Jump to content
ACN Latitudes Forums

immunizations


JAC

Recommended Posts

I have read several times where the incidence of a disease was falling prior to the introduction of a vax, and that many numbers were projections or estimates, not actual cases, and that they were overblown. I didn't give that a lot of thought since I couldn't really verify it.

 

When I got to tetanus in the article below, the years reported and the number given, it made me really shake my head. Seems there IS something to the the articles I had read in that regard.

 

I wonder why they didn't report the number from 1947 like the vax. insert stated? Could it have ANYTHING TO DO WITH THE REDUCTION IN THE NUMBER?

 

http://64.233.161.104/search?q=cache:yALm7...k&cd=1&ie=UTF-8

 

I know I said I wasn't going to do this anymore, couldn't help it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 50
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

  • 2 weeks later...

Advocacy Groups Urge CDC Advisory Committee To Remove Mercury from

Vaccines

 

Children's health advocates again ask government officials to make

good on repeated promises of mercury-free vaccines

 

Atlanta, GA -- A prominent ad in today's Atlanta Journal-Constitution

sponsored by parents and friends of children injured by mercury in

vaccines demands that a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

(CDC) advisory committee require complete removal of mercury from

vaccines. The ad's sponsors note that according to Environmental

Protection Agency guidelines, a person must weigh over 500 pounds to

safely absorb the amount of mercury contained in a single flu vaccine

and that special hazardous waste sites are required for flu shot disposal.

 

To develop national vaccine guidelines, the CDC follows the advice of

the 15-member Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP)

(www.cdc.gov/nip/ACIP/members.htm). To date, ACIP has refused to

fulfill promises made by the government, physician organizations, and

President Bush to remove thimerosal from all vaccines. "Mercury

should never have been in vaccines in the first place. The fact that

it remains in vaccines seven years after explicit promises were made

to take it out amounts to government footdragging that puts children

at serious risk of injury," according to Vicky Debold, PhD, public

health nurse and mother of a vaccine-injured child.

 

A growing number of scientists are finding that the type of low-dose

mercury in vaccines kills and injures brain and immune cells.

"Considering that so many children now suffer from learning

disabilities and a host of immune-mediated illnesses such as asthma

and diabetes, the practice of injecting mercury into our nation's most

vulnerable is barbaric," said Dr. Debold.

 

The ad also points out that most flu shots and some other vaccines

contain 50,000 parts per billion mercury, despite requirements that

landfill waste contain less than 200 parts per billion. "Directly

injecting humans with a powerful neurotoxin flies in the face of

common sense. With growing research from leading universities further

confirming the neurotoxic effects of mercury exposure from vaccines,

the ACIP must consider the best interests of our children and put an

end to this dangerous and unnecessary exposure," commented Dr.. Debold.

 

The public is urged to contact Julie Gerberding, MD, Director of the

CDC (404-639-3311) and Mike Leavitt, Secretary of Health and Human

Services (202-619-0257) to request that they direct the ACIP to

recommend removal of all remaining mercury in vaccines.

 

To view the ad, go to

http://www.nationalautismassociation.org/images/acipad.jpg

 

 

***********************************************************

 

The Age of Autism: But is Wakefield right?

 

By DAN OLMSTED

UPI Senior Editor

 

WASHINGTON, June 12 (UPI) -- Dr. Andrew Wakefield, the British

gastroenterologist who first raised the prospect of a link between the

measles-mumps-rubella vaccine and autism, is being pursued by British

medical authorities.

 

According to the BBC: "The Independent newspaper reports that the

General Medical Council will accuse Mr. Andrew Wakefield of carrying

out 'inadequately founded' research. Vaccination rates fell sharply

after Dr Wakefield questioned the safety of MMR, raising fears of a

measles epidemic. His initial Lancet paper has since been disowned by

the journal."

 

Let's put aside the issues surrounding the Lancet paper and concerns

about a measles epidemic and go straight to the heart of the matter:

Does the MMR cause autism? In other words, is Wakefield right?

