Heather Herington BSc, NMD, DHANP<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Except for the\nWicked Witch of the West and the people in charge of putting people in cages at\nthe southern border, I suspect most people genuinely care about children being\nand staying healthy. Unfortunately, the vaccination question has created this almost unmanageable divide between\nfriends, families, doctors and government officials, all who feel they <\/em>have the informed and compassionate answer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So as I scrolled through Facebook, I paused at a post that read PEOPLE ARE IDIOTS WHO DON\u2019T VACCINATE THEIR BABIES! Staring at the capitalized anger, my breath a series of sharp inhales, I wondered why the yelling, the intense judgment. I knew this woman; I had had lunch with her several years ago although a friendship had never developed. I remembered she had said something as vehemently on Facebook about GMOs shortly afterwards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I sat down to mull over the divisiveness in the vaccination issue, what I could say to Testy Woman who was missing a few key concepts. During this time I returned to Canada and learned my thirteen-year old grandson already had an opinion after a discussion at his Montessori school, again based on lies from the CDC and Big Pharma that have so neatly wrapped Senator Pan in their claws. (This is for you, too, Oscar.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n As a\nnaturopathic medical doctor, I have witnessed the onslaught of chronic disease\n\u2013 asthma, allergies, autoimmune disorders \u2013 and developmental disorders \u2013\nautism, Tourette\u2019s and other neurological conditions\u2014for over 30 years.\nStatistics show that child chronic illnesses in the US have more than doubled\nsince 1994 with 33% of these having an environmental link.1, 2, 3<\/p>\n\n\n\n Natural medicine\nspecializes in both the innate immune system, using a variety of\nmodalities\u2014food, botanicals, homeopathy, right thinking and so on\u2014to prevent\nillness, and when ill, to support the acquired (also called adapted) immune\nsystem to ensure full recovery. I am continually on the lookout for pieces in\nthe puzzle of healing specifically with roots in environmental toxicity apropos\nRachel Carson\u2019s Silent Spring, <\/em>so I\nwas shocked to learn that scientists at the University of British Columbia\u2014just\na few miles from my former clinic\u2014have had their studies on vaccines and\naluminum retracted by research platforms. Why on earth is research being\nsuppressed when we need to understand why this is happening from every angle?<\/p>\n\n\n\n As a society, especially at a time like this when everything seems off- kilter, we grasp on to certain myths like a scared child to apron strings. We don\u2019t get that vaccinations today are not the same vaccinations as yesteryear. Not only are the number and doses of vaccines required by schools today far greater, they contain additives that have the ability to cross the blood brain barrier and cause permanent injury. These substances, many adjuvants\u2014probably not a word in your vocabulary unless you have a child who has been vaccine injured\u2014used in a vaccine to stimulate the immune system or create fluidity, while other chemicals are used for preservation and longevity. Coupled with a minimal dose of an antigenic piece of virus (antigen), an adjuvant may provoke a higher antibody level against the virus, allowing for a reduced number of injections, therefore considered more efficient. However, aluminum, the most common adjuvant (in 18 of 32 vaccines), is a heavy metal, a neurotoxin that accumulates in the tissues of the brain, spinal cord and bones. Its toxicity was recorded in JAMA (Journal of the American Medical Association) as far back as 1911! 4<\/p>\n\n\n\n The use of additives adjuvants began mid-century with peanut oil but it\nis the neurotoxins like aluminum and mercury and DNA fragments that do the most\ndamage, as the brain is enormously susceptible to them especially during a\nperiod of rapid brain development in a baby or young child. At this time the\nblood brain barrier is not complete and gives a green light to dangerous\nsubstances, allowing them to infiltrate delicate brain tissue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cNOTHING is known about the toxicology and pharmacological kinetics of aluminum compounds in infants and children,\u201d researcher Lucija Tomljenovic Ph.D. writes. \u201cAfter almost a century of use its safety is based on assumptions rather than experimental evidence.