Educate yourself before agreeing to vaccination
Health Matters: Peterborough This Week
Dr. Colette Szalay, D.C.
Nov 1, 2000
With the advent of the flu season and the recently publicly-funded flu
immunization program in Ontario, I was prompted to do some research into
vaccinations in general.
I found two types of information: one very accessible because it is trying
to sell a product and is supported by the government; the second harder to
track down, compiled by a growing group of concerned health care workers,
parents and researchers, including medical doctors. This latter information
is not as accessible to the public mainly because it is found in professional
journals written in medical lingo.
The recent mail-out by the Ontario government states "vaccines are
one of the public health success stories of the 20th century". However,
epidemiological studies show the majority of infectious diseases, such as
measles, diphtheria and pertussis (whooping cough), had declined up to 90 per
cent before any vaccine was used in mass proportions. These diseases were
decreasing naturally as a result of an increase in nutritional status,
population and population control measures.
One exception is polio, with much of its worldwide eradication due to
vaccine. Interestingly, however, a 1996 study showed, in the last 17 years,
the only cause of polio in the United States was the results of the oral
version of the polio vaccine.
I'm certainly not advocating anti-immunization for everyone. In fact, I
fully agree vaccination programs do save lives, particularly in developing
countries where nutrition and hygiene are poor and children die from
infectious diseases.
Since having done this research, though, I am now personally opposed to it
for myself and for my future children. I also believe in freedom of choice
through education, and an individual's right to make a personal choice when
informed of the pros and cons of vaccination.
There are so many vaccinations given to babies, school-aged children and
even adults that most people do not even question whether they are necessary
or could potentially cause problems. Did you ever stop and think whether
there can be any harm in injecting highly noxious substances made up of
bacteria] or viral components into a 2-month-old infant whose brain, nervous
system and immune system are not yet fully developed?
When Japan moved the vaccination age to two years, SIDS (Sudden Infant
Death Syndrome) disappeared. Sweden, since banning the pertussis vaccine (the
"P" in your child's DPT vaccine) in 1979, has since had the second
lowest infant mortality rate in the world.
Japan, the United States and the province of Quebec have instituted
programs to compensate vaccine-damaged children. Although these programs are
largely inaccessible and inadequate, their presence nevertheless indicates
vaccine damage does occur.
I wonder if pharmaceutical giants with a vested interest in selling a
product, and the government, are being socially responsible when not
informing the public of the potential adverse effects of vaccines. This is
particularly disconcerting when studies published in medical journals are
increasingly pointing to connections with vaccine-induced damage including
learning disabilities, brain damage and SIDS.
Vaccinating North American children with the measles and chicken pox is
perhaps not the wisest thing to do. Having these diseases in childhood is
mild and provides life-long immunity, unlike vaccines. Research now shows
allowing a child to be expose to these diseases and build up natural immunity
is actually protective against future allergies and asthma.
It also seems illogical to vaccinate, en masse, an entire population of
totally healthy children with hepatitis B and the flu vaccine when these are
only prevalent or potentially dangerous in high-risk groups. As an aside,
there is now evidence pointing to a link between hepatitis B vaccines and the
onset of insulin-dependent diabetes.
Comprehensive, long-term studies of artificially vaccinating humans are
difficult to find in the research. It is sometimes frightening the public relies
so much on biotechnology and biomedicine propagated by the
"experts".
Just look at what has happened since the widespread use of antibiotics.
Yes, antibiotics have saved lives but their overuse has led to all kinds of
bacteria] mutations created by man and the repercussions have yet to be seen.
There are several books parents may want to read prior to choosing to
vaccinate a child. This reading list is available from our office. The web
site www.909shot.com also informs
on the not-openly- discussed side of vaccinations. A copy of summarized
research articles is also available from our office.
Many parents believe they have no choice in having their baby vaccinated
and that vaccines are a prerequisite for attending school. Childhood
vaccinations in Ontario are not mandatory. The Peterborough County-City
Health Unit and school nurses have an exemption form that allows you the
choice in not vaccinating your child for conscience or religious reasons. If
no one is speaking up to dispel the myths behind vaccinations, the least I
can do as a service to my patients, and the community at large, is educate.
If you want to send them a letter to fill in the
blanks betweem her fiction and the facts, just send them e-mail at: webmaster@peterboroughthisweek.com
Szalay is not the leader of the pack
Below you will find links to some of the weirdest and
loudest anti-vaccine sites run by chiropractors and their supporters. You
will find more than a vague similarity between Szaray's quotes and complete
lines from some of this banter.
