Dear Friends,
It’s been quite a while since I last sent you an installment from my files. Previously, I wrote primarily about U.S. government agencies involved with vaccinations. However, as you could see (I hope), they are intertwined with academic institutions, religious groups, foundations, community organizations, etc.
This installment continues in that vein, but, this time, the focus is on international groups involved with vaccination. However, there is still a U.S. Connection. Here are some world-wide groups for you to know about:
INTERNATIONAL:
World Health Organization (WHO) part of the United Nations (www.who.int)
WHO is the public health arm of the United Nations. They coordinate international public health (such as the recent H1N1scare). They also spur the development of vaccines.
Also part of the United Nations Is UNICEF (United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund; the name was changed to omit “emergency,” but the acronym remained). It is subject to the authority of the Social & Economic Council of the U.N. UNICEF focuses on HIV/AIDS and children, immunization, child survival and development. It also provides technical and financial support for vaccination efforts, such as to Bangladesh in March, 2010, targeting 20 million children under age 5 for vaccination.
Global Children’s Vaccine Initiative (CVI) was founded in 1991 when the UNDP (United Nations Develoment Programme), UNICEF (United Nations International Children’s Fund), the Rockefeller Foundation, WHO, and the World Bank agreed to launch the CVI as a focused effort to accelerate vaccine development and use.
The International Vaccine Institute, an umbrella of the Global Children’s Vaccine Initiative was established in 1996 at the initiative of the United Nations Development Programme under the Vienna Convention of 1969 and in 2001 had 33 countries and WHO sign on to it. It is governed by an independent Board of Trustees (from around the world, esp. the US) and is located in Seoul, Korea. Korea serves as the Host Country and also a generous supporter of the IVI. It has strong links with the WHO and GAVI (Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization).
The International Vaccine Institute (IVI) is a new international organization, dedicated to preventing infectious diseases through science. It “… is developing computerized, large-linked population databases for evaluation of putative vaccine side-effects … will contribute to the global effort to develop and introduce new vaccines.” (www.ivi.int).
The above groups have conferences, workshops and meetings quite frequently during the course of a year and an aim is international cooperation regarding vaccines.
Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI) was officially launched in January, 2000. It is a new alliance created to continue and build upon the work of the earlier Children’s Vaccine Initiative, which had been launched in 1990. “ In GAVI, the pharmaceutical industry’s participation as a full partner is an innovation. The Global Fund makes its funding decisions based on the recommendations of the GAVI Board… The Global Fund was created with an initial grant of $750 million from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation…The Global Fund serves as a new experiment in the field of international public health… The GAVI partners consider immunization to be a key element of public health… Among its objectives the Alliance has are: Expanding the use of all existing safe and cost-effective vaccines, accelerating the development and introduction of new vaccines; making immunization coverage an integral part of the design and assessment of international development efforts, including deep debt relief…
”… The Global Fund provides new and under-used vaccines with safe immunization equipment and provides funding to help governments strengthen their basic immunization service. WHO plays a big part in the Alliance, because it is the lead organization in global public health and develops global policies and strategies for immunization and vaccine development… If polio is eradicated by 2005, it has been calculated that US $1.5 billion per annum will be saved on immunization costs alone…Immunization reduces the social and financial costs of treating diseases, offering opportunities for poverty reduction and greater social and economic development. (from an April, 2002 fact sheet, No 169).
In February, 1993 The International Business Communications Council supported seminars presented by the International Pediatric Association, The Children’s Health Fund; Montefiore Medical Center and Albert Einstein College of Medicine; and the Japan Pediatric Association -- “Meeting the Needs of the World’s Children: An American-Japanese Child Health Exchange.”
World Vaccine Congress— (www.terrapin.com). There have been at least 8 annual events, 2010 being held in Lyon, France. The 2008 one was held in Washington, D.C. Their 16-page brochure stated: “World Vaccine Congress Washington 2008 is the largest, most established and most dynamic vaccine conference in North America … this congress will put you face-to-face with over 100 of the World’s most compelling and influential scientific and business leaders in vaccines. It is the only programme in North America to successfully bring their renowned perspectives on vaccine market dynamics to the senior executive community…” The list included: vaccine manufacturers, biotechnology companies, governmental organizations and contract services organizations, law firms, drug delivery companies, investment arms and venture capital, management and technology consultants.
The brochure for their 2008 conference began: “The golden age of vaccines!
The global vaccine market continues to ride high on the wave of renewed interest and investment from government and industry stakeholders… Historically, vaccines have been far less attractive than other pharmaceutical markets. They have been seen as a mature product group that has not taken to driving new technologies to further advances, as a result the market has not generated strong revenues and hence the therapeutic area has remained in a period of languished growth for decades… But over the past decade, several trends has converged to revive the market, not least important, the non-profit sector. Led by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the organization has fostered public-private partnerships that enable vaccines to penetrate markets in poorer nations. The result: a new wave of investment in vaccines. Among investors and the broader public, vaccines are suddenly hot.”
“The financial prospects for the vaccine business have never looked better. This improved economic outlook has not been lost on pharmaceutical companies, biotechnology firms and the broader investment community. The new wave of vaccine products represent enormous profit potential for companies and investors. Industry once again sees vaccines as money makers.”
Child Survival—World Development was a newsletter of The Task Force for Child Survival and Development, of the Carter Presidential Center, but administratively affiliated with Emory University. It had been published since 1985 but ended in January-March, 1996 because “Each of the sponsoring agencies of The Task Force for Child Survival and Development now publishes an annual report, and most have other periodic newsletters or magazines that report on many of the same stories or issues that we have historically covered.” UNICEF provided funds for the newsletter and it went worldwide.
“Health issues for Europe” was a January 29, 1994 editorial of The Lancet.
“The Maastricht Treaty, in force since Nov. 1, 1993, could have far-reaching effects on European public health policies. In particular, Article 129 covers public health activities at Community level and their relationship to work in member states and other international organizations, and gives a legal basis for a planned framework for action in the area of public health. This document is intended to govern the direction of Community policies for years to come.” The article went on to cover various health problems in Europe, including “falling immunization rates and other effects of social and political upheaval in Eastern Europe.” Apparently many health initiatives were sponsored by the European Union or the WHO. Such an EU initiative that is intended to facilitate rapid transfer across Europe of computerized information, includes a project on health in which WHO participates… Whether their interests are clinical, academic, or policy making, European medicine needs a rational approach to international collaboration in health, investing in it where this will be more cost-effective than national actions (or inaction).”
European Medicines Agency is the top drug regulatory body for the European Union.
Junior Leagues International (www.ajli.org): Founded in 1901, Junior Leagues are organizations of women volunteers developing community leadership. There are 292 Junior Leagues in Canada, Mexico, the U.K. and U.S. with 160,000 members. In the 1990’s, 230 Leagues across the four countries participated in the “Don’t Wait to Vaccinate Campaign.”
Kiwanis (www.kiwanis.org) is “a global organization of volunteers dedicated to changing the world, one child and one community at a time.” They have been around since 1915. Since 1962 they are in more than 96 countries with 8,000 clubs. In 2000 many communities heard PSA announcements from Kiwanis regarding immunization. Although each Kiwanis club chooses its service objectives, many supported vaccination efforts because they relied on the Kiwanis International Priority One Advisory Council (composed of 43 national organizations). They consulted with the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), American Academy of Pediatrics and pro-vaccine researchers. The council consistently supported vaccinations and as long as there is strong consensus by the members of the Council on vaccination, Kiwanis will continue to do so. They currently have partnered with UNICEF for the global elimination of iodine deficiency disorders.
Rotary International (www.rotary.org): Founded in 1905, there are over 33,000 clubs in 200 countries with a membership of 1.2 million. Their motto is “service above self” and they have a “Four-way test:
1) Is it the TRUTH?
2) Is it FAIR to all concerned?
3) Will it build GOODWILL and BETTER FRIENDSHIP?
4) Will it be BENEFICIAL to all concerned?
Since 1985 Rotary has cooperated with the World Health Organization, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC), and UNICEF to immunize every child in the world against polio (PolioPlus program; End Polio Now). Rotarians actively work with traditional rulers, religious leaders and local celebrities to promote the importance of immunization, as well as helping implement “national immunization day” campaigns. They have received a challenge grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation that resulted in $555 million to support immunization campaigns in developing countries.
The April, 1997 issue of ALIVE magazine, out of Canada, had an article “Health Care—or Warfare? It’s a Thin Line” by Lynn McLean, BSc. She discussed the economic dependence of the medical doctors, province of Quebec and Canadian government on pharmaceutical transnational companies. She went on to discuss “Global Agendas”:
“Meanwhile, the federal government is considering signing dangerous agreements with the United Nations Security Council (UN). Some examples: The Declaration of Alma Ata (ensuring pharmaceutical health care is primary health care globally); the UN Codex proposal to set worldwide dietary supplement controls; a mandatory vaccination commitment; and the Child Rights Act, which allows governments to usurp parental rights in making health choices for children. All of these are designed to set a global health agenda.”
COMMENTARY:
First, let me state my admiration that so many initiatives from the U.S. have spread around the world. To me, it is a tribute to the spirit in our country that people would organize service groups to help others and that those groups spread internationally.
It also shows the influence of our business and social elites for good --or ill.
Another observation: the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the agencies of the United Nations are focused on spreading immunizations, no matter what.
I think too many people have worried about “one world government” in the wrong frame. If there is anything close to a One World government, it appears from what little I know from the above that the government is going to be from the framework of global public health, with the heavy involvement of the United Nations and the U.S. CDC. For people who thought they could move some place else to avoid vaccines, I hope the above makes you forget the idea, for it is, in my opinion, futile. What is needed is for people to take a stand where they live – and to support research into adverse vaccine effects, for the research done by any of the above groups will be flawed, intentionally or not, because there is too much invested in spreading the gospel of global vaccination.
Personally, I think the research needs to be geared to mimicking the Childhood Immunization Schedule and dosing in order to see the cumulative effect of all those chemicals in one body. Only then will we be able to see whether or not the infant’s body can withstand the chemical onslaught.
Bonnie P. Franz
Sunday, May 2, 2010
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
U.S. Agencies Involved with Vaccination
Dear Friends,
A Healthy and Happy New Year to one and all!
As we have another opportunity to live into one more year, it is my hope that among the many daily responsibilities we have, that each of us will resolve to take at least one action a month regarding voluntary vaccination. You will soon see and understand why.
I have decided to start the New Year of my installments with one on U.S. Agencies involved with vaccination. Although we usually hear predominately of a few (such as the CDC), there are many—in fact, the whole government, for in the 1990’s, President Bill Clinton signed an order that all agencies of the government promote vaccination. That “interagency cooperation” filtered down to the states, and an Interagency Memo was sent to New York State agencies by the governor. I am certain other state governors did the same.
In addition to Government agencies promoting vaccines, they link up or fund “parent groups”—now called “astroturfs” and not really “grass roots” groups as they have been traditionally defined. (The National Vaccine Information Center is truly the only nationwide grassroots parent group on vaccination).
When you consider, then, all these people actively working FOR vaccines, you can see what our side is up against! Besides having passionate people pushing vaccines, Congress gives out $400 Billion each year in Federal aid to State, local and tribal governments (according to articles on the 2010 Census) and a large amount of that goes for vaccinations and vaccine research, public health departments, etc.
Below are some of the groups that are on the Federal or governmental level and intertwined with them:
The Department of Health & Human Services is the umbrella for the governmental agencies that deal with immunizations. CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) is the prime one we hear about. But then there is: The National Immunization Program, which puts out “Immunization Action News” and is part of the CDC, but can be quoted separately when we read news articles. (In the 1990’s, Walter Orenstein was director of the National Immunization Program and pushed President Clinton’s Comprehensive Childhood Immunization Initiative (CCII). They also put out kits every year for “National Infant Immunization Week” in April. The kits include community guides for activities, working with the media and collaborating with business and “charting your success.” The kit provides immunization facts in a number of languages, posters, and print ads.
Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (part of the Public Health Service) provides “guidance” to the Secretary of Health and Human Services and the CDC Director. ACIP is composed of 15 members selected by the Secretary of Health and Human Services. Many of their members then go on to work for drug companies or they are working on developing various new vaccines, etc. –the “revolving door.” They develop written recommendations for routine administration of vaccines to children and adults in the civilian population. They are the ONLY entity in the Federal government that makes such recommendations. Their next meeting is February 24-25 at the CDC, 1600 Clifton Rd., N.E. in Atlanta. They meet 3 times a year (February, June, October), and the meetings are open to the public.
The National Vaccine Program was established in 1986 by the Public Health Service Act to achieve optimal prevention of infectious disease through immunization and optimal prevention of adverse reactions to vaccines. That group coordinates among Federal agencies and has global partners, such as WHO (World Health Organization—United Nations); non-governmental groups such as the Gates Foundation; consumer groups and academic institutions. This was part of the government reaction to the nationwide efforts of the National Vaccine Information Center (then known as Dissatisfied Parents Together) to get the government to do various things regarding vaccine reaction to the DPT shot.
Institute of Medicine issued a report in 1993 “The Children’s Vaccine Initiative: Achieving the Vision” that recommended the federal government establish a National Vaccine Authority which “…would facilitate the development and distribution of vaccines in the United States and around the world." This was supported by Sen. Edward Kennedy, author of the Comprehensive Childhood Immunization Act of 1993.
Women in Government/Legislative Business Roundtable was founded in 1988 “as a bi-partisan, non-profit educational association for elected women in state government." In 1989 the Legislative Business Roundtable was added to Women in Government to bring women legislators together with noted speakers and representatives of the business community to address issues of mutual concern and to promote collective problem-solving through public/private partnership. They hold seminars around the country for women lawmakers. In 1993 with the Clinton Vaccine promotion, they held a number of such seminars for which I have their brochures. The participants in the Atlanta seminar agreed that immunizing children by 24 months of age was essential, and local, state and national groups had to work together to educate and ensure that children are vaccinated by age 2 and to establish a tracking system.
“Immunizations give individual protection, but more, they protect the community,” Walter Orenstein, M.D. Said. (At that time he was the Director of the Division of Immunization at the CDC.) He advocated we look to what was being done in England—“First, in England a nurse can immunize in the home as long as the parents have given consent…” The idea of the registry was to register each child at birth, then to send reminders to the parent and clinic when the child needs vaccinations. “Physicians also receive incentive awards for providing immunizations. Before the cash bonuses were installed, only about 50% of the physicians met their percentage goals; with the incentives more than 3/4ths met their targets, Dr. Orenstein explained.”
At that same seminar, Kay Johnson of the March of Dimes stated, “People need to understand that birth and immunization records are vital records. We need you as state legislators to let them know we’re not infringing on their privacy; we’re not going to check on them to see if they beat their child—there are other systems in place for that; we are not going to turn them in to any authorities; what we’re doing is protecting their children… We will protect confidentiality.”
Merck and Aetna Insurance Company also gave presentations at all the seminars. One Tennessee legislator said “It’s time we as state legislators got tough. It’s time we started demanding accountability on the part of the provider and the parents. Parenting is a responsibility. Providing a medical home is a responsibility and tracking that child has to be a priority. The states can take care of these problems.”
At the New York City seminar held on March 12, 1993, they also agreed on a tracking system and “providing education in all languages necessary.”
Zeil Rosenberg, M.D., Director of Family Health for the NYS Health Department, promoted establishing community-based outreach programs… We mustn’t forget that working with the clergy is very important. Churches are willing to help out. We know the majority of people, whatever their race or creed, turn to churches, and churches generally find ways to override the language barrier.” New York City reported on some initiatives to make the public aware of vaccination: “Teen workers, under supervision, went door to door; community and family awareness was generated via clergy, providers, schools, block parties, fiestas, etc… other aggressive outreach including the use of bullhorns became important…”
The Women in Government Roundtable is primarily responsible for women lawmakers around the country introducing and promoting legislation to mandate the HPV vaccine.
All Kids Count is a “…national organization supported by The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation for the development of immunization monitoring and follow-up systems. The Task Force for Child Survival and Development in Atlanta (and associated with the Carter Center) administers All Kids Count in its role as the National Program Office. The director was William Foege, MD, formerly of the CDC. Its national advisory committee included Rosalynn Carter for The Carter Center; Betty Bumpers, for Every Child By Two; Dr. Walter Orenstein, MD, for the CDC’s National Immunization Program; Kay Johnson , formerly with the March of Dimes and by 1997 with George Washington University Center for Health Policy Research, and others. Their website is www.allkidscount.org.
