Tag: DPT

What Do Anti-Vaccine Doctors Know About Vaccines?

Here’s a tip for pre-med students – simply going to a good, or even great medical school, doesn’t guarantee that you will become a good doctor. Or even that you won’t become a bad doctor.

One of the few things that Del Bigtree has ever gotten right. Anti-vaccine doctors are a big part of the problem.
One of the few things that Del Bigtree has ever gotten right. Anti-vaccine doctors are a big part of the problem.

There are plenty of folks that end up being quacks that have gone to NYU, Harvard, and Dartmouth, etc.

“Gordon hated medical school. He almost flunked out.”

Pediatrician Jay Gordon Talks Babies, Breast Feeding, Vaccines and Almost Flunking Out of Medical School

But there are a few things that anti-vaccine pediatricians have in common.

What Do Anti-Vaccine Doctors Know About Vaccines?

For one thing, they never consider themselves to be anti-vaccine.

That probably goes without saying. Well, at least by them.

There is something else that they have in common that likely won’t surprise you.

Anti-vaccine doctors don't seem to know anything about vaccines.

They all say that they didn’t learn very much about vaccines in medical school or residency!

In fact, Bob Sears and Paul Thomas say that they learned nothing about vaccines and they are the ones who wrote books with alternative immunization schedules that are influencing parents to avoid vaccinating and protecting their kids.

Having read their books, I believe them!

“We got a lot of microbiology. We learned about diseases. We learned that vaccines were the solution to those diseases what they say are “vaccine preventable,” that’s the term that they used in my world, but what’s in the vaccines, I don’t really remember really learning anything.”

Paul Thomas

Wait, what?

Does that mean he doesn’t think that measles and polio and other diseases can really be prevented by vaccines?

“During your training in the hospital, you get everything else except vaccines. You learn about all of the rare things. All of the super rare disorders that you may never see in the office. That’s what we spend the time learning and and and almost nothing about vaccination.”

Bob Sears

Is anyone surprised that Suzanne Humphries, Joseph Mercola, and these other folks didn’t learn anything about vaccines during their training?

“Don’t buy into the lore, don’t make assumptions, and understand that the philosophical underpinnings of the vaccination program are predicated on an antiquated perspective: warring against and attempting to eradicate bad germs. Science has left that childlike notion in the dust, and so should we.”

Kelly Brogan

Do you think that Kelly Brogan, a holistic psychiatrist, learned much about vaccines at NYU? Anything about science???

Why does anyone listen to these folks?

But they learned about vaccines later, right?

“Robert Sears became interested in vaccines as a medical student after reading “DPT: A Shot in the Dark,” a 1985 book that argued that the whooping cough vaccine was dangerous. (The makeup of the vaccine has since been changed.) Sears said the book, which helped spark a backlash against vaccines, exposed him to ideas he wasn’t hearing in school.”

Vaccination controversy swirls around O.C.’s ‘Dr. Bob’

Maybe, but as in the case of Dr. Bob, it is important to note that he was influenced by a book that we know to be wrong. Later studies have shown that the original DPT vaccine did not cause any of the serious side effects that were originally blamed on it, including in the anti-vaccine book that got him started.

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What Are the Non-Specific Effects of Vaccinations?

Most of us are well aware of the risks (small) and benefits (big) of vaccines. That’s why we vaccinate our kids!

You probably aren’t aware that vaccines can also have non-specific effects.

What Are the Non-Specific Effects of Vaccinations?

Not getting measles after getting an MMR vaccine is a direct or specific effect of the vaccine.

“Vaccines are developed to produce an immune response to protect against specific disease targets. In addition to the specific effect of vaccines in reducing illness and death due to the disease targeted by the vaccine, some researchers have argued that there are additional “off-target” or “non-specific effects” (NSE) of vaccines, based on findings from observational studies. This refers to the potential effects besides the direct protection against the disease for which a given vaccine was developed.

In other words, NSE refers to any effect of a given vaccine, other than the intended effect of preventing disease caused by the specific pathogen they were designed to protect against. If present for a vaccine, NSE could potentially be beneficial, e.g. increasing protection against non-targeted infections, or disadvantageous, e.g. by increasing susceptibility to non-targeted infections.”

Non-specific effects of vaccines: Questions and answers

Not dying of another disease because you didn’t get measles would be a non-specific effect of the MMR vaccine.

It is also thought that the BCG vaccine might have a non-specific effect that protects you against other infections.

Are these non-specific effects real?

What about the studies that found the DPT vaccine could increase mortality from other infections?

Non-specific effects aren’t all positive…

The initial research on these non-specific effects of vaccines was done by Peter Aaby in Guinea-Bissau West Africa.

“A study in Guinea-Bissau published in the British Medical Journal in December 2000 suggested a nonspecific effect of routine vaccination that might influence survival in infants, either negatively or positively, depending upon the vaccine. Increased mortality was reported in children vaccinated with DPT in the 6 months following vaccination. Female gender was suggested as a modifier of the outcome.

