Free Republic

GUEST COMMENTARY by BRENT ROONEY * In the 15 October 2008 McCain/Obama debate AUTISM was mentioned at the beginning and at the end of the debate. Three times as many families are affected by the serious behavioral problems of autistic children than the number of families affected by CP(Cerebral Palsy). Male infants have higher autism risk than do female infants; gastrointestinal problems are a likely autism risk factor. Whether vaccinations elevate autistic risk is not a settled issue. There is evidence than metal poisoning (e.g.s. mercury, lead) raises autistic risk. Estimates of the prevalence of autism vary by a factor...

The influenza vaccine, which has been strongly recommended for people over 65 for more than four decades, is losing its reputation as an effective way to ward off the virus in the elderly. A growing number of immunologists and epidemiologists say the vaccine probably does not work very well for people over 70, the group that accounts for three-fourths of all flu deaths. The latest blow was a study in The Lancet last month that called into question much of the statistical evidence for the vaccine’s effectiveness. The authors said previous studies had measured the wrong thing: not any actual...

Generation Rescue "In light of the recent Hannah Poling decision, in which the federal court conceded that vaccines could have contributed to her autism, we think the tide is finally turning in the direction of parents like us who have been shouting concerns from our rooftops for years." Jenny McCarthy and Jim Carrey are actors and parents actively involved in autism-related causes. McCarthy is the author of the book Louder Than Words: A Mother's Journey in Healing Autism. Go here to read the whole editorialI have to applaud Jenny McCarthy for her tenacity. Her much needed voice has blasted through...

ON March 6, Terry and Jon Poling stood outside a federal courthouse in Atlanta, Ga., with their 9-year-old daughter Hannah and announced that the federal government had admitted that vaccines had contributed to her autism. The news was shocking. Health officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and at the American Academy of Pediatrics have steadfastly assured the public that vaccines do not cause autism. Now, in a special vaccine claims court, the federal government appeared to have said exactly the opposite. What happened? The answer is wrapped up in the nature of the unusual court where the...

CAMP STRIKER — Soldiers from 3rd Platoon, Company C, 3rd Battalion, 187th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) and their Iraqi Army counterparts arranged for a veterinarian to visit a local sheik’s house in Yusufiyah, Feb. 5. Mohel Abdella Mohammed, a local female veterinarian, treated more than 120 cows and sheep with the Soldiers’ help. Mohel vaccinated the animals for Clostridium chauvoei, commonly known as Blackleg, a fatal bacterial infection common in cows and sheep here. Mohel completed her degree at Baghdad University in 1988 and has practiced veterinary medicine for more than 20 years....

The parents of more than 2,300 Prince George's County students who failed to get needed vaccinations could face fines of $50 a day and up to 10 days in jail if their children do not meet the state's immunization requirements, county officials said yesterday. The threat of legal action is a last resort after months in which Prince George's has struggled to get its 131,000 students immunized for chicken pox and hepatitis B, as mandated by the state. More than 2,300 students have not been immunized and have been barred from attending schools, almost two months after a Sept. 20...

Halton Catholic School Board Approves Controversial HPV Vaccinations on School Premises All three student trustees supported resolution to ban the vaccine from Board's schools but did not have right to vote By John-Henry Westen HAMILTON, September 19, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - In a move which came as an unexpected shock to many in the pro-life movement, the board of trustees at the Halton Catholic District School Board voted 4-3 to reject a motion to forbid the controversial HPV vaccine to be offered or administered on the Catholic school board's premises for the duration of this school year.  The board has instead...

Just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean that no one is out to get you. With these words, I will relate a story about what is going on in the United States regarding those who wish to control the lives of our young people and the future generations of our nation... In 1985, Planned Parenthood people were among the participants in an exercise that produced a document called Inventing the Future: Alternatives to Adolescent Pregnancy. The document was the result of creative thinking on the part of the participants on how they would want things to operate in the future. It...

