Don't Vaccinate Before You Educate

DON'T VACCINATE BEFORE YOU EDUCATE*

by NOHA Professional Advisory Board Member Mayer Eisenstein, MD, JD, MPH

Falsus in uno, falsus in omnibus. Untrue in one thing, untrue in everything.
Latin Expression

20th Century medicine has been shown to be false in many of its assumptions and it has held physicians with non-interventionist philosophies to a higher standard than interventionist physicians. The unscientific thinking of "I think therefore I believe" has replaced scientific evidence based decision making. How can we have trust in a medical system, which has been shown to be untrue in some of its practice? The answer is with great scepticism. Let us pray that scientific reason will prevail and the motto for the 21st Century will become "The scientific evidence points in that direction, therefore I believe." All vaccine programs carry risk and benefit. Therefore, the goal should not only be the prevention of a specific disease by vaccination, the benefits must outweigh any potential long term negative side effects. For example, as a public health measure, if children do not get polio because of the polio vaccine but later die of a cancer caused by the SV40 virus received as a contaminant in the vaccine, the risk may outweigh the benefits.

There are significant risks associated with every immunization and numerous contraindications that may make it dangerous for the shots to be given to your child.

Vaccine proponents claim that the benefits of childhood vaccination are undeniable. However, at the same time vaccine opponents point out that the incidents of autism, diabetes, and other chronic immune and neurological dysfunction in children have increased dramatically in the last 30 years. This points out the difficulty in making an informed decision to vaccinate or not to vaccinate.

In 1970, NOHA Professional Advisory Board Member Robert Mendelsohn, M.D., my pediatrics professor and godfather to my six children, believed in the value of vaccinations. After 1970, he began to question the general value of mass immunization. In 1971, he stopped administering the Measles, Mumps, Rubella Vaccine (MMR), by 1973, he gave up on the Diphtheria, Pertussis, Tetanus Vaccine (DPT) and by 1976 he gave up on the Oral Polio Vaccine (OPV). By 1989 Dr. Mendelsohn no longer recommended any vaccines.

Here Is the Core of My Concern

There is no convincing scientific evidence that mass inoculations can be credited with eliminating any childhood disease. . . .
It is commonly believed that the Salk vaccine was responsible for halting the polio epidemics that plagued American children in the 1940's and 1950's. If so, why did the epidemics also end in Europe, where polio vaccine was not so extensively used? . . . .
There are significant risks associated with every immunization and numerous contraindications that may make it dangerous for the shots to be given to your child. . . .
While the myriad short-term hazards of most immunizations are known (but rarely explained), no one knows the long-term consequences of injecting foreign proteins into the body of your child. Even more shocking is the fact that no one is making any structured effort to find out.
There is a growing suspicion that immunization against relatively harmless childhood diseases may be responsible for the dramatic increase in autoimmune diseases since mass inoculations were introduced. These are fearful diseases such as cancer, leukemia, rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis, Lou Gehrig's disease, lupus, and the Guillain-Barré syndrome. . . .

I want to raise doubt in your mind as to the safety, efficacy, and moral issues of vaccines. My goal is for you to do further research into all of the vaccines, use libraries, bookstores, our internet web site (homefirst.com), and ask questions. Only after fully weighing the evidence can you make an informed decision. An informed consumer is a wise consumer. This journey is a beginning of better understanding the issues surrounding childhood vaccinations.
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*CMI Press, http://www.homefirst.com , 2002, ISBN 0-9670444-2-1, $16.95.

Article from NOHA NEWS, Vol. XXIX, No. 2, Spring 2004, pages 6-7.