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I am sorry that you felt attacked. An extra month of risk is minor in the grand scheme of things.

However, vaccine timing is a very well studied field since there is lots of data. So immunologists have plenty of data to know when and how serious adverse reactions can occur. In fact, there is an entire reporting system for vaccine reactions: VAERS

With that data, doctors can know when it's unsafe to give vaccines. Such as this chart from the CDC with contraindications and precautions of when not to vaccinate. Even further here's a peer reviewed paper on the topic

So where do you draw the line?

You draw the line where it is obvious that the benefit far outweighs the risk.

Who determines whether a medical procedure is sufficiently benign so that the government can force you to undergo it?

The people who elect the officials.

But there are legitimate medical and/or non-medical reasons to object to other vaccines (e.g., HPV, TB).

References? BTW, there is only one state that required HPV vaccines and that is in high school. There is no requirement for TB vaccine anywhere in the US.

he US government can force anybody to get vaccinated,

Citation required.

The part that is wrong is that parents are required to pay for public schools regardless even if they disagree with public school policies, whether it is vaccinations or the curriculum.

Taxes are paid for a lot of things that are not used by individual tax payers. Case in point, people without children pay taxes for public schools even though they never send children there. People who own cars still pay for public transit even though they never use it. It is all about choice. It is the parent's option to vaccinate their children to the standard required to attend school. They also have the option of not vaccinating their children and not using public schools.

PS. Here are the vaccination requirements in the US

It is mandated by many states due to the leading of the FDA. I mean, yes, you could live in your own little hole and not get it. But if you want your kid to go to pre-school. It's very mandatory.

Interesting, I just looked this up to verify and you are correct. It seems that I happen to live in one of the 3 backward states that does not mandate it.

It's also very important we mandate it there, because little kids do stupid things like gets cuts and scrapes and generally practice poor hygeine and would sterilization practices. If you wanted to pick an environment where they're going to exchange bodily fluids likely to spread Hep B, that's the one.

From wikipedia:

HBV can be transmitted between family members within households, possibly by contact of nonintact skin or mucous membrane with secretions or saliva containing HBV.[47][48] However, at least 30% of reported hepatitis B among adults cannot be associated with an identifiable risk factor

More importantly: it's effects are very long term. Get it when you're little, and you could become a chronic carrier. Lo and behold at age 40 you're suffering for liver cancer, and probably die of it. Or nothing happens - but you give it to your kids, who that then happens to.

It is a nasty, long-term illness with very severe consequences for a sizeable number of those who get it.

It is mandated by many states due to the leading of the FDA. I mean, yes, you could live in your own little hole and not get it. But if you want your kid to go to pre-school. It's very mandatory.

Interesting, I just looked this up to verify and you are correct. It seems that I happen to live in one of the 3 backward states that does not mandate it.

Data being poor is exactly why you and your wife are unable to get the HPV vaccine. CDC to the rescue:

If a 30-year-old female patient insists that she wants to be given HPV vaccine, can I give it to her?

HPV vaccine is not FDA-licensed for use in women older than age 26 years at this time [emphasis mine]. Studies are currently being conducted in women age 27 years and older. ACIP does not recommend the use of this vaccine outside the FDA licensing guidelines; however, many physicians administer this vaccine as off-label use. There is no reason to believe the vaccine would be any less safe for women in this age group than for younger women. Clinicians should decide if the benefit of the vaccine outweighs the hypothetical risk.

You should have gotten off your pro-science arse and done a quick Google search.

My heart goes out to all of the families with children with Autism or Aspergers. I cannot imagine how difficult it must be to come to terms with the fact that your child has one of these conditions, and then to fight to ensure that your child gets the education and care needed for them to live a rich, fulfilling life.

Blaming vaccinations is not the answer, however. There have been a wealth of impartial studies performed, and the results overwhelmingly show that autism is NOT caused by vaccinations. For example, there was an extensive review performed in 2004 by the Institute of Medicine, an organization chartered by the National Academy of Sciences in 1970 to serve as an adviser to the federal government on issues affecting the public's health, as well as to act *independently* in identifying important issues of medical care, research, and education. (see http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20669467)

By falsely linking autism and vaccines, parents have been hesitant to vaccinate their children. The lack of vaccinations has resulted in unnecessary illnesses, complications, and deaths due to diseases that are 100% avoidable. (For over a hundred real-life accounts of people who have suffered or died from vaccine-preventable diseases, you can visit http://www.immunize.org/reports/. The main body of the site is pretty interesting, too.) I cannot imagine how a parent must feel, knowing that their child is disabled or dead because they weren't immunized. I'm betting it's 1,000x worse than the parent of an autistic child who was immunized, since there is absolutely no question that the (in)action of the parent is to blame.

Calling for more studies to prove what has already been established - that vaccines do not cause autism - diverts funds away from research that can try to establish what *does* cause the disease and develop more effective treatment methods. I think that we all would be better served by putting funds towards this kind of research.

Yes, lets all go back to Typhoid, Polio, and Yellow fever. Those are much better than a few deaths out of millions. The numbers that die from flu each year globally is something like 30,000 (yes, that's per year). Kind of makes your cheerleader insignificant by comparison, although I'm sure that's no comfort to her friends and family.

Try educating yourself before spouting uneducated nonsense. All vaccines cary risk, but for those that are approved, the benefit far outweighs the risk.

And, it's not too late to give your daughter the varicella (chicken pox) vaccine. Your opinion may be that's it's irritating, but with the infinitesimally low rate of complications of the vaccine compared to the not so infrequent complications from the virus (see http://www.immunize.org/reports/chickenpox.asp) as well as likely reduction in the risk of shingles (from lingering effects of the same virus) later on in life, your daughter will thank you.

While you support your argument about lead poisoning, you offer nothing about the other two elements.

I'm guessing you're one of those that didn't vaccinate your children and avoid fluorinated water, even though all the peer reviewed research shows you're just putting your children at greater risk of disease and tooth decay, rather than decreasing any risk of autism. But while it's a guess, I'm basing it on your trying to link lead research to mercury and fluoride without proof.

I also suspect that you'll next say "but mercury is toxic!" and show a bunch of links about mercury toxicity as a red herring. Fine. But you can't come up with one reputable peer-reviewed link against fluoride in drinking water. And don't you dare try to say MMR vaccinations caused autism, because the long-term results are in.
ADHA on Fluoride
ADA on Fluoride

23 studies refuting MMR and autism link
CDC's website on MMR and autism

If I've gotten you all wrong (which I doubt, based on your anti-fluoride stance), then you have my apologies. Next time, support your argument.