Hubby went to WalMart in Pennsylvania today. At the main entrance is a Gardasil booth handing out pamphlets. There was a line of parents so Hubby started a rant. He asked the woman why not just teach your daughters to keep their knickers on? Her answer was because they won't. Hubby responded that our daughter is in her 20's and still a virgin. She responded that daughters lie. He offered to let our "female tiger" talk to her. At that point the woman asked if he was on his cellphone. He said "Yes" And how about this not being tested...

The parents of 12-year-old Michelle Cedillo asked a federal court Monday to find that their child's autism was caused by common childhood vaccines. Her parents, Theresa and Michael Cedillo, allege a preservative called thimerosal that had been used in vaccines weakened their daughter's immune system and prevented her body from clearing the measles virus after she was immunized for the disease at age 15 months. Today, Michelle suffers from a litany of health problems, including severe autism, inflammatory bowel disease, glaucoma and epilepsy. The burden of proof is easier than in a traditional court. Plaintiffs only have to prove that...

At least three deaths and more than 1,600 adverse reactions including spontaneous abortion and paralysis have been connected to Merck & Co.'s new vaccine for the human papilloma virus, a treatment the company has lobbied state lawmakers to make mandatory for young girls across the nation. The report comes from Judicial Watch, the Washington-based public interest group that investigates and prosecutes government corruption.   "The FDA adverse event reports on the HPV vaccine read like a catalog of horrors," said Tom Fitton, Judicial Watch president. "Any state or local government now beset by Merck's lobbying campaigns to mandate this HPV vaccine...

Pediatricians are encountering parents who refuse vaccinations for their children, prompting the doctors to show them the door. The problems seem to have heated up since a survey of 302 pediatricians published a year-and-a-half ago in Archives of Pediatric & Adolescent Medicine, in which 28% "said that they would ask the family to seek care elsewhere" for "refusing specific vaccines," and 39% said they would do so for families refusing all vaccines. Increasingly it seems, the pediatricians are following through on their threats, despite the potential for serious revenue loss. Iron Mountain, MI, pediatrician Alexis Wolfe says she has booted...

"At this stage, vaccination can still be considered experimental," said Dr. Karen McCune, an associate professor of obstetrics and gynecology at UCSF, who co-authored the editorial. "To be discussing mandatory vaccination when the main clinical trials are still ongoing seems extremely premature. We're feeling like the enthusiasm is driving policy rather than data." A bill in the California Legislature requiring vaccination stalled in committee in March over concerns about parental rights and the lack of information about the long-term effects of the vaccine. The author has amended his bill to address the wider issue of how California requires vaccinations. In...

Islamist militants claim vaccines are US plot By Isambard Wilkinson in Peshawar Last Updated: 2:10am GMT 17/02/2007 A doctor was killed by a roadside bomb in Pakistan today as Islamist militants tried to halt a polio immunisation campaign which, they say, is an American plot to sterilise Muslims. Dr. Abdul Ghani was killed and three guards wounded after he visited a mullah, or religious leader, in Salarzai, a village in Bajaur tribal region in the borderlands with Afghanistan. "It was a remote-controlled bomb," said an intelligence official in Khar, Bajaur's main town. No one claimed responsibility for the attack. Dr...

AUSTIN — Gov. Rick Perry ordered today that schoolgirls in Texas must be vaccinated against the sexually transmitted virus that causes cervical cancer, making Texas the first state to require the shots. The girls will have to get Merck & Co.'s new vaccine against strains of the human papillomavirus, or HPV, that are responsible for most cases of cervical cancer. Merck is bankrolling efforts to pass laws in state legislatures across the country mandating it Gardasil vaccine for girls as young as 11 or 12. It doubled its lobbying budget in Texas and has funneled money through Women in Government,...

MILLIONS of British children have probably been infected with whooping cough even though they have been immunised against it.

