ethics, legalities in decisions about vaccines

September 7, 2002

Date Posted

Hepatitis B Vaccines? 2002-08-07 20:18:34

Dr. Robert and Shelley Young

HEPATITIS B VACCINE: THE UNTOLD STORY Part 1 or 4

Parents Question Forced Vaccination As Reports of

Hepatitis B Vaccine Reactions Multiply

In increasing numbers, parents across the country are

contacting the National Vaccine Information Center

(NVIC) to report opposition to regulations being

enacted by state health department officials that

legally require children to be injected with three

doses of hepatitis B vaccine before being allowed to

attend daycare, kindergarten, elementary school, high

school or college. Simultaneously, as more schools and

employers bow to pressure from government health

officials and require individuals to show proof they

have been injected with hepatitis B vaccine before

being allowed to get an education or a job, reports of

serious health problems following hepatitis B

vaccination among children and adults are multiplying.

The National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC)

maintains that federal and state public health

officials are promoting forced vaccination with

hepatitis B vaccine without truthfully informing the

public about the risks of hepatitis B disease in

America or the known and unknown risks of hepatitis B

vaccine. Without being provided with accurate and

complete information about disease and vaccine risks,

citizens cannot exercise informed consent, which

becomes a human right when an individual considers

undergoing a medical procedure that could cause injury

or death.

Following is a general overview of what is and is not

known about hepatitis B disease, the hepatitis B

vaccine and the politics of hepatitis B vaccination.

Hepatitis B Not Highly Contagious - Unlike other

infectious diseases for which vaccines have been

developed and mandated in the U.S., hepatitis B is not

common in childhood and is not highly contagious.

Hepatitis B is primarily an adult disease transmitted

through infected body fluids, most frequently infected

blood, and is prevalent in high risk populations such

as needle using drug addicts; sexually promiscuous

heterosexual and homosexual adults; residents and

staff of custodial institutions such as prisons;

health care workers exposed to blood; persons who

require repeated blood transfusions and babies born to

infected mothers.

According to CDC Prevention Guidelines: A Guide to

Action (1997), a book written by federal public health

officials at the U.S. government Centers for Disease

Control (CDC), " the sources of [hepatitis B] infection

for most cases include intravenous drug use (28%),

heterosexual contact with infected persons or multiple

partners (22%) and homosexual activity (9%). "

According to Harrison's Principles of Internal

Medicine (1994), mother to child transmission of

hepatitis B " is uncommon in North America and western

Europe. "

Although CDC officials have made statements that

hepatitis B is easy to catch through sharing

toothbrushes or razors, Eric Mast, M.D., Chief of the

Surveillance Section, Hepatitis Branch of the CDC,

stated in a 1997 public hearing that: " although [the

hepatitis B virus] is present in moderate

concentrations in saliva, it's not transmitted

commonly by casual contact. "

Hepatitis B Not A Killer Disease For Most - Symptoms

of hepatitis B disease include nausea, vomiting,

fatigue, low grade fever, pain and swelling in joints,

headache and cough that may occur one to two weeks

before the onset of jaundice (yellowing of the skin)

and enlargement and tenderness of the liver, which can

last for three to four weeks. Fatigue can last up to a

year. According to Harrison's, in cases of acute

hepatitis B " most patients do not require hospital

care " and " 95 percent of patients have a favorable

course and recover completely " with the case-fatality

ratio being " very low (approximately 0.1 percent). "

Those who recover completely from hepatitis B

infection acquire life-long immunity. Of those who do

not recover completely, fewer than 5 percent become

chronic carriers of the virus with just one quarter of

these in danger of developing life threatening liver

disease later in life, according to Robbins Pathologic

Basis of Disease (1994), a medical college textbook.

