In response to Laura Shelton’s reply to our original letter on vaccine safety and choice (“Childhood immunizations may not be the ‘silver bullet,’ ” Aug. 16 Times-News): Thanks for your response. Let us respond to your comments, bearing in mind that the debate is about a parent’s God given right (not Government’s) to choose what vaccines (if any) go into their child.

Comparing our agenda to Big Pharma? The Gardasil vaccine had over $2 million in sales in 2008. Our agenda is about choice and safety, not profit!

On this same vaccine you state your former boss could have avoided cancer with the vaccine, you apparently are watching only TV commercials. For another viewpoint on Gardasil and the injuries it may cause, check www.nvic.org. The cancer this vaccine is effective against (a very small percent) mainly affects older women, and with regular pap smears is almost 100 percent treatable.

Our outside signs do not promote holistic measures for vaccines, they only reference “too many, too soon,” plus Web addresses where individuals can find additional information on vaccine safety and choice, like www.wvve.info. If we wanted to promote holistic measures we would have spoken about homeopathic alternatives to vaccines, and how side effects are basically non-existent when compared to pharmaceutical vaccines. We’re for disease prevention, just not with controversial means that are forced upon us or our children.

Hepatitis B vaccine, you say “someday” kids may participate in risky behavior. According to a spokesperson for the vaccine manufacturer, “immunity probably lasts for five years, although that is not certain” (ref: The Journal of American Medical Association).

Why would you inject a newborn with this? Will your pediatrician sign a statement guaranteeing the vaccine is safe and effective, W.Va. State Health Department won’t!

You say “Try telling someone who suffered from polio that vaccines are a conspiracy.” Polio already started to decline in the United States and Europe in the 1940s and 1950s, and declined by 82 percent in England by 1956, all before the Salk vaccine was ever used there. (Ref. www.vaccinetruth.org ).

You reference the “expert opinion” and benefits outweighing the risk. How can you expect an unbiased/expert opinion when people who work with vaccine manufacturers also advise the CDC’s safety board on vaccine safety?

Give us unbiased independent studies.In 1981, the largest case study ever (British National Childhood Encephalopathy Study) concluded the pertussis portion of DPT vaccine causes acute brain inflammation and permanent brain damage, and the Institute of Medicine agreed with that conclusion in 1994.

Fear mongering? How about the fear we’re getting over the H1N1 flu shot, wanting to make it mandatory for school kids, all for a flu that appears no worse than a regular flu strain. Please take the time to see the new video at www.nvic.org

It always gets us that if there is an adverse reaction after a vaccine, you’re told, well it could have been anything, probably not the vaccine.

I ask, if you were walking through the jungle and got bitten on the ankle by a Black Mamba, and an hour later you were in a coma, would your doctor or nurse stand around your bedside saying, well, let’s check and see what they ate for lunch, or is there a family history of comas? I think not. They would all say, it was the Black Mamba!

Our goal is also “one less,” and freedom of choice in vaccines. Please review House Bill 3069, visit www.legis.state.wv.us/ for vaccine choice for West Virginians.

John Cozatt, MH

Tonya Cozatt, MH, BS Holistic Nutrition

Ridgeley, W.Va.