DISPELLING
VACCINATION MYTHS
An Introduction to the contradictions Between
Medical Science and Immunization Policy
by Alan Phillips, Esq.
lawpapa@nc.rr.com
Vaccine Religious Exemptions
Revised 2001, Original Version 1996
reprinted here with permission from the author
INTRODUCTION
When my son was set
to begin his routine vaccination series at age 2 months, I didn't
know there were any risks associated with
immunizations. But the clinic's flyer contained a contradiction:
my child's chances of a serious adverse reaction to the DPT vaccine
were one in 1750, while his chances of dying from pertussis were
one in several million. When I pointed this out to the physician,
he angrily disagreed, and stormed out of the room mumbling, "I
guess I should read that [flyer] sometime...." Soon thereafter
I learned of a child who had been permanently disabled by a vaccine,
so I decided to investigate for myself. My findings have so alarmed
me that I feel compelled to share them; hence, this report.
Health authorities credit vaccines for disease declines, and assure
us of their safety and effectiveness. Yet these assumptions are
directly contradicted by government statistics, published medical
studies, Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Centers for Disease
Control (CDC) reports, and the opinions of credible research scientists
from around the world. In fact, infectious diseases declined steadily
for decades prior to mass immunizations, doctors in the U.S. report
thousands of serious vaccine reactions each year including hundreds
of deaths and permanent disabilities, fully vaccinated populations
have experienced epidemics, and researchers attribute the numbers
of chronic immunological and neurological diseases that have risen
dramatically in recent decades to mass immunization campaigns.
Decades of studies published in the world's leading medical journals
have documented vaccine failure and serious adverse vaccine events,
inclu-ing death. Dozens of books written by doctors, researchers,
and independent investigators reveal serious flaws in im-munization
theory and practice. Yet, in-credibly, most pediatricians and parents
are unaware of these findings. This has begun to change in recent
years, however, as a growing number of parents and healthcare providers
around the world are becoming aware of the problems and questioning
mass mandatory immunization. There is a growing international movement
away from mass mandatory immunization. This report introduces some
of the information that provides the basis for this movement.
My point is not to tell anyone whether or not to vaccinate, but
rather, with the utmost urgency, to point out some very good reasons
why everyone should examine the facts before deciding whether or
not to submit to the procedure. As a new parent, I was shocked to
discover the absence of a legal mandate or professional ethic requiring
pediatricians to be fully informed of the risks of vaccination,
let alone to inform parents that their children risk death or permanent
disability upon being vaccinated. I was equally dismayed to see
first hand the prevalence of physicians who are, if with the best
of intentions, applying practices based on incomplete, and in some
cases, outright mis-information.
This report is only a brief introduction; your own further investigation
is warranted and strongly recommended. You may discover that this
is the only way to get an objective view, as the controversy is
a highly emotional one.
A word of caution: Many have found pediatricians unwilling or unable
to discuss this subject calmly with an open mind. Perhaps this is
because they have staked their personal identities and professional
reputations on the presumed safety and effectiveness of vaccines,
and because they are required by their profession to promote vaccination.
But in any event, anecdotal reports suggest that most doctors have
great difficulty acknowledging evidence of problems with vaccines.
The first pediatrician I at-tempted to share my findings with yelled
angrily at me when I calmly brought up the subject. The misconceptions
have deep roots.
VACCINATION MYTH #1:
"Vaccines are safe..."
...or are they?
The Federal government
VAERS (Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System) was established
by Congress under the National Childhood
Vaccine Injury Compensation Act of 1986. It receives about 11,000
reports of serious adverse reactions to vaccinations annually,
which include as many as one to two hundred deaths, and several
times
that number of permanent disabilities. VAERS officials report
that 15% of adverse events are "serious" (emergency room trip,
hospitalization, life-threatening episode, permanent disability,
death). Independent analysis of VAERS reports has revealed that
up to 50% of reported adverse events for the Hepatitis B vaccine
are "serious." While these figures are alarming, they
are only the tip of the iceberg. The FDA estimates that as few
as 1% of serious adverse reactions to vaccines are re-ported, and
the
CDC admits that only about 10% of such events are reported. In
fact, Congress has heard testimony that medical students are told
not
to report suspected adverse events.
The National Vaccine
Information Center (NVIC, a grassroots organization founded by
parents of vaccine-injured and killed children) has conducted
its own investigations. It reported: "In New York, only one
out of 40 doctor's offices confirmed that they report a death or
injury following vaccination." In other words, 97.5% of vaccine
related deaths and disabilities go unreported there. Implications
about medical ethics aside (federal law directs doctors to report
serious adverse events), these findings suggest that vaccine
deaths and serious injuries actually occurring may be from 10 to
100 times
greater than the number reported.
With pertussis (often
referred to as "whooping cough"),
the number of vaccine-related deaths dwarfs the number of disease
deaths, which have been about 10 annually for many years according
to the CDC, and only 8 in 1993, one of the last peak-incidence
years (pertussis runs in 3-4 year cycles; no none knows why, but
vaccination
rates have no such cycles). When you factor in under-reporting,
the vaccine appears to be 100 times more deadly than the disease.
Some argue that this is a necessary cost to prevent the return
of a disease that would be more deadly than the vaccine. But when
you
consider the fact that the vast majority of disease decline this
century preceded the widespread use of vaccinations (pertussis
mortality declined 79% prior to vaccines), and the fact that rates
of disease
declines remained virtually unchanged following the introduction
of mass immunization, present day vaccine casualties cannot reasonably
be explained away as a necessary sacrifice for the benefit of
a disease-free society.
