I'd like to acknowledge a few books that opened my eyes to this controversial but fascinating field of research.
The first is The Virus and the Vaccine, a fascinating true story of the contamination of the polio vaccine with a cancer-causing monkey virus.
The second is Dr. Mary's Monkey. Although I didn't use this book as a source, it's a thrilling story in its own right, and weaves together the JFK assassination, the contaminated polio vaccine scandal, and a secret project to develop a bio-weapon to kill Fidel Castro.
Lastly I owe much of this research to the indispensable Vaccine Safety Manual for Concerned Families and Health Practitioners. The thousands of references provided have proved to be a veritable gold mine.
The Chickenpox/Shingles Charade
Vaccines have been introduced to counteract problems caused by old vaccines. The chickenpox vaccine contributed to a herpes zoster (shingles) epidemic that may last for more than 50 years.
Herpes zoster (HZ) is a reactivation of varicella zoster, the chickenpox virus, and only affects those previously infected with chickenpox. Although most people recover completely from chickenpox, the virus never leaves the body, and especially as people age, the virus can become active again and reappear as “shingles.”
Shingles appears as a painful rash or group of blisters on one side of the body, and usually lasts for two to four weeks. Although shingles usually resolves on its own without intervention, some treatments exist to reduce the duration of the symptoms, as well as to prevent a possible severe complication known as postherpetic neuralgia.
Although you can't “catch” shingles from someone who is infected, you can come down with chickenpox if you've never had it before. Also, shingles is much more common in those over 50.
It was previously thought that the weaker immune systems of the elderly contributed to this higher rate of shingles, but recent evidence indicates that it's more likely because they have less contact with children affected with chickenpox.
When most adults (who have already had chickenpox) come into contact with children infected with the virus, their immunity is naturally and asymptomatically boosted, protecting them from shingles.
According to this study, “The peculiar age distribution of zoster may in part reflect the frequency with which the different age groups encounter cases of varicella.” Attacks of zoster are postponed when these periodic encounters occur. Also, even the CDC acknowledges that those who have been vaccinated against chickenpox are still susceptible to shingles.
Before widespread use of the chickenpox vaccine, there were estimated to be 500,000 shingles cases in the US each year. During the period of increasing varicella vaccination, beginning in 1998, HZ among adults increased by 90%.
According to a 2004 CDC report, the number of shingles cases in 2002 was 33% than in 2001 and 56% than 2000. This study, a review of the US universal varicella vaccination program, stated the problem quite clearly:
Neil Miller summarizes the predicament:
The FDA, CDC and vaccine manufacturers “traded” chickenpox, a relatively mild childhood disease, for a much more serious ailment that affects adults. Studies have shown the cost alone for this mistake may be astronomical:
Dr. Gary Goldman, an expert on the varicella virus, was hired in 1995 by the CDC to monitor the new chickenpox vaccine. According to Goldman:
Goldman continues:
According to Goldman, the CDC is more than aware about the problem, and that when he approached them with his concerns, they replied that “any possible shingles epidemic associated with the chickenpox vaccine can be offset by treating adults with a shingles vaccine.”
By 2006, the FDA had licensed Zostavax, a vaccine designed to reduce the risk of shingles. Incredibly, Merck, the same company that makes Varivax (the chickenpox vaccine), is also manufacturing Zostavax. Such an apparent conflict of interest is accepted without question, even though the very “success” of Varivax is contributing to the need for yet another product.
As a result of Goldman's research, it's quite clear how dangerous it is to create new vaccines to treat problems caused by old vaccines. He asserts:
As for the vaccine's effectiveness when first released, even according to Merck, Zostavax was only 51% effective at “reducing the risk” of developing HZ in those aged 60-69. Efficacy drops to 41% in those 70-79, and is merely 18% above 80.
Several conflicts of interest also surround Merck and the HZ vaccine. Merck participated in the organization of oversight activities and monitored the progress of the primary study used to justify licensing the vaccine.
A member of the CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), Dr. William Schaffner, even received financial payment from Merck to discuss Zostavax with reporters. Neil Miller notes how this truly should be considered unacceptable:
Smallpox Shenanigans
Smallpox is caused by the variola virus. You can catch smallpox through infected blankets or clothing, or by inhaling droplets discharged from the nose and mouth of an infected person.
Within 12 days after exposure, those infected will experience fever, nausea, vomiting, headache, backache, and muscle pains. This is soon followed by severe abdominal pain and a subsequent rash develops on the entire body. The rash then transforms into pus-filled sores which eventually crust over and may leave scars. The disease almost always confers permanent immunity.
There are different forms of smallpox (variola major, variola minor, fulminating, malignant, modified, etc.) and some are more serious than others. According to the WHO, case-fatality rate can reach 20% or higher. By 1980 the WHO declared that smallpox had been eradicated.
Although the WHO was quick to give credit to their own worldwide vaccination campaign begun in 1967, variola had already stopped infecting people in more than 8 out of 10 countries throughout the world. At that time, only 131,000 cases of smallpox were reported. According to Neil Miller:
The history of smallpox inoculations is important to get an understanding of the history of vaccination, and not just because this story explains how the word “vaccine” was derived.
By the 1700s, it was known that contracting smallpox would give you immunity later in life. Some doctors even intentionally exposed people to smallpox hoping to provoke a less severe reaction and still confer immunity. Children were even exposed to pus extracted from “mild” cases of smallpox, a technique known as variolation.
In 1715, Peter Kennedy suggested collecting smallpox fluid and introducing it to the patient through a scratch in the skin. This technique would become the model for future applications and research.
In 1774, Benjamin Jesty set out to prove that cowpox infection protected against smallpox. Apparently, there was a rumor in England among 18th century dairymaids that when you catch cowpox, a relatively harmless disease, you would become immune to smallpox.
Jesty took diseased matter from cows and “vaccinated” his wife and sons (cowpox is also referred to as the vaccinia virus). Supposedly, no one in his family contracted smallpox during later epidemics, although his wife almost lost her arm as the result of a severe inflammation, rousing the ire of his peers for experimenting on his own family.
Enter Edward Jenner, an English physician whose work Wikipedia dubiously refers to as having “saved more lives than the work any other human.” Apparently, no credit is due to the 18th century milkmaids, or even Jesty, who “unlike Edward Jenner, a medical doctor who is given broad credit for developing the smallpox vaccine in 1796, did not publicize his findings made some twenty years earlier in 1774.”
Despite facing a good deal of opposition, Edward Jenner continued his experiments and in 1798 he published his Inquiry into the Causes and Effects of the Variolae Vaccinae, a “vulgar treatise” on horsegrease cowpox.
Jenner continued to promote his nauseating treatment and as a result of his petitions to the House of Commons in 1802 and 1807, mass inoculation campaigns began.
Wikipedia's bold statement seems to be losing some of its bite, for Jenner even admitted that his “gift” caused disease and death: “The happy effects of inoculation...not very unfrequently produces deformity of the skin, and sometimes, under the best management, proves fatal.” He tried to blame the failures on improper inoculations, an excuse that would continue to be used in the years following his death in 1823.
By that time, three kinds of smallpox vaccination were being used, cowpox (promoted as “pure lymph from the calf”), horsepox (known as “the true and genuine life-preserving fluid”) and horsegrease cowpox, the “foul concoction” promoted in Jenner's Inquiry. All were known to cause disease and death.
After Jenner's deaths, vaccine failures continued to be blamed on improperly administered inoculations. Soon, two or more punctures were recommended, with some doctors claiming that a “good vaccination” required four punctures.
Even though there is no evidence that the number of puncture marks influenced the success of the practice, medical authorities at the time suggested that people be vaccinated again and again “until vesicles cease to respond to the insertion of the virus.” [White, W., pg. xxiii.]
Even the renowned playwright George Bernard Shaw was aware of the medical shenanigans used to hoodwink the public: “During the last epidemic at the turn of the century, I was a member of the Health Committee of London Borough Council. I learned how the credit of vaccination is kept up statistically by diagnosing all the re-vaccinated cases as pustular eczema, varioloid or whatnot—except smallpox.” [Ibid., pg. 64]
By around 1850, several countries had enacted compulsory vaccination laws, including Bavaria, Denmark and England.
Dr. William Farr, Compiler of Statistics of the Registrar-General, London, noted that “Smallpox attained its maximum mortality after vaccination was introduced. The mean annual mortality to 10,000 population from 1850 to 1869 was at the rate of 2.04, whereas in 1871 the death rate was 10.24 and in 1872 the death rate was 8.33, and this after the most laudable efforts to extend vaccination by legislative enactments.” [McBean, E., pg. 27]
According to Sir Thomas chambers, a London health official: “Of the 155 persons admitted to the Smallpox hospital in the Parish of St. James, Piccadilly, 145 had been vaccinated.” At Marylevore hospital, 92% of the smallpox cases had been vaccinated. In 1871, officials at Highgate Hospital admitted that 92% had been vaccinated as well.