Some quotes from their newsletters:
“…computerizing the current immunization record keeping system is a must if we are to fully immunize all children.”
Their Winter, 2000, issue said “The biggest savings of the registry resulted for its adult population, which is also included in the registry to provide information about influenza and pneumococcal immunizations.” Also included in that issue “…Older and more educated parents tended to be more skeptical of the benefits of registries. Women were more likely than men to believe that registries are beneficial for their children. African-Americans were more likely than Caucasian respondents to enroll their child in a registry if their doctor recommended it.”
Partnership for Prevention is a national non-profit promoting health and disease prevention. It is an alliance of private and voluntary sector organizations “whose purpose is to promote the cause of prevention. We seek to complement the efforts of the U.S. Public Health Service, states and local governments, and others striving to meet the ambitious goals of Healthy People 2000 (there is one for 2010, and 2020), the nation’s objectives for the decade of the 1990’s.” Members of its board included Mrs. Betty Bumpers (From Every Child By Two), Dr. William Foege, Kay Johnson, Donald Vickery, M.D. and others.
In the early 1990’s they put out two publications: “Childhood Immunizations: Steps to a Healthy Future: An Agenda for Legislative Action” which included the following: background on childhood immunization, barriers to preventive care, access to immunization, development of improved vaccines, compliance with vaccine recommendations (pushing the tracking system) and policy recommendations. “With a spirit of teamwork, and a sincere commitment, we can reach the solutions together.”
“Adult Immunization: An Issue Analysis and Proposal for Action on Adult Immunization as a National Preventive Strategy. “There is no well-organized, widely accepted advocacy effort at the national level to promote adult immunization coverage as there is for children… a notable achievement was the creation of the National Coalition for Adult Immunization in 1988 which has promulgated a set of
“Standards for Adult Immunization Practice… There is widespread agreement that a concerted effort needs to be made to bring the facts regarding the lack of adult coverage to the attention of physicians- in-training, practicing physicians, and other health care providers and facilities… There is a lack of immunization programs for adults in public and private settings, including work sites, hospitals, schools, and colleges…Having standing orders for vaccinating adults in institutional settings, clinics and offices can enhance vaccination rates… Comprehensive systems for obtaining data on adult immunization are severely lacking… Periodic surveys of adult immunization status conducted through employers could greatly increase the awareness of these underimmunized populations and help motivate those needing these protective services to seek them through public and private sources.” The vaccines promoted for adults at the time were influenza, pneumococcal, hepatitis B, tetanus and diphtheria, and MMR.—all called “adult vaccine-preventable diseases.”
Every Child By Two: The Carter/Bumper Campaign for Early Immunization, formed by Rosalynn Carter and Betty Bumpers (wife of former Senator from Arkansas). Produced an undated packet (but done in the early 1990’s), printing provided by Gerber, that included the following:
“Every Child Needs a Medical Home”-community-based building blocks for developing local programs, reaching more children through Medicaid.” Under the section ”What You Can Do,” were the following suggestions: Ask your State Health Officer to provide you with a copy of the State Immunization Plan. Ask for a report on the implementation status of your state’s Immunization Action Plan (IAP). In order to apply for funding available from the CDC for delivery of immunization services, each state developed and submitted an IAP; meet with key people—the state health officer, the immunization program manager, the Medicaid Director and representatives from state agencies such as WIC, AFDC, and Maternal and Child Health—“interagency cooperation;” Help start a statewide coalition to develop public/private partnerships that can provide volunteer support for immunization programs.
Under the section “Plan for Success in Your State” were the following suggestions: “Network with the people in your state most likely to have the clout to support the effort to reach Every Child By Two; involve others—public/private partnerships and State legislators; spouses of mayors and members of Congress.
Children’s Defense Fund is the children’s group founded by Marian Wright Edelman that also had Hillary Clinton on its Board of Directors for years. They have groups in NYC (c/o The Robin Hood Foundation), Minnesota, Texas, South Carolina, and 3 groups in Ohio. The CDF is involved with everything that has to do with children, especially Head Start and immunizations. In the CDF Reports of January, 1994, Mrs. Edelman said “Child advocates can play a vital role by organizing local coalitions to plan and oversee community immunization campaigns. Besides protecting children from preventable diseases, immunization campaigns strengthen communities by forging new relationships among citizens’ groups, the business community, local government, and the public health system. These relationships can lead to other community efforts for children in the future.” The CDF is also responsible for coordinating the “National Observance of Children’s Sabbaths in October … now a vital part of the children’s movement.” This effort involved people of all faiths to support CDF and its goals.
Catholic Health Association is one such religious group supportive of the goals of the Children’s Defense Fund, especially promoting Catholic hospitals and parishes to provide immunization projects. The January, 1993, issue of their newsletter, Immunization Update, listed a number of activities planned by Catholic hospitals. Among them were joining forces with the Junior League, WIC, Every Child By Two, and listing the usual immunization groups that put out guidebooks, brochures, public service announcements (PSA’s), videos, fact sheets, etc. In their August, 1993 edition, they reported on D.A. Henderson, who “has been named to head President Clinton’s immunization campaign.” This “Immunization Czar” as he was called, stated that “…he sees immunization as an important step in broader healthcare reform. ‘If we can develop a system for immunizing children, we will have the beginning of a more rational system for primary healthcare.’”
COMMENTARY:
As you can see, there are many groups that have an interest in promoting vaccinations and the laws to do so. They network with other groups that want to improve our lives and thus, are willing to help the Government achieve its goals. No wonder none of them want to hear our side of the issue!!
Initially, vaccines were promoted to parents and the public as helping to protect our children. Adverse reactions to vaccines were denied by the Government and the medical profession. But there was reached a time (1986) when they could no longer deny adverse reactions. However, they had to save the vaccination program. And that they did and continue to do.
As more parents have become aware of the hazards of vaccination, either because of personal experience or because of researching the issue, the stakes of the vaccination program have become too high. So, over the past few years, an approach of these pro-vaccine groups has been to portray those who are against forced vaccination as “being selfish.” We and our children are threats to them. We are also portrayed as being “ignorant.” We are “they.” These kinds of attacks will continue more frequently and forcefully in the years to come, especially as all vaccinations and more will be included in Health Care legislation and “reform.” For those of us who belong to an organized religion that will support all these vaccine efforts, it will be especially painful.
It is my hope that in 2010 those on our side of the issue will use the strategies of our opponents and do our own networking, actions and raising money on a larger level. That means we need YOUR voices and your influence. Although I think it is remarkable what a comparatively small group of us around the country has been able to do over the years, we are always reacting to what they come up with. We will never really succeed until our group of activists is even one tenth the size of theirs and being pro-active instead of reactive. We cannot allow the pro-vaccine advocates to define us in the negative and generally untrue way they do. Their stake in the issue is that the public will lose trust in them, and they can’t have it. So there is really little reliable research being done on vaccine reactions. That is also why they have to negatively attack us. However, that is little consolation as we try to rally and motivate our supporters and defend our position.
We ARE intelligent, want ALL children to be healthy, and we believe that when given ALL the information, WE can make intelligent decisions and choices. The major thing is that WE disagree with THEM on what and how to do the best for our children.
So, in 2010 what will YOU be motivated to do for our cause?
Bonnie P. Franz
A Healthy and Happy New Year to one and all!
As we have another opportunity to live into one more year, it is my hope that among the many daily responsibilities we have, that each of us will resolve to take at least one action a month regarding voluntary vaccination. You will soon see and understand why.
I have decided to start the New Year of my installments with one on U.S. Agencies involved with vaccination. Although we usually hear predominately of a few (such as the CDC), there are many—in fact, the whole government, for in the 1990’s, President Bill Clinton signed an order that all agencies of the government promote vaccination. That “interagency cooperation” filtered down to the states, and an Interagency Memo was sent to New York State agencies by the governor. I am certain other state governors did the same.
In addition to Government agencies promoting vaccines, they link up or fund “parent groups”—now called “astroturfs” and not really “grass roots” groups as they have been traditionally defined. (The National Vaccine Information Center is truly the only nationwide grassroots parent group on vaccination).
When you consider, then, all these people actively working FOR vaccines, you can see what our side is up against! Besides having passionate people pushing vaccines, Congress gives out $400 Billion each year in Federal aid to State, local and tribal governments (according to articles on the 2010 Census) and a large amount of that goes for vaccinations and vaccine research, public health departments, etc.
Below are some of the groups that are on the Federal or governmental level and intertwined with them:
The Department of Health & Human Services is the umbrella for the governmental agencies that deal with immunizations. CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) is the prime one we hear about. But then there is: The National Immunization Program, which puts out “Immunization Action News” and is part of the CDC, but can be quoted separately when we read news articles. (In the 1990’s, Walter Orenstein was director of the National Immunization Program and pushed President Clinton’s Comprehensive Childhood Immunization Initiative (CCII). They also put out kits every year for “National Infant Immunization Week” in April. The kits include community guides for activities, working with the media and collaborating with business and “charting your success.” The kit provides immunization facts in a number of languages, posters, and print ads.
Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (part of the Public Health Service) provides “guidance” to the Secretary of Health and Human Services and the CDC Director. ACIP is composed of 15 members selected by the Secretary of Health and Human Services. Many of their members then go on to work for drug companies or they are working on developing various new vaccines, etc. –the “revolving door.” They develop written recommendations for routine administration of vaccines to children and adults in the civilian population. They are the ONLY entity in the Federal government that makes such recommendations. Their next meeting is February 24-25 at the CDC, 1600 Clifton Rd., N.E. in Atlanta. They meet 3 times a year (February, June, October), and the meetings are open to the public.
The National Vaccine Program was established in 1986 by the Public Health Service Act to achieve optimal prevention of infectious disease through immunization and optimal prevention of adverse reactions to vaccines. That group coordinates among Federal agencies and has global partners, such as WHO (World Health Organization—United Nations); non-governmental groups such as the Gates Foundation; consumer groups and academic institutions. This was part of the government reaction to the nationwide efforts of the National Vaccine Information Center (then known as Dissatisfied Parents Together) to get the government to do various things regarding vaccine reaction to the DPT shot.
Institute of Medicine issued a report in 1993 “The Children’s Vaccine Initiative: Achieving the Vision” that recommended the federal government establish a National Vaccine Authority which “…would facilitate the development and distribution of vaccines in the United States and around the world." This was supported by Sen. Edward Kennedy, author of the Comprehensive Childhood Immunization Act of 1993.
Women in Government/Legislative Business Roundtable was founded in 1988 “as a bi-partisan, non-profit educational association for elected women in state government." In 1989 the Legislative Business Roundtable was added to Women in Government to bring women legislators together with noted speakers and representatives of the business community to address issues of mutual concern and to promote collective problem-solving through public/private partnership. They hold seminars around the country for women lawmakers. In 1993 with the Clinton Vaccine promotion, they held a number of such seminars for which I have their brochures. The participants in the Atlanta seminar agreed that immunizing children by 24 months of age was essential, and local, state and national groups had to work together to educate and ensure that children are vaccinated by age 2 and to establish a tracking system.
“Immunizations give individual protection, but more, they protect the community,” Walter Orenstein, M.D. Said. (At that time he was the Director of the Division of Immunization at the CDC.) He advocated we look to what was being done in England—“First, in England a nurse can immunize in the home as long as the parents have given consent…” The idea of the registry was to register each child at birth, then to send reminders to the parent and clinic when the child needs vaccinations. “Physicians also receive incentive awards for providing immunizations. Before the cash bonuses were installed, only about 50% of the physicians met their percentage goals; with the incentives more than 3/4ths met their targets, Dr. Orenstein explained.”
At that same seminar, Kay Johnson of the March of Dimes stated, “People need to understand that birth and immunization records are vital records. We need you as state legislators to let them know we’re not infringing on their privacy; we’re not going to check on them to see if they beat their child—there are other systems in place for that; we are not going to turn them in to any authorities; what we’re doing is protecting their children… We will protect confidentiality.”
Merck and Aetna Insurance Company also gave presentations at all the seminars. One Tennessee legislator said “It’s time we as state legislators got tough. It’s time we started demanding accountability on the part of the provider and the parents. Parenting is a responsibility. Providing a medical home is a responsibility and tracking that child has to be a priority. The states can take care of these problems.”
At the New York City seminar held on March 12, 1993, they also agreed on a tracking system and “providing education in all languages necessary.”
Zeil Rosenberg, M.D., Director of Family Health for the NYS Health Department, promoted establishing community-based outreach programs… We mustn’t forget that working with the clergy is very important. Churches are willing to help out. We know the majority of people, whatever their race or creed, turn to churches, and churches generally find ways to override the language barrier.” New York City reported on some initiatives to make the public aware of vaccination: “Teen workers, under supervision, went door to door; community and family awareness was generated via clergy, providers, schools, block parties, fiestas, etc… other aggressive outreach including the use of bullhorns became important…”
The Women in Government Roundtable is primarily responsible for women lawmakers around the country introducing and promoting legislation to mandate the HPV vaccine.
All Kids Count is a “…national organization supported by The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation for the development of immunization monitoring and follow-up systems. The Task Force for Child Survival and Development in Atlanta (and associated with the Carter Center) administers All Kids Count in its role as the National Program Office. The director was William Foege, MD, formerly of the CDC. Its national advisory committee included Rosalynn Carter for The Carter Center; Betty Bumpers, for Every Child By Two; Dr. Walter Orenstein, MD, for the CDC’s National Immunization Program; Kay Johnson , formerly with the March of Dimes and by 1997 with George Washington University Center for Health Policy Research, and others. Their website is www.allkidscount.org.
Some quotes from their newsletters:
“…computerizing the current immunization record keeping system is a must if we are to fully immunize all children.”
Their Winter, 2000, issue said “The biggest savings of the registry resulted for its adult population, which is also included in the registry to provide information about influenza and pneumococcal immunizations.” Also included in that issue “…Older and more educated parents tended to be more skeptical of the benefits of registries. Women were more likely than men to believe that registries are beneficial for their children. African-Americans were more likely than Caucasian respondents to enroll their child in a registry if their doctor recommended it.”
Partnership for Prevention is a national non-profit promoting health and disease prevention. It is an alliance of private and voluntary sector organizations “whose purpose is to promote the cause of prevention. We seek to complement the efforts of the U.S. Public Health Service, states and local governments, and others striving to meet the ambitious goals of Healthy People 2000 (there is one for 2010, and 2020), the nation’s objectives for the decade of the 1990’s.” Members of its board included Mrs. Betty Bumpers (From Every Child By Two), Dr. William Foege, Kay Johnson, Donald Vickery, M.D. and others.
In the early 1990’s they put out two publications: “Childhood Immunizations: Steps to a Healthy Future: An Agenda for Legislative Action” which included the following: background on childhood immunization, barriers to preventive care, access to immunization, development of improved vaccines, compliance with vaccine recommendations (pushing the tracking system) and policy recommendations. “With a spirit of teamwork, and a sincere commitment, we can reach the solutions together.”
“Adult Immunization: An Issue Analysis and Proposal for Action on Adult Immunization as a National Preventive Strategy. “There is no well-organized, widely accepted advocacy effort at the national level to promote adult immunization coverage as there is for children… a notable achievement was the creation of the National Coalition for Adult Immunization in 1988 which has promulgated a set of
“Standards for Adult Immunization Practice… There is widespread agreement that a concerted effort needs to be made to bring the facts regarding the lack of adult coverage to the attention of physicians- in-training, practicing physicians, and other health care providers and facilities… There is a lack of immunization programs for adults in public and private settings, including work sites, hospitals, schools, and colleges…Having standing orders for vaccinating adults in institutional settings, clinics and offices can enhance vaccination rates… Comprehensive systems for obtaining data on adult immunization are severely lacking… Periodic surveys of adult immunization status conducted through employers could greatly increase the awareness of these underimmunized populations and help motivate those needing these protective services to seek them through public and private sources.” The vaccines promoted for adults at the time were influenza, pneumococcal, hepatitis B, tetanus and diphtheria, and MMR.—all called “adult vaccine-preventable diseases.”
