The Baby Dust Diaries

Dr. William Schaffner, professor of infectious diseases and chairman of the department of preventive medicine at the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine said recently to ABC News:  ”The problem isn’t with vaccine safety, because they’ve been exonerated from all the implications of autism and all the other illnesses associated with vaccines.”

To channel Jim Carey as Ace Ventura:  Reeeeaaaaallllyyyy?

This statement is so patently false that Dr. Schaffner should be ashamed and be forced to retract this lie.  Even the most pro-vaccine scientist or doctor should be willing to admit that the jury is still out.  You may have read previously my problem with the epidemiological studies done to date.  We have some actual scientific studies coming out that certainly do not exonerate the full childhood vaccine schedule from harm.

Dr. Laura Hewitson , Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences at The University of Pittsburgh recently reported her study on primates receiving the 1990-1999 childhood vaccine full schedule.  Macaques are often used to test human treatments prior to human trials.  Vaccine producers and the CDC do not do animal studies prior to approval of a vaccine for our children.  Dr. Hewitson did a controlled trial of fully vaccinated vs. fully unvaccinated subjects (note: human studies have never compared a true unvaccinated control group or included the whole vaccine schedule instead of just one vaccine shot).  Here is a summary of Dr. Hewitson’s research (Pediatric Vaccines Influence Primate Behavior, and Amygdala Growth and Opioid Ligand Binding Friday, May 16, 2008: IMFAR):

‘Compared with unexposed animals, significant neurodevelopmental deficits were evident for exposed animals in survival reflexes, tests of color discrimination and reversal, and learning sets. Differences in behaviors were observed between exposed and unexposed animals and within the exposed group before and after MMR vaccination. Compared with unexposed animals, exposed animals showed attenuation of amygdala growth and differences in the amygdala binding of [11C]diprenorphine. Interaction models identified significant associations between specific aberrant social and non-social behaviors, isotope binding, and vaccine exposure.’

At the same conference Dr. Walker of the Institute for Regenerative Medicine at Wake Forest University reported on chronic inflamation and gene expression in vaccinated and unvaccinated macaques.  Microarray Analysis of GI Tissue in a Macaque Model of the Effects of Infant Vaccination Saturday, May 17, 2008 IMFAR.

“Histopathological examination revealed that vaccinated animals exhibited progressively severe chronic active inflammation, whereas unexposed animals did not.  Gene expression comparisons between the groups (vaccinated versus unvaccinated) revealed only 120 genes differentially expressed (fc >1.5; log ratio p<0.001) at 10 weeks, whereas there were 450 genes differentially expressed at 14 weeks, and 324 differentially expressed genes between the 2 groups at necropsy.”

Shame on you Dr. Schaffner.

The US Court ruled [July 2008] in favour of this little boy Benjamin Zeller that as a result of the MMR vaccination received on 17 November 2004, Benjamin, suffered persistent, intractable seizures, encephalopathy, and developmental delay. 

“The Court found, as a matter of fact, that Benjamin would not have experienced the seizure disorder and acute encephalopathy or the marked deterioration in neurologic development evidenced by the medical record in this case, but for the administration of the MMR vaccine on 17 November 2004 and the ensuing seizure on 27 November 2004. As such, the law applicable in the Vaccine Program leads the Court to conclude that the vaccination at issue was the cause-in-fact of the injury discussed in the Court’s findings.”

Watch the Video from the Florida Sun Sentinel: http://www.sun-sentinel.com/video/?autoStart=true&topVideoCatNo=default&clipId=2973672

I realized I never explained that you can get exemptions for “mandatory” vaccinations for your kids.  All 50 states have some exemption.  Exemptions fall into 3 categories:

Medical – requires doctor exemption based on health.  For example if you are allergic to an ingredient in a vaccine.

Philosophical – any personally held beliefs.

Religious – any religious beliefs.  

Each state is different as far as how hard they make it to get an exemption.  In NY I hear that you have to “prove” you belong to a religion with a problem with vax.  Silly if you ask me since religious beliefs are by nature personal and not institutional.  In Ohio it isn’t that hard.  In my opinion religious exemption is a little more “safe” in our country (as far as them snatching that right from you).  If you live in Mississippi or West Virginia you are only allowed a medical exemption.  My opinion – move!  :)

Find your states exemptions and rates of exemption here.

I was at the midwife’s yesterday (down 2 more lbs.!) and they have a TV looping CNN Health features.  It is nice to have some entertainment in the waiting room but yesterday there was a huge segment about the Flu Vaccine.  A few months ago this wouldn’t have phased me.  I had never had a flu shot but *shrug* to each his own was my feeling.  Now that I KNOW better I was shocked at how full of lies this promotion was.

First off, the nasal spray vaccine, FluMist, is a live virus.  You are very likely to get flu-like symptoms from this AND you can shed live virus and infect others.  ’Nuff said about that one.

