Part
2 appeared in November 2007
Part 3 December 2007
Page 1, Notes
A major controversy is brewing
in the United States as people question whether the vaccines we give
to children are safe and effective. In this three-part series, we explore
the vaccine controversy to help separate the myths from the facts.
We
have conducted an extensive review of the scientific literature to
examine the safety and efficacy of vaccines and the health effects
of these often-mandated
medical procedures.
Does
the process of vaccination represent good science? What is the proof
that the numerous vaccines given to infants are safe? Do the manufacturers
and physicians
who provide them support conjecture or sound scientific practice? Our society
rarely looks at the safety and efficacy of the products of medical manufacturers
that have enormous power to influence the decisions of the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention (CDC), the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and
the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID).1-8 Although
the public rarely hears of the tragedies and side effects associated with vaccines,
we do hear that vaccines promise to prevent a new condition (such as cervical
cancer and genital warts9).
The reality is that we are inundating the developing baby's body with a
growing list of vaccines,10 often overwhelming the immune system
with resultant negative effects. A full picture of the effects of immunization
has not emerged
due to a deep-seated under-reporting of the adverse events associated with
vaccinations.11-13
Our Acceptance of Vaccines
Public health officials have long put forth the basic assumptions that vaccinations
are safe and effective.14-16 The public and our legislators have, by and
large, accepted these assumptions as true. We think of vaccinations as panaceas
and look to science to develop new ones for many illnesses. Vaccines are
now in the Research and Development (R&D) pipeline for diseases such
as chlamydia, herpes simplex type 2, hepatitis C, West Nile virus, Epstein-Barr
virus, and others.17 The World Health Organization (WHO) notes that intensive
efforts also are underway to develop effective vaccines for malaria, tuberculosis,
dengue, and other diseases.18
Jamie Murphy, author of What Every Parent Should
Know About Childhood Immunization,
attributes society's acceptance of vaccinations largely to state laws
that dictate children must receive vaccines to attend school.19 Each state
determines which vaccines it will mandate for daycare and school entry, and
state officials often rely on the recommendations of the CDC's Advisory
Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) and other advisers in the process
of mandating specific vaccines.20
The Growing Roster of Childhood Vaccines
The CDC's 2007 recommended immunization schedule includes more than two
dozen doses of vaccines, targeting 14 diseases for children under the age of
two. These diseases are diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, Haemophilus influenzae
type b, pneumococcal, polio, hepatitis B, measles, mumps, rubella, varicella,
influenza, hepatitis A, and rotavirus. The CDC recommended the latter two – hepatitis
A and rotavirus – for routine vaccination of children in 2005 and 2006,
again expanding the vaccination protocol for young children.21
By contrast, vaccines for seven diseases were included in the CDC's first
childhood immunization schedule in 1983. The vaccines (for diphtheria, tetanus,
pertussis, polio, measles, mumps, and rubella) were recommended for children
up to 18 months of age.
In addition to the vaccines received in the first two years of life, children
aged four to six receive vaccines for diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, polio,
measles, mumps, rubella, and varicella (chickenpox). This second dose of chickenpox
vaccine is new, recommended by the ACIP for all children in 2006.
Recently Approved Vaccines
As noted, a new rotavirus vaccine (RotaTeq) was recommended by the ACIP for
all infants in 2006. In addition, the government has recommended several
vaccines for adolescents in the past few years: a diphtheria, tetanus, and
acellular pertussis (Tdap) vaccine; a meningococcal conjugate vaccine (MCV4);
and the first human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine (Gardasil), which is approved
for females nine to 26 years of age. Gardasil is designed to protect against
HPV types 16 and 18, which cause approximately 70% of cervical cancers, and
types 6 and 11, which cause about 90% of genital warts.22 For adults, the
FDA approved in 2006 the first vaccine to prevent herpes zoster, also called
shingles. This vaccine (Zostavax) is approved for people 60 years of age
and older.
Types of Vaccines
Four
main types of vaccines are used in the US, each with its own strengths
and weaknesses. As described by Kurt Link, MD, in his book The
Vaccine Controversy,
these types are as follows:23
Live Virus Vaccines
These vaccines contain an attenuated strain of the wild virus that causes a
disease. Live viruses can trigger a strong and long-lasting immunity, but they
may cause serious infections and even death in people who are immune-compromised
and sometimes may cause serious infections in people who are apparently healthy.