Every Child By Two: The Carter/Bumper Campaign for Early Immunization, formed by Rosalynn Carter and Betty Bumpers (wife of former Senator from Arkansas). Produced an undated packet (but done in the early 1990’s), printing provided by Gerber, that included the following:
“Every Child Needs a Medical Home”-community-based building blocks for developing local programs, reaching more children through Medicaid.” Under the section ”What You Can Do,” were the following suggestions: Ask your State Health Officer to provide you with a copy of the State Immunization Plan. Ask for a report on the implementation status of your state’s Immunization Action Plan (IAP). In order to apply for funding available from the CDC for delivery of immunization services, each state developed and submitted an IAP; meet with key people—the state health officer, the immunization program manager, the Medicaid Director and representatives from state agencies such as WIC, AFDC, and Maternal and Child Health—“interagency cooperation;” Help start a statewide coalition to develop public/private partnerships that can provide volunteer support for immunization programs.
Under the section “Plan for Success in Your State” were the following suggestions: “Network with the people in your state most likely to have the clout to support the effort to reach Every Child By Two; involve others—public/private partnerships and State legislators; spouses of mayors and members of Congress.
Children’s Defense Fund is the children’s group founded by Marian Wright Edelman that also had Hillary Clinton on its Board of Directors for years. They have groups in NYC (c/o The Robin Hood Foundation), Minnesota, Texas, South Carolina, and 3 groups in Ohio. The CDF is involved with everything that has to do with children, especially Head Start and immunizations. In the CDF Reports of January, 1994, Mrs. Edelman said “Child advocates can play a vital role by organizing local coalitions to plan and oversee community immunization campaigns. Besides protecting children from preventable diseases, immunization campaigns strengthen communities by forging new relationships among citizens’ groups, the business community, local government, and the public health system. These relationships can lead to other community efforts for children in the future.” The CDF is also responsible for coordinating the “National Observance of Children’s Sabbaths in October … now a vital part of the children’s movement.” This effort involved people of all faiths to support CDF and its goals.
Catholic Health Association is one such religious group supportive of the goals of the Children’s Defense Fund, especially promoting Catholic hospitals and parishes to provide immunization projects. The January, 1993, issue of their newsletter, Immunization Update, listed a number of activities planned by Catholic hospitals. Among them were joining forces with the Junior League, WIC, Every Child By Two, and listing the usual immunization groups that put out guidebooks, brochures, public service announcements (PSA’s), videos, fact sheets, etc. In their August, 1993 edition, they reported on D.A. Henderson, who “has been named to head President Clinton’s immunization campaign.” This “Immunization Czar” as he was called, stated that “…he sees immunization as an important step in broader healthcare reform. ‘If we can develop a system for immunizing children, we will have the beginning of a more rational system for primary healthcare.’”
COMMENTARY:
As you can see, there are many groups that have an interest in promoting vaccinations and the laws to do so. They network with other groups that want to improve our lives and thus, are willing to help the Government achieve its goals. No wonder none of them want to hear our side of the issue!!
Initially, vaccines were promoted to parents and the public as helping to protect our children. Adverse reactions to vaccines were denied by the Government and the medical profession. But there was reached a time (1986) when they could no longer deny adverse reactions. However, they had to save the vaccination program. And that they did and continue to do.
As more parents have become aware of the hazards of vaccination, either because of personal experience or because of researching the issue, the stakes of the vaccination program have become too high. So, over the past few years, an approach of these pro-vaccine groups has been to portray those who are against forced vaccination as “being selfish.” We and our children are threats to them. We are also portrayed as being “ignorant.” We are “they.” These kinds of attacks will continue more frequently and forcefully in the years to come, especially as all vaccinations and more will be included in Health Care legislation and “reform.” For those of us who belong to an organized religion that will support all these vaccine efforts, it will be especially painful.
It is my hope that in 2010 those on our side of the issue will use the strategies of our opponents and do our own networking, actions and raising money on a larger level. That means we need YOUR voices and your influence. Although I think it is remarkable what a comparatively small group of us around the country has been able to do over the years, we are always reacting to what they come up with. We will never really succeed until our group of activists is even one tenth the size of theirs and being pro-active instead of reactive. We cannot allow the pro-vaccine advocates to define us in the negative and generally untrue way they do. Their stake in the issue is that the public will lose trust in them, and they can’t have it. So there is really little reliable research being done on vaccine reactions. That is also why they have to negatively attack us. However, that is little consolation as we try to rally and motivate our supporters and defend our position.
We ARE intelligent, want ALL children to be healthy, and we believe that when given ALL the information, WE can make intelligent decisions and choices. The major thing is that WE disagree with THEM on what and how to do the best for our children.
So, in 2010 what will YOU be motivated to do for our cause?
Bonnie P. Franz
Saturday, November 7, 2009
Adult Vaccination - the Final Frontier
Dear Friends,
We are all adults. Have you chosen to get the H1N1 shot or flu shot this year? If so, why--or why not? Are you surprised at the push to get pregnant women and workers vaccinated? Have you examined the hype we have been getting in the media daily, at virtually every newscast or in every daily newspaper? In previous years, only about 35% of adults got flu shots. Pretty dismal rates. But that's changing this year.
As adults, we are used to hearing about vaccinations for our children. Until now, we basically have not heard much about immunizations for adults. However, as with all other health policies, these have been long in the making. We really have been getting articles over the last decade trying to get adults to vaccinate. Most of you just were not paying attention. Now, the "crisis" is here and the opportunity is being used to manipulate everyone, for if we will not vaccinate voluntarily, then create ways, especially using fear, to get us to do so. Therefore, below is a little history and time line which I think explains it pretty well:
Update on Adult Immunization: Recommendations of the Immunization Practices Advisory Committee (ACIP), Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, Recommendations and Reports, November 15, 1991 (Vol. 40, No. RR-12), http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/00025228.htm:
"The National Coalition for Adult Immunization (NCAI) was formed in 1988 to improve adult immunization levels." As usual in these endeavors, “the coalition consists of professional, private, public, and voluntary organizations with the common goal of improving vaccine use among adults by educating health-care providers and patients... To reduce further the unnecessary occurrence of these vaccine-preventable diseases, health-care providers for older adolescents and adults should provide vaccinations as a routine part of their practice... A systematic approach to vaccination is necessary to ensure that every adult is appropriately protected against vaccine-preventable diseases.”
The Report was comprehensive and listed age groups from 18-65, travel, immigrants, special occupations, life-styles, permanent vaccination records, the different vaccines—live and inactivated.
The October 16, 1992, issue of MMWR had an article “National Coalition for Adult Vaccination: Activities to Increase Influenza Vaccination Levels, 1989-1991," http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/00017773.htm:
“Project activities included combinations of 1) physician presentations at county and state medical society meetings and hospital grand rounds; 2) feature articles on vaccination in health-care provider newsletters; 3) increased media attention to influenza vaccination (including newspaper articles, radio interviews, advertisements in weekly newspapers, bus-advertising placards, milk-carton and grocery-bag art and billboards); 4) distribution of approximately 100,000 physician newsletters and an estimated 400,000 vaccination pamphlets, posters, and promotional buttons and stickers encouraging influenza vaccination; 5) distribution and completion of adult-vaccination cards.”
“...vaccination programs for adults have been difficult to implement for at least four reasons: 1) comprehensive adult vaccine-delivery systems are not available in the public and private sectors; 2) although statutory requirements exist for vaccination of children, few such requirements exist for adults; 3) reimbursement mechanisms and coverage by third-party payors are limited in the public and private sectors; and 4) vaccination programs have not been established in most settings where adults congregate (e.g., the workplace and retirement communities).”
“Attainment of this objective will require multifaceted strategies involving collaboration of public and private organizations to improve awareness regarding vaccine delivery and develop publicly-supported delivery mechanisms that remove cost and accessibility constraints. National Adult Immunization Awareness Week draws attention to efforts...”
The National Vaccine Advisory Committee adopted a report on adult immunization in January, 1994, that was printed in JAMA (Journal of the American Medical Association) for October 12, 1994 (article available for purchase from JAMA at http://jama.ama-assn.org/cgi/reprint/272/14/1133). The summary of “Adult Immunization” included 5 goals and 18 recommendations for improving adult immunization. “Discussion of how to improve adult immunization must be included in the debate over health system reform in the United States... there is strong evidence that adult immunization is highly cost-effective. Thus, the choice we face is not simply deciding whether to pay for adult immunization, it is whether to pay more for the costs of treating un-prevented illness or less for preventing it in the first place.” The report went on to list some of the goals which should be familiar to us all:
“... increase the demand for adult vaccination by improving provider and public awareness; the CDC and other federal agencies assume increased responsibility for assuring that adults are appropriately immunized... Business and labor leaders and state health insurance regulators should encourage inclusion of adult immunization as a covered benefit for those insured... The cost-effectiveness of adult immunization must be further assessed; current evidence suggests that influenza and pneumococcal vaccination are highly cost-effective when compared with other preventive, screening, and treatment interventions in common use among elderly persons.”
“Given the promise of new and improved vaccines, the Children’s Vaccine Initiative has become the organizing focus to coordinate the transfer of new technologies for vaccine production and vaccine delivery to developing countries. Many aspects of this program have direct implications for the development of new and improved vaccines for adults.”
“Finally, the committee encourages greater collaboration between federal agencies, nongovernmental organizations, professional associations, and vaccine companies in the United States and their counterparts in international organizations and in countries throughout the world.”
From “Grown-Ups Need Their Shots, Too” in the February, 2003, issue of the AARP (American Association of Retired Persons) Bulletin: “First-ever adult schedule for immunizations issued.”
Let me bring everything to a "local" level--here in New York State.
Upon the failure of childhood vaccinations, especially in regards to the MMR vaccine, vaccine advocates realized they were in trouble in the early 1980's. As "outbreaks" of measles erupted on college campuses, health bureaucrats realized they needed to somewhat quietly make changes. Thus began the first Adult Immunizations with the passage of Section 2165--Immunization of certain post-secondary students, passed by the New York State Legislature (and other states) in 1989. Initially, this was just for the second-dose measles shot, but eventually became MMR. And, for good reason. According to the Principles and Practice of Infectious Diseases, by Drs. Mandell, Douglas & Bennett, 1985 (and earlier editions), the measles vaccine has "a persistence of antibody for up to 15 years. Mumps vaccine--satisfactory titers are maintained for at least 10 1/2 years and Rubella vaccine--there is reinfection in up to 80% of persons who had shots and who were subsequently exposed to rubella during an epidemic. Reinfection is more common in those vaccinated than in those who had natural rubella." This also accounts for why we are now hearing once again that MMR is "on the rise."
Unfortunately, instead of reevaluating giving MMR shots in the 1980's and discontinuing their use, health care bureaucrats preferred adding more doses to a person's body and also to exposing our children and future generations to life-long risk of disease. (Also now add the chickenpox vaccine.)
Then, in 1999 the NYS Legislature passed Article 21-A "Long-term Care Resident and Employee Immunization Act" which became effective in 2000. Section 2193 of the Act calls for residents of long-term care facilities to get the flu and pneumococcal shots and Section 2194 provides for employees to get the same shots.
Although Section 2195 provides for medical and religious exemptions, the reality is that no one will refuse--especially if you need to be in a long-term care facility or if you need a job. The phrasing is quaint: "...the facility shall provide or arrange for the necessary immunization."
In 2003, effective in 2004, Section 2168 Statewide Registry was passed and provided that ALL infants born after 2004 in NYS would be included in the Statewide Immunization Registry. What, you ask, does this Act have to do with adults? Well, basically, this is a tracking system. Initially, to get States and the public on board, it was an "opt in" or "opt out" system. Then, gradually, over time, lawmakers decided it had to be for all in order to work. And, it will follow or "track" everyone into the future--as adults--basically, from cradle to grave. Of course, it will take about 18 years (2022) to really get working, and until then, other opportunities will be used--such as those we see now. Plus, the bureaucrats have time on their hands; we older, more knowledgeable ones will die within the next 20 years. Then, the ones living will have "grown up" on getting vaccinated.
Also, since the 1990's there have been "Wellness in the Workplace" programs that are now including vaccination for employees.
And, vaccination is part of the Health Care Reform proposals in the current proposed legislation, especially since vaccination is considered "preventive care." Now, with the push for all electronic medical records (already part of the tracking system), no one will be able to hide and evade the health police of the future.
COMMENTARY:
In a pamphlet I wrote for my 2001 Rally in Albany, "13 Reasons Not to Vaccinate," #13 was: The principle of "First, do no harm."
"Risks may be taken with a patient who is desperately ill or in danger of contracting some serious disease that should never be taken with a normal subject. It should be a rule in all prophylactic work that no harm should ever be unnecesarily inflicted on a healthy person (Sir Graham Wilson, The Hazards of Immunization, 1967). Contrary to this principle, vaccines are given to healthy children and adults and the extent of harm is unknown." The major reason for this is that the government and health- care leaders do not believe that vaccines cause any damage or harm to most people and accept that those who are injured pay the price for the common good.
I hope you have all realized that I have been building upon each previous installment and that what I wrote earlier quoting "Vaccine Fevers" is happening now. Stop and think about it--vaccine advocates and bureaucrats have been working steadily since 1988 to 2003 to have in place the infrastructure to see that we all get vaccinated. And, now to see that the public DEMANDS it. They are working on getting the mob angry regarding a MILD disease. And they are being successful. Too many of us have forgotten or not learned how to do the simple things to take care of our health and are willling to accept the quick fix of a vaccine.
I have said it before and it bears repeating: Time is running out and we are losing our freedom of choice. Our lives are getting more and more out of our control and under the control of others. What are you going to do about it before it is too late?
Bonnie Plumeri Franz
We are all adults. Have you chosen to get the H1N1 shot or flu shot this year? If so, why--or why not? Are you surprised at the push to get pregnant women and workers vaccinated? Have you examined the hype we have been getting in the media daily, at virtually every newscast or in every daily newspaper? In previous years, only about 35% of adults got flu shots. Pretty dismal rates. But that's changing this year.
As adults, we are used to hearing about vaccinations for our children. Until now, we basically have not heard much about immunizations for adults. However, as with all other health policies, these have been long in the making. We really have been getting articles over the last decade trying to get adults to vaccinate. Most of you just were not paying attention. Now, the "crisis" is here and the opportunity is being used to manipulate everyone, for if we will not vaccinate voluntarily, then create ways, especially using fear, to get us to do so. Therefore, below is a little history and time line which I think explains it pretty well:
Update on Adult Immunization: Recommendations of the Immunization Practices Advisory Committee (ACIP), Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, Recommendations and Reports, November 15, 1991 (Vol. 40, No. RR-12), http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/00025228.htm:
"The National Coalition for Adult Immunization (NCAI) was formed in 1988 to improve adult immunization levels." As usual in these endeavors, “the coalition consists of professional, private, public, and voluntary organizations with the common goal of improving vaccine use among adults by educating health-care providers and patients... To reduce further the unnecessary occurrence of these vaccine-preventable diseases, health-care providers for older adolescents and adults should provide vaccinations as a routine part of their practice... A systematic approach to vaccination is necessary to ensure that every adult is appropriately protected against vaccine-preventable diseases.”
The Report was comprehensive and listed age groups from 18-65, travel, immigrants, special occupations, life-styles, permanent vaccination records, the different vaccines—live and inactivated.
The October 16, 1992, issue of MMWR had an article “National Coalition for Adult Vaccination: Activities to Increase Influenza Vaccination Levels, 1989-1991," http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/00017773.htm:
“Project activities included combinations of 1) physician presentations at county and state medical society meetings and hospital grand rounds; 2) feature articles on vaccination in health-care provider newsletters; 3) increased media attention to influenza vaccination (including newspaper articles, radio interviews, advertisements in weekly newspapers, bus-advertising placards, milk-carton and grocery-bag art and billboards); 4) distribution of approximately 100,000 physician newsletters and an estimated 400,000 vaccination pamphlets, posters, and promotional buttons and stickers encouraging influenza vaccination; 5) distribution and completion of adult-vaccination cards.”
