SARS-CoV-2 Coronavirus Vaccine: Concerns from a Vaccine Safety Advocate
Note: We ran this post yesterday, but my computer ate the links. My apologies to David Foster and the readers. Kim:
By David Foster
May 26, 2020
Foreword:
This was written with my Facebook friends in mind, it is my plea for them to take a close look at safety issues surrounding the rush to develop a SARS-CoV-2 vaccine. I know I am preaching to the choir here at Age of Autism, however my preference is to leave this as-is so that it can be used to convince anyone.
Anyone who knows me is aware that I am very passionate about vaccine safety. I have been following this issue for over 25 years and have gained a great deal of historical context which allows me to look at current events in a rather unique light. What most do not know is that the very first time I was presented with information expressing concerns about vaccine safety I got very angry, wrote a scathing letter to the Editor of the health newsletter in which it appeared, and immediately cancelled my subscription. I mean what the heck...everyone knows vaccines are safe and effective, and this article was not just wrong but downright irresponsible and dangerous.
When I discussed this with a friend I was quite surprised when she very gently suggested that the information I was dismissing outright might not be all that outrageous. She let me borrow a book called Vaccines: Are They Safe and Effective by Neil Z. Miller. I started reading the book, and I was so eager to find flaws to bring up with my friend that I went to great lengths to memorize everything. I was memorizing things like what MMR and DTP stand for, what an "adjuvant" does in a vaccine, which vaccines are live virus vaccines and which are inactivated.
And then it suddenly dawned on me: I had very strong opinions about a topic I knew virtually nothing about.
So please believe me when I say that I do understand the current desire to develop a vaccine for SARS-CoV-2. Nearly every media article or segment includes a phrase like "...until we develop a vaccine", and many in our health agencies are suggesting that we won't be able to return to normal until we have a vaccine. To me this is code for "you will not be allowed to participate in society until you have been vaccinated". Since nearly everyone credulously believes that vaccines are universally safe and effective, this seems perfectly reasonable.
The first question we should be asking is, have we had any success in the past in developing vaccines for other Corona viruses or other similar viruses?
The answer to that question is an unqualified "No".
In a fantastic report titled Avoiding Pitfalls in the Pursuit of a COVID-19 Vaccine from the National Academy of Science 1, the authors describe how vaccine candidates for SARS Coronavirus, RSV (Respiratory Synctial Virus), and Dengue have all suffered the same serious adverse reaction, causing severe immune system over-activation and more serious disease upon challenge with the virus in animal testing. Even staunch vaccine advocates and vaccine developers like Dr. Paul Offit, Dr. Peter Hotez and Dr. Anthony Fauci are suggesting caution here. 2,3,4
The science behind these concerns is unequivocal. Studies have shown that previous vaccines for earlier Coronaviruses have caused "immunopathology suggesting hypersensitivity to SARS-CoV component" 5, that vaccinated animals "displayed increased eosinophilic immune pathology to the lungs and were not protected against significant virus replication" 6, that "Inactivated MERS-CoV vaccine appears to carry a hypersensitive-type lung pathology risk from MERS-CoVinfection that is similar to that found with inactivated SARS-CoV vaccines from SARS-CoV infection" 7, and that "[SARS-CoV] vaccines not only failed to protect from homologous or heterologous challenge, but resulted in enhanced immunopathology with eosinophilic infiltrates within the lungs of SARS-CoV-challenged mice". 8 One experimental SARS-CoV vaccine was even found to cause autoimmune-mediated inflammatory responses leading to liver damage. 9
Yet even in the face of these challenges we have some current vaccine researchers fast-tracking development by skipping animal testing entirely and moving straight to human trials. 10,11 Then we have HHS extending immunity from liability to pharmaceutical corporations developing vaccines.12This is especially disturbing now because our leading voice on all matters Coronavirus, Dr. Anthony Fauci, Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, has a long history of deceiving the public about vaccines. In 2010 he misrepresented the effectiveness of the HIV vaccine being developed, and in 2009 he assured the public that adverse reactions to the fast-tracked H1N1 vaccine were "very, very very rare". 13 For the record, the HIV vaccine was never successful, and the H1N1 vaccine should serve as a cautionary tale here.
