Tag: aluminum

Is This a Horrible Vaccine Reaction?

Why do some parents stop vaccinating and protecting their kids?

Many folks would describe what is going on in this video by Paul Thomas as horrible, everything except the common vaccine reaction.
Many folks would describe what is going on in this video by Paul Thomas as horrible, everything except the common vaccine reaction.

Sometimes it is because their pediatrician tells them to…

Is This a Horrible Vaccine Reaction?

Let’s take a look at Paul Thomas‘ “horrible vaccine reaction.”

This large, local reaction is not an allergic reaction to the vaccine.
This large, local reaction is not an allergic reaction to the vaccine.

Many of you are probably wondering, why did this young lady get a Tdap vaccine, which isn’t given to children under age 7 years?

And why did she get it in her leg?

For children between the ages of 3 to 10 years old, IM shots are now typically given in the deltoid muscle of the child’s upper arm. The anterolateral thigh muscle remains an option, although that is not where Dr. Paul is pointing...
For children between the ages of 3 to 10 years old, IM shots are typically given in the deltoid muscle of the child’s upper arm. The anterolateral thigh muscle remains an option, although that is not where Dr. Paul is pointing…

Especially that part of her leg???

Hopefully you are also wondering why Paul Thomas is making such a big deal about what looks like a relatively common vaccine reaction.

“Sometimes the 4th or 5th dose of DTaP vaccine is followed by swelling of the entire arm or leg in which the shot was given, lasting 1–7 days (up to about 1 child in 30).”

DTaP Vaccine Vaccine Information Statement

After all, although it is scary looking, this is a vaccine reaction that will go away without treatment, except maybe symptomatic care (cool compresses and pain medicines), and has no lasting effects.

“And I would not do this same vaccine again, because once you have had a large local reaction like this, you would be at greater risk for a really bad reaction.”

Paul Thomas on the Horrible Vaccine Reaction!

It is not an allergic reaction.

It is not caused by aluminum.

And it is a vaccine reaction that is typically not considered a contraindication to getting another dose, especially as skipping future doses of DTaP or Tdap would leave the child at risk to get tetanus, diphtheria, and pertussis.

What to Know About Large Local Vaccine Reactions

Large local reactions to vaccines, although sometimes scary looking, are not dangerous, do go away, and are not a reason your pediatrician should typically tell you to skip or delay your child’s vaccines.

More on Vaccine Reactions

Fake News about Vaccine Doses for U.S. Children

Who is spreading the fake news about vaccine doses for U.S. children?

This Facebook post and billboard about vaccine doses is fake news. Can we get them taken down?
This Facebook post and billboard about vaccine doses is fake news. Can we get them taken down?

The usual suspects…

Fake News about Vaccine Doses for U.S. Children

You have likely seen the folks pushing the idea that kids get a lot more vaccines today than they used to in the “good old days,” right?

What did your generation do about vaccines and vaccine preventable diseases?
Some fixed these signs…

It is somewhat true and it’s a good thing, as kids get more protection against more diseases!

How many vaccine doses do you count in this immunization schedule from the 1950s?
How many vaccine doses do you count in this immunization schedule from the 1950s? And yes, those vaccines had aluminum? And thimerosal…

Still, these signs, articles, and billboards are very easy to debunk if you simply take a second to look at an old immunization schedule.

Is it 69 or 72? Anti-vax folks can't even agree on how to inflate the vaccine dose count...
Is it 69 or 72? These folks can’t even agree on how to inflate the vaccine dose count…

And understand that they are boosting the number vaccine doses by counting combination doses separately, something that for some reason they typically forget to do when talking about vaccines in 1960.

They also forget to mention that the benefit we get from the extra doses of vaccines kids get today, however you want to count them.

Hib and Prevnar alone prevent about 450 deaths in young children each year. Do you really want to go back to an immunization schedule from the 1980s?
Hib and Prevnar alone prevent about 450 deaths in young children each year. Does Bob Sears really want you to go back to an immunization schedule from the 1980s?

Whether it is the 1960s or 80s, fewer vaccines and vaccine doses at those times meant more diseases and more deaths from now vaccine preventable diseases.

Vaccines are safe, with few risks.

Propaganda and fake news about vaccines isn’t.

More on Fake News about Vaccine Doses

A Call to Poison Control About Vaccines

Why do some parents think that you might want to call poison control about your child’s vaccines?

Don't believe the anti-vaccine copy pasta about a call to poison control over vaccine ingredients.

Maybe because anti-vax folks think that all vaccine ingredients are toxins…

A Call to Poison Control About Vaccines

Of course, they aren’t, but that doesn’t stop folks from sharing the above story about the “call to poison control.”

Is the story true?

Of course not.

How can I be so sure?

Well for one thing, that’s not the original version of the “call to poison control…”

Don't believe the anti-vaccine copy pasta about a call to poison control over vaccine ingredients.

Apparently, this “friend” has been posting the poison control story for several years now.

