Yes, but New Zealand isn’t one of them.  

The only “compulsory” vaccine for many countries worldwide, is Yellow Fever. 

Most others are “recommendations” only, doctors might attempt to persuade you otherwise.   

USA is a law unto itself, and likes to attempt to “require” everything.  

The reality is at the moment, that most border controls assume most people just “do it”, so apart from yellow fever, you are unlikely to be questioned, as they have better things to do.  

You can contact your travel agent, to receive up-to-date information; however, most often they refer you to someone like WorldWise (see below).  

Ask whoever you chose to talk to, about what conditions apply to those who refuse vaccines i.e. quarantine, in the event of a widely publicised disease outbreak.

Check out which countries will vaccinate you on the spot with Yellow Fever, even if you are only in a transit lounge if you have come from a country where yellow fever is endemic, and if don’t know your “rights”.  Australia is needle happy, and doesn’t necessarily adhere to their own “rules”.  Australian requirements are; “A yellow fever vaccination certificate is required from travellers over 1 year of age entering Australia within 6 days of having stayed overnight or longer in a country with risk of yellow fever transmission”. After six days they can’t jab you.  

NEW ZEALAND WEBSITES:

Don’t bother checking the Air New Zealand website.  It’s useless. 
But here’s the URL to prove the point.   http://www.moh.govt.nz/travel#overseas   

The only useful information on the New Zealand Ministry of Health site is the international vaccination certificate which can be downloaded from here:    http://www.moh.govt.nz/moh.nsf/pagesmh/6694/$File/model-international-certificate-vaccination-form.pdf 

The New Zealand Government site http://www.safetravel.govt.nz/  does not contain a list of country vaccine requirements.  But check it out for travel advisory notices.  

One New Zealand firm gives you the option to put any country into a box, and download a report on it. http://www.travel-essentials.co.nz/country-report-select.asp    as well as other reports.  Some of the information is very useful.

See menu on the left.  (Double check quality of information important to you by using Google, to compare with other sites elsewhere.)  

BEWARE re vaccine advice: This website is part of the “WorldWise group, and their vaccination recommendations go far beyond travel “requirements”. Personal experience with WorldWise has shown me that they are in the business of persuading you to have as many vaccines as possible because that’s a core part of their business mandate.  (Not that they succeeded with me, but then, it’s hard to persuade someone who knows their stuff.)  

As you see here, if you take this company’s ‘advice’ you will be a total needle cushion: http://www.worldwise.co.nz/worldwise-vaccinations.asp     http://www.travel-essentials.co.nz/vaccinations-travellers.asp     (Travel Essentials and Worldwise are one and the same.)   Beware of the Worldwise statement (or any statement) which says:  “Vaccinations are now so pure that they are not so likely to cause reactions or side-effects, as they used to do.  They tend to be greatly purified and that part of the vaccine that used to cause unpleasant reactions has been eliminated.”  Anyone familiar with the compositions of old and new vaccines knows that such a statement is wishful thinking. 

The yellow fever vaccine is as dangerous as it has ever been.

Please note their disclaimer in tiny print down the bottom of the page:   Disclaimer:  Whilst every effort is made to provide current and accurate information and advice, no liability is accepted by TRAVEL ESSENTIALS, WORLDWISE or any of their subsidiaries for any incorrect information.  

If you have one of the nasty vaccine reactions you weren’t told about, tough.  

INFORMATION ALERT: If you chose to attend a Worldwise centre or any other travel vaccine centre, ask them if you can go and collect the vaccine insert, AND the data sheet printout prior to any appointment, so that you can take them home and think about it.   

If they refuse, check out all individual vaccine data sheets by name, on the New Zealand Medsafe website, using THIS search engine. http://www.medsafe.govt.nz/profs/Datasheet/dsform.asp   Do not look for the more vague consumer information.

Put in the name of the vaccine, then click on the link.  

