Ticket Giveaway: Weedeater at the Triple Rock

Hepatitis B Vaccine. (Shorts).(Brief Article)

Townsend Letter for Doctors and Patients January 1, 2002 | Klotter, Jule According to the American Academy of Pediatrics December 2000 Immunization Schedule, infants born to mothers who are not infected with hepatitis B should receive the first in a series of hepatitis B vaccines by the age of 2 months. Those who are born to infected mothers are supposed to receive the vaccine at birth. The mandated use of this genetically-engineered vaccine has been the focus of much criticism as has the current system for instituting vaccine requirements.

Although the FDA licenses US vaccines, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, whose members are appointed by the CDC, recommends who should receive them. The ACIP recommendations become public health requirements, with the help of vigorous lobbying from vaccine manufacturers. Children who do not receive mandated vaccines are denied entry into school. In some states, their parents have been accused by social service agencies of child endangerment.

Economist Michael Belkin, whose infant daughter died after receiving the hepatitis B vaccine, says that the ACIP decisions are not based on science and that conflict of interest strongly influences vaccine policymaking. In the case of the hepatitis B vaccine, Samuel L. Katz, MD, who was ACIP chairman when the hepatitis B recommendations were made in 1991, admitted that no peer-reviewed, published studies supported giving the vaccine to newborns. Mr. Belkin says that over 36,000 adverse reactions and 440 deaths involving the hepatitis B vaccine have been reported to the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System. Because VAERS is a voluntary system, the number of incidents is undoubtedly higher. At the February 1999 ACIP meeting, the CDC’s head of epidemiology reported that the number of serious reactions to the hepatitis B vaccine was about 10 times higher than for other vaccines.

Molecular biologist Dr. Bonnie S. Dunbar, a research scientist and professor at Baylor College of Medicine (Houston, Texas), has worked in the field of autoimmunity and vaccine development for over 25 years. She began investigating the hepatitis B vaccine after two colleagues, (one of whom is her brother), developed severe autoimmune side effects after vaccination. In testimony before the House Subcommittee on Criminal Justice, Drug Policy & Human Resources (May18, 1999), she emphasized that these were not isolated cases. Dr. Dunbar reports that physicians and research scientists from several countries have observed “identical severe reactions to the vaccine in thousands of Caucasians.” She has also been in contact with hundreds of patients and parents of children who reported severe health problems and deaths resulting from the vaccine. here hepatitis b vaccine

In trying to track down details of the thousands of reported adverse reactions concerning the hepatitis B vaccine, Dr. Dunbar turned to VAERS. She found that “…there are thousands of reports listing such conditions as neurological damage, arthritis symptoms, and other serious immunological disorders. These are the same types of medical conditions that, in my extensively detailed investigation of the literature, have been published in dozens of medical journals that cite the correlation of this vaccine and severe immunological reactions.” She states that the VAER system is virtually useless to researchers, however,, because the reports do not include information about genetics, family history, or even how to contact the reporting physician. hepatitisbvaccinenow.net hepatitis b vaccine

Dr. Dunbar is highly critical of giving the hepatitis B vaccine to infants, especially since their risk of getting the disease is very low. “I would challenge any colleague, clinician or research scientist to claim that we have a basic understanding of the human newborn immune system,” she said before the House Subcommittee. “It is well established in studies in animal models that the newborn immune system is very distinct from the adolescent or adult. In fact, the immune system of newborns in animal models can easily be perturbed to ensure that it cannot respond properly later in life.” [emphasis added] Dr. Dunbar says that some physicians and medical students have been told and believe that “this vaccine is the safest ever developed because it is a recombinant DNA vaccine and ‘therefore you can’t get the disease’.” Dr. Dunbar says that any protein, whether from a biological or bioengineered source, can potentially cause long-term autoimmune reactions.

A Medical Sentinel article [1999;4(5):166-168] by Jane M. Orient, MD, Executive Director of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS) [www.aapsonline.org], also criticizes the hepatitis B vaccine and the mandatory vaccination policy. “Once a vaccine is mandated for children, the manufacturer and the physician administering the vaccine are substantially relieved of liability for adverse effects. The relationship of patient and physician is shattered: in administering the vaccine, the physician is serving as an agent of the state. To the extent that the physician simply complies, without making an independent evaluation of the appropriateness of the vaccine for each patient, he is abdicating his responsibility under the Oath of Hippocrates to ‘prescribe regimen for the good of my patients according to my ability and my judgment and never do harm to anyone.” She says that practitioners are under a moral obligation to inform parents and patients about the risks of the vaccine, listed in manufactu rers’ inserts, in comparison with risks of the disease itself.

“Shoot First and Ask Questions Later” by Michael Belkin. Strategic investment, September 20, 2000. (www.strategicinvestment.com) “Testimony of Dr Dunbar (Hep B vaccine)” May 18, 1999. Also www.house.gov/reform/cj/hearings/99.5.18/Dunbar.htm Klotter, Jule