Tag: MTHFR mutations

Risks and Benefits of Vaccines – Anti-Vax Edition

Anti-vax folks like to say that they are doing their research, even collecting that research into handy binders. And they like to think that they are looking at both the risks and benefits of vaccines when they make their decision to skip or delay their child’s vaccines.

When anti-vax folks look at the risks and benefits of vaccines, they see lots of risks and few benefits.

Like their research, their method of considering the risks and benefits of vaccines is very flawed…

Risks and Benefits of Vaccines – Anti-Vax Edition

What’s the first thing you notice when you look at Ashley Everly‘s chart?

She doesn’t have a column for when a child Should Be Vaccinated!

Although there are no optional vaccines, there are some situations in which getting vaccinated and protected is truly essential, including:

a child bitten by a dog, coyote, or bat with rabies
a completely unvaccinated teen who gets a deep puncture wound while playing in a field
a baby born to a mother with hepatitis B
an unvaccinated older teen living in a dorm on a college campus where there is an ongoing outbreak of meningococcemia
a preschooler with a cochlear implant
an unvaccinated 1st grader who’s sibling is starting chemotherapy for leukemia
unvaccinated kids traveling out of the country to parts of the world where vaccine-preventable diseases are still endemic
a child with asplenia

Does she really think that the benefits of the rabies vaccine don’t outweigh the risks? Does she understand what happens if you get rabies, even if your child has access to nutritious food, clean drinking water, and emergency medical care?

Who Should Not Be Vaccinated?

What else is wrong with Ashley Everly‘s risk and benefit chart?

Most of the things on her list of who should not be vaccinated are not true contraindications.

Of course, the one about having a “previous vaccine injury or serious reaction” would likely be a reason to not get that vaccine again, as long as the injury or reaction was really caused by the vaccine.

Are there situations in which the potential benefit of vaccination might not outweigh the vaccines risks?

“Events or conditions listed as precautions should be reviewed carefully. Benefits of and risks for administering a specific vaccine to a person under these circumstances should be considered. If the risk from the vaccine is believed to outweigh the benefit, the vaccine should not be administered. If the benefit of vaccination is believed to outweigh the risk, the vaccine should be administered. Whether and when to administer DTaP to children with proven or suspected underlying neurologic disorders should be decided on a case-by-case basis.”
ACIP Contraindications and Precautions

Those situations are called precautions.

Fortunately, most are temporary, such as having a “moderate or severe acute illness with or without fever.”

These precautions do not include having a family history of cancer or autoimmune disease.

When Vaccination May Be Unnecessary

Are there any situations in which vaccination may be unnecessary?

There are a few, including:

when a disease is eradicated
when you aren’t at risk to get a disease and there is little risk that there will be an outbreak in your community or a return if folks stop vaccinating – that’s why we don’t routinely vaccinate against yellow fever, cholera, and typhoid fever, etc. in the United States
when you get sick and develop natural immunity

Vaccination is still necessary if a child’s mother is breastfeeding (which doesn’t protect against most vaccine-preventable diseases), has natural immunity to wild type infections (passive immunity quickly wears off), and even if the child has access to nutritious food and clean drinking water.

Nearly two months in the ICU vs getting a tetanus shot… How do the risks and benefits stack up now?

And yes, getting vaccinated and protected is even necessary if a child has access to emergency medical care.

What to Know About the Risks and Benefits of Vaccines

While you should certainly consider the risks and benefits of getting vaccinated, understand that vaccines are safe, with few risks, and very necessary.

Who Is Kenneth Stoller?

It is well known that there are doctors in California writing fake medical exemptions for kids so that they can avoid getting vaccinated and protected.

Tara Zandvliet isn't the only one writing a lot of medical exemptions for vaccines. — Tara Zandvliet isn’t the only one writing a lot of medical exemptions for vaccines.

Just who these doctors are is probabaly a bit of a mystery to a lot of people.

Who Is Kenneth Stoller?

In addition to Tara Zandvliet in San Diego, Kenneth Stoller has been writing a lot of medical exemptions for kids in California.

Did Kenneth Stoller get referrals for medical exemptions through anti-vaccine groups on Facebook?