Unfortunately, the vaccine-related-deaths
story doesn't end here. Studies internationally have shown vaccination
to be a cause of
SIDS, (SIDS, Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, is a "catch-all" diagnosis
given when the specific cause of death is unknown; estimates
range from 5,000 to 10,000 cases each year in the US). One study
found
the peak incidence of SIDS occurred at the ages of 2 and 4 months
in the U.S., precisely when the first two routine immunization
are given, while another found a clear pattern of correlation extending
three weeks after immunization. Another study found that 3,000
children
die within 4 days of vaccination each year in the U.S. (amazingly,
the authors reported no SIDS/vaccine relationship), while yet
another researcher's studies led to the conclusion that at least
half of
SIDS cases are caused by vaccines.
Initial studies suggesting
a causal relationship between SIDS and vaccines were quickly followed
by vaccine-manufacturer sponsored
studies concluding that there is no relationship between SIDS
and vaccines; one such study claimed that there was a slightly
lower
incidence of SIDS in vaccinees. However, many of these studies
were called into question by yet another study that found "confounding" had
erroneously skewed the results of these studies in favor of the
vaccine. At best, there is conflicting evidence. But shouldn't
we err on the side of caution? Shouldn't any credible correlation
between
vaccines and infant deaths be just cause for meticulous, widespread
monitoring of the vaccination status of all SIDS cases? Health
authorities have chosen to err on the side of denial rather than
caution.
In the mid 1970's, Japan raised their vaccination age from two
months to two years; their incidence of SIDS dropped dramatically;
they went from an infant mortality ranking of 17 to first in the
world (i.e., Japan had the lowest infant death rate when infants
were not being immunized). England's vaccination rate temporarily
dropped to about 30% at about the same time following media reports
of vaccine-related brain damage. Infant mortality dropped sub-stantially
for about 2 years, then rose again in close correlation to rising
immunization rates in the late 1970's. Despite these experiences,
the medical community maintains a posture of denial. Coroners don't
check the vaccination status of SIDS victims, and unsuspecting families
continue to pay the price, unaware of the dangers and denied the
right to make an informed choice.
FDA and CDC admissions
about the lack of adverse event reporting suggests that the total
number of adverse reactions actually occurring
each year may actually fall within a range of 100,000 to a million
(with "serious" events being approximately 20% of these).
This concern is underscored by a study revealing that 1 in 175 children
who completed the full DPT series suffered "severe reactions," and
a Dr.'s report for attorneys stating that one in 300 DPT immunizations
resulted in seizures.
England actually saw
a drop in pertussis deaths when vaccination rates dropped to 30%
in the mid 70's. Swedish epidemiologist B.
Trollfors' study of pertussis vaccine efficacy and toxicity around
the world found that "pertussis-associated mortality is currently
very low in industrialized countries and no difference can be discerned
when countries with high, low, and zero immunization rates were
compared." He also found that England, Wales, and West Germany
had more pertussis fatalities in 1970 when the immunization rate
was high than during the last half of 1980, when rates had fallen.
Vaccinations cost us
more than just the lives and health of our children. The U.S.
Federal Government's National Vaccine Injury
Compensation Program (NVICP) has paid out over $1.2 billion since
1988 to the families of children injured and killed by vaccines,
with money that comes from a tax on vaccines that vaccine recipients
pay. Meanwhile, pharmaceutical companies have a captive market;
vaccines are legally mandated in all 50 U.S. states (though legally
avoidable in most; see Myth #9), yet these same companies are "immune" from
accountability for the consequences of their products. Furthermore,
they have been allowed to use "gag orders" as a leverage
tool in vaccine damage legal settlements to prevent disclosure
of information to the public about vaccination dangers. Such arrangements
are clearly unethical; they force an unin-formed American public
to pay for vaccine manufacturer's liabilities, while ensuring
that
this same public will remain ignorant of the dangers of their
products. This arrangement also dimin-ishes any incentive that manufacturers
might have to produce safer vaccines.
It is important to note that insurance companies, who do the best
liability studies, refuse to cover vaccine reactions. Each industry's
respective profit motives have generated these contradictory positions.
VACCINATION TRUTH #1:
"Vaccination causes
significant death and disability at an astounding personal and
financial cost to uninformed families and
society."
VACCINATION MYTH #2:
"Vaccines are very
effective... "
...or are they?
The medical literature
has a surprising number of studies documenting vaccine failure.
Measles, mumps, small pox, pertussis, polio and
Hib outbreaks have all occurred in vaccinated populations....
In 1989 the CDC reported: "Among school-aged children, [measles]
outbreaks have occurred in schools with vaccination levels of greater
than 98 percent. [They] have occurred in all parts of the country,
including areas that had not reported measles for years." The
CDC even reported a measles outbreak in a documented 100% vaccinated
population. A study examining this phenomenon concluded, "The
apparent paradox is that as measles immunization rates rise to high
levels in a population, measles becomes a disease of immunized persons." A
more recent study found that measles vaccination "produces
immune suppression which contributes to an increased susceptibility
to other infections." These studies suggest that the goal of
complete "immunization" may actually be counter-productive,
a notion underscored by instances in which epidemics followed complete
immunization of entire countries. Japan experienced yearly increases
in small pox following the introduction of compulsory vaccines in
1872. By 1892, there were 29,979 deaths, and all had been vaccinated.
In the early 1900's, the Philippines experienced their worst smallpox
epidemic ever after 8 million people received 24.5 million vaccine
doses (achieving a vaccination rate of 95%); the death rate quadrupled
as a result. Before England's first compulsory vaccination law in
1853, the largest two-year smallpox death rate was about 2,000;
in 1870-71, England and Wales had over 23,000 smallpox deaths. In
1989, the country of Oman experienced a widespread polio outbreak
six months after achieving complete vaccination. In the U.S. in
1986, 90% of 1300 pertussis cases in Kansas were "adequately
vaccinated." 72% of pertussis cases in the 1993 Chicago out-break
were fully up to date with their vaccinations.
