- In 1976, children received 10 vaccines before attending
school. Today they will receive over 36 injections. The American Academy
of Pediatrics and the Center for Disease Control assured parents that it
was safe to not only give these vaccines, but that they could be given
at one time with complete safety.
-
- Is this true? Or are we being lied to on a grand scale?
-
- The medical establishment has created a set of terms,
which they use constantly to boost their egos and firm up their authority
as the unique holders of medical wisdomthe mantra is "evidence-based
medicine", as if everything outside their anointing touch is bogus
and suspect. A careful examination of many of the accepted treatments reveals
that most have little or no scientific "evidence-based" data
to support it.
-
- One often repeated study found that almost 80 percent
of medical practice had no scientific backing.
-
- This is not to say that medical practice should be purely
based on pure and applied science, as understood in the fields of physics
and chemistry. Medicine, as pointed out by many of the great men of medicine,
is an art. For a discussion on the proper role of medicine I refer the
reader to my paper titled Regimentation in Medicine and the Death
of Creativity on my website (<http://www.russellblaylockmd.com/>www.russellblaylockmd.com).
-
- The Scientific Double Standards of Vaccine Safety
-
- Most men of medicine recognize that some things are obvious
without a placebo controlled, double-blind, randomized study. For example,
there has never been such a study to see if smashing your finger with a
hammer will be painful, but we accept it without such pristine evidence.
The same is true with removing brain tumors or sewing up severe lacerations.
-
- I find it interesting that there exist an incredible
double standard when it comes to our evidence versus theirs.
-
- The proponents of vaccination safety can just say they
are safe, without any supporting evidence what-so-ever, and it is to be
accepted without question. They can announce that mercury is not only safe,
but that it seems to actually increase the IQ, and we are to accept it.
They can proclaim thimerosal safe to use in vaccines without their having
ever been a single study on its safety in over 60 years of use, and we
are to accept it.
-
- Yet, let me, or anyone else, suggest that excessive vaccination
can increase the risk of not only autism, but also schizophrenia and neurodegenerative
diseases, and they will scream like banshees Where is the evidence?
Where is the evidence?
-
- When we produce study after study, they always proclaim
them to be insufficient evidence or unacceptable studies. More often than
not, they just completely ignore the evidence. This is despite the fact
that we produce dozens or even hundreds of studies that not only demonstrate
the link clinically and scientifically, but also clearly show the mechanism
by which the damage is being done even on a molecular level. These
include cell culture studies, mixed cell cultures, organotypic tissue studies,
in vivo animal studies using multiple species and even human studies.
-
- To the defenders of vaccine safety-our evidence is never
sufficient and, if we face reality never will be.
-
- Scientific Nitpicking Costs Lives
-
- When I was in medical school, there was no proof that
cigarette smoking cause lung cancer. The connection was as obvious as the
layman's observation that smashing your finger with a hammer would cause
pain and even the town drunk knew it was true, but to the medical elite
there was no proof.
-
- No one had ever produced lung cancer in animals by exposing
them to cigarette smoke. In fact, my pathology professor, Dr. Jack Strong,
had trained monkeys to chain smoke, and after years of smoking none developed
lung cancer. Yet, he was convinced that smoking caused lung cancer.
-
- Dr. Alton Oschner, founder of the famed Oschner Clinic
in New Orleans, led the charge in proclaiming the link between cigarette
smoking and lung cancer. It took almost another decade before the medical
elite was willing to admit that smoking caused most cases of lung cancer.
-
- Almost 30 years passed from the time some iconoclastic
men of medicine tried to convince the medical establishment that smoking
caused most cases of lung cancer until it was generally accepted.
-
- The question that needs to be asked is How many
people died of lung cancer, the most prevalent cause of cancer death in
the United States, during this time?
-
- Data from the National Cancer Institute estimated that
in the year 2004, 157,000 people died of lung cancer. If 80 percent were
secondary to smoking that would be 125,000 dead. Over a ten-year period
that would be over one million dead and over 30 years almost 4 million
people who died from a preventable cause of death that at the time was
still being hotly debated by the medical purist. Lung cancer death rates
were actually higher during that time period.
-
- So we see that questions of medical importance that are
nitpicked to death on points of scientific purity can cost a lot of lives
millions of lives.
