What's all the Fuss About?
An Introduction to the Vaccination Controversy

Many people who have contacted us have requested that we "send them all the information on vaccination" so that they can make an informed choice for themselves. It would be great if it was that easy. Unfortunately the issue is complex and it is not a simple task to become informed. However, having a basic understanding of the issues can help you get there more quickly. This article contains information and examples that are illustrative of the issues. The references cited are by no means extensive and represent a mere fraction of the information available from a range of sources. Suggestions on how to source further information on vaccine safety and efficacy are provided at the end of this article. The full list of references is provided on a separate sheet.

THE DECLINE OF INFECTIOUS DISEASES
Vaccination has not been responsible for the major decline in infectious diseases', despite what you may have heard from those promoting vaccines. Improvements in living conditions including improved sanitation, hygiene, water supplies and housing, better nutrition and isolation procedures have been the main reasons for this.' In New Zealand the death rate from childhood diseases declined by up to 98 between 1890 and the 1940s before vaccination was introduced.2 The graphs below illustrate this decline. The death rate from diseases for which no vaccine was used also declined, e.g. Scarlet fever declined steadily throughout the 20th century to the point of being almost eradicated without the use of vaccination. The decline in the death rate from measles, whooping cough, tuberculosis and diphtheria in New Zealand before vaccination is mirrored by the statistics from other countries such as the United States,' England and Wales3 and Australia.4 It has been estimated that only 3.5 of the decline in death rate from infectious diseases can be attributed to the combined effect of vaccination and drugs.'

DISEASE, THE IMMUNE SYSTEM AND VACCINES
Modem infectious disease treatment, including vaccination, has its theoretic underpinnings in the "germ theory" as attributed to Louis Pasteur. Pasteur said "The microbe causes the illness. Look for the microbe, and you'll understand the illness." His followers today in the medical-industrial complex have conveniently forgotten he also said "I'm convinced that when a wound becomes infected and festers, the course that the wound takes depends upon the patient's general condition and even his mental condition."5 On his deathbed, Pasteur is alleged to have made a retraction saying "Bechamp is right. The microbe is nothing, the terraine is everything."6 The idea that the environment of the host (human) is so important in determining the development and progression of disease is unpopular with the pharmaceutical industry who profit from a widespread belief in, and desire for, a quick fix for health problems.

Vaccines are commonly believed to work by producing antibodies. However, a number of researchers have found that the presence of antibodies only indicates that the immune system has come into contact with an antigen. One medical paper said that "it is known that, in many instances, antigen-specific antibody litres do not correlate with protection."7 For example, it has been established that there is no clear correlation between antibody levels and protection against whooping cough and that there is no generally accepted laboratory measure of immunity.8'9 The medical community does not have even a basic understanding of the human new-born immune system.10 Studies show that the immune systems of new-born animals can easily be perturbed to ensure that they cannot respond properly later in life.10 Two generations of vaccination has made today's babies more vulnerable to disease because vaccinated women pass less antibodies on to their babies than those women who have natural immunity to disease, making the babies of vaccinated women more susceptible to disease in the first year of life."' '2 Vaccination has been proven in medical studies to make children more susceptible to disease for a period afterwards due to its 'overload' effect on the immune system leading to generally lowered resistance.13 14 Viral vaccines have been shown to depress cellular immunity, which serves as the body's first line of defence against infection and disease.'5 This suppression of the cellular immune system results not in the prevention of disease but the inability of the body to manifest, to respond to and to overcome disease!

VACCINE MANUFACTURE
Vaccines contain very toxic substances that are poisonous to our bodies. For example, many vaccines contain formaldehyde, an extremely toxic compound and a known carcinogen.16 Many vaccines also contain aluminium which frequently causes reactions at the injection site 17 and can cause an allergic response to subsequent doses of the vaccine. Aluminium has been associated with Alzheimer's disease and dementia.18

Two scheduled vaccines still contain thimerosal (flu and adult tetanus-diphtheria), an ethyl mercury sodium salt (49% mercury); mercury is a heavy metal that is extremely toxic. Concerns about the toxicity of mercury in vaccines and links between thimerosal and a vast number of illnesses and disabilities led to calls for thimerosal to be removed from childhood vaccines.19 However, the flu vaccine is recommended for children over the age of 6 months and the adult tetanus-diphtheria is scheduled at eleven years of age.

