Measles Reports in America: What Does It Mean?

Posted 9/24/2013

by Barbara Loe Fisher

On Sept. 12, 2013, public health officials at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) called a press conference to announce that vaccination rates among pre-school children are “high and stable” and “less than 1% are unvaccinated.” ¹ More than 90 percent of American toddlers have gotten a measles containing MMR shot by age three, along with many doses of 10 other government recommended vaccines.

 

159 Measles Cases Reported This Year in U.S.

 

But health officials warned there have been 159 cases of measles reported so far this year, the second highest number of measles cases reported in one year since 2000.  They put the blame on 92 unvaccinated Americans diagnosed with measles who had “philosophical objections” to vaccination, such as orthodox Jews in New York City and Christians attending a church in Texas, which they described as “clusters of people with like-minded beliefs leading them to forego vaccines.” ^{2 3 4}

 

There have been no measles-related deaths in the U.S. this year; however one government official said that 160,000 people around the world die from measles every year and the infection is “literally a plane ride away.” She warned that “the measles virus can hang out in the air and if you are in the same waiting room as someone with measles you will get measles if you never had it.” ⁵

 

Americans Born Before 1957 Have Natural Immunity

 

In the interest of full disclosure, I should acknowledge that when I was a child I did get measles and so did my sister and brother and all my friends. It started off with a fever, runny nose, sore throat and white spots inside our mouths and then an itchy red rash on our faces that spread all over and I remember wearing sunglasses in the house because the light hurt my eyes. My parents and grandparents and their sisters and brothers also had measles when they were children. When I was growing up in the 1950’s, measles, mumps, rubella and chickenpox were infections we all experienced but our parents didn’t worry about those childhood diseases like they worried about polio.

 

Americans born before 1957 have naturally acquired immunity to measles and we passed antibodies on to our babies when they were born to protect them from measles during the first year of life. Because naturally acquired measles antibodies are different from vaccine antibodies, young vaccinated Moms today cannot give longer lasting naturally acquired measles antibodies to their newborns. ⁶

 

Things have definitely changed in the past 60 years.

 

American Children Highly Vaccinated

 

In August and September, the CDC published annual reports that once again confirmed American children are among the most highly vaccinated in the world. ^{7 8 9} In 2012, 95% of children entering kindergarten had gotten two MMR shots and so had more than 90% of high school students. About 1.8% of kindergarten children had a medical or personal belief exemption to vaccination on file with schools.

 

Bottom line: 95% of the approximately 75 million children under age 18 ¹⁰ have gotten two doses of MMR vaccine and there is also a high measles vaccination rate among young adults in their 20’s and mid-30’s because, since 1981, 95% of all children entering kindergarten have received at least one dose of MMR vaccine and three or more doses of diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis and polio containing vaccines. ¹¹

 

Now let’s take a look at what measles incidence and death rates looked like before and after the first measles vaccine was licensed in 1963.

 

Infections & Vaccine Reactions: Misdiagnosis & Underreporting

 

It is important to remember that, like B. pertussis whooping cough and other infectious diseases, measles has natural cyclical increases and decreases every few years in populations.^{12 13}  Plus, not all pertussis ^{14 15} or measles infections ^{16 17} are diagnosed correctly by doctors and reported to government health officials  and the same is true for diagnosis and reporting of vaccine reactions, injuries and deaths. ^{18 19 20}

 

Before Vaccine: Millions of Measles Cases Not Reported

 

Before measles vaccine was licensed in 1963, the CDC admits there was massive underreporting of measles cases and that “because virtually all children acquired measles, the number of measles cases probably approached 3.5 million per year (.i.e., an entire birth cohort). ” ²¹ Other doctors say it was more like 5 million cases of measles occurring every year. ²² In 1960, three years before the first measles vaccine was put on the market in the U.S., there were about 442,000 reported measles cases and 380 related deaths ^{23 24} among 3.5 to 5 million Americans.

 

After Vaccine:  Decreases & Increases in Measles Case Reports

 

After 17 years of giving children measles vaccine, in 1980 there were only 13,500 reported measles cases and 11 related deaths.  ²⁵ But in 1990, about 28,000 measles cases and 64 deaths were reported in a population in which 95% of children entering kindergarten had gotten one MMR shot that public health officials had promised parents would give their children life long immunity to measles. ²⁶

 

So the CDC added a second MMR shot to the child vaccine schedule and, by 2005, there were only 66 cases of measles reported. ²⁷ However, in 2008 and 2011, there were a total of 362 reported measles cases, even as there were no deaths. ²⁸

 

This brings us to the question of why there is so much publicity today about 159 measles cases identified in the U.S. this year in a population of 316 million.

 

Global Measles Eradication Endgame: 2015 - 2020

 

Well, what a lot of Americans do not know but need to know is that the World Health Organization is partnering with government health officials, multi-national pharmaceutical corporations and medical trade groups in a global measles eradication campaign patterned after the smallpox and polio eradication campaigns of the 20^th century. The goal is to eradicate measles (and rubella) from the earth by 2015 or at the latest by 2020. ^{29 30}

 

Two Doses of MMR for Two Billion Children

 

In order to accomplish that goal in the next two to seven years, the plan is to make sure that at least 95% or more of the world’s two billion children ³¹ get two doses of MMR vaccine.