If you want to understand concerns about the safety of fast-tracked SARS-CoV-2 vaccines, you need only consider the last three times vaccines were fast-tracked and hurried to market.
Polio
Back in the 1950's when the first polio vaccines were rushed into use, there were signals in the safety data which suggested that there were problems, but there was so much demand for the vaccine that the FDA ignored this and approved its use.
The result?
The "Cutter Incident". As even the CDC very quietly admits, the vaccine caused paralytic polio (paralysis) in hundreds of children and killed 10 children. 14 It was soon determined that the virus had not been fully inactivated by the formaldehyde added to the shot.
Swine Flu
Perhaps the most famous vaccine fiasco was the 1976 "Swine Flu Vaccine". Health authorities fast-tracked a vaccine even in the face of evidence that (a) the vaccine was not effective in children; and (b) the latest data suggested there was no pandemic. The vaccine was rushed into use, with the photo-op that all of us older folks remember...President Ford receiving his shot.
The result?
Reports started to come in that the vaccine was causing a type of paralysis known as Guillain-Barre syndrome (GBS). Some states halted use of the vaccine and eventually the entire program was shut down.15 The Swine Flu never caused anything remotely close to a pandemic.
H1N1
In 2009 health authorities were warning about the emergence of H1N1 influenza which they believed would lead to a pandemic. A vaccine was fast-tracked and Dr. Fauci himself assured everyone that adverse reactions to this vaccine were "very, very, very rare".
The result?
The version of the H1N1 vaccine used in Europe was found to cause narcolepsy, especially in children. 16This vaccine adverse reaction was caused by an autoimmune over-activation in the brain which led to the destruction of neurons responsible for the regulation of our sleep cycle. It is also significant that this was one of the first widely used vaccines to use a new type of adjuvant (a substance added to a vaccine to increase the immune system response) called squalene. This is the same adjuvant which is being used in several candidate SARS-CoV-2 vaccines. 17
At this point I would like to highlight a very well-referenced article from Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s Children’s Health Defense team about the development and use of a vaccine for Dengue fever18:
I strongly believe that the history of this Dengue vaccine should serve as the ultimate warning for the potential human destruction which can arise out of even the best of intentions.
If you read no other reference cited here, please read this one. This vaccine killed hundreds of children. It includes all of the traditional elements which us vaccine safety advocates have become accustomed to: Political pressure? Check. Financial conflicts of interest? Check. Testing with inadequate follow up, followed by ignoring obvious early signals suggesting safety concerns? Check. Trying to cover up what happened? Double check.
I suggest that we all pay very close attention to one commonality between the Dengue vaccine tragedyand our previous experiences with trying to create a vaccine for Coronaviruses. The adverse reactions to the Dengue vaccine were caused by an immune system over-reaction called "disease enhancement" 4which would occur when a vaccinated child later became exposed to the Dengue virus. As mentioned earlier, this same type of hyper-reaction has also been seen consistently with other similar vaccines such as RSV and...yes...earlier types of Coronaviruses. We also see this same type of reaction, caused by what’s called a “cytokine storm” within the immune system, in patients seriously ill with COVID-19, so there is good reason to believe that a vaccine for this new Coronavirus could cause these same adverse reactions.
And so here we are, with our president proclaiming that "Operation Warp Speed" will save us all by developing a vaccine in unprecedented haste. There is political pressure to fast-track this new vaccine like a vaccine has never been fast-tracked before. There are many different candidate vaccines at various stages of testing. 19
In closing and while keeping in mind our previous experiences with fast-tracked vaccines already mentioned, I would ask that you read two more well-referenced articles which discuss the various technologies being used for vaccine candidates, some for the very first time 20, 17:
COVID-19: The Spearpoint for Rolling Out a “New Era” of High-Risk, Genetically Engineered Vaccines
GSK and Sanofi COVID-19 Vaccine Produced in Insect Cells with Squalene Adjuvant
Now ask yourself this question: Would you sign up yourself and your children to be among the first to receive such an experimental fast-tracked vaccine?
David Foster is an IT engineer with BS degrees in Mathematics and Psychology, with respective emphasis on statistical methods and experimental design. He has been following vaccine safety issues for over 25 years, first as an obsessive hobby and then as a parent.
