Linda,

I understand that Dr. Wakefield found live measles vaccine-strain measles in the guts of many of the children with autistic enterocolitis. Very few of the non-disabled children who had also gotten the vaccine had it. So, again, I'd say that it's a terrible idea to get the measles vaccine. Most children who get the MMR don't get the bowel disease or autism, but many do. Many children get the autistic enterocolitis as a vaccine reaction unrelated to the measles virus, such as my daughter, who has never had the measles vaccine. All of these things are true, and parents must consider all of them.

But it's still true that very few people now get classic measles, and it's because the vaccine has prevented it. Was the measles virus in the gut of the affected children inadequately weakened, or was it more from a weakness in their immune system? I don't know. I said no to the MMR even back in 2001 when it was urged on us. But saying no to it did not keep her from getting both autism and bowel disease caused by other vaccines.

Cia,
"the measles vaccine sure got rid of measles."

That's an interesting statement. When we were kids, we all got the measles and got over it and it left the great majority of us healthier than it found us, and with life long immunity that we could pass on to our babies. We apparently don't see that kind of measles infection here anymore.

But how many people around the world, at this moment in time, suffer a chronic debilitating intestinal vaccine strain measles infection that has destroyed their lives and the lives of their loved ones?

Did the measles vaccine get rid of the measles or did it just introduce a different, more virulent, more destructive and dangerous, form?

Cynthia,

I didn't see the top comments until now. I doubt we'll ever get another vaccine either. No flu shots for us. But I'm not planning on going to a yellow fever zone either. It's not accurate to say that well-nourished people who've never gotten a vaccine will do fine with disease. Taking your own food and water to a yellow fever zone would do no good: it's transmitted by mosquitoes: dengue, yellow fever, malaria, and now zika (doubtless many more too). Most of those who worked on the Panama Canal in the nineteenth century died of yellow fever, also those who went as military personnel. Even the well-nourished Americans. Most of them got and died of yellow fever. They had to give up on the canal at that time because the death toll among the workers was almost universal. The book The American Plague, about the yellow fever outbreak in Memphis, Tennessee in 1878, describes many nuns, priests, and doctors who nursed the sick: most of them caught yellow fever and died of it. The bubonic plague killed a third of the people in Europe, even the well-nourished ones. Ebola has killed many well-nourished Europeans: I read about a Danish boy in The Hot Zone: intelligent, tall, athletic, well-brought up, but he went into the fateful elephant cave with his parents and sister, apparently caught Ebola from bat guano, and died horribly.

We're lucky to live here and now: contagious disease poses a minimal threat to us, even if we don't get any vaccines. There are way too many vaccines given routinely now: we all agree on that. It's very important that we educate people so they can get just the DT (or the T if it's available), but know to ask and turn down anything with P in it. But the diseases can be horrible and they can kill. It's a mistake to think that being well-nourished is everything. There have been deaths from yellow fever here in the US even in the last ten years, in those just returned from a tropical country with endemic yellow fever. Even with the best of treatment in the most modern hospital, many people still die of these diseases. Everyone should absolutely have the freedom to make their own decisions on this, but it could be a wise decision in some cases to get a vaccine. They are a tool: an unpredictable tool, but in some cases they could save your life. Or take it. You just have to assess the odds as best you can.

Cia, I appreciate what you are saying about weighing the risks and benefits of vaccines and diseases and that, "It seems to me to be making anti-vaccinism into a religion parallel to the vaccine religion, to recommend absolute purity (completely unvaxxed) no matter how many are dying or being disabled by the diseases."

There are people who believe that diseases are so dangerous that the right to make medical decisions should be removed. And yes, for many people the motivation is purely financial, but I do believe that for others this combines with humanitarian zeal and faith in vaccine dogma.

On the other side, there are many whose terrible experiences with vaccines, often combined with extensive reading and knowledge, have resulted in the conclusion that all vaccines are bad for everyone.

