Yesterday's lie came from Dr Mitchell Smith, New South Wales Health Department mouthpiece, who said that the outbreak of whooping cough was firstly a reflection of low immunisation rates in parts of New South Wales, and second, that vaccine antibodies wane with time. Is that a strong word... "lie"? No, because the implied truth behind the statements are that increasing vaccination uptake, will reduce disease levels. And that's just not true.
Those of us familiar with such announcement have folders of similar ones dating back to the ark, saying the same thing, but for the benefit of newbies around here, who haven't yet got the hang of realising that these pronouncements are serial fabrications, let's take a walk through the "evidence".
While I've placed a combo file of all documents mentioned here (with some underlining),
Pertussis Australia 2008 (1274 KB)
the links are provided below so that those wanting to track through everything themselves, can do so.You've seen the newspaper article.
First, let's find out what the
vaccination rates are, in various states
of Australia as well as a chart of
vaccination rates for the last 10 years.
To do this, you need to find the latest
Communicable Disease Surveillance Report
(pdf) and look at page three and print
that out.
There you see that the 31 March 2008 NSW
vaccination rates for DPT is 94.8%,
which is just about the highest it has
ever been, and that the national
vaccination rate is 95%. Figure five
shows you the vaccination rates for the
last 10 years which are the highest in
the history of vaccination in Australia,
and include the most number of whooping
cough shots ever, including adolescent
boosters.
Yet this year, the largest number of
cases when looking at age cohorts, are
in the 0 - 14 year age groups, which are
the most vaccinated of all, which you
will see later.
Then what you need to do is to go to
the National
Notifiable Diseases Surveillance
system, and look at Pertussis. The
first one you look at is the fourth
catagory called
Notifications of a SELECTED DISEASE by
State and Territory and Year.
This shows you that vaccination rates
don't seem to have any rational effect
on notification patterns of whooping
cough either short term, or long term in
Australia.
When you have clicked on the disease and
asked for the chart, print it out. Then
go back to the main page and do the same
thing for Notifications of
SELECTED DISEASE by Age Group and Sex.
Print that out too. This is especially
important, because the rates of
notification here, would reflect, if
any, the presumed herd immunity
influence of vaccination schemes in the
various age groups. Yet it shows just
about consistent rates across all groups
with slightly higher rates in the 0 - 14
year groups
Before you analyse those, it's useful
to jump back 12
years to the CDI report Vol 21 No 23.
Start on page 359, which is page 11 out
of 20. Now, compare the data there, with
the data you already have. Interesting
isn't it. Are you starting to wonder
just what the pertussis vaccine is all
about?
You might wish, if you have the time, to
fossick around in all the CDI
publications to pull up everything on
pertussis in the last 20 years; read
them all in date order, and then
construct several graphs: One of
immunisation rates over the years. One
of age specific notification rates over
the years. Another of the rise and rise
of pertussis cases over the years. And
any other graphs that take your fancy.
BUT....
What we really need now, are the ages,
immunization status of all the cases,
but THAT data is just about impossible
to find.
Why is that?
It seems it would be easier to break
into a nuclear munitions plant than find
that data!
Which of course, lets the Health
Department off the hook, because in the
absense of that vital data they can say
without blinking, "but the
cases are mainly in that very small
group that isn't vaccinated"
which certainly in New Zealand, isn't,
and never has been the truth. Most
parents in this country know that the
whooping cough vaccine is a sick joke.
It's also the truth in USA, and UK. Why
should Australia be any different?
In my opinion, all these Australian
graphs cast major doubt on the truth of
the Australian Health Department media
assertions, and show that serious
questions need to be asked by parents
about information obfuscation, and why
it is the whooping cough vaccine's
inability to provide herd immunity, long
term immunity, and in many cases,
protection against both the disease and
complications has been hidden from the
public, and why, in the face of the
highest rates of vaccination in history,
Australia now has endemically increasing
rates of whooping cough, no longer just
in children, but in all ages throughout
the community.
Now the the next bit of "trivia"...
Remember when you read this seemingly
irrelevant piece of information is this
gem under the headline of GPs
may refuse child vaccinations if bonus
cancelled that the nationwide
vaccination rate for DPT in Australia is
95%.
Neil Hearnden, from the
Royal Australian College of General
Practitioners, told The Daily Telegraph
that one of the most consistent barriers
to getting children immunised was the
cost of seeing a GP.
(So what barrier is it, exactly, that
gives Australia a 95% DPT vaccination
rate?)
"But because of the
payments, the majority of GPs have been
able to bulk bill," he said.
"GPs would be less inclined to bulk bill
now that the incentive's not there any
more." Dr Hearnden predicted that some
doctors might say they are too busy to
immunise.
The view is echoed by GP Peter Eizenberg,
who said the change would "undermine the
success of the National Immunisation
Program".
Doctors will choose not to vaccinate, Dr
Hearnden predicted, unless they are
committed in a "professional and ethical
way" to vaccination.
"But there's only so much you can expect
a small business to do. Why should small
business take a hit for a public health
measure?" he said.
Dr Hearnden said that over the next five
years vaccination rates could "slip
back" from the current 90 per cent to
the "tragic rate" of 75 per cent, as in
the early 1990s.
The axing of the $18.50 General Practice
Immunisation Incentive Service Payment
took effect on October 1.
Health Minister Nicola Roxon announced
the decision in this year's Budget. Over
four years it will save the Government
$83.7 million. A spokesman for Ms Roxon
said there were "multiple incentives
still in place to encourage
immunisation".
Remember that CDI report Volume 21, No 23? The whooping cough disease data for the 1990s is in that. Can you explain the tragic fact as to why there was far less pertussis in the 1990's when the pertussis vaccination rate was so low, and there were so few shots?
Always, when the aim is to condition parents, to make you compliant, so that you can be controlled, you can be sure that the messages presented will be both long on emotional blackmail of various sorts, and very short on fact.