“...vaccination programs for adults have been difficult to implement for at least four reasons: 1) comprehensive adult vaccine-delivery systems are not available in the public and private sectors; 2) although statutory requirements exist for vaccination of children, few such requirements exist for adults; 3) reimbursement mechanisms and coverage by third-party payors are limited in the public and private sectors; and 4) vaccination programs have not been established in most settings where adults congregate (e.g., the workplace and retirement communities).”
“Attainment of this objective will require multifaceted strategies involving collaboration of public and private organizations to improve awareness regarding vaccine delivery and develop publicly-supported delivery mechanisms that remove cost and accessibility constraints. National Adult Immunization Awareness Week draws attention to efforts...”
The National Vaccine Advisory Committee adopted a report on adult immunization in January, 1994, that was printed in JAMA (Journal of the American Medical Association) for October 12, 1994 (article available for purchase from JAMA at http://jama.ama-assn.org/cgi/reprint/272/14/1133). The summary of “Adult Immunization” included 5 goals and 18 recommendations for improving adult immunization. “Discussion of how to improve adult immunization must be included in the debate over health system reform in the United States... there is strong evidence that adult immunization is highly cost-effective. Thus, the choice we face is not simply deciding whether to pay for adult immunization, it is whether to pay more for the costs of treating un-prevented illness or less for preventing it in the first place.” The report went on to list some of the goals which should be familiar to us all:
“... increase the demand for adult vaccination by improving provider and public awareness; the CDC and other federal agencies assume increased responsibility for assuring that adults are appropriately immunized... Business and labor leaders and state health insurance regulators should encourage inclusion of adult immunization as a covered benefit for those insured... The cost-effectiveness of adult immunization must be further assessed; current evidence suggests that influenza and pneumococcal vaccination are highly cost-effective when compared with other preventive, screening, and treatment interventions in common use among elderly persons.”
“Given the promise of new and improved vaccines, the Children’s Vaccine Initiative has become the organizing focus to coordinate the transfer of new technologies for vaccine production and vaccine delivery to developing countries. Many aspects of this program have direct implications for the development of new and improved vaccines for adults.”
“Finally, the committee encourages greater collaboration between federal agencies, nongovernmental organizations, professional associations, and vaccine companies in the United States and their counterparts in international organizations and in countries throughout the world.”
From “Grown-Ups Need Their Shots, Too” in the February, 2003, issue of the AARP (American Association of Retired Persons) Bulletin: “First-ever adult schedule for immunizations issued.”
Let me bring everything to a "local" level--here in New York State.
Upon the failure of childhood vaccinations, especially in regards to the MMR vaccine, vaccine advocates realized they were in trouble in the early 1980's. As "outbreaks" of measles erupted on college campuses, health bureaucrats realized they needed to somewhat quietly make changes. Thus began the first Adult Immunizations with the passage of Section 2165--Immunization of certain post-secondary students, passed by the New York State Legislature (and other states) in 1989. Initially, this was just for the second-dose measles shot, but eventually became MMR. And, for good reason. According to the Principles and Practice of Infectious Diseases, by Drs. Mandell, Douglas & Bennett, 1985 (and earlier editions), the measles vaccine has "a persistence of antibody for up to 15 years. Mumps vaccine--satisfactory titers are maintained for at least 10 1/2 years and Rubella vaccine--there is reinfection in up to 80% of persons who had shots and who were subsequently exposed to rubella during an epidemic. Reinfection is more common in those vaccinated than in those who had natural rubella." This also accounts for why we are now hearing once again that MMR is "on the rise."
Unfortunately, instead of reevaluating giving MMR shots in the 1980's and discontinuing their use, health care bureaucrats preferred adding more doses to a person's body and also to exposing our children and future generations to life-long risk of disease. (Also now add the chickenpox vaccine.)
Then, in 1999 the NYS Legislature passed Article 21-A "Long-term Care Resident and Employee Immunization Act" which became effective in 2000. Section 2193 of the Act calls for residents of long-term care facilities to get the flu and pneumococcal shots and Section 2194 provides for employees to get the same shots.
Although Section 2195 provides for medical and religious exemptions, the reality is that no one will refuse--especially if you need to be in a long-term care facility or if you need a job. The phrasing is quaint: "...the facility shall provide or arrange for the necessary immunization."
In 2003, effective in 2004, Section 2168 Statewide Registry was passed and provided that ALL infants born after 2004 in NYS would be included in the Statewide Immunization Registry. What, you ask, does this Act have to do with adults? Well, basically, this is a tracking system. Initially, to get States and the public on board, it was an "opt in" or "opt out" system. Then, gradually, over time, lawmakers decided it had to be for all in order to work. And, it will follow or "track" everyone into the future--as adults--basically, from cradle to grave. Of course, it will take about 18 years (2022) to really get working, and until then, other opportunities will be used--such as those we see now. Plus, the bureaucrats have time on their hands; we older, more knowledgeable ones will die within the next 20 years. Then, the ones living will have "grown up" on getting vaccinated.
Also, since the 1990's there have been "Wellness in the Workplace" programs that are now including vaccination for employees.
And, vaccination is part of the Health Care Reform proposals in the current proposed legislation, especially since vaccination is considered "preventive care." Now, with the push for all electronic medical records (already part of the tracking system), no one will be able to hide and evade the health police of the future.
COMMENTARY:
In a pamphlet I wrote for my 2001 Rally in Albany, "13 Reasons Not to Vaccinate," #13 was: The principle of "First, do no harm."
"Risks may be taken with a patient who is desperately ill or in danger of contracting some serious disease that should never be taken with a normal subject. It should be a rule in all prophylactic work that no harm should ever be unnecesarily inflicted on a healthy person (Sir Graham Wilson, The Hazards of Immunization, 1967). Contrary to this principle, vaccines are given to healthy children and adults and the extent of harm is unknown." The major reason for this is that the government and health- care leaders do not believe that vaccines cause any damage or harm to most people and accept that those who are injured pay the price for the common good.
I hope you have all realized that I have been building upon each previous installment and that what I wrote earlier quoting "Vaccine Fevers" is happening now. Stop and think about it--vaccine advocates and bureaucrats have been working steadily since 1988 to 2003 to have in place the infrastructure to see that we all get vaccinated. And, now to see that the public DEMANDS it. They are working on getting the mob angry regarding a MILD disease. And they are being successful. Too many of us have forgotten or not learned how to do the simple things to take care of our health and are willling to accept the quick fix of a vaccine.
I have said it before and it bears repeating: Time is running out and we are losing our freedom of choice. Our lives are getting more and more out of our control and under the control of others. What are you going to do about it before it is too late?
Bonnie Plumeri Franz
Sunday, October 18, 2009
Final Flu Files
Dear Friends,
So much has been written, and will be weritten, regarding “traditional flu” and “pandemic flu.” What I have given you is only a little bit. Here are some final news items I found after I did my other flu installments:
“Task force plans response to possible flu pandemic,” subtitle “Military assets seen as vital in crisis,” by Erik Holmes, was the newsline for the December 4, 2006, issue of Army Times.
“Responding to warnings that an influenza pandemic, coupled with a shortage of vaccine, could cause almost one-third of Americans to fall ill, a U.S. Northern Command planning group is developing a game plan to provide military assets for a civilian-led response. …Experts agree that a flu pandemic will hit sooner or later, and that it will constitute a major crisis, pushing government response capabilities to—if not beyond—the limit.
“A May, 2006, White House report…envisions widespread vaccine shortages,…hospitals overwhelmed and short on equipment,…absenteeism from work and school, and the threat of wide-spread civil disorder.
“By law, responding to disasters is primarily a responsibility of local and state government, but they can ask federal agencies…for help.
“ ... the military can provide essential assistance, such as keeping order, setting up temporary hospitals and housing, and distributing medications.”
Metro News, Canada, of Sept. 11-13, 2009, had an article “Swine flu to peak in fall: Study” (metronews.ca) Although the article talked about the swine flu in Canada, it had this important point:
“Indeed, vaccines will come too late to stop H1N1’s spread across North America this fall," according to the paper, published today in the journal Science.
“DoD: Swine flu vaccine coming in October” is the September 14, 2009, story by Michelle Tan in the Army Times.
“'As soon as installations have the vaccine, they should be administering it. The mantra is, The best storage depot for this vaccine is in an arm rather than on a shelf,’ said Army Lt. Col. Hachey, director of preventive medicine for the Office of the Asst. Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs, Force Health Protection and Readiness. He also stated:
’When you come on active duty, you belong to us and we take care of you. …Part of taking care of you is making sure you are protected, so that includes your Kevlar and it includes your flu shot.’”
I will end my sections on the flu with quotes from a seemingly prescient 1995 pamphlet, “Flu Shots: Do They Really Work?” written by Kristine M. Severyn, R.Ph., Ph.D., founder of Ohio Parents for Vaccine Safety, Dayton, Ohio.
“Although influenza is associated with more disease, hospitalization, and death in ‘at risk’ populations, no adequate controlled studies exist which prove that influenza vaccine reduces the incidence of influenza in these groups.
“For example in the 1994-1995 flu season, the CDC reported that 43% of isolated influenza samples for the predominant virus (type A (H3N2) were not similar to that in the vaccine. Likewise, for another type A virus (H1N1), 87% of samples were not similar to that in the vaccine….
“Depending on the study cited, vaccine efficacy actually ranges from a low of 0% to a high of 96%…”
From 1988 to 1992, Congress mandated a $62 million Medicare Influenza Vaccine Demonstration project. (Note the 1993 MMWR cited above in previous flu email.) “This study, intended to promote Medicare-funded flu shots, yielded a disappointing 31-45% effectiveness ‘in preventing hospitalization for any pneumonia’ during 3 influenza seasons. Results for the 1989-1990 season were described as ‘mixed at best,’ with ‘Medicare payments…significantly higher for those who had been vaccinated.’ Government agencies ‘calculated’ an economic benefit of flu shots to Medicare by manipulating numbers in a computerized simulation until desirable results were obtained. The CDC reported that its theoretical assumptions did not include all vaccine-related costs. Other recently- publicized medical studies with similar economic claims for flu shots have been funded by a vaccine manufacturer.
“…it is nearly impossible to prove if flu shots significantly increase life expectancy in the elderly.”
“Congress and the American taxpayer have been defrauded about the alleged advantages of flu shots. Instead of being an effective prevention, evidence indicated that flu shots may be useless. Although endorsed and funded by federal and state governments, the shots seem only to benefit the companies who make them, public health bureaucrats who promote them, and medical personnel who administer them.”
Commentary:
I hope I have been able to show you how the public is manipulated by government agencies, the ultimate universal vaccination goal of health bureaucrats, and how the media puts out the stories.
The afterword of the book "The Great Influenza: The Epic Story of the Deadliest Plague in History” by John M. Barry, 2004, says it best:
“So the final lesson of 1918, a simple one yet the one most difficult to execute, is that those who occupy positions of authority must lessen the panic that can alienate the members of society. Those in authority must retain the public’s trust. The way to do that is to distort nothing, to put the best face on nothing, to try to manipulate no one. Lincoln said that first, and best. A leader must make whatever horror exists concrete. Only then will people be able to break it apart.”
Unfortunately, our leaders and we, the public, have not learned that lesson. Truly, “history repeats itself."
Bonnie Plumeri Franz
So much has been written, and will be weritten, regarding “traditional flu” and “pandemic flu.” What I have given you is only a little bit. Here are some final news items I found after I did my other flu installments:
“Task force plans response to possible flu pandemic,” subtitle “Military assets seen as vital in crisis,” by Erik Holmes, was the newsline for the December 4, 2006, issue of Army Times.
“Responding to warnings that an influenza pandemic, coupled with a shortage of vaccine, could cause almost one-third of Americans to fall ill, a U.S. Northern Command planning group is developing a game plan to provide military assets for a civilian-led response. …Experts agree that a flu pandemic will hit sooner or later, and that it will constitute a major crisis, pushing government response capabilities to—if not beyond—the limit.
“A May, 2006, White House report…envisions widespread vaccine shortages,…hospitals overwhelmed and short on equipment,…absenteeism from work and school, and the threat of wide-spread civil disorder.
“By law, responding to disasters is primarily a responsibility of local and state government, but they can ask federal agencies…for help.
“ ... the military can provide essential assistance, such as keeping order, setting up temporary hospitals and housing, and distributing medications.”
Metro News, Canada, of Sept. 11-13, 2009, had an article “Swine flu to peak in fall: Study” (metronews.ca) Although the article talked about the swine flu in Canada, it had this important point:
“Indeed, vaccines will come too late to stop H1N1’s spread across North America this fall," according to the paper, published today in the journal Science.
“DoD: Swine flu vaccine coming in October” is the September 14, 2009, story by Michelle Tan in the Army Times.
“'As soon as installations have the vaccine, they should be administering it. The mantra is, The best storage depot for this vaccine is in an arm rather than on a shelf,’ said Army Lt. Col. Hachey, director of preventive medicine for the Office of the Asst. Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs, Force Health Protection and Readiness. He also stated:
’When you come on active duty, you belong to us and we take care of you. …Part of taking care of you is making sure you are protected, so that includes your Kevlar and it includes your flu shot.’”
I will end my sections on the flu with quotes from a seemingly prescient 1995 pamphlet, “Flu Shots: Do They Really Work?” written by Kristine M. Severyn, R.Ph., Ph.D., founder of Ohio Parents for Vaccine Safety, Dayton, Ohio.
“Although influenza is associated with more disease, hospitalization, and death in ‘at risk’ populations, no adequate controlled studies exist which prove that influenza vaccine reduces the incidence of influenza in these groups.
“For example in the 1994-1995 flu season, the CDC reported that 43% of isolated influenza samples for the predominant virus (type A (H3N2) were not similar to that in the vaccine. Likewise, for another type A virus (H1N1), 87% of samples were not similar to that in the vaccine….
“Depending on the study cited, vaccine efficacy actually ranges from a low of 0% to a high of 96%…”
From 1988 to 1992, Congress mandated a $62 million Medicare Influenza Vaccine Demonstration project. (Note the 1993 MMWR cited above in previous flu email.) “This study, intended to promote Medicare-funded flu shots, yielded a disappointing 31-45% effectiveness ‘in preventing hospitalization for any pneumonia’ during 3 influenza seasons. Results for the 1989-1990 season were described as ‘mixed at best,’ with ‘Medicare payments…significantly higher for those who had been vaccinated.’ Government agencies ‘calculated’ an economic benefit of flu shots to Medicare by manipulating numbers in a computerized simulation until desirable results were obtained. The CDC reported that its theoretical assumptions did not include all vaccine-related costs. Other recently- publicized medical studies with similar economic claims for flu shots have been funded by a vaccine manufacturer.
“…it is nearly impossible to prove if flu shots significantly increase life expectancy in the elderly.”
“Congress and the American taxpayer have been defrauded about the alleged advantages of flu shots. Instead of being an effective prevention, evidence indicated that flu shots may be useless. Although endorsed and funded by federal and state governments, the shots seem only to benefit the companies who make them, public health bureaucrats who promote them, and medical personnel who administer them.”
Commentary:
I hope I have been able to show you how the public is manipulated by government agencies, the ultimate universal vaccination goal of health bureaucrats, and how the media puts out the stories.
The afterword of the book "The Great Influenza: The Epic Story of the Deadliest Plague in History” by John M. Barry, 2004, says it best:
“So the final lesson of 1918, a simple one yet the one most difficult to execute, is that those who occupy positions of authority must lessen the panic that can alienate the members of society. Those in authority must retain the public’s trust. The way to do that is to distort nothing, to put the best face on nothing, to try to manipulate no one. Lincoln said that first, and best. A leader must make whatever horror exists concrete. Only then will people be able to break it apart.”
Unfortunately, our leaders and we, the public, have not learned that lesson. Truly, “history repeats itself."
Bonnie Plumeri Franz
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
More on the Flu - History of Vaccination Policy
Dear Friends,
As I review my overflowing flu files, I am struck by the revelation of the continuing history of vaccination policy. Some things never change, and that is true in regards to vaccination. The outline for promoting vaccines is here. Notice how vaccine advocates take years grooming and finding “evidence” so that the public will accept vaccines for all age groups. Here are some highlights, and I have again underlined things I think are important for you to notice.
Hippocrates magazine November/December, 1988, “To Get the Shot, or Not?” by Barbara Kelley. “There’s a 50-50 chance that this year’s vaccine will be another mismatch… The natural unpredictability of influenza is the reason flu shots are so often off the mark.”
