Vaccines are legally classified as "unavoidably unsafe"–an indication that they pose an inherent risk. Vaccines have not been subjected to scientifically rigorous placebo controlled safety trials before they have been approved for use in children.
The public debate over vaccine safety has intensified as a continuing stream of news reports (latest examples below) document vaccine-related harm, raising serious doubts about the trustworthiness of reassurances by public health officials who insist that vaccines "are safe and effective."
This leaves Americans and Britons increasingly concerned about their children and distrustful of a public policy corrupted by financial conflicts of interest.
The US Center for Disease Control recommends that children–between birth and age 18–be exposed to 70 doses of 16 different vaccines. Children are being vaccinated with multiple combinations of vaccines which have never been tested. Vaccine manufacturers are shielded by law from product liability suits.
Not surprisingly, a public policy that mandates an extraordinary number of "unavoidably unsafe" vaccines while shielding manufacturers from liability, has catapulted the vaccine industry into a Big Business.
Public health officials (on both sides of the Atlantic) have lost the public trust because they have been in league with vaccine manufacturers in denying that safety problems exist. If vaccines posed no safety problems why has the US Vaccine court awarded more than $2 billion dollars to settle 2,500 cases involving vaccine-related debilitating injuries in children?
Parents are demanding the right to make informed choices about which vaccines are both safe and necessary for the health of their children, and which vaccines to avoid. Parents want to make choices based on the evidence–such as evidence documented by the FDA’s Vaccine Adverse Effects database–not on the basis of public health officials’ pronouncements.The issue is more explosive than ever, without any real resolution in sight.
A timely handbook for citizens who want to educate themselves about this controversial subject– that affects everyone–has just been released:
VACCINE EPIDEMIC: How Corporate Greed, Biased Science, and Coercive Government Threaten Our Human Rights, Our Health, and Our Children
Edited by Louise Kuo Habakus and Mary Holland. Skyhorse Publishing On Sale: February 9, 2011 ISBN: Price: $24.95
This book, and the people behind it, are NOT anti-vaccine–on the contrary, they are pro-vaccine safety, pro-human rights, and pro-scientific integrity.
The authors* of VACCINE EPIDEMIC, Habakus and Holland, and twenty experts in ethics, law, science, medicine, business, and history, put rhetoric and hyperbole aside as they examine the facts about vaccine science and policy. Vaccine Epidemic includes personal narratives of parents, children, and soldiers who have suffered from vaccine injury.
The unifying plea of the book is for reform of a broken, unaccountable system– and a call for the restoration of true informed consent to vaccination.
"There are unanswered questions about vaccine safety.
We need studies on vaccinated populations based on various schedules and doses as well as individual patient susceptibilities that we are continuing to learn about.
No one should be threatened by the pursuit of this knowledge.
Vaccine policy should be the subject of frank and open debate, with no tolerance for bullying.
There are no sides – only people concerned for the well-being of our children."
Bernadine Healy, M.D., former director, National Institutes of Health (NIH) and current health editor, U.S. News & World Report
For more information and to buy the book, go to: www.vaccineepidemic.com
BOOK LAUNCH: Friday, February 18, 2011
6:00 – 6:30 PM Book Signing
6:30 – 8:30 PM Panel Discussions and Q & A on human rights, law and ethics of vaccination mandates
Free and Open To The Public
Tishman Auditorium, New York University Law School
40 Washington Square South
New York City
* FULL DISCLOSURE: I am one of the authors who contributed a chapter– "Medical Ethics and Contemporary Medicine."
Recent news reports about vaccine-related harm:
1. Feb. 8, 2011. World Health Organization probes swine flu narcolepsy concerns
Geneva— Twelve countries have reported suspected cases of narcolepsy linked to swine flu jabs, the World Health Organization said on Tuesday as its scientists said the findings warranted more investigation.
The WHO said in a statement that such sleep disorders, mainly in youngsters, had not been seen with vaccines in the past, and were more frequent in Sweden, Finland and Iceland than in other countries.
Narcolepsy is a chronic neurological disorder that causes people to have irresistible bouts of sleep at various times throughout the day. Read more
2. Vaccinated US Student Dies From Flu – Vaccine Efficacy Questioned
Many children still get the flu, some die, after receiving vaccines. Why do many children who have received vaccinations for both flu and swine flu (H1N1) becoming infected with these viruses–come die from complications? School officials in New Jersey confirmed that 14 students had to leave school with ‘flu-like symptoms’ after being vaccinated. One child died from health complications. Read more … and here
3. January 24, 2011. UK Paramedic paralyzed after having swine flu jab. Daily Mail
Mother of two Sara Hornsey had the injection because the ambulance service recommended it for front-line staff. But terrifyingly, two days later, the 30-year old woke up with no feeling from her waist down.
Medics diagnosed transverse myelitis, a rare complication often associated with vaccines.
It meant nerves in her spinal cord were damaged. "Until this happened I was a healthy and busy sorking mum. "I felt lucky as I had a job I adored and loved helping others."
Read more
4. In 2009, A CBS News investigation found that US government reports of swine flu outbreak appeared to be greatly exaggerated.
Laboratory data from all 50 states showed that, statistically, the vast majority of cases diagnosed as H1N1 swine flu were actually not flu of any sort.
But the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) had instructed doctors to diagnose and count any illness that appeared flu-like as swine flu, without confirmatory testing. Read more …
5. February 9, 2011 Vaccinations – Let parents make the choice. The Record
BY CHARLOTTE VANDERVALK, R-Westwood, is an assemblywoman representing District 39.
THE YOUNG DAUGHTER of the woman calling my office had been given her shots for school, had a reaction, and then spent months in the hospital recovering from paralysis. Now, her son was to get the same shots or he wouldn’t be allowed in school.
Despite the family history, the son couldn’t get a medical exemption because New Jersey’s law is extremely narrow. The son was terrified. The mother was traumatized and angry that the state was giving her no options. The family was still recovering financially from the daughter’s hospitalization and didn’t want to risk having the same thing happen to their son.
We know that some children have adverse reactions to vaccines. We just don’t know why. Acknowledging the inherent risk, the federal government established a National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program and has awarded more than $2 billion dollars in claims since 1990.
No one knows how many other children were injured by vaccines and did not submit claims to the NVICP program. New Jersey mandates more vaccinations than any other state in the United States — 60 doses of vaccine by the age of 6 — and allows for only two types of exemptions, medical and religious.
Physician overruled
Parents of a child whom I personally know submitted a hand-written letter from their physician, extensively detailing the risks that vaccines posed for their child and recommending a medical exemption be granted. The physician was overruled by the local Board of Health. Many such medical-exemption requests are similarly thrown out. Read more …
6. Jan. 11, 2011 Feds checking post-vaccine seizures in young kids Associated Press
Govenrment officials are investigating an apparent increase in fever-related seizures in young children after they got a flu shot.
The FDA said there have been 36 confirmed reports of seizures this flu season in children ages 6 months through 2 years. The seizures occurred within one day after they were vaccinated with Fluzone, the only flu shot recommended in the US for infants and very young children. Ten of the children were hospitalized, but all recovered.
7. January 24, 2011. Controversy Over GlaxoSmithKline’s Irish Vaccine Trial Files Irish Examiner
PARTICIPANTS in controversial vaccine trials in mother-and-baby homes have been told by the Department of Health that it can’t give them their medical files or any trial documentation as it is legally bound to return the files to the drugs company.
Posted by Vera Hassner Sharav