Vaccine Epidemic - The Most Important Book in the Autism Debate?
By Kent Heckenlively, Esq.
The masterful new book, Vaccine Epidemic, edited by Louise Kuo Habakus, M.A., director of the Center for Personal Rights, and Mary Holland, J.D., research scholar at the New York University School of Law may be the most important book yet published on the autism-vaccine controversy.
I say this as an attorney because of my conviction that the scientific misdeeds alleged by many in our community, and in which I strongly believe, could never have taken place without a legal framework which allowed them to happen, and subsequently, prevented them from being investigated. To put it simply the whole game is rigged. Do you play an unfair game or do you walk away?
Consider the public debate on this issue. Our community is referred to as "anti-science" because we assert that vaccines cause significant damage in some people. The 1986 National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act itself defines vaccines as "unavoidably unsafe." Even though I believe the court established by this Act to be fundamentally flawed in many ways, and should be abolished, the fact remains it has paid out more than $2 billion dollars since 1988. How are we "anti-science"? It seems to me we should be referred to as "pro-science" since we are asking the medical community to come up with some sort of screening system to identify those at risk for vaccine injury.
Vaccine Epidemic is divided into three sections, the first on vaccination choice, the second regarding personal narratives of vaccine injury, and third, the topics in this debate. In making the case for vaccination choice, the various authors argue that since vaccination involves a risk of injury or death, nothing less than full and informed consent, backed up by the most comprehensive scientific research, will suffice. Given the poor state of medical research into vaccine injuries it's clear we are far from this point. The personal narratives are heart-wrenching, and the topics in debate section include pharmaceutical influence on the vaccination controversy, the issue of childhood removal for refusing vaccinations, a discussion of the work of Dr. Andrew Wakefield, and whether the concept of herd immunity is supported by the scientific evidence.
One of the things for which I commend the editors is the number of voices in this book. There are 25 authors from the fields of law, medicine, the military, and parents who contribute chapters, demonstrating that this is a broad-based movement across many disciplines who are concerned about what is happening to this generation of children.
Here's what was said about this book by Dr. Bernadine Healy, former director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and the current health editor for U. S. News and World Report. "There are unanswered questions about vaccine safety. We need studies on vaccinated populations based on various schedules and doses as well as individual patient susceptibilities that we are continuing to learn about. No one should be threatened by the pursuit of this knowledge. Vaccine policy should be the subject of frank and open debate, with no tolerance for bullying. There are no sides-only people concerned for the well-being of our children."
Buy this book (HERE). Buy many copies and distribute it widely. It can change the terms of the public debate on vaccines and autism. This book gives us a voice which cannot be denied.
Kent Heckenlively is a Contributing Editor to Age of Autism
Here's an article from ISIS on March 2, 2011, by geneticist, Dr Mae-Wan Ho, Ph.D. titled, "Scientists Discover New Route for GM-gene 'Escape'". This article has relevance to global vaccine policy, vaccine injury, vaccine epidemics, and our food supply.
http://www.i-sis.org.uk/new_route_for_GM_gene_escape.php
The vaccine schedules can be likened to a 4-lane “superhighway” which provides complete, unfettered access to our bloodstream, bypassing our first-line natural immune defenses. Is this a good thing? It makes one wonder if there could be any conflict or possible symbiotic relationship that could be interpreted as ...unhelpful to the consumer?
Posted by: patrons99 | March 02, 2011 at 06:37 PM
I am going through this book and taking notes. It is that good. My daughter had a very bad reaction and in the end ended up with very bad allergies. My son was not vaccinated. I have a friend who asked why I care about this...since my kids are grown and doing OK. I recently learned of the high autism rates in the UK: 1:64 and in the US: 1:100. This is what got me interested again, plus a post I put up on FB which inflamed a normally sensible friend who happens to be an environmental journalist. Apparently his good friend wrote "The Panic Virus" ..talk about hostile language...a very biased pro-vaccine and anti-vaccine-questioners book.
