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Comment by iamthepieman | Hacker News Reader

I want my kids vaccinated too. But I did wait until they were older to do it. It's not because I'm on-board with anti-vaxer ideology either. I had a very personal experience with vaccines and it made me cautious.

My younger brother (by 7 years) had a 5 hour screaming fit and siezures after getting a vaccination (don't remember which one, I was only 8 or 9). It's one of the clearest memories from that time period that I have. Me standing on the landing, Ian convulsing below just inside the front door, my dad and mom holding him down and trying to keep him from hurting himself.

I know now that it's something like a 1 in 14000 chance but I'm glad that we waited an extra year to start vaccinations and I'm glad we weren't forced to start on someone elses schedule and I'm glad that year of being nervous about measles or whooping cough is over too.

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I'm sincerely glad you waited until they were older so you could maximize your chances of getting your kids infected with previously eradicated diseases.

You are the problem, and you should feel bad. Unless there is an explicit medical reason why (your child is legitimately allergic to the contents of the vaccine) there is no good reason to not vaccinate your child immediately. You are in the same crowd as the anti-vaxxers, because you're afraid of some 1 in 14000 boogeyman. Do you not drive your car because you're very likely to be seriously injured in the process of doing it? Your idea of waiting until they were older is absolutely just as ridiculous.

Just to clarify, you should never hold someone having a seizure. You should clear out things they could hurt themselves with, but never hold them. I see clearly that smart decisions runs in your entire family. I seriously hope you didn't hurt your children's health by getting them vaccinated later in life.

AFAIK, pieman's brother's seizure could have been related to some genetic trait or environmental exposure that could have been in pieman's kids too. Even if the population risk is 1/14000, I'd put the risk in his own kids significantly higher than that - maybe 1/1000.

Perhaps someone more knowledgeable can tell me that no, there's no chance seizures like that are going to run in the family. But knowing what I currently know, I can't fault pieman.

As far as I know it is genetic. There was a study done in Denmark I believe that showed a strong correlation between febrile siezures after the MMR vaccine and a couple of genetic markers. My searching is failing me or I'd link it.

Edit: here it is: http://www.nature.com/ng/journal/v46/n12/full/ng.3129.html Notice that is was published less than a year ago.

It illustrates the point well, though. Even if the chance of complication is minuscule, making the activity absolutely compulsory without recourse is still an unjust, potentially crippling intervention on the individuals who are affected.

I don't see anyone advocating that pedestrians be outlawed and making operating a vehicle compulsory, is the critical difference here.

Is there some type of a constant and ongoing epidemic in the US?...

Where un-vaccinated people are dying at a rate greater than the reported illnesses (and deaths) caused by vaccines?

Do you make every decision in your life because it seems like a sure bet? In fact today I bet you could go out and pick a couple of stocks which seem a sure bet for your life savings and invest in them in the hopes of seriously increasing your wealth, but I highly doubt you will.

A better analogy would be someone else betting your life's savings without your approval or knowledge.

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