[NVIC] Forced Vaccination Lobbyists vs. the Unmovable Group

[Guest guest]

" Refusal to have children immunized appears to be a peculiarly American

phenomenon, Offit said "

What

Only France & maybe Italy are the ONLY westerrn countries to mandate

vaccines and not nearly as many as the US.

Sheri

National Vaccine Information Center Newsletter

e-NEWS

October 12, 2006

:: <#leftarticle1>As Parents Nix Vaccine, Childhood Whooping Cough Increases

:: <#rightarticle1>Study: Laws contribute to whooping cough outbreaks

" Refusal to have children immunized appears to be a peculiarly American

phenomenon, Offit said, caused by " the balance we have in this country

between individual rights and the rights of the public. To my knowledge,

this is the only country to have state mandates for immunization, and the

only one that needs them.....Offit said: " We get a lot of calls from

parents who are troubled by vaccines. Then there is an unmovable group that

believes it is a conspiracy of doctors and pharmaceutical companies, that

it is all about selling vaccines. No matter what the data shows, they are

not convinced. We have to ask people to have faith, and there has been an

erosion of it. " - HealthDay News & Forbes

Dr. Katz, a Duke University vaccine specialist who has consulted

for vaccine makers, said he is not convinced loose state exemption policies

are linked with whooping cough prevalence. He said not all states with

liberal policies have high disease rates. But Dr. Schaffner, an

infectious-disease specialist at Vanderbilt University who has worked with

vaccine manufacturers, said the connection is plausible. Schaffner said

non-medical exemptions should be allowed, but only if parents get

educational information about vaccines. They should also be required to

renew their exemption status each year, as some states now mandate,

Schaffner said. " - Lindsey Tanner, Associated Press

Barbara Loe Fisher Commentary:

The families of vaccine injured children and those who know vaccine

injured children do not trust the opinions of doctors who take money from

drug companies and personally profit from laws which force vaccination,

such as rotavirus (diarrhea) vaccine patent holder, Offit. The disdain

for individual rights and civil liberties expressed by Offit puts him at

odds with America's founding fathers, who understood the importance of

protecting minorities from the tyranny of the majority.

No other country in the world uses and mandates as many vaccines as the

United States because government officials in Canada, western Europe and

other free nations respect individual rights and health care choices. Only

authoritarian regimes in underdeveloped countries take a totalitarian

approach to dissent today, with some imprisoning non-vaccinators or using

the militia to force vaccination. Increasing oppression and punishment of

families trying to protect their children from vaccine injury and death in

the United States would certainly make it easier for patent holders on

vaccines to make larger and more predictable profits.

It is important for the public, including legislators, to be fully

informed about all of the potential motivating factors for the public

policies being promoted by individuals with letters after their names. It

is also important for the public, including journalists, to independently

verify the scientific integrity of studies which are used to justify the

erosion of civil and human rights in America.

Disclosure: NVIC and its staff have never taken money from vaccine

manufacturers. NVIC is a charitable (501C3) organization founded by parents

of vaccine injured children in 1982 and dedicated to the prevention of

vaccine injuries and deaths through public education and protection of the

informed consent ethic.

As Parents Nix Vaccine, Childhood Whooping Cough Increases

Forbes

October 10, 2006

<http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=5vn9czbab.0.yun8czbab.oblmlwbab.8914 & ts=S0209 & p=htt

p%3A%2F%2Fwww.forbes.com%2Fforbeslife%2Fhealth%2Ffeeds%2Fhscout%2F2006%2F10%

2F10%2Fhscout535398>Click here for the URL:

TUESDAY, Oct. 10 (HealthDay News) -- More parents are refusing to have

their children immunized against common childhood diseases, as some states

make it easier to evade mandatory requirements.

The result is a higher incidence of pertussis -- whooping cough -- among

their children, a nationwide study finds.

Every state allows medical exemptions to immunizations, and 19 now allow

exemptions based on personal beliefs. This has led to a mean exemption rate

increase of 6 percent a year in the number of children not being immunized,

from 0.99 percent in 1991 to 2.54 percent in 2004, said researchers at the

s Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

" Pertussis incidence in states allowing personal belief exemptions was

twice as high as in states that only offered religious exemptions, " the

researchers reported.

The findings are published in the Oct. 11 issue of the Journal of the

American Medical Association.

Pertussis can be a serious disease. There are more than 10,000 cases in the

United States each year, and 13 children died of it in 2003.

Pertussis was chosen for the study because " it is a relatively common

preventable disease that has had a vaccine for a long period of time now

and still is not eradicated in the United States, " said study author Dr.

Saad B. Omer, associate director of Hopkins' Institute for Vaccine Safety.

The study shows that easier exemption rules " play a significant role " in

the increased incidence of the disease, Omer said. " It is increasing in

states that most easily allow exemptions. "

State-mandated immunization programs have virtually eliminated childhood

diseases that once were commonplace. In the first two years of life, a

child can get up to 24 injections, for vaccines against measles, mumps,

rubella, pertussis, polio, diphtheria, tetanus, hepatitis A, hepatitis B,

pneumonia, and influenza type B, among others.

The rise in requests for exemptions is, in large part, due to the success

of the immunization program, the researchers said.

" The success of immunizations has paradoxically shifted many parents'

concerns from the risks of vaccine-preventable diseases to the risks of

vaccine-adverse events, " they said.

