Vaccine Contamination: Pig Virus DNA Found in Rotarix

by Barbara Loe Fisher

On March 22, 2010, Food and Drug Administration (FDA) officials adhering to the precautionary principle advised American doctors to suspend use of Rotarix 1 vaccine until the agency finds out why DNA from a swine virus (porcine circovirus 1 or PCV1) was found in the live rotavirus vaccine. The FDA said there is “no evidence at this time” that the vaccine manufactured by GlaxoSmithKline and given to babies at 2,4 and 6 months of age to prevent diarrhea poses any safety risk. 2

Independent Lab Using New Technology Found Contamination

The discovery that viral DNA is contaminating Rotarix vaccine was made by a team of scientists at an independent research lab in San Fransisco, California, where they used new technology to detect fragments of viral genetic material in vaccines using genetic sequencing. 3

More testing confirmed that many copies of DNA from the pig virus were present in all Rotarix vaccine lots released since the vaccine was licensed in 2008 because the pig virus DNA also contaminated the working cell bank and the original viral “seed” stock, from which Rotarix vaccine was first produced. 4

Two Other Live Virus Vaccines Contaminated

The surprising discovery reportedly was made after the independent lab used new technology to evaluate the purity of eight live virus vaccines for polio, rubella, measles, yellow fever, human herpes 3 (varicella or chicken pox), rotavirus (Rotarix and RotaTeq) and MMR. In addition to pig viral DNA found in Rotarix vaccine, low levels of DNA fragments from avian (bird) leukosis virus (a retrovirus) was found in measles vaccine and DNA fragments of a virus similar to simian (monkey) retrovirus was found in RotaTeq vaccine. 5

FDA Looking For Answers

After the team double checked their findings, researchers notified GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) on February 9, 2010 and GSK notified the FDA on March 15, 2010, which prompted the FDA’s action on March 22, 2010 to suspend use of Rotarix. The FDA says it “does not know how DNA from PCV1 came to be present in Rotarix” or whether “this means that intact virus is present. Additional studies are being conducted.” 6

Rotavirus Vaccines Use Monkey, Cow, Pig Materials for Production

Rotarix is a genetically engineered vaccine that GSK created by isolating human rotavirus strain infecting a child in Cincinnati and using African Green monkey kidney cells to produce the original viral seed stock from which all Rotarix vaccine has been made. 7 In the FDA licensing process, Rotarix had to meet certain FDA standards, that included demonstrating the vaccine was not contaminated with, for example TSE (Transmissable Spongiform Encephalopathy or “mad cow” disease, a brain wasting disease) 8 or with cow viruses because bovine (cow) serum was used to prepare the original viral seed stock. Porcine trypsin, an enzyme in the pancreatic juice of a pig, was also used to make the viral seed stock. 9
RotaTeq is a genetically engineered vaccine containing five human-cow reassortment strains of rotavirus that were created at the Children’s Hospital of Pennsylvania (CHOP), where strains of rotavirus that give cows diarrhea were combined with strains of rotavirus that cause diarrhea in humans. The reassortment viruses were transported to Merck, where master seeds were produced using African Green Monkey kidney cell cultures. Fetal bovine (cow) serum and porcine trypsin was used to make the “seed” stock. 10 There are small amounts of bovine serum and cell culture media (monkey viral DNA) that remain in RotaTeq vaccine. 11 12

FDA Suggests Drug Companies Test for Vaccine “Purity”

In a February 2010 FDA document, Guidance for Industry: Characterization and Qualification of Cell Substrates and Other Biological Materials Used in the Production of Viral Vaccines for Infectious Disease Indications, the FDA lists “non-binding recommendations” for drug companies making vaccines using animal and human cell substrates. 13 Under the heading “Testing for Adventitious Agents,” the FDA states “assurance that products are free of adventitious agents is a critical component of meeting the [FDA regulations] requirement for purity.” Under the heading “Testing for Residual Cellular DNA,” the FDA states, “Residual DNA might be a risk to your final product because of oncogenic (cancer causing) and/or infectivity potential.”

Déjà Vu: Monkey Viruses Contaminated Polio Vaccines

Contamination of vaccines with animal viruses is not new. In the 20th century, polio vaccines given to tens of millions of people worldwide were contaminated with simian virus 40 (SV40), which was found to cause cancer in animals and is associated with human brain, bone and lung cancers but the government denies SV40 is causing those cancers in humans. 14 15 16 17

There has been controversy about the link between experimental polio vaccines tested in Africa in the 1950’s and 1960’s that were contaminated with a monkey virus, simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV). Soon after the polio vaccine trials in Africa, the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) emerged. 18 Many questions about the failure of researchers and technology to screen for monkey viruses in those vaccines remain to this day.

Using Cancer Cells to Produce Vaccines?

Vaccine manufacturers have long used cell material that comes from the bodies of mammals, including humans, monkeys, cows, pigs, dogs and rodents, as well as birds or insects to make vaccines now in use or to make experimental vaccines. There is an inherent risk of contamination with viruses and other microbes (or DNA from those microbes) that can escape detection during the vaccine development, testing, licensing, manufacturing and oversight process. 19 There has even been discussion among vaccine manufacturers and the FDA in the last decade about using neoplastic (cancer) cell substrates to make vaccines but the risk of contamination with cancer cell DNA is a big risk. 20

New Influenza Vaccines: Is Contamination Possible?

In searching for ways to make seasonal influenza vaccines in a faster, easier and less expensive way than relying on chicken eggs for production, drug companies have experimented with using dog kidney cells and human fetal retinal cells. However, these cell lines have been documented to cause tumors in animals, especially dog kidney cells (MDCK). 21

At a November 19, 2009 meeting of the FDA Vaccines & Related Biological Products Advisory Committee, a vaccine manufacturer asked for permission to use insect (caterpillar) cells to make pandemic influenza shots. But insect cells can be contaminated with insect viruses that are hard to detect. The FDA Committee, on that day, voted “no.” 22

Unanswered Questions about Rotarix Contamination

There are lots of questions about how the manufacturer of Rotarix vaccine and the FDA both missed the pig virus DNA contaminating the original seed stock and all doses of Rotarix vaccine given to more than one million American children in the past few years. 23

Is there state-of-the-art technology that is being used by private laboratories but not by drug companies and the FDA?

Why did the independent team of scientists, who found the contamination, notify the vaccine manufacturer first rather than also immediately reporting their finding directly to the FDA?

What about the significance of finding bird viral DNA in measles vaccine and the monkey viral DNA in RotaTeq vaccine?