The German Chancellor himself opined, “The hopes placed in the efficacy of the cowpox virus as a preventative of smallpox have proved entirely deceptive.”
Over a twenty year period beginning in 1886, thousands of Japanese citizens died and hundreds of thousands were infected with smallpox after Japan enforced mandatory shots every five years. [Shelton, HM. Vaccine and Serum Evils (San Antonio Texas; Health research, 1966):20-21]
In 1918 and 1919, after the US took control of the Philippines, mandatory smallpox vaccination was enforced. Thousands died after the entire population was vaccinated. A 1920 Report of the Philippines Health Services declared, “The 1918 epidemic looks prima facie as a flagrant failure of the classic immunization.” [Ibid., pg. 22]
Once the connection between mass vaccination and the increase in epidemic became more apparent, several countries rescinded the mandatory vaccination laws and even outlawed the practice completely.
The Secretary of the Governing Board in Dublin, Ireland, declared, “Smallpox virus taken from the calf would communicate that disease to the human subject and be thereby a fertile source of propagating the disease, and would, moreover, render the operator liable to prosecution under the Act prohibiting inoculation with smallpox.” [White, W., pg. xxi.]
Australia abolished compulsory vaccinations in the late 1800's, and proceeded to report only 3 cases of smallpox in 15 years. Statistics from England and Wales show an inverse correlation between the percentage of babies vaccinated and the number of smallpox deaths: the greater the number vaccinated, the greater the loss. Deaths from smallpox tumbled after people refused the vaccine. [Official statistics from England and Wales, as reported by Shelton, HM., pg. 22]
In 1884, a massive collection of smallpox data was published by the London Society for the Abolition of Compulsory Vaccination, containing “unbiased vaccine statistics, newspaper stories about people who were damaged by the shot, and legal briefs regarding compulsory laws.”
Even Mahatma Gandhi, although by no means a scientist, would eventually weigh in on the vaccine debate: “I am and have been for years, a confirmed anti-vaccinationist...I have not the least doubt in my mind that vaccination is a filthy process that is harmful in the end.” [Gandhi, MK. Gandhi an Autobiography: Story of My Experiments With Truth (Boston: Beacon PR., 1957)]
The following quotes are from late 18th and early 19th doctors and other health officials who were very vocally skeptical of the claims of the proponents of the smallpox vaccine. They are taken from these sources: Fatality Rates of Small-Pox in the Vaccinated and Unvaccinated by R.P. Garrow, Fatality Rates of Small-Pox in the Vaccinated and Unvaccinated by L.A. Parry, New York Press, (January 26th, 1909), and McBean, E., pp. 21-24; 42, 72.
—Dr. Walter M. James, Philadelphia practitioner
—Dr. Charles E. Page, Boston practitioner
—Dr. F. P. Millard, Toronto practitioner
—Dr. F. Laurie, Medical Director of the Metropolitan Cancer Hospital, London
—B. F. Cornell, M.D., practitioner
—Dr. E. J. Post, Michigan practitioner
—Dr. Dennis Turnbull, 30 year cancer researcher.
—Dr. E. Ripley, Connecticut practitioner
—Dr. Alex Wilder, professor of pathology, Medical College of New York
—Dr. L. A. Parry
—Dr. R. Hall Bakewell, Vaccinator General of Trinidad
—Dr. J. C. Ward, Royal College of Surgeons, England
—Professor A. Vogt, chair of Vita Statistics and Hygiene at Berne University
Many studies were conducted that confirmed that the smallpox was actually dangerous and largely ineffective. In 1915, the U.S. Department of Agriculture linked several foot-and-mouth disease epidemics to the smallpox vaccine. [U.S. Department of Agriculture. Farmer's Bulletin (April 22, 1915):15]
In the mid-1920's, Great Britain authorized the Andrews and then the Rolleston Committee to study post-vaccinal encephalitis and deaths resulting from the smallpox vaccination.
Among the “damaging” results from these reports were that young adults vaccinated against smallpox were five times more likely to die from the disease than the un-vaccinated! It's no wonder that many respectable institutions were beginning to question Jenner and his legacy.
In September 1926, Lancet published data confirming seven cases of encephalomyelitis following smallpox vaccinations. The authors, Turnbull and McIntosh, declared: “There can be no doubt that vaccination was a definite causal factor.”
The next month Lancet reported on 35 cases of encephalitis, including 15 deaths. The authors concluded: “Vaccination was a definite causal factor and no chance coincidence.”
In 1928, the League of Nations issued a report that noted, “The post-vaccinal encephalitis with which we are dealing has become a problem in itself...Their occurrence has led to the realization that a new, or at least a previously unsuspected or unrecognized, risk attaches to the practice of vaccination.”
Later that year, the Journal of the American Medical Association reported on several fatal reactions among children following smallpox vaccination. They were described as having “encephalitic symptoms.” [J of the American Medical Association (April 5, 1930)]
In December of 1952, Lancet published a study documenting the reaction of a woman who was three months pregnant to the vaccine: “She developed a severe primary reaction and three months later she was spontaneously delivered of a feeble hydropic premature infant covered with a very severe generalized vaccinia. The child died 18 hours later.”
Another study determined that 47% of women who were vaccinated during their first trimester failed to give birth to a normal child. [McBean, E., pg. 82.]
These statements come from multiple sources, including:
Miller, H. et al. “Multiple sclerosis and vaccination.” British Medical Journal (April 22, 1967): 210-213.
Neff, JM., et al. “Complications of smallpox vaccination, United States, 1963.” Pediatrics 1967;39:916-923.
Lane, MJ. “Complications of smallpox vaccination” New England Journal of Medicine 1968;281 (22):1201-08.
Spillane, JD., et al. “The neurology of Jennerian vaccination—a clinical account of the neurological complications which occurred during the smallpox epidemic in South Wales in 1962.”
Dick, GWA. “Scientific Proceedings; Symposium on Virus Diseases. 13th Annual Meeting of the British Medical Association, Belfast.” British Medical Journal, 1962;2:319.
Dixon, CW. Smallpox. (London: J & A Churchill, 1962).
Smallpox and AIDS
By the 1980's, a link between contracting AIDS after receiving the smallpox vaccination became apparent: “Primary smallpox immunization of persons with subclinical HIV disease poses a risk of vaccine-induced disease and multiple immunizations may accelerate the progress of HIV disease.”
According to researchers, this raises “concern about the ultimate safety of vaccinia-based vaccine in developing countries where HIV infection is increasing.” [Redfield, R., et al. “Disseminated vaccinia in a military recruit with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) disease.” New England Journal of Medicine (March 12, 1987):673]
In 1987, shortly after the results of this study were released, the London Times published an incredible report that claimed “the AIDS epidemic may have been triggered by the mass vaccination campaign.” The campaign in question was conducted by the World Health Organization during the 1960s and 1970s, mainly in Africa.
The regions that received the most vaccinations coincided with the areas of the greatest outbreaks of AIDS, including Zaire, Zambia, Tanzania, Uganda, Malawai, Ruanda, and Burundi. Brazil had the highest AIDS rates in South Africa, and they were the only country including in the smallpox vaccination campaign on the entire continent.
According to the WHO advisor, “I thought it was just a coincidence until we studied the latest findings about the reactions which can be caused by vaccinia. Now I believe the smallpox vaccination theory is the explanation of AIDS.”
Dr. Robert Gallo, a pioneering AIDS/HIV researcher, when confronted with this disturbing scenario, did little to alleviate anyone's fears: “I have been saying for some years that the use of live vaccines such as that used for smallpox can activate a dormant infection such as HIV.”
Recent research has also shown that unsterile injections may have done a great deal in contributing to the HIV epidemic in Africa: “We conclude that increased unsterile injecting in Africa during the period 1950-1970 provided the agent for SIV human infections to emerge as epidemic HIV in the modern era.”
Did an attempt to control one disease, smallpox, transform another disease, AIDS, “from a minor endemic illness of the Third World into the current pandemic?”
Monkeypox
Lancet published a report in 1972 that stated that WHO's program to eradicate smallpox “can only be successful in the absence of a non-human reservoir for smallpox virus.”
In 1976, monkeypox antibodies in humans were discovered in Nigeria and the Ivory Coast. The monkeypox virus was indistinguishable by laboratory methods from the smallpox virus.
Bioterrorism, Dark Winter and the New Smallpox Vaccine
During the 1970s experimentation with smallpox virus was conducted, and two medical researchers were even killed in England as a result. To reduce the risk of future accidents, all remaining known samples were moved to a CDC facility in Georgia and the State Research Center of Virology and Biotechnology in Novosibirsk, Siberia.