 

After looking into the topic for more than a year, I'm very concerned

that he may be -- that, especially in children whose immune systems

have been rendered susceptible by any number of possible exposures,

the combined live-virus vaccine has its fingerprints all over numerous

cases of regressive autism.

 

Until researching the seven-part Age of Autism series in Olympia,

Wash., that concluded last month, I would not have said that. But when

you encounter case after case of perfectly children regressing after

live-virus vaccinations -- in this case, the MMR in close proximity to

the chickenpox shot -- you have to keep your options open.

 

The families in Olympia noticed a common thread: They had unusual

histories of chickenpox and other herpesviruses in their families;

their child got the chickenpox and MMR shots in close temporal

proximity, often at the same 12-month office visit when both are first

recommended; and the child subsequently was diagnosed with regressive

autism.

 

Despite the sweeping assurances that there's no link between the MMR

and autism, no one seems to have looked at whether such a family

history of susceptibility to viruses used in vaccines might raise a

risk factor. Call me hypervigilant, but I would have expected that to

be rigorously reviewed a long time ago.

 

Two of the Olympia children, in fact, were in small trials at age 12

months of chickenpox and MMR vaccines. One of the vaccines, called

ProQuad, combines the MMR and chickenpox, kicking in 10 times the

standard amount of chickenpox vaccine to overcome the "immune

interference" that can occur when live viruses interact.

 

Such interference is at the heart of Wakefield's concern about the

combined MMR vaccine -- that the viruses suppress the immune system in

such a way that weakened-but-live measles viruses can set up house and

trigger a delayed neurological infection: autism.

 

And measles is not benign -- that's why there's such a push to

vaccinate against it. In a small percentage of cases, the wild, or

naturally occurring, infection can lead to delayed brain damage and death.

 

It's a neurotoxic virus, in short. Wakefield's question and concern is

whether in some cases the live-virus vaccine is neurotoxic, too.

 

Not such a wild idea, really, and listening to him talk makes you hope

to God the vaccine manufacturers and regulators are a lot smarter than

he makes them sound:

 

"What alarms me about the cavalier approach of the industry and

everybody else, the regulators, to these viruses is they presume the

wild infection to be nasty and the vaccines to be innocuous -- that

they can manipulate something that is biologically highly intelligent

and exploit it to their advantage.

 

"And they can't. The viruses don't behave like that and they never

will. They merely come back to haunt you as something different."

 

Multiple epidemiological studies have allegedly ruled out this

chilling scenario as a factor in autism -- the Institute of Medicine

calls it "theoretical only." But epidemiology is only as good as its

data and its practitioners, and well-known for its potential pitfalls

and flaws. What concerns me is, if the epidemiology is wrong,

preventable cases of autism are going to keep happening till the cows

come home.

 

Recall, also, that Wakefield never suggested banning the measles,

mumps or rubella immunizations. He suggested separating them and

giving them a year apart.

 

Especially concerning are the stories that parent after parent tells

about physical illness after the shots, followed by autistic

regression. It's kind of freaky, really, the way they keep popping up.

 

After finishing the Pox series, I attended the Autism One convention

in Chicago and happened to be interviewed by a Web-based documentary

filmmaker. During a break, I asked how he got involved. He told me his

daughter got the MMR, came down immediately with a 103-degree fever

and regressed forthwith into autism.

 

"It's like someone took out her good brain and replaced it with a bad

brain," he said. It was that immediate.

 

I had another conversation with the mother of fraternal twins who told

me this story: Both sons were scheduled to get two shots -- the MMR

and another vaccination -- on the same day at the same office visit.

 

But -- oops -- the healthcare worker gave the first child two MMR

shots, not the MMR and the second vaccine. That child soon developed

autism; the second one didn't.

 

And I spoke recently with a Texas man whose son got the MMR in 1993;

the injection site swelled up to the size of his father's fist; he had

seizures at the dinner table that night, and within days was spinning,

flapping, chewing wood and not talking ever again.