“If you go without a shot and catch the flu this year, the natural defenses you’ll develop against a future infections will be broader and last longer than the protection any vaccine could provide.” Among experts, one of the more candid is Thomas Cate of the Influenza Research Center at Houston’s Baylor College of Medicine. ‘If your health is such that flu represents a nuisance, not a life-threatening illness,’ Cate says, ‘you’re probably better off getting sick now and being over with it for the next several years than trying to get the vaccine every year.’”
“Flu Vaccine Can Protect Unborn Babies” was the October 25, 1990, article in the Watertown (NY) Daily Times. ”Vaccinating pregnant women for flu helps protect their babies from the disease after birth, is safe and could point the way to other such vaccines, according to Baylor Medical School researchers… Researchers believe flu immunity passed from a mother to child lasts abut four months…”
“Flu Shots Win Couple Trip to Fla.” was the December 17, 1992, headline in the Watertown (NY) Daily Times. It told the story of an elderly couple in Rochester, NY, who “…play SHOTTO—a lottery game concocted by Monroe County health officials to entice residents to get their flu shots…Health officials had feared there might be fewer people getting flu shots this year because there was no federal grant to subsidize the program. The county asked $5 this year per shot, but no one was turned away for lack of money.”
The August 13, 1993, issue of MMWR (Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, a publication of the Massachusetts Medical Society, had “Final Results: Medicare Influenza Vaccine Demonstration—Selected States, 1988-1992.”
“In 1988, the Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA and CDC) began a congressionally mandated 4-year demonstration project to evaluate the cost-effectiveness to Medicare of providing influenza vaccine to Medicare beneficiaries… The Medicare Influenza Demonstration increased annual influenza vaccine coverage and measured both health and economic benefits of influenza vaccine for Medicare. The perspective of the payer used in this study was important in securing coverage for this benefit; however, it differs from cost-effectiveness studies of prevention strategies that usually use a societal perspective and include all direct costs, not just those of the payer. In this study, only the costs paid by Medicare were included. Other costs, such as those incurred by patients for travel or by providers for patient’s visits or vaccine administration above the amount paid by Medicare, were not included…The demonstration’s success in vaccine delivery resulted from focused interventions to overcome common barriers to adult vaccination, including the absence of a comprehensive vaccine delivery system, limited reimbursement mechanism, and a lack of vaccination programs where adults congregate. No statutory requirements mandating vaccination of Medicare beneficiaries were necessary to implement this program.”
“19 at Time Get AIDS Test After Flu Shot Needles Are Reused” was the headline in the November 6, 1993, issue of the New York Times. This story was in regards to Time magazine employees who had gotten their flu shots in the workplace. “That method (reusing needles) is not appropriate, according to the CDC… Pamela Howell, a spokeswoman for the centers said the risk of infection was considerably less when injecting someone than when drawing blood.”
“Fearing the Flu” was a short news brief in the January 21, 1996, Syracuse (NY) Herald American. “Experts agree a pandemic is in the cards sometime and will require a huge mobilization to vaccinate the entire U.S. population.”
“The Cold Facts About Flu Vaccines” by Paula Linquist in the November, 1997, issue of Alive magazine (Canada) mentions thimerosal and formaldehyde as vaccine preservatives. The article also talks about common sense actions to prevent the flu, as well as “…a number of homeopathic remedies which have produced excellent results in the treatment of colds and flu…”
”Disease detectives untangle mystery of mutant flu virus” by Bob Williams was a page one article in the News & Observer, Raleigh, North Carolina on May 31, 1999. “The discovery of a hybrid of human and pig viruses in a North Carolina swine herd recently sent scientists scrambling to determine whether the new bug was a threat to people.”
Quoted in the article was Dr. Gene Erickson, director of microbiological testing at the State Department of Agriculture’s animal disease diagnostic lab in Raleigh. “His concern deepened when he learned that some of the sick sows had been specifically immunized for classic swine flu. ‘It started to look like we might have a novel, new strain of swine influenza on our hands.’… Pigs are ideal mixing vessels, because they can pick up viruses from both birds and human. And since viruses are always mutating, pigs can produce viruses that have a mix of genetic traits from both birds and humans. After that, it is possible for a potentially deadly strain of avian influenza virus to make the relatively short genetic hop from pigs to people… By October… lab had figured out that the samples were a “reassorted virus,” a novel strain with traits of both human and swine virus. More specifically, the lab concluded that the virus had originated in humans and jumped to pigs… Dr. Nancy Cox, an influenza researcher at the CDC said “’You have veterinary consequences as well as human consequences of this interspecies transmission.’”
“Military community helps determine flu vaccine recipe” was the Army Times headline for January 17, 2000. In her article, Deborah Funk wrote “…what many don’t know is that information collected from military members and their families around the world helps determine the vaccine’s recipe in any given year. The U.S. military community is not the only population that is monitored to keep tabs on viruses in circulation. But their medical information, like that of many other groups in many different countries, helps global public health authorities complete the picture… the puzzle pieces are fed through a hierarchy of public health networks, ultimately reaching the World Health Organization.
WHO coordinates four international collaborating centers, including the CDC, to help determine ingredients for the flu vaccine, based on virus surveillance. The CDC collects its information from U.S. civilian physicians and military members, and from foreign countries. The viruses are then compared and analyzed. That information is forwarded to both the WHO and the Food and Drug Administration’s Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee.”
The November 20, 2000, issue of Army Times headline was “Flu shots suspended in Europe, the Pacific.”
“Shipments of influenza vaccine that arrived in Europe and the Pacific in October may have lost at least some of their potency because the vaccine became colder during shipment than the drug manufacturer recommended… A worker with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said the CDC did not have data but that she did not think use of the vaccine posed a safety risk, although the efficacy of the vaccine might have been affected.”
Another theory for the 1918 flu pandemic was printed in Discover magazine, March, 2001, p.11 “The Fifth-Column Epidemic. “…demographer Andrew Noymer of the University of California at Berkeley thinks people are overlooking a second culprit: Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the tuberculosis bacterium… Between one quarter and one half of all Americans felled by the flu were already infected with tuberculosis… which helps explain why so many who died were adults. If Noymer is correct, another similarly virulent flu epidemic here would not be so lethal today…”
“Flu shots can cut health costs” was the March 18, 2001, headline of the Richmond (Virginia) Times Dispatch. “Giving flu shots to all 95 million working Americans, ages 18-64 could save the nation as much as $1.3 billion annually” said Dr. Kristin Nichol of the Center for Chronic Disease Outcomes Research at the VA Medical Center and a professor of medicine at the University of Minnesota. Her research was published in The Archives of Internal Medicine, an American Medical Association publication.
“…even though healthy people tend to recover in a few days, they still log up to 75 million lost workdays and 22 million doctor visits annually, the study said… In 1994, Nichol and her colleagues published a study that said immunizing elderly Americans saves the nation hundreds of millions of dollars annually in health care costs and cuts the death rate by 54%… In her latest study, Nichol used a sophisticated computer model to examine the health, labor and economic statistics from a variety of influenza studies. The model took into account rates of illness from influenza, time lost from work, hourly wages, the costs of vaccinations and other direct and indirect costs…”
The Syracuse (New York) Post Standard of August 3, 2004, had an article by the Associated Press “Mother’s flu linked to schizophrenia.”
“A new study adds more evidence to a body of research that suggests the children of some women who get the flu while pregnant are at higher risk for developing schizophrenia… The researchers emphasized that the overall risks are still ‘quite small.’ (The study appears in August’s Archives of General Psychiatry, lead author Dr. Alan Brown.) “The study involved 189 women--64 of whom had children who developed schizophrenia and 125 whose children did not… Other research has suggested infections other than flu might be involved, including measles and genital herpes during pregnancy, which may adversely affect the developing brain…” Note the article for 2008 below.
2005 was an interesting year regarding reporting for flu vaccines. Here are 3:
February 15, 2005, the Syracuse (NY) Post Standard had an AP article “Study: Flu shots not saving any elderly lives: Researchers advocate shifting focus of vaccination programs to children.”
“A study based on more than three decades of U.S. data suggests that giving flu shots to the elderly has not saved any lives. Led by National Institutes of Health researchers, the study challenges government dogma (paper published in the Archives of Internal Medicine, researcher Lone Simonsen of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases). “The study should influence flu prevention strategy, Simonsen said, perhaps by expanding vaccination to schoolchildren, the biggest spreaders of the virus. However, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention plans no change. ‘We think the best way to help the elderly is to vaccinate them,’ said CDC epidemiologist William Thompson. ‘These results don’t contribute to changing vaccine policy.’”
“Universal flu shots urged,” was the headline of USA Today of October 31, 2005, by Anita Manning. “Vaccine experts are considering recommending annual flu vaccine not just for those at highest risk of serious illness, but for everyone.” This was the result of a conference on flu vaccine policy sponsored by Emory University’s Program for Vaccine Policy and Development, Walter Orenstein, director. “The general concern is there is a lot more (illness and death) out there that we don’t seem to be preventing with our current strategy,” Orenstein says.
Apparently, the experts at the conference wanted universal flu vaccination, but the final consensus was that “…it should be a stepwise process, starting with widening flu shot recommendations to include children ages 2 to 5.”
“Vaccines Can’t Stop Flu Mutation” by Candice Choi was the headline for the October 21, 2005, issue of The Journal, Ogdensburg, NY. “Flu vaccines may prove ineffective when scientists fail to anticipate how the virus may mutate… The study conducted by The Institutes of Genome Research with the State Health Department’s Wadsworth Center was published… in the journal Nature and posted on its website. “The 2003-2004 flu season is an example of a year when the flu virus had mutated so that the vaccine was useless…As a result, many people who had been vaccinated ultimately became sick.”
“Infected with Insanity” by Melinda Wenner was the title of an April/May, 2008, article in Scientific American Mind (www.SciAmMind.com). Subtitle: “The evidence is mounting: mental illness might be caused by microbes.”
“According to a growing body of research, the culprit is surprising: the flu… In 2006 scientists at Columbia University asserted that up to one fifth of all schizophrenia cases are caused by prenatal infections… To date, most of the correlations found between infections and psychiatric conditions are just that--correlations. There is no conclusive evidence that infections actually cause these diseases, it could be, for example, that carrying the genes for mental illness makes a person more likely to behave in a way that exposes him or her to a virus… Some studies suggest that infections per se are not responsible for disrupting brain development; rather the body’s immune response to infection affects the nervous system and does the damage… The immune system may inadvertently harm the brain in another way, too--and not only in a fetus. Although current scientific evidence most strongly links mental illness to prenatal infections, many researchers are also investigating the possibility that childhood or even adult infections could cause psychiatric conditions by triggering an autoimmune reaction ... Even the small body of work that now exist could have immediate policy implications.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention currently recommend that all pregnant women get flu shots--a dangerous proposition if immune response, rather than infection itself, is responsible for harming the fetal brain. ‘I don’t think they have considered this risk. In fact, I know they haven’t considered this risk,’ California Institute of Technology biologist Paul H. Patterson says, referring to the CDC. ‘If you take it seriously and vaccinate everybody, then what’s going to happen?’ Researchers cannot yet predict how often a prenatal immune response might lead to fetal brain damage, but even if it happens less than 1% of the time, vaccinating an entire population of pregnant women could affect thousands of children… Future drugs and vaccines may target the infections directly or go after the immune system, controlling its interference with the developing brain or preventing an autoimmune attack on brain cells.”
The article had a chart, “Connecting the Dots” that said “Recent studies have found links between a huge variety of infections and psychiatric ailments, from both prenatal and postnatal exposures. Here are some of the best-supported correlations: schizophrenia and autism--Lyme disease and measles.” To see the whole chart and read the whole article, I strongly urge you to go to the website (www.SciAmMind.com)
COMMENTARY:
I hope the above gave you an idea of how vaccine promoters work. They want vaccination for all, as was discussed in 2005 articles above (and which I have known and followed for over 20 years), yet they also know they have to go about it in a piece-meal approach. And they have succeeded.
If vaccines can’t stop mutations, then what is happening to our bodies? Could it be that vaccines are causing mutations? After all, our bodies have been pumped with a number of dead and live-virus vaccines over the years. Where is the research that shows the cumulative effect of the mandated vaccines, much less the yearly flu shot? Why then are vaccines still being pushed on us, with more to come? Perhaps the idea to eradicate all diseases and suffering, while admirable, is an insanity and never ending.
Even when evidence, such as with the elderly, shows that the vaccine does not save elderly lives, the CDC is still adamant that, not only the elderly still get vaccinated, but now children—anything to expand the immunization program. We are now caught in the web of “entitlement” and it is virtually impossible for us to extricate ourselves.
It is my hope that the public reaches a tipping point sooner, rather than later, to turn this around. There is still time, but it is running short.
Bonnie Plumeri Franz
As I review my overflowing flu files, I am struck by the revelation of the continuing history of vaccination policy. Some things never change, and that is true in regards to vaccination. The outline for promoting vaccines is here. Notice how vaccine advocates take years grooming and finding “evidence” so that the public will accept vaccines for all age groups. Here are some highlights, and I have again underlined things I think are important for you to notice.
Hippocrates magazine November/December, 1988, “To Get the Shot, or Not?” by Barbara Kelley. “There’s a 50-50 chance that this year’s vaccine will be another mismatch… The natural unpredictability of influenza is the reason flu shots are so often off the mark.”
“If you go without a shot and catch the flu this year, the natural defenses you’ll develop against a future infections will be broader and last longer than the protection any vaccine could provide.” Among experts, one of the more candid is Thomas Cate of the Influenza Research Center at Houston’s Baylor College of Medicine. ‘If your health is such that flu represents a nuisance, not a life-threatening illness,’ Cate says, ‘you’re probably better off getting sick now and being over with it for the next several years than trying to get the vaccine every year.’”
“Flu Vaccine Can Protect Unborn Babies” was the October 25, 1990, article in the Watertown (NY) Daily Times. ”Vaccinating pregnant women for flu helps protect their babies from the disease after birth, is safe and could point the way to other such vaccines, according to Baylor Medical School researchers… Researchers believe flu immunity passed from a mother to child lasts abut four months…”
“Flu Shots Win Couple Trip to Fla.” was the December 17, 1992, headline in the Watertown (NY) Daily Times. It told the story of an elderly couple in Rochester, NY, who “…play SHOTTO—a lottery game concocted by Monroe County health officials to entice residents to get their flu shots…Health officials had feared there might be fewer people getting flu shots this year because there was no federal grant to subsidize the program. The county asked $5 this year per shot, but no one was turned away for lack of money.”
The August 13, 1993, issue of MMWR (Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, a publication of the Massachusetts Medical Society, had “Final Results: Medicare Influenza Vaccine Demonstration—Selected States, 1988-1992.”
“In 1988, the Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA and CDC) began a congressionally mandated 4-year demonstration project to evaluate the cost-effectiveness to Medicare of providing influenza vaccine to Medicare beneficiaries… The Medicare Influenza Demonstration increased annual influenza vaccine coverage and measured both health and economic benefits of influenza vaccine for Medicare. The perspective of the payer used in this study was important in securing coverage for this benefit; however, it differs from cost-effectiveness studies of prevention strategies that usually use a societal perspective and include all direct costs, not just those of the payer. In this study, only the costs paid by Medicare were included. Other costs, such as those incurred by patients for travel or by providers for patient’s visits or vaccine administration above the amount paid by Medicare, were not included…The demonstration’s success in vaccine delivery resulted from focused interventions to overcome common barriers to adult vaccination, including the absence of a comprehensive vaccine delivery system, limited reimbursement mechanism, and a lack of vaccination programs where adults congregate. No statutory requirements mandating vaccination of Medicare beneficiaries were necessary to implement this program.”
“19 at Time Get AIDS Test After Flu Shot Needles Are Reused” was the headline in the November 6, 1993, issue of the New York Times. This story was in regards to Time magazine employees who had gotten their flu shots in the workplace. “That method (reusing needles) is not appropriate, according to the CDC… Pamela Howell, a spokeswoman for the centers said the risk of infection was considerably less when injecting someone than when drawing blood.”
“Fearing the Flu” was a short news brief in the January 21, 1996, Syracuse (NY) Herald American. “Experts agree a pandemic is in the cards sometime and will require a huge mobilization to vaccinate the entire U.S. population.”