\u201d 5,6,7 The FDA itself admits safety assessments are often not included in toxicity studies. Dr. Tomljenovic also discusses the flawed study design of vaccine trials wondering how it can be known that a vaccine is safe when aluminum is used as the adjuvant containing placebo or another vaccine as control group rather than a saline control. 5<\/p>\n\n\n\n According to the FDA, the maximum allowable dose of parenteral aluminum is 25 mcg\/d yet the content in DTaP (DPT) ranges from 170-625 mcg, HPV has 500 mcg with other vaccines contain from 125 mcg to 1500 mcg. 24. Hepatitis B on the first day of life exposes a newborn to 14 times the acceptable level of Aluminum! 8<\/p>\n\n\n\n The JAMA article from 19114 describes aluminum\nin all its forms as toxic and cautions it should never be eaten (remember being\ntold to eat only non-alum baking powder?) or injected. One study correlated\ndetrimental exposure prenatal exposure to aluminum.9\nYet aluminum continues to be used in DTaP, Hepatitis A and B, Haem.\ninfluenzae, and the pneumococcal vaccine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Other adjuvants in vaccines include formaldehyde,10 a known carcinogen; polysorbate 80 11 \u2013 a detergent that enables substances to cross the blood brain barrier; thimerosal,12 a form of mercury, another neurotoxin; and free amino acids and proteins from cows, chickens and aborted fetuses. Referring to the latter, Thomas Cowan, M.D. cautions, \u201cspillage of {foreign} DNA from inside the cell into the bloodstream…\u201d13 can happen, setting off an antibody-mediated immune reaction; as new antibodies to this foreign DNA are created, the cycle becomes a destructive loop. Dr. Helen Ratajczak 14 noticed this in 1995, almost a quarter of a century ago, and correlated non-typed human DNA in vaccines to autism. Knowing blood transfusions must include genetic \u201ctyping\u201d for compatibility, she wonders why this is not being done with vaccines on a routine basis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Another problem is inadvertent inclusions. Citing an\ningredient in the herbicide RoundUp, MIT scientist, Dr. Stephanie Seneff warns,\n\u201cglyphosate could easily be present in vaccines due to the fact that certain\nvaccine viruses (including measles in MMR and flu virus) are grown on gelatin\nderived from the ligaments of pigs fed heavy doses of glyphosate in their GMO\nfeed. Livestock feed is allowed to have up to 400 PPM of glyphosate residues by\nthe EPA, thousands of times higher than has been shown to cause harm in\nnumerous studies.”15<\/p>\n\n\n\n Researchers\nare uncovering the insidious nature of adjuvants and additives as you read\nthis, implicating a growing range of immune-mediated diseases triggered by\nthese noxious additions. In fact, Israeli researcher, Yehuda Schoenfeld, has\nnamed this syndrome, ASIA, short for Autoimmune\/inflammatory Syndrome Induced\nby Adjuvants. Developing slowly over months to years, the mechanism of action\nis not completely understood but one thing seems sure \u2013 these contaminants hit\ntheir target organ (brain, gut etc) and are not easily flushed from the body.16, 17<\/p>\n\n\n\n Thomas Cowan, M.D. writes in his book Vaccines, Autoimmunity and the Changing Nature of Childhood Illness, <\/em>\u201cUnfortunately the last century is a story of reckless interference with our immune system and, in particular, interference with our cell-mediated immune response.\u201d13 He is referring to the fact vaccines only use the humoral or antibody response (a Th2 reaction) that has no elimination stage. Basically, how can the adjuvants\/additives get out of the body efficiently if we aren\u2019t allowing the cell-mediated (Th2 response) that has this capability? The innate immune system will try to excrete them but complete clearing is a difficult if not an impossible task, and is also dependent on your genetic ability to do so. Those with the MTHFR gene have diminished ability to excrete dangerous substances like neurotoxic adjuvants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Cowan goes on: \u201cWe have been taught to fear cell-mediated immunity (i.e.,\nsymptoms) or at least to see it as a nuisance. In traditional cultures, the\nactivity of the cell-mediated immunity was often approached with a kind of\nreverence.