REFERENCES
[1] News Feature: Avoiding pitfalls in the pursuit of a COVID-19 vaccine
https://www.pnas.org/content/early/2020/03/27/2005456117
[2] As pressure for coronavirus vaccine mounts, scientists debate risks of accelerated testing
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-vaccines-insight-idUSKBN20Y1GZ
[3] Moderna and US NIAID Poised to Endanger the World Population?
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/moderna-us-niaid-poised-endanger-world-population-james-lyons-weiler
[4] Video Clip: Fauci Speaks About Vaccine Induced Disease Enhancement
https://www.c-span.org/video/?c4864114/user-clip-fauci-speaks-vaccine-induced-disease-enhancement
[5] Immunization with SARS Coronavirus Vaccines Leads to Pulmonary Immunopathology on Challenge with the SARS Virus
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0035421
[6] A Double-Inactivated Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus Vaccine Provides Incomplete Protection in Mice and Induces Increased Eosinophilic Proinflammatory Pulmonary Response upon Challenge
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3209347/
[7] Immunization with inactivated Middle East Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus vaccine leads to lung immunopathology on challenge with live virus.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27269431
[8] Vaccine efficacy in senescent mice challenged with recombinant SARS-CoV bearing epidemic and zoonotic spike variants.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17194199
[9] Immunization with Modified Vaccinia Virus Ankara-Based Recombinant Vaccine against Severe Acute
Respiratory Syndrome [SARS] Is Associated with Enhanced Hepatitis in Ferrets
https://jvi.asm.org/content/78/22/12672.abstract
[10] Seattle Coronavirus Vaccine Skipped Critical Animal Testing
https://www.ageofautism.com/2020/03/seattle-coronavirus-vaccine-skipped-critical-animal-testing.html
[11] Researchers rush to test coronavirus vaccine in people without knowing how well it works in animals
[12] Azar extends liability immunity in the fight against COVID-19
https://www.modernhealthcare.com/legal/azar-extends-liability-immunity-fight-against-covid-19
[13] Dr. Fauci and COVID-19 Priorities: Therapeutics Now or Vaccines Later?
[14] The Cutter Incident: How America's First Polio Vaccine Led to a Growing Vaccine Crisis
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1383764/
[15] The last time the government sought a ‘warp speed’ vaccine, it was a fiasco
https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2020/05/01/vaccine-swine-flu-coronavirus/
[16] Narcolepsy Following Pandemrix Influenza Vaccination in Europe
https://www.cdc.gov/vaccinesafety/concerns/history/narcolepsy-flu.html
[17] GSK and Sanofi COVID-19 Vaccine Produced in Insect Cells with Squalene Adjuvant
[18] The Dengvaxia Disaster Was Twenty Years in the Making—What Will Happen With a Rushed COVID-19 Vaccine?
[19] Covid-19: What do we know so far about a vaccine?
https://www.bmj.com/content/369/bmj.m1679
[20] COVID-19: The Spearpoint for Rolling Out a “New Era” of High-Risk, Genetically Engineered Vaccines
Very good article , where is the gold standard ? No trade off, or compromise, getting tolerated or accepted !
www.ox.ac.uk>news
Oxford Covid -19 vaccine to begin phase 11/111 human trials 22 May 2020
States - The MenACWY vaccine is being used as an "active control" vaccine .
But
www.nature.com>news
Coronavirus vaccine trials have delivered their first.... Nature. 19 May 2020 Article by Ewen Calloway
States - The Oxford team ,some volunteers have received a placebo?
Conflicting/confusing facts, for test- tube trial descriptions?
Passed-yer-eyezed in a jiffy ? On the fast-tracked ,factory- farmed . conveyor -belt, production -line !
More chance of selling a test-tube's worth of Scotch Mist, half way up Ben Nevis!
www.youtube .com>watch.
Boris Johnson Impression - I can't make my mind up --Youtube 14 May 2020.
Posted by: Morag | June 01, 2020 at 04:03 AM
Better to imprison everyone forget the variables control control control...Quite sure even the diabetics arent cheering, for more emprisonment.
