http://www.ias.org.nz/whats_all_the_fuss_about.htm  

What's all the fuss about?

An introduction to the vaccination controversy

Many parents 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, knowing how to find the information along with a basic understanding of the issues can help get you there more quickly . The aim of this leaflet is to do just that.

The key issues that members of the IAS and other similar organisations worldwide believe and are concerned about can be listed as follows:-

1. Vaccination has not been solely responsible for the major decline in infectious diseases, despite what you may have heard from those promoting vaccines. Improvements in living conditions including sanitation, water supplies and nutrition have been the main reasons for this. One study concluded that vaccines had been responsible for "less than 3%" of the decline. Scarlet fever, for example, declined steadily throughout the last 100 years to the point of being totally eradicated without a vaccine ever being widely used.

2. Vaccines are not always very effective in preventing the disease that they are supposed to protect against. There have been several medical studies done where outbreaks of diseases have occurred in highly vaccinated populations (up to 98% vaccinated). As is the case with many outbreaks of diseases, the majority of reported cases of measles during the 1997 New Zealand epidemic were vaccinated. A recent whooping cough epidemic in the Netherlands occurred mainly in vaccinated people.

3. Vaccines work by producing antibodies, but the presence of antibodies will not necessarily prevent disease. This can be shown in the disease called agammaglobulinemia where the body does not produce antibodies. People with this disease still don't catch every disease going, and conversely studies of outbreaks of disease in highly vaccinated populations found that many cases of the diseases occurred in people with a supposed 'protective' level of antibodies to that disease.

4. The whole basis of modern infectious disease treatment including vaccination is based on the 'germ theory' as attributed to Louis Pasteur. Many scientists including Pasteur himself have admitted that the theory is flawed and some of his findings were based on fraudulent results of studies, and plagiarism of Bechamp's work, which Bechamp maintained that Pasteur did not even understand.

5. Vaccines contain very toxic substances that are poisonous to our bodies. For example, some vaccines contain formaldehyde, which is a very poisonous compound with no known 'safe level'. Many contain thimerosal, which is a mercury compound that has recently been banned by the US FDA for over-the-counter drug use. Neomycin, another common ingredient, is contraindicated for injection. Other components include aluminium salts which have been linked to alzheimer's disease, and human albumin that has been linked to cancer. Traces of foreign genetic material from the host animal tissue can also cause severe adverse reactions.

6. Vaccines have much higher rate of side effects than is officially recognised. Preliminary vaccine safety studies usually have enough numbers to gauge only the minor adverse effects. These studies are done only on infants selected from strict criteria so give a poor reprentation of the general public. Manufacturers rely on the reporting of adverse events by medical staff administering the vaccines once they are licensed to give the full picture on these side-effects. These figures are grossly incorrect due to underreporting and the fact that many vaccine side-effects are not recognised. A study in the USA where the reporting of adverse affects is mandatory found that less than 10% of events were ever reported. In New Zealand reporting is voluntary, and most of the serious adverse events that we are aware of would not have been reported if we had not done so. Despite this, between 1 July, 1996 and 31 March 1998, there were a total of over 1400 adverse vaccine reactions reported to CARM (Centre for Adverse Reactions Monitoring) in Dunedin of which 4 were deaths. We believe that this is the tip of the iceberg because many adverse effects are considered to be coincidental by health professionals who are not aware of what constitutes a vaccine reaction and won't admit that they do occur.

7. No proper long-term studies of vaccine side-effects or their effects on the immune system have been done using unvaccinated children as "normal" controls.

8. Very few scientific, "double-blind, placebo based, controlled trials" have ever been done on vaccines. These trials are what the medical profession use as the benchmark to test the effectiveness of other medical procedures. They involve comparing a group of people given one treatment against another group of people given a placebo. There is therefore very little sound scientific proof of vaccine effectiveness. One large World Health Organisation trial that was done on the BCG vaccine for tuberculosis found more cases of TB in the vaccinated group than the unvaccinated.

9. Because the majority of children in the world are vaccinated, it is becoming increasingly difficult to compare the health of unvaccinated versus vaccinated children. The incidence of side effects of vaccination are often compared to what is called the 'background incidence' of such a disease. This 'background incidence' is the usual incidence of this occurring over the whole population. As the majority of the population is vaccinated, such a comparison is unscientific.

10. Most vaccine studies published in medical journals are funded by the vaccine manufacturer yet are considered "independent and unbiased" in spite of an obvious conflict of interest.

11. Vaccines can contain foreign viruses or genetic material that was present in foetal bovine serum or the host animal issue that was used during production. Some of these viruses have been linked to diseases such as cancer, as is the case with the SV40 [Simian (monkey) Virus no.40] virus which contaminated the polio vaccine worldwide in the 1950s and early 60s. Another monkey virus, Simian Foamy Virus, is now believed to be another contaminant of the polio vaccine.

12. Some vaccines are grown from cells from aborted human foetuses. The main reason these are now being used is to eliminate the problem of viral contamination of animal tissue culture with latent viruses such as the SV40. However, foetal bovine serum is used with aborted foetal cells, and WHO certified batches of foetal bovine serum are still known to cause problems.

