Be truthful about vaccines or keep away from my children

CARMEN REID

August 15, 2004

Scotland on Sunday

OK, I thought I would be able to write something calm and balanced, drawing on both sides of the arguments for and against childhood vaccinations. But I’m so furious at being LIED to time after time by the government that nothing very calm comes to mind.

I made sure my children’s vaccinations did not include the mercury- based preservative thiomersal, despite assurance from the Glasgow public health doctor himself, on the phone, that it was "perfectly safe".

Now, lo and behold, a new five-in-one injection is being spun as "good news, it’s mercury-free" - so that we don’t ask any questions about what else is in it or whether our babies should be injected with five diseases in one day.

According to the Department of Health, this is not because thiomersal isn’t safe, it’s about "reducing mercury in the environment". What total horse manure! What about banning mercury fillings for children then, as they do in Canada and other enlightened countries - wouldn’t that help reduce mercury "in the environment" as well as in our children’s brains and bloodstreams?

Instead of mercury, the new vaccination contains aluminium and formaldehyde, both known neurological toxins, held by some experts as equally responsible for autism. Just thought you’d like to know.

Formaldehyde - banned from cot mattresses because of a link to cot death - is going to be injected directly into our babies’ bloodstreams at two, three and four months of age. I can’t be the only parent who thinks this might be risky.

Inventing new vaccine cocktails is mega business, of course. Anyone heard of the patenting system? New vaccines are patented for 10 or 15 years, during which time maximum money is made from them. After that, the profits fall off. Unless, of course, you can come up with a new version to patent.

The MMR vaccine was introduced in the late 1980s - after some heavy sales pitching by the drug companies, no doubt - because the patents had expired on the highly safe and successful single Measles and Rubella injections in use in Britain for 20 years. Don’t believe me? Just wait a year or two. The MMR patent is due to expire, but not to worry - the lovely new MMRV (which includes added chickenpox protection) will probably be snapped up by our gullible Department of Health instead.

Parents will be inundated with stories of ‘How Chickenpox Kills’ to help us make up our minds.

It may be the goal of the medical establishment, or at least the vaccination manufacturers, to inoculate every illness out of existence, but new diseases, new mutations keep emerging. Our only true insurance policy is a fantastic immune system, and that’s just what vaccinations stand accused of threatening.

Autism? ME? Asthma? Allergies? All extremely rare 30 years ago. You can find plenty of immunologists who will express concern at the links to mass vaccination.

When you catch, say, rubella, the virus enters your respiratory system first, so your immune system is on the alert before the disease hits your bloodstream. Your temperature goes up as your body fights back, finally your skin breaks out as the toxins are thrown off. The vast majority of children recover and have a lifelong immunity, passed on through the placenta and breast milk to babies.

Vaccinating a mutated or dead version of a virus directly into the bloodstream may not have the same effect. It may not be thrown off in the same way, it may not protect you for as long, it may not protect your baby.

Mumps used to be a childhood illness, but currently Strathclyde is suffering from a teen epidemic, although all these teenagers will have had MMR. Measles, mumps, rubella and chickenpox can all be far more serious if you contract them as an adult.

It is extraordinary to think that my parents’ generation were taken to measles parties as children, yet this illness is now being touted as a ‘killer’. One set of statistics I unearthed on an internet trawl claimed a child under five has a 0.01% chance of catching measles, a 0.3% chance of dying from it, yet a 0.2% chance of being autistic as a result of vaccine damage.

Yes, the Department of Health knows perfectly well that vaccines can damage children, the possible side-effects come listed on the box. But in the past, I have interviewed parents who have told me with tears in their eyes and certainty in their hearts that their children were fine before vaccination, yet their own doctors, the health board and the government will not accept their evidence.

I’m not anti-doctor, I’m not anti-medicine (usually). But I am extremely anti-hogwash, propaganda, blackmail and misinformation. How can any parent expect to be given both sides of the argument from a GP paid a bonus to keep vaccination levels up?

Just tell us the truth. Let us make our well-informed minds up. Until then, anyone coming near my children with a new improved vaccination can take a running jump.