 

With a dose of MMR vaccine costing the CDC $20 to purchase from Merck while private pediatricians pay $56 a dose, ³² the cost of waging a global measles eradication campaign is astronomical. ³³

 

Europe: Few Countries Mandate MMR

 

In Europe where many countries mandate polio vaccine and not MMR or other vaccines, ³⁴ there have been tens of thousands of measles cases reported over the past decade.^{35 36} European health officials say that individuals with religious beliefs, as well as many “middle class people” using holistic health care alternatives for staying well, are resisting MMR vaccine promotion campaigns. ³⁷ Public health doctors see the trend by educated consumers in many developed countries to move away from using lots of prescription drugs and vaccines  ^{38 39 40} as a threat to infectious disease eradication programs.

 

Public Health Doctors: How Far Will They Go?

 

The question is: How far will public health doctors go to reach their goal of eradicating measles, rubella and many other infections with the mandated use of vaccines? ^{41 4243 44}

 

  We have seen a militarization of the public health system in the past century ⁴⁵ to justify global vaccination campaigns to eradicate smallpox and polio.^{46 47 48 49} After Sept. 11, 2001, Congress and state legislatures granted greatly expanded police powers to government health officials to detain, quarantine and force vaccine use without the voluntary, informed consent of citizens whenever government officials declare a “public health emergency.” ^{50 51 52}

 

A War on Values & Beliefs

 

The public conversation about vaccination, health and autonomy has become ugly and divisive in the 21^st century because the War on Disease has been turned into a War on Values and Beliefs. ^{53 54 55 56 57 58}

 

And it is making many people afraid and distrustful of doctors and government health officials using threats and sanctions to enforce one-size-fits-all vaccine policies and laws that force them to get not just two doses of MMR vaccine but dozens of doses of other vaccines.  ^{59 60 61 62 63 64}

 

Will The Oppression Escalate?

 

Is the current government-endorsed criticism of the values and spiritual beliefs of unvaccinated Americans, who have been diagnosed with measles, just the first step toward even more oppression?  Will it escalate into what we witnessed in 2007, when parents failing to show proof their children had gotten a chickenpox shot or hepatitis B shot, were threatened with stiff fines and jail time before being summoned by government officials to a Maryland courthouse patrolled by armed police with dogs to make sure their children got vaccinated? ⁶⁵

 

I don’t think any of us know how far doctors working for government or drug companies and medical trade groups will go to pit citizens against each other in an effort to shun and punish anyone defending the human right to exercise freedom of thought, belief, conscience and informed consent to medical-risk taking, ⁶⁶ which includes taking risks with liability free pharmaceutical products like vaccines. ⁶⁷

 

Philosopher and human rights advocate Elie Wiesel has said “When you take an idea or a concept and turn it into an abstraction, that opens the way to take human beings and turn them, also, into abstractions. When human beings become abstractions, what is left?” ⁶⁸

 

Biological, Genetic & Environmental Differences Among Us

 

When public health officials embrace the concept of eradicating an infection from the world and achieving that goal means making sure that a certain number of children have gotten a certain number of vaccinations, it is very easy to turn children into abstractions and forget that human beings are not all the same and do not all react the same way to vaccines or infections.^{69 70 71 72}There are biological, genetic and environmental differences among us and that is why some of us get an MMR shot or experience measles and do not suffer complications while others of us do suffer complications and are brain injured or die.^{73 74 75 76 77 78 79}

 

When doctors cannot predict ahead of time who will be harmed by a vaccine ^{80 81} or an infectious disease and they cannot guarantee that those who have been vaccinated are incapable of being infected or transmitting infection, ^{82 83 84 85} the precautionary and informed consent principles should not be eradicated from vaccine policies and laws just because public health officials have decided to embark on yet another infection eradication campaign.

 

The National Vaccine Information Center supports your civil and human right to exercise freedom of thought, conscience and informed consent to vaccination  and make independent health care choices without being tracked down, bullied and punished by anyone. Become informed about measles and MMR vaccine and talk with one or more trusted health care professionals before making an educated health care decision.

 

Go to NVIC.org  to learn more and sign up for the online NVIC Advocacy Portal

to defend vaccine choices and exemptions in your state.

 

It’s your health. Your family. Your choice.

 

References

Witch Hunting Jenny McCarthy for Vaccine Talking

Posted: 7/22/2013

By Barbara Loe Fisher  

Now that it looks like ABC-TV executives are backing Barbara Walters’ hire of celebrity Jenny McCarthy to join the popular daytime talk show The View,¹ the blood spilled on the ground of the Fourth Estate during 10 hot days in July is beginning to dry. It was fascinating to watch the well-orchestrated response by online mainstream media, which took on the frenzy of an old fashioned witch hunt to burn a heretic at the stake.