Posted by: Gail | February 28, 2011 at 05:12 PM
It's interesting David, that, I have two with autism, and they were born before the recommendations of HEp B, Meningococcal, etc etc vaccines. I believe the question should be clearer, and i will state it here...why did MY child react so badly? And that makes all the difference doesn't it? Some would argue, this is where genetic predisposition comes in, but i would argue, this is where the toxic and insult load comes in. Some kids are just at a higher cell mediated immunity state than other children, and THIS is why we should ask these lasagna layer questions. Because from what i see, not one mother i have met who have an autistic child, or father, can't forget them, are not ill with something on the autoammunish can't mount a good immune response side. And if it's not a specific condition, i would bet those same moms, when chelated, have just as much toxic mercury in them, as the kids (my levels came out easily upon chelation, and were off the charts). Or, if I have incessantly asked mothers when i queried them...do you have lyme or XMRV or HHV6, and then ask them to get tested, they were posistive? We have something generationally happenign here, and i don't think it's just toxins, i think it is much more than that. I think we have a retrovirus like AIDS thing going on, and this is why we have kids who are being whacked by vaccines. (sorry my I's are not working correctly on my computer)...
Posted by: kathy blanco | February 12, 2011 at 12:23 PM
I'm looking forward to buying the book. My favorite quote from Kent's article "No one should be threatened by the pursuit of this knowledge." To me, this really says it all.
Posted by: Leslie | February 11, 2011 at 08:08 PM
kathy blanco, I share your multitude of confounding causes.
But, may I reflect on the SEVERE pollutions with all kinds of industrial exposure that dimmed sunlight in the Industrial Revolution of 120 years ago. BUT, they did not bring about the autism spectrum.
Until 50-60 years ago the Spectrum of autism did not exist. It comes down to the Vaccine Era picking up steam from decades ago.
Vaccines had of course been given/experimented with people going back to Jenner,etc. But, never with babies.
But, babies being injected with Hib and Hep B vaccines (on top of the DPT shot) in 1988 are the genesis of today's carnage.
Posted by: david burd | February 09, 2011 at 09:03 PM
I am glad to hear that the book is objective and not hostile. I believe we are much more likely to be taken seriously when the facts are objectively presented rather than an emotional outburst.
I was already wary of vaccines due to a close relationship with a mom of a severely autistic child. So as a stay at home mom, I opted not to get my last two children vaccinated. I don't believe they were vaccinated in the hospital as a 2 week (vs at birth) HepB vaccination was actually presented to me as an option, but I did receive Rhogam and a flu shot while pregnant. The boys have been tested for lead and other heavy metals via blood tests and urine biomedical testing but showed no elevated levels of any heavy metals. They also do not show impairments in methylation or mitochondria as many vaccine injured children do. Biochemically, they just do not look the same as most vaccine-injured autism kids. I had multiple, extensive ultrasounds which I think are more likely to have played a role in the boys' autism than prenatal mercury exposure. I just want kids like mine to also be included in research and autism-related issues.
Posted by: TxTrioMom | February 09, 2011 at 08:14 PM
I agree with TXMom, there are autisms caused by other things other than vaccines. But one has to wonder, if mothers vaccines have damged their children? Or that there is an infectious retrovirus like XMRV. For instance, our family is positive for not only XMRV, but SV40, which was a contaminant in polio vaccines, tested by Dr John Martin who discovered the connection. Much of those infections afloat in our population all on their own can cause autism in utero. But I digress, anything that can cause the immune system to be trippy, to be over excitable, or a toxin, you name it, can cause autism in utero. Therefore, if a vaccine is all of those things, then it would make sense the larger part of the population was whacked by one thing. But it makes more sense that if it does the same mechanism, then well...and of course, the use of antipyretics for fever suprpression even with illnesses in pregnancy is never a good idea (www.rollingdigital.com/autism ). I discovered as well, that where all four of my children were born, there was a huge smelting cement plant seiving mercury over silicon valley, which has a HUGE population of autism. Helicopter campaigns spilled malathione on me when i was going to work with my son in utero who now has autism, which contains mercury salts. I had fourteen amalgams. I have a family history of autoimmunity, and now enjoy, vitiligo, hashimotos, and CFS/ME/MS symtpoms. My siblings, at least my brothers, at least two of them I think are on the spectrum, they got vaaccinated, and my mother was rH neg, so we certainly got the rhogam. So you see, there is so many pieces of this mystery so called puzzle, but if we were to narrow it down, it could be a lasagna layer of damage. Including, the way we birth our babies at present with medicalized birth, including pitocin (ruins oxytocin receptors), and immediate cord clamping, causing the brain nuclei responsible for speecch to be damaged. There are so many combinations, it would make someones head literally spin. But if you think of it, if it involves a bacterium, lyme, xmrv, herpes, STD's, inflammation, in utero mothers immune response to infections and resultant neural tissue being attacked, antiphospholipid syndromes, low zinc, low lithium (which are both necessary to repel mercury), methylation problems, iron problems, gluten problems, you name it, you can have an autistic child. Most of our products are irritating those things, to hell and back I should say, our farming methods suck, we have amalgams in our teeth, we birth our babies way too harshly, we vaccinate the hell ouf of them. Even Fluoride added to our water, makes mitochondria swell in the brain of the baby to be...these all add up. So, yes, we shouldn't be so beholden to just vaccines, but the MECHANISMS by which something damages the detox pathways, the neurons, the synapsis, the way our gut and brain maturates, etc etc etc.