For Immediate Release: May 16, 2006 Contact: Debi Vinnedge, Executive Director 1-877-488-LIFE or email debi@cogforlife.org Children of God for Life Backs CMA Initiative: End Aborted Fetal Vaccines (Largo, FL) Children of God for Life is standing staunchly behind the Catholic Medical Association on their recent statement and press release calling for vaccine manufacturers to produce vaccines that are “not associated with abortion”. For years Children of God for Life has called on physicians and pro-life groups across the country to pressure the government and pharmaceutical industry in their Campaign for Ethical Vaccines, which currently has over 550,000 supporters. “United, we...

  September 2001 COMPULSORY VACCINATIONS THREATEN RELIGIOUS FREEDOMby Mathew D. Staver Most people associate vaccinations with the eradication of disease. Vaccinations have been a part of American life for decades. However, many people object to mandatory vaccinations for religious reasons. Oftentimes, these individuals are told that they have no choice and must receive the vaccinations. You may be surprised to learn that some vaccinations are derived from aborted fetal tissue. Vaccines for chicken pox, Hepatitis-A and Rubella were produced solely from aborted fetal tissue. Even most physicians who oppose abortion do not realize that these three vaccines are made...

SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1152AP_Military_Antrax.html Thursday, December 1, 2005 · Last updated 10:01 a.m. PT _Anthrax shots may be required in military_ By PETE YOST ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER * WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration asked a federal appeals court Thursday to reinstate mandatory anthrax inoculations for many military personnel, while a lawyer for soldiers who refused the shots said anti-anthrax vaccine was never intended for the purpose the Pentagon is using it. * The government is appealing a decision by U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan, who suspended anthrax vaccinations after he found fault in the Food and Drug Administration's process for...

MOUNTAIN VIEWS: FORCED INOCULATIONS BEGINNING OF BUSH'S BAD BIRD FLU PLAN By John Hanchette OLEAN -- Last week's column warned of imminent federal legislation that would toss powerful pharmaceutical companies billions of dollars and complete protection from liability suits in case untested and experimental bird flu vaccines damage American recipients. It drew heavy response. The bill (S. 1873) -- a big congressional wet kiss to the drug industry -- is dressed up in a noble-sounding title: "Biodefense and Pandemic Vaccine and Drug Development Act." In essence, however, it would force Americans to receive inoculations against a disease that has yet...

Christine Maggiore was in prime form, engaging and articulate, when she explained to a Phoenix radio host in late March why she didn't believe HIV caused AIDS. The HIV-positive mother of two laid out matter-of-factly why, even while pregnant, she hadn't taken HIV medications, and why she had never tested her children for the virus. "Our children have excellent records of health," Maggiore said on the Air America program when asked about 7-year-old Charlie and 3-year-old Eliza Jane Scovill. "They've never had respiratory problems, flus, intractable colds, ear infections, nothing. So, our choices, however radical they may seem, are extremely...

"It is a Grave Responsibility to Use Alternative Vaccines" VATICAN CITY, JULY 26, 2005 (Zenit.org).- Here is a letter sent by Bishop Elio Sgreccia, president of the Pontifical Academy for Life, to Mrs. Debra Vinnedge, executive director, Children of God for Life. The letter presents the following study conducted by the academy entitled "Moral Reflections on Vaccines Prepared from Cells Derived from Aborted Human Fetuses." * * * Vatican City, June 9, 2005 Mrs. Debra Vinnedge Executive Director, Children of God for Life United States Dear Mrs. Debra Vinnedge, On June 4, 2003, you wrote to His Eminence Cardinal Joseph...

Deadly Immunity Robert F. Kennedy Jr. investigates the government cover-up of a mercury/autism scandal By ROBERT F. KENNEDY JR. In June 2000, a group of top government scientists and health officials gathered for a meeting at the isolated Simpsonwood conference center in Norcross, Georgia. Convened by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the meeting was held at this Methodist retreat center, nestled in wooded farmland next to the Chattahoochee River, to ensure complete secrecy. The agency had issued no public announcement of the session -- only private invitations to fifty-two attendees. There were high-level officials from the CDC and...

