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.
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.
Since most historians agree that AIDS originated in Africa, how could it be linked to the polio vaccine if Salk and Sabin's trials were conducted in the U.S., the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe?
In 1959, Albert Sabin published a study that claimed that Koprowski's polio vaccine used in the African trials contained un “unidentified” and “unstable” cell-killing virus. Although he was quick to point out the flaws in the vaccine of Koprowski, his professional rival, unfortunately his ability to detect viruses in the polio vaccine fell short when it came to mass contamination of Sabin's own polio vaccine with SV-40.
In response to Sabin's claims of contamination, Koprowski simply scoffed at him and said he was just trying to discredit his work (as he would do again and again to anyone making this accusation). The virus allegedly detected by Sabin was never identified.
Until recently, the earliest known blood sample containing antibodies against HIV was traced back to 1959. The serum came from a patient visiting a clinic in Leopoldville, one of the epicenters of the AIDS epidemic that would occur a decade later.
Regardless of when the first HIV infection occurred, it would seem to be premature to dismiss the OPV (Oral Polio Vaccine) AIDS hypothesis on this basis alone. The timing of the first HIV infection is irrelevant to the question of whether or not some doses of the experimental polio vaccine used in Africa in the late 1950s were contaminated, thus precipitating a future outbreak.
Dr. Robert Bohannon of Baylor College of Medicine asserts that squiring polio vaccines into one's mouth would tend to aerosolize some of the liquid. Small drops could then go into the lungs, and from there to the blood cells susceptible to infection. This could be an efficient mode of HIV transmission.
Experts believe that the average time between HIV infection and the development of AIDS is approximately 8-10 years.
Understandably, authorities are very reluctant to admit that there's even a possibility that scientists may have contributed to the AIDS pandemic by growing polio vaccines in virus-laden monkey kidneys.
In 1992, Tom Curtis published a story for Rolling Stone that created quite a stir.
Although dismissed by most experts, “a few scientists, notably the biologist W.D. Hamilton, thought the hypothesis required serious investigation, but they received little support from the scientific community.”
William Haseltine, a professor at Harvard, believes that hypothesizing about the origin of AIDS is distracting and nonproductive, saying, “It's not relevant...I'm not interested in discussing it.” Dr. David Heymann, head of the WHO's Global Program of AIDS, stated that “the origin of the AIDS virus is of no importance to science today.”
Jonas Salk wouldn't comment on the possibility, as apparently he was too busy working on an AIDS vaccine, and Sabin's response was “you can't hang Koprowski with that.” Koprowski himself initially dismissed the idea with a laugh, and then later said that “this is a highly theoretical situation.”
His amusement must not have lasted long, because Koprowski sued Curtis and Rolling Stone for “...the destruction of (his) professional and personal reputation, for mental and emotional suffering, and for...humiliation and embarrassment.” As a result the magazine was ordered to pay $1 in damages. [See The Seeds of Doom by Christian Biasco]
However, both Tom Folks of the CDC and Robert Gallo thought testing the seed stocks of polio might be a good idea. According to Folks, “any time we can learn more about the natural history [of AIDS], it helps us understand the pathogenesis and...the transmission.”
Gallo believes that questions like this “are of more than academic interest because answering them may help avoid future zoonitic catastrophes—that is, transmission of disease from lower animals to humans.”
Inspired by Curtis' investigative report, a British writer named Edward Hooper traveled in Africa, Europe, and the United States for seven years. As a result of his research, he published a book in 1999 called The River: A Journey to the Source of HIV and AIDS.
Although the scientific community generally rejects the OPV AIDS hypothesis, Hooper “criticizes the research and conduct of many of the scientists involved in the investigation and alleges a 'very substantial cover-up' took place to silence the hypothesis.”
One of the several arguments against the hypothesis was that Koprowski was not using chimpanzees in his experiments, and therefore HIV contamination didn't occur. However, eyewitness testimony suggests otherwise.
The film offers a convincing case for the hypothesis, and seriously challenges the questionable nature of the categorical denials by Koprowski and others that no chimpanzees were used in the development of his experimental vaccine.