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.
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.”