Live virus vaccines include measles, mumps, rubella, chickenpox, and oral polio
(the live polio vaccine is no longer used in the US).24 Killed Whole Vaccines
This type of vaccine cannot cause an infection, because the infectious organism
has been killed with heat or substances such as thimerosal or phenol. Multiple
initial doses and booster doses are needed to stimulate and maintain immunity.
This category includes vaccines for pertussis, polio (the inactivated version),
and anthrax.25
Purified Vaccines
These vaccines contain relatively pure chemical components of an infectious
microbe and cannot cause an infection. The hepatitis B vaccine, in particular,
is manufactured with a recombinant technology in which the hepatitis surface
antigens are produced in yeast cells. Like killed whole vaccines, purified
vaccines may require multiple doses and boosters to sustain immunity. In
addition to hepatitis B, purified vaccines include pneumococcal pneumonia
and haemophilus influenza.26
Toxoids
In this case, a toxoid causes the body to produce antibodies against toxins
secreted by a type of bacteria, not against the organism itself. Diphtheria
and tetanus are examples of toxoid vaccines.27
As noted by Dr. Link, today's vaccines not only contain material from
animals, such as monkeys, chicks, horses, and cattle, but also toxins and chemicals
such as formaldehyde, aluminum salts, and antibiotics. In the future, we hope
to have DNA vaccines that are free of impurities. With these purified vaccines,
genetic material from a microbe will be inserted directly into a person's
cells, prompting them to produce the vaccine and mobilizing a long-lasting
immune response. (Theoretically, there is a downside: if vaccine DNA is integrated
into a person's genetic makeup, the adverse effects could include cancer
and autoimmune diseases.)28
Challenging Our
Assumptions
As the list of vaccines used in the US grows, we
must take a close look at our assumptions and ask: are we seeing
the full picture? The reasons we should
challenge our beliefs about vaccination include the following: Vaccine Safety Issues
Significant adverse effects have been reported with every type of vaccine.29,30
These reactions may occur soon after vaccination or several months to years
later.31 Delayed reactions are more insidious and less obviously linked to
vaccination and thus necessitate large-scale epidemiological studies to be
proven.
The recent history of immunization demonstrates the perils associated with
vaccines. In 1999, a vaccine for infants was removed from the market due to
its serious adverse effects. RotaShield was approved by the FDA in 1998 for
the prevention of rotavirus in infants but was withdrawn after reports to Vaccine
Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) and a subsequent review showed the vaccine
was associated with intussusception, a bowel disorder.32 In 1991, an experiment
with a high-titer measles vaccine in infants was halted when studies found
an increased mortality rate among female recipients compared with those receiving
the standard measles vaccine.33 And in the past few decades, some studies have
found that an increased risk of certain cancers is associated with polio vaccines
given to children from 1955 to 1963 that were contaminated with a monkey virus.34
The CDC recently studied the safety of immunization by analyzing reports made
to VAERS during the first 11 years of the system's operation, from 1991
to 2001. There were 128,717 reports made, 14.2% of which described serious
adverse events that "by regulatory definition include death, life-threatening
illness, hospitalization or prolongation of hospitalization, or permanent disability." The
CDC concluded that reviews of VAERS reports and studies based on those reports
during the 11-year period "have demonstrated that vaccines are usually
safe and that serious adverse reactions do occur but are rare."35
It should be noted that VAERS is a passive surveillance system and that only
an estimated one-tenth of reactions are reported (by some estimates, this figure
is even greater).36,37 The result is that reported data greatly underestimate
the real incidence of vaccine-associated complications. Furthermore, associations
are not made when adverse events occur long after the time of vaccination.38
Indeed, a 1998 study in the Lancet and a recent review claim that no link exists
between the MMR vaccine and subsequent long-term health events such as autism
or bowel obstruction.39,40
One would think that before injecting children worldwide with hundreds of millions
of doses of vaccines, enough clinical trials would be performed to determine
exactly what the effects of this large-scale human experiment would be. Lack
of funding is not the problem. Each year, Congress appropriates more than $1
billion41,42 to federal health agencies to develop, purchase, and promote the
mass use of vaccines in the US, but not to fund independent researchers to
investigate vaccine-related health problems.
Dr. Link points out that different people will react to the same vaccine in
different ways. Each person's reaction depends on a variety of factors,
including his or her genes, history of infections and vaccinations, and general
health. "The same vaccine will be totally ignored immunologically by
one individual, but create immunologic chaos in another," he writes.
