Posted on 12/13/2002 2:11:28 PM PST by FreeSpeechZone
Dangers, Experts Warn Against Vaccinating Children
s smallpox vaccination for the public comes closer, many experts say the risky vaccine should not be offered to children and teenagers, even on a voluntary basis.
While federal health officials have not yet said whether children would be vaccinated under the plan President Bush is to announce today, they and doctors who advise the government on smallpox policy suggested yesterday that in the absence of a smallpox attack, good sense dictated that only adults get preventive vaccinations.
Vaccinating even part of a population can drastically slow an epidemic, experts said, and children are relatively easy to protect by closing schools and keeping them home. Nor would they be needed, as many adults would be, to serve on the front lines in a smallpox outbreak — running hospitals, giving emergency vaccinations, caring for the sick, delivering medical supplies and food, keeping water and sewer and phone systems running.
At the same time, the smallpox vaccine is the most dangerous in existence, especially to children. It is a cousin of the vaccine developed 200 years ago, when Dr. Edward Jenner pricked the sores of a milkmaid infected with cowpox and jabbed the lancet into the arm of a boy, giving him the virus, which protects humans against smallpox.
Experts say vaccinating children poses major ethical problems and legal liabilities that were unknown decades ago, when schoolchildren were routinely vaccinated. Children under age 18 cannot give informed consent, said Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, "and that's an important ethical difference."
Existing stocks of vaccine have been in storage since the 1970's, and the new vaccine expected to be ready by 2004 has not been tested on children. Any child vaccinated would, in effect, be part of a large human experiment. If there were side effects, the government might be held liable.
Although severe reactions to smallpox vaccines are relatively rare — estimates of future reactions range from 1 in every 8,000 vaccinations to 1 in every 67,000 — they are much more common in younger children.
In the past, said Dr. Martin Blaser, chief of medicine at New York University Medical School, children with undetected immune problems were the most likely to suffer or die.
"If you reached 18, you were probably not immuno-deficient," Dr. Blaser said. "Getting a live vaccine was the acid test of immuno-deficiency."
Routine smallpox inoculations stopped in 1972. Today, many more people are vulnerable to complications, including anyone who is H.I.V. positive, is receiving chemotherapy, has had an organ transplant, or has a history of eczema, which has become more common in the last 30 years.
A 1968 study found that the 14 million smallpox vaccinations given that year caused nine deaths, seven of them in children under 10 years old, according to Dr. William Bicknell of the Boston University School of Public Health.
Encephalitis from vaccination, a dangerous inflammation of the brain, occurs almost exclusively in younger children.
If children and teenagers are excluded, the chances of "contact vaccination," in which the vaccine virus is passed from one person to another who touches the sore, are sharply reduced.
Of 114 cases of contact vaccinations in 1968, Dr. Bicknell said, "almost all were in children." The only other two he could remember were of a hospital nurse and between a couple who had had sex.
Contacts between adults in workplaces are rare, Dr. Fauci said. By excluding teen-agers, he said, "you're not vaccinating people who are spending all day horsing around with each other in school."
Experts said that although parents might now be eager to have their children vaccinated, their enthusiasm might wane with the inevitable reports of serious side effects among some military and emergency personnel.
"People are frightened about smallpox because it's in the news a lot," said Dr. Paul Offit of the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. "It's possible that by 2004, that will settle down."
Dr. Offit opposes vaccination not only of children, but also of emergency personnel on the ground that there is not one case of smallpox in the world. "If you were trying to make a smallpox vaccine today and this was it, it wouldn't be licensed," he argued.
In contrast, he said: "Flu will kill 20,000 people this year, mostly less than 4 years old — and we have a vaccine. It's too bad that Saddam Hussein's not behind influenza. We'd be doing a better job."
Dumb and Dumber!
