It’s not that I have ever believed that Jessica Biel and Justin Timberlake are incredibly sensible, normal people. I know they’re probably just the same as every other celebrity couple, which is to say… out-of-touch, slightly crazy, insular and ridiculous. But I did believe that somewhere, Jessica and Justin would have had enough brain cells to knock together a cogent opinion about vaccinations. In Touch Weekly has a source claiming that Jessica and Justin have decided to not vaccinate their son Silas. Oh… honey, no.
Are Justin Timberlake and Jessica Biel making the controversial decision to not vaccinate their 7-month-old son, Silas? A friend of the couple claims so, telling In Touch magazine that “Jessica is refusing to vaccinate him. She feels that vaccination could cause complications.”
While In Touch reached out to Justin and Jessica’s reps for comment a combined total of nine times over several weeks, the reps received the messages but did not respond.
Not vaccinating a child is a practice that does have some celeb proponents, including Jenny McCarthy, Alicia Silverstone and Kristin Cavallari. But it is a controversial choice, and it’s rooted in studies that have been thoroughly discredited by the mainstream medical community.
The friend who alleges that Jessica and Justin aren’t vaccinating their son adds: “I’m sure Jessica believes that she’s making the right decision, but hopefully she and Justin will do some more research on this and change their minds.”
I might expect this kind of thing if it was 2007, you know? But in 2015, the Anti-Vaxxers are very much a fringe element in our society. After a resurgence in measles, mumps and rubella, many Anti-Vaxxers and anti-vax apologists rethought their positions. Anyway, I wonder why JT and Biel didn’t outright deny this story to In Touch? Is it because it’s the truth? It’s also possible that they intend to vaccinate Silas at some point, but they’re making up their own vaccination schedule rather than following the pediatrician’s instructions.
Photos courtesy of WENN.
Neither Justin or Jessica has ever shown much in the way of intelligence. If this is true, shame on them. The anti-vaccine crowd is ignorant and selfish.
Beat me to it Merrit. These two always seem like the bus does not stop where they go.
The majority are also very privileged. It’s the attitude that they know better, and that their kid is too precious, but they are fine being protected by everyone else who does the right thing. We discovered this in our school after a child from another country contracted measles, and every single kid who had not been vaccinated went out and got the vaccine. So it was clear that it was never about a real objection, it was about being a free-loader and selfish jerk.
I agree with you, especially about the priveledged part. This topic makes my blood boil, so I’m just going to stop here and go to another thread. Jessica and Justin are vapid, selfish, foolish as*holes.
+1. I assume tha their baby will be traveling a ton, given their professions, and encountering more germs than the average baby from hotels and attractions all around the world. So….yeah…..let’s not vaccinate. I mean, the average child gets sick so much as is, now let’s add in a traveling lifestyle…
I still remember the vaccines I had to get to move to Australia or the 2 vaccines I needed to move into a 10 person dorm in the US.
Baby Silas will need more than that if he’s going to travel so much.
Let the witchhunt begin…they don’t owe anyone what is private information about their child.
Ever considered their baby may not able to have vaccinations for various different reasons?!
This social media trend of oversharing has really made people believe they have the right to know everything about stranger’s lives. Not confirming or denying this tabloid story does not mean anything, maybe they don’t want to have to start denying every made up thing about them in the future.
I wish more people would point this sort of thing out. I agree.
hmph, I agree with you about oversharing except for vaccinations. I think vaccinations should be public records that anyone can look up in an online database.
@MinnFinn You cannot be serious.
Do you realize the risks and the harm that could be done to innocent children because their parents didn’t vaccinate them for reasons we do not know (reminder, many children can’t be vaccinated)if we were to make this public records.
You are risking these children’s (and their parents) lives. Opening them up to be targets for crazed lunatics who don’t know or care for the reasons the children not being vaccinated.
That’s a frightening thought. One only has to look at the comments of this tabloid story of a rumor, not even fact, to realize that would be a bad idea.
always blows my mind when people who don’t have a background in medical science, let alone didn’t even GO to college, think they know better.
dude………you’re at the bottom of the intellectual food chain.
There is a whole story arc of AHS Hotel that shows this is a bad idea. Also you’re selfish if you don’t vaccinate.
I agree about the general selfishness of not vaccinating. There is always a case not to if a child’s medical condition contraindicates. However, to decide not to vaccinate based on a possible whim, and just because you feel like your child is a special snowflake and shouldn’t be compromised smacks of privilege, and relies on the fact that most of the plebs, and “herd” will do so, and reduce the risk that your special snowflake will be of contracting diseases that are no less lethal and life threatening now than they always were. Numbskulls of the first water, masquerading as quasi intelligent.
This is InTouch. I doubt they have a copy of the child’s medical records.
Well they did break the Duggar stories, right?
I have more respect for them now, since that whole thing came out.
And honestly, J&J don’t look to be particularly intelligent, so I kind of believe it
Yes thank you! I’m sure they don’t have access to babies medical records. Also, newly pregnant here (as in 5 weeks, hoping little bean sticks) can someone explain to me the need for hepatitis B vaccine born to a healthy mother immediately after birth? I’m not an anti vaxer whatsoever and am all for the deadly preventable childhood disease vaccines, but I’m doing some research and this one seems weird and unnecessary.
http://shotofprevention.com/2010/05/06/why-infants-should-receive-the-hepatitis-b-vaccine-at-birth/
http://www.immunize.org/catg.d/p4110.pdf
Why the infant vaccination schedule is the way it is:
https://www.aap.org/en-us/advocacy-and-policy/Documents/Vaccineschedule.pdf
https://iom.nationalacademies.org/~/media/Files/Report%20Files/2013/Childhood-Immunization-Schedule/ChildhoodImmunizationScheduleandSafety_RB.pdf
I’ll try. While Hepetitis B is uncommon in the US, it’s endemic in many parts of Asia and Africa. My grandmother had it. I know multiple people who have died from it (including a doctor friend who caught it on medical mission). It’s very contagious, and incurable, and while your baby isn’t going to engage in risky behaviors, studies show that if parents don’t vaccinate on schedule, they tend to not vaccinate at all. Can you guarantee that your kid won’t ever run into someone from another country who has it? Or travel someplace where it is more prevelent?