Reactions also differ for the very young and very old.43
The people who suffer adverse reactions to vaccines often are infants and children;
45% of reports to VAERS concern children age six and under.44 The problems
incurred as a result of vaccination go far beyond sore arms and transitory
fever. Adverse events such as anaphylaxis, Guillain-Barre syndrome, brachial
neuritis, thrombocytopenia, poliomyelitis (caused by the oral polio vaccine,
no longer used in the US), acute encephalopathy, and hypotonic/hyporesponsive
episodes have been linked to vaccines.45-48
Some research also has suggested that sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) is
associated with vaccinations.49-51 A study by FDA researchers of reports to
VAERS from 1991 to 1994 found that most of the reported deaths were attributed
to SIDS. The researchers concluded, however, that "the peak age of deaths
at ages one to three months could be expected on the basis of prior studies
showing that sudden infant death syndrome deaths peak at that age."52
Similarly, the CDC's study of VAERS data from 1991 to 2001 found that
the majority of deaths reported were ultimately designated as SIDS. This report
also concluded that the age distribution and seasonality of the infant deaths
reported to VAERS matched those of SIDS. The CDC cites other research discounting
an association between vaccinations and untimely deaths of infants.53,54 Critics
have noted, however, that a comparison with the background rate of SIDS among
vaccinated populations, rather than comparable unvaccinated groups, is not
meaningful.55
Unsound Principles of Vaccination
When children contract a disease such as measles or mumps, they generally develop
a permanent protection against that disease. Such is not the case with vaccines.
As Jamie Murphy observes, "The medical profession does not know how
long vaccine immunity lasts because it is artificial immunity. If you get
measles naturally, in 99% of the cases you have lifelong immunity. If you
have German measles, you will have lifelong immunity [with rare second infections]....
However, if you get a measles vaccine or a DPT vaccine, [it does not give
you 100% assurance that] the vaccine will prevent you from getting the disease."56
The Vaccine Controversy notes that by vaccinating infants and children, we
shift upward the age at which people may become ill from an infectious disease. "Mild
illnesses of children can be devastating in the adult," the author states. "This
is an issue far from resolved."57 Widespread outbreaks of pertussis and
mumps in the past few years bear out the notion that waning immunity from childhood
vaccines can leave adolescent and adults vulnerable to infection.58,59
Walene James, author of Immunization: The Reality
Behind the Myth,60 believes
the full inflammatory response is necessary to create real immunity.61 James
summarizes the work of Dr. Richard Moskowitz, past president of the National
Institute of Homeopathy, as stating: "Vaccines trick the body so that
it will no longer initiate a generalized inflammatory response. They thereby
accomplish what the entire immune system seems to have evolved to prevent.
They place the virus directly into the blood and give it access to the major
immune organs and tissues without any obvious way of getting rid of it. These
attenuated viruses and virus elements persist in the blood for a long time,
perhaps permanently. This, in turn, implies a systematic weakening of the ability
to mount an effective response, not only to childhood diseases but to other
acute infections as well."
Studies of vaccines show that they prompt the body to produce antibodies to
a particular antigen, called seroconversion. However, as Alan Phillips, co-founder
of Citizens for Healthcare Freedom, writes in "Vaccination: Dispelling
the Myths," it is not clear whether the production of antibodies constitutes
immunity. "For example, a-gamma globulinemic children are incapable of
producing antibodies, yet they recover from infectious diseases almost as quickly
as other children....Natural immunization is a complex phenomenon involving
many organs and systems; it cannot be fully replicated by the artificial stimulation
of antibody production....[Our] immunological reserves may thus actually be
reduced, causing a generally lowered resistance."62,63
Phillips also questions so-called "herd immunity," in which the
immunization of enough people in a community confers protection to all. "There
are many documented instances showing just the opposite – fully vaccinated
populations do contract diseases. With measles, this actually seems to be the
direct result of high vaccination rates...," he states.64,65
The Natural Evolution of Disease
A CDC fact sheet states that vaccination programs in the US have significantly
reduced or eliminated many infectious diseases. However, this communication
does not discuss factors besides vaccination that coalesced to improve public
health in the twentieth century.66
A working paper from the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) makes
the following points about the rates of mortality in the twentieth century:67
Mortality rates declined steadily and rapidly throughout the century. As stated
by David Francis in a summary of the research, "Except for a ten-year
period between 1955 and 1965 when the mortality rate was essentially flat,
mortality rates have declined at the relatively constant rate of approximately
one to two percent per year since 1900."68 If vaccines are responsible
for the decline of disease, then shouldn't mortality rates have fallen
more rapidly in the latter half of the century when more and more vaccines
were required?