Reviewing 29 articles published in major print and broadcast media outlets  between July 9 and July 18, 2013²  with 19 of them written by males, it became obvious that some of them are really upset about “blonde” girls expressing politically incorrect opinions about vaccine side effects, a topic that has become the biggest taboo talk in America. Several media outlets used her gender to take the first punch with headlines such as “Putting Jenny McCarthy on the View: Good Sex Over Bad Science”³ and “ View’ Host Jenny McCarthy’s Vaccine-Autism Claims: Beauty vs. Science.”⁴

“The Pretty Idiot” or A Threat to the Survival of Mankind?

Some tried to bash McCarthy’s brain by focusing on her body. Cat calls like “buxom physique: - “blonde bombshell” - “sex symbol” – “object of teenage boys fantasies” – “ bleached blonde hair” - “pulchritudinous” – “ the pretty idiot” - “Playboy Playmate of the Year”– and so on were effortlessly tossed into the story.^{5 6  7 8 9}

Once the boys club firmly established that she is really only good for one thing, they moved on to alleging that if she is allowed to open her mouth and talk on ‘The View,’ she will in fact and without question threaten the very survival of the human race. One of them took bizarre name-calling to new heights by hurling the epithet “homicidal maniac” at her.¹⁰

I am not sure how presumably well-educated men expected people to swallow the vacuous argument that the woman is both a dumb blonde and a threat to mankind but for some inexplicable reason that is exactly what they tried to do. And, further embarrassing themselves, they desperately tried to persuade all the rest of us to be as emotionally invested in her hire on ‘The View’ as they are and immediately write to the bosses at ABC to express our shock and horror.^{11 12}

A Call to Muzzle Vaccine Talking Moms

It could have been amusing summer entertainment watching guys fall all over themselves to up one another with hysterical hyperbole, but it quickly became obvious that it was about much more than slapping around a celebrity Mom because she has talked publicly about her son’s vaccine reaction and how she helped him get better.¹³

Way more.

And, although males outnumbered females in suggesting that mothers should not be allowed to talk about vaccines in public unless the script is pre-approved by a politically correct M.D. or Ph.D., a few of the female writers going after McCarthy and ABC were just as adamant about the urgent need to muzzle vaccine talking Moms challenging the status quo.^{14 15  16}

Four of the 29 headlines featured the word “dangerous.”^{17 18  19} One apocalyptic headline screamed “Dear ABC: Putting Jenny McCarthy on ‘The View’ Will Kill Children”²⁰ while an article written by a female pediatrician used the same threatening approach: “ABC’s Hiring of Jenny McCarthy: A Decision That Could Cost Lives.”²¹

The collective howl of indignation escalated when Barbara Walters and ABC did not flinch. Using poison pens and heavyweight media platforms, the writers ridiculed the intelligence, values and beliefs of mothers like McCarthy taking matters into their own hands when a healthy child suddenly develops brain and immune system dysfunction after vaccination, a condition doctors can’t explain and often label “autism” but dismiss as “just a coincidence” or bad parental “genes” without looking any further.^{22 23 24}

Century of Medical Literature: Yes, Vaccines CAN Do THAT

Never mind that there is more than a century of medical literature documenting the fact that vaccines can cause:

• brain inflammation;
• chronic nervous system dysfunction;
• seizures;
• arthritis;
• vaccine strain viral infection;
• shock and “unusual shock-like state;”
• protracted inconsolable crying and
• death.

The indisputable fact that vaccines can do that has been acknowledged by the Institute of Medicine in a series of peer-reviewed reports published between 1991 and 2013.^{25 26 27 28} The last one pointed out that there is not enough scientific evidence to determine if the current recommended schedule of 49 doses of 14 vaccines between day of birth and age six²⁹ is or is not associated with the development of a whole host of health problems in children - everything from autoimmunity, allergy, asthma, epilepsy, ADHD and learning disabilities to – yes – autism.^{30  31 32}

The indisputable fact that vaccines can hurt people and that doctors still don’t know which individuals are more biologically susceptible to suffering vaccine damage³³ was codified into law by Congress in the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of 1986.³⁴ That law has awarded more than $2.7 billion dollars to Americans harmed by vaccines in exchange for shielding drug companies and doctors from vaccine injury lawsuits in civil court.^{35 36}

With vaccine failures among highly vaccinated children playing a big role in outbreaks of B. pertussis whooping cough,^{37 38} the hype about Jenny McCarthy joining ‘The View’ could be just a red herring. But it is going to take a lot of red herrings to distract millions of parents from talking about why 1 child in 6 in America is learning disabled,³⁹ 1 in 9 suffers with asthma,⁴⁰ 1 in 50 develops autism⁴¹ or why there has never been a large, well-designed study comparing the health outcomes of highly vaccinated children and those remaining unvaccinated or using fewer vaccines.⁴²

Media: Non-Medical Degrees, PR, Politics, Marketing & Other Expertise

Most of the writers who wrote stories about a vaccine talking celebrity Mom joining ‘The View,” including those calling for censorship and the gutting of journalistic standards that ensure fair balance - when it comes to writing stories about vaccination⁴³ - are journalists by profession.  28 of the 29 articles were written by individuals without medical degrees, although one is a pharmacologist, one is an astronomer and one has a PhD in biological sciences. The majority have degrees in Journalism, English, History or Political Science with some also listing expertise in public relations and communications, marketing and fund raising, political media campaign management, TV and entertainment.⁴⁴

Even though these writers do not have medical degrees, the U.S. Constitution guarantees them the liberty to express their views about Jenny McCarthy, Barbara Walters, ABC and vaccines, just as the media outlets publishing their opinions are protected by the First Amendment. That legal right to engage in critical thinking and to hold personal beliefs and to exercise free speech, belongs to every American - not just to those articulating talking points made or approved by citizens with M.D. or Ph.D. written after their names.