Snarky, it’s because most people who have HepB don’t know they have it, as it’s not routinely tested for and many people are asymptomatic or have low symptoms effects from it. The idea is to make sure your wee bean is protected before they leave the hospital.
Heb B is not usually fatal but does cause liver damage over a period of years. You may not die of it but it will certainly reduce quality of life and cause unnecessary pain and fatigue.
@Snarky – I had to get a vaccine against Whooping Cough a year and a half ago after my last baby was born. It hurt like crazy in my shoulder for almost a month but it was worth it to protect my child’s health. Apparently, there is a resurfacing of this “old-fashioned” disease.
Good luck to you on the little bean sticking!
http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs204/en/
As others have said, it’s incredibly common outside the U.S. and many people come here and work and live. If you’re planning on your child being in daycare, for example, s/he may be in contact with lots of people (depending on turnover at your daycare). It’s a simple jab. Avoiding it is like avoiding the Vitamin K shot.
@snarkysnarkers I hope you have an easy and healthy pregnancy. Mine has been horrendous (almost 17 weeks)…Baby is healthy but mom is falling apart around him.
Please read the links posted in response to your comment. Vaccinating your baby is so important. I’m a registered nurse, and believe me, there is plenty of independent research out there about the importance of vaccines. We aren’t all part of some big conspiracy theory. Health care providers care about your family almost as much as you do. We are constantly researching better ways of providing care, because our mission is to do no harm.
Thanks ladies! That all definitely makes sense! The worries of a being a mom begin lol
It’s because of the screw-up parents that don’t bring their babies back to get vaccinated. In order to get those kids vaccinated they have to do it in the hospital, and in order to do that they apply the lowest common denominator rule to everyone. They can’t say it only applies to poor babies, so they say it applies to all babies.
Hep B is a nasty illness and I was happy when the vaccine came out – I am vaccinated myself – but you can only get it through needles and sex, so why not just keep the Hep B vaccination requirement for 9-year-olds like it used to be? The answer is because there is a significant section of the population that cannot manage basic life tasks like getting your kid vaccinated (yet they have children anyways) so these sorts of heavy-handed social controls have to be implemented instead.
@PennyLane – read my WHO link; it isn’t just blood and sex, it’s bodily fluids. It lives for 7 days outside the body.
And if they’re trying to the lowest common denominator, why that one particular shot and not any of the other ones instead?
I sincerely hope that’s not true.
God, it kills me to see this attitude when it has taken us years and years to find vaccines for these preventable diseases and lower the death toll. Such stupidity!
Exactly. I can’t belive how much damage was done by that one, completley fictions “research” paper. Even after the author copped to faking the the expiraments and making up the results (just so he could make a name for himself his feild) people still remain willfully blind about the importance of these vaccines. It’s their choice, but I don’t think they have the right to put other children at risk.
The saddest thing is when I hear the reason “but we don’t have these diseases anymore!”
THATS BECAUSE WE HAVE VACCINATIONS.
dumb people should just drop dead. raise the value of the human race.
Don’t anti vaccine people realise that without vaccines we would have never eradicated many diseases?
My aunt caught polio as a child and still has to live with pain. In Australia if you chose not to immunise your child you are refused some welfare benefits and can be excluded from school or kindergarten.
The father of a friend caught polio and is in a wheel chair, has been his whole life. But no, vaccines are the WORST. How dare they protect us and extend life expectancy.
I understand to a point people questioning vaccines and what is in them. BUT…I have never met anyone with polio so I would say they are working and that outweighs the side effects.
Polio had already become very very rare in the USA by the time the vaccine appeared. I know because one of my friends and two older kids had it when they were babies, but ones younger than us didn’t. I was well into grade school when the vaccine came out and we all lined up for it, so that can’t explain the rarity.
When humans are the carrier, rapidly isolating patients and shutting down risky behaviors can stop an epidemic quite effectively long before a vaccine is available. The vaccine wrongly gets all the credit.
That’s right. I agree 100% with you!
It was not rare when the vaccine came around. 1952 was the deadliest year, that was the same year my uncle got it from swimming in a public pool. The reason why you haven’t met anyone with Polio today is because Jonas Salk developed the polio vaccine and made it public so every kid who was born after 1957 got the shot. Hence why it is no longer around in the U.S. The disease is still around in other countries though.
There’s lots to learn – Polio had devastating effects on some of the people who caught it. http://amhistory.si.edu/polio/
Many people actually caught polio from the live polio vaccine. And one of the vaccines that was given to millions had a monkey virus in it which they knew would cause an epidemic of cancer down the road. Does anyone really believe these drug companies are our friend, trying to cure us? Their prime concern is profit. Only profit.
The media doesn’t ever talk about any of the stuff that went wrong with vaccines, and lots has. Or if they do mention it, they make light of it. Do your own research and use your brain, especially when it comes to your little babies. I prefer not to depend upon media propaganda and I resent being browbeaten and called names by people on the internet because I choose not to follow the herd.
@Exactly MAF..that is what I was saying. The vaccine has made the disease obsolete in the US, therefore the good outweighs the potential bad,
@jwoolman: I totally support, understand and encourage skepticism, it’s a core component of research. But when you claim that vaccines may be linked to SIDS, which hasn’t been proven, that you can get sick from the flu shot, also a no, and that polio was very, very rare before the vaccine was approved, easily disproved I think that’s not mere skepticism.
Polio rates before and after the vaccine:
http://vaccines.procon.org/view.additional-resource.php?resourceID=005964
@Tessy, any actual peer reviewed articles to backup up your claims about the vaccine monkey virus cancer epidemic?
