vaccinations - hepatitis b

I'm feeling a little bit lost. I'm doing a bunch of research about vaccines for our baby on the way but I'm missing one thing. I really wish that I had someone to bounce this stuff off of. I feel like back in Chicago in college I probably had quite a few friends and acquaintances to bounce thoughts and ideas and research off of but I don't seem to have that anymore and any online community that I can find to either agree or disagree with is not in the least bit satisfying this need to converse. I'm pretty sure I could find a few people to talk at but no one that I feel connected enough to to really get into a deep, substantial, educated, and possibly heated conversation with. That stinks.

So, um, here I come to my blog. Is that the best I can do? Well no, I do know real people, but I thought someone else might be interested in what I'm finding and, if anything, what I'm finding will be compiled here for my own reflection later on.

First I will start with the Hepatitis B vaccine. I'll try to be brief.
Let me start by pointing out that Hepatitis B is a disease transmitted by bodily fluids and is most often seen in drug users (needles), prostitutes, sexually promiscuous people, and infants whose mothers have Hep B. So, let me ask you, how many infants or children do you think are likely to ever contract Hep B? Seems highly unlikely to me.
In addition, if you do contract Hep B... 90-95% of all hepatitis B cases recover completely after 3 to 4 weeks of nausea, fatigue, headache, arthritis, jaundice and tender liver. (http://www.nvic.org/vaccines-and-diseases/Hepatitis-B/diseasevaccine.aspx)
Here is a bit of info that I found quickly while searching earlier today: Hepatitis B is a rare, mainly blood-transmitted disease. In 1996, only 54 cases of the disease were reported to the CDC in the 0-1 age group. There were 3.9 million births that year, so the observed incidence of hepatitis B in the 0-1 age group was just 0.001%. In the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS), there were 1,080 total reports of adverse reactions from Hepatitis B vaccine in 1996 in the 0-1 age group, with 47 deaths reported. Total VAERS Hepatitis B reports for the 0-1 age group outnumber reported cases of the disease 20 to 1. (http://www.thinktwice.com/hepb.htm) So if you trust the sources that's 54 cases of Hep B in a year when there were 47 reported deaths from the vaccine.
Additionally, many of the side effects from the Hep B vaccine mimic or potentially cause autoimmune disorders such as arthritis and lupus, both of which I have. Did I develop those due to vaccines? Who knows. Do vaccines bring out disorders that a person may be already susceptible to? Who knows.
From this info, I conclude that, due to the unlikeliness that our child will contract Hepatitis B and the significant fact that there is a history of autoimmune disease in my family, we're opting out of this particular vaccine.

Next up... MMR.