Booster Shots
[SaneVax: What is the logic and purpose behind ‘booster’ shots? It might surprise medical consumers to know that veterinary vaccination experts recommend giving your pet an antibody titer test prior to the administration of ‘booster’ shots containing live viral components to prevent over-vaccinating causing potential harm to your pet. This option is apparently not available when it comes to your children and ‘booster’ shots like the MMR. Why not?
Australian vaccine safety and informed consent advocate, Elizabeth Hart wants to know. She wrote the following letter to vaccination ‘expert’ Dr. Paul Offit hoping to find an answer. Read her letter to him below, then follow the link at the end of the article for more information. Let’s hope Dr. Offit responds – medical consumers around the globe want the answers to Elizabeth’s questions about ‘booster’ shots.]
From: Elizabeth Hart <eliz.hart25@gmail.com> Date: Fri, Sep 6, 2013 at 3:41 PMSubject: Letter to Paul Offit re the MMR second dose ‘booster’ vaccine
Professor Offit
Please see attached a detailed letter addressed to you questioning the ethics of mandated revaccination of likely already immune children with a second dose of the live Measles/Mumps/Rubella (MMR) vaccine (misleadingly termed a ‘booster’), and general lack of advice re the availability of a blood test (i.e. an antibody titre test) to verify a response to vaccination with the live MMR vaccine.
I suggest that parents of small children are not being properly informed of the option for antibody titre testing rather than an arbitrary second dose of live MMR vaccine. Two doses of MMR vaccine are mandated in many US states, and also in other countries such as Australia. These mandates conflict with the obligation for ‘informed consent’ before vaccination.
Parents of small children might be surprised to discover that vaccination ‘best practice’ for companion animals is now more advanced than that for children, with vaccination guidelines for dogs re live vaccines recommending titre testing rather than an arbitrary ‘booster’, i.e.:
“…the principles of ‘evidence-based veterinary medicine’ would dictate that testing for antibody status (for either pups or adult dogs) is a better practice than simply administering a vaccine booster on the basis that this should be ‘safe and cost less’”.
We are on a slippery slope when the state dictates questionable medical interventions for citizens (including ‘pre-citizens’, i.e. children). I suggest the arbitrary second dose of the MMR vaccine, often inappropriately described as a ‘booster’, is a questionable medical intervention.
Professor Offit, you are on the record acknowledging that antibody titre testing is an option rather than an arbitrary second dose of live MMR vaccine. I request your assistance in bringing attention to this matter, which I discuss further in my letter attached.
I would appreciate your response.
Sincerely
Elizabeth Hart
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