Public Talking About Vaccine Safety Since 1982

Parents, doctors, legislators and journalists started talking publicly about vaccine safety issues in America in 1982,⁴⁵ 16 years before a paper about MMR vaccine and autism was published in The Lancet. Mothers were talking about what happens to their children’s health after vaccination long before the Library of Medicine was posted online and the world wide web became the biggest talk show on the planet.

Vaccine talk will continue in the kitchens and on the smart phones and tablets of critical thinking women, who are using the brains and mother’s instincts they were born with to make informed health care choices for their children. Vaccine talk will continue because, today, many more mothers either have a child or know a child who was healthy, got vaccinated and was never healthy again.

Evangelistic doctors should stop trying so hard to shut down vaccine talking and just do the credible science that will answer the question on everybody’s mind: what exactly is causing the 1 child in 50 $126 billion dollar a year⁴⁶ public health disaster doctors call autism but still can’t agree on how to define it or how often it happens. One thing doctors say they know for sure is that vaccines don’t have anything to do with autism because the earth is not flat, there is nothing more to be learned about vaccine side effects and autism cannot be cured, so parents should just forget about it.
That empty rhetoric is not flying these days with thinking Moms and Dads digging deeper and learning that good health is about more than using lots of vaccines to prevent infections.
Become educated about diseases and vaccines. It’s your health. Your family. Your choice.

References:

¹ ABC. Jenny McCarthy Joins ‘The View’ As Co-Host Announcement. July 15, 2013.

² NVIC. Selected Mainstream Media Coverage of ABC TV’s Hiring of Jenny McCarthy for “The View” from July 9, 2013 to July 18, 2013. NVIC.org July 24, 2013.

³ Felix Gillette. Putting Jenny McCarthy on ‘The View’ – Good Sex Over Bad Science. Businessweek July 18, 2013. Felix Gillette BIO.

⁴ Tim Molloy. ‘View’ Host Jenny McCarthy’s Vaccine-Autism Claims: Beauty Versus Science. Reuters July 16, 2013. Tim Molloy BIO.

⁵ Seth Mnookin. A Jenny McCarthy Reader Pt. 1: The Birth of a Star and an Embrace of ‘Crystal Children.’ PLOS.org July 15, 2013. Seth Mnookin BIO.

⁶ Michael Specter. Jenny McCarthy’s Dangerous Views. New Yorker July 16, 2013. Michael Specter BIO.

⁷ Alex Parene. Dear ABC: Putting Jenny McCarthy on ‘The View’ Will Kill Children. Salon.com July 16, 2013. Alex Pareene BIO.

⁸ James Poniewozik. Viruses Don’t Care About Your View: Why ABC Shouldn’t Have Hired Jenny McCarthy. Time Magazine July 15, 2013. James Poniewozik BIO.

⁹ David Kroll. Jenny McCarthy Is A Dangerous Example of Medical Celebrity. Forbes July 16, 2013.   David Kroll BIO.

¹⁰ Meredith Blake. Jenny McCarthy’s Hiring As ‘View’ Co-Host Is Matter of Contention. Los Angeles Times July 16, 2013. Meredith Blake BIO.

¹¹ Phil Plait. The View of Jenny McCarthy.  Slate July 9, 2013. Phil Plait BIO.

¹² See Reference #7.

¹³ Jenny McCarthy. Louder Than Words: A Mother’s Journey in Healing Autism. Dutton: The Penguin Group 2007.

¹⁴ Mary Elizabeth Williams. Don’t Put Jenny McCarthy on ‘The View.’ Salon.com July 11, 2013. Mary Elizabeth Williams BIO.

¹⁵ Alexandra Petri. Jenny McCarthy on ‘The View’ – Not the Medically Correct View, Just the View. Washington Post July 15, 2013. Alexandra Petri BIO.

¹⁶ Margaret Sullivan. Just the Facts, No False Balance Wanted Here. New York Times July 17, 2013. Margaret Sullivan BIO.

¹⁷ Paul Thornton. Jenny McCarthy – Dangerous At Any Volume. Los Angeles Times July 16, 2013. Paul Thornton BIO.

¹⁸ Brendan Nyhan. When ‘He Said,’ ‘She Said’ is Dangerous. Columbia Journalism Review July 16, 2013. Brendan Nyhan BIO.       

¹⁹ See References #6 and #9.

²⁰ See Reference #7.