 

You get the picture. "Anecdotal evidence." But you have to wonder how

many of these stories -- one is tempted to say, bodies -- must pile up

before the medical authorities go back and take a fresh look at the issue.

 

This blithe disregard for case histories -- for what parents, the

supposed bedrock of our "family-friendly" society, say -- is one of

the most appalling features of the current climate surrounding autism

research. In fact, Sen. Joseph Lieberman, D-N.Y., has talked publicly

of forcing the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which sets

the childhood immunization schedule and stoutly rejects a link with

autism, to actually go out and interview some of these parents.

 

One person who is making things awkward for the authorities is Dr.

Peter Fletcher, another British ne'er-do-well -- or, to use his

official title, the former chief scientific officer at Britain's

Department of Health.

 

As I noted in a column earlier this year, the Daily Mail reported: "A

former British government medical officer responsible for deciding

whether medicines are safe has accused the government of 'utterly

inexplicable complacency' over the MMR triple vaccine for children."

 

The official, Dr. Peter Fletcher, became an expert witness for

parents' lawyers, which of course creates a competing interest that

needs to be factored in. But Fletcher said his new role gave him

access to documents that deeply concerned him.

 

"There are very powerful people in positions of great authority in

Britain and elsewhere who have staked their reputations and careers on

the safety of MMR and they are willing to do almost anything to

protect themselves," he said.

 

Gosh, this is starting to get interesting, and not just for Andrew

Wakefield.

 

 

Doctor behind MMR scare to face four charges of misconduct over research

 

Sarah Boseley, health editor

Monday June 12, 2006

The Guardian

http://society.guardian.co.uk/health/news/0,,1795596,00.html

 

Andrew Wakefield, the doctor behind the scare over a potential link

between the MMR jab and autism in children, is to face four charges

relating to unprofessional conduct at the General Medical Council, it is

reported today.

 

Mr Wakefield, a surgeon who became a gut specialist, could be struck off

the medical register and debarred from practising in the UK if the GMC

finds him guilty of serious professional misconduct.

 

Following the publication of a research paper in the Lancet by Mr

Wakefield and colleagues in February 1998 - which suggested a tentative

link between the immunisation at the age of 18 months, a bowel disorder

called Crohn's disease, and autism - many parents became anxious over the

safety of the measles, mumps and rubella, or MMR, vaccine.

 

At the press conference to launch the paper, Mr Wakefield had parted

company with his colleagues to say that, in his opinion, single jabs might

be safer than the three-in-one MMR combination. The take-up of MMR slumped

and is still low in some parts, especially areas of London. Public health

experts have warned that measles outbreaks are possible, in which some

children may be damaged and even die. The numbers of cases of mumps has

risen. A top-level inquiry commissioned by the Medical Research Council

examined Mr Wakefield's findings, and epidemiological studies were

commissioned which found that children given the MMR vaccine were no more

likely to become autistic than those who were not.

 

The message from the medical establishment consistently said that there

was no evidence of a problem with MMR. In 2001 Mr Wakefield left the Royal

Free hospital in north London, where he was a consultant, to work in the

United States.

 

In 2004 it was alleged that Mr Wakefield had had an undeclared conflict of

interest at the time he wrote the Lancet paper: having been paid £55,000

by the Legal Aid Board to assess whether some of the children who featured

in his research paper might have a case to sue for vaccine damage.

 

The Lancet retracted part of the article, and the GMC began an investigation.

 

According to the Independent newspaper today, the preliminary charges

against Mr Wakefield will be that he published inadequately founded

research, failed to obtain ethical committee approval for the work,

obtained funding for it improperly, and subjected children to "unnecessary

and invasive investigations".

 

It was reported that GMC lawyers are preparing more detailed charges for

publication later this year, and that there will be a public hearing next

year.