The Flu vaccine shot is completely useless and sold very aggressively through lies and smoke and mirrors by modern snake oil vendors.  Commercials, posters, radio announcements.  We are being played.  We don’t believe everything we see on the “ab roller” infomercial but these commercials seem official enough to make us blindly believe it must be important and real.  It is not.  We are being played.  Check out this presentation by the CDC Director of Communications.  This basically amounts to a marketing plan for getting people hooked on the flu vaccine.  

These are direct quotes from their “Recipe” that Fosters Influenza Vaccine Interest and Demand (emphasis mine) :

• “Medical experts and public health authorities publicly (e.g., via media) state concern and alarm (and predict dire outcomes)–and urge influenza vaccination.”
• “Framing of the flu season in terms that motivate behavior (e.g., as “very severe,” “more severe than last or past years,” “deadly”)”
• “References to, and discussions, of pandemic influenza–along with continued reference to the importance of vaccination.”
• “Vaccination demand, particularly among people who don’t routinely receive an annual influenza vaccination, is related toheightened concern, anxiety, and worry. For example:
  • A perception or sense that many people are falling ill;
  • A perception or sense that many people are experiencing bad illness;
  • A perception or sense of vulnerability to contracting and experiencing bad illness.”
• “Some component of success (i.e., higher demand for influenza vaccine) stems from media stories and information that create motivating (i.e., high) levels of concern and anxiety about influenza.”

So this is classical and premeditated fearmongering!  They are trying to make you feel “heightened concern, anxiety, and worry.”  How horrible is that?  AND they know it doesn’t work based on their “lessons learned”;

• “It’s hard to create motivating levels of concern and anxiety about influenza–and thus interest in influenza vaccination–when:
  • disease severity and impact are in line with people’s/media expectations
  • Perceived or actual vaccine effectiveness doesn’t meet the expectations or standards of those for whom vaccination is recommended (fortunately, evidence of effectiveness helps)”

I love that word, “create.”  So they know that they have a hard time creating this panic because the disease is not as bad as they imply and the vaccine is not effective.  

The Disease is Not as Bad as They Imply: Flu kills 36,000 a year in the US

“The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Web site, uses a common strategy to highlight — really exaggerate — risk.”  This quote is from a Washington Post article about the misleading numbers used to sell the flu vaccine.  The article points out the context of this number:

1. It includes flu-related deaths.  Thus if someone with a severe illness gets the flu and dies it is called a flu death even if there was a confounding illness.
2. It doesn’t inlcude the context.  36,000 out of what?  The actual numbers show that on average there is a .01% chance of flu related death and if you are under 65 the number is more accurately 1 in 100,000.
3. 90% of flu-related deaths occur in people over 65 who probably have a confounding illness.

They also supply this graph on the right.  Hmmmm, doesn’t look the the vaccination rate make much of a difference does it?  As the article states; “Despite a dramatic increase in vaccination among the elderly, deaths from the flu and pneumonia have hardly budged.”

The Vaccine is not Effective:

Many studies have shown that the flu vaccine is ineffective.  It is only targeted to attack 3 strains of the flu that scientists predict, months in advance, will be them most virulent.  The 2008 vaccine was reported to have a 44% success rate.  All studies show that it is minimally effective: “In 2 seasons with suboptimal antigenic match between vaccines and circulating strains, we could not demonstrate VE [vaccine effectiveness] in preventing influenza-related inpatient/ED [emergency room visits] or outpatient visits in children younger than 5 years. Further study is needed during years with good vaccine match (Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med. 2008 Oct;162(10):943-51).”  It also shows little effectiveness in its target audience, the elderly.

“Of the 1,000 people who got the vaccine before November 1, 149 went on to develop influenza-like illness (14.9 percent). Of the 402 people who did not get the vaccine, 68 got an influenza-like illness (16.9 percent), the study said.”  Reported CNN in 2004.   

If you are still thinking of this shot for yourself or you 6 month old infant as recommended by the CDC don’t forget there are side effects to this ineffective vaccine for a non-threatening illness:

“The most common reactions to inactivated flu vaccine are fever, fatigue, painful joints, and headache. The most frequently reported serious reaction, which usually occurs within two weeks of vaccination, is Guillain-Barré syndrome, an immune mediated nerve disorder characterized by muscle weakness, numbness, pain and paralysis that can lead to death.”

And I don’t just post this to save our children from damage.  My father has been told to get flu shots because he has heart disease and is thus in a risk group.  So, for him, despite that fact that (1) it doesn’t work, and (2) influenza is not something to fear, (3) it is linked to Alzheimer’s.  ”Hugh Fudenberg, MD, an immunogeneticist and biologist with nearly 850 papers published in peer review journals, has reported that if an individual had five consecutive flu shots between 1970 and 1980 (the years studied), his/her chances of getting Alzheimer’s Disease is ten times higher than if they had zero, one, or two shots (Dr. Fudenberg’s speech at the NVIC International Vaccine Conference, Arlington, VA September, 1997).”

Maybe we are all just being silly residents of the Town of Allopath.