I read with great interest the recent ‘measles epidemic’ articles that addressed the vaccine debate from the point of view of a cancer parent. My interest is the result of being a cancer parent myself – my little girl has been battling leukemia on and off for the past 10 years. I read these articles, and I became angry. Very, very angry. Once again, the government and drug companies are exploiting the plight of children stricken by cancer to achieve a profit-driven end without actually helping them. In fact, this profitable end could cause great harm, even increasing the rates of pediatric leukemia, if their obvious goal of a federally mandated vaccination protocol is achieved. I am a seasoned Momcologist, a term the research-driven cancer parents call themselves. We are the cancer equivalent of Thinking Moms, critical thinkers. I have done extensive reading on the etiology of leukemia, its connection to autoimmune disease, and how vaccines and natural disease may influence these sorts of childhood illnesses. Come connect the dots with me.
Clearly, I empathize with the raw fear the parents in these articles have that their immunocompromised children may contract an illness that could be devastating. I have walked for years in their shoes. I get it. However, the parents in these articles are either grossly misinformed, or their comments have been edited with bias. Let’s get some facts straight about cancer treatment and infection. One of the first things we were warned about after my daughter’s diagnosis was live-virus vaccination. No one in the family was to receive a live-virus vaccine while my daughter was on treatment because these viruses can and do shed (1, 2, 3, 4), some for as much as four weeks (5), potentially infecting the immunocompromised patient with disastrous results. That includes the measles vaccine (MMR II and ProQuad), the intranasal flu vaccine, and the chicken pox shot. In fact, my other children were able to get medical waivers not to receive vaccines because of my daughter’s illness. I know my child is much more likely to encounter a peer at school who has been recently vaccinated with a live-virus vaccine than she is to encounter natural disease from an unvaccinated child.
If my child were at a stage of treatment in which she was very immunocompromised, she would not be in school. My daughter missed most of fourth grade and a good portion of fifth, not because she was so sick, but because others were sick. Despite a nearly 100% vaccine compliance rate at our school, there were regular outbreaks of shingles, occurring after chicken pox vaccine boosters, influenza and other illnesses. Please note that, even in areas in which vaccine compliance is extremely high, there are still outbreaks of disease that are not caused by the unvaccinated (6).
The most deadly threats for a child during intensive cancer treatment lie right within his or her own body. Immunocompromised pediatric cancer patients are far more likely to die from opportunistic infections that originate from overgrowths of fungi, mold and bacteria(7) than they are from vaccine-related viral infections. When I searched to find the last recorded incidence of a child dying of measles (because that is the hated disease du jour) while undergoing cancer treatment, well, I couldn’t find one. I did, however, find at least one death in the immunocompromised from the measles vaccine (8), with no indication of when it or they occurred. There hasn’t been a recorded death in the U.S. from measles in the past 10 years. (9) In fact, measles infection may actually be curative of some blood cancers (10, 11), presumably by initiating normal immune system defenses. The measles virus as an actual treatment has also been explored in other malignancies (12, 13).
There is evidence that the “hygiene theory” of the immune system may have some relevance to to vaccines. It has been found that more “hygienic” populations, i.e. kids who have had fewer exposures to everyday germs, are at higher risk for some illnesses. The idea being that the immune system needs to “learn” how to respond appropriately by coming in contact with common bugs in order to develop properly. Industrialized countries that have a decrease in infectious burden over less developed nations nevertheless show an increase in allergies and autoimmune disease. “The leading idea is that some infectious agents — notably those that co-evolved with us — are able to protect us against a large spectrum of immune-related disorders.” (14) Are we trading benign, transient illnesses that were once considered normal childhood rites of passage, illnesses that appear to be protective for more serious disease, for a lifetime of chronic illness, even death?
A discussion of the peculiarities of leukemia is in order, its relationship to the immune system, and the idea that vaccines can act as a possible trigger for the cancer itself. Leukemia begins with the development of immature white blood cells in the bone marrow, when one of these baby white blood cells mutates into an abnormal, leukemic cell. The more actively the body produces white blood cells (which are infection-fighting cells), therefore, the higher the risk of mutation. This is the explanation given for increases in the incidence of leukemia after a flu virus passes through an area (15), and why children who exhibit hyper-stimulated immune responses in the form of asthma and eczema also have increased risk for leukemia (16). It may seem contradictory to discuss infection as a preventative for leukemia when applying the hygiene hypothesis, while also pointing to infection as a cause. It’s apparently all about the maturity and status of the immune system. “Timing is critical, as early infections are likely to positively modulate the immune system thereby reducing risk of leukemia, whereas later infections in children whose immune system was less well modulated may increase such risk.” (17)
Time to stop and connect more dots. What are American children exposed to that deliberately hyper-stimulate the immune system? Vaccines. Our children are subjected to an incredibly aggressive vaccine schedule, the likes of which no other country sees, from the day they are born (and we have the highest first-day infant death rate of any first-world country, by the way) (18). Could we actually be triggering leukemia, the most common form of childhood cancer, with these vaccines? Particularly when we give them to children who already show signs of abnormal immune response?
Vaccines are not calibrated by weight or age or health-risk factors; potency levels of vaccines are standardized (19), which may cause hyper-stimulation for a child with a highly sensitive immune system. Isn’t it interesting that less industrial countries have lower rates of autoimmune disease, yet when those kids come to industrialized countries, in one generation they match our rates? (20) Could this possibly be related to the fact that these immigrants are required to submit to more aggressive vaccine schedules?
Acute lymphocytic leukemia is also less common in third-world countries, despite their children’s otherwise more debilitated state. Children in industrialized nations experience a sharp rise in leukemia between two and six years of the age, the vaccine years, which does not occur in less developed nations. (21)
It is so very obvious that this potential connection requires exploration, yet the only studies to be found merely compare leukemia in more vaccinated to less vaccinated kids. The data from children who are completely unvaccinated is critical in uncovering the true reality of overall pediatric health. We may very well find many interesting discoveries. Read this study from Germany (22), for example, which shows less acute and serious chronic illness overall for unvaccinated children, though they did not include childhood cancer. Why are we merely chasing a cure when a likely cause is sitting right under our noses?
One word: Profit. As of 1988, vaccine makers and the doctors who administer vaccines bear no liability for vaccine injury (23). They cannot be held accountable by law for adverse events from vaccination. In fact, the entire adverse event reporting system (VAERS) is voluntary! This means that the more aggressive our vaccine schedule, the more profitable it is for vaccine makers. But what about the Centers for Disease Control, don’t they direct the vaccines our children really need? Please note that the CDC uses worldwide disease data to formulate our policies, which makes no sense at all. How could one possibly compare a malnourished child living in unsanitary conditions and subsequently exposed to illness to a child exposed to that same illness in a first-world country? I invite parents to take a look at the resumes of some of the heads of pharmaceutical companies and members of the CDC like this one (24). One can very clearly see those in charge of vaccine policy have a dangerous conflict of interest with those who profit from that policy. Remember, pharmaceutical companies contributed $34 million dollars in campaign funds in 2014 (25). It would behoove anyone attempting office these days to err on the side of ‘big pharma.’
I must add additional comment about parental trust in the government as it concerns our cancer kids. Once parents recover from a cancer diagnosis, they have a strong desire to help their children – to participate in activism in some way. It is then they discover a disturbing reality about the state of pediatric cancer research and funding: In a united front, the major cancer fundraising organizations, our government, and the pharmaceutical industry ignore pediatric cancer. Why? First, kids don’t vote. Second, kids don’t get cancer in rates high enough to warrant good profit returns. There has not been a novel drug developed for the treatment of acute lymphocytic leukemia, the most common childhood cancer, in 20 years (26). Oncologists are forced to use the same horridly harmful chemotherapy and radiation; the only variability in protocols is in the combinations, dosages and timing of the same archaic drugs. And while ‘cure’ rates have increased, childhood cancer incidence is still on the rise (27). Over and over again, however, these organizations will exploit the pitiful stories and pictures of our kids to tug heartstrings and solicit funding. The National Cancer Institute directs a pittance (4%) at pediatric cancer research versus other, more common and profitable, cancers (28). When will health research be directed by the needs of the people rather than the greed of corporations?
If any parent wants their child to be safe from preventable illness, it is a cancer parent. Yet I also stand with scores of cancer parents who have seen their children become stricken with leukemia shortly after vaccination. My little girl? She was diagnosed with leukemia shortly after her pediatrician “caught her up” on her shots almost 10 years ago. That “catch up” schedule matches the regular schedule for a toddler today. Unfortunately, it is nearly impossible to untangle true childhood cancer statistics or ‘cure’ (as in survival) rates (29). The SEER database includes only five states and ten cities in the U.S., and one cannot readily backtrack to the time before the mad rush of vaccines. (30)
It is time to ask the hard questions for the sake of our children. Are we actually causing leukemia and other childhood illnesses with these vaccines? Could we even prevent leukemia by allowing natural disease? The current measles “scare” is clearly a push for a federally mandated vaccine program. Measles is highly contagious, yes, but benign (even potentially helpful) for the vast majority in a first-world country. If the current vaccine schedule could be harming our children, what will happen when pharmaceutical companies are given carte blanche? Do we really want to relinquish our parental rights to a government that has shown itself to be both corrupt and callous in their treatment of our cancer kids? What data is critical to either prove, or disprove, the hypothesis that vaccines can lead to increased chronic disease, particularly those related to the immune system like leukemia? An independent study of the overall health of vaccinated versus unvaccinated children must be undertaken. It is past time to finish connecting the dots to reveal the true picture of vaccines and childhood cancer. Though it is too late for my vaccine-injured daughter, this Momcologist stands against vaccine mandates, for the health of future children.
~ Jean Ghantous
About the author: Jean Ghantous is a wife and mother of three with a background in science, who formerly held a position with a pharmaceutical company as a research specialist. She has been a Momcologist for the past 10 years, since her daughter was diagnosed with high-risk pre-B cell acute lymphocytic leukemia as a toddler. After three years of treatment, the family enjoyed years of remission until her daughter was again diagnosed with a very late relapse at nine years old. She is currently in remission and doing well.
Jean’s penchant for research led to the important discovery that transfusional iron overload had been a long-overlooked high-risk factor for adverse late effects in cancer children. “Oncologists are so focused on treatment protocols that preventative care has been neglected, universally,” said Jean. “I realized within the first 10 minutes of researching iron overload that not only did my daughter have a very grave problem, but many kids, over many years, were at risk as well. I was horrified to read the list of side effects of iron toxicity; it was eerily similar to the late effects one is told to expect from chemotherapy.” Jean pushed for treatment and preventative care. She said “No one addressed iron overload because, well, no one had NOTICED it. For decades of cancer treatment.” This led to her hospital implementing a computerized tracking program for transfusional iron deposition and its involvement in a nationwide strategy for reducing risk from iron toxicity in children with cancer.
While Jean had always been suspicious that vaccines could play a role in the development of leukemia, she was told her daughter’s diagnosis after aggressive vaccination was “coincidence.” After her third child also sustained a vaccine injury, Jean took on the additional descriptor of Thinking Mom and became more actively involved in advocating for vaccine safety. “It is abundantly clear to any parent who takes the time to do the research that there is a very real causative connection between immune system disorders, chronic disease and vaccines,” warns Jean. “American kids are sick, really sick. EpiPens, inhalers, glucometers, special diets and special-needs teachers have become normalized in our schools. Four children in my neighborhood have been granted Make-A-Wish trips for life-threatening illness. One-third of my son’s class is in need of special-needs educational support. This is NOT normal. We MUST stop this insane, profit-driven push for federal vaccine mandates. Clearly, our families’ futures depend on it.”
References
1) “Detection of Measles Virus RNA in Urine Specimens from Vaccine Recipients,” http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC228449/
2) “ Vaccine Oka Varicella-Zoster Virus Genotypes Are Monomorphic in Single Vesicles and Polymorphic in Respiratory Tract Secretions,” http://jid.oxfordjournals.org/content/193/7/927.full
3) MMR II vaccine insert: “Excretion of small amounts of the live attenuated rubella virus from the nose or throat has occurred in the majority of susceptible individuals 7 to 28 days after vaccination.” http://www.merck.com/product/usa/pi_circulars/m/mmr_ii/mmr_ii_pi.pdf
4) “Chickenpox Attributable to a Vaccine Virus Contracted From a Vaccine With Zoster,” http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/106/2/e28.full
5) FluMist vaccine insert: “FluMist contains live attenuated influenza viruses that must infect and replicate in cells lining the nasopharynx of the recipient to induce immunity. Vaccine viruses capable of infection and replication can be cultured from nasal secretions obtained from vaccine recipients (shedding).” Study showed shedding up to 28 days post vaccination: http://www.medimmune.com/docs/default-source/pdfs/flumist_pi.pdf
6) “Influenza Outbreak in a Vaccinated Population — USS Ardent, February 2014,” http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm6342a3.htm?mobile=nocontent
7) “Infections in the Neutropenic Patient— New Views of an Old Problem:,” http://asheducationbook.hematologylibrary.org/content/2001/1/113.full
8) MMR II vaccine insert: “Measles inclusion body encephalitis{44} (MIBE), pneumonitis{45} and death as a direct consequence of disseminated measles vaccine virus infection have been reported in immunocompromised individuals inadvertently vaccinated with measles-containing vaccine.” http://www.merck.com/product/usa/pi_circulars/m/mmr_ii/mmr_ii_pi.pdf
9) “There has been no measles deaths reported in the U.S. since 2003,” Dr. Anne Schuchat, the director of CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases. (Apparently, the veracity of this statement is in question, as CDC data for 2009 and 2010 both list two measles deaths, leading one to wonder why does the director of CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases not seem to know about them? Don’t you think given the current hoopla about an outbreak with no associated deaths that they would be screaming about them? Could it be that they were in immunocompromised people who got the disease either from the vaccine or from recently vaccinated people?) http://vaccineimpact.com/2015/zero-u-s-measles-deaths-in-10-years-but-over-100-measles-vaccine-deaths-reported/
10) Bluming A, Ziegler J. “Regression of Burkitt’s lymphoma in association with measles infection.” The Lancet. 1971 Jul 10;:105–106.
11) “Remission of Disseminated Cancer after Systemic Oncolytic Virotherapy,” http://www.mayoclinicproceedings.org/article/S0025-6196(14)00332-2/fulltext
12) “Measles Virus for Cancer Therapy,” http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3926122/
13) Liu TC, Galanis E, Kirn D. “Clinical Trial Results with Oncolytic Virotherapy: A Century of Promise, a Decade of Progress.” Nat Clin Pract Oncol. 2007;4(2):101–117. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17259931
14) Hygiene hypothesis: “In countries where good health standards do not exist, people are chronically infected by those various pathogens. In those countries, the prevalence of allergic diseases remains low. Interestingly, several countries that have eradicated those common infections see the emergence of allergic and autoimmune diseases.”
“The ‘Hygiene Hypothesis’ for Autoimmune and Allergic Diseases: An Update,” http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2841828/
15) “Childhood Leukemia Incidence in Britain, 1974–2000: Time Trends and Possible Relation to Influenza Epidemics,” http://jnci.oxfordjournals.org/content/98/6/417.full.pdf+html?sid=b366f430-37bb-49a4-b9b0-794149a1d2da
16) “Allergic Conditions and Risk of Hematological Malignancies in Adults: A Cohort Study,” http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2458/4/51
17) “Timing is critical, as early infections are likely to positively modulate the immune system thereby reducing risk of leukemia, whereas later infections in children whose immune system was less well modulated may increase such risk.”
“Infection and Pediatric Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia,” http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2834409/
18) U.S. highest first-day infant mortality of industrialized nations: “6 Articles You Should Read about Infant Mortality in the U.S” http://america.aljazeera.com/watch/shows/fault-lines/FaultLinesBlog/2013/9/19/america-s-infantmortalitycrisisbackgroundreading.html
19) “Potency Tests of Combination Vaccines,” http://cid.oxfordjournals.org/content/33/Supplement_4/S362.full
20) “The ‘Hygiene Hypothesis’ for Autoimmune and Allergic Diseases: An Update,” http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2841828/
21) “An Infectious Aetiology for Childhood Acute Leukaemia: A Review of the Evidence.” http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15491284. Sharp peak in ALL diagnoses in developed countries between 2 and 6 years; early infection could be protective.
22) German study on the health of vaccinated versus unvaccinated children: http://healthimpactnews.com/2011/new-study-vaccinated-children-have-2-to-5-times-more-diseases-and-disorders-than-unvaccinated-children/
23) Vaccine Liability removed: http://www.nvic.org/NVIC-Vaccine-News/March-2011/No-Pharma-Liability–No-Vaccine-Mandates-.aspx#a1
24) Julie Gerberding: “Merck Announces Appointment of Dr. Julie Gerberding as Executive Vice President for Strategic Communications, Global Public Policy and Population Health,” http://www.mercknewsroom.com/news-release/corporatenews/merck-announces-appointment-dr-julie-gerberding-executive-vice-president
25) Pharmaceutical campaign contributions 2014: “Pharmaceuticals/Health Products: Long-Term Contribution Trends,” http://www.opensecrets.org/industries/totals.php?cycle=2014&ind=H04
26) “Little Patients, Losing Patience: Pediatric Cancer Drug Development,” http://mct.aacrjournals.org/content/5/8/1905.full
27) Childhood and Adolescent Cancer Statistics, 2014: http://acco.org/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=gAi0ji8IFPU%3d&tabid=670
28) National Cancer Institute gives 4% to pediatric cancer research: http://acco.org/Information/AboutChildhoodCancer/ChildhoodCancerStatistics.aspx
29) “Because Statistics Don’t Tell the Whole Story: A Call for Comprehensive Care for Children With Cancer,” http://acco.org/LinClick.aspx?fileticket=9egsDtJw3fw%3d&tabid=670
30) SEER database: http://seer.cancer.gov/csr/1975_2011/results_merged/sect_29_childhood_cancer_iccc.pdf
Dr Mendelssohn came to that conclusion back in the early 1980’s but no one believed him.
I was diagnosed with Leukemia in 1980, I was 7 years old.
Very interesting read. Gives you a lot to think about, as this is often cited as a reason to mandate vaccinations.
I’m all for continuing discussion on vaccines and not stopping them.
For anyone interested, this is a great new podcast Causes Or Cures, and the first episode is an interview with Del BigTree , the producer of Vaxxed, and what’s currently going on with vaccines and government control. I highly recommend everyone take a listen. The doctor who does the interview doesn’t always agree with him, but it’s great to see dialogue instead of people trying to shut folks up entirely. Anyhow, here’s the link. There are two doctors, a pediatrician who is pro vaccine choice and another one, who will be on the podcast in the coming weeks: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/causes-or-cures/id1455413855
Interesting article. Written well and with references. Not something I can dismiss out of hand. Some things your hypothesis does not explain are:
(1) The LACK OF EFFECT of vaccination on incidence of ALL and on Childhood Cancers found in these meta-analyses
https://academic.oup.com/ije/article/46/3/905/3744780
https://www.thieme-connect.com/products/ejournals/html/10.1055/s-0037-1605872
(2) The REDUCED incidence of childhood leukaemia (ALL and AML) association with vaccination found in this meta-analysis
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-017-16067-0
(3) The unchanged incidence of leukaemia in SEER 9 database 1975 to 2015 despite the changes of vaccination scheduling
https://seer.cancer.gov/statfacts/html/leuks.html
What I have found, Mr. Tan, over 37 years of research, is NEVER trust the statistics which emanate from the henhouses which are being guarded by the the foxes. The intrusion of the pharma industry into what is being promoted in most recent years is highly suspect, to say the least. In fact, the corruption is out of control. I’ve watched it escalate.
Dr. Arnold Relman, Harvard professor and former editor of the New England Journal of Medicine: “The medical profession is being bought by the pharmaceutical industry, not only in terms of the practice of medicine, but also in terms of teaching and research. The academic institutions of this country are allowing themselves to be the paid agents of the pharmaceutical industry. I think it’s disgraceful.”
Dr. Marcia Angell, former Editor of NEJM: “It is simply no longer possible to
believe much of the clinical research that is published, or to rely on the
judgment of trusted physicians or authoritative medical guidelines. I take no
pleasure in this conclusion, which I reached slowly and reluctantly over my two
decades as an editor of The New England Journal of Medicine…No one knows the
total amount provided by drug companies to physicians, but I estimate from the
annual reports of the top 9 U.S.-based drug companies that it comes to tens of
billions of dollars a year in North America alone.By such means, the
pharmaceutical industry has gained enormous control over how doctors evaluate
and use its own products. Its extensive ties to physicians, particularly senior
faculty at prestigious medical schools, affect the results of research, the way
medicine is practiced, and even the definition of what constitutes a disease.”
The Dawn of McScience, Dr. Richard Horton, former Editor in Chief of the
Lancet: ”Even scientific journals, supposedly the neutral arbiters of quality by
virtue of their much-vaunted process of critical peer review, are owned by
publishers and scientific societies that derive and demand huge earnings from
advertising by drug companies and from the sale of commercially valuable
content. The pressure on editors to adopt positions that favor these industries
is yet another example of the bias that has infiltrated academic exchange. As
editor of The Lancet I have attended medical conferences at which I have been
urged to publish more favorable views of the pharmaceutical industry.”
Nobel Prize winning scientist Sydney Brenner: “Peer review is hindering science. In fact, it has become a completely corrupt system… Finding senior medical researchers or clinicians
without financial ties to pharmaceutical companies has become exceedingly
difficult. Those regarded as “thought leaders” routinely work as paid members of
drug companies’ advisory boards despite evidence that the practice is part of
industry’s promotional machinery. According to an article on the “tricks of the
trade,” published in Pharmaceutical Marketing, the advisory process is one of
the most powerful means of getting close to people and of influencing them”.
The Pharmaceutical Industry, Institutional Corruption, and …
ethics.harvard.edu/pharmaceutical-industry-institutional…
Further to my comment is the issue of relative risk.
Incidence of childhood leukaemia is 4.7 per 100000 children per year
This makes it very very uncommon
https://seer.cancer.gov/statfacts/html/childleuk.html
Deaths from leukaemia are 0.6 per 100000
Much less common than the mortality rate from measles
https://www.cdc.gov/measles/about/complications.html
Out of every 1000 children who get measles, 1-2 will die. Deaths from measles are 100-200 per 100000
Out of every 20 children who get measles 1 will get pneumonia
Out of every 1000 children who get measles 1 will develop encephalitis
I’m not particularly sure that I agree with you that measles is a “benign” condition.
In the year before the measles vaccine was licensed, the CDC acknowledges that while there were about 400,000 cases of measles REPORTED, there were actually 3-4 MILLION cases. Out of those 3-4 million, fewer than 400 children died. That’s a mortality rate much closer to 1 in 10,000 than 1 in 1,000. The mortality rate had been dropping rapidly. There is no reason to believe that it would not have continued to drop, even in the absence of a vaccine (and it did in fact continue dropping in developed countries that did not yet introduce a measles vaccine).
About 3000 children and young adults under age of 20 are diagnosed with leukemia in US each year. With 98% of remission rate that gives us 60 deaths per year. There’s only been one measles death in US in last 6 years. But I guess measles is more scary than cancer.. smh.
Teena, come on. This is obviously because the majority of children are vaccinated against measles. You can’t compare measles deaths to Leukemia deaths over the past six years, because there is no vaccination against Leukemia. If there was, the majority of children would obviously be vaccinated against Leukemia, too, and the death toll from Leukemia would be much lower. In fact, not vaccinating your child because of some bullshit you read on the Internet would be negligent.
“If there was, the majority of children would obviously be vaccinated against Leukemia, too, and the death toll from Leukemia would be much lower.”
It’s true that there are very few measles deaths because of the vaccine, but that does not automatically mean that the vaccine has resulted in a lower overall death rate. And the same would be true IF there was a leukemia vaccine that reduced the incidence of leukemia. ALL vaccines have other effects on the immune system (that vary significantly from individual to individual, depending on the original state of the immune system) that are not intended.
Danish researchers have been delving deeply into the “nonspecific” effects of vaccines in recent years. They analyzed data from the introduction of DTP vaccines to Guinea-Bissau, Africa, and found that while they reduced the incidence of pertussis, they actually AT LEAST DOUBLED the death rate in children who received them (and may have even raised it by a factor of 10 in the 3-month period immediately following the vaccination). In other words, your assumption that high levels of measles vaccination is a good thing for public health is just that: an assumption, not based on evidence.
When we speak of measles in large academic pediatric institutions, we understand the CDC rate you are quoting are worldwide, where nutritional deficiencies, specifically Vitamin A deficiency, is rampant among populations. There have been several good studies that show two high doses of Vitamin A decrease the complication rate by 60-90%. Thus the WHO and the AAP recommend Vitamin A as treatment for measles. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11869601
https://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/91/5/1014
The mortality rate in Europe recently (2018) was 72 deaths among 82596 cases – case fatality rate is 0.87 in 1000 (http://www.euro.who.int/en/media-centre/sections/press-releases/2019/measles-in-europe-record-number-of-both-sick-and-immunized).
In the recent Madagascar outbreak mortality was 2 in 1000 (0.2%) https://www.who.int/csr/don/17-january-2019-measles-madagascar/en/
If you think measles mortality is 0.1 per 1000 I think you are grossly underestimating the severity of disease
Edward, sweetie, Europe has had long-term vaccination programs just like us. Their mortality rate has been skewed by the same factors, pushing vulnerability to infants and adults, who experience more severe illness. And Madagascar isn’t in the same category at all.
Over 1,000 cases of measles were reported about a year ago, but not 1-2 deaths.
