Are vaccines safe?

There are many varying opinions on vaccines and whether they should be used or not.

Here is a harrowing story about a mum who had to re-evaluate her former anti-vax stance when her children became hospitalised with whooping cough which can be life-threatening:

http://www.kidspot.com.au/learning-the-hard-way-my-journey-from-anti-vax-to-science/

The website for the United States Centre for Disease Control, below, talks about the compounds used in many vaccines and also talks about what vaccines are strong enough to not need the extra compounds to effect an immune response in the human body:

http://www.cdc.gov/vaccinesafety/Concerns/Index.html

The Science-based Medicine website tries to put minds at rest regarding compounds in vaccines, one being thimerosal, which is apparently now, only found in influenza vaccines:

https://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/reference/vaccines-and-autism/

Let's look at compounds in vaccines, to see what all the fuss is about:

http://www.ncirs.edu.au/immunisation/fact-sheets/vaccine-components-fact-sheet.pdf

It would appear that the vaccine compound thimerosal is NOT used in National Immunisation Schedule vaccines in New Zealand. See the immune.org.nz website below:

http://www.immune.org.nz/category/tags/thimerosal

For myself, as someone who has to almost be held down to have ANY medication administered to me, I have had to succumb to the dreaded flu vaccine because of having mid-life onset asthma.

However, I have to say and just my view of course, is that I'm quite glad I've been given the hard word by my doctor to have the flu shot annually, because when the flu hits, I've found the strains each year, seem to be getting harder and harder to shake off - especially with any respiratory issues.

I've also found many other people I've spoken to, experiencing the same thing.

So although we kick and scream against having our shots to prevent disease in our own countries and especially when we travel overseas, maybe there are people who are knowledgeable about these things and like the mum's debilitating experience in the first link above shows, perhaps we need to consider our options more, including vaccination.

Of course there are some people who seem to have reactions to them though and that's a problem.

It's about getting as clued up as we can about these things and our options available.

Tell us your story.

What do you think?

Have you had a bad reaction to a vaccine?