Setting
the Record Straight on Anti-Vaccination Stance
by Barry Forbes
The Tribune, Mesa,
Arizona
Sunday, August 6, 2000
Dr. Steven C. Burns'
response to my recent article on vaccinations was terrifically
entertaining. It was also patently misleading and categorically
wrong.
Allow me to briefly
explore his major points.
"Mr. Forbes' statement
that these diseases were on the decline before immunizations is
an attractive falsehood."
I didn't say that.
However, I agree with that statement and so does Dr. Gordon T.
Stewart. He published a study in the Lancet, January 29, 1997
that showed the death rate from pertussis was declining at the
same rate before vaccination as afterward. His conclusion: The
pertussis vaccine had NO IMPACT on the decline of the death rate
from pertussis. Dr. Stewart's conclusion is shared by an ever-expanding
number of colleagues.
"Mr. Forbes' 'statistic'
about 1,000 deaths yearly from vaccines is just
tomfoolery."
There are 11,000 to
20,000 adverse effects reported to the
Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System every year. Approximately
1% of all adverse effects are "deaths" due to vaccine.
However, as every immunologist and many physicians are well aware,
this is one of the most underreported phenomena of our time. Dr.
David Kessler, former head of the FDA, estimated that less than
10% of vaccine adverse effects are actually reported.
"His rumor about
Japan's decrease in childhood death cannot be traced to decreased
immunization."
I never mentioned a
decline in childhood death in Japan. I simply stated that Japan's
infant mortality rate is the lowest in the world, while America's
is embarrassingly high. In part, Japan's success can be traced
to the dramatic alterations the Japanese made to their vaccine
schedule due to safety concerns. For more info, check with the
March of Dimes.
"There is no tie
between autism and immunization."
The autism/immunization
transcripts from the House Committee on Government Reform, April
6, 2000 are available to everyone. Dr. Andrew Wakefield, Dr. Bernard
Rimland and Dr. Vijendra Singh all forcefully testified that the
tragic connection does indeed exist, in spades. However, the statistics
I originally quoted really tell the story. Since 1988, autism
is up a staggering 571% in Florida
alone.
"The assertion
that asthma and allergies are caused by vaccines is silly and
not even mentioned in the anti-immunization literature I found."
In the Journal of Manipulative
and Physiological Therapeutics, February, 2000, you can read that
the history of asthma is twice as great in the vaccinated as the
unvaccinated. Then check out Immunology Today, March, 1998. Read
about vaccines and allergies, how natural measles infection actually
protects against some allergies, and how the vaccines themselves
cause allergies. Quite obviously we are trading disease control
for a wide range of escalating chronic illnesses and disorders,
now being termed the "new epidemics."
"Mr. Forbes implies
that childhood diseases are benign illnesses."
There are 100 deaths
in the US per year due to COMPLICATIONS of the chicken pox, not
the chicken pox itself. These complications, pneumonia and staph,
occur in unhealthy people and can be treated if caught early enough.
In fact, many of these deaths are in adults, not children. Healthy
children do not die from chicken pox. Nor do they die from measles,
mumps, or rubella.
For anyone with the
slightest interest in the subject - which hopefully
includes parents as well as medical professionals - there is a
world of
printed, documented information to peruse. More arrives every
day. I have waded through much of it.
In my research I also
talked to, or communicated with, vaccine researchers, immunologists,
physicians, and a dozen or so parents of vaccine-injured children.
I personally called and chatted with individuals and diverse groups
pushing vaccines, as well as those fighting against them.
That list includes
Dr. Jeff Bradstreet, a physician from Palm Bay, Florida. Once
a strong advocate of vaccinations, personal experience changed
his mind forever. "Being the dutiful family practitioner,"
he wrote to me, "I made sure my son Matt got his shots on
schedule. Following the MMR at age 15 months, Matt 'fell apart.'
He cried for 8 hours a day and had constant temper tantrums. This
went on for 3 months until I put him on a series of special animo
acids and got control of the symptoms."
Matt has secondary
autism as a side effect of the MMR vaccine. Dr. Bradstreet now
treats hundreds of autistic children, most of who are being studied
for various metabolic errors.
The bottom line: Every
parent needs to seriously study every vaccine, and be aware of
any possible side effects, BEFORE allowing it to be given to any
child.
Since we're talking
about our children's lives and health, who could possibly, rationally
object?
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