 

*

 

The material in this post is distributed without

profit to those who have expressed a prior interest

in receiving the included information for research

and educational purposes.For more information go to:

http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.html

http://oregon.uoregon.edu/~csundt/documents.htm

If you wish to use copyrighted material from this

email for purposes that go beyond 'fair use', you

must obtain permission from the copyright owner

 

 

http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/antenna/mmr/cip2/128.asp

Only time will tell

 

'If we find vaccine strain measles it could be significant. But only if more than one lab finds it. At the moment only O'Leary's group has done so but that's not good enough because it might be contamination.' Philip Minor, virus expert, National Institute of Biological Standards and Control

*******************************************************************************

 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?

xml=/news/2006/05/28/wmmr28.xml&sSheet=/news/2006/05/28/ixnews.html

 

US scientists back autism link to MMR

By Beezy Marsh and Sally Beck

(Filed: 28/05/2006)

 

The measles virus has been found in the guts of

children with a form of autism, renewing fears

over the safety of the MMR jab.

 

American researchers have revealed that 85 per

cent of samples taken from autistic children with

bowel disorders contain the virus. The strain is

the same as the one used in the measles, mumps

and rubella triple vaccine.

 

The findings will spark fresh concern about MMR,

because they back theories of a causal link

between the jab, autism and painful gut disorders

suffered by a number of autistic children.

 

The study replicates findings made by the

gastroenterologist Dr Andrew Wakefield in 1998

and Prof John O'Leary, a pathologist, in 2002.

 

Parents say their children were developing

normally until they had the MMR jab, given when a

child is between 12- and 18-months-old. The

children now suffer from regressive autism.

 

One theory is that the virus passes through the

gut, causing damage, and into the bloodstream,

from where it is able to attack the brain.

 

More than 2,000 families claim that their

children have suffered damage but the Department

of Health reiterated last night that MMR is safe,

a stance supported by the British Medical

Association and all the Royal Colleges. Last year

Government scientists failed to reproduce

research results by Dr Wakefield.

 

Research to be presented this week in Montreal,

Canada, provides fresh evidence that the measles

virus is present in the guts of autistic

children. Dr Stephen Walker, of the Wake Forest

University School of Medicine, North Carolina,

studied children with regressive autism and bowel

disease. "Of the handful of results we have in so

far, all are vaccine strain," he said.

 

__________________________________________________

 

 

 

From Monsters and Critics.com

 

Consumer Health

The Age of Autism: Gardasil vs. Hep B

By Dan Olmsted

Jun 9, 2006, 19:00 GMT

 

WASHINGTON, DC, United States (UPI) -- This week the Food and Drug

Administration approved a vaccine to prevent cervical cancer in women.

In an odd way, the announcement highlights what may be wrong with

government policy on another vaccination, the very first one children

receive.

The FDA`s approval of Gardasil is intended to block human

papillomavirus, or HPV, the most common sexually transmitted disease

and one that causes almost all cases of cervical cancer. The agency

approved the vaccine for girls beginning at age 9 to protect them

before they become sexually active.

Some cultural conservatives oppose making the shots mandatory for

public-school attendance because of what they fear is an implicit

endorsement of pre-marital sex. That`s an issue an advisory committee

of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention -- and ultimately,

each of the 50 states -- will have to grapple with.

Regardless, the decision to wait till the cusp of adolescence to give

the shot seems sensible -- and drives home the contrary approach that

the CDC has taken with the hepatitis B vaccination mandated for every

newborn child.

To listen to some public-health officials, you`d think the nation was

in the grip of an incipient Hep B epidemic lurking in the nation`s

hygienically challenged daycare centers -- an epidemic contained

solely by vaccination on the day of birth.

In fact, hepatitis B is overwhelmingly a disease of sexual contact and

intravenous, illegal drug use. Except in cases where the mother tests

positive for Hep B, the risk to children vs. the risk of such an early

vaccination seems questionable in the eyes of many critics of CDC

immunization policy.

Over the course of the past year, as I`ve reported on concerns that

vaccines may be linked to a huge increase in autism diagnoses

beginning in the 1990s, the hepatitis B vaccination at birth stood

out; the vaccination was first recommended in 1991.

