Here are a few undeniable realities …
In Charlie Morgan’s letter [“The Needle and the Damage Not Done,” March 6] the writer says he has never heard a convincing argument not to vaccinate for measles and, by implication, for anything else. Without getting into the important specifics of the actual history of each vaccine, here are two compelling reasons not to be so complacent:
First, there are known risks. According to the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) there are 25,000 adverse vaccine events reported each year (by MDs, not idiot parents or pesky chiropractors). The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that 10 percent—the FDA only 1 percent—of these events are actually reported. Most doctors refuse to admit that such things happen. That means that between 250,000 and 2,500,000 occur each year. Many are mild and not too debilitating, but others are not. According to the Merck Manual, the Physicians Desk Reference and the vaccine-package inserts themselves, known side effects for many vaccines—which physicians are required to inform you of—include seizures, encephalitis, meningitis, Guillain Barre syndrome and death. No one should have to submit to a medical procedure with such risks, according to the Nuremberg Code. These sources also list precautions and contraindications to vaccines, i.e., no one with any history—or family history—of seizures or neurological problems, is supposed to get the DPT shot. This has been World Health Organization policy for 30 years. The rest of the developed world is on board with it. Yet the American Academy of Pediatrics is on record as stating, “We do not see any need for screening.” Has your doctor screened your child? Or ever not given all the scheduled vaccines, no matter what? This is one area where the personal exemption is a safeguard against unchecked medical license.
Second, while current talk is all about measles (already down 97 percent before vaccination began, according to indisputable international statistics), the great overlooked danger is that giving up the right to refuse mandatory injection means giving up the right to refuse any of the two dozen post-911 vaccines, many of dubious value, and 300 more already in the developmental pipeline. This is a surrender of liberty based on trust in the altruism of companies who pay out hundreds of millions in fines on a regular basis. Almost every vaccine from polio on down the line that has been released on the public, caused serious injury, been recalled, retooled and tried again. The science is not “settled.”
A vaccine becomes mandatory not by an unbiased process, free of financial ties to industry; rather, manufacturers lobby the advisory board at the CDC, many of whom have direct monetary interests with vaccine companies—i.e., Paul Offit, MD, was patent holder for Rototeq—and without public oversight gets slipped into the schedule. The roots of this problem lie in a precedent started in 1986 when the Reagan administration made it impossible to sue a vaccine manufacturer for injury. Prior to this time, millions of dollars had been paid out for damages. Doctors were actually being somewhat circumspect in recommending many vaccines. But the vaccine companies lobbied hard for immunity in order to safeguard profits. We are the only country in the world with such a carte blanche for the industry. At the same time, the government created the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program, which has since paid out over $2 billion dollars in vaccine injury claims. To deny that this is a reality—and deny such injuries when they happen, as is common practice among doctors—is a sickening betrayal on the part of our medical caregivers.
Peter Holleran, DC, San Rafael
Chiropractor Holleran’s letter is full of (willful?) misinformation on too many fronts to get into here.
But for those who want some actual facts on vaccine risks, here is a good recent source:
http://aapnews.aappublications.org/content/early/2014/07/01/aapnews.20140701-1
I would like to thank Peter Holleran for submitting what I think is the most intelligent and factual contribution to date to the otherwise brute eructations that have been aired by johnqpublic and the media the last few months regarding vaccinations. What a miss by major media to report facts versus scanning tweets, knee-jerk idiotic personal commentary based upon individual assumptions of expertise of medical and scientific knowledge, and printing, repeatedly, false information like the measles cases all originating at Disneyland (when Orange County clearly reported they did not). In an era of complicit fakery, this one has been a doozy.
Again, thank you Mr. Holleran.
Would someone in responsible (whatever that currently means) media please produce an actual investigative piece on this subject, beginning with Holleran’s assertions?
I think it should read “pesky parents and idiot chiropractors”. This letter is so full of assertions with very few sources to back them up. Something no real medical doctor would dare do lest they be laughed out of the profession. Pharma companies are required to list any possible side effects even if the statistical chance is one in 10 million. Most people don’t read the package insert completely and I think that’s what this writer is counting on. Heck, I can give you names of countless people who went to chiropractors for issues that should have been dealt with by the proper mmedical professional and paid dearly for their bad choice. All these assertions, conjecture and conspiracy theories are ridiculous.
‘Adverse events reported during post-approval use of Tripedia vaccine include idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura, SIDS, anaphylactic reaction, cellulitis, autism, convulsion/grand mal convulsion, encephalopathy, hypotonia, neuropathy, somnolence and apnea. Events were included in this list because of the seriousness or frequency of reporting.’
Chiropractor Holleran has not received training in the field for he speaks. Have we forgotten the we used to lose MILLIONS of people to small pox , measles. Whooping cough, polio, diptheria, and many other horrible diseases. Not reactions, deaths! Does he understand the soreness, or mild fever is included as most of the side effects listed in his statistics? And that this number of 25,000 is a Very small percentage of the many millions vaccinated? And that the doctor in England who asserted vaccines caused autism has been proven to have falsified his data and has had his medical license revoked? Many, many millions of people are alive today who would be dead without vaccination. Don’t lose sight of the truth because of someone’s political agenda.
How many cavemen did we lose? Not a single one had been vaccinated, and yet here you are alive and with much wellness. Try using vaccines on a thug in the street and you will be stabbed to death with it. You have to stoop to using it on children because they don’t have a voice and they can’t fight back.
I was interested, and I figured that maybe there might be SOME basis when someone comes out with an outrageous statistic like 97 percent of anything, so I did 5 minutes of research. The use of this statistic simply discredits the entire letter.
If the “indisputable international statistics” are SO powerful, then why not quote their source (a Canadian quack using cherry-picked statistics). It didn’t take ME long to find it, so only somebody mis-informed or unwilling to do basic fact-checking would choose to omit that information.
David and Dr Bacon,
Please site your evidence that 97% is wrong. I’ve seen this corroborated from multiple sources.
http://www.collective-evolution.com/2015/03/15/the-doctor-who-beat-the-british-general-medical-council-by-proving-that-vaccines-arent-necessary-to-achieve-health/
Also, see the book Dissolving Illusions, by Dr Suzanne Humphries, which is extremely well referenced.
Why did Obama recently give immunity to testify to Dr William Thompson, who has said through his lawyer that the CDC committed fraud misrepresenting data that showed a statistically significant link between autsim and the MMR vaccine among boys, and particularly African American boys.
Dr. Julie Gerberding was CDC director when the falsified study was published. Gerberding left the CDC for the position as president of Merck’s vaccine division, and is now an executive vice president of the corporation. Merck is now the sole manufacturer of the measles vaccine.
http://stateofthenation2012.com/?p=10984
Regardless of whether one is pro or against vaccines, our right to choose which vaccines are administered to our children is on the table with SB277. We won’t be able to choose a delayed schedule ; we won’t be able to refuse vaccines for sexually transmitted diseases for our infants. There are NO STUDIES ON THE EFFECTS OF MULTIPLE VACCINATIONS AT ONCE ON THE INFANT IMMUNE SYSTEM. We used to space them out. At NO TIME IN HISTORY HAS ANYONE EVER HAD TO DEAL WITH SO MANY VIRUSES AT ONCE MUCH LESS CHILDREN. IT’S NOT NATURAL, AND IT HASN’T BEEN STUDIED.