13. Vaccination has been proved in medical studies to make children more susceptible to disease for a period afterwards due to its 'overload' effect on the immune system.

14. Vaccination has been linked to serious chronic problems such as asthma, eczema, autism, as well as serious brain damage. A number of studies have found a much higher incidence of asthma and allergic diseases amongst vaccinated children. Autism has been linked to vaccination in a number of studies, especially relating to the MMR (measles mumps rubella) vaccine. SIDS has been linked to vaccination also, and death is a rare side effect of vaccination.

15. Polio vaccination causes nearly all the cases of paralytic polio in the USA today (and in other developed countries as well). This is because of the use of a live virus in the vaccine, which can spread from a vaccinated person to others. The MMR (Measles Mumps Rubella vaccine) manufacturers have confirmed that the measles virus can also be shed by people for up to two weeks after vaccination.

16. Some diseases that we vaccinate against, such as tetanus, are extremely rare so that the risk of getting the disease is close to zero, whereas the risk of side efects from the vaccine are much higher.

17. The vaccine industry earns billions of dollars annually. The manufacturers all have to provide a return on their shareholders' investment and to this end have been known to place profit before safety, placing more risk on the people receiving the vaccine. Vaccine manufacturers are also immune from being sued for any vaccine damage by special government compensation schemes for their victims in many countries. This absolves them from the legal responsibility to improve vaccine safety. Even in today's volatile financial market, some of the safest investments are companies involved in vaccines and AIDS research and treatment.

18. Doctors and health professionals worldwide who speak out against vaccination have been known to lose funding for research, be ostricised by their peers, and in New Zealand can risk losing their RHA contracts or their jobs.

19. There is growing pressure in many countries for vaccination to be made compulsory for school entry as it is in some already. This is contrary to the basic human right of being able to consent to any medical intervention.

20. Organisations promoting vaccination sometimes use 'fear tactics' and over-emphasise the risk of disease and its complications to 'scare' people into vaccinating.

21.     There is growing concern that vaccines are changing the immunological integrity of humans thus affecting future generations.

Note: A full list of references to the above points will be available on request from the IAS.

To find out more about any of the above issues, please consider the following options:-

1.        Join the IAS so that you can receive our informative newsletters, have access to our support groups and use our library service.

1.        Visit our website on the Internet:- http://www.netlink.co.nz/~ias/ias.htm - it will inform you and guide you to doing your own research. 

1.        Find and read the following books in your library or bookseller:-

Vaccination Book List

The following titles represent a selection from books that are available. Some of these are available in libraries, through bookstores, or by mail order from VINE, PO Box 149, Kaeo, Northland. On the Internet a good book list with information is at the following URL:-http://www.new-atlantean.com/global.

Neil Z Miller Vaccines: are they really safe and effective? 1996 ISBN 1-881217-10-8

Immunisation: Theory vs Reality 1996 ISBN 1-881217-12-4

Immunisation: The People Speak 1996 ISBN 1-881217-16-1

Randall Neustaedter The Vaccine Guide, Making an Informed choice ISBN 1-55643-215-1

Archie Kalokerinos Every Second Child - Keats Publishing -1991 ISBN 0-8793-250-9

Harris L Coulter and Barbara Loe Fisher A Shot in the Dark - Avery Publishing - 1991 ISBN 0-89529-463-X

Harris L Coulter Vaccination, Social Violence & Criminality ISBN 1-55643-103-1

Robert Mendelsohn, MD How to Raise a Heailty Child In Spite of Your Doctor Ballantyne Books 1984 ISBN 0-345-34276-3

Viera Scheiber, PhD Vaccination, 100 Years of Orthodox Research Shows that Vaccines Represent a Medical Assault on the Immune System ISBN 0-646-15124-X

Ian Sinclair Vaccination, The Hidden Facts ISBN 0-646-08812-2 (available from the author - Ian Sinclair, 5 Ivy St, Ryde, NSW 2112, Australia)

The Vaccination Bible Edited by Lynne McTaggart - A What Doctors Don't Tell You Publication Wallace Press

Lynne McTaggart What Doctors Don't Tell You 1996 ISBN 0-7225-3024-2

Toni Jeffreys Your Health at Risk 1998 Howling at the Moon-pub

Leslie Kenton Nature's Child 1993 ISBN 09-177836-0 Ebury Press, London

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Immunisation Awareness Society, PO Box 56-048, Auckland

Ph (09)303-0187 Fax (09)424-4144 - Email peter@netlink.co.nz

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ALL INFORMATION, DATA, AND MATERIAL CONTAINED, PRESENTED, OR PROVIDED HERE IS FOR GENERAL INFORMATION PURPOSES ONLY AND IS NOT TO BE CONSTRUED AS REFLECTING THE KNOWLEDGE OR OPINIONS OF THE PUBLISHER, AND IS NOT TO BE CONSTRUED OR INTENDED AS PROVIDING MEDICAL OR LEGAL ADVICE.  THE DECISION WHETHER OR NOT TO VACCINATE IS AN IMPORTANT AND COMPLEX ISSUE AND SHOULD BE MADE BY YOU, AND YOU ALONE, IN CONSULTATION WITH YOUR HEALTH CARE PROVIDER.