VACCINATION TRUTH #2:
"Evidence suggests
that vaccination is an unreliable means of preventing disease. "
VACCINATION MYTH #3:
"Vaccines are the
reason for low disease rates in the U.S. today... "
...or are they?
According to the British
Association for the Advancement of Science, childhood diseases
decreased 90% between 1850 and 1940, paralleling
improved sanitation and hygienic practices, well before mandatory
vaccination programs. The Medical Sentinel recently reported, "from
1911 to 1935, the four leading causes of childhood deaths from
infectious diseases in the U.S. were diphtheria, pertussis, scarlet
fever,
and measles. However, by 1945 the combined death rates from these
causes had declined by 95 percent, before the implementation
of mass immunization pro-grams."
Thus, at best, vaccinations
can be examined only for their relationship to the small, remaining
portion of disease declines that occurred
after their introduction. Yet even this role is questionable,
as pre-vaccine rates of disease mortality decline remained virtually
the same after vaccines were introduced. Furthermore, European
countries
that refused immunization for small pox and polio saw the epidemics
end along with those countries that mandated it; vaccines were
clearly not the sole determining factor. In fact, both small pox
and polio
immunization campaigns were followed by significant disease incidence
increases. After smallpox vaccination was being mandated, smallpox
remained a prevalent disease with some substantial increases,
while other infectious diseases simultaneously continued their
declines
in the absence of vaccines. In England and Wales, smallpox disease
and vaccination rates eventually declined simultaneously over
a period of several decades between the 1870's and the beginning
of
World War II. It is thus impossible to say whether or not vaccinations
contributed to the continuing declines in disease death rates,
or if the declines continued unabated simply due to the same forces
which likely brought about the initial declines: improvements
in
sanitation, hygiene and diet; better housing, transportation
and infrastructure; better food preservation techniques and technology;
and possibly natural disease cycles. Underscoring this conclusion
was a recent World Health Organization report which found that
the
disease and mortality rates in third world countries have no
direct correlation with immunization procedures or medical treatment,
but
are closely related to the standard of hygiene and diet. Credit
given to vaccinations for our current disease incidence has simply
been grossly exaggerated, if not outright misplaced.
Vaccine advocates point
to incidence rather than mortality statistics as evidence of vaccine
effectiveness. However, statisticians tell
us that mortality statistics are a better measure of disease
than incidence figures, for the simple reason that the quality
of reporting
and record keeping is much higher on fatalities. For instance,
a survey in New York City revealed that only 3.2% of pediatricians
were actually reporting measles cases to the health department.
In 1974, the CDC determined that there were 36 cases of measles
in Georgia, while the Georgia State Surveillance System reported
660 cases. In 1982, Maryland state health officials blamed a
pertussis
epidemic on a television program, "D.P.T.-Vaccine Roulette," which
warned of the dangers of DPT, but when former top virologist
for the U.S. Division of Biological Standards, Dr. J. Anthony Morris,
analyzed the 41 cases, he confirmed only 5, and all had been
vaccinated.
Such instances as these demonstrate the fallacy of incidence
figures, yet vaccine advocates tend to rely on them indiscriminately.
VACCINATION TRUTH #3:
"It is unclear
what impact, if any, that vaccines had on 19th and 20th century
infectious disease declines. "
VACCINATION MYTH #4:
"Vaccination is
based on sound immunization theory and practice... "
...or is it?
The clinical evidence for vaccines is their ability to stimulate
antibody production in the recipient. What is not clear, however,
is whether or not antibody production constitutes immunity. For
example, gamma globulin-anemic children are incapable of producing
anti-bodies, yet they recover from infectious diseases almost as
quickly as other chil-dren. Furthermore, a study published by the
British Medical Council in 1950 during a diphtheria epidemic concluded
that there was no relationship between antibody count and disease
incidence; researchers found resistant people with extremely low
antibody counts and sick people with high counts. Natural immunization
is a complex interactive process involving many bodily organs and
systems; it cannot be replicated merely by the artificial stimulation
of antibodies.
Research also indicates that vaccination commits immune cells to
the specific antigens in a vaccine, rendering them incapable of
reacting to other infections. Immunological reserves may thus actually
be reduced, causing a generally lowered resistance.
Another component of
immunization theory is "herd immunity," the
notion that when enough people in a community are immunized,
all are protected. As Myth #2 showed, there are many documented
instances
showing just the opposite - fully vaccinated populations have
experienced epidemics. With measles, this actually seems to be
the direct result
of high vaccination rates. In Minnesota, a state epidemiologist
concluded that the Hib vaccine increases the risk of illness
when a study revealed that vaccinated children were five times
more likely
to contract meningitis than unvaccinated children.
Surprisingly, vaccination has never actually been clinically proven
to be effective in preventing disease, for the simple reason that
no researcher has directly exposed test subjects to diseases (nor
may they ethically do so). The medical community's gold standard,
the double blind, placebo controlled study, has not been used to
compare vaccinated and unvaccinated people, and so the practice
remains scientifically unproven. Furthermore, it is important to
recognize that not everyone exposed to a disease develops symptoms
(indeed, only a tiny percentage of a population need develop symptoms
for an epidemic to be declared). Thus, if a vaccinated individual
is exposed to a disease and doesn't get sick, it is impossible to
know whether the vaccine worked, because there is no way to know
if that person would have developed symptoms if he or she had not
been vaccinated. It is also worth noting that outbreaks in recent
years have recorded more disease cases in vaccinated children than
in unvaccinated children.