I don’t consider 20,000 cases a year rare (and considerably more in ’52 and ’53.) A little history for you (perhaps your childhood perspective is a little skewed):
“Soon after Salk’s vaccine was licensed in 1955 children’s vaccination campaigns were launched. In the U.S, following a mass immunization campaign promoted by the March of Dimes, the annual number of polio cases fell from 35,000 in 1953 to 5,600 by 1957.”
It still wasn’t ‘eradicated’ until 1994.
Serenity now: I’m a teacher in a State primary school, and you’re absolutely correct. Vaccination records are required in order to enrol in daycare or school, in my state, at least. There are ways around it, but it’s a long, arduous process to gain exemption. This year, we had a massive outbreak of chicken pox at my school. It meant that five staff members had to take time off, or switch jobs with other teachers at local schools, as four were in early pregnancy and another had recently undergone cancer treatment. Quite a few children, suffering various illnesses, also had to stay away for several weeks. Three years ago, we had an outbreak of whooping cough. Two students in my class (Year 4) presented with it. I also had a wonderful girl with cardio velo facial syndrome. It frightened the daylights put of her parents – and tightly so – and us, as she was frequently sick. (She was on the critical list for heart transplant, but had to wait until her body was well and strong enough ie, clear of any infections, before she could be hospitalised in readiness.) Two weeks after this outbreak, this little angel took a bad turn at home and died in her mother’s arms. Her parents were justified in questioning if the WC outbreak led to her becoming fatally ill. This is exactly what can happen in a community with so many non-vaccinated people.
My son and his partner are adamant that they will not vaccinate any children they might have in the future, and constantly spout the “research” that all anti-vaxxers use. It’s futile explaining the overwhelming body of evidence debunking all the questionable evidence, as they say it’s the drug companies that push all the research supporting vaccination. When I explain the laws and difficulties of enrolling non-vaccinated children in school, their answer is that they’ll be sending the children to Montessori or Steiner schools… I despair.
InTouch did break the duggar molestation story- apparently they have a former investigative journalist running things as if the last year or so, so it’s possible that they have the receipts…
Yes exactly! Said hat above before I saw this 🙂
lmfao with this logic. sure jan
Not so sure the ‘reasearch ‘ for pro vaccines are authentic. It’s in the big pharmaceutical companies and other companies who sell drugs and vaccines best interest (pocket) to have everyone on board.
That being said vaccines are important , they can save lives… maybe they give too many today and too close together (i gave them all except the last 2 to my son) .
My grandparents who came here from europe got one vaccine total here (i don’t which one) but they had no diseases and were FINE.
Well, if two people who didn’t get vaccines didn’t get sick, that proves it! My grandfather also didn’t get vaccines. He got polio.
My head hurts after reading this. Studies are also conducted by scientists who are independent of drug companies. I am also going to point out that the treatments once a person is sick, are far more expensive. So in terms of money, vaccines are a much more affordable option. They do not give too many vaccines today, nor are they too close together.
really? So all the research conducted ever somehow manages to be false? All the research conducted everywhere in the world, plenty of which is publicly funded, is all compromised? All of this is false? Every researcher who has gathered statistics and compiled data and written it up has somehow altered the findings? What world do you live in where this kind of conspiracy is a viable conclusion to draw?
I have a family history of bad reactions to the MMR vaccine. Magically, the only two of my 7 siblings who have learning disabilities and mental illness also happened to have bad reactions even though my mom delayed it for the younger sibling by quite a few months. Nonetheless, I got it for my son. We live in a large and very international city next to countries with high rates of poverty, and due to high density we have serious major outbreaks with some regularity. The risks of disease are not abstract for me; they’re demonstrably real. I’m not playing around with the preventable ones by dithering over vaccines.
oh yeah, since your grandparents were fine then it means everyone was lmao
Non vaccinated people benefit from those who are. I assume it’s ok as long as they keep being a minority.
your grandparents didn’t get diseases because of herd immunity. if a majority of people are vaccinated, the disease becomes exponentially less prevalent and people who aren’t vaccinated get the immunity by proxy. if the disease isn’t in the community, they aren’t exposed to it. the problem with people moving towards not vaccinating on a larger scale is that it takes herd immunity away and people who can’t get vaccinations (small children, people with allergies to components of vaccines, people with severe autoimmune disorders) don’t have the protection they once had the disease spreads in a rampant fashion. i personally believe that if you don’t want to vaccinate yourself or your children, that is your choice – but your children should not be allowed to enroll in day care or school. i had to get all my boosters just to enroll in graduate school as an adult. it should be the same for young children.
Spot on, Lizzie. They are only jeopardizing their own health. Vaccinated people/children will be OK, those not vaccinated will begin to be exposed and disease will spread amongst them.
@CEE people who do get vaccinated might also get the disease because the anti vaccinated bring it into the community. The hope is that it won’t be as severe, given the body’s existing antibodies to some strains of the disease. But if the disease mutates substantially and the antivaccinated catch it, the vaccinated lose their protections here as well and, voila! Outbreak! Thanks, stupid people who failed basic science in high school.
@Pinky – ITA. Additionally, some illnesses are worse for a grown up than a child. So imagine all these non-vaccinated children getting chicken pox as adults? Good luck to them.
Where I’m from, at the beginning of the school year parents had to hand in our health records (vistis to doctort, eyesight studies, vaccinations, etc). If something was missing we were not allowed into the school. Is this done in the US?
Nailed it, lizzie. Well said.
@Cee
You have to show your child’s health records to your school, they keep a copy on file and if the child transfers the schools sends them off. California now made it a law that your child cannot enroll in any California school if they are not vaccinated. The law is in response to a measles outbreak 2 years ago that started with a child (or an adult) who had it and gave it to a bunch of children (and probably adults) when they went to Disneyland. I think in total 55 got the measles just from being at Disneyland.