Numerous deadlines came and went to destroy the virus, with some scientists defending the need to preserve them...“for science!”
On November 15th, 2001, in the wake of 9/11, the Bush administration postponed indefinitely any decision to eliminate seed stocks of the microbe.
Even though smallpox hadn't occurred in the U.S. since 1949, the government had stockpiled 15 million doses of the vaccine. However, the disgusting concoction was severely archaic:
Not only that, but the vaccine was known to cause inflammation of the brain as well as numerous other side effects, including smallpox itself and death. Sources:
Greenberg, M. “Complications of vaccination against smallpox.” Am J Dis Child 1948;76:492-502
Cangemi, VF. “Acute pericarditis after smallpox vaccination.” *N Engl J Med 1958;258:1257-9.
Copeman, PWM., et al. “Eczema vaccinatum.” British Medical Journal 1964;2:906-8.
Neff, JM., et al. “Complications of smallpox vaccination. I. National survey in the United States, 1963. NEJM 1967;276:125–32.
Fulginiti VA., et al. “Progressive vaccinia in immunologically deficient individuals.” Birth Defects Original Article Series. 1968;4:129–145.
Marmelzat, WL. “Malignant tumors in smallpox vaccination scars.” Arch Dermatol 1968;97:406.
Lane, JM., et al. “Routine childhood vaccination against smallpox reconsidered.” NEJM 1969;281:1220-4.
Lane, JM., et al. “Complications of smallpox vaccination, 1968. National surveillance in the U.S.” NEJM 1969;281:1220-4.
Holtzman, CM. “Postvaccination arthritis.” NEJM 1969;280:111-2.
Lane, JM., et al. “Deaths attributable to smallpox vaccination, 1959 to 1966, and 1968.” JAMA 1970;212:441-4.
In June 2001, before the 9/11 attacks, a team of bioterrorism specialists led by the Johns Hopkins University Center for Civilian Biodefense Studies conducted a smallpox epidemic exercise ominously called Dark Winter.
Even though the Dark Winter simulation was severely flawed, Dr. Henderson, the “team leader” who also led WHO's global effort to eradicate smallpox, concluded that the threat was real and recommended 100 to 135 million doses.
Less than 10 days after 9/11, Dick Cheney was shown a video of the Dark Winter simulation and urged to increase the production of smallpox vaccine.
The new vaccine was expected to be made from a “diploid cell substrate” (human embryo) or from animal tissue cell cultures, including those with “tumorigenic potential.”
Franklin Top, a biotechnology expert and previous commander of the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, declared that “reactogenicity” is going to be a problem.
Dr. Mark Buller, a virologist specializing in safer smallpox treatments at St. Louis University, boldly pronounced: “I would not even consider having my family vaccinated. I'm more likely to be hit riding my bike to work than be hit by a smallpox episode in my own life. [Stolberg, SG. “Immunization: vast uncertainty on smallpox vaccine.” New York Times (October 19, 2001)]
These reports compelled the CDC to release a fact sheet on the smallpox vaccine to address the many concerns, admitting, “There is evidence suggesting that smallpox vaccination may cause cases of heart inflammation (myocarditis), inflammation of the membrane covering the heart (pericarditis), and a combination of these two problems....Heart pain (angina) and heart attack have also been reported after smallpox vaccination.”
In 2005, the Journal of the American Medical Association published a study that assessed the safety of the government's program. The study documented nearly a thousand adverse events, including 85 hospitalizations (numerous cases of myocarditis or pericarditis), and three deaths. The report ends by suggesting:
In 2007, a two-year-old and his mother were infected with “eczema vaccinatum” after the father, a U.S. army soldier, was recently vaccinated against smallpox.
Also in 2007, an experimental smallpox vaccine called ACAM2000 (made by Acambis) was declared safe and effective by the FDA, despite the fact that clinical trials of this vaccine were halted three years earlier when several people developed myopericarditis after receiving the new vaccine.
According to the FDA, ACAM2000 is “nearly as effective” as the older smallpox vaccine, Dryvax, and poses “similar risks of serious side effects.”
As for Dryvax, the listed adverse reactions include autoinoculation (transfer of the virus to other parts of the body) affecting the face, nose, mouth, genitalia and rectum; infection of the eye resulting in blindness; post-vaccinal encephalitis, encephalomyelitis, encephalopathy, progressive vaccinia, eczema vaccinatum, Stevens-Johnson syndrome, neurological sequelae, and death.
However, even while U.S. Homeland Security was contemplating mandating the smallpox vaccine, not every government official was convinced. For example, Tommy Thompson of Health and Human Services said his department had no plans for a mandatory vaccination program, citing horrendous side effects as the principal reason. [Neergaard, L. “Health officials review smallpox plan.” Associated Press (October 19, 2001)]
Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, also opposed the idea, declaring that side effects were too numerous and too severe. [Stolberg, SG.]
Many pediatricians can't distinguish between smallpox and chickenpox, according to the results of a survey published in 2006 by Clinical Pediatrics.
Despite the well-documented concerns about the safety of the smallpox vaccine and the threat (and loss of civil liberties) associated with mandatory vaccines, on October 23, 2001, the CDC unveiled new legislation, The Model State Emergency Health Powers Act, “giving public health officials and state governors the authority to arrest, vaccinate, medicate, and quarantine anyone they deem either unprotected from, or a threat to spread, infectious disease (see Section 504a—Vaccination and treatment).”
In response to this legislation, Dawn Richardson of PROVE, a vaccine awareness organization, declared:
This legislation also exempts the State, the police, and public health authorities from any liability. “If an individual opposes vaccines, is force-inoculated and dies, the perpetrators cannot be prosecuted.”
The ACLU also weighed in quite heavily against the MSEHPA.
Because of the increasing number of reported side effects, Congressman Henry Waxman was forced to state the obvious: “The president has asked healthcare workers to volunteer to be immunized so that they can serve society. In turn, society should help them if they are hurt when they volunteer.”
In response to these concerns, in 2006 the U.S. government published the “final rules” to the Smallpox Vaccine Injury Compensation Program. The goal was to provide “benefits to public health and medical response team members and others who are injured as a result of receiving the smallpox vaccine.”
Also, “unvaccinated individuals injured after coming into contact with a vaccinated member of an emergency response plan, or with a person with whom the vaccinated person had contact, or their survivors may be eligible for the same program benefits.”
In conclusion, Neil Miller offers a crude, but damning, summary of this alternative perspective of the history of smallpox and the smallpox vaccine:
Being with unsanitary living conditions and poor nutritional awareness. This results in regional and self-limiting outbreaks of smallpox.
Conduct human experiments with variolation—the practice of inserting viral matter (infectious pus) from a smallpox victim into a deliberate cut on a healthy person.
When this fails, conduct human experiments with cowpox, horsepox, and horsegrease cowpox.
When this fails, deny it.
When this fails, blame it on “spurious” cowpox, improperly administered injections, or too few puncture marks...and recommend re-vaccination.
When this fails, manipulate statistics by altering medical records and falsifying death certificates...and mandate the smallpox vaccine.
When people refuse the shot, vaccination rates drop, and cases of smallpox dwindle...take full credit for eradicating the disease!
The Audacity of the “Anti-Vaxxer”
40 years ago, vaccine reactions were almost never discussed. Vaccines were overwhelmingly believed to have saved humanity from a variety of diseases that had plagued mankind for generations. Although mistakes had been made, for the most part, “the benefits far outweigh the negative effects.”
Today, the accepted “wisdom” holds that although severe reactions to vaccines have been documented, including brain damage and death, they are rare enough that the success of the vaccine “program” is more important. According to Russell Blaylock, MD:
Russell Blaylock, although a somewhat controversial figure, is known for his work in pioneering treatments for certain brain tumors, “as well as improving certain operations treating water on the brain.”
Some of Dr. Blaylock's controversial views include his claim that aspartame may be unsafe even in small doses and that the H1N1 (swine flu) vaccine may carry more risks than the flu itself.
Blaylock claims that physicians are more regimented than any time in history and that “today they do what they are told without question.”
Because of this regimentation—this death of creativity—most doctors are completely unprepared when confronted with potentially vaccine-damaged children and their parents.
Although a popular field in neuroscience, many physicians know very little about excitotoxicity, the major mechanism in virtually all brain disorders. Blaylock, who wrote a book on the subject, continues:
An example of this reclassification ploy is the label of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS). In a 1982 study, 70% of SIDS cases were shown to follow the DPT vaccination within three weeks.