Whooping Cough Outbreak Communities throughout the U.S. are experiencing whooping cough (pertussis) outbreaks - the worst in 40 years. If the school nurse or the health department informs you that there is a pertussis outbreak in your school or community, you may need to call your pediatrician. The school or health department will tell you if your child was directly exposed and requires antibiotics. Health departments across the country are acting quickly to prevent the spread of pertussis, so your cooperation in contacting your pediatrician is crucial. Please follow the instruction of the health department. The care of children in...

Can a Blood Test Predict Your Child's Autism Risk?   Autism is an epidemic brain disorder that affects an estimated two to five out of every 1,000 children. Usually seen as children become toddlers, telltale symptoms include difficulty with social interaction and repetitive behaviors. While no one knows exactly what causes autism -- though some studies have linked its occurrence with childhood vaccines -- determining autism with a blood test may be a possibility. Researchers from the University of California, Davis, reported children with autism show different immune system responses from children without the disorder, and these might be...

The current meningitis outbreak in parts of China is of a reasonable size and controllable, officials said. No new infections or deaths were reported yesterday. Sixteen people have been confirmed dead from the disease since January. "It's not necessary to panic," said Deng Haihua, a Ministry of Health (MOH) official. Cerebral-spinal meningitis, an acute infectious disease that spreads through the respiratory system, is not as contagious as the flu or the common cold, which usually occur during winter and spring, he said. The deaths of five students in East China's Anhui Province caused by the disease last month, has attracted...

FINDINGS Influenza has been added to the recommended schedule of shots for all infants, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said yesterday. The CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Academy of Family Physicians recommend that, beginning in fall 2004, all children age 6 months to 23 months, as well as household and out-of-home caregivers for such children, receive an annual influenza vaccine, the CDC said. The CDC had been moving toward the recommendation even before this past flu season, which began early and featured a nasty strain of virus that killed...

December 3, 2002 C.I.A. Hunts Iraq Tie to Soviet SmallpoxBy JUDITH MILLER he C.I.A. is investigating an informant's accusation that Iraq obtained a particularly virulent strain of smallpox from a Russian scientist who worked in a smallpox lab in Moscow during Soviet times, senior American officials and foreign scientists say. The officials said several American scientists were told in August that Iraq might have obtained the mysterious strain from Nelja N. Maltseva, a virologist who worked for more than 30 years at the Research Institute for Viral Preparations in Moscow before her death two years ago. The information came to...

State to air-drop rabies vaccinations By Jason Green CLANTON - The Chilton County Health Department announced yesterday much of the county will be affected by an Alabama Department of Public Health plan to air-drop oral raccoon rabies vaccinations into rural parts of the county. The health department plans to use small aircraft coordinated from Craig Field in Selma. Those aircraft will be flying low over areas of Chilton County on Monday, April 5 and dropping oral rabies vaccines in hopes of helping prevent the westward spread of the disease. The program will take approximately two weeks to complete. "We don't...

<p>LOS ANGELES, April 2 (UPI) -- Federal health officials say they plan no warning about a mercury-laced preservative in some flu vaccines that go to thousands of infants this fall.</p> <p>Officials with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say there is no proof of harm from exposure to the preservative thimerosal, the Los Angeles Times reported Friday. They confirm they won't advise parents and doctors to choose a mercury-free version of the flu vaccine.</p>

The military's anthrax and smallpox immunizations are safe to administer to service members, a senior military medical officer told 2004 Tricare conference attendees here Jan. 28. "The vaccination programs we operate are designed to keep troops healthy, to help troops get back home safely," said Army Col. John D. Grabenstein, deputy director of clinical operations for the Military Vaccine Agency. Concerns about the safety of the vaccines, Grabenstein said, have been thoroughly checked, with findings provided to federal health officials and civilian physicians. Service members, he explained, are medically screened before receiving the vaccines. Very few serious ill effects have...

