, which happens in childhood, was a very deadly and/or debilitating desease prior to antibiotics ... and it is merely strep throat w/a rash over the body. Those against vacines will NOT refuse their child anti-biotics for such things as scarlet fever. Why deny their kids the protections of vacines? It is very sad that it is the child who ultimately proves the parents wrong.

Measles could cause harm to fetuses, making the baby blind, deaf and/or "mentally challenged."

Mumps could make a boy sterile.

Chicken pox in an adult can cause death.

And there were children who died of measles, or of mumps or of chicken pox.

Denise, Not to mention that this version of measles is probably different from the one in the 60's.

The TB test for Asians and other high risk areas is not the skin test that the US uses. Their TB vaccine will result in a positive skin test for TB in the US. They are required to have a chest Xray and/or blood work to prove exposure/infection.

The skin test only indicates that you may have been exposed, not that you have active TB.

The resurgence in TB is due mainly to the HIV/AIDS carriers and IDU. The HIV/AIDS infection rate in prisons is 17X the general US population.

I worked in a childrens hospital for a year and before starting work I had to be tested for TB and vaccinated. I also had all of my vaccinations as a child in 1977 as well. Get your kids vaccinated you just might be saving them from horrible disfigurement or death.

If you think Canada was bad wait until the Olympics are held in Brazil. Brazil has large poor populations living in shanty towns where disease runs rampant and the poor will be panhandling and trying to sale items in the street to the tourists during the games. Make sure you get vaccinated before you go and be very careful while you are there.

Ha! Ha ha ha ha! I'm sorry, but I'm having trouble writing after reading your comment about everyone in Canada enjoying a "great healthcare system." I didn't realize Canadians had started using our system. I have tons of friends from Canada who attend college in the US and they all wait to have basic medical stuff done until they can be down here on their school's medical insurance because they can't stand they wait and the quality of service is horrendous. Also, I lived for several years in England, another country always praised here for it's National Health Care. I gave birth to my first daughter while there, but was lucky to have access to a military hospital thanks to my husband's work. My friend, who gave birth to her son a week before I had my daughter, had to have her husband drive to three different hospitals before they found one with an open bed in their labor ward. She got to the third hospital 10 minutes (seriously) before giving birth and six hours later was told that since she and her baby were healthy they had to leave, because the hospital needed the bed again. I'd like to know which US hospital would turn any new mother away, healthy or not, after only six hours. Remember this the next time you start praising the wonders of national health care.

@Let'sBeReal: Then at least we know YOU won't be coming to Canada and taking advantage our FREE Healthcare System. GOOD!

You couldn't pay me to use FREE health care. Besides, last I checked, Canadian Healthcare was FREE thanks to higher incomes taxes. Under my apparently faulty math skills, that's not actually FREE. That's like taking my daughter's ice cream cone, scraping off half of it and giving the smaller cone back to her while telling her the cone is now FREE because I gave it back without charging her for it. If you're going to talk about your system being better, that's a fair discussion, but don't insult yourself or the rest of us by trying to sell it as FREE.

Nothing is free, agreed. But there is an unmanaged healthcare segment in the USA. It is for those that are uninsured...approximately 42 million adults and 10 million children. When they need medical help, we all pay. Canadians have no doubt that their taxes are high and they have no doubt that if they get sick they will not have to sell the farm to survive.

Hopefully, through managed care, all Americans can enjoy the modern liberty of having healthcare (not free, but taxed).

Let's be real:

Furthermore, you clearly do not have personal experience with Canada's health care system. People live longer in Canada. Canadians don't buy into alternative medicines (homeopathy, tonics, elixors, etc.) on the scale of Americans, hoping for a natural cure, because they can't afford a doctor. Canadians are not being ripped off by drug companies, either. We pay much less for common medications. Why are Americans willing to pay such ridiculous charges?

I have lived in Canada and have faith in their system. I have very close friends who practice in Ontario and in California. Canada's healthcare is not perfect, but it is not true that the USA's system is far superior. I have a PPO and still have to wait over a month to see a specialist. America is on the right track by trying to include all of its people in healthcare, trying to curb outrageous billings and fees and reviewing the best of worldwide systems.

Actually the article stated they were aware and prepared for an increase in cases.

You're welcome

Jaythetexasman:

America, not socialist? Hmmm. Who pays for?:

Highways, sidewalks, water supply, medical care for the uninsured, Medicaid, MediCare, Social Security, police, fire, unemployment insurance, welfare, military, corporate bailouts, libraries, parks, etc.

