TIME: HOW SAFE ARE VACCINES?

Time magazine looks at the very real concerns of parents desperate to the weigh pros and cons of of our current vaccination schedule along with the current science. 

Good morning, Dr. Offit....

Read the article HERE.

Comments

[Laurie]

Once again the BIG PHARM chooses to pay off another BIG media source to spread more lies about the safty with vaccinations. The C.D.C can only hide their heads in the sand so long.
I believe in a higher power "Jesus Christ" who will expose them in due time.
They all will have to pay some day for the babies they've killed and or injured.
Our son has been dealing with sickness since his 18 mos. M.M.R. He is now 9 yrs old.
We are following Dr. Andrew Cutlers detox to help our son overcome the symptoms that the heavy metals are causing.
Keep praying it's our only hope!

[RN choosing not to vaccinate]

I too was disappointed in this biased article. Shame on you Time Magazine as alot of people trust you to represent both sides! Apparently the drug companies' own you too. I am not a subscriber, but read the article after spotting the magazine on a friends coffee table. Thank God for the internet for it gives we the people a chance to communicate, dispell the myths of the media,and find the answers we as parents so desparately seek. I think it is time for flyers supporting the "Green Our Vaccines" movement to be place on cars in parking lots. This gesture will allow more unsuspecting parents to become aware of this growing epidemic which we may soon be required by law to have injected into our babies. If you cannot be in Washington DC, support Jim Carey and Jenny McCarthy efforts June 4th by printing up Green Our Vaccines literature and distributing it were you can make a difference..... in your own community.

[Tanner's Dad]

Great Dr. Healy article

http://health.usnews.com/articles/health/brain-and-behavior/2008/04/10/fighting-the-autism-vaccine-war.html

[Diane]

My hard copy of Time magazine arrived in the mail today. The subtitle said something to this effect (I do not have it in front of me so this is rough wording, but the message is clear): How parents who choose not to vaccinate are putting the rest of us at risk.

Not good.

[Tanner's Dad]

I think all of the comments are valid. Remember the general public does not get much further than the title and the picture if they get it at all. ANY mother (parent) who can get past that picture, next to the title "How safe are vaccines?" without stopping and saying "Whoa wait a minute..." is not human. I know we are shaking the very foundation of society. Everyone repeat after me to everyone... Why have more than 2000 been paid off and the powers that be are trying to make Hanah out as unique? Almost 5000 in front of the special masters... and many more shut out by the statute and no support. We should thank Time for taking on this topic... Along with asking them to get it right next time!

[Sakura]

As Monica stated in an earlier comment, the reporter's name is 'clickable' which will bring up another screen with an area to send a letter to the editor.

I'm drafting a letter as we speak...

[Gag reflex, THIS?]

WE SHALL OVERCOME - thanks for pointing out yet another anomaly:

"The Georgia girl in the recent vaccine case is the first such documented child, but her story suggests there could be others.""

There's gag reflex (when there are maybe 1 or 2 things wrong) and then there's projectile vomiting, which is what this article causes you to do!

God bless you though, for being able to go through it.

[WE SHALL OVERCOME]

I urge you to overcome the "gag reflex" and read through the whole article. The next to last paragraph reads as follows:

"Common Ground: That still leaves the broader community at risk. So, is there room between public health and personal choice? Science may eventually provide a way out. Most people agree that there may be kids with genetic predispositions or other underlying conditions that make them susceptible to being harmed by vaccines. The Georgia girl in the recent vaccine case is the first such documented child, but her story suggests there could be others."

It may not appear to be much but, for us who have been on the trenches for years, it is a clear sign of a break in the wall, a change in the tide. The end is near but don't hold your breath, as it will come with no apologies and no compensation of any type but a "I fell your pain" comment and pat in the back. The time for filing lawsuits would have elapsed by the time the NIH admits to "vaccine injuries causing autism" and the medical establishment would say they were looking into it and did not act sooner because they did not have enough data. We are the lost generation.

[Elizabeth Soliday]

"'In rare instances, there could be some gene-vs.-exposure interaction that in theory could lead from the vaccine to autism,' says Dr. Tracy Lieu, director of the center for child-health-care studies at Harvard Medical School. 'The future of vaccine-safety research lies in trying to answer questions of genomic contributions to responses to vaccines.' Screening for genetic profiles that are most commonly associated with immune disorders, for example, would be a good place to start."

The research has been done, we are waiting for the announcement of screening!