I'm somewhere in the middle. I believe that our current program is way overboard, corrupted by pharma profits and govt CYA, unwilling to acknowlege and deal with adverse reactions, causing serious chronic immune and nervous system disorders in many children as well as an increasing number of adults today. But I don't believe that all vaccines are bad for everyone. I grew up in the 1960's when a few vaccines were given for a few serious communicable diseases, and everyone I knew did fine. In the course of my life I've seen various diseases disappear when vaccines were introduced, and I don't think that was just a coincidence - just like I don't think it's a coincidence that autism has increased in tandem with the growth in our vaccine program, and that parents have witnessed vaccine reactions followed by regression into autism. I like the "U" principle that Julie Obradovic wrote about. And yes, vaccines are not 100% effective, so outbreaks shouldn't be blamed on the unvaccinated. And there are benefits to coming down with some diseases.

Sorry if I'm meandering and repeating myself, but the point I am getting to is that a the rights of individuals to make medical choices needs to be respected on all sides, not only respect for choices that are the same as whatever choices each of us would make. It is not so simple to weigh the risks of vaccines and diseases. The risks of diseases do matter, though often exagerated by today's vaccine promoters.

No need to state your point again, Laura, as I understood it the first time. But sorry that I didn't notice your appreciative words for J.B.'s article. I'm oversensitive because often I see really good vaccine-critical articles being dissed for not being anti-vaccine enough.

Cia Parker;
Yes, I should have said -- I thought I said - they do have just the tetanus shot -or rather the Diphtheria and tetanus shot without the pertussis.

But they won't tell ya that.
You looked it up for me -- thanks but getting it out of them: That is another matter.

Knowing they have just a DT with out the P Here is a Personal Example:

In 1987 : My son finally received a doctor's note to finish up his s childhood vaccines with just the DT and he did great. No Problem.

Just before that I was lied to. Earlier in 1987 I had a discussion, or rather a -- I am not sure it was a discussion, more like an order. I asked then to this ped with his hurried demeanor, and his hand on the door knob on his way out; if the DPT could be divided. He lied and said it was all or nothing. Then ; after -- and only After the vaccine reaction, after the damage had occurred -- did and done - then suddenly he informed me that there was indeed a DT with out the P.

Does that make him a liar? I think it does.

Yeah, I was lied tooooooooo..

Now; That that is getting into the what Laura Hayes is talking about. So, now I am all confused if J.B. Handley was right to say that??
At last; how do we talk to our health care - doctors when they will out right lie to you.

That is hardly the end to my experience though. They lied to my daughter; - back four or five years ago.
Just the tetanus shot she said- and we get the bill back - that says it was really the DTaP. I am so experienced with vaccine reactions though -- I already read her health signs to know she had indeed received the whole DTaP.

Do they call it a DTaP that they get in high school? I promise you it is called the tetanus shot which is a lie. My daughter had that too. Seeeeeee, I should be getting good at reading the signs. Her brother; my son six years behind her - did not. .

She is at home now, bright and sweet as the morning sun, raising tons of zinnas and caring for the chickens and is very well. Every day she eats yogurt with all the berries I that I raise, Blueberries, blackberries, and raspberries for antioxidants. I cook with few carbs and no gluten, Yet, I feel in my heart and bones her health is fragile.

These doctors for the most part know, they just don't care , or perhaps they do, but they have worked so hard and sacrificed so much of that medical degree that they are willing -- many - not all - to sell out their patients - probably their own mother.

But J.B. Handley and Twyla knows all of this. I have seen J.B. Handley in action; not letting them by with lies and taking the hard, hot heat from them. The end game; Have a discussion with your doctor - and read and know enough to keep up your end of the discussion.

Good luck to all the young ones out there. Old ones too - they come for us all now , don't they.

This is from Randall Neustaedter's The Vaccine Guide:

In the yellow fever epidemic in the Mississippi valley in 1878, the overall fatality rate was 16% (Coulter 1982). Homeopathically treated cases had mortality of 5.6% in New Orleans and 7.7% throughout the South (American Institute of Homeopathy 1880).