Coronavirus Scotland: Fifth of COVID-19 deaths in Scots hospitals were diabetics
Official figures have led to calls for protection and guidelines for those with the condition.
https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/fifth-coronavirus-deaths-scots-hospitals-22114295
Pharma For Prison
MMR RIP
Posted by: Angus Files | May 31, 2020 at 05:43 AM
Grace,
I said rubella was not a dangerous disease for anyone but fetuses in the first months of development. These fetuses will probably develop a birth defect or die if their mother contracts rubella. That is something else that girls and woman of childbearing age have to think about. They need to have immunity to rubella before becoming pregnant. Getting the natural disease as a child is best, as I did, but I don’t know how you’d manage that these days. You could take the nosode, but I don’t know what the protocol would be or how often you’d need to take it. That would be the safest way. Or you could take the vaccine, Preferably just the rubella vaccine by itself, if possible.
Fresh air and sunshine are great, but if you live in a densely-populated area then you need to be careful. Definitely wear a mask and stay as far away from others as possible. You only mentioned how healthy sunshine is (in limited amounts), but did not mention the importance of measures to avoid infecting others. I just saw in the Sun today that large numbers of Brits were once again out in crowds today with no masks and no distancing. So I guess they’re not surprised at the tens of thousands of Brits killed by the coronavirus. It could not have been otherwise.
I think it’s like with any epidemic, you’ve got to consider if the consequences of enjoying the outdoors in unsafe ways is worth it if it leads to death for anyone involved or who catches it from someone involved. I don’t think it would be. Under the circumstances I’d rather just sit by the open window and enjoy the view and the fresh air. Sit in the garden if you have one.
Posted by: Cia | May 30, 2020 at 09:28 PM
Bob,
I am in similar circumstances. Both my brother and I reacted to our first DPT at three months old with encephalitic screaming syndrome and Asperger’s. One of his sons reacted with Asperger’s. My daughter reacted to the hep-B vaccine the first day of life with screaming syndrome and autism. She later reacted to the DTaP booster at 18 months old with having her only words erased, and was diagnosed with autism two months later. I reacted to a tetanus booster at 19 with both arms being paralyzed for a few days starting the same day: brachial plexus neuropathy, and was later diagnosed by MRI with sometimes-paralyzing MS. I agree that vaccines are often disabling, sometimes fatal. But I think it’s better to minimize vaccine use without totally ruling them out. The pertussis vaccine has always been very dangerous and I think it’s too dangerous for anyone to ever get. It (maybe the mercury it contained then) disabled me and my daughter, and it sounds like your daughter too. But I think you have to consider how dangerous the particular vaccines and diseases are, and make your choices accordingly. When I was in school, no one had or had ever heard of autism. Everyone got the DPT and polio series, and smallpox. The only person I knew who got polio was my roommate Tina, and that was because her parents were afraid of the vaccine and did not give it to her. And she got and was crippled by polio. To this day. Most people would say that it would have been better if she had gotten the polio vaccine, and then, like all the rest of us at that time, she would not have been crippled by polio and could have lived a normal life. I think it’s important to differentiate. Think very carefully and research every vaccine. Get as few as possible. The DT and polio are the safest vaccines we have, the diseases terrible. Don’t get the DPaT, the pertussis vaccines has always been and continues to be bad news, the disease no longer dangerous except for the tiniest newborns. The Hib vaccine should be considered for babies in daycare, not necessary for those breastfed and cared for at home.
Rather than reject all vaccines, I think you need to analyze many factors and then decide. Absolutely, minimize them, but think about the most terrible diseases. Most people can get several of the less dangerous vaccines and not be damaged.
Posted by: Cia | May 30, 2020 at 07:09 PM
Cia,
You're missing the point about the "less likely". We were told, for the last ten weeks, to "Stay indoors" in order to avoid catching or spreading the alleged virus. Now, the UK PM is telling us we are less likely to catch the virus if we go out into the sunshine, rather than staying in! Meanwhile, the Scottish First Minister is still telling us to stay indoors! I noticed in one of your other comments you said people just wanted to go out into the sun. Haven't you heard of vitamin D?
I don't agree about rubella being a dangerous disease. When I was young all parents made sure their daughters caught rubella before reaching maturity. In the rare case that they had not there was a test to reveal whether they were immune or not at which time they could then be vaccinated.
