Flu Vaccine Studies Flawed - NVIC Calls For Policy Change

October 31, 2006 - Press Release

Studies Fail to Demonstrate Safety or Effectiveness

of Influenza Vaccine in Children and Adults
National Vaccine Information Center Calls for Influenza Vaccine Policy Change

WASHINGTON, Oct. 31 /PRNewswire/ -- An independent analysis by the internationally renowned Cochrane Collaboration of worldwide influenza vaccine studies, published in the British Medical Journal on Oct. 28, concluded there is little scientific proof that inactivated influenza vaccine is safe and effective for children and adults. Citing the Cochrane Collaboration finding as well as methodological flaws in a child influenza vaccine study published Oct. 25 in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), the National Vaccine Information Center is calling on the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) to stop recommending annual flu shots for all infants and children until methodologically sound studies are conducted.

"There is a big gap between policies promoting annual influenza vaccinations for most children and adults and supporting scientific evidence," said epidemiologist Tom Jefferson, Cochrane Vaccines Field, Rome, Italy, who coordinated the comprehensive analysis for the prestigious Cochrane Collaboration. "Given the significant resources involved in annual mass influenza campaigns, there is urgent need for re- evaluation of these strategies."

The Cochrane Collaboration analysis found that the majority of published influenza vaccine studies were methodologically flawed with selection biases, confounders and heavy reliance on non-randomized studies. The report points out that potential confusion between respiratory infections caused by influenza viruses and those caused by non-influenza viruses can result in misdiagnosis and gross overestimation of the true impact of influenza on death and illness in a given influenza season. The report concluded that too few clinical trials have been conducted to prove vaccine safety and current evidence indicates that use of inactivated influenza vaccine has only a modest or no effect on preventing influenza in the children and the elderly.

"The CDC has pushed mass use of influenza vaccine in all children without scientific evidence the policy is either necessary or safe," said NVIC President Barbara Loe Fisher. "Where is the good science to back up the policy? If the recently published CDC-funded influenza vaccine study in JAMA is the kind of flawed science public health officials are using to convince the public the vaccine is safe, it is no wonder that many parents don't trust what public health officials say about vaccination. The CDC should stop recommending annual influenza vaccination of all young children when there is insufficient scientific justification for it."

The JAMA study, which was conducted by Kaiser Permanente doctors with CDC funding, was a non-randomized retrospective analysis of the medical records of children 6 to 23 months old who were given influenza vaccine as well as other vaccines between 1991 and 2003. Vaccines were not randomly administered and unvaccinated controls were not used. Children's case histories were included in the study only if an HMO doctor had seen them within 14 days of influenza vaccination. Dozens of convulsions and other adverse events, including brain injury experienced by children after vaccination, were excluded from the study if the children had not been seen by a doctor within 14 days of the adverse event or were sick in the weeks before and after vaccination.

Because of arbitrarily chosen cut-off periods, adverse events which occurred before and after different observation times cancelled each other out and were not classified as vaccine-related. In some cases, convulsions and cases of Guillain Barre Syndrome were dismissed as "coincidental" or caused by other vaccines the children received by the 19 Kaiser Permanente and CDC authors -- nine of whom reported financial ties to flu vaccine manufacturers and all of whom received CDC funding.

"Vaccine studies are using increasingly complex statistical techniques rather than time-tested research designs," said NVIC Health Policy Analyst Vicky Debold, R.N., Ph.D. "The JAMA study is exactly the type of study criticized by the Cochrane Collaboration. There were so many limitations and exclusions in the study design that it is nearly impossible to interpret or replicate the findings. The true effect of the influenza vaccine on health outcomes cannot be identified in this single, flawed study, which should not be used as evidence that influenza vaccine is safe for infants and toddlers or to justify national vaccine policies."

The Cochrane Collaboration (http://www.cochrane.org), which maintains the Cochrane Library and is the world's leading producer of systematic reviews of scientific information about health care, is a UK registered international charity. Cochrane reviews are considered the gold standard for determining the effectiveness of health care interventions.

The National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC) is a non-profit, educational organization (http://www.nvic.org ) founded in 1982 and is dedicated to preventing vaccine injuries and deaths through public education and defending the informed consent ethic.

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Source: National Vaccine Information Center

India: Highly Vaccinated Babies Get Polio

"They say almost all the cases have been reported from areas where sanitation is an issue and most of the children belong to poor families unable to give them a nutritious diet. In the developed countries, a child needs three doses for immunisation. But in India, a child may need up to 10 doses, they say. Officials have confirmed that one child in Delhi has contracted the virus despite being given nine shots of the vaccine." - Geeta Pandey, BBC News, Delhi, October 26, 2006, Indian Alarm At New Polio Cases


Barbara Loe Fisher Commentary:

It is painful to watch doctors and public health officials squirt unlimited amounts of live oral polio vaccine down the throats of babies in India rather than address the poor nutrition and sanitation that comes with poverty, the true cause of most disease. With a religious zeal not seen since the Crusades, these public health officials bearing live polio viruses capable of being causing vaccine strain polio and transmitting it to others through the open sewage pits of poor communities in India, apparently have no idea what they are doing.

