John P Heptonstall,
Director of Morley Acupuncture Clinic and Complementary Therapy Centre
West Yorkshire

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Re: Vaccination MYTHOLOGY

Email John P Heptonstall:
john@mac-tcm.demon.co.uk

Vaccination MYTHOLOGY 24 January 2000

An enduring mythology persists due to incessant propaganda developed by biased researchers, vaccine producers, and government health bodies despite overwhelming evidence that vaccine science is flawed & dangerous; this fact is appreciated by many parents and objective observers, but the vast majority of medical practitioners apparently fail to recognise, or accept, the obvious as they're bombarded with that propaganda and edicts about what to think and do. Many of these medics are desperate to serve their patients well, yet they do not ask the right questions, seek the right answers, and therefore fail those patients who are damaged by vaccine policy.

For those who wish to know the facts;

the enduring MYTHS are that:-

A. Vaccines are generally safe.
B. Vaccines almost always work/are efficacious
C. Vaccine science is generally accurate

The facts that prove the mythical basis for the above:-

A. Vaccines are generally safe -

MYTH supported by BMJ papers written by Bedford and Elliman (1)"the routine vaccines are safe"; J. Claire Bramley (2) "vaccination programmes of proven worth"; Prof Edzard Ernst "some complementary medicine practitioners put their patients at risk thro' their attitude to immunisation" (3); Begg & Nicholl (whole article) (4).

- they all imply that vaccines and vaccinations are inherently safe despite

1. From 1979 onwards pertussis vaccine was excluded in Sweden due to fears for its safety and efficacy(5)

2. From July 1990 thro' April 1994, 5799 ADRs following MMR vaccination were reported to US Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System (VAERS); including 3063 cases requiring emergency medical treatment, 616 hospitalisations, 309 who did not recover, 54 children left disabled and 30 deaths. Due to massive underreporting these are considered only 10-15% of the total number of ADRs (6)

3. In 1973 one study described 80 cases of neurologic disorder starting within 30 days of live measles vaccination (JAMA 1973;233(13):1459-62)

4. Convulsions after measles vaccine occurred in 1 in every 526 cases (Prod Roy Soc Med, 1974;67:24)

5. Millions of children who received the Salk vaccine in the 1950s were infected with Simian Virus 40 (SV40); SV-40 and similar agents have since been recovered from human brain tumours and also precancerous conditions in the brain; SV-40 was shown to cause cancer in hamsters after the equivalent of 20 human years.(WDDTY vaccination handbook, p17)

6. The Rubini vaccine, used in Europe for many years, was shown to be virtually useless by the mid-'90s and probably responsible for many outbreaks of mumps during the '80s and '90s with resultant morbidity. (7)

7. Finland 'eradicated' mumps measles and rubella by mass vaccination from 1982 with two doses of live virus vaccines. "the 99% decrease in these diseases was accompanied by an increasing rate of 'false positive clinical diagnoses'" - "In 655 vaccinated patients with clinically diagnosed disease, serologic studies confirmed presence of measles in only 0.8%, mumps in 2.0%, rubella in 1.2%." (8)

The question I would now ask is, Finland replaced measles, mumps and rubella with "approximately 655 cases" of WHAT?

8. DTP vaccination resulted in convulsions within 3 days in 1 in 4200 children; measles of MMR resulted in convulsions within 6-11 days in 1 in 1000 children; Urabe mumps vaccine caused convulsions in 1 in 866 children in 15-35 days (and an outbreak of bacterial meningitis in 1992 resulting in it being withdrawn from use); MMR caused idiopathic thromocytopaenic purpura (ITP) within 15-35 days in 1 in 8000 children. (9)

9. "Lennox-Gastaut Syndrome after a further attenuated measles vaccination" (10)

10. Finland eradicated M,M and R by mass vaccinations starting from 1982; from 1987 Finland's rate of Insulin Dependent Diabetes (IDDM) in under 15 year olds increased by 40%, its rate of IDDM is THE HIGHEST IN THE WORLD. (8)