In some vaccines 2-phenoxyethanol has replaced thimerosal as a preservative. It is commonly used as a solvent for dyes, inks and resins, in germicides, and in other pharmaceuticals. It is an irritant for the skin, eyes, mucous membranes and respiratory tract and reactions to exposure can include coughing, headache, abdominal pain and nausea.20

Vaccines are manufactured using animal and human tissue including foetal calf blood, chick embryo fluid, monkey kidney cells and human diploid cells which are derived from two aborted human foetuses.2' Vaccines contain DNA derived from the cell culture and may contain other viruses.22'23 The presence of contaminating viruses or integrated gene sequences from cancer causing viruses is a major health concern and total safety requires the complete absence of DNA from the vaccines.22 Viruses that have contaminated vaccines include avian leukosis virus from chick embryos24 and bovine viral diarrhoea virus25 from foetal calf blood. Continuous monkey cell cultures can cause tumours26 and human foetal cells are also susceptible to malignancy.27

The most infamous episode of vaccine contamination is that of polio vaccines with the SV40 virus in the 1950s and 60s. This simian (monkey) virus contaminated both the killed and live virus vaccines that were administered to millions of children. It has been confirmed beyond doubt that the vims has caused a variety of cancers in a large number of vaccinees.28'2t> SV40 has also been found in the sperm and blood of healthy people30 indicating that the virus can be transmitted from generation to generation along gene lines.

Live virus vaccines have been proven to cause the disease that they are supposed to prevent in vaccine recipients and their close contacts. The most well known of these is the oral polio vaccine in which the polio virus can be excreted in the faeces of the vaccine recipient for six to eight weeks after vaccination and can infect non-immune people. Measles,31 mumps,32 hepatitis A33 and chickenpox34 vaccines have also all been documented to have caused the disease in vaccinees and close contacts who have no immunity.

VACCINE EFFICACY
Vaccines are not very effective in preventing the disease that they are supposed to protect against. There are many, many medical studies documenting outbreaks of disease in highly vaccinated populations; some outbreaks have occurred in 100 vaccinated communities. In New Zealand in 1999 68 of the notified cases of whooping cough were fully vaccinated.35 In the 1984-85 New Zealand measles epidemic in children over 15 months old (the age for vaccination) 40 of the cases of measles occurred in vaccinated children.36 In the US there are frequent measles outbreaks in 98 to 100 vaccinated communities.37'38

Outbreaks of mumps,39 rubella40 and polio41 have also occurred in highly vaccinated populations. Numerous studies have found that immunity to hepatitis B lasts only five to ten years after vaccination. One study found that only 50 of vaccinated people had any immunity after four years42 and in another 61 of teenagers had no immunity only 14 years after vaccination.43

One large World Health Organisation trial involving 260,000 people, that was done on the BCG vaccine for tuberculosis, found more cases of TB in the vaccinated group than the unvaccinated and concluded that there was no evidence of a protective effect from tne^vaccine.44

VACCINE SAFETY
All vaccines can cause adverse reactions and most vaccines can be extremely dangerous for many children. There is no way of knowing beforehand whether your child's reaction will be of a minor and short lived nature, or a life-threatening, debilitating or ultimately lethal adverse effect. In addition, there is no way of knowing whether or not the vaccine will go on to cause an autoimmune condition years later.

There have been no long-term safety studies conducted on vaccines in which the health of vaccinated children is compared with a group of unvaccinated 'control' children! Vaccine safety tests are based on poor scientific methodology, the studies are too small, too short, and too limited in the populations represented, and are not subject to independent criticism.45'46'47

As more and more children in the world are vaccinated, it is becoming increasingly difficult to compare the health of unvaccinated with vaccinated children.46 The incidence of side-effects of vaccination is often compared to what is called the 'background incidence' of such a disease or condition. This 'background incidence' is the usual incidence of this occurring over the whole population. The use of vaccinated children as controls in vaccine safety studies is unscientific.

The peer reviewed medical journals publish hundreds of reports of serious adverse reactions to all vaccines including many reports of permanent disability and death. Adverse reactions to vaccines can occur soon after administration of a vaccine or progress slowly over the following weeks or months. The list below details some of the reactions that the manufacturers of vaccines used in New Zealand admit to. The information has been collated from the datasheets for individual vaccines.