This is not the first report of increased rates of a childhood disease due

to parents' refusal to immunize children, said Dr. A. Offit, chief of

infectious diseases at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. An earlier

report showed the same effect with measles, he said.

Refusal to have children immunized appears to be a peculiarly American

phenomenon, Offit said, caused by " the balance we have in this country

between individual rights and the rights of the public. To my knowledge,

this is the only country to have state mandates for immunization, and the

only one that needs them. "

Studies have shown that 10 percent to 15 percent of American parents have

doubts about the safety of vaccines, Offit said. " What this paper says is

that you can go too far. If you refuse to get a vaccine, it affects not

only you and your child but also the person in school next to your child, "

he said.

The danger of infection is increased because " people who refuse to have a

child immunized are not evenly distributed in the country or in the

states, " said Dr. S. Baltimore, a professor of pediatrics and

immunology at Yale University School of Medicine, and a member of the

American Academy of Pediatrics' committee on infectious diseases. " There

are clusters, " he added.

" People think that if they avoid vaccination, they will be protected by

people who get vaccinated, " Baltimore said. " That is not true. They share

in the community concepts, which make it more probable that the neighbors

have avoided vaccination. "

The new report may help change some parents' and politicians' views on

vaccine-exemption policies, Baltimore said. " State policy is often

influenced by anti-vaccination groups who are well organized, " he said.

" This paper may counter their influence. "

Offit said: " We get a lot of calls from parents who are troubled by

vaccines. Then there is an unmovable group that believes it is a conspiracy

of doctors and pharmaceutical companies, that it is all about selling

vaccines. No matter what the data shows, they are not convinced. We have to

ask people to have faith, and there has been an erosion of it. "

Study: Laws contribute to whooping cough outbreaks

Twin Falls Times-News, ID

October 10, 2006

<http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=5vn9czbab.0.zun8czbab.oblmlwbab.8914 & ts=S0209 & p=htt

p%3A%2F%2Fwww.magicvalley.com%2Farticles%2F2006%2F10%2F11%2Fnews_localstate%

2Fnews_local_state.4.txt>Click here for the URL:

By Lindsey Tanner

Associated Press writer

CHICAGO - State laws that make it easy for children to skip school-required

vaccinations may be contributing to whooping cough outbreaks around the

country, a study suggests.

All states allow children to be exempted from school immunization

requirements for medical reasons - because they might have a bad reaction,

for example, or have weak immune systems - and 48 states allow exemptions

for personal and/or religious beliefs.

To get non-medical exemptions, some states require documentation, notarized

paperwork and even visits to a local health department. In other states -

including Idaho - parents merely have to sign an exemption letter stating

that religious or philosophical beliefs prohibit vaccination.

According to the Idaho Code 39-4802, parents may refuse vaccination based

on medical grounds by providing the school with a physician- signed

document that states that the vaccination may endanger the life or health

of the child. But Idaho, like 17 other states, adds a provision that allows

a parent to submit a signed statement to school officials " ...stating their

objections on religious or other grounds. " According to the nonprofit

National Vaccine Information Center, the border states of Washington and

Utah have similar exemptions. However, Montana, Wyoming, Oregon and Nevada

allow exemptions only for medical and religious reasons - not philosophical.

Compared with stricter states, those with easy exemption policies had about

50 percent more whooping cough cases, according to the study.

Also, about 50 percent more people got whooping cough in states that

allowed personal-belief exemptions, compared with those allowing only

religious exemptions, the study found.

The Idaho Department of Health and Welfare reported that in 1995 Idaho had

about twice the national average of whooping cough, well in line with the

study.

States increasingly are being pressured to relax their exemption

requirements, often by parents with unfounded fears about the risks of

childhood vaccines, said University of Florida researcher Salmon, a

co-author of the study. But loosening these policies would be a public

health threat, he said.

The study appears in Wednesday's Journal of the American Medical

Association. It was partly funded by the federal Centers for Disease

Control and Prevention.

Researchers from s Hopkins University's Bloomberg School of Public

Health contributed to the study, including two who reported financial ties

to vaccine makers. Salmon said he has no financial connection to vaccine

makers.

Whooping cough, also called pertussis, is a bacterial infection that causes

severe coughing spells. It is highly contagious and can be deadly in infants.

The first whooping cough vaccine was licensed for U.S. use in 1948 and led

to dramatic declines in disease. But reported cases have increased more

recently, from 1,020 nationwide in 1976 to 25,827 in 2004.

Public health officials believe the numbers are up because the vaccine's

protection wears off. Booster shots are recommended for teens and adults.

Salmon said liberal exemption policies may have contributed to the increase.

The highest average annual number of whooping cough cases from 1986 to 2004

was about 13 per 100,000 people in Vermont, a state with relatively loose

exemption policies, the study found. The rate was well under one per

100,000 in Mississippi and several other states with stricter policies.

Dr. Katz, a Duke University vaccine specialist who has consulted for

vaccine makers, said he is not convinced loose state exemption policies are

linked with whooping cough prevalence. He said not all states with liberal

policies have high disease rates.

But Dr. Schaffner, an infectious-disease specialist at Vanderbilt

University who has worked with vaccine manufacturers, said the connection

is plausible.

Schaffner said non-medical exemptions should be allowed, but only if

parents get educational information about vaccines. They should also be

required to renew their exemption status each year, as some states now

mandate, Schaffner said.

Times-News writer Will Sites contributed to this story.

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Sheri Nakken, R.N., MA, Hahnemannian Homeopath

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