Yet another surprising
aspect of immunization practice is the "one
size fits all" aspect. An 8-pound 2-month-old baby receives
the same dosage as a 40 pound five year old. Infants with immature,
undeveloped immune systems may receive five or more times the dosage,
relative to body weight, as older children. Furthermore, the number
of "units" within doses has been found in random testing
to range from ½ to 3 times what the label indicates; manufacturing
quality controls appear to tolerate a rather large margin of error. "Hot
Lots" - vaccine lots associated with disproportionately high
death and disability rates-have been repeatedly identified by
the NVIC, but the FDA consistently refuses to intervene to prevent
further
unnecessary injury and deaths. In fact, individual vaccine lots
have never been recalled due to their greater incidence of adverse
reactions. However, the rotavirus vaccine was taken off the market
a few months after being introduced when it caused bowel obstructions
in many recipients. Incredibly, the FDA and CDC knew about this
problem prior to licensing the vaccine, but both organizations
still gave their unanimous approval.
Finally, vaccines are administered with the assumption that all
recipients, regardless of race, culture, diet, genetic makeup, geographic
location, or any other characteristic, will respond the same. This
was perhaps never more dramatically disproved than in Austra-lia's
Northern Territory a few years ago, where stepped-up immunization
campaigns in native aborigines resulted in an incredible 50% infant
mortality rate. One must wonder about the lives of the survivors,
too; if half died, surely the other half did not escape unaffected.
Almost as troubling was a recent study in the New England Journal
of Medicine reporting that a substantial number of Romanian children
were contracting polio from the vaccine. Researchers found a correlation
with injections of antibiotics. A single injec-tion within one month
of vaccination raised the risk of polio eight times, two to nine
injections raised the risk 27-fold, and 10 or more injections raised
the risk 182 times.
What other factors not accounted for in vaccination theory will
surface unexpectedly to reveal unforeseen or previously overlooked
consequences? We cannot begin to fully comprehend the scope and
degree of the danger until public health officials begin looking
and reporting in earnest. In the meantime, entire countries' populations
are unwitting gamblers in a game that many might very well choose
not to play if they were informed about all the rules in advance.
VACCINATION TRUTH #4:
"Many of the assumptions
upon which immunization theory and practice are based are unproven
or have been proven false in their
application."
VACCINATION MYTH #5:
"Childhood diseases
are extremely dangerous... "
...or are they, really?
Most childhood infectious
diseases have few serious consequences in today's modern world.
Even conservative CDC statistics for pertussis
during 1992-94 indicate a 99.8% recovery rate. In fact, when
hundreds of pertussis cases occurred in Ohio and Chicago in the
fall 1993
outbreak, an infectious disease expert from Cincinnati Children's
Hospital said, "The disease was very mild, no one died, and
no one went to the intensive care unit."
The vast majority of
the time, childhood infectious diseases are benign and self-limiting.
They usually impart lifelong immunity,
whereas vaccine-induced immunity is only temporary. In fact,
the temporary nature of vaccine immunity can create a more dangerous
situation in a child's future. For example, the new chicken pox
vaccine has an effectiveness estimated at 6 - 10 years. If effective,
it will postpone the child's vulnerability until adulthood, when
death from the disease, while still rare, is 20 times more likely
than in childhood. "Measles parties" used to be common
in Britain; if a child got measles, other parents in the neighborhood
would rush their kids over to play with the infected child, to
deliberately contract the disease and develop natural lifetime immunity.
This
avoids the risk of infection in adulthood that comes with artificial
im-munity, when the disease is more dangerous, and provides the
benefits of an immune system strengthened by the natural disease
process.
About half of measles
cases in the late 1980's resurgence were in adolescents and adults,
most of whom were vaccinated as children,
and the recommended booster shots may provide protection for
less than six months. Some healthcare professionals are concerned
that
the virus from the chicken pox vaccine may become "reactivate
later in life in the form of herpes zoster (shingles) or other immune
system disorders." Dr. A. Lavin of the Dept. of Pediatrics,
St. Luke's Medical Center in Cleveland, Ohio, strongly opposed licensing
the new vaccine, "until we actually know...the risks involved
in injecting mutated DNA [the vaccine herpes virus] into the host
genome [children]." The truth is, no one knows, but the vaccine
is now licensed, recommended by health authorities, and quickly
becoming mandated throughout the country.
Not only are most infectious diseases rarely dangerous, they can
actually play a vital role in the developing a strong, healthy immune
system. Persons who have not had measles have a higher incidence
of certain skin diseases, degenerative diseases of bone and cartilage,
and certain tumors, while absence of mumps has been linked to higher
risks of ovarian cancer. Anthroposophical medical doctors recommend
only the tetanus and polio vaccines; they believe contracting other
childhood infectious diseases is beneficial in that it matures and
strengthens the immune system.
VACCINATION TRUTH #5:
"Dangers of childhood
diseases are greatly exaggerated in order to scare parents into
compliance with a questionable but highly
profitable procedure."
VACCINATION MYTH #6:
"Polio was one
of the clearly great vaccination success stories... "
...or was it?
