Dispelling Vaccination Myths – Part 2

Dispelling Vaccination Myths – Part 2

Dispelling Vaccination Myths – Part 2

Rev. Alan Phillips, Director Citizens for Healthcare Freedom

Continued from Dispelling Vaccination Myths – Part 1


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.(52) 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 researcher-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 at a time when there were no epidemics being 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’ paralysis was 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 [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. For these reasons, the live polio virus 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 again 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 adverse 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 toxicants, 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 only 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 encephalitis 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 by the medical community 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 bioethics."(53,54),

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 children under 10. The increase risk ranged from 9% with the diphtheria vaccine to 50% with the Hepatitis B vaccine. According 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 immunisation."(55) The diabetes findings may be only the tip of the iceberg.

Recent studies in the U.S. and England suggest that vaccines cause autism.(56,57,58),, Mercury poisoning and autism have nearly identical symptoms,(59) and a single day’s vaccination regimen may inject 41 times the level of mercury known to cause harm.(60) California’s autism 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.(61) 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 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, with risk of harmful side effects. 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%.(62) Roughly similar statistics still hold true for cholera today.(63) 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.(64)

There are homeopathic kits available for disease prevention.(65) 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 components, 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?

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 often mistaken when they do, 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.(66,67,68,69)   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 immunization laws (see contact information at the end of this article). Statutes can be searched on the internet (for example, see www.findlaw.com), but these sources many not always 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 advisory 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 committees 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.(70)

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."(71)

In an October 1999 statement to Congress, Bart Classen, M.D., M.B.A., founder and CEO of Classen Immunotherapies 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."(72)

In France, 15,000 French citizens have sued their government over adverse Hepatitis B vaccine reactions.(73) 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."(74) Clinical trials are, of course, absolutely critical to determining the safety and effectiveness of any pharmaceutical product. Military personnel have been, and continue to be, unwitting subjects in an unethical experiment.

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."(75) 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 which 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." To some these may seem like 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., Director. 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/via
3.  Vaccine Policy Institute, 251 Ridgeway Dr., Dayton, 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, fx 208-361-8889. Email: patterpublications@ yahoo.com.   This guide has it all, pro and con, and is reasonably priced.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
At the time of this revision Alan Phillips is a 3rd year law student attending the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and a co-founder and co-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 holds a ministerial credential, and plans on practicing law in the Chapel Hill, NC area following admission to the bar in 2002.

INTRODUCTORY VACCINE PRESENTATIONS
Citizens for Healthcare Freedom Director Alan Phillips 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, etc., write to CHF Lectures, P.O. Box 62282, Durham, NC 27715-2282, or email alan_phillips@unc.edu.

ALSO AVAILABLE:
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.

ABOUT "DISPELLING VACCINATION MYTHS":

Unsolicited Reprints in:
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 Childbirth (ASAC).
5. The Home-Grown Family, spring, fall, winter 1998-99. Christian home-schooling magazine.
6. The Immune Manual, Life and Health Research Group, CA, 1997.
7. Hindustan Times and other Indian newspapers, two Indian homeopathic journals, 1997 (according to Sai Sanjeevini Foundation, New Delhi, India).
8. NEXUS Magazine, October-November 1997. Multinational magazine. http://www.nexusmagazine.com/
9. Wildfire, spring 1996. US Native American magazine.
10. Numerous grass-roots organizations’ newsletters 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. CHF Site as of this revision: www.unc.edu/~aphillips/www/chf

ENDNOTES – Go To: http://www.alternative-doctor.com/vaccination/phillips.html 

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