Your other points about the relative dangers of various diseases prove my point - it is about risk assessment, and all factors have to be taken into account. I clearly remember my father saying you can't die from flu, and he was a pharmacologist. Of course he must have known some people did die of flu, but that's not what it means to utter that statement. It means you'll do yourself more harm from worrying about it (or nowadays, getting the vaccine) than if you catch the disease. Would a pharmacologist say that today? No, but then in those days academics were not financed by the industry.
Posted by: Grace Green | May 30, 2020 at 04:19 PM
It is *extremely* frustrating to hear about needing vaccination for accute viral diseases, when high-dose Vitamin C will cure 100% of the cases. Usually oral is adequate, in extreme cases IV might be needed.
The mechanisms for how this works are well-understood and a high-dose Vitamin C protocol is consistent with everything I know about the underlying biochemistry of our bodies and viral infections.
Also frustrating to see expensive, dangerous anti-viral drugs like remdesivir continue to be promoted, when there are multiple effective, safe, low-cost treatments.
Posted by: Tim Lundeen | May 30, 2020 at 01:27 PM
David,
I’ve been reading books about vaccines for many years, and all of them say that the risk of a severe outcome from polio is small percentage-wise. In India before the polio vaccine and agricultural and insecticidal chemicals, 100% of children developed antibodies to polio, none was crippled by polio. After the introduction of certain chemicals in the US in the 1890s, crippling polio appeared. The chemicals gave the virus a way to enter the central nervous system, something it didn’t have before.
Many sources say that 90% were ih, including my roommate Tina, was it permanent. In a much smaller number it was fatal.
n in a country the size of the US, we percentages add up to thousands of cases. Everyone must be free to make his choices regarding vaccines. If polio came back here, the vaccine is the safest we have (not 100%), while the disease in a small percentage is devastating. Most parents would choose the vaccine. We no longer use DDT, but we use other chemicals which can do the same thing, like in the EV-68 outbreak of 2014.
Posted by: Cia | May 30, 2020 at 11:19 AM
Grace,
You said no one who is young and healthy will die of flu, measles, rubella, or chickenpox. That is just more hubris. Only fetuses in the first months of development are likely to die or be born with a birth defect from rubella, but the chances of those outcomes are high for even the healthiest fetus if his mother gets the mild disease. Death from measles is rare in the developed world, certainly good nutritional status and vitamin A do a lot to prevent bad outcomes, but I wouldn’t say NO healthy person could die of measles. Chickenpox is usually mild and beneficial, but before the vaccine there were a hundred deaths a year, half in adults and half in children. Many of those who died were previously healthy. I’m against the measles and chickenpox vaccines, but recognize that some healthy people have always died and will continue to die from them. MANY healthy people die from the flu every year, both adults and children. I’m against the vaccine, but people must know that despite their best efforts, sometimes the disease wins, and that’s just the way it goes.
Posted by: Cia | May 30, 2020 at 11:04 AM
Grace,
“Less likely” are the key words. Yes, good nutrition, exercise, rest, good personal relationships, a sense of meaning, appropriate vitamins and supplements, etc., will help individuals become as healthy as it’s possible for them to be. On the other hand, age, comorbidities, nutritional deficiencies, stress, etc., make you less healthy, and many of them are beyond your control. And there are many dangerous diseases, many degrees of virulence and prevalence. Even the healthiest people are susceptible to getting and dying of them if they are in the wrong place at the wrong time. That’s just the way it is. It’s hubris to say I’m 25. If I take extra C, zinc, and D, there’s no way I could get a severe or fatal case of Covid. They could.
Posted by: Cia | May 30, 2020 at 10:53 AM
Cia,
"Every 'vaccine-preventable disease' can be serious or fatal." You might as well say that every time you go out your front door a slate could fall on your head and kill you. There are so many variables. If a person is healthy, eats a good diet, exercises, doesn't do any of the unhealthy things, and has not yet completed their three score years and ten, then they will not die of flu, measles, rubella or chicken pox. Readers in the USA may be interested to know that our PM, Boris Johnson, has just announced that people must go out into the fresh air as much as possible, since you're less likely to catch the virus there. Complete U-turn on the "advice" of the last three months! Don't trust a word they say!
Posted by: Grace Green | May 30, 2020 at 06:43 AM
Agree with that Julie sorry to read of your familys trials by vaccine.You have your own study right there.Thank you for sharing.
