Vaccination News
Breaking News Archives - each day's breaking news from December 1, 2003 (check here for breaking news you might have missed and breaking news that didn't ever hit the "front page")
More News - all the news most recently posted on this website
All the News - a running tab of everything posted on this website since October 29, 2003
Top Stories Archives - daily breaking and other important news stories
Daily News Archives - all the news posted on this website each day (from April 2001)
Hot Topics - selected stories, by category
Return to Vaccination News Home Page (for best results, right click to "open in new window")
Subscribe to the Vaccination NewsLetter
View past & current Scandals (columns by Sandy Mintz)
Search This Site using keywords
click here to download Adobe Reader click here for Picks of the Week click here for the old "Recommended List"
Testimony before the U.S. House of Representatives
Subcommittee on Criminal Justice, Drug Policy and Human Resources
By
Burton A. Waisbren, Sr., M.D.,
F.A.C.P., F.I.D.S.A.
May 18, 1999
I would like to thank this committee for the
opportunity to share with them my concerns regarding the vaccination policies
of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Food and Drug
Administration (FDA).
I am a physician and clinical investigator
who has practiced internal medicine, infectious disease and immunology in
Milwaukee, Wisconsin for 48 years. No ulterior motives or special interests are
responsible for my being here. I am here because I feel an injustice is being
done to the children of this country. Included among these children are my sixteen
grandchildren.
I want to make it clear from the onset that
I fully support hepatitis B vaccination for individuals who have known risk
factors for hepatitis B infection. The risk factors include: sexually active
heterosexual adults with more than one sex partner in the prior six months or a
history of sexually transmitted disease; homosexual and bisexual men; illicit
injection drug users; persons at occupational risk of infection; hemodialysis
patients; household and sex contacts of persons with chronic hepatitis B
infection; and infants born to hepatitis B infected women.
My involvement in the field of vaccine
toxicity began in 1979 when I discovered that central nervous system
demyelination (Multiple Sclerosis) had been caused, in some individuals, by the
swine flu vaccine. My involvement was heightened when I found the same thing
occurred after hepatitis B vaccination. These findings have been confirmed by
many others and have been extended to include other untoward reaction to
hepatitis B vaccine. Reactions include other autoimmune diseases such as
rheumatoid arthritis, optic neuritis, postvaccinal encephalomyelitis and
possibly juvenile diabetes.
An autoimmune disease is defined by the fact
that it is caused by the body's immune system turning against it own tissue, be
it the central nervous system, the heart, or cartilage. Since the discovery of
the autoimmune aspects of the vaccine complications and confirmation of this by
numerous investigators, I have been searching the medical literature and studying
a number of patients to try to figure out the mechanism or mechanisms by which
these autoimmune complications occur. While many explanations have been
suggested, the exact mechanism is still unknown. However, this study of the
medical literature, of the patients, and of a great number of the reports sent
to the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) has convinced me
that a serious, perhaps unique problem, exists in regard to the toxicity of the
hepatitis B vaccine. There are at least sixteen articles in the peer reviewed
medical literature about the occurrence of diseases of autoimmunity such as
multiple sclerosis after hepatitis B vaccination. The editors of the renowned
medical journals, in which these articles appear, felt these cases should be
brought to the attention of the medical profession. There are thousands, yes
thousands, of reports by health professionals to the VAERS that
adverse events have occurred after hepatitis B vaccination. I am aware of
dozens of cases brought against pharmaceutical companies because of damage due
to the hepatitis B vaccine. Many of these cases have been settled with the
proviso that the settlements remain a secret.
The fact that these well-established adverse
reactions to hepatitis B vaccine have not been acknowledged or are being denied
by both the CDC and the FDA, is the root cause of the concerns I am about to
share with you now.
The first concern is that caused by the
experiment sponsored by the CDC which is designed to determine if vaccination
at birth of all babies in the U.S. will eventually decrease the frequency of
cancer of the liver caused by hepatitis B infection. To arrive at the end point
of this experiment will take many years.
This experiment is based on the following
assumptions:
- The vaccine is safe and effective. While the vaccine is effective we all know that
no vaccine is entirely safe as evidenced by the above-mentioned
information.
- Five to twenty percent of the people in the
U.S. will eventually contract hepatitis B infection. I doubt these statistics.
- Up to 25 percent of patients with hepatitis B
infection cannot remember where they got the disease. Isn't it understandable that the people with
the risk factors such as multiple sex partners and injected drug use will
not be able to pin point where and when they were exposed to the disease.
- There is no other way to control hepatitis B
infection in the U.S. Does
anyone in this room agree that there is ever only one way to accomplish a
purpose?
I hope that this committee will ask for an independent
analysis of these rationales.
This brings up my second concern. That is:
how can an experiment such as universal hepatitis B vaccination be adopted
nationwide without congressional involvement or approval. Apparently this was
accomplished by the joint efforts of an official of an agency that stood to
gain much influence and power by the program and by an
executive of a drug company which stood to make billions of dollars by
the project. What techniques were used and were conflicts of interest involved?
Were the rights of parents and children infringed upon?
My third concern lies in the fact that the
FDA has apparently not been reacting to the many theories in the medical
literature regarding the causes of neurologic complications of vaccination. The
FDA does not ask if proposed vaccines exhibit molecular mimicry with human
tissue. They do not ask if a vaccine exhibits complimentarity with common
viruses that may be in the patients. They have not demanded that the HLA
patterns of patients who have untoward results be determined. They have not
encouraged the development of synthetic vaccines
that contain only immunogenic antigens and nothing else. I am concerned that we
may see the same or similar adverse reactions to new vaccines. The new Lyme
vaccine is a case in point since that vaccine has more theoretic dangers then
does the hepatitis B vaccine because of the autoimmune nature of the disease
itself.
When the material I have presented here is
considered en toto, I believe it indicates that the present universal hepatitis
B vaccination experiment being conducted in the U.S. should be abruptly halted
for the following reasons:
- It appears likely that serious untoward events
particularly of the nervous system have followed the vaccination.
- In view of this, it is reasonable to suppose
that some babies who have little or no chance of getting hepatitis B will
suffer unnecessary damage to their nervous system.
- Information regarding the risk/benefit ratio of
this vaccine is not known and therefore cannot be given to parents in an
informed consent.
- There is some doubt as to whether the rights of
babies are being violated when they are subjected to an experiment even
with their parent's consent.
France has already stopped their program of
universal hepatitis B vaccination of babies because of reports that surfaced
about multiple sclerosis following the vaccination. I hope our country will
follow their lead. If we do not, I am afraid public confidence in our
vaccination programs will decrease. This would be detrimental to the excellent
vaccination programs already in place in the U.S.
I would like to thank the committee again
for allowing me to share my concerns with them.
Documentation of all that I have said here is available in the supplemental material I have given this committee.
Breaking News Archives - each day's breaking news from December 1, 2003 (check here for breaking news you might have missed and breaking news that didn't ever hit the "front page")
More News - all the news most recently posted on this website
All the News - a running tab of everything posted on this website since October 29, 2003
Top Stories Archives - daily breaking and other important news stories
Daily News Archives - all the news posted on this website each day (from April 2001)
Hot Topics - selected stories, by category
Return to Vaccination News Home Page (for best results, right click to "open in new window")
DISCLAIMER: 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.