A bill was recently introduced in the state legislature
that would remove all philosophical exemptions to vaccination in the state of California
Currently vaccines are mandated for school attendance,
however because these vaccine can in some cases be harmful and because many as
a matter of conscience or religious conviction object to the practice of
injecting their children with dozens of biological agents an exemption process
was created
This policy has resulted in very high vaccination rates
throughout the state.
Then in late December 2014 a small measles outbreak of
about 100 cases began at Disneyland. This led to a
hysterical response by the media. Outlets such as the LA Times, CNN
and the Sacramento Bee labeled the occurrence a public health crisis.
The public health / pharma / medical establishment seized
upon this manufactured crisis to introduce draconian legislation across the
nation to end any type of exemption to vaccination laws
Numerous fabrications and distortions have been
perpetuated by media, public health officials and politicians to create an
environment in which this bill could pass. This piece will examine them in detail.
Because this law is a fundamental violation of parental
rights a broad coalition has emerged to fight these proposed laws
I have prepared this document to help you initiate
discussions with legislators and to refute the common arguments used to support
forced vaccination
Finally, this is not an issue about vaccines themselves
but an issue of parental choice
Why should you oppose this
bill if you vaccinate your children?
Martin Luther King once said, “Injustice anywhere is a
threat to justice anywhere.”
As more and more freedoms are removed (even the ones you don’t care about)
freedom itself will be endangered. Let the process go too far and liberty will
go from endangered to extinct. As John Adams once said, “Liberty, once
lost, is lost forever."
*****
Specific fantasies being used to support SB 277
The Measles Delusion
This delusion says the small measles outbreak that originated
at Disneyland was either the result of a plunge in vaccination rates or due to
“clusters” of unvaccinated
Reality however says rates are at all-time highs and epidemic
illnesses have always fluctuated i.e., some very active years, then quiet years
then active years again
Nevertheless a “study” has been concocted to allow the media to claim the
unvaccinated fueled the outbreak.
Here’s what the study would have us believe:
There are areas where almost no one is vaccinated. They are so
large that when the measles arrives in those areas, it uses the large, vulnerable group it finds there as a springboard to attack the rest of the community/state.
This is fantasy. First, as we will see later, these communities are
small, rare and still have high vaccination rates, Further the rest of the
state is even better protected than are these small areas, so even if the measles left these clusters it
would die out quickly – like it actually did.
These little clusters (often a cluster can be as small as a family) of under-vaccination didn't “fuel” the
outbreak, they were simply affected, to a tiny degree, by an outbreak started when a foreign visitor came into the state. The fact that this outbreak petered out so quickly shows our current laws are working and that the type of extreme legislation now being considered is not necessary.
Also important to remember is the measles is a cyclical illness and has its natural ups
and downs – cycles such as these can span anywhere from 3-5 years to 20 years.
For example German measles activity in the pre-vaccine era
mirrors measles activity over the past twenty years. A peak in 1943, relative
quiescence for twenty years and then another peak twenty years later in 1964.
In regards to the measles, 1994 saw some 900 cases then lessened activity with
a spike of 644 some twenty years later in 2014
You cannot blame a cyclical rise in cases on a drop in
vaccination rates when those vaccination rates are stable.
And you cannot blame a cyclical rise in cases on a cluster with
fewer vaccinated people because these clusters have always existed. There has
never been a time when vaccination rates were identical in each and every
school or community
We have always had random importation of measles even when
measles was “eradicated” This time it was able to spread a little farther than
usual because people who go to Disneyland spread out across the state when they
return home. This has nothing to do with imaginary low vaccination rates
Another factor in measles activity is activity in other
parts of the world where measles is prevalent.
The Philippines are often
implicated For example, Vox.com reports:
The real story behind the 2014 outbreak isn't on the West
Coast. It's in Ohio Amish country, where a missionary returning from the
Philippines turned an otherwise unremarkable year for this virus into one of
the worst in recent history.
And the Philippines have been implicated in regards to this
year’s Disneyland measles outbreak
http://www.latimes.com/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-disneyland-measles-under-vaccination-20150316-story.html#page=1
Interestingly immigration from the Philippines has doubled
since 1990 going from 900,000 to 1.8 million with 45% of those immigrants
living in California. Factors like this, randomness, cyclicality and the fact
that this year’s outbreak started in a unique location and not a few vaccine
exemptions in a few tiny schools is what explains this year’s measles activity
*****
Eradicated!
Another fantasy being used to drive SB 277 is the eradication fairy tale. We're told the measles was eradicated in 2000 and is back because of a fall in vaccination rates
Here are the problems with yarn. Rates never fell, they are higher today than when the measles was eradicated – measles was eradicated between 2001-08
Further saying an illness is “back” when there are only 150 cases as opposed to the 4
million that used to occur is absurd
Anyway measles was never really eradicated in the first place. Eradicated just refers
to a special public health definition of eradicated which has to do with
whether or not cases are home-grown or imported. During the time when the measles was considered “eradicated”
there were 557 cases of measles in the USA
Medical news today explains:
"It is important to note that "elimination" does not mean that
there are zero cases of the illnesses, as some cases occur when people are
infected abroad and bring it back to the US, where it can then be transmitted
locally.
