Dan Burton deserves some support for standing up against mass vaccination. As a father of a happy, healthy and intelligent 4-month-old boy, I'm not risking his health with certain shots. ADD, ADHD, SIDS, shaken baby syndrome, autism, asthma, epilepsy and other conditions have been blamed on vaccines. There really are not enough thorough long-term safety studies to be sure -- that would cut into the manufacturer's profit margin.

The only thing I want is a choice. In my state of Texas, my child will not be allowed to attend public school (unless we join some crackpot religion that the state deems "established" that forbids us to vaccinate our children) A philosophical reason just ain't good enough. A parent shouldn't have to be forced by the state to make his child a retard in order to give her an education.

-- J.D. Dwinell
Austin, Texas

Isn't this an ugly irony: "Family values" conservatives, who condemn abortion as the killing of children, are now on a crusade to dismantle a system that prevents children from being killed by germs the conservatives can't hope to evangelize. I guess their nostalgia for the "good old days" extends to such elements of those days as scarlet fever.

-- Keith Ammann

Can vaccines be made safer? Certainly. Should we conduct research to find out the risk of complications? Of course! However, I disagree completely with those who would abandon vaccination entirely. Those of us who are fortunate enough to grow up in the last half of the 20th century do not understand how dangerous so-called "childhood" diseases are. In my own family, three of my grandparents' siblings and one of my aunts died from diseases that are now prevented by vaccination. My parents vividly recall the terror of polio epidemics while they were growing up, and can name schoolmates who were stricken with the disease. I'll take the relatively small risk of vaccination over the huge risk of disease any time.

-- Nancy Ott
Pittsburgh

If people don't want to immunize their children, the United States probably shouldn't make them. As soon the unprotected kids start getting sick and the insurance companies raise their premiums, I'm sure these parents will come around.

-- Bryan Johnson

What about all the lives vaccines have hurt? Arthur Allen didn't think to investigate all the facts. Dan Burton is going against the propaganda the vaccine companies have given us, and is making most people think.

-- Kelly Larsen
Phoenix

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