Some, like infomercial star Katrina Kulhay, even
charge $20.00 to see an anti-vaccine video from Australia, that cost her
about $39, and she has the nerve to ask you to bring a pot-luck dinner to
boot. Her three story mid-town chiropractic/chelation centre/green tea house
dreams are yet another reason why the College of Chiropractors has given up
on regulation. Unless a chiropractor strangles their assistant, or molests 16
patients, you can place your bets on how long will be before anti-vaccine
chiropractors are charged with infractions of the chiropractic guidelines or
code of ethics.
Dr. Grady A. Deal, Ph.D., D.C. is a holistic,
nutritional chiropractor with a Ph.D. in psychological counseling. Dr. Deal
is founder-director of Hawaiian Wellness Holiday, a health vacation program
on beautiful Kauai, and he is author of Dr. Deal's Delicious Detox Diet,
Weight Loss, Wellness Lifestyle, Dr. Deal's Delicious Recipes and Dr. Deal's
Holistic Chiropractic Examination Protocol books.
"Taking vaccines made from blood of humans, aborted
fetuses, diseased pigs and monkeys, mercury, aluminum and formaldehyde is a
violation of God's law and more of a cause of disease than a cure. First
Corinthians 3:16-17 and Deuteronomy 14:3 and 24:21 warns us not to defile the
temple of God, our bodies, with anything unclean, which includes poisonous
vaccines purposely designed to make us sick and dependent and to destroy the
biological integrity and immunocompetence of the human race."
"25,000...American babies succumb to cot
deaths (crib death or sudden infant death) each year...Vaccination is the
single biggest cause of cot death...When Japan moved the vaccination age to 2
years, the cot death entity disappeared in that country. "
It is our contention that the varieties of social
pathology listed above constitute this body of vaccine damage. "We have
met the enemy and he is us!!"
Her E-mail address is listed as: colette@kawartha.com
Peterborough Family Chiropractic
61 King St. Peterborough, ON. K9J 2R8
Telephone: (705) 741-5700
Szalay's other letters are full of holes
Colette Szalay did not just write one column. She's
been busy as an Australian platypus wagging her anti-vaccine tales in Trent
University's student newspaper known as Arthur. On October 10,
2000 she revealed her true colours, and to those of us who believe in telling
the truth, those colours were black and blue.
Szalay told readers Viera Scheibner was the source for much of her
knowledge base. This Australian woman makes the rounds of quack health expos,
and she flies half-way across the world whenever we have a major epidemic,
like the meningitis outbreak in Edmonton. In October she hoodwinked the Calgary
Sun who interviewed her and allowed her rubbish to be placed in print
while tens of thousands of kids were taking part in a massive meningitis
immunization campaign.
Szalay links to the notorious National Vaccine Information Center in the U.S.
There are no links to the CDC, or to Health Canada.
- Why do
chiropractors choose to repeat the lies of others? Scheibner and her
friends are not telling the truth, and those that sponsor her visits,
and others like her, are often chiropractors.
- Why do chiropractic
regulators refuse to take action against those who violate their codes
of ethics and policies?
If a truck driver decided to put bad tires and loosened a few lug nuts on
their rims, all hell would break loose and the MOT would pull their plates.
But, I can't think of a single chiropractor who has had any restrictions on
their practice because they lied to their patients, or espoused lies in their
columns, or letters to the editor.
Nothing but the facts about immunizations
Humphrey takes direct aim at Szalay's wayward
ship and blows multiple holes in her sails. This is only the first letter
that he intends to send the editor or Peterborough This Week.
Dr Viera Scheibner describes herself as a retired
principal research scientist. She has a PhD in micropaleontology and
in 1993 published a book - Vaccination 100 Years of Orthodox Research
shows that Vaccines Represent a Medical Assault on the Immune System.
My primary concern is as follows: Are parents
who base their decision not to immunise their child on reading Dr Scheibner’s
book making a truly informed choice? Has Dr Scheibner presented her material
in a scientifically balanced way? Is she telling the whole story?
In the 20th century, vaccines all but eliminated many
childhood ailments. But a vocal minority questions whether the side effects
are worse than the diseases. Few Canadians have seen the horrors of
diphtheria, rubella or polio because of routine childhood immunization. Yet
each year, roughly 34,000 children under the age of four do not get
vaccinated. Some parents object to vaccination on religious or philosophical
grounds. Others are swayed by claims that the cure is worse than the disease.
For example, visitors to Canada caused outbreaks
of measles recently in religious communities in Alberta and Quebec. In
Manitoba, a rubella (German measles) outbreak occurred in 1997, with cases
rising to 3,991 from 237 in 1996.
Measles fading, but not completely gone -Victoria
Stagg Elliott, AMNews staff. Dec. 11, 2000
U.S. cases now are mostly imported from overseas, but
public health experts stress that the highly contagious disease has not yet
been eradicated.
