Vaccine Pushers Party in Prague

This week a big vaccination conference in is taking place in Europe. Vaccine pushers from all over the globe are congregating in the picturesque city of Prague to celebrate the miracle of vaccination.

Professor Giuseppe Cornaglia, conference attendee and President of the European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases gushed:

Immunization is one of the most successful and cost-effective public health interventions and is a proven tool for controlling and even eradicating diseases around the world, on the premise that prevention is better than cure

While John McConnell, Editor of The Lancet Infectious Diseases exclaimed:

Prevention of disease is at the heart of good public health, and there is no more effective prophylactic intervention than vaccination.

But in the midst of all the congratulatory rhetoric, there was the usual talk of those mean old "anti-vaccine" groups threatening the establishments obsession with life saving and germ eradicating. McConnell found time to warn of complacency, lamenting that the Machine is just not spreading the good news of vaccination with enough fervor, stating

Politicians and sections of the medical community have sometimes confused the public with an ambivalent attitude to immunization. A responsible approach to improving human health depends on healthcare providers and policy makers giving their full support to safe and effective modern vaccines."

The Machine, exhibiting symptoms of paranoia, worries endlessly that people, given the freedom to choose, and free from the establishment's relentless fear mongering and propaganda, might undermine the crusade to have every man, woman and child on the planet vaccinated, revaccinated and rerevaccinated into perpetuity.

Professor Cornaglia, with this in mind, put forth this challenge to his comrades:

...the public health community must step up its efforts to educate parents, at risk groups and frontline health workers of the critical importance of vaccination to help avoid resurgences in serious, preventable illnesses and deaths

The forces aligned against freedom, and so very dependent on the current vaccination status quo, are stepping up their attacks on vaccine choice They’re afraid the message that vaccines aren’t the right choice for each and every American and that forced vaccination is inherently immoral is getting out. So for all of you on Facebook and the interweb, keep spreading the word, because someday - and someday soon – enough people will realize the truth of our beliefs. And when they do the house of cards known as compulsory vaccination will come crashing down.

What Would Amanda Peet Do?

Lately there’s been a lot of talk about a teen vaccine schedule. Apparently the drug companies realized they were leaving lot money on table by not going after teens with the same vigor as they currently go after infants and toddlers. Additionally the government do-gooders probably realized there was a lot of do-gooding left to be done and additional budget resources to be claimed by targeting our twelve through eighteen year olds.

My daughter falls into this twelve to eighteen year old group, so all this talk got me to thinking, “What if we were wrong all along? What if vaccines actually were the right choice?”

I raised the issue with my wife who, insightful as always, said, "You know whose opinion I‘d like to get?" 

"No, who?" 

"Amanda Peet." 

"Yes that’s it! Amanda Peet."

My wife had hit the nail on the head

I’d been impressed by Ms. Peet since she burst onto the entertainment scene back in the 90s, appearing in both a Skittles television commercial and an episode of Law & Order

“But, maybe her voice would echo those of other celebrites, celebrites who questioned the safety of vaccines,” I told my wife.

“Amanda peet isn’t like other celebrites!” she snapped. “We’ll just have to sit tight until we find out where she stands on the issue.” 

So I got to work and googled Amanda Peet and vaccines and vaccination and discovered she was actually quite active speaking out for vaccines, even calling parents who don’t vaccinate parasites. Additionally I found she was affiliated with a shadowy vaccine activism group known as Every Child by Two and under the tutelage of noted vaccine guru Dr. Paul Offit.

With Amanda Peet, supported by a respected medical professional, firmly behind vaccines, my wife and I agreed: it was time for the catch-up schedule. Since Dr. Offit says that a child can theoretically receive 100,000 vaccines at one time and that those that space out vaccines risk their children’s lives by increasing the time to which they are vulnerable to largely non-existent infections illnesses, I hoped we could get my daughter in for all forty-five or so doses she’d missed over the last fifteen years.

But when I called the pediatricians office, the receptionist said the doctor couldn’t actually give all the vaccines one day.

That’s strange I thought, so I looked a little more deeply into Offit’s background. What I found was troubling to say the least. Offit, I discovered, was on record stating that vaccines were safer than vitamins. But I’d never heard of vitamins causing seizures or hours of non-stop high-pitched crying. There wasn’t even a National Vitamin Injury Compensation Program

Additionally, I learned that Offit, responding to concerns that vaccines might cause autism, said studies comparing vaccinated and unvaccinated had been done (It’s common knowledge that they haven’t. Only one vaccine, the MMR, and one vaccine ingredient, thimerisol, have ever been studied to any great extent) Additionally Offit, in another interview, contradicts himself by stating studies comparing vaccinated and unvaccinated children would be both unethical (some children would not have the protection of vaccines) and even if such studies were performed, they would be "fraught with bias."

Furthermore, it came to my attention that Dr. Offit, when discussing the risks posed by vaccine-preventable illnesses, is often wildly off base. For example he states that, in the pre-vaccine era,  deaths as a result of measles-related complications numbered 3,000 while in reality the number was only about 450.