I think you may need to reconsider your undertanding of our socialized Democracy.

Where did you get your information about aborted human fetus fluid being in vaccines? Just curious.

I think you are forgetting the point that the vaccines that are required for school are for serious diseases that can kill you or cripple you... hepatitis destroys your liver and without health insurance it destroys you. Dyptheria is fatal in 10% of cases and pertussis often fatal in babies. Polio can leave you crippled, deaf, or dead. Meningitis is often fatal. Anthrax which is required by the military for deployment is deadly as well. You don't just get better and becoming immune to these diseases. Chickenpox, pneumonia, and even the flu can be fatal for babies, the elderly, and people with already weakend immune systems.

I have 2 kids... they are both fully vaccinated.

The man who, had he not died of "the Flu" in 1921, would have been my grandfather, was a healthy, 36-year old farmer, living in a small rural community 20 miles south of San Antonio, Texas. He left his widow with four small children. I am at a loss to express how I feel about those who fail to take advantage of vaccinations. Right: The U.S. Government and Phamacies are out to get you.

Non-vaxing: Millions of Canadian and US citizens are vaccinated. There is no significant evidence to show that putting "additives" (you speak of) into your body are causing harm.

You have fallen victim to hysteria to the point that you distrust everything, including acceptable scientific methods.

You should not be allowed to risk your health and the health of others because you lack a key survival gene that the rest of us have. Your actions are irresponisbile and have insufficient basis to argue. You should talk with people over 50 who remember many communicable and often deadly diseases, like Polio. Learning from their personal experiences is enough for the rest of us rational thinkers to know that vaccines are a miraculous discovery!

Finally, keep your agenda to yourself and find an island where you can only hurt yourself. There is no consipracy in the science world to administer poison, as you see it.

Also non-vaxing:

My mother, had 10 children. All, but the first, are alive and healthy. In 1948, she acquired the measles, while pregnant. Unfortunately, the disease affected the developing fetus and my brother was born with spina-bifida. He had an enlarged head, an open hole in his back, severe retardation and no use of his legs. He lived 10 years. If a vaccine where available, the likelihood of this tragedy may have been averted.

It is from these personal experiences and from countless others, having similar stories, why the majority understand the benefits of vaccines.

Non-vaxing: Human Serum Albumin is produced by the liver by all humans, it is the most abundant protein in human blood plasma, it is not taken from aborted fetuses you fool, you entire body is already full of it to begin with.

You don't want cow fluid or chicken fluid in you yet your have problem eating their meat that contains those fluids, like eggs or beef that are full of growth hormones.

I will take the chance at getting measles, chickenpox, or other diseases and having like long immunity to the disease then a temporary (needing booster shots) "fix" with a poisoned body full of mercury, multiple kinds of aluminum, formaldehyde which correlate directly to Alzheimers and cancer.

Polio cannot be "gotten over" like chicken pox. You will not make yourself stronger by getting it. You may well kill yourself or someone else. My aunt got polio during the epidemics that were sweeping the country just before the polio vaccine was discovered. She was one of only four children in her class to survive it. ALL of them got it.

You have no idea what you're talking about. Polio is not a cold. Many of the other vaccine-preventable diseases you so casually dismiss can be just as deadly and crippling as polio. You have NO ability to choose which version of the disease you get. you can carry the diseases and spread them to unvaccinated people even if you don't get it yourself (for instance, if you were vaccinated as a child). That means every child you come into contact with who is too young to be vaccinated, anyone with a suppressed immune system, the elderly with weakened immune systems, and others whose immune systems are already taxed by fighting other illnesses.

And, yes, I am the aunt of a little boy with autism. His older brother, with the same vaccinations, shows no sign of it, and he's old enough for it to have surfaced if it were going to.

I pity the children in your family. I pity the elders you see at holidays. But most of all, I pity you for your ignorance. And I mourn the deaths that are caused by you and your kind. Yes, deaths. There already have been. There will be more because people will listen to a stupid celebrity and ignorant fools on the internet.

I like your doctor.

I got a flu vaccination last year for the first time in years. Can you guess what else I got last year for the first time in years? The flu.

Thank you for pairing down a complected subject to such an elagent conclusion.

It's an outbreak when "normal" is less than four. Also remember this was just in BC not all of Canada. I wonder if there were similar outbreak's where the tourists were from.

Remember all of the children who died from measles before there were vaccines?

The vaccine does not wear off and your logic is very old school. We have new and better ways that are much safer for protecting our health these days.