"Tolerance to HBV peptides may have clinical implications, possibly being a marker for babies with a genetic risk of immunopathologies."
(Clinical Immunology, Dec 2000)

"HLA-DQA1 homozygosity is significantly associated with poor antibody response to measles vaccine."
(Mayo Clinic and Foundation, 1997)

"We conclude that HBV can induce aPL, although rarely. In genetically susceptible individuals or together with some other triggers such combination might confer the risk of developing a continuous autoimmune response in an individual"
(Clinical and Experimental Immunology, 2005)

"Certain HLA genotypes are more prevalent among non-responders to HBV vaccination. There is a strong relationship between CD (celiac disease) and these genotypes...Response to HBV vaccination was observed in 17 (68%) CD (celiac disease) patients and all (100%) control subjects (p=0.006). In conclusion, CD should also be sought in unresponders to HBV vaccine who are not immunosuppressed."
(Istanbul University Department of Gastroenterohepatology, 2007)

See also Community Genetics: Genetic Variation in Response to Vaccination (2007)

[Kelli Ann Davis]

Just such lousy reporting. The first thing I thought was that the writer is probably all of twenty-four years old (they had to find a ditz to misreport and moralize so enthusiastically)”….

Hey Gatogorra, maybe they got one of the *spring chickens* from Vaccine Court to write the article?

[Monica]

Perhaps we could all take a moment, and send a letter to the editor of TIME. You may do so simply by clicking on Alice Park's name at the top of the article.

You may also want to contact Alice herself. The number to TIME magazine is- 212-522-1212

I thought I would share my letter to the editor below-

I want to thank you for your recent article regarding the safety of today's vaccines. As my daughter had a severe adverse reaction to pediatric vaccines, it is a subject I am very interested in, and applaud your efforts in educating todays parents about the possible dangers of vaccination.

Although, the article contained a number of incorrect statements.

Today's flu shot contains more than trace amounts of thimerosal. It contains a full .25 micrograms of mercury. This alone is enough to disrupt communication in the immune system by affecting T-Cell production.

Also, your statement "Yet there's been no effect on autism rates. In the seven years since the cleaned-up vaccines were introduced, new cases of autism continue to climb, reaching a rate of 1 in every 150 8-year-olds today. " is a falsehood.

The number of children born between 1992 and 1994 have an average autism rate of 1:150. These are children that have received the highest amounts of mercury in their vaccines.
http://www.cdc.gov/media/transcripts/2007/t070230.htm

It will likely be another decade before we will truly know if the numbers have dropped since the reduction of thimerosal in pediatric vaccinations.

Also, the number of childhood vaccinations have tripled, not doubled, as the article states, since the 1980s.

I would not rely on what Paul Offit spouts as gospel for any article. I do hope that TIME performed due diligence in verifying possible conflicts of interest. He is a consultant for Merck, and a patent holder for Merck's RotaTeq vaccine.

I am especially impressed by one statement in the article- "The future of vaccine-safety research lies in trying to answer questions of genomic contributions to responses to vaccines." Screening for genetic profiles that are most commonly associated with immune disorders, for example, would be a good place to start."

That is where we need to focus, screening for children who may have adverse reactions.

My daughter has Primary Immunodeficiency, which was not detected at the time of her vaccinations. If this was diagnosed, my daughter would have been contraindicated for the vaccines that caused her so much harm. It was in fact, the adverse reaction that led to her dx of Primary Immunodeficiency.

Thank you again for this piece, and I hope TIME will publish more articles regarding the safety of vaccination.

[Craig (No Time for Me Anymore)]

I could not finish the article; the second I saw a quote from Satan (aka (for pr)Offit), I closed the web page and shook my head. Anytime I see his name listed as an "expert," I get ready for a craptacular smearing of the truth. Any news organization that claims him as an "expert" should have their journalism degrees and licenses revoked. And I used to think that Time was a credible media outlet. -sigh-

[Robin Nemeth]

I wish there were a place on their website to respond to this piece of &^%$ story. I sent the following to 'letters@time.com':

In speaking of those who question the safety of vaccines, you say ‘Yet simmering beneath these national numbers is a trend that's working in the microbes' favor-and against ours.'

Do you really believe that it is ‘in our favor' to have one in six American children with a learning disability? By any measure, the incidence of autism has skyrocketed in recent years. Is it ‘in our favor' to stand by and watch as our normal, healthy, happy, interacting toddlers slip away into pain and oblivion?

You speak of the common welfare versus the individual right to choose. The reason that our government provides us with a bill of rights is so that, in a democracy, the minority and their rights will not be trampled. That is precisely what has happened with the rights of the parents whose children were destroyed by these vaccines. It is only the parents of vaccine injured children who are forced to seek redress in a separate ‘vaccine court'. It is only the vaccine makers who enjoy a special status of immunity.

