September 14, 2000: Illinois State Board of Health Chicago Hearing Testimony
Marianne S. (mother)

I am the mother of six children. Five had had the chicken pox, my youngest has not. I want my youngest child to get chicken pox and not a vaccine so he can have a natural life-long immunity against it. I don't want him to have to worry at age thirty, or fifty or seventy if the vaccine is still effective.

Also, whenever any vaccine is mandated, exemptions should be made easily available. In Wisconsin, for instance, all a parent has to do is check off a box as to which exemption they want. Yet in Illinois, you're trying to narrow exemptions. As a parent, I am willing to accept the emotional, physical and financial trauma that would come along with a possible adverse effect of a disease. When a vaccine is mandated and a parent's right to choose is taken away, who is going to have to carry the physical, financial and emotional burden that comes along with a child who has had an adverse reaction to a vaccine? Again it will be the parent, not the manufacturer, not the government, even though it was not the parent's choice.

Formaldehyde, a known cancer-causing agent, aluminum, associated with Alzheimer's disease, seizures and cancer, ethylene glycol (antifreeze) and carbolic acid are some of the ingredients used to make various vaccines. These are injected right into our children's bodies. It's incredible.

Right now, NICOR is trying to clean up its' mercury problems because mercury is so dangerous. It causes brain damage and autoimmune disease. Yet it is also in some vaccines, even when the manufacturers' themselves know there is no known safe level of mercury. At least NICOR is being held responsible for its actions, as is Firestone for its tires, as Jewel was for its milk. Yet the damage done by these companies' products is nothing in comparison to the number of children injured or killed by vaccines. However, the vaccine manufacturer claims to have a child's vest interest at heart, they are a company and the bottom line is profit.

It is an accepted fact that some children will have an adverse reaction or die from a vaccine. Their lives are sacrificed for the supposed greater good of the all. In other words, some children are expendable. Well, my children are not! I don't think there is anyone here who would say their child or grandchild is expendable either.

So please do not mandate and more vaccines and do make exemptions more readily available. Let me, as a parent, keep my right to choose what is best for my child!

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