“The Cold Facts About Flu Vaccines” by Paula Linquist in the November, 1997, issue of Alive magazine (Canada) mentions thimerosal and formaldehyde as vaccine preservatives. The article also talks about common sense actions to prevent the flu, as well as “…a number of homeopathic remedies which have produced excellent results in the treatment of colds and flu…”
”Disease detectives untangle mystery of mutant flu virus” by Bob Williams was a page one article in the News & Observer, Raleigh, North Carolina on May 31, 1999. “The discovery of a hybrid of human and pig viruses in a North Carolina swine herd recently sent scientists scrambling to determine whether the new bug was a threat to people.”
Quoted in the article was Dr. Gene Erickson, director of microbiological testing at the State Department of Agriculture’s animal disease diagnostic lab in Raleigh. “His concern deepened when he learned that some of the sick sows had been specifically immunized for classic swine flu. ‘It started to look like we might have a novel, new strain of swine influenza on our hands.’… Pigs are ideal mixing vessels, because they can pick up viruses from both birds and human. And since viruses are always mutating, pigs can produce viruses that have a mix of genetic traits from both birds and humans. After that, it is possible for a potentially deadly strain of avian influenza virus to make the relatively short genetic hop from pigs to people… By October… lab had figured out that the samples were a “reassorted virus,” a novel strain with traits of both human and swine virus. More specifically, the lab concluded that the virus had originated in humans and jumped to pigs… Dr. Nancy Cox, an influenza researcher at the CDC said “’You have veterinary consequences as well as human consequences of this interspecies transmission.’”
“Military community helps determine flu vaccine recipe” was the Army Times headline for January 17, 2000. In her article, Deborah Funk wrote “…what many don’t know is that information collected from military members and their families around the world helps determine the vaccine’s recipe in any given year. The U.S. military community is not the only population that is monitored to keep tabs on viruses in circulation. But their medical information, like that of many other groups in many different countries, helps global public health authorities complete the picture… the puzzle pieces are fed through a hierarchy of public health networks, ultimately reaching the World Health Organization.
WHO coordinates four international collaborating centers, including the CDC, to help determine ingredients for the flu vaccine, based on virus surveillance. The CDC collects its information from U.S. civilian physicians and military members, and from foreign countries. The viruses are then compared and analyzed. That information is forwarded to both the WHO and the Food and Drug Administration’s Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee.”
The November 20, 2000, issue of Army Times headline was “Flu shots suspended in Europe, the Pacific.”
“Shipments of influenza vaccine that arrived in Europe and the Pacific in October may have lost at least some of their potency because the vaccine became colder during shipment than the drug manufacturer recommended… A worker with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said the CDC did not have data but that she did not think use of the vaccine posed a safety risk, although the efficacy of the vaccine might have been affected.”
Another theory for the 1918 flu pandemic was printed in Discover magazine, March, 2001, p.11 “The Fifth-Column Epidemic. “…demographer Andrew Noymer of the University of California at Berkeley thinks people are overlooking a second culprit: Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the tuberculosis bacterium… Between one quarter and one half of all Americans felled by the flu were already infected with tuberculosis… which helps explain why so many who died were adults. If Noymer is correct, another similarly virulent flu epidemic here would not be so lethal today…”
“Flu shots can cut health costs” was the March 18, 2001, headline of the Richmond (Virginia) Times Dispatch. “Giving flu shots to all 95 million working Americans, ages 18-64 could save the nation as much as $1.3 billion annually” said Dr. Kristin Nichol of the Center for Chronic Disease Outcomes Research at the VA Medical Center and a professor of medicine at the University of Minnesota. Her research was published in The Archives of Internal Medicine, an American Medical Association publication.
“…even though healthy people tend to recover in a few days, they still log up to 75 million lost workdays and 22 million doctor visits annually, the study said… In 1994, Nichol and her colleagues published a study that said immunizing elderly Americans saves the nation hundreds of millions of dollars annually in health care costs and cuts the death rate by 54%… In her latest study, Nichol used a sophisticated computer model to examine the health, labor and economic statistics from a variety of influenza studies. The model took into account rates of illness from influenza, time lost from work, hourly wages, the costs of vaccinations and other direct and indirect costs…”
The Syracuse (New York) Post Standard of August 3, 2004, had an article by the Associated Press “Mother’s flu linked to schizophrenia.”
“A new study adds more evidence to a body of research that suggests the children of some women who get the flu while pregnant are at higher risk for developing schizophrenia… The researchers emphasized that the overall risks are still ‘quite small.’ (The study appears in August’s Archives of General Psychiatry, lead author Dr. Alan Brown.) “The study involved 189 women--64 of whom had children who developed schizophrenia and 125 whose children did not… Other research has suggested infections other than flu might be involved, including measles and genital herpes during pregnancy, which may adversely affect the developing brain…” Note the article for 2008 below.
2005 was an interesting year regarding reporting for flu vaccines. Here are 3:
February 15, 2005, the Syracuse (NY) Post Standard had an AP article “Study: Flu shots not saving any elderly lives: Researchers advocate shifting focus of vaccination programs to children.”
“A study based on more than three decades of U.S. data suggests that giving flu shots to the elderly has not saved any lives. Led by National Institutes of Health researchers, the study challenges government dogma (paper published in the Archives of Internal Medicine, researcher Lone Simonsen of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases). “The study should influence flu prevention strategy, Simonsen said, perhaps by expanding vaccination to schoolchildren, the biggest spreaders of the virus. However, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention plans no change. ‘We think the best way to help the elderly is to vaccinate them,’ said CDC epidemiologist William Thompson. ‘These results don’t contribute to changing vaccine policy.’”
“Universal flu shots urged,” was the headline of USA Today of October 31, 2005, by Anita Manning. “Vaccine experts are considering recommending annual flu vaccine not just for those at highest risk of serious illness, but for everyone.” This was the result of a conference on flu vaccine policy sponsored by Emory University’s Program for Vaccine Policy and Development, Walter Orenstein, director. “The general concern is there is a lot more (illness and death) out there that we don’t seem to be preventing with our current strategy,” Orenstein says.
Apparently, the experts at the conference wanted universal flu vaccination, but the final consensus was that “…it should be a stepwise process, starting with widening flu shot recommendations to include children ages 2 to 5.”
“Vaccines Can’t Stop Flu Mutation” by Candice Choi was the headline for the October 21, 2005, issue of The Journal, Ogdensburg, NY. “Flu vaccines may prove ineffective when scientists fail to anticipate how the virus may mutate… The study conducted by The Institutes of Genome Research with the State Health Department’s Wadsworth Center was published… in the journal Nature and posted on its website. “The 2003-2004 flu season is an example of a year when the flu virus had mutated so that the vaccine was useless…As a result, many people who had been vaccinated ultimately became sick.”
“Infected with Insanity” by Melinda Wenner was the title of an April/May, 2008, article in Scientific American Mind (www.SciAmMind.com). Subtitle: “The evidence is mounting: mental illness might be caused by microbes.”
“According to a growing body of research, the culprit is surprising: the flu… In 2006 scientists at Columbia University asserted that up to one fifth of all schizophrenia cases are caused by prenatal infections… To date, most of the correlations found between infections and psychiatric conditions are just that--correlations. There is no conclusive evidence that infections actually cause these diseases, it could be, for example, that carrying the genes for mental illness makes a person more likely to behave in a way that exposes him or her to a virus… Some studies suggest that infections per se are not responsible for disrupting brain development; rather the body’s immune response to infection affects the nervous system and does the damage… The immune system may inadvertently harm the brain in another way, too--and not only in a fetus. Although current scientific evidence most strongly links mental illness to prenatal infections, many researchers are also investigating the possibility that childhood or even adult infections could cause psychiatric conditions by triggering an autoimmune reaction ... Even the small body of work that now exist could have immediate policy implications.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention currently recommend that all pregnant women get flu shots--a dangerous proposition if immune response, rather than infection itself, is responsible for harming the fetal brain. ‘I don’t think they have considered this risk. In fact, I know they haven’t considered this risk,’ California Institute of Technology biologist Paul H. Patterson says, referring to the CDC. ‘If you take it seriously and vaccinate everybody, then what’s going to happen?’ Researchers cannot yet predict how often a prenatal immune response might lead to fetal brain damage, but even if it happens less than 1% of the time, vaccinating an entire population of pregnant women could affect thousands of children… Future drugs and vaccines may target the infections directly or go after the immune system, controlling its interference with the developing brain or preventing an autoimmune attack on brain cells.”
The article had a chart, “Connecting the Dots” that said “Recent studies have found links between a huge variety of infections and psychiatric ailments, from both prenatal and postnatal exposures. Here are some of the best-supported correlations: schizophrenia and autism--Lyme disease and measles.” To see the whole chart and read the whole article, I strongly urge you to go to the website (www.SciAmMind.com)
COMMENTARY:
I hope the above gave you an idea of how vaccine promoters work. They want vaccination for all, as was discussed in 2005 articles above (and which I have known and followed for over 20 years), yet they also know they have to go about it in a piece-meal approach. And they have succeeded.
If vaccines can’t stop mutations, then what is happening to our bodies? Could it be that vaccines are causing mutations? After all, our bodies have been pumped with a number of dead and live-virus vaccines over the years. Where is the research that shows the cumulative effect of the mandated vaccines, much less the yearly flu shot? Why then are vaccines still being pushed on us, with more to come? Perhaps the idea to eradicate all diseases and suffering, while admirable, is an insanity and never ending.
Even when evidence, such as with the elderly, shows that the vaccine does not save elderly lives, the CDC is still adamant that, not only the elderly still get vaccinated, but now children—anything to expand the immunization program. We are now caught in the web of “entitlement” and it is virtually impossible for us to extricate ourselves.
It is my hope that the public reaches a tipping point sooner, rather than later, to turn this around. There is still time, but it is running short.
Bonnie Plumeri Franz
Monday, September 14, 2009
Natural Flu Prevention and Treatment
Dear Friends,
As you are well aware, when it comes to the flu – pandemic or not – the advice given is to get the flu shot, or since 2003, the nasal mist vaccine, “FluMist” (influenza virus vaccine, Live, Intranasal). (You might want to be careful in the pharmacies, or places such as Wal-Mart, when they do this, for the droplets spread and might spread the flu to you – BPF.) However, below are some articles regarding natural and alternative choices you might want to use for you and your child that you are not hearing about in the mainstream media.
Dr. James Balch’s October, 2000, newsletter “Prescriptions for Healthy Living: Alternative Choices for Health & Longevity” had an article “Boost Immune Power NOW to Prevent Winter Colds and the Flu.” In it he stated “Why I Don’t Recommend Flu Shots – Believe it or not, the chemicals in flu vaccines – as a matter of fact, all vaccines – actually depress your immune system… And if your immune system is weakened by age, poor nutrition, or chronic illness, injecting a live virus into your body via a flu shot may backfire – even healthy folks report coming down with the flu after receiving the shot! If you suffer from a chronic illness, check with your doctor before deciding to forego the shot. But remember that the best and safest defense against the flu is a hale and hearty immune system.”
Dr. Balch’s suggestions were:
Vitamin C – ”You can take up to 2,000 mg of vitamin C every 1-2 hours. The only side effect you may have at high doses like this is loose stools. If this happens, just decrease the dose and symptoms will quickly disappear. The minimum dose is 1,000 mg. 3-6 times a day.”
Vitamin A, Zinc and Herbal Immune-Boosters, such as garlic, Echinacea, licorice, astragalus, goldenseal, elderberry, ginger, and yarrow.
The Nassau Guardian in the Bahamas of December 31, 2001, had a feature called “Nutritionist’s Corner” written by Betty Adderley. “Anti-flu battle plan” was her topic, and she recommended garlic & thyme (“Research shows that these two commodities work best when blended together”); A-beta-care, “a powerful antioxidant formula high in selenium, E and beta-carotene”; absorbent C; bee propolis “It is ideal for the flu, asthma and sinus conditions. Unlike regular prescribed antibiotics that can only be taken for limited periods, propolis can be taken daily without any side effects”; “Forever Kids” vitamins for kids and adults; and aloe liquid soap.
Of course, we are concerned with what to give our children, and in “Naturally Healthy,” a newsletter from Osteomed II (www.osteomed.com), Winter, 2002, Dr. Cheryl Leuthaeuser has “…Favorites for Immune Support: Sambucol for Kids (black Elderberry Juice… Can be used for 6-8 weeks at a time in children as young as 12 months… Try mixing a little Aloe Vera Juice in your child’s breakfast drink. This product works well as an anti-inflammatory and healing agent. Echinacea is an herb that is used in acute infections… Try these kids favorites: Rhino Chewy C with Echinacea or their ice pops or lolly pops.”
“Your Child Has the Flu: What’s a Mother to Do?” was the January/February, 2005 article in MOTHERING magazine by Lauren Feder, MD. This was a very comprehensive article that listed homeopathic remedies (such as Dolivaxil Influenzinum 2004-2005) “... that has been used in Europe for years during the flu season. Each year, the World Health Organization predicts which flu viruses are most likely to infect humans and cause flu symptoms. Based on this information, the homeopathic solution is reformulated each year…” The author goes on to list other homeopathic remedies, dietary guidelines, nutritional supplements, herbal treatments, Bach flower remedies from Smart Medicine for A Healthier Child, by Janet Zand, ND, et al and gemmotherapy (herbal remedies).
“Fighting avian flu: Homeopathy and alternative remedies” by Bill Strubbe in the October, 2006, issue of Alive magazine, Canada. This article starts out with a research statement that “…the breeding place for major flu viruses is in the intestines of wild ducks... If the breeding place for avian flu is found in the guts of wild ducks, it makes sense that the homeopathic remedies are found there too… In anticipation of a possible avian flu pandemic, in November, 2005, about 150 homeopaths gathered in Paris to collaborate on strategies. Among the concrete actions to emerge from the conference were the creation of an Internet site for homeopaths to exchange breaking information about homeopathic treatments of the avian flu and the formation of a scientific committee with representatives from the various international homeopathic organizations to implement proposed studies and trials… 'We also have a website for public information (see ontariohomeopath.com)' stated Andrea Groff from the Ontario Homeopathic Association.”
“In addition to homeopathy, other preventive measures can be taken… echinacea and osha root… as a preventive dose, one dropper twice a day for several days; if sick, one dropper every half hour for the first 3-4 hours to saturate the system, then ease back to 4-6 droppers daily… An extract of elderberries is another supplement scientifically proven to thwart the flu... Don’t forget the old immune-boosting standby, vitamin C. Experts such as Linus Pauling suggest that the first sign of flu, you should begin taking vitamin C orally, between 1,000 and 4,000 mg. per hour until the bowels become loose. Once “bowel tolerance” is reached, maintain or slightly decrease the dose until the bowels normalize… It has been shown that when the proper pH is maintained (slightly alkaline), the body is less susceptible to communicable diseases.”
“To ward off illness it’s crucial to eliminate acidic foods such as sugars, coffee, greasy foods, hydrogenated fats, dairy, and carbonated drinks,” says Nathalie Babazadeh, licensed acupuncturist. “’Boost the immune system by exercising, getting enough sleep, reducing stress, and eating properly, which means lots of greens, whole grains, and enough easily-digested protein to help build antibodies.’” Because antiviral vaccines may not be effective against resistant strains of the avian flu virus, your best medicine is, as always, preventive medicine.”
“Treating Seasonal or Pandemic Flu at Home” the Individual and Family Handbook published in 2007 by Channing Bete Company (www.channing-bete.com, item number PS91517) is a very helpful compilation of basics, infection control and patient care steps to take for yourself and your family.
“Blood could be key to defeating bird flu: Useful antibodies isolated in survivors” is the article of USA Today, May 30, 2007, by Lauran Neergaard of the Associated Press. It states, “Scientists have long suspected that culling immune-system molecules from survivors could provide a new therapy for the hard-to-treat H5N1 flu strain… This approach is called “passive immunotherapy,” and more crude forms of the approach have long been used to protect against certain viruses. Before hepatitis A vaccines, for example, anti-body-containing shots were common for tourists heading to developing countries (also hepatitis B)… And during the 1918 flu pandemic, the worst in history, doctors sometimes transfused blood directly from survivors to the newly sick, sometimes with good results… More work is needed before trying these purified antibodies in people. It’s standard to test flu vaccines and treatments in ferrets, which respond to influenza more like people do… Then the antibodies would need testing in healthy people, to see if they are safe.”
