Vaccination debate continues in Vancouver

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      A Vancouver group is hosting a “summit” to publicize what its founder considers to be the importance of natural human immunity over vaccines.

      Vaccine Summit Vancouver 2013 on Tuesday (March 12) at SFU Harbour Centre promises—according to the Vaccine Resistance Movement website—to hear testimonies from parents who believe that their children have been injured by inoculations, as well as presentations by unnamed “researchers” and “experts”.

      The symposium follows the publication last month in the British Medical Journal of a study that established a “causal association” between the 2009 H1N1 flu shot Pandemrix and an increased risk of the sleeping disorder narcolepsy among children in England. Last year, B.C. health workers refused to comply with the mandatory flu vaccination ordered on them by the provincial government.

      For VRM founder and event organizer Joel Lord, the stand taken by health workers’ unions was a “very important precedent”.

      “That is a big indication that they’re aware of the danger behind these shots and feel it’s necessary to safeguard their natural immunity,” Lord told the Georgia Straight in an interview at an East Vancouver coffee shop.

      Lord related that his concerns about vaccines started a few years ago when his young daughter took the Gardasil vaccine against the human papillomavirus (HPV) that can cause cervical and other cancers.

      “She has had a litany of food allergies that sprung up after having gotten the shot,” he said. “But, again, it’s the hidden dangers that I’m concerned about.”

      Lord’s VRM website states that the organization is “grass roots” and “non-profit” and accepts donations. In an article on the site, Lord uses words such as malfeasance, fraud, deception, conned, and failure to describe the vaccine and pharmaceutical industry.

      Last year, UBC neuroscientist Chris Shaw coauthored a paper suggesting that HPV vaccines containing antigens present in Gardasil “pose an inherent risk for triggering potentially fatal autoimmune” reactions.

      In 2011, Shaw cowrote another study indicating that aluminum adjuvants have a “potential to induce serious immunological disorders”, including “long-term brain inflammation”. (Adjuvants are substances used in some vaccines to boost the human body’s immune system to react strongly to the vaccine.)

      Dr. Monika Naus, medical director of immunization programs and vaccine-preventable diseases at the B.C. Centre for Disease Control, maintains that vaccines have “an excellent safety record”.

      Naus, who is an associate professor at UBC’s school of population and public health, recalled that the last time a vaccine was withdrawn in Canada was more than 20 years ago. That was Trivirix, a measles, mumps, and rubella shot associated with mumps meningitis in about one out of 60,000 recipients, she told the Straight.

      When asked about events like the March 12 antivaccine summit, Naus replied: “A lot of it is uninformed and can jeopardize the health of the population. Over a number of years, we’ve certainly seen a drop in immunization uptake in the province.”

      As an example, she mentioned that only about two-thirds of children in B.C. are fully vaccinated with all of the recommended shots by the time they reach their second birthday.

      A report released by the B.C. Ministry of Health in January states that between 2007 and 2011, seasonal-flu vaccine coverage for 12- to 64-year-old people with high-risk medical conditions was about 40 percent. For seniors, starting at age 65, it was 59 percent.

      The paper also points out that although the proportion of kindergarten students who were up-to-date with their diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, and polio booster shots in 2010 and 2011 was pegged at 77 percent and 76 percent, respectively, the rate has now increased to 80 percent. “Anti-immunization sentiments remain one of the biggest barriers to increasing coverage rates in B.C.’s immunization program,” the report notes.

      Naus added: “Another factor is that—in general, and probably more in this province than elsewhere—people are into organic, and they think that drinking orange juice and exercising and getting sleep at night are going to give them the kind of immunity that vaccines could. But that’s, of course, not true.”

      Comments

      20 Comments

      dave19

      Mar 6, 2013 at 4:15pm

      The uninformed parents and Doctors who are unaware of the concerns of the VCM are jeopardizing the health of their children and the population.

      justinandrew

      Mar 6, 2013 at 8:34pm

      How ironic. The closer the tipping point to a bonafide herd immunity is encroaching just when the cranks think they're gaining traction. I guess now that Andrew Wakefield and his anti-vax drivel is legitimate, convicted fraud, they need something else to latch onto. Food allergies? During puberty? Shocking.
      So grows the death count for the unvaccinated... Poor kids.

      Val.Y.

      Mar 7, 2013 at 12:25pm

      If vaccines are so effective at producing herd immunity,
      then why have we seen repeated outbreaks in vaccinated
      population with almost 100% compliance.... Bottom line,
      artificially induced "herd immunity" is a crock.

      RME

      Mar 7, 2013 at 12:36pm

      "There is a great deal of evidence that vaccines do more harm than good." Anthony Morris, former Chief Vaccine
      Control Officer, FDA

      "There are multiple articles in the medical literature demonstrating how chronic illnesses like allergies, asthma, eczema, diabetes mellitus, lupus, multiple sclerosis, inflammatory bowel disease, ADD,/ADHD and autism all exhibit skewed production and over-activity of the TH2 arm of the immune system..."

      Lawrence B. Palevsky MD, FAACP, Pediatrician, ‘Aluminum and Vaccine Ingredients: What do we know? What don’t we know?’

      RME

      Mar 7, 2013 at 12:55pm

      Sadly most people have no idea of the growing body of
      research implicating vaccines in a slew of diseases -
      especially auto-immune diseases. The below is the tip of the iceberg.