The Guide to Clinical Preventive Services (1996),

written under the supervision of the U.S. Department

of Health and Human Services (DHHS), states that the

risk of developing a chronic hepatitis B infection is

higher in infected infants than in infected older

children and adults: " Infections during infancy, while

estimated to represent only 1-3% of cases, account for

20-30% of chronic infections. " Because infants born to

infected mothers are at highest risk for developing

chronic hepatitis B infections, routine screening of

pregnant women for hepatitis B infection is one of the

most important public health measures that can be

taken to prevent chronic hepatitis B carriers. The

Merck Manual (1992), a major medical reference used by

physicians, notes that " post exposure vaccination is

recommended for newborn infants of hepatitis B

positive mothers. "

Hepatitis B Low In U.S. - The U.S. and Western Europe

have always had among the lowest rates of hepatitis B

disease in the world (0.1% to 0.5% of the general

population) compared to countries in the Far East and

Africa, where the disease affects 5-20% or more of the

population. According to Guide to Clinical Preventive

Services, in the U.S. " the greatest reported incidence

[of hepatitis B] occurs in adults aged 20-39 " and " the

number of cases peaked in 1985 and has shown a

continuous gradual decline since that time. "

Even though hepatitis B disease is uncommon in the

general population in the U.S., it continues to be

high among those engaged in high-risk behaviors,

especially IV drug use. Guide to Clinical Preventive

Services states that " In recent years, a growing

number of injection drug users have become infected;

currently, between 60% and 80% of persons who use

illicit drugs parenterally (through the skin such as

with a needle stick) have serologic evidence of

[hepatitis B] infection. "

In 1991, there were 18,003 cases of hepatitis B

reported in the U.S. out of a total U.S. population of

248 million. According to the October 31, 1997

Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report published by the

CDC, in 1996 there were 10,637 cases of hepatitis B

reported in the U.S. with 279 cases reported in

children under the age of 14 and the CDC stated that

" Hepatitis B continues to decline in most states,

primarily because of a decrease in the number of cases

among injecting drug users and, to a lesser extent,

among both homosexuals and heterosexuals of both

sexes. "

CDC Recommends All Infants Get Hep B Vaccine - Even

though hepatitis B is an adult disease, is not highly

contagious, is not deadly for most who contract it,

and is not in epidemic form in the U.S. (except among

high risk groups such as IV drug addicts), in 1991 the

Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) of

the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) recommended that

all infants be injected with the first dose of

hepatitis B vaccine at birth before being discharged

from the hospital newborn nursery. A similar

recommendation was also made by the Committee on

Infectious Diseases of the American Academy of

Pediatrics (AAP). This, despite the fact almost

nothing is known about the health and integrity of an

individual baby's immune and neurological systems at

birth.

In 1991, media reports generated by the CDC used

hepatitis B disease statistics that were not anchored

in documented fact but are still used today to promote

mass hepatitis B vaccination. Most of the inflated

disease statistics originate with statements generated

by the Centers for Disease Control. In the 1991 ACIP

Recommendations calling for mass vaccination with

hepatitis B vaccine published in the Morbidity and

Mortality Weekly Report, the CDC states that there are

an " estimated 1 million-1.25 million persons with

chronic hepatitis B infection in the United States "

and that " each year approximately 4,000-5,000 of these

persons die from chronic liver disease " and that " an

estimated 200,000-300,000 new [hepatitis B] infections

occurred annually during the period 1980-1991. " The

CDC gives no scientific reference for this data other

than the CDC.

Just one year before the government's call for mass

vaccination, hepatitis B vaccine maker SmithKline

Beecham in their 1990 hepatitis B vaccine product

insert stated, " The CDC estimates that there are

approximately 0.5 to 1.0 million chronic carriers of

hepatitis B virus in the U.S. and that this pool of

carriers grows by 2% to 3% (12,000 to 20,000

individuals) annually. "

Federal Recommendations Become State Laws - Because

vaccination requirements are controlled by states and

not the federal government, in order for federal

health officials to achieve their goal of a 100

percent vaccination rate with new vaccines marketed by

drug companies, they must persuade states to turn

federal vaccine policies into state law. And, because

during the past 50 years, most state legislatures have

completely turned over the power to mandate vaccines

to state health department officials, very

infrequently do state legislators take a vote to

approve the mandating of a new vaccine such as

hepatitis B. So, while American children born in 1948

were only required by state health officials to show

proof of smallpox vaccination to enter school,

American children born in 1998 are required by most

states to be injected with 33 or 34 doses of 9 or 10

different viral and bacterial vaccines to enter

school, including three doses of hepatitis B vaccine.