At least two doctors tell me their faith in the government`s entire

childhood immunization schedule was shattered by the CDC`s insistence

that every newborn needs a Hep B shot as an urgent matter of public

health.

\'It is universally accepted that such mandate was forced upon our

children only because they were `available,` while efforts to

vaccinate high-risk adults had repeatedly failed,\' Dr. F. Edward

Yazbak testified in 2001 before the Massachusetts House of

Representatives.

\'The continued mandate of this vaccine with all its problems may

result in parents losing faith in vaccine programs in general, and

opposing all vaccinations, many of which we know are necessary and

effective,\' he said.

The National Vaccine Information Center, which supports parental

choice and awareness of immunization hazards, raises similar issues.

\'Unlike other infectious diseases for which vaccines have been

developed and mandated in the U.S., hepatitis B is not common in

childhood and is not highly contagious,\' the NVIC says.

\'Hepatitis B is primarily an adult disease transmitted through

infected body fluids, most frequently infected blood, and is prevalent

in high risk populations such as needle using drug addicts; sexually

promiscuous heterosexual and homosexual adults; residents and staff of

custodial institutions such as prisons; health care workers exposed to

blood; persons who require repeated blood transfusions and babies born

to infected mothers.\'

Dr. Mayer Eisenstein, medical director of the family-practice

Homefirst Medical Services in Chicago, told the Illinois Legislature

in 1997 that mandating Hep B for newborns was absurd.

\'The idea of giving this vaccine to a one-day old baby, a newborn, is

preposterous. There is no scientific evidence for this. In fact, I

called up the manufacturer and I had (a representative) come to St.

Mary of Nazareth Hospital, where I am Chairman of the Department of

Medicine, and I asked him: `Show me your evidence on one-day old

infants as to side effects (from the hepatitis B vaccine)` -- we have

none. Our studies were done on 5 and 10 year olds.

\'As a father, grandfather, a physician, as a lawyer, I want the

option of not giving it to my children unless I believe the scientific

evidence is there.\'

Yet waiting until genuine risk looms -- via sexual activity,

intravenous drug use or a healthcare job -- has been rejected out of

hand. That view was confirmed earlier this year by both the CDC and

the American Academy of Pediatrics, whose members administer the vaccines.

\'The Academy has endorsed CDC recommendation for hepatitis B vaccine,

`A Comprehensive Immunization Strategy to Eliminate Transmission of

Hepatitis B Virus Infection in the United States,`\' the AAP said in a

news release.

\'The CDC recommends that all newborns receive a birth dose of

hepatitis B vaccine before leaving the hospital unless a physician

provides a written order to defer the birth dose.\'

Compare that to waiting till age 9 for the new Gardasil vaccine. While

the reasonable concerns of some parents are yet to be resolved, this

already stands in stark contrast to the public health establishment`s

hepatitis B hammerlock on the nation`s newborns.

True, the mercury-based preservative thimerosal that some believe is

behind the rise in autism has been removed from Hep B and other

routine childhood vaccines. But the issue of whether children are

getting an unnecessarily early and heavy load of vaccines -- and

whether that could explain the rise in autism or chronic illnesses

like asthma -- remains squarely on the table, at least to this observer.

In years to come, I suspect, the Hep B shot at birth may be regarded

as a case study in doctors gone wild.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

Revealed, most compelling evidence yet of MMR danger

Sunday Express

6 October 2002

Exclusive by Lucy Johnston, Health Editor

 

A 13-year-old boy brain damaged after the controversial MMR jab still

has remains of the vaccine in the injured area of his brain.

The alarming news is being seen as the most compelling evidence yet of

a link between the triple measles, mumps and rubella jab and autism.

The boy's case will form a central plank of a forthcoming legal action

by 600 autistic and brain-damaged children against vaccine

manufacturerers.

Jackie Fletcher of support group Jabs, which highlights the risks of

MMR, said: ''This is devastating news. What on earth is the vaccine

doing in the brain? It should not be there.''