Wake Up Call for Industry & Government

The contamination of Rotarix vaccine is only the latest in a long history of vaccine contamination issues that require a re-examination of the way vaccines are made and tested. It is a wake-up call for industry and government

The big question people are asking is: why do drug companies making vaccines continue to use cells from animals, birds and insects that can be contaminated with viruses and other adventitious agents that are hard to detect?

The FDA was right to suspend use of Rotarix vaccine until they know more. Hopefully, this serious vaccine production and testing issue will be addressed immediately by vaccine manufacturers. If not, the next pandemic or serious health problem affecting large populations may be one that comes out of a vaccine lab.

REFERENCES:

1 National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC). Rotarix and Rotarix Vaccine.
http://www.nvic.org/Vaccines-and-Diseases/Rotavirus.aspx

2 FDA. News Release: Components of Extraneous Virus Detected in Rotarix Vaccine: No Known Safety Risk, FDA Recommends Clinicians Temporarily Suspend Use of Vaccine As Agency Learns More. March 22, 2010. http://www.fda.gov/NewsEvents/Newsroom/PressAnnouncements/ucm205625.htm

3 Racaniello V. Deep sequencing reveals viral vaccine contaminants. http://www.virology.ws/. March 29, 2010. http://www.virology.ws/2010/03/29/DEEP-SEQUENCING-REVEALS-VIRAL-VACCINE-CONTAMINANTS/?
UTM_SOURCE=FEEDBURNER&UTM_MEDIUM=EMAIL&UTM_CAMPAIGN=FEED%253A+VIROLOGYBLOG
+%2528VIROLOGY
+BLOG%2529%0A

4 FDA. Detection of DNA from PCV1 in Rotarix. March 22, 2010. http://www.fda.gov/BiologicsBloodVaccines/Vaccines/ApprovedProducts/ucm205545.htm

5 See Reference #3 above.

6 FDA. See Reference #4 above.

7 FDA. Memorandum: Review of Vero Cell Banks used for Vaccine Production and Adventitious Agent Testing of Virus Seeds and Vaccine Human Rotavirus Vaccine (HRV) – Rotarix. April 1, 2008. http://www.fda.gov/BiologicsBloodVaccines/Vaccines/ApprovedProducts/ucm134138.htm

8 FDA. Summary Basis for FDA Regulatory Action – Rotarix. June 4, 2007. http://www.fda.gov/BiologicsBloodVaccines/Vaccines/ApprovedProducts/ucm133543.htm

9 European Medicines Control Agency. Evaluation of Medicines for Human Use: Rotarix Vaccine (Control of Materials (Reagants) page 4). 2006. http://www.ema.europa.eu/humandocs/PDFs/EPAR/rotarix/063906en6.pdf

10 European Medicines Control Agency. Evaluation of Medicines for Human Use: RotaTeq Vaccine (Active Substance (Manufacture). Pages 3-10. http://www.ema.europa.eu/humandocs/PDFs/EPAR/Rotateq/066906en6.pdf

11 FDA. Memorandum: Clinical Review of New Biologics License Application – RotaTeq (Description of the Product). Page 12. April 6, 2005. http://www.fda.gov/downloads/BiologicsBloodVaccines/Vaccines/ApprovedProducts/UCM142304.pdf

12 European Medicines Control Agency. See Reference #10 above. Page 6.

13 FDA. Guidance for Industry: Characterization and Qualification of Cell Substrates and Other Biological Materials Used in the Production of Viral Vaccines for Infectious Disease Indications. February 2010. http://www.fda.gov/downloads/BiologicsBloodVaccines/
GuidanceComplianceRegulatoryInformation/Guidances/Vaccines/UCM202439.pdf

14 Bookchin D, Schumacher J. The Virus and the Vaccine: The True Story of a Cancer-Causing Monkey Virus, Contaminated Polio Vaccine, and the Millions of Americans Exposed. St. Martin’s Press: New York. 2004. http://www.nvic.org/resource-center/books.aspx

15 Fisher BL. Congressional Testimony: The SV-40 Virus: Has Tainted Polio Vaccine Caused an Increase in Cancer? U.S. House Government Reform Committee. September 10, 2003. http://www.nvic.org/vaccines-and-diseases/Polio-SV40/BLFTestimonySV40.aspx

16 U.S. Congress. Congressional Hearing: Preventing Another SV40 Tragedy: Are Today’s Vaccine Safety Protocols Effective? U.S. House Government Reform Committee. November 13, 2003. http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=108_house_hearings&docid=f:92772.wais

17 Carlsen W. Rogue Virus in the Vaccine: Early Polio Vaccine Harbored Virus Now Feared to Cause Cancer in Humans. San Francisco Chronicle. July 15, 2001. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2001/07/15/MN193825.DTL

18 Carlsen W. Quest for the Origin of AIDS: Controversial Book Spurs Search for How the Worldwide Scourge of HIV Began. San Francisco Chronicle. January 14, 2001. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2001/01/14/MN140641.DTL

19 See Reference # 13 above.

20 FDA. Designer Cells as Substrates for the Manufacture of Viral Vaccines. 2001. http://www.fda.gov/OHRMS/DOCKETS/AC/01/briefing/3750b1_01.pdf

21 WHO. Initiative for Vaccine Research: Use of Cell Lines for the Production of Influenza Virus Vaccines: the Appraisal of Technical, Manufacturing and Regulatory Considerations. April 10, 2007.
http://www.who.int/vaccine_research/diseases/influenza/WHO_Flu_Cell_Substrate_Version3.pdf

22 FDA. Vaccines & Related Biological Products Advisory Committee. Safety & Effectiveness of Purified Recombinant Influenza Hemagglutinin Vaccine for the Prevention of Influenza (FluBlok). November 19, 2009. http://www.fda.gov/downloads/AdvisoryCommittees/CommitteesMeetingMaterials/
BloodVaccinesandOtherBiologics/VaccinesandRelatedBiologicalProductsAdvisoryCommittee/UCM197912.pdf

23 FDA. Background on Rotavirus Vaccines: How Many Doses of Rotarix Have Been Sold? March 22, 2010. http://www.fda.gov/BiologicsBloodVaccines/Vaccines/ApprovedProducts/ucm205543.htm

Click below to watch the video:

Harris Coulter Was a Brave Visionary

by Barbara Loe Fisher

Sometimes, when you least expect it, you get news that makes you stop and think about someone you care about, who taught you something important. Recently I learned of the death of my co-author of the ground breaking book he and I wrote together and published in 1985: DPT: A Shot in the Dark.

Harris was only 77 years old when he died on October 28, 2009. He had struggled for 12 years with the debilitating effects of a brain hemorrhage he suffered at age 65 while he was in Paris. It was a paralyzing stroke that would end his remarkable career.

