This brings us to the final question of the long-term impact of mass vaccination programs on individual and community health. Since I have expressed my concerns on this score, many people have asked if any research has been done to substantiate them. I can only appreciate the irony in the fact that the compulsory feature of these programs is precisely what makes it so conveniently impossible to study them--so much so, that parents refusing to vaccinate their children deserve to be congratulated for making such research possible, and should, in fact, be recruited when it is ready to be carried out.
Equally noteworthy is the unprecedented breadth and scope of the research that will be required. Nothing less than the total health picture of vaccinated and unvaccinated children, followed over an entire generation, will suffice--a great collective enterprise that not only will be exciting and important in itself, but surely will yield invaluable new models for holistic medical research generally, models that take us well beyond the outmoded focus on single "disease entities" in which we are still imprisoned today. So, regardless of whether or not you decide to vaccinate, I urge you all to think about a mechanism for how collaborative research of this kind can be conducted, and how each of us can play our part in it.
Notes
1. D. Shepherd, Homeopathy in Epidemic Diseases (Rustington, Essex [U.K.]: Health Sciences Press, 1967). Available from Homeopathic Educational Services, 2124 Kittredge St., Berkeley, CA 94704.
2. Samuel Hahnemann, MD (1755- 1843), the discoverer of homeopathy. .
3. R. Moskowitz, "The Case Against Immunizations,"Journal of the American Institute of Homeopathy 6 (7 March 1983). Available from the National Center for Homeopathy, 1500 Massachusetts Ave., NW, Washington, DC. Abridged version published in Mothering (Spring 1984). .
Ricbard Moskowitz, MD (48) received his undergraduate degree. from Harvard and his medical degree from New York University. He has studied classical bomeopatb witb Professor Ceorge Vitboulkas in Atbens, Greece. Dr. Moskowitz practices at tbe Turning Point Wellness. Center in Watertown, Massachusetts. and is a past President of the National Center for Homeopathy.