Tag: ingredients

Does the Vitamin K Shot Contain 100mcg of Aluminum?

The vitamin K shot is not a vaccine.

That doesn’t keep anti-vaccine folks from pushing misinformation about it and scaring parents away from protecting their babies from vitamin K deficiency bleeding.

Does the Vitamin K Shot Contain 100mcg of Aluminum?

Newborns have been routinely getting vitamin K shots since at least since 1961.

Babies do not get 100mcg of aluminum from a shot of vitamin K.

And except for a brief “vitamin K brouhaha” in the early 1990s, when a study suggested that vitamin K shots might be associated with childhood cancer (they aren’t), these shots have helped to nearly eradicate hemorrhagic disease of the newborn.

So why would someone want to skip it?

The photo above suggests that they think newborns get too much aluminum from the shot. If you look closely though, you can see why they are wrong.

The vial and package insert of vitamin K clearly states that it contains no more than 100 mcg/L of aluminum.

What’s a baby’s dose of vitamin K? They don’t get a liter! They get a single IM shot of 1mg of vitamin K, or 0.5ml.

So they are obviously not getting 100mcg of aluminum.

Do you see why?

With a concentration of 100 mcg/L or 100 mcg/1000ml (remember that one liter is equal to 1000 milliliters), since they are only getting a 0.5ml dose of vitamin K, they are getting, at most, only 0.05 mcg of aluminum.

That’s 0.00005 mg of aluminum, as compared to the 0.225mg of aluminum in the Hib vaccine.

Why is aluminum even added to vitamin K?

It’s not.

Keep in mind that aluminum isn’t even listed as an ingredient of vitamin K. But according to FDA rules, “Applicants and manufacturers must use validated assay methods to determine the aluminum content in parenteral drug products.” .

And like many other IV fluids, another ingredient of vitamin K, 5% dextrous hydrous (sugar water), does often contain some aluminum, about 17.3mcg/L. These small amounts of aluminum are present “because practically all materials used to manufacture containers for pharmaceuticals contain Al.” From aluminum oxide in glass components to aluminum used as catalysts to make plastics, it is hard to avoid aluminum. But as we have learned that premature babies could get total parenteral nutrition for prolonged periods of time and be exposed to too much aluminum, the FDA has taken steps to limit this exposure.

Vitamin K shots also don't contain mercury! — Vitamin K shots also don’t contain mercury!

Unfortunately, some of those steps, like the labeling of aluminum in vitamin K ampules is used to scare parents.

What to Know About Aluminum in the Vitamin K Shot

Neither the trace amounts of aluminum or any other ingredient in your baby’s vitamin K shot shouldn’t keep you from protecting him from vitamin K deficiency bleeding.

Did an Islamic Council in Indonesia Issue a Fatwa Against the Measles Vaccine?

A fatwa against a vaccine?

That’s one of those things that can’t be true right?

Did you know that there are Fatwas that support immunizations? — Did you know that there are fatwas that support immunizations?

After all, it was just a few years ago that the Islamic Advisory Group for Polio Eradication met and stated that it “reiterates its trust in the safety and effectiveness of polio and other routine childhood vaccinations as a life-saving tool which protects children; and acknowledge that it fully conforms to Islamic rulings.”

A Fatwa Against the Measles Vaccine

Unfortunately, it’s true.

The Indonesian Ulama Council (MUI), in a Fatwa Commission Meeting on August 20, established that it is illegal (haram) to use vaccines that utilize pigs and their derivatives, including the MR (measles-rubella) vaccine.

Importantly though, they also stated that the use of the MR vaccine is permissible (mubah), because there is no alternative vaccine and measles and rubella are dangerous diseases. So it is still not a good reason to seek a religious exemption to getting vaccinated.

What’s the concern?

Some vaccines use gelatin as a stabilizer. And the gelatin in those vaccines typically comes from pigs.

This isn’t a new issue though.

In 1995, Islamic legal scholars met at a seminar convened by the Islamic Organization for Medical Sciences on the topic The Judicially Prohibited and Impure Substances in Foodstuff and Drugs.