Here is the Medsafe data sheet for the yellow fever vaccine called Stamaril: http://www.medsafe.govt.nz/profs/Datasheet/s/Stamarilvac.htm  

Do an Internet search, putting in the vaccine name, and the words ‘data sheet’ and ‘pdf’ into the search parameters. Doing that for the Yellow Fever vaccine brought up the company’s Stamaril 2007 pdf.  http://198.73.159.214/sanofi-pasteur/front/[OPEN_DOC]../visu.documentheque?codeDocument=177&codeSite=AVPI_AU&codeRubrique=47&codeLangue=EN   

OVERSEAS WEBSITES:  

 

If you are wanting comprehensive international vaccine information from overseas, here are two main sites: CDC and WHO.

 American Centre for Disease Control (CDC) which has information about country entry requirements related to vaccination: http://wwwn.cdc.gov/travel/contentYellowBookUpdates.aspx   

The World Health Organisation country list with Yellow Fever requirements:  Pages 180 – 205 http://www.who.int/ith/countries/2008_country_list.pdf  

 Descriptions: Yellow Fever: http://www.who.int/ith/vaccines/2007_selective_use/en/index7.html  (The irony of this is that the serious side effects from Yellow Fever vaccine has recently been found to be just as dangerous, if not more so, in numerical terms, than your actual chances of catching Yellow Fever if you are not vaccinated – detailed in ‘From One Prick to Another’.)  
Cholera vaccine. http://www.who.int/ith/vaccines/2007_selective_use/en/index.html 
Hepatitis A: http://www.who.int/ith/vaccines/2007_selective_use/en/index1.html 
Japanese Encephalitis: http://www.who.int/ith/vaccines/2007_selective_use/en/index2.html 
Meningococcal disease: http://www.who.int/ith/vaccines/2007_selective_use/en/index3.html 
Rabies: http://www.who.int/ith/vaccines/2007_selective_use/en/index4.html 
Tick Borne Encephalitis: http://www.who.int/ith/vaccines/2007_selective_use/en/index5.html 
Typhoid Fever: http://www.who.int/ith/vaccines/2007_selective_use/en/index6.html 

Expect most countries in the world to become needle happy in the coming years, as the WHO tries to implement more stringent International Health Regulations: http://www.who.int/csr/ihr/en/index.html    

 

Why have you done the donation system?

Living beyond conformity requires a different way of thinking. 

We don’t believe in setting a price on something so as to make it a “bought commodity”. 

Why are people asking for the book in the first place?  Is it because it’s “free”, so the idea is just to “take”? 

The view point we hold isn’t a popular viewpoint.  We presume people interested in living beyond conformity have good lateral thinking skills.  We presume that people asking for our information, have a high priority on their list of “need to know”, the information which can help them make valuable informed choices for the long term health and welfare of their children.  

If the work that has gone into these 500 page books means something, and the recipients of the book value the work of the Trust and wish it to continue, then we hope that will ask themselves some questions about what their priorities to the Trust are, in return.

What is a reasonable donation?

This is a question we are asked all the time. In frustration, we will provided an answer of sorts.

It's not a question that, as a trust, we feel we should answer.

Paying for postage is not a donation to the Trust.  Postage rates are detailed elsewhere. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

You then have to work out what value you place on one, two, three, four, or however many books you order.

You can look in a shop at mass produced books, but remember they are done by corporate companies, printing thousands of copies, which puts the unit price down to around $3.00 - $8.00, yet you pay maybe $30.00 or more.

After covering costs of postage any donation is supporting the work of the trust ... in what it does.  Books.  This website etc.

We self published, print small runs, and have exacted high standards over what we have done; much higher standards than most other books of this type.  And we live in a mouse maze constructed of boxes of books!

We think that when the average person sits down and considers what is involved in terms of the time, and effort to write books, run a website, be available at the end of the phone, they should be able to work out what they think the value of the work of the trust, (represented by the information in the books) is to them.