Six New England states reported increases in polio one year after
the Salk vaccine was introduced, ranging from more than doubling
in Vermont to Massachusetts' astounding increase of 642%; other
states reported increases as well. The incidence in Wisconsin increased
by a factor of five. Idaho and Utah actually halted vaccination
due to the increased incidence and death rate. In 1959, 77.5% of
Massachusetts' paralytic cases had received 3 doses of IPV (injected
polio vaccine). During 1962 U.S. Congressional hearings, Dr. Bernard
Greenberg, head of the Dept. of Biostatistics for the University
of North Carolina School of Public Health, testified that not only
did the cases of polio increase substantially after mandatory vaccinations
- a 50% increase from 1957 to 1958, and an 80% increase from 1958
to 1959 - but that the statistics were deliberately manipulated
by the Public Health Service to give the opposite impression. It
is important to understand that the polio vaccine was not universally
accepted, at least initially. Despite this, polio declined both
in European countries that refused mass vaccination as well as in
those that employed it.
According to Australian re-searcher/author Dr. Viera Scheibner,
90% of polio cases were eliminated from statistics by health authorities'
redefinition of the disease when the vaccine was introduced, while
in reality the Salk vaccine was continuing to cause paralytic polio
in several countries amidst an absence of epidemics caused by the
wild virus. For example, cases of viral and aseptic meningitis,
which have symptoms similar to polio, were routinely diagnosed and
recorded as polio before the vaccine, but were distinguished and
removed from polio statistics after the vaccine. Also, the number
of cases needed to declare an epidemic was raised from 20 to 35,
and the requirement for inclusion in paralysis statistics was changed
from symptoms that lasted for 24 hours to symptoms lasting 60 days
(many polio victims' paralyses were temporary). It is no wonder
that polio decreased radically after vaccines - at least on paper.
In 1985, the CDC reported that 87% of the cases of polio in the
U.S. between 1973 and 1983 were caused by the vaccine, and later
declared that all but a few imported cases since were caused by
the vaccine - and most of the imported cases occurred in fully vaccinated
individuals.
Jonas Salk, inventor
of the IPV, testified before a Senate subcommittee that nearly
all polio outbreaks since 1961 were caused by the oral
polio vaccine. At a workshop on polio vaccines sponsored by the
Institute of Medicine and the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention, Dr. Samuel Katz of Duke University cited the estimated
8-10 annual
U.S. cases of vaccine-associated paralytic polio (VAPP) in people
who have taken the oral polio vaccine, and the [then four year]
absence of wild polio from the western hemisphere. Jessica Scheer
of the National Rehabilitation Hospital Research Center in Washington,
D.C., pointed out that most parents are unaware that polio vaccination
in this country entails "a small number of human sacrifices
each year." Compounding this contradiction are low adverse
event reporting and the NVIC's experiences with confirming and correcting
misdiagnoses of vaccine reactions, which suggest that the actual
number of VAPP "sacrifices" may be 10 to 100 times higher
than that cited by the CDC. Notably, the live poliovirus is no
longer in widespread use.
To be sure, polio as it was known in the first half of the 20th
century does not exist today. However, declines following polio
peaks in the late 1940's and early 1950's had been underway for
a period of years by the time the vaccine was introduced.
VACCINATION TRUTH #6:
"The polio vaccine
temporarily reversed disease declines that were underway before
the vaccine was introduced; this fact was deliberately
covered up by health authorities. In Europe, polio declined in
countries that both embraced and rejected the vaccine. "
VACCINATION MYTH #7:
"My child had no
reaction to the vaccines, so there is nothing to worry about... "
...or is there?
The documented long term ad-verse effects of vaccines include chronic
immunological and neurological disorders such as autism, hyperactivity,
attention deficit disorders, dyslexia, allergies, cancer, and other
conditions, many of which barely existed before mass vaccination
programs. Vaccine ingredients include known toxicants and carcinogens
such as thimersol (a mercury derivative), aluminum phosphate, formaldehyde
(for which the Poisons Information Centre in Australia claims there
is no acceptable safe amount that can be injected into a living
human body), and phenoxyethanol (commonly known as antifreeze).
Some of these ingredients are gastrointestinal toxicants, liver
toxicants, respiratory toxicants, neurotoxicants, cardiovascular
and blood toxicants, reproductive toxi-cants, and developmental
toxicants, to name a few of the known dangers. Chemical ranking
systems rate many vaccine ingredients among the most hazardous substances,
and they are heavily regulated. Even microscopic doses of some of
these ingredients are known to be able to cause serious injury.
In addition, some vaccine mediums used in the production of vaccines
contain human diploid cells originating from human aborted fetal
tissue, a fact that might affect many people's vaccination choices,
if they knew this was the case.
Medical historian, researcher
and author, Harris Coulter, Ph.D. explained that his extensive
research revealed childhood immunization
to be "causing a low-grade encephalitis in infants on a much
wider scale than public health authorities were willing to admit,
about 15-20% of all children." He points out that the sequelae
[conditions known to result from a disease] of encephalitis [inflammation
of the brain, a documented adverse effect of vaccination]: autism,
learning disabilities, minimal and not-so-minimal brain damage,
seizures, epilepsy, sleeping and eating disorders, sexual disorders,
asthma, crib death, diabetes, obesity, and impulsive violence
are precisely the disorders which afflict contemporary society.
Many
of these conditions were formerly relatively rare, but they have
become more common as childhood vaccination programs have expanded.
Coulter also points out that pertussis toxoid is used to induce
en-cephalitis in lab animals. The pertussis vaccine's ability
to cause brain damage is thus not only known, but relied upon by
clinical
researchers studying brain disorders.