These studies imply that not getting childhood diseases like measles and chicken pox make you more likely to get Non Hodgkins lymphoma. First of all this says NHL has increased about 4% a year up to 1997.https://academic.oup.com/jnci/article/93/7/494/2906510
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16406019
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2374437/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16490323
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28483543
It’s nearly impossible to find knowledgeable people in this particular subject,
but you seem like you know what you’re talking
about! Thanks
Hi,
A new report of an analysis of the content in Gardasil (HPV-vaccine) has been published. It seam obvious that it can cause for example leukemia:
“…Infectious equine anemia virus and mouse leukemia virus: (the latter) is present both as DNA and RNA and therefore it’s a complete virus). These viruses derive from the contamination of raw materials and must not be present…”
https://www.corvelva.it/it/speciali-corvelva/analisi/vaccinegate-metagenomic-analysis-report-on-gardasil-9.html
Today I watched a Tedtalk which throws new light over the vaccination issue. Please watch! (17 min)
https://youtu.be/_d8PNlXHJ48?fbclid=IwAR3O608aJM_yOKuAvaHuxJNkwYShDaiKbfnM-jzg3BfjvIWDoPldBNbSd6w
Greetings,
Malin
I am appalled and disgusted something like this would be put out there. How dare you to basically accuse me of giving my child cancer. This is the most inaccurate thing I have ever read. My child’s oncologist read this and was disgusted and in shock that someone would claim that a vaccination is giving children Leukemia. You are very wrong and very mistaken. While it’s hard enough to care for a child fighting for their life, it’s people like you who make our lives even worse. Why in the world would you think this has any validity? I supposed you are one that thinks essential oils will cure the cancer. Or that medical marijuana will cure the cancer. Families are fighting for their children and having to come across such an absurd article breaks their hearts all over again. The audacity that you have to put such hurtful words out there for people to read, is simply heartbreaking. YOU are NOT a doctor. YOU do not have a degree in oncology. As a mom with a child with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia, I think you’re ridiculous. Show me the proof. Prove to me where my child’s vaccinations gave her cancer. You should be ashamed of yourself.
You should go back and read the piece again with a less defensive eye. Jean makes no accusation of you or any other parent. Nor does she “claim that a vaccination is giving children leukemia.” She very reasonably suggests that our bloated vaccine schedule could be a potential trigger for our rising cancer rates in children, including leukemia. The only way to know for sure whether or not vaccines ARE triggering leukemia in some children. No one is implying that even if vaccines DO trigger leukemia that they would be the trigger for all cases of leukemia. By the way, a contaminant in at least one vaccine, the SV-40 virus that contaminated millions of polio vaccines, has been linked to leukemia already.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19332766
If we are going to be absolutely truthful, though, vaccines DO cause cancer and leukemia. That’s exactly what prompted me to start researching them 37 years ago.
When my mother first read my book on the subject of vaccines back in the 90’s, she looked worried and said, “Parents will feel guilty,” and I knew that she felt guilty, but it was not her fault that she had us vaccinated.
And no, not everyone will get cancer or leukemia, but some form of damage to the immune system takes place from vaccination, in every case. Or, to quote the title of Dr. Andrew Moulden’s book, “Every Vaccine Produces Harm.”
My sister and I now both have autoimmune diseases (the finger points directly at vaccination), and our brother’s decision to go in for a tetanus shot (given as a TDaP), at the age of 57, proved lethal for him.
I’m so sorry to hear of your brother’s death. It hits close to home as I am in the same age range. I, too, have had several autoimmune conditions, and my ex-husband just died of a combination of cancer and autoimmune disease. Every day I am more and more glad that I stopped vaccinating when our eldest was 12 months old. :-/
New York Press, January 26, 1909 published a report by W.B. Clark, “Cancer was practically unknown until cowpox vaccination began to be introduced. I have seen 200 cases of cancer, and I never saw a case of cancer in an unvaccinated person.”
Dr. Supperrat, Chief doctor at St. Louis Hospital, Paris, France (1940’s) wrote, concerning the anti-diphtheria and anti-smallpox vaccine: “It produces an explosion of leukemia.” (“Slaughter of The Innocent” by Hans Ruesch, first published 1978)
“It is necessary only to read on the dials of a physical measuring apparatus the ratings of the 3 characteristics of the blood. The pH, the rH2, and the electric resistance. The Findings are that all vaccination has the effect of directing the three values of the blood into or toward the zone characteristics of cancer and leukemia. Vaccines do predispose to cancer and leukemia.” – Prof. L.C. Vincent, founder of Bioelectronics
From The Poisoned Needle (E. McBean, PhD, 1957)
Dr. J. Morrison, former Professor of Chemistry and Toxicology in the Medical Department of the National University at Washington, D. C., had ample opportunity to observe the lymphatic involvement in cancer and other diseases during his many years as a specialist in nervous and chronic diseases. He was formerly a member of the Medical Council and Examiner in the College of Physicians and Surgeons, (Ontaria, Canada). Regarding cancer he said:
“Cancer can only attack the organs and tissues moderately or abundantly supplied by the lymphatic circulation . . . Therefore, cancer is a disease of the lymphatic system”per Se” in the same sense that tuberculosis is regarded as a disease of the lungs or respiratory system.”
Speaking of causes he had this to say: “Two well-known causes of this fatal malady are, (1) nicotine (tobacco) poisoning and (2) vaccination, which is certainly the most prolific cause of both external and internal cancer. . . Vaccine virus poisons the lymphatic system, impairs its function and lays the foundation for internal cancer, for which there has hitherto been no (successful medical) treatment or relief.”
Vaccine Toxins – Toxic Ingredients in Vaccines
immunizationalternatives.com/vaccine-toxic-ingredients
Vaccines … Cancer in a Syringe! | The Truth About Cancer
thetruthaboutcancer.com/vaccines-cancer-in-a-syringe
Vaccines are Carcinogens: Avoid them at all Costs
cassingram.com/vaccines-carcinogens-avoid-costs
Cancer & Vaccines – Whale
whale.to/vaccines/cancer.html
Have you revisited the no children with leukemia died from measles since this post. And other vulnerable people who have died.
http://www.ansa.it/english/news/2017/06/23/child-cancer-patients-measles-death-inflames-vaccines-row-2_cd4b2e41-33e9-4691-b335-84e57587a603.html
https://www.bmj.com/content/362/bmj.k3596
I don’t suppose you can find statistics on the number of children with leukemia who have died from vaccine-strain measles, can you? No one wants it known that that can happen. But it can, can’t it? There are deaths from measles listed in CDC data that are not acknowledged by the CDC. Why do you suppose that is? To me, it seems likely that those cases weren’t “verified” because it turned out that the strain of measles that was detected was the strain in the vaccine. Immunocompromised children are at risk, period, whether its from transmission of wild disease (of any type) or vaccine versions.
Please provide a citation, Prof.
The CDC lists two measles fatalities in each of 2009 (https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr59/nvsr59_04.pdf) and 2010 (https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr61/nvsr61_04.pdf), but according to Fox News, Dr. Anne Schuchat, described by Senator Elizabeth Warran as the top immunication official in the country and, therefore, really ought to know, said in 2014, “There has been no measles deaths reported in the U.S. since 2003.” https://www.foxnews.com/health/deaths-from-measles-outbreak-may-be-inevitable-as-cases-surge-in-us
How can we explain this discrepancy? The CDC justifies it by saying that the deaths were from “unconfirmed” cases of measles. Really? Is that credible? Four reported deaths from measles went “unconfirmed” as late as 2010, when in 2015 they were able to confirm that a woman had died of an undetected measles infection? Is it really plausible that four people died from reported measles infections and no one bothered to confirm it? Because surely they could have done so if they had tried.
Dear Jean, Is it possible to make contact with and seek your advice as a researcher? My daughter is currently on a chemotherapy called sirolimus. Luckily we were able to avoid iron transfusions but the hospital we are working with knows little about this chemotherapy or her diagnosis. It was also through your references in this article that i finally had information about the use and risks of prophylactic antibiotics and chemotherapy. I would be very curious to read anyting that you have written about the information you have learnt on your journey with your daughter, if you were able to point me to other articles. I’ve googled but not found many. With kindness and gratitude
You inspire mme in my work
http://www.anh-usa.org/vaccine-studies-debunked/
As long as we’re wishing, let’s criminalize vaccination.
My son was given an MMR but the medical record was lost. A new pediatrician insisted we repeat the MMR because there was no record of it having been administered. We questioned the safety of repeating the vaccine but the doctor insisted it was safe to repeat. Unfortunately we took the physicians advice. Our son then followed this with bizarre rashes and illnesses, including vision changes, leading eventually to mononucleosis and then the diagnosis of ALL (leukemia) at the age of four and a half. While I do believe that exposure to pesticides and herbicides or chemicals like benzene can play a role in causing cancer, certainly the ability to knock down ones immune system with vaccines or viruses must play a roll as well. When combined with a genetic tendency certainly one would agree that administering vaccines could potentially be the event that triggers certain cancers. I find it frustrating beyond belief that people will declare that something does not cause cancer, but when asked what does cause it will respond with “we don’t know.” Clearly if one does not know what causes cancer then they cannot know what doesn’t cause it either.
Dear Cancer know-it-alls, you are the reason when i finally got home from fighting Fanconi Anemia I had to wear a full mask because I could not trust others to have gotten their vaccines. You can’t go visit someone if you have RECENTLY gotten a live vaccine. I wish I had leukemia instead of Fanconi, we were praying for it to be leukemia, but no, I got a disease that if I had been born 10 years earlier the doctors would not have even tried to save me. Vaccines do not just affect cancer. Cancer is not the worst disease. So, please do the best with what you have and be thankful your child is alive
I’m sorry, but “cancer know-it-alls” AREN’T the reason you “had to wear a full mask.” Whether or not you can “trust others to have gotten their vaccines,” you CANNOT “trust others” to not be sick and/or contagious. The vast majority of mumps cases are in previously vaccinated adults. The majority of measles cases in the Disneyland outbreak were in previously vaccinated adults as well. Flu vaccines have ridiculously low efficacy and target a small proportion of the number of organisms that can cause “influenza-like illness.” Pertussis is more easily “spread” by vaccinated people than non-vaccinated people because vaccinated people can be asymptomatic carriers who don’t even know they harbor an active pertussis infection. When a non-vaccinated person gets pertussis, they are usually sick enough to know to stay home. And the United States hasn’t had a case of polio that wasn’t FROM the vaccine since the 1970s.
The reason you “had to wear a full mask” is because YOU got sick and that made YOU vulnerable to disease. For some reason, you seem to think that that translates into a right to make OTHER people take the risk of getting sick. How does giving leukemia to others change the fact that you are vulnerable? It can’t. It can only change how you THINK about it. No matter how many children are vaccinated, you are still at risk of infectious disease.
“How does giving leukemia to others change the fact that you are vulnerable?”
Leukemia isn’t contagious. Smh…
It might be actually, if it can be triggered by a retrovirus like SV40, the virus that was contaminating the polio vaccine in the 1950s: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19332766
But I wasn’t saying or implying that it was contagious. I was implying, like the original poster, that it could be triggered by toxic environmental insults such as those that can be provided by vaccines. In that (admittedly not proven) scenario, forcing people to vaccinate in order to protect a child with cancer could very well be giving leukemia to others. It would definitely be setting many up for immune and neurological dysfunction.
You have got to be kidding me. The instances of all of these diseases is obviously incredibly low because MOST PEOPLE ARE VACCINATED. Are there rare instances where vaccinated people can still carry/pass on a disease? Sure. Would these diseases still be rampant and hundreds of times more deadly if vaccines didn’t all but eradicate them over the past century? YES. The argument that vaccinated people pass on these diseases more than unvaccinated people do is impossibly shortsighted, because most everyone is vaccinated. If you aren’t vaccinated and are healthy, you are clearly benefitting from herd immunity – otherwise the diseases dicussed throughout this thread would still be killing people left and right.
The point was that someone who is severely immunocompromised is STILL at risk, whether everyone around them is vaccinated to the hilt or not, and blaming others for that fact is more than ridiculous. No matter how much I vaccinate, I cannot “protect” any immunocompromised individual. There are many, many communicable illnesses for which there are no vaccines. And, given the nonspecific effects I talked about in response to your other comment, they may be even more prevalent than they were before we started vaccinating the hell out of people. The fact is that we vaccinated MUCH, MUCH, MUCH less in the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s, and despite your contention, “the diseases discussed throughout this thread” were NOT “killing people right and left.”
They have also proven that some vaccines are responsible for causing more cancers…look that up. Sorry for your sickness, but mandating vaccines is dangerous and wrong.
Get over yourself, Jean. The article was dead on and presented the facts, which show that vaccines are harmful and prevent our bodies from developing a natural immune system. Like you, I have a genetic disease that can not be treated. I have to have surgery after surgery after surgery. I ALSO have cancer. Aince you have Fanconi Anemia, you’ll probably get cancer, and when you do, maybe you’ll change your mind about it “not being the worst disease.” For me, I would take my genetic disease any day over the very aggressive form of cancer I have (obviously it isn’t a choice as I have both) but I am glad that my kids are healthy because I chose not to vaccinate and they didn’t inherit my genetic mutation. I just hope that my cancer doesn’t kill me and I live to see them grow up. Self righteous wench.
@Get over yourself: Amen!
be careful what you wish for
While you claim to be a critical thinker, I would like to point out that you have missed a very important piece of information. You cite an article about an influenza outbreak in a vaccinated population, and you used that as evidence to claim that disease can occur in vaccinated populations. You neglected to note the significant differences between diseases such as measles compared to influenza. Influenza is an incredibly mutagenic virus. It is capable of genetic shift and drift which allows for the potential for the virus to change significantly in a short amount of time. This makes it much more challenging in that a vaccination may not prevent a newly formed virus. Thus, influenza in a vaccination population is somewhat expected (though those outbreaks tend to be limited as newly formed viruses often don’t transmit as well). In contrast, measles is a relatively non-mutagenic virus and the vaccine has been shown to be incredibly effective (hence the near eradication of the disease in the United States).
So you’re saying that measles outbreaks can’t occur in a vaccinated population? Think again…
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1646939/“Measles outbreak in a vaccinated school population: epidemiology, chains of transmission and the role of vaccine failures.”
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8483623 “Investigation of a measles outbreak in a fully vaccinated school population including serum studies before and after revaccination.”
“Measles Outbreak Traced to Fully Vaccinated Patient for First Time”
http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2014/04/measles-outbreak-traced-fully-vaccinated-patient-first-time (Note, that is “traced” for the first time, not that it occurred for the first time. Many times an outbreak can’t be traced back to patient zero as was the case in the Disney outbreak.)
Those ^ are school populations. The situation gets much more interesting now that a large proportion of adults now fall squarely in the “susceptible” population due to waning immunity. Turns out that “immunity for life” thing they sold us on wasn’t true at all, which was why a majority of the Disney cases were in vaccinated adults.
Thank you for this article! My Grandfather did not believe in vaccines, he questioned them from the get go! He did not vaccinate his 3 daughters…with what was available in 1940’s and 50’s. My mom did not vaccinate me, I did not vaccinate my son. One of my two aunts had two daughters, both unvaccinated. One of her daughters had twins a year ago and they are also unvaccinated. My other Aunt did not have children but supports us all in our decisions. My Mom had the mumps, she only remembers it because she was home sick when JFK was shot. Having the mumps gives her a 70% less chance of developing Ovarian cancer! http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2951028/
I had Chicken pox (so did the rest of my family), My son has not.
My Mom knew kids with polio, she never got it. She never had measles either.
We are all very healthy people. The average individual gets sick 7 times a year, Most of my family will get one cold a year. Which is phenomenal considering I work in retail and am in constant contact with people and money and my son is still school age! In fact her attended a School in Mondovi Wisconsin where there was an outbreak of pertussis, 60+ cases, he did not get pertussis. My Mom had pertussis, 3 years ago, while my family was visiting her, staying in her house, breathing her air and nothing! We all remained perfectly healthy. I blame all of this on being unvaccinated and not being afraid of germs! I keep a clean house, not a sterile one, clean. I let my dog lick my face and my son play in dirt!
You article gave me hope! Hope that one day will will stop the fear and realize natural immunity is best.
You are an amazing MOM! I truly hope your daughter is in good health and stays that way.
Much love from Wisconsin!
*he attended a school in Mondovi *Your Article (sorry for errors!)
Nicole, what a beautiful article regarding the decisions your family has made for their health. I love when people takes charge of their own health.
Hmmm, well I can say we can agree to disagree. My son is battling leukemia, diagnosed shy of his 4th birthday. Going into 1 year and 5 months into treatment. I guess what got me about your article is you mentioning could vaccines be causing our children of this country leukemia. That’s is just so unfair for you to say on so many levels. We do NOT know what causes leukemia. Are they born with it, is it the environment the foods we eat, who knows. All I know is I have to take whatever steps necessary to protect my children. All my children get vaccinated, never had a problem and we get flu vaccination as well and no problems other than your annual cold season. I know all to well the moment he gets fever it’s an automatic admission to the hospital for 48 hours. Now I can go on and on an explain my reason. You have every right to protect your child, but please don’t rob me of protecting mine. We all got opinions on this matter and we can all argue until we are blue in the face, but at the end of the day to each it’s own. I pray great blessings on your daughter cause as a family going through this leukemia battle, we too know the feeling.
I am truly sorry about your son. When I ask these questions, it is in no way an attack. Why is considering vaccines “unfair”? You are willing to think that it could be genetic…or at least something they are born with. You are willing to think of food, air, and water…and we all agree that those could be factors as well. But what about broadly administered medications that are strongly recommended for every person, not only in our nation…but for the world’s population? Could that, then also be considered environmental in a way? Vaccines have not been tested to see if they are carcinogenic…yet there are several known carcinogenic ingredients in most. I have no doubt that you are a wonderful mother especially in the heartbreaking circumstances that you face daily, so don’t think we are calling you bad if you vaccinate. Almost all parents of vaccine injure children once believed in them with unwavering faith. Most wonderful parents vaccinate without question. We simply want people to look around a little more. I still don’t understand why it’s “unfair” to consider vaccines as a possibility? Why do you defend a corrupt pharmaceutical industry that does not care about your child, has proven to create dangerous products in a plethora of cases, and has no liability for vaccines…none. They deserve our scrutiny, not our defense. My heart mourns for all the babies and children who suffer from these formerly rare chronic illnesses. But defending companies that profit from those is not my response. I want to know what is a common factor, what goes beyond the regional environment and afflicts both breastfed and formula fed babies, organic and gmo fed children, glass and plastic dish using parents, well-water and city water, country living and city dwelling individuals? One major blanket factor is vaccines (granted, not all who have cancer have been vaccinated). You are not a bad mother, you have struggled in ways that most of us cannot understand and we do not condemn you if you vaccinate. We just want to help people become more educated about possible causes that are rarely considered despite a very real correlation.
We know for a fact that may things are carcinogenic. No intelligent person could look at the evidence and argue that vaccines are the sole cause of childhood (or adult cancers), but there is also no intelligent way to dismiss vaccines as a factor without a great deal more study. As the above comment states, there are carcinogenic components in vaccines. In fact, the Salk polio vaccine that was widely distributed in the 1950s was contaminated with SV-40 a monkey virus that was prevalent in the monkey kidneys that the polio virus was grown on and not inactivated (or “killed”) by the manufacturing process. That virus has been proven to cause cancer in laboratory animals by disabling tumor-suppressing genes and is associated with about a third of all childhood leukemias (The Virus and the Vaccine, by Debbie Bookchin and Jim Schumacher).
Are you a doctor?
She’s a momologist
You say that as if it’s a negative thing. Dedicated moms have been saving their kids for thousands of years. There is nothing wrong with being the parent who seeks the answers for a medically fragile child. Dr. Ellen Rome of the Cleveland Clinic understands this well: “’Parents — and patients themselves — can be invaluable assets in making great breakthroughs in patient care, especially with rare diseases,’ said Dr. Ellen Rome, head of adolescent medicine at Cleveland Clinic Children’s. ‘Families represent a motivated group striving to find what is best for their loved one, and may have the time and energy to sift through information to find that one pearl that helps a child or adolescent turn the corner.’” https://parenting.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/10/28/when-the-diagnosis-is-rare-parents-may-know-more-than-professionals/
“You have every right to protect your child, but please don’t rob me of protecting mine.”
The sad fact is, legislators are currently considering laws to stop me from protecting my child, by mandating vaccinations. No one is trying to make it illegal for YOU to vaccinate. So you’re not being “robbed” of anything. But if it turns out that vaccinations ARE a factor in childhood cancer, the only thing that takes away from you is a false sense of security.
I started researching vaccines after reading a book that was heavily suppressed because it contained a lot of information that the medical cartel/pharmaceutical empire didn’t, and doesn’t, want people to know. What piqued my interest and launched my years of inquiry was a quote from a medical journal stating that vaccines were causing a lot of leukemia.
My first child got her hep b and vit k shot. She also got a vaccine during one of her wellness checks. I was young and didn’t know I can decline or get an exemption. She is my only child that suffered an ear infection and pneumonia(common side effect of vaccines). During one of her visits she had blood work and the nurse called me to see when I can come in to discuss the results with doc. The doctor explained to me that she was borderline from needing hospitalization and that they typically see that kind of blood work in kids with leukemia. She referred me to a specialist. I never went to the specialist and I avoided the doctors office. She rarely got sick after we stopped going to the doctor. She’s a healthy adult now. At that time I did not think there was any corrolation to the vaccine…..I just wanted to avoid all the sick people at the doctor’s office. Seemed like any time we went, someone would get sick. Looking back now…I think it’s an interesting theory and should be studied. Why blindly trust pharma?
Well done. Well done. For all the hard work that went into this on top of your already raw emotions, for all the careful research and formulating your points so clearly and accurately. For giving people the armour with which to defend themselves, too. Well done.
I know not every horse will drink the water, some will accuse you of poisoning it, despite all the facts and clarity. But that’s just the way people are. So many do not want to lose their beliefs so much that they will filter everything through their coloured glasses before understanding it. We just have to love them as best we can and carry on steering straight.
Thanks again for this. You really have ended the debate. There can be no question that vaccine risks need to be respected.
I cannot express my gratitude enough for people like you willing to take the time to unveil the truth. Reading the comments, it just goes to show you can lead a horse to water but you cannot make it drink. You cited everything and all of it was correct. Yet, if people don’t want to believe something, they will find any and all justifications to do so. You can justify anything ;).
I’ve been on the side of anti vaccinations for a long time- about since I was 10 years old, having received my first (and only) flu vaccine, that left me debilitated and unable to eat for three days, unable to use my legs for 4 days, and unable to walk from between two rooms without collapsing for three days after that. The next 365 days of my life forever changed me, and I did not feel like a healthy kid for almost 14 months following that vaccination. I had received all my scheduled vaccines as a toddler from 1989 to 91, then chicken pox in 94 (which I broke out in following the vaccine) and I also developed sport asthma and seasonal allergies around that time. Considering these things, it could be genetics since I’m relatively healthy, aware and intelligent. I’m putting my two boys (6 and 4) in public school and my mother has suggested that, in her opinion, the most important vaccine I should have administered to my boys is the polio vaccine. My thinking is one vaccine couldn’t hurt them, and protecting against such a debilitating disease is more important than possibly risking an adverse reaction (if they contracted polio, as statistically unlikely as that may be, I’d feel worse). I’d just like a second opinion, since most people lean extremely to one side or another. Is it safer to have them vaccinated for this one virus, or should I stick to my guns and let nature take its course?
Beth, unfortunately one vaccine CAN hurt, possibly forever. I have heard many stories of people who delayed only to find that the first vaccine did tremendous damage, and, as you suspect, with a health history like yours adverse events are far likelier for your children than for most. That said, you have to decide for yourself and your children. I would suggest you investigate the true level of risk of polio. According to the CDC 72% of all cases are so mild that people do not even know they have polio. In addition, there has not been a case of paralytic polio in this country that was not caused by the vaccine strain since 1979 (thirty-six years). http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/vpd-vac/polio/dis-faqs.htm
look into Dr Koch’s work curing polio. Also take a look at the link between DDT exposure and infant paralytic polio peaking in the fifties due to DDT contamination in cows milk. If you asked your great grandmother how bad polio in the prevaccine era was, she would say it wasn’t a problem, because epidemics didn’t happen in her day. http://www.vaclib.org/sites/harpub/pol_all.htm
Are you a doctor?
No. Despite a deep and abiding interest in health and healing, I decided at a young age that I would NOT go to medical school, the simplest reason being that dissection was not something that an empath like me found to be an acceptable day-to-day activity. You see, I’ve never been good at the idea of sacrificing lives for the sake of other lives. I had also discovered by the time I went to college in 1979 that mainstream medicine had very little to offer the chronically ill. The “treatments” my doctor had offered for allergies and asthma, which were the “state of the art” in mainstream medicine at the time, were medications to relieve symptoms. They in no way sought out or corrected a root cause. And the same is still true. Watch any primetime tv show and you’ll see ads for “the missing link” in your asthma medicine regime, implying that the two or three medications you are already on (“for life”) are not enough. You need this OTHER medication in order to actually not have symptoms in the first place.
Martha Herbert, a pediatric neurologist and a professor of neurology at Harvard Medical School, talks about how the “exquisite precision” of our science, which “is usually achieved by ignoring context and all the variation outside of our narrow focus, even though biological systems in particular are intrinsically variable and complex rather than uniform and simple,” enables us to see things in sharp detail, but in so doing we frequently lose sight of the big picture and incur error — sometimes monumental error — error that we daily see on display in the wrong-headedness of mainstream medicine in a country that spends the most per capita on medical treatment and has among the worst overall health outcomes in the developed world by virtually every benchmark there is.
Dissolving Illusions is a wonderful book that pretty much debunks the hype of polio as the crippling disease we’ve been made to fear — it’s more of a history book really (uses credible sources/studies and cites everything)
I want to personally thank you for putting MY child in danger while telling people not to vaccinate for YOUR child. While my son does not have cancer..yet..he is, and will always be, immuno-compromised. He is a transplant patient. The drugs he must take to live put him at a high risk for cancer. The people you are preaching to…n put him at a high risk of infections. Infections that my son cannot fight off. He cannot build his immune system. Yes, immunized children can and will get him sick in his lifetime. I am not a fool. More than likely those illnesses, while hard, he will bounce back from. Measles, rubella,pneumonia, a bad strain of flu….He may not. I don’t care about your studies or scientific findings…I care about my son..and YOUR daughter. Their safety. The only argument I’m going to give to any of the above statements or comments is that perhaps these illnesses aren’t just coming around but are just now being found. How many people may have died of undiagnosed cancer? You can’t be diagnosed if you don’t go to the doctor. If the doctor doesn’t know what to look for. It’s why we advance as humans. More people are receiving medical care now than earlier. Which means more people are being diagnosed. Autism, ADHD…they’ve always been around..just called something else.
Worried mommy, please explain why the safety of your child trumps the safety of anyone else’s child. Why exactly do you think that it is okay for someone else’s child to be permanently disabled in order to slightly decrease the already high risk your child faces? No one wishes your child ill, but that doesn’t make it incumbent upon other parents to put YOUR child’s safety before their own.