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/269819.php
But even in years with home-grown measles activity, most
cases are still traced to imported cases. For example in 2014 we had 644 cases
– the most in two decades – yet:
“Most of the outbreaks reported in 2014 resulted from
imported cases spreading in an unvaccinated population.”
http://www.cdc.gov/measles/downloads/matte-think-measles.pdf
So this is the fable they are trying to sell us:
Measles is eradicated with a 90% vaccination rate. Rates rise to 93% and
measles returns because of falling rates which were actually rising rates.
*****
Measles is dangerous, severe, deadly or potentially deadly.
No, measles is actually a mild illness
The measles, the illness behind this current vaccination
hysteria, is mild and worried few parents in the pre-vaccine era
For most people who get measles, the illness is not
serious.
“In France, measles is usually considered a mild, rather
trivial disease and is no longer dreaded by the general population, physicians,
health workers, or health authorities
The measles is normally a mild illness
Finally from the Encyclopedia of Family Health
How does the vaccine establishment try to overcome this basic reality?
They use mortality numbers from third world countries so the
illness looks serious. But the living conditions in the third world are what
determine severity not the illnesses itself so comparing America with Pakistan
is absurd
30% complications
They talk about a 30% “complication” rate but the majority
of those complications are conditions few parents see as serious. Diarrhea and
ear aches are the two most frequent complications
It is only in reported cases that we find 30% complications.
Since the measles is mild many cases have historically been underreported. It
may be that it is only in the more serious cases that these 30% rates of
complications occur. In the milder, unreported cases they could be much lower
Encephalitis
The CDC reports:
“1-1,000 cases of measles results in swelling of the brain i.e., encephalitis.”
Sounds scary but most cases of encephalitis are mild:
Pneumonia
Again the CDC states:
1-20 cases of measles results in pneumonia
But again this complication is usually mild not serious:
“Most cases of viral pneumonia are mild and get better without treatment within
1 to 3 weeks.”
Hospitalization
They talk about
hospitalizations but hospitalization says nothing about severity unless we know
why it occurred
Hospitalization is
very likely overdone today. In the pre-vaccine era there were 4 million cases
and 48,000 hospitalizations
Today up to 20% of
all cases are hospitalized. This is likely a result of over-cautiousness.
Regardless, if we
don’t know why a child is hospitalized, it tells us nothing about the severity
of the illness – for example many are hospitalized just to get IV fluids to
treat diarrhea
Mental Retardation / brain
damage
Numbers on these
conditions are taken from data as far back as 1916 when substandard living
conditions made children more vulnerable to the virus. As such these numbers
are irrelevant to today’s discussion
Blindness and deafness
Both were extremely
rare, if not virtually unheard of, in America
The media often erroneously reports Measles kills 1 or 2 per
1,000 infected
He states
“Yet from the available evidence, claiming that one or two children out of
every 1,000 infected in the current US outbreak will die seems far fetched.
Sadly, using this mortality rate to
hammer home the importance of getting kids vaccinated could
well backfire. Like myself, many parents from my generation haven’t
seen evidence for such a high chance of dying from the disease. And to
use data that not only feel wrong, but are not backed up with evidence, only
serves to undermines trust in public health experts.”
*****
General Misinformation
Serious Diseases
The extremist group “Vaccinate California” claims on its
website:
The diseases that vaccines prevent, however, are extremely
serious.
While I don’t have time to go through each illness to say
such illnesses such as rotavirus, mumps, chickenpox and the flu are serious in
children is just plain silly. But since most of the current discussion centers
on pertussis and the measles. We have seen why the measles is far from serious and will learn the truth about pertussis shortly. We’ll also take a look at polio since no
vaccine debate is can occur without mention of polio
****
Exemptions are
skyrocketing
By referring to a
small numerical increase in statistical terms, data can be presented in such a
way as to distort the true meaning of those numbers. For example if you are a
car salesman and you sell one car one month then double your production and
sell two cars the next month, you’re still not selling very many cars and will
likely lose your job.
The same tactic is
used when talking about vaccine exemptions: a small numerical rise looks large
in statistical terms but because the starting point is so low even a large
statistical increase is meaningless when considering how many children go to
school in the state. For example today 13,000 children out of 500,000 get a
personal belief exemption
A small numerical increase in exemptions does
not mean that increase will continue
When increases in
exemptions are discussed those increases have occurred over the last 10-15
years. The last 10-15 years have been unique in the sense that the internet
came about offering people a less well-controlled image of vaccinations and
numerous stories appeared postulating a connection between autism and vaccines
– it is likely that those who were susceptible to these messages have been
reached and exemptions will fall naturally or remain stable at low levels – in
California AB2109 - a 2012 bill to force parents to hear a doctor lecture on
the miracle of vaccination - has led to large statistical decreases in vaccine exemptions
especially in the so-called clusters of low vaccine acceptance (more on clusters
later). (Also important to remember is these areas of low vaccination are
actually areas of high vaccination, for example Marin county has a 88%
vaccination rate for MMR. Only an overwrought public health official would
think and 88% vaccination rate is low. Calling such areas poorly vaccinated is
just politically motivated spin.