A German study found
correlations between vaccinations and 22 neurological conditions
including attention deficit and epilepsy. Another dilemma
is that viral elements in vaccines may persist and mutate in
the human body for years, with unknown consequences. Millions
of children
are partaking in an enormous, crude experiment, and no sincere,
organized effort is being made to track the negative side effects
or to determine the long-term consequences. Since long-term studies
on the adverse effects of vaccines are virtually non-existent,
their widespread use in the absence of informed consent and adequate
safety
testing constitutes medical experimentation. As the American
Association of Physicians and Surgeons and the National Vaccine
Information
Center have pointed out, this is a violation of the first principle
of the Nuremberg Code, "the centerpiece of modern bio-ethics."
Bart Classen, MD, PhD,
founder of Classen Immunotherapies and developer of vaccine technologies,
conducted epidemiological studies around
the world and found vaccines to be the cause of 79% of insulin
type I diabetes in chil-dren under 10. The increase risk ranged
from
9% with the diphtheria vaccine to 50% with the Hepatitis B vaccine.
Ac-cording to Classen, CDC data confirms his findings. However,
the implications of Classen's findings go well beyond diabetes,
as his comment in a 1999 issue of the British Medical Journal
points out: "The incidence of many other chronic immunological diseases,
including asthma, allergies, and immune mediated cancers, has risen
rapidly and may also be linked to immunization." The diabetes
findings may be only the tip of the iceberg.
Recent studies in the U.S. and England suggest that vaccines cause
au-tism. Mercury poisoning and autism have nearly identical symptoms,
and a single day's vaccination regimen may inject 41 times the level
of mercury known to cause harm. California's au-tism rate has mushroomed
1000% over the past 20 years, with dramatic increases following
the introduction of the MMR vaccine in the early 1980's. England
had dramatic autism increases beginning in the 1990's, following
the introduction of the MMR vaccine there. Some infants receive
100 times the EPA's maximum allowable amount of mercury through
vaccines. In January, 2000, the Journal of Adverse Drug Reactions
reported that the MMR vaccine was not adequately tested and should
not have been licensed. Further reinforcing the suspected vaccine-autism
connection is the fact that many physicians using a systematic mercury-detoxification
regimen with autistic patients have seen dramatic improvements in
the health and behavior of their patients. Today, one out of every
150 children are affected by autism, according to the National Vaccine
Information Center. In the early 1940's, prior to the introduction
of most vaccines in current use, it was considered a rare condition
that few doctors would ever encounter in their practice.
VACCINATION TRUTH #7:
"The long term
adverse effects of vaccinations have been ignored in spite of
compelling correlations with many serious chronic conditions.
Doctors can't otherwise explain the dramatic rise in many of
these diseases. "
VACCINATION MYTH #8:
"Vaccines are the
only disease prevention option available... "
...or are they?
Most parents feel compelled to take some disease-preventing action
for their children. While there is no 100% guarantee anywhere, there
are viable alternatives. Historically, homeopathy has proven many
times to be more effective than allopathic medicine in the treatment
and prevention of disease. In a U.S. cholera outbreak in 1849, allopathic
medicine saw a 48-60% death rate, while homeopathic hospitals had
a documented death rate of only 3%. Roughly similar statistics still
hold true for cholera today. Recent epidemiological studies show
homeopathic remedies as equaling or surpassing standard vaccinations
in preventing disease. There are reports in which populations that
were treated homeopathically after exposure had a 100% success rate
- none of the treated caught the disease.
There are homeopathic kits available for disease prevention. Homeopathic
remedies can also be taken only during times of increased risk (outbreaks,
traveling, etc.), and have proven highly effective in such instances.
And since these remedies have no toxic com-ponents, they have virtually
no side effects. In addition, homeopathy has been effective in reversing
some of the disability caused by vaccine reactions, not to mention
many other chronic conditions with which allopathic medicine has
had little success.
VACCINATION TRUTH #8:
"Documented safe
and effective alternatives to vaccination have been available
for decades. However, they have been systematically
attacked and suppressed by the medical establishment."
VACCINATION MYTH #9:
"Vaccinations are
legally mandated and unavoidable... "
...or are they?
In the U.S., vaccine laws vary from state to state. While every
state legally requires vaccines, every state also has one or more
legal exemptions from vaccines. School and health officials will
seldom volunteer exemption information, and are sometimes misinformed
about legal exemptions, so it is important to check the laws in
your state to find out exactly what the requirements are. Each state
offers one or more of the following three kinds of exemptions:
1) Medical Exemption: All 50 states in the U.S. allow for a medical
exemption. However, few pediatricians check for indications of increased
risk before administering vaccines, so it is advisable for parents
to research this matter for themselves if they have reason to believe
that their child may be predisposed to vaccine reactions. Epilepsy,
severe allergies, and a previous adverse reaction in a child or
sibling are but a few of the many conditions in child or family
history which may increase the chances of an adverse reaction, and
thus may qualify for a medical exemption from one or more required
vaccines. In general, though, medical exemptions are difficult to
get, may be available only to those who have already had a serious
vaccine reaction or who have a family history of serious vaccine
reactions, may be granted only for the specific vaccine believed
to have caused a previous reaction, and may be valid only as long
as the condition giving rise to the exemption persists (i.e., may
be temporary).
2) Religious Exemption: 48 states allow for a religious exemption
(all but MS and WV). A state's laws may state that membership in
an established religious organization is required. However, this
requirement has been held unconstitutional in New York federal courts;
personal religious beliefs are sufficient for a religious exemption,
regardless of which religious organization you belong to, or whether
or not you belong to an organized religion at all.... In one case,
the plaintiffs were awarded money damages when the court found that
the state had violated their civil rights by denying them a religious
exemption.
3) Philosophical or Personal Exemption: Approximately 17 states
allow parents to refuse vaccination for personal or philosophical
reasons.
It is worth noting that exempted children may be banned from attending
schools during local outbreaks. But all schools, public or private,
must comply with state vaccination laws and honor legal exemptions.
