Foreword  by  Cyndi  O'Meara

I was lucky to be brought up in a family where my father did not follow public opinion - especially in regards to my health. Although he started his professional career as a pharmacist he did not agree with what was happening in the drug industry back in the 1950's. He left pharmacy after 6 years in the field and became a chiropractor. In order for him to do this, he had to fly from New Zealand to the USA and study in Davenport Iowa.

My father was a very passionate Chiropractor and 53 years later, he is still practicing at the age of 84. 52 years ago, the vaccine program in Australia was delivered in the school system, nobody questioned the program everyone did the same thing and followed the vaccine protocol and schedule.  I remember being the only child left in the schoolroom during the routine vaccines as my father would not give permission for me to be vaccinated. At the time, I didn't really think too much about it, but many of the girls would say I was lucky because I didn't have to have a needle in my arm. A Chinese proverb says "A wise man does not follow public opinion he makes his own decisions", and I believe my Dad was one of the wise men.

My Dad not only would not give me or my siblings vaccines but he was also opposed to antibiotics for infections and pain killers for tooth eruptions. So at the age of 52 I have never had an antibiotic or any prescribed or non prescribed medications. Many doctors say I'm just lucky and so do many people but what they don't realize is that on the part of my father it was very good management of my health. My mother cooked everything from scratch as did many women in the 1960's and 1970's, we were encouraged to live an active lifestyle and I was under chiropractic care from the day I was born.

My family questioned public opinion and medical dogma and it is hard once you have been taught to do this not to continue it through out life.
When I became pregnant with my first child in 1988, I questioned everything. I didn’t want any ultra sounds and I refused to swallow the flavored, colored, sugar laden glucose mixture for a pregnancy glucose tolerance test that was advised, to see if I had gestational diabetes. When my son was born I would not let them give him vitamin K, the recommended vitamin for newborns due to the rise in hemorrhagic disease. I did not refuse these routine procedures lightly I read all the current research.

Vaccinations were also something else that I looked into fully. I read everything I could. I had done immunology during my six years at university, but I wanted to see both sides of the story. My husband was not quite so sure, but decided that I knew more then him and left the decision in my hands. A couple of years later he thanked me for my foresight and voracious need for knowledge to know that vaccines were safe (or not).

After all my reading on vaccines I actually became fearful of them, I was more scared for my children to have a vaccine then I was of the childhood disease it was meant to prevent. I also followed my fathers lead and would not give my children antibiotics. Of course if it was life threatening I would have given them what they needed.  I also decided that the first pain my children would really feel was the pain of their teeth coming through their gums.  I, like my parents decided not to give my children any pain relief as I wanted their pain mechanisms to get some practice. I figured if they could deal with the small infections and small pains in life without drugs then their bodies’ immune system and pain centers would be primed for the larger infections and pains they may experience as they grew and went out into the world.

Controversy and emotion are two words that can be said about the vaccination debate. Those that oppose it do it after much reading and consideration. Most people who vaccinate their children either do it because it is public policy, fear or they trust implicitly in the process. When I was asked to be in a survey to determine the health of unvaccinated and vaccinated children I jumped at the chance. I have my story but I wanted to know if other people had similar stories with their unvaccinated children.

I'm a speaker and a health advocate and after every talk I'm approached by quite a few people telling me about what happened to their child after vaccination. Some were death, others autism or some neurological complaint. I hadn't heard too many heart breaking stories from parents who had not vaccinated.

I was sent an email from a friend who had heard of the research Andreas Bachmair was doing, she felt that myself and my adult children would be a wonderful addition to the research. I thought at last we have someone who is interested in the health of unvaccinated children. I always wondered why someone would not research a family as mine as we don't depend on the national social health system. I always felt that it would be better to research people who have health rather then to research people who have lost their health. Research is targeted for cure rather then for prevention. Until Andreas's research came along there was no one interested in families with health.

Andreas's research will be ongoing and in my way of thinking some of the most important research on vaccination effects and long term health of those that are vaccinated and unvaccinated.

Albert Einstein said that those who have the privilege to know have the duty to act and Andrea's work will continue to educate people in order to know about vaccination and the long term effects. His research will educate people to not follow public opinion and propaganda but rather question what is happening and become informed when making decisions that pertain to the health of our future generations.

Cyndi O'Meara

Biography:
Cyndi O'Meara, P.O. Box 104, Mooloolaba Q 4557, International Speaker, Best Selling Author, TV and Radio Presenter., www.changinghabits.com.au