In fact, he has been writing so many that he got the attention of the City Attorney in San Francisco, who is investigating “whether the San Francisco doctor has been unlawfully providing medical exemptions that allowed parents to avoid vaccinating their children, which would put those children, their playmates, their schoolmates, and the general public at greater risk of contracting a communicable disease.”

In a response to this investigation, which includes a subpoena for his medical records, Ken Stoller admits that he “issues exemptions based on considerations not listed as CDC contraindications and precaution.”

“In conclusion, the invalid interpretation that the determination of the MTFHR variant is an acceptable reason for vaccine exemptions is not based on the precepts of replication and rigorous clinical testing. It is unfortunate that the loose application of our exploratory report has been misinterpreted and used to inappropriately justify exemption of children from medically indicated vaccines.”
David M Reif, Ph.D. on the Inappropriate Citation of Vaccine Article

Since the CDC list of contraindications and precautions is what most people consider the standard of care for a medical exemption, it is a little hard to understand what his defense will be? It isn’t the continued use of MTHFR testing, is it?

“There is no published information as of yet as to how many of the 10 measles cases in children were the wild measles strain, (i.e., unvaccinated children, versus children who contracted symptoms from the vaccine, like the 38% in the Disneyland outbreak), or how many were vaccinated and contracted wild measles due to primary vaccine failure, which may be 10% or more.”
Complaint/verified Petition to Quash an Administrative Subpoena, for Declaratory and Injunctive relief against the Subpoena and in Support of an Alternative Standard of Vaccine Exemptions Recognized Under California Law

Is he going to push the myth that kids in California have vaccine strain measles?

This is not vaccine strain measles, an idea that anti-vaccine folks continue to push to scare parents away from vaccinating and protecting their kids.

Although some vaccine strains were detected in 2015, they were not in people who actually had measles.

“During measles outbreaks, it is important to be able to rapidly distinguish between measles cases and vaccine reactions to avoid unnecessary outbreak response measures such as case isolation and contact investigations.”
Roy et al on Rapid Identification of Measles Virus Vaccine Genotype by Real-Time PCR

They are people with a febrile rash illness. The rash and fever is a vaccine side effect. It is not vaccine-associated measles.

And primary vaccine failure is not very common at all, which is why most cases are in those who are unvaccinated.

Kenneth Stoller on Vaccines and Autism

What else does Dr. Stoller believe?

“For many children, the enviornmental illness that we have incorrectly been calling autism, is actually an illness that has been exacerbated by too many toxic vaccines. Contrary to popular belief, there are plenty of people in governmental circles who know that certain vaccine ingredients, such as ethyl mercury, found in the perservative thimerosal, will cause neurobehavioral problems and negatively impact the health of vaccinated children.”
Kenneth Stoller

Autism as encephalopathy, biomarkers, testing urine porphyrins, chelation therapy, detoxification, hyperbaric oxygen therapy – it’s all there. And it is all the type of autism-vaccine misinformation that experts say to avoid.

Many will wonder why the medical board hasn’t paid him a visit before the City Attorney in San Francisco came calling.

Is it a surprise that Kenneth Stoller found 'valid health reasons' for them to skip their daughter's vaccines? — Is it a surprise that Kenneth Stoller found ‘valid health reasons’ for them to skip their daughter’s vaccines?

But few should have any doubt that SB 276 needs to pass.

What Do Anti-Vaccine Folks Actually Know About Vaccines?

Anti-vaccine folks are spreading another quiz around…

It’s not the questions that automatically makes you think the quiz is anti-vaccine though. It’s how you just know anti-vaccine answers will be very different from someone who actually does know something about vaccines.

What Do Anti-Vaccine Folks Actually Know About Vaccines?

If you are anti-vaccine, you likely believe that vaccines are dangerous, full of toxins, and that they don’t even work. That gives other folks a giant hint as to how you would answer these 32 questions…

1. Can you name 5 vaccine ingredients?

Yes. I can also name what’s not in vaccines, including heavy metals, hidden ingredients, toxins, antifreeze, lead, glyphosate, vaginal spermicides, etc.

AV answer – all vaccines contain toxic ingredients!

2/3. What is MRC-5/WI-38?

These are immortalized cell lines that are used to make some vaccines. These cell lines are derived (they can replicate infinitely) from fetal embryo fibroblast cells from two electively terminated pregnancies (abortions) in the 1960s. The cells used today are descendants of the original cells.