Marin rates
http://www.cdph.ca.gov/programs/immunize/Documents/2014-15%20CA%20Kindergarten%20Immunization%20Assessment.pdf
Vaccination Rates Are
Plummeting
More exemptions do
not translate into “plummeting rates.” Exemptions are still tiny and are not
large enough to overcome activity in the rest of the population. Increases in
other areas or groups have more than made up for a few thousand more exemptions.
*****
Clusters
Since vaccination
rates ARE at all-time highs the establishment had to invent the idea that,
because there are areas where rates are lower than in the rest of the state, germs
can use these areas to return and ravage the nation. This is the unvaccinated
cluster argument.
It was invented to
make it seem as if there were a problem where there isn’t and to blame the
blameless (those who don’t vaccinate) for random fluctuations of infectious
illnesses
Little clusters
A “cluster” can be
any size and for some prominent public health officials it is as small as one
family
The media, when trying to hype this argument, finds the most
dramatic statistic it can find but this means looking for tiny areas. For
example they try to make us think one tiny school with only 13 kids making up
the kindergarten class will determine fate of state of almost 40 million people
Here’s an example of the San Fran Chronicle and a public
health official using tiny groups as “clusters”
“Those cases — often contained to a well-defined
group, like a religious group or a
single family —were relatively simple to track and control. Now,
though, dozens of those clusters
have been popping up all at once, in multiple counties, and often in people who
have no obvious connection to Disneyland.
Forty people are known to have contracted measles at the
Disney theme park in December. Then they all returned home, where many of them
infected others in their family, school, church or day care.”
http://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/Failure-to-vaccinate-fueled-state-s-measles-6121401.php
Finally a 2012 bill AB 2109 has led to a plunge in exemptions in so-called
clusters – so there is no need for new legislation –
*See AB2109 is working for more on declining exemptions in
“clusters”
*****
Vaccines only work if everyone is vaccinated
This is one of the
more absurd claims floating around. It refers not to vaccination but a very
high level of coverage that creates what is known as herd immunity. If everyone
in a community is vaccinated, germs will have a hard time finding someone they
can infect and will not be able to transmit themselves to those few who aren’t
vaccinated. That’s herd immunity.
Even without the 95% vaccination rate needed to generate this so-called herd
immunity, there are still amazingly few cases of illnesses such as the measles
because the vaccine is 99% effective and 99% of the population can get it.
In California about
93% are vaccinated against measles making it very hard for the illness to
transmit itself
*****
Pertussis
Outbreaks are the fault of the unvaccinated
One senator
expressed her position on SB 277 in a letter to a constituent this way:
“In 2012, the U.S.
had its biggest whooping cough epidemic since 1955. Nearly 50,000 Americans
contracted the disease, which caused 20 deaths – mostly infants under three
months. These increases coincided with plunging vaccination rates.”
Likely a
disingenuous public health official gave her this info, but it is wrong because
first as we said earlier, rates have not “plunged”
Second correlation
does not equal causation. In other words because one thing happens then
something else happens does not mean the first thing caused the second thing.
For example the iPhone 6 was released right before oil prices fell but the
iPhone’s release did not cause oil prices to fall
It is widely known
in the scientific community that the reason for an increase in pertussis cases
is a bad vaccine and more aggressive reporting. Reports of it having to do with
low vaccination rates are erroneous, irresponsible and agenda-driven
BOSTON – The
acellular pertussis vaccine’s failure to deliver durable infection protection
to children aged 7-10 years led to the 2010 California pertussis epidemic, and
prompted infectious diseases experts to question the current schedule of
childhood pertussis vaccination.
The Sacramento Bee
reported:
“In Elk Grove, for example, a high rate of school children are vaccinated, yet
whooping cough ripped through the Sacramento suburb last year, an
analysis by The Sacramento Bee found. Doctors said the reason is that the
whooping cough vaccine now in use is often wearing off after two to three
years. An older whooping cough vaccine worked better but is no longer used
because, in a very small percentage of children, it caused extreme reactions,
including high fever and seizures.”
http://www.sacbee.com/news/local/health-and-medicine/article9528275.html
*****
Recent
Pertussis Outbreaks are the fault of the unvaccinated II
In a nutshell the study says that a few small areas with slightly lower
vaccination rates have more pertussis and therefore the pertussis from these
small areas drove recent state-wide epidemics.