Pharma For Prison
MMR RIP
Posted by: Angus Files | May 30, 2020 at 04:39 AM
Sorry to be off topic... but just 10 short years ago,
had not ever seen this clip, pass this along for the weekend.
Mark Blaxill & Dan Olmstead: "Age of Autism" Book Tour (2010)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8rlvzCEyvPI&feature=share&fbclid=IwAR3jsXGDdBmzz3-bajJbZTtNO-lzFLGu3QbjPRJy73ejB1rbezv5FN1lekg
Posted by: go Trump | May 29, 2020 at 08:22 PM
Angus,
It would be lovely to think that social media could be held to account for acting as a publisher rather than simply a utility. It would go some way towards countering upfront pro vaccine voices and pharma plants on sites such as this. They are granted free speech not afforded to us. Don't get me wrong; I value free speech highly but it would be better to have it go both ways (and I wish it was done more honestly rather than being cloaked). I think it was a good step by Trump and hopefully will lead to at least a tiny bit more balance. If only it was able to be done with mainstream media as well.
Bob,
I agree with what you said about Mr Dershowitz and I think he would learn a lot from debating RFK Jnr but I fear the likelihood of that happening is slim since these debates have a habit of being cancelled before they begin. They wouldn't want intelligent people to learn the facts. Nor would they want anyone else to hear arguments against Dershowitz's opinions. It was good of him to go on Del Bigtree's show, though.
Posted by: Julie | May 29, 2020 at 07:27 PM
I was a child during the polio scare, I went to four schools in the 50s, one in Scotland, two in Victoria and one in South Australia. There were no children struck down by polio at any of these schools. I have met thousands of people in my life but only 1 who contracted polio in the 50s.
About 30 years ago I saw an old news film circa 1956 where about 20 guys in white coats were sitting while one of them lectured. He was telling his colleagues that although 97% of children suffer mild or no symptoms from polio, we needed to pursue the vaccine approach for the vulnerable 3%.
In 1995 I met a virologist from Sydney University who told me that he did not vaccinate his children. He said that if you vaccinate 1 child in a classroom with polio, nearly all of them will express antibodies some weeks later due to shedding.
Drinking water supplies are often tested for the presence of virus in Australia. I recall one of the industry publications saying that polio was detected in some supplies in the 90s but it was always the vaccine strain that was identified.
There's a lot of emotive and uninformed talk about the polio days of the 50s. I can only say it is exaggerated in my experience. Sometimes people don't like the facts to get in the way of a good scare story.
Posted by: David | May 29, 2020 at 07:08 PM
@ Cia
"Mr. Dershowitz was an adult during the polio epidemics. He remembers how immense, terrifying, and tragic they were, and he remembers the relief and healing the polio vaccines brought to our society."
I am 80 years of age and .. like Dershowitz .. I too well remember the fear of polio in my youth .. in those days … polio was terrifying to everyone .. and .. there is no doubt the polio vaccine allayed most of our fears of polio. Indeed, it was precisely because polio was believed to have been so successful that my wife and I vaccinated our children without question. My daughter at 4 years of age developed ITP .. thrombocytopenic purpura .. a blood disease that eventually required her spleen removed .. leaving her with a seriously compromised immune system for the rest of her life. 35 years later my second grandson was diagnosed autistic .. and .. having never heard of autism in my life .. I sought info on the internet and lo and behold at that time .. 35 YEARS AFTER THE FACT .. I learned that my daughter's ITP had been an adverse reaction to DPT vaccine she had received at 4 years of age.
Obviously Mr Dershowitz has not endured my experience with vaccines .. thank god for that .. but .. as I said .. I was just like Dershowitz trusting in vaccines and it cost my family greatly. Today it is even worse as the number of vaccines recommended for children has grown to 16 vaccines in 72 doses by 18 years of age .. and .. 54% of children have chronic autoimmune disorders .. ITP and Autism still among them .. autism 1 in 35 today was about 1 in 10,000 twenty years ago when my grandson was diagnosed.
Posted by: Bob Moffit | May 29, 2020 at 06:34 PM
Mr. Dershowitz was an adult during the polio epidemics. He remembers how immense, terrifying, and tragic they were, and he remembers the relief and healing the polio vaccines brought to our society. Exactly like my 92 year old neighbor, who has told me memories of it and several stories about her five children getting the vaccine, there was a problem or a shortage at some point, but they all got it.