“Perhaps these illnesses aren’t just coming around but are just now being found”? Seriously? That’s your rationalization for why previously healthy people are getting sick at unprecedented rates? We just didn’t “notice” that children were really sick before? I’m going to illustrate just how ridiculous that thinking is by using one condition, asthma, as an example. Asthma was RARE in the 60s (seriously, I was a freak in the early 70s) and is now affecting more than 1 in 10 children in the United States. I think you will agree that that is the OPPOSITE of rare. Can you honestly say you think parents were letting their children struggle to BREATHE (because that’s what happens in a child with asthma) without taking them to the doctor to try and find out why? I’ll bet you’re one of those people who think whooping cough is a horrible thing because people who have it struggle to breathe for a week or so, rather than the lifetime that of breathing difficulties that asthma can cause. The incidence of whooping cough is also rising. Think that’s a “true rise” or just “better diagnosing”? If you’re consistent, you’ll say it’s better diagnosing because people with fevers and long-term coughs are receiving medical care now when they weren’t before. But I suspect you aren’t consistent.
First off, an unvaccinated child cannot give anything to your child that they don’t even have. Are you truly so blind that you think every unvaccinated child will automatically develop measles, mumps etc.? If so, you clearly have no clue just how many unvaccinated children and adults you are around every day. Second, you admit yourself that your child can get sick from being around VACCINATED children, but then turn around and state that he would get through that ok but could die from measles? Well, what exactly do you think he could be getting from the vaccinated child? Pertussis, maybe? That one sheds. But you seem to think if he got pertussis or measles from a vaccinated child that that would somehow be less harmful to him than getting the same disease from an unvaccinated child? How does that make any sense? And you wonder how many people have died of undiagnosed cancer. What do you think happens when someone dies of an unknown cause? The hospital and family doesn’t just say “oh well, that’s a shame” and throw them in the ground. They do an autopsy to find the cause of death! Boom. No longer undiagnosed. Third… Madam, I understand you are stressed out and concerned for your child. I sympathize. I would not wish that on my worst enemy, and I certainly feel for your son as well. But how DARE you suggest that I should risk permanently injuring my own children “just in case” for your own?? Do you truly not understand how outrageous and horrible that is? Your child is seriously ill, so you want everyone else’s to be as well? Do you also go around shaming anyone out in public with cold symptoms? Because they are more likely to make your immune compromised son sick than my healthy unvaccinated child is, by far.
I just want to correct your characterization of the pertussis vaccine as “shedding.” The vaccines that shed are live-virus vaccines. Pertussis is a bacteria, and the vaccine doesn’t even stimulate antibodies against the bacteria itself, but the toxin the bacteria manufactures under anaerobic conditions.
Are you a doctor?
No. Are you?
I don’t need to be. I trust doctors. Over 90% of doctors know that vaccines work and do not cause autism. People may have reactions, sure, but people also have reactions to over the counter drugs which I’m sure you have no problem taking. Some of which actually cause severe reactions in people. If you don’t want to give your kids vaccines, then don’t give them any other drugs. They all work on the same principle. Science.
You may trust doctors because they haven’t managed to ruin your health. Others are not so lucky. Why would you assume that GG has “no problem taking” over the counter drugs? Many, many people in this community DO have problems with over the counter drugs as well as prescription drugs and avoid them as much as humanly possible.
I see. So you feel that doctors are infallible then? (You might want to check into how much doctors are actually taught about vaccines in medical school-it isn’t much.) I take it you also believe that what few studies have been done could not possibly have any faults? That the fact that the people paying for those few studies could not possibly have skewed the results any?
I trusted nurses and drs too until I gave birth to my first son and he turned blue. When I told the nurse she didn’t even look at him as she was preparing his routine vax, just said that was normal sometimes for babies to be a little off color. I told her, no he’s not breathing. Still she was too busy. Finally she came over to give him a vac and finally saw four herself. My son was dead for a minute or so. Ironically another nurse that week told ME I was going to kill my baby by not giving him formula and insisting on nursing him instead. This was 2012. Recently my daughter was in the Dr office for blood test bc she may have gotten into lead. Her lead count was slightly elevated and when I asked him if I should increase vit c or anything else in her diet he scoffed at me and said food has nothing to do with anything. I got no real information from him about what to do but he did leave me with papers about lead. On the paper he gave me it said an increase in vit c iron and calcium will help wash lead away and keep the body from storing it. SO while it is oh so very noble of you to be so obedient and trusting of “drs” know that a mama with a fire under her butt will know a ton more than him any day. A mom’s intuition is NEVER wrong. My three children WILL NOT be vaccinated anymore than they have been already and my unborn baby will be our first unvaccinated. Why? Because I am one of those moms with a fire under her butt and its not right. When you see your child displaying signs of things that were not before you begin to ask the tough questions and research and do whatever you can to help your child.
If doctors were so brilliant and infallible then why are medical errors the third leading cause of death in the U.S? And as a previous commenter noted, doctors are not taught much about vaccine reactions in medical schools which are largely endowed by pharmaceutical companies by the way. They trust the vaccine “experts” and the CDC which also largely have conflicts of interest. Google Julie Gerberding.
Worried mommy. If you could answer below questions, then your own question is automatically answer.
1. Has your child been infected with a vaccination-free child?
2. Have you ever had the pleasure to be a carer of a vaccination injured child that developed permanent spinal arthritis right after hepatitis B vaccination and spends most of her time on bed?
3. Why is your child more important than other people’s?
Your question is answer,
thank you very much,
Are you a doctor?
Unvaccinated are not putting your child at risk. When the unvaccinated get sick, you know they are sick. For example, many carry whooping cough around without even a cough thanks to the vaccine…..you don’t even know who to avoid thanks to the vaccines. They say polio is cured, but many know that is false, it has just been renamed.
Wow! Comments from all sides and most are respectful; very nice to see in regard to this hot topic.
This next comment may seem odd but I think it bears some consideration in the over all debate. Twenty years ago my veterinarian was opposed to all the vaccines being recommended for pets and suggested only those most in line to the conditions to which the animal would be exposed (e.g., are they outdoor pets and therefore risk exposure from wild animals? Then consider a rabies vac.). He also said it was unnecessary to vaccinate every year even if you did find a need or want certain protections! He explained to me that he knew some of this was just drug companies pushing vets to sell product but the bigger impact on my decisions for my pets, and later my family, was what he said next – he was noticing an increase in geriatric type disease in younger animals and cancer overall in those who had been following the full vac & every year vac recommendations of him, in earlier years, and other vets of the time. In addition, due to the shorted life spans of our companion critters he had been able to follow some generations within certain pet families and noticed increased illnesses in the later generations where full vac had been practiced!
Now this is, or course, anecdotal information but it does point out some considerations we humans should take in account when trying to protect our, or other’s health. First, what are our exposures (e.g., do we work in healthcare so may come into contact with diseases our body doesn’t know but could receive some protection from due to a vaccine)? Will being vaccinated once give us the protection we need (something promised to us in the 60’s & 70’s when I was younger) or will we need to expose our bodies frequently to disease components and other chemicals/substances in vaccines in order to stay in front of possible illness/infection? Second, what has been the long-term impact of vaccinations to overall human health (i.e., does a connection truly stand between vaccines and increased cancer rates, geriatric illness, and other diseases. What will epigenetic studies show in relation to the grandchildren, etc of the heavily vaccinated?)? Finally, why are the anecdotal accounts of parents, etc. not being used as the basis for further studies (i.e., all these folk can’t be wrong in every aspect; something must be going on).
I do understand the relief my grandparents had with the development of vaccines to protect their children from dread disease and its associated complications (nod to the ladies in her 60’s above and her notes on Rubella and polio). I also understand that many of the childhood diseases were just that and then conferred upon the adult a healthier, more capable of defense immune system. In addition, we now vaccinate above and beyond the needs of basic health and life (reference above the note on giving babies vacs for blood born illness more likely to be experienced by those sharing needles, etc.) or for diseases we don’t fully understand, many of us carry naturally and unknowingly without harm to ours/or others systems, and which the vaccine doesn’t fully target the suspected culprit/variant of the disease (I’m thinking HPV here).
It is for these, and many other reasons, that I practice selective vaccination (type and schedule) and am a proponent of choice (and full disclosure of side effects, ability to seek restitution for harm) for all in relation to medical decisions for oneself and ones family. I hope we, as a community of thoughtful, respectful, intelligent humans can continue to offer that choice to others while exercising our own choices as we see fit.
very well said,my thoughts exactly
you have totally lied and said that the hospital recommends to stay away from vaccinated people. that hospital doesn’t. here is the link. https://www.stjude.org/treatment/patient-resources/caregiver-resources/infection-tips/infections-immunocompromised-patients.html
Whoa, Thea! Just because you found a link that doesn’t mention a recommendation doesn’t mean it hasn’t been made. And the interesting thing is that both Johns Hopkins and St. Jude starting REMOVING that recommendation when people started pointing it out. Immunocompromised people ARE susceptible to shedding from live-virus vaccines. That is well-known FACT. Sorry it doesn’t jive with what you want to believe, but that certainly doesn’t make Jean a liar.
Thea, the text you have posted is from a different part of that website. The text in the image posted by the author appears in a very similar form in the hospital’s “Family Guide” pdf leaflet, here:
https://www.stjude.org/content/dam/en_US/shared/www/patient-support/sj-jude-family-guide.pdf
And, similar text appears on the Inpatient Visiting Guidelines page here:
https://www.stjude.org/treatment/patient-resources/caregiver-resources/infection-tips/inpatient-visiting-guidelines.html
So the author was not lying.
Ha, I see, moderation. Well, I hope some of my message will remain with you.
Like I said, good luck.
I’m a leukemia widow, and you are not thinking straight. Vaccines don’t cause disease. Vaccines prevent disease. I know you’d like to find some factor in the illness that you can control, but that’s just not there. There isn’t always someone to blame.
I hope you can get beyond this kind of thinking and make peace with it. I know how hard it is. Good luck.
Respectfully, Silver, vaccines CAN cause disease, that much is FACT. Take a look at the “injury table” of known diseases caused by vaccines. The most obvious example is the Guillain Barre Syndrome that was caused by the H1N1 vaccine in the 1970s.
The CDC has admitted that millions of doses of polio vaccine were contaminated with simian viruses that were later found in human tumors. Lab research has indeed shown that those tumors can be CAUSED by those viruses. That story is covered in the book The Virus and the Vaccine.
There is so, so much more, but I’ll just give a quick rundown on some research in recent years. According to well-known, well-respected (until recently anyway, it’s amazing what can happen to people who insist on speaking the truth) researchers, aluminum in vaccines has been found to trigger latent retro-viruses (like HIV) that cause breakdown of immune systems. Many of the researchers doing the work died of bizarre cancers, some of them more than one at once, at young ages. The story is chronicled in the book Plague by Kent Heckenlively and Judy Mikovitz.
My 22 year old son has an autoimmune syndrome from vaccines when he was an infant. The specialist who has studied my son’s syndrome for years clearly states that vaccines can wreak all sorts of chaos with one’s immune system. Especially in infants. He even wrote a few articles for the medical community with regards to his findings. On another note, he clearly stated that kids with compromised immune systems should never ever receive a live virus vaccine, their siblings should never be vaccinated with live vaccines and that my son stay away from those newly vaccinated for at least 4 weeks. He said to stay away from the newly vaccinated, NOT the unvaccinated. I have proof if you want to see it.
Can you prove one case where a vaccine prevented a disease? Even one case? Because there have been many, many cases where it has been proven that a vaccine actually caused disease.
GG, the evidence is very good that vaccines CAN and DO prevent acute illnesses (to varying degrees with different vaccines). The most obvious one is the measles vaccine. The United States went from 3-4 MILLION cases of measles a year to a much smaller number in a relatively short period of time. I know that “correlation does not equal causation,” but that’s a REALLY strong correlation, and it’s unlikely that the vaccine did not cause that. The question to be asked is at what cost are we preventing acute illnesses? The scientific literature as well as experience make it clear to many that the costs are far too high.
love it!!
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Thank you for your time and energy to write this thorough and thoughtful post! All the best to you and your family!
Thank your for your time and energy to write this wonderfully, thoughtful post! All the best to you and your family!
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I’m not a scientist but I’ve raised 3 children who are now 31,27, and 21. A daughter and 2 sons. My daughter the oldest had all her shots and my middle son had the first set. My youngest didn’t have any. Even though my daughter had shots she had the measles, mumps and chicken pox.
She usually was sick and my other 2 was not. And all there friends in school always had something wrong with them. I now have a grandson That is 13 and didn’t get vaccinated and has never been sick, yes her gets a cold every once in awhile but that’s about it.
I see so many sick kids that get there shots and they have allergies, asthma, cancers you name it….I also have 2 granddaughters ages 2 and 7 months
And they haven’t had shots and live in New Orleans and never sick, but if you look at all the kids in her daycare they are always sick with something. You have to eat healthy and keep your immune system healthy! And they have traveled all over the country and have been around all kinds of different people the same as my children did. I took them to the Chiropractor and acupuncturist.
Being healthy starts at home and not by getting shots. But I don’t look down on parents who vaccinate….I do not believe an unvaccinated child carries a disease…I think it starts with the shots…
Bonnie, your experience has been repeated by parents and grandparents all over the country. I know VERY few people who claim that their UNVACCINATED children have been sick than their vaccinated children. (Yes, that’s “anecdote,” but when you hear very similar “anecdotes” over and over again, it starts makes a very deep impression.) And I watched the same thing in my daughter’s class. So many of her classmates out sick FREQUENTLY. Such a shame. It came on gradually enough that people didn’t even notice that children are so much less healthy than they used to be.
I would like to consider reposting your thought provoking article with your permission to my blog. We have recently been faced with a friend’s diagnosis of leukemia in her young son. It appears that a dose of penicillin (mom was allergic) may have exposed or aggravated a response from the body. After weeks of testing they are telling her her son has leukemia! This article was brought to our attn as we digested the possibility of a link /predisposition possibility.
Thank you
D
It just seems as if all of these arguments are so circular and no one ever agrees.
Personally, I think we need to find a better way.
Perhaps the question is: for those who want to see vaccines as the “big picture way” of health: Have people been seriously injured by vaccines?
Do they contain toxic chemicals?
Unfortunately, when one only looks at the possibility that maybe they save lives (yes, perhaps we can correlate, but the reality of it is that there is no way, unless everyone’s post-vaccine exposure to the illnesses was 100% equal, that we can prove anything about the illnesses and their fading/disappearance). Both vaccinated and unvaccinated children and adults get the illnesses and spread the diseases. If anyone answered yes to both questions, perhaps a better approach than to continue the arguments might be: Do we want to continue to see vaccines as the only way? If research can discover less toxic ways to handle diseases, wouldn’t that be better? If we can have ways to handle diseases that do not also risk or have the potential to injure, wouldn’t that be better? How about ways to handle disease that do not involve injecting the virus or bacteria into a person? How about putting more research into how to heal and treat quickly? With all of the microscopic viruses and bacteria that could, at any point in time, regardless of vaccination, wreak havoc on the human body, maybe it’s time to expand our knowledge and our course of action beyond vaccination. Maybe it’s time to find a better way.
I came across your blog the last time someone tried using Change.org to push a mandatory vaccination petition in the name of children with leukemia, and thought you provided the most thoughtful response I’d read. I wanted to let you know someone is attempting this again: https://www.change.org/p/california-governor-eliminate-the-personal-belief-vaccine-exemption-that-s-putting-sick-california-kids-at-risk
With all of the media hype lately about the measles outbreaks and as a grandmother of two grandchildren – one received her MMR but not her booster prior to starting school and the other has not received her MMR – I read your article with interest.
But what REALLY peaked my interest was the information about iron overload in your bio at the end of your story. I’m a nine year breast cancer survivor and pretty sure that it was an iron overload that caused it. 10 months prior to my bc diagnosis, I was extremely anemic after years of heavy periods and no help from my doctor. I finally was scheduled for a hysterectomy and they found out that my iron levels were dangerously low, which explained months of fatigue, dizziness, etc. The surgery was postponed and I was put on a regimen of iron supplements and a monthly lupron shot to shut down my ovaries. This took place over a six month period and a month after that I had my operation and things were great. Or so I thought. Two months later, I found a huge lump in my breast which turned out to breast cancer. It wasn’t until several years later that I read about the iron toxicity and that this is why so many post-menopausal women get breast cancer and that it can be prevented with a test to see if iron levels are too high. It makes me angry, sad and frustrated that there is more than a slight possibility that many cases of breast cancer could be prevented with a simple test…
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Thank you for writing this and doing all you do. Please do more. We all have to do more, because no one is going to do it for us. No one is going to do the research needed to find out why these new diseases are so prevalent and sky rocketing: food allergies, auto-immune disorders, autism and cancer. We will have to figure it out ourselves, as parents, because the money hungry corporations and politicians are so enmeshed in the smell of money, they won’t do it for us.
Have you come across the book “Vaccine Safety Forum: Summaries of Two Workshops” in your research? They had an interesting section demonstrating a possibility of autoimmune response to vaccines.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK233000/?report=reader
I’ve read the Facebook posting of this article and have been trying very hard for days to contain my extreme frustration at what it says. First of all, let me say from the bottom of my heart, I am so sad to hear that your daughter has had such a difficult road. I cannot imagine, as one mother to another, what you and she and your family have gone through. You have my enormous sympathy and all I can do on that score is wish you and her the very best.
However I must in all conscience challenge some of your arguments. I too have studied science and have two post-graduate degrees. I too am a mom. I am also in my sixties – something you said in your post is about “talk to people in their sixties”. So if you spoke to me, here’s what I’d tell you:
I grew up in the 1950s. In those days, we had vaccines for diseases like diphtheria and typhoid and smallpox. Diseases that killed thousands of people everytime there was an epidemic, which in the 18th and 19th centuries was every few years. Families would lose one, two, three, four, five children in these outbreaks. Vaccination against these lethal and decimating conditions was a miracle. Readers, stop right now with your whining and moaning about thimerosal and vaccine damage and aluminum … these vaccines saved thousands, hundreds of thousands of lives. Probably many of you are here today because your grandparents and great-grandparents didn’t choke to death on their own phlegm from diphtheria or bleed to death or die from pneumonia or otherwise perish from the many possible complications of smallpox … because they were able to benefit from vaccination.
In the 1950s Jonas Salk invented the vaccine against polio. We took it orally in those days, on sugar lumps, although later it became injected. Do you know anything about polio? About children whose muscles were so paralysed they couldn’t breathe? Who had to lie for months and years in “iron lungs” because ventilators hadn’t been invented yet? And who if they got a milder version might only be a bit paralysed, unable to walk without a limp for the rest of their lives, with wasted leg muscles? Yes this was a real thing in my youth, and I know adults in their sixties today who suffered that awful disease. Thanks to Jonas Salk and the pharmacologists who created that vaccine, your children today are spared this potentially fatal and often crippling disease.
When I was a kid, we pretty much all got chicken pox and measles and German measles (rubella) and mumps. For most of us, it wasn’t a big deal, a few days off school and in bed. But if you didn’t have these diseases as kids, there are potentially horrible consequences as adults. Sterility – no sperm production – can occur when grown men get the mumps. Would you deny your sons the MMR vaccine and risk that they’ll never have the chance to be fathers?
Even more consequential – and I’ve yet to see an anti-vaxxer acknowledge this – is the risk to your daughters if by chance German measles returns. German measles isn’t the same as measles: it’s caused by the rubella virus which is the R in MMR. However the rashes look similar which is why the English language uses a similar term for both. Do you have any idea what rubella can do? Well as someone in her sixties, let me tell you. Rubella is, in most children, a short and inconsequential disease lasting maybe three days. But if a pregnant woman in her first trimester is exposed to rubella, and if she does not have immunity either through previous exposure or through vaccination, there is a huge risk that her child will suffer birth defects.
Yes, birth defects from rubella exposure. How serious? Very serious. Blindness. Deafness. Congential heart defects. Brain defects. Need I go on?
Let me tell you a story. In the mid 1960s, when I was a teenager, one of my mother’s friends was exposed to rubella early in her pregnancy. She gave birth to a full-term, blind, baby.
A blind baby. Let that sink in. Are you seriously prepared to let your (irrational) fear of the MMR vaccine put your daughters at risk of having children with birth defects as significant as these? Do you really think this is a good trade-off to risk having blind, deaf, or otherwise seriously birth-defective grandchildren? Please read up on this. Please consider. And please, talk to your grandmothers and great aunts about how afraid women of child-bearing age were of possible rubella infection, back in the bad old days before the MMR vaccine.
Please think about this very carefully. There is a ton of pseudo-science out there and most of it, in my 64-year-old and scientifically educated opinion, is baloney. I’ll put my cards on the table and say that I do not believe that ‘vaccine damage’ is a real thing. I believe that autism is primarily of genetic origin (with a number of other possible triggers) and that the increase in autism has everything to do with increased precision in diagnosis and absolutely nothing to do with vaccination. In my day, the term wasn’t used but that doesn’t mean we didn’t have children who fit the description. What I do observe is that medical researchers and scientists have made such huge progress in protecting and saving our children that we don’t collectively remember how awful it was before there were vaccines. How lucky we are, and what a huge mistake we will make if we forget the past and give up all these gains.
A final word on chemotherapy. To close the loop, let me go back to my childhood again. A child who got leukemia in the 1950s or 1960s died. Just flat out died. It was a death sentence. There was no treatment, no cure. “Cancer survivor” wasn’t a phrase we used in those days because there weren’t any. Chemotherapy actually developed from the awful consequences of the use of mustard gas in the World Wars. Go look it up if you want to know more. Scientists observed that mustard gas killed off blood cells. Long story short, brilliant scientists at Sloan-Kettering began to study and to develop chemical treatments for leukemia. These weren’t available until the late 1960s. Today the survival rate for children with ALL (acute lymphoblastic leukemia) is better than 80% in countries where the drugs are available. What a huge step forward, how many lives have been saved. Just yesterday, I spent the morning accompanying a friend who is having chemo for uterine cancer. We went to one of the major cancer-treatment centers in this country. I couldn’t believe how many hundreds of people were getting chemo that day, for all manner of different cancers. Only 50 years ago and none of them would have had any hope. So big pharma makes these drugs? What of it. It sure beats the alternative.
Please, please, please. I am so devastated that people have got themselves into a mindset that vaccines cause damage. US vaccine schedules are not any more strict than those in any other first world country (Canada, Australia, for example). Look it up. Vaccines cause minimal after-effects in most children and provide a world of benefit. Pharmaceutical companies are not out to poison your children. Medical researchers and scientists have worked hard over many decades to find cures and treatments for childhood diseases.
I wish all our children well and happy lives. And as a woman in her sixties, I can only try to persuade you that our children today live more healthy lives than my generation did, in large part due to vaccines and better all-round public health practices, and that we should absolutely not be fooled into allowing these childhood diseases – ESPECIALLY MUMPS AND RUBELLA – from re-entering our community’s lives again.
Thank you for this!!!!! I couldn’t bear to read this “Momcologist” entire article trying to persuade others by conveniently picking and choosing “references” from various websites in order to support the absurdity of anti vaccination. I am a mother in my thirties, with a doctorate degree. I grew up in a developing country, otherwise known as 3rd world country, and in my childhood many illnesses like the ones you describe still claimed thousands of lives. I am grateful to live in a country where many of these horrendous illnesses have been eradicated, and it pains me to see the growing number of uninformed individuals that are choosing not to vaccinate their little ones.
Thanks again!!
One of the issues here is that the United States is NOT a third-world country and “these diseases” have not been known to claim large numbers of lives for a very long time. We should not be doing blanket vaccination as if they were.
I believe that vaccinations should be parent choice. It shouldn’t be forced upon us. I’ve been doing some research – it seems as if many vaccine injuries that happen are after children receive a battery of shots, as well as after the second or third dose of a particular vaccine. The problem I have is that they are promoted as safe. The whole industry shoots itself in the foot by marketing that they are safe and effective, when people who have been injured and know people who have been injured know that there are risks involved (who would buy a product that was 25% effective as this past year’s flu shot was?) After researching, we have decided to do limited and delayed vaccine; only one shot at a time, but very limited. If any fevers develop to any vaccination, we will stop there. Vaccines are a risk factor. They need to be marketing correctly: it’s an analysis of risk, and determining what risk outweighs the other. Certainly, I think in the event of a mass pandemic of some diseases, vaccines can play a role. But many healthy children are not vaccinated. Also, patients need to be more informed, too, by being given vaccine information inserts, information about different brands. Most doctors offices select the brands, but patients are never given the option to choose a brand based on safety, ingredients, nor are parents given the option of choosing, when, how many to give, etc. Yes, the diseases can be horrible in some people; but so can the vaccines. We have to be real.
How dare you infer that people who happen to disagree with you are uninformed! Just because you have a doctorate doesn’t mean you know much about anything other than parroting off the answers your examiners wanted to hear!
You’re extremely ill informed when it comes to the smallpox vaccinations. Not only did they not save ONE single life, but killed hundreds of thousands of people.
What finally stopped smallpox were better hygiene, less crowded living conditions, better sanitation (as in no open sewers) and the car (before the invention of the car, cities were FILLED with horse dung which caused horrible outbreaks of disease).
Take the example of Prussia:
In 1834 Prussia made the smallpox vaccination mandatory. For 35 years every single citizen was forcibly vaccinated. Not just once, but at least four times, sometimes up to ten times.
After these 35 years, this 100% vaccinated and re-vaccinated population suffered the worst smallpox epidemic they had ever suffered, which killed nearly 130,000 people.
When the U.S. mandated a mass smallpox vaccination program in the Philippines in 1917, some 25 million shots were given to those people. 163,000 Filipinos came down with the disease after the vaccination, and 75,339 Filipinos died from it, quadrupling the death rate prior to the inoculation program.
I was born in Germany in 1953, at which point the smallpox vaccine was still mandatory there. I was vaccinated when I was 2 1/2 years old.
I was a perfectly healthy, robust child before vaccination. Since I’ve received that cursed vaccine, I haven’t been well a day in my life. I developed asthma, Celiac disease, fibromyalgia and turned from a chubby, rosy-cheeked child into a wan-looking, pale, skinny-as-a-stick, sickly child. When looking at pictures of myself before and after receiving that vaccine, the contrast is striking. And I well remember the pain, the illness, almost dying from asthma etc., as it was all quite traumatic.