We aren't going to quibble over what you donate, because the bottom line in the economy today, is what a person can afford.

If someone really can't afford to donate, does not have access to a library which has the book, and really needs the book and is prepared to share it around, we will provide it at no cost.

What is the best way to donate?

We would prefer that you donate AFTER you are received the books. 

You can donate in several different ways:

1)  Our preferred method is personal crossed cheque, even from overseas, as this method attracts the least fees, and makes our accounting much simpler.

2)  Internet banking is available in New Zealand.

3)  The PAYPAL option is available on this site.  Please remember that Paypal deduct 5% as a service fee.  Obviously the larger the donation the more the fees, so Paypal isn't a preferred option as far as we are concerned.  Paypal makes accounting book entries a whole heap more complicated.

OVERSEAS : PLEASE do NOT consider

 
an electronic bank transfer, or bank cheque from overseas.  Your bank will take $25.00 at your end,  as will ours at this end.

Personal cheques from overseas are the preferred method by the Trust because it makes accounting simple and they don't incur large fees, unless your cheque bounces.

accounts. 

Trusts in this country are auditted, so from the book keeping aspect, cheques are much easier for our accounting and book-keeping. Careful records are kept which would be more than adequate for audit purposes. These detail when books are sent out, and all copies of overseas customs declarations are kept in case we need to track a missing book.
 
Receipts are available on request, for tax purposes.

No.
 

Reason: 

Immunization is a serious issue, needing serious consideration.  If we thought informed understanding and strong convictions was possible with advertorial sound-bite pamphlets, we would have saved ourselves a lot of money.  

The perception that because the Ministry of Health fits the whole of their side of the “story” into a pamphlet, so everything else can fit on a pamphlet as well, is seriously flawed.   

The MoH pamphlets don’t tell you much at all, but the average parent doesn’t know that, because they assume that the MoH will tell them everything they need to know. The MoH knows that people want to be told what to do, in just a few paragraphs, so information is tailored so that when the parent gets to the end, they have been scared or conned into saying, “Yes!”.   

For us to explain how and why the MoH pamphlets don’t inform a parent, it’s necessary to explain what the MoH didn’t say on each topic, and how that impacts on the whole decision making process.  

Parents who conscientiously choose not to vaccinate usually read very widely, and make a huge effort to get it right when it comes to other aspects of parenting like long term breastfeeding, nutrition, exercise, lifestyle, education, how to nurse children through disease using old fashioned or alternative disease treatments, knowing when to go for medical help, etc. 

Unless you are lucky enough to know all that before you have children, to become properly informed about all those topics requires extensive reading, way beyond anything we’ve written, and requires years of consistently finding out what you need to know.  

Non-vaccinating parents go to these lengths because the system portrays parents who choose not to vaccinate in the media, as irresponsible parent who neither love their children, care about their children’s welfare, nor that of other people. 

This kind of adequate understanding and knowing cannot be instilled from quick-fire summaries.  

We believe that if parents aren’t prepared to do the reading and study required to back up their convictions and know how they are going to meet the various challenges that will be thrown their way, then allowing the system to parent their children would be an appropriate response.

2012:

In reality, being a member no longer has many advantages, as most of what is on the site is publicly available.

If you are not a member, and wish to access member's blogs and resources, then go here:

Membership application

Fill in the form, and a burearat in the dashboard will complete the details.

Logging in, using the red login button in the top right hand corner of the home page, will take you to the members' home page, and further information will be available there.

Beyond conformity is our “lounge” where we consider broader information in relation to vaccines, health issues, and life in general, than that which the current medical mantra accommodates.
 
Science is not, and never will be infallible.  Therefore, everyone has a right to consider other concepts which might have as much, if not more validity than the narrow solutions of vaccines and drugs.  We hope that the motto of Beyond Conformity will go further than “Permission to think,” into “making a difference”.  Welcome to our home.