You say that vaccines are important and yet repeat the anti-vaccine lies about flawed studies/research.
Why?
I’ve seen this a lot recently, I think it’s the new anti-vax line. They can’t argue the science anymore, at least not without sounding like a loony, so they say, “It’s the drug companies, we don’t trust big pharma, why do they insist on all the shots so close together, it must be a conspiracy, etc etc.”
Never mind that the drug companies are practically giving the common vaccines away for free.
We have found a way to virtually eradicate painful and deadly diseases that mostly affect children and the elderly. Why anybody would choose to forego life-saving vaccinations because of some half-assed idea that it’s all about money is beyond me. First world problems.
Some people like conspiracy theories. After all, Armstrong never walked on the Moon, right?
Those kids who died during the US measles outbreak from 1988 to 1992 weren’t fine. Although, it wasn’t so much their parents who decided not to vaccinate them but the US president who decided to limit vaccination programs in the early 1980s.
Oh, well, if her grandparents were FINE then that just proves we don’t need vaccines! Let’s let polio come back! Let’s all kiss people with measles and small pox. Because her grandparents were fine! Jesus. YOUR GRANDPARENTS WERE FINE BECAUSE EVERYONE ELSE HAD THE SENSE TO GET VACCINATED.
During my pediatric rotation in nursing school, I saw a baby die in the PICU from whooping cough. It can be fatal in babies who have smaller respiratory tracts, and can more easily obstruct.
I’m a registered nurse, certified in public health, and currently working on my master’s degree. It makes me laugh when I read the conspiracy theories about vaccine research all coming from big pharma. With all of the research I’ve done throughout all of my education, I can confidently say that there is plenty of peer-reviewed, independent, unbiased research out there, providing plenty of evidence for the administration of vaccines. Ironically, the article which was proven to be false, was the article which started this whole vaccine fear-mongering in the first place. The Lancet published an unprecedented retraction, 10 years after the article was published. Too little, too late, unfortunately.
When logic and reasoning doesn’t work, I simply roll my eyes and say, “You’re on to us. All medical professionals are getting vaccine kickbacks. Big pharma pays me big $$ to promote vaccines.” *eyeroll*
I’m pregnant with my first little one, and I certainly plan on vaccinating our baby. I live in Orange County, CA…ground zero for the most recent measles outbreak. *another eyeroll*
That is just patently not true. Vaccines are also researched and developed by universities, government health agencies and other public institutions. in fact, one of the most important vaccines -polio- was deliberately not patented by its inventor to ensure a safe, affordable and effective vaccine was available to everyone.
Pharma makes its money off of designer drugs (like Viagra) not preventing illness. that’s just dumb.
Bingo!
This comment is intellectually dishonest. If I read one more BS couched in BIG PHARMA fearmongering, I swear I might punch a hole in the Internet.
Vaccines save lives. Doctors and researchers know more about this stuff than you, or I, do. Full stop.
net22 – In 1970s when I was a kid, no one used infant safety seats in cars, wore seatbelts or bike helmets and no one cared about DUI.
Using your logic, since my siblings and I are all fine, there is no need for these 3 safety devices or DUI laws today. And also, all the studies proving these things prevent injury and save lives are all faked and paid for by the device makers to get us to buy worthless devices.
Oh shut up.
I completely agree. It’s nobody’s business really how someone parents. It’s selfish to tell someone they’re doing it wrong because they’re not doing it like you. I know plenty of people that haven’t vaccinated their kids. They are healthy and fine and none of them are well off or privileged.
Thank god for here immunity, huh? Too bad it is nowhere near as effective anymore, thanks to you and your ilk.
This isn’t about being in your business. It IS everyone’s business because choosing not to vaccinate affects more than just you.
Actually. Whether you and your friends decide to pave the way for preventable public health crises with the potential to maim and kill is very much everybody’s business.
Oh. Lawd. Not the Big Pharma makes money off vaccines argument again. No. Vaccines are NOT a profit area for Big Pharma.
Deadly disease outbreaks in children sure would be though.
You really don’t think that millions of vaccines are a money maker? Every kid born now gets dozens of shots during the first few years. Millions and millions of people get annual flu shots. They’re making money hand over fist on vaccines.
They are trying to get it legislated it now for pete’s sake. Its ALL about the money.
So we shouldn’t vaccinate because Big Pharma makes money off of them? What about the costs in the long run?
So while the vaccine industry is likely more profitable now than in the 1970s or 1980s, this is the result of global market forces, not a reason to skip a child’s vaccinations: Pharmaceutical companies need incentives to keep producing vaccines, because regardless of profits the economic and social benefits of vaccination are huge—in lives and the billions of dollars saved. A study released last year estimated that fully immunizing babies resulted in $10 saved for every dollar spent, about $69 billion total. “Vaccines are one of the most cost-effective interventions we have,” says Halsey
http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2015/02/vaccines-are-profitable-so-what/385214/
http://www.skepticalraptor.com/skepticalraptorblog.php/flu-vaccine-myth-big-pharma-profits/
If it’s true they are morons.
“Oh honey, no” was my thought on reading the headline, too. Sigh.
I had no idea that InTouch actually tried calling/contacting the subjects of their stories, my sense was that they never confirm or verify anything, lol.
There’s been a change in direction for InTouch. Remember: they broke the Duggars.
Bahaha no there hasn’t getting one story a year right doesn’t mean anything
@Sil – One story? They basically rammed it into the Duggar’s brand and performed investigative journalism. There’s hope for this mag.
The fact that the Duggars is the ONLY story you can name they got right says it all. Let me know when they quit claiming Jennifer Aniston is pregnant or abandoned by her husband.
