From: ((Steven B. Harris)) Subject: Re: FREEDOM OF CHOICE VS. MANDATORY VACCINATIONS Date: 01 May 1995 Newsgroups: misc.kids.health,misc.kids.pregnancy,misc.health.alternative In <3nrcj4$b3a@deep.rsoft.bc.ca> peter_macdougall@mindlink.bc.ca writes: >In <95116.065043LNF@psuvm.psu.edu>, Larry <LNF@psuvm.psu.edu> writes: >>The only cases of polio in the United States for years (I would have >>to reseach the exact number) have been directly related and caused by the >>vaccine. > >That is because you vaccinate nearly everyone for polio in the US, so >of course it statistically is most likely that the only case of polio >in the US would be from a vaccinated child. > >However the picture is very very different in Africa where unvaccinated >children are still dying of polio. Yeah, and I think it bears repeating that there have been epidemics of polio in unvaccinated religious groups in Canada and Europe (which were related and transferred the disease to each other) within the last 15 years. The numbers of kids severely affected in each of these mini-epidemics far outnumbered the number of vaccine injured kids in the entire US in the same years. It was a horrible reminder of what can happen if we forget the simple lessions we've learned since Pasteur. You know, it's ironic. I've been getting critisism from folks critical of the standard medical model to the effect that high tech ICU type stuff has hardly increased adult life expectance at all in the West since 1960, and that most of the gains made in this century were instead due to relatively low tech stuff like sanitation, nutrition, refrigeration, vaccines, antibiotics, and IV hydration for infants. Red-faced, I have to admit all this. We get relatively little bang for the buck from the fancy stuff in ICUs, if you look at average years of life gained for the average person. But now when the alternative types attack the vaccines and the antibiotics, too, they go too far! We have entirely forgotten the world these things have given us-- one in which even a large family can expect with reasonable odds to raise every child to adulthood. That's something mankind has never had, and there are people spitting on the advances which made it possible. It makes ME want to spit with anger! Steve Harris, M.D. ------- Public health programs are always hoping to eradicate polio, and always thinking they've succeeded. Alas, it doesn't work, because the passenger jet spreads polio in 6 hours from places where it's endemic to places that have basically wiped out the wild virus (a dozen or so cases are caused sporadically by the vaccine itself). The following abstract gives some of the very interesting story. The full paper is recommended to anyone who believes in the absolute distortions of the truth that are coming out of the anti-vaccination groups. Can J Public Health 1989 Sep;80(5):363-368 Eradication of indigenous poliomyelitis in Canada: impact of immunization strategies. Varughese PV, Carter AO, Acres SE, Furesz J During the period 1950-1954, surveillance for paralytic poliomye- litis in Canada revealed an average of 1,914 cases (13.2 cases per 100,000) annually. The licensing and widespread use of inactivated poliovirus vaccine (IPV) in 1955 coincided with a marked decline in disease rates. Due to incomplete vaccine coverage of the population, a resurgence began in 1958 and peaked in 1959, despite an observed vaccine efficacy of 96% for 3 doses of IPV. The introduction and widespread use of oral poliovirus vaccine (OPV) started in 1960 and coincided with a decline in disease rates. Virtual elimination of the natural disease was achieved in the 1970s in all provinces regardless of the specific immunization program chosen (IPV or OPV alone or combined). From 1965 to 1988, 51 cases of paralytic poliomyelitis were reported in Canada. Thirty-five of these cases, all but one occurring before 1980, were attributed to wild virus infection, (14 caused by imported virus and 21 assumed to be endemic). Sixteen cases were OPV-associated: 4 in vaccine recipients and 12 in contacts of OPV recipients. Vaccine-assoc- iated paralysis in recipients and contacts occurred at the rate of one case per 9.5 million and 3.2 million vaccine doses distri- buted, respectively. The risk of paralysis attributable to OPV therefore is small compared to the overall benefit of the vaccine. Both IPV and OPV appear equally effective, and theoreti- cally, a combination of the two (IPV followed by OPV) provides the best risk benefit ratio. Occasional exposure of the Canadian population