Vaccines?

hi yall, i'm being pushed to get vaccs done, though, from what i see, alot are... well, not vegan

whats your take on this? would you compromise your health, tetnis, flu, etc to avoid taking vaccinations?

i wouldnt take any vaccines, vegan or not... if you look at whats actually in some of them, mercury lead and so on...........ppl still get flu who have had them anyway! just eat clean, exercise, stay hydrated and get plenty of sleep that will do more than any of the vaccines they seem to have for everything. if the government is pushing something on to you, you can bet your life that it isnt good!!! *edit* think i might have missed the point here sorry, but i feel strongly about this sort of thing

That's a tough one. Perhaps a topic for an ethical debate.

I am one to say 'what's done is done', I can't change the past... ie. I can't change that animals were tested on and that there are now vaccines available.

So next question, do I take the vaccine.

I don't want to hurt animals. People are animals too so I don't want to hurt people. Is there greater harm done by taking the vaccine or not taking it? If the vaccine is for a particularly lethal contagious disease I think it might be a good idea to take it. But flu vaccine... no, that vaccine is more to protect the individual. Usually only the weak succumb to the flu (children, sick and elderly). I haven't had a cold (or a sick day from work) even since becoming vegan, so I think healthy eating must have some protective quality.. (just my opinion so far, I could change that opinion in time... we'll see). Regardless... I don't feel a flu shot is necessary for most people.

If you work in hospitals, I think you would be obligated to have all shots.. to protect yourself as well as the patients since you will be coming into contact with all sorts of viruses and bacteria.

Have you hear of the book 'Bird Flu.. a Virus of Our Own Hatching'? The author of that book predicts the inevitability of a massive worldwide pandemic which will basically be caused by conditions of factory farming (overcrowded, filthy and antibiotic laden) - ie. factory farms are providing a breeding ground to create the perfect storm.

from what i understand, to produce the actual vaccines, they use chicken foetus cells, human foetus cells , monkey cells.. of some sort, some use bovine blood, and gelatine to produce them, so it's not just an issue of them testing on animals however long ago- you can bet they don't leave these animals alive after extracting these cells

from quick search, the brand i'm being offered(boostrix) contains the following ingredients

Fenton media with bovine casein, Lathan medium derived from bovine casein, Linggoud-Fenton medium derived from bovine extract, Stainer-Scholte liquid medium, synthetic or semisynthetic

i wouldnt mind if it was made using dairy/egg so much, but it looks like it's made from the flesh aswell

anyone done any research on this?

First, I recommend searching the forums, because we've gone over this in the past in pretty great detail.

Vaccines are not vegan by pretty much any definition. They may contain animal cells, egg, dairy, etc. Some are cultured in fetal cells, though I don't believe any new fetal strains have been harvested in decades. But anyway, definitely not vegan.

However, that doesn't mean you shouldn't take them. For me, this is a case where the benefit strongly outweighs the cost. Not getting vaccinated or having your children vaccinated has a higher moral cost to me than putting some non-vegan junk in my body. I strongly urge taking them, but that's a personal decision.

Also, vaccines are completely safe. Mercury is not a concern. The panic was over mercury in thimerosal in the MMR vaccine. However, thimerosal was never used in the MMR vaccine, and the result of thimerosal metabolism is ethyl mercury, not methyl mercury, which is the harmful one. And even with the vaccines that do use thimerosal, there's never been any evidence that it's caused harm. This is based on 80 years of use, by the way. There was also no drop in autism rates after thimerosal was removed from vaccines. And of course, this shouldn't even need to be said, but no evidence exists of lead poisoning from vaccines. It just doesn't happen.