Don't believe the anti-vaccine copy pasta about a call to poison control over vaccine ingredients.

In fact, the “call to poison control” is actually a pretty well known anti-vax copy pasta…

Don't believe the anti-vaccine copy pasta about a call to poison control over vaccine ingredients.

Wait, what? Copy pasta?

Yeah. Arguments or stories that people save and repeatedly copy and paste into online forums.

And as you are now suspecting, copy pasta is considered a form of spam…

In fact, this “call to poison control” copy pasta first appeared in 2017 and after going viral in anti-vax circles, it was clearly debunked – with a real call to poison control.

So what would happened if you called poison control with this kind of story?

“My question to you is how are these ingredients categorized? As benign or poison? (I ran a few ingredients, formaldehyde, Tween 80, mercury, aluminum, phenoxyethanol, potassium phosphate, sodium phosphate, sorbitol, etc.)”

As someone who has called poison control (1-800-222-1222) in the course of caring for his patients more than a few times, I can tell you that the conversation would go a lot differently than the copy pasta anti-vaccine story line.

Before answering your “benign or poison” question, the experts at poison control would want to know a little more information about why you were actually calling.

Did a child accidentally get a hold of one or more of these chemicals? After all, if a child somehow got a hold of elemental mercury and inhaled any of it, that could be a medical emergency.

Call poison control if your child takes too much k-phos.

The same with potassium phosphate and sodium phosphate.

Even sorbitol.

Well too much sorbitol likely isn’t a medical emergency, unless your child is a diabetic, but it will likely cause a lot of diarrhea.

And when they found out that you were talking about vaccines?

Poison Control answered the vaccine safety question - way back in 2010.
Poison Control answered the vaccine safety question – way back in 2010.

They would likely nicely tell you that vaccines are not toxic.

“Thimerosal, a mercury-containing preservative, is found in some vaccines in very small amounts. (Mercury in vaccines has not been associated with human poisonings).”

Chelation: Therapy or “Therapy”?

And that the ingredients in vaccines are not toxic.

“With mercury, as with other toxic substances, the amount of the substance that reaches target organs determines whether or not someone will be poisoned. To determine how much mercury is in someone’s body, blood levels are measured in cases of short-term, large exposures to mercury vapor. In chronic exposures, urine levels are measured to assess the likelihood of mercury poisoning. The fact that a substance can be measured in a person’s body fluids does not necessarily indicate poisoning.”

Do Fillings Cause Mercury Poisoning?

And they would likely be very nice about it, because they are very nice people, even as they likely get these types of questions a little more than they should.

More on Vaccine Ingredients

Is 100% of Injected Aluminum Absorbed?

We know that aluminum is the new focus of folks who try to scare parents away from vaccinating and protecting their kids.

What are they talking about now?

Raw intake vs metallic exposure? Do they just make this stuff up as they go along?
Raw intake vs metallic exposure? Do they just make this stuff up as they go along?

Metabolic exposure, rates of absorption, and injected aluminum.

Metabolic exposure sounds scarier…

Even fellow anti-vaccine folks don’t really understand what he is talking about, but they are ready to eat it up, as it reflects their world view that vaccines are dangerous.

Is 100% of Injected Aluminum Absorbed?

So is all injected aluminum absorbed, as James Lyons-Weiler suggests in his promotional flyer?

Well, it’s going to be initially absorbed somewhere after the vaccine is injected, but not in the way anti-vaccine folks make you think.

It is not all absorbed into our blood right away! Part of the reason that adjuvants work might be because they act as a depot, allowing the vaccine antigens to remain at the injection site for a longer time to stimulate a good immune response.

“We were reassured to find no significant postvaccine rise in serum aluminum level after vaccination of preterm infants with vaccines containing a total of 1200 µg of aluminum.”

Movsas et al on Effect of Routine Vaccination on Aluminum and Essential Element Levels in Preterm Infants

Remember, vaccines are not injected into our bloodstreams and the aluminum in vaccines, in the form of aluminum salts, is not soluble. That means that they don’t dissolve in liquids, but instead need to be metabolized first.

But then 100% gets absorbed?

Amazingly, one of James Lyons-Weiler's own sources says that only 17% of aluminum adjuvants get absorbed...
Amazingly, James Lyons-Weiler’s ignores one of his own sources that says only 17% of aluminum adjuvants get absorbed…

Nope.

It is estimated that only about 17% of the injected aluminum, in the form of aluminum hydroxide, gets absorbed into the bloodstream.

The Inter-Related Processes of Absorption, Distribution, Biotransformation, and Elimination
In addition to our bloodstream, aluminum adjuvants get absorbed into the lymph system before getting eliminated.

Finally, after being initially injected, metabolized, and absorbed, most of the aluminum in vaccines is eliminated.

How is it eliminated?

Most of it is excreted in our urine.

Is there anything scary about all of that?

More on Absorption of Aluminum in Vaccines