As is detailed in David Oshinsky's Polio: An American Story, the early creators of the polio vaccine knew the product was contaminated with an unknown number of viruses, and that at least 100 million people have been exposed to these viruses.
Dr. Blaylock continues by observing that most physicians, even pediatricians, know little about the brains of young children:
There can also be the risk of vaccine-induced seizures:
Blaylock believes that vaccines can cause seizures even days later and that multiple seizures indicate a severely inflamed brain and the need for immediate medical attention. These “seizures” can also be “silent” in that they can be expressed behaviorally, such as periods of confusion or irritability.
The human brain develops much differently than most animals in that long after birth the brain still undergoes dramatic formation of its pathways. Much of this formation happens within the first two years, although it continues until age 25-27.
“Adjuvants” are added to many vaccines as well. These are meant to powerfully stimulate the body's immune system and include toxic metals like aluminum and mercury, animal proteins, and “special lipids.”
Many pediatricians may know very little about the immune system and possible negative effects from vaccines or combination of vaccines. Dr. Blaylock continues with this damning pronouncement:
“Priming” the microglia can increase the damage caused by vaccinations or even natural infections.
There can be many factors that contribute to tragedies such as SIDS...and it may be premature to dismiss vaccine reactions as a possible cause.
Aluminum is a very powerful inducer of brain microglia, and since aluminum has an immune-enhancing effect, many manufacturers add aluminum to vaccines. It wasn't until recently that vaccine authorities started officially acknowledging the danger of the possible toxicity of aluminum in vaccines.
In 2001, a new condition was described by Dr. R.K. Gherardi and co-workers that linked muscle pains and neurological problems with retained aluminum resulting form aluminum hydroxide vaccine adjuvants. The problem was linked to hepatitis B, hepatitis A or tetanus toxoid vaccines.
The study concludes: “These findings are consistent with the hypothesis that immunization with the recombinant hepatitis B vaccine is associated with an increased risk of MS, and challenge the idea that the relation between hepatitis B vaccination and risk of MS is well understood.”
Vaccines can be, and have been, contaminated by bacteria, viruses, viral fragments and mycoplasma. Once injected, they can enter the brain and continue to prime the brain's microglia for a lifetime.
This 2001 study actually found that the mutated measles viruses were different in each tissue, meaning that a variety of disorders are possible.
Another concern is with organisms that contain dozens or more subtypes. Many vaccines will target only a handful of these subtypes, creating the potential for new subtypes to emerge and become even more carcinogenic.
For example, HPV (human papilloma virus) has over 100 subtypes, yet the vaccine protects against only four. The other subtypes that in the past rarely produced disease might be given a fresh opportunity.
A major issue with the vaccine program is the lack of long-term protection that occurs after you are naturally infected with a disease. Today, most younger people don't have natural immunization. In the past, the majority of the population had life-long protection from diseases like measles, rubella, chickenpox, etc., and this protected mothers and their newborn children as well. Vaccinated mothers do not offer this protection.
HPV vaccination used to be recommended for pregnant women as well, but it caused enough birth defects and death that this practice ceased.
The Herd Immunity Illusion and Other Scary Scenarios
Perhaps the most oft-cited truism among those who unequivocally defend the current vaccine program is the notion of “herd immunity.” The idea is that if a large enough percentage of the population is immunized against a certain disease, then epidemics can be prevented.
Originally, it was suggested that 60-70% of the population needed to be immunized to reach those goals...today some claim that 95-100% immunization is needed.
There is a very strong, and rarely mentioned, case against the perceived state of “herd immunity” in the population today. The mistake lies in the assumption that high percentages of the population are still immune to diphtheria, smallpox, pertussis, etc.
The media and vaccine enthusiasts would have us believe otherwise, like claiming that as many as 40,000 people die from the “flu” every year, despite this claim being completely unsupported by the data.
In fact, Peter Doshi, Ph.D., a Johns Hopkins scientist, recently issued a blistering report, claiming that only a small portion of those diagnosed with the “flu” actually have the influenza virus present.
According to Doshi, “The vaccine may be less beneficial and less safe than has been claimed, and the threat of influenza seems to be overstated. For most people, and possibly most doctors, officials need only claim that vaccines save lives, and it is assumed there must be solid research behind it.” That's not the case, he says.
Hopefully, the latest Tamiflu debacle will help reignite this crucial conversation.
Another method of the pro-vaccine scare campaign is to evoke mortality rates in the thousands or millions from previous eras or Third World nations.
One of the most common themes among proponents of the flu vaccine is that everything must be done to prevent the 1917-1918 flu epidemic that killed millions.
However, recent research raises serious doubts about blaming a “wild” strain of the influenza virus for the extraordinary number of deaths. Evidence suggests it was none other than Bayer's indefatigable promotion of aspirin that may have been largely responsible.
Before the mortality rate spiked, Bayer embarked on an aggressive ad campaign to promote their new product. Furthermore, autopsy reports from 1918 are consistent with what we know today about the dangers of aspirin toxicity.
Another terrifying epidemic in American history was the 1916 polio outbreak that killed at least 5,000 people. As can be seen by this graph, the 1916 death rate from polio was extremely anomalous, and was one of the many events that inspired the push to develop a polio vaccine when rates began rising again in the 1940s and 50s.
Although originally blamed on “Italian immigrants,” this explanation is beginning to be seriously called into question. A study was published by H.V. Wyatt in 2011 that suggests a much more sinister explanation for the outbreak:
It seems it would be premature to completely dismiss this hypothesis, especially since an extremely virulent multi-virus (MV) strain of polio was being experimented on within walking distance of the worst polio outbreak in half a century. Mortality rates reached 25% among those afflicted, compared to the usual mortality rate of less than 1%.
These past events and their “official” explanations are extremely important to reanalyze, because they could potentially be used to mislead the public.
Contamination, Compensation and Corruption
Most young parents don't remember when MMR vaccines didn't exist and when virtually all children contracted measles, rubella, mumps, chickenpox and pertussis, and as a result they developed life long immunity.
In a perfect world, no one would suffer and these diseases would be eradicated. However, it seems we may have put too much trust in the ever-increasing vaccine schedule to achieve this goal.
The problem was greatly compounded in the U.S. by the 1986 National Childhood Vaccination Injury Act, which shockingly was meant “to reduce the potential financial liability of vaccine makers due to vaccine injury claims.”
The National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program was subsequently created “to provide a federal no-fault system for compensating vaccine-related injuries or death by establishing a claim procedure involving the United States Court of Federal Claims and special masters.”
In other words, when the vaccine manufacturer makes a mistake, which has happened before and will happen again, you have to go to a special vaccine court and you aren't even allowed to sue the manufacturer directly. Many countries other than the U.S. have similar arrangements.
Without the burden of possibly damaging litigation, this seems to remove an absolute incentive for safety and responsibility on the part of the manufacturers and their product.
One of the reasons that vaccine manufacturers should be held completely accountable is that contamination of vaccine stocks are disturbingly common, and this includes organisms such as SIV, mycoplasma, pestivirus, cytomegalovirus and SV40.
SV40 is of particular note, because millions worldwide were exposed to the cancer-causing virus beginning in 1955 as the result of contaminated polio vaccines. The story behind this tragedy is quite shocking and a more detailed account is included in the section on polio.
Studies by Michele Carbone and others have demonstrated a profound link between SV40 virus from vaccines and mesotheliomas and osteosarcomas, as well as numerous types of brain tumors.
One of the most potent cocarcinogens with SV40 is asbestos.
Although many countries quietly banned SV40 once news of the contamination was released in the 1960's, “an analysis presented at the Vaccine Cell Substrate Conference in 2004 suggested that vaccines used in the former Soviet bloc countries, China, Japan, and Africa, could have been contaminated up to 1980.” And according to Carbone's analysis:
Carbone and co-workers also published a study in 1999 claiming that current testing for SV40 was inadequate.
It has also been demonstrated that those infected with SV40 before 1963 have passed the virus to their offspring (vertical or transplacental transmission).
These fears were given some credibility when the CDC recently removed the SV40 section on their website.
As for HIV, although much of the population is unaware of the SV40 scandal and its implications, many do remember the contaminated haemophilia blood products tragedy that saw thousands of haemophiliacs infected with HIV and hepatitis C in the 1970's and 80's.
Perhaps the most shocking thing about the episode was that the products continued to be sold even when they were known to be contaminated:
According to Neil Miller, this level of corruption often extends to the safety studies of the vaccines themselves.
Perhaps one of the most important shortcomings of the vast majority of vaccine safety studies is the absence of the true double-blind study.
However, not all studies are skewed, for example this 1999 study published by the British Medical Journal showed a strong correlation between the haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib) vaccine to rising rates of type 1 diabetes, concluding that “the potential risk of the vaccine exceeds the potential benefit.”