Mrs Fletcher, whose own son, Robert, 10, developed autism from the

vaccine, added: ''This is the strongest evidence yet showing it causes

brain damage.''

The 13-year-old, who has not been named, was developing normally until

being given the MMR jab at 15 months. Days later a rash broke out, his

development stopped and he began to have violent seizures. These

became more frequent - sometimes every few minutes. In one month his

mother, Verity, 46, from Sussex, counted 135. When he was nine, he was

admitted to Southampton General Hospital's intensive care unit where

doctors twice tried to break the cycle of convulsions with an

anaesthetic. But each time they brought him round the fits started again.

Eventually he was transferred to London's Great Ormand Street

Children's Hospital for brain surgery.

Verity arranged for the brain sample to be analysed and the results -

seen by the Sunday Express - showed the sample contained traces of the

measles virus ''consistent'' with the vaccine rather than the ''wild''

strain. Tissue from the boy's intestine also showed the vaccine.

The boy is now making progress and goes to a special school. But he

shows symptoms of autism, memory loss and still has fits.

Verity said: ''The Department of Health has written off children like

my son by refusing to acknowledge any link between brain damage and MMR.

''Because of this they are not being given appropriate treatment. They

should be under the care of specialists.''

Experts say the boy's case is a minor victory for those fighting to

get more recognition of the risks of MMR. Robert Sawyer, chief

executive of the charity Visceral, which funds research by MMR

opponent Dr Andrew Wakefield, said: ''The world must pay immediate

attention to this evidence, especially when the Government is not

taking the issue seriously.''

And Paul Shattock, head of the Autism Research Unit at the University

of Sunderland, said: ''This is powerful. I don't know how the

Government will talk its way out of it.''

An unpublished study strongly supports the new findings. Pathologists

from Utah State University, US, and Trinity College, Dublin, have

discovered the vaccine strain of the measles virus in the spinal fluid

of 40 autistic children.

The link between MMR, autism was first proposed by Dr Wakefield in

1998. He discovered many children with late onset autism also had

intestinal damage.

He believes the vaccine leaks through the gut wall into the central

nervous system and into the brain, causing damage.

The Department of Health said it could not comment on an individual

case pending legal proceedings. But it stressed that tests to identify

vaccine strains in gut samples were unreliable.

Sunday Express Comment

Act on MMR evidence

Today this newspaper publishes a shocking report that every parent and

grandparent must read. We present the most compelling evidence yet of

the link between late onset autism and the measles, mumps and rubella

injections. We believe that the Government can no longer insist that

the jab is safe. To do so is to wilfully put the lives of our children

at risk.

The Government has consistently said that the triple jab is safe. It

wants to believe this is so because it seems to be the most effective

way of stopping these life-threatening disease in their tracks. During

the waiting time between separate jabs children can contract one of

the conditions and some might not receive all three injections. But

the Government has not conducted a through examination of children

whose parents believe they were sticken by the MMR jab. This must be

done now.

Without proper research we cannot know how many children's lives have

been blighted. Neither will we know how to identify and exclude

children who could be affected or exactly how to treat them. Moreover,

the way is barred to those who deserve compensation. Children must not

be sacrificed for the sake of dubious herd immunity

 

 

 

SUNDAY EXPRESS 18 June 2006

 

by Lucy Johnston

HEALTH EDITOR

 

Can we ever trust MMR?

 

'The Government has not looked at the whole picture'

 

Four years ago, the Sunday Express revealed that at least 26 child

deaths have been linked with the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine.

In many cases, the Government - or leading medical officials -

accepted the connection.

 

Parents were awarded vaccine damage payments of up to £100,000 and, in

other cases, experts drew up post-mortem reports blaming the MMR jab

as the most likely cause of death.

 

Now, as we report today, two more parents have come forward claiming

their babies died as a result of the jab. And, last month, Vietnamese

health authorities withdrew the MMR jab after the death of one child

and hospitalisation of five others. The World Health Organisation is

now investigating this scare.