Tone magazine from Ottawa, Canada of December, 2007, had an article “Acupuncture fights colds and flu.” This article states, “It is advisable to come for acupuncture once or twice a month during cold and flu season to help strengthen your immune system and keep you healthy.”
The February 27, 2008, issue of The Press, Atlantic City, New Jersey, had a small article in the “Industry Spotlight” section, “Not bugged by the flu.” It went on to say “This might be the worst flu season in four years, but not everyone is suffering. Sales related to the flu will boost first-quarter profit for several companies… Prescriptions for Tamiflu are climbing. That’s good news for Gilead Sciences (GILD) and Roche Holding, which jointly developed the drug… Older patients sick with the flu are likely to contribute to higher hospital visits… Retail pharmacies… are likely to see higher sales of everything from prescription drugs to over-the-counter cough syrups. Strong February sales figures from the companies could boost shares, the analysts write.”
April, 2009, “Swine Flu Travel Health Alert Notice” from the CDC tells how to prevent the spread of swine flu: “ …when you cough or sneeze, cover your nose and mouth with a tissue or your sleeve (if you do not have a tissue). Throw used tissues in a trash can. After you cough or sneeze, wash your hands with soap and water, or use an alcohol-based hand gel. Do not go to work, school, or travel while ill.
“Get Ready for H1N1” is an article by A.W. Martin, DC, Ph.D from Healthy Directions, August/Sept., 2009, Canada (www.HealthyDirections.ca). Suggestions are: “Do a broad spectrum probiotic treatment for 30 days… Maintain an alkaline Ph… The best alkaline foods are fruits and vegetables… Increasing the fiber intake really helps one to become alkaline… Oil of oregano is anti-fungal, anti-viral, natural antibiotic… Take several drops a day, or spray your tooth brush two times a day and brush your gums vigorously for maximum absorption… Vitamin D3… in the fall, one should take 2000 I.U. a day…”
The July, 2009, issue of Alive magazine, Canada, had an article by Stuart Harris “SARS, bird flu, swine flu…: What should you do?”: It suggests, “Along with eating right, drinking plenty of water, and exercising daily, we can prepare for the next contagious bug by taking proven immune-boosting supplements. Check with your natural health practitioner…”
The following is a list of recommendations: “Multivitamin & mineral, esp. B vitamins… Echinacea… it should be taken at the first sign of illness but for no longer than 3 weeks… Vitamin E… supplement with up to 200 IU daily… Vitamin C… Since the body does not manufacture this vitamin on its own, take up to 2,000 mg a day… Zinc… take up to 50 mg daily… Oregano oil… is taken orally for up to 21 days at a time… Coenzyme Q10… take up to 200mg daily… L-glutathione… take up to 50 mg per day… Selenium… take up to 200 mcg daily… Probiotics… choose a daily supplement with up to 10 billion active cultures.”
COMMENTARY:
I urge you to check out health food stores for alternatives and alternative health practitioners for more specific guidelines, especially for use in children for some caution is needed. Even if you or your children get the flu vaccines, remember what Dr. Balch stated above. I think it is a good account of why some people still get the flu or get sick after getting vaccinated – namely, vaccines depress your immune system and, ironically, make you vulnerable to whatever may be going around. However, I think the editorial of the July 10, 2009, issue of Ottawa South EMC Community Newspaper says it best: “Panicking is not the best solution… Panicking is no way to deal with the matter, but rather common sense and good hygiene will help the most in the long run.” Perhaps, some of the above suggestions will help you to be confident and not panic.
Bonnie Plumeri Franz
As you are well aware, when it comes to the flu – pandemic or not – the advice given is to get the flu shot, or since 2003, the nasal mist vaccine, “FluMist” (influenza virus vaccine, Live, Intranasal). (You might want to be careful in the pharmacies, or places such as Wal-Mart, when they do this, for the droplets spread and might spread the flu to you – BPF.) However, below are some articles regarding natural and alternative choices you might want to use for you and your child that you are not hearing about in the mainstream media.
Dr. James Balch’s October, 2000, newsletter “Prescriptions for Healthy Living: Alternative Choices for Health & Longevity” had an article “Boost Immune Power NOW to Prevent Winter Colds and the Flu.” In it he stated “Why I Don’t Recommend Flu Shots – Believe it or not, the chemicals in flu vaccines – as a matter of fact, all vaccines – actually depress your immune system… And if your immune system is weakened by age, poor nutrition, or chronic illness, injecting a live virus into your body via a flu shot may backfire – even healthy folks report coming down with the flu after receiving the shot! If you suffer from a chronic illness, check with your doctor before deciding to forego the shot. But remember that the best and safest defense against the flu is a hale and hearty immune system.”
Dr. Balch’s suggestions were:
Vitamin C – ”You can take up to 2,000 mg of vitamin C every 1-2 hours. The only side effect you may have at high doses like this is loose stools. If this happens, just decrease the dose and symptoms will quickly disappear. The minimum dose is 1,000 mg. 3-6 times a day.”
Vitamin A, Zinc and Herbal Immune-Boosters, such as garlic, Echinacea, licorice, astragalus, goldenseal, elderberry, ginger, and yarrow.
The Nassau Guardian in the Bahamas of December 31, 2001, had a feature called “Nutritionist’s Corner” written by Betty Adderley. “Anti-flu battle plan” was her topic, and she recommended garlic & thyme (“Research shows that these two commodities work best when blended together”); A-beta-care, “a powerful antioxidant formula high in selenium, E and beta-carotene”; absorbent C; bee propolis “It is ideal for the flu, asthma and sinus conditions. Unlike regular prescribed antibiotics that can only be taken for limited periods, propolis can be taken daily without any side effects”; “Forever Kids” vitamins for kids and adults; and aloe liquid soap.
Of course, we are concerned with what to give our children, and in “Naturally Healthy,” a newsletter from Osteomed II (www.osteomed.com), Winter, 2002, Dr. Cheryl Leuthaeuser has “…Favorites for Immune Support: Sambucol for Kids (black Elderberry Juice… Can be used for 6-8 weeks at a time in children as young as 12 months… Try mixing a little Aloe Vera Juice in your child’s breakfast drink. This product works well as an anti-inflammatory and healing agent. Echinacea is an herb that is used in acute infections… Try these kids favorites: Rhino Chewy C with Echinacea or their ice pops or lolly pops.”
“Your Child Has the Flu: What’s a Mother to Do?” was the January/February, 2005 article in MOTHERING magazine by Lauren Feder, MD. This was a very comprehensive article that listed homeopathic remedies (such as Dolivaxil Influenzinum 2004-2005) “... that has been used in Europe for years during the flu season. Each year, the World Health Organization predicts which flu viruses are most likely to infect humans and cause flu symptoms. Based on this information, the homeopathic solution is reformulated each year…” The author goes on to list other homeopathic remedies, dietary guidelines, nutritional supplements, herbal treatments, Bach flower remedies from Smart Medicine for A Healthier Child, by Janet Zand, ND, et al and gemmotherapy (herbal remedies).
“Fighting avian flu: Homeopathy and alternative remedies” by Bill Strubbe in the October, 2006, issue of Alive magazine, Canada. This article starts out with a research statement that “…the breeding place for major flu viruses is in the intestines of wild ducks... If the breeding place for avian flu is found in the guts of wild ducks, it makes sense that the homeopathic remedies are found there too… In anticipation of a possible avian flu pandemic, in November, 2005, about 150 homeopaths gathered in Paris to collaborate on strategies. Among the concrete actions to emerge from the conference were the creation of an Internet site for homeopaths to exchange breaking information about homeopathic treatments of the avian flu and the formation of a scientific committee with representatives from the various international homeopathic organizations to implement proposed studies and trials… 'We also have a website for public information (see ontariohomeopath.com)' stated Andrea Groff from the Ontario Homeopathic Association.”
“In addition to homeopathy, other preventive measures can be taken… echinacea and osha root… as a preventive dose, one dropper twice a day for several days; if sick, one dropper every half hour for the first 3-4 hours to saturate the system, then ease back to 4-6 droppers daily… An extract of elderberries is another supplement scientifically proven to thwart the flu... Don’t forget the old immune-boosting standby, vitamin C. Experts such as Linus Pauling suggest that the first sign of flu, you should begin taking vitamin C orally, between 1,000 and 4,000 mg. per hour until the bowels become loose. Once “bowel tolerance” is reached, maintain or slightly decrease the dose until the bowels normalize… It has been shown that when the proper pH is maintained (slightly alkaline), the body is less susceptible to communicable diseases.”
“To ward off illness it’s crucial to eliminate acidic foods such as sugars, coffee, greasy foods, hydrogenated fats, dairy, and carbonated drinks,” says Nathalie Babazadeh, licensed acupuncturist. “’Boost the immune system by exercising, getting enough sleep, reducing stress, and eating properly, which means lots of greens, whole grains, and enough easily-digested protein to help build antibodies.’” Because antiviral vaccines may not be effective against resistant strains of the avian flu virus, your best medicine is, as always, preventive medicine.”
“Treating Seasonal or Pandemic Flu at Home” the Individual and Family Handbook published in 2007 by Channing Bete Company (www.channing-bete.com, item number PS91517) is a very helpful compilation of basics, infection control and patient care steps to take for yourself and your family.
“Blood could be key to defeating bird flu: Useful antibodies isolated in survivors” is the article of USA Today, May 30, 2007, by Lauran Neergaard of the Associated Press. It states, “Scientists have long suspected that culling immune-system molecules from survivors could provide a new therapy for the hard-to-treat H5N1 flu strain… This approach is called “passive immunotherapy,” and more crude forms of the approach have long been used to protect against certain viruses. Before hepatitis A vaccines, for example, anti-body-containing shots were common for tourists heading to developing countries (also hepatitis B)… And during the 1918 flu pandemic, the worst in history, doctors sometimes transfused blood directly from survivors to the newly sick, sometimes with good results… More work is needed before trying these purified antibodies in people. It’s standard to test flu vaccines and treatments in ferrets, which respond to influenza more like people do… Then the antibodies would need testing in healthy people, to see if they are safe.”
Tone magazine from Ottawa, Canada of December, 2007, had an article “Acupuncture fights colds and flu.” This article states, “It is advisable to come for acupuncture once or twice a month during cold and flu season to help strengthen your immune system and keep you healthy.”
The February 27, 2008, issue of The Press, Atlantic City, New Jersey, had a small article in the “Industry Spotlight” section, “Not bugged by the flu.” It went on to say “This might be the worst flu season in four years, but not everyone is suffering. Sales related to the flu will boost first-quarter profit for several companies… Prescriptions for Tamiflu are climbing. That’s good news for Gilead Sciences (GILD) and Roche Holding, which jointly developed the drug… Older patients sick with the flu are likely to contribute to higher hospital visits… Retail pharmacies… are likely to see higher sales of everything from prescription drugs to over-the-counter cough syrups. Strong February sales figures from the companies could boost shares, the analysts write.”
April, 2009, “Swine Flu Travel Health Alert Notice” from the CDC tells how to prevent the spread of swine flu: “ …when you cough or sneeze, cover your nose and mouth with a tissue or your sleeve (if you do not have a tissue). Throw used tissues in a trash can. After you cough or sneeze, wash your hands with soap and water, or use an alcohol-based hand gel. Do not go to work, school, or travel while ill.
“Get Ready for H1N1” is an article by A.W. Martin, DC, Ph.D from Healthy Directions, August/Sept., 2009, Canada (www.HealthyDirections.ca). Suggestions are: “Do a broad spectrum probiotic treatment for 30 days… Maintain an alkaline Ph… The best alkaline foods are fruits and vegetables… Increasing the fiber intake really helps one to become alkaline… Oil of oregano is anti-fungal, anti-viral, natural antibiotic… Take several drops a day, or spray your tooth brush two times a day and brush your gums vigorously for maximum absorption… Vitamin D3… in the fall, one should take 2000 I.U. a day…”
The July, 2009, issue of Alive magazine, Canada, had an article by Stuart Harris “SARS, bird flu, swine flu…: What should you do?”: It suggests, “Along with eating right, drinking plenty of water, and exercising daily, we can prepare for the next contagious bug by taking proven immune-boosting supplements. Check with your natural health practitioner…”
The following is a list of recommendations: “Multivitamin & mineral, esp. B vitamins… Echinacea… it should be taken at the first sign of illness but for no longer than 3 weeks… Vitamin E… supplement with up to 200 IU daily… Vitamin C… Since the body does not manufacture this vitamin on its own, take up to 2,000 mg a day… Zinc… take up to 50 mg daily… Oregano oil… is taken orally for up to 21 days at a time… Coenzyme Q10… take up to 200mg daily… L-glutathione… take up to 50 mg per day… Selenium… take up to 200 mcg daily… Probiotics… choose a daily supplement with up to 10 billion active cultures.”
COMMENTARY:
I urge you to check out health food stores for alternatives and alternative health practitioners for more specific guidelines, especially for use in children for some caution is needed. Even if you or your children get the flu vaccines, remember what Dr. Balch stated above. I think it is a good account of why some people still get the flu or get sick after getting vaccinated – namely, vaccines depress your immune system and, ironically, make you vulnerable to whatever may be going around. However, I think the editorial of the July 10, 2009, issue of Ottawa South EMC Community Newspaper says it best: “Panicking is not the best solution… Panicking is no way to deal with the matter, but rather common sense and good hygiene will help the most in the long run.” Perhaps, some of the above suggestions will help you to be confident and not panic.
Bonnie Plumeri Franz
Monday, September 7, 2009
Lyme Disease
Dear Friends,
Summer brings people to enjoy more of the outdoors, and thus exposes many of us to Lyme Disease. In reviewing my files, I thought the following information needed to be circulated:
“…it wasn’t until 1976 that the American public first heard the term 'Lyme disease' in connection with numerous reported cases of illnesses after tick bites in the community of Lyme, Connecticut… tick-born illnesses or infested tick populations have been reported in nearly every state… If left untreated, the disease can progress to a more chronic stage (sometimes even several months later)… Standard medical treatment is with antibiotic therapy which is not always entirely effective and may cause spirochete die-off discomfort during the first few days. Antibiotics often cause secondary yeast infections as a side effect, so physicians and nutritionists often recommend the use of acidophilus supplements. It is imperative that antibiotic therapy be used due to the seriousness of the disease…” (from Herbal Insights Reflections, Summer, 1996, edition of Herbal Insights, Boulder, CO).
However, there are possible herbal preventives for landscaping and gardening and some herbs that may help the symptoms of Lyme disease. They are listed in the Handbook of Plants with Pest-Control Properties, also from Herbal Insights Reflections, undated.
The CDC (Centers for Disease Control) began surveilling Lyme Disease in 1982, and it became a nationally notifiable disease in January, 1991. In 1999, there were 16,273 cases reported. “The large number of reported LD cases during June and July reflects the seasonal peak…” (Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, March 16, 2001, Vol. 50, No. 10).
In The New England Journal of Medicine, May 13,1993, some doctors wrote “… prevention of Lyme disease is desirable, it does not follow that prevention should be pursued regardless of the costs. Decisions about treatment must balance the benefits against the risks and monetary costs of specific strategies.”
“Health Check,” a column by Dr. Bob Arnot in Good Housekeeping, June, 1995, was devoted to “The Lowdown on Lyme Disease.” As with many diseases (as well as adverse vaccine reactions), he stated “Many people claim that the true incidence is even higher because many cases go unreported while others are missed. But some doctors believe that patients are being diagnosed with LD when they’re really suffering from something else.” “Much of the problem (of diagnosis) has to do with LD’s confusing array of symptoms. The clearest sign, the appearance of a bull’s-eye-shaped rash within weeks of a tick bite, is missing in up to 40% of cases… Although these are commonly called “deer ticks,” they can also be found on mice, raccoons, and other animals… A dog or cat who spends any time outdoors can be very susceptible to LD.” He then gives recommendations from a New York City veterinarian: Use special insecticides on your property (Daminix). Apply flea and tick formulas to your pet’s fur or a combination of garlic and brewer’s yeast added to the animal’s food daily. Scrupulously check your pet for ticks. They, too, can have the bull’s-eye-shaped rash and be treated with oral antibiotics.