Have the relentless polio vaccine campaigns in India and other poor countries put pressure on one or all of the three polio viruses contained in the live oral polio vaccine to mutate into vaccine resistant forms? Have the malnourished, poor children repeatedly exposed to live polio viruses become immune compromised and more vulnerable to other diseases? These and other questions are ignored as the vaccinnators mindlessly conduct one polio vaccine campaign after another, determined to eradicate a virus from the earth using a live virus vaccine which gives the virus opportunity to thrive.

The people, like lambs led to slaughter, do not know how to stand up to the officials in white coats. Some run. Others submit, afraid of retribution. And the highly vaccinated children living in poverty without enough to eat continue to get sicker and sicker.

Telling Lies About Mercury

"Parents of the 100 children who attended Kiddie Kollege say some suffer from seizures, peeling skin from fingers and feet, hyperactivity, and other symptoms that could be associated with mercury exposure, which can cause neurological and kidney problems. Though tests showed that the day care had 27 times the acceptable level of mercury vapors, health officials said the children's exposure levels were not extreme after urine tests were conducted. The officials say the children should not suffer adverse health affects." - Jan Hefler, Philadelphia Inquirer, October 19, 2006, NJ Official: Owners Saw Mercury Warnings

"Only a small number of licensed and approved products still contain thimerosal, and the available evidence supports FDA's conclusion that all currently licensed vaccines and other pharmaceutical drug products containing thimerosal are safe," Dr. Jeffrey Shuren, the FDA's assistant commissioner for policy, wrote in denying the petition. " - Andrew Bridge, Associated Press,October 24, 2006, Government Rejects Vaccine Petition

Barbara Loe Fisher Commentary:
The obsessive need to protect the reputation of mercury appears to be a contagious disease among U.S. government health officials. Whether it is dismissing the potentially toxic effects of little children breathing in mercury vapors or promoting the injection of mercury into the bloodstreams of children via vaccines, public health officials just canonot bring themselves to admit there is potential for harm and take action to prevent it.

When the history of mercury poisoning of children is written - long after those who are protecting the right of adults to expose children to mercury are no longer in positions of power - the tragic legacy will live on in a nation unprepared to deal with the human and economic costs of the mercury policy.

Telling the people it is OK for humans to breathe, eat, use and be injected with mercury is a lie. And that lie, along with many others told in the name of the "greater good" is what will eventually bring down a public health system and a

CA Autism Increases With Rate Decline

"In the 1960's through the 1970's, autism accounted for roughly 3% of the total number of new cases entering the system. Beginning in the late 1970's (1978-79) and early 1980's, the autism epidemic began, and the increase grew from 3% to 40% by July 2003..... By October 2003, autism accounted for 47% of all new intakes, and according to the latest DDS Report for the 3rd. Quarter of 2006, autism now accounts for an astonishing 76% of the intakes now entering California's developmental services system.....One thing is for sure, the hidden hordes of adults with autism that need to be accounted for in order to discredit the existence of an autism epidemic and an increasing incidence of autism, have yet to come forward or be discovered." - Rick Rollens

Barbara Loe Fisher Commentary:
According to data recently released by the California Department of Developmental Services (DDS), during the third quarter of 2006 California added a record number of new cases of autism to its system, a number that represents the second highest quarterly reported number of new autism cases in the system's 37-year history. The bad news is that the data show a continuing increase in the numbers of young autistic children entering the system. The good news is that there appears to be a marked slowing of the percentage rate increases of new autism cases in younger children.

Elimination of mercury from most childhood vaccines between 1999 and 2003 may be having an effect on the slowing of the rate of autism increases in young children, a rate of increase which skyrocked out of sight beginning in the early 1980's. However, the fact that the total numbers of young children suffering with autism does continue to increase - even though it is at a slower rate -in Calfironia and other states suggests that mercury preservatives in vaccines may be only one causal factor in the rise in autism among American children during the past quarter century.

During the past quarter century, the CDC and AAP increased the numbers of vaccinations doctors are told to give American children from 23 doses of 7 vaccines to 48 doses of 14 vaccnies by age five. Although today almost all childhood vaccines contain only trace amounts of mercury or never contained mercury preservatives, such as polio, pneumococcal, hepatitis A and live virus MMR, chicken pox and rotavirus vaccines, parents around the nation continue to report that their children are regressing physically, mentally and emotionally following receipt of multiple vaccines. These parents report their children are becoming chronically ill and disabled, suffering with autism, learning disabilities, ADHD, asthma, diabetes, intestinal bowel disorders and other brain and immune system dysfunction.

How many more children will be hurt before government, industry and pediatricians open their eyes and see what too much vaccination has done to our children?