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n On the other hand, innate immunity, when the virus enters through natural routes such as mucous membranes it causes symptoms \u2013 fever, coughing, rash \u2013 makes a pathway for immune cells to kill and then eliminate the virus. Both parts of our acquired immunity – cell-mediated (symptoms generated) (Th1) and the humoral system (antibodies produced) (Th2) \u2013 are activated. In vaccination only Th2 is activated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Activating both TH1 and TH2 means that immunity lasts a lifetime to that\nparticular virus. With vaccination, the antibodies can wane and boosters are\nneeded, adding even more adjuvants that are unable to be easily eliminated,\nespecially in children with a genetic disadvantage. This is the crux of the\nproblem. It\u2019s not just scientists and progressive doctors sounding the alarm.\nSuzanne Humphries MD, a board certified hospital nephrologist, came to\nunderstand the effect of the flu vaccine on the kidneys in a geriatric\npopulation yet her assessments were dismissed. She asks in her book, Dissolving Illusions<\/em>: \u201cWhat else is\nbeing ignored and misinterpreted today?\u201d I see Humphries and other truth sayers\nakin to Carson who in her 1962 book, Silent\nSpring<\/em>, warned about toxins in the external environment; these doctors and\nscientists warn of the internal environment affected.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Vaccination,\nconsidered by society at large to be the greatest medical procedure of all\ntime, has strayed from its beginning needs hoping to eradicate the horror of\nsmallpox.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Originally from rodents, smallpox was described in Indian texts as early\nas 1500 BCE, 18-25 found on an Egyptian mummy in 1145 BCE and hit Japan in\n735- 737 CE 22 killing one-third of the population. It roamed Africa, the\nMiddle and the Far East for thousands of years and by the 16th<\/sup>\ncentury was blowing across Europe like an evil wind. Becoming the leading cause\nof death in the 18th<\/sup> century, it killed Chief Sitting Bull, Aztec\nChief Cuitl\u00e5huac, Inca ruler Huayna Capac and 80% of First Nations through\nexposure to often intentionally contaminated blankets.18-25 No wonder\npeople were looking for a way to deal with this deadly and disfiguring disease. But we aren\u2019t in Kansas anymore. Smallpox has been eradicated and it was aided by a revolution in sanitation, public health and personal hygiene. Vaccination\u2019s initial discovery, a global response to smallpox, is way past its sell by date. Yet, it is not to be questioned, not to be disputed in professional circles or with people like Testy Woman. It\u2019s imperative we realize we are holding on to a procedure that has become a myth that has never been scrutinized in the way other drugs must be in terms of clinical trials.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For its time and the depth of the tragedy of smallpox, there was an incredible genius regarding variolation, the precursor to vaccination. I first learned about this procedure – from the Latin word for smallpox, Variola – when I homesteaded in Nova Scotia in the 1970s. Midwife and herbalist, Marie- Henriette LeJeune aka Granny Ross, emigrated from France in the late 1700s, bringing a vial of smallpox serum with her to protect her family and community. This intrepid Acadian was courageous and a visionary. Variolation would have been a very good thing in the 1700s, and had been used for a few thousand years all over the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Using ground up scabs and fluid from pustules, this is either blown up a person\u2019s nose (Chinese 1000 BCE) 18 or scratched into the skin with a lancet or bifurcated points (Middle East, Africa, Nova Scotia). Variolation still caused a risk of death but much less, .5 to 2 % compared to 30 to 35% if contracted the disease itself. 18, 19 Another technique, used again in late 1700s, this time in Sudan, is similar to the goal of chicken pox parties today. A mother would barter with the mother of an infected child and after agreeing on a price per pustule, tie a cloth around the child\u2019s arm and return home to tie it around their own child\u2019s arm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In Turkey, 1718, another brave woman, Lady\nMontagu, wife of the British ambassador, learned\nvariolation from old women, taking the technique back to England where the\nRoyal Society of Medicine failed to see its value. Edward Jenner came\nalong several decades later, using the same procedure but with pus from a cow\ndisease and again the Royal Society balked. Jenner vaccinated more people,\nchanging the name variolation to vaccination from the Latin word \u201cvacca,\u201d for\ncow. (Oh branding, catches a person unaware.) Jenner was \u201cmocked by scientists\nand pilloried in press\u201d with cartoonists drawing cows growing out of his head.