²¹ Claire McCarthy, M.D. ABC’s Hiring of Jenny McCarthy: A Decision That Could Cost Lives. Boston Globe July 16, 2013. Claire McCarthy BIO.

²² David M. Perry. Destabilizing the Jenny McCarthy Public Health Industrial Complex. Atlantic Monthly July 11, 2013. And David M. Perry.  Jenny McCarthy and Fear-Based Parenting. CNN July 17, 2013. David Perry BIO.

²³ Harold Maass. Jenny McCarthy, The View and Anti-Vaccination Quackery. The Week July 16, 2013. Harold Maass BIO.

²⁴ See References #5, #6, #8, #9, and #14.

²⁵ Institute of Medicine Vaccine Safety Committee. Adverse Effects of Pertussis and Rubella Vaccines. Washington, DC. The National Academies Press. 1991.

²⁶ Institute of Medicine Vaccine Safety Committee. Adverse Events Association with Childhood Vaccines: Evidence Bearing on Causality. Neurologic Disorders. Washington, D.C. The National Academies Press 1994.

²⁷ Institute of Medicine. DPT Vaccine and Chronic Nervous System Dysfunction: A New Analysis. Washington, D.C. The National Academies Press 1994.

²⁸ Institute of Medicine Committee to Review Adverse Effects of Vaccines. Adverse Effects of Vaccines: Evidence and Causality. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press 2012.

²⁹ Centers for Disease Control.  Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) Recommended Immunization Schedule for Persons Aged 0 Through 18 Years – United States, 2013. MMWR 2013; 62(01): 2-8.

³⁰ Businesswire. National Vaccine Information Center Supports Three of Five Recommendations of New IOM Report on US Childhood Immunization Schedule Safety and Calls for Transparency. NVIC Jan. 16, 2003 Press Release.

³¹ Institute of Medicine Committee on the Assessment of Studies of Health Outcomes Related to the Recommended Childhood Immunization Schedule. The Childhood Immunization Schedule and Safety: Stakeholder Concerns, Scientific Evidence and Future Studies. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press 2013.

³² Ibid. Review of Scientific Findings. Chapter 5: Pages 69 - 88.

³³ Ibid. Evaluating Biological Mechanisms of Adverse Events. Chapter 3: Page 82.

³⁴ NVIC.org. National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of 1986.

³⁵ Health Resources Services Administration. National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program Statistics Report.  June 26, 2013.

³⁶ Businesswire. National Vaccine Information Center Cites ‘Betrayal’ of Consumers by U.S. Supreme Court Giving Total Liability Shield to Big Pharma. NVIC Press Release Feb. 23, 2011

³⁷ Kane J. Whooping cough Outbreak: Top 10 Things You Should Know - #6 Vaccine Refusals and Disease Importations Are Not to Blame for Outbreaks. PBS NewsHour Aug. 21, 2012.

³⁸ Liz Szabo.  US Whooping cough may be becoming resistant to vaccines. USA Today Feb. 18, 2013.

³⁹ Boyle CA, Boulet S et al. Trends in the Prevalence of Developmental Disabilities in US Children 1997 – 2008. Pediatrics. Published online May 23, 2011.

⁴⁰ CDC. Asthma in the U.S.: Growing Every Year.

⁴¹ Blumberg SJ, Bramlette MD, Kogan MD et al. Changes in Prevalence of Parent-reported Autism Spectrum Disorder in School-aged U.S. Children: 2007 to 2011-2013. National Health Statistics Reports 2013; 65: 1-11.

⁴² Fisher BL. The Safety of the Childhood Vaccine Schedule: A Public Perspective Institute of Medicine Committee on the Assessment of Studies of Health Outcomes Related to the Recommended Childhood Immunization Schedule Feb. 9, 2012.

⁴³ See References #7, #16, #18.

⁴⁴ See Reference #2.

⁴⁵ Coulter HL, Fisher BL. DPT: A Shot in the Dark. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich 1985 (Warner 1986, Avery 1991, Penguin - current).

⁴⁶ Jonathan Berr. How Autism Can Cost Families Millions. MSN Money Mar. 25, 2013.

Click here to watch the video

Desperate Times for Vaccine Risk Denialism

posted May 14, 2013

by Barbara Loe Fisher 

 

These are desperate times for those denying vaccine risks. We know it because we are witnessing so many acts of desperation being committed by doctors determined to shut down the public conversation about vaccination and health. Vaccine risk deniers are working overtime to restrict public access to information, cover up vaccine injuries and deaths and violate the human right to informed consent to medical risk-taking.

 

No Flu Shots? No Employment.

 

2013 was only a few days old when public health agencies and medical trade groups called for veteran nurses and other health care workers to be fired for refusing to obey orders to get annual flu shots – no exceptions and no questions asked. ¹ It did not matter that the risky and notoriously ineffective influenza vaccine turned out to be almost useless in preventing infection with the most prevalent influenza strains circulating in the U.S. this year. ²

 

Proposed State Legislation to Force Vaccine Use

 

This was followed by the introduction of legislation backed by public health officials and Pharma-funded medical trade groups like the American Academy of Pediatrics in states like Texas, Oregon, Arizona and Vermont. ³ Their goal is to remove or restrict non-medical vaccine exemptions in state laws so doctors have more power to force vaccine use by children and adults - no questions asked and no exceptions.