Rick Rollens, co-founder of the M.I.N.D. Institute at UC-Davis, released the following report on the latest numbers of children suffering with autism that are being served in the California DDS:

California Reports Autism Increase With Rate Increase Decline
According to data just released by the California Department of Developmental Services (DDS), during the 3rd. Quarter of 2006 (August through September), California added 841 new cases of autism to it's developmental services system, a number that represents the second highest quarterly reported number of new cases in the system's 37 year history.

In 1987 there were 2,778 cases in the system, by the end of 2002 the number had increased to 20,377, and today there are 31,853 persons with autism in the system.

Over 84% of all persons with autism in California's system are between the age of 3 and 21. Currently, 88% of the autism population live at home.

INCREASING RATE SLOWS DRAMATICALLY
In 1999, DDS released it's now famous and historic autism caseload report that documented a 273% increase in the number of new cases of autism entering California's developmental services system from 1987 through 1998.

In 2003, DDS followed up with an updated report that documented a 97% increase in the autism caseload over the 48 month period from December 1998 through December 2002.

According to DDS, during the most recent 45 month reporting period from January 2003 through September 2006, there has been a 50 percent increase in the autism caseload. The rate of increase declined by nearly half over the previous reporting period. The rate of increase has slowed by close to half from 95 percent to 50 percent during the past 45 months (nearly four years).

LESS YOUNGER, MORE OLDER CHILDREN ENTERING SYSTEM
During the four year reporting period between October 2002 and October 2006 there has been a large increase in the 10-21 year old population in the system, while the younger, 3-9 year old cohort reflects the substantial, declining rate of increase as noted above. The largest increase has been in the 14- 17 year olds (127%), while the smallest increase has been in the 22 year olds and older (35%).

Reasons for this phenomenon could include the lessening burden of mercury in vaccines slowing the numbers of new young children entering the system, a tightening of eligibility criteria that took effect in July 2003 (see last paragraph), and Regional Centers responding to the pressure to qualify more older persons with higher functioning autism spectrum conditions.

One thing is for sure, the hidden hordes of adults with autism that needs to be accounted for in order to discredit the existence of an autism epidemic and an increasing incidence of autism, have yet to come forward or be discovered.

TOTAL AGE BREAKDOWN 10/02 AND 10/06
October 2002
3-5 3932
6-9 5697
10-13 3531
14-17 1732
18-21 1047
22> 3696

October 2006
3-5 6188 57%
10-13 6157 74%
14-17 3934 127%
18-21 2021 93%
22> 4994 35%

In the 1960's through the 1970's, autism accounted for roughly 3% of the total number of new cases entering the system. Beginning in the late 1970's (1978-79) and early 1980's, the autism epidemic began, and the increase grew from 3% to 40% by July 2003. In July 2003 eligibility criteria was made more difficult for all categories of consumers, with subsequent devastating impacts on the numbers of persons with mental retardation, epilepsy, and cerebral palsy entering the system.

By October 2003, autism accounted for 47% of all new intakes, and according to the latest DDS Report for the 3rd. Quarter of 2006, autism now accounts for an astonishing 76% of the intakes now entering California's developmental services system. Due to the nature of the eligibility regulations adopted in July 2003, autism has been far and away the least impacted category of conditions affected.

October 16, 2006 - Press Release

VACCINE SAFETY ADVOCATES OPPOSE PENTAGON’S RETURN TO MANDATORY ANTHRAX VACCINATION OF U.S. MILITARY PERSONNEL

National Vaccine Information Center Provides Military-Biodefense Vaccine Information

Washington, D.C. –Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs William Winkenwerder, M.D. reportedly will announce today that U.S. soldiers will once again be forced under threat of court martial to be injected with anthrax vaccine without their voluntary, informed consent. The National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC) is warning that one-size- fits-all mandatory vaccination policies are dangerous for those with genetic and other biological risk factors, making them vulnerable to brain and immune system dysfunction following anthrax vaccination. Today, NVIC is launching the Military and Biodefense Vaccine Project (MBVP) with a website (www.military- biodefensevaccines.org) dedicated to providing the public with information on the research, development, regulation, policymaking, legislation and government promotion of military and biodefense vaccines that may be mandated for mass use in both military and civilian populations.

“America’s military servicemembers deserve to be fully informed about the deaths, chronic illness and disabilities that many soldiers have experienced following anthrax vaccination,” said MBVP medical director Meryl Nass, M.D. “The FDA-approved anthrax vaccine package insert acknowledges only six deaths and two dozen autoimmune diseases associated with the vaccine, but the FDA has not directed the manufacturer to update the insert in nearly five years. More than 1200 anthrax vaccine-injured soldiers have been treated at the congressionally mandated Vaccine Healthcare Centers, which DOD has attempted to close. They are suffering with crippling, life-altering illnesses that are being swept under the rug. We know the anthrax vaccine is reactive and we suspect it is especially risky for those with hereditary and other risk factors that DOD refuses to investigate or acknowledge.”