11. "In the past two decades ('70s and '80s) Finland's IDDM incidence rose by 57%" (11); the highest rise between 1987 and 1996 was in 1-4 year old children (1987-93 rate of 36/100,000 p.a. rose by 1996 to 45/100,000 p.a.) (12)

12. "Autistic Syndrome (Kanner) and vaccination against smallpox" (13)

13. "The reasons leading to discontinuance of smallpox routine vaccination in Italy - epidemiology and deaths from vaccination complications" (14) 1979

14. Hepatitis B vaccine starting at 2 months of life associated with increased occurrence of IDDM in New Zealand; Finland study showed Hib vaccine associated with increased occurrence of IDDM; several studies link BCG vaccine after 1 month of life with development of diabetes.(15)

15. Risk of Hib-induced diabetes outweighs vaccine benefits (16)

16. MMR-triggered autoimmune response to myelin sheath may play pathogenic role in Autism (Jan. '99 Journal of Clin. Immunology & Iimmunopathology; University of Michigan, Singh et al Oct '98)

17. "Preferential stimulation of Type 1 CD4+ T cells by inactivated virus vaccines is hypothesized to play a role in subsequent development of Atypical Measles" (17)

18. Critical Adult Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS) suspected caused by Atypical Measles (18)

19. Atypical Measles believed cause of delayed hepatobiliary disease & eosinophilia (19)

20. Atypical Measles with hepatic involvement (20)

"If the germ theory was founded on facts there would be no living being to read what's written" Dr. George White.

B. Vaccines almost always work/are efficacious - MYTH

1. Only 5 of 25 children (5-19) had measles enzyme IgG and IgM antibodies present (21)

2. 58% of 212 children (2-4yrs) who had been vacccinated or had measles disease were without detectable antibody (22)

3. Despite mass vaccination campaign in 1985 epidemics hit Turkey in 1989 and 1993 in groups 5-9 and >15 yrs; most in previously immunised primary and secondary school children (23)

4. 1992 measles epidemic in Cape Town in 91% vaccinated community - possible reasons "include both primary and secondary vaccine failure" (24)

5. For whole cell pertussis vaccine there was "low antipertussis toxin response; hypotonic hyporesponsiveness occurred significantly more frequently than acellular vaccines; more frequent seizures and high fevers were seen than after any acellular vaccine" (25)

6. "Because of fears of safety and efficacy no pertussis vaccine has been included in vaccination program in Sweden since 1979 (5)

7. Immunology of whole cell vaccine studied was POOR after 1 month (and third dose) and no antibodies were detected in nearly all 1572 children 15 months after whole cell vaccination. 1998 (26)

8. Post MMR vaccination results in 5-6 year olds "data indicated that a large proportion of children vaccinated under routine conditions do not have detectable measles or mumps antibody" (27) 1995

9. Lederle/Takeda acellular pertussis component DTP vaccine but not Lederle whole cell component DTP vaccine was efficacious against Bordetella parapertussis infection. (28)1999.

10. The Rubini strain of mumps vaccine is still widely used in Europe despite studies showing it not to be efficacious.(7) 1999

C. Vaccine Science is generally accurate - MYTH

1. 1995; "Salivary measles antibody assay was not sufficiently sensitive for population screening"; 54% shown positive by serum HI antibody showed negative by salivary test (22) yet....

2. Implication of national salivary testing program for England and wales "salivary testing is an acceptable method" (29) 1997

3. 1997; Pasteur Merieux paper:- "whole cell pertussis vaccines provide best protection against pertussis" (30) yet...

4. 1998; "immunogenicity of whole cell pertussis study vaccine was poor 1 month after 3rd dose, no antibody was detected in nearly all children 15 months after whole cell vaccine" (26)

and...