GACVS reviewed this issue and urged WHO to arrange for testing of the hypothesis on different data sets from different countries where vaccination data, death, and other factors possibly influencing mortality had been recorded. Following an open call for proposals, WHO funded or cofunded studies in Bangladesh, Burkina Faso, Indonesia, and Papua New Guinea.

Analysis of those studies was completed: all of them showed reduced mortality in the children vaccinated with all of the vaccines. In particular, the studies showed no negative effect of DPT vaccination and no difference between males and females. Preliminary results of an independent analysis conducted to test the hypothesis on another six data sets have been communicated to GACVS. None of these confirmed the observations from Guinea-Bissau with respect to the DPT vaccine.

GACVS concluded that the evidence is sufficient to reject the hypothesis for an increased nonspecific mortality following vaccination.”

Potential adverse impact of routine vaccination

The Global Advisory Committee on Vaccine Safety of the WHO thoroughly looked into Aaby’s hypothesis.

It was rejected after further studies were done.

“The Global Advisory Committee on Vaccine Safety of the WHO, an independent group of experts in drug safety, vaccine science, and epidemiology that advises the Department of Vaccines and Biologicals of the organisation, has closely considered the reported findings and conclusions of the paper. It has found that numerous and serious deficiencies in the paper did not allow it to reach the same definitive conclusions reached by the authors. In particular, it found that the reported observations are incomplete and do not tally, no systematic effort has been made to address the likelihood of bias introduced by the method of data collection, and categorical inferences have been drawn from data that are either not significant or critically dependent on a very small number of results that might equally be explained by chance. In addition, the probability of the results being distorted by confounding factors has not been adequately addressed. The analysis was data driven and not based on a priori generation of a hypothesis, which makes interpretation of significance values and confidence limits problematic. The conclusions of this paper need to be scrutinised to the same extent as adverse events previously mistakenly attributed to diphtheria, tetanus, and pertussis vaccine.”

WHO responds to Guinea-Bissau report

And as Peter Aaby continues to publish new reports on the effects of the DPT vaccine in Guinea-Bissau, researchers have continued to investigate any possible role these non-specific effects might have on children.

The WHO Global Advisory Committee on Vaccine Safety has been reviewing the evidence on non-specific effects of vaccines on mortality since Peter Aaby published his initial research.
The WHO Global Advisory Committee on Vaccine Safety has been reviewing the evidence on non-specific effects of vaccines on mortality since Peter Aaby published his initial research.

One of the latest, a report to the Strategic Advisory Group of Experts (SAGE) on Immunization in 2014 concluded that the “data available do not provide conclusive evidence that the current schedule results in deleterious effects on all-cause mortality in children less than five years of age.”

This is mostly because studies about non-specific effects are thought to be weak and at high risk of bias.

What does this all mean?

It means that for now, we should likely stick with making our immunization decisions based on the direct effects of vaccines, knowing that they are safe, with few risks, and huge benefits.

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Too Many Too Soon Revisited

You know how anti-vaccine folks like to say that kids get too many vaccines at too early an age these days?

Four generations of vaccines or vaccine misinformation?
Four generations of vaccines or vaccine misinformation?

It’s not like the ‘good old days,’ when instead of more vaccines, they just got more diseases.

But looking at the immunization schedules from the 1950s and 1960s, you should know that folks back then got a lot more vaccine doses than you have been led to believe.

Too Many Too Soon Revisited

And you know what else? Those vaccines include the “crude brew” of DPT and smallpox, which contained far more antigens per vaccine than today’s vaccines.

The 1951 immunization schedule published by the AAP.
The 1951 immunization schedule published by the AAP.

By six months, these kids got the smallpox vaccine (200 antigens) and three doses of DPT (3,002 antigens), for a total of 9,206 antigens.

And today?

They could get up to about 174 antigens, including

  • DTaP: 7 antigens * 3 doses = 21 antigens
  • IPV: 15 antigens * 3 doses = 45 antigens
  • Hib: 2 antigens * 3 doses = 6 antigens
  • Prevnar13: 14 antigens * 3 doses = 42 antigens
  • hepatitis B: 1 antigen * 3 doses = 3 antigens
  • rotavirus: 15 antigens * 3 doses = 45 antigens
  • Flu: 12 antigens * 1 dose = 12 antigens

That’s 9,032 fewer antigens or less than 2% of what they once got, even though they are protected against many more diseases!

Not worried about antigens anymore?

Just remember that in the 1950s, in addition to all of these extra antigens, except for smallpox, these vaccines were made with thimerosal and aluminum.

Not that those ingredients were dangerous then, or today. It’s just more recently that folks decided that they were scary.

But it is just important to keep in mind that it is misleading to say that kids only got 2 vaccines then, and now get 69, 72, or 74.

In fact, it’s not just misleading, it’s lying.

If you use the same anti-vaccine math, in the 1950s, they actually got at least 22 doses by age 9 or 10! And they got even more once the polio vaccine was introduced in 1955.