You speak of citizens in Maryland being threatened with being taken to court for not vaccinating your children. According to reports that I've read these parents were threatened not only with court action, but with prison, if they refused to have their children vaccinated. The Washington Post reports the use of these words, by Prince George's State Attorney Glenn Ivey -- "We can do this the easy way or the hard way, but it's got to get done."

Americans would be horrified if US troops moved into our homes for the common good, and yet, they don't blink an eye when the government invades our children's bodies.

Perhaps the most egregious error I find in your article is the statement that babies are receiving only trace amounts of thimerosal, now. You refer to the amount of mercury in flu vaccines as a ‘trace' amount. As you can see from this http://www.fda.gov/cber/vaccine/thimerosal.htm#t1 FDA website, scrolling down to table one, entitled ‘Thimerosal Content of Vaccines Routinely Recommended for Children 6 Years of Age and Younger', there are still flu vaccines given to children which have twelve to twenty five micrograms of thimerosal per dose. This is the same concentration that many believe pushed a generation of children into autism. In addition, parents are now being advised to get flu shots for their young children when in the past they were not, and pregnant women are being advised by their doctors to get flu shots when in the past this was not the case. I have seen no evidence that the amount of thimerosal being administered in recent years has declined, and even if it has in fact declined it would still take some years for the resultant decline in the rate of autism to be recognized by the medical and educational authorities.

You speak about autism occurring after vaccination and the possibility that this is only a temporal association, as though the fact that vaccines have dangerous concentrations of neurotoxic chemicals in them (there is a skull and crossbones on the bottle that thimerosal comes packaged in prior to being used in vaccines) is irrelevant. A similar type of reasoning would be applied if I accidentally shot a man in the head with a bullet, and then went to court and made the claim that his death was only temporally related to the presence of the bullet in his brain.

There is an awful lot that you fail to mention. It is hard for me to see your magazine as a source of serious journalism when you fail to mention that Mr. Offit holds patents on vaccines and thus has a serious conflict of interest, as do all who remain willing, these days, to make excuses for vaccines. You fail to mention that the former head of the National Institute of Health, Bernadine Healy, has spoken out in favor of looking further into the link between thimerosal and autism, and has even said that it is her view that the government in recent years has actually looked away from this issue, in fear of what they would discover. As so often is the case with the main stream ‘journalists', you print everything that the people complicit in this travesty would like you to print, while completely ignoring the many parents and respected scientists who know why it is that so many children in recent years have slipped into autism.

Autism is no longer a mystery. Those who continue to propagate the lie that it is are complicit in genocide.

[Media Scholar]

I would think the Martha Stewart factor does apply to Mr. Offit. He is a vaccine patent-holder attempting to inappropriately influence with uncredible information and has abusively been making scores of unsubstantiated health claims.

Surprised that he hasn't been sanctioned by the special masters and gagged.

If Hitler were alive Mr. Offit would be his right-hand man. He's got the serial-killer mentality.

It is impossible for Time Magazine to not know that Mr. Offit is a vaccine industry businessman. Their failure to point out that he stands to lose a lot of money should mass vaccination continue to fade from medical fashion sense.

The Help Profits for Vioxx Vaccine going down the toilet was perhaps the beginning of the end of public faith in the vaccine marketplace.

Americans aren't stupid. When they see people like Paul Offit red-necking on families of vaccine-injured children they are smart enough to know what's right and what's wrong.

The picture of the little baby getting shot up was just another of Offit's media blunders. It will backfire.

[Sakura]

My favorite error (amongst many) is on page 3.

Ahem.

HiB is not a virus.

Thank you very much.

[Leanne Veitch]

Am I incorrect, or has smallpox been eliminated? And if so, why are we STILL vaccinating against it? Isn't that a bit outdated and unnecessary?

Also, I just have to vent my spleen about the use of the term 'immunisation'. It is incorrect in every sense of the word. These injections do not immunise - they vaccinate. Get the name right if nothing else.

As an aside, I'd like to state that the vaccination schedule is simply crazy. The Australian schedule has 47 vaccinations, and counting - many of which are against minor illnesses that kids cope with just fine.

Do our children need 47 vaccinations to be deemed 'healthy'? I'd argue commonsense tells us not. But we are not given an educated, unbiased chance to choose wisely. Instead, we as parents are blackmailed into vaccinating our kids, and punished (money taken away, threatened by the system as I was when I chose not to vaccinate my second child etc.) when we decide differently from the government and big medical corporations, who are making massive profits from the schedule.

[Riley's mom]

I was thinking of something while looking at that picture of Gavin Hubbard of New Hampshire...keep track of him and see where he falls on the ASD charts in about 2 yrs. The picture breaks my heart to see him looking up so trusting at his mother and the nurse/healthcare worker.