5. "The whole cell pertussis vaccine was associated with significantly higher rates of protracted crying, cyanosis, fever, and local reactions than the other three (acellular) vaccines"....conclusions.."the five-component acellular pertussis vaccine we evaluated can be recommended for general use, since it has a favourable safety profile and confers sustained protection against pertussis; the two component acellular vaccine and the WHOLE CELL vaccine were less efficacious" (5) 1996 Sweden "but acellular vaccines are not available outside of Japan" (1991)

6. "A new method for active surveillance of ADRs from DTP & MMR 1995..."The estimated absolute risk of 1 in 24,000 doses of MMR and Idiopathic thrombocotopaenic purpura resulting in admission was five times that calculated from cases passively reported by clinicians". (9)

7. The safety and efficacy of vaccines is very dependent on ADR reporting by clinicians yet one study showed underreporting by GPs could be as much as 24,000 times! (Moride et al Br J Clin Pharm 1997 Feb;43(2):177-81)

Are homeopaths correct in recognising serious flaws, that have given rise to the current MYTH that medical vaccinations prevent disease, in vaccine science? Some say a vaccine alters our immune response by SUPPRESSING IT therefore we do not show a reaction to the disease but still suffer it albeit with altered immune reaction, ( e.g.. atypical measles?)

Do diseases have natural cycles - the fourth horseman rides in and out with impunity - from a few years to decades or more? TB had declined dramatically before a vaccine was introduced such that the vaccine said to have prevented TB worldwide was revealed as a 'fraud' when the worlds biggest trial to assess the value of BCG vaccine, carried out in Southern India, made the startling revelation that the vaccine "does not give any protection against the bacillary forms of TB" (New Scientist Nov. 1979). The Lancet (14th March 1992) carried study of 83,000 individuals of Malawi vaccinated with BCG "there was no statistically significant protection offered by BCG against TB".

Does the vaccine merely 'remove the alarm' (well-recognised symptomatology) from our immune 'security' system by inserting germs, avoiding natural routes, and invading our bodies directly via blood stream? It then appears as an 'atypical' disorder such as atypical measles instead of measles, aseptic meningitis instead of polio, 'post-polio syndrome/ME instead of polio etc.). What was the disease that was incorrectly diagnosed disorder 97% wrongly as measles in then Prime Minister John Mayjor's Huntingdon constituency not long after the 1994 'MR campaign' which questioned the merits of the 'mythical' impending epidemic of measles? What disorder did the study in Finland uncover that was so like measles as to be mistaken for it by clinicians in 655 vaccinated people (8) - was it 'atypical measles', the more dangerous (than wild measles) disorder usually found in vaccinated communities which, along with increases in IBS, autism, diabetes and asthma probably due to vaccination assaults, are the new diseases of the late 20th and early 21st Century?

Doris Jones MSc showed, in her study of 222 students with M.E., how vaccination within the month prior to the onset of M.E. was common (12% of cases), especially anti-tetanus vaccine; Dr. Charles Shepherd, medical advisor to The M.E. Association showed how Hepatitis B vaccine is suspected of being a cause of M.E. Neither managed to have their work published in major medical journals.

Government and Industrialist health politicians are not without fault - and perhaps this is where good physicians should look for the origins of their vaccine MYTHOLOGY; after all isn't this where most of the edicts arise, arriving often with little specific evidence? The comforting stance "everything's fine, safe, efficacious, just get on with it, there's money to >be made out of high percentage vaccination coverage" works every time; How about the new Meningitis C conjugates, how many physicians have referred to research papers supporting these vaccines, are they sufficiently accurate and valid? Do they prove safety and efficacy for vaccines which are already being injected into our youth before the publication of supporting evidence! Has sufficient research data been published such that professionals and parents/ guardians can make informed assessments? I do not think so.

