Vaccine Scene 2008: Overview & Update

Date: 01/01/2008

Any medical therapy must balance the "effectiveness" versus the "safety" of its actions on the human body. For instance, aspirin therapy is effective in preventing a second heart attack after having a first heart attack and it is quite safe, only having a very small incidence of stomach or intestinal bleeding as a potential long-term side effect. As you read the following monographs, please keep these key points in mind in terms of "effectiveness" versus the "safety" of vaccinations:

• Scientific evidence does support the effectiveness of immunizations. They do prevent infectious diseases; some better than others, but this point is not disputed.
• Scientific evidence does not support the safety of immunizations.
  • Safety studies on vaccinations are limited to short time periods only: several days to several weeks. There are NO (NONE!) long-term (months to years) safety studies on any vaccination or immunization.
  • There is small but increasing scientific evidence of long-term side effects from immunizations that need much more study.

In early August of this year Congressional hearings were held in Washington D.C. dealing with questions of vaccine safety. Congressman Dan Burton, Chairman of the U.S. House Government Reform Committee, called the hearings. On the weekend of October 2nd and 3rd, 1999, an autism conference was held at Cherry Hill, New Jersey, sponsored by the Autism Research Institute of San Diego, California. Over l,000 people were in attendance, the great majority of whom were parents of autistic children. At one point in the meeting, when those parents who thought their child's autism was caused by vaccines were asked to stand, a large majority of the audience stood. With these and other indications of growing public concerns about current childhood immunization programs, it is hoped that this review will be of timely interest.