They want their kid with an old timey name to get an old timey disease
Measles: so hot right now
There are currently some community-wide outbreaks of Whooping Cough here in Canada. The vaccine against this is in the MMR given to kids. Whooping Cough can also be fatal in unvaccinated babies. This is fact. These people are playing with the lives of their child and other children around him. So thoughless and uninformed. SMH
Actually, whooping cough is Pertussis, the “P” in the TDAP shot (and DTAP for adults). It can’t be administered until 6 months of age, so it’s highly recommended that the parents be up to date on the vaccination as the most common form of transmission at that age is adult to baby.
MMR is Measles, Mumps, Rubella.
@Jan – That’s exactly what my Dr. said about Whooping Cough. I had no idea it was so dangerous, silently moving back onto populations. There has been enough reported cases of WC arising here in France to really make sure newborns are protected.
Jessica and Justin need to look beyond the playground. They could easily be the ones to potentially infect their unvaccinated son.
I had this as a baby back in 1987. The only reason I survived it was my mother watching me like a hawk, realising I was having trouble breathing. So while they waited for the ambulance, she followed the pediatrician’s advice. She still recalls it as the worst experience she had as a first time mother. The fact this vaccine is available and parents refuse it to their children is ridiculous.
I think Whooping Cough is making a come back everywhere. I’m a teacher in California and even my school sent out an email telling us about getting the shot and there are always commercials on the TV saying how the Whooping Cough is coming back.
“Coming back” should be the wake up phrase for these non-vaccinated people.
I hope Silas DOES get old-timey whooping cough and scare the crap out of them. Of course I want the baby to get well and be fine, but we could use a celebrity baby to illustrate what happens to children without vaccinations. Silas could not only get measles but spread it to little babies, grannies, people who have cancer, people who just had a kidney transplant – anyone without a strong immune system, not to mention pregnant women who then have children with birth defects. It’s completely selfish and reprehensible.
not cool, bitch all you want, but don’t say s h i t like that, you just might tumble off that soapbox you prancing around on…
TB has made a major comeback in the UK – that kills if not treated, particularly with children, plus its a virus that can become resistant to a single drug. Due to the mass migrations that have been going on over the past 20 years a lot of the ‘old’ diseases are making a comeback (TB, measles, rubella etc..) with people coming from countries that had/have no vaccination programmes to places where these diseases were almost wiped out.
Vaccination is so important not just in children but adults to. In this day and age it saddens me to see that there are still some gov’s out there who would rather spend money on nuclear weapons, war and space travel than on vaccination programmes and I applaud the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation who are putting their wealth and power with their mouth is and helping people and funding research into new ways to combat preventable diseases.
I might write to Her Maj asking her to give these two honory titles – they deserve it more than most people (looking at you actors).
Back in 2008 my youngest, who was 6 months, was due for vaccinations but I wanted to wait. At the time we traveling to Europe. The doctor warned me about the other illnesses he may catch he wasn’t vaccinated; especially while traveling. I quickly opted to vaccinate.
If this is just a rumour, it’s very irresponsible for IT to publish anti-vaccination stuff. Some idiot might take it seriously and the rest of the public is at risk because IT wants to sell magazines.
Foolish, foolish people.
And why does Justin look so strung out in these pictures? His eyes are glassy as hell…
He has had that look for a while now, something seems very off with him, maybe hanging with his pal Jimmy Fallon too many nights a week.
Well, she married Justin Timberlake, so we already knew she was stupid.
Here in CA we have a new law that requires kids to be up to date on vaccines before they begin most new schools. Meaning, their child will not be able to attend preschool (private or public) or attend public grade schools. Not sure if the new law covers private grade schools but hopefully it does.
Massachusetts has had that law for decades but people find ways around it.
The key thing is that California passed a law that got rid of all non-medical exceptions. You used to be able to pull the old ‘personal belief’ card to get out of it and you can’t do that in ca anymore if you want to go to public school. Which makes sense-want to use public resources and put the public at risk? You can’t do that. West Virginia and Virginia have the same laws on the books.
California private schools still allow a parent to exempt for personal/religious reasons. But if there is any sort of outbreak, unvaccinated kids will be mandated to stay out of school until the immediate threat passes. My child’s private school still strongly encourages vaccinations eve though exemptions are easily completed.
I really don’t understand why some people are against vaccines. I always get a kick when celebrities pretend to know more than doctors and scientists. Google is sometimes a curse.
This!
What irritates me about people who choose not to have their children vaccinated (and I have one or two among my friends), is that it would probably be exactly those people who would move heaven and earth to secure vaccines for their precious children if a REALLY contagious new disease would break out (provided a quick-working vaccine were to be available for it).
This. Last year during the Ebola scare-there were anti-vax people I know demanding why there wasn’t a Ebola vaccine. You know if one had been available they all would have taken it.
Mother Earth. My child “Silas” thanks mom says he for that name…..will now be at risk for getting diseases and spreading them that just shouldn’t be happening. These people drive me nuts with their uneducated, self-serving views on life. I can’t even…….
Not people here actually believing In Touch what’s next National Enq. And why would they respond to In Touch if they answer them about this then they will start to have to answer their questions about their relationship. Like Seinfield said “if you’re dumb enough to believe the tabloids you deserve to be lied to”
Who misses polio?
this
Jesus. Those vaccinations are one of the triumphs of western science and saved millions upon millions of children across the globe. The risks are totally miniscule and the failure to vaccinate by enough people allows the diseases an opening to regain strength and endanger tens of thousands of kids. They should be jailed for public endangerment. My father had polio when he was a kid in the1940s. Luckily he survived. Diphtheria killed 18 million people in the early 20th century. The polio terror crippled hundreds of thousands. Smallpox kills and disfigures. The chicken pox vaccine is eliminating shingles which afflicts so many seniors and is extremely painful and in some cases can leave nerve damage so bad that there is no treatment for it and people have been known to commit suicide because the pain from the nerve damage is so bad.