And then I got the live polio vaccine at the age of six, which added chronic fatigue to my maladies.
I ONLY got TWO vaccines, which ruined my health. I can’t imagine little children getting 47 by the time they start school!
And I was one of the ‘lucky’ ones. Scores of children died after getting the smallpox vaccination.
http://www.thedoctorwithin.com/smallpox/smallpox-bringing-a-dead-disease-back-to-life/
Smallpox has been eradicated from the diseases that plague humankind. Vaccination has been one of the key tools that has contributed to that victory, along with better personal and public hygiene, accessible healthcare, and the overcoming of superstition among people who didn’t understand the principles and practices of immunization.
I wouldn’t want to go to far in using 18th and 19th century medicine as a tool to beat modern medicine over the head with. Hopefully we’ve come a long way since then with better diagnosis, treatment and research. However regarding the Philippines story – smallpox was rife in that part of the world and there were huge epidemics during the times you reference – I found this BMJ article from 1923 to be very helpful. It cites a lot of problems, including superstition and the fact that local people weren’t well trained and there weren’t many health care professionals in those days. It also speaks to the difficulty, in those days, of getting smallpox vaccine to outlying villages and islands. We hadn’t invented freeze drying then, so there is strong evidence that the vaccine used in the mass vaccinations had deteriorated to the point of being ineffective. Also evidence that the vaccine rates may have been falsified in some places. Add to that an actual epidemic of the disease during the 1918 period … in which many people died.
Take a look http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2315899/?page=1
Would have been a very nice comment Anne if you hadn’t revealed your basic scorn for anyone who happens to not hold your view by labeling them ‘irrational’ and referring to any contra studies as ‘pseudo-science’ and baloney.
Yours is a totally emotive plea for people to do what you want them to do thinly veiled by ‘enormous sympathy’ from the bottom of your heart, while you cruelly set out to invalidate their experience of vaccine damage.
I too grew up in the 50’s and 60’s and what you describe is more from my grandmother’s era in the early 1990’s and the 1930’s with the Great Depression when many people were malnourished and there was little hygiene and sanitation in many places . . . indeed I have recollections of thunderboxes in the garden and night soil collections (moon fishing) in towns which had largely phased out by the 60’s although persisted into the 80’s in isolated areas . . . hopefully now replaced by composting toilets even there.
To say that children live more healthy lives today is a strange claim when you look at the numbers on inhalers or with food allergies, the staggering rise in obesity, auto-ommune diseases and childhood cancers: and whilst providing many young offenders with opportunities to repay their debt to society through community service, I found the majority of them had trouble keeping up with me, being 3 – 4 x older! – some were reduced to just a trembling jelly after just 30 minutes of moderate exercise like pushing or loading a wheel barrow or digging etc.
Looking at it dispassionately the big question is who benefits from vaccines against such a mild illness as chicken pox?: and why are babies given vaccines really only designed for drug addicts and the promiscuous? Why has the whooping cough vaccine gone from just one shot to 2 then 3 then 4 and now suggested even are needed? The answer is of course primarily the vaccine manufacturers, followed closely by those who deliver them, and one could be cynical and say also those who ‘treat the collateral damage’.
Unfortunately the cases of vaccine damage that I am familiar with are mostly dropped like a hot potato by the very people who have delivered this cruel blow and the parents are left to fend for themselves and to then have to put up with the condescending comments from people like you is just rubbing salt in the wound.
My goodness. There is a lot in your comment, so if you don’t mind I will hit the high points, so to speak. First, the smallpox vaccine. Wow. Super great invention. Killed nearly as many people as the disease did, we should be super thankful. Sorry, my sarcasm got away from me for a minute there. And ma’am, I will continue “whining” about aluminum in vaccines, considering that I watched my brilliant and sharp minded grandmother (who was very conscientious about getting vaccinated) mentally and physically rot away from Alzheimer’s disease. Look up the connection between aluminum and Alzheimer’s, please. I don’t have room to detail it here. Also, please prove to me that vaccines have saved even one life. Just prove ONE saved life. Two: The sugar lump polio vaccine. Now there is a beauty. That little oral vaccine gave so many people paralytic polio it’s now banned for use in the US. (You didn’t catch that in your scientific training…?) There has not been a wild case of polio in the US in more then 20 years, but there have been many, many cases of polio caused by the vaccine. Also, and you can find this information on the CDC website, more than 90% of people that get polio have such mild flu like symptoms that they never knew they had polio. The iron lungs that everyone was so horrified by? Vaccine related polio. Three: Rubella. Rubella is not a danger to children, only to pregnant women, and even then only early in pregnancy. If your mother’s friend had been exposed only a few weeks later, her baby would not have had any birth defects. To finish, you call yourself scientifically trained, but do not mention how or in what. I would be very curious to know that, because you seem rather uneducated about vaccines anyway. Stating that vaccine damage “isn’t a thing”? You would have to have your head buried very, very deeply in that sand to believe that. You would have to ignore the stated facts on the CDC website, because they state that vaxx damage can happen. You have to ignore the billions of dollars the government has payed out to vaccine damaged children and their families. You have to ignore the vaccine inserts printed out by the vaccine manufacturers themselves. You would have to ignore any doctor you care to ask, because even the ones that support vaccination have to admit it’s certainly possible they could cause damage. You even have to ignore thousands of grieving parents, who have permanently handicapped or dead babies because of vaccines. And finally ma’am, you have to be arrogant and rather cruel to call a fear of the MMR vaccine “irrational”. I watched my son regress and lose almost all of his power of speech after having that vaccine at 12 months old.
Annie M. I grew up during the years you describe. There were 6 of us and we got our shots, there were only 4 then. We also had all the childhood diseases which were not considered dangerous. I don’t remember a single child in any of my classes that had allergies, asthma, ADD, ADHD, or any of these other diseases our children have that are so common now. Nobody thinks twice about all these children walking around with epipens and inhalers. The school nurse can’t give them an aspirin but they keep emergency treatments stocked just in case they are needed. As far as Rubella and pregnancies, during the 2009/2010 flu season, the percentage of fetal deaths contributed to the flu vaccine was at 6.3 per million. During the 2010/2011 season, that number jumped to 77.9 fetal deaths per million. These are the CDC’s published figures where they basically said, OOPS, and said it was most likely caused by them recommending and vaccinating these women with both the H1N1 and regular flu shot that year. You mention Jonas Salk. Are you aware that in 1977 he along with other scientists testified that his vaccine had been the cause of most polio cases in the US since 1963. Have you even looked at the DTaP insert where it states that some instances of SIDS can be expected after a child receives the vaccine. SIDS is the number one killer of children 2 and under in the US. Our IMR (Infant Mortality Rate) ranks at #33 in the world despite us spending more on healthcare than any other country in the world. By the way parents in Canada and Australia are fighting mandated vaccines too and for the same reasons. Look up GBS another autoimmune disease that is mostly tied to the Flu Vaccine and the VICP has paid out millions to families. Reads a lot like polio from our day. Main difference between then and now is that instead of being waterborne, this disease is vaccine induced. We have better technology than the iron lung of our day to keep them breathing when they go into respiratory failure. Maybe you remember how we took care of tetanus. First let it bleed and then hydrogen peroxide. You cannot develop immunity even if you had the disease and it is not contagious. Tetanus, smallpox, and swine flu vaccines were shown to trigger Rheumatoid diseases like RA and Lupus. Study was done by the US Army on military personnel and recorded in the annals of rheumatology My oldest developed RA at 13 after a Tetanus booster. My doctor told me it was the vaccine. Next, grandson became lethargic and quiet after receiving his battery of vaccines at 3 months old. Perfectly happy, healthy baby boy. Three days later he was dead. Diagnosis SIDS. In our day shingles was considered an old people’s disease because no one got it until they were in their 60’s. Now thanks to the so called weakened live virus in the chickenpox vaccine, shingles is being diagnosed in young children and adults and some of them have never had chickenpox. This is what happened to my 18 year old granddaughter. Another granddaughter put on albuterol for Asthma at 3 months old after her vaccinations. Great granddaughter, chronic ear infections, a blood disorder, and autism. Great grandson with bleeding rash on his body. Chickenpox was never dangerous and was only approved as being cost effective so parents would not have to miss work. Autism was first diagnosed in 1943 and was blamed back then on poor parenting. The chances of a child under 15 developing Hep B is less than 1%. We have the same right as you to protect or children. Alex, this “Momocologist” is spot on. You want references, go to http://www.clinicaltrials.gov. Use your “doctorate degree” you refer too. Most of us are not anti vaccination, another error on your part. We are very well informed because we have asked questions and also done our own research. The only disease they claim to have eradicated is smallpox. Even bubonic plague is still around. The vaccine was still available for the military up until 1999. They say they can’t eradicate it because rats and fleas still carry it yet ironically, we are not vaccinated against it. The only absurdity are the number and types of vaccines currently awaiting approval for such things as smoking, obesity, cocaine. RA. Alzheimer’s, and the list goes on for a total of 273 new vaccines. All of the above information was obtained from the CDC, Army, VICP, and the manufacturers. You can vaccinate all you want. I am not willing to take the risks with my babies and I intend on keeping the right to INFORMED consent. America is headed in the wrong direction if they can threaten us with gestapo type door to door vaccinations or anything else!
Well said!!
I agree
Annie M… thank you for shining some common sense and medical and anecdotal sanity on this issue!
Thank you for an amazing article. I am undergoing a similar experience with my mother. My mother had lymphoma a year ago and had her stem cells harvested, underwent aggressive chemo and radiation, then her stems cells were reintroduced into her body. Her doctor said that her immunity was destroyed and now they want to give her all the childhood shots again. She is over 70 so had much natural immunity not from vaxxes. Knowing what I do about the dangers of vaxxes, are there alternatives for her? Natural remedies are out of pocket expenses and only drugs and vaxxes are covered by their insurance.how can we boost her immune system naturally and without breaking the bank? Another friend of mine did get the “childhood shots” updated and she had a goose-egg sized lump on her leg. When she questioned her reaction she was told by her doc that it was normal… I want to keep mom safe and welcome any advice you can give. Thank you.
Here’s a little known legal secret for use anytime the state tries to force you into something against your will. THEY HAVE NO AUTHORITY OR JURISDICTION OVER YOU. If they say they do, make them prove it. They can’t because it doesn’t exists. Our rights are are god-given and can not be taken away. Who does the government get its authority from? YOU and ME.
You may also use this anytime you find yourself in a kangaroo court answering to a non-crime. Contrary to popular belief, you are above the law (mans laws).
Can I ask how you know this Michael
I’ll try to keep this short and sweet as books have been written explaining this. I’ve been studying law for a little over a year. There are two forms of law. Mans law which goes by Admiralty law, maritime, or corporate law. It is a distinct body of law that governs maritime questions and offenses. It is a body of both domestic law governing maritime activities, and private international law governing the relationships between private entities that operate vessels on the oceans. Are you a corporation and/or do you operate on the high seas? Probably not. This form of law is most used and are not laws at all. It is an illusion. Since man creates these un-natural laws, this puts man above these laws. For this law to be effective, you must give consent. We do so by standing in the Kangaroo court when the bailiff says “All Rise”.
The second form of law goes by several names, Gods law, Natural law, Universal law or Common law. This is the real law, given to us by the creator. It can not be modified, taken away or denied. The Kangaroo courts must comply with it and will only do so when you invoke your God-given rights. You see Alyssa, your rights come from the creator and can not be taken away by anyone or anything. The governments rights come from us, you and me. Their rights can be revoked. If any government body tries to enforce their laws upon you ask them to show proof of jurisdiction. They can not because it does not exists. If you can prove it does. Please do so, I sincerely mean this. I have yet to find anyone that can prove this. Mans laws are legal fictions.
Codes, statutes and acts are not laws. The general misconception is any statute passed by legislators bearing the appearance of law constitutes the law of the land. The U.S. constitution is the supreme law of the land, and any statutes, code or act, to be valid, must be in agreement with the Constitution. It is impossible for a law which violates the Constitution to be valid. “All laws which are repugnant to the Constitution are null and void.” Marbury vs. Madison (1803).
I hope this answers your question. If people knew and understood their “God-given” rights, the government(s) would have very little control over the masses and we would still have a Republic. This has been lost with the state run, public educational, brainwashing system and media. Everything we’ve been taught is a lie.
Peace
Thank you for sharing this post. Can you share any recent information you are aware of regarding adverse reactions to the HPV vaccine? My daughters have both been vaccinated on schedule for everything and I haven’t much questioned that as we have been fortunate not to have experienced any vaccine injury. To those of you who have I’m terribly sorry to hear it. When anyone asks me why not the HPV vaccine, I remind them that the first rotavirus vaccine was introduced when my children were young and I well-remember reading that it had to be pulled from the market when the side effects were so numerous and devastating that they were worse than the disease. The HPV vaccine was new enough when my daughters turned 11 that I felt the unknown risks of vaccinating could not easily be weighed against the unknown risks of not vaccinating. I still feel the same way but my information is not current and the cancer fear is more real to me at the moment and most of what I have read opposed to the vaccine is not all that helpful. Yes Merck & big pharma behaved badly in getting the mandate passed but is there any thing more? I would like to be persuaded and have something intelligent to share with my pediatrician who is firmly pro-vaccination and has a policy to expel parents who do not vaccinate from her practice. My daughters are now nearly adults and will soon enough stop seeing a pediatrician and go to a family physician or gynecologist for routine medical care, and I wonder what the current standard of care as to vaccination is in those practices??
Yes, there’s more. Hopefully this post can help you a bit. It should be able to help reassure you on the subject of cancer and HPV vaccines. https://thinkingmomsrevolution.com/the-evidence-on-gardasil-modern-miracle-or-dangerous-scam/ There is further research that’s come out since I wrote that on the incidence of premature ovarian failure in European girls. One of the most common side effects is fainting some time in the few hours after the shot. Unfortunately, that can occur while a young woman is driving home.
Debi,
I know the fear you are feeling. Thirty years ago I mostly did not vaccinate my children but fear caught up with me from time to time. You should check out VaxTruth.org and vaccineimpact.com. Many articles with good information. You will feel more confident about your choices.
As far as the HPV vaccine is concerned, I believe it to be a dangerous vaccine and only covers 3 strains of the hundreds of strains of HPV out there. 98% of women will clear the infection without incidence. I’ve also recently read about doubts that HPV is the cause of the cancer they hope to stop.
Hope this helps.
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Hi, I just wanted to say that I have references of a couple of nonpharmaceutical methods that have cur e cancer very effectively. One of those is with citric acid. If interested,send me an email.
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You should look into cannabis oil to cure your daughter’s lukemia. Look up Rick Simpson’s cannabis oil recipe. Many children have cured their cancer with cannabis oil.
We read similar research in the 80s, believed it then…believe it now. When will we educate ourselves and do the best thing for our children?
This makes for very interesting reading. Thank you for sharing this … it was info I desperately needed to hear.
It’s worth thoroughly reading sources 12 and 13, cited for the comment: “The measles virus as an actual treatment has also been explored in other malignancies.” As noted in those sources, the native measles virus itself is *not* being explored as a cancer treatment. While measles can in some cases kill cancer cells, it’s not used as a treatment for cancer because in order for it to do that, you have to get the measles. And though measles may be easy enough to treat in the first world, you *can’t* treat it if you want to kill the cancer with it! It has to stick around to do its cancer killing, so you basically would have to let the patient be as sick as possible. As they note in source 12, “this was associated with unacceptable morbidities due to infection of normal tissues.”
What people *are* doing (related to my own research) is making a genetically engineered version of the measles virus that’s designed to fight and kill cancer. This bioengineering project actually has great potential, and with any luck, a measles virus redesigned to both not give you the measles and also to fight cancer will be ready to go!
I have looked into this as well. Before the “outbreak” I found several cases of wild measles contraction in individuals with cancer that appeared responsible for curing cancer in a couple of individuals (who lived in vastly different regions). I can no longer find those links. I have looked for hours and not found them.
I can only find links now that express that ONLY the modified measles virus could possibly be responsible. But one thing to keep in mind, is that no matter which one you look at, if someone has been vaccinated against measles or has antibodies, this can’t be used as a treatment. That leaves a possibly less harmful treatment not available for the majority of cancer patients, as most of them were vaccinated as children or before cancer symptoms.
Some doctors have mused (sorry, I don’t have time to find links for you, I have to feed my son breakfast…look it up yourself) that maybe the extra work that the immune system and body has to put into fighting the ACTUAL disease, rather than the vaccine “test run”, may help the immune system have a better chance at fighting the cancer in the first place. Contraction of these semi-serious, yet mostly benign, pathogens can actually strengthen the immune system through using all its functions in fuller force than what vaccines can provide. We don’t know the full repercussions (yes, some lives are being saved because people are not contracting mortal cases of measles), of not allowing our bodies to create a full-on battle with the real diseases…and what that may mean for future generations.
Thank you for writing this and sharing your story. We lost my dad in December 2013 to a horrible autoimmune disease (Wegener’s Granulomatosis) for which there is “no known cause.” Since that time I have been processing our experience and trying to work up the energy to write about how it has influenced our decisions regarding vaccines. The immune system is a powerful force of nature–much more powerful than I think most people realize. Most of the time it just works quietly behind the scenes, protecting us from threats we never even knew we came into contact with. When it goes haywire and begins attacking the body it was meant to protect, however, it can be horrific and, yes, lethal. It’s hard to take an expert seriously when they admit (as they must) that it’s currently impossible to know what causes autoimmune disease while also insisting that vaccines are safe and trustworthy. They very well could be a contributing factor, especially long-term. Of particular interest is the list of possible side effects in the vaccine inserts, which include some symptoms of autoimmune disease–vasculitis, for example. Even more frustrating is the extremely low-quality but high-cost medical care available to those who develop an autoimmune disease, especially if it’s a “rare” one. About a decade ago when my father first started experiencing Wegener’s vasculitis, he nearly died from it before all the doctors he had seen at two different hospitals and one doctor’s office could even figure out what it was! They had simply never heard of Wegener’s. This is the medical community we are supposed to trust. I would like to know, at the very least, that if someone in my family is harmed by a vaccine, that some semblance of decent medical care is available to help us pick up the pieces without bankrupting us. Our current system in the US does not even come close to providing this. We deserve better.
Anyway, your writing was so inspiring to me. Thanks for putting it out there; it really makes a difference.
My mother in law was scratched by a dog , the scratch required several stitches and a tetanus shot at the ER. Since they had her captive they gave a flu vaccine, as well. She became very ill, died within three months of the event of Wegeners. Until that “event” she ran the track every morning, and was quite fit and healthy.
I don’t get it. “Cancer kid”? You may think and feel a lot of different things when your child has cancer, but to refer to them as a “cancer kid”?
Marnie, here are just two ways vaccines HAVE a negative effect in terms of “hygiene theory.”
http://drsuzanne.net/dr-suzanne-humphries-antibiotics-antivirals-antifungals/
http://www.nbcnews.com/id/20825107/#.VOqHB_nF-So
Great article! And so nice to see a real “Thinking Mom” rather than an emotionally out of control one that clearly hasn’t done much real research on the subject. I feel for all parents that have a child with cancer or any disease for that matter but giving the government complete control over our bodies and take away any rights that we have is WRONG, WRONG, WRONG and those pushing for this are asking for complete Tyranny. And if that happens, we are all in grave trouble. Whether you are for or against vaccines, you must think about what you are giving up. Everyone that I know that is 10 years or more older than myself, had the Measles, They had the Mumps, the Chicken Pox and guess what? They lived to tell it and they also say how it was “no big deal”. Oh and now have lifetime immunity as they were meant to. What have we traded the Measles, Mumps in for? That is the big question here. I pray for us all and for all the sick children in the world. May God Protect and heal them all.
Well Liz,
It is good that you know very few people relative to the millions upon millions who have received vaccinations with no ill effects. The injury rate from football is far greater than vaccinations, yet many parents don’t give a second thought to their children playing football as young as 5 or 6. When I agree to vaccinations for my children, I wasn’t doing because of governmental control, I was doing realizing it was for the greater good and quite a small risk to take compared to the enormous benefit. And once again, the author didn’t say to ban all vaccinations, rather she said we may be giving too many vaccinations. Quite a difference.
Hello Sean,
I never once said to ban all vaccines. Take them all if you wish. Even the next 266 that they are currently working on. One of them should be an HIV one and even one for Strep. I have no problem at all with anyone that chooses to get vaccines. I have a problem with the government stepping in and forcing every single one of them upon us all. Some of us have done decades of research and live very healthy lives unlike the majority of America. Healthy living and healthy diets go a long way toward having good health. Probably the reason we rarely get sick. I never thought we would see the day in America where so many would welcome communism back. Very sad. I respect your choice to do what if right for you and your family. Give some of us the same respect is all I ask.
Thank you so much for writing this. My daughter suffers from severe eczema caused by multiple allergies, among which are wheat, dairy, oats, rice, corn, and several others. Dealing with a corn allergy is extremely difficult because corn is in everything, including vaccines. It has been so challenging trying to get people to understand that my decision to not vaccinate my daughter is for her own safety. Everyone, including health care professionals insist that vaccinating her is what is best and that an allergic reaction is a small price to pay for immunity to these diseases. They don’t see her on the floor screaming and scratching in pain every time she is exposed to corn. Of course I don’t want my daughter to get sick, but I also don’t want to knowingly inflict immense pain on her either. This year, I decided to enroll her in a licensed daycare. I watched all of the vaccinated kids get really sick over the winter. Their illnesses dragged on and on for weeks, even months. My daughter would get sick and then bounce right back. I firmly believe that this is a direct result of not vaccinating her. I’m so glad that other parents out there share in my belief that vaccines are not the solution but rather part of the problem. Thank you for being willing to share. I hope that someday we can make the world a safer, healthier place for our children so that they no longer have to suffer from cancer, allergies, diabetes, or other terrible diseases that have no cure.
Ashley,
My children also have numerous food allergies including dairy, wheat, eggs, peanuts, soy, plus many more. My children DO receive vaccines but not the flu shot (due to the eggs), and I have made the same observation in my own children that they do not seem to become as ill nearly as often as other children at school. However, I feel this is because my kids are just much healthy eaters. They have to eat whole foods, because convenient foods are not an option. Gluten is not good for anyone in my opinion. As a teacher, I watch what children are eating every day at lunch, and it is no wonder that they are sick all the time! Just a thought! I had no idea that corn was in vaccines!!
Dear Jean Ghantous,
I was referred to your article by my sister. I noticed your commenting on autoimmune disorders. I haven’t yet read your entire article just the first few sections so far, I feel it important to share with you a blog written by Dr. Ayers a researcher and professor. His blog is cooling inflammation http://coolinginflammation.blogspot.co.nz/ .
His research highlights the importance of gut flora and correct diet in producing tregs which fight cancer. Jean, since you are the investigative type I recommend you start by reading his summarising health diagrams I, II & III http://coolinginflammation.blogspot.co.nz/2014/03/health-in-diagrams-i-gut-flora-and-diet.html. This outlines the foundation of the immune system and corrections to diet, the role of gut flora and how to populate the colon with healthy flora. Then you could move on to his anti-inflammatory diet
Fantastic article! I’m so glad that someone with the science background can compile this information for those of us who have only the intuition that what you have written is correct. As an educator I can verify that the growing number of students with special needs is alarming, abnormal, and desperately in need of investigation. What you have written makes so much sense and answers many questions for me, confirming my suspicions and further informing me. Thank you so much for your efforts in behalf of our children.
I find that I have to comment about the polio vaccine in particular. One of my sisters and I both got polio after being vaccinated for it in 1955. I had thought that th3 vaccine was the only contributing factor until I heard Dr Susan Humphries did a conference about it. It seems that the symptoms are very similar to DDT poisoning. As a child I remember what fun it was to spray the flies in the barn with DDT. They dropped dead there and then! Now there is very little polio diagnosed mainly because the liable has changed, according to Dr Humphries.
I’m intrigued with the DDT angle as well. I can certainly imagine that such a toxic compound would make it easier for the polio to invade the central nervous system. My sister and older brothers can remember riding their bikes behind the DDT trucks on Long Island.
Polio vaccine was first invented in 1954 and it was adminstered orally – I received mine on sugar lumps in the 1960s. It was some years before it was adminstered by needle. “Similar to DDT poisoning” – what are you talking about. You ate a sugar lump, no side effects. It sure beats getting polio. I am the same age as you and I remember kids my age getting crippled from the disease of polio. Their muscles wasted (usually in the legs) and they were never able to walk again properly. I’m so glad children these days don’t have to face that awful fate.
Annie, she didn’t say anything about it being administered by a needle. And “no side effects” is hardly true. The fact that it gave many children polio is well-documented, especially those from one manufacturer who had to be shut down because the vaccine CAUSED more polio than it prevented. That vaccine was also contaminated with SV40, a simian virus that has been shown to cause cancer, including leukemia. In addition, the oral polio vaccine is a live-virus vaccine and can and does shed, spreading polio to immunocompromised people, which is why the oral polio vaccine is no longer used in this country.
There is a possibility that the reason why polio became so much more virulent in the 1940s and 1950s is that a synergy existed between DDT and the polio virus, enabling the polio virus to work its way into the nervous system of its victim in a way that was much more rare in the past. I too am glad children these days don’t have to “face that awful fate,” but children these days have other “awful fates” to face, including severe autism that you seem to think is no more prevalent now than it has ever been in the past. Did you know that last year the CDC said that 1 in 68 12-year-olds has autism? Did you know that approximately one-third of them are non-verbal, meaning THEY CAN’T TALK? Severe autism often means that a child cannot learn to use the bathroom or sit in a classroom, or go anywhere without headphones on to shield out the onslaught of sensory information. In addition, it comes with a wide variety of co-occurring illnesses that include seizures, severe gastrointestinal disease, severe mitochondria disease, keeping many of them in wheelchairs. It’s not some “quirk” that might have gotten missed in your pediatrician’s work-up.
No side effects Annie! Wow! I attribute my leukaemia to having had an oral polio booster when my daughter was a baby. The nurse insisted that because the oral polio sheds in the baby’s stools it was imperative that my husband and I have boosters to stop us getting polio from her. Shortly after I started getting strange symptoms and then BAM… a leukaemia diagnosis! Also after all my treatment for leukaemia including eventually a stem cell transplant, I was advised to stay away from recently vaccinated people and animals. How unfortunate is it for the many immuno-compromised people in this world that people who get vaccinations are not being made aware of their potential to unknowingly shed disease to others?