Federal Health Officials Give State Health Officials

Money To Force Hep B Vaccination - Following the 1991

CDC recommendation for universal use of hepatitis B

vaccine by all children, state health department

officials began issuing mandates requiring children to

show proof they have been injected with three doses of

hepatitis B vaccine in order to attend daycare or

school. By the end of 1997, 35 states had regulations

on the books requiring children to get 3 doses of

hepatitis B vaccine and, yet, only 15 states had

passed laws requiring prenatal screening of pregnant

mothers for hepatitis B infection.

To encourage states to mandate use of hepatitis B

vaccine by all children, federal health officials at

the Centers for Disease Control give grants and other

financial incentives to state health departments to

reward them for promoting mass vaccination. Since

1965, the CDC has given state health departments

hundreds of millions of dollars through categorical

grant programs to promote mass use of federally

recommended vaccines. At the same time, if state

health officials do not show federal health officials

proof they have attained a certain vaccination rate in

their state, federal grants to state health

departments can be withheld.

In 1993, the Comprehensive Childhood Immunization Act

of 1993 was passed giving the Department of Health and

Human Services (DHHS) the authority to award more than

$400 million to states to set up state vaccine

registries to tag and track children and enforce

mandatory vaccination with federally recommended

vaccines, including hepatitis B vaccine. The

Performance Grant Program rewards a state with either

$50, $75 or $100 per child who is fully vaccinated

with all federally recommended vaccines, including

hepatitis B vaccine and, in 1995, DHHS Secretary Donna

Shalala gave the states the power to approve a

newborn's social security number in order to set up

vaccine tracking registries in more than half the

states. The CDC plan is to hook up the state vaccine

tracking registries in order to create a de facto

centralized electronic database containing every

child's medical records.

Pharmaceutical Industry Also Funds Forced Hep B

Vaccination - In addition to federal grants, many

states get money from the Robert Wood Johnson

Foundation (Johnson & Johnson), which operates All

Kids Count, to set up vaccine tracking systems to

enforce state vaccination mandates. (In 1989, Merck &

Co., the U.S. manufacturer of the measles, mumps,

rubella (MMR), chicken pox and hepatitis B vaccines,

joined with Johnson & Johnson to form Worldwide

Consumer Pharmaceuticals Co. with the goal of becoming

" one of the premier worldwide consumer products

companies. " Merck's 1997 vaccine sales reached 1

billion dollars.)

All Kids Count is a project of the Task Force for

Child Survival and Development headquartered at The

Carter Center (former President Jimmy Carter) in

Atlanta, which is directed by former CDC director Dr.

William Foege. The Task Force is supported by the

World Health Organization, World Bank, Rockefeller

Foundation, United Nation's Population Fund and

vaccine manufacturers, entities which also sponsor the

Children's Vaccine Initiative (CVI). The CVI,

headquartered in Geneva, was launched in 1990 at the

World Summit for Children and promotes " the

development and utilization " of vaccines by all of the

world's children.

Forced vaccination with hepatitis B vaccine is also

promoted in states by non-profit organizations such as

Every Child by Two, founded in 1991 by former First

Lady Rosalyn Carter and Betty Bumpers, wife of

Arkansas Senator Dale Bumpers. Every Child by Two is

funded in part by grants from Merck, Lederle and

Connaught, the three largest U.S. vaccine

manufacturers.

The non-profit CDC Foundation, which began operation

in 1995, has raised more than $15 million in the past

four years to augment the CDC's campaign to enforce

mass vaccination. The CDC Foundation, the Task Force

for Child Survival & Development and vaccine

manufacturers funded the recent National Immunization

Conference held in Atlanta.

" >

I will be sending out 3 emails that tells the untold

story of the Hepatitis B vaccine. You can also read my

dissertation on viruses, vaccines and the HIV/AIDS

hypothesis in my book, " Sick and Tired, Reclaim Your

Inner Terrain. " To order your copy go to

www.innerlightfoundation.org or amazon.com

Kindest Regards,