 

Since its launch in 1988, thousands of parents have reported unwanted

reactions to the triple jab, from moderate – rash, headache,

temperature – to severe, including brain damage, autism and

convulsions. In 1992, the Department of Health conceded it got the

pre-licence trials wrong when the chief medical officer announced the

withdrawal of two of the three brands of MMR because they were found

to be causing meningitis.

 

All drugs, including vaccines can have side effects.The Government

accepts this – why else would it make vaccine damage pay-outs of up to

£100,000? But, publicly, it claims no deaths have been associated with

MMR. How can it do this when its own officials and post-mortem reports

state otherwise?

 

Vaccine manufacturers accept there can be serious side effects, and

have informed the Government of this. So why does the Government's

publicity machine continue to insist that the triple jab is entirely safe?

 

Instead of being open and investigating potential dangers in what

appears to be a minority of children, the Government polarises the

debate by implying there are no risks.The Whitehall propaganda machine

really kicked in eight years ago when the press reported findings of

Dr Andrew Wakefield's explosive paper linking the MMR jab with autism.

 

At the time, his work was accepted as credible by experts in the

field. But, instead of making stocks of single vaccines available, as

Wakefield advised, policy chiefs made it difficult for parents to

obtain them.

 

MMR uptake continued to fall. With an outbreak of disease on the

horizon, publich health officials panicked. The Department of Health

launched a campaign to rubbish Wakefield's research. He was ostracised

by his peers and forced to resign his post at the Royal Free. The

Government risked losing face if it changed its stance and accepted

MMR might cause problems in some children, but it also stood to lose

millions in compensation claims. Action had also been taken against

the drug companies, which is still ongoing.

 

Dr Wakefield has become the scapegoat for the frenzy over MMR but he

is not, as the Government likes to portray him, a lone maverick. Many

other doctors have concerns, and other scientists have found evidence

to support his findings. But the Department of Health insists that

research proves the jab is safe.

 

However, the Government has not looked at the whole picture. Instead

of looking at the affected children themselves, the studies it cites

are based on patterns of disease taken from medical records of large

populations, which are unable to detect adverse reactions in small

numbers of children.

 

When Dr Wakefield alerted the Government and vaccine chiefs to his

research before publication, it promised an independent forum into his

findings. This has never happened. Instead, it has called for an

investigation into Dr Wakefield. The General Medical Council is

considering whether to charge him with serious professional misconduct.

 

Figures released by the Health Protection Agency last week reveal the

number of potentially deadly measles cases seen by doctors since

January is five times higher than during all last year, prompting

fears of an epidemic.

 

As Richard Halvorsen, vaccine expert and central London GP said: "With

the threat of a measles epidemic, the only way many parents will

protect their children is with the single vaccine. By refusing to

allow this, the Government is contributing to the epidemic it seeks to

prevent."

 

One has to ask the question: where does the Department of Health's

interests lie? Is it to protect the nation's health, or to protect

officials, and the pharmaceutical industries' lucrative patents for

new combination jabs?

 

************************************************************************************

 

 

E-NEWS FROM THE NATIONAL VACCINE INFORMATION CENTER

Vienna, Virginia http://www.nvic.org

 

"Protecting the health and informed consent rights of children since

1982."

 

for immediate release

 

June 27, 2006

 

MERCK'S GARDASIL VACCINE NOT PROVEN SAFE FOR LITTLE GIRLS National Vaccine

Information Center Criticizes FDA for Fast Tracking Licensure

 

Washington, D.C. - The National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC)

is calling on the CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices

(ACIP) to just say "no" on June 29 to recommending "universal use" of

Merck's Gardasil vaccine in all pre-adolescent girls. NVIC maintains

that Merck's clinical trials did not prove the human papillomavirus

(HPV) vaccine designed to prevent cervical cancer and genital warts is

safe to give to young girls.

