Flu vaccine forced on infants in NJ. THX to NJAICV and A-CHAMP for their work for the Children 0f NJ New Jersey

Good job guys. Thank you


http://www.njaicv.org/
and
http://www.a-champ.org/
for your anti-infant flu vaccine support.

BTW, I have submitted an OpEd piece in response to this article in the Newark Star Ledger - I will let you know if it makes it in. bobmantz.com


http://www.nj.com/starledger/stories/index.ssf?/base/news-6/1169876401116170....


Parents speak against new vaccine proposal
Saturday, January 27, 2007
BY LINDA A. JOHNSON
Associated Press
Parents worried about vaccine safety and opposed to government mandates spoke out yesterday against a proposal that would make New Jersey the first state to require flu and pneumonia vaccinations for children attending preschool or licensed day care centers.

Rules proposed by the state health department also would require two other new shots for 11- to 12-year-olds attending school. One is to prevent a fast-killing type of meningitis; the other is a shot that adds to the existing diphtheria and tetanus booster a new, safer pertussis vaccine aimed at countering the resurgence of that disease, also known as whooping cough.

Other states likely will follow suit if the proposal is adopted, predicted Eddy Bresnitz, New Jersey's deputy health commissioner and the state epidemiologist, and the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is watching the state's plan closely.

Two public health officials and a representative of the state's American Medical Association affiliate, the Medical Society of New Jersey, supported the proposal and said it is needed to prevent disease outbreaks. But most of the approximately 30 people attending the public hearing said the state should not be requiring that young children get four more vaccinations, including an annual flu shot from age 6 months to 5 years old.

Speaker after speaker said studies of vaccine safety are weak or flawed, that children already get too many vaccines without any testing of how they might interact, and that the state should either scrap its proposal or delay action until results of a big federal study comparing the health of vaccinated and unvaccinated children are complete. Others urged that the state allow parents to opt out for "philosophical" reasons.

Many speakers identified themselves as parents of "vaccine-damaged children," saying they believe ingredients in some vaccines, particularly mercury and formaldehyde, are responsible for autism, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and other increasingly common neurological problems in children.

"We're pumping toxins into our children's bodies," said Sue Collins, co-founder of the New Jersey Alliance for Informed Choice in Vaccination. "The government refuses to recognize the correlation between more vaccines and more disabilities."

Officials with a national group called Advocates for Children's Health Affected by Mercury Poisoning raised similar concerns, because much of the supply of flu vaccine approved for children younger than 3 contains mercury, which is regulated as a hazardous substance. A mercury-free version is available, though, at a higher price.

Lance Rodewald, director of the immunization services division at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said there is an adequate supply so far of the mercury- or thimerosal-free version.

He said mercury is a known neurotoxin, but most evidence about its danger involves a different form than what's in the vaccine. Still, he said, the Food and Drug Administration several years ago decided cumulative mercury doses from multiple vaccinations would exceed the exposure level allowed by the federal government, so CDC and the American Academy of Pediatrics urged manufacturers to remove mercury from children's vaccines.

Rodewald, Bresnitz and other doctors said there is no evidence that mercury in vaccines has harmed any children, based on multiple studies and reports.

Bresnitz noted New Jersey is acting based on recommendations over the last couple of years from CDC and other major medical groups.

"Children are the principal vector for transmitting influenza and other respiratory illnesses" to other children, sick people and the elderly, and kids have high rates of hospitalization from flu complications, Bresnitz said.

Nationally 108 of every 100,000 children under 5 is hospitalized with flu complications each year and nearly 100 die, according to CDC.

"As far as I'm concerned, one preventable death is significant," Bresnitz said.

The health department will continue taking public comment on the issue through Feb. 16. If the proposal is approved, it could take effect in time for the new school year in September, Bresnitz said.
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