When I last spoke with Harris two months before his death, I had called him to check out a rumor that he had passed away. With characteristic wit and clarity, he laughed and quoted Mark Twain, saying “The rumors of my death are greatly exaggerated.”

Although the stroke had left him paralyzed, it did not rob him of his personality or ability to recall details from the past. And every single time we had spoken in the decade following his stroke, Harris wanted to talk about the journey of discovery we took together when we wrote what would become the first major, well documented book examining the scientific and clinical evidence that vaccination can and does cause brain inflammation, permanent brain damage and death for some. Among his many accomplishments, Harris considered our collaboration on that book - which was published exactly a quarter century ago - to be his greatest one.

I remember the first time I spoke with Harris. It was the fall of 1982. I had been researching the side effects of DPT vaccine and interviewing parents of vaccine injured children for eight months following the broadcast of the emmy award winning television documentary DPT: Vaccine Roulette earlier that year. Along with other parents in the Washington, D.C. area, whose children had been brain injured or died after DPT shots, I helped establish the non-profit educational organization known today as the National Vaccine Information Center.

Back then, I was a young mother in my early 30’s with a four year old DPT vaccine injured son and I was pregnant with my second child. Working as a freelance writer out of my home, I was gathering information for a book I wanted to write for parents about preventing DPT vaccine injury and death.

Back then, nobody had personal computers or cell phones, and the internet was just a dream. If you wanted to write a book, especially on a medical topic, you did your research the old fashioned way – by going to the Library of Medicine or corresponding with authors of studies. So, when Harris called me up looking for information for an article he was writing on vaccination, it didn’t take me long to realize that this was a really smart man who knew his way around a medical library.

But I didn’t know he was a visionary medical historian, who had chronicled the history of homeopathy and the epic philosophical battles waged during the history of medicine from ancient times to the present in what would become his formidable four volume series of books called “Divided Legacy.” When I talked with him on the telephone that day in 1982, I didn’t know that Harris had graduated from Yale in Russian studies; that he was fluent in Russian, Hungarian, French, German, Spanish and Latin and was a well known oral and written translater for the State Department and at the United Nations; or that he earned a masters degree in political science and a PhD in philosophy from Columbia University.

I just knew, after talking with him for about 30 minutes, that he was an independent thinker and fearless about critiquing bad science and flawed assumptions made by the medical profession. Fearless was something I already figured out was a pre-requisite for writing a book that would challenge long standing assumptions parents and doctors have had about the safety of mass vaccination policies.

So I asked him if he wanted to co-author a book with me. He said “yes” and arrived on my doorstep a few days later to outline our game plan. And from that day on, Harris Coulter and I embarked on a truth seeking journey about vaccine safety that would take us into a labyrinth, where the history of science, medicine, politics, economics, law, and ethics intersected.

During this unlikely collaboration between a mother and writer, who loves Shakespeare, and a father and medical historian, who loved nothing better than to expose the arrogance and ignorance of medical orthodoxy, he and I managed to write a book that would be the first to inform the public about the link between vaccination and brain inflammation that can lead to chronic illness, including learning disabilities; attention deficit and ADHD; medication resistant seizure disorders; autism, asthma, severe allergies, mental retardation and other manifestations of brain and immune dysfunction given convenient labels by the medical profession.

As I interviewed hundreds of parents of DPT vaccine injured children and Harris set up camp at the Library of Medicine, my mantra became “brain damage by any other name is still brain damage” and his mantra was “when in doubt, don’t leave it out,” of our historic challenge to industry, government and organized medicine for refusing to acknowledge vaccine risks and failing to improve the crude and toxic whole cell DPT vaccine.

When he and I came under attack by medical writers at the New York Times and Wall Street Journal after our book was first published by Harcourt Brace Jovanovich in 1985, Harris told me “don’t listen to them, Barbara. They know we are right and that is why they are attacking us.”

At an NIH meeting in 1988, when an auditorium full of scientists and health officials informed American parents that they were not going to license the safer and more effective DTaP vaccine that Japan had been using since 1981 until after they conducted eight more years of studies, Harris called out from the back of the auditorium “I’ve got cases of DPT: A Shot in the Dark back here for anyone who wants a copy.” Within an hour, every last book had been sold.

Harris never let his critics get him down. In fact, he celebrated the negative attention. He took a stalwart “Damn the torpedoes, full steam ahead!” attitude that echoed the advice my Dad gave me when I was young, which was: “If everybody likes you, then you probably aren’t doing anything important.”

Harris Coulter was a very special man. He was a brilliant historian, a remarkable visionary, a brave seeker and defender of the truth. He left his mark on the history of medicine and he changed my life. When I think of Harris, I remember a quote from Shakespeare’s play, Julius Caeser: “A coward dies a thousand deaths, a hero only once.”

Thank you, Harris, for being a hero for me and many others, who will always remember and miss you.

To receive a copy of A Shot in the Dark, become a donor supporter of the National Vaccine Information Center.


Harris Coulter, PhD October 8, 1932 - October 28, 2009

Harris Livermore Coulter, PhD, born in Baltimore MD on October 8, 1932 died on October 28, 2009 in Washington, D.C. after a long illness following a stroke in 1997.

The co-author of DPT: A Shot in the Dark in 1985 and author of Vaccination, Social Violence and Criminality: A Medical Assault on the American Brain in 1990, Dr. Coulter attended Milton Academy and graduated Yale University with a BA degree in Russian Studies. He earned a masters degree in political science and a doctorate in philosophy from Columbia University. He worked for the State Department and United Nations as an English/Russian interpreter and authored nine books on medical history.

He is survived by his sons, Andrew and Alex and by his daughters, Elizabeth and Marian.


Curriculum Vitae for Harris Coulter, PhD

June 1997 - Paris, France - Meetings with Dr. Jacques Benveniste on writing a history of his discovery of the "memory of water."

January 1997 - Lectured to homeopathic and other physicians specializing in alternative medicine in Berlin, Germany, Moscow, Russia and London, UK.

October 1996 - Lectured on cancer immunotherapy at the 51st Annual Conference of the World Homeopathic League (LIGA) in Capri, Italy and at the Third Dead Sea Conference on Potentiating Health and the Crisis of the Immune System in Zichron Yaacov, Israel. Guest Lecturer at the Convention of the Romanian Homoeopathic Society in Bucharest, Romania.

November 1995 - Lectured on medical and homeopathic history at Centre de Techniques Homeopathiques, Montreal, Canada (lectures published by the Centre under the title: Histoire de l'Homeopathie).

October 1995 - Lectured at 50th Congress of International Homeopathic Medical League (Oaxaca, Mexico) on dangers of childhood vaccinations.