People like this make me sick, tossing out the achievements of modern medicine because they listen to shit like the anti-vaccine morons.
my mom had measles and mumps back to back before a vaccination was available. she was so young and so ill that it exacerbated a birth defect in her heart and required her to have two open heart surgeries as an adult. her opinion is that if you choose not to vaccinate and voluntarily allow your child to be exposed to these diseases – it is child abuse.
Your mother is right, IMO.
Lizzie, I’m so sorry for your mom’s experience. That sounds terrible.
thanks MP. She’s tough! But its kind of sad that it is very recent history that it happened (my mom is only 62) and people are now purposefully undoing such huge advances in our collective health. the saddest part of her story i think is that my grandmother had never had it and was pregnant at the time so she couldn’t take care of her at all. could you imagine being so afraid of catching a disease that could harm your unborn child that you couldn’t comfort your sick baby?! don’t people realize how lucky we are!! LOL.
I am so sorry about what your Mom experienced, and she is absolutely right.
Does anyone else here remember the tragedy that befell actress Gene Tierney (my all time fave weeper, “The Ghost and Mrs. Muir”!) and her daughter, Daria? While pregnant with Daria, Tierney got rubella (German measles) from a fan who had it and who got out of a sickbed to go see Tierney at a local appearance. The rubella caused Daria to be born deaf, partially blind, and severely mentally disabled. Tierney was devastated and the poor child spent most of her life institutionalized.
Vaccines are, I repeat, one of the greatest achievements of western medicine. The only reason Biel even thinks she is safe making this choice is because the vaccines eradicated so much of the disease. If enough people follow her example, the diseases will return.
Agree completely. Vaccines are one of the primary reasons children live into adulthood.
This and home births are are hot buttons for me. If we had not been in the hospital hooked up to , well, everything, my son would have either been dead or brain dead and things weren’t looking good foe me either.
I feel like this as an opportunity for people to elevate themselves to a different status. Regular medical care is for the peons not for the rarified like us. Idiots.
M*rons.
Sigh
My baby got pertussis at 1 week old – before the vaccination was offered to pregnant women.
It’s these stupid selfish f-s that are causing these diseases to resurface
How horrible, I really hope your poor baby was ok and recovered fully.
my sister had whooping cough at age 4 and was hospitalized. Doctors were worried she had broken ribs from coughing so hard. I can’t imagine how terrible it is for an infant.
So, so ignorant. How many childhood illnesses have cropped up again because of idiots not caring enough to vaccinate??. Vaccines are meant to protect your kids and those who CAN’T be vaccinated (not won’t), but herd immunity only works when everyone who can be vaccinated are. Enjoy the free ride, hippy dippy dumb dumbs – the more of them you are, the less effective herd immunity is and the only ones who won’t get PREVENTABLE illnesses are the one who are vaccinated.
I have a friend who’s a research scientist and has worked totally on autism research for years. She said it had nothing to do with vaccines. She herself tried for many years to get pregnant, and when she finally had a baby, that baby got all vaccinations on schedule! I agree with other posters that the magazine is ill advised to give ANY platform to ignorant, life threatening views that could sway other ignorant people. The poor kids of such ignorant parents! And can you imagine the agony of ANY parent whose child contracts a life threatening disease, that was perfectly preventable?!
I hope this is not true, and if it is, I hope their kid doesn’t get sick.
Having said that, if he does get sick, I will have ZERO sympathy for them. It’s their fault and tantamount to chold abuse. These anti-vaxxers make me want to throw something (like a vaccine-filled syringe) at their heads. At the age of 41 I had to get TDAP again because whooping cough is making a comeback. It’s about as welcome as acid-wash jeans.
If you ever have grandkids, you’ll have to get the TDAP again anyway. The pertussis part of the shot is fairly short acting, like 2-3 years.
After my second was born and I was getting the shot (I have no idea how I didn’t get it while pregnant) a nurse finally told me that to prevent the soreness from the shot later, rub the jab site and move that arm a lot to get it to move into and through the muscle. It seems to disperse it and then it doesn’t hurt for weeks after.
All a person has to do is look at the countries that do not vaccinate and the diseases that run rampant. That should be all the evidence needed. There are so many fringe groups for anything and everything today.
Can anyone hear my eyes rolling around their sockets at the suggestion of an alternate schedule? The friends I have who follow them make some of the absolutely weirdest decisions – skipping rotavirus (seriously? you can lessen some of the impact/not get some of the worst vomiting and diarrhea for your kid and you think it’s a waste?)… And they never have an actual reason for the spacing, just some fuzzy notion about “all the crap in vaccines.” FFS, worry more about corporate pollution, which is real and crippling, rather than some fuzzy belief about “toxins” in your medicine.
Absented from my eyeroll, of course, are the parents of children who have documented reactions to vaccines and whose doctors agree spacing is safer for. For those parents, my heart goes out to you!
Slowing the schedule is the new “not vaccinating.” One of my cousins who has little ones talked about slowing the schedule and our other cousin, who is a pediatric nurse who has done international relief work with the red cross, got so furious, she said if our dumb cousin didn’t vaccinate *on schedule* she would never let her or her children into her house, or let them have playdates, or anything. She was like, it’s too dangerous to mess around with, get your kids vaccinated on schedule, unless your doctor is the one who suggests an alternate schedule because of actual medical issues. My nurse cousin says people arbitrarily deciding to slow the schedule is as bad as not vaccinating, because with some vaccines it can affect their efficacy. They say, “We’re not doing that vaccine until Baby Mariner is three,” but by then it’s too late and the vaccine won’t be as effective.
My kid had a very adverse reaction to his 4 month vaccines. He had horrific spiking fevers and some rare dermatitis that would cause gigantic welts on half his body for about 8 months. You’ll excuse me if I split up his remaining jabs so that instead of 5 or 6 at a time he would get 3 and the other 3 a couple months later.