-
- The Compelling Link Between Autism and the Vaccination
Program
-
- There are over one million children and even adults with
autism and the numbers continue to grow. This is a medial disaster of monumental
proportions.
-
- The link to the vaccine program is scientifically and
logically compelling but these same medical elitists refuse to listen.
Like smoking and lung cancer, we have enough proof today to call a halt
to the present excessive vaccine program and ban any level of mercury in
vaccines.
-
- In 1983, before the autism epidemic began, children received
10 vaccinations before attending school and the autism incidence was 1
in 10,000. Today they are receiving 24 vaccines before 1 year and 36 by
the time they attend school and the autism rate is now 1 in 150 births.
-
- Medical "experts" have provided no other explanation
for this dramatic and sudden rise in autism cases, despite a draconian
effort to find one.
-
- They attempted to say it was genetic, but geneticists
were quick to respond that genetic disorders do not suddenly increase in
such astronomical proportions. They then said it was because of better
diagnosis, despite the fact that the diagnosis is obvious in virtually
every case and that the criteria officially accepted for diagnosis has
become more restrictive not less.
-
- When trapped by a lack of evidence, defenders of a nefarious
position resort to their old standby the epidemiological study.
-
- Statisticians will tell you that the least reliable type
of study is an epidemiological study because it is easy to manipulate the
data so that the study tells you anything you wish it to.
-
- Every defense offered by vaccine defenders is based on
such studies and never the actual science. Then they announce that the
issue is settled and no further studies need be done. After the media has
been informed that the issue has been settled, those who continue to present
the evidence are considered kooks and the great unwashed ignorant.
-
- The Autism Disaster: Is It Man Made?
-
- Today, specialists speak of the autism spectrum disorders
(ASD), which include a number of related neurodevelopmental disorders such
as classical autism, Rett's syndrome, Asperger's syndrome, childhood disintegrative
disorder (CDD) and pervasive developmental disorders not otherwise specified
(PDD-NOS).
-
- I have noticed over the years that when specialists know
very little about a disorder, they spend an inordinate amount of time naming
and sub-classifying it periodically.
-
- In addition they go to great lengths to define characteristics
and symptoms of the disorder that must be present to meet the criteria
of classification. Those who fail to meet these criteria are dispensed
with into another dimension, that is, they are ignored.
-
- In the early 1980s, the incidence of autism was 1 in
10,000 births. By 2005, the incidence had leaped to 1 in 250 births and
today it is 1 in 150 births and still climbing.
-
- One of the strongest links to this terrible set of disorders
was a drastic change in the vaccine programs of the United States and many
other countries, which included a dramatic increase in the number of vaccines
being given at a very early age.
-
- No other explanation has been forthcoming from the medical
elite.
-
- In this paper I shall present evidence, some of which
has not been adequately discussed, that provides strong evidence for a
connection between excessive vaccination and neurodevelopmental disorders.
-
- In a paper I wrote in 2003, I stated that removing the
mercury from vaccines would help relieve the problem, but it would not
eliminate it. This was based on a number of studies in the neuroscience
literature that indicated that excessive and especially repeated immune
stimulation could result in severe disruption of brain development and
even neurodegeneration.
-
- In this paper and a follow-up paper, I attributed the
central mechanism to excessive and prolonged microglial activation with
an interaction between inflammatory cytokines and glutamate receptor subtypes.
The Vargas et al study, published two years later in 2005, strongly supported
this hypothesis, with the finding of elevated inflammatory cytokines as
well as the presence of extensive, widespread activated microglia and astrocytes
in examined autistic brains from age 5 years to 44 years of age.
-
- This indicated that the brain's immune activation persisted
for decades.
-
- Recent research indicates that this phenomenon is not
that uncommon and can be reproduced in the laboratory using a variety of
immune stimulating agents and neurotoxins, including mercury and aluminum.
-
- Autoimmunity and Vaccinations
-
- A number of studies have suggested a link between autoimmune
disorders and autism risk.