The problem is the study confuses cause and effect – The communities did not
cause the outbreak, the communities were affected by the outbreak caused by a
bad vaccine
Finally, in adults
and older children the disease is less often diagnosed so there are 100s of
thousands of additional cases in the nation each year drowning out whatever
small activity occurs in small areas described in the study we’re discussing
“These data suggest that there are between 800 000 and 3.3 million cases per
year in the United States.”
In other words
As result of a poor
vaccine an outbreak resulted and this outbreak impacted a few small areas with
slightly lower vaccination rates
So many more people
are vaccinated that a little more activity coming from a small pocket unlikely
to do much on a state-wide basis
*****
More on Pertussis
Vaccine prevention may lead to infection at an inopportune time due to
the short term protection it provides in relation to natural infection
Preventing a mild
infection with a vaccine that does not last long during childhood may result in
an infection at a time where the organism may use a new mother to transmit
itself to a newborn
Is adolescent
pertussis vaccination preferable to natural booster infections?
It is an open
question as to what extent boosters should be offered to older age groups or if
natural infections would be preferable. On the one hand, circulating B.
pertussis may be hazardous to the youngest unvaccinated infants. On the other
hand, subclinical natural boosters might be beneficial to population immunity.
As the duration of immunity is shorter after vaccination than after natural
infections, an unwanted consequence of adolescent boosters might shift the
infection peak to older child-bearing adults.
More problems with the vaccine
*“The research
suggests that while the vaccine may keep people from getting sick, it doesn’t
prevent them from spreading
*Whooping cough is also caused by para pertussis. The
pertussis vaccine may increase susceptibility to parapertussis
Thus, we conclude that aP vaccination interferes with the
optimal clearance of B. parapertussis and enhances the performance of this
pathogen. Our data raise the possibility that widespread aP vaccination can
create hosts more susceptible to B. parapertussis infection.
http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/277/1690/2017.short
Pertussis Is Generally Mild
http://www.bmj.com/content/310/6975/299
Most cases of whooping cough are relatively mild. Such cases are difficult to
diagnose without a high index of suspicion because doctors are unlikely to hear
the characteristic cough, which may be the only symptom printed
Tozzi A, Ravà L, Ciofi degli Atti M, Salmaso S. Clinical
presentation of pertussis in unvaccinated and vaccinated children in the first
six years of life. Pediatrics [serial online]. November
2003;112(5):1069-1075.
Besides the typical symptoms, complications and hospitalizations
were rare in our cohort. A study conducted in the United Kingdom also suggests
that the disease is much less severe than suggested by textbook descriptions or
parents’ fears.
Sweden gave up on
pertussis vaccination for 17 years and deaths were almost unheard of
In infants pertussis
can be very serious but cases in that group are quite rare. Only about 2,000
infants out of 4 million births contract pertussis in an average year.
*****
The fundamental argument
against SB 277:
Our Children, Our Choice
Will you or the politicians and bureaucrats raise your
child? This bill will force parents to allow unwanted medical
treatments to be performed on their children
Excuses for allowing them to do this:
Affecting, endangering and
spreading
From the San Fran board of supervisors
On Tuesday, the
Board of Supervisors unanimously passed my resolution putting San Francisco on
record in support of the state legislation (SB 277) eliminating the
"personal belief" exemption to the vaccine requirement for children.
While we all respect
personal choice when it comes to raising children, that choice hits a boundary when it impacts the
health of other people. Not vaccinating a child puts other people at risk. Some children are too young to be vaccinated,
others have health problems that make vaccination impossible, and vaccination
isn't 100% effective (for example, the measles vaccine is 95% effective). It's
important for children to be vaccinated and to develop "herd
immunity."
Our reply
Not vaccinating is a
non-action and therefore impacts no one - you have to do something to impact
something.
After making this
argument you may hear:
“What about not feeding a baby, doesn’t that affect the baby?
No, when you don’t feed your baby you fail to affect/take care of it when you
have a responsibility to take care of it because you brought it into the world.
In regards to vaccination, you have assumed no obligation to vaccinate for the
benefit of others.
Here is the same
argument phrased a little differently with a similar response:
“However, when it
comes to vaccines, the impact of one’s decision to not vaccinate is not
confined to that person – it affects the greater community by putting neighbors,
including children, at risk of being infected with preventable diseases.”
-Not vaccinating is
a non-action. In other words you don’t do anything when you don’t vaccinate. If
you don’t do anything, you can’t impact or affect anything. Additionally doing
nothing puts no one at risk. The risk already exists or there would be nothing
to vaccinate against
As to the second
argument from the San Fran board of supervisors that not-vaccinating puts
people at risk:
People don’t put
other people in danger by doing nothing
After all if the
risk were not already there, there would be nothing to vaccinate against.
There would also be
nothing from which to protect those few who can't get vaccinated
But you don’t have the right to
spread illnesses
Being unvaccinated isn’t
spreading an illness. I did not get a flu shot this year yet I am not spreading
the flu”
Choices for
others
You
can make a choice not to vaccinate but that is making a choice for others –
like I’m choosing that you become ill when I don’t vaccinate. This is absurd.