Vaccines don't destroy your life force...
Vaccines don’t destroy your life-force…

Anti-vaccine folks still try to downplay the number of doses of vaccines folks got back in the 1950s and 1960s though.

Why?

To scare you.

Kids do get more vaccines, but they have far fewer antigens, and more vaccines means more protection against more diseases.

In the 1950s, 60s, and 70s, kids were dying of diseases that are now vaccine preventable, including rotavirus, hepatitis A and B, chicken pox, pneumococcal meningitis, epiglottitis, Hib meningitis, and meningococcal meningitis, etc.

What about the idea that all of the extra vaccine doses were added right after the passage of the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of 1986?

Believe it or not, it was almost nine years, 1995, before a new vaccine (Varivax) was added to the immunization schedule. Others were slowly added after that, including:

  • hepatitis A (1996)
  • rotavirus (1998)
  • Prevnar (2000)
  • Menactra (2006)
  • Tdap (2006)
  • Gardasil (2006)

The biggest change? The one that helps boost the numbers of doses so that anti-vaccine folks can try and say that kids get 72 doses of vaccines?

That was when we started recommending flu shots for healthy kids, beginning with infants for the 2004-05 flu season. Remember, nearly a third of their list is just flu shots…

What about Hib and Hep B? They were both added right before the passage of the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of 1986.

Guess what?

Nothing about their little anti-vaccine memes are true.

Vaccines are safe, with few risks, and are necessary.

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How an Anti-Vaccine Safety Handbook Has Caused the Longest Measles Outbreak in Recent History

Can you believe that there were only 37 measles cases in 2004?

This year, we sometimes get reports of 37 cases in a week.

What happened?

A rise in measles cases all over the world happened. And since folks do travel, that led to outbreaks in any community that doesn’t have high rates of vaccination.

How an Anti-Vaccine Safety Handbook Has Caused the Longest Measles Outbreak in Recent History

And that’s where the PEACH Vaccine Safety Handbook comes into play.

Since at least 2014, the PEACH project folks and have been distributing their magazines filled with misinformation about vaccines in Orthodox Jewish communities.

In addition to Lakewood, the PEACH magazine was sent to “a mailing list that included a comprehensive directory of Pittsburgh families affiliated with various branches of Orthodoxy.”

And it found its way to Brooklyn and other Orthodox communities. Many of the same communities where we are now seeing the largest measles outbreaks in recent history, although there are plenty of outbreaks in other places too.

Surprisingly, PEACH is pure PRATT – anti-vaccine points refuted a thousand times.

Folks really should read the package insert of vaccines and should understand what they say. They don’t say that vaccines are associated with autism.

The cartoons were a nice touch, but should have been a tip-off that none of it was true! There is even a cartoon about the HAZMAT myth.

It all does look very official and sounds scary though, so it is easy to see how parents could be mislead by the magazine, especially when they seem to cite references for all of their “facts.”

This PEACH timeline was originally posted on several anti-vaccine websites back in 2007…

But let’s look at some of the facts in the above timeline:

  • is there any reason why Germany might have seen a rise in diphtheria cases in 1945?
  • Ghana was not declared measles-free in 1967. Unfortunately, Ghana is still not measles-free…
  • while the SV40 virus did contaminate some polio vaccines, it has not been associated with causing cancer or any other problems
  • whooping cough cases rose in Sweden and the UK because they stopped using the DPT vaccine in the late 1970s and 80s over fears of side effects. Of course, we now know that these fears were unfounded and many kids suffered because those fears were hyped by a few doctors, the media, and players from the start of the modern anti-vaccine movement
  • frivolous lawsuits over DPT side effects is what led to the rise in DPT prices
  • Jonas Salk testified that “mass inoculation against polio was the cause of most polio cases in the USA since 1961” because the Salk and Sabin polio vaccines had already controlled wild polio in the United States!!!
  • What about the idea that “the February 1981 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association found that 90% of obstetricians and 66% of pediatricians refused to take the rubella vaccine?” That’s actually kind of true. But it was just a survey of a small number of employees at Los Angeles County University of Southern California Medical Center, most of whom believed that they actually were immune because they had likely been exposed to rubella so much in the past.

The rest of the magazine continues with the same kind of propaganda, trying to make folks think that vaccines don’t work, vaccines aren’t necessary, and that vaccines are dangerous.

Their experts?

From Russell Blaylock and Mark Geier to Tim O’Shea and Sherri Tenpenny, it is a who’s who of the worst folks in the modern anti-vaccine movement. They are certainly not the kind of folks you should be turning to for advice about vaccines, or anything else.

I wonder what they say about Shaken Baby Syndrome? Is it a vaccine injury too?!?

As we have seen with these growing measles outbreaks, although it makes a catchy slogan, you can’t always vaccinate later. You can wait until it is too late.

“I can only conjecture. But it has to be a combination a propensity towards conspiracy theories and religiosity gone awry based on bad information and in my view a gross misunderstanding of Halacha.”

AntiVaxxers – Religious Views Gone Awry

And that’s how you end up with the longest lasting measles outbreak in the United States in nearly 20 years.

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