The best source for a copy of your state's vaccination laws is
state health officials. A phone call to the state Department of
Epidemiology or Immunization (the specific name varies from state
to state) may be all that it takes to get a copy mailed to you.
Or, for a small fee, the NVIC and New Atlantean Press will sell
you a copy of your state's im-munization laws (see contact information
at the end of this article). Statutes can be searched on the internet
(for ex-ample, see www.findlaw.com), but these sources may not reflect
very recent changes in the law, if there have been any. Law libraries
and lawyers are, of course, a good source as well.
VACCINATION TRUTH #9:
"Legal exemptions
from vaccinations are available for many - but not all - U.S.
citizens. "
VACCINATION MYTH #10:
"Public health
officials always place the public's health above all other concerns... "
...or do they?
Vaccination history
is riddled with documented instances of deceit portraying vaccines
as mighty disease conquerors, when in fact vaccines
have had little or no discernable impact on - or have even delayed
or reversed pre-existing disease declines. The United Kingdom's
Department of Health admitted that vaccination status determined
the diagnosis of subsequent diseases: Those found in vaccinated
patients received alternate diagnoses; hospital records and death
certificates were falsified. Today, many doctors still refuse
to diagnose diseases in vaccinated children, and so the "Myth" about
vaccine success persists.
Conflicts of interest are the norm in the vaccine industry. Members
and Chairs of the FDA and CDC vaccine ad-visory committees own stock
in drug companies that make vaccines; individuals on both advisory
committees own patents for vaccines under consideration or affected
by the decisions these com-mittees make. The CDC grants conflict-of-interest
waivers to every member of their advisory committee a year at a
time, allowing full participation in the discussions leading up
to a vote by every member whether or not they have a financial stake
in the decision.
Concerns over vaccine
adverse effects and conflicts of interest led the American Society
of Physicians and Surgeons to issue a Resolution
to Congress calling for a "moratorium on vaccine mandates and
for physicians to insist upon truly informed consent for the use
of vaccines." Approved by unanimous vote at the AAPS October
2000 annual meeting, the resolution made references to the "increasing
numbers of mandatory childhood vaccines, to which children are…subjected
without…information about potential adverse side effects";
the fact that "safety testing of many vaccines is limited and
the data are unavailable for independent scrutiny, so that mass
vaccination is equivalent to human experimentation and subject to
the Nuremberg Code, which requires voluntary informed consent";
and the fact that "the process of approving and 'recommending'
vaccines is tainted with conflicts of interest."
In an October 1999 statement
to Congress, Bart Classen, M.D., M.B.A., founder and CEO of Classen
Immuno-therapies and developer of vaccine
technologies, stated, "It is clear…that the government's
immunization policies…are driven by politics and not by science.
I can give numerous examples where employees of the US Public Health
Service…appear to be furthering their careers by acting as
propaganda officers to support political agendas. In one case…employees
of a foreign government, who were funded and working closely with
the US Public Health Service, submitted false data to a major medical
journal. The true data indicated the vaccine was dangerous however
the false data that was submitted indicated there was no risk. An
employee of the NIH who manages large vaccine grants jointly published
a misleading letter about the subject with one of these foreign
civil servants. As you are aware it is illegal to falsify data from
research funded by the US government." Dr. Classen recommended
that Congress hire a special prosecutor "to determine if public
health officials are following the laws enacted to ensure vaccines
are safe" and to determine "if public health officials
along with manufacturers are misleading the public about the
safety of these products."
In France, 15,000 French
citizens have sued their government over adverse Hepatitis B vaccine
reactions. Former public health officials
there are serving prison sentences following findings that they
did not follow the law to ensure the safety of the vaccine, and
school-age Hep B vaccination has been discontinued. U.S. military
personnel may be even worse off: "…four letters from
the FDA/Public Health Service…clearly reveal that the anthrax
vaccine was approved for marketing without the manufacturer performing
a single controlled clinical trial." Clinical trials are, of
course, absolutely critical to determining the safety and effectiveness
of any pharmaceutical product. Military per-sonnel have been,
and continue to be, unwitting subjects in unethical experi-ments.
VACCINATION TRUTH #10:
"Many of the public
health officials who determine vaccine policy profit substantially
from their policy decisions. "
SOME CLOSING REMARKS
In the December 1994
Medical Post, Canadian author of the best-seller Medical Mafia,
Guylaine Lanctot, M.D., stated, "The medical
authorities keep lying. Vaccination has been a disaster on the immune
system. It actually causes a lot of illnesses. We are actually changing
our genetic code through vaccination.... 100 years from now we will
know that the biggest crime against humanity was vaccines." After
critically analyzing literally ten's of thousands of pages of the
vaccine medical literature, Dr. Viera Scheibner concluded that "there
is no evidence whatsoever of the ability of vaccines to prevent
any diseases. To the contrary, there is a great wealth of evidence
that they cause serious side effects." Dr. Classen has stated, "My
data proves that the studies used to support immunization are so
flawed that it is impossible to say if immunization provides a net
benefit to anyone or to society in general. This question can only
be determined by proper studies that have never been performed.
The flaw of previous studies is that there was no long-term follow
up and chronic toxicity was not looked at. The American Society
of Microbiology has promoted my research...and thus acknowledges
the need for proper studies." These may be radical positions,
but they are not unfounded. The continued denial and suppression
of the evidence against vaccines only perpetuates the "Myths" of
their "success" and, more importantly, their negative
consequences on our children and society. Aggressive and comprehensive
scientific investigation into adverse vaccine events is clearly
warranted, yet immunization programs continue to expand in the
absence of such research. Manufacturer profits are enormous, while
accountability
for the negative effects is conspicuously absent. This is especially
sad given the readily available safe and effective alternatives.
