Vaccinating your children, a critical choice!

By R. James Miller
Gazette Correspondent

You've picked out a name, furniture, and about a thousand toys, but if you think you are done preparing for your new baby, think again - here comes another important choice you've probably never even thought about: If and how you should vaccinate your infant.

If you never realized that inoculations were something that required a decision, you are not alone. The vast majority of people -about 99% -follow "doctor's orders" and immunize their children without even asking any questions. Many parents simply agree with the government's view that the benefits of immunizations out-weigh the risks. Millions of vaccines are given annually in this country, most with no problems. Nevertheless, sometimes a child does get a bad reaction from an immunization, which can range from a rash and soreness, to permanent disabilities, to death experts say.

Recently, members of the Association of American Physicians and
Surgeons (AAPS) voted to pass a resolution calling for an end to
mandatory childhood vaccines. "Our children face the possibility of death or serious long-term adverse effects from mandated vaccines that aren't necessary or that have very limited benefits," said Jane M. Orient, MD, AAPS Executive Director.

Health authorities credit vaccines for disease declines, and assure us of their safety and effectiveness. Yet these assumptions are directly contradicted by government statistics, published medical studies, Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Centers for Disease Control (CDC) reports, and the opinions of credible research scientists from around the world. In fact, infectious diseases declined steadily for decades before mass immunizations. Doctors in the U.S. report thousands of serious vaccine reactions each year including hundreds of deaths and permanent disabilities. Fully vaccinated populations have experienced epidemics, and researchers attribute dozens of chronic immunological and neurological diseases that have risen dramatically in recent decades to mass immunization campaigns.

Decades of studies published in the world's leading medical
journals have documented vaccine failure and serious adverse vaccine events, including death. Dozens of books written by doctors, researchers, and independent investigators reveal serious flaws in immunization theory and practice. Yet, incredibly, most pediatricians and parents are unaware of these findings. This has begun to change in recent years, however, as a growing number of parents and healthcare providers around the world are becoming aware of the problems and questioning mass mandatory immunization.

My point is not to tell anyone whether to vaccinate, but rather, with the utmost urgency, to point out some very good reasons why everyone should examine the facts before deciding whether or not to submit their infants and children to the procedure. Bear in mind, that while all States require your child to be vaccinated before entering school, each State also has an exemption policy. In other words, vaccinations are NOT "law".

Are Vaccines Safe?

The Federal government VAERS (Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting
System) was established by Congress under the National Childhood
Vaccine Injury Compensation Act of 1986. It receives about 11,000
reports of serious adverse reactions to vaccinations annually, which include as many as one to two hundred deaths, and several times that number of permanent disabilities. VAERS officials report that 15% of adverse events are "serious" (emergency room trip, hospitalization, life-threatening episode, permanent disability, death). Independent analysis of VAERS reports has revealed that up to 50% of reported adverse events for the Hepatitis B vaccine are "serious." The National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC, a grassroots organization founded by parents of vaccine-injured and killed children) has conducted its own investigations.

It reported: "In New York, only one out of 40 doctor's offices
confirmed that they report a death or injury following vaccination."
In other words, 97.5% of vaccine related deaths and disabilities go unreported there. Implications about medical ethics aside (federal law directs doctors to report serious adverse events) These findings suggest that vaccine deaths and serious injuries actually occurring may be from 10 to 100 times greater than the number reported.The FDA estimates that as few as 1% of serious adverse reactions to vaccines are reported and the CDC admits to about 10% of such events being reported.

Michigan has adopted a "vaccinate all" policy, with regard to
Hepatitis B vaccine. Each infant is given its first Hepatitis B shot in as little as twelve hours after birth. Hepatitis B is typically transmitted by mothers already infected with the disease, multiple sex partners, drug abuse, or occupations with exposure to blood.
Does this justify administering it to every newborn?

With pertussis, (the P in DPT or DPAT) the number of vaccine-related deaths dwarfs the number of disease deaths, which have been about 10 annually for many years according to the CDC, and only eight in 1993, one of the last peak-incidence years. When you factor in under- reporting, the vaccine may be 100 times more deadly than the disease.
Some argue that this is a necessary cost to prevent the return of a disease that would be more deadly than the vaccine. However, in
looking at the CDC statistics the reported cases of Pertussis
(whooping cough) actually increased when the vaccine was ntroduced.
Unfortunately, the vaccine-related-deaths story does not end here.
Both national and international studies have shown vaccination to be linked to Autism and a cause of SIDS. (SIDS, Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, is a "catch-all" diagnosis given when the specific cause of death is unknown; estimates range from 5,000 to 10,000 cases each year in the US). One study found the peak incidence of SIDS occurred at the ages of 2 and 4 months in the U.S., precisely when the first two routine immunizations are given. Another found a clear pattern of correlation extending three weeks after immunization. Another study found that 3,000 children die within 4 days of vaccination each year in the U.S. while yet another researcher's studies led to the conclusion that at least half of SIDS cases are caused by vaccines.
Initial studies suggesting a causal relationship between SIDS and
vaccines were quickly followed by vaccine-manufacturer-sponsored
studies concluding that there is no relationship between SIDS and
vaccines; one such study claimed that there was a slightly lower
incidence of SIDS in vaccines. However, many of these studies were
called into question by yet another study that found "confounding"
had erroneously skewed the results of these studies in favor of the vaccine. At best, there is conflicting evidence.