As with almost any disease, the search becomes one for a vaccine. That was also the case for Lyme Disease. In 1993 clinical trials were underway. In the November 21, 1993, issue of The New York Times, Dr. Peter Krause, a scientist from the University of Connecticut, told an audience, “The best approach to this disease is prevention, and the best way to do that is with a vaccine.” Scientists are optimistic that this vaccine will help reclaim the wilderness for human use in the many parts of the country where fear of Lyme has kept residents indoors during the tick season.”
In the February 1, 1999, issue of Health News, the editors state “Even as the FDA approved the vaccine, the agency said that Lyme vaccination is not a simple process, and it doesn’t completely protect against Lyme disease… The vaccine is most effective only after 3 shots… Three shots provided about 80% protection… Only healthy people aged 15 to 70 participated, so the vaccine isn’t approved for anyone younger than 15 or older than 70, or for anyone with rheumatoid arthritis or certain heart conditions…”
Lyme expert, Dr. David Volkman from SUNY Stony Brook, stated:
"Vaccines are an extremely important tool for protecting against infectious diseases, and Lyme vaccination is no exception. Several other vaccines to prevent Lyme Disease are being developed and may eventually make human infection quite rare. The new vaccine is a promising step in that direction. But for now, vaccination against Lyme disease doesn’t make sense for most people. Although studies have shown that the vaccine can prevent Lyme disease in a majority of cases, there are several reasons you many not need or want to be vaccinated:
1) The Lyme vaccine involves more shots than most other vaccines. The timing of the 3 shots is also important…
2) We don’t yet know how long those 3 shots provide protection. It’s likely that the vaccine’s effects will wane, and that you’ll need booster shots in the second and third years after the initial series of shots to maintain immunity indefinitely. Moreover, we don’t know the long-term effects of repeated doses of the Lyme vaccine.” [sound familiar??!!]
3) The vaccine may not be safe for people at risk of developing rheumatoid arthritis…
4) Being vaccinated may give you a false sense of security. Even after you’ve had all three shots, you still need to take the normal precautions against Lyme disease because the vaccine isn’t 100% effective…
5) Only people aged 15 to 70 participated in the clinical trials on which FDA approval was based, so we don’t know if it works (and it isn’t approved) for anyone younger or older. Unfortunately, almost a quarter of the people infected are children…
6) Being educated to recognize Lyme disease is far better protection than the vaccine, and it is important even if you are vaccinated…
"Because it’s usually recognized and treated early enough to avoid any long-term problems, and because there are so many unknowns about the new vaccine, I recommend that most people think twice before being vaccinated." (Reported in Health News, February 1, 1999)
Dr. Volkman then goes on to say who should be vaccinated—those who spend a lot of time outdoors, landscape and utility workers in high-risk areas. If you live in or visit such areas, but aren’t outdoors a lot, he suggests talking with your doctor. However, “…You’ll still have to be vigilant about your children who are at greatest risk for infection but can’t yet be vaccinated. And remember that even if you are vaccinated, you need to take the same precautions as always.”
The March 26, 1999, issue of The Medical Letter (New Rochelle, NY) told of the first human vaccine for prevention of Lyme Disease was approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for use in patients 15-70: “The highest incidence is in people who live, work or walk in grassy or wooded areas… Untreated, symptoms may last for weeks to months… A single treatment with antibiotics cures 90% or more of patients with early disease. The Lyme vaccine is made from a recombinant outer surface protein… A 20-month double-blind, randomized trial in about 11,000 people 15 to 70 years old... 3 injections were 100% effective in preventing asymptomatic infection… Antibody levels, which rose with vaccination, by 8 months after the 3rd injection had fallen to near the lower limit of protective levels… the tick season usually begins in April… Lyme Disease vaccine is effective and has been well-tolerated, but its long-term safety is worrisome, and antibiotics are generally effective in treating early disease and preventing complications. How long vaccination remains protective is unknown; antibody levels suggest that frequent boosters many be necessary. Use of this vaccine should be sharply limited.”
In the May-June, 2002, issue of the FDA Consumer, an update stated that “Manufacturer Discontinues Only Lyme Disease Vaccine”: “The world’s only vaccine to prevent Lyme disease is being discontinued because of poor demand, according to the product’s manufacturer, GlaxoSmithKline, Research Triangle Park, N.C. The FDA licensed LYMErix in December, 1998, to prevent Lyme disease, a bacterial infection transmitted by ticks. Initially, hundreds of thousands of people received the vaccine. However, sales plummeted after highly publicized reports that some users suffered arthritis-like symptoms, muscle pain and other ailments following vaccination. GlaxoSmithKline says that it is not discontinuing the product because of safety issues. The manufacturer maintains that the scientific record remains clear that the vaccine is safe and effective. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) confirmed that it found no unexpected safety problems with LYMErix after reviewing the data.”
The Clinical Advisor, June, 2008, discussed “New guidelines issued for Lyme disease” by Carl Sherman. “For the first time since 2000, the Infectious Diseases Society of American has revised its recommendations for managing and preventing the infection… it confirms and strengthens earlier recommendations for antibiotic treatment, adds a section on prophylaxis, and addresses in more detail the question of post-Lyme syndrome.” The new Guidelines are available at: www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/pdf/10.1086/508667.
A booklet that I think may be helpful is published by Lyme Disease Association of Southeastern Pennsylvania, Inc. www.LymePa.org. April, 2008 was the printing of the 5th edition of “Lyme Disease and associated diseases THE BASICS: A plain-language introduction to tick-borne diseases” written by Douglas W. Fearn.
Some people seem to have been helped by the Ondamed machine, www.ondamed.net. It is biofeedback (not covered by most insurance). It was invented in Germany. If you Google it, you will find a lot of descriptions and explanations.
COMMENTARY:
The history of Lyme Disease and the Lyme disease vaccine are interesting to follow and to see how “they” think and how the issue is reported. Interesting that in February, 1999, Health News stated that the vaccine was 80% effective, yet in March, 1999, the Medical Letter stated the vaccine was 100% effective (3 doses). How are we to believe such different information and make a good decision? The vaccine, however, was different from virtually all other vaccines in that from the beginning it was not promoted for everyone and people were cautioned to “think twice” before getting it; also, emphasis was continually on being educated on how to dress to avoid ticks and how to spot one.
The vaccine was discontinued primarily because of “poor demand.” The real reason for that was because the vaccine really couldn’t be mandated by State legislatures (because the disease happens basically in a geographical location – woods, etc. – and relatively few people are exposed – those who live, work and visit there and landscapers, golfers, etc). Therefore, the vaccine manufacturer couldn’t be protected from lawsuits. (As required under the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Act, the vaccine must be mandated in order to protect the manufacturers and doctors.) However, should the day come when vaccine promoters can overcome the geographical locations of the disease, they will surely push for it to be mandated. Such is vaccine history.
Bonnie P. Franz
Summer brings people to enjoy more of the outdoors, and thus exposes many of us to Lyme Disease. In reviewing my files, I thought the following information needed to be circulated:
“…it wasn’t until 1976 that the American public first heard the term 'Lyme disease' in connection with numerous reported cases of illnesses after tick bites in the community of Lyme, Connecticut… tick-born illnesses or infested tick populations have been reported in nearly every state… If left untreated, the disease can progress to a more chronic stage (sometimes even several months later)… Standard medical treatment is with antibiotic therapy which is not always entirely effective and may cause spirochete die-off discomfort during the first few days. Antibiotics often cause secondary yeast infections as a side effect, so physicians and nutritionists often recommend the use of acidophilus supplements. It is imperative that antibiotic therapy be used due to the seriousness of the disease…” (from Herbal Insights Reflections, Summer, 1996, edition of Herbal Insights, Boulder, CO).
However, there are possible herbal preventives for landscaping and gardening and some herbs that may help the symptoms of Lyme disease. They are listed in the Handbook of Plants with Pest-Control Properties, also from Herbal Insights Reflections, undated.
The CDC (Centers for Disease Control) began surveilling Lyme Disease in 1982, and it became a nationally notifiable disease in January, 1991. In 1999, there were 16,273 cases reported. “The large number of reported LD cases during June and July reflects the seasonal peak…” (Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, March 16, 2001, Vol. 50, No. 10).
In The New England Journal of Medicine, May 13,1993, some doctors wrote “… prevention of Lyme disease is desirable, it does not follow that prevention should be pursued regardless of the costs. Decisions about treatment must balance the benefits against the risks and monetary costs of specific strategies.”
“Health Check,” a column by Dr. Bob Arnot in Good Housekeeping, June, 1995, was devoted to “The Lowdown on Lyme Disease.” As with many diseases (as well as adverse vaccine reactions), he stated “Many people claim that the true incidence is even higher because many cases go unreported while others are missed. But some doctors believe that patients are being diagnosed with LD when they’re really suffering from something else.” “Much of the problem (of diagnosis) has to do with LD’s confusing array of symptoms. The clearest sign, the appearance of a bull’s-eye-shaped rash within weeks of a tick bite, is missing in up to 40% of cases… Although these are commonly called “deer ticks,” they can also be found on mice, raccoons, and other animals… A dog or cat who spends any time outdoors can be very susceptible to LD.” He then gives recommendations from a New York City veterinarian: Use special insecticides on your property (Daminix). Apply flea and tick formulas to your pet’s fur or a combination of garlic and brewer’s yeast added to the animal’s food daily. Scrupulously check your pet for ticks. They, too, can have the bull’s-eye-shaped rash and be treated with oral antibiotics.
As with almost any disease, the search becomes one for a vaccine. That was also the case for Lyme Disease. In 1993 clinical trials were underway. In the November 21, 1993, issue of The New York Times, Dr. Peter Krause, a scientist from the University of Connecticut, told an audience, “The best approach to this disease is prevention, and the best way to do that is with a vaccine.” Scientists are optimistic that this vaccine will help reclaim the wilderness for human use in the many parts of the country where fear of Lyme has kept residents indoors during the tick season.”
In the February 1, 1999, issue of Health News, the editors state “Even as the FDA approved the vaccine, the agency said that Lyme vaccination is not a simple process, and it doesn’t completely protect against Lyme disease… The vaccine is most effective only after 3 shots… Three shots provided about 80% protection… Only healthy people aged 15 to 70 participated, so the vaccine isn’t approved for anyone younger than 15 or older than 70, or for anyone with rheumatoid arthritis or certain heart conditions…”
Lyme expert, Dr. David Volkman from SUNY Stony Brook, stated:
"Vaccines are an extremely important tool for protecting against infectious diseases, and Lyme vaccination is no exception. Several other vaccines to prevent Lyme Disease are being developed and may eventually make human infection quite rare. The new vaccine is a promising step in that direction. But for now, vaccination against Lyme disease doesn’t make sense for most people. Although studies have shown that the vaccine can prevent Lyme disease in a majority of cases, there are several reasons you many not need or want to be vaccinated:
1) The Lyme vaccine involves more shots than most other vaccines. The timing of the 3 shots is also important…
2) We don’t yet know how long those 3 shots provide protection. It’s likely that the vaccine’s effects will wane, and that you’ll need booster shots in the second and third years after the initial series of shots to maintain immunity indefinitely. Moreover, we don’t know the long-term effects of repeated doses of the Lyme vaccine.” [sound familiar??!!]
3) The vaccine may not be safe for people at risk of developing rheumatoid arthritis…
4) Being vaccinated may give you a false sense of security. Even after you’ve had all three shots, you still need to take the normal precautions against Lyme disease because the vaccine isn’t 100% effective…
5) Only people aged 15 to 70 participated in the clinical trials on which FDA approval was based, so we don’t know if it works (and it isn’t approved) for anyone younger or older. Unfortunately, almost a quarter of the people infected are children…
6) Being educated to recognize Lyme disease is far better protection than the vaccine, and it is important even if you are vaccinated…
"Because it’s usually recognized and treated early enough to avoid any long-term problems, and because there are so many unknowns about the new vaccine, I recommend that most people think twice before being vaccinated." (Reported in Health News, February 1, 1999)
Dr. Volkman then goes on to say who should be vaccinated—those who spend a lot of time outdoors, landscape and utility workers in high-risk areas. If you live in or visit such areas, but aren’t outdoors a lot, he suggests talking with your doctor. However, “…You’ll still have to be vigilant about your children who are at greatest risk for infection but can’t yet be vaccinated. And remember that even if you are vaccinated, you need to take the same precautions as always.”
The March 26, 1999, issue of The Medical Letter (New Rochelle, NY) told of the first human vaccine for prevention of Lyme Disease was approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for use in patients 15-70: “The highest incidence is in people who live, work or walk in grassy or wooded areas… Untreated, symptoms may last for weeks to months… A single treatment with antibiotics cures 90% or more of patients with early disease. The Lyme vaccine is made from a recombinant outer surface protein… A 20-month double-blind, randomized trial in about 11,000 people 15 to 70 years old... 3 injections were 100% effective in preventing asymptomatic infection… Antibody levels, which rose with vaccination, by 8 months after the 3rd injection had fallen to near the lower limit of protective levels… the tick season usually begins in April… Lyme Disease vaccine is effective and has been well-tolerated, but its long-term safety is worrisome, and antibiotics are generally effective in treating early disease and preventing complications. How long vaccination remains protective is unknown; antibody levels suggest that frequent boosters many be necessary. Use of this vaccine should be sharply limited.”
In the May-June, 2002, issue of the FDA Consumer, an update stated that “Manufacturer Discontinues Only Lyme Disease Vaccine”: “The world’s only vaccine to prevent Lyme disease is being discontinued because of poor demand, according to the product’s manufacturer, GlaxoSmithKline, Research Triangle Park, N.C. The FDA licensed LYMErix in December, 1998, to prevent Lyme disease, a bacterial infection transmitted by ticks. Initially, hundreds of thousands of people received the vaccine. However, sales plummeted after highly publicized reports that some users suffered arthritis-like symptoms, muscle pain and other ailments following vaccination. GlaxoSmithKline says that it is not discontinuing the product because of safety issues. The manufacturer maintains that the scientific record remains clear that the vaccine is safe and effective. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) confirmed that it found no unexpected safety problems with LYMErix after reviewing the data.”
The Clinical Advisor, June, 2008, discussed “New guidelines issued for Lyme disease” by Carl Sherman. “For the first time since 2000, the Infectious Diseases Society of American has revised its recommendations for managing and preventing the infection… it confirms and strengthens earlier recommendations for antibiotic treatment, adds a section on prophylaxis, and addresses in more detail the question of post-Lyme syndrome.” The new Guidelines are available at: www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/pdf/10.1086/508667.
A booklet that I think may be helpful is published by Lyme Disease Association of Southeastern Pennsylvania, Inc. www.LymePa.org. April, 2008 was the printing of the 5th edition of “Lyme Disease and associated diseases THE BASICS: A plain-language introduction to tick-borne diseases” written by Douglas W. Fearn.
Some people seem to have been helped by the Ondamed machine, www.ondamed.net. It is biofeedback (not covered by most insurance). It was invented in Germany. If you Google it, you will find a lot of descriptions and explanations.
COMMENTARY:
The history of Lyme Disease and the Lyme disease vaccine are interesting to follow and to see how “they” think and how the issue is reported. Interesting that in February, 1999, Health News stated that the vaccine was 80% effective, yet in March, 1999, the Medical Letter stated the vaccine was 100% effective (3 doses). How are we to believe such different information and make a good decision? The vaccine, however, was different from virtually all other vaccines in that from the beginning it was not promoted for everyone and people were cautioned to “think twice” before getting it; also, emphasis was continually on being educated on how to dress to avoid ticks and how to spot one.
The vaccine was discontinued primarily because of “poor demand.” The real reason for that was because the vaccine really couldn’t be mandated by State legislatures (because the disease happens basically in a geographical location – woods, etc. – and relatively few people are exposed – those who live, work and visit there and landscapers, golfers, etc). Therefore, the vaccine manufacturer couldn’t be protected from lawsuits. (As required under the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Act, the vaccine must be mandated in order to protect the manufacturers and doctors.) However, should the day come when vaccine promoters can overcome the geographical locations of the disease, they will surely push for it to be mandated. Such is vaccine history.
Bonnie P. Franz
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