As fall approaches there are reminders everywhere of the new statutes regarding the Hepatitis B vaccine. As of July 1 this vaccine was added to the long list of "required" vaccines for 12 year olds. Please consider the following when you decide if this vaccine is appropriate for your child.

On Tuesday, May 18, 1999 the Criminal Justice, Drug Policy, & Human Resources subcommittee of the House Committee on Government Reform held a hearing on the Hepatitis B Vaccine in Washington, DC. The meeting, scheduled to take 2 hours, lasted 4 1/2 hours without a break. Vaccine victims from Pennsylvania, Illinois, Indiana, New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Virginia, North Carolina, and Ohio were represented. One mother, with incredible strength, told how her daughter died just 3 weeks before after her Hepatitis B vaccine. Her little girl would have been three months old the day of the hearing.

The focus of the meeting was on the following:
 

1. What studies are being done on the data from the FDA’s Vaccine Adverse Event Reports?
2. What are the risks and benefits for administering this vaccine to infants?
3. What process does the Center for Disease control employ to make a vaccine recommendation?
4. What disclosure is required before the vaccine is administered? Is it adequate?

The following are just a few of the facts uncovered at the hearing ...

In 1996, there were only 279 cases of hepatitis B reported in children under 14 in the ENTIRE United States. That same year, there were 872 reports of serious injuries and 48 deaths occurring in children under 14 who received the hepatitis B vaccine with other vaccines, and 13 deaths and 214 reports of serious reactions in children under 14 receiving the hepatitis B vaccine alone.

Susan Ellenberg, Ph.D., Director of the Division of Biostatistics and Epidemiology for the FDA, stated that there were 43 deaths following the vaccine in children under the age of 2 in 1997. She would not state that the vaccine caused the deaths, but did acknowledge that the deaths occurred shortly after the vaccine and there was an "association" between the children's deaths and the vaccine.

A representative of the FDA is also quoted at this hearing as saying, via phone call, that "this vaccine is a problem and it is a big one". THIS IS SAFE?!?!?!? When parents question why this vaccine is being required of children they are often told that the medical community is targeting children with this vaccine because they have been unsuccessful at reaching the adult at-risk populations. In other words, they have a captive audience! Yet, according to Harold S. Margolis, MD, Chief of the Hepatitis Branch of the CDC, the CDC does not know how long the Hepatitis B vaccine is effective for. They have apparently followed the vaccine for 15 years but they have no idea the length of immunity from the vaccine. The vaccine package insert from the pharmaceutical company describes the length of protection as "undetermined". In the country of India they vaccinate EVERY FOUR YEARS. It appears that even the medical community realizes that vaccinating our children may not provide a lasting immunity to an ADULT disease. Consider also the following: At the subcommittee hearing, neither Dr. Margolis or Dr. Ellenberg would answer the question as to whether the risks of the disease outweigh the benefits of the vaccine. Amazingly, according to Harrison's Principles of Internal Medicine (1994), "90-95% of all hepatitis B cases recover completely after 3-4 weeks of nausea, fatigue, headache, arthritis, jaundice and tender liver". I keep remembering the children represented at the hearing who died and how they will NEVER recover.

Most parents are also NOT told that the vaccine contains: Formaldehyde -- a highly noxious and carcinogenic preservative; Thimerosal -- a mercury derivative preservative BANNED by the FDA in over-the-counter drug preparations because of questions over safety (Federal Register: April 22, 1998 (Volume 63, Number 77) [Page 19799-19802]; and, Aluminum -- as an adjuvant -- this accumulates in the brain, muscle and bone tissue and can be linked to causing fibrosarcomas (cancerous tumors) at the injection site.

Additionally, there have not been any animal reproduction studies done for this vaccine. Considering this is the first mandated vaccine using recombinant DNA technology, this lack of research is appalling.

The medical community states the vaccine is "shown to prevent liver cancer". Not true. NO evidence proving this has ever been presented. Please remember that Hepatitis B, for teenagers, is primarily spread through irresponsible behavior. This proposed mandate lowers all pre-teens down to the lowest common denominator of irresponsible behavior of IV drug use and unprotected sex. Thank goodness all families in Virginia don't set their moral standards to the same scale as the Virginia General Assembly, the health department, the medical doctors, the FDA, the CDC, and the drug companies -- all of whom have outlined theoretical disease transmissions through organized sports and kids sharing razors or toothbrushes to unnecessarily scare parents. But the truth is that there are no real documented transmissions like these.

I hope all parents will consider this information as well as do their own research BEFORE consenting to this vaccine. Please remember that the only way you can responsibly make health care decisions for your family is to look at both sides of every story.

Lisa Wynkoop is a doctor of Chiropractic in Virginia Beach, VA, the president of VaFVIC and a FNL board member. For more info on vaccinations and vaccine issues also see the National Vaccine Information Center’s website at www.909shot.com and for additional weblinks go to www.FamiliesforNaturalLiving.org .