An outbreak of shingles in among children? That’s a big red flag. I suspect the rest is just as fictional.
“Anyone who has had chickenpox or received chickenpox vaccine in the past may develop shingles. Even children can get shingles.”http://www.cdc.gov/shingles/ I love how people claim that anything that hasn’t happened to them or their kid is “fictional.” The only thing “fictional” about it is the word “outbreak,” and that would be because that’s not how shingles works. Shingles happens on an individual case-by-case basis when someone who has had chicken pox or chicken pox vaccine in the past has the virus reactivate within their body. In other words, the virus is already there. You can’t “catch it.” There is evidence to suggest that repeated exposure to the wild chicken pox virus is what kept people’s immune systems from allowing the virus to reactivate. When I was a child, everyone got chicken pox, but I’d never heard of shingles, despite the fact that I have a huge extended family with many, many aunts and uncles who were in the over-50 age category that is supposed to be most susceptible. Now I know many people who have gotten shingles in their 40s or younger. In addition, I’m hearing of more and more cases in children. Yep. It’s anecdotal. Like so many other “anecdotal” phenomena, do you see anyone quantifying the data? Yeah, me neither. And, by the way, chicken pox will never be eradicated because the virus continues to live on in the nerves and can be reactivated. The chicken pox virus can then spread to anyone who has not had it yet. We’ve traded chicken pox for shingles. Yippee!
I had never heard of shingles until I had it at the age of 18. Not quite an elementary student anymore at that point :P, but still quite a bit younger than it is generally assumed for people to have it! And yes, I had shingles because I’d already had chicken pox as a child and so the virus was already in my system.
This is ALL about connecting the dots. Thank you for a well written, informative article.
This was a fantastic read from beginning to end & as i question the vaccinations i put my (now grown) children thru & some of their health issues now, I have passed this article on to my daughter as she will be starting her family this year & this message so desparately needs to be passed around………Thank you all!
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Well, cherrio for those who want to see the return of polio wards. A big point missed by the reviews I did read was the author’s point on the # of vaccinations American children receive. It wasn’t presented as an all/none situation, but rather we may give them too much situation.
So the question then becomes if we do decrease the number of vaccinations, which ones do we leave behind?
Another point on shedding. A chemo patient is extemely immuno compromised to the point drugs are given to suppress their immune system. Your general run of the mill I’m sort of immuno-compromised individual will be hit or miss depending on the degree of their compromise.
Last point is historical. Women’s sufferage came out in the 1910’s, and women went to work for the first time in force during WWII. But, women we still having multiple babies because a % were lost to childhood disease. It wasn’t until the work of Salk and Sabin where women could then actively choose to have less children because the rate of survival did increase. So if your desire is set on the elimination of all vaccines the women need to realize they will be under much more stress in having mutiple kids because a significant more % WILL die, be blind, crippled, etc…. So are you ready for the return of polio wards?
Wow. First off, no one wants to “see the return of polio wards.” There is much to discuss about polio, including why did such a benign illness (according to the CDC 95% of cases are so mild the person doesn’t even know they have it) become so virulent in the early 1900s? But that’s a question for another day.
The important point you’re making, and one that we frequently emphasize, is that the vaccine program has gone off the rails and there ARE way too many, way too soon. Period. If the CDC had left the recommendations for vaccines to really serious diseases that were very common, there would probably have never been much in the way of pushback. But they didn’t. They added things like hepatitis B, which affected less than 2 in 100,000 children aged 0-4 BEFORE the vaccine. And they recommend it for the FIRST DAY OF LIFE, long before you know anything about your child’s immune system, and long before your child can make mature antibodies. They also added the flu shots for pregnant women when they have never been tested in pregnant women and the inserts themselves say “we don’t know how this will affect you or your child.” And for children as young as six months, though according to the Cochrane Collaboration there is no evidence that even in a year with a “good match” they are effective for children under two. They also added chicken pox, which is creating a wave of nasty shingles cases in ever younger people. And HPV for a virus that the vast majority clear with no problems, and according to a mainstream study would only reduce the death rate for cervical cancer by 0.5% over sixty years of vaccinating, but has caused tremendous harm to many adolescent girls already.
There are easy and obvious vaccines ones to dump for the vast majority of the people, but people should be able to assess the real risks and benefits for THEMSELVES and their families. If you NEVER get the flu, why should you be forced to get a flu shot? If you get the flu every year and are wiped out, you might consider the benefit to be much greater than the first person. THIS IS WHY VACCINE CHOICE IS CRUCIAL. YOUR estimate of risks vs. benefits is not going to be the same as anyone else’s, nor should it be.
By the way, mortality rates for most diseases dropped long before Salk and Sabin. Women were not expecting to lose significant numbers of children in the 1950s. My mother’s family lived in New York City. She was born in 1922 in the middle of a family of 13 children. They had all the usual diseases. Not one of them died as a child or of a “vaccine-preventable” illness. Yes, that’s anecdotal. Maybe they came from “strong stock.” Only that “strong stock” has been wracked with autoimmune issues in the more recent generations. Hmmmm…
Professor TMR,
It is also important to not for these people that there is NO BLOOD BRAIN BARRIER in children until 2-3 years old. This means the toxins, with the flow of your blood, are first fed right into your child’s unprotected brain, where they have the most damaging psychological and neurological negative effects on your child’s development. This is PETRIFYING even if you believe in the “theory” of vaccines working for a greater good.
Well you claim of ‘if you never get the flu then you don’t need a flu shot’ is rather pointless. You can predict when you are going to get the flu? Really? Nobody can precit when they are going to get any disease.
Your story about your family growing up in NYC with 13 siblings is ancedotal as well. My genelogy points in the other direction – many second wives as the first died in childbirth. Mysterious women living with the family, i.e. the wet nurse. As I am a child of the Mayflower I have lineage on my mother’s side back to that fateful trip. The 1700’s and 1800’s are rife with stillborns, childhood deaths, and second wives. Yes, ancedotal evidence, but 100+ years of ancedotal evidence.
The inserts in vaccination packages are lawyerese. You, yourself, was probably vaccinated as a child, as was I. Its simply full disclosure. These things could happen, but is it likely? Not really. Adverse reactions do rarely occur to vaccinations, and you are right about risk assessment. But lets look at this, shall we? No vaccines, but you put the child in a car? You let the child play football? There are so many activities that have much more risk than vaccinations that parents just do without a second thought. But for the vast majority of people vaccines are a safe and effective. If they weren’t we simply wouldn’t be debating about their effectiveness and vaccines would have gone the way of leeches. Vaccines have become a victim of their own success. This is a problem with most public health issues – it is much harder to ‘see’ prevention then cure.
On more thing, go tell the people who were crippeld by polio, or spent time in a iron lung just how ‘harmless’ the disease is. It is funny you how can dismiss vast numbers of victims of a ‘harmless’ disease and yet focus on obviously Dr. Google results on the chicken pox vaccine causing shingles. I’ll leave you with this link containing a picture of a iorn lung ward from 1956.
http://allnurses.com/general-nursing-discussion/iron-lung-wards-933171.html
5% of a hundred million is still 5 million people. You ready for the logistics of 300 million people with polio on the loose? Small pox? Rubella?
First off, I didn’t say ‘if you never get the flu then you don’t need a flu shot.’ I said if you never get the flu, your assessment of the benefit from the shot will be different from the assessment of someone who gets the flu frequently. That’s not meaningless. That’s truth. I’m in my 50s. I’ve had the flu TWICE. Nope, not entirely predictable, but something to take into account when assessing risks and benefits. I don’t have much to benefit from the shot, therefore, it takes very little risk to counteract any benefit. If I were growing up now, I could have 50 years worth of shots with no benefit. That’s a whole lot of risk compounded over time.
YOU said that mothers were having “extra children” to make up for those that would die until the 1950s. HUNDREDS of years worth of anecdotes are useless in a discussion of the particular time period before the 1950s. Google the history of death rates from infectious disease, and Google what the changes in sanitation did. And Google how Semmelweiss told doctors they should wash their hands before delivering babies only to be laughed at and sent to an asylum, where ironically he died of septicemia two weeks later. Then, of course, you’ll find that far fewer “first wives” died in childbirth after they started doing what he said. Women were not assuming that a good percentage of their children would die long before the 50s.
“Lawyerese,” “full disclosure”? Are you aware that vaccine manufacturers have ZERO liability for any harm done by their vaccines? Not true of a car seat manufacturer, is it? Before that was the case, vaccine policy was far more sane than it is currently. Merck has paid out close to $6 billion in damages and fines for Vioxx, another drug that was declared ‘safe and effective’ by the FDA before it was yanked. They engaged in a wholesale PR effort to discredit doctors who pointed out the dangers of Vioxx. They hired Julie Gerberding who ran the CDC when they did the precious few studies they did on vaccines and autism (and at least two of the biggies are fraudulent) to run their vaccine division. And yet I’m supposed to TRUST what the CDC and Merck tell me about how “rare” “side effects” are, when I have the credible testimony of THOUSANDS of parents to the contrary? No thanks.
“Vaccines have become a victim of their own success” is absolutely untrue, oft-repeated yes, but not true nonetheless.
And, if you actually read my comment, I said that 95% of cases were ‘harmless,’ not all of them. I also mentioned the ‘so much more virulent’ part you’re conveniently ignoring. I’m not dismissing the victims in any way.
Sigh. Really? 300 million people with polio? At its most virulent paralytic polio only struck a small percentage of the population. And it’s likely that there are ways to keep it from being as virulent as it was. (This is a fascinating timeline of the events around polio.) But if people are afraid of polio? Then by all means, vaccinate for it! But be aware that the oral polio vaccine can cause polio in the vaccinated person or someone who has contact with the vaccinated person.
Smallpox? Rubella? First off, smallpox is the ONLY disease that has actually been declared eradicated. If you haven’t been paying attention, we stopped vaccinating for it back in the 70s BECAUSE the risks outweighed the benefits. Rubella? REALLY? Rubella was never a problem in anyone but pregnant women. It would make far more sense for women who are considering child-bearing to get titers tested to see whether or not they had already been exposed and get vaccinated THEN, then to require all children to get vaccinated.
Hi Dr. TMR
I seriously doubt you only had the flu twice. How many times did you got to the hospital and get a diagnosis after bout of diarrhea or vomiting? Probably as often as I have, hardly ever. As a person, you may not have had much benefit of a flu vaccination, but when you did get it how do you know it didn’t work? Still, you cling to the idea that you don’t have much risk. Unfortunately each flu season is an independent event with the mutation rate of the influenza virus. So past performance doesn’t guarantee future success. Best of luck to you on your adventure.
There are many resources on the death rate in the 19th and early 20th Centuries and it has been wided studied. You simply cherry picked references that suit your agenda. There are actually many reasons for the rate of mortality declining at the turn of the 20th Century, raising a bit during the Great Depression, and falling into the 1950’s to a baseline – further decreased by vaccinations. So yes, my 100+ years of family history doesn’t compare to the data of the 1950’s, but I wasn’t making that comparsion. I was making it to your comparsion of your ‘strong stock’ living in NYC in 1922. 1922 had a lower mortality for children than the 1700 and 1800’s so it is less surprising that all 13 kids survived for reasons I previously mentioned.
I do agree about pushing too many vaccinations, as we refused the hep B vaccination for both our kids at birth. But for all other vaccinations both my boys are fine. Not every vaccine can be a personal choice however. The ones that are highly contagious, and maim / kill at a MUCH HIGHER frequency than the adverse reaction to a vaccine does SHOULD be mandatory.
Here is another little ancedote. Diarrhea was a lethal killer of children in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s. Rotaviruses are a cause of childhood diarrhea, and most pass through children relatively harmlessly. Except, rarely, they can kill through dehydration. My oldest son, who was fully vaccinated for everything but rotavirus (on schedule except for Hep B) caught a rotavirus on a trip to S. Korea from a public toilet. He required 72 hours of hospitalization within 36 hours after catching the rotavirus. His dehydration was so rapid and so acute that hospitalization was necessary. Now guess what I regret not doing? Getting him the rotavirus vaccination.
I do believe we have grounds for compromise. I can agree that some vaccinations should be up to personal choice. But can you agree there are some vaccinations that can’t be up to personal choice?
I love it! You can’t even believe that I’ve only had the flu twice! Maybe it’s something YOU have to deal with frequently, but not me. Sorry. I was 38 when I had my first child, and the midwife said “When your milk comes in you might feel like you’re coming down with the flu.” About 24 hours later, I suddenly had a fever and started feeling achey, and I thought to myself, “So THAT’S what the flu feels like.” 🙂 And for your information, the ONLY things I’ve EVER been to the hospital for were a broken rib and a miscarriage. I’ve NEVER had diarrhea or vomiting (which, by the way are not symptoms of influenza) bad enough to even go to a doctor, much less the hospital. And I have NEVER had a flu vaccine. I was illustrating how utterly useless 50 years of vaccinating WOULD have been for me. Clearly, I should not be basing MY vaccination decisions on YOUR health history.
My POINT was that the mortality was already lower by 1922. YOU were the one who said it wasn’t lowered till Salk and Sabin arrived on the scene in the ’50s. I believe you just conceded my point.
NO health procedure of any kind should be MANDATORY. All vaccines can KILL. Just as diseases can kill. YOUR estimation of YOUR risk is up to you. MY estimation of MY risk is up to me. And if you trust the vaccine manufacturers to be telling you the truth about frequency of adverse reactions, you have to be ignoring the tremendous amount of information available on the many unethical practices that have been uncovered by THE SAME PEOPLE with respect to their OTHER products. For instance, the maker of the MMR vaccine is Merck. Merck has paid out close to $6 billion in settlements and fines on Vioxx, a drug that was deemed “safe and effective” by the FDA (due to Merck safety studies) before it was yanked for causing tremendous harm. They were caught trying to discredit doctors who pointed out the dangers of Vioxx. (Sound familiar? It should.) Merck is being sued by two of its OWN VIROLOGISTS for falsifying effectiveness data on the MMR. Do you know who was running the CDC when they did their studies on vaccines and autism? Julie Gerberding. Do you know where Julie Gerberding went when she left the CDC? Merck. To head up the vaccine division. So, no, I won’t agree that some vaccines should not be up to personal choice.
It’s too bad that your son had a bad bout with rotavirus. I believe both of my kids had it, and it certainly wasn’t a fun time for either of them, but I’m really glad I never gave either of them the vaccine. Avoiding a week of diarrhea isn’t worth the damage their immune systems would have suffered. If I lived in Africa and dehydration was likelier to be deadly due to contaminated water, I might feel differently. But I don’t.
Freedom of choice for vaccinations is really best for both sides. Those who want the mandate aren’t thinking about what they are giving up by giving the government that kind of control. Once a government has ultimate authority, it only takes a flip of authority, which happens quite a bit in history, and the laws are reversed. So those who are for vaccination mandates should be prepared that one day they won’t be allowed to vaccinate.
AMEN Professor TMR!
Great to read such a well researched article. I really feel compassion for all the families that have to live with vaccine injured members. I recently read a very interesting book by Kerrie Rivera, “Healing the Symptoms of Autism” that I would recommend to everyone working at healing their loved ones of the gut and brain damage vaccines contributed to. The protocol outlined has been successful for a lot of children and young adults. It may help your loved one too. Truth will make us all free!
Thanks so much for your very well-researched post. I’ve written about cancer and vaccines and see a connection too. You can check out my post here if you would like: https://epidemicfacts.wordpress.com/2014/08/28/cancer-the-new-childhood-disease/ Thanks again!
Thank You!!!!!!… Finally someone who thinks!….Bravo… Us moms know where the truth is!!! NoVax Here! What amazes me is the research is there, also the powers of moms observation should have a degree unto its own! Thank You Again.
Just wanted to point out the logical fallacies in the above arguments against this post: 1). You cannot dismiss an article based on perceived credibility of the author. Arguments stand on their own merit, or they don’t. Trying to discredit an author based on personality or character, or (insert adjective here) is an ad hominem attack. 2). By trying to discredit the content of the article citing authority or credibility, you are engaging In another fallacy, which is appealing to authority.
Argue the science (or lack thereof for those paying attention) please, not the person.
About me: I work for lawyers and am fully qualified to dissect poorly constructed arguments.
Great article. I thought for sure a thinking mother of a cancer child would speak up sometime. Good list of citations! Keep up the good work.
I did a little digging of my own and it turns out that “Momcology” isn’t a field of study at all! It has no academic or scientific standing, has no governing body and is, in fact, meaningless. Madam, I’m afraid everything you’ve said has been cast in the dark shadow of doubt. I wish your daughter good health, but I’m afraid to you I find I must bid a curt “Good day.”
😀 😀 😀 Took “digging” to figure out that “Momcologist” was made up by moms of pediatric cancer patients, huh Mike? Thanks for the best laugh I’ve had all day. If that’s the thing that puts you in the “dark shadow of doubt,” I’d hate to see what you’re certain about.
I guess at some point it’s unfortunate because there’s just going to be a survival of the fittest… And clearly the less fit don’t successfully get their young to an age where their DNA can pass on. I guess that’s just the course of nature, even in those we try to help, they must want to help themselves first, right?! Unfortunate some children will be left behind with all due cause bc their parents lack of research and effort, while the info is in front of their face it is neglected as assistance. 🙁 the world we love in.
There is solid evidence that the younger generation is far less fertile than older generations already. Sperm counts are lower and many young women are experiencing fertility challenges as well, including some who have experienced premature ovarian failure due to HPV vaccines. And, while I don’t think extreme fertility is necessary in today’s world, I certainly don’t think that declining fertility is a good sign for today’s youth.
Are you sure you want the MANY chronic illnesses passed on via people who have been vaccinated with DNA weakening vaccines? Due to those toxins, often, their immune systems are more weak, or attacking their own bodies. First generation allergies become hereditary. Sensitivities to toxins and heavy metals are passed on. Neurological sensitivities become hereditary, and learning disabilities are also passed on.
Parental cancer is a risk factor for future generations. I bring this up because the less we actually USE our immune systems in the way they are meant (full contraction…like boot camp, not just a piddly “workout” via immunization) the less likely our immune systems are able to fight the REAL threats like cancer. There are trials where they are actually using measles to fight certain types of cancer (but it can’t work for people who’ve been vaccinated)…maybe if more people got measles when they were younger, their bodies would be more able to fight it when it becomes a threat later in life.
You may spout the “survival of the fittest” argument, but I honestly doubt that systematically injecting toxins are going to create a stronger subset of people. You can look at a more immediate and drastic example of a poisoned region…Korea and agent Orange. There are many who survived and are having families…with weakened DNA and disabilities, mutations, and deformities. They are considered the “fittest” because they survived, but are they more fit or have any benefits over those who lived where the weapon was not used?
It is very possible that the vaccinated populations may outnumber the unvaccinated, and survive, but will they be stronger than those who were not vaccinated? Will they have less CHRONIC illnesses than those who were allowed to contract the diseases naturally? We can already look to recent American history for that. The most vaccinated generations are the ones with the most chronic illnesses (not from lifestyle choices), and sadly a large portion of those are children. I also believe that other environmental pollution (food, air, water) plays a part…but why bombard them even more by injecting toxins in vaccines? You have to look beyond the pathogen…to what is inside the vaccines to see that those ingredients, especially in the way they are given (2-7 injections per well-baby visit), are not without the probability of chronic harm. It may not be immediately visible, but each highly vaccinated generation is getting more sensitive, more sick, and passing on those weaknesses. We aren’t doing society or individuals any favors by allowing our children to deteriorate with each generation. If you only think in evolutionary terms, I might be doing society a favor by allowing my child to not be vaccinated so that he can pass on less disrupted DNA and help restrengthen the population…but there are so few like him. I think we are doomed.
I think Alyssa was actually implying that the people with the vaccine-induced chronic illnesses would be the ones who would not be passing on their DNA.
Ok, I wasn’t quite sure….could have been either way.
Correct professor TMR. “Looking at the big picture”, I was actually looking at the very same big picture that you are, and agree with everything you just tried to address my statements with. Those who are vaccinate are the weaker because they not only aren’t taking he time to research, but are hurting their gene pool of DNA they have to progress with. What their children have as a result of their lack of attention to the world around us, effort, care, whatever it may be, is hurting their own lineage’s reproduction and they are slowly being bred out of the gene pool. If they are the ones becoming infertile, it is unfortunately due to lack of research, but nonetheless will contribute to future generations of their genetics being diminished. All who don’t vaccinate will be more fit to survive the environment around us. Those who stay in contact with the real Mother Nature will always benefit.
Think about it. We see a similar model today on a smaller scale with antibiotics that we can compare to the function of vaccines. These are temporary immunity, not adaptive. Humans have a life span of about 70 years give or take. We have only been on this planet a minute fraction of the length of time comparatively to bacteria and viruses, which have inhabited earth since the beginning of time. Evolutionarily, we are no match for them. They have endured and succeeded to survive every stressor of the environment, evolving to every elemental condition on earth since the beginning. We have been on earth as humans millions of years, but those millions of years do not compare to the length of time bacteria and viruses have perfected their ways to adapt to environmental conditions since the beginning of time.
What I’m trying to say is we can outrun them, they are superior and have abilities we can’t hide from. Vaccines and antibiotics create a system where for one life it appears to work, but all we are doing is widening the gap by addressing them with man made inventions such as antibiotics and vaccines. Doing this is making our systems weaker and less comparable when we don’t use our adaptive immunity Mother Nature gave us. We make them stronger as they fight our fake immunities (antibiotics vaccines) and as we do this we can no longer compete with their offspring since we haven’t kept up with them all along. They are becoming stronger, our fake immunities make us weaker.
I cringe seeing even just hand sanitizer. That .01 percent that lives on is terrifying as it is our next battle for the future. We are creating what in biology is called boom and bust cycles. Before we know it we will be so inadapt from antibiotics and vaccines that the very diseases they originally protected us falsely from are going to wipeout a huge population of our species. This will be the bust, and the fit who weren’t vaccinated, will live on.
I agreed with you from the beginning, but I hope this clarifies a BIGGER picture.
I don’t know where you are getting your information from about vaccines affecting the gene pool making people who vaccinate genetcially inferior to those who don’t. A reference to a peer reviewed paper in a major medical journal with that as a conclusion would be nice to see, but something tells you don’t have that reference. By the way, Dr. Google doesn’t grant a PhD.
I guess all those ‘poor’ slobs in the 17th and 18th Century who had the terminity to die to gasto-intestinal disease and/or respiratory disease were just there to thin the gene pool for the current crop of anti-vaxxers who seem to be willing to toe the waters once again. The infecting agent doesn’t care if you are rich or poor, just as long as you are susceptible.
Also, your story about evolution and time of humanity vs the microbes is mostly correct. Except, humanity has one great adaptation that allows you to overlook your most useful assest. Your brain. Microbes are gaining resistance to antibiotics, but antibiotics are not the same as vaccines. Don’t make that mistake, antibiotics are treatment after infection / vaccines are prevention before infection. If viruses are gaining resistance to the vaccines, it is only indirectly due to vaccines. The more direct agent is the imunogoblins which were formed by the vaccination. This is what the virus actually encounters, and so far this doesn’t seem to be a major route of evolutionary pressure for the microbe to change.
There is also the sheer advantage of numbers comparing using a established infection being treated with antibiotics vs a few microbes attempting to infect a host. A mutation for resistance is essentially a game of numbers, the more agent which is being subjected to the antibiotic, the greater chance one will gain resitance. This is why a dual course of antibiotics is far more likely now.
Believe it or not, that organic peach you eat is…chemicals, just like the non-organic peach and its’ identical chemicals. No difference in the chemicals inside the peach. None at all.
I’m just going to start with your last line . . . I took Organic Chemistry in college — for fun. I’m well aware that EVERYTHING is made up of “chemicals,” including your basic pure water. However, to state that organic peaches are made up of “identical chemicals” to non-organic peaches is WAY off the mark. It shows a basic lack of understanding of what “organic” means. Organic pesticides and fertilizer are very different in chemical composition than non-organic ones, and thus create foods that are chemically different. And organic meat and dairy come from animals raised on feed without added antibiotics or hormones. You’d better believe the meat and dairy come out chemically different from conventionally grown meat and dairy.
“The researchers found much higher levels of cadmium, a toxic metal, in conventional crops. Pesticide residues were found on conventional crops four times more often than on organic food. The research was funded by the EU and an organic farming charity.” http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/jul/11/organic-food-more-antioxidants-study
I didn’t say that people who vaccinate ARE genetically inferior, or that I based my opinion on “science.” What I base my opinion on, in this case, is the fact that we DO vaccinate at a ridiculously high rate right now and up to 54% of American children (the most highly vaccinated in the world) are CHRONICALLY ill, many of them on medications “for life.” Clearly, our vaccinations are not improving the gene pool, or our children would be the healthiest the planet has ever seen.
Ha ha — LOVE your response on this one, ProfessorTMR! Tooo funny!
You forgot this part. w ith a background in science, who formerly held a position with a pharmaceutical company as a research specialist.
Mike, I described the term in the article :). Its a descriptor cancer parents use to indicate a research-oriented mom. It is not a “real” title, but it holds much meaning to those in the cancer world. Its the name of a large support group as well :).
Really? THAT’S what you looked up? And they call us crazy.
Mike, of course it’s not a field of study. Jean wrote ” I am a seasoned Momcologist, a term the research-driven cancer parents call themselves.” It’s a portmanteau term derived from “Mom” and “oncologist”. Don’t dismiss what she wrote because of this misunderstanding! Jean has obviously researched the field diligently. I hope that you see this and take note. It ties in with research across the world showing that exposure to a cocktail of farmyard bacteria in childhood can prime the immune system against many conditions in later life, e.g. allergies.
Best wishes.
Thank you for your informative article. I have been saying this for a long time to all my friends. I stopped vaccines because my son had a reaction to the MMR. If I had to do it all over again I would never give my children any vaccines. Every single child I know has something wrong with them from anxiety (which my daughter has) to very serious illnesses. And the more I talk to people the more children I hear about. My daughter’s 14 and now I’m starting to wonder who she will marry. Is she going to be crying over her husband’s death bed because he was pumped with vaccines at some point during her marriage. Every single friend of my daughter’s is on at least one medication if not more. And I mean every single one. She would be on medication for her anxiety if I wasn’t so against meds. My daughter almost got every vaccination and I am very mad at myself for it. I use apple cider vinegar at the start of a scratchy throat just in case strep is moving in. I use food to keep us healthy. My children barely get sick as apposed to the vaccinated children. It is very upsetting when I know there are cures out there and we’re not using them. I get sick just thinking about I wish I had known 14 yrs ago. The anxiety in schools is a epidemic. Did anyone ever think that alot of the bullying might be caused by all the medications these kids are on. These kids are so angry. Fist fights in schools all the time. My daughter says she’s not having children and I told her I can’t blame you. At the time she has children noone is going to be healthy. What can we do?