It disturbs me that it seems like in general, many instantly place people in the pro- or anti- vaccine camp, with no middle ground available for an ethical stance. I think it’s very bad that many are unwilling or unable to have a nuanced vision. But while all vaccines are dangerous and have been disabling or fatal in many cases, they are ALSO usually effective in preventing the targeted disease (not talking about the pertussis or flu vaccines, which are usually ineffective). EVERY vaccine-preventable disease can be serious or fatal. It is REASONABLE to think carefully about the general health, autoimmune conditions, vaccine reactions and autoimmune conditions in relatives, frequency of the disease in your area, how often the disease is/was disabling or fatal in your area, how dangerous the vaccine has been, etc. and then make a decision. For families living in the ‘50s, it would have been irresponsible not to give your children the polio vaccine. Yes, if they didn’t get it they could not have been among the relatively small number crippled or killed in the Cutter incident, and could not have been among the minority who got cancer from the S49 contaminant. But they would have been at greatly increased risk of getting and being severely affected by the disease.
The bad thing is that most members of the polio generation and beyond were programmed to think that all vaccines were as good, safe, and necessary as the polio vaccine, and that was never the case. EVERYONE needs to look at vaccines and VPDs dispassionately, without the religious accouterments both sides give to them. Vaccination is a serious intervention which reprograms your immune system, in ways which may be protective or may ruin your life.
But antivaxxers also need to learn about how devastating some of the VPDs could be for us even here and now. There is a reflex to downplay the dangers of the diseases because it makes the stance of 100% vaccine refusal under all circumstances defensible. It is very unfair to everyone to say that most cases of polio weren’t really polio and were not prevented by the polio vaccine. Most of them were polio, and were stopped by the polio vaccine. But that’s a chink in the armor, many feel more comfortable being all or nothing. Like all cases of tetanus can be prevented with good wound hygiene, which is only effective in 50% of cases. Or bacterial meningitis would not be a problem even if no one vaxxed for it. There are a lot of things you have to think about, including the value of breastfeeding and keeping young children at home, not in daycare.
It’s similar to homeschooling. Most people realize that there are a lot of variables involved in the decision, and you can’t say that either homeschooling or conventional schooling is always the best choice.
Posted by: Cia | May 29, 2020 at 02:54 PM
Thanks Mr Forester a great read.I just hope Trump gives his attention to the pharma vaccines and the indemnity "shield" that pharma hides behind and removes it also.I would predict overnight most of the vaccines on the child hood list would vanish.
Fact checking AKA lises and BS go to wiki its all there.
Trump signs social media executive order
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x_AJWZ01X94&ab_channel=FoxNews
Pharma For Prison
MMR RIP
Posted by: Angus Files | May 29, 2020 at 10:56 AM
David Foster recalls:
"What most do not know is that the very first time I was presented with information expressing concerns about vaccine safety I got very angry, wrote a scathing letter to the Editor of the health newsletter in which it appeared, and immediately cancelled my subscription. I mean what the heck...everyone knows vaccines are safe and effective, and this article was not just wrong but downright irresponsible and dangerous."
Unfortunately literally MILLIONS all over the world continue to believe what "everyone knows .. vaccines are safe and effective". This is the infamous BIG LIE that continues to permeate throughout world .. and .. it is just as David has come to know .. DOWNRIGHT IRRESPONSINE AND DANGEROUS".
David continued: "And then it suddenly dawned on me: I had very strong opinions about a topic I knew virtually nothing about."
No one has expressed "strong opinions about a topic (mandatory vaccines) about a topic he knows virtually nothing about" than pre-eminent Constitutional scholar Alan Dershowitz .. who has based his entire dissertation validating government's RIGHT to vaccinate by FORCE on his strongly held MISGUIDED belief .. ONE SIZE FITS ALL vaccines .. can be both SAFE AND EFFECTIVE FOR ALL WHO ACQUIRE THEM.
Mr Dershowitz is not a stupid man and I suspect if he continues to discuss the topic of mandatory vaccines .. he too will have the same ROAD TO DAMASCUS CONVERSION THAT DAVID FORSTER HAD.
Posted by: Bob Moffit | May 29, 2020 at 08:11 AM