The only choice I am making is to not risk my child’s health so you don’t get
sick – I am choosing to not protect you from that which is already in the world
*****
You don’t have a right to endanger the public health
Public health is not the public’s health
In the context of this debate, public health simply means a
state bureaucrat uses your child as an object to protect someone else. Because
using innocent people is never right, the public health argument in regards to
forced vaccination fails
As such not vaccinating cannot endanger public health
because “public heath” emerges from the participation of people and not
participating in an effort isn’t hurting that effort
And as we covered before, not vaccinating does not put
anyone’s health at risk so endangering the public health and public’s health
arguments both fail
*****
It’s Just for School
No, it is forcing medical treatments on innocent people –
school is just a mechanism to hide that fact
If you force kids to go to school [compulsory education
laws] and you force them to get vaccinated to go to school [mandatory
vaccination laws] you are forcing kids to get vaccinated
Additional arguments against
SB 277
No cost benefit analysis
We have been given no idea of what impact this law will have
on cases and serious cases in the immunocompromised. All we hear are vague
platitudes about protecting the public health
There is no data, independent or otherwise, on serious cases
that will be averted
*****
Other Western democracies do not force medical treatments on their citizens
Western democracies such as Canada, Australia, Japan and
Western Europe have no vaccine-related school laws and all those who do provide
philosophical exemptions
When compulsory vaccination was raised in England the
British Medical Association had this to say:
Now there are some countries that do have laws similar to SB
277. For example Pakistan arrests parents who don’t vaccinate their children.
They only difference between us and them is they don’t use school to hide their
rejection of basic human rights
SB 277 incompatible with western values
*****
A race to the bottom
If this bill passes, California will join Mississippi and
West Virginia as the only other two states with such extreme vaccination laws
in place
Interestingly West Virginia and Mississippi are 2 of the 5
unhealthiest states in the nation and the 2 states with the lowest income and
education levels in America
http://www.foxbusiness.com/personal-finance/2012/10/15/americas-best-and-worst-educated-states/
When I moved from NY to California 25 years ago it was known
as the Mecca of healthy living – now, if this law passed it will be seen as a
bastion of backwardness and totalitarianism
On the other hand, progressive blue states such as
Washington and Oregon have recently rejected legislation similar to SB 277
*****
AB2109 is working
– there is no need for more extreme legislation
Statewide, the rate of vaccine waivers for kindergartners
entering school in the fall declined to 2.5% in 2014 from 3.1% in 2013. Bigger
declines were seen in districts with some of the larger vaccine exemption
rates.
In the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District, the rate
fell from 14.8% to 11.5%; Capistrano Unified in south Orange County declined
from 9.5% to 8.6%; Beverly Hills Unified declined from 11.9% to 5%; and Laguna
Beach Unified declined from 15.1% to 2%, according to The Times' analysis.
*****
The hypocritical
doctors supporting this bill believe in exemptions for themselves,
not our
children
These are the people around the immunocompromised
physicians have an obligation to: (a) Accept
immunization absent a recognized medical, religious, or philosophic reason to
not be immunized.
*****
The price
Getting that last 1% requires the most draconian measures,
undermines our values and provides the least benefit
If this misguided law passes, thousands of innocent families
will be hurt.
Creating an absolutely sterile world has high costs
How will a mother of a vaccine injured child feel knowing
she cannot protect younger siblings from the procedure that injured her older
child
13,000 kids getting unwanted vaccines for 20 years
*****
Slippery Slope
Senator Pan got his bill (AB 2109) forcing parent to listen to a
doctor’s lecture before getting an exemption. This bill worked very well
cutting exemptions dramatically especially in the so-called pockets of
under-vaccination. Was senator Pan happy? Of course not, now he’s pushing an
even more extreme piece of legislation. One can only imagine what happens if
this misguided law goes through
The next logical step will be to mandate yearly flu shots,
adding as many as 22 new shots to the schedule. (This year the flu shot had an
effectiveness of 12%.)
Additionally each and every one of the dozens of vaccines in development will
be quietly added to the current schedule
Before you know it kids will be getting 100-150 doses of
vaccine to feed the insatiable desires of the public health establishment
Sound crazy? – We’re already up to around 69 doses by 18 –
add in flu shots from daycare to college and we get to 91
SB 277 addresses a problem that does not exist
Only 2.5% of kindergarteners have personal belief
exemptions.
A PBE only means a child has opted out of as few as one
vaccine - not all the vaccines. For example a parent may be skeptical of a
birth dose of hepatitis b vaccine – an injection for a sexual transmitted
disease a child has little chance of contracting and opt out of that particular
vaccine but get all the rest.
Almost 7% of children are admitted to school without
vaccines on a conditional basis. These children are far more numerous than
those who have personal belief exemptions. This bill does not address those
conditional exemptions
According to press reports:
"These students may lawfully enter kindergarten on a
“conditional basis,” with some, but not all, of their required shots. The
condition is that they’ll get up to date soon."
