Vacci-Nation Situation, part 1 You know that with relatively few exceptions, I'm no big fan of childhood vaccinations. Not only do I think a lot of them are needless, but some of the ones that contain higher-than-safe levels of mercury-based preservatives are downright dangerous - and I'm not alone in that opinion… Not only this, but mass vaccinations can contribute to the rise of medicine-resistant "super-bugs" that no antibiotics or anything else can cure - and which could actually end up spreading farther and doing more damage than the original disease ever would have (more on this in the next Daily Dose). Beyond this, some vaccines can carry infection risks of their own (I've written about this before in the context of the forced vaccination of our brave soldiers). But there's another reason some vaccines do more harm than good: They prevent infections earlier in life - when the body's hardier and more resilient. Instead, they postpone disease to a point in time when those who DO become infected are far more likely to die. That's EXACTLY what's happening right now with a vaccine that was unheard of just 15 years ago - but which most parents now consider an absolute essential for their kids: The Chickenpox vaccination. According to a recent New York Times article (they've been on a roll lately with some great medical news), the mass vaccination of kids against chickenpox since the vaccine's availability became widespread in 1995 has reduced the number of natural cases of the disease among youngsters by 85%… That's a good thing, right? Actually, no. What this reduction has caused is a shift in the demographic of the disease's infection profile - toward OLDER people. Here's how: Because so many kids are vaccinated and so few cases of chickenpox go around among the age group that's "supposed" to get the disease (school-age kids), those who aren't vaccinated - or those 15%-20% for whom a single dose of the short-lived vaccine does not work - do not get exposed when their bodies are young, resilient, and able to take the disease in stride. Instead, these folks are becoming exposed later in life - which can have deadly consequences… According to a doctor from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control quoted in the article, you're as much as 15 times more likely to be hospitalized - and 20 TIMES MORE LIKELY to die - of a chickenpox infection as an adult than if you're infected as a youngster. Though chickenpox is far from a top-tier man-killer, the risk of serious complications from the disease increases exponentially the older you are… So basically, it boils down to this: We've traded a few million briefly pock-marked 2nd and 3rd graders - who will sail through chickenpox just like a hundred generations of kids before them - for likely tens of thousands of seriously sick adults of all ages, stricken with deadly risks in the prime of life and the height of their productivity. Yeah, that's a great trade! But try telling the soccer mom on the street that this trade-off isn't a good one. Good luck explaining to her that the chickenpox vaccine should be banned because it's causing many times more death and misery than it saves… | 
