Vaccines May Not Last

Vaccines May Not Last

There is always a reason to write an article like this, and perhaps it will provoke more thought about the issue of vaccines.

Most vaccines began during the fifties, including the polio vaccine, after the failure of the first polio vaccine of the 30’s.  Polio started in 1916 and continued to hit children the hardest during a hot summer when children with symptoms were sometimes carried into medical centers around the country.

During World War II, doctors were surprised when a outbreak of polio happened overseas in an area where people never had one case, but the soldiers came down with polio.

More research and more questions were raised. Back home, a scientist found a vaccine in the fifties, a live polio vaccine, which would not only give immunity to those receiving it but also to those around them as they breathed, sneezed, touched hands, etc. (Note: Today, when a mother, father, or guardian is asked if they prefer the live vaccine, most answer no. Some doctors will not give a live vaccine to a child under specific circumstances.)

The vaccine during the fifties seemed to halt polio except for those who, for some reason, came down with the disease by being given the vaccine.  Perhaps the disease was already in their systems, and the vaccine only brought it to the surface.

The only good thing about such cases is that the majority had a lighter case of the disease and usually recovered.  So when we compare the vaccine in the thirties, we see a huge difference when the live vaccine was given, as said, protecting the children and their families.  Before the new vaccine, many people died, lived the rest of their lives inside an iron lung, or were completely or partially paralyzed.

When I worked at a hospital in the eighties, each new employee had to be tested to see if they were immune to diseases such as measles, etc., before working there. To my surprise, my tests showed no immunity. We must investigate this matter to stop another outbreak. A strange polio outbreak recently occurred on the news, and nothing more was mentioned.

These people, the first to receive vaccinations, could be the first to lose them and gain one of the diseases they were protected from in the past. Children given vaccines from the fifties on to the seventies are at question. How long does a vaccination against certain diseases last inside a person’s body? We do not know.

Not only was I surprised, I recalled the past.  My sibling came down with polio from the live vaccine and suffered with a mild case.  Being older than me, and my mother working for our family doctor, I wondered how she felt giving her second child vaccines after what happened to her first.

In grade school, when we all lined up, and the doctor would check us over, watch us walk, look down our throats, cough, and so forth – the school doctor never failed to tell me to move to one side and wait for all the other children to be examined.  I knew what followed: a phone call to my mother.  My mother insisted I had all my vaccinations and proper papers then sent to the school nurse.  I remember them searching all over my arms for the vaccination mark and never finding one.

Today, the vaccination mark is evident, especially with a slight tan. It shows up, but was it from the second dose? Perhaps my mother was frightened to expose the live vaccine to her second child, or would she forge records, working for our family doctor?

When I was re-vaccinated in the 1980s, I asked the nurse, “Why do some people lose immunity to certain diseases that we were vaccinated for—and thought to last a lifetime?”

I knew my answer, and I am sure you, the reader, know too. Being the first group of children to be vaccinated, no one knew, nor do they today (or they are not telling us), if the vaccines last a lifetime. So I continued with more questions: What else could cause someone to be immune to specific diseases and then lose the immunity?

The second reason came out of her mouth: “Certain medications can remove the immunity to many of the vaccinations.”

This surprised me, and no one ever speaks about such a scenario. Could a common medication wipe out your protection once you get vaccinated? I jumped on the bandwagon and began writing to people who took the nurses’ word with a grain of salt. No doctor would admit vaccines did not lose their potency after a certain number of years, although no other group of people could be tested but those who received vaccines from the fifties and began testing at the age of thirty.

Now I wondered about the new diseases or the outbreak of so many people with different diseases without names, even diseases with names but with various levels of the disease.  I wondered if the fifties’ vaccines had begun to wear off, and those coming down with a disease, which would bring on similar symptoms but varied in each individual, could be the answer to unknown diseases.  Once more, no one listened, although I did open the eyes to some doctors.

I believe if one person could lose their immunity after being given a vaccine, doctors having no answer as to how long a vaccine will last, there must be thousands of people in this identical situation – and what if those suffering with diseases with many names, lumped together, or even no name, are suffering due to the lack of vaccines for protection?

To protect yourself and your family, I would suggest Americans and foreigners (due to travel during this day and age) be tested for immunity.  The actual date when something could wear off depends on what caused it to wear off in the first place.  If it is true that certain medications can wipe out immunity (which I did take during the early eighties), then everyone who took this medication could be at risk.   It could also be a nurse was guessing and heard something about a medication doing this – so the only reasonable way to find what causes this is a simple blood test.

Insurance companies should be aware of this matter and make it a priority for all their patients to be tested at ten-year intervals from thirty years after the vaccination and every ten years in the future.  Perhaps a real explanation will be available to the public by this time.  The cost of prevention to the insurance company is in the credit column of their accounting.

By revealing this online to hundreds of thousands of people, we could be finding a cure for some of the diseases we find on the increase. Could it be a new disease created from the old disease yet presenting itself differently?

If you are in this age group, there is no need to take a chance. If your vaccination was given thirty years ago, ask your family doctor for a test to see if your vaccines are still working.