So if Offit was clueless and he was Peet's mentor, how could we trust her opinion? I was crestfallen. With my faith in Amanda Peet crushed, I had to look to myself and trust the information that I, and not vaccine special interests such as ECBT, had gathered over the years: information that said vaccines didn't deliver enough reward to offset the risks they presented.  Ms. Peet, Dr. Offit and ECBT could have their shots, but for us and our teen, there would be no vaccine.

New Jersey: Of God and Vaccine

In New Jersey, the government’s pathological obsession with vaccination continues unabated. This week NewJersey.com reported the state's Senate Health, Human Services and Senior Citizens Commission approved a bill "that would establish stricter guidelines before allowing exemptions on religious grounds." The bills sponsor, Sen. Loretta Weinberg, was quoted as saying:

"By adding the words 'bona fide,' we certainly are suggesting that you should not be using a religion just as an excuse,"

As usual, the American Academy of Vaccination Pediatrics joined the debate with their predictable apocalyptic warnings. According to the story, Fran Gallagher, executive director of the organization's New Jersey chapter, said many doctors had told her about parents seeking exemptions on religious grounds, then choosing which vaccinations to skip. "I think it has been abused to the point where it puts the public at risk," Gallagher said.

But what Fran doesn't understand is that the public has always been at risk - at least as long as there have been towns and cities populated by people and animals living in close proximity to one another.

So moving away from forced vaccination doesn't put the public at any more risk than they were before this immoral system was first implemented. It simply takes away protection that should never have existed in the first place, returning us to a morally defensible baseline. (It's important to remember little is gained by compulsory vaccination. The large drops in infectious illnesses attributed to vaccination came before the nationwide push to make those vaccinations mandatory)

Besides, proponents of forced vaccination are not only endangering children (vaccinations, like all medical treatments, carry risks) but they’re harming them directly – that is unless you don’t think plunging needles into a young child is painless. Additionally, there’s the mental anguish inflicted upon parents who see vaccinations as both dangerous and unnecessary. And finally, there’s perhaps the most important harm of all: the harm done to the individual liberty that lies at the heart of this great nation.

Setting aside the philosophical questions of morality, one wonders how, as a practical matter, these government vaccine peddlers will determine what constitutes a “bona fide” exemption

Maybe they’ll take a page from the Middle Ages and employ a trial by ordeal. Trial by hot water would work nicely, I think. As was the custom at the time, government do-gooders (assuming the role of the clergymen of the day) would place a stone, representing the exemption, at the bottom of a cauldron of boiling hot water. Parents claiming a religious opposition to vaccination would have to reach into the cauldron to retrieve the stone. God would of course protect those whose requests were “bona fide”.

Those simply using the exemption as an “excuse” would not gain God’s protection; their hand would be scalded horribly and their exemption denied.

This type of test would certainly be appropriate considering New Jersey appears to see it's people as nothing more than subjects, at the mercy of the state, living only to be told what to do and how to live.

But perhaps it won't come to that. Perhaps the politicians of New Jersey will be denied their chance to conduct their tests of religiosity. The one bright spot appearing in the NewJersy.com article was that number of sources expressed their belief that a determination by the state of religious sincerity would be unconstitutional. We can only pray.

Vaccines as Victims

We're told vaccines are a victim of their own success and if we saw illnesses like the measles and mumps we'd all rush to our doctors and gratefully accept any and all vaccines they could supply. But if that's true, why does it take a relentless marketing campaign, shameless fear mongering and free immunizations to even approach a 30-40% vaccination rate for the flu: an illness that that's right in front of our noses and allegedly killing 24,000 a year.

New Jersey: Immune to Freedom

This week in New Jersey, a hearing was held by the Assembly's Health and Senior Services Committee in regards to a bill that would create a personal belief exemption to state vaccination laws. Meeting chairman Dr. Herb Conaway (of the we're public health and we can do anything camp) was, not surprisingly, less than enthusiastic about the proposed legislation. He warned of "outbreaks" should a PBE be adopted by the state.

NewJersey.com reported:

...a bill that would allow parents to claim a conscientious objection from having their children vaccinated was firmly shot down Monday by the chairman [Dr. Conaway] of the Assembly Health and Senior Services Committee, who called it a "recipe for disaster."

Sounds scary, but the real disaster - the relinquishment of our freedom to government functionaries - has already occurred and it's aftermath is parents having to go hat in hand to officious, self important little politicians in order to obtain permission to raise their children as they see fit

What Dr. Conaway, and so many like him, doesn't understand is that a moral government defends the rights of its citizens; it doesn't violate them. And since it's other people - not bugs and germs - that violate rights and since not vaccinating our children doesn't violate anyones rights, the government has no role telling people they have to expose their children to painful, potentially dangerous medical treatments.

Dr. Conaway, who, incidentally, is, according to opensecrets.org, a recipient of thousands in GlaxoSmithKline campaign contributions, is further quoted as stating:

“We as a world are free from polio because we have mandatory vaccinations,” said Conaway, a medical doctor. Conaway said the bill was “a recipe for chaos” that could lead to “a situation where you will see a higher prevalence of disease, and, quite frankly, diseases that are preventable.”