In the mid-twentieth century, the continuing decline in death from infectious
diseases was due more to medical measures such as penicillin, sulfa drugs,
and antibiotics. As Francis states, "These help the elderly as well as
the young, thereby reducing mortality across the age spectrum. By 1960, 70%
of infants could be expected to survive to age 65."69 Vaccinations were
not mentioned in this paragraph.
In one analysis of health trends among Americans in the twentieth century,70
the authors state that nearly 85% of the "spectacular" reduction
in child mortality occurred before World War II, and nearly 90% of the decline
in child mortality from infectious diseases occurred before 1940. Few antibiotics
or vaccines were available during that time. The major declines in child mortality
in the first third of the century, they say, have been credited to public health
measures involving water treatment, food safety, organized solid waste disposal,
and education regarding hygienic practices. Housing improvements and less crowding
in cities also played a part.71
Given the factors involved in declining death rates, are vaccinations the magic
bullets we believe them to be? Dr. Harris Coulter, an expert on the pertussis
vaccine and co-author of A Shot in the Dark,72 concludes otherwise.73 Regarding
infectious diseases of the past, he states, "The incidence of all of
these infectious diseases was dropping very rapidly, starting in the 1930s.
After World War II, the incidence continued to drop as living conditions improved.
Clean water, central heating...these are the factors that really affected people's
tendencies to come down with infectious diseases much more than vaccines. The
vaccines might have added a little bit to that downward curve, but the curve
was going down all the time anyway."
Toxic Vaccine Ingredients
and Processes
Walene James cautions parents to consider
the content of vaccines that enter a child's body without benefit
of the digestive or liver functions. She says there are three main
types of vaccine ingredients:
- Cultured bacteria and viruses
The medium of cultivation may include "dog
kidney tissue, monkey kidney tissue, chicken or duck egg protein,
chick embryo,
calf serum, pig or horse
blood, and cowpox pus."
James notes that these foreign proteins, which are injected directly
into the body, contain the genetic material of animal cells. Live viruses
in
a vaccine
may pick up the genes of these cells and implant alien genetic material
into the human system.
- Stabilizers, neutralizers, carrying agents, and
preservatives
These include toxins such as formaldehyde (a carcinogenic material
used to embalm corpses) and aluminum phosphate.
This last category also includes
some thimerosal, the mercury preservative that has been removed from vaccines
commonly given to young children (with
the exception of the influenza vaccine, which may still contain mercury).
Thimerosal also may be found in some vaccines used in children above
age six and in adults,
such as DT, Td, TT, and influenza vaccines. According to the FDA, all
new vaccines licensed since 1999 do not contain thimerosal as a preservative.74
In What Every Parent Should Know About Childhood
Immunization, Jamie
Murphy seconds the views of James: "What could formaldehyde, aluminum, phenol...or
any number of other deadly chemical substances used in vaccines possibly have
to do with preventing disease in children? The fact that they are needed at
all in the vaccine formula argues that the product is toxic, unstable, and
unreliable with or without their presence."75 The Use of Thimerosal in Vaccines
One aspect of vaccination that has fueled considerable controversy is the use
of thimerosal (which is approximately 50% ethylmercury by weight) as a preservative.
This substance was contained in vaccines for many decades before the US Public
Health Service (PHS) and the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) issued
a statement in 1999 urging its removal.76 Although the PHS agencies and AAP
said this step was being taken as a precautionary measure – not because
the mercury in vaccines had caused harm – the fact remains that as
more vaccines were being mandated for children, the cumulative level of mercury
to which some infants were exposed through vaccination exceeded that deemed
safe by a federal guideline.77,78
Thimerosal has since been eliminated from or reduced to trace amounts in
all the vaccines routinely given to children age six and younger, reports
the FDA.
The only exception for this age group is the influenza vaccine, for which a
limited supply of a preservative-free version was available in 2006.79 (Trace
amounts of thimerosal may remain in some vaccines given to children, because
it is used in the manufacturing process, not from its use as a preservative).