-
- Support comes from studies showing an increased risk
of ASD in children of mothers with autoimmune disorders.1-3 Yet, not all
studies agree, since at least one carefully done study found no strong
link.4
-
- Other more carefully done studies provided evidence suggesting
some link. For example, in one study serum from a mother with an autistic
child was found to bind immunologically with specific brain cells (Purkinje
cells).5 When this serum was injected into pregnant mice, their babies
demonstrated neurological changes suggestive of autistic behavior, indicating
a transfer of the autoantibodies into the developing baby mouse.
-
- A number of studies have found autoantibodies in a significantly
higher number of autistic children to various brain structures, such as
serotonin receptors, myelin basic protein, neuron axon filament protein,
nerve growth factor and cerebellar neurofilaments.6-10
-
- It should be understood that these autoantibodies are
not found in all cases and that they may develop as a result of the damage
caused by the disease itself, rather than causing the disease. For example,
we know that after a stroke or head injury a substantial number of people
will develop autoantibodies to brain proteins. Nevertheless, the autoantibodies
can worsen the damage and prolong the damaging pathology.
-
- It has also been demonstrated that methylmercury (from
fish) and ethylmercury (in thimerosal) are both powerful immunosuppressants
and are associated with a high incidence of autoimmunity.11 In this study,
researchers found that unlike methylmercury, thimerosal (ethylmercury)
initially caused immune suppression and then strong TH2-induced autoimmunity.
They attributed this to the higher conversion of ethylmercury to ionic
mercury (Hg+) than seen with methylmercury.
-
- In fact, one study found that strains of mice highly
susceptible to developing autoimmune diseases were sensitive to the ASD-like
behavioral effects upon mercury exposure, whereas mouse strains genetically
not susceptible to autoimmunity do not develop ASD behaviors.12
-
- It is obvious from the extremely high incidence of ASD
that these autoimmune-related genes are very common, but they remain silent
until triggered by vaccines or other environmental toxins.
-
- Immunologists have now concluded that autoimmune disorders
are not the result of excessive activation of a normal immune system, but
rather activation of a dysfunctional immune system.
-
- The question remains -- what is causing such widespread
immune dysfunction among our population?
-
- Immune Dysfunction The Result of "Bystander
Damage"
-
- Studies have shown that the number of autoimmune diseases
has increased over the past 30 years, with asthma, type 1 diabetes and
eczema rates increasing over two-fold. There is also compelling evidence
to indicate that certain vaccinations are associated with these autoimmune-related
conditions.13,14
-
- A compelling number of studies have shown an increased
incidence of autoimmune reactions in children with autism spectrum disorders
(ASD), especially involving measles antigens, milk antigens and antibodies
to gliadin and gluten.15-17 Some of these have been shown to cross-react
with brain-derived proteins as well, especially those in the cerebellum,
a major structure affected in these disorders.18
-
- Recently, neuroscientists have shown that much of the
damage done in cases of autoimmunity is not due to direct immune reactions
with brain structures, but rather results from the release of storms of
free radicals and lipid peroxidation products during the immune reaction,
something I call a "hand grenade in a shopping mall effect".
If you use a hand grenade to target a single person in a crowd you will
not only kill and injure the intended target, but all of the bystanders
as well.
-
- Neuroscientists P.L. McGeer and E.G. McGeer have named
this effect bystander damage.19
-
- The immune attack caused by the autoimmune reaction in
the autistic person's brain damages a number of surrounding structures,
especially brain connections called dendrites and synapses. Subsequent
studies have confirmed that bystander damage is the most destructive reaction
of autoimmunity.
-
- Some studies, as referred to above, have shown that autism
is much more common in families with a hereditary tendency for autoimmune
diseases, which makes sense because they will have dysfunctional immune
systems.
-
- There is also compelling evidence that vaccines themselves
can damage the immune system of immature animals, leading to a higher incidence
of autoimmunity and abnormal brain development.20-24 Mercury, even in small
concentrations, is also known to induce autoimmunity in a high percentage
of those exposed.11
-
- Ironically, things that suppress a portion of the immune
system, usually cellular type immunity, increase the likelihood of autoimmunity.
Immunologists speak about a Th1 to Th2 shift and vice versa. This can occur
with exposure to mercury as well as in response to vaccination.25 A great
number of autoimmune diseases are associated with a Th2 shift.