Polio is no longer crippling Canadian kids. Diphtheria is
no longer killing them. Smallpox has been wiped off the face of the globe.
Yet despite what many accept as solid proof that mass immunization programs
can and do work, a small but vocal segment of the population view
vaccinations as at best unnecessary and at worst a serious threat to the
health of the children who receive them.
"It's only a theory," Winnipeg
chiropractor Gerry Bohemier says of the idea that immunizations work.
"There is no information to indicate that these vaccinations are safe,
that these vaccinations are necessary or that these vaccinations are the only
thing that they could do to improve people's protection from some of these
diseases."
In the U.S., widespread use of measles vaccine has led to
a greater than 99% reduction in measles compared with the pre-vaccine era. If
we stopped immunization, measles would increase to pre-vaccine levels.
LOUISE BATE is gazing listlessly from her mother's arms,
showing little interest in her toys or her three-year-old brother, William,
playing on the floor. Aged nine months, she is just recovering from a dose of
measles that has left her drained of energy.
She lays the blame at the door of other parents
who are refusing to let their children have the three-in-one measles, mumps
and rubella (MMR) vaccination.
- Measles
Outbreak ---- Netherlands, April 1999 -- January 2000
A Christian fundamentalist school and community was horribly affected by
measles because they refused vaccination. Thousands were infected, and
three died. This report summarizes the investigation of the measles
outbreak in the Netherlands, which indicated that measles can be a
severe disease among unvaccinated populations in the Netherlands.
Measles vaccine is a highly effective method for preventing this
disease, and lack of vaccination resulted in this outbreak. Similar to
the outbreak of poliomyelitis among religious communities in 1992, measles
spread from the Netherlands to Canada through visiting relatives.
The resulting outbreak in Canada was limited to 17 cases within the
religious community possibly because stringent control measures were
taken.
- The
State of Ohio had no cases of measles in 1997 - that means that
no one died, no one was deaf, retarded, or blinded because they caught
measles in the wild state. This was in sharp contrast to a massive
epidemic at Kent State University just a few years before.
- Update -
Vaccine side effects - CDC - A very complete discussion of
almost all vaccines.
Colette lied in her letter to the editor in October 31st
issue of Arthur when she said:
"But to vaccinate North
American children with chicken pox and measles when these are normal
childhood diseases is absurd. Having these diseases in childhood is mild, and
provides life-long immunity, unlike vaccines. Research now shows that
allowing a child to be exposed to these diseases and build up natural
immunity is actually protective against future allergies and asthma."
This recently graduated chiropractor has the bloody nerve to talk about
measles being a mild disease. I lived in Ohio when there was a massive
epidemic of measles at Kent State University. I don't know about what she
means by "mild", but 1:1000 people who contract measles have grave
complications. She also repeated her statements about SIDS in Japan which are
totally false. She asks readers to contact her to collect more
"misinformation" and recommends Viera Scheibner's scandalous book.
She ends this letter by saying:
If no one is speaking up to
dispel the myths behind vaccinations, the least I can do as a service to my
patients and the community at large is to educate."
I challenge Szalay to define what the word "educate" means. If
her definition of "educate" also includes brainwash, hoodwink, and
lie to the public about the facts about immunizations, then she has done the
community a great disservice. If she actually believes the rubbish put forth
by anti-vaccine writers, without checking her facts, then she is not a very
good journalist.
I can't comment on her ability to express her thoughts to her own
patients, nor do I have anything to say about her ability to practice her
profession. I just want her to retract her misstatements in the press and for
her statements to be reviewed by the Minister of Health, the local Medical
Officer of Health and by the College of Chiropractors of Ontario.
Peterborough resident's options
If you see or hear any chiropractor telling anyone in
public to avoid vaccinations, please feel free to call your local Medical
Officer of Health office. Chiropractors will often invite their patients into
their offices, or rent space in churches or libraries to promote their
practice and their views. Some even rent space in shopping malls or community
fairs to mesmerize the public about their skills in divining the innate
intelligence that their treatments are based on. Somehow, most of us
science-based folks just don't get it:
Dr. Garry Humphreys
Medical Officer of Health
Peterborough County CityHealth Unit
ghumphre@pcchu.peterborough.on.ca
10 Hospital Dr.
Peterborough, ON K9J 8M1
Telephone: 705-743-1000
Fax: 705-743-2897
If you feel that a complaint is warranted because a chiropractor promotes
anti-vaccine rhetoric you may file an official complaint against them by
contacting:
College
of Chiropractors of Ontario
130 Bloor St. West, Suite 902
Toronto, ON M5S 1N5
Tel: 416-922-6355
Fax: 416-925-9610
E-mail: cco.info@cco.on.ca
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