 

"Merck and the FDA have not been completely honest with the people

about the pre-licensure clinical trials," said NVIC president Barbara

Loe Fisher. "Merck's pre and post-licensure marketing strategy has

positioned mass use of this vaccine by pre-teens as a morality play in

order to avoid talking about the flawed science they used to get it

licensed. This is not just about teenagers having sex, it is also

about whether Gardasil has been proven safe and effective for little

girls."

 

The FDA allowed Merck to use a potentially reactive aluminum

containing placebo as a control for most trial participants, rather

than a non-reactive saline solution placebo. A reactive placebo can

artificially increase the appearance of safety of an experimental drug

or vaccine in a clinical trial.

Gardasil contains 225 mcg of aluminum and, although aluminum adjuvants

have been used in vaccines for decades, they were never tested for

safety in clinical trials. Merck and the FDA did not disclose how much

aluminum was in the placebo.

 

Animal and human studies have shown that aluminum adjuvants can

cause brain cell death and that vaccine aluminum adjuvants can allow

aluminum to enter the brain, as well as cause inflammation at the

injection site leading to chronic joint and muscle pain and fatigue.

Nearly 90 percent of all Gardasil recipients and 85 percent of

aluminum placebo recipients reported

one or more adverse events within 15 days of vaccination, particularly

at the injection site. Pain and swelling at injection site and fever

occurred in approximately 83 percent of Gardasil and 73 percent of

aluminum placebo recipients. About 60 percent of those who got

Gardasil or the aluminum

placebo had systemic adverse events including headache, fever, nausea,

dizziness, vomiting, diarrhea, myalgia. Gardasil recipients had more

serious adverse events such as headache, gastroenteritis,

appendicitis, pelvic inflammatory disease, asthma, bronchospasm and

arthritis.

 

"Merck and the FDA do not reveal in public documents exactly how

many 9 to 15 year old girls were in the clinical trials, how many of

them received hepatitis B vaccine and Gardasil simultaneously, and how

many of them had serious adverse events after being injected with

Gardasil or the aluminum placebo. For example, if there were fewer

than 1,000 little girls actually

injected with three doses of Gardasil, it is important to know how

many had serious adverse events and how long they were followed for

chronic health problems, such as juvenile arthritis."

 

According to the Merck product manufacturer insert, there was 1

case of juvenile arthritis, 2 cases of rheumatoid arthritis, 5 cases

of arthritis, and 1 case of reactive arthritis in 11,813 Gardasil

recipients plus 1 case of lupus and 2 cases of arthritis out of 9,701

participants primarily

receiving an aluminum containing placebo. Clinical trial investigators

dismissed most of the 102 Gardasil and placebo associated serious

adverse events, including 17 deaths, that occurred in the clinical

trials as unrelated.

 

"There is too little long term safety and efficacy data, especially

in young girls, and too little labeling information on

contraindications for the CDC to recommend Gardasil for universal use,

which is a signal for states to mandate it," said Fisher. "Nobody at

Merck, the CDC or FDA know if

the injection of Gardasil into all pre-teen girls - especially

simultaneously with hepatitis B vaccine - will make some of them more

likely to develop arthritis or other inflammatory autoimmune and brain

disorders as teenagers and adults. With cervical cancer causing about

one percent of all

cancer deaths in American women due to routine pap screening, it was

inappropriate for the FDA to fast track Gardasil. It is way too early

to direct all young girls to get three doses of a vaccine that has not

been proven safe or effective in their age group."

 

The National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC), founded in 1982 by

parents of vaccine injured children, has been a leading critic of

one-size-fits-all mass vaccination policies and the lack of basic

science research into biological mechanisms and high risk factors for

vaccine-induced brain and immune system dysfunction. As a member of

the FDA Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee

(VRBPAC), Barbara Loe Fisher urged trials include adequate safety data on

pre-adolescent children and warned against fast tracking Gardasil at

the November 28-29, 2001 VRBPAC meeting

http://www.fda.gov/ohrms/dockets/ac/cber01...latedBiological

 

For references and more information, go to www.nvic.org.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now

×
×
  • Create New...