Risks, Reactions and Revenue
Adverse reactions to vaccines are unacceptably common. Even the FDA admits that FluMist (the live-virus nasal spray vaccine) can cause pneumonia and “medically significant wheezing.” Neil Miller reports that “during pre-licensure clinical studies 3% of all children six months to one year of age who received the vaccine ended up in the hospital with respiratory problems!”
Vaccine injuries can often be “disguised” by labeling the conditions as learning disabilities, hyperactivity, mental retardation, attention deficit, etc. Many parents are completely unaware at how common these adverse reactions can be, let alone that they can occur at all. According to a study published by Pediatrics, when parents were specifically asked to observe changes in their baby's behavior after a shot, only 7% reported no reactions at all.
Because of the public's general ignorance of the various types of possible damage that can result from vaccines, the true number of vaccine injuries may be vastly underreported.
According to this study:
However, the FDA estimates that 90% of doctors don't even report reactions. Continuing from the study on VAERS:
According to Neil Miller, one of the authors of the aforementioned study, the federal government is aware of the unnecessarily high danger of many vaccines.
Interesting that Croatia would be so low on that list as well, as their policy towards vaccinating infants was made very clear by recent legislation forcing all parents to vaccinate, a disturbing decision that was even more disturbingly lauded by those who think the vaccine debate is only about “autism.”
However, Miller is quite clear that vaccination does prevent disease...the tragedy is that greed and conspiracy have created a system that is becoming increasingly difficult to trust.
It wasn't until after the vaccine was licensed that the CDC began warning parents about the dangers of chickenpox. Many doctors soon stopped encouraging parents to expose their children and instead receive the shot. The “solution”—a vaccine—preceded the apparent danger.
Vaccine efficacy can be specious.
The HPV vaccine was marketed deceptively as well when first introduced, being promoted as “100%” effective. However, the vaccine is only “100%” effective against two of numerous strains of HPV, not cervical cancer itself.
According to the report HPV Vaccination – More Answers, More Questions: “cautious approach may be warranted in light of important unanswered questions about overall vaccine effectiveness, duration of protection, and adverse effects that may emerge over time.”
In this 2007 report commissioned by the NEJM, two studies were considered on the vaccine's effectiveness on cervical cancer. The report asked: “In these trials, called Females United to Unilaterally Reduce Endo/Ectocervical Disease (FUTURE) I and II, what is the efficacy of vaccination among all subjects, regardless of causal HPV types?”
The results were not promising, as it was determined that in FUTURE I that the vaccine had an efficacy of only 20%, and this was only against low-risk lesions: “no efficacy was demonstrable for higher-grade disease, but the trial may have lacked adequate power to detect a difference.”
However, the larger FUTURE II had more conclusive, and even less favorable, results, as the vaccine was only 17% effective, and again had no impact on preventing high-risk lesions. The report mentions the obvious shortcomings of the vaccine:
This concept of “strain replacement” is not limited to the HPV vaccine, and is an extremely important aspect of the vaccine debate that deserves more attention. Miller continues:
Researchers don't consider this a failing of the Hib vaccine, rather “it raises the question whether a [new] vaccine will need to be developed.”
Prevnar, the pneumococcal vaccine, is only designed to protect against a few of the 90 different strains that can cause the disease. The vaccine is therefore still considered “effective” if the child is stricken with pneumococcus...just not from one of the strains included in the vaccine.
The Journal of the American Medical Association and the Pediatric Infectious Disease Journal have both published data demonstrating that non-vaccine strains of pneumococcus are replacing the strains targeting by the vaccine. What's even more concerning is the new strains are more dangerous and drug-resistant. According to the study Pediatric Invasive Pneumococcal Disease in the United States in the Era of Pneumococcal Conjugate Vaccines:
Another concern is when vaccines are given to one group with the hope of protecting another group. Miller explains:
Some studies show that hepatitis B vaccine recipients lose protective antibodies after 5 to 10 years. The vaccine that babies receive shortly after birth at the hospital will not be effective a few years later. “By 5 to 15 years after vaccination, some individuals have antibody levels below the protective threshold—and in some cases even undetectable.”
Another example of the strange logic employed by the media and many vaccine enthusiasts is the hysteria surrounding blaming those who are unvaccinated when there are outbreaks of disease.
Miller continues by stressing that even members of the U.S. government are aware that the current vaccine program has many shortcomings, as well as the uncomfortable fact that some members of the FDA and CDC have extremely suspect financial interests.
For example, in 2000, a congressional hearing before the Committee on Government Reform was held called Conflicts of Interest in Vaccine Policy Making. The tone of the hearing was set in the opening statements, when it was announced that they needed to determine if “the entire process of licensing and recommending vaccines” has been polluted and the public trust has been violated.
Recent revelations about questionable tactics to approve the first rotavirus vaccine prompted the hearing. It was suspected that members of the FDA and CDC knew about the dangers of the rotavirus vaccine before approving it and recommending it for every child in the country.
Dr. Kathryn Edwards, a physician on the FDA's committees that voted to recommend the vaccine, received $255,000 a year from Wyeth-Lederle, the making of the vaccine. This fact was also cited in the 2000 congressional hearing.
Dr. Paul Offit, who was on the CDC's committee that recommended the vaccine, also held a lucrative patent on another rotavirus vaccine under development. “In addition, [Offit] was paid by the drug industry to travel around the country and teach doctors that vaccines are safe.”
Indeed, even within the last few months, Offit has made appearances on numerous talk shows, both TV and radio, bemoaning those who dare to question vaccines. The vast majority of the time he specifically mentions only “autism” and how ignorant the “anti-vaxxers” are for being afraid of “autism.” Instead of educating, he is continuing to restrict the conversation by completely omitting all of the concerns outlined so far, among many others.
One of the more striking things revealed by this hearing was with regards to the FDA and CDC advisory committees that voted to recommend adding the rotavirus vaccine to the childhood vaccination schedule. A whopping 60% of the FDA advisory committee and 50% of the CDC committee had financial ties either to the drug company that produced the vaccine or to Merck and SmithKline Beecham, two other companies developing potentially lucrative rotavirus vaccines.
During the hearing, Congressman Dan Burton had this to say:
One would think, in the face of waning public confidence in the entirety of the vaccine program, that the FDA and CDC would take the opportunity to agree with such a rational request and restore the confidence of Congress and the public. Sadly, the response was quite the opposite.
On August 24th, 2000, Reuters Medical News published an article called “Congressional report slams FDA, CDC policies on disclosing financial conflicts.” The article describes how Linda Suydam, the senior associate commissioner at the FDA, stated quite unequivocally that “Both the law and policies allow us to use people who have financial ties.” Both the CDC and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) were also unwilling to make any of the recommended changes.
The rotavirus vaccine saga continued when a 2006 study was used by the FDA and CDC as a basis for licensing and recommending a new vaccine called RotaTeq. Neil Miller explains the obvious conflict of interest:
The vaccine market is shifting towards adolescents and adults as well. According to a June 17th, 2007 article published by Genetic Engineering and Biotech News, “at present, pediatric vaccines occupy a higher market share, but this trend will shift towards the adult vaccine segment.”
Naturally, the US is the largest market for vaccines because they are “more profitable than generic pharmaceutical drugs.”
Birth Control Controversy and Measles Malpractice
One of the more frequent vaccine “conspiracy theories” that gets bandied about (and ridiculed) is that some vaccines have been nefariously used for anti-fertility purposes, particularly in Third World nations.
Although this claim is largely unsubstantiated, scientists affiliated with the World Health Organization did start experimenting with anti-fertility vaccines in the 1970s. Numerous studies throughout the 80's and 90's documented the progress of these experiments, including:
“Phase 1 clinical trials of a World Health Organization birth control vaccine,” Lancet (June 11th, 1988): 1295-98.
“Vaccines for fertility regulation,” Research in Human Reproduction, Biennial Report: 1986-87 (Geneva: WHO Special Programme of Research, 1988); chapter 11, pp. 177-198.
“Anti-hCG vaccines are in clinical trials.” Scandinavian Journal of Immunology 1992;36:123-126.
hCG refers to Human chorionic gonadotropin, a hormone that stops menstruation and prepares the uterus for pregnancy. They theorized that if anti-hCG antibodies could be induced, then fertilization would remain incomplete.
In the mid 1990s, Human Life International (HLI) became suspicious of a WHO tetanus vaccination campaign in countries like the Philippines, Mexico and Nicaragua. WHO had developed a “neonatal tetanus” vaccine and began distributing it in numerous Third World countries in the early 1990s.
Neonatal tetanus is extremely rare in developing countries, but it continues to be a concern in Third World regions because of the lack of proper sanitation.
