The anti-vaccine movement - is it too late?

[ButterMouse]

I don't think you are being a hypocrite Jodie. This is a very confusing topic and leaves most of us wondering at some point whether we are doing the right thing, whatever that is. I agree with you about 3rd world country immunisation. I too have chosen not to Vax Grace although am not anti-vax. I think that makes us good parents and good people. Not because of the choices we have made but because we care enough to have a think about these things. Very interesting read Jodie.

[Emily33]

Here's something to think about re swine flu. The first letter was drafted by an Australian Vaccination Network (www.avn.org.au) member and serves as a summary of the concerns with the vaccine. As it is short it is ideal to send to the media:

I was shocked to learn recently that pharmaceutical company Baxter International filed a patent for a swine flu vaccine a year ago, before the swine flu was ever heard of. This is the same company responsible for sending contaminated flu vaccine out earlier this year (Please note - the source for this information is the Bloomberg reference [below] - it might be a good idea to cite this at the end of your letter). Does anyone else find this awfully suspicious? I know I'm not getting any experimental swine flu vaccine - especially one made by Baxter.

Baxter Sent Bird Flu Virus to European Labs by Error (Update2) - Bloomberg.com

Baxter Pharmaceutical Plant in Mexico- Ground Zero for Flu Outbreak Ahrcanum “ahR-Kah-noom” > secret secrets

Letter Sparks Investigation of Baxter Vaccine by New Zealand Minister of Health

And another draft letter you can send to your local MP (use same references above):

Dear ,

It has been brought to my attention that Baxter International, a major multi-national pharmaceutical company which has now received contracts from nations all around the world to produce and distribute a new swine flu (H1N1) vaccine, is under suspicion for the following reasons:

1- In February, 2009, Baxter's Austrian branch sent batches of what was supposed to be human influenza (H3N2) vaccine to 18 different European countries. These countries were to use these vaccine samples to produce human flu vaccines for their populations. One country, the Czech Republic, tested these batches and found them to be contaminated with live Avian inflenza virus (H5N1 - Bird flu). Had this vaccine been administered to people prior to this contamination being discovered, it could have caused a deadly pandemic.

2- Baxter had been given stocks of Avian inflenza virus by the US government so it could work on producing a vaccine against any future outbreak of this disease. This virus was provided to them under the condition that they would adhere to the required Biosafety Level 3 strict controls. Had these controls been followed, this sort of contamination would have been impossible. There are only 2 conclusions one can draw from the fact that this contamination event took place. Either:

Baxter were incredibly careless with their procedures causing an accidental contamination which then, incredibly, was allowed to get out into millions of doses of vaccine before anyone noticed; or

The contamination was intentional and it was only a matter of luck and good due diligence on the part of the Czech officials that this was caught before anyone received the contaminated vaccine lots.

3- The outbreak of Swine Flu (H1N1) which has led the World Health Organisation (WHO) to declare the highest possible level of pandemic awareness - Level 6 - began in Mexico City - right near a Baxter Labs facility which was working on experimental flu vaccine. This might be no more than a coincidence were it not for the fact that on August 28, 2008, Baxter Labs filed for a patent (# US20090060950A1) on H1N1 virus - almost a full year before this outbreak occurred or H1N1 had ever been heard of! This patent demonstrates that Baxter was working on a vaccine which would have been composed of several different types of viruses including human, pig, dog, horse and avian flu. Is it too much to expect that the company which sent out contaminated flu vaccines in February could not have done exactly the same thing several months later in May?

The New Zealand Minister of Health, the Hon Tony Ryall, has asked Ministry of Health officials to urgently advise him on issues raised about a swine flu vaccine produced by Baxter International Inc. There is grave concern that due to the past record of contamination and errors made by Baxter Labs, none of their vaccines can be trusted.

As a concerned citizen, I agree that there is cause to question Baxter's products and hope that you will also see that there are very serious outcomes possible if a pharmaceutical company, which has been given a contract to make vaccines which will protect health, instead distributes vaccines which spread disease and possibly, even cause death.

It is my will that you do everything within your power to call for a public and transparent investigation of this situation and that any vaccines produced by Baxter International should be thoroughly examined by an independent laboratory for any evidence of contamination with adventitious viruses or bacteria and that the results of this investigation be made public as a matter of urgency.

I thank you for your time and await your prompt response to my letter.

[Emily33]

In view of the above letters, I should add the rest of the AVN article:

Action alert - compulsory H1N1 (Swine flu) vaccine just around the corner

It is happening just as we said it would. First, we said that a worldwide pandemic would be declared and that has happened. Because of the pandemic, we said that the government would use its emergency powers to enforce vaccination. That hasn't happened here in Australia yet but in the US and the UK, all the talk is about getting EVERYONE vaccinated against swine flu and normal human flu this coming (Northern) winter.

The UK government has pre-ordered 90 million doses of the vaccine and has pushed through the testing (if you can call it that - they aren't even testing the actual vaccine - just a 'mock-up' shot whose composition is not the same) to 5 days and at the end of that time, all will be declared safe and it's time to roll up your sleeve - or else!

We here in Australia may have a little bit more time because our winter flu season doesn't start until a few months later, but there is no time to sit back and wait to see what happens. We need to take action now to let our elected representatives and the media know what we feel about any form of forced medication.

Below are two facsimile letters - one that I've put together which can be sent to politicians and a fantastic short piece written by ...a subscriber to our AVN discussion list. Feel free to use it either of these letters as is or to put these ideas into your own words. I have included these letters so that if you don't have the time to write your own, you can still send one. Every single person's letter is important so please - do this now!

[Nat-Bris]

Hi Smurray,

I know I've entered this threat a bit late.... but here's a link to a very reasonable article, with no mouthing off, written by a medical doctor: The Truth About Autism (Oct 2007) Townsend Letter for Doctors & Patients

A major concern I have with vaccines is the mercury content in many of them - with mercury, there is no tolerable limit, it does not belong in the human (or animal) body.

[VYC]

To find a copy of the tables referred to, follow the link and search instructions I got from the AVN:
Excerpt from latest Whooping Cough article by Meryl Dorey (copied from a recent AVN newsletter)
Fighting fear with information

Several days ago, I completed an in-depth article for the next edition of Living Wisdom magazine, due out in approximately 3 weeks. Entitled, Pertussis: The Fear Factor, it tries to deal with all of the misinformation, finger pointing and accusations by showing that our vaccination rates are at all-time highs and so is our rate of pertussis (whooping cough). Please see the following tables - all sourced from the Australian Government.

The first table shows that in 1991, there were only 318 cases of pertussis in all of Australia. In 2008, there were over 14,000 cases. The vaccination rate for pertussis in 1991 was 71% (see next 2 tables). Today, it is over 95%.

There is a heavily referenced analysis here of Meryl's Fear Factor article:

vaccinateyourchildren.wordpress.com/2010/05/12/meryl-dorey’s-fear-factor-hypocrisy-in-print/

It explains the problems with Dorey's misleading use of statistics, such as the fact that 90% of current pertussis cases are in adults (after their immunity has waned), and that areas of low vaccination rates are having case rates 4 times the state average.

Current Australia-wide average child vaccination rates (ie: the "95%") have nothing to do with adult immunity (which wanes 4-12 years after vax, or 4-20 years after infection), nor do they take into account the epidemics occuring in low vax areas like the Northern Rivers (68% vax rates), which while representing a small part of the population, are accounting for a huge number of cases.

It also dispells several other lies from the article, such as Sweden stopping pertussis vaccination and the claim infant cases increased after vaccination.