Vaccinations cost much more than just the lives and health of our
children. The U.S. Federal Government's National Vaccine Injury
Compensation Program (NVICP) has paid out over $1 billion to parents of vaccine injured and killed children, in taxpayer dollars. The NVICP has received over 5000 petitions since 1988, including over 700 for vaccine-related deaths, and there are still over 2800 total death and injury cases pending that may take years to resolve.

Many vaccine adherents will point to the eradication of Polio as a
huge success story. However, the real facts may paint a different
picture. During 1962 U.S. Congressional hearings, Dr. Bernard
Greenberg, head of the Dept. of Biostatistics for the University of North Carolina School of Public Health, testified that not only did the cases of polio increase substantially after mandatory
vaccinations-a 50% increase from 1957 to 1958, and an 80%
increase from 1958 to 1959-but that the statistics were liberately
manipulated by the Public Health Service to give the opposite
impression. According to researcher-author Dr. Viera Scheibner, 90% of polio cases were eliminated from statistics by health
authorities' redefinition of the disease when the vaccine was introduced, while in reality the Salk vaccine was continuing to cause paralytic polio in several countries at a time when there were no epidemics being caused by the wild virus. Dr. Jonas Salk, inventor of the IPV, (Inactivated Polio Vaccine) testified before a Senate subcommittee that the oral polio vaccine caused nearly all polio outbreaks since 1961. The reality is that the polio vaccine temporarily reversed disease declines that were underway before the vaccine was introduced; and health authorities deliberately covered up this fact.

Vaccine Additives- a cause for concern.

Thimerasol, is a mercury based preservative that has been in use in vaccines since the 1930's. After being injected into the human
body, Thimerosal breaks down into the neurotoxin ethyl-mercury. Recently, Dan Burton (R-IN), Chairman of the House Committee on Government Reform, demanded a recall of all vaccines containing Thimerosal.
After hearing the mounting evidence on the relationship between the vaccine and autism, Burton expressed his concern that at least 50 vaccines still contain Thimerosal: "Every day that mercury-containing vaccines remain on the market is another day putting 8,000 children at risk. Given that Thimerosal-free vaccines are available, and there is a known risk of mercury toxicity, to leave Thimerosal-containing vaccines on the market is unconscionable." He stated. In the late nineties, the FDA requested manufacturers to voluntarily stop using Thimerasol, however there was no recall of vaccines already on the market.

Aside from Thimerasol, there are many other alarming components and additives in vaccines. Formaldehyde, aluminum hydroxide, aluminum phosphate, polysorbate 80, gelatin, ammonium sulfate, formalin, sucrose, chick embryo, washed sheep red blood cells, glycerol, sodium chloride, phenoxyethanol (antifreeze), neomycin, streptomycin, polymixin B. monkey kidney cells, human diploid cells (originating from human aborted fetal tissue). Calf serum, sorbitol. and Monkey cell culture, to name a few.

Homeland Security and Autism?

The Homeland Security Act enjoyed largely bipartisan support, and
rightfully so as it addressed some serious communication problems
with our system of national security. Amidst the hundreds of pages
outlining details concerning the pressing issue of national security, however, an anonymous member of Congress somehow inserted a clause seeming to have nothing at all to do with national security. The clause concerned freeing vaccine manufacturers from responsibility of damage and death caused by their vaccines.

The caveat will possibly prevent class action lawsuits filed by
parents of children with autism from being brought against the
pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly. Each of these lawsuits claimed that vaccinations produced by Lilly were somehow connected with their child's contraction of autism. Because of this legislation, however, these cases may never be brought to court.
This last minute, anonymous, addition was literally inserted days if not hours before the bill was passed, and went unnoticed until after the proposed bill became law. "I did it and I'm proud of it," said Dick Armey, R-Texas. "It's a matter of national security," Armey says. "We need their vaccines if the country is attacked with germ weapons." Rep. Dan Burton, R-Ind., is not buying it. The grandfather of an autistic child, Burton says Armey slipped the provision in at the last minute, too late for debate.

Michigan Senator Debbie Stabenow has introduced legislation,
attempting to repeal this clause. According to the NVIC, there are over 250 new vaccines being developed for everything from earaches, to birth control, to diarrhea, with about 100 of these already in clinical trials.

Researchers are working on vaccine delivery through nasal sprays,
mosquitoes (yes, mosquitoes), and the fruits of "transgenic" plants in which vaccine viruses are grown. With every child (and adult, for that matter) on the planet a potential required recipient of multiple doses, and every healthcare system and government a potential buyer, it is little wonder that countless millions of dollars are spent nurturing the growing multi-billion dollar vaccine industry. Without public outcry, we will see increasingly new vaccines required of our children and us. Moreover, while profits are readily calculable, the real human costs are being ignored.

Whatever your personal vaccination decision, make it an informed one; you have that right and responsibility. It is a difficult issue, but there is more than enough at stake to justify whatever time and energy it takes.