In a year long investigation of the US VAERS operated by the FDA, the National vaccine Information Center (NVIC operated by Dissatisfied Parents Together DTP) analysed computer discs used by the FDA to store death and injury data of ADRs to DTP vaccinations. A total of 54,072 reports of ADRs following vaccination were listed in a 39 month period from July 1990 to November 1993 with 12,504 reports being associated with DTP vaccine, including 471 deaths. A wide variation by batch was noted, some with many more deaths and injuries than others. At least one batch met the FDA criteria for triggering an investigation (report of one death or two serious ADRs within a 7 day period) eleven times within a 12 month period! There were 129 ADRs and 9 deaths reported for this batch between Septembers 1992 & 1993. The FDA did not act in every case - it failed in its statutory duty! (Campaign Against Fraudulent Medical Research Newsletter 1994).

Where does the impaired vison end and mythology begin? What is the true reality of vaccine science? Smallpox vaccination was banned on threat of imprisonment due to the large outbreaks of smallpox the vaccine appeared to be causing - why was it reinstated despite continued serious outbreaks associated with vaccination; and the findings that sanitation and avoidance of vaccination could save the day? (Leicester, relying on hygiene and sanitation without vaccination, in 1892-3 outbreak had only 19.3 cases per 100,000 compared to 99.2% vaccine-uptake Warrington with 123.3 cases per 100,000 and death rate 8 times Leicester's); diptheria vaccine in UK was similarly blamed for sparking outbreaks. After 15 years of intensive vacciation by the US command of the Phillipines from 1903 where smallpox had been virtually unknown, epidemics struck in 1905 thro' to 1923; in 1918 47,000 cases occured with 16,000 deaths(Phillipines Health Service, 1918).

The 1918 'Spanish Flu' started in American military Camp Funston, Fort Riley, USA amongst troops making ready for W.W.I - taking on board vaccinations, recruit training and all. It eventually killed about 40,000,000 people worldwide. That flu strain only appeared briefly once again, according to the US Atlanta CDC. This was in 1976 and again it struck at the US army camp Fort Dix, USA, amongst recently vaccinated troops (and no one else EVER); Fort Dix is known to have been a vaccine trial centre. Was the world's greatest 'influenza' scourge another well-hidden vaccine disaster?

Regards all

John H.