According to J.A. Miller, correspondent for Human Life International (HLI Reports, Human Life International, Gaithersburg, Maryland; June/July 1995, Volume 13, Number 8):
Here are several key points raised by HLI concerning the WHO tetanus vaccination program:
Only women between the ages of 15 and 45 were vaccinated (in Nicaragua the age range was 12-49). Young children and men were excluded.
Not only did the vaccines contain human chorionic gonadotrophin (hCG), but the vaccination protocols called for multiple injections: three within three months and a total of five altogether. Tetanus vaccinations allegedly provide protection for ten years or more...why multiple injections?
Since the 1970's, WHO has been researching development of an anti-fertility vaccine utilizing hCG tied to tetanus toxoid as a carrier...the exact same coupling alleged to be found in the Mexican-Philippine-Nicaragua vaccines.
HLI cites numerous studies, many written by WHO researchers, that document WHO's attempts to create an anti-fertility vaccine utilizing tetanus toxoid as a carrier. [“Observations on the antigenicity and clinical effects of a candidate antipregnancy vaccine: B-subunit of human chorionic gonadotropin linked to tetanus toxoid,” Fertility and Sterility, October 1980, pp. 328-335.]
Naturally, when reports began surfacing in the Philippines of tetanus toxoid vaccine being laced with hCG hormones, the WHO and the Philippine Department of Health (DOH) immediately denied the allegations.
Apparently, the WHO and the DOH didn't seriously respond to these results, instead trying to explain many of the findings as “false positives.” As for why one might use the tetanus vaccine for such a purpose:
The HLI report concludes by stating that similar evidence was beginning to emerge from Africa. Despite the WHO's insistence upon “false positives,” many of the women who were vaccinated had painful reactions and even abortions.
Even more disturbing was that the HLI's investigation led them to numerous clandestine groups such as the World Bank, the Population Council, the Rockefeller Foundation, and the US National Institute of Health (NIH).
Although it's unlikely that the current tetanus vaccine contains significant amounts of hCG, one manufacturer warns pregnant women that “animal reproductive studies have not been conducted.”
Furthermore, “it is also not known whether [the vaccine] can cause fetal harm when administered to a pregnant woman or can affect reproductive capacity.” To nursing mothers they advise, “It is not known whether [the vaccine] is excreted in human milk...caution should be exercised when administered to a nursing woman.”
The EZ-HT Experiment
Another WHO/CDC catastrophe concerns the measles vaccine.
Most infants under five months are protected from measles by maternal antibodies, and standard measles vaccines are ineffective in babies under nine months. Since measles death rates are higher in Third World countries, authorities decided to create a “high-titer” vaccine to target this 5-9 month age range.
Beginning in the 1980s, they tested the Edmonston-Zagreb (EZ-HT) strain on Mexican and Gambian babies 4-6 months old.
The same high-titer vaccine continued to be administered in Guinea-Bissau, Togo, Senegal, Bangladesh, Haiti, and impoverished minority communities in Los Angeles, California.
The public was told that EZ-HT “produces a better immunological response than standard vaccines,” but studies had been conducted that concluded the vaccine was unsafe for infants, including the following: Child mortality after high-titre measles vaccines: prospective study in Senegal.
The study concluded, quite unequivocally, that “The higher risk of death in the two high-titre vaccine groups remained significant in multivariate analyses. These findings suggest a need to reconsider the use of high-titre measles vaccines early in life in less developed countries.”
Babies who received SW-HT died at a rate that was 51% higher than those who received the standard vaccine...nearly 50 excess deaths for every 1000 babies vaccinated. EZ-HT was much more potent, contributing to a rate that was 80% higher, contributing to 75 excess deaths for every 1000.
Strikingly, according to the previously cited study published by Lancet in 1991, 1 in every 6 babies vaccinated with EZ-HT died within three years. Unfortunately, even this didn't deter enthusiasts of the high-titer shot.
Even though the WHO and the CDC knew about the high mortality rate already being associated with the vaccine, they still considered the data “preliminary.”
Before the trials finished, nearly 1500 minority babies had been given the experimental vaccine, according to this 1996 LA Times article:
We now know that the CDC lied about the study on numerous occasions.
The “informed consent” form provided to parents violated internationally accepted ethical codes of conduct regulating human experimentation. Parents were not informed that EZ-HT was unlicensed in the US.
Parents were told that millions of doses of EZ-HT had been used in Europe. But the LA babies were actually receiving a vaccine that was up to 500 times more potent.
The CDC said the communities targeted for the vaccine were those hit hardest by recent measles outbreaks. According to data obtained from the Los Angeles County Department of Health, these communities were not the hardest hit. Journalist Keidi Obi Awadu, in his Outrage!, documented that “three three regions chosen to receive the experimental shots were predominantly Black and Hispanic.” Furthermore, “several mixed-race and White communities harder hit by the recent outbreak of measles were not chosen to participate in the study.”
Although the CDC claimed no children were adversely affected, one baby did die from a rare bacterial disease. According to Awadu, several children “experienced what parents are describing as long-term immune system impairment, seizures and other acute conditions consistent with vaccine-induced injury.”
Stephen Hadler of the CDC claimed the babies died in earlier studies because they didn't have access to adequate health care. However, one of the more important findings of the Senegal study was “the three vaccine groups were comparable as regards various social, family, and health characteristics. Intensive medical care was provided during the project.”
Paralysis and the Politics of Polio
Poliomyelitis, or polio, is a contagious disease caused by a virus that may attack nerve cells of the brain and spinal cord.
Fever, headache, sore throat, vomiting are some of the milder symptoms, and some victims develop neurological complications and paralysis of one or more limbs or respiratory muscles. In severe cases it can be fatal, due to respiratory paralysis.
Some people mistakenly believe that polio usually leads to paralysis, but this isn't the case.
95% of people exposed to the natural polio virus don't exhibit any symptoms, even under epidemic conditions, according to the Physicians' Desk Reference 2001 and Natural History of Infectious Disease by Sir Frank Macfarlane Burnet and David O. White.
The Wikipedia article on polio initially cites the figure as 90%, but elsewhere on the page the “asymptomatic” outcome of poliovirus infection is listed as 90%-95%. According to the source used for these statistics, “Up to 95% of all polio infections are inapparent or asymptomatic.”
About 5% of infected people will experience mild symptoms such as a sore throat, stiff neck, headache, and fever—often diagnosed as a cold or flu. Muscular paralysis affects approximately one out of every 1,000 people who contract polio.
Usually there is a full recovery from paralytic polio—it rarely is permanent. Only a small percentage of cases will experience residual paralysis.
There are many serious questions about what factors contribute to increasing an individual's susceptibility to serious adverse reactions to the polio virus.
Several studies have demonstrated that injections, either for vaccines or antibiotics, increase susceptibility to polio. It's been known since the early 1900s that paralytic poliomyelitis can start at the site of an injection.
McCloskey, BP. “The relation of prophylactic inoculations to the onset of poliomyelitis.” Lancet (April 18, 1950):659-63
Geffen, DH “The incidence of paralysis occurring in London children within four weeks after immunization.” Med Officer 1950;83:137-40
Martin, JK. “Local paralysis in children after injections.” Arch Dis Child 1950;25:1-14
In 1992, a study was published in the Journal of Infectious Diseases that again confirmed these results after documenting an outbreak of polio in Oman that was linked to the DTP (diphtheria, tetanus, and pertussis) shot. They concluded that “injections are an important cause of provocative poliomyelitis.”
A poor diet has been shown to raise one's susceptibility to polio.
Sandler claimed that sugars and starches lower blood sugar levels which leads to hypoglycemia.
As can be seen by this graph of United States polio rates, polio epidemics became a serious problem in the late 1940s and early 1950s, although it never quite reached the levels of 1916 (when the epicenter of the epidemic was mere miles from a Rockefeller research lab that was experimenting with an extremely virulent strain of the polio virus).
By the early 1950s, Jonas Salk began experimenting with a possible polio vaccine.
In 1955, the first polio immunization campaign was launched in the United States. Almost immediately, it became clear that something was very wrong with the vaccine. In the end, 70,000 school children became seriously ill from Salk's vaccine—the infamous “Cutter Incident.”
The renowned surgeon Alton Ochsner even gave the vaccine to two of his grandchildren...one died and the other was paralyzed. “Apparently, Salk's killed-virus vaccine was not completely inactivated.”
Perhaps it was their eagerness to get the polio vaccine developed and distributed as quickly as possible, but unfortunately the NIH did receive dire warnings before the release of the vaccine...a warning from one of their own.
Dr. Bernice Eddy and her research partner Dr. Sarah Stewart are two of the most important scientists of the 20th century in the field of viral research.