      "Genetically engineered Hepatitis B vaccines contain polypeptide sequences that are present in human neurologic tissues such as myelin, and that by a mechanism called molecular mimicry, these polypeptides can act as autoantigens which can induce autoimmune demyelinating disease of the brain such as Multiple Sclerosis…. One wonders how the CDC continues to reassure the public about the safety of the Hepatitis B vaccine when they must be aware of thousands of reports to the Vaccine Adverse Reporting System following vaccination including Multiple Sclerosis, Guillan Barre, and autoimmune arthritis; and when there are at least twenty articles in peer reviewed journals medical literature of diseases such as MS and optic neuritis that occurred after Hep. B Vaccanation."

      ‘A Mortatorium Should Be Placed on This Experiment’, Burton Waisbren MD, FACP, Cell Biologist, Infectious Disease Specialist

      Dee Nicholson

      Mar 7, 2013 at 1:32pm

      Let's see now...
      We have a study emanating from UBC (NOT Dr. Shaw) proving that the flu shot is ineffective.
      We have an outbreak of 47,500+ children in India who are paralyzed, following "immunization against polio in the last year or so.
      We have outbreaks of mumps amongst a population of children where 87% of them had received mumps vaccine... plus booster shots.
      We have in the USA a 4,250% INCREASE in fetal deaths... miscarriages... after pregnant women took the mercury-filled flu shot.
      We have a massive increase in autism diagnoses in lockstep with a massive increase in "recommended" infant vaccines.
      And for those who are uninformed, Dr. Wakefield, who was vilified by the vaccine industry for his clinical reports on the MMR shot causing autism (he found uniform infection of the live measles virus in the gut of these children), has been vindicated, and is now suing those who destroyed his medical career.
      The stories go on, and on, and on.
      Our government indemnifies the vaccine industry from lawsuits emanating from harm, but then does not compensate those who suffer devastating "collateral" damage to their health... up to and including death!
      Now, those who have been (luckily) unaffected (yet) by vaccines, continue to spout their "herd immunity" garbage, and the media backing this ridiculous claim, while the very diseases claimed to be "protected" against continue apace.
      Is this not enough reason for debate? Is this not reason enough for people to question the recommendations of vested interests? Or is this a reason for people to shut off their brains and let the chips fall where they may?
      As a population, we are less healthy than we have ever been. The pharmaceutical drugs promoted to us kill 106,000 Americans annually... over a million per decade... along with a proportionate number of Canadians... but we can't speak about that?
      I thought this was a free country, with informed consent being the prime principle of health care modalities.
      Guess not.

      Correction Needed

      Mar 7, 2013 at 1:46pm

      This article says that the event will include "unnamed
      experts"... This is incorrect. I visited the site and
      the following description was included in the event info etc.

      Dr. Tetyana Obukhanych, Ph.D. - Immunologist, researcher & author

      Dr. Obukhanych earned her Ph.D. in Immunology at the Rockefeller. University in New York and conducted postdoctoral research at Harvard Medical School, and subsequently Stanford University. In her 2012 E-book “Vaccine Illusion: How Vaccination Compromises Our Natural Immunity and What We Can Do to Regain Our Health”, (https://sites.google.com/site/vaccineillusion/ ) she presents a view on vaccination that radically challenges mainstream assumptions and theories. She has been an educator on natural immunity and vaccines among parents and health practitioners in her local community and beyond. Dr. Obukhanych supports personal choice in vaccination and encourages careful decision-making based on proper understanding of immunity versus vaccine-based protection

      RME

      Mar 7, 2013 at 2:10pm

      Dr. Haus' naive, laughable assertion that vaccine "immunity" is superior to the vastly more complex interactions of natural immunity is pathetic
      and outdated.

      We've been brainwashed to believe our bodies are dumb and vaccine deficient. By her logic, millions of species should be dead - not to mention all the people I've known in their 90's and up who've never had a vaccine.

      (Historical records show that death from infectious disease plummetted BEFORE vaccines or antibiotics thanks to clean drinking water and sanitation. IF VACCINES RESCUED US THEN WHERE ARE ALL THE SCARLET FEVER CASUALTIES FOR WHICH NO VACCINE WAS EVER ADMINISTERED?)

      What's particularly troubling is injecting young babies
      to a cocktail of foreign proteins, neurotoxins and carcinogens before their critical BLOOD BRAIN BARRIER is
      even intact!

      "What the promoters of vaccination fail to realize is that the respiratory tract of all mammals contain secretory IgA within the respiratory tract mucosa. Bypassing this mucosa aspect of the immune system directly injecting organism leads to a corruption of the immune system. As a result pathogenic viruses or bacteria cannot be eliminated by the immune system and remain in the body where they will further grow and/or mutate as the individual is exposed to ever more antigens and toxins in the environment. This is especially true with viruses grouped under the term “stealth adapted”...The mechanism by which the immune system is corrupted when you understand the two poles of the immunes system (the cellular and the humoral mechanism) have reciprocal relationship. Thus when one is stimulated the other is inhibited. Since vaccines activate the B cells to secrete antibody, the T cells are subsequently suppressed. This suppression of the cell mediated response is a key factor in the development of cancer and life threatening infections..."

      Rebecca Carley MD, General Surgeon, Court Qualified VIDS Expert, 'Inoculations: The True Weapon of Mass Deception'

      anonymous

      Mar 7, 2013 at 3:15pm

      Liliana-Concerned Parent
      I found the tone of this article somewhat patronizing and biased.

      Those of us who've dealt with a vaccine injured child and
      encountered blanket denial of the obvious link as "coincidence" know - not just believe - that our children have been vaccine victims.

      I'm glad to learn of this event and earlier read
      an article in Commonground Magazine in which Mr. Lord
      elaborates on some of the mechanisms by which vaccine cause so many problems.