Ø pain, hardness, redness and swelling at the injection site.
Ø fever, unusual crying, restlessness, irritability, sleeping more or less than usual, vomiting, diarrhoea, headache, sweating, chills.
Ø difficulty in breathing, convulsions, inconsolable screaming, encephalitis.
Ø Guillain-Barre syndrome, multiple sclerosis, arthritis, myalgia, loss of vision or loss of hearing, thrombocytopenia, vasculitis, swelling of the lymph nodes.
Ø collapse or shock-like state, brain damage, anaphylactic reactions, death.

In addition vaccines have been linked with or shown to cause autism,48'49 meningitis,50 diabetes,5' SIDS,52 and degenerative brain diseases leading to death.53

Many countries have a vaccine adverse reaction reporting system. In New Zealand it is the Centre for Adverse Reaction Monitoring, or CARM, in Dunedin. Like many similar systems, such as the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) in the US, CARM is a passive surveillance system that relies on health professionals and vaccinees voluntarily reporting adverse reactions. In the US between 1990 and 2002, 127,435 vaccine adverse reactions were reported to VAERS. There were 1,936 deaths reported, and 2,546 people were reported as being permanently disabled by vaccine reactions.54 The US the government has paid out US$1,355.4 million dollars to the families of vaccine damaged children since 1989.

Vaccine reactions are grossly under-reported and it is widely accepted that only 1 - 10 of all reactions are reported.55

THE MONEY TRAIL AND BIG BUSINESS
The vaccine industry earns billions of dollars annually. In 1989 - 1999 in New Zealand the Health Funding Authority expenditure orr vaccination was almost $11.8 million dollars, $6.3 million of which was just to buy the vaccines.57 The manufacturers all have to provide a return on their shareholders' investment and have been known to place profit before safety, placing people receiving the vaccines at greater risk. Shares in pharmaceutical companies are some of the most profitable in the world.58

A large number of the studies conducted and subsequently published in peer reviewed medical journals are funded by big pharmaceutical companies. Many of the supposedly independent people involved in research into the safety of vaccines, and those involved in licensing vaccines have financial ties to the pharmaceutical companies (shares, research funding, etc.).60'61

Doctors and health professionals worldwide who speak out against vaccination have been known to lose funding for research, be ostracised by their peers and in some cases lose their jobs. In New Zealand, for example, in 2002 the Director of Public Health made thinly veiled threats against the job security of midwives who disseminated information on vaccination that was not sanctioned by the Ministry of Health, suggesting that they were in breach of their contracts and stating that he was seeking legal advice on the matter.

CHOOSING NOT TO VACCINATE
In New Zealand vaccinating your children is not compulsory. There is no penalty for choosing not to vaccinate. However, the Health (Immunisation) Regulations 1995 require parents of children born since January 1995 to show their "Immunisation Certificate" when they enrol at an early childhood centre or school. If you do not show this form, your child will be registered as unvaccinated. No institution can force you to present a certificate, or to have your child vaccinated in order to enrol. In the event of a outbreak of measles or whooping cough the Medical Officer of Health may order that healthy, unvaccinated children be excluded from school for a period of up to two weeks.

While some vaccines are recommended for adults, e.g. 10-yearly DT boosters and flu vaccine, none are compulsory. However, if you are considering employment in any health sector which involves working with the public, your contract may be conditional on vaccination with any or all vaccines, as directed. In our opinion, this constitutes mandatory vaccination and is a breach of your right to choose your own medical care.

CHOOSING TO VACCINATE
If you choose to proceed with any vaccinations you should obtain the package insert of the vaccine(s) and read it thoroughly. Do not accept "Patient Information" which omits important information including side-effects. Request New Zealand Physicians Circulars, or Professional Data Sheets. Many of these are on the internet at http://www.medasfe.govt.nz/Profs/datasheet/DataSheet.htm#t. Note contraindications, warnings, precautions and adverse reactions. Ask your doctor to explain the signs and symptoms of all adverse reactions so that you may recognise them should they occur. Factors that can increase the risk of adverse reactions are:

Ø a child not well at the time of vaccination;
Ø a family history of allergies, vaccine reactions, convulsions, epilepsy or any other neurological or immunological problems;
Ø a bad reaction to a previous vaccine;
Ø an allergy to one of the ingredients in the vaccine;
Ø vaccinating a premature infant according to chronological not gestational age.