“Transformation which means the conversion of a substance into another substance, different in characteristics, changes substances that are judicially impure or are found in an impure environment, into pure substances, and changes substances that are prohibited into lawful and permissible substances.”

The seminar concluded that “The gelatin formed as a result of the transformation of the bones, skin and tendons of a judicially impure animal is pure…”

So even though Muslims can’t eat pork, they can take medicines packaged in gelatin capsules and they can get vaccines that contain gelatin.

Fortunately, although although some immunization programs ordered a temporary delay when the fatwa was first issued, MR vaccination has resumed in Indonesia. That’s good news, as measles outbreaks are still common in the region.

But why has this become an issue again?

Anti-Vaxxers Should Be Able to Answer These Questions Correctly

There is a new meme going around suggesting that folks have no business telling anyone to vaccinate and protect their kids unless they can answer a series of questions.

I bet answers from anti-vaccine folks aren't the same as the answers from the rest of us... — I bet answers from anti-vaccine folks aren’t the same as the answers from the rest of us…

While it is certainly good to be educated about vaccines, their questions seem rather loaded.

Anti-Vaxxers Should Be Able to Answer These Questions Correctly

Since it is immoral and dangerous to push misinformation that scares parents away from vaccinating and protecting their kids, it would be nice if anti-vaccine folks would answer these questions before they tried to persuade anyone to not get vaccinated:

Name 5 vaccine ingredients that you think are toxic and how exactly they can be toxic at the amounts present in vaccines.
Name 5 possible complications of a vaccine-preventable disease.
Are doctors and alternative health care providers who push non-standard, parent-selected, delayed protection vaccine schedules able to be held liable if their intentionally unvaccinated child suffers a vaccine-preventable disease or starts an outbreak, infecting other people?
How many children died of vaccine-preventable diseases in the early 1980s, before the vaccine schedule grew to include the new vaccines we give today?
Is it true that no one can force you to get vaccinated?
What percentage of reports to VAERS are actually caused by vaccine reactions?
How many doses of vaccines have been given since the Vaccine Court began paying for vaccine injury cases?
Which vaccines must be avoided because of shedding or other concerns if you have a child with an immunodeficiency in your home?
Why do some folks think that many vaccines still contain thimerosal?
If today’s vaccines already contain far fewer antigens than they did in the old days, what would be the extra benefit of splitting them up even further into separate shots for each vaccine-preventable disease?
Have you read all of studies on the safety and effectiveness of combination vaccines, including those that are double-blinded and placebo controlled, and the current vaccine schedule?
Can you give me one other interesting fact about vaccines or vaccine-preventable diseases that was not already asked or discussed?

What’s my interesting fact?

Many on-the-fence and vaccine hesitant parents do change their mind about vaccines and decide to make the right choice and get their kids vaccinated and protected.

More Things Anti-Vaxxers Should Know

Should You Use a Vaccine Ingredient Calculator?

Do you want to make an informed vaccination decision?

Are you looking for more information about the ingredients in the vaccines your kids are about to get?

Have you tried one of those vaccine ingredient calculators?

Should You Use a Vaccine Ingredient Calculator?

As you do your research and look at the risks and benefits of your vaccine decision, you should know that those vaccine ingredient calculators that claim to help reduce toxins aren’t really helping you make an informed decision.

Calculate which vaccine-preventable diseases your child will be protected from when he gets vaccinated.

They are a propaganda tool that simply works to increase fear about vaccines by making you think that you need to do a vaccine lot search, compare vaccine brands, or work to reduce exposures to specific ingredients.

Why would you need to do a lot search? There are no hot lots of vaccines that you need to avoid.

Why would you need to compare vaccines based on their brands? Vaccines are safe. Vaccine ingredients are safe. Although the ingredients might vary a bit based on the brand of vaccine, that isn’t going to impact how well a vaccine works or it’s side effects.

And the sites with these types of calculators never mention the risks of skipping or delaying vaccines.