Perhaps he should have listened, for a result, “The director of the microbiology institute lost his job, as did the equivalent of the assistant secretary for health. Dr Sebrell, the director of the NIH, resigned.”
Incredibly, instead of acknowledging Eddy for her validated concerns, they took her off polio research and instead ordered her to the influenza research division. Eddy continued her polio research on her own time, ultimately leading to one of the greatest medical conspiracies of the 20th century.
Following the Cutter Incident, the authorities acted quickly to alleviate the public's legitimate concerns about the safety of the recently developed polio vaccine.
In 1957 Albert Sabin developed an oral live-virus polio vaccine over concerns that Salk's killed-virus vaccine would be ineffective at preventing epidemics. Sabin's goal was to simulate a real-life infection.
Strebel, PM., et al. “Epidemiology of polio in U.S. one decade after the last reported case of indigenous wild virus associated disease.” Clin Infec Dis, CDC (Feb 1992):568-79
Gorman, C. “When the vaccine causes the polio.” Time (October 30, 1995):83.
Shaw, D. “Unintended casualties in war on polio.” Philadelphia Inquirer (June 6, 1993):A1.
In 2000, the CDC “updated” its U.S. polio vaccine recommendations, reverting back to policies first implemented during the 1950s, namely the killed-virus shot. The oral polio vaccine should only be used in “special circumstances” (several countries still use the live-virus, oral vaccine).
However, a fact sheet on polio published by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services warns parents that the inactivated polio vaccine can cause “serious problems or even deaths.” One of the manufacturers of the IPV also admits that Guillain–Barré syndrome has been “temporarily linked to administration of another IPV.”
Now that we understand the dangers of Salk's early vaccine and the possibility of it actually infecting the recipient with serious cases of polio, it should come as no surprise that statistics confirm that the reported cases of polio following mass inoculations with the killed-virus vaccine may have more than doubled in the U.S. as a whole. [McBean, E. & Allen, H.]
Many NIH doctors and scientists at the NIH during the 1950s were aware that Salk's vaccine was causing polio.
Salk himself allegedly said: “When you inoculate children with a polio vaccine you don't sleep well for two or three weeks.” [As reported by Saul Pett in an Associated Press dispatch from Pittsburg (October 11, 1954)]
In 1976, Salk even testified that the live-virus vaccine (used almost exclusively in the U.S. from the early 1960s to 2000) was the “principal if not sole cause” of all reported cases of polio in the U.S. since the early 1960s. [Washington Post, September 24, 1976.]
Although authorities claimed that the vaccine caused only 8 cases of polio each year, an independent study “uncovered 13,641 reports of adverse events following use of the oral polio vaccine. These reports included 6,364 hospital/emergency room visits and 540 deaths.” [Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS); OPV Vaccine Report—Document #14]
Eventually, after the public became increasingly aware of the dangers of the oral polio vaccine, it was removed from immunization schedules.
There has been much speculation that the polio vaccine did little, if anything, to cause the virus to disappear. Dr. Robert Mendelsohn, a medical researcher and pediatrician, claimed that there was no scientific evidence this was the case.
Part of the reason for the apparent decline in polio rates after the introduction of the vaccine, even while it was infecting many people with polio, was that polio was redefined at the same the vaccination program began.
The subject was controversial enough to be discussed during congressional hearings in 1962, when Dr. Bernard Greenberg, chairman of the Committee on Evaluation and Standards of the American Public Health Association, provided expert testimony documenting this important fact.
Also, cases of aseptic meningitis, a condition with many variations and causes, were formally distinguished from the polio vaccine after the vaccine was introduced, as well as coxsackie virus infections (which can also lead to aseptic meningitis).
Dr. Bernard Greenberg, who also was 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 deliberately manipulated by the Public Health Service to give the opposite impression.” According to Greenberg:
Some have speculated that approximately 90% of polio cases were eliminated from statistics by health authorities’ redefinition of the disease when the vaccine was introduced. In reality, the Salk vaccine contributed to increased cases of polio in numerous countries at a time when there were no epidemics being caused by the wild virus.
According to proponents of this claim, polio now “hides” behind the following conditions: acute flaccid paralysis, transverse myelitis, viral or aseptic meningitis, Guillain–Barré syndrome, Chinese paralytic syndrome, spinal meningitis, inhibitory palsy, etc.
In July 1955, before the new polio definition was introduced, there were 273 reported cases of polio in Los Angeles County, as compared to 50 reported cases of aseptic meningitis.
In July 1961, after the new definition was introduced, there were 65 cases of polio and 161 cases of aseptic meningitis. In September 1966, there were only 5 reported cases of polio, and 256 reported cases of aseptic meningitis. [Los Angeles County Health Index: Morbidity and Mortality, Reportable Diseases.]
The incidence of meningitis skyrocketed as “official” polio cases declined, as the following data, compiled from national surveillance reports, shows.
Non-paralytic polio cases vs. aseptic meningitis cases:
1951-1960: 70,083 - 0
1961-1982: 589 - 102,999
1983-1992: 0 - 117,366
DDT is good for me-e-e!
DDT may have played a significant role in the polio epidemics of the 1940s and 50s. By the early 1960s, it finally became understood that DDT was having a devastating impact on the environment and possibly human health.
DDT spraying and DDT delousing were both extremely, and terrifyingly, common before this realization.
In 1953, Morton S. Biskind published a damning report called “Public health aspects of the new insecticides.” A decade before Rachel Carson would release her groundbreaking Silent Spring, Biskind was desperately trying to sound the alarm:
Biskind emphasized physiological evidence of DDT poisoning that resembled polio physiology:
A German study of the physiology of acute DDT poisoning confirmed that DDT often causes polio-like physiology.
Biskind's views fell into disfavor after the introduction of the polio vaccine, which “proved” to most that the majority of polio cases were caused by a virus. By 1955, Biskind, whose works had been published in established medical journals and who testified before the Senate on the dangers of pesticides, was forced self-publish his writings.
The Present Polio Predicament
Problems with the polio vaccine continue today, for in February of 2014, a study was published identifying a “polio-like” illness in five California children. “All children presented with acute flaccid paralysis of one or more limbs that reached peak severity within 48 hours of onset...All had been previously vaccinated against polio-virus.”
Incredibly, the oral polio vaccine was given to Indian children, despite the fact that in the U.S., the CDC had dropped the OPV from its vaccine schedule because it was causing polio.
According to Neetu Vashisht and Jacob Puliyel at St. Stephens Hospital in Delhi:
Vashisht and Puliyel published their findings in the Indian Journal of Medical Ethics and “should have made headlines around the globe.” They determined:
For more information, here's one of the best lectures on the subject of polio available on Youtube. Suzanne Humphries, MD, speaks about the “disappearance” of polio, and includes detailed information about the deceptive reclassification of “polio” and the connection between the rampant use of DDT and polio-like disorders of the central nervous system.
If this brief overview doesn't already raise serious questions and concerns about the history of the polio vaccine, then strap yourselves in.
SV40
We return to 1959 and the pioneering work of Dr. Bernice Eddy, whose previous warnings about the Salk polio vaccine went unheeded, resulting in many deaths. For her efforts, she was removed from polio research at the NIH.
For a complete account of Eddy and her story, read The Virus and the Vaccine: Contaminated Vaccine, Deadly Cancers, and Government Neglect.
History, as they say, is doomed to repeat herself, for Eddy would yet again discover something was wrong with the polio vaccine. This time, however, the ramifications would be far more catastrophic, and her subsequent silencing was much more profound.
Dr. Eddy was fresh from her research into viral causes of cancer and her pioneering work in first describing the polyoma virus. However, she soon would earn the dubious honor of being the first to identify what we now call SV40 (Simian virus 40), an infectious agent capable of causing cancer.
SV40 had widely contaminated the polio vaccine, and Eddy desperately tried to sound the alarm. Even though her previous warnings, if heeded, would have prevented the tragic Cutter Incident, she yet again was met with astonishing opposition.
What happened next was tragic not only for Eddy herself, but it precipitated one of the worst medical blunders/conspiracies of the 20th century.
The Health Century by Edward Shorter offers the following account of this story:
Eddy tried every possible means to alert her peers to the danger, and ultimately decided she would “surprise” a meeting of the Cancer Society with her findings.
Bernice Eddy came to a shocking conclusion: an entire generation had been given cancer-causing monkey viruses. Using this knowledge, she predicted a future epidemic of cancer.
Maurice Hilleman and Benjamin Sweet came to similar conclusions. Sweet and Hilleman were pharmaceutical researchers for Merck and are credited with first identifying the virus as SV40, the 40th such simian virus discovered until that point. According to Hilleman:
Hilleman and Sweet noted the possibility that it might cause cancer, “especially when administered to human babies.” According to Sweet:
Further research uncovered even more disturbing information.