Since the 1991 Gulf War, healthy young soldiers have reported severe deterioration in health following anthrax vaccination, including chronic joint and muscle pain, weakness, gastrointestinal disorders, disabling fatigue, loss of memory and ability to concentrate, severe headaches, respiratory and heart problems, and autoimmune disorders that leave them unable to work or live a normal life. Some U. S. soldiers risked court martial rather than submit to anthrax vaccination, or re-vaccination after reactions occurred.

The Pentagon’s mandatory anthrax vaccine program was halted in October 2004 when Washington, D.C. federal Judge Emmet Sullivan cited the FDA for failing to follow FDA licensing regulations. He issued a permanent injunction directing DOD to stop giving the experimental anthrax vaccine to military personnel without their voluntary, informed consent. In December 2005, the FDA issued a new Final Order declaring the vaccine safe and effective, but failed to provide evidence the vaccine was effective against inhalation (weaponized) anthrax, and failed to address published research studies and 5,000 adverse events reports received by FDA demonstrating that anthrax vaccine is causing serious health problems. The National Vaccine Information Center filed an amicus brief in support of soldiers seeking to stop DOD from forcing anthrax vaccinations without informed consent.

“The National Vaccine Information Center has worked for 25 years to institute informed consent protections in America’s mass vaccination system,” said NVIC co-founder and president Barbara Loe Fisher. “The right to informed consent to medical risk taking, which involves risk of injury or death, is a human right whether an American citizen is a soldier or a civilian. The DOD has a moral duty to fully disclose anthrax vaccine risks, as well as benefits, to soldiers and allow them to make an informed, voluntary vaccination decision. The launch of the Military and Biodefense Vaccine Project, which expands our website information, will provide necessary information for informed vaccine decision making.”

The National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC) is a non-profit, educational organization founded in 1982 and dedicated to preventing vaccine injuries and deaths through public education and defending the informed consent ethic. NVIC has warned that vaccine injury liability protection given to pharmaceutical companies, and lack of informed consent provisions in Project BioShield, as well as other state and federal disease control legislation enacted since September 11, 2001, endanger civil liberties. For more information, go to www.nvic.org

Learn more about vaccines, diseases and how to protect your informed consent rights at

Forced Vaccination Lobbyists v The "Unmovable Group"

In response to an article in Forbes, October 10, 2006
As Parents Nix Vaccine, Childhood Whooping Cough Increases

" Refusal to have children immunized appears to be a peculiarly American phenomenon, Offit said, caused by "the balance we have in this country between individual rights and the rights of the public. To my knowledge,this is the only country to have state mandates for immunization, and the only one that needs them.....Offit said: "We get a lot of calls from parents who are troubled by vaccines. Then there is an unmovable group that believes it is a conspiracy of doctors and pharmaceutical companies, that it is all about selling vaccines. No matter what the data shows, they are not convinced. We have to ask people to have faith, and there has been an erosion of it." - HealthDay News & Forbes

Dr. Samuel Katz, a Duke University vaccine specialist who has consulted for vaccine makers, said he is not convinced loose state exemption policies are linked with whooping cough prevalence. He said not all states with liberal policies have high disease rates. But Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious-disease specialist at Vanderbilt University who has worked with vaccine manufacturers, said the connection is plausible. Schaffner said non-medical exemptions should be allowed, but only if parents get educational information about vaccines. They should also be required to renew their exemption status each year, as some states now mandate, Schaffner said." - Lindsey Tanner, Associated Press

Barbara Loe Fisher Commentary:
The families of vaccine injured children and those who know vaccine injured children do not trust the opinions of doctors who take money from drug companies and personally profit from laws which force vaccination, such as rotavirus (diarrhea) vaccine patent holder, Paul Offit. The disdain for individual rights and civil liberties expressed by Offit puts him at odds with America's founding fathers, who understood the importance of protecting minorities from the tyranny of the majority.

No other country in the world uses and mandates as many vaccines as the United States because government officials in Canada, western Europe and other free nations respect individual rights and health care choices. Only authoritarian regimes in underdeveloped countries take a totalitarian approach to dissent today, with some imprisoning non-vaccinators or using the militia to force vaccination. Increasing oppression and punishment of families trying to protect their children from vaccine injury and death in the United States would certainly make it easier for patent holders on vaccines to make larger and more predictable profits.

It is important for the public, including legislators, to be fully informed about all of the potential motivating factors for the public policies being promoted by individuals with letters after their names. It is also important for the public, including journalists, to independently verify the scientific integrity of studies which are used to justify the erosion of civil and human rights in America.

Disclosure: NVIC and its staff have never taken money from vaccine manufacturers. NVIC is a charitable 501(C)3 organization founded by parents of vaccine injured children in 1982 and dedicated to the prevention of vaccine injuries and deaths through public education and protection of the informed consent ethic.