Which Vaccines Contain More Than the FDA Approved Amount of Aluminum?

But what about aluminum?

Depending on the brand, don’t some vaccines do contain more aluminum than others?

“The alternative suggests only one aluminum-containing vaccine at a time in the infant years (the right brands must be chosen). By spreading out the shots, you spread out the exposure so infants can process the aluminum without it reaching toxic levels.”

Bob Sears in The Vaccine Book

The FDA states that “the amount of aluminum in the recommended individual dose of a biological product shall not exceed” 0.85 to 1.25 milligrams.

Not surprisingly, no vaccine exceeds that approved amount of aluminum, no matter what brand you choose.

Why do anti-vaccine folks scare parents into thinking that their kids are getting exposed to potentially toxic levels of aluminum from vaccines?

“WARNING: This product contains aluminum that may be toxic. Aluminum may reach toxic levels with prolonged parenteral administration if kidney function is impaired. Premature neonates are particularly at risk because their kidneys are immature, and they require large amounts of calcium and phosphate solutions, which contain aluminum.
Research indicates that patients with impaired kidney function, including premature neonates, who receive parenteral levels of aluminum at greater than 4 to 5 [micro]g/kg/day accumulate aluminum at levels associated with central nervous system and bone toxicity. Tissue loading may occur at even lower rates of administration.”

FDA on Aluminum in large and small volume parenterals used in total parenteral nutrition.

The FDA and AAP and others began investigating and then warning folks about aluminum in 1986. They weren’t worried about aluminum in vaccines though. They were concerned that newborns and younger premature infants might be getting too much aluminum if they were getting a lot of IV products with aluminum, especially if they weren’t able to eat on their own and were dependent on total parental nutrition for long periods of time.

So these were high risk infants who were potentially getting high doses of aluminum each and every day for weeks or months at a time. And somehow anti-vaccine folks equated this with other infants who were getting vaccines every few months, at least they did once they started to move away from worrying about thimerosal.

What to Know About Using a Vaccines Ingredient Calculator

Vaccine ingredient calculators are a propaganda tool that anti-vaccine folks use to scare parents away from vaccinating and protecting their kids.

Are There Hidden Ingredients in Vaccines?

We know all of the ingredients in vaccines.

We know that they are safe and aren’t toxic.

So what now? Anti-vaccine folks move the goalposts and start talking conspiracy theories about hidden ingredients in vaccines.

Are There Hidden Ingredients in Vaccines?

There are no hidden ingredients in vaccines.

A list of ingredients is included on the vaccine’s package insert and can be found on a number of articles on the Internet.

That’s how we know that vaccines do not contain a vaginal spermicide, antifreeze, aborted fetal tissue, or peanut oil.

Multi-dose vials of flu vaccine still contain the preservative thimerosal. — It is no secret that multi-dose vials of flu vaccine still contain the preservative thimerosal, and that most flu vaccines are now thimerosal free.

One anti-vaccine group did test and find thimerosal in a vaccine, but it was a flu vaccine that said it contained thimerosal. How much did they find? The amount that was supposed to be in the vaccine… If they were really reporting about some kind of conspiracy, you would have thought they would have tested one of the thimerosal free flu vaccines that are available.

What about the idea that “some information regarding additives and residuals is considered to be a trade secret and thus confidential?”

The chapter in the book Vaccines where that quote comes from also states that because of FDA regulations “the use of, and quantity of, additives and residuals should be disclosed on the vaccine label.”

Specifically, vaccines labels must include:

the preservative used and its concentration
known sensitizing substances
the type and calculated amounts of antibiotics added during manufacture
the inactive ingredients when a safety factor
the adjuvant, if present
the source of the product when a factor in safe administration
the identity of each organism used in manufacture, and, where, applicable, the production medium and method of inactivation

So what are the trade secrets?

“It is important to recognize that FDA-approval of all new vaccines involves not only assessment of the antigens and final contents, but the entire process of synthesis. Each and every component introduced and used in the manufacture is scrutinized. While there are a wide array of excipients required to either manufacture, package or deliver effective immunity, each of these is part of this approval process.”