A vaccine should certainly be as effective if you do it a few months later. No, you won’t have protection for those months you didn’t do it. Just because vaccines do good doesn’t also mean they can’t do harm, as is the case with all drugs. I think there needs to be more research into adverse reactions. They all tend to be swept under the rug, IMO.
Yes but that’s a legitimate medical reason to delay the schedule, and I assume your doctor had some opinions on when and how to administer the rest of his vaccinations? No one argues against reasoned medical intervention. My cousin, based on absolutely nothing, wanted to delay the schedule by *years,* and my other nurse-cousin thought was stupid because there was no reason to assume harm.
ETA: I see over and over on pro-vax sites the acknowledgment that there is a percentage of children who will inevitably have adverse reactions to vaccines, and therefore have to delay or even skip certain vaccinations. That makes it all the more important that everyone else be vaccinated, to protect your actually-adverse child during the time in which he’s vulnerable.
@Sloane – no one thinks less of kids with documented reactions (or subsequent siblings) not following the standard schedule. That’s a medical reason, not the woo and “gut” instinct these other people are following.
And the complications/reactions/side effects aren’t swept under the rug at all. Perhaps not well known by the general public given their rarity, but the possible reactions are on the fact sheet they give you for each shot. I’m sorry your kid was the unlucky reactor, though.
“No polio is good.”
— Captain America
I agree with you all. Not vaccinating your child is dangerous to the child and other children. What makes me mad is that there are children around the world dying for the diseases that we have vaccines for and they don’t have the luxury of medical advancements that we do. So to say that they aren’t going to vaccinate for whatever reason is sad to me. I am assuming that both of them got these vaccines as children and they seem to be pretty healthy. But it b is their choice for their child.
Good for them! I am glad they have taken an educated approach.
“There’s a troll in the dungeon!”
Jessica Biel is a selfish moron if she doesn’t vaccinate. I can’t stand her now.
Is she the only one responsible for Silas. I thought babies had 2 parents
I agree with all of you about the vaxxing, and they’re idiots if they don’t!
So I’m going to be much more superficial, and say, that is one heinously ugly dress Jessica Biel is wearing. Tiered ruffles and then more ruffles down her arms with a ruffle caplet around her neck. YUK. She’s never had a great sense of style, but this one is truly awful.
Let the witchhunt begin…they don’t owe anyone what is private information about their child.
Ever considered their baby may not able to have vaccinations for various different reasons?!
This social media trend of oversharing has really made people believe they have the right to know everything about stranger’s lives. Not confirming or denying this tabloid story does not mean anything, maybe they don’t want to have to start denying every made up thing about them in the future.
Are they trying to get attention? Why wouldn’t they just say “no comment” or have their PR person say that J&J don’t discuss their child’s medicine decisions with them?I’m cranky over vaccines today, apparently.
Are they trying to get attention? Why wouldn’t they just say “no comment” or have their PR person say that J&J don’t discuss their child’s medical decisions with them?I’m cranky over vaccines today, apparently.
Who, with any brains, would follow in the steps of the likes of Alicia Silverstone, Jenny McCarthy and Kristen Kavalari? Are they trying to be stupid and made fun of? I’m confused.
Gotta state the obvious – vaccines seem scary when you have to allow your baby to be given multiple shots and yes, they do hurt, let’s get real. But the consequences of not doing it outweight the discomfort and anxiety of doing it, by leaps and bounds, so how is there still any question what the right thing to do is?
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, if my son EVER gets sick from being exposed to an unvaccinated child, I will sue the parents and take everything they own or ever will own. Not because I want their money but because I will ruin them for exposing my child to danger simply because they want to be special snow flakes.
As a member of the last generation before most of these vaccines were available, I can attest personally that these childhood diseases are miserable. I clearly recall how sick I was and I had them all. I have been thankful that the polio vaccine became available when I was still quite young. When my kids came along, you better believe I had them vaccinated because it would have broken my heart to see them that ill.
Yes! When the Salk vaccine came out, my mom marched me to the city-wide clinic to get it. We’d lived through too many summers when kids had to avoid other kids, couldn’t go to the pool, etc., and one little boy across the street actually had polio one year. When I was 20, pregnant with my first baby, some friends of ours lost their four year old daughter to measles. It was before the vaccine. You can believe I got every vaccine possible for my kids.
My older brother had polio and was in a hospital polio ward for several months. I was too young to remember anything about it except I remember the celebration when he finally came home. I wish that idiot parents who have decided they know more than the medical community could talk to my brother. He considers anti-vaxxers to not only be criminally stupid, but that it is child abuse to not protect your child from these dreaded diseases. Just because the vaccines are easily available and affordable does not negate the fact that they are miracles of modern science.
I know you all think all vaccinations are safe and necessary, but as a scientist who deals regularly with the research I can’t agree. It is especially risky in the very young. Try to delay vaccinations until they are at least two years old (that seems to help reduce risk of SIDS) and try to avoid multiple vaccines despite the inconvenience. Space them out as best you can. If you have any family history of bad reactions to vaccines, be especially cautious about any vaccination schedule.
Vaccination can be a serious shock to the system. Many children seem to deal with it ok, although trying to sort out long-term effects is very difficult. Your doctor may not really know enough about the risks- doctors are consultants, and some are better than others and definitely each one knows certain areas better than others. I’ve taught pre-meds, and most of them had blinders on even in their late teens and early twenties. It is not surprising that I’ve run into many doctors with the same narrow approach, blinders still firmly in place. Medical thinking on such matters can change rapidly but many doctors don’t stay open to other possibilities.
From extensive reading of the medical literature (I actually worked for a vaccine manufacturer once on a long-term project, as a translator), my own opinion is that the results of vaccination campaigns are frequently misinterpreted. There are many factors in play. Vaccines often come at the tail end of an epidemic, when better hygiene practices and quicker isolation of contagious patients are already greatly slowing down the spread. Plus the immune system gets a boost just from thinking that you are protected by a jab in the arm… The brain directs the immune response, after all. There have been few long-term studies of observable signs of proper response to a vaccine, but those I’ve seen are not encouraging to me. I would personally avoid flu vaccines myself, since most people do not really have the desired response (or it is very short-term) but there is a risk of getting sick from the vaccine itself. Plus the virus mutates so rapidly that we can’t keep up with it anyway. Better to take other measures to boost the immune system.