Taking Away Vaccine Exemptions

"Permitting personal belief exemptions and easily granting exemptions are associated with higher and increasing nonmedical US exemption rates. State policies granting personal belief exemptions and states that easily grant exemptions are associated with increased pertussis incidence. States should examine their exemption policies to ensure control of pertussis and other vaccine-preventable diseases. " - JAMA, October 11, 2006

"Concerns about vaccine safety seem to be the main reason parents claim such exemptions, Salmon told Reuters Health. In an earlier study, he and his colleagues found that 69 percent of parents who sought exemptions did so because they feared vaccination did more harm than the diseases it prevents. Salmon and his colleagues argue that states should have "administrative controls" that make non-medical exemptions more difficult to obtain. This, Salmon said, could look something like the process of becoming a conscientious objector to the draft. Parents would apply for an exemption and have to show a "strongly held belief" against vaccines, he explained. Then the government would either have to demonstrate an "overwhelming need" for universal vaccination or grant the exemption. " - Amy Norton, Reuter's Health

"Barbara Loe Fisher, co-founder and president of the National VaccineInformation Center in Virginia, said exemptions allow people to make choicesabout health care for themselves and their children. In some cases, risks are real and science has not caught up with vaccine policy, she said. "The priciple of informed consent is, you’re able to make a voluntary decision. It applies to every other medical intervention," Fisher said." - Misti Crane, Columbus Dispatch

Barbara Loe Fisher Commentary:
Are more American citizens standing up for their right to make voluntary, informed decisions about vaccination which do not conform to one-size-fits-all forced vaccination policies endorsed by CDC officials and the utilitarians at Johns Hopkins? Apparently they are and it is making the government and industry funded M.D./Ph.D./MPH employees at the CDC, Johns Hopkins and other academic institutions determined to take away all exemptions to vaccination except those they and their colleagues personally grant to citizens.

In the past 25 years as the CDC has increased the numbers of vaccines recommended for "universal use" by all children from 23 doses of 7 vaccines to 48 doses of 14 vaccines by age six, more and more children have been getting sick and regressing physically, mentally and emotionally after vaccination. In the past two decades, there has been a tripling of the numbers of highly vaccinated children who are now chronically ill and disabled and suffering with learning disabilities, ADHD, asthma, diabetes, and autism. America's children are in the middle of a chronic disease and disability epidemic and the only solution government health officials and professors of public health offer is to suggest ways to force more vaccines on sick children.

The most common reason that parents exercise a philosophical or conscientious belief exemption to vaccination for a child is because the child or a close relative has a history of vaccine reactions and health deterioration after previous vaccinations. Unfortunately, in the past two decades, government health officials have so severely restricted the medical criteria for contraindications to vaccination that few individuals qualify. Doctors who write medical exemptions which do not fit the strict federal government criteria, are often second-guessed and harrrased by state government health officials. Because medical exemptions to vaccination have become virtually non-existent, the only exemptions available to parents acting to protect their children from vaccine injury and death is the religious and philosphical exemption.

What is becoming more evident to more parents is that unvaccinated or partially vaccinated children move through illness and heal more quickly and are getting better grades in school because they do not have difficulty concentrating or learning like their more sickly, lower functioning highly vaccinated classmates. Empirical evidence and personal experience always trumps methodologically flawed scientific studies and the words and actions of government health officials employing strong-arm tactics to force their ideology on others.

The tragedy of forced vaccination policies is that the immoral utilitarian rationale is used to justify human rights abuses while distorting the truth about what constitutes good individual and public health. If everybody is forced to get vaccinated, then there can be no comparison of the long term health of those highly vaccinated to those who receive fewer or no vaccines. Public health officials inside and outside of government, along with their colleagues in the pharmaceutical industry, have a lot of prestige, power and money to lose if the health differences between the highly vaccinated and unvaccinated ever become widely known. That is one reason why they are pushing so hard to elminate all exemptions to one-size-fits-all mandatory vaccination laws.

The "Cheaters" Vaccine: HPV

In response to an article in the Lexington KY, Herald-Ledger, October 3, 2006
Is prevention worth a shot?A cervical-cancer vaccine leaves parents with tough decisions

"Dr. Albert "Ben" Jenson, a researcher of tumor immunobiology at theUniversity of Louisville James Graham Brown Cancer Center and part of theoriginal team of scientists at Georgetown University that invented the HPVvaccine and holds the patent on it: "I can't think of a reason not to (getthe vaccine). The adverse reactions are very small. It's the firstvaccination to prevent cancer. My three daughters -- ages 42, 40 and 38 --are going to get it. I think every woman should have it. Maybe they don'thave it (HPV) now, but they could get it if their partner, no matter howcommitted, has (pause) flaws and brings the virus into the relationship. Ithink men should have it too -- to protect women." - Herald Leader, Lexington, KY

Barbara Loe Fisher Commentary:

Merck's marketing strategy for HPV vaccine includes enlisting patent-holding scientists and paid Merck consultants to hype it as a lifestyle vaccine that should be pumped into the bodies of every pre-adolescent girl in the country. Just in case she forgets to wait until she gets married to have sex; or the guy she marries has had sex; or, apparently, just in case the guy she marries has sex with someone else while he is married to her. Can this marketing strategy get any more annoying?