-
- How Immune Reactions to Vaccines Differ Depending on
Age
-
- The immune system is a very complex system, which at
birth is incompletely formed. This means, and has been confirmed in animal
and human studies, that immune reactions to vaccinations differ at different
ages, so that small babies have a different reaction than adults. This
has been shown with the hepatitis B vaccine now given to newborns.
-
- The rate of maturation of the immune system also differs
considerably among babies and children, meaning we cannot say what effect
will occur in all children. There are a great many variables, including
diet.
-
- The immune system's reaction to infection and immunization
can be quite different. Normally the immune system relies on a shifting
of T-lymphocyte function to determine which is better for the particular
situation.26
-
- The T-helper lymphocytes (Th) can exist as either Th1,
Th0, or Th2 forms. When no infection is occurring, the system is in the
Th0 mode (an uncommitted phase). If a virus invades, it quickly switches
to the Th1 phase, which allows immune cells to secrete a group of cytokines
that kill viruses. It also activates immune lymphocytes that kill viruses
and bacteria.
-
- At other times, the immune system needs a whole different
set of immune signals and cells, which are supplied by the Th2 phase. The
Th2 phase favors the production of antibodies, mainly supplied by B-cells,
but in general they reduce immune reactions.
-
- Infants are stuck in the Th2 mode during intrauterine
life, so as to prevent being immunologically rejected by the mother during
pregnancy (much like transplant rejection), since the baby is seen as a
foreign body to the mother's immune system.
-
- Upon birth, the baby remains in a Th2 mode, but has a
limited ability to switch to the Th1 defensive mode if the need arises,
say from an infection. Months later the baby switches to the adult Th1
mode.
-
- If the baby's immune system remains in a Th2 mode, it
has a high risk of developing an autoimmune disorder, such as eczema, asthma
or other allergies.
-
- Presently, vaccine authorities recommend every baby be
vaccinated with the Hepatitis B vaccine at birth. But, is this safe?
-
- A recent study looked at the immune reaction in newborn
infants up to the age of one year who had received the HepB vaccine to
see if their immune reaction differed from adults getting the same vaccine.27
What they found was that the infant, even after age one year, did react
differently. Their antibody levels were substantially higher than adults
(3-fold higher) and it remained higher throughout the study.
-
- In essence, they found that the babies responded to the
vaccine by having an intense Th2 response that persisted long after it
should have disappeared, a completely abnormal response.
-
- Autistic Children More Prone to Develop Autoimmune Diseases
and Infections
-
- Autistic children have been described as having a Th2
predominance, which would explain their propensity to developing autoimmune
diseases and being more susceptible to infections early in life.20,28-30
-
- Elevated proinflammatory cytokines, particularly TNF-alpha,
have been described in studies of the cytokine profile in autistic children.
As we shall see later, an excess production of B-cell cytokines and suppression
of T-lymphocyte TH1 activity, as seen in autism, is associated with a high
incidence of neurological damage by excitotoxins.
-
- Several things about these immune responses are important
to all parents, including effects of such immune over-stimulation during
pregnancy. For example, it has been shown that excess immune stimulation,
as occurs with vaccination, can significantly increase the risk of a pregnant
woman having a child with autism or schizophrenia later in life, depending
on when the vaccine is given.31.32
-
- In addition, persistent Th2 responses caused by the HepB
vaccine puts your child at a great risk of developing an autoimmune disorder
and impairing your baby's ability to fight off infections. This means that
immediately after birth this vaccine has put your child at a greater risk
of all childhood related infections, including H. Influenza meningitis,
meningiococcal meningitis, rotavirus, measles, chickenpox, etc.
-
- Not only that, but numerous studies have shown that such
immune suppression greatly increases the number of severe complications
associated with these infections, which means that should your child be
exposed to measles or chickenpox they are more likely to suffer neurological
damage, seizures or other systemic disorders.12,33,34
-
- When this occurs, rather than admit that the science
indicates that the vaccine program is the cause of the complications and
deaths, the vaccine proponents scream that it demonstrates again the need
for greater efforts to vaccinate our children.
-
- Immune Suppression by Live Virus Containing Vaccines
-
- It is also known that certain viruses powerfully suppress
immunity, such as the measles virus.35
-
- The MMR vaccine contains live measles viruses and recent
studies have shown that immune suppression after vaccination with this
virus suppresses immunity in a profound way that last as long as six months.36-41
In fact, the CDC recommends separating this vaccine from other live virus
vaccines to prevent viral overgrowth (Yet, they combine it with two other
live viruses-rubella and mumps viruses).