I agree, I worry what my kids are going to face as they grow up. Most of my son’s friends are sick all the time and have learning disabilities or at least have delayed speech and articulation. I desperately wish someone *credible* would do a vaccinated vs unvaccinated health study (not that the pro-vaxxers would take it seriously regardless). I think if we are allowed the freedom to continue not vaccinating, we will see a huge difference in the general health of those who forgo vaccinations. We are cumulatively weakening each generation by vaccinating and allowing free reign of pesticides and other environmental toxins (that we have little control over). They are doing society and individuals no favors by forcing yet another set of toxins into our children through vaccines. Let us have a choice to have SOME control over the toxins our children are exposed to, because we have little option for most (environmental).
I believe that we need to start at the root of the problem and that is with the public’s cult-like faith in the FDA and the AMA, not realizing their affiliation with pharmaceutical companies. We need to inform the public that they are NOT to be trusted with our well-being and the well-being of generations to come. We need to become Parentologists and Thinking Parents. There are protocols such as the Gerson Therapy and therapies designed by Dr. S. Burzynski which have had tremendous success but are being banned for use in the United States. Shouldn’t everyone want to know ‘WHY?’?
I wanted to thank the author for this very informative article, I need all the information I can get to back up my theory, and to keep my son unvaccinated at this crucial time while America’s up in arms over this measles deal.
Hi Robin,
I watched my 18 month old go from being normal to acting like a dog, wouldn’t let me hold him, no eye contact, etc. I was a mother with no knowledge at the time and we had a daughter. My husband asked me what was wrong with my son, I said I don’t know maybe thats how boys act. It happened an hour after I got back from getting him the MMR shot. He acted like that for slightly over a month. I forced him to be held. I was devastated that he didn’t want to be held and I didn’t realized it until he was 2 1/2 what had happened. I no longer vaccinate either of my children. My son was in the 10th percentile. The only thing that saved my son I whole heartedly believe is that he has a extremely fast metabolisim and his body passed it through. My husband and I both watched the change in my son so I wasn’t seeing things. Now he is showing signs of Asbergers syndrome. If I could start all over again I would never put any vaccine in my child. I have noticed my children do not get sick. Maybe once a year when the vaccinated kids get sick 4 to 5 times a year. Good luck with everything.
Hi Jeanine, how old is your son now? Something similar happened to my son after his three months vaccines (wasn’t MMR, but some other regular shots). We suspected he could have Asperger’s too when he was nearly 4 years old. It turned out quite a few problems were caused by his ears being clogged with ear wax. At age 7 he was then diagnosed with being gifted – which of course isn’t as bad as having Aspergers ;-), but I do wonder if this may have been caused by the shots? None of our other (5!) children have been vaccined and we shall see if they show any specialties.
first point— live virus immunizations… I would rather have it controlled than UNcontrolled… I get my children vaccinated and keep them from my immuno-compromised child until the live virus can no longer harm them… then they are immunized and they help to protect their sibling. 2nd point: they are more likely to die from mold etc than measles no record of a child with cancer dying from measles… maybe that’s because we had nearly eradicated measles… with immunizations… those instances she was looking for will show up if we don;t immunize our kids that can be. 3rd point… by over treating ourselves we are making ourselves more susceptible to germs when they DO get to us (people who wash their hands TOO much actually get more sick when they are exposed because their immune system isn;t building up)… invalid point for a child who had NO immune system. 4th point: immunizations might CAUSE cancer… I freaking hate wen people throw shit like that out there. she is NOT a doctor or a scientist researching immunizations and cancer… she is a cancer mom and cancer moms read a lot… but they are not in a lab, they are not doing actual research and experimentation, they are very personally linked to one single sick child… that does not lend itself to unbiased scientific research Immunizations may possibly rarely cause strange responses in some people. It would be nice to have more genetic testing or something or people who DO so perhaps we can have testing before immunizations to see who may react badly… but in the average person, there is more chance of dying from the disease you are immunizing against than having a life threatening reaction to the immunization.
My children do NOT have cancer, but they are susceptible to preventable diseases because they are young and have not completed their vaccines… as the mother of child who need to be protected by herd immunity (just like this woman’s child does, regardless of what she believes) PLEASE vaccinate your freaking children!
Jessica, while you have made some valid points (we would certainly agree with point #3, but we would include vaccines in the “overtreatment” category), you are still ignoring the fact that MANY people DO have life-threatening (and I mean that in a more generalized sense than it is usually used in that it threatens one’s ability to live one’s life as before) reactions to vaccines. Do you honestly think there would be any controversy if there were not? Those people have no business being vaccinated, and yet they rarely have a “medical exemption” in place until long after the damage has been done. Those people are not going to vaccinate their “freaking children” because you say they should. They are going to make the determination based upon their own assessment of the risks and benefits for their children, just as you do when deciding for your children. In addition, vaccines may be contributing to the overall level of chronic illness we are seeing today, which could mean that it is best for the health of most to vaccinate as minimally as possible. That may not be best for your immunocompromised child, but it is not morally incumbent on anyone else to sacrifice their children’s health to save yours.
I agree Jessica. There is no evidence that the MMR vaccine causes cancer. I trust scientists and doctors more than Google and hear say about vaccines. . Granted you can still catch the virus from someone even with the vaccine, if we all vaccinated our children understanding there is a TINY chance of a side effect, then we would not only be protecting our children but those who can not get the vaccines. It’s about the whole picture not just ” my choice.” It’s about protecting others as well as ourselves. Vaccines are one of the most important inventions in science. Look at all the diseases that took so many lives before compared to now. No one would be against them if they lived to watch everyone around them get sick and die from something they could have prevented. It’s just incredible that people don’t see that. This article has no real facts and proof to back that up. I am sorry this woman has gone thru so much but searching for a blame thru vaccines that save people and have wiped out some diseases for good is not the way to go.
What you fail to understand is that “no one would be against them” if they were as safe as they are purported to be. Do you honestly believe that if there were a “free” (meaning in this case, no health cost, not monetary) option to eliminate infectious diseases that people wouldn’t be all for it? Why is it so hard to believe that many, many people have already paid a very high price for their “immunity” (and, unfortunately, many didn’t even get the promised immunity out of the deal, myself included. I got both measles and mumps after getting the vaccines) and realize that it was way too high? Why is it so hard to believe that others would see that and deem that price too high for their families to pay to avoid the measles? Yes, approximately 450 out of 4,000,000 people who got the measles in the early 1060s died from complications. But approximately 500,000 are currently living with severe autism now that “no one knows” how they got. And, yet, when they are treated for toxic overload and vaccine injury, frequently get well. Shockingly, many families would choose the measles.
I have seen statistics showing that the death rate caused by measles was almost negligible BEFORE vaccines were discovered and administered to people routinely. That would seem to indicate that the reduction in deaths was due to something OTHER than vaccines. I’d like you to check it out and let us know what you discover.
The Supreme Court ruled vaccines ” UNAVOIDABLY UNSAFE” in 2011.
Is there some reason these pro-vaxers commenting are unable to read the story? (Especially the parts about credentials) Is there some reason for the total lack of empathy and humor, but a very strong hate-fear response for anyone who is not spouting the mindless party line? Are they the new generation of children growing up with no sense of humor, no ability to focus through the entire article? Are they actually aliens? Totally brainwashed . . . Just washed their brain and can’t do a thing with it? Are they not human at all, but simply computer ‘bots developed to insert fear and remove rational thought?
Great question!
This is the first really good dose of common sense I’ve heard in this current witch hunt. It is so well researched and eloquently written. The best of health to you and your family.
Please know that you do not speak for all parents of children with cancer. You post scares the heck out of me because I think people will read it and go “See there’s another reason we shouldn’t vax.” From another mom of a child that had Leukemia I DO NOT support your premise and theories. Your theories are just that and full of holes that leave out so many things. Please don’t speak for me and my family. I’ve BTDT too and know that we have no cause for Leukemia.
Of course she knows she doesn’t speak for all parents of children with cancer. It was made EXPLICIT in the post that this was in response to parents with VERY different viewpoints. In addition the title says “Don’t vaccinate for MY cancer kid.” Clearly, there IS a “cause” for leukemia. It may not be (and probably isn’t) the same for all leukemias, and it may not be known for a particular case, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t a cause.
Thank you so much for sharing your story and your perspective. I don’t know when the last child died of measles while undergoing cancer treatment, but I do know the story of the last child to die of measles in the US, and it is relevant. The last two measles deaths in the US were is 2003. One was an elderly man who contracted measles in Israel and died of complications in the US. The other was a 13-year-old who died of measles encephalitis three months after receiving a bone marrow transplant. The CDC was not able to find the source of the infection or any other local cases of measles, “despite an intensive search.” A bone marrow transplant put this child into the highest risk category for contracting measles through vaccine shedding. There were no measles cases in the area. How many recently vaccinated kids were there?
“In 2003, two measles-related deaths were reported. The first was attributed to measles encephalitis in a child aged 13 years who had chronic granulomatous disease, received a bone marrow transplant in October 2002, and died in January 2003. Measles was confirmed by a positive serologic test for measles IgM and isolation of measles virus from a brain biopsy. Despite an intensive search, no additional cases were detected in the surrounding area.”
http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5331a3.htm
Thank you for this article. It was very beautifully and clearly written, and backed by some very credible sources. I understand people being afraid for their children’s safety when they are constantly bombarded with messages that say the unvaccinated are dangerous. It’s easy to feel like a raving conspiracy theorist when trying to reason with them and not have the amazing sources to back it up. You have clearly put so much of yourself into this. Your story is a little beacon of hope reinforcing that I know I am doing what’s right for my children.
I cannot thank you enough for writing this blog. Yours is a powerful that must be taken seriously if we are ever going to lower the rates of diseases in our children. I wish you and your family all the best!
I agree with you… you could use natural medicines, or even cannabis oil should cure the cancer.
I know it has been said many times, but I have to say it again…
Thank you!
I am one of the only parents in my community that stopped vaccinating. I am fortunate to say that no doctors or nurses that I have come directly in contact with have shamed me or bullied me about my decision. As the ‘measles outbreak’ has turned into this huge media fear-fest, I have felt I need to have a concise answer for why I stopped vaccinating. Your article will be my go to guide.
Ms: Ghantous,
Your bio says you have a background in science. That’s pretty vague. Would you mind elaborating?
At what level of qualification would be required to be taken seriously by staunch pro-vaxxers looking to defend vaccines and pharma at all costs? I hear there’s a certain MIT scientist who is getting torn apart right now for some related research results ;). Unpopular to point out the possible flaws in the system, but I will continue to stick my neck out for all the worried parents who cannot find their voice.
I guess the answer to the question then is “no background whatsoever.”
Jean,
Dear Lord, you are my idol! I have been trying to figure out how to find people with this theory for years and have been slandered repeatedly for the “lack of sense” I make. We are organisms, biological beings sanitizing the adaptations we are meant to have since the beginning of time (mitochondrial DNA). I will be graduating with my biology degree from the university of New Hampshire in a month with my general biology degree, and have had this outlook on the human biome for about three years now. There are so many diseases we could not tolerate without the very diseases on our skin, in our nasal passages, etc. Acquired immunity protects us and helps us to fight off new diseases as they emerge. Without the natural flora our body has, we would all die! That’s because we have evolved with it and it is necessary to sustain life with the stronger forms of everything around us today. This is my passion. I applied for a pharmaceutical job making chemo medications at a company in Portsmouth, NH… NH’s #2 best company to work for in the state. When I was asking them questions even my interviewees didn’t understand, they offer me a ad scientist position. I got the job until they ran my background check (plant history). Needless to say I have a great education on a medical system that doesn’t work and I need a purpose to help make this world a better place. I would love to connect with you. My thirteen year old sister was almost killed by ignorant doctors last winter, simple understanding of how the body works should have been mainstream intelligence in their field. However bc they are taught to open up and spit facts out and have an MD because of it, they understood absolutely nothing wrong with her. I was having to tell my mom they were wrong, to take her back to another location, which tests to have run on her, and had a fight with the nurse bc she was being tested for Celiacs and they were feeding her Mac n cheese and lobster rolls as she was dying! She ended up needing a blood transfusion, as she has Celiacs disease and had lane Hamilton which still isn’t in medical textbooks. Her first ambulance trip they told her she was simply anemic, gave her and infusion Of iron and vitamin c with a red blood cell count of four (should be 10-14) and then sent her home. I knew right away this was WRONG, and told my mom she needed to be in a hospital immediately as she had no immune system and would spike a dangerous fever with a rbc count that low. These doctors are quacks and I had to watch my little sister literally dying in front of me. The hospital she was released from refused to take her back a day and a half later… at 3 am) while she lay in the local hospital dying. Why? Bc if they took her back it was a liability as if saying they should have never released her! She was rushed to Portland Maine and received a blood transfusion at 12 years old, the only thing that saved her life. I physically cannot sit still on our medical field any longer, and I need to network somehow, anyway I can to help change the corruption of this system. Please, I beg you, we can’t do this alone. I have a purpose in this life, and a lot of years ahead of me to contribute. I need somewhere to direct my passion, I can’t sleep at night knowing there are parents who don’t know they are hurting their kids by following doctor recommendations! Even killing them! I know what I felt as I watched my sister’s organs shut down, and she now has a heart murmur from their unaccredited derees. Sorry for the rant, but I can’t take it any longer. I see children sick everywhere and it’s ruining my life. I don’t want a part of life on this monetary based planet any longer unless I can contribute to the change of it. I hope to hear from you soon. I was destined for this, crazy as it sounds, there’s no other source for me I’ve found, you just seem to GET IT.
And my apologies on the grammatical errors, typing on this iPad often creates lots of those! Edit accordingly if you feel the need, please. I just realized how unprofessional much of my response appears as the fury inside is very visible, unfortunately. Not that all MD’s are quacks, but to encounter so many who just don’t get it tells me the system of accreditation isn’t very reliable.
— Internationally – many generations have a great deal of confidence in being able to improve, boost their family’s Immune System AND there is NOT this fear of children catching infections, illnesses – Children grow up knowing their Classical Family Homoeopath as they experience childhood illnesses – Then when having their own children ready to work with Family Homoeopath – recognizing initial stages of sickness, through to resolution. N. Americans seeking safer health care usually have overseas relatives to help them understand how to consult with a Classical Family Homoeopath. N. A. families are starting to share their own homoeopathic experiences with relatives, friends, colleagues, community – caring for Measles, Whooping Cough, etc. NOTE: Classical Homoeopathy is “A Complete System of Medicine” – For All Ages & Stages of Life —- Classical Homoeopaths trained overseas consult via telephone, Internet. Help is out there – research Hahnemann Classical Homoeopaths – Accredited, Certified, Registered
Thank you for this voice of reason!
I’m very grateful to you for putting this post together. You know, I’m sure, what a useful document it will be to show to those who are extremely worried for immunocompromised children.
Your background and your personal experience make it invaluable.
I wish your daughter and fmaily the best of health, now and in the future.
Her background and personal experience are entirely related and extremely valuable. May I ask you what your background and personal experience are? Jean’s information is directly in line with how the human body has evolved since the beginning of organismal being. Are you familiar with adaptive immunity? Biology? How organisms evolve? Have you forgotten you are a mammal? Your brain size and function doesn’t declassify you as an organism of the planet. The laws of nature do apply to you, believe it or not. What’s your degree, may I ask?
thank you.
Apparently you don’t understand the meaning of the word “invaluable” so I’m going to help you out:
invaluable
adjective in·valu·able \(ˌ)in-ˈval-yə-bəl, -yə-wə-bəl, -yü(-ə)-bəl\
:extremely valuable or useful
source: http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/invaluable
Her background and personal experience are entirely related and extremely valuable. May I ask you what your background and personal experience are? Jean’s information is directly in line with how the human body has evolved since the beginning of organismal being. Are you familiar with adaptive immunity? Biology? How organisms evolve? Have you forgotten you are a mammal? Your brain size and function doesn’t declassify you as an organism of the planet. The laws of nature do apply to you, believe it or not. What’s your degree, may I ask?
University of New Hampshire
Bachelors of life science in General Biology
thank you.
Thank you Jean for writing this article and calling out https://NVICadvocacy.org/members.Home.aspx as the place to go to get involved with retaining choice and freedom – for our children and ourselves.
See you there.
http://www.seroyal.com/downloads/2015_Feb_12_TC_Adams_Vaccination.pdf
A very well researched paper done by Mikhael Adams, N.D. This is the key note paper that went along with a teleconference. All the titled/typed info is what he talked about. He has pages upon pages of graphs and documents that he talked about, included in the paper. Gain the knowledge provided to assist with vaccination decisions.
Absolutely loved this. It was not only encouraging, it was so good to read something that promotes choice; freedom; and highlights real issues.
God bless!
I don’t think there was anybody trying to implement a vaccine program for every single individual. There are medical exemptions for some who may not be able to receive it.
This article seems like a lot of scaremongering akin to the autism-vaccination myth. Yes, more research should done to investigate leukemia causes, but correlation doesn’t imply causation.
I love how people come to our site and use the word “scaremongering,” when we are being BOMBARDED by messages about how awful it is that 121 people have come down with measles, an illness defined in medical textbooks as a benign illness of childhood in a well-nourished population. When you have a child who has had a strong negative reaction to one or more vaccines, you will realize that we weren’t the ones “scaremongering.”
Exactly. Supporting a strong immune system through nutrition and exercise cannot prevent vaccine injuries, but it can help prevent complications and death when the body is exposed to or contracts a “vaccine-preventable” disease.
Hello NF, I would like to respond by saying that there is currently action on the federal level to mandate blanket vaccination schedules, without any burden of liability for vaccine manufacturers. Medical exemptions are extremely difficult to achieve, my cancer child, for example, would not be exempt. Sound crazy? It is. I did not “prove” her leukemia was an adverse reaction to a vaccine. I cannot attain a medical exemption for my other child who developed neurologic damage after vaccination because again, he was not “proven” to have had an adverse reaction to his vaccine. It is incredibly hard to meet the standard of proof for adverse event to achieve a medical exemption.
I actually never stated that vaccines caused leukemia, but I did speculate that they might and cited material to demonstrate that thought process. It is absolutely critical that we research why we have such horridly ill children in the United States, and these illnesses are not vaccine-preventable. Vaccines have never been studied in the manner in which I described in the article, it is past time to do so. If we do not prove that vaccines are NOT part of this epidemic of illness amongst our children, we could be causing further irreversible damage in allowing pharmaceutical companies free reign.
No liability, no mandate.
Having leukemia is a medical exemption, and I don’t know what state you live in, but it’s not hard to get that exemption here. There is no proof that vaccines caused your daughters immune system (correlation v causation) but regardless, if you are immunocompromised (no matter the cause) that is a medical exemption.
“All 50 states allow children to be exempted from vaccination requirements for medical reasons. These reasons generally include the following situations:
The child’s immune status is compromised by a permanent or temporary condition. For example, the child might have a congenital condition leading to an impaired immune system. Or, the child might take medications, such as chemotherapy or steroids, that impair the immune system. In either case, vaccination could be harmful to the child’s health.
The child has a serious allergic reaction to a vaccine component.
The child has had a prior serious adverse event related to vaccination.”
http://www.historyofvaccines.org/content/articles/vaccination-exemptions
Of course it’s a medical exemption, as Jean said she was able to obtain medical exemptions for her other children on the basis of her daughter’s condition. But that is entirely beside the point of the post. The post is about the possibility that those vaccines caused the immunocompromised condition in the first place, and the fact that Jean is not interested in having anyone else vaccinate their children in order to protect her child.
Seriously? WAKE UP…
-there is a push to make immunizations mandatory and have parents that choose NOT to immunize criminalized
-healthcare workers have long been led to believe they are required to have immunizations and there is a push to make immunization mandatory for EVERYONE working in a healthcare settings.
-reports of medical professionals refusing to treat children that are not immunized
http://www.collective-evolution.com/2015/02/15/the-top-6-reasons-why-parents-are-choosing-not-to-vaccinate-their-kids/
It’s not a myth, the person does a good job showing BOTH SIDES.
Thanks for introducing us to Arjun Walia. It’s nice to see someone doing their homework. 🙂
I only saw this, after reading one of Ten Penny’s links and it showed up under the facebook thing. Otherwise I would not have seen it. Doing this homework is really hard for the average lay person.
I know that Ten Penny has issues. But before this I had to rely on when Kirby reported and understand how high a bias he has. The reporters should be doing their homework and following their journalistic ethics and showing more than just McCarthy and the late Wakefields sides.
The really interesting thing, Bianca, is that they know that both Jenny McCarthy and Andrew Wakefield are straw men. No one is basing their decisions about vaccinations on either a paper about 12 children published 17 years ago that doesn’t even make the claim that “MMR causes autism,” much less the more general “vaccines cause autism,” or on the testimony of what one mother says happened to her child. They know this because they have been told this repeatedly, and yet they still pretend that anyone who chooses not to vaccinate is being duped by “that discredited doctor” or “the Playboy bunny.” It is disingenuous at best (which is the polite way of saying they’re lying through their teeth).
I am truly trying to understand both (all) sides of the debate… and was initially encouraged with the number of citations and the fact that there were citations at all.
So I scanned the citations and noticed this commonly citied article that is reported to say vaccinated children get sick more often than unvaccinated children. Which is what your article also alludes to. “We may very well find many interesting discoveries. Read this study from Germany (22), for example, which shows less acute and serious chronic illness overall for unvaccinated children, though they did not include childhood cancer. ”
But your citation is to a different ‘study’ that references the German study, not the actual German Study, and only takes pieces of the German stats and then uses ‘stats’ from unvaccinated respondents to an internet survey, and responders are identified as mostly American. The ACTUAL CONCLUSION of the study you’re referencing is “The prevalence of allergic diseases and non-specific infections in children and adolescents was not found to depend on vaccination status.”
So while I thought… Yes, finally a thought out and fully explored opinion! Again I have to choose to disregard most, if not all, of your post because now I know you haven’t evaluated your cited sources very well.
RESPONSE TO SOURCE CITED IN #22
These sorts of ‘studies’ that compare apples to kumquats can’t even claim correlation, much less causation. This ‘study’ takes an official study maintained and commissioned by the German Government and Healthcare system of German children over the last 10+ years compared to ‘mostly American’ internet survey responders to a (I am assuming one-time survey–it timed out when I tried to open it) survey… A study that says it is still on-going, but has somehow already reached their conclusion.
What about diet? What about access to free, quality medical care? What about ethic, racial or even climate diversity of the sample? These variables don’t seem to be acknowledged much less accounted for in this study.
If you’re preaching to the choir these trivial details don’t matter, but if you’re trying to convince anybody else to drink the kool-aid… a little tighter argument will be helpful. There are so many things wrong with the set-up I can’t even think about respecting their conclusion(s). Show me unbiased information I can respect, and I’ll be happy to listen.
Moral of the story: Please, stop trying to scare me into believing you.
No one is “trying to scare you into believing” anything. The German study that Jean cited is NOT a good study design. The problem is that it is virtually the ONLY study in the world that even attempts to compare health outcomes of vaccinated children against those of unvaccinated children. If there were a better one, Jean would use it. Awesome work finding the one weak link to make you “disregard most” of the post, however. 😉
This is an interesting study that found a 14-fold increased risk of asthma and a 9-fold increased risk of eczema in children who were given DPT vaccines over those who weren’t. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1448377/ But the study authors rationalize that HUGE association away with the fact that it’s correlated with consulting frequency. Meaning that the unvaccinated children had far fewer “consultations” with doctors. The authors assume that means that children with asthma and eczema are simply not being taken to the doctor to get them diagnosed in a country with socialized medicine. It would seem the obvious reason for that, think Occam’s Razor, would be that the children were healthier and did not require “consultations” with doctors. Who watches their child struggle for breath and doesn’t take them to the (free) doctor? I think this statement explains their conclusion far better than any other one contained within the study: “It is clearly important to gain a detailed understanding of the relationship between vaccination and allergic disease, because a perception that vaccination is harmful may have an adverse impact on the effectiveness of immunization programs.”
Scientists don’t choose to disregard variables. They use statistics. They accounted for the outlying variable and found their results were not statistically significant. If they had not accounted for that variable, the study would have been flawed.
You clearly so not understand what you’re writing about. You ARE making unsubstantiated correlations about cause and effect. As for your contention that there have been no deaths from measles in the US-there have been. There were two in 2009, two in 2010, and several since then. And world wide, where there is little vaccination, there were 145,700 in 2013 alone and measles, as many other diseases, is only a plane ride away from infecting you and yours and then everyone around you .
So no, measles in NOT a “benign” childhood disease. It’s a killer and while an immune-compromised individual is a special concern it’s only that a killed virus vaccine is recommended. There is NO evidence that vaccines cause any of the problems you imagine. None. This is not any kind of a reasonable dialogue about vaccines; it is rather another poorly researched and clearly misunderstood anti-vax diatribe.
You know what I find VERY interesting? According to Dr. Anne Schuchat, the director of CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, and the “top immunization official in the United States,” according to Senator Elizabeth Warren, “There has been no measles deaths reported in the U.S. since 2003.” (“Deaths from measles outbreak may be ‘inevitable’ as cases surge in US,” Associated Press, published by Fox News on April 25, 2014.)
So, given the current hysteria about 121 cases of measles, I find the fact that there was NO MENTION of those two deaths each in 2009 and 2010 very intriguing. Why, if they are CONSTANTLY hitting us over the head with how dangerous measles is, why oh why, do they never mention these measles deaths?! The only explanation I can think of is that these were deaths that no one wanted us to know about. And why wouldn’t someone want us to know about them? Perhaps because they were exactly what we’ve been talking about: measles cases in immunocompromised individuals that were a result of vaccination, either their own or someone close to them.