The vaccine is very effective at preventing yellow fever: in one study of 60,000 people it was 95% effective at inducing antibodies (Smith et al, 1938). Between 1938 and 1942 in Colombia, only one case of yellow fever occurred in a population where 127,000 vaccinations were given annually (Bugher & Gast-Galvis 1944). A recent study in Brazil showed that only 75% of vaccinated children in Brazil developed adequate antibodies (Guerra et al 1997).

Most vaccine reactions involve encephalitis, especially in children, mainly infants, and older people. Before 1956 there were 15 cases of encephalitis reported in medical literature (Stuart 1956). Vaccinating everyone in Senegal in 1965 resulted in 248 cases of vaccine encephalitis, 90% of the cases were in children under 12. 67% had convulsions, 34% had coma, and 23 cases died (Collomb 1966). Between 1965 and 1991 six cases of vaccine encephalitis were reported. Then between 1996 and 2001, five people between 56 and 79 (four from US, one Australian), and two Brazilians 5 and 22 years old got sick after the vaccine. Six of the seven died (CDC 2001).

I don't know, would it be better to vaccinate everyone in an affected area or give everyone homeoopathic prophylaxis and treatment? The main remedies are bryonia, crotalus horridus, eupatorium perfoliatum, and phosphorus. It's impressive that only one case of yellow fever occurred in Colombia at a time when everyone was vaxxed every year, but I don't know how many vaccine injuries there were from it.

Everyone in a yellow fever area should know these facts and then make their own decision. But should we just turn our backs and let tens of thousands of people die horribly of yellow fever because we don't think any vaccine should ever be used under any circumstances?

Benedetta,

I just looked:

http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/schedules/downloads/adult/adult-schedule-easy-read.pdf

and in 2016 you can get a dT booster (or DT for children under seven), without the pertussis component which is the most dangerous part. I think parents should seriously consider giving the DT series, later dT boosters, for children over the age of two. It's less reactive than the plain T anyway. I would NOT recommend that anyone get the pertussis vaccine in the DTaP.

But Laura, the whole point of this article is to encourage you to make your own decisions, walk away from a doctor who bullies you, understand that vaccines have real risks, understand how much our vaccine program has grown and that it is a corrupted program. The article fosters skepticism - and many of us wish we had had that skepticism when we were vaccinating our kids, with blind faith in the CDC.

I get that some people think that nobody should ever get any vaccines and nobody should ever see a doctor except for in some kind of rare serious situation. But I think it's a shame when there is a litmus test where an article with lots of very important useful information is judged solely on not being completely and totally against all vaccines for everyone.

It should be noted that a vaccine only needs to meet the criteria of producing an antibody, in order to be approved. The antibody is not from the "wild" virus or bacteria, but an atypically manipulated one. This is why the package insert will always have a variation of this statement "correlation to immunity has not been established". Because having that atypically manipulated antibody response is not the same thing as immunity. In essence, each vaccine is experimental. "Effective" only means it produces an antibody response, not immunity. Thanks for taking a look at my film 50centsmovie.com. And thanks to Mr JB!! PS: to read the real history of vaccine effectiveness, please read Dissolving Illusions (co-authored by Dr. Suzanne Humphries.

All,

More on tetanus: Most of the child vaccines (DTaP), per the CDC Excipient List, have "traces" of Thimerosal and Aluminum adjuvants, formaldehyde, and other toxic compounds such as Polysorbates. Here on AoA several years back, "traces" of Thimerosal mean equal or less than .3 micrograms per injection which is still hundreds of billions of mercury atoms.

As to "First Aid" for adults and older children, a Tetanus Toxoid shot is generally given AND this toxoid shot contains 25 micrograms of Thimerosal.