-
- Yet, they never address the obvious question wouldn't
this vaccine also make the child more susceptible to other naturally occurring
infections such as hemophilus B influenza meningitis, meningococcal meningitis,
persistent measles infection, influenza infection and even chickenpox?
This has been strongly suggested by a number of studies.42
-
- Not only would they be more susceptible, but severe complications
and even death would be more common as well.
-
- When death and severe complications occur due to these
infections, pediatricians, the CDC and the American Academy of Pediatrics
use this as a justification for more vaccines, never admitting that the
increase incidence of these infections and complications was caused by
their previous vaccine recommendations.
-
- This risk is especially high in families with a number
of other children in the household or in children in day care centers.
With a prolonged suppressed immune system, exposure to other sick children
would put this child at a high risk of contracting the infection and of
having complications or dying from the infection as stated.
-
- Studies have also shown that vaccines that cover only
a few strains of a virus or bacteria that naturally have a great number
of strains (some have over a hundred strains), can cause a shift in strain
dominance so that the strain not included in the vaccine then becomes the
dominant disease causing strain. We see this with the meningiococcal and
pneumococcal vaccines.43-45
-
- This is discussed in the scientific literature but the
public is never informed. Most pediatricians are completely unaware of
this.
-
- When combined with mercury, which is also an immune suppressing
substance, the effect is compounded. Fluoroaluminum, formed in fluoridated
drinking water, also interferes with immune function, as do many insecticides
and herbicides used around the home.46
-
- Often forgotten, is the substantial evidence that omega-6
oils powerfully induce inflammation and immune suppression when consumed
in large amounts. Those eating a Western diet are consuming 50-fold higher
amounts of this type of oil (called linoleic acid) than needed for health.
These oils include corn, safflower, sunflower, canola, peanut and soybean
oils. So, we see that the average child is exposed to a number of substances
in their food and environment that can also alter immunity, making them
not only more susceptible to natural infection, but also to vaccine complications.
-
- In essence, by over-vaccinating our children, public
health officials are weakening their immune system, making them more susceptible
to a number of infections and less able to combat the infections. This
gives them an endless source of "horror stories" to justify even
more vaccines.
-
- Remember also that mercury is an immune suppressant,
both from vaccines and seafood contamination.
-
- One can see that a pregnant mother having dental amalgam
fillings, who eats a diet high in methylmercury-containing seafood, and
living in an area with high atmospheric mercury, such as West Texas, would
be at a greater risk of having an autistic child than one not exposed to
these other sources of mercury.
-
- These differences in environmental mercury exposure are
never considered by those insisting all children have the same vaccines,
including mercury-containing vaccines such as the flu vaccine.
-
- The Autistic Prone Child
-
- What is becoming obvious is that certain children are
at a higher risk of developing autism than others, for a variety of reasons.
-
- It is also obvious that these newborns and small children
develop infections at a higher rate than less vulnerable children. This
may be because of a developmental immune deficiency, which can affect only
a portion of the immune system and so be easily missed by their pediatrician.
Indeed, it has been noted that a great number of cases of childhood immune
deficiencies are missed by practicing pediatricians, especially the more
subtle cases, which may make up the majority of ASD-prone children.
-
- For example, many physicians treating autistic children
have noted a high incidence of ear infections. These are treated with broad-spectrum
antibiotics, which often lead to a high incidence of Candida overgrowth
in the child's body.
-
- Both infections will prime the microglia in the child's
brain which is the brain's specific resident immune cell. This priming
effect shifts these normally resting microglia immune cells into overdrive.47
If stimulated again within weeks or even months, they generate extremely
high levels of free radicals, lipid peroxidation products, inflammatory
cytokines and two excitotoxins glutamate and quinolinic acid.48
-
- Studies have shown that this is the major mechanism for
both viral and vaccine-related brain injury.
-
- The high incidence of infection in these children indicates
the possibility of preexisting immune system dysfunction. As stated,
this also increases the risk of an autoimmune reaction.
-
- The stage is then set for the autism cascade to develop
and this can be triggered by early vaccination or a recurrent infection.