Wed Dec 11, 7:41 PM ET By LAURA MECKLER, Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) - Federal health officials are considering a national television ad campaign as part of an effort to help people decide whether to be vaccinated against smallpox, a disease not seen in this country for more than a half century.
Officials said Wednesday that an education campaign aimed at the general public will begin soon after President Bush (news - web sites) announces plans for offering the vaccine.
Polls, including one released Wednesday, show most people would get the vaccine if given the chance. But health officials fear that many people do not adequately understand the risks.
"The success of a vaccination program is going to depend on our success in communicating with people accurately and openly," said Dr. Julie Gerberding, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (news - web sites). That includes explaining the risks of the disease — and of the vaccine.
The education effort has several elements, including outreach directly to health care providers. Already, some of it has begun quietly.
Last week, 37,000 clinicians and public health officials participated in an eight-hour CDC smallpox tutorial that covered how to vaccinate people and how to run a vaccination program. Nearly 150,000 clinicians have seen a CDC smallpox video explaining how to diagnose someone with the disease. Some 250,000 pamphlets explaining the details of vaccination have been distributed over the last several weeks.
The CDC Web site has been loaded with data and photos about vaccination and about the dangerous side effects that can accompany it.
Next week, the CDC will host representatives from each state to train them on how to deliver the vaccine. These people will then train others in their states.
Once the vaccination program is announced, officials will begin targeting information to the general public. Among the options are TV ads, Gerberding said.
"We'll be moving very aggressively," said Joe Henderson, the CDC's bioterrorism chief.
Smallpox was declared eradicated from earth in 1980, but experts fear it could return in an act of bioterror.
But the vaccine itself is also risky. Studies from the 1960s suggest that for every million people being vaccinated for the first time, 15 will face life-threatening side effects and one or two will die.
Bush is considering how quickly to offer the vaccine. Top health officials have recommended a phased program where the vaccine would be offered first to hospital emergency room workers and special response teams, then to first responders and all other health care providers and finally to the general public.
Once these vaccinations begin, and once the first death or serious side effects are reported, enthusiasm for the vaccine is likely to plummet, said Jerry Hauer, the top bioterrorism official at the Department of Health and Human Services (news - web sites).
Officials also fear that any negative publicity about the smallpox vaccine could dampen enthusiasm for regular childhood vaccines, which are very safe. But that can be minimized with good education up front, Hauer said
While I agree that we are better prepared to deal with small pox now, I find it difficult to dismiss the carnage caused by small pox throughout human history on populations that had no exposure (and, thus, no immunity).
That's right. Most of us died 50 years ago when we were vaccinated as children. Or thought we were going to die. Big, ugly scab.
We understand the vaccination has worn off, that nobody is immune now. Is that true?
What exactly do you mean by that?
Phew! That makes me feel better.
One certainly don't want a bunch of minors making their own decisions while at at physical risk in a medical program fraught with ethical and legal problems.
Now, let's discuss something less clear cut, like teen age abortion....
I love that. Can I use it?
Remember aruanan, it wasn't the innoculation that got rid of smallpox. It was sanitation.
That explains why all those third world countries have no smallpox, yet people die by the bucketload from malaria, the FIRST disease to be reduced with improved sanitation.
Got it?
Somehow most everyone of my generation survived getting innoculated, and I really can't imagine what drives the paranoia against getting the vaccine.
Yup. At least that's what AFIP, the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology, says.
It'll be unfortunate when those who falsely consider themselves to be immune are the ones that are dying horrible deaths if we ever ARE hit with a smallpox bioattack. I myself don't take pleasure or delight with such a thought, as many here seem to be somewhat amused with the thought of their supposed mental inferiors succumbing to the disease.
It is apparent from historical facts and scientific observations that the smallpox vaccine actually WEAKENS the immune system causing those vaccinated to be MORE susceptable to the disease. The smallpox vaccine is actually cowpox virus, which is based on a superstitious belief dating back to the 1700's that dairy maids that caught cowpox were immune to smallpox. This was known to be untrue back in the 1800's, and that it has no basis in scientific fact...