Right out of a Three Stooges episode a couple years ago I badly lacerated my hand scaring a squirrel away from my sunflowers, and bled a whole lot while getting to the nearby hospital's Emergency Room with a clean T-shirt wrapped around my hand getting soaked in blood. Right away the first nurse said "OK, let's give you a tetanus shot" and I said emphatically "NO." She was puzzled but went away. After a PA stitched me up, he said "OK, let's give you a tetanus shot" and again I emphatically said NO. He asked why and I told him about all the shot's excipients - including mercury - . He politely listened and we said goodbye as I thanked him for his good needlework on my hand.

Just so everybody knows, most First Aid for tetanus usually includes a toxoid shot having 25 micrograms of ethylmercury Thimerosal. And, in my case, my hand lacerations that bled profusely were from a broken clean drinking glass, and NOT punctures, with basically zero chance of tetanus exposure. But the medical mindset was to still give me a useless tetanus toxoid shot - and of course I would have been charged another $100 dollars on my First Aid bill.

I wonder Carol at a lot of things too. I wonder at the unconcern I suppose - more than anything else. I wonder if the doctor would really have done the same if it had been is very own kid?

I had a close encounter with Mr. Handley's pediatrician in 2001 or 2002. I asked him about MMR and autism expecting him to say that the connection between vaccines and autism had been debunked. Instead he said it could be hepB or Hib, but it wasn't MMR because autism sometimes manifests before that shot is given. That gave me something to think about. (And after research I found out that it's MMR too.)

Since my daughter had already been lavishly vaccinated in another country, I thought I had some breathing space, but he ended up summarily kicking me out of his practice. In fact he told me he wanted to redo all of the vaccines my daughter had already gotten. That left me speechless.

For this dude autism is just an unpleasant side effect of vaccinating. You wonder how some people sleep at night.

Hi Bob :)

Well-informed or not, all medical decisions, including vaccination decisions, belong SOLELY to the parents.

Parents informing themselves is their job and up to them. We already know that there are some parents, if not many, who will never take the time to inform themselves, be it about vaccines, food, prescription drugs, pesticides, cancer treatments if cancer occurs, fluoridated water, flame retardant furniture and clothing, toxic cleaners, the list is endless.

Nonetheless, medical decisions regarding one's children, for better or worse, belong to the parents.

Having said that, it is a HUGE problem when those in positions of power and trust ABUSE their positions and their power, disseminating incorrect and fraudulent information, approving (and mandating in the case of vaccines) that which is harmful and/or improperly studied, attacking those who speak truth, and maligning those who have suffered at their hands and as a result of their decisions. We are seeing that in spades with medical "professionals", the media, government regulators, CEOs, elected officials, and others who choose to act unethically, immorally, lazily and with complacency, apathy, and disregard...and seemingly without any degree of humanity.

And you and I are not nit-picking with one another, we are openly and respectfully discussing the issue :) I hope you know I hold you in the highest regard, having never met you, but based on your near-daily comments. You are one of my favorite contributors to AoA, Bob!

Cia, You say: "Tetanus is an ever-present danger in the soil which has ever had animal manure in it, it can occur in healthy children and can rapidly lead to death. " I think you are wrong.

Dan Olmsted did his original UPI series on the Amish documenting autism was non-existent in their virtually unvaccinated children.

Equally so, tetanus seems to have no deadly effects in Amish children, and they are constantly exposed to the so-called tetanus pathogen and grow up with farm animals of every type, and no doubt go through many cuts and scratches and punctures during their childhood,

My point being that tetanus and diphtheria (and polio I venture to say) are very, very rarely deadly in well-nourished communities such as the Amish. Yet, I'd bet they all would test to have been exposed, and sailed right on in good health.

So, good nutrition and such as Vitamin C therapy (and other therapies if serious illness actually manifests) are the right way to go. NEVER fear-mongered vaccines that all have their inherent dangers AND contaminants (that JB never brought up).

What Cynthia Cournoyer wrote bears repeating...again...and again...AND AGAIN!