Posted by: kathy blanco | February 09, 2011 at 07:58 PM
I have to say, one of the things that has struck me most forcefully about this book (I'm on chapter 20 of 26 now) is the complete absence of hostility. The tone is one of reason and respect. There is no name-calling, and no personal attacks. There are no accusations of lying; just clear statements about incidents when the truth was withheld (like the use of squalene at Dover AFB).
I think it would be very hard for a person not previously involved in this debate to read this book and come away with a negative impression of the vaccination choice movement.
As far as it being the "most important book in the autism debate" ... well, to me, it's like a Venn diagram, with the autism circle and the vaccination choice circle overlapping partially.
Some of the issues raised in the book, like parents' rights to raise their own children (including obtaining biomedical treatment) are important to the autism community, even those individuals who are not vaccine-injured. The parent of a child mercury-poisoned by dental amalgams or living too close to a coal-fired power plant should not be barred from trying to remove the heavy metals that have damaged the child. So beyond the rights surrounding the vaccine issue, the issues of personal sovereignty and parental rights should have resonance for every autism family, and they're a big part of this book.
It's also possible that once the vaccine domino falls, everyone suffering from environmentally induced illnesses will benefit. If the once-sacred vaccines can be held accountable for autism and other injuries, then the ADA, polluters, etc., can be held accountable, too.
Does the book speak to every issue that an autism family faces? Of course not; it doesn't purport to. However, it does get to the heart of a few key issues that touch the lives of many with autism (as well as many people who just care that their personal sovereignty and/or rights as parents are being eroded). I believe it's an extremely important book--and a very well-written and well-edited one.
Posted by: Theresa O | February 09, 2011 at 07:28 PM
@ TxtrioMom: I am not doubting your word, I would just like a little clarification. How could your children have been diagnosed prior to vaccination? My first two children were vaccinated the day of birth; the second was vaccinated WITHOUT my permission, without my knowledge (until after the fact) and directly against my clearly written instructions. The nurses who did so thought they were doing "the right thing."
I have also seen nurses at the pediatrician's office take babies in back "to weigh them," and watched them give vaccines at the same time--while the mom was waiting back in the room. I can only assume that those nurses, too, thought that they were doing "the right thing."
I'm also wondering if it's possible that you might have been given either a flu shot or RhoGam while pregnant? Those contain thimerosal--which crosses the placenta.
Again, I am not doubting your word, and it is certainly possible to develop autism without having been vaccinated. But then I would wonder if there is another source of heavy metal poisoning that could be at play here--perhaps lead poisoning via paint?
Posted by: Taximom | February 09, 2011 at 07:13 PM
I understand that vaccination is a large, valid cause of the current autism epidemic. However, as a mom of two who were diagnosed ASD prior to vaccination, I hope that research will look at all environmental factors out there. Sometimes, I feel that we don't matter in the autism cause because they were not vaccine injured. I am getting a little concerned at the recent escalation in this issue, and am starting to be afraid that we are hurting the autism cause with all this hostility. In the end, we still all (parents, scientists, physicians, etc) need to be able to work together, and professionals will distance themselves from an angry/hostile organization (even if they are right).
Posted by: TxTrioMom | February 09, 2011 at 06:39 PM
I ordered mine last week and can't wait to receive it!
Posted by: Parent | February 09, 2011 at 11:53 AM
I completely agree with your post, Mr. Heckenlively, Esq. I have ordered seven copies already, yet I know that is not enough, and I will have to place another order. I will be giving this book as a gift to my children's pediatrician, the Board of Ed members, friends, family members, and the school nurse. I may find more people to give this book to as I continue to make my list. Oops, I forgot the school principal. I must be sure to include him also.
Posted by: Not an MD | February 09, 2011 at 08:59 AM