Dr. Philip Incao’s response to Dr. Ivey’s letter in Mothering Magazine

[Guest guest]

Dr. Philip Incao's response to Dr. Ivey's letter in Mothering

Magazine

 

Dr. Ivey's letter repeats the simplistic misconceptions about

infectious diseases and vaccinations so often heard today. She

implies that without vaccinations we are helpless against hostile

microbial " predators " bent on destroying us. This is a 19th century

world view. The old metaphor of unrelenting warfare against a

nature " …red in tooth and claw " is very compelling and creates an

eager market for vaccinations, as well as for antibiotics,

antibacterial products and pesticides, but it is nevertheless a false

metaphor. The balanced community is a far truer picture of life on

Earth, and that includes the teeming microbial life co-existing on

and in each of our bodies, and our children's bodies.

 

 

The public health and vaccination industries conveniently remain

blind to the evidence that vaccinations are responsible for only a

small fraction of the 20th century decline in deaths and disability

from acute infectious diseases in developed nations. With the notable

exception of polio, improvements in standard of living, sanitation,

nutrition and literacy have repeatedly been shown to be the best

predictors of resistance of any given population to acute infectious

diseases, including those like scarlet fever, pneumonia and diarrhea

for which no vaccinations have ever existed.1 2 3 4

 

 

What protects all of us, vaccinated and unvaccinated alike, from

infectious diseases are the host-strengthening effects of modern

civilization. As these effects spread globally, we are seeing a

decline of infectious diseases and a corresponding increase in

asthma, diabetes, autism, auto-immune diseases, neurological and

emotional dysfunctions and suicide in children. Everyone agrees that

American children became healthier from 1900 to the 1950's due to the

decline of infectious diseases, but with the vast increase since 1960

in the above-mentioned severe chronic illnesses and dysfunctions,

clearly U.S. children are less healthy today than during the 1950's.

I am sure that future unbiased research will show that indiscriminate

mass vaccinations have been partly responsible for this marked

decline in our children's health today.

 

 

Dr. Ivey implies that a sense of social responsibility should

motivate us to give our children to be vaccinated for the greater

good of the public health. There are two major problems with this

approach:

First, if we accept the fact that it is the collective health of

individuals that creates " public health " , then all efforts to improve

public health ought to bear fruit for the health of each individual

as well. This is certainly true of the great social advancements of

sanitation and the providing of clean and adequate food, water, fresh

air and uncrowded living space for all members of society. It may

even be true for vaccinations used in some developing countries where

a great many individual children are unhealthy due to extreme

poverty, malnutrition and poor sanitation. Nevertheless, the

important question for us is: do vaccinations make individual

children today in developed nations like the U.S. healthier? There is

no evidence that it does.

 

 

My experience in 27 years of private general practice is that my

unvaccinated patients are decidedly healthier than my vaccinated

patients. The few published studies that have compared the vaccinated

to the unvaccinated in developed nations have confirmed my

experience. The vaccinated have a higher incidence of allergies,

asthma, ear infections, sinus infections, inflammatory bowel disease

and hospitalizations. 5 6 7 8 9 How can a medical intervention that

fails to make individual children healthier be claimed to be good for

the public health?

 

 

The second problem with recommending vaccination as the socially

responsible thing to do lies with our vaccine manufacturers and the

professional groups and government agencies entrusted to oversee

them. Have they been socially responsible or rather have they put

their own self-interest first, as long as there was no public outcry

over the number of children being harmed by vaccines? To justify

their own behavior these groups take the position that, no matter

what, the benefits of vaccinations still outweigh the risks, perhaps

counting on the fact that the vast majority of even highly educated

Americans are unaware that without the necessary research data, such

claims of vaccine safety are meaningless. And the research data are

woefully inadequate, as two Institute of Medicine studies

commissioned by Congress have found to their dismay. 10 11

 

 

I believe the practical question for parents comes down to this: What

illnesses can I expect my children to have if they remain

unvaccinated today? I would counsel parents that their unvaccinated

children are likely to be very healthy, especially if they have a

healthcare provider who understands how to treat acute infectious-

inflammatory illnesses expressively and to use suppressive treatment

with antibiotics and other drugs only selectively and with caution.

Many homeopaths, osteopaths, naturopaths, chiropractors and

anthroposophic physicians understand the critical difference between

expressing and suppressing an acute inflammatory illness.