"The bottom line, the severity of a disease does not by itself, make a vaccine any more safe or effective. If the treatment, cure or prevention holds to be toxic and outright dangerous, one must not use the danger of a disease to make their decision whether or not to use a flawed medical practice."

cia parker:
Why are there ANY cases of those diseases in an almost 100% vaccinated country? It begs the question as to whether or not vaccines actually work.

With a total rejection of "sanctioned" studies on unvaccinated children, we are left to rely on our own observations. Unvaccinated children are overwhelmingly more healthy and tend not to get those diseases. Ask the growing population of parents choosing not to vaccinate subsequent children after vaccine damage in an older sibling.

The bottom line, the severity of a disease does not by itself, make a vaccine any more safe or effective. If the treatment, cure or prevention holds to be toxic and outright dangerous, one must not use the danger of a disease to make their decision whether or not to use a flawed medical practice.

Delaying and choosing which vaccines to use or not is like delaying or choosing which toxic, dangerous effect we wish to bestow upon our children. Once you decide which vaccine is dangerous, keep in mind, ALL vaccines have three things in common: 1) a similar history 2) a similar record of side effects, damage and death 3) documented failures, where the disease is found in the already-vaccinated.

Ditto what Cynthia Cournoyer said!

For those wanting an EXCELLENT book recommendation, read Cynthia's book!

"What About Immunizations? Exposing the Vaccine Philosophy" by Cynthia Cournoyer

If only someone had recommended her book to me prior to my having three children in the early 1990s, my children would have been spared the serious vaccine injuries they endured, one whose injuries were catastrophic and which continue to manifest in heartbreaking ways today, as her first edition was published in the 1980s. She has updated her book a number of times and it is a must-read, must-share, must-donate a copy to your local library book!

About the four vaccines which J.B. thought should be researched carefully, the rest having been rejected: DTaP, injected polio, Hib, and Prevnar. The last two are for types of meningitis, and have proven to be very dangerous vaccines, with a fairly high rate of death and disability caused by them. Hib meningitis had become not uncommon by the '80s when the series was introduced in 1988, but the rate had quadrupled between 1940 and 1968 because of the introduction of the DPT in 1948, and its depression of immune function permitted a vast increase in invasive cases: subclinical cases and permanent immunity by adulthood have always been the norm, the germs being universally present in the environment, with most people carrying the germs in their nasal passages most of the time without ever having symptoms of disease caused by them. Breastfeeding and keeping the child at home until he is two, or with a caregiver who cares for only a few children in her home, would provide better protection from meningitis. Homeopathic prophylaxis for all the VPDs is available, safe, and effective. Treatment with high-dose IV vitamin C is also recommended if the disease occurs despite precautions. Meningitis is certainly very dangerous, but the vaccines are too. And the Hib vaccine is now causing peanut allergy in one in fifty American children (Heather Fraser, The Peanut Allergy Epidemic), and sometimes fatal peanut allergy is a much more present danger to a baby than meningitis of any kind.

Pertussis is only dangerous to infants in the first three or four months of life: it can be dangerous to young babies, one in 200 newborns with pertussis dies, but it would be better to keep them at home and treat with vitamin C if the disease occurs (see Suzanne Humphries online protocol). Breastfeeding does not provide protection from pertussis, but it does for many other diseases. There is an average of nine deaths a year in the US from pertussis, usually in newborns, to keep the very small mortality in perspective. The vaccine is both very ineffective and very dangerous: it erased the only words of my baby when she got the booster at 18 months, and she was diagnosed with autism two months later: she's still very low verbal and extremely delayed developmentally. The vaccine also causes asthma in one in nine American children now, and allergies, seizure disorders, and SIDS.

Polio is not present in the US at this time, and I don't think the danger of possible polio is worth the risk of the vaccine at this time. If polio came back and were affecting a lot of children in a large area of the US, the choice would be to get the vaccine series (it's probably the least dangerous of the vaccines, which does not mean it hasn't caused a number of deaths and disabilities) or to give the homeopathic remedy lathyrus sativus both for prevention and treatment. I don't know at this time which I would choose if polio came back here.