And can these entrepreneuring vaccinologists twist themselves into a more convoluted pretzel with their junk science morality?

The truth is that most boys and girls and men and women who have had sex have been exposed to HPV and clear the virus naturally from their bodies and go on to lead perfectly normal, healthy lives. For the very tiny minority of women who, for unknown reasons, develop a persistent HPV infection, it can be identified through pap smears. Cervical cancer from HPV infection develops only after many years of unidentified, persistent HPV infection. Regular check-ups with pap smears are a much more cost-effective prevention than paying Merck and HPV vaccine patent holders $360 for 3 doses of HPV vaccine to inject into every American tweenager (Merck and the CDC are making noises that they want all pre-adolescent boys to get it too).

I can't wait to see the marketing strategy to sell the AIDS vaccine.

Study Finds Chemotherapy Damages Brain

In response to a story on CNN, October 5, 2006
Chemo has long-term impact on brain function, study finds


"Experts estimate that at least 25 percent of chemotherapy patients are affected by symptoms of confusion, so-called chemo brain, and a recent study by the University of Minnesota reported an 82 percent rate, the statement said. "People with 'chemo brain' often can't focus, remember things or multitask the way they did before chemotherapy," Silverman said. "Our study demonstrates for the first time that patients suffering from these cognitive symptoms have specific alterations in brain metabolism." - Reuters

Barbara Loe Fisher Commentary:
It should be no surprise to anyone that when medical doctors inject toxic chemicals into cancer patients in an attempt to "kill" the cancer, it has long term effects on brain and immune system function. Medical interventions, from prescription drugs to vaccinations to chemo therapy, carry an inherent risk of injury or death. That is why no medical intervention should ever be forced on a human being without voluntary, informed consent.

Several months ago, medical doctors trying force a 16-year old boy to undergo chemotherapy against his will, persuaded the state of Virginia to prosecute his parents on charges of child medical neglect for supporting their son's decision to refuse chemotherapy. While a judge ultimately found the parents not guilty, the judge only set the boy and his parents free after turning them over to another medical doctor who promised to work with the family and not force chemotherapy.

Now that the brain damaging risks of chemotherapy are finally revealed, just like the brain damaging effects of anti-depressants, ADHD drugs and vaccines have been revealed, it is time to make it illegal for medical doctors to force medical treatment on U.S. citizens for any reason. There is no freedom more fundamental than the right to voluntarily choose what you are willing to risk your life or the life of your child for when making health care decisions.

Flu Vaccine Marketing Season Begins

National Foundation for Infectious DiseasesCDC Director Joins Nation's Top Health Experts to Urge Americans to Seek Influenza and Pneumococcal Vaccinations This Fall and Winter
Wednesday October 4, 2006

"Americans need to learn about the benefits of immunization. Forgoingvaccination can put your household at risk for complications like pneumonia,missed work and school days, trips to the hospital and sometimes death,"said Susan J. Rehm, MD, NFID medical director and vice chair of thedepartment of infectious disease at the Cleveland Clinic." - PR Newswire

Barbara Loe Fisher Commentary:

Here come the flu fear mongers...just in time for the flu vaccine marketing season! The CDC's cradle to the grave approach to annual flu vaccination for all Americans starts at 6 months of age and does not end until the last breath is taken in the last year of life.

This national mass vaccination policy reaps millions in profits for drug companies. In fact flu vaccine makers depend heavily upon the success of the CDC's marketing campaign, which uses instilling fear and anxiety in the population as its main strategy for persuading all Americans to roll up their sleeves (or roll up the sleeves of their children) and buy the flu shot.

Apparently they are having a problem, though, because lots of Americans are voting with their feet and resisting the cattle call. Many do not believe the hype because the truth is, not many people die of one of the three type A or type B flu strains contained in the flu shot given in America every year. In fact, only 20 percent of all flu-like illness in any given flu season is actually the flu. Most of the flu-like illlness is due to other bacteria and viruses that cause illness looking a lot like the flu. The flu vaccine can't prevent that from happening.

In the old days, everybody got the flu that was going around that year and developed antibodies the old fashioned way. And then when that type of flu came around again a few years or decades later, immunological memory served as buffer so those who had already had experience with it either didn't get it again or it was a lot milder. The flu vaccine marketeers are using fear tactics to try to take away all immunological memory with type A and type B flu from our population. What will that make us? Vaccine dependent, of course.

The flu vaccine should be allowed to float free in the marketplace and be subject to the law of supply and demand. Taxpayer money should not be spent by government employees serving as de facto advertising agents for one of the most profitable industries in the world: the pharmaceutical industry. The danger in all of this is that when public health officials can't persuade the people to do what they want them to do, they have the nasty habit of making sure laws are passed forcing the people to do what they want them to do.

No doubt flu vaccine mandates are coming but, this time, it won't be just for the children.

