As parents we want to keep our baby healthy and safe, this is why we decided NOT TO VACCINATE.

There are too many reasons for me to fit them all in one post, so I will focus on my research regarding one vaccine alone - DTP or DTaP - specifically its pertussis component. 

As per information from the CDC website, pertussis vaccine efficacy for children is 8 or 9 out of 10 vaccinated and due to the vaccine waning around 7 out of 10 are protected 5 years later.

In case of adults, the vaccine is effective for 7 out of 10 adults and only 3 or 4 are protected 4 years later. 

However, looking at the epidemiological records of the 2012 US outbreak, which was the biggest since 1955, there were 48277 whooping cough infections and 20 deaths out of a population of 318 million people.

According to the vaccine records for children 6 to 11 months old, only 131 (11%) had no vaccinations at all, 230 (19%) received 1-2 doses and 539 (44%) sick received 3+ doses of the vaccine.

From the 1 - 4 year olds, who contracted the disease, 140 (9%) had 0 doses, 233 (4%) had 1-2 doses and whooping 3404 children (59%) had 3+ doses.

This goes in line with pertussis surveillance records gathered from 28 counties in the EU, and Australia, where the biggest percentage of infected children received 3+ vaccines.

I have not found any records or studies (of whooping cough or any other vaccine preventable diseases) where only the unvaccinated would be the affected.

On the contrary, a 2010 study from Israel where a vaccinated 4 month old died, the outbreak happened at two day care centres among 100% vaccinated group of children between 2 and 6 years old.

A fair question to ask is therefore, if the vaccine at all works and why we keep seeing fully vaccinated children getting pertussis.

There are two studies that shed light to it, the already mentioned study from Israel as well as from a study done by the FDA.

"The whole-cell vaccine for pertussis is protective only against clinical disease, not against infection. Therefore, even young, recently vaccinated children may serve as reservoirs and potential transmitters of infection."

Yes, you read that correctly: the vaccine does not prevent an infection with pertussis, but protects from clinical symptoms of it. 

What more, vaccinated individuals while possibly asymptomatic, may in fact spread the infection to others, often for up to 6 weeks. 

This is confirmed by an FDA study in baboons:

"Animals that received an acellular pertussis vaccine had the bacteria in their airways for up to six weeks and were able to spread the infection to unvaccinated animals. In contrast, animals that received whole-cell vaccine cleared the bacteria within three weeks.

This research suggests that although individuals immunized with an acellular pertussis vaccine may be protected from disease, they may still become infected with the bacteria without always getting sick and are able to spread infection to others, including young infants who are susceptible to pertussis disease." 

https://www.fda.gov/NewsEvents/Newsroom/PressAnnouncements/ucm376937.htm

This post is in 3 parts due to its length. make sure to read them all to fully understand the bases for this decision.