The statistics I gave for measles death came from a statement from the director of the CDC, you may take that up with them :). You are correct, since that statement by Dr. Shuchat, there were 4 deaths. However, in researching for this article, I actually found a death by measles VACCINE that was unreported in 1999. It was actually counted a case of neuroinflammation instead. As described in the source, a healthy 3 year old was vaccinated with the MMRII vaccine and developed neurologic signs. A brain biopsy confirmed measles infection in his brain. He died as a result, but was not counted in deaths by the vaccine or measles. Sound honest to you? How many are buried as “other” complications? This is the science that we cannot question?
Let’s talk about the fondness the CDC has in scaring us with the idea that “death is but a plane ride away”. Let’s assume we remove the measles vaccine for a minute and allow measles to occur naturally in the United States. Perhaps you may want to look at the statistics for measles death in the 1960s prior to the implementation of the vaccine. Yes, measles is highly contagious, and there were many cases. However, look at death percentages, please, in the United States prior to the vaccine. You were more likely to die by suicide than by measles. Let me make this point very clear. We are a FIRST WORLD country. The children dying of measles in third world countries are utterly different in their medical health than our children. It is ludicrous to use their deaths as a scare tactic for concerned American parents, the two are not comparable.
As an interesting aside, I would also like to know the breakdown of how many of those third world children contracted measles by VACCINE. Remember, we aren’t supposed to be vaccinating immunocompromised individuals. But many kids in those nations ARE immunocompromised individuals! Perhaps this is why WHO adopted the practice of giving these children high dose vitamin A around the time of the vaccine, as it has been proven to decrease mortality and morbidity of measles by a significant amount. They can only be giving it at that time because they are EXPECTING the vaccine to cause some of those children to break with measles.
Finally, when I was a child, doctors could still be held liable for adverse events by vaccine. They were allowed to make vaccine recommendations by individual, to use their medical training and apply critical thinking. Our family doctor, who was the same doctor of many in our town, did not use the MMR vaccine nor chicken pox. He felt they were benign illnesses and the inherent risk of vaccine outweighed the benefit. If a child had not contracted the natural diseases and had reached middle school, then his recommendation was to vaccinate. But we ALL got the measles, mumps, and chicken pox. My sister and I never even got sick enough to have to go to the doctor. It was common place then, my mother knew about cool washcloths, soup and hydration, oatmeal baths and rest. We are now in a situation that pharmaceutical companies enjoy—-enough people have not experienced these once ordinary childhood illnesses to realize that for the average American child, they are indeed, benign.
If the memories were there, I would not be blogging right now to convince people to stand up against vaccine mandates and maintain parental choice.
There aren’t deaths from measles in the United States because it was almost completely eradicated here until just recently. Other countries are not so fortunate.
From the World Health Organization:
In 2013, there were 145 700 measles deaths globally – about 400 deaths every day or 16 deaths every hour.
Measles vaccination resulted in a 75% drop in measles deaths between 2000 and 2013 worldwide.
In 2013, about 84% of the world’s children received one dose of measles vaccine by their first birthday through routine health services – up from 73% in 2000.
During 2000-2013, measles vaccination prevented an estimated 15.6 million deaths making measles vaccine one of the best buys in public health.
What you neglect to mention is that in industrialized countries (like the U.S.) the measles death rate had already dropped by approximately 95% prior to the development of a measles vaccine, and like the death rates for other infectious illnesses for which there was no vaccine (scarlet fever and typhoid, for instance), would have been likely to drop further. Yes, chances are good if measles rates continued high that there would be some people who succumbed to measles, but obviously there are some that succumb to the vaccine, and many others that do not die but experience other debilitating effects. There is all this talk about “vaccine-preventable diseases,” which are obviously not entirely preventable by vaccinating as many of the cases of measles in this country had been previously vaccinated. One thing that is entirely “preventable,” however, is vaccine injury. One cannot be injured by a vaccine if one is not vaccinated. You may be more afraid of death by measles than vaccine injury, but others who have lived with the consequences of vaccine injury, understandably, do not have the same perspective.
Ok, MJ, I bite, let’s throw that German study out :). Unfortunately there are no studies comparing the overall health of the vaccinated versus unvaccinated American children, let’s campaign for one before we allow mandates to pass, shall we?
I did find one study comparing an unvaccinated Amish community to a group of US children. Out of the entire community of children (300+), there were two autistic children, one who was adopted and fully vaccinated when he came in and the other who lived on the same property as a plant that worked with toxic chemicals. No childhood cancer, no asthma, and very few, minor allergies (no peanut allergies). Worth a search. But a US, un-bias (meaning not funded by Pharm companies, CDC, FDA, etc) study would be an incredible tool to have in the defense of healthy immune systems and healthy families!
That was not a formal study. That was the work of a journalist named Dan Olmstead. http://www.upi.com/Science_News/2005/04/19/The-Age-of-Autism-The-Amish-anomaly/95661113911795/
While I sympathize and am very impressed by your handling of this difficult subject, I feel there’s been a leap in logic about your proposed link between vaccines and autoimmune conditions. Though I’m not an expert (just a well read mom), overloading an infant’s immature immune system contributing to later immune disorders makes a lot of sense, but depending what your criteria is, a child’s immune system is considered “mature” enough to handle most infections by 3 to 24 months old. This may be a good argument for postponing vaccination, but it does not follow that vaccines are unsafe for healthy children over 6 months old (most commonly cited age of infant immune maturity). I thought it was absurd to give my breastfed daughters Hep A shots before leaving the maternity ward, and so opted out. Your analysis has made me question, for the first time since my original, in depth self-education binge when I was pregnant with my 2 yo, the validity of the intense infant vacation schedule beyond that sole objection. But if maturity is the essential issue, it is the age vaccinations are recieved, not if they are recieved, that might prove to be the more fruitful line of comparative research, particularly with a subset of those displaying immune comprised symptoms like ezcema vs those with none, both before and after the course is recieved.
Regardless, thank you for sharing your insights and diligent research- very refreshing to read novel, well informed analysis in the midst of the public debate around vaccines that isn’t simply a condescending rehashing of the usual inflammatory blanket statements from one or the other camp.
Lisa
If you look at what defines and what are the causes of autoimmune illnesses, regardless of immune system maturity, you can see how injecting foreign material directly into muscle can trigger autoimmunity. All it takes is the immune system to improperly identify a part of the body a similar to a substance that was injected. This may have little to do with immune system immaturity but other immune system or genetic factors. When you don’t have the alimentary canal and mucus membranes to trigger a normal immune response to a virus, how do we really know what other abnormal reactions we are triggering. Here is the explanation of the causes of autoimmune disorders from our “friends” at Merck:
“Causes
Autoimmune reactions can be triggered in several ways:
A normal body substance is altered, for example, by a virus, a drug, sunlight, or radiation. The altered substance may appear foreign to the immune system. For example, a virus can infect and thus alter cells in the body. The virus-infected cells stimulate the immune system to attack.
A foreign substance that resembles a natural body substance may enter the body. The immune system may inadvertently target the similar body substance as well as the foreign substance. For example, the bacteria that cause strep throat have an antigen that is similar to an antigen in human heart cells. Rarely, the immune system attacks a person’s heart after strep throat (this reaction is part of rheumatic fever).
The cells that control antibody production—for example, B cells (a type of white blood cell)—may malfunction and produce abnormal antibodies that attack some of the body’s cells.
A substance in the body that is normally confined to a specific area (and thus is hidden from the immune system) is released into the bloodstream. For example, a blow to the eye can cause the fluid in the eyeball to be released into the bloodstream. The fluid stimulates the immune system to identify the eye as foreign and attack it.
Why something triggers an autoimmune reaction or disorder in one person (and not another) is usually unknown. However, heredity is sometimes involved. Some people have genes that make them slightly more likely to develop an autoimmune disorder. This slightly increased susceptibility to an autoimmune disorder, rather than the disorder itself, is inherited. In susceptible people, a trigger, such as a viral infection or tissue damage, may cause the disorder to develop.”
Think about the materials used in the production of vaccines. These items aren’t being ingested, broken down and properly identified and dealt with by the immune system. These are bypassing that protective route and going directly into tissues (where they don’t belong) and forcing and immune response. Can you not see how the immune system might react abnormally?
I just want to say thank you for having the courage to post such an informative and researched article. My daughter started having seizures when she was 3 months old…. the first thing my doctor said was STOP all immunizations….. with no further explanation. I seriously began to have my doubts on immunization after this, and because we had 2 family infants die within days of immunizations. I have read a lot of articles on this subject. I now have 3 healthy grown children, and they have had some shots, not nearly all that was required, because I seriously had my doubts. I applaud you as a mother in doing your research, and following what you know to be true for your child. I think if some of the people who blow the “vaccinate” horn have had some childhood deaths and illness in their family, to deal with, maybe they would do some research and think twice about what they so vehemently promote. I myself, born in the 60’s, had many of the childhood diseases, (measles, chicken pox, etc) and am a very healthy person today. Maybe I haven’t expressed myself clearly, but I just want to say thank you for having the courage to express publicly, what some of us can’t find the words to say. Thank you
I am wondering what your science background was in. The way you speak of the “hygiene theory” suggests to me that you do not understand how vaccines work. Vaccines utilize your immune system and make it stronger, not weaker. For example when you encounter measles, your body fights off the disease but this takes a while because your body has never encountered the disease before. You get sick because your immune system cannot fight off the virus. Eventually, your immune system fights off the disease and makes a memory (using memory B cells) of the antigens on the surface of the virus. If you ever encounter measles again, your immune system will recognize the antigen on the surface of the virus and fight off the disease quickly before you can even get sick or contagious. Vaccines use this same mechanism. Some vaccines contain only the antigens, while others are live attenuated (inactivated) like the measles vaccine. Because the virus is inactivated it cannot be infectious or contagious; however, your immune system responds to it in the same way it would any other pathogen. It destroys the inactivated virus from the vaccine and makes a memory of the antigens that are on the inactivated virus. If your body ever encounters the real disease, your immune system will recognize the pathogen and fight it off before you become contagious or have symptoms. Vaccines are not antiviral medications, they utilize your natural immune system to kill/destroy pathogens.
Note: There is a detailed process by which your immune system works, and this is a simplified version of the events.
source: Microbiology: A Human Perspective by Eugene Nester and Denise Anderson
Okay, there’s some real misunderstanding happening here . . . “Some vaccines contain only the antigens, while others are live attenuated (inactivated) like the measles vaccine. Because the virus is inactivated it cannot be infectious or contagious.”
The “antigen” IS the virus that’s contained in the vaccine. In addition, no vaccines “contain only the antigens.” Secondly, “live-virus” vaccines ARE attenuated, but they are NOT “inactivated,” that’s why they are called “live-virus” vaccines. In addition, the fact that they ARE “live” means that YES they can be infectious or contagious. That is WHY guidelines for immunocompromised people tell them to avoid people who have had live-virus vaccines recently, including MMR.
You did indeed, present an extremely simplified version of the way vaccines work, leaving out much of the detail that explain how they alter the immune system from its original function. You may consider that “strengthening” the immune system, but for those whose immune systems have been hyper-stimulated to the point that an encounter with a benign molecule can set off a life-threatening episode may disagree.
First, at no point did I say that immunocompromised patients should get vaccines. They should not.
Antigens are any substance that can generate an immune response from antibodies. Yes, this can be the whole virus. It can also only be proteins. I apologize for not making that clearer. When I said vaccines that only contain antigens, I meant vaccines that only contain the proteins that illicit the immune response as opposed to the entire virus. These are called subunit and conjugate vaccines, and they are very real. Again, I am sorry for not making that statement clearer.
Attenuated vaccines are weakened viruses that are unable to replicate enough to cause disease. I should not have used the word inactivated as that may have been misleading. I was trying to simplify the concept that they are unable to replicate enough to cause disease, but inactivated vaccines are different from attenuated vaccines. So I apologize for simplifying it in a way that could be criticized.
Again, never did I say immunocompromised patients should receive vaccines, and I’m not sure where you were getting that from my statement. I was simply explaining how vaccines work in simple terms for those who know nothing about vaccines and to explain why vaccines do not have a negative effect in terms of “hygiene theory.”
I’m well aware that there are vaccines that do not contain whole viruses. That was never in question.
And to say that attenuated viruses cannot replicate enough to cause disease is simply wrong. Otherwise there would BE no warning to avoid people recently vaccinated with live-virus vaccines. They can, and do, shed and cause illness in others. It is a well-known fact. I myself had a mumps shot when I was young that gave me the mumps and I transmitted it to someone else as well who had a very bad case.
I didn’t say you said immunocompromised people should be vaccinated. I was talking about the AVOIDANCE of people who HAVE been vaccinated that is mentioned in the blog post.
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I am very sorry for the pain and trials your family has been going through, and am glad that you are actively reading the information out there. But, it is misleading to quote an ambiguous background in Science and use the label of “researcher” as a way to support your validity. As an active participant in the medical research world, as well as a physician in training, it appears that your personal investigation is similar to a Systematic Review (in the research world). But, these Systematic Reviews are conducted by a group of scientists/physicians and have to approved by a non-partisan research board as well as rigorously reviewed by the scientific community. It involves more than one person sitting at a computer or making phone calls. And it takes more than “10 minutes” to come up with a conclusion – it takes years. Autoimmune diseases and cancer are complex and multi-factoral, its impossible for one person to all of a sudden come up with an answer. If this were possible, it would have already been done. I think its great that you are actively thinking and questioning, but it is unwise to recommend against vaccinations which have been widely studied and tested and shown to be exceptionally beneficial to public health. We cannot be sure that they are the cause of these diseases an unfortunately I am not confident in your synthesis of the information simply because you have not been peer-reviewed and you may have biases. That is the wonderful thing about the research community- it takes many people of differing backgrounds to get an article approved, published, and then supported by furthering studies. We worry about Big Pharma and the Feds controlling this information for their own interests, but I can assure you not many people go into science and medicine for the money. We are parents. We are sons/daughters/ siblings. We have a passion for the truth and many have their own interests which have sprung from experiences similar to yours – seeing the suffering of a loved one and wanting to know why. And how to stop it.
So, bring your concerns to the right channels. Many immunologists and virologists would be interested in this and are probably the best people to contact. See how you can get involved with the research community and if there are any projects that correlate with questions you have. And remember – research takes YEARS. Good thing we’ve been studying vaccines for over 60 years (and still are). How long have you been researching?
Jay, first off no one on this site is “advising” anyone not to vaccinate. We, and Jean is no exception to this, “advise” people to do the work. Read the research, be observant, make the connections, and follow your intuition as a parent. We also do not “advise” anyone to “leave the science to the scientists” because what gets transmitted to the mainstream media often has little bearing on what is available out there. A case in point, only RECENTLY have cardiac doctors begun changing their recommendations on diet with respect to cholesterol. I went to a doctor nearly 30 years ago who put me on a hypoglycemia diet to lower my cholesterol based on the most recent research about blood cholesterol levels. It worked like a charm. My cholesterol dropped in half within a month. For those 30 years mainstream physicians have continued to prescribe low fat/low cholesterol diets that have made virtually no dent in most people’s cholesterol levels. This past year, TIME magazine put butter on the cover because it was finally being exonerated. With all due respect, people with sick children cannot wait for the mainstream to figure it out. There is an active culture of medical activity putting the pieces together and finding answers for many of today’s sick children. And, unfortunately, for many of them vaccines played significant roles in the etiology of their illness. When those people go back to the science on vaccines, they find, like Dr. Bernardine Healy (ex-head of the NIH) did that the science is largely lacking. It is very likely that there is a population that is highly susceptible to vaccine injury and no one “official” is investigating that for fear of “damaging” the vaccine program. I submit that their avoidance of the question is the most “damaging” thing they can do for the vaccine program. They have completely and deservedly lost the trust of the American people.
No one is telling anyone that they can’t be involved in science. In fact, all colleges offer science courses in order to teach people about science. There are science books. There are science magazines. There are science tv shows. Of course you should be asking questions, but you should be asking informed questions. This article masks itself as research when there are scientific flaws on her description of hygiene theory, etc. It’s important to know the difference between correlation and causation. This article uses correlation as a scare tactic. Maybe she never directly advises people to not vaccinate, but she uses influential statements to rally people together against vaccinations. “Though it is too late for my vaccine-injured daughter, this Momcologist stands against vaccine mandates, for the health of future children.”
I’d also like to add there is not one, but three committees in the FDA and CDC that monitors the safety of vaccines.
Thank you again for your mom based assessment of your situation. I love how supportive this community on this website is without going to extremes. Your struggles will certainly shed light on some one else’s questions …..never never go with science over your intuition as so many studies are flawed. Mommy Def knows best. I had a friend who worked for NIH and quit because of the studies they made “disappear” because it did not support their agenda. The person was shocked to find out the study they completed just all of a sudden was gone..as if all her work never happened. Science is never exact…never a one size fits all…I have seen way too many drug reactions to meds deemed “safe” and the medical community going back on recs like don’t eat cholesterol it will kill you..three decades of this nonsense. .when the holistic community argued it’s healthy..it’s good for you..science three decades later catches up..and says oh btw eating cholesterol is now okay..I had to chuckle when I heard it.. No thanks. No thanks indeed.
I am familiar with this strategy some employ of “one-upping” with degrees and such in order to silence the validity of an argument. You are an “active participant in the research world”, I assume then you are actually employed in that field, as I was? Perhaps you are even currently employed by a pharmaceutical company? Which may lend a level of bias to YOUR own comments, no? You are also a “physician in training” aka student, correct? Let’s just level that playing field a bit, if you would like to engage in discussion I am happy to do so, but the attempt to silence via contempt must be acknowledged.
I am not sure how well you read this article or disseminated the information, but nowhere in this article did I tell anyone NOT to vaccinate. As an eager medical student, certainly you hope that you will be able to put your learning to use as you become a doctor and make decisions for your patients. Yet, you will not have actual input into the decision to vaccinate your clients or not because you will be held to a rote schedule that will neither require critical thinking nor take the individual into account. Would you grant a medical exemption for my cancer child, once she was well again? No, you would not, despite the very real POSSIBILITY that her cancer was an adverse event to vaccination. She does not qualify for medical exemption once she is well because cancer is not considered an adverse event.
Do you know the reporting qualifications for an adverse event? It has a very interesting definition which includes requirement for having been recorded previously as a possible adverse event. Huh? Yes, that’s what I said, will scratching my head. So if cancer has never been recorded as a possible adverse event in the past, then it would follow that it CANNOT be listed as a possible adverse event in the future. Does that sound scientific to you? Is it scientific to say “never” and “always”? Isn’t scrutiny part and parcel of real science? The evolution of knowledge?
As for money, I think we all know pharmaceutical companies profit heavily from vaccines. They have no liability, after all, even if a vaccine KILLS. If a parent is actually able to prove a vaccine injury (no mean feat), it is not in a true court of law, and it is NOT paid for by the company that made the vaccine. We parents pay for it! We pay for pharmaceutical mistakes. Let’s talk about the amount of money the average physician, as you soon will be, will earn with say, the HPV series. I believe the last time I looked, an office could stand to make $300 for that single series of vaccines. It is optional now, and most parents have heard about its potential dangers and the fact that other countries have banned it as a result. Next year, it is proposed to be mandated for ALL kids, 11 years and up. Look at the proposed schedule for 2015, it is quite formidable. I hear rumblings of extending mandates to adults as well, what will happen when all of us are forced to play vaccine “catch up”?
Before they impose these mandates and take away both parental right for medical choice (as well as physician autonomy), I hope that a thorough and independent investigation of the vaccinated versus unvaccinated is undertaken, for the sake of unbiased science and the health of our children.
I have now read many of these comments here, and I find myself amazed at the several critiques of ”fear mongering”! If anyone wants to see REAL fear-mongering, try watching all the many pro-vaccine commercials & news reports on tv! I especially love the one I have heard that specifically says at the end of it: “If you’re not sure if you’ve ever received the MMR vaccine, go ahead and get another one – it’s harmless.” REALLY??? Even the vaccine labels do not claim their vaccines are ‘harmless’! Talk about trying to mislead the public…
I also wonder why nobody comments on having any vaccinated vs. nonvaccinated studies done? It is the perfect idea to discover the REAL truths, one would think.
I also like comments like this one: “Vaccines utilize your immune system and make it stronger, not weaker.” Pretty broad generalization there, isn’t it? Especially when someone is trying to live with IMHA, or some other awful autoimmune disease. Statements like that also imply ‘extra’, or ‘super’ immunity. In actuality, you’re either immune or you’re not – and if you are, adding one more ”harmless” shot can indeed trigger many highly unwanted (and potentially fatal) results.
This is one of the best articles I’ve read on the subject of vaccines. It is well written, thoroughly researched (considering the lack of studies which need to be done, like you said), and bang-on. It is so refreshing to hear from a Mom who doesn’t blame the unvaccinated children for the spread of disease. You and your family will be in my prayers. I wish you the very best in your fight to regain your darling children’s health.
This was a good read and very well written. I am so sorry family’s health problems. I have always been from the other side of the fence. I am from the veterinary world and have held many, many dying puppies. These puppies died from a disease called parvo. It would probably be eradicated if the percentage of people who vaccinated their pets were higher. I have always thought of it as protecting the community, not just my pet or my child. It has been shown one type of vaccine can develop cancer in 1 in 10,000 cats. Those vaccines were a rabies vaccine and a feline leukemia vaccine. It is like being between a rock and a hard place. Stop vaccinating animals for rabies, a zoonotic disease that is deadly, or possibly cause the pet to develop a sarcoma at the injection site? The best idea I have heard; give the vaccine to save the “community” but give in a rear leg that can be removed if a sarcoma develops. When it comes to children I realize the chose is not so easy as for a pet. My opted to just get the vaccines at a slower pace for my children. Being a Momma and making the decisions for children sure is difficult sometimes.
Your comment is very interesting to me because my husband is also in the veterinary world, he’s an internist :). And he has witnessed an explosion of autoimmune issues and cancers in dogs and cats. Unlike human medicine, veterinarians are more free to use their own judgement and medical knowledge. If a previously healthy young dog comes into the clinic suffering from an autoimmune disease that presented shortly after vaccination, the veterinarian is allowed to connect the two and say that the illness could well be (though its not definitive) vaccine induced. Though the reporting system is woefully inadequate and there is a push to force less critical reporting of vaccines and more blanket policy. I conjecture if this is to prevent the comparison to human populations? There is plenty of criticism with connecting cancer with vaccines in animals, for example, though it is observable by veterinarians.
I wonder, how many of those sick puppies you see are coming from shelters and pet shops or backyard breeders, where they are already stressed, then often vaccinated with multivalent injections, sometimes even neutered and spayed on top of that? We take the same approach now with our animals that we do with our children. Previously, we had had issues with terrible allergies, behavioral issues, cancers, idiopathic epilepsy post vaccination, all sorts of issues that some would attribute to “purebreds” . Within the same family of dogs, their health and behavior has completely turned around. I see breeders who go this route noticing the same results. Perhaps it is time to examine vaccination policy of our pets as well?
Thank you for your comments, its important to THINK about these issues, as you have, in order to make the most logical medical choices for our children. Hopefully we will be able to maintain that parental right to choose.
I would have to agree that many vets are starting to change their views on pet vaccines as well. This is not on the topic of cancer, but lack of safety and study in certain populations. My mother has horses and cares for a neighbors horses as well. Recently a vet was doing a checkup and discussing vaccinations with my mother…and happened to mention that he had been noticing that vaccinating pregnant horses seemed to be leading to miscarriage. One client was actively breeding draft horses and 8 of 10 pregnant mares miscarried within two weeks of vaccinations. I do not remember which equine vaccine it was, but it’s telling. That client no longer vaccinates any of their horses…not just the pregnant mares.
Unfortunately our pets are being vaccinated WAY too often, even though the AMVA and other ‘guidelines’ are in place. Titer tests will show immunities lasting much longer than most vet’s recommended vaccine schedules. Despite the growing percentages of sick animals (autoimmune diseases, for one), many vets find that they can’t get many patients in the door for just those yearly check-ups… instead they are much more inclined to come in when they discover their little furball is due for another vaccine. 🙁
Or you could just find a naturopathic veterinarian and buy some nosodes, which are homeopathic in nature, work great and do not contain toxics. They need to be administered on a schedule at home…it is just a little complicated and your kitty need not sacrifice a leg. My cats went right to sleep after each dose and were quite healthy until the pet food melamine poisoning years ago.
And thank you for the great article. I am a vaccine injury survivor from 1949 DPT….paralytic polio and encephalitis, lots of gut damage and autism. If nothing else vaccine injuries with seizures, convulsions, high fevers, brain damage, and immune disorders, etc. set up a lousy, unstable foundation for life. You can get something totally unexpected – like that paralytic polio, which was not isolated to me at all, – from a vaccine along with the usual encephalopathy. No one, to my knowledge has ever explained how that happened. The vaccine manufacturers and their cohorts, witting or not, have not shown any signs of human compassion or even apologized to the untold numbers of people who they have harmed. Spending time in the hospital having seizures and muscle contortions, and screeching in pain from a vaccine injury, well that’s a chance you take with vaccines. So much has been written about it and about ways to heal from it, which work well for me, I have trouble wrapping my head around the fear and denial…and then I remember that my case was probably listed as polio encephalitis and is included in the polio statistics. Because that is what they do well…manipulate data and fail to recognize their mistakes.
Our hearts are with you! It is a blessing to hear from someone dealing with cancer who doesn’t believe vaccine-skeptics are all uninformed, selfish lunatics. We have to put our own children first…to prevent possible long-term illnesses. I do my best to be responsible when my child is sick and keep him home from school…without attendance repercussions…when he is most contagious. But he gets every cough and sniffle that vaccinated kids bring to school as well. The immune compromised will never be able to be in a completely disease-free bubble, as there are ALWAYS pathogens floating around that can and will never have a vaccine available (not that it would be 100% effective in the first place). Not to mention the live vaccines that can and do shed…but kids aren’t kept home from school for up to 3 weeks after being vaccinated. My son contracted Rubella from a recently vaccinated friend. Didn’t know it was possible until I did some reading about it because there were no other cases reported and my son was the only one in a group unvaccinated. It was not terrible, and he’s completely fine. I truly didn’t mind, I just wish it was more well-known as a possibility. Parents vaccinate their kids, completely unaware that they could be the ones spreading these diseases to unvaxxed, immune compromised, and those who are ‘too young’…because they DON’T research for themselves.
Thank you for the well wishes :). I have found that most vaccine skeptics are highly critical thinkers who come by their skepticism honestly.