Vaccinophobia and Vaccine Controversies of the 21st Century

They are likely very specific details about the production process. In other words, how exactly they put all of the ingredients together to actually make the vaccine.

There is no secret about what’s in your child’s vaccines. No hidden ingredients either.

What about warnings over contaminates in vaccines?

When they rarely occur, contaminated vaccines are discovered and removed. Keep in mind that vaccines are very safe from contamination and the only issue with any recent incidents is that they are used by the anti-vaccine movement to further scare parents who are on the fence about vaccines.

What to Know About Hidden Ingredients in Vaccines

There are no secret or hidden ingredients in vaccines.

Which Vaccines Contain Aborted Baby Parts?

If you are already on the fence about vaccines, there are probably some you want to avoid…

For many parents, that likely means skipping all of the vaccines with aborted baby parts and fetal tissue.

Which Vaccines Contain Aborted Baby Parts?

Do vaccines really contain aborted baby parts and fetal tissue?

“Have you read the CDC’s vaccine ingredient list? Why would they list aborted baby parts as ingredients if they weren’t actually in vaccines? Just because there’s only a little baking soda in a cake doesn’t mean it’s not in there. In fact, a little baking soda can have quite the effect on a cake and the person eating it. If it’s on the label, it’s in the vaccine.”

Megan Heimer on What You Didn’t Know About the Aborted Baby Parts in Your Vaccines

Are you surprised that the CDC’s vaccine ingredient list doesn’t list aborted baby parts as ingredients of any vaccines?

It does list:

WI-38 human diploid lung fibroblast cells
MRC-5 human diploid cells

But cells are not tissues or body parts…

Cells make up tissues and tissues make up body parts, but that doesn’t sound as scary, does it?

“Given that many vaccines use aborted fetal cell tissue (where a viable fetus was medically and voluntarily aborted, not miscarried), there is clearly a valid, religious argument for not submitting to these shots.”

Sarah Pope on How to Resist Pediatrician Pro Vaccination Tactics

Immortalized cell lines, like the WI-38 and MRC-5 cell lines, even lose their tissue characteristics.

This type of anti-vaccine propaganda is likely why so many anti-vaccine folks still think that aborted baby parts and fetal tissue are ingredients in vaccines.

The Pontifical Academy for Life reaffirmed the "lawfulness" of using vaccines to protect children and those around them. — The Pontifical Academy for Life reaffirmed the “lawfulness” of using vaccines to protect children and those around them.

They aren’t. Not in any vaccine.

Some vaccines are made with fetal embryo fibroblast cells (the WI-38 and MRC-5 cells) from cell lines that are derived (they can replicate infinitely) from two electively terminated pregnancies (abortions) in the 1960s. That certainly does not mean that any vaccines contain aborted fetal tissue or baby parts though.

Those original cells aren’t even involved in making these vaccines any more.

The cells used today have been copied, over and over again. They are descendant cells, which is why a common way to explain all of this, is to say that vaccines are said to have a “distant association with abortion.”

And even then, the cells are removed before the final vaccine is produced.

That’s why the National Catholic Bioethics Center states that that:

“One is morally free to use the vaccine regardless of its historical association with abortion. The reason is that the risk to public health, if one chooses not to vaccinate, outweighs the legitimate concern about the origins of the vaccine. This is especially important for parents, who have a moral obligation to protect the life and health of their children and those around them.”

And why it is said that Catholics are “morally free to use the vaccine regardless of its historical association with abortion” and that “it should be obvious that vaccine use in these cases does not contribute directly to the practice of abortion since the reasons for having an abortion are not related to vaccine preparation.”

What To Know About Vaccines, Abortion & Fetal Tissue

Vaccines are safe and necessary and do not contain aborted fetal tissue or body parts, although some do have a distant association with abortion.