September 1995 - Lectured at Conference on Genetic Causes of Violence (University of Maryland) on childhood vaccinations as a cause of violent behavior.

February 1995 - Spoke at 49th Congress of International Homeopathic Medical League (New Delhi, India), and to homeopathic physicians in Calcutta, India, on 'Vitalism and the Future of Medicine.'

December 1994 - Published: Divided Legacy. Volume IV. Twentieth Century Medicine: The Bacteriological Era.

April 1994 - Lectured at 150th Anniversary meeting of The American Institute of Homeopathy on: 'American Medicine, Where We've Been and Where We're Going.'

September-October 1993 - Ad Hoc Advisory Panel of the Office of Alternative Medicine. Worked with Office of Alternative Medicine supervising trial of shark cartilage in treatment of cancer.

May 1993 - Honorary member of the 'Syndicat Professionel des Homeopathes du Quebec'.

September 1992 - Pharmacological and Biological Treatments Panel Member on the NIH's Workshop on Alternative Medicine. The report published was Alternative Medicine: Expanding Medical Horizons, also known as the Chantilly Report.

September 1992 - Lectured at the Fifth International Conference on Neuro-Developmental Issues (Cherry Hill, New Jersey) on the post-encephalitic syndrome.

March 1992 - Lectured at Fourth European Conference on Neuro-Developmental Delay (Chester, England) on the post-encephalitic syndrome.

1990-96 - Advisory board of the Cancer Chronicles.

1990-91 - Board of Directors, International Foundation for Homeopathy.

1990 - Published The Controlled Clinical Trial: An Analysis

1990 – Published Vaccination, Social Violence, and Criminality: The Medical Assault on the American Brain.

May 1990 - Lectured at 45th Congress of International Homeopathic Medical League, Barcelona, Spain, on dangers of childhood vaccinations. Awarded the Centenary Gold Medal of the Academica Medico-Homeopatica de Barcelona.

1990-96 - Lectured in France, Norway, Brazil, and Russia on homeopathic, vaccination, and medical history issues.

1988 - Testified before House of Representatives, Committee on Appropriations, Subcommittee on Labor: on AIDS and Syphilis: the Hidden Link.

1987 - Published AIDS and Syphilis: the Hidden Link.

1985 - Published with Barbara Loe Fisher: DPT: A Shot in the Dark.

1985 - Awarded the Hahnemann Prize of the Belgian Faculty of Homeopathy.

1983-89 - Editorial board of the Journal of the American Institute of Homeopathy.

1987 - Lectured at 42nd Congress of the International Homeopathic Medical League, Arlington, Virginia: 'DPT Vaccine. The DPT Shot and Public Health.'

1983-96 - Honorary member of the American Institute of Homeopathy.

1981-82 - Vice President of the American Center for Homeopathy and editor of The American Homeopath; Secretary of the Homeopathic Pharmacopoeia Convention. Organized homeopathic summer programs in Melbourne, Florida, and Scottsdale, Arizona.

1981 - Published Homeopathic Science and Modern Medicine.

1980 - Lectured to 35th Congress of the International Homeopathic Medical League, Acapulco, Mexico: 'Hahnemannian Homeopathy and Revisionism.'

1977 - Published: Divided Legacy. Volume II. The Origins of Modern Western Medicine: J. B. Van Helmont to Claude Bernard.

1975 - Published Divided Legacy. Volume I. The Patterns Emerge: Hippocrates to Paracelsus.
May-June 1974 - 39th Congress of the International Homoeopathic Medical League, Washington, D.C. George Vithoulkas and Harris L. Coulter honored as writers on homeopathy.

1973 - Published Divided Legacy. Volume III. The Conflict Between homeopathy and the American Medical Association, and Homeopathic Influences in Nineteenth-Century Allopathic Therapeutics.

1972 - Published: Homeopathic Medicine.

July 1969 - Awarded degree of Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) by Columbia University, NY; dissertation title: Political and Social Aspects of Nineteenth-Century Medicine in the United States: The Formation of the American Medical Association and its Struggle with the Homeopathic and Eclectic Physicians.

1965-75 - Director of Publications, American Foundation for Homeopathy.

1961 - Awarded M.A. by Columbia University, NY (Political Science).

1954 - Awarded B.A. by Yale University, CT (Russian Area Studies).

Languages: German, French, Spanish, Latin, Russian, Hungarian, Serbo-Croatian.

Back to the Future: Parental Concerns About Vaccine Safety

by Barbara Loe Fisher


The results of a 2009 survey evaluating the vaccine safety concerns of American parents was recently published in the journal Pediatrics. 1 Out of the approximately 1500 parents, who took the survey, only 23 percent believe that vaccines cause autism in healthy children. But more than half were worried about serious adverse health effects of vaccination. The vast majority said they believe that getting vaccines is a good way to protect children from disease and follow their doctor’s recommendations. Still, more than 30 percent of those surveyed believe that parents should have the right to refuse vaccines that are required for school for any reason.

I am not surprised by these survey results because, since 1982, most parents contacting the National Vaccine Information Center tell us they want to trust what their doctors tell them about vaccination. Mothers and fathers depend upon their doctors to give them good advice; but when the health of their child or a child they know deteriorates after vaccination, 2 parents logically start to ask questions. And when they are belittled or even threatened for asking those questions, 3 4 the relationship between doctor and parent is never the same again.

Parents asking questions about vaccine safety is nothing new. Although in the past decade there has been a focus on whether a mercury preservative in vaccines, perhaps in combination with the MMR vaccine, can cause autism in some children, the public conversation about vaccine risks and flaws in vaccine science and policy began in the early 1980’s. 5 Back then, it was parents of DPT vaccine injured children calling for a less toxic whooping cough vaccine to replace an old one causing brain inflammation, brain damage and death.

We worked with Congress on the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of 1986, 6 believing that this historic law would provide a safety net for children harmed by vaccines. We believed that the informing, recording and reporting requirements for doctors in that law would reduce the numbers of children, who died or became chronically ill and disabled after vaccination.

Little did we know that - even though $2 billion dollars has been paid to families with vaccine injured children under that law - only one out of three vaccine victims are ever financially compensated. 7 8 This, while drug companies making and selling vaccines have been almost completely protected from product liability. 9 10 Other pharmaceutical products, like Vioxx, 11 are not protected from liability and they are not mandated for school attendance like vaccines. Perhaps that is why there are far more black box warnings on drugs 12 13 than on vaccines. 14

A quarter century after the Vaccine Injury Act was passed, nothing has been done yet to conduct the kind of vaccine science that will give us answers about which children are at higher risk than others for dying or being brain injured by vaccination so their lives can be spared. 15 16 17 Whether industry or government will ever do that good vaccine science 18 is an outstanding question. But that does not mean that we, the people, cannot raise the money to do it. That is why the National Vaccine Information Center is creating an independent vaccine safety research program to study long term health outcomes of those who do and do not get vaccinated. 19

Public trust is fragile. When what the people are being told about vaccine safety does not match what they are experiencing in their own lives, doubt grows and trust fades.