Thank you for the courage to write this. I have read hundreds, possibly thousands of articles, studies, books, etc. on this subject for the past nine years after watching my son react to his 4 month shots. I have learned that the most relevant articles are those written by “Momcologists”. Nothing can deny the heart, soul, and blood connection we have with our children. When something is “off” or wrong, we know. I have learned that there is such a small percentage of this population that has chosen to dig deeper and think for themselves on this issue, even when faced with similar struggles that you have been faced with (especially when the cause/ effect is as obvious as yours). I am still so perplexed as to why people continue to deny the relationship between so many childhood illnesses and issues (asthma, autism, eczema, peanut allergies, etc), and vaccines. An article such as yours simplifies it with a personal testimony which is very hard to deny. Thank you for sharing. I am hoping it challenges the thinking of several parents out there. And for the record, my children (same as the commenter above), contracted Rubella from their friends who had been recently vaccinated with MMR. We were happy to stay home for the incubation period and build their immune systems naturally. Thank you for writing, for your years of research and for your voice!
If the author is referring to the child in California that was exploited in the papers and on the news who confinced his school board to mandate vaccinations; I don’t know if it’s true, but read that his grandfather works for a pharmaceutical company. If true, wow! Unbelievable that they would do this. Also, the parents said he would be getting the MMR vaccine this week before going on vacation. What is going to be said when this child suffers an injury or death; praying he doesn’t, but just saying that they will blame it on anything or everything but the vaccine.
He’s ONE of them, Denise. The father of another was featured in the hearing held last week.
I really can’t say enough good things about your article. I’m sad for your struggle, I can’t even begin to imagine your pain and hardships.
I teach people about the first option of natural health. In this I have seen several develop cancer and use natural means to heal themselves. With your apparent deep knowledge, I am very curious of your thoughts about a few things. First, the bodies ability to heal itself, with these specific children whom are more at higher risk? Do you believe it is worth taking time to try a safer approach to healing through the many less invasive options?
Second, I wonder what you know on the roll the intestinal microbiom plays in these children becoming more at risk? Specially the information Dr. Natasha McBride reveals in her book on the gut and physiology syndrome? Did your family spend time healing this way.
I have spent and likely will continue to spend great efforts to heal my children’s intestinal track from leaky gut. Which in our home has resulted in a few daily issues, though very minor in comparison to cancer. My fear would be auto immune disorders or cancer. I am lead to believe a compromised intestinal track is at the core of these issues.
I respect your thoughts and research and think you must have an opinion I would love to hear on the questions above. Thank you for writing truths. It means so much to so many, including myself. It’s comforting to know others are fighting the same fight. That gives me confidence to keep fighting for my children and their children.
Yes, keep up the fight, we need to maintain parental control of the medical choices for our children! If you are in the United States and want to join in the current movement against federal vaccine mandates, I highly suggest joining this action group that will keep you abreast of vaccine action in your state https://nvicadvocacy.org/members/Home.aspx
We do utilize integrative medicine, which combines alternative and traditional methods. in healing our children and that includes addressing the gut/immune system :). Unfortunately, leukemia is not a cancer that has shown good response to alternative cancer treatments to date, due in part to the fact that there is little research and data available.
Vaccine mandates make individual risk factors for each child irrelevant. If a parent has seen autoimmune disease or other adverse events in their family, they will not have the ability to shield their higher risk child. We need to take a step back and assess the true safety and efficacy of our current vaccines and schedule by looking at health outcomes of the vaccinated versus unvaccinated. Thus far, the government has balked, saying that this sort of study would be unethical, in putting some deliberately unvaccinated children at risk. However, there are currently 20,000 unvaccinated children in Chicago alone, the data is available.
These vaccine mandates will extend from children to adults, this movement is already in the works. Including particular push for more shots for pregnant women. Again, where is the data on a single vaccine for pregnant women that is first safe and second, results in reduced vaccine-preventable disease? Let’s see the outcome data on women who were vaccinated versus those who were not. The rates of stillbirth, defects, pregnancy complications, pregnancy illness, and of course, rate of vaccine preventable illness. Then address the health of the children of these women.
If we do not stand firm against mandates, we will never regain the right to say no.
Thank you, continued good luck with healing your family.
Ironically, NVIC is responsible for parents not being allowed to sue the vaccine companies. NVIC was co-author of the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of 1986 which gives the pharmaceutical companies immunity. That, ultimately, is why we’re in this situation. If these companies faced monetary consequences, the situation might be very different.
Unfortunately, that law was sold by lawmakers as a way to make compensation for vaccine injury swift, generous, and non-combative. Anyone with a shred of compassion would wish that that were so. The reality, however, is that the NVICP has turned out to be the exact opposite. According to a recent AP article: “Claims are supposed to be resolved within 240 days, with options for another 150 days of extensions. But between the court’s opening in 1988 and then end of 2012, less than 7 percent of 7,876 cases not including those claiming a vaccine caused the developmental disability autism met the 240-day target, according to AP’s data analysis. Hundreds have surpassed the decade mark. Several people died before getting any money.”
In addition, Wayne Rohde wrote a recent book based on interviews with hundreds of families about their experiences with the NVICP. He wrote a recent article on just one of the many problems with the program with Louis Conte, an independent investigator who helped him conduct the interviews.
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A co-worker had his little 3 year old girl vaccinated because the doctors insisted & said all kids get the vaccination. The next day his daughter was paralyzed and had an intense fever.
She was hospitalized for 2 weeks before she started to regain use of her limbs and muscles.
The hospital left it all as a mystery after 2 weeks of racking up co-pays on his insurance. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out they injected her with this mysterious ailment that almost killed her.
Well written and nicely cited.
Thank you so much for this. I’m so scared at the future of our country in regards to choice. It’s frightening what’s happening.
Excellent and thank you so much for the research links. Does anyone have a handy-dandy link that can compare vaccination schedules in other developed countries compared to ours in the US, as well as numbers showing percentages of children with chronic health problems? I’ve searched high and low. Thanks. For ALL that this group does!
Immunization schedules in order: Australia, Canada, UK. You will see the schedules are very similar. There is a perception that US schedules are more stringent but it isn’t true.
http://immunise.health.gov.au/internet/immunise/publishing.nsf/Content/nips-ctn
http://www.phac-aspc.gc.ca/im/is-cv/index-eng.php
http://www.nhs.uk/conditions/vaccinations/pages/vaccination-schedule-age-checklist.aspx
This is an excellent article. I have read enough to know that I don’t want to vaccinate my children. I can’t rattle off statistics or have a file at home or even any kind of argument ready for when I am challenged, but I would like to see this article on the front page of every newspaper in the world, because you simply cannot refute the facts. I have two children, one of whom is partially vaccinated. I kind of have my own controlled study at home and I have seen enough to convince me more every day that I am doing the right thing for my children. Articles like this make my heart sing because it confirms what my instincts and experience have told me all along – it’s not my kids passing things around, it’s the vaccinated kids.
you couldn’t say it better. my words 🙂
My cousin had a severe reaction to a vaccine. Not long afterward she started having leg pain and was eventually diagnosed with leukemia at 15 months. She died at age 3. Her doctor told my aunt not to have any of her other children vaccinated. My cousin would have celebrated her 20th birthday last month. Incredible to me that her doctor made the vaccine-leukemia connection all those years ago, but you never hear about it in the media or in reports/studies. Prayers for your little girl. Cancer treatment has grown leaps and bounds since my cousin’s battle. Hopefully as treatment advances and knowledge unfolds as to what causes cancer this evil disease will eventually be eradicated entirely.
The oncologist at the time of our daughter’s first battle also acknowledged that the number of vaccines she had been subjected to could very well have triggered her leukemia. The doctors are witness to these vaccine reactions, I hope that more will find their voice and come to stand with us to protect our parental rights for medical choice.
Join the fight with us, for your cousin. I am sorry she is no longer with you.
https://nvicadvocacy.org/members/Home.aspx
Thank you. My son died in 2004 after 18 months with JMML, a bone marrow transplant and relapse with AML. He was partially vaccinated. My other sons aren’t. These are all the reasons why. Thank you for being a voice for moms like me.
I’m sorry, Kristy :(. My daughter has been through a lot but she is still here with me today, I can’t imagine losing her as you have lost your son. If you have the strength, continue to protect his brothers and help us stand against these federal mandates. They are working to extend the mandates to adults as well. As siblings to a child with leukemia, vaccinating them at any time of their lives might be risky. We need to be able to make that decision for ourselves, whatever it may be. And we must demand the information necessary to make those decisions.
I am honored to be a voice for parents of children with cancer who are concerned about vaccine safety and force vaccination. I speak out not because I am paid to protect a product, I speak out because its right.
Thank you for commenting, we need more of you.
This article is the most eloquent, sharply focused and logical argument I have read on this issue – actually on any issue of late. You are a gifted writer and clearly a tenacious researcher.
Thank you for taking the time to share your family’s story so that I could learn some things I hadn’t known but had long suspected about the dramatic rise in childhood cancers. I too fear for my children’s future and for the future of all children in this world where the vaccine cartel makes the rules.
I would like to share this post if I may.
Thank you.
As a mother who lost her son to AML in 2009, I have questioned the role that vaccines played in his diagnosis at the age of 2. While, I can’t go back I will try to enjoy my 2 surviving, unvaccinated kids. His diagnosis prompted my research and I was sickened by what I found.
I was hardly able to continue reading your blog, though I knew it’s what I needed after being shamed for my children’s vaccine status. I fought for him when he was here, I’ll fight for them while they are here.
Thank you so much for this.
Oh Amber, I am so sorry to hear of your son’s death. I hear so many people speak of preventing death with vaccines, using mortality statistics from third world countries to scare and bully. I want them to truly examine the very real possibility of death by vaccine via cancer, allergies, autoimmune disease, neurologic damage…. That examination requires taking a hard look at children who have never been vaccinated at all, and compare them to those who have.
Stand strong, don’t allow them to shame you for your medical choices. Register to receive action about vaccine legislation in your areas and suggestions on how to help support parental authority. https://nvicadvocacy.org/members/Home.aspx
The shame should be directed at those who are eroding individual rights. My child, my choice.
Hugs, mama.
Vaccines have carcinogens in them (mercury/thimerosal/aluminum/formaldehydes and many other toxins)—->Injected directly into bloodstream—->causes a chaotic immuno-emergency—>body goes into immuno-shock—>white blood cells start attacking everything in the blood stream including “good cells” because the vaccine components attach to anything it can—>body is “rewired” to attack because the vaccines can trigger a Post Traumatic Stress Disorder of the Immune System—>which leads to leukemia. This is the physiology of blood cancers.
Has there ever been a case of leukemia in a child who has not been vaccinated? Something to strongly research.
Yes, Chris, you are on point. Research, real research that will examine the overall health of the vaccinated versus unvaccinated.
Chris: the only vaccines that have thimerosal are multiple-use flu vaccines. Single use vaccines, such as MMR, haven’t had thimerosal for ten years or more. Formaldehyde is made in the body (in small amounts, and very quickly metabolised) so the amount introduced in a vaccine is inconsequential. The body doesn’t go into “immuno-shock” because that is a meaningless term. Indeed, it stimulates the immune system to respond to the introduced antigens to make a cellular- and antibody-based response. Leukemia is not caused by vaccinations.
You ask “Has there ever been a case of leukemia in a child who has not been vaccinated?” Honestly? Yes, in every child who got leukemia before vaccines were invented. Say, every child who got leukemia before the mid-1950s. Or any child who gets leukemia in a country where vaccines aren’t available. Chris, I grew up in the 1950s. When a child got leukemia in those days, it died. Flat out died. It was a death sentence. There was no treatment. Thank heavens today there is chemotherapy (thanks to the clever scientists and researchers at Sloan-Kettering) and also that there are vaccines to prevent our children dying from polio, diphtheria, whooping cough, typhoid, and other diseases that were fatal to children in my, and my parents, generation.
Annie, MMR NEVER contained Thimerosal. It is a live-virus vaccine. Live-virus vaccines cannot contain Thimerosal. There ARE other vaccines that contain Thimerosal in “trace amounts,” but there is no oversight into whether or not the Thimerosal that was used in processing really is removed from the vaccines. And since mercury is heavy, it falls to the bottom of the mult-use vials if they are not shaken just prior to use. Would you want your child to get that last dose?
Saying that leukemia could not have been caused by vaccines prior to the 1950s is just poor logic. The smallpox vaccine was developed in 1798, the diphtheria vaccine was developed in 1895, the pertussis vaccine was developed in 1925, and the tetanus vaccine was developed in 1924. The possibility that vaccines were involved in the etiology of leukemia could potentially go back to 1798.
Whether or not formaldehyde is a problem when injected into the body does not depend upon whether or not it is “made in the body” or not. Squalene is also made in the body, but injecting it is an adjuvant in vaccines has been known to cause autoimmune disease.
To Professor TMR:
Your comment about thimerosal … I appreciate the correction. And yet it is a common belief among vaccine-scared parents that MMR “contains mercury”, meaning the mercury-containing compound thimerosal (which isn’t elemental mercury any more than common salt is elemental sodium or your blood hemoglobin is elemental iron). With respect, many of these anti-vaccine sites just perpetuate that myth. Thimerosal is only used today in multiple-use vials, i.e., the influenza vaccine. So no childhood vaccines would have this “bottom of the vial” effect.
Leukemia isn’t caused by vaccines. Period. Studies with childhood populations that compare children who developed leukemia with those who didn’t consistently show no link at all between the children’s vaccination status and leukemia development. Yes it’s true that certain cancers are caused (or triggered) by specific viruses but it’s never been shown that viruses like measles are responsible. Unfortunately there is too much faulty logic in much of the anti-vaccination line of thinking. If most or all children are vaccinated and then a few develop leukemia, you can’t conclude that (a) caused (b) anymore than you can say that all children attend birthday parties and then a few develop leukemia so birthday parties cause leukemia. It’s tempting to try to connect dots in that way and as humans we do it all the time because we want answers, but in this case the research doesn’t show that. As I said in an earlier post, I can’t imagine what it would be like to have a child with leukemia. Of course you’d want answers. And the reality is complicated – there are many factors at play in the development of childhood leukemia or indeed any cancer – perhaps genetic predisposition, a viral or toxic trigger, the status of the immune system in infancy and history of exposure to infections, and a raft of other things besides.
My point is that there are many many many children who have developed leukemia who haven’t been vaccinated. Your history of vaccines is interesting but the fact that vaccines had been invented didn’t mean that everyone got them, far from it.
And I have a question: what happens in the US to children without health care coverage? Is there a vaccine program where they can get them for free or do they go unvaccinated? That’s quite a few million children as I understand it.
No, “anti-vaccine” sites do NOT “perpetuate the myth” that the MMR contains Thimerosal. The vast majority of them are run by people who know far more about vaccines than the average “TV expert” as can be evidenced by TV “debates”: Rebecca Estepp of Health Choice corrected a doctor on television, and our own Kim Spencer corrected a PhD on television with the same fact. As a matter of fact, Ginger Taylor calls it the “stupid idiot” test because it is SO well-known by vaccine choice advocates that it’s a huge red flag that someone has NOT done their research. You, however, passed one of the other obvious tests. At least you didn’t come here and say, “They took the Thimerosal out of all childhood vaccines years ago.” This is the vaccine excipient table and as you can see there are a other vaccines, notably the Td and DT vaccines, which are, fortunately, rarely given to children, but can cause brain damage at any age. The new film “Trace Amounts” begins with the story of Eric Gladen’s case of mercury poisoning that he got at the age of 29 from a tetanus shot. He fought his way back with the use of low-dose chelation to get the mercury out of his brain.
“Leukemia isn’t caused by vaccines. Period.” Wow. I love it when people make blanket statements like that based on epidemiological studies that compare fully vaccinated populations to slightly less vaccinated populations. “Yes it’s true that certain cancers are caused (or triggered) (and really, what is the difference?) by specific viruses but it’s never been shown that viruses like measles are responsible.” Something never having been shown, doesn’t mean that it isn’t true. THAT’S “faulty logic.” In addition, “viruses like measles” is an incredibly vague term. There IS direct evidence of SV40 causing leukemia-type cell changes in laboratory experiments. And polio vaccines WERE contaminated with SV40. I can point out many other “pro-vaccination” lines of thinking that are equally faulty in logic.
Absolutely agreed that “the reality is complicated.” And absolutely agreed that because a vaccine was developed doesn’t mean everyone had the vaccine. But we have no way of knowing, do we, whether or not the people who got leukemia were among those who got vaccinated? No one ever implied that vaccines are the sum total of any illness, much less leukemia. Just as cigarette smoking doesn’t cause all lung cancer (I should know. My father never smoked a day in his life, and lung cancer is on his death certificate.), but that in no way means that it doesn’t cause lung cancer. So there is nothing to say that a genetic susceptibility combined with a certain vaccine or combination of vaccines (NONE of which have been tested for safety, by the way) does not cause a great deal more illness than NOT adding the vaccine or vaccines to the situation.
Many children without health insurance can get vaccines for free at clinics around the country. Here in NY City, public schools offer vaccines in schools. There is a federal program that covered vaccines for people without the money or insurance to pay for them that has recently been cut. Apparently, the people who are not vaccinating are not people at the low end of the economic spectrum these days. And you might find it interesting that minorities had lower rates of neurological problems like autism until recently. As the vaccination rates of minorities have caught up with those of the upper middle-class white children, so have their rates of neurological conditions.
To ProfessorTMR:
I was aware of the SV40 contamination, and that it was a component of the oral form of the polio virus which is no longer in use in the developed world. As such, the simian virus was not absorbed by the child’s digestive tract and did not reach the immune system. You make a valid point that SV40 cause stransformational changes to cells in the lab, yet mischieviously do not drop the other boot, which would be to say that, however, no link to cancers in humans has been found in retrospective studies.
sciencebasedmedicine.org has a lengthy article on the polio virus-cancer scare, noting: “Another study compared cancer rates in people born between 1947 and 1963, who were likely to have been exposed to contaminated polio vaccine, to people born after 1963, who were highly unlikely to have been exposed. There was no difference in cancer rates. This is a result that has held up, as studies performed eight years, fifteen years, and thirty years after SV40-contaminated vaccines had been given to children found that they had the same cancer incidence as groups not exposed to contaminated vaccine.”
Actually in an earlier post I did say: “They took the Thimerosal out of all childhood vaccines years ago.” Nice try. I stand by what I said … if thimerosal is still in adult vaccines given to children in rare cases, we can definitely stand down the thimerosal hysteria. And you know as well as I do that much anti-vaxx information is still fanning the flames on thimerosal (altho it’s really time to put it to bed) and still linking it, often by omission, to the MMR vaccine.
And really, you know, if we’re afraid our children’s brains are exposed to too much mercury, we should look to our car-driving, exhaust-pollution lifestyle.
http://www.epa.gov/airquality/peg_caa/toxics.html
Here for example:
http://www.naturalnews.com/011764_thimerosal_mercury.html
Hmmm . . . Interesting. From what I can see THIS is what you said, “the only vaccines that have thimerosal are multiple-use flu vaccines. Single use vaccines, such as MMR, haven’t had thimerosal for ten years or more.” That is NOT “They took the Thimerosal out of all childhood vaccines years ago.” I assumed you understood that multi-dose vials are used routinely to vaccinate children. They are also used routinely on PREGNANT WOMEN. Obviously you didn’t. My mistake. So . . . I guess you failed that test after all. And I challenge you to find an “anti-vaccine” website that says or even implies there is or was Thimerosal in MMR.
I like that you brought up the fact that a substance that is swallowed is not metabolized the same way as a substance that is injected. We’re well aware of that here, but people are always trying to tell us that “there’s more mercury in a tuna sandwich than there is in a vaccine,” among so many other things. However, what evidence do you have that “SV40 was not absorbed by the digestive tract and did not reach the immune system”? After all, ingestion is one of the common pathways for causing viral illness. It would stand to reason that an ingested virus has as much chance of causing an immune response as an injected one, especially when included with a virus that is DESIGNED to cause an immune system response.
I’m leaving your reference sciencebasedmedicine, but we don’t link to the website. We here used to read their stuff, but found that there was so little regard for intellectual honesty that we refuse to link to the site. In epidemiological studies, it is well known that small signals are easy to miss, especially if someone wants to miss them. They are highly dependent upon their assumptions. The assumptions for those particular studies have been criticized, and rather well, in the book The Virus and the Vaccine, by Debbie Bookchin and Jim Schumacher, who are hardly wild-eyed “anti-vaxxers,” by the way. The SV40 virus has been found in human tumors similar to those induced in animals in labs. There is good reason to believe that SV40 did have a role in at least some human cancers. The book is a fascinating read, by the way. A real eye-opening view of how “science” is affected by all the human failings, including ambition, narrow-mindedness, ass covering, arrogance, and greed.
Absolutely, we should be looking to change our “car-driving, exhaust-pollution” lifestyle. Exposure to mercury (or any of a host of other neurotoxins) is not good in any form. However, just like ingestion, respiration of a substance is not the same physiologically as injection of the same substance.
Amen!
Dr Petar Ivanovski, professor at University Children Hospital in Belgrade, Serbia, made a research and revealed that diphtheria vaccine causes leukemia in children:
http://www.medical-hypotheses.com/article/S0306-9877(06)00544-5/abstract#/article/S0306-9877(06)00544-5/fulltext?mobileUi=1
Ivana, such an interesting article, thank you. The reason we do not use banked cord blood for ALL kids is due to the fact that they DO show prenatal changes that increase their risk for leukemia. If indeed, vaccination completed the progression to cancer, it would be extremely important to genetically test infants for that risk factor before vaccination. I wonder if this hypothesis was ever researched?
Jean Ghantous, thank you, gracias for helping others with this excellent information! You are a smart, courageous mom speaking the truth!
I am so very sorry you have this struggle. Thank you for being a voice for the parents.
I am 47 and have been vaccinated twice against measles in my life. The first time, I was 4 and the second, I was 20. My university decided that about 150 of us had to be re-vaccinated. We were not allowed to attend classes until we could prove that we were re-vaccinated. I went to the student health clinic, got the shot and 2 weeks later, had the measles. (It was later determined that the vaccine had been improperly stored.)
I think about that now when I read comments blaming unknown parents for exposing children. Who knows how many people I unintentionally exposed during those 14 days?
Wow. Well done.
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Thank you so much, smart and fierce mama. This is superbly written, and my heart goes out to you and your family.
OMG! You nailed it. I’m so very sorry your family has had to live through the trauma that is part of a child’s life threatening illness, but I’m a “see the glass half full” kinda mom and all the various heart-stopping moments I’ve experienced with my own, now grown kids, put me into research mode too. Not only can we usually get far beyond where we might have, had we simply accepted status quo, we help so many others – some not even yet born. Well done Mom and you’re an excellent writer, on top of it all!
I have ran across other articles in the past about children being at a higher risk for childhood cancers after having a abnormal auto immune response after a vaccine. My son developed severe asthma and eczema between 3 and 4 months of age and Had chronic diahrrea and vomiting for several months that preceded this onset of his asthma. I feel as though the pediatrician should of recognized this as an abnormal response and instead of belittling me for questioning if it could be his vacines he should of recognized it,and stopped advising me to continue his vaccines. In fact he insisted that my son get a flu shot every year all the while he was sicker and sicker every year and was once hospitalized with a secondary infection. Instead he kicked me out of his practice because I would no longer vaccinate my children. Long story short my son is autistic has learning disabilities and speech impediments. Could you please direct me to any studies or arcticles linking leukemia /childhood cancers to vaccines and what his risk may be because of his past reaction to his vaccines?
I am sorry to hear about your son, Allyson. With the current frenzy towards a blanket vaccine schedule to be mandated to all, children who are at higher risk for adverse event following vaccine will be the first harmed. Unfortunately, “just” asthma or “just” eczema isn’t going to cut it for a medical exemption even though the research demonstrates we should be extremely cautious in vaccinating children showing signs of immune system dysfunction.
You aren’t going to find research on vaccines leading to cancer because cancer is not a recognized adverse event :). What does that mean? We all know substances that cause cancer do not act in a matter of hours, minutes, or days. In the case of leukemia, the time from the initiating mutation to clinical symptoms can take a number of months. Therefore, cancer would not be recognized as a consequence of vaccination (though I wish now I had had the knowledge at that time to file an adverse event report for my daughter after her leukemia diagnosis). Which is ridiculous, when you think about the fact that no known mutagenic substance causes cancer immediately. There have been a few comparison studies of MORE vaccinated children to LESS vaccinated children and the development of leukemia, and they do not show causation. In reading about the hygiene hypothesis and the immune system and timing of pertinent infections, one can see that the study which begs examination would be that comparing the vaccinated to the unvaccinated. That study has not been undertaken, despite many urgings by parents and some politicians to do so.
I will tell you anecdotally that when I am at the oncology clinic, there seems to be a clear connection between families that have been stricken both with leukemia and spectrum disorders. The vulnerabilities they may have in methylation systems and such could be a factor, immune system dysregulation, their similar environment (including vaccines” and so on. It warrants investigation, certainly. Good luck to you and your son, always follow your intuition. The doctors work for YOU :).
Allison Tillotson, that pediatrician is the one who had to be kicked out of his practice…You are a courageous, and smart mom taking your children out of his vaccinations!
Thank you for this insightful, sane and well-referenced article!
Thrilled to see someone writing about the link between childhood cancer(s) and vaccines. Childhood cancer has increased right along with autism, asthma, Type 1 Diabetes, seizure disorders, food allergies, learning and behaviorial problems, tics, and on and on the list goes. Vaccines are given during THE MOST CRITICAL TIME of brain and immune system development, and as we are seeing, that leads to disastrous results.
Parents, protect your child’s development and health by protecting them FROM vaccines. Once you allow vaccines in, you can’t get them back out. A cataclysmic chain of events has just been unleashed that will unfold and reveal itself over the course of your child’s lifetime.
There are many ways to protect, maintain, and enhance the health of your children that are safe and sound, beginning with breastfeeding. A nutrient-dense, non-GMO, organic diet is also on the list, as is the elimination of as many toxins as possible, adequate rest and exercise, staying home and resting when sick, staying away from others who are sick, thorough hand washing, proper supervision, and lots of love, for some good starters.
Thank you, Jean, for sharing your story and what you’ve learned. Very needed and very appreciated!
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Thank YOU for taking the time to share your families story. I support & believe you are speaking the TRUTH & are the voice of many. May God bless you & your beautiful daughter. You are a courageous woman & Mom who carries a powerful message…