Part 4 Childhood Vaccinations: Questions Every Parent Should Ask
Every so often we like to invite guest authors to contribute articles on certain topics. We are very pleased to have Marc Weissman, D.C., as our guest author for the next few weeks. Dr. Weissman will be writing a five-part series on the highly controversial and critically important topic of childhood vaccinations. Dr. Weissman has been studying this issue for sometime. He has extensively examined literature on the subject and has presented his work in an educational seminar. Dr. Weissman was awarded the Doctor of Chiropractic degree, magna cum laude, from Life University in 1998. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Biology and Chemistry from the State University of New York, College at Oneonta. He is Board Certified to practice Chiropractic as well as physiologic therapeutics. He is also a certified member of the International Chiropractic Pediatric Association. Dr. Weissman has attended numerous seminars in the field of chiropractic technique and annually attends post-graduate courses to stay current on the latest diagnostic and treatment procedures. Additionally, he has taught seminars to Chiropractic students preparing for the National Board. His clinical emphasis is on increasing the overall quality of life for adults as well as children through gentle chiropractic adjustments. Dr. Weissman is the owner and president of Mercado Chiropractic in Scottsdale, Arizona. The information contained within Dr. Weissman’s blog can be purchased from Koren Publications. Please visit http://www.korenpublications.com/ for more information.
In this next section about Vaccines: Questions all Parents Should Ask, I would like to share some of the misconceptions about vaccines. I will be discussing and shedding light on a lot of these misconceptions and showing you the facts. Most parents know why they should vaccinate their children. This of course comes from the interactions with the medical community, friend and family. In a discussion that I was having the other day with a patient in my office, she said to me “My medical doctor told me that I would be neglecting my childs health if I didn’t vaccinate”. This not at all surprised me, but I simply asked her if she thought that her butcher would advise her to become a vegetarian.
“People often ask, ‘But what about polio?” Polio was a dangerous disease and an epidemic and did disappear. But there is no proof that the vaccine had anything to do with it’s disappearance. I will share more about this later on. According to Dr. Robert Mendleson, a well known pediatrician:
“It is commonly believed that the Salk vaccine was responsible for halting the polio epidemics…if so, why did the epidemics also end in Europe, where polio vaccine was not so extensively used?”
Mendelsohn R. How to raise a healthy child…in spite of your doctor. Chicago: Contemporary Books. 1984:210.
One of the most common side effects of vaccines is meningitis, however, this fact is routinely ignored by health officials:
A meningitis outbreak in Brazil was linked to MMR vaccination 3 weeks after “National vaccination Day.”
American Journal of Epidemiology. 2000;151:524-530.
For years it was noticed that meningitis outbreaks would occur in military bases, among the freshly vaccinated recruits. Many members of the military have become seriously ill from vaccinations.
Question: Can vaccines cause damage month or years later? According to U.S. representative Dan Burton who was charged with investigating vaccine safety said this:
“Instead of hiding our heads in the sand to protect the status quo, it is time to admit that [there are] no adequate studies to determine the long-term effects of vaccines on our children and future generations.”
We don’t know if a vaccine given to your child today may cause a disease in 5, 10, 20 or more months or years! How long do they observe children given new, experimental vaccines? What should be done? A controlled study: You take two large groups of people, match them by age and other factors, vaccinate one group and don’t vaccinate the other. Then compare incidence of disease over a period of several years. That’s a long-term study. Short-term studies don’t give us any information about vaccination efficacy. How many long-term controlled studies are there for all vaccines for all diseases in the world since the beginning of science? Zero! How do I know this? I have seen the paper insert that comes with vaccines, they are very similar to the warning/side effect sheet that comes with many medications. In the Hep B vaccines it says “All subjects were followed for 4 days post administration” . Four days, and they determined that there were no long term side effects. Four days is a far cry short of long term study, unless you are studying fruit flies!
Dr. William Torch was Director of Child Neurology, Department of Pediatrics, University of Nevada School of Medicine. in his study Dr. Torch found that out of 103 children who died of SIDS, 70% received the pertussis vaccine within three weeks. 6.5% died within 12 hours of the vaccine, 13% died within 24 hours, 26% died within three days. As he wrote:
“DPT vaccination may be a generally unrecognized major cause of sudden infant and early childhood death…the risks of immunization may outweigh its potential benefits.”
This paper was presented at a meeting of the American Academy of Neurology in 1982 and published in Neurology, a peer-reviewed journal. What was the medical profession’s response to this paper? Dr. Torch was attacked and condemned for presenting his study.