to imported wild virus requires that high levels of population immunity be maintained. ------------------------------------------------ Comment: the episode referred to in the above is a 1977-8 outbreak in which a fundamentalist Christian sect in Europe which didn't believe in vaccination experienced it's only little mini- paralysis epidemic in the middle of the Netherlands, which had basically no wild polio. Contact between this group and a similar one in Canada caused a mini-epidemic in the religious group there. The constituted 35 of 51 TOTAL cases over 23 years, in a country which had had more than a thousand cases a year before the vaccine. No, sanitation did not improve markedly in Canada between 1955 and 1985. Anybody who thinks that must have a very strange picture of the place. Here are some more details on the late 1970's Netherlands-Canada outbreak, for those interested: Can J Public Health 1981 Jul;72(4):239-244 An outbreak of poliovirus infection in Alberta -- 1978. White FM, Lacey BA, Constance PD PMID: 7306906, UI: 82069922 ---------- Can Med Assoc J 1979 Apr 21;120(8):905-906 Poliomyelitis outbreaks in the Netherlands and Canada. Furesz J Editorial Lancet 1978 Dec 9;2(8102):1248 Viral and epidemiological links between poliomyelitis outbreaks in unprotected communities in Canada and the Netherlands. Furesz J, Armstrong RE, Contreras G Letter ----------------------------------------------- The first article which began this note is dated 1989, and notes that Canada is now wild virus free, but still at risk for imported viruses, just as had happened in 1978. Mostly the problem is groups of people in close contact who don't believe in vaccination, and who cannot build up "herd immunity" from even imperfect vaccination programs. Well, the article was prescient, because after it was written, the same thing happened AGAIN in 1993. The Netherlands religious group, which had failed to learn from its experience 15 years before, contracted over 60 cases of polio in 1993. This time, the authorities in Canada were ready, however, and waiting to see if the wild virus was going to make the connection between this group and its sister group in Canada which had been passed the wild plague before. Modern genetic typing of the virus was now available, and used to show that transfer did occur. I do not know how many people in Canada contracted polio as a result. I do know that these tragedies are largely avoidable if people will simply vaccinate. The new protocols should eliminate even the very rare polio occurring from the vaccines, which even over entire countries has been only 1/3 of the rates in the mini-epidemics noted in unvaccinated religious communities being discussed. Very soon it will be zero. Whether or not the religious communities in question have, after two episodes, learned their lessons with all the paralyzed people, is not clear to me. One hopes. ---------------------------------------- MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep 1993 May 7;42(17):337-339 Isolation of wild poliovirus type 3 among members of a religious community objecting to vaccination--Alberta, Canada, 1993. During September 1992-February 1993, 68 cases of poliomyelitis occurred among members of a religious community in the Nether- lands. Because members of an affiliated religious community in Alberta, Canada, had direct contact (i.e, travel to and from the Netherlands) with members of the affected community, health authorities in Alberta conducted an investigation during January-February 1993 to determine whether this poliovirus had been imported. This report summarizes the results of this investigation. PMID: 8386797, UI: 93241140 ---------- Appl Environ Microbiol 1997 Feb;63(2):519-523 Molecular detection of an importation of type 3 wild poliovirus into Canada from The Netherlands in 1993. Drebot MA, Mulders MN, Campbell JJ, Kew OM, Fonseca K, Strong D, Lee SH Division of Microbiology, National Centre for Enteroviruses, Victoria General Hospital, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. During the fall and winter of 1992-1993 an outbreak of wild poliovirus type 3-associated poliomyelitis involving 71 patients occurred in The Netherlands. Almost all of the individuals involved in the outbreak belonged to an orthodox religious denomination that prohibits vaccination. A surveillance was initiated to determine if there had been an importation of this same strain of wild poliovirus into a southern Alberta community with a similar religious affiliation. Viral culture of stool