“Where
would we be without vaccinations?” is a rhetorical question often
asked as a way of lauding this medical practice and attributing
to it the improvement of the world’s health. I have often seriously
wondered where we might be without them and think that we might
be a far healthier population with more of a respect for the process
of illness and inflammation. As a culture we might learn how to
support the body’s inherent healing capabilities instead of trying
to eliminate the possibility of disease altogether. I agree absolutely
with Richard Moskowitz M. D. when he writes, “At bottom, I have
always felt that the attempt to eradicate entire microbial species
from the biosphere must inevitably upset the balance of nature in
fundamental ways that we can as yet scarcely imagine. Such concerns
loom ever larger as new vaccines continue to be developed, seemingly
for no better reason than that we have the technical capacity to
make them and thereby to demonstrate our power, as a civilization,
to manipulate the evolutionary process itself”. (The Case Against
Immunizations, 1983)
Vaccinations
affect us not only on a personal level but in our relationships,
in our communities and also globally. Likewise they impact our lives
physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually. This article
explores some thoughts about what is happening on these many levels
of experience based on my research and interactions with many parents
of young children.