At a government meeting Dr. Harris Coulter (a well known medical historian) asked a distinguished meeting of international scientists and medical doctors, “What is the difference between vaccine death and crib death?” Dr. Coulter said the panelists looked like a deer caught in headlights. Totally dumbstruck. The Americans got their voice first and said that that question was a question for pathologists, that there was a difference but we’d have to ask pathologists.”
“The Europeans were more honest,” said Dr. Coulter. “The Swedes and Germans commented, ‘Indeed, we know of no way of distinguishing between the two groups and it’s a very real concern for us.’”
“In fact,” said Dr. Coulter, “Crib death and vaccine death are mostly the same thing.”
If you have any doubt about the correlation between SIDS and vaccines, the following study from Japan should clear it up for you:
In 1975 Japan raised the minimum age of vaccination from 2 months to 2 years. Crib death, infantile seizures, meningitis and other infectious diseases in infants virtually disappeared. Japan went from 17th in infant mortality to 1st. (This means Japan has the fewest number if infant deaths in the world)
However serious infectious diseases such as meningitis sharply increased in 2 year olds.
Since 1988 Japanese parents have the choice to vaccinate under the age of 2, SIDS dramatically increased.
Question: Did vaccines eliminate disease?
We’ve heard it said, ‘Before childhood vaccinations, thousands of children died every year from measles and whooping cough.’ And they’ll give you a statistic from 1910, 1920 or 1930 to prove it. It’s true, thousands of children died from these diseases in 1910, 1920 and 1930, but is vaccination the reason why these diseases are no longer the scourge they once were?
The quote from Dr. Ivan Illich, the world famous sociologist was based on extensive analysis of health data.
“Nearly 90% of the total decline in mortality (scarlet fever, diphtheria, whooping cough, and measles) between 1860 and 1965 occurred before the introduction of antibiotics and widespread immunization.” Illich, I. Medical Nemesis. Chapter 1-The Epidemics of Modern Medicine, NY: Bantam Books 1976
What made deaths from childhood disease fall? Less crowding, better nutrition, clean, running water, indoor plumbing and an overall higher standard of living were responsible.
The following graph is essential to understand this critical issue:
As you can clearly see the rates of infection were dropping naturally on their own before the introduction of the vaccine in both the US and Great Britain. Then, the vaccine was introduced at the point where measles was almost gone, and the medical community claims the victory!
The same is true for pertussis:
What about disease like scarlet fever and typhoid fever? They were major killers but no vaccine was introduced for them, yet they have declined to virtually zero.
Finally here is the graph that shows the rates of polio and the point of vaccine introduction. The graph speaks for itself:
Question: What is in a vaccine?
In addition to live and killed bacteria, viri and their toxins, children are injected with some of the most lethal poisons known: formaldehyde, mercury, aluminum, phenol (carbolic acid), borax (ant killer), ethylene glycol (antifreeze), dye, acetone (nail polish remover), latex, MSG, glycerol, polysorbate 80/20, sorbitol, monkey, cow, chick, pig, sheep and dog tissues and cells (may be contaminated with animal viruses), gelatin, casein, human fetus cells, human viruses, antibiotics, genetically modified yeast,animal, bacterial and viral DNA (may affect recipient’s DNA). This is a partial list. Parents who are very careful about their child not eating junk food with artificial colors and flavors would be shocked to find out what is injected into their child’s body. Aluminum and mercury in foods for example, is a serious issue and not to be taken lightly but an injected substance is far more dangerous than an ingested substance. Injected substances bypass the immune defenses (skin and mucus membranes etc.) and have direct access to internal organs.
Formalin is a dilute formaldehyde solution. Nearly 50 studies have shown a link between formaldehyde exposure and leukemia and brain, colon and lymphatic cancer.
Aluminum is a neurotoxin that crosses the brain/blood barrier. Neustaedter R. The Vaccine Guide, Berkley, CA: North Atlantic Books. 1996
In the last and final section, I will share with you some insights about health from a different perspective. What it really means to get sick? How to deal with it and how you can move forward. Thank you for taking the time to educate yourself. If you have any questions, comments or have any input please feel free to visit my website at www.mercadochiropractic.com and send me an e-mail.
Marc Weissman, D.C.
Mercado Chiropractic
10135 E. Via Linda
Suite 115
Scottsdale, AZ 85258
(480) 661-7000
