I’d like to respond to “Measles on a steep rise”. I agree that people need to be educated about the facts concerning measles and vaccination. So, here are a few facts that weren’t mentioned in Mr. Weightman’s letter to the editor:
Measles is a mild infection, when acquired in childhood, that confers life long immunity.
Death from measles is generally due to poor sanitation and poor nutrition. The WHO recommends treating children in 3rd world countries with high doses of Vitamin A, which enables the immune system to effectively fight off and recover fully from measles, resulting in life long immunity.
Death rates from measles fell over 99 percent through the first half of the 20th century, prior to the measles vaccine being introduced in 1963, because of improvement in sanitation, nutrition and standard of living.
The average age for contracting the measles prior to mass vaccination programs was between 6 and 12 years old. The measles vaccine given in childhood blocks contracting the infection during this window, when it is usually mild and benign. However, vaccine acquired “immunity” wanes over time, resulting in generations of adults who are now susceptible to contracting the measles at an age when complications are often serious, permanent and sometimes deadly. The same goes for the chicken pox, mumps and other benign childhood infections.
Infants, whose immune systems are immature, are protected from measles through immunity passed on by their mothers through placental blood and breast milk. However, mothers who never acquired natural measles, but have vaccine-acquired immunity, do not pass on adequate antibodies to protect their infants, leaving them at risk for contracting the measles (and other infections, such as chicken pox) during a time when their risk is high for serious complications and death.
Mass vaccination has resulted in the burden of risk being shifted to the two populations who are least capable of safely managing a measles infection – adults and infants.
The CDC’s solution to waning immunity is to give boosters of vaccines, but a recent study found that boosters increased the antibody count only 2 fold and the result was short lived (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28968738). In other words, boosters won’t increase immunity in adult populations.
Viral shedding occurs in people who are recently vaccinated, which is why the CDC instructs to not allow immune compromised people to be exposed to recently vaccinated children. In recent decades, when there have been measles outbreaks a certain percentage of cases have been vaccine strain measles, meaning someone was vaccinated and spread the measles to others.
During these outbreaks, a significant number of people who contracted the measles were previously vaccinated, usually with the recommended two doses.
There is evidence that the measles virus is mutating through antigenic drift due to vaccine pressure. Vaccine failures are occurring throughout the world in highly vaccinated populations, due in part to mutations in the virus. Measles vaccination currently creates antibodies that have no impact on some of these new, more virulent, mutated strains.
Any claims of safety are not based on safety studies, since no vaccine was ever evaluated in a legitimate safety study. Pharmaceutical industry safety studies have never used an inert placebo (i.e. saline water), but instead use other vaccines as the placebo, an earlier FDA approved version of the vaccine being studied as the placebo, or the adjuvant ingredient in the vaccine (which causes the vaccine injury to begin with) as the placebo. Anyone with a lick of common sense would see the fraud here when the results are touted as being scientific proof of safety. Gold standard requires the use of inert placebos. No vaccine safety study was ever completed with this standard – never.
In summary, the much touted policy of mass vaccination has painted humanity into a corner that has the potential of resulting in a catastrophic adult epidemic of measles (or other benign childhood infection) in highly vaccinated populations. Yes, let us lay all the facts on the table, then ask ourselves why measles, a mild childhood infection that was once considered a rite of passage, suddenly has the potential to become a great risk to the general public. The facts point squarely to poorly thought out dreams of conquering nature and eradicating viruses through mass vaccination, as well as public health officials ignoring prophetic warnings from concerned scientists as to what the unintended consequences could be. It’s time to re-think our vaccine policy using allthe facts.
Karen Folkerts
Franklin