[Gatogorra]

I couldn't get through the article-- but I did enjoy the comments here.

Just such lousy reporting. The first thing I thought was that the writer is probably all of twenty-four years old (they had to find a ditz to misreport and moralize so enthusiastically: not all 24 year olds are so mentally compromised) or developmentally delayed as someone else here suggested.

[Pamela Felice]

With the exception of the last page, I found this article extremely disappointing. It reflects a lack of understand fact on the part of the writer with incorrect statements like, "The result was a drop in mercury exposure in fully immunized 6-month-old babies from 187.5 micrograms to just trace amounts still found in some flu vaccines."

The author should have said, most vaccines now contain trace amounts of mercury with a full compliment still in most flu vaccines.

I would also like to know, at what age did children receive the smallpox vaccine? Any one, Any one? The smallpox vaccine may have contained 200 antigens compared to 150 in the current 15 received by six months but did children who received the smallpox vaccine get it before or after six months. The answer might not lie in the amount of the antigens but the maturity of the immune system at the time of vaccination.

[Kelli Ann Davis]

“That link could be merely temporal, of course; babies also get their first teeth after they get their first vaccines, but that doesn't mean one causes the other.”

The *Total Duh Factor*: Getting teeth is a natural occurrence whereas, injecting a neurotoxin into an infant who shortly thereafter experiences a neurodevelopment disorder is not.

Tell you what Alice, when you start hearing about an epidemic of children with some sort of “enamel disorder” call me.

Until then, you’ll have to excuse me if I’m sticking with the *neurotoxin = neurodevelopmental disorder* sequence of events.

[Dan, tx]

When I see that picture I think the vaccines are in an ashtray.

[FTAR]

Okay, more lies and inaccuracies. The entire article is riddled with it and I am still on page 2. I can't read this s**t. I am done!!

"By the end of that year, thimerosal-free formulations of the five inoculations that included it—hepatitis B, diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis and some versions of Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib)—had replaced the older versions."

[FTAR]

Sorry nhokkanen, I tried to read. Glaring errors on page 2 -

"Since the 1980s, the number of vaccinations children receive has doubled, and in that same time, autism diagnoses have soared threefold."

I maintain the reporter should be fired, this time for gross under-reporting of facts.

[Riley's mom]

"Yet there's been no effect on autism rates. In the seven years since the cleaned up vaccins were introduced..."
WHAT?!? Cleaned up vaccines?? What about formaldehyde, aluminum, detergents, anti-freeze agents, aborted fetus cells, pieces and parts to animals?
This article is just once again telling all the masses out there that parents who question things that go into their children are crazy. What I think is crazy is NOT to question everything, including the foods that go into our children. What I have to say to those who would believe this garbage...Line your children up like lambs to the slaughter. Don't ever think for yourself and let the big pharma and the government raise your children for you. Don't forget Ronald McDonald is a great father figure too.

[adrienne]

What was more disturbing to me was the fact that they had room to get an expert medical opinion and they (surprise) chose Paul Offit. I'm sorry, but that seems just a bit too convenient for me. And then what? No one had five minutes to google his name to find out about the CURRENT deaths from his "new and improved!" Rotateq? Come on. I would think that journalists, of all people, would always be looking for the potential conflict of interest when quoting a suspected "expert." I realize that us parents with kids on the spectrum may seem a little "crazy" to the rest of the world, but you can't tell me that the article doesn't seem just a bit slanted. And no one mentioned the fact that maybe it's time that the vaccine schedule is reviewed in the light of the countless new ASD diagnoses every day. Boo. And I love Time. I've read it for a decade and a half.

[nhokkanen]

FTAR, you should have stuck it out until Page 4:

"Most people agree that there may be kids with genetic predispositions or other underlying conditions that make them susceptible to being harmed by vaccines."

At least there was one thread of reason, albeit almost concealed by the predictable fearmongering.

[Fire the autistic reporter]

"If they are, it's possible that once rampant diseases such as measles, mumps and whooping cough will storm back, even in developed nations with robust public-health programs. That is forcing both policymakers and parents to wrestle with a dilemma that goes to the heart of democracy: whether the common welfare should trump the individual's right to choose."

I think the media is on the autism spectrum too. For them the vaccine schedule seems to be all or nothing, like the black and white world for our kids. What happened to grey? Weren't kids protected from the MMR and the DTaP in the 1970s as well. Do they not seem to understand that the vaccine schedule is overly bloated? How do these people firstly get jobs, and then get to keep them? I think such reporters should be fired.

PS: I did not read beyond the first page, no time for garbage.