With the new vaccines (excluding influenza), the maximum cumulative amount
of ethylmercury an infant would be exposed to in the first six months of life
through routine vaccinations is now < 3 mcg. This exposure is down from
a maximum of 187.5 mcg previously.80
While this change is certainly welcomed, we should ask why a neurotoxin such
as mercury was allowed to be used in vaccines in the first place. Mercury exposure
has been associated with nerve cell degeneration,81 adverse behavioral effects,82
and impaired brain development.83 It also has been linked to degenerative chronic
conditions such as Alzheimer's disease. The developing fetal nervous
system is the most sensitive to its toxic effects, and prenatal exposure to
high doses of mercury has been shown to cause mental retardation and cerebral
palsy.84
At the center of the debate over the use of mercury in vaccines is whether
this substance has contributed to an increased incidence of autism in the US.
An analysis of VAERS and the Vaccine Safety Datalink found that mercury exposure
from thimerosal-containing vaccines (TCVs) was a significant risk factor for
neurodevelopmental disorders (NDs).85 Other research, as discussed by David
Kirby in Evidence of Harm, has suggested an association between mercury in
the body and autism.86-89 However, a number of population studies have found
that there is no association between TCVs and the incidence of autism spectrum
disorders.90-92 The Institute of Medicine determined in a 2004 report that "the
body of epidemiological evidence favors rejection of a causal relationship" between
TCVs and autism and between the MMR vaccine, in particular, and autism.93
Concerns about the safety of mercury in vaccines continue. In 2006, Washington
State passed a law banning the use of thimerosal in vaccines given to young
children and pregnant women. This law made Washington the seventh state – after
Iowa, California, Delaware, Illinois, Missouri, and New York – to limit
the use of mercury in vaccines. More than a dozen other states have introduced
similar legislation.94
A study published in 2006 provides the first epidemiological evidence that
the number of neurodevelopment disorders has decreased in the US as thimerosal
was removed from vaccines. This study analyzed certain NDs – including
autism, mental retardation, and speech disorders – reported to VAERS
from 1991 to 2004. It found "significant reductions in the proportion
of NDs reported to VAERS as thimerosal was [beginning] to be removed from childhood
vaccines in the US from mid-1999 onwards."95
A continuing concern is the use of thimerosal in vaccines that may be given
to children age seven and older (such as some flu and tetanus-diphtheria vaccines)
and to adults who are elderly or immune-compromised. The CDC recommended in
2004 that children six to 23 months of age receive the flu vaccine each year,
and in 2003, it approved the "first live attenuated influenza vaccine
licensed for five- to 49-year-old persons."96 As late as the 2004-2005
flu season, however, two types of influenza vaccines were still on the market:
some contained thimerosal as a preservative, and some were preservative-free.
The CDC said then that the amount of preservative-free flu vaccine would continue
to increase as the capabilities of manufacturers grew.97 However, one wonders
how many children are still suffering the effects of mercury-toxic injections
from past flu seasons.
The FDA, for its part, says that with the maximum cumulative exposure to
mercury for children under six months reduced to less than 3 mcg, "an
infant could receive a thimerosal-containing influenza vaccine at six and seven
months of age." The FDA reasons that the maximum exposure from routine
vaccinations would be 28 mcg, which is "well below the EPA calculated
exposure guideline for methylmercury of 65 micrograms for a child in the 5th
percentile body weight during the first six months of life."98
Vaccine Failure and Waning Immunity
The medical literature documents many cases in which vaccines have failed to
protect recipients from the targeted disease, either due to primary failure
(a lack of seroconversion) or secondary failure (the waning of protection
over time). In recent years, for example, large outbreaks of pertussis and
mumps among both fully vaccinated and unvaccinated people have brought these
two "vintage bugs," as Newsweek referred to them in 2006, back
into the news.99-103
Pertussis is the only vaccine-preventable disease that is increasing in the
US.104 It is re-emerging even though estimated rates of childhood vaccination
coverage with three or more doses have exceeded 90% since 1994.105 Reported
cases of pertussis reached 25,827 in 2004, compared with a low of 1,010 in
1976106 – two years before the DTP vaccine was mandated for school admission.