Remember, the microglia have been primed, either by a natural infection
or an earlier vaccination (such as the hepatitis B vaccine given soon after
birth).
-
- The vaccine is different from a natural infection in
that the vaccine produces brain immune stimulation for very prolonged periods.
-
- It has been proven, in both animal studies and human
studies, that systemic infections or immune activation by vaccines, rapidly
activate the brain's microglial system and can, in the case of vaccines,
do so for prolonged periods.49-53 Once the primed microglia are reactivated
by the subsequent vaccination or infection, the microglia activate fully
and pour out their destructive elements as discussed above.
-
- With a natural infection, the immune system quickly clears
the infection and then shuts off the immune activation, thus allowing repair
of what damage was done. This shutting down of the microglia is very important.
There is evidence that with repeated and excessive vaccine-triggered immune
stimulation, the microglia do not shut down.47
-
- This is what was found in the Vargas et al study, in
which they examined the brains of 11 autistics from age 5 years to 44
years of age dying without active infectious diseases as compared to age
matched controls.54 That is, they found widespread activation of inflammatory
cells (microglia and astrocytes) in the brains of the autistic patients.
This explains the widespread brain damage seen in all autism cases.
-
- This study was one of the most carefully conducted, extensive
examinations of the immune reactions in the autistic brain ever done and
involved immunocytochemistry, cytokine protein assays and enzyme-linked
immunoascorbant assays of the brain tissue. They also performed similar
assays of spinal fluid from an additional six living autistic patients,
which confirmed the intense immune activation and inflammation.
-
- The average child receiving all of the recommended vaccines
will have some 24 inoculations by age one year and 36 by the time they
enter school.
-
- Most of these will be spaced within one month of each
other, which means the priming and activation cycle of the microglia will
be continuous. In addition, the dose of immune stimulants is excessive.
At birth they receive 1 vaccine, at two months of age they receive 6 additional
vaccines, at four months of age 5 vaccines, at age six months 7 vaccines
and at age one year, 5 vaccines.
-
- In addition, should they follow the new CDC recommendation,
they will receive the flu vaccine every year starting at age 6 month through
age 18 years. These vaccines contain a full dose of thimerosal mercury.
-
- In addition, we must consider the effect of the measles
and rubella portions of the MMR vaccine, which begins at age 1 year. The
profound immune suppression, which last up to 6 months after it is given,
will not only increase the risk of developing other infections, but will
increase the risk of an autoimmune reaction and measles virus persistence
in the brain.
-
- Cytomegalovirus is also a powerful immune suppressing
virus that commonly infects newborns and small children, especially if
they are immune suppressed.
-
- So, we see that giving a live, immunosuppressant vaccine
early in life can dramatically increase the risk of autoimmune disorders,
increase microglial brain injury as well as increase the risk of infection
by other immune-suppressing viruses and pathogenic organisms. And, it dramatically
increases the risk of your child developing one of the autism spectrum
disorders.
-
- It should also be appreciated that the Candida infections
in these children trigger a prolonged systemic immune reaction, which means
a prolonged brain immune response as well and a worsening of any autoimmune
disorder it may have produced.
-
- Seizures and Autism
-
- It is estimated that 30 percent to as high as 82 percent
of autistic children develop seizures, depending on the sensitivity of
the examination.55-56
-
- Growing evidence indicates that there is a close correlation
between brain inflammation (by microglial released inflammatory cytokines
and glutamate) and seizures, just as we see with excessive brain immune
stimulation with vaccines. Using lipopolysacchride as a vaccine-based immune
stimulant, scientists have induced seizures in experimental animals of
various species.57,58
-
- A considerable amount of evidence links excitotoxicity
and seizures.
-
- In addition, a number of the newer anti-seizure medications
work by blocking glutamate receptors or preventing glutamate release. One
of the central mechanisms linking excessive immune stimulation with seizures,
as with vaccines, is the induced release of the excitotoxin glutamate and
quinolinic acid from immune stimulated microglia and astrocytes.59-61
-
- In many cases these seizures are clinically silent or
manifest as behavioral problems, often not recognized by pediatricians
as seizures. Yet, they can alter brain function and eventually result in
abnormal brain development.
|