AV answer – there are aborted baby parts in our vaccines!

4. What is vaccine court?

The Vaccine Court is part of the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (VICP) and decides if the claims should be compensated or dismissed, etc.

AV answer – vaccine court proves that vaccine injuries are real.

5. What is the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program?

The National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (VICP) was created as “a no-fault alternative to the traditional legal system for resolving vaccine injury petitions.”

AV answer – the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (VICP) proves that vaccine injuries are real.

6. What is the 1986 National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act?

The National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of 1986 established the VICP, the Vaccine Injury Compensation Trust Fund, the National Vaccine Program Office, VAERS, and required that health care providers give a Vaccine Information Statement to anyone getting a vaccine.

AV answer – the 1986 National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act should be repealed because it removed all liability from vaccine manufacturers.

7. How has the CDC schedule changed since 1986?

The immunization schedule has changed to include vaccines to protect kids against meningitis, pneumonia, blood infections, severe dehydration, epiglottitis, and cancer from Hib, pneumococcal disease, rotavirus, hepatitis B, hepatitis A, chicken pox, HPV, and meningococcal disease.

AV answer – it has ballooned and exploded with 300 more vaccines in the pipeline!

8. How much money has been paid out by vaccine injury court?

Since the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program began, in 1988, almost $3.5 billion dollars have been paid out for 4,899 compensated awards, the majority of which were settled, and during which time over 2.5 billion doses of vaccines were given.

AV answer – $3.5 billion dollars, which proves that vaccine injuries are real!

9. How many doses of vaccines are in the CDC schedule between birth and age 18?

By age 18 years, today’s kids get 54 doses of 13 vaccines that protect them against 16 vaccine-preventable diseases, with a third of those doses coming from yearly flu vaccines.

AV answer – 72 doses!

10. Do vaccines contain DNA from aborted fetal cell lines? If so, which vaccines?

Residual, highly fragmented DNA is sometimes found in vaccines that are made using the MRC-5/WI-38 cell lines.

AV answer – vaccines contain aborted fetal tissue.

11. Do any vaccines contain dog, monkey, pig, or human DNA?

Residual DNA, if found in vaccines, is not a cause for concern. It is typically a function of growing vaccine viruses in mammalian cell lines.

AV answer – dog, monkey, pig, and human DNA contaminate vaccines and will turn us all into mutant dog-monkey-pig-human hybrids.

12. What is an adjuvant?

An adjuvant in a vaccine can increase the body’s immune response to an antigen, allowing you to use a smaller amount of antigen, which is important, as it is the antigens that typically cause side effects.

AV answer – Adjuvants in vaccines have never been tested and they trigger vaccine injuries and disease.

13. What is an antigen?

An antigen is a substance, often part of a virus or bacteria, that can stimulate an immune response and the production of antibodies. Surprisingly, even though kids get more vaccines than they used to, those vaccines contain far fewer antigens than older vaccines.

AV answer – we don’t care about antigens anymore, because all of the other vaccine ingredients are toxic.

14. Which arms of the immune system do vaccines stimulate?

It actually depends on the vaccine, but this is about the differences between innate (nonspecific and without memory) and adaptive immunity, which typically interact with each other, whether it is to create natural or vaccine induced immunity.

AV answer – I don’t care which arm you try to give it to them, my kids aren’t getting vaccinated!

15. Which arms of the immune system do natural diseases stimulate?

As with vaccines, it depends on the disease.

AV answer – Even if you offer to give the shot in their legs, my kids aren’t getting vaccinated!

16. What is transverse myelitis?

Transverse myelitis is a type of inflammation of the spinal cord, causing weakness and paralysis, and typically triggered by infections, immune system, inflammatory, and vascular disorders.

AV answer – transverse myelitis is a vaccine injury.

17. What is encephalopathy?

Almost anything can cause encephalopathy, leading to diffuse brain disease and dysfunction.

AV answer – encephalopathy is a vaccine injury.

18. What is the rate of autism in 2018? What was it in 2000? What was it in 1980?

The reported rate of autism has increased since 1980 because of better recognition, diagnostic substitution, broadening of the diagnostic criteria, and social influences. Vaccines are not associated with autism.