So this is another reason eliminating the personal exemption
will have almost no practical effect
Lessons from the "outbreak"
Is this outbreak a Harbinger of things to come or worst that can
happen?
We just did an experiment – a foreign traveler came to
Disneyland with a case of the measles. Because Disneyland is a hub that brings
people from all over the state together, one would expect that an infection
there could travel all over the state as people went back to their
neighborhoods – that is if vaccination protection had been eroded to the degree
the vaccine alarmists would have us believe
Not surprisingly the high vaccination rates and the current vaccination laws we
have in place stopped this small outbreak quickly?
The measles did not run wild through so-called clusters of
under-vaccination
Very high rates made it virtually impossible for the highly
contagious, but generally mild, illness to spread. Within a few months the tiny
outbreak had exhausted itself
A highly contagious illness in the perfect location were the
perfect condition for such a highly contagious virus but due to current laws in
place the illness died out quickly
The non-problem is solving itself
From news reports:
“Receptionists at Kaiser Permanente now ask families about measles symptoms
when they make appointments, says physician Nam Lam, assistant chief of
pediatrics at Kaiser Permanente Orange County.”
“At the Westchester Medical Center in Los Angeles,
receptionists tell patients with measles symptoms to meet staff at the office's
back entrance, to avoid infecting others, pediatrician Amy Shapiro says.”
“In the past, Shapiro had to work to persuade some parents
to vaccinate their children on time. Now, so many parents are asking for the
measles vaccine that she nearly ran out of shots.”
Hearing of just a 100 cases, many parents ran to their
doctor to vaccinate. Because of self-regulating mechanisms such as this we will
never see the number of measles cases the doomsayers fear and any small
outbreak will end long before serious consequences can emerge.
Safety Concerns
You can’t force medical treatments on people – there are
risks involved – you can’t impose risks on other people’s children
Vaccines have always had problems. The only questions are what will the next problem be and how
will you feel having forced vaccines on the unwilling when that problem occurs?
These incidents all occurred as vaccines were being declared
safe by the scientific community
In the 1940’s the yellow fever vaccine was contaminated with
hepatitis B. It was given to US servicemen. The result was 300,000 became
infected and 60 were killed
Vaccinated by Dr. Paul Offit / Smithsonian Books / Page 40
In the 1950s a vaccine made with a supposedly killed polio virus
contained live polio. According to Wikipedia, “40,000 developed
abortive
poliomyelitis (a form of the disease that does not involve
the
central nervous system), 56 developed paralytic
poliomyelitis—and of these, five children died from polio”
In the 1960’s contamination of the polio vaccine with a
possibly carcinogenic simian virus was discovered
In the late 60s’ / 1970s many children developed a more
serious form of the measles when exposed to the virus. This was a result of
their being vaccinated with an early version of a measles vaccine. Because of
this the vaccine had to be taken off the market
In 1976 the CDC orchestrated the vaccination of some 50
million Americans on the pretext that a swine flu epidemic was at hand. The
epidemic never emerged and, because of those vaccinations, 500 people are
believed to have contracted Guillain-Barre syndrome.
In the 1990s it was discovered that the vaccine schedule was
exposing children to excess levels of mercury. Soon thereafter mercury was
removed from most vaccines
In 2001 it was reported
Sunday Express April 1, 2001
“UP to two million children were knowingly put at risk by
the former Government with a vaccine which causes meningitis. The MMR jab,
known as the Urabe strain, was still approved by Tory ministers for two years
after some children developed a form of meningitis after receiving it.”
With the 100’s of new vaccines in the pipeline, can we
really expect another one of these incidents will not occur?
A Broken System
Part of the argument used to justify
compulsory vaccination is that if a child is required to take a vaccine, a
system will be in place to compensate that child should a resultant injury
occur.
Today the system that is supposed to do that
is broken
Let’s look at the
system we have. The basic premise is parents can’t sue vaccine makers if
something goes wrong because the government wants to protect them from being
sued out of business
As a result a
special vaccine court shielding drug companies from potential suits was
established in 1986. This system is not working.
According to the New
York Times:
“Lawmakers designed
vaccine court to favor payouts, but the government fights legitimate claims and
fails its obligation to publicize the court, worried that if they concede a
vaccine caused harm, the public will react by skipping shots.”
Yet despite
government efforts to hide this compensation program, the Sacramento Bee
reports, “Last year, the trust fund paid out more than $202 million to people
who claimed they or their children were injured or killed by a vaccine covered
by the program. A government table lists the kinds of injuries for which people
can seek compensation: anaphylactic shock, brain disorders, paralysis, chronic
arthritis.
We can only imagine
how much more would be paid out if the system was working as designed.