 

Institute of Medicine Report: Where Is the Good Vaccine Science?

 

In mid-January came the eye-opening Institute of Medicine committee report acknowledging that only 37 scientific studies have examined the safety of the current U.S. vaccine schedule for newborns and children under age six,⁴ which now totals a stunning 49 doses of 14 vaccines ⁵ compared to 23 doses of 7 vaccines recommended in 1983. ⁶ The lack of enough good scientific studies meant the committee could not determine whether the numbers of doses and timing of government recommended vaccinations is - or is not - associated with development of chronic health problems like seizures, autoimmunity, allergies, learning disabilities and autism in the first six years of life. ⁷

 

New U.S. Autism Prevalence Statistic: 1 Child in 50

 

 In March, a report was issued by the National Center for Health Statistics estimating that among children attending school in America, today 1 child in 50 has been diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). ⁸ In 2004, that number was 1 child in 150. In 1992, it was 1 child in 500 and in 1986 it was 1 child in 2000. ⁹

 

By April, which is Autism Awareness Month in the U.S., there was a full court press by doctors inside and outside of government to dismiss any association whatsoever between steep increases in the numbers of vaccinations given to children during the past 30 years and corresponding steep increases in the numbers of children developing autism. Those doctors know, but a lot of young parents today don’t know, that the public conversation about vaccine-induced brain inflammation and chronic brain and immune system dysfunction, including autism, began 16 years before a study was published in The Lancet in 1998 examining the potential association between MMR vaccine and autism. ^{10 11}

 

CDC Study Fails to Confirm Offit’s Claim 10,000 Vaccines Safe for Babies

 

On Good Friday, April 1, during Easter and Passover observances, a study conducted and funded by the Centers for Disease Control was released by the Journal of Pediatrics declaring that “increasing exposure to antibody stimulating proteins and polysaccharides in vaccines is not associated with risk of autism” and, therefore, vaccines don’t cause autism. ¹² It was a pathetic attempt to validate a Machiavellian hypothesis forwarded in 2002 by pediatric vaccine developer Paul Offit claiming that an infant could safely respond to 10,000 vaccines given at any one time. ¹³

 

 However, an eighth grade science class student with an elementary understanding of health research methods, ¹⁴ the bioactivity of various vaccine ingredients ^{15 16 17 18} and the difference between naturally acquired and vaccine acquired immunity, ¹⁹ could figure out that the absence of an unvaccinated control group meant the study was fatally flawed. It proved absolutely nothing about the potential relationship between administration of multiple vaccinations in early childhood and the development of autism among genetically diverse children with and without increased biological susceptibility to adverse responses to vaccination. ²⁰

 

Pediatricians Label Social Networking Parents “Nonconformers”

 

On April 15, Pediatric News published an online survey stating the obvious: a person’s knowledge, values and beliefs, as well as the opinions of friends and families in social networks, strongly influences decisions about vaccination. ²¹ Parents, who expressed doubts about vaccine safety and used alternative vaccine schedules for their children, were pejoratively labeled as “nonconformers.  

 

Pediatricians commenting on the survey suggested that nonconforming parents did not base their vaccine decisions on “rational logic” and “scientific evidence” because they were influenced by non-conforming friends and misleading information on nonconforming websites. ²² Apparently, there was no consideration given to the fact that nonconforming parents found the poor science and empty rhetoric buttressing one-size-fits-all vaccine policies entirely unconvincing. ²³

 

Journalist & Magazine Attacked for Article Questioning Gardasil Safety

 

April was also the month that a veteran journalist and radio show host was personally attacked by pediatricians and public health officials in Buffalo, New York for daring to write an article questioning the safety of Gardasil vaccine and urging parents to make informed vaccine choices. ²⁴ Outraged doctors threatened to financially ruin the magazine that published the article by destroying the magazine’s paid advertising base unless the article was retracted. ²⁵

Offit Plays Class & Race Card to Demonize Smart Nonconforming Parents

 

By the end of April, a CNN reporter quoted doctors blaming outbreaks of whooping cough, measles and mumps on unvaccinated people in developed nations, who spread their vaccine safety doubts on the Internet and jeopardize the health of people around the world. ²⁶ Crassly playing both the class AND race card, the magical thinking, attention seeking Dr. Offit offered the opinion that “It is the upper middle class, well-educated Caucasian parents who are shunning vaccines. They have generally gone to graduate school, are in positions of management and are used to being in control,” he said flatly.

 

Doctors playing the blame game apparently disagree about whether nonconforming parents asking questions about vaccines are simply stupid and irrational or are just over-educated, rich white folks refusing to acknowledge the intellectual superiority and infallibility of those with M.D., PhD or MPH written after their names regardless of the color of their skin or how much money they make.

 

Doctors like Offit, ²⁷ Halsey, ^{28 29 30} Plotkin, ^{31 32} Omer ^{33 34 35 36} and others denying vaccine risks are blaming everyone but themselves for the miserable statistic that 1 child in 50 in America develops a type of brain and immune dysfunction labeled autism when it used to be 1 child in 2000 before they dumped three times as many vaccinations on babies.