AV answer – vaccines cause autism. If it isn’t the MMR vaccine, then it is thimerosal, or maybe aluminum. Or it could be glyphosate. It is definitely vaccines though.

19. What is glyphosate? Is it in vaccines?

Glyphosate, a weed killer (Roundup) made by Monsanto is not in any vaccines.

AV answer – because glyphosate is everywhere, including in vaccines, half of all children will be autistic by 2025.

20. If your child is injured who will take physical, emotional and financial responsibility?

If a child has a true vaccine injury, compensation from the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (VICP) will hopefully help with your financial responsibilities.

AV answer – you can not sue vaccine manufacturers, so they have no liability if your child is injured by a vaccine.

21. What was the Supreme Courts statement on vaccines in 2011?

In 2011, the Supreme Court decided Bruesewitz v. Wyeth, in which they used the infamous unavoidably unsafe terminology, which has been misunderstood by anti-vaccine folks ever since.

AV answer – the Supreme Court said that vaccines can never be safe.

22. Can you find a study showing vaccinated vs unvaccinated health outcomes?

Yes, yes I can. A large study, “Vaccination Status and Health in Children and Adolescents Findings of the German Health Interview and Examination Survey for Children and Adolescents (KiGGS),” found that unvaccinated kids weren’t healthier, they just had more measles, mumps, rubella, and pertussis.

AV answer – the Mawson study (published in a pay-to-publish journal after being retracted two other times) proves that unvaccinated (homeschooled) kids are healthier than vaccinated (homeschooled) kids.

23. Can you find a safety study proving it is safe to inject multiple vaccines?

Yes, yes I can. There are many studies that prove that it is safe to give multiple vaccines at the same time.

AV answer – vaccines have never been tested together.

24. Do vaccines shed?

A few vaccines do shed, including the rotavirus vaccines (in stool, so wash your hands when changing diapers) and oral polio vaccines, which haven’t been used in the United States since 2000. Although FluMist can shed, since the vaccine contains attenuated viral strains of the flu that are temperature-sensitive, it isn’t a problem, except maybe for someone who is severely immunocompromised.

AV answer – our unvaccinated kids are at risk during shedding season!

25. Which vaccines can shed for up to 6 weeks?

The oral polio vaccine, which hasn’t been used in the United States since 2000, can likely shed for up to 6 weeks. This type of shedding is one of the reasons this weakened live virus vaccine is preferred over the inactivated polio vaccine when polio is still common in an area. In areas with poor hygiene and sanitation, the shedding (in stool) can lead to a type of passive immunization and improved herd immunity!

AV answer – shedding season is coming!

26. Which vaccines are live virus vaccines?

Attenuated, live virus vaccines which contain a weakened version of a virus include MMR, Varivax (chicken pox), the rotavirus vaccines, FluMist, the yellow fever vaccines, the oral polio vaccine, and vaccines against typhoid, cholera, adenovirus, and smallpox.

AV answer – unvaccinated children are at risk from shedding if they are around kids who have gotten a live virus vaccine, especially during shedding season.

27. What is the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (VICP)?

This is the same thing as the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (VICP) in question 5…

AV answer – we need to repeal both the NVICP and the VICP!

28. What is SV40?

Simian virus 40 was found to contaminate polio vaccines from 1955 through 1963. Fortunately, it has not been found to cause any disease in the folks who got those vaccines.

AV answer – vaccines are contaminated with monkey viruses and cause cancer.

29. What is MTHFR and how does it affect the body’s response to vaccines?

True MTHFR gene mutations rarely cause homocystinuria. Folks are more likely to hear about MTHFR polymorphisms, which are typically normal and have no affect on vaccines or anything else.

AV answer – no one should not get vaccinated if they have MTHFR mutations or signs of MTHFR.

30. What is an acceptable amount of aluminum to be ingested per day versus the aluminum content in the Hep B shot given at birth, 2 months, and then again at 4 months?

Although there are limits on aluminum that premature neonates and infants getting daily intravenous fluids and IV feeding solutions over prolonged periods of time, that doesn’t mean that aluminum in vaccines that infants get every few months isn’t safe. It is. And they are.

AV answer – infants are getting toxic amounts of aluminum in their vaccines!