This makes no sense. First New Jersey residents don't live in the "world" they live in New Jersey. Second the world isn't free from polio and the "world" doesn't have mandatory polio vaccination laws. And third, polio in the United States was falling before the introduction of the polio vaccine and rates of polio plummeted from 40 cases per 100,000 to 1 case per 100,000 in 1963 - even though by that time only eight states had any type of laws requiring polio vaccination to attend school.

Further, he fails to mention the rates of polio are the same in New Jersey and other states without a PBE as they are in California and those states with PBEs.

New Jersey should, when deciding whether or not to stop violating the rights of it's citizens in exchange for promises of a public health utopia, consider the words of Ben Franklin who wisely observed

Those who would give up essential Liberty, 

to purchase a little temporary Safety, 

deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.

Theme Song of the Machine

white ones and red ones
and some you can't disguise
twisted truth and half the news
can't hide it in your eyes

lies lies lies yeah

Taking the Machine to School: Welcome Aboard, Dr. Glenn D. Braunstein

Back in early February , one of the many attacks centering on Dr. Andrew Wakefield came from a Dr Glenn D. Braunstein, the Chairman of the Department of Medicine at Cedars-Sinai in the form of a Huffington Post piece entitled Andrew Wakefield's Vaccination and Autism Study: Allegations of Fraud With Financial Motivations. I didn't find much of interest in that post, but it did include a link to an earlier article, which I found both fascinating and astonishing - especially considering the prestigious office held by the doctor. So what did it say, you ask. Here's how it begins:

Medically speaking, the good old days aren't something a physician gets sentimental about, unless there's a soft spot in his or her heart for the Middle Ages when small pox wiped out most of Western Europe; or the nineteenth century, when typhoid had its way with millions of children; or after World War I when influenza practically killed more people than the war itself.

 These were terrible diseases we've conquered thanks to vaccines.

OK, where to begin? Since it's rare for two paragraphs to contain so much misinformation, I'll just start from the top. Did the smallpox wipe out most of Western Europe during the Middle Ages? Of course not. According to Wikipedia:

During the Middle Ages, smallpox made periodic incursions into Europe but did not become established there until the population increased and population movement became more active during the time of the Crusades

So it's difficult to have an increasing population at the same time smallpox is raging through and decimating that very same population

But before we continue lets define what we mean by the Middle Ages. Again, using Wikipedia, we learn:

The Middle Ages...was a period of European history from the 5th century to the 15th centuryAnd just to make sure we're correct, let's look at another source that examines the incursion of smallpox into Europe.

And to be sure we've got our facts straight about what the smallpox was doing during this time period, let's look at secondary source. On page 28 of Donald R. Hopkins' book The Greatest Killer: Smallpox in History we learn:

During the fifteenth century...smallpox apparently began to slowly gather momentum in Europe 

So at the end of the Middle Ages smallpox is not wiping out population; rather it's just slowly gaining a foothold.

Maybe Dr. Braunstein simply has his time periods confused. The population must have been nearly wiped out, just at a later date: when smallpox was in its prime. But when smallpox was, in the 18th century, a leading cause of death in Europe, the population was exploding, going from one hundred to two hundred million people.

OK, so even given the benefit of the doubt about time frames, its clear the assertions regarding the smallpox are complete nonsense; lets then move on to his next claim: that typhoid was conquered thanks to vaccines.

According to the textbook Vaccines (4th edition pages 1060-61):

The highest incidence usually occurs where water supplies serving large populations are contaminated by fecal matter. This situation existed at the end of the 19th century in most large cities in the United States...causing the disease to be highly endemic in large cities. With the introduction of water treatment at the turn of the 20th century...the incidence of typhoid plummeted precipitously in the large cities of the united states

And according to Arthur Allen, a great friend of vaccination and the author of Vaccine: The controversial Story of Medicine's Greatest Lifesaver,

Nationwide, the typhoid death rate declined 99 percent from 1906 to 1936, with little vaccination. P 137

So in reality vaccines had nothing to do with the conquest of typhoid. The assertion is just another erroneous claim advanced to further the cause of vaccination.

And now finally, in regards to Braunstein's last claim -- the conquest of the flu --I was not personally aware that the flu had been conquered. But this is of course wonderful news. Please excuse me while I go tell my Walgreens pharmacist.

Before the article ends Dr Braunstein advances one final noteworthy declaration:

And as far as all the scares and controversy about vaccinations lately, let's not confuse sound medical practice with making healthy choices on a visit to Whole Foods, especially since the assumption that vaccines aren't pure and natural is inaccurate.

And on this point I must agree. After all, in France, cave paintings clearly show early humans injecting one another with all types of vaccines. Additionally, the now-extinct trees and bushes on which syringes and vaccines grew are also depicted.

Correcting this shocking degree of institutional ignorance wont be easy, but we at the Vaccine Machine stand ready to do our part by communicating with and educating those blinded by their idealized images of vaccination. So come aboard medical establishment, the lessons are about to begin.