samples from consenting individuals in the community resulted in viral isolates which typed as poliovirus type 3. Sequencing of amplicons generated from both the 5' nontranslated region and the VP1/2A portion of the genomes from representative poliovirus isolates indicated a greater than 99% genetic similarity to the strain from The Netherlands. The results of this study show that the utilization of PCR-based diagnostics offers an important molecular tool for the concise and rapid surveillance of possible cases of wild poliovirus importation into communities with individuals at risk for infection. PMID: 9023931, UI: 97176385 Note: They didn't manage to spread it to the US. A silver lining in the dark cloud of Canadian problems with its religious nuts. ---------- MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep 1995 Jan 6;43(51-52):957-959 Lack of evidence for wild poliovirus circulation--United States, 1993. Following the isolation of wild poliovirus type 3 during January- -February 1993 among members of a religious community objecting to vaccination in Alberta, Canada, surveillance for poliomyelitis was enhanced among related communities in the United States (1). In addition, during May-July 1993, a series of surveys was conducted in seven states (Iowa, Missouri, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Washington, and Wisconsin) to determine whether wild poliovirus was circulating or had circulated recently among members of these religious communities residing in the states. This report summarizes the results of these surveys. PMID: 7799910, UI: 95097925 ---------------------------------------------- I'd appreciated it if this message was crossposted to the relevent vaccination and parent's groups. Thanks Steve Harris, M.D. From: sbharris@ix.netcom.com(Steven B. Harris) Newsgroups: misc.kids.health,sci.med,misc.health.alternative Subject: Re: consipracy theorists' libel ploy Date: 4 Feb 2000 06:19:23 GMT In <87cq190n11@enews3.newsguy.com> "Roger Schlafly" <real@ieee.org> writes: >Yes, polio is controversial. Wild polio has been declared eradicated >from the western hemisphere. The only people getting polio (in the >west) are those who get it from the oral vaccine. Only after many >years of heated debate is the oral polio vaccine finally being >phased out in the US. No, the oral vaccine not being phased out of the US. Rather, the killed virus (Salk) vaccine (shot) is being added. Before now, the dozen or so people a year who got polio from the live oral vaccine were outweighed by the many more unvaccinated people who should have gotten polio but didn't, due to their being immunized by means of child-to-adult and child-to-child spread of the attenuated oral (live) vaccine virus. Now that job has been done, and polio has been more or less eradicated from the US. Probably we won't get as good a spread of the attenuated live virus if we use the Salk vaccine first. But at this point, we don't need quite the "herd immunity" that we have needed in times past. From: sbharris@ix.netcom.com(Steven B. Harris) Newsgroups: misc.kids.health,sci.med,misc.health.alternative Subject: Re: consipracy theorists' libel ploy Date: 4 Feb 2000 17:24:56 GMT In <87enhj$f9j$1@nntp1.atl.mindspring.net> "Roger Schlafly" <real@ieee.org> writes: >Steven B. Harris <sbharris@ix.netcom.com> wrote in message >news:87dr1b$j4d$1@nntp1.atl.mindspring.net... >> No, the oral vaccine not being phased out of the US. Rather, the >> killed virus (Salk) vaccine (shot) is being added. > >The CDC/ACIP recommendation is for IPV, with oral polio (OPV) >only in special circumstances (in the US). Interesting. Looks like I'm six months behind the CDC. Didn't realize they'd gone to special circumstances. Still, that doesn't mean phase out. I think we all realise that would be a mistake. Look at all the loonies who won't get vaccinated, and will spread the disease? In Canada in the 70's some religious group that didn't believe in vaccination came down with polio that they'd gotten from some other religious brothers in Europe. Was most of the polio epidemic in North America that year. Dumb. I wouldn't mind so much if the people paralysed had all been over 21 and able to make adult decisions. But the babies really bug me. >I wonder how many people realized that we had a vaccination >program that was intended to infect the unvaccinated population. Probably not many, but it wasn't a secret. Lots of open debate about it in the medical literature, over many years. |
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