Experts have estimated that up to 100 million Americans and at least 100 millions others throughout the world were exposed to SV40 through the polio vaccine. [Bookchin, D., et al. “Tainted polio vaccine still carries its threat 40 years later. The Boston Globe (January 26, 1997)]
Even though SV40 is universally acknowledged to cause cancer in animal models, strangely enough its role in causing cancer in humans is still debated. As Wikipedia explains:
As the Wikipedia article points out, this is in contrast to a 2002 study conducted by The National Academy of Sciences Immunization Safety Review committee that declared, “The committee concludes that the biological evidence is moderate that SV40 exposure could lead to cancer in humans under natural conditions.”
Despite the United States National Cancer Institute's reliance on broad “epidemiological evidence” that SV40 “likely” does not cause cancer in humans, numerous studies published throughout the world strongly suggest that SV40 is a catalyst for many types of cancer:
Innis, MD. “Oncogenesis and poliomyelitis vaccine.” Nature 1968;219:972-3.
Soriano, F., et al. “Simian virus 40 in a human cancer.” Nature 1974;249:421-4.
Scherneck, S., et al. “Isolation of a SV-40-like papovavirus from a human glioblastoma.” Internat J Cancer 1979;24:523-31.
Stoian, M., et al. “Possible relation between viruses and oromaxillofacial tumors. II. Research on the presence of the SV40 antigen and specific antibodies in patients with oromaxillofacial tumors.” Virologie 1987;38:35-40.
Bravo, MP., et al. “Association between the occurrence of antibodies to simian vacuolating virus 40 and bladder cancer in male smokers.” Neoplasma 1988;35:285-8.
O'Connell, K., et al. “Endothelial cells transformed by SV40 T-antigen cause Kaposi's sarcoma-like tumors in nude mice.” American Journal of Pathology 1991;139(4):743-9.
Weiner, LP., et al. “Isolation of virus related to SV40 from patients with progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy. New England Journal of Medicine 1972;286:385-90.
Tabuchi, K. “Screening of human brain tumors for SV-40-related T-antigen.” International J of Cancer 1978;21:12-7.
Meinke, W., et al. “Simian virus 40-related DNA sequences in a human brain tumor.” Neurology 1979;29:1590-4.
Krieg, P., et al. “Episomal simian virus 40 genomes in human brain tumors.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Science 1981;78:6446-50.
Geissler, E. “SV40 and human brain tumors.” Progress in Medical Virology 1990;37:211-22.
Martini, M., et al. “Human brain tumors and simian virus 40.” J of the National Cancer Institute, 1995;87(17):1331
Lednicky, JA., et al. “Natural simian virus 40 strains are present in human choroid plexus and ependymoma tumors.” Virology 1995;212(2):710-7
Vilchez, RA., et al. “Association between simian virus 40 and non-Hodgkin lymphoma.” Lancet (Mar 9, 2002):817-23.
One of the most important researchers and authorities on SV40 is a molecular pathologist at Chicago's Loyola University Medical Center named Michael Carbone. From the Wikipedia page of American physician Herbert Ratner:
Not only is SV40 showing up in brain tumors and leukemia, but according to research conducted by Carbone and others, SV40 is being detected in 38% of patients with bone cancer and in 58% of those with mesothelioma, a deadly type of lung cancer. Carbone's pioneering work indicates that SV40 blocks an important protein that normally protects cells from becoming malignant.
Carbone, M., et al. “SV40-like sequences in human bone tumors.” Oncogene 1996;13(3):527-35.
Pass, HI., Carbone, M., et al. “Evidence for and implications of SV40-like sequences in human mesotheliomas and osteosarcomas.” Important Advances in Oncology 1996:89-108.
Rock, A. “The lethal dangers of the billion dollar vaccine business.” Money (December 1996):161.
In 2001, the San Francisco Chronicle published a story called “Rogue virus in the vaccine: Early polio vaccine harbored virus now feared to cause cancer in humans,” stating:
In 1998, after a national cancer database was analyzed, it was determined that among those exposed to SV40 from the polio vaccine, there were 17% more bone cancers, 20% more brain cancers, and 178% more mesotheliomas. Researchers also found 10 times more osteosarcoma rates.
Even more alarming, some research suggests that SV40 can be passed from human to human and form mother to child. A study of nearly 60,000 women found that children of mothers who received the Salk vaccine in the early 1960s had brain tumors at a rate 13 times greater than mothers who didn't receive the shot.
Also, a 1996 study published in the journal Cancer Research found SV40 in 23% of blood samples and 45% of semen taken from healthy subjects. Mauro Tognon, one of the authors of this study, believes this might explain why brain, bone, and lung cancers are on the rise.
Why the uncertainty? Why the obfuscation? Why the silence? In his book The Health Century, Edward Shorter asks these questions and quotes an extraordinary statement made by Albert Sabin:
Today, the SV40 Cancer Foundation is devoted to raising awareness about a potential link between the simian virus and human cancer.
The Virus and the Vaccine documents the incredible saga of the Horwin family. The vaccine manufacturer unsuccessfully tried to argue in court that the SV40 contamination was the result of a trip to the zoo (!), but the Horwin family had overwhelming scientific evidence on their side.
Tragically, although the judge admitted the polio vaccine was the likely origin of the SV40 that was found in his tumor, the vaccine manufacturer was exonerated because their equipment was insufficient and unable to offer 100% certainty that the product would be SV40-free.
One of the most important reasons this subject needs to be thoroughly studied is that traditional methods of cancer treatment such as chemotherapy may make SV40-related cancers worse:
From Polio to Smallpox and HIV to AIDS
If the WHO's smallpox vaccination campaign triggered an AIDS epidemic in Africa, how did so many people get infected with HIV in the first place?
SV40 was just one of many simian viruses known to have contaminated polio vaccines.
Hilary Koprowski, who is about to be featured heavily in this story, wrote a letter to the Congressional Health and Safety Subcommittee in 1961 saying:
According to Ronald Desrosier, a professor at Harvard Medical School, growing polio vaccine in monkey kidneys is “a ticking time bomb.”
During the 1950s-70s, virus detection techniques were crude and unreliable. It wasn't until the 1980s that more sophisticated testing procedures were developed.
Essex, M., et al. “The origin of the AIDS virus” Scientific American 1988;259:64-71.
Karpas, A. “Origin and spread of AIDS.” Nature 1990;348:578
Kyle, WS. “Simian retroviruses, poliovaccine, and origin of AIDS.” Lancet 1992;339:600-1.
Elswood, BF., Stricker, RB. “Polio vaccines and the origin of AIDS.” Medical Hypothesis 1994:42:347-54
From the last study: “We hypothesize that the AIDS pandemic may have originated with a contaminated polio vaccine that was administered to inhabitants of Equatorial Africa from 1957 to 1959.”
This has caused some researchers to wonder if HIV may simply be SIV “residing in and adapting to a human host.” This led others to wonder if SIV mutated into HIV once introduced into the human population by way of contaminated polio vaccines.
Martin, B. “Polio vaccines and the origin of AIDS: the career of a threatening idea.” Townsend Letter for Doctors (January 1994):97-100.
Curtis, T. “The origin of AIDS: A startling new theory attempts to answer the question 'Was it an act of God or an act of man?'” Rolling Stone (March 19, 1992):57.
“Workshop on simian virus-40 (SV-40): A possible human polyomavirus.” NVIC (Jan 27-28, 1997).
Curtis, T. “Did polio vaccine experiment unleash AIDS in Africa?” The Washington Post (April 5, 1992):C3+.
However, WHO concluded the vaccines were safe enough and insisted the mass vaccination campaigns continue. By 1989, they recommended not making the polio vaccine using monkeys infected with SIV.
The following year, wild chimpanzees in Africa were found to be infected with a strain of SIV that was almost identical to HIV. Some researchers even referred to it as the “missing link” to the origins of HIV.
According to Robert Gallo: “The monkey virus is the human virus. There are monkey viruses as close to isolates of HIV-2 as HIV-2 isolates are to each others.”
By 1991, as the result of improvements in virus-detection techniques, researchers found SIV DNA in the kidneys of infected monkeys. Minced monkey kidneys were, and still are, used to produce the live polio vaccine.
Giunta, S., et al. “The primate trade and the origin of AIDS virus.” Nature 1987;329:22.
Seale, J. “Crossing the species barrier—viruses and the origins of AIDS in perspective.” J R Soc Med 1989;82:519-23.
Lecatsas, G. “Origin of AIDS.” Nature 1991;351:179.
Gilks, C. “AIDS, monkeys and malaria” Nature 1991;354:262.