Obtain the following information prior to vaccination for your records, verified and signed by the vaccine administrator:

Ø evidence that you (or your child) are healthy;
Ø if for a child, evidence that the child is developing normally;
Ø time and date of administration;
Ø name of the vaccine administrator and his/her credentials;
Ø name and manufacturer of the vaccine;
Ø the lot and batch number of the vaccine;
Ø written verification that the vaccine has been stored correctly at all times.

This information is critical for obtaining Accident Compensation coverage in the event of compensatable injury. Any vaccine reaction should be reported on a H1574 form by your doctor, yourself, or the person who administered the vaccine. Send the completed form to: The National Toxicology Groups Centre for Adverse Reaction Monitoring, PO Box 913, Dunedin, New Zealand.

Ensure that ALL symptoms are recorded on the form and retain a copy for your own records. Request verification in writing that the data has been entered into their computer. The form should be available from your doctor but can be obtained by writing to the Toxicology Centre for Adverse Reactions, or at www.medsafe.govt.nz/regulatory/forms.htm.

"The only safe vaccine is a vaccine that is never used." Dr. James A. Shannon, National Institutes of Health (USA)

"Immunisation barely figures as a protection against death... At the end of the day, whether you immunise or not isn't going to make a hell of a lot of difference to the death rates." Dr Campbell Murdoch, Professor of General Practice, Otago Medical School, 1983 - 1992

"There is insufficient evidence to support routine vaccination of healthy persons of any age." Paul Frame, M.D., Journal of Family Practice

"The greatest threat of childhood disease lies in the dangerous and ineffectual efforts made to prevent them through mass immunisation." Dr Robert Mendelsohn, Paediatrician and Author

UNVACCINATED CHILDREN ARE HEALTHIER
Unvaccinated children are generally healthier than their vaccinated siblings, cousins and schoolmates. A 1992 IAS survey on the incidence of chronic conditions showed that vaccinated children suffer significantly more from asthma, eczema, ear infections, tonsillitis, ADHD and apnoea attacks than unvaccinated children. There were 269 unvaccinated children and 226 vaccinated children surveyed from throughout New Zealand. Across a wide range of diseases, unvaccinated children always came out ahead. Another, independent survey by Dr Mike Godfrey in 1999 returned similar results from 864 children, 260 of whom were unvaccinated and 604 of whom were vaccinated. This survey found that incidence of asthma, eczema and tonsillitis was significantly higher in vaccinated children. The incidence of each of eleven chronic childhood conditions in vaccinated and unvaccinated children expressed as a percentage of the total vaccinated and unvaccinated children surveyed.

In a healthy well-nourished child with a healthy immune system, the vast majority of childhood diseases are mild and self-limiting.62'63 In fact, these diseases serve to strengthen and mature a child's immune system, enabling it to function better when facing more serious challenges later inlife.64'65'66

"I cannot see how it is justifiable to promote mass vaccination of children everywhere against diseases which are generally mild, which confer lasting immunity, and which most children escape or overcome easily without being vaccinated. " Professor Gordon Stewart, Department of Community Medicine, University of Glasgow.

INFORMED CONSENT
In New Zealand health professionals have a legal obligation to obtain informed consent before vaccinating a child or adult. Informed consent can only be provided by a patient or caregiver (parent) when the patient or caregiver has considered all the information pertaining to the risks and benefits of vaccination. There is pressure on health professionals to provide only information that is sanctioned by the Ministry of Health. However, "official" information is incomplete and it is recognised by New Zealand consumer advocacy and health organisations that further information is necessary in order for people to be able to make an informed decision.67

IMMUNISATION AWARENESS SOCIETY
The Immunisation Awareness Society liaises with similar overseas organisations and produces a quarterly newsletter for members which generally includes:

Ø information to encourage parents to make informed decisions and take full responsibility for their family's health regarding vaccinations;
Ø warnings about vaccine expectations;
Ø parents' experiences of vaccine reactions, childhood diseases and how they managed the illness, including the health options available to them;
Ø information from overseas about legal/medical problems relating to vaccines.

Other resources available on request are:
Ø a comprehensive library of books, videos and tapes;
Ø contacts with local support groups and/or parents of vaccine-damaged children (by mutual consent).

The Immunisation Awareness Society is a voluntary society, funded by membership subscriptions and donations. We can be contacted for further information in the following ways:

IAS,
P.O. Box 56-048,
Dominion Rd,
Auckland, New Zealand

Tel: +64 (0)9 303 0187 (cleared daily)
Web: http://www.ias.org.nz
E-mail: info@ias.org.nz