From HISTORICAL FACTS EXPOSING THE DANGERS AND INEFFECTIVENESS OF VACCINES;
- In 1871-2, England, with 98% of the population aged between 2 and 50 vaccinated against smallpox, it experienced its worst ever smallpox outbreak with 45,000 deaths. During the same period in Germany, with a vaccination rate of 96%, there were over 125,000 deaths from smallpox. (The Hadwen Documents)
From DOCTORS AND SCIENTISTS CONDEMN VACCINATION
"Official data have shown that the large-scale vaccinations undertaken in the US have failed to obtain any significant improvement of the diseases against which they were supposed to provide protection."
Dr A. Sabin, developer of the Oral Polio vaccine"Live virus vaccines against influenza and paralytic polio, for example, may in each instance cause the disease it is intended to prevent..."
Dr Jonas Salk, developer of first polio vaccine, Science, 1977"Vaccination does not protect, it actually renders its subjects more
susceptible by depressing vital power and diminishing natural resistance, and millions of people have died of smallpox which they contracted after being vaccinated."
Dr J.W. Hodge , The Vaccination Superstition"It is nonsense to think that you can inject pus - and it is usually from the pustule end of the dead smallpox victim … it is unthinkable that you can inject that into a little child and in any way improve its health. What is true of vaccination is exactly as true of all forms of serum immunisation, if we could by any means build up a natural resistance to disease through these artificial means, I would applaud it to the echo, but we can't do it."
Dr William Howard Hay (1937)
"Immunisation against smallpox is more hazardous than the disease itself."
Professor Ari Zuckerman, World Health Organisation
Jenner's idea was based solely upon a dairymaid's superstition. He sought to give it a scientific air by calling cowpox (a disease which bears no analogy to smallpox) variolae vaccinae--i.e., smallpox of the cow. The Latin name was not without its effect, and anything that promised less harmful results than the prevailing practice of the direct inoculation of smallpox matter (which had been killing people by hundreds, and afterwards had to be forbidden by Act of Parliament) was acceptable at the time to the frightened and gullible population. The rest was an affair of influence. When once an error is accepted by a profession corporately and endowed by Government, to uproot it becomes a herculean task, beside which the entrance of a rich man into the Kingdom of Heaven is easy.
Jenner inoculated this boy James Phipps in 1796. Then, as soon as he had done that, he wrote it down--(laughter)--and went round the neighbourhood collecting desultory information with regard to cow-pox and cow-poxed milkers. He got cases of those who had had cow-pox years before and had never had small-pox, as if everybody was bound to have the small-pox. Then he took some worn-out paupers, over 6o years of age, who had had the cow-pox years and years before and inoculated them with small-pox to see if they would take. He found they did not take, because as people get advanced in life they are more or less proof against it. "This," said Jenner, "is the grand proof of the value of inoculation of cowpox as a preventive of small-pox." In 1796, however, he performed his first experiment as it is called. He took a boy named James Phipps and inoculated him with some lymph which he took from a cow-pox vesicle. A short time afterwards he inoculated this boy with small-pox, and for very solid reasons which could be explained, the small-pox did not take. "Now," said Jenner, "is the grand discovery. This will answer my purpose, and I shall soon be able to get another paper for the Royal Society," to follow in the wake of the glorious cuckoo, which has been wittily termed "the bird that laid the vaccination egg." (Laughter.) That was in 1796, and we are close upon the century since that wonderful experiment. Russia is preparing to celebrate it, and the Bristol medical men are sending round for subscriptions for £1,000 in order to purchase the relics of this wonderful man--such as his snuff box, his lancets, and the chair the great man sat in--to put in the museum of the Bristol University. I have noticed that the doctors have omitted one important article which appeared in the Bristol Exhibition--a hair from the tail of the first cow that supplied the vaccine lymph. (Loud laughter.) I am sorry they have left that out. I am sure nothing would so stir the hearts of the coming race of medical men as an evidence of belief in the principle contained in the old herb book by which a person had to carry a hair of the tail of the dog that bit him. (Laughter.) I do not know whether the sensation from Russia is going to filter through to England, but unless you people in Gloucester are going to be swayed by the manifesto issued by the medical men my advice to you is to keep your rejoicings for the 5th November, and then if you happen to be hard tip for a companion for Guy Fawkes I would advise you to have an effigy of Edward Jenner to help feed the flames of your bonfire. (Laughter and cheers.)