I am concerned about the huge number of vaccines used for children today. We had only a handful, but the number today is several dozen. We just don’t know enough about the long-term effect on the immune system from such multiple assaults, or the effect of using vaccines rather than allowing simple childhood diseases to naturally build the immune system. There are risks either way- even with the small number of vaccines we had in my childhood, those were enough to kill the brother of a friend of mine. Vaccinations against particular diseases are typically stopped once the number of deaths from the vaccine outnumber deaths from the disease. And of course that point can be reached much earlier, due to underreporting and delayed deaths where the connection with vaccination is not recognized.
I’m glad I’m not a parent today, trying to make such decisions and trying to figure out the trade-offs in different kinds of risk. But I would certainly never quarrel about a parent’s decision not to vaccinate. That doesn’t mean they are stupid or gullible. And if you think they are putting your own vaccinated child at risk – then you don’t have much faith in vaccination yourself. But the fact is that vaccination may or may not “take” in your own child. Most instances in such diseases today are indeed in the vaccinated. So just make your own decision but don’t trash those who make a different one. You don’t know what went into their decision.
Thank you!
Well said.
I was going to say their kid their choice. This was a very informative comment.
Do you have credible links/evidence for:
delaying vaccinations to help with SIDS
there are “several dozen” vaccines today
most instances of diseases are in the vaccinated
It’s well said, and I agree with some doctors not understanding risks. But…
Humans don’t understand risk very well either, so it’s not just doctors but parents who may be not understanding that there is nothing, not even vaccinations, that are risk free.
There’s currently no evidence linking the vaccination schedule to SIDS:
http://www.who.int/vaccine_safety/initiative/detection/immunization_misconceptions/en/index4.html
Same with the vaccination schedule:
https://www.aap.org/en-us/advocacy-and-policy/Documents/Vaccineschedule.pdf
http://www.techinsider.io/the-argument-that-kids-get-too-many-vacines-at-once-is-wrong-2015-9
vaccines vs. better hygiene:
“Vaccines often come at the tail end of an epidemic, when better hygiene practices and quicker isolation of contagious patients are already greatly slowing down the spread. ”
Perhaps the best evidence that vaccines, and not hygiene and nutrition, are responsible for the sharp drop in disease and death rates is chicken pox. If hygiene and nutrition alone were enough to prevent infectious diseases, chicken pox rates would have dropped long before the introduction of the varicella vaccine, which was not available until the mid-1990s. Instead, the number of chicken pox cases in the United States in the early 1990s, before the vaccine was introduced in 1995, was about four million a year. By 2004, the disease incidence had dropped by about 85%.
http://www.historyofvaccines.org/content/articles/top-20-questions-about-vaccination#17
https://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/vaccines-didnt-save-us-intellectual-dishonesty-at-its-most-naked/
I understand questions about the efficacy of the flu shot, but you don’t sick from the flu shot.
“So just make your own decision but don’t trash those who make a different one. You don’t know what went into their decision.” But a lot of anti-vaccination people tell us what went into their decision, and it’s often based on long debunked myths.
THANK YOU.
@jwoolman Thank you for this. I feel the same, just unable to explain it as eloquently. What do you think of the thing that just came out yesterday where they are saying that even though the flu shot may not often help with the flu, that getting it every year confers some benefits down the road. Sounds very science fiction to me.
As to the person who said you don’t get sick from the flu shot, I can attest to the fact that my husband gets sick from it every single year and he still prefers to get it.
My youngest sister decided against vaccinating ger youngest and he caught whooping cough…he’s up to date on all of his vaccines now and she has learned her lesson.
What long term damage did he incur from whooping cough?
This is coming from In Touch, which has a spotty track record. Plus I don’t think any celebrity should be forced to comment on their child’s healthcare simply because a tabloid keeps calling.
That said, I hope this isn’t true, because we don’t need more celebrities dishing out questionable or flat out wrong medical advice.
Considering the vaccine/autism link has been debunked, why are some parents still opting not to vaccinate? I’m not sure what the current reasoning for opting out of vaccines is these days?? Can anyone enlighten me because I’m actually quite curious.
I think everyone has a right to choose… Who are we to judge…
Those of us who get sick from kids and their parents who won’t vaccinate and spread communicable diseases as a result. See my post below
There are very intelligent women I work with who won’t vaccinate their kids. I think they are crazy and can’t understand how smart they can be at work and how dumb they can be on this.
I caught pertussis (adult whooping cough) at age 61 from the parent of a child who didn’t believe in vaccinations. Her kid caught it, then the mother brought it into work where I worked quite closely with her. For weeks she had this horrific cough but continued coming to work. Because vaccines tend to wear off after age 50, I ended up with it and was sick for f*cking weeks. Worst cough I’ve ever had, so bad I would literally vomit.
So thanks all you crunchy granola tree-huggers for thinking your more perfect than perfect child is so special they’re impervious to disease, or that vaccines cause SIDS, autism and paralysis and brain damage and permanent athletes foot. It’s your fault I got so goddamn sick and had to take all kinds of medication to get me well. Then I got shingles.
So for all you over-50 CBers, get re-vaccinated against all communicable diseases.
This is one of the few times I feel sorry for celebrities. Totally their business
They more than likely are just spreading out the vaccines instead of the multi-cocktail of vaccination shots usually given. Any parent that would travel outside or abroad with a baby that wasn’t vaccinated is Just asking for whooping cough or worse.
They are always trying to be edgy and always failing these 2.
Jimmy Kimmel on vaccines:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QgpfNScEd3M