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Phyllis Schlafly (archive)
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September 5, 2001
Follow the money on vaccines
It isn't often that a governor vetoes a bill
that was passed unanimously by both Houses of the State Legislature. It reminds
us of the old saying of the mother, watching her son drill for the first time
with the troops: "Everybody's out of step except my son Jim." This
time the one who is out of step is George, as in Gov. George Ryan of Illinois.
He vetoed Senate Bill 1304, entitled "An Act Concerning Immunizations."
This bill would have provided that a person
is ineligible to serve on the Illinois Immunization Advisory Committee if the
person or his spouse is an officer, employee, or agent of, or has any ownership
or other financial interest in a pharmaceutical company that manufactures
vaccines. It also would have prohibited committee members or their spouses from
soliciting or accepting anything of value or any other economic benefit from a
pharmaceutical company that manufacturers or produces vaccines unless it is
offered and available generally to licensed physicians or the public.
That sounds like an excellent rule and we
wonder why it hasn't always been the law. Those who officially advise
government agencies whether or not to force Americans to submit to vaccines
should not be on the payroll of the corporations that profit from the
government mandates.
Ryan's veto message states that "Senate
Bill 1304 would severely limit the number of pediatric disease specialists and
pediatric physicians in general, who would be eligible to serve on the
Immunization Advisory Committee." This amazing statement indicates that
it's difficult to find anyone to advise making vaccines mandatory other than
those who are paid in some way by the corporations selling the vaccines.
This conflict of interest was confirmed by
an emotional outburst against S.1304 from one of the members of the Illinois
Immunization Advisory Committee at its meeting on July 12, 2001. He said,
"No infectious disease specialist will be able to serve on this committee!
We all take money from pharmaceutical companies."
Ryan's veto message acknowledged that
Illinois depends on vaccine company contractors for its vaccine policy-making.
Here is what Ryan wrote:
"Many physicians with expertise in the
field of immunizations and infectious disease have contractual relationships
with pharmaceutical companies with regards to speaking engagements. Also, many
medical schools and academic centers employ infectious disease specialists that
perform research funded by the pharmaceutical industry."
So that's how the racket works!
"Experts" who are being paid by the vaccine manufacturers have an
official pipeline through which they "advise" the state government
authorities to mandate vaccines. This incestuous relationship between the
pharmaceuticals and governmental bodies is not unique to Illinois. A hearing
before the U.S. House Committee on Government Reform on June 14, 2000, produced
evidence that similar conflicts of interest are common practice for the federal
advisory committees: the FDA's Vaccines and Related Biological Products
Advisory Committee and the CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices.
Most children entering public school today
have been forced to take up to 33 immunizations and more and more vaccines are
in line for government mandates despite widespread controversy over their
efficacy and their side effects.
The hepatitis B vaccine is widely
administered to newborns while still in the hospital, even though there is no
scientific evidence to justify it before the age when the child is subject to
risk factors, such as sexual promiscuity or sharing dirty needles. Hepatitis B
immunizations have been associated with 53 deaths and 828 serious injuries, but
the yearly incidence of the hepatitis B disease itself is only 191 among the 38
million children younger than 10, according to a letter recently published in
the Journal of the American Medical Association.
Furthermore, the Asian Liver Center at
Stanford University recently reported that more than half of the total hepatitis
B cases in the United States are among Asian-Americans. The rate is 70 times
greater for Asians than for whites or Hispanics, and 14 times greater than for
blacks.
Another letter in JAMA described the
benefits to newborn hepatitis B immunization: (1) It is too confusing to just
vaccinate those who need it; (2) there are some (very rare) cases of young kids
at risk; (3) it gets all the kids on the vaccine schedule right away; and (4)
it is easier to get to babies than adolescents. You don't need to be an
"expert" to understand that those are mighty poor reasons to
vaccinate all newborns.
It looks like the manufacturers have figured
out that they can't make big money selling their hepatitis B vaccine only to
those at risk for the disease, so they have managed to get the vaccine
administered routinely to all newborns. Vaccine advisory committees should not
be beholden to the drug makers.
©2001 Copley News Service