From Smallpox
Writing in the British Medical Journal (21/1/1928 p116) Dr L Parry questions the vaccination statistics which revealed a higher death rate amongst the vaccinated than the unvaccinated and asks:
"How is it that smallpox is five times as likely to be fatal in the vaccinated as in the unvaccinated?"How is it that in some of our best vaccinated towns - for example, Bombay and Calcutta - smallpox is rife, whilst in some of our worst vaccinated towns, such as Leicester, it is almost unknown?
"How is it that something like 80 per cent of the cases admitted Into the Metropolitan Asylums Board smallpox hospitals have been vaccinated, whilst only 20 per cent have not been vaccinated?
"How is it that in Germany, the best vaccinated country in the world, there are more deaths in proportion to the population than In England - for example, in 1919, 28 deaths in England, 707 In Germany; In 1920, 30 deaths In England, 354 In Germany In Germany In 1919 There were 5,012 cases of smallpox with 707 deaths; in England In 1925 There were 5,363 cases of smallpox with 6 deaths. What is the explanation?
And finally, from WHO SMALLPOX ERADICATION SUCCESS RECONSIDERED--Raymond Obosawin MD
In further examining this question from a longer historical perspective, it became readily apparent that the WHO claim did not at all square with the earlier data, i.e., historical smallpox eradication efforts. If we go back as far as the last century, we discover that Creighton's independent research findings as published in the Ninth Edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica, strongly contradict the effectiveness of mass smallpox immunization programs. A few revealing excerpts follow:
- . . . in Bavaria in 1871 of 30,742 cases 29,429 were in vaccinated persons, or 95.7 percent.
- Notwithstanding the fact that Prussia was the best re-vaccinated country in Europe, its mortality from smallpox in the epidemic of 1871 was higher (69,839) than any other Northern state.
- According to a competent statistician (A. Vogt), the death-rate from smallpox in the German army, in which all recruits are re-vaccinated, was 60 percent more than among the civil population of the same age . . . although re-vaccination is not obligatory among the latter.
- It is often alleged that the unvaccinated are so much inflammable material in the midst of the community, and that smallpox begins among them and gathers force so that it sweeps even the vaccinated before it. Inquiry into the facts has shown that at Cologne in 1870 the first unvaccinated person attacked by smallpox was the 174thin order of time, at Bonn the same year the 42d, and at Liegnitz in 1871 the 225th.111
The vaccine makes one MORE susceptable to the smallpox virus.
Well, well, well. I guess those that said that the Homeland Security Bill would allow for compensation if a mandated vaccine caused harm were full of it..
What the nay-sayers are trumpeting are just the facts about the inconveniences associated with the smallpox vacination...which I might add, are extremely minor compared to the inconveniences of having the disease...scarring for life if you live or more likely, death if you don't!
The Tinfoil Beret Commandos are way off base here. It shows how damned far down the intellectual food chain we have slipped since the 1950's!
Silly me!
The solution then seems obvious. Ecpand hunting hours and increase the bag limits on lawyers very generously. The problem is that they have no natural predators and are too high up the food chain!
You're right ... I was vaccinated in 1949 - the year of the last U.S. smallpox case. All children were vaccinated at 5 before entering school. There is a correlation between those vaccinations and the elimination of the disease.
Thanks again.
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