I Refuse to Listen to Bad Advice About Flu Shots, and I Won’t Apologize for It

The only thing that seems to be more rampant than the flu this season are the articles pushing people to skip a flu shot.

POPSUGAR moms will hopefully go somewhere else for advice about flu shots.

They. Are. Everywhere.

I Refuse to Listen to Bad Advice About Flu Shots

Why are we seeing so many folks attacking flu shots lately?

It’s simple. A bad flu season reminds people that they should get vaccinated and protected. We see the same thing when there are outbreaks of measles, mumps, and pertussis, etc.

And then those folks who are truly anti-vaccine have to come out and justify why they still don’t believe in vaccines.

That leaves us with arguments like this:

“Whenever I start to get worried that I’ll end up with the flu if I don’t get the shot, I remember that it isn’t always effective.”

Jen Glantz on Do You Need To Get A Flu Shot?

It is true that the flu shot is not always effective, but if you are only going to use things that are 100% effective, then why would you take “lots of vitamins and natural supplements” when you have the flu, things that have been shown to be ineffective?

“Side effects can include soreness around the injection side, a low-grade fever for a few days, and muscle aches. Now, I know that this may seem like a small price to pay to avoid getting the full-blown flu, but if I can avoid any sickness at all, why not try?”

Jen Glantz on Do You Need To Get A Flu Shot?

Uh, if you want to try and avoid any sickness, why not get a flu shot? Even when it isn’t as effective as we would like, a flu shot can help reduce your chance of hospitalization, serious flu complications, and of dying with the flu.

“Have you ever taken a step back and learned more about what the heck is actually inside the flu shot? ”

Jen Glantz on Do You Need To Get A Flu Shot?

I know exactly what’s in the flu shot.

Does anyone at POPSUGAR?

Got something you want published online? Head over to POPSUGAR... — Got something you want published online? Head over to POPSUGAR…

Even with a disclaimer from an Editor, POPSUGAR should be ashamed of themselves for publishing an article that says the flu shot is filled with toxins. In addition to an ingredients list, the CDC explains that “all ingredients either help make the vaccine, or ensure the vaccine is safe and effective.”

Flu shot ingredients are not toxins!

“Instead of injecting myself with toxins, I do things like practice good hygiene, take lots of vitamins and natural supplements, and rely on my body and it’s strength to fight off any unwanted bacteria. The human body is an incredible thing, and I trust it. I also like it to ride out things naturally.”

Jen Glantz on Do You Need To Get A Flu Shot?

The flu is a virus, not a bacteria, but I get the point that the author is attempting to make. The thing is though, that while the human body is certainly incredible, relying on it to get you over the flu is not always an easy ride. We often have to pay a high price for natural immunity.

And the people who die with the flu don’t die because of poor hygiene or because they don’t take enough vitamins and supplements. They die because they have the flu. And more often than not, especially in the case of children, because they are unvaccinated.

“For some people, getting the flu shot is at the very top of their to-do list, but for me, it’s something I refuse to do. And that’s OK too.”

Jen Glantz on Do You Need To Get A Flu Shot?

It is certainly OK that Jen Glantz doesn’t get a flu shot each year. At least it is OK as long as she doesn’t get the flu and give it to someone else.

It is not OK that POPSUGAR gives her a voice on such an important topic. Don’t listen to them.

It’s not as big a deal when she writes about the “importance” of drinking both hot and cold water each day, drinking apple cider vinegar for bloating, the best baby names of the year, or how to pee when wearing a wedding dress. That’s the kind of clickbait type content you expect from a POPSUGAR type site.

But scaring people and making them think that there are toxins in flu shots?

Save it for GOOP.

What to Know About Bad Flu Shot Advice

This year’s bad flu season wasn’t limited to folks getting sick… There was also a lot of bad flu shot advice going around.

VAXOPEDIA

Does the Vitamin K Shot Contain 100mcg of Aluminum?

Does the Vitamin K Shot Contain 100mcg of Aluminum?

What to Know About Aluminum in the Vitamin K Shot

More on Aluminum in the Vitamin K Shot