 

Regression Into Poor Health After Vaccination: A Universal Experience

 

What doctors drowning in denialism ³⁷ refuse to accept is that, today, everybody knows somebody who was healthy, got vaccinated and was never healthy again. ³⁸That pattern of regression into poor health, ³⁹ that universal experience of suffering after use of a pharmaceutical product that has a long, well documented history of risks ^{40 41 42} and failures, ⁴³⁴⁴ is why the public conversation about health and vaccination in the 21^st century must and will continue. It will continue until doctors, who are pushing more and more vaccines on children and adults already more highly vaccinated and sicker than ever, come up with a much better explanation than it’s “bad genes,” “better diagnosing” or all “a coincidence.”

 

Vaccine Makers and Doctors Shielded from Liability Have Ethical Duty

 

In the U.S., vaccine manufacturers are shielded from product liability in civil court and doctors promoting and administering vaccines are also shielded from vaccine injury lawsuits. ^{45 46} Doctors without legal accountability have an even greater ethical duty to encourage patients and parents of minor children to become educated about all risks and honor the vaccination decisions patients or parents make, even if the doctor does not personally agree with the decision made. ^{47 48}

 

Freedom of thought, speech and conscience are deeply valued and constitutionally protected rights in America. ⁴⁹ The public trust in the integrity of public health policies is destroyed when defensive doctors unwilling to share decision-making power fail to respect the human right to informed consent to medical risk taking and behave like schoolyard bullies instead of compassionate healers committed to, first, doing no harm.

 

References:

---

¹ Fisher BL. Women, Vaccines & Bodily Integrity. NVIC Vaccine Newsletter Jan. 14, 2013.

 

² Centers for Disease Control. What You Should Know for the 2012-2013 Flu Season: Can I Get Vaccinated and Still Get the Flu?

 

³ LaVigne P. New State Vaccine Bills Threaten Vaccine Choices. NVIC Vaccine Newsletter Apr. 22, 2013.

 

⁴ Institute of Medicine Committee on the Assessment of Studies of Health Outcomes Related to the Recommended Childhood Immunization Schedule.

The Childhood Immunization Schedule and Safety: Stakeholder Concerns, Scientific Evidence and Future Studies. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press 2013.

 

⁵ Centers for Disease Control.  Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) Recommended Immunization Schedule for Persons Aged 0 Through 18 Years – United States, 2013. MMWR 2013; 62(01): 2-8.

 

⁶ Centers for Disease Control. Recommended schedule for active immunization of normal infants and children 1983.

 

⁷ Businesswire. National Vaccine Information Center Supports Three of Five Recommendations of New IOM Report on US Childhood Immunization Schedule Safety and Calls for Transparency. NVIC Jan. 16, 2003 Press Release.

 

⁸ Blumberg SJ, Bramlette MD, Kogan MD et al. Changes in Prevalence of Parent-reported Autism Spectrum Disorder in School-aged U.S. Children: 2007 to 2011-2013. National Health Statistics Reports 2013; 65: 1-11.

 

⁹ Newschaffer CJ, Falb MD, Gurney JG. Autism Prevalence Trends from United States Autism Special Education Data. Pediatrics 2005; 115(3).

 

¹⁰ Coulter HL, Fisher BL. DPT: A Shot in the Dark. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich 1985 (Warner 1986, Avery 1991, Penguin - current).

 

¹¹ Institute of Medicine Vaccine Safety Committee. Appendix B: A Brief Chronology of Pertussis and Rubella Vaccine (1982) Adverse Effects of Pertussis and Rubella Vaccines. Washington, D.C: The National Academies Press 1991.

 

¹² DeStefano F, Price CS, Weintraub ES. Increasing Exposure to Antibody-Stimulating Proteins and Polysaccharides in Vaccines Is Not Associated with Risk of Autism. Journal of Pediatrics.  Published online April 1, 2013.  

 

¹³ Offit PA, Quarles J, Gerber MA et al. Addressing Parents’ Concerns: Do Multiple Vaccines Overwhelm or Weaken the Infant’s Immune System?Pediatrics 2002; 109(1): 124-129.

 

¹⁴ Himmelfarb Health Sciences Library. Study Design 101: Case Control Study. November 2011.

 

¹⁵ Centers for Disease Control. Vaccine Excipient and Media Summary. February 2012.

 

¹⁶ Sato H, Ito A, Chiba J. Monoclonal Antibody Against Pertussis Toxin: Effects on Toxin Activity and Pertussis Infections. Infection and Immunity 1984; 46(2): 422-428.

 

¹⁷ Tomljenovic L, Shaw CA. Mechanisms of aluminum adjuvant toxicity and autoimmunity in pediatric populations. Lupus 2012; 2(21).

 

¹⁸  Santucci B, Cannistraci C, Cristaudo A et al. Thimerosal posivities: The role of SH groups and divalent ions. Contact Dermatitis 1998; 39(3): 123-126.