The positions asserted above are not coming from a handful of fringe
lunatics; entire professional organizations are speaking out. Criticisms
of vaccines are being sounded by an increasing number of credible
and reputable scientists, researchers, investigators, and self-educated
parents from around the world. Instead, it is public health officials
and die-hard vaccine advocates (many of whom have a financial stake
in the outcome of the debate) who are beginning to lose credibility
by refusing to acknowledge the growing body of evidence and to address
the very real, serious, documented problems.
Meanwhile, the race
is on. There are over 200 new vaccines being developed for everything
from birth control to cocaine addition.
Some 100 of these are already in clinical trials. Researchers
are working on vaccine delivery through nasal sprays, mosquitoes
(yes,
mosquitoes), and the fruits of "transgenic" plants in
which vaccine viruses are grown. With every adult and child on
the planet a potential recipient of vaccines administered periodically
throughout their lives, and every healthcare system and government
a potential buyer, it is little wonder that countless millions
of
dollars are spent nurturing the growing multi-billion dollar
vaccine industry. Without public outcry, we will see more and more
new vaccines
required of us all. And while profits are readily calculable,
the real human costs are ignored or suppressed.
Whatever your personal vaccination decision, make it an informed
one; you have that right and responsibility. It is a difficult issue,
but there is more than enough at stake to justify whatever time
and energy it takes.
FOR MORE INFORMATION:
1. National Vaccine Information Center, 512 Maple Avenue West
#206, Vienna, VA 22180. 703-938-DPT3; 800-909-SHOT (7468).
Email: info@909shot.com
Website: http://www.909shot.com
2. Vaccine Information & Awareness (VIA), Karin Schumacher,
J.D., Direc-tor. 792 Pineview Drive San Jose, CA 95117. 408-397-4192
(voice mail/pag-er) 408-554-9053 (phone/fax). Email: via@access1.net.
For information on all sides of the issue, go to VIA's Website:
http://www.access1.net/viaVaccine Policy Institute, 251 Ridgeway
Dr., Day-ton, OH 45459, Krystine Severyn, R.Ph., Ph.D., ph/fax:
513-435-4750. Quarterly Newsletter. Information from a highly
credentialed, highly informed expert on vaccines.
4. New Atlantean Press P.O. Box 9638 Santa Fe, NM 87504 505-983-1856.
Books, tapes, videos, write for catalog.
5. Diane Rozario, Immunization Resource Guide, 4th Edition, Patter
Publications, P.O. Box 204, Burlington, IA 52601. 319-752-0039,
888-513-7770, fax 208-361-8889, email: patterpub@yahoo. com, or
use a standard Internet search engine to find any of the many sellers
online. This guide has it all, pro and con, and is reasonably priced.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Alan Phillips is an attorney in Chapel Hill, NC, and a co-founder
and director of Citizens for Healthcare Freedom (CHF), a nonprofit
corporation dedicated to raising vaccine awareness and advocating
informed choice. Alan has a background in technical writing, writing
assessment, children's elementary education, freelance writing
and investigative research on alternative health issues, and is
known internationally for professional music performance and production.
He can be contacted at P.O. Box 3473, Chapel Hill, NC 27515; 919-960-5172;
lawpapa@nc.rr.com.
INTRODUCTORY VACCINE PRESENTATIONS
Citizens for Healthcare Freedom Director Alan Phillips, Esq.,
conducts introductory lectures on the vaccine controversy. Presentations
are designed to complement and supplement the information in this
article. To sponsor a presentation in your home, office, local
library, or other suitable location, write to CHF Lectures, P.O.
Box 3473, Chapel Hill, NC 27515-3473, or email lawpapa@nc.rr.com.
RELATED ARTICLES:
Alan has researched and written on several vaccine legal issues,
including vaccine exemptions (with a focus on religious exemption
federal case law), the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program,
and the shaken-baby-syndrome/vaccine injury connection: the documented
instances in which parents and caretakers are convicted of child
abuse, but later the damage is shown to have been caused by a
vaccine injury.
UNSOLICITED PUBLISHINGS:
1. parenteacher magazine, summer 2000.
2. Claudia's Abundant Life Health Food Market, 09/1999 - 02/2000.
3. Epidemics, Opposing Viewpoints, Greenhaven Press, 1999.
4. birth issues, fall 1999. Canadian magazine of the Association
for Safe Alternatives in Child-birth (ASAC).
5. The Home-Grown Family, spring, fall, winter 1998-99. Christian
home-schooling magazine.
6. The Immune Manual, Life and Health Re-search Group, CA, 1997.
7. Hindustan Times and other Indian newspa-pers; two Indian homeopathic
journals, 1997 (according to Sai Sanjeevini Foundation, New Delhi,
India).
8. NEXUS Magazine, October-November 1997. Multinational magazine.
9. Wildfire, spring 1996. US Native American magazine.
10. Numerous grass-roots organizations' news-letters around the
world.
Unsolicited Distributors:
1. Sai Sanjeevini Foundation, New Delhi, India.
2. HealthAction Network, UK.
3. Vaccine Information Network, New Zealand.
4. Prometheus (publisher), UK.
5. Medical Missionary Press, NC, USA.
6. Asian Pacific Homeopathic Association, Hong Kong.
Request for classroom use by:
1. Sheffield Homeopathic College, UK.
2. A neurologist in Italy.
3. A medical school professor in NC.
Internet Postings: There are many; solicitations are ongoing.
article © Alan
Philips
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