Covering Up MMR/Autism Link

In response to an article in Pediatrics, October 2006, Reported by Reuters
New Data Refute Measles Virus Persistence in Children With Autism

"These data are a direct refutation of the reports of persistence of measles virus in the tissues of autistic children," he [Brian Ward, M.D.] said. "We are hopeful that this paper will simply put a quiet end to the debate surrounding this topic," the researcher added." - Reuters

Barbara Loe Fisher Commentary:
It is understandable why a member of the Canadian Infectious Disease Society, who is an ardent promoter of forced vaccination with multiple vaccines, would want to do whatever he could to exonerate MMR vaccine from any association with autism. But does he really think his pathetic attempt to discredit the meticulous work of virologists and microbiologists in other laboratories will "simply put a quiet end to the debate" about MMR and autism? I don't think so.

How tiresome it is becoming to see yet another M.D./Ph.D. vaccinologist (or a group of them) issue a proclamation declaring that THEY have studied the reported link between vaccines and autism and found absolutely no association and, therefore, no more research should be conducted and the debate should "end." This kind of posturing only furthers public suspicion that they are covering up to protect the vaccine market and the mass casualties of their one-size-fits-all mass vaccination policies.

Calls for a moratorium on further scientific investigation into the causes and cures for any disease or disorder is reason to suspect that those who are calling for it are afraid of the truth.

Pediatrics 2006;118:1664-1675.

Ear Infections Don't Need Antibiotics

From Web M.D. , September 22, 2006
Most Kids Ear Infections Heal Without Antibiotics

"Ear infections are the most common reason for antibiotic use among U.S. children, with 15 million prescriptions written annually. Antibiotic resistance is a growing worldwide public health concern that has been spurred by the widespread overuse of the drugs. “In this country, 96 percent to 98 percent of physicians treat ear infections immediately with antibiotics, even though most cases will resolve on their own without treatment" - David M. Spiro, MD, MPH tells Web M.D.

Barbara Loe Fisher Commentary:

For the past 50 years, medical doctors have insisted that parents give their children antibiotics to "treat" everything from the common cold and ear infections to the flu and pneumonia. When in doubt, hand the antibiotics out was the philosophy of most pediatricians who saw young children in their practices. Now, we learn that when the immune system of a child with an ear infection is left alone to naturally participate in the healing process that follows an acute inflammatory response to infection, most children get well without antibiotics.

Like indiscriminate, mass use of antibiotics "kill" infectious microorganisms has put pressure on bacteria to mutate in order to survive, indiscriminate mass use of multiple vaccines to "eradicate" or tightly control infectious diseases is putting pressure on viruses and bacteria to mutate and become vaccine resistant. The B. pertussis bacteria causing whooping cough and the pneumococcal bacteria causing ear infections are two examples of organisms which are evading vaccines designed to prevent them from causing infection.

Rather than living in abject fear of microorganisms and trying to destroy them with drugs and vaccines, it might be time to take another approach that results in fewer complications. Working with nature by finding less toxic ways to augment and enhance healthy functioning of the immune system would be a good place to start.

Michigan to Force HPV Vaccine on Little Girls

From The Toledo Blade, September 13, 2006
Michigan bills push cervical cancer vaccinations for 6th-grade girls

"Because the HPV vaccine prevents a sexually transmitted disease, some parents and religious groups across the country have expressed reservations about vaccinating young girls. Ms. Hammerstrom said that she thinks parents are responsible enough to tell their daughters what they feel is appropriate behavior. She pointed out that hepatitis B is a virus most commonly spread through sexual intercourse or sharing drug needles, but that it is also required. "

"I would want to more about it, if there are any side effects, how long the vaccine works, if you have to be revaccinated," said Mary Dunnett, the PTA president at Bedford Public School's Douglas Road Elementary School. "I would want to know more about it before they made it [law]."

"Ida Public Schools Superintendent Marv Dick said required vaccines are good reminders for parents, but added that he thinks parents should be able to decide whether their child receives a vaccine...."I think parents need to have some input as to what happens to their children," he said. " -Toledo Blade

Barbara Loe Fisher Commentary:

In 1991, the National Vaccine Information Center opposed the mandating of hepatitis B vaccine for school entry. Hepatitis B is a primarily adult disease transmitted through contact with infected blood during IV drug use and sexual contact. At the time, public health officials, pediatricians and drug company lobbyists persuaded state legislators to mandate hepatitis B vaccine for school entry because the CDC said infected kids could transmit the virus to other kids when they cut themselves and bled on other children or shared toothbrushes when they had open sores in their mouths. Now, the same forced vaccination lobbyists are persuading trusting but clueless legislators that mandating HPV vaccine for pre-adolescent girls in sixth grade will prevent cervical cancer when the girls become sexually active someday.

Why are the facts about HPV infection and cervical cancer being hidden from the public by forced vaccination lobbyists? Because acknowledging the facts about HPV won't get them more money or power.