 

¹⁹ The Free Dictionary. Acquired Immunity.

 

²⁰ Institute of Medicine Committee to Review Adverse Effects of Vaccines. Adverse Effects of Vaccines Evidence and Causality. Increased Susceptibility (page 82).  Washington, D.C. The National Academies Press 2012.

 

²¹ Brunson EK. The Impact of Social Networks on Parents’ Vaccination Decisions. Pediatrics published online April 15, 2013.

 

²² Rajaraman M. Social networks play a key role in parents’ vaccination decisions. Pediatric News April 15, 2013.

 

²³ Fisher BL. The Safety of the Childhood Vaccine Schedule: A Public Perspective Institute of Medicine Committee on the Assessment of Studies of Health Outcomes Related to the Recommended Childhood Immunization Schedule Feb. 9, 2012 meeting.

 

²⁴ Tokasz J. Column critical of vaccine for teen HPV stirs outrage. The Buffalo News Apr. 11, 2013.

 

²⁵ O’Connor L. Writer Defends Column Critical of Gardasil Vaccine. “Parent Talk” radio interview with Barbara Loe Fisher on risk of HPV and Gardasil and informed consent rights of parents. The Breeze (FM102.9 & AM1230). April 13, 2013.

 

²⁶ McCafferty G. Vaccines shunned by some as others struggle for access. CNN Apr. 26, 2013.

 

²⁷ Fagone J. Will this Doctor Hurt Your Baby? Philadelphia Magazine June 2009.

 

²⁸ NBC-TV. Debate with Neal Halsey, M.D. and Barbara Loe Fisher moderated by Matt Lauer on vaccine safety, chronic disease increases and informed consent. Today Show March 1997.

 

²⁹ O’Reilly KB. Time to get tough? States increasingly offer ways to opt out of vaccine mandates. American Medical News Sept. 8, 2008.

 

³⁰  Salmon DA, Halsey NA. Keeping the M in Medical Exemptions: Protecting Our Most Vulnerable Children. J Infect Dis Aug. 29, 2012 (published online).

 

³¹31 Plotkin S, Orenstein WA, Offit PA, editors. Vaccines, 6^th Edition. Saunders Elsevier Inc. 2012.

 

³²  Plotkin S. History of Vaccines: A New Website by the Oldest Medical Society in the U.S. Shots of Prevention.com Nov. 3, 2010.

 

³³ Omer SB, Pan WK, Halsey NA et al. Nonmedical exemptions to school immunization requirements: secular trends and association of state policies with pertussis incidence. JAMA 2006; 296: 1757-1763.

 

³⁴ Salmon DA, Omer SB. Individual freedoms versus collective responsibility:  immunization decision-making in the face of competing values. Emerging Themes in Epid 2006; 3: 13-15.

 

³⁵ Omer SB, Salmon DA, Orenstein WA, deHart PM, Halsey N. Vaccine Refusal, Mandatory Immunization and the Risks of Vaccine Preventable Diseases. N Engl J Med 2009; 360(19): 1981-1988.

 

³⁶ Stadlin S, Bednarczyk RA, Omer SB. Medical Exemptions to School Immunization Requirements in the United States – Association of State Policies with Medical Exemption Rates (2004-2011). J Infect Dis Aug. 29, 2012 (published online).

 

³⁷ Diethelm P, McKee M. Denialism: What is it and how should scientists respond? Eur J Public Health 2009; 19(1): 2-4.

 

³⁸NVIC.org. Vaccine Freedom Wall.

 

³⁹ MedAlerts.org. Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System (VAERS) searchable database.

 

⁴⁰ Institute of Medicine Vaccine Safety Committee. Adverse Events Association with Childhood Vaccines: Evidence Bearing on Causality. Washington, D.C. The National Academies Press 1994.

 

⁴¹ Institute of Medicine. DPT Vaccine and Chronic Nervous System Dysfunction: A New Analysis. Washington, D.C. The National Academies Press 1994.

 

⁴² Health Resources Services Administration. National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program Statistics Report.  

 

⁴³ He Q, Vijanen MK et al. Whooping Cough Caused by Bordetella pertussis and Bordetella parapertussis in an Immunized Population. JAMA 1998; 280: 635-637.

 

⁴⁴ Dayan GH, Rubin S, Plotkin S. Mumps Outbreak in Vaccinated Populations: Are Available Mumps Vaccines Effective Enough to Prevent Outbreaks?Clin Infect Dis 2008; 47(11): 1458-1467.

 

⁴⁵ Businesswire. National Vaccine Information Center Cites ‘Betrayal’ of Consumers by U.S. Supreme Court Giving Total Liability Shield to Big Pharma. NVIC Press Release Feb. 23, 2011

 

⁴⁶ Evans G. National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act: Revision of the Vaccine Injury Table. Pediatrics 1995; 98(6): 1179-1181.

 

⁴⁷ University of Illinois Chicago College of Medicine. Informed Consent.

 

⁴⁸ American Medical Association. Informed Consent.

 

⁴⁹ American Library Association. Quotations: First Amendment, Censorship and the Freedom to Read.