DDP Newsletter January 2011, Volume XXIX, No. 1.
The human body is constantly besieged by pathogenic organisms, environmental as well as internally generated toxins, and trauma. To survive, it must have robust, highly adaptable immune and repair mechanisms. But they must be discriminating—they must be able to distinguish self from not-self, and know when to stop growing new tissue.
The superiority of “prevention” is taken as axiomatic in public health, as well as in world affairs—even when it hardly involves an “ounce,” but billions of dollars, which may be sunk into defenses as misdirected as the Maginot Line.
Among the ideas one is not supposed to question in politically correct America is the holy vaccination schedule. It’s possibly even worse than questioning the anthropogenic CO2-induced catastrophic global warming hypothesis. It is taken to mean that you are “anti-vaccination,” and indeed “anti-science.”
Unlike other medical treatments, childhood vaccines are meant to be given to the entire healthy population, not just to sick or high-risk individuals. While there are some exceptions in the name of constitutional rights, most vaccines are in effect compulsory for school attendance. Increasingly, physicians are refusing to care for children whose parents refuse one or more vaccines. Such parents may also be subjected to accusations of child abuse or neglect. While skeptics are accused of scaremongering about potential vaccine adverse effects, vaccine zealots trumpet dire threats of nationwide outbreaks of lethal measles, pertussis, and meningitis caused by unvaccinated children.
Seeing what has happened to Andrew Wakefield in the UK and now David Geier in the U.S., physicians are well advised to keep silent on this issue. Wakefield not only lost his license to practice medicine, but has been pilloried worldwide—for publishing, in collaboration with a dozen colleagues, a small case series of observations more than 10 years ago, with a mere suggestion to investigate a possible link between autism and measles-mumps-rubella vaccine. (The story is told in his book Callous Disregard, now banned in Britain, which reporters ought to read before piling abuse on Dr. Wakefield.) Dr. David Geier had his license summarily suspended in Maryland in sealed proceedings that denied him any right to answer the allegations. With his son Mark Geier, he has done extensive research on the possible role of thimerosal in vaccine adverse effects.
Vaccines are touted as one of the most important public health breakthroughs. Campaigns aimed at the Third World, such as the Global Measles & Polio Initiative, are highly publicized, as millions die quietly from contaminated water supplies. A partially effective malaria vaccine has been unsuccessfully sought at enormous expense for decades, while billions die because of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency ban on inexpensive, nontoxic, highly effective DDT (www.3billionandcounting.com).
Since the vast majority of children in the U.S. are fully vaccinated, we should expect that outside of 100–200 cases of measles, population health should be excellent, right?
In fact, children in the industrialized world are singularly unhealthy, with an alarming rate of neurodevelopment disorders and chronic diseases: facts that public health authorities acknowledge but do not explain or publicize. Just a few statistics:
Between 1980 and 2009, asthma prevalence in the U.S. grew by 265%—while the pollutants that the EPA tries to blame fell by two-thirds (TWTW 9/3/11). Life-threatening allergies of various types are increasing. In the UK, which keeps precise records, prescriptions for emergency allergy autoinjectors (Epi-pens) increased from 19,400 in 1995 to 230,442 in 2010. Food allergy admissions to hospital in the UK rose more than five-fold. Rates were highest in children, and increased seven-fold from 16 to 107 per million. Prevalence continues to increase in a broadly linear fashion, writes Clifford Miller to the UK Dept of Health, “consistent with a uniform annual exposure by birth cohort to vaccines.”
The rate of neurodevelopment and behavioral disorders is also rising worldwide, without an accepted explanation. In Israel, the incidence of autism spectrum disorders (ASD) was 0 in 1982-1984, 1.2 per million per capita under age 18 in 1985, and 190 per million in 2004 (Isr Med Assoc J 2009;11(1):30-33). In the UK, prevalence in boys is reported to be as high as one in 40. The explanation is possibly “environmental factors not yet identified,” write Jick et al. (BMJ 2001;322:460-463). Their data show autism risk by birth year, and others point out that increases followed the introduction of MMR in 1988, the accelerated DTP program in 1990, and the introduction of Hib vaccine in 1992.
Some claim that unvaccinated children are healthier, and rarely have ASD. I am not aware of rigorous studies. A 1992 survey by the Immunisation Awareness Society in New Zealand of 226 vaccinated and 269 unvaccinated children showed that vaccinated children reportedly had 4 times the rate of ear infections or “hyperactivity,” 5 times the rate of asthma, and 10 times the rate of tonsillitis. No measures were better with vaccination.
Potential mechanisms of adverse vaccine effects include heavy metal toxicity and immune effects. (On mercury toxicity, see this newsletter, March 2004, and Civil Defense Perspectives, Nov 2000 and July 2004). Thimerosal was removed from U.S. childhood vaccines around 2001, but then thimerosal-containing influenza vaccine was added to the immunization schedule. Around the same time, the amount of aluminum salts, which can also be toxic in parts per billion, was increased in some vaccines. The British 5-in-1 vaccine Pediacel delivered all at once a maximum dose of 120 mcg Al/kg; 20 mcg Al/kg/day in intravenous feedings had demonstrable neurotoxicity if continued longer than 10 days.
Aluminum salts are used as adjuvants to deliberately increase the immunogenic effect of killed vaccines. They also have the potential to induce serious complications: autoimmunity, long-term brain inflammation, and widespread health consequences (Current Medical Chemistry 2011;18:2630-2637). Thimerosal, though used as preservative and not as an adjuvant, has sensitizing effects. Lymphocytes from 7% of 650 human subjects showed immune reactivity to thimerosal (Drug Info J 1997;31:1379-1382). Because the immune effect of thimerosal is “largely unknown,” Havarinasab et al. studied mice, finding “strong immunostimulation and autoimmunity” in genetically susceptible mice (Toxicol Appl Pharmacol 2005;204;109-121).
Collateral damage from pre-emptive war can be enormous.
TARGETED DEFENSE
Mandatory vaccination is not the only reason we no longer have millions of deaths from measles. The U.S. measles death rate dropped 95% between 1915 and 1958, before the vaccine (http://tinyurl.com/3rf4u4o). Moreover, by directing all our efforts into vaccination, we may have neglected many avenues for better treatment.
A very promising new approach is DRACO: Double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) Activated Caspase Oligomerizer. The acronym is, appropriately, the name of the author of Athens’s first constitution, known for harsh (draconian) punishments. DRACOs penetrate cells and cause those infected with viral dsRNA to self-destruct by apoptosis. In cell culture they have been effective against many viruses, including dengue and H1N1 influenza (Rider TH et al., PLoS 7/27/11, http://tinyurl.com/3gagnpe).