The American public still has fresh memories of the aggressive lobbying campaign for mandatory HPV vaccination of all sixth grade girls. 20 And the 2009 H1N1 swine flu emergency declaration 21 that turned out to be the mildest influenza season in decades, 22 followed by the new federal recommendation that every American from birth has to get a flu shot every year, 23 is also fresh in our memory.

More and more Americans are becoming painfully aware that their medical bills, taxes and health insurance premiums are going up because, today, 1 in 6 highly vaccinated child in America is learning disabled; 1 in 9 has asthma; 1 in 100 develops autism; 1 in 450 becomes diabetic and 7 in 1,000 babies born alive are dying before their first birthday. 24 25 With 69 doses of 16 vaccines being given to children from birth through age 18 26 and hundreds of new vaccines being developed 27 to prevent infectious disease while trillions of dollars are being spent to treat chronic disease, 28 is it any wonder more parents are asking more questions about vaccine safety?

And is it any wonder that more Americans want the legal right to make vaccine choices as drug companies and public health officials encourage legislators to pass laws that electronically track medical records and attach penalties for those who fail to get every government recommended vaccine? 29

There is no more important task before those responsible for ensuring the public health than addressing parental concerns about vaccination with better science and not with better press releases and more mandates.

Please support the work of the National Vaccine Information Center 30 and other parent-led organizations, 30 31 32 33 who have been educating the public for many years about vaccination and health and defending your right to make informed, voluntary vaccine choices for yourself and your children.

1 Freed GL, Clark SJ et al. Parental Vaccine Safety Concerns in 2009. Pediatrics: April 4, 2010 (Vol 125, No. 4).

2 International Memorial for Vaccine Victims. National Vaccine Information Center.

3 Cry for Vaccine Freedom Wall. National Vaccine Information Center.

4 Associated Press. Most parents back vaccines, though many believe autism link. Washington Post. March 1, 2010.
5 Coulter HL, Fisher BL. DPT: A Shot in the Dark. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich. 1985.

6 National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of 1986 (PL 99-660).

7 U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, Health Resources & Services Administration. National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program. Statistics Report.

8 Fisher BL. Vaccine Injury Compensation: A Failed Experiment in Tort Reform? Advisory Commission on Childhood Vaccines. November 18, 2008.

9 Department of Health & Human Services. Coverage Under the Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness (PREP) Act for H1N1 Vaccination.

10 Mair JS, Mair M. Vaccine Liability in the Era of Bioterrorism. Medscape Today. October 28, 2003.

11 Food and Drug Administration. Vioxx (rofecoxib) Questions & Answers. September 30, 2004.

12 Black Box Warnings.

13 Food and Drug Administration. Medwatch. 2010 Safety Alerts for Human Medical Products.

14 Centers for Disease Control. Recalled Vaccines.

15 Fisher BL. Vaccine Safety Research Needs – Perspective from Parents. Institute of Medicine Vaccine Safety Forum. April 1, 1996.

16 Fisher BL. Vaccine Research Needs. Institute of Medicine Immunization Safety Review Committee. January 11, 2001.

17 Fisher BL. Vaccine Safety Research Priorities: Engaging the Public. National Vaccine Advisory Committee. April 11, 2008.

18 National Vaccine Advisory Committee. Recommendations on the Centers for Disease Control Immunization Safety Office Draft 5-Year Scientific Agenda. June 2, 2009.

19 National Vaccine Information Center. NVIC Launches Research Fund to Study Health & Vaccination. October 12, 2009.

20 Gardner A. Drugmaker Assists in Pushing for Mandate for HPV Vaccination. Washington Post. February 11, 2007.

21 National Vaccine Information Center. H1N1 Swine Flu: What About You & Your Family?

22 McKay B. The Flu Season That Fizzled. Wall Street Journal. March 2, 2010.
23 Stobbe M. Panel Recommends Flu Shots for Nearly Every American. Associated Press. February 21, 2010.

24 Fisher BL. References for Vaccine Safety Research Priorities: Engaging the Public. National Vaccine Advisory Committee. April 11, 2008.

25 DeNoon DJ. Infant Mortality: US ranks 29th. WebMd. October 15, 2008.

26 Centers for Disease Control. 2010 Child & Adolescent Immunization Schedules.

27 US National Institutes of Health. Directory of Clinical Trials (Vaccines).

28 The Milken Institute. An Unhealthy America: The Economic Burden of Chronic Disease. October 2007.

29 Fisher, BL. Electronic Medical Records Tracking Systems & Privacy. Letter to Assistant Secretary for Planning & Evaluation, Department of Health & Human Services. February 15, 2000.

30 NVIC.org. Donation Page.

30 Vaccine Risk Awareness Network (Canada) founded by Edda West.

31 Australian Vaccine Network and Living Wisdom Magazine founded by Meryl Dorey.

32 Vaccination News founded by Sandy Gottstein.

33 The One Click Group (UK) founded by Jane Bryant.

Vaccines: Doctor Judges & Juries Hanging Their Own

by Barbara Loe Fisher

I remember the day I met Dr. Andrew Wakefield. It was September 12, 1997 and he had just flown into Dulles Airport from London the night before to speak at the First International Public Conference on Vaccination sponsored by the National Vaccine Information Center. The title of his talk was “Measles Virus & Measles Vaccine: Lessons to be Learned.”

It was five months before he and 12 other physician colleagues would publish a study in The Lancet 1 calling for more research into a possible association between inflammatory bowel disease, MMR vaccine and developmental delays in some children.

I met Dr. Wakefield that day in 1997 in the auditorium where our conference was to take place as he was trying to decide what to do with a slide that identified him as being employed by the Royal Free Hospital. You see, he had received a telephone threat from London in the middle of the night warning him that if he spoke at our conference, he might not have a job when he returned to Britain. He then described to me the intense pressure he had been under from senior health officials in Britain to withdraw from our conference.

This was five months before he and his colleagues published the first article in the medical literature suggesting there might be an association between vaccine induced chronic inflammation in the body and developmental delays in some children.

In September 1997, Andrew Wakefield was a young British gastroenterologist, a rising star in the world of experimental medicine. He had received awards and scholarships for original research into the pathogenesis and etiology of inflammatory bowel disease, including Crohn’s disease. He had a bright future ahead of him until he examined children suffering with both inflammatory bowel disease and developmental delays and decided to investigate the reports by parents that their once normal children regressed and began exhibiting symptoms of autism after getting an MMR shot.

