Sweeping Changes to Baby Vaccines
by Celia Hall

Babies will no longer be given vaccine that contains the neurotoxin mercury when they are eight weeks old. The move follows pressure from parents and fears of a link between the metal and the development of autism.

Doctors across the country are being sent letters telling them of changes to the infant vaccine programme, which introduce a new five-in-one jab at two months of age.

They are also being told to switch from live polio vaccine, given by mouth, to an injection of a "killed" vaccine which avoids the rare cases of polio contamination.

Campaigners welcomed the removal of mercury from children's vaccines but were worried about giving babies five vaccines at once.

Jacquie Fletcher, founder of the parent support group Jabs (Justice, Awareness and Basic Support), said yesterday: "Giving five vaccines increases the risk of an adverse event as well as making it more difficult to find out which element is the cause if something goes wrong. I would also like to know why they have now decided to take mercury out of the vaccine. We have major concerns about mercury. We need to be assured that the new vaccine is safe. I want to know what safety and efficacy trials they have run which are large enough to show up what may be rare events."

The changes are expected to take place next month when sufficient stocks of the new five-in-one vaccine have been amassed.

The new injection, the first a baby is given, will inoculate against diphtheria, tetanus, whooping cough, hib and polio. The whooping cough element is the part of the vaccine that has, until now, contained mercury in a form called thiomersal.

Thiomersal is used in a range of household products and medicines as an anti-fungal and antibacterial agent.

Much concern has been raised about the triple jab for measles, mumps and rubella, and its links with autism, which have been strenuously denied. There is a separate concern over links between mercury in vaccines and autism.

The Department of Health has always said that there is no evidence of such a link. Dr Peter English, consultant in communicable diseases at the Health Protection Agency, says in the circular letter to GPs that there are three reasons for the change.

"The primary objectives are: to do away with whole cell pertussis (whooping cough) vaccine; to do away with live, oral polio vaccine and to do away with thiomersal vaccines."

Dr English asks doctors and other health professionals to treat the information "sensitively and keep it within the circle of health professionals" until the formal announcement, which will be made by the chief medical officer, Prof Sir Liam Donaldson, on Monday.
There is to be no change to the meningitis C vaccine programme or to the existing measles, mumps and rubella vaccine, which does not contain mercury.

Prof John Oxford, professor of virology at Barts and The London, Queen Mary's School of Medicine and Dentistry, commenting on the decision, said that if there was "any doubt whatsoever" about the safety of mercury in vaccines then it should be removed.

He said there were no grounds for concern in giving five vaccines at once: "I don't think anyone has shown a shred of evidence that multiple vaccines can overwhelm the immune system. Every day our immune systems are exposed to much more than that."
Daily Telegraph, 7th August 2004

Politicians and Doctors Should Do the Right Thing for Vaccine Victims

SIR - I read with emotional interest the news report on mercury and the whooping cough vaccination. Last September, our granddaughter had her first set of vaccinations at the age of eight weeks; that afternoon she had her first seizure. Her condition has been an uncontrollable nightmare ever since and her development has been severely delayed.

We were told that either this was a bizarre coincidence or a predisposed problem was triggered. Our suggestion that there was a link to the vaccinations was rejected. The sooner that the medical pundits accept that one solution does not fix all and that reactions to a sudden infusion of a combination of foreign chemicals into small babies are a possibility, the more respect I will have for their opinions.
Jennifer Hall
Market Drayton, Shropshire
Letters to the Editor, Daily Telegraph, 9th August 2004

Further Resources
Need to know more about the vaccine controversy?
Wake up to Health in the 21st Century by Steven Ransom
Health Wars by Phillip Day

Click here to purchase or review any of the above.
Click here for telephone sales around the world.
Click here if you wish to contact Credence for information on treatment options or resources.