Vaccination Situation

“Discussing vaccination with a doctor is like discussing vegetarianism with a butcher.” — George Bernard Shaw

by Dr. Larry Wilson — 

Vaccination began 140 years ago as a life-saving medical tool. Today it is perhaps the leading cause of death and disability among our children. This two-part article covers many aspects of the vaccine debate. Part one addresses vaccine history and effectiveness, as well as the side-effects of vaccines. Part two, to be printed in a future issue, will discuss other problems with vaccines and some alternatives to vaccination.

A brief history of vaccination

Dr. Edward Jenner is credited with the first successful vaccine when he developed the first smallpox vaccine. At the time when tuberculosis was among the worst diseases of the day, medicine had little to offer in the way of a cure or preventative. Pasteur injected pus, taken from cattle that had been inoculated with tuberculosis, into healthy human beings. With these inoculations, he was able to protect some of those who were vaccinated against tuberculosis.

The world was astonished, much as we would be today if someone suddenly developed a cure for cancer. As a result, vaccination was quickly embraced and accepted as a valid medical advance. Governments around the world set up national vaccine campaigns in the hope of ending deadly infectious diseases once and for all.

From the start, there were problems with vaccines. These included adverse effects such as fevers, and occasionally death from the very disease the vaccine was designed to protect against. However, the benefits of vaccines outweighed the problems, and the shots helped eradicate certain diseases.

This background is brief, but very important for understanding the current vaccine situation. Today, vaccination is a “protected industry.” That is, no one has seriously questioned its premises in spite of the horrendous problems that will be detailed here. For example, our federal government protects the vaccine industry by handling its liability problems.

According to the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (VICP) Web site, the cost as of January 8, 2008, totals $1,749,743,610.45 (about $1.75 billion). This works out to about 100 million dollars every year, and the amount is growing quickly.

Regardless of your feelings or beliefs about vaccination, the mere fact that a major portion of the federal budget goes to pay damage awards due to vaccine injuries means a severe problem exists within this industry. Let us examine it in detail.

Possible reasons why vaccine injuries are greater today include:

• Advances in the condition of sanitation, hygiene and nutrition today.
• The increased number of vaccines. Fifty years ago, there were some eight to 10 vaccines. Today, more than 40 are recommended in some states.
• Combinations of vaccines are decidedly deadlier.
• Other reasons might include greater awareness of vaccine-related injuries and more attorneys willing to assist clients in this area.

For all these reasons, it is time to review the benefits versus the problems of vaccination as a public health method.

Vaccine effectiveness

Vaccine advocates claim that the reduction in certain diseases is due primarily to vaccination. However, careful studies, such as that by J.B. and S.M. McKinley, show that the vaccine-related diseases such as tuberculosis, diphtheria, smallpox and others were declining before the invention of vaccination. Improved hygiene, better sanitation and better nutrition were the likely factors in the decline. This has proven to be the case in many nations since then.

The McKinley study indicated that vaccines accounted for only about four percent of the decline in several important diseases. However, it can appear that vaccines were of greater benefit because they came along about the same time that hygiene, sanitation and nutrition improved. It is also well known that vaccines do not offer 100 percent protection against a disease, and they offer only temporary or partial immunity.

Vaccine safety

The side-effects of vaccines are no secret. The following information was taken from vaccine package inserts, and other vaccine company information. Your doctor is supposed to tell you about them before dispensing the vaccine. How many of the following were you informed about?

• Polio: Contracting polio from the vaccine, spreading the disease to others and Guillain-Barré syndrome. (Guillain-Barré syndrome is a severe fever and nerve disease that did not exist prior to vaccination.)

• “Safe” DaPT (formerly DPT-diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus): This is one of the worst, with many instances of high fevers, shock, convulsions and death.

• Smallpox: Gangrene, smallpox, encephalitis, liver, spleen, pancreas and kidney disorders, herpes and polio.

• HiB (Influenza): When given with the DPT, can cause persistent crying, seizures, hives, asthma and kidney failure.

• MMR (measles, mumps, German measles): Measles, seizures, Guillain-Barré syndrome, arthritis, autism, nerve deafness and death.

• Hepatitis B: Shock, arthritis, Guillain-Barré, bronchospasm, multiple sclerosis, herpes and possible sudden infant death.

• Chickenpox: Seizures, fevers, death and chickenpox (in 27 percent of cases), which can cause birth defects in pregnant women.

• Human papilloma virus (Gardasil®): Seventeen have died and thousands more have experienced syncope, rashes, facial paralysis and other effects, especially when this vaccine is combined with any of about 18 others in young girls or boys.

• Flu shots: These can cause the flu in people who are healthy. I know of a person who died as a result of contracting the flu immediately after receiving her “flu shot” vaccine.

My comment is that this is one of the silliest vaccines. There is no way to know which of the hundreds of strains of influenza will be dominant in a particular year. The companies that manufacture the shots are literally guessing as to which strains of flu to put into the vaccine in any given year. These vaccines also still contain some mercury, so that patients are poisoned, as well. I suggest always avoiding these.

Adverse effects of the 30 or so other “mandated” vaccines would fill another 10 pages, but the point is clear. Vaccines are not at all safe. The references contain further information about vaccine side-effects.

Adverse effect reporting

Most vaccine problems are never reported. Until 1991, no centralized method existed to report the adverse effects of vaccines.

According to the FDA, only about 10 percent of vaccine side-effects are reported. However, other studies reveal that only one to four percent of adverse effects are ever reported.

For example, in 1998, the National Vaccine Information Center did a survey of New York pediatric offices and found out that “only one in 40 doctors reports a death or an injury following vaccination.” That is only a two-and-a-half percent reporting rate! If we extrapolate this percentage of underreporting, one finds that at least 20 million adverse effects have occurred since 1991.