31. Can someone who was vaccinated for pertussis still spread pertussis after being exposed to it? If so, for how long?

Maybe. A study in baboons said it is possible. More importantly though, you are much more likely to get pertussis if you are unvaccinated, will have more severe symptoms, and will likely get more people sick.

AV answer – vaccinated people are the ones starting pertussis outbreaks.

32. What is the death rate from measles in the past 10 years in the U.S. compared to the death rate from the MMR vaccine in the past 10 years?

Deaths from measles are now rare in the United States because most people are vaccinated and protected. And unless you are looking at VAERS reports, the deaths from the MMR vaccine are also very rare. We will have more and more measles outbreaks if folks don’t get vaccinated though, increasing the risk of another measles death.

AV answer – measles is a mild disease that was on the Brady Bunch, and MMR is an unnecessary vaccine kills tons of people.

How did you answer the questions?

What Do Anti-Vaccine Folks Actually Know About Vaccines?

Why Is a Toxicologist Making Claims About Vaccines and Autism?

It will never end, will it?

Both *toxicologist* and research should be in quote marks…

Vaccines are very clearly not associated with autism, but that doesn’t seem to keep us from getting new anti-vaccine heroes popping up now and then with new theories from their “research.”

Is it different this time?

Unlike most of the other anti-vaccine experts who are practicing way out of their field of expertise when they talk about vaccines, Ashley Everly is a toxicologist, so is actually an expert on vaccines, right?

“Most toxicologists begin by working at the bench, conducting experiments on in vitro and animal models. Over time, as they gain experience, they may move up to supervise others. While a master’s degree is sufficient for applied research positions, a Ph.D. degree with postdoctoral experience is required for the highest levels.”
Toxicology Overview

Ashley Everly does not have a master’s degree and has not published any research about vaccines. Her opinions are not those of a toxicologist, but of a mother who thinks that her child was injured by vaccines.

Her Facebook copypasta post, while posted as a toxicologist, should remind you of just one very important fact. The great majority of working toxicologists do not share her opinions about vaccines.

“Vaccines are among the most efficacious and cost-effective prevention tools… Parents of children with non-medical exemptions to immunization requirements have been documented to have perceptions of lower susceptibility to and severity of vaccine preventable diseases and perceptions of lower safety and efficacy of vaccines compared to parents of vaccinated children. Moreover, compared to parents of vaccinated children, vaccine hesitant parents had less trust in the government and the health care system.”
Scientific Liaison Coalition (SLC) Epidemiology of Vaccine Refusal webinar

What is the Scientific Liaison Coalition (SLC)?

It is a group of eight toxicology organizations that “increase awareness of toxicology and related sciences on human health,” including the:

American Academy of Clinical Toxicology (AACT)
American College of Toxicology (ACT)
Environmental Mutagenesis and Genomics Society (EMGS)
Safety Pharmacology Society (SPS)
Society for Risk Analysis (SRA)
Society of Toxicologic Pathology (STP)
Society of Toxicology (SOT)
Teratology Society (Teratology)
Union of Toxicology (IUTOX)

And not surprisingly, they teach folks that vaccines are safe, effective, and necessary.

Some of these folks are also the ones doing research on new vaccines.

But, of course, they do a lot more.

The Society of Toxicology wants everyone to know that they are working to help reduce our exposure to potential environmental sources of methylmercury.

“Toxicologists have played a major role in identifying the health risks associated with exposure to methylmercury.”
Society of Toxicology on Mercury : A Long-Appreciated Hazard

What don’t they scare folks about? Thimerosal and ethymercury in vaccines!

“Recent research has confirmed that the ethylmercury component found in Thimerosal is less hazardous than methylmercury. These are different compounds and should not be considered as equivalent neurotoxins. Experimental conditions can be created that result in neurological cell dysfunction. However, current literature supports the contention that childhood vaccinations do not deliver a sufficient dose to produce these neurological injuries.
American College of Medical Toxicology on the IOM Report on Thimerosal and Autism

Neither does the American College of Medical Toxicology.

Maybe that’s why Ashley Everly and other anti-vaccine folks have moved on to MTHFR, glyphosate, aborted fetal cell DNA, and aluminum…

VAXOPEDIA

Risks and Benefits of Vaccines – Anti-Vax Edition