I think it might be worth getting the DT series after the age of two: Hilary Butler says that the combined DT is less reactive than the T by itself. Diphtheria used to be a horrifying disease, closing off the child's breathing passages so that he asphyxiated. It came back in the former USSR twenty-five years ago, sickening tens of thousands and killing thousands. I wouldn't recommend it on its own unless diphtheria came back here, but it might be worth getting the combined DT since it's less reactive.

Tetanus is an ever-present danger in the soil which has ever had animal manure in it, it can occur in healthy children and can rapidly lead to death. It has a fairly high mortality even with the best of treatment, though IV vitamin C greatly improves the recovery rate. Good cleansing of wounds is essential, but about half of cases of tetanus occur with very slight wounds which the person may not even be aware of, like a splinter.

I completely agree that the other vaccines should be rejected from the get-go.

I agree, Laura. Parents should certainly do a lot of research on each vaccine and each vaccine-preventable disease before permitting any of them. A doctor can be a resource they use, but they must be aware that the doctor will only give them the pharma-sponsored party line. It would be preferable to do the research independently, using the many excellent books on the issue (my favorite is Randall Neustaedter's The Vaccine Guide, with a new edition coming out in October), also Birch and Whatcott's The Solution, on homeopathic prophylaxis, and websites. Parents should certainly be aware that some of the VPDs used to be extremely dangerous, but most of them, like pertussis and measles, evolved to become relatively mild, both because of better nutrition in the developed world and because the diseases themselves mutated to become less virulent. Some have always been mild in children, like chickenpox, mumps, rubella, and hep-A. Some would probably again be dangerous if they came back in the US, like diphtheria, polio, and tetanus. Some are dangerous because vaccines depress immune function, greatly increasing the rate of dangerous cases of meningitis and other VPDs in the month after vaccination, but if parents stopped giving the DTaP, there would again be a very low rate of invasive meningitis. Hep-B is only a danger for babies born to mothers positive for hep-B core antigen, a tiny number, and otherwise the vaccine is many times more disabling for the baby than the disease, often causing vaccine encephalitis, brain damage and autism (see Judy Converse's When Your Doctor is Wrong: the Hep-B Vaccine and Autism: the same thing happened to my baby as to Judy's, vaccine given without permission, horrific reaction, and autism). Breastfeeding and staying out of large daycares also prevent meningitis.

The final decision must be made by the parents before seeing a doctor, and the decision to reject the hep-B vaccination at birth must be firmly conveyed to every member of the hospital staff before, during, and after the birth.

Great article, as always, J.B., you don't know how many times I've linked your Autism not really on the Rise? As you say, the parents must do the research themselves, but really, I wouldn't advise them to defer to the doctor's opinion at all. He's not the one who will spend the rest of his life dealing with an autistic child and regretting his decision to permit whichever vaccine caused it (usually, though not always, hep-B, MMR, flu, and DTaP) every day for the rest of his life. There are better ways to prevent the dangerous diseases, the mild ones like measles are irreplaceable for the healthy development of the child's immune system, and there are treatments available for all of them: antibiotics for some of them, herbal (see Aviva Jill Romm's Vaccination for ways to treat mild cases of the childhood diseases), and homeopathic.

Good article, J.B.

I do take exception, however, with the 2 times you state that vaccine decisions should be made by "you and your healthcare provider." Wrong. Vaccine decisions should be made by none other than the parents.

If parents want to consult with one or more healthcare providers regarding vaccination decisions, that is their CHOICE. It most certainly should not be phrased as a should or a must.

Today, there exist but a very few "healthcare" providers. Most are what I now call "deathfare" providers.

The rhetoric we use to change the current dire situation is critically important. We must arrive at a paradigm where the parents are the sole decision makers regarding the care and upbringing of their children, not the government, and not in forced conjunction with willfully ignorant and/or corrupt "healthcare" providers.

Some great information summarized in your article, J.B. Thank you.