I forgot to mention last night that I find it really hard to compare the risk of vaccinating to the risk of not vaccinating. While it's not too difficult to find out the incidence of certain diseases, it can be quite tricky to find out the actual numbers when it comes to the risks of vaccinating. Especially when it comes to something like autism which is still debated. And then even when you can actually get a number on something, you have to factor in that some kids might be predisposed to problems due to mitochondrial disorders.

An example is measles. In Australia from 2002-2008 we had between 0.5 and 6 cases of measles per 1,000,000 people. Approximately 1 child per 1,000,000 vaccinated will suffer encephalopathy as a result. That risk looks the same as the risk of getting measles for the general population, but there is no way to tell what the actual risk factor is for those with a mitochondrial disorder. Those kids might make up a large proportion of those that are effected, so their risk factor would be higher. And then you have to weigh up the risk of catching measles and possibly have a very mild case with no lasting effects, versus the risk of permanent brain damage from vaccine-induced encephalopathy. Then to make it an even harder choice, there is also a risk of encephalopathy if a child catches measles (which is 1 in 1000 infected).... Very tricky stuff :/


Flying Butter, sending you the links you requested now