Unfortunately, pediatricians and other doctors have an incentive not to report vaccine problems, as vaccination is the bread and butter of much of the pediatric profession.

The billion-dollar cover-up

A drug company subsidy — For years, the federal government has “limited the liability” of drug companies that produce vaccines. This was kept quiet in the past, but is no longer a secret.

I was shocked when I visited the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program Web site to learn that the U.S. government (this means you and I) has paid out more than $1.75 billion in vaccine damages to 3,466 victims, as of January 2008.

That’s a drop in the bucket, though, as most claims were dismissed, probably due to the “10-day rule.” This is the absurd idea that any injury not reported to your doctor within 10 days does not qualify as vaccine-related. Such a restriction is ridiculous because most severe vaccine injuries can take weeks, months or years to develop.

The VICP mission — The VICP Web site states that its mission is to reduce lawsuits aimed at vaccine companies in order to “stabilize” vaccine supplies and promote vaccine research and development. In other words, drug companies are not responsible for the deaths and disabilities they cause.

Without this government support, many fewer vaccines, if any, would be on the market due to liability concerns.

The right to sue for damages — I admit I do not always like the tactics used by lawyers. However, the right to sue and recover damages is a fundamental legal principle in America. It protects all of us from shoddy and dangerous products. Every medical device, drug and procedure that I am aware of is subject to legal liability — except vaccination.

Meanwhile, our government has been quietly paying the vaccine industry’s bill to the tune of $100 million every year, out of taxpayer money. Not only has the cost been rising; as explained below, it is likely to increase much more.

Autism damage — The VICP Web site states that the $1.75 billion in damage awards includes just one case of autism, and that occurred in 2008. This is probably because autism may take from weeks to several years to develop after vaccination, so it does not qualify in court as a vaccine injury.

However, autism did not even exist as a medical diagnosis before widespread vaccination was in practice in the United States and around the world. Many shocked parents of autistic children will attest that their child developed normally until after a vaccination.

I expect the damage awards for the hundreds of thousands of autism cases to increase drastically in the years to come.

Vaccine damage awards are already a major government budget item. Other staggering costs for parents, insurers and the states include the lifelong treatment of autistic children and those with other vaccine-related developmental problems. Clearly there are serious problems with vaccines.

Opting out

This concludes part one of a two-part series on vaccination. I will conclude by noting that you need not submit yourself or your children to the horrors of vaccination today. The references below list Web sites that offer vaccine refusal forms for every state. My Web site, www.drlwilson.com, also has general vaccine refusal forms, both medical and religious, for your use. Many schools provide them as well. Do not allow yourself to be bullied.

If you do choose to have yourself or your child vaccinated and problems arise, report them quickly to a physician and insist that he or she report them to the Vaccine Adverse Effect Reporting System or VAERS.

Filing a vaccine injury claim — If you wish to file a claim for vaccine injury, our benevolent government will pay your legal cost, even if you do not win your case. Most cases are dismissed, probably because of the 10-day rule. But at least there is some legal recourse. A Web site listed in the references specifically deals with legal defense for those injured by vaccines.

References

Books and Periodicals:

1. Australian Vaccination Network, Informed Voice Magazine.

2. Butler, H., Just a Little Prick (496 pages, excellent but hard to find).

3. Coulter, H., 1999, Vaccination, Social Violence and Criminality: The Medical Assault on the American Brain.

4. DeLatte, Y., 1990, Vaccinations, The Untold Truth (superb research).

5. Deodati, C., Immunization: History, Ethics, Law and Health.

6. Dye, M., Vaccinations: Deception and Tragedy.

7. Halvorsen, R., The Truth About Vaccines: How We Are Used as Guinea Pigs Without Knowing It.

8. Kirby, D., Evidence of Harm (mercury/thimerisol controversy).

9. Koch, W.F., 1961, The Survival Factor in Neoplastic and Viral Disease (excellent discussion of vaccines and antibiotics).

10. Matsumoto, G., Vaccine-A: The Covert Government Experiment That’s Killing Our Soldiers — And Why GIs Are Only the First Victims.

11. McBean, E., 1993, The Poisoned Needle.

12. Mendelsohn, R.S., 1987, How to Raise a Healthy Child in Spite of Your Doctor.

13. Miller, N., 2002, Vaccines: Are They Really Safe and Effective?

14. Miller, N., 1995, Immunization Theory vs. Reality: Exposé on Vaccinations.

15. Mullins, E., 1988, Murder By Injection.

16. O’Shea, T., 2005, The Sanctity of Human Blood: Vaccination Is Not Immunization, 9th edition.

17. Millbank Memorial Fund Quarterly, Summer 1977, pp. 405-428 (effectiveness of vaccines in eliminating diseases).

Private group Web sites:

1. www.nvic.org (National Vaccine Information Center)

2. www.vaclib.org (American)

3. www.vaccinetruth.org (American)

4. www.thinktwice.com/lawyers.htm (vaccine legal defense)

5. www.vran.org (excellent Canadian site)

6. Mercola.com (excellent for new developments)

Government Web sites:

1. www.hrsa.gov/vaccinecompensation (The Vaccine Injury Compensation Program)

2. www.vaers.hhs.gov (The Vaccine Adverse Effects Reporting System)

Dr. Lawrence Wilson has a medical degree and has been in the health field for more than 25 years. His books include Nutritional Balancing and Hair Mineral Analysis, Legal Guidelines for Unlicensed Practitioners, Healing Ourselves and Manual of Sauna Therapy and The Real Self. He also co-authored Toxic Metals in Human Health and Disease and contributed to The Dangers of Socialized Medicine. www.drlwilson.com or 928-445-7690.

Reprinted from AzNetNews, Volume 27, Number 1, February/March 2008.