Great job proamerica. Finally someone speaking with some common sense. The hysteria on both polar sides is ridiculous. Those of you all for vaccinations or all against them need to wake up and become educated on the subject. Some are ok and some are not. Emotion and fear has gotten the best of most of you and those are absolutely the worst two things to base decisions upon.

This is similar to my father's logic that seatbelts aren't necessary because he raised 13 children without a problem. Of course, my father always seems to get a little forgetful on this topic, since my older sister died in an automobile accident in 1978 at the ripe old age of 18. Yep, no seat belt. We love to complain about preventive measures in our society because we have the luxury of living in a society where the measures are used so frequently and effectively that we don't suffer from the original complaint as much as the prevention, so we complain about that, instead. Ah, the benefits of a healthy society.

those vaccines most certainly do wear off

Proamerica: The issue is not about your little community sampling of people who contracted a disease, deliberatly shared it, and survived. It is about relevant statistics and how our society is impacted by communicable diseases. No one, including you, should argue against vaccinations, given the significant, if not complete irradication of German measles, Polio, etc. Countless lives have been protected as a result of a minor needle poke and smart medical minds. It wasn't long ago that people lived in real fear for their children's health and their own.

Mumps, measels or rubella never disfigured anyone. And those who "died from it" would have died from the next infection they got anyways, from the flu to the common cold. They were weak to start.

Ah, so what you're suggesting is that if someone is sick we should just help them die off sooner rather than vaccinating them and helping them survive a little longer. Well, I guess I should just go smother my children according to your logic, since they both fall into the "weak" category. Idiot.

Also, when mentioning disfigurement I was referring to polio (re-read my post). That horribly disfigures even once-healthy individuals who contract it (those, of course, who aren't vaccinated). Again, idiot.

And just so we're all clear and I don't have cops show up at my door thanks to some genius who can't read sarcasm, my children are safe AND vaccinated. Can't say the same for the children who's parents refuse to think vaccinations are anything other than lifesaving.

whytes - I had a severe case of chicken pox as a kid. I've got a lot of scars from them to this day. Any disease that has a skin reaction can cause scarring.

Idiot.

Whooo there Susie, your assumtions are out of hand. There is no scientific agreement on what is causing the autism. It was postulated that the Mercury used in the immune serum might have resulted in increased autism. However some years back mercury was removed (as a preservative) from the immune serum. Also aluminum has been sugested. It is difficult to ferret out the truth when at medical disease or treatment becomes buracretized.

@Leah: You have a good point!!!!!!!!!!

I'm not worried for myself, but I worry for the babies under the age of 1 (too young to receive "live" vaccines, like those against measles, mumps, rubella, and chicken pox) and for the immunocompromised kids (for example, kids with cancer) who can't get booster shots of those live vaccines because of their weak immune systems... and then let's say that one of those kids with cancer, or one of those babies, is at a playground (provided the kid's blood counts are good enough that he is finally allowed out of the hospital and can go to a playground) and someone who chose not to vaccinate their children brings their children there, and those children inadvertently give chicken pox or measles to those babies and those kids with weakened immune systems. (for the record, an oncology patient getting chicken pox is a much bigger deal than you or I getting it, because of their immune system). That is what I worry about! Those babies and those children with weak immune systems used to be protected from these deadly diseases (deadly to them, at least) because of herd immunity... and with people thinking it's okay to not vaccinate their children, they are reducing herd immunity and making our country's most vulnerable children that much more at risk for dying from something that can and should be prevented. So for anyone who says "oh it's my choice to not vaccinate my kids, it's not hurting your kids if you get them vaccinated so why do you care?", I just think someone should remind them about the vulnerable people out there who they are putting at risk every time they take their unvaccinated child to a place where other children play.

I know that our country is all about individual freedoms, which is a good thing, but sometimes people need to think of others before making a decision as important as to whether or not to vaccinate. It's like a driver who is driving recklessly down the highway. The police don't say "well, that's their decision, if they crash they'll kill themselves, but that's their choice". They pull them over and make them drive safely... because their crash isn't going to kill just them, it's going to kill other innocent people too. When you don't vaccinate your healthy child, you might cause an immunocompromised child, such as a child with leukemia, to die of a preventable disease. And I think that should be illegal.

Eleanor:

Thank you for clearly expressing a rational reason why vaccinations are so important for our society. Unfortunately, there will always remain a small percentage of people who choose not to vaccinate, for misguided reasons.