Following Bill Maher’s delicate-in-the-extreme discussion of vaccine safety with medical doctor Jay Gordon, and subsequent outcry from the predictable corners, one wonders: why is the topic so controversial? Vaccines are a pharmaceutical product, made by the same corporations that have, in the past, knowingly put onto the market dangerous drugs that ended up killing thousands of people. Vioxx, for instance. But while we can criticize or question the safety of these other drugs, vaccine safety is somehow taboo. This is crazy. Dangerously crazy.
We know that, unlike any other consumer product, vaccine manufacturers are shielded from lawsuits over injuries stemming from their product.
We know that, through the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program, over $4 billion has been paid out to victims of vaccine injury.
We also know, through a Harvard Pilgrim study, that only 1% of vaccine injuries are ever even reported as such.
Thanks to this 2011 study published in the Pace law journal, we also know, despite claims that vaccines don’t cause autism, that the vaccine court has been compensating cases of vaccine-induced brain injury for years.
We know, after taking a moment to review the history of infectious disease in the 20th century, that vaccines played no part in the dramatic decline in infectious disease mortality in the first half of the 20th century. By deduction alone, we know that vaccines didn’t save the world, and aren’t currently saving the world. Sanitation, specifically water purification, plumbing, and food standards, are protecting us, and maintaining herd immunity. Not vaccines.
We know that the amount of aluminum contained in the set of shots given before an infant is 2 months old is unbelievably reckless. I wrote this in an earlier article:
“The disturbing aspect of the use of aluminum as an adjuvant is that it has never been safety-tested for use in pediatric vaccines, despite the well-documented risks of injected aluminum, such as its role in causing dialysis-associated encephalopathy syndrome, also known as “dialysis dementia”, among individuals who are given dialysis fluid contaminated with aluminum. The injected aluminum bypasses the liver and gastrointestinal tract, which filters out any aluminum consumed incidentally, and goes straight into the bloodstream.
A 1997 study published in the New England Journal of Medicine, “Aluminum Neurotoxicity in Preterm Infants Receiving Intravenous-Feeding Solutions”, found that any amount greater than 4 to 5 micrograms (mcg) per kilogram of body weight per day of aluminum received intravenously in preterm infants would result in significant negative effects for mental development later in life.
The Hepatitis B vaccine, administered on the very first day of life, contains 250 mcg of aluminum. At age 2 months, a baby receives four shots containing aluminum: Hep B (250 mcg), DTap (625 mcg), PCV (125 mcg), and Hib (225 mcg). The combined total amounts to 1,225 mcg of aluminum injected in a single doctor’s visit.
The anthrax vaccine BioVaxx, given to Gulf War soldiers who later developed what is now known as Gulf War Syndrome, has been studied for its neurotoxic effects in mice. In the study, “Aluminum Adjuvant Linked to Gulf War Illness Induces Motor Neuron Death in Mice”, the vaccine, which contained 830 mcg of aluminum hydroxide, was administered to mice that subsequently developed “significant cognitive deficits” and “significant motor neuron loss”. A separate study, ‘Aluminum hydroxide injections lead to motor deficits and motor neuron degeneration’, published in the Journal of Inorganic Chemistry, reached the same conclusion after injecting mice with the aluminum adjuvant.”
I should also note that the much-hyped HPV vaccine contains a similar amount of aluminum hydroxide that was contained in Biovaxx.
This is an insane state of affairs, and one that would not be tolerated if it were any other consumer product. But because the topic is vaccines, it becomes taboo. We shouldn’t even question their safety, how dare we? That’s the prevailing attitude, but one that is rapidly weakening. The teflon sheen is wearing thin, as greater numbers of people raise their eyebrows at the sheer number of injuries being reported. Usually anything that can’t withstand criticism, and that relies on censorship for its power, is already bankrupt. Criticism and debate make everything better. It would make vaccines better. The industry might change, which would be uncomfortable for the industry, but if it can’t stand on it’s own merits, if it can’t make an actual case for its product, then it deserves to change. Artificially suppressing public opinion, squashing debate, will foster even greater distrust in the public officials engaged in it. A consumer product that has the ability to paralyze, or kill, deserves a serious debate over safety. Not censorship.