So, as Andrew Wakefield and I were standing in the conference auditorium five months before The Lancet article was published, I told him that he did not have to speak at our conference. I told him it was not worth losing his job. I told him that I could look back and count the doctors lying on the road, who had lost their careers because they dared to conduct research into or speak about vaccine risks. I told him his own colleagues would hang him for challenging the status quo.

Despite the fact he had been threatened by senior doctors in positions of authority demanding that he withdraw from our conference, Andrew Wakefield refused my offer to stand down. He said that if he did not speak at our conference, he would always be afraid and he was not going to live in fear for the rest of his life.

And then we sat down and had a long talk about freedom of thought, conscience and scientific inquiry. We talked about fear and courage, about risking it all to do what is right. We talked about events leading up to World War II in Europe and how good people did nothing when they had the chance to act; how instead they turned away from the suffering of minorities targeted for destruction. We talked about government health policies that devalue individual life and write off some as acceptable losses in service to the rest. We talked about the suffering of vaccine injured children and their families.

And I knew then, that despite my warnings to Andrew Wakefield that he could lose everything if he tried to investigate or speak out about vaccine risks, this man was not going to stand down. He was going to risk it all.

It was a moment I will never forget because I knew the price he would pay for standing up to colleagues ordering him to salute smartly and remain silent.

Today, doctors in positions of authority in Britain, who have sought to intimidate Andrew Wakefield even before the February 1998 Lancet article was published, have declared through the General Medical Council that he and two other brave doctors, who refused to recant the conclusions of The Lancet article, are guilty of professional misconduct. 2 The General Medical Council does not operate a legal court of law; it is rather a medical court of opinion, where doctors can sanction other doctors and, in effect, hang their own.

I learned early on in my 28 years of work to prevent vaccine injuries and deaths through public education and defend the informed consent ethic in medicine, that it does not matter whether you are a doctor investigating vaccine risks or a parent of a once healthy child, who regressed into chronic poor health after vaccination. If you question the quality of vaccine science or policy, you will be demonized, harassed, and sanctioned for being an unbeliever and questioning the wisdom of doctors and scientists in positions of authority.

The General Medical Council inquisition was never about the three doctors they put on the rack and found guilty on most counts. It was always about declaring vaccine science and policy innocent on all counts. And creating a horrible warning to any young doctor, who even thinks about investigating or talking about better defining vaccine risks, to think again, shut up and salute smartly.

Today, I join millions of parents of vaccine injured children around the world, and thank Drs. Andrew Wakefield, Simon Murch and John Walker-Smith for having the intellectual honesty, conscience and courage to stand up for truth and freedom in science. You are honored and loved by many for what you have done to try to help ease the suffering of the growing numbers of vaccine injured children and prevent more children from joining their ranks.

Like you, we will not stand down and we will not be silent. We will stand up and defend truth and freedom for as long as it takes to bring both back.

1 Wakefield AJ, Murch SH et al. The Lancet. Ileal-lymphoid-nodular hyperplasia, non-specific colitis, and pervasive developmental disorder in children. February 28, 1998.
http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140673697110960/abstract

2 Boseley S. The Guardian. From the Lancet to the GMC: how Dr. Andrew Wakefield fell from grace. January 28, 2010. http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2010/jan/28/andrew-wakefield-downfall


January 29, 2010 Statement by the National Vaccine Information Center on Dr. Andrew Wakefield and his research

The National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC) supports the past, present and future scientific research into the reported association between inflammatory bowel disease, developmental delays and vaccination in young children conducted by Dr. Andrew Wakefield and other physician scientists. Dr. Wakefield’s work to define the pathogenesis and etiology of chronic inflammation in the body that can affect brain and immune function is commendable. His work has led to biomedical interventions for children, who have become chronically ill and disabled after vaccination, to ease their suffering.

Research to better define the association between vaccination and chronic inflammatory disorders that affect brain and immune function should be given a much higher priority by government, industry and academia. Understanding the biological mechanisms for vaccine induced chronic inflammation in children and adults can help identify those at high risk for suffering vaccine reactions, injury and death and lead to adoption of safer vaccine policies.

The National Vaccine Information Center presented Andrew Wakeifield with an Humanitarian Award at the Oct. 2-4, 2009 Fourth International Public Conference on Vaccination for “his compassion, brave spirit and uncompromising commitment to improving the health of children and the biological integrity of future generations.”

Click here for a Statement from Thoughtful House Center for Children

Click here for Official Finding of Facts from UK General Medical Council

Click here for AOA Short Form FAQ About the Wakefield GMC Case

Click here for commentary by Mark Blaxill “From the Roman to the Wakefield Inquisition”

2010 Needs a Fearless Conversation About Vaccination

By Barbara Loe Fisher

As the second decade of the 21st century begins, it is clear that the first one saw big changes in the way Americans think about health and vaccination. A good example is the fact that a majority of Americans “just said no” to getting an H1N1 influenza shot last year. 1 2 The truth is, most of us just didn’t buy the hype about swine flu. Perhaps it is because we are tired of constantly living in fear.

Fear was the unifying emotion that defined the first decade of the 21st century in America. 3 The Decade of Fear began on September 11, 2001, a day of indescribable loss that marked the ending of so much. Among the losses was the end of a civil and substantive conversation about vaccine safety that had taken shape during the previous two decades 4 but which - after September 11, 2001 - was hijacked by fear.

Within weeks of 9-11, there were frantic warnings by government officials that terrorists had weaponized smallpox and it was necessary to immediately dilute stockpiles of reactive 40-year old smallpox vaccine to make enough to give a smallpox shot to every man, woman and child. 5 6 7 Then the allegation that terrorists had hidden weapons of mass destruction to unleash deadly infectious diseases on all of us 8 - was used to justify forcing soldiers to get multiple doses of reactive experimental anthrax vaccine. 9 10

And within weeks of 9-11, a Congress driven by fear quickly passed The Patriot Act 11 followed by the Homeland Security Act. 12 Unprecedented authority was given to the Executive branch of our government, including creation of the third largest federal agency - the Department of Homeland Security. And then public health officials pushed for passage of new Model State Emergency Health Powers Acts to expand the police powers of state health officials whenever a public health emergency is declared. 13

For three years after 9-11, special interest lobbyists invoked bioterrorism and fear of infectious microorganisms to persuade Congress to pass Bioshield 14 15 16 and Pandemic Influenza legislation shielding vaccine manufacturers, doctors and public health officials from all liability when Americans are injured or killed by experimental vaccines or drugs used during a government declared public health emergencies - like the questionable pandemic influenza emergency declaration America is still operating under today even though there is no true emergency. 17

The attack on America by a rogue band of terrorists on September 11, 2001 created a Decade of Fear that made criticism of government policy, including vaccine policy, not just politically incorrect but a danger to national security and the public health. Fear and its travel companions - prejudice and intolerance - ruled the decade.