This represented the largest pertussis outbreak in more than 40 years, and
the actual incidence is likely higher due to underreporting. The majority of
reported cases are now occurring in adolescents, who the CDC says become susceptible
to pertussis some six to ten years after receiving their childhood vaccines,107
and in adults. But younger children who have been vaccinated against pertussis
may be affected as well.108
The re-emergence of pertussis is not limited to the United States. Canada,
Australia, and some European countries also have experienced a resurgence of
this disease. A 2005 report concludes that "pertussis is far from being
controlled in Europe."109 Another analysis from the same year states
that "an increased incidence of infant, adolescent, and adult pertussis
has been observed worldwide since the introduction of widespread vaccination."110
Like pertussis, mumps also has had a resurgence in the US. The largest outbreak
of mumps since the late 1980s occurred in 2006, when 5,783 cases were reported
to the CDC between January 1 and October 7. Although the CDC does not have
complete data on vaccination status in this nationwide outbreak, vaccination
coverage for 1,798 patients in Iowa, where the outbreak started, was 49% for
two doses of the MMR vaccine and 14% for one dose. The vaccination status of
30% of these patients was not known.111 Other outbreaks of mumps have occurred
in vaccinated populations.112,113
Another vaccine that may fail to protect recipients during an outbreak is the
varicella (chicken-pox) vaccination. Numerous studies have found that vaccinated
schoolchildren are still at risk of contracting this disease.114,115 In
an outbreak of 25 cases of chickenpox at a daycare center, the authors concluded
that "vaccination provided poor protection" (44% against varicella
of any severity) and that "breakthrough infections in vaccinated, healthy
persons can be as infectious as varicella in unvaccinated persons."116
In other studies of chickenpox outbreaks, the numbers of vaccinated people
among infected individuals were: 29 of 54 cases,117 26 of 83 cases,118 43 of
49 cases,119 18 of 21 cases,120 and 14 of 41 cases.121 Vaccine effectiveness
against varicella of any severity in these studies ranged from 59% to 87%.
The Use of Unproven Vaccines
A contentious area of vaccination is the use of experimental vaccines in the
US military, particularly with personnel of the Gulf War of 1990-91, without
their informed consent. Approximately 150,000 service members deployed to
the Gulf received the anthrax vaccine.122 Some Gulf troops also received
the botulinum vaccine. In addition, the anthrax vaccine has been given to
hundreds of thousands of military personnel since 1998,123 when the Department
of Defense (DOD) began a mandatory mass vaccination program to inoculate
all 2.5 million members of the military against a potential attack with anthrax.124
Although the FDA licensed the anthrax vaccine in 1970, it was not approved
for inhalation exposure. The DOD's mandatory anthrax vaccine program
was ruled illegal in 2004 when a federal judge said the FDA had not followed
its licensing regulations for the vaccine. The DOD was directed to "stop
giving the experimental vaccine to military personnel without their voluntary,
informed consent," according to the National Vaccine Information Center
(NVIC), which recently launched the Military and Biodefense Vaccine Project
to provide information on related vaccines. However, the FDA issued a Final
Order in December 2005 stating the anthrax vaccine was safe and effective,
and the DOD's anthrax vaccination program was again made mandatory in
October 2006.125
The NVIC reports that when the FDA issued its Final Order in 2005, it "failed
to provide evidence the vaccine was effective against inhalation (weaponized)
anthrax and failed to address published research studies and 5,000 adverse
event reports received by FDA demonstrating that anthrax vaccine is causing
serous health problems."126
The anthrax vaccine is one possible cause of what is commonly referred to as
Gulf War syndrome, the collection of chronic symptoms (such as fatigue, joint
pain, headaches, skin rashes, and cognitive problems) that have been reported
by veterans of this war. According to the Institute for Molecular Medicine,
which studies chronic diseases, it is likely that a variety of exposures are
responsible for the illnesses experienced by veterans with Gulf War Illness.
These exposures include chemical mixtures, such as organophosphates, antinerve
agents, and possibly nerve agents; radiological sources, including depleted
uranium ammunition and possibly fallout from destroyed nuclear reactors; and
biological sources, such as bacteria, viruses, and toxins.127 (It should be
noted that the Institute of Medicine stated in September 2006 that there is
no unique cluster of symptoms that comprise a Gulf War syndrome.128)
Regarding vaccines, a study of Kansas Gulf War veterans found that veterans
who were vaccinated during the war but were not deployed to the region "may
experience some of the same health problems" as veterans who served in
the war. Among nondeployed veterans, 12% of those who received the vaccines
had Gulf War illness, compared with four percent who did not receive the vaccines.129
This researcher cites other studies that have found that vaccines against biologic
warfare agents (such as anthrax and plague) and multiple routine vaccines in
Gulf War veterans were associated with multisymptom illness as classified by
the CDC.130,131
Next
month, this article will continue with Part 2, a discussion of
the health effects of vaccines for diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis,
polio, chickenpox, hepatitis B, measles, mumps, and rubella.
Gary Null, PhD
2307 Broadway
New York, New York 10024 USA
646-505-4660
Fax 212-472-5139
precisemd@aol.com
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