\nYet the rest is history; a history that embodies \u201cthe greatest medical\ndiscovery of all time.\u201d 18, 19, 25<\/p>\n\n\n\n But can we really say that now? No, we can\u2019t, or we\nshouldn\u2019t. Because of that strange\nword: adjuvants, harmful neurotoxins or other contaminants injected into a\nmuscle that may end up in a vulnerable brain causing permanent injury.<\/p>\n\n\n\n These weren\u2019t included in the\nbrilliant discovery by desperate people around the world to eliminate a deadly\ndisease that had occurred for hundreds if not thousands of years. But they are\nnow, in almost every vaccine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And this is why I helped in the fight against SB276 – a California bill that affects fragile children. I have been shocked to tears to witness the trauma these families are experiencing. \u201cDeath by vaccination\u201d stories sat on my desk now, sixteen of them; devastating to read. The health authorities and government need to know these stories to conduct appropriate studies. People, children mostly, have died and continue to die from vaccinations. Or they have seizures and\/or develop autism, no matter who denies this. Or go on to have any number of immune-mediated diseases. This tragedy is not being taken seriously to the extent parents are being both mocked and attacked, a la Testy Woman. It crushes my heart.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I have started to write the hashtag, #theparentsknow. Because they do.\nThey are the ones who bear the brunt of the paucity of research on vaccine\nsafety who, twenty-four hours a day, tend a harmed child or suffer the grief of\none who has succumbed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The brilliance of variolation has been turned on its head. Adding\nadjuvants without proper studies or recourse for injury has caused\nextraordinary misery through disease and death. How ironic that this is exactly\nwhat was hoping to be eliminated in the first place!<\/p>\n\n\n\n When I was studying Biology for my first degree I was told in no\nuncertain terms that it is essential to keep an open mind. Yet the culture of\nheads-in-the- sands medical professionals and government officials\npredominates, perpetuating the myth of vaccines being harmless. The media\nbroadcasts this message far and wide, brainwashing the public, creating the\nleast scientific and perhaps the lowest point in the history of allopathic\nmedicine. It is unconscionable that California is not just forcing regular children\nto be vaccinated with damaging adjuvants and additives but has taken away\nmedical exemptions from fragile children; families traumatized for no\nscientific basis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We bathe in the belief that vaccines are created equally, that the\nextraordinary benefit of vaccines must extend to ALL vaccines and ALL people\nwhen that is simply not true. No one wants to harm children, not even Testy\nWoman. We just refuse to look at the facts. Why the medical establishment and\nthe government are not willing to even consider heavy metals and other\nincompatible substances are crossing the blood brain barrier and causing\nirreparable damage is beyond me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What\nis needed is right in front of us: good research without pressure from the CDC\nor Big Pharma. If society only had an ounce of the curiosity and courage of the\noriginal \u201cvariolators\u201d – the old women, mothers including Lady Montagu and\nGranny Ross, and Dr. Jenner, we might find a way out of this mess. Until then,\nchildren will be injured; babies will die.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Isn\u2019t it time we smartened up? Bibliography<\/p>\n\n\n\n BOOKS (if not already cited):<\/p>\n\n\n\n Diamond, Jared\nM. Guns, Germs and Steel: a short history of everybody for the last 13,000 years.\nRandom House 1998<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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