Those who criticized the quality and quantity of government regulated vaccine science or questioned the ethics of mandatory vaccination laws were marginalized by those in positions of authority, 18 who defended the status quo. The fear, prejudice and intolerance defining the first decade of the 21st century 19 was eventually turned on parents of vaccine injured children, 20 21 22 who were asking doctors and public health authorities how many vaccines their children were going to be forced to take 23 24 in the name of protecting national security and the public health. September 11, 2001 was a day of indescribable loss. And the losses America suffered that day have been magnified by the losses we have suffered since that day because some have used fear as a political tool to silence criticism of government policy.

Next month is the 25th anniversary of the publishing of the book DPT: A Shot in the Dark, which I co-authored with medical historian Harris Coulter. It was first published by Harcourt Brace Jovanovich and was used by the Institute of Medicine as a reference for the 1991 report on Adverse Effects of Pertussis and Rubella Vaccines. It was the first major book documenting vaccine risks and flaws in vaccine science, regulation, policymaking, and law.

A Shot in the Dark is a book that is perhaps more relevant today, a quarter century after it was published in 1985 because, in the words of the Spanish philosopher George Santayana: “Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it.”

Twenty-five years later, parents of vaccine injured children are still calling for meaningful reform of public health policies and vaccine laws to protect individual and public health. 25 It is time to leave the politics of fear of the last decade behind, and change the way the conversation about vaccine science, policy, ethics and law is conducted so that the real issues about health and vaccination can be addressed responsibly. The people expect and deserve no less from those in positions of authority in government, industry and medicine, who operate the public health system.

We, who are critical of one-size-fits all mandatory vaccination policies because those policies fail to acknowledge biodiversity and do not respect the informed consent ethic, welcome a new, more rational and substantive conversation about vaccination in 2010. As President Franklin Roosevelt said “The truth is found when men are free to pursue it.”

Hopefully, 2010 will be the beginning of a fearless and fierce search for the truth about health and vaccination that will enlighten us all.

1 CNN. November 18, 2009. Poll: Majority of Americans Don’t Want H1N1 Shot.

2 Harvard School of Public Health. December 22, 2009. Poll Finds Three Quarters of Parents Who Tried to Get H1N1 Vaccine for Their Children Have Gotten It.

3 Giraldi, P. The Huffington Post. November 25, 2007. The Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act.

4 National Vaccine Information Center. May 3, 1999. New Genetic Study Points Way For Vaccine Research.

5 Pear, R. New York Times. March 20, 2002. A Nation Challenged: The Bioterrorism Threat; Frozen Smallpox Vaccine Is Still Potent.

6 Fisher, BL. National Vaccine Information Center. Winter 2002. Smallpox and Forced Vaccination: What Every American Needs to Know.

7 Scardaville, M. The Heritage Foundation. December 6, 2002. Public Health and National Security Planning: The Case for Voluntary Smallpox Vaccination.

8 Risen J, Miller J. New York Times. November 11, 2001. A Nation Challenged: Chemical Weapons; Al Qaeda Site Points to Tests of Chemicals.

9 PBS. December 4, 2001. The Anthrax Vaccine.

10 Rempfer, TL. The Journal of the Naval Postgraduate School Center for Homeland Defense and Security. May 2009. The Anthrax Vaccine: A Dilemma for Homeland Security.

11 Congressional Research Service. April 15, 2002. The USA Patriot Act: A Legal Analysis.

12 PBS. May 15, 2003. The Homeland Security Act.

13 American Civil Liberties Union. January 1, 2002. Model State Emergency Health Powers Act.

14 McGlinchey D. Government Executive. January 23, 2004. HHS officials anxiously await passage of “Bioshield” bill.

15 Ismal MA. The Center for Public Integrity. April 1, 2007. Spending on Lobbying Thrives. Drug and health policies industries invest $182 million to influence legislation.

16 Fisher BL. National Vaccine Information Center. November 15, 2009. Letter to Col. Robert P. Kadlec, MD, Subcommittee on Bioterrorism and Public Health Preparedness.

17 Department of Health and Human Services. April 26, 2009, July 24, 2009, October 1, 2009, December 30, 2009. Determination that a Public Health Emergency Exists.

18 Hodge JG, Gostin LO. Center for Law and the Public’s Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. February 15, 2002. School Vaccination Requirements: Historical, Social & Legal Perspectives.

19 Social Research. December 22, 2004. The politics of fear after 9/11.

20 Fisher, BL. National Vaccine Information Center. March 25, 2008. Promoting Vaccination, Fear, Hate & Discrimination.

21 Cicolli A. Yale Journal of Biology & Medicine. September 2008. Mandatory Vaccination: The Role of Tort Law.

22 Thompson C. Washington Post. December 20, 2009. Worst Ideas of the Decade: Vaccine scares.

23 Deardorff, J. Chicago Tribune. November 7, 2007. New study: Americans may be overvaccinated.

24 Wallis C. Time Magazine. March 10, 2008. Case Study: Autism & Vaccines.

25 Fisher BL. April 11, 2008. Vaccine Safety Research Priorities: Engaging the Public.

H1N1: Fact or Fiction?

By Barbara Loe Fisher


It’s been about six months since the Department of Health and Human Services and the Secretary of Homeland Security followed the World Health Organization and declared a very scary pandemic influenza public health emergency in the United States.

Last spring we suddenly found ourselves watching You Tube videos of people being quarantined in hotels and detained on airplanes by HazMat teams. When we went to the grocery stores, we encountered fellow Americans wearing face masks. And every time we turned on the television, there were news reports about schools closing so desks and lockers could be scrubbed down.


The Worst Is Yet To Come?

And we watched CDC press conferences 5 warning us that the worst was surely yet to come because the H1N1 swine flu virus first identified outside a pig farm in Mexico had the potential to mutate and kill tens of thousands more Americans 6 than the 36,000 that CDC officials tell us die every year from seasonal influenza.

It was enough to make us very, very afraid.


No Liability for Vaccine Makers

It was enough to make Congress give drug companies more than a billion dollars of our taxes to quickly create H1N1 swine flu vaccines and then throw in another couple of billion dollars for health officials to deliver and aggressively promote vaccination in Sesame Street ads and on the internet and radio and TV. And while they were at it, Congress shielded everyone who has anything to do with making, promoting and giving swine flu vaccines from all liability in civil court whenever somebody gets hurt or dies after getting vaccinated.