The fact is that most sexually active women have encountered the HPV virus, naturally developed antibodies and cleared the infection from their body. A tiny minority of sexually active women go on to become chronically infected with HPV and, after many years, develop cervical cancer. Nearly 100 percent of all HPV associated cervical cancer can be identified through annual pap smears and prevented.

HPV associated cervical cancer deaths (4600 deaths annually) are way down on the list of leading cancer killers of women in America because annual pap smears have reduced cervical cancer deaths by more than 70 percent since the 1950's. The leading cancer killers of American women today are lung cancer (68,000 deaths annually); breast cancer (42,000 deaths); colorectal cancer (29,000 deaths); ovarian cancer (14,000 deaths); skin cancer (9600 deaths); and uterine cancer (6500 deaths). Although annual pap smears can prevent almost 100 percent of all cervical cancers, the forced vaccination lobbyists are trying to con thedia and the American public into believing they should force all 9 to 11 year old girls in America to get injected with three doses of HPV vaccine at a per child cost of $375 (not including the charge for the pediatrician's office visit) or be denied an education.

Mandating HPV vaccination for all young girls is nothing more than a boondoggle for drug companies selling vaccines and a national experiment on innocent children because there have been no long term studies to evaluate whether the HPV vaccine will cause autoimmune disorders in genetically vulnerable children (see NVIC's June 27, 2006 press release on HPV vaccine at www.nvic.org) Unfortunately, politicians have been persuaded to believe that introducing new vaccine mandates for school entry is a vote-getter. They do not realize that a growing number of voter parents justifiably view new vaccine mandates as another threat to the health and well being of their children, who are already chronically ill from too much vaccination.

Docs Say Old Dads Cause Autism

In response to an article in Web MD
Older Dads Linked to Higher Autism Rates
Tuesday, September 05, 2006
By Jennifer Warner

"A new study shows that children of 40-year-old to 49-year-old dads are nearly six times more likely to have autism than children of men under 30, regardless of the mother’s age...... In this study, researchers looked at more than 300,000 17-year-olds assessed medically and psychologically by the military draft board in Israel during the 1980s. They checked to see whether the age of the father contributed to the risk of autism in the young men and women." - WebMD

Barbara Loe Fisher Commentary:

Moving on from first blaming cold mothers and then older mothers for the development of autism in children, the M.D./Ph.D. researchers specializing in psychiatry are now blaming the presumably defective sperm of older fathers for the development of regressive autism in children. They are desperate to blame the iatrogenic autism epidemic on everyone but their M.D./Ph.D. vaccine-pushing colleagues specializing in infectious disease, public health and pediatrics.

In a retrospective study looking at 17 year old children born in Israel in the 1960's (when only polio, DPT and measles vaccine was being administered), researchers concluded that older fathers were more likely to have autistic children. It is unknown whether this finding could be replicated when looking at children born in America in 2003, when the numbers of doses of vaccines given to children had more than tripled.

Most children suffering from regressive autism in the past two decades have been born to young fathers and mothers who will struggle as older parents to provide support for their older autistic children.

Rattled Regulators, Injured Children

In response to a story by United Press International, September 26, 2006
The Age of Autism: Rattled regulators
By Dan Olmsted
UPI Senior Editor

The National Vaccine Information Center has been calling for reform of the mass vaccination system for the past 25 years. The FDA, CDC and NIH separately and together cannot be given the conflicting responsibilities of researching, developing, regulating, making policy for and promoting mandatory, mass use of vaccines. In addition, DHHS cannot be totally in charge of choosing, designing, and conducting or monitoring the implementation of studies investigating vaccine risks.

These federal agencies have a too-cozy relationship with the pharmaceutical industry and have turned into nothing more than public relations and advertising agencies for drug companies using taxpayer money to foot the bill. No wonder many federal public health officials retire from the FDA and CDC and go on to lucrative second careers as drug company employees or consultants. Sometimes they don't even wait to retire to dip into the BigPharma cash register. Some M.D./Ph.D. vaccine policymakers personally own patents on the vaccines they persuade the FDA to license and the CDC to label "universal use" vaccines so the states will mandate them and profit making will be immediate and unlimited.

And the M.D./Ph.D. researchers working for HMO's like Kaiser Permanente, which is often paid by theCDC and/or vaccine manufacturers to "study" vaccines and publish studies discounting vaccine risks, are just as guilty. (click here for the recent "study" whitewashing whole cell pertussis vaccine and measles vaccine risks, a piece of junk science that cannot hold a candle to the large, prospective case controlled National Childhood Encephalopathy Study,which found a statistically significant correlation between brain damage in children and receipt of these two vaccines).

Will Congress take a look into the dark corner of conflict of interest at federal health agencies and deal with it or did the IOM report skip this part?

We don't need to hold a pity party for "rattled regulators." Pity the poor families whose children's futures have been stolen from them by public health officials with their heads in the sand, their hands in the cookie jar and their conscience in the freezer. Pity a nation too afraid to hold M.D./Ph.D.officials accountable for writing off millions of chronically ill and disabled vaccine injured children as expendable in the name of "disease control" and the "greater good."