The Defense Department will stop anthrax vaccinations until the legal situation around a recent court decision is resolved, defense officials said. Defense officials and lawyers with the Justice Department are examining a decision handed down by a federal judge in Washington Dec. 22 that ordered DoD to stop anthrax vaccinations for U.S. service members without their consent, Pentagon officials said Dec. 23. "The lawyers are examining it," Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said during a Pentagon press conference Dec. 23. "And at the appropriate time, they will be making a recommendation as to the way forward." DoD still considers anthrax...

<p>Earlier this week, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) issued its fourth report to Congress on the smallpox vaccination program. While the committee that produced it made a few worthwhile recommendations, it also took far too cautious an approach to preparing Americans against a potential attack.</p>

The following vaccines are grown on aborted fetal tissue - rabies, some mumps, rubella, chickenpox, hepatitis a, smallpox (some), ipv. One of the single measles vaccines is further attenuated in diploid cells This can be seen in the package inserts - referred to as diploid cells

Vaccines and other diseases. I participated in a thread recently that tried to blame the increase in autism on vaccinations. I have no personal experience with autism, but I went through the very same thing when my son was diagnosed with Type 1 (juvenile) diabetes at the age of five. He is now 26 and has no signs of complications. Naturally, I read everything I could find about diabetes. The incidence of Type 1 diabetes has increased dramatically in recent years. So have many other auto-immune diseases. Some people have blamed the increase on vaccinations. Others on NOT breast-feeding. Others...

After learning some popular vaccines are developed from aborted fetal tissue, Shannon Law decided her three children should not get a chicken pox immunization. The state of Arkansas, where the immunization is mandatory, disagreed. The Little Rock mother argued that to give her children the vaccine would be a violation of her Catholic faith. Because abortion is a grave sin, she said, to expose her children to the vaccine would be tantamount to complicity in the original 1966 abortions used in the product’s research and development.Arkansas health officials denied the exemptions and threatened to keep two of Law’s children from...

Scientists cheered in 1972 when Congress created the Office of Technology Assessment, a PhD-laden think tank that was dedicated to providing policy analyses and technical evaluations for the House and Senate. They wept in 1995, when, in a burst of political pique and boastful penny-pinching, Newt Gingrich and his Republican Revolution abolished OTA. Resuscitation efforts started then, and continue--in futility. Thus, in the current Congress, Rep. Rush Holt (D-NJ), one of the few scientists in Congress, reintroduced the Office of Technology Reestablishment Act. Like its predecessors, the bill disappeared into the black hole of legislative losers, never heard of again....

GI reacts badly to smallpox vaccine By Laura Meckler, The Associated Press February 1, 2003 WASHINGTON - One soldier inoculated against smallpox has suffered a potentially serious skin reaction to the vaccine, and officials are investigating whether a second ill soldier also is reacting to the shot, the Pentagon said Friday. It was the first report of any serious reaction among Americans receiving the vaccinations, which began in December for the military and are just now getting under way for civilians. The first case, a 30-year-old Army soldier at a U.S. base, was a skin reaction called generalized vaccinia, and...

Air Force Print News01/09/03 - WASHINGTON -- The Air Force chief of staff has directed the immediate implementation of the smallpox vaccination program. In a Jan. 6 policy memorandum to major command commanders, Gen. John P. Jumper outlined details of the commanders' force protection program against the deadly biological warfare agent. The first Air Force people to be vaccinated will be medical people and designated forces that constitute specific mission-critical capabilities. The identified medics include Smallpox Epidemiological Response Team members at Brooks City-Base, Texas, those responsible for administering the vaccine to other airmen, and base-level smallpox medical team members (medics...

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...

CHICAGO, Dec. 2 — The American Academy of Pediatrics on Monday issued revised recommendations for flu shots, saying for the first time that youngsters between the ages of 6 and 23 months should be vaccinated.