It was enough to make us very, very afraid.


Health Worker Mandates & School Vaccination Programs

It was scary enough to make legislators in Massachusetts and other states talk about passing stronger laws to suspend civil liberties and force people to be quarantined or vaccinated whenever a public health emergency was declared. 10 It was scary enough to prompt New York state health officials to mandate that health care workers get seasonal and H1N1 influenza shots or be fired.

And then there were calls by public health officials for children to line up and get vaccinated in schools 12 just like in the polio mass vaccination campaigns of the 1950’s and early 60’s.


Older Americans Have Antibodies to H1N1 Swine Flu

Throughout the summer, we were told that H1N1 swine flu was sweeping through the country 13 and millions of us had already been infected with the new virus and pregnant women and children were dying. 1Curiously, many Americans over 60 were told they didn’t need H1N1 vaccine because we were still protected by antibodies we got when we recovered from being infected with similar H1N1 flu strains in the past.


Drug Companies Want Adjuvants, No More Eggs

And then, the vaccine manufacturers, who had been pressing the FDA for decades to let them use reactive squalene adjuvants in vaccines, started complaining that they couldn’t grow the H1N1 virus fast enough. The threat of vaccine shortages suddenly loomed on the horizon.
The drug companies complained that they didn’t want to use chicken eggs anymore to make flu vaccines. They wanted the FDA to let them use insects and e coli bacteria and fungus and virus like protein particles and dog kidney cells and other really, really interesting stuff.

This is an EMERGENCY they said and drug companies need to be allowed to make flu vaccine any way they want to right now because this is a really serious public health emergency. And, oh by the way, let’s not forget that it is so serious that everyone who has anything to do with making, promoting and giving new flu vaccines need to be shielded from liability in civil court if people get hurt or die after getting vaccinated.

Yes, it was enough to make us all very, very afraid.


H1N1 Swine Flu Looks Like Seasonal Flu

And when we are really afraid, we don’t think we have time to ask questions or double check the facts. We just want someone to tell us what to do right now so we can feel safe and not afraid anymore.

By the end of the summer, while the drug companies and NIH were testing the new H1N1 vaccines on several thousand healthy American children and adults, reports started coming out of Australia and the southern hemisphere where they had just finished their influenza season, that the H1N1 swine flu virus was really not so bad after all. It was not causing excess mortality, which means there weren’t more people dying from H1N1 than had died in years past from other seasonal flu strains.

Yes, people were getting sick with what looked like influenza just like they do every year but –for most people – it was a few days of fever, chills, body aches, runny nose and cough, maybe some diarrhea, staying in bed, drinking lots of water and juice, and then – feeling just fine again.


CDC Stops Confirming Most Suspected H1N1 Cases

Abruptly at the end of July – when the Secretary of Health quietly extended the national public health emergency declaration for three more months - the CDC announced they were not going to lab confirm suspected cases of H1N1 swine flu anymore. The CDC told the states not to test Americans who were flooding doctors offices and hospitals with symptoms of influenza and confirm that they WERE in fact suffering from type A or B influenza, especially H1N1 swine flu.
The story was – if it looks like influenza then it IS influenza and can be ASSUMED to be H1N1 swine flu.

Really? Is that how the CDC “scientifically” calculates how many Americans die from regular influenza every year?


Two to Four Flu Shots For Many Young Children

The decision to stop testing for H1N1 was followed by an announcement that all children between the ages of 6 months and 10 years - who had never gotten a flu shot before - should get 4 doses of influenza vaccine this year: two seasonal flu shots and two doses of H1N1 vaccine. Further, that the millions of chronically ill and disabled children and adults and also pregnant women should be the first in line to get two shots of influenza vaccine this year.

And then Americans, who were still very afraid, started asking questions because most of us, who got sick with flu-like symptoms this year, realized that it was no worse than the flu we got last year. And most of us didn’t know anyone who had died from the flu this year, which was true for most other years as well.


Two to Four Doses of Mercury?

And then we started asking questions about why young children needed two to four doses of influenza vaccine this year. And we thought - what is up with mercury still being in most vials of influenza vaccine? We thought – is it really a good idea to give children – whose doctors don’t have access to single dose vials of mercury free flu vaccine – two to four doses of mercury this year? Especially when it is against HazMat regulations to pour unused mercury containing influenza vaccine down the drain or toss it into a garbage can?


Is It Influenza, Seasonal, H1N1 or None of the Above?

And then a veteran investigative journalist at a major news network published an interesting report about the fact that 83 to 97 percent of all specimens of suspected H1N1 cases sent to the CDC by state health departments for lab confirmation last spring and summer came back negative - for not only H1N1 swine flu influenza - but also negative for ANY kind of type A or Type B influenza. at all. Which confirmed what the CDC’s influenza expert said at an FDA meeting in 2003: that 80 percent of all flu-like illness every year is not actually influenza but viral and bacterial infections that LOOK like influenza.

Wait a minute. Didn’t President Obama stand up at a press conference in October and say that 1,000 Americans, including about 100 children, had died from H1N1 swine flu?

But were those 1,000 H1N1 lab confirmed deaths or deaths that were ASSUMED by the CDC to be deaths caused by swine flu?

And how does that number of deaths compare with the 36,000 deaths that CDC officials say are caused by seasonal influenza every year?


People Started Asking Questions

And then something unusual happened. Doctors started asking questions and privately some of them told their patients not to bother getting the H1N1 vaccine. And the people, who were still being told by health officials to be very, very afraid, started to do their own research using the great new Library of the World, the internet. People started asking more questions of their government health officials – not just in America – but in Great Britain and the Netherlands, in Germany and Italy, in Poland and in Canada and many other countries.

And then the poll results started coming in revealing that about 50 percent of us were saying “yes” I want to get a swine flu shot and 50 percent of us were saying “No, thank you.”


Fear or Facts?

And that is where it stands today. Some of us are still very afraid and some of us are not.
I am reminded of a famous quote from Abraham Lincoln: You can fool some of the people all of the time and you can fool all of the people some of the time, but you can’t fool all of the people all of the time.


New Vaccine Ingredients Calculator

And I would urge those of you who want to get seasonal or H1N1 vaccines, to go to the homepage of the website of the National Vaccine Information Center at www.NVIC.org and look at the new Vaccine Ingredient Calculator, which will tell you how much mercury is in those vaccines.


Support NVIC’s Research & Public Education Programs

And I would urge those of you, who want better vaccine science and the right to make vaccine choices, to become a donor supporter of the National Vaccine Information Center’s research and public education programs. Truth and freedom are not free, especially when there are so many doing so much to limit the people’s access to both.