 

 

What about whooping cough? Certainly unvaccinated children are much

more likely than the vaccinated to catch it, though most cases are

among the vaccinated. But my experience with all my pertussis

patients, as well as the experience in Europe and especially Sweden

where since 1970 pertussis vaccine is no longer used, is that

whooping cough today is rarely a serious illness, though it can be a

trying one. 12 13 14 15 As eminent British epidemiologist Gordon

Stewart stated in the 1982 Emmy-winning TV documentary " DPT: Vaccine

Roulette " , infants in developed nations don't die from whooping cough

today unless they are " severely disadvantaged " .

 

 

I think the essential point to be grasped amidst the heated

controversy over vaccinations is that the greatest threats to

children in developed nations are no longer the infectious diseases

of a century ago, but rather the spirit-crippling effects of growing

up in a consumer culture where children are taught that their bodies

are essentially machines and that illnesses are meaningless random

malfunctions to be suppressed as quickly and conveniently as possible.

 

 

In America today only 1% of children's deaths are from infections,

while 7% are from cancer, 7% from suicide and 14% from homicide. 16

The meaning of these statistics should be self-evident: What children

need today is not the deceptive " protection " offered by the 200 or so

vaccines now in the pipeline, but rather a medicine and an education

with the capacity to strengthen children to know who they are and to

help them find meaning and purpose in their lives.

 

1. L.A. Sagan, The Health of Nations (New York: Basic Books, 1997)

 

2. J. McKinlay and S. McKinlay, " The Questionable Contribution of

Medical Measures to the Decline of Mortality in the United States in

the Twentieth Century " , Milbank Memorial Fund Quarterly 55 (1977):

405-428

 

3. T. Mckeown, The Role of Medicine (Princeton, NJ:Princeton

University Press, 1979).

 

4. E.A. Holt, R. Boulos, and N.A. Halsey et al., " Childhood Survival

in Haiti: Protective Effect of Measles Vaccination, " Pediatrics 85

(1990): 188-104. (see graph, p.103, effect of socioeconomic factors

on survival)

 

5. M. Odent, " Long-term Effects of Early Vaccinations, " Prima Health

Research 2 (1994): 3-7

 

6. T. Kemp, N. Pearce, P. Fitzharris, J.Crane, D. Fergusson, I. St.

George, K. Wickens, and R. Beasley, " Is Infant Immunization a Risk

Factor for Childhood Asthma or Allergy?, " Epidemiology 8, no. 6

(1997): 678-680.

 

7. N.P. Thompson, S.M. Montgomery, R.E. Pounder, and A.J.

Wakefield, " Is Measles Vaccination a Risk Factor for Inflammatory

Bowel Disease?, " The Lancet 345 (1995) 1071-1074

 

8. E.L. Hurwitz and H. Morgentern, " Effects of DPT or Tetanus

Vaccination on Allergies and Allergy-Related Respiratory Symptoms

among Children and Adolescents in the US, " Journal of Manipulative

and Physiological Therapeutics 23 (2000) 81-90.

 

9. I.S. Farooqi and J.M. Hopkins, " Early Childhood Infection and

Atopic Disorder, " Thorax 53 (1998): 927-932.

 

10. C.P. Howson, C.J. Howe, and H.V. Fineberg, eds., Adverse Effects

of Pertussis and Rubella Vaccines (Washington, DC: National Academy

Press, 1991).

 

11. K.R. Stratton, C.J. Howe, and R.B. Johnston, Jr., eds, Adverse

Events Associated with Childhood Vaccine: Evidence Bearing on

Causality (Washington, DC: National Academy Press, 1994).

 

12. D. Jenkinson, " Natural Course of 500 Consecutive Cases of

Whooping Cough: A General Practice Population Study, " British Medical

Journal 310 (February 1995): 299-302

 

13. J. Isacson, B. Trollfors, J. Taranger, G. Zackrisson, and T.

Lagergard, " How Common is Whooping Cough in a Nonvaccination

Country? " The Pediatric Infectious Disease Journal 12, no. 4 (April

1993): 284-288.

 

14. B. Trollfors, " Bordetella Pertussis Whole Cell Vaccines- Efficacy

and Toxicity, " Acta Paediatr Scand 73 (1984): 417-425.

 

15. H.L. Coulter and B.L. Fisher, " A Shot in the Dark, " (Garden City

Park, NY: Avery Publishing Group, 1991). (See page 99, " Has the Sting

Gone Out of Whooping Cough? " ).

 

16. Health and the American Child Part 1: A Focus on Mortality among

Children: Risks, Trends, and Priorities for the Twenty-First Century,

A Report to the Nation from the Public Health Policy Advisory Board

(PHPAB), Inc., Washington, DC, May 1999.

 

 

© Dr. Philip Incao, Denver, Colorado. Reprinted with permission.