Finally Justices Sotomayor and Bader-Ginsburg
recently weighed in on the issue opining that our current system does not
ensure vaccine safety
In a recent decision
shielding pharmaceutical companies from vaccine-related lawsuits, Justice
Sandra Sotomayor, joined by
Ruth Bader Ginsburg, wrote in the dissent that the ruling created, “a regulatory vacuum in
which no one ensures that vaccine manufacturers adequately take account of
scientific and technological advancements when designing or distributing their
products.
With children
being denied the ability to get fair compensation, the idea of passing a law to
force vaccines on them becomes even more distasteful
*****
Vaccine injuries are real
Ask your legislator how he or she would you feel if you were
the one that forced these kids to get the vaccines that led to these injuries?
More bad arguments for SB 277
We force people to wear seat
belts
Responses can either
be:
Let’s stick to merits of law at hand
Or
22 years (this
includes college mandated vaccines) of being injected with biological agents is
very different from buckling a seatbelt for a few years
Same approach can be
taken to similar arguments such as we make people pay taxes, buy car insurance
etc.
*****
Vaccines
have saved millions of lives
Regardless the “vaccines save millions of lives” argument
has nothing to do with this bill
We will have vaccines without this bill. Only 2.5% of
children have an exemption to as few as one vaccine. Less than 1% of children
have received no vaccines
*****
Parents should not have to worry when they go in public
They have no reason to worry. Almost all of them can vaccinate
and there are almost no cases of the measles with current laws in place.
*****
These diseases are not gone
Correct, in some countries there are many cases of the
measles. However with current laws in place, they are rare in America. Since
illnesses such as the measles are incredibly well-controlled based on the laws
we have in place, SB 277 is unnecessary and talk of diseases “not being gone”
is irrelevant to this conversation
*****
The science says…
You may hear a quote
like this used to excuse forced vaccination: “Science shows that vaccines are the best and safest way to protect
everyone from potentially deadly diseases.”
First, this bill isn’t about the merits of vaccination rather it is about a
parent’s right to decide on what medical treatments their children will
receive.
Before I go one I’d
like to point out another tactic used in this “science” argument.
Those pushing
vaccines talk about one issue: science showing this or that, but in the process
smuggle in a false concept to support the vaccination argument. In this case
notice how “potentially deadly diseases” is smuggled into the conversation when
the illnesses they are alluding to are generally mild or problematic largely as
a result of poor living conditions.
As to science,
science does not override a parent’s decision on raising their children unless
an extreme situation arises such as withholding life-saving treatments from a
child ill with cancer. The vaccination of healthy children in no way compares
to that
One example of what
life would be like in a science dictatorship: forced breastfeeding. After all
there are scientific studies saying it’s better for the baby, so we’d have to
do what science thinks best.
“The science is indeed clear that
vaccinations have dramatically reduced diseases that were once widely feared.”
Irrelevant.
Do you want to live
in a world where the government can force you to do whatever science says?
In America, you’re
free not to obey “the science.”
*****
We have to protect the public
health / safety
The public is very well protected right now
This really means we have to use some children to protect
other children who are already incredibly well-protected. You have no right to
use other people’s children as objects to satisfy your goals or desires
Government protects rights as well. This bill not only fails
to protect those rights; it blatantly violates them
Total security comes at a high price. As President
Eisenhower
Said, “If you want total security, go to prison. There
you're fed, clothed, given medical care and so on. The only thing lacking... is
freedom.”
*****
We have to protect the babies and the immunocompromised because they depend on us
We all want to help vulnerable people when we can, but that
help must be voluntary. As much as we feel for someone with a poor immune
system their health issues do not place obligations on others
Fortunately with the laws in place the immune-compromised
are incredibly well protected. This year’s 100 or so measles cases in
California were the highest number in decades. It is likely we will not see
this many cases for years to come
There are few people who cannot get vaccinated due to immune
issues – the most widely cited group are children getting chemotherapy but they
are few in number – additionally they are often not in school while undergoing
treatment and can resume vaccination shortly after treatment
As to those permanently unable to vaccine there are only
about 900 kindergarteners each year qualify for a permanent medical exemption
California has 58 counties and 915 exemptions which equals
15 medical exemptions per county
The immunocompromised have tremendous protection right now
*The same rates and laws that “eradicated” the measles is in
place today
*Children without vaccines are asked to leave school if there
is even one case of a mild illness – this gives the compromised children
tremendous protection
*Doctors who treat the immunocompromised a quitting on their
non-vaccinating patients in greater numbers so there is one less opportunity
for an encounter in a waiting room or doctor’s office
Measles Babies
Before vaccination maternal antibodies protected babies for
6 months to a year – now due to compulsory vaccination the antibodies mothers
pass along last a far shorter period of time. In essence vaccination has made
babies more vulnerable to measles but it also has made measles very rare so
babies are still at a very tiny risk of catching measles. Concerned parents can
of course keep these children at home where they are not exposed to as many germs
as they would be in daycare
Pertussis babies
Richard Pan uses this excuse
“A pregnant woman catches whooping cough from an
unimmunized child, then transmits it to her newborn child after delivery.”