VASHON ISLAND, Wash. — Kate Packard, the school nurse here, has a nightmare she sums up in five words: "measles coming across the water." If measles did make the 20-minute ferry ride across Puget Sound from Seattle — hardly unthinkable, since a case occurred last year near a ferry terminal in West Seattle — public health officers say the whole Vashon Island school district could be shut down until the island's last case disappeared or an emergency vaccination drive took effect. Eighteen percent of Vashon Island's 1,600 primary school students have legally opted out of vaccination against childhood diseases, including...

Source: Emory University Health Sciences Center Date: 11/15/2002 Targeted Smallpox Vaccinations Could Be Effective Intervention Against Deliberate Attack Targeted vaccination of the close contacts of infected individuals following a smallpox outbreak could rival the effectiveness of mass vaccination, given a sufficiently high level of immunity within the population, according to a new study by biostatisticians at Emory University. The research is published in the Nov. 15 issue of Science. Since targeted vaccinations would lead to fewer adverse vaccine reactions and would prevent more cases of smallpox per dose of vaccine, a targeted strategy would be desirable given an equally effective...

Panel: Impure Polio Shots May Have Caused Cancer WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A monkey virus that contaminated some batches of polio (news - web sites) vaccine in the 1950s and 1960s had the potential to cause cancer, but there is not enough evidence to tell whether it actually did, a panel of experts reported on Tuesday. Studies do not seem to suggest that people who got the vaccine have experienced a higher rate of cancer, but the virus, called SV40, does have the potential to damage cells and turn them cancerous, the Institute of Medicine (news - web sites) panel said....

Millions of doses of the smallpox vaccine are to be stockpiled by the government to prepare for mass vaccination in the event of a bio-terrorist attack. The Department of Health said that while there was no evidence of a specific threat it was carrying out "intensive planning" just in case. Key health workers, including doctors and nurses, will be first to be offered the vaccine. They will form the first line of defence in any outbreak, caring for those taken ill in isolation.We should have in place enough vaccine to vaccinate on a mass population basis if necessary .... However,...

<p>The acceleration of a three-year-old outbreak of an exotic, mosquito-borne infection is worrying public health experts across the country. Louisiana has been hardest-hit this year by the West Nile virus, with at least 85 cases and eight deaths, but since infections were first found in the U.S. three years ago, cases have been discovered in 35 states and the District of Columbia. By next year, the virus is expected to cross the Rockies and spread to the Western states.</p>

WASHINGTON (Reuters Health) - Though there is still no clear consensus, a majority of researchers told a quasi-governmental health panel Thursday that simian virus 40 (SV40) has become established in humans, and that it plays a role in causing cancer, including in people who had virus-contaminated polio vaccines in the 1950s and 1960s. The experts addressed the Institute of Medicine ( news - web sites)'s (IOM) Immunization Safety Committee, which met to hear the latest epidemiologic and lab data on SV40. In 2 to 3 months, the committee will issue a report, along with recommendations based on their assessment of...

Hospitals are usually eager to tout their expertise in treating various diseases. But there is little upside, it seems, in becoming St. Smallpox.Across the country, state and local officials developing smallpox-response plans at the behest of the federal government are discovering that hospitals are reluctant to be tapped for the duty. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that planners identify a "Type C," or facility for contagious smallpox patients, in each community or region, to be activated in the event of an outbreak. Such centers would house confirmed and probable cases.Hospitals, though, see little advantage in being designated...

<p>In a major shift in public health policy that underscores government concerns about bioterrorism, federal health officials are gathering enough smallpox vaccine to inoculate the entire country and are considering a widespread vaccination campaign.</p> <p>By December, according to public health leaders in Washington D.C., the U.S. government will have more than 100 million doses of the vaccine in hand, an amount they say could be effectively diluted to make the shots available to everyone in the country. An inoculation effort using the sometimes risky vaccine would be new to millions of Americans born after the United States stopped offering the shots in 1972.</p>