1. Bedford & Elliman BMJ 2000;320:240-243

2. Association between type 1 diabetes and Hib vaccine, J Claire Bramley, www.bmj.com/cgi/letters/319/7217/1133

3. Prof Ernst BMJ 1995:311:811 (23 Sept)

4. Begg & Nicholl BMJ 1994;309:1073-1075

5. Gustafsson L et al N Engl J Med 1996 Feb 8;334(6):349-55

6. What doctors Don't Tell You (WDDTY) Vol 5, no. 6. Sept 1994, p2

7. Schlegel, Osterwalder, Galeazzi, Vernazza BMJ 1999; 319-52 ( 7 August)

8. Peltola H et al, N Engl J Med 1994 Nov 24;331(21):1397-402

9. Farrington et al, Lancet 1995 Mar 4;345(8949):567-9

10. Ishikawa et al, Brain Dev 1999 Dec;21(8):563-5

11. Tuomilehto J et al, Diabetologia 1991 Apr;34(4):282-7

12. Tuomilehto J et al, Diabetologia 1999 Jun;42(6):655-60

13. Eggers C., Klm Padiatr 1976 Mar;188(2):172-80

14. Frongillo RF, Ann Sclavo 1979 Nov-Dec;21(6):856-62

15. Vaccines and type 1 diabetes (IDDM), data supports a causal relation;

18 Jan 2000, Classen & Classen, BMJ eLetter for Jefferson et al, 318(7196) 1487

16. Association between type 1 diabetes and Hib vaccine, Classen et al, BMJ 319 (7217):1133

17. Griffin et al, J Infect dis 1994 Nov;170 Suppl 1:S24-31

18. Tomioka H et al, Kansenshogaku Zasshi 1992 Oct;66(10):1483-7

19. Khatib R et al, Infection 1992 Jul-Aug;20(4):237

20. Riano Galan I et al, An esp Pediatr 1992 May;36(5):399-400

21. Oh HM et al, Ann Acad Med Singapore 1995 May;24(3):373-5

22. Cutts FT et al, Trans R Soc Trop Med Hyg 1995 Jan-Feb;89(1):119-22

23. Egeman A et al, J Trop Pediatr 1996 Oct;42(5):299-301

24. Coetzee N et al, S Afr Med J 1994 Mar;84(3):145-9

25. Olin et al, Lancet 1997 Nov 29;350(9091):1569-77

26. Giuliano M et al, J Pediatr 1998 Jun;132(6):983-8

27. Boulianne N et al, vaccine 1995 Nov;13(16):1611-6

28. Heininger U et al, Clin Infect Dis 1999 Mar;28(3):602-4

29. Ramsay M et al, Bull World Health Organ 1997;75(6):515-30. Plotkin SA, Dev Biol Stand 1997;89:171-4

Letter http://www.bmj.com/cgi/eletters/322/7284/460#EL8

 

28 February 2001
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John P. Heprtonstall,
Director of The Morley Acupuncture Clinic and Complementary Therapy Centre
West Yorkshire

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Re: Another Seriously Flawed Study?

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John @mac-tcm.demon.co.uk

Editor

Kaye et al state that during 1988 to 1999 there was a serious increase in the diagnosis of autism but an almost level rate for MMR vaccine uptake, that rate being about 95% according to the General Practices database.

I would dispute this, and add that their statistics actually provide grand evidence for a link between autism and MMR vaccines; this despite corresponding increases in the earlier diagnosis of autism, plus additional vaccines entering the '90s equation (eg Hib in 1992).

If the autism rate quantified, by year, bears direct relevance to the cause of autism that year, there appear to be significant time/trend effects demonstrated by the author's tables.

1. 1988/99 saw the nationwide introduction of MMR1 vaccine, autism increased dramatically through 1990 and 1991.

2. Late 1992 saw the nationwide 'mass vaccination' campaign of MMR (which was cut short when a number of children developed menigitis from the Urabe strain of the mumps portion); the annual autism rate recorded by Kaye et al shows another dramatic jump in 1993, maintained to 1994.

3. Late 1994 saw another nationwide mass-vaccination campaign, this time with MR vaccine; autism figures are shown to rise again dramatically in 1995, maintained to 1996.

4. Late 1996 saw the nationwide MMR2 campaign begin; autism rates again rose dramatically in 1997.

Am I imagining things, or has the eminent bunch of pharmaceutical industry-sponsored researchers failed to acknowledge a significant increase in MMR dosage rates per UK child through the mass-vaccination campaigns of 1992, 1994 and 1996? I saw nothing in the study which suggested that the effects of these MR and MMR1 & 2 campaigns had been considered; therefore nothing of the potential effects on children vaccinated unnecessarily again and again, perhaps two and three times or more, or any seroconversion data or resultant potentially damaging high titre values known to be associated with measles vaccines for those children.

Revaccination was encouraged by the Department of Health; did they ensure that seroconversion took place, or that children vaccinated again and again did not assume dangerously high titre levels for any vaccine? I think not.

The authors' use of '95% coverage with MMR' probably does little justice to the truth, and seems rather meaningless without qualification of how many times each child was vaccinated and revaccinated with various vaccines and vaccine batches (MMR Urabe, MMR1, MR and MMR2)and whether any of those childeren were checked for seroconversion prior to each revaccination?

Is the MMR vaccination AND revaccination policy responsible for the enormous rise in autism seen in the last decade at home and abroad? The authors' statistics certainly show sudden hikes in autism diagnosis rates coincident with very recent mass-vaccination campaigns with MMR vaccines; have the authors and our public health watchdogs missed this vital factor? If so our children may still be developing autism through MMR1 and MMR2 unecessarily.

Regards

John H.