While this is rare [2,000 cases 4million births .0005%]
there is a chance
Luckily soon-to-be mothers have the option of vaccinating
during pregnancy: a process the medical profession says will protect the baby
during infancy.
Parents of the immune compromised
A few parents have called for the elimination of vaccine
exemptions so their child’s level of protection will be increased.
I’m not sure this is something all parents who have
immunocompromised children would do.
I certainly could not bring myself to force other people to get
vaccine after vaccine just for my own child’s benefit
Parental trust
Parents don’t own their children; they have a trust over
those children based on the fact that they brought them into the world. Most
parents feel part of that trust means doing what is best for their children.
If parents feel vaccines are not in the best interests of their child, those
parent will not in good conscience, no matter how much they would like to help
a less fortunate child, be able to allow her child to be used as an object for
the benefit of others.
Those parents can sacrifice themselves but are not in a position to sacrifice
their child
No data
There is no metric as to how many people must be vaccinated
with how many vaccines to make an impact on the safety of a single
immunocompromised child. We are being asked to sacrifice but no information
exists as to what real impact that sacrifice will have
I were a parent, I’d accept the tiny risk of a world that
rejects forced vaccination so my immune-compromised children will be able to
raise their children as they see fit when they become adults
General points of interest
Pan’s petition
Senator Richard Pan is claiming he has a petition signed by
20,000 Californians supporting his misguided bill. This is a fraudulent claim
since anyone, real or fake, from anywhere could have signed this moveon.org
online petition. I myself had my signature accepted as Ed Muffin from
Muffinwood NY.
*****
The Magical Herd
NPR reports
“the vaccination rate in the community has to be very high to guard against
measles —
96 percent or greater”
What NPR is talking about is herd immunity. Wikipedia
describe it this way:
“Herd immunity … describes a form
of indirect
immunity that occurs when large percentages of a
population have become immune to an infectious disease, thereby providing a
measure of protection for individuals who are not immune. In a population in
which a large number of individuals are immune, chains of infection are likely
to be disrupted, stopping or slowing the spread of disease.
[2] The
greater the proportion of individuals in a community who are immune, the
smaller the probability that those who are not immune will come into contact
with an infectious individual”
It is false that rates need to be 96% or higher for people
to be guarded against measles. People are still guarded and incredibly well
protected with today’s vaccination rates. When we eliminated measles the
vaccination rate was only 90% and today’s 93% vaccination rate stopped the
Disneyland outbreak in its tracks – there were only a little over 100 cases in
a state of 38 million
Herd immunity vs parental rights
In America we take rights very seriously. We can all take great pride in our nation's progress in recognizing the rights of women, minorities and workers. History shows California has been in the forefront of this progress, yet SB 277 is a huge step backwards. That's why it is so puzzling to hear that this bill is even being considered: it is an assault on the very concept of rights we hold so dear.
Look at it this way: You must violate a parent's rights to get a 96% vaccination rate: achieving rates that high requires state force. On the other hand my not vaccinating violates no one's rights. So naturally, in a system valuing rights, the rights violator would have to give way to the innocent person, yet this bill does is the opposite: it gives precedence to the right violator at the expense of the innocent parent.
Diane Feinstein
Diane Feinstein wrote this to
a constituent defending her support of SB 277. She tries to make it seem
without this new law the world would be as it was in 1900 ignoring the current,
incredibly safe world we live in in 2015 with the current laws in place
Diane writes
“Before vaccination became widespread in the United States, tens of thousands
of children were seriously disabled or died each year as a result of diseases
such as smallpox”
Whatever went on
before widespread vaccination has absolutely no bearing on the current debate.
Here's why:
Feinstein’s scenario
is not even close to going on now, with the laws we currently have in place the
world is almost sterile in regards to the old, mild childhood illnesses. Using
a world of 60 years ago to justify attacking parental rights is absurd. The
choice is not between these laws and thousands of disabled and death. The
choice is between preventing maybe a few dozen cases of generally mild
illnesses and a totalitarian system that uses the almost limitless power of the
state to force potentially dangerous, unwanted medical treatments on thousands
of California children. Feinstein's letter reveals the intellectual bankruptcy
and dishonesty of the vaccine extremists and their contemptible agenda
They act as if we have
no laws today – as a result of the laws we have we have a 93% vaccination rate
with only 2.5 percent opting out of even a single vaccine
This bill does not
invent vaccination
It does not take us
from 1900 to the present
It does not stop
everyone from stopping vaccination because without the bill almost no one is
stopping vaccination
*****
Take action today. Contact your legislators and let them know that this bill is:
Anti-choice
Anti-parent
Pro-discrimination
Totalitarian
Extreme
Out of touch with American values
And don't forget, this
bill is so extreme it does not even allow for religious exemptions and it forces vaccines on home-schoolers
*****
Coming Soon: What about
polio?
*****
