So much of world is under lockdown because of the Covid-19 virus, and there is a lot of talk about a mandatory vaccine that I decided to do a dive down the vaccine rabbit hole this week. Let me say at the start that being a trained biochemistry researcher I am not an ‘anti-vaxer,’ but having just said that, I have grave concerns about vaccines today and especially for the near future.
When I was a kid growing up in Britain the 1950s and 1960s, I remember getting maybe 5-6 vaccines in my whole childhood (measles, mumps, rubella, pertussis, polio and smallpox). I don’t recall anyone ever getting these diseases so I typically have assumed that they all worked the way we were told they should – we as kids and our parents never questioned the efficacy and accepted vaccines were 100% good since they stopped disease. I knew people who had suffered disabilities because of catching polio before the vaccine was used so vaccines naturally seemed good. We were told they were designed to help boost our own immune systems by priming them to react quickly should we actually encounter the disease. I certainly do not recall anyone suffering any side effects from vaccines. When considering ‘risk vs. benefit’ the only thing we could see was that there was no risk and the benefit was the absence of any of the common contagious diseases related to the vaccines that we were given.
Several years ago, I stopped getting the annual shots being pushed out by the medical industry when it seemed more of a money-making business. In the past couple of years, I have become more and more skeptical about vaccines since I know people who came down with flu immediately after having an annual flu vaccine – that didn’t make sense to me, especially when the people seemed healthy before the vaccine was given.
In the USA, we have the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), listed under United States Department of Health and Human Services, but it is a private organization funded by “charitable contributions and philanthropic grants from individuals (the biggest being Bill Gates – a name that keeps cropping up), foundations, corporations, universities, NGOs and other organizations.” Notice there is no federal funding listed. (For those readers outside the USA, who controls your vaccine schedules?) The CDC is a private vaccine producing factory that makes money from the sale and use of vaccines. The vaccine industry generates around $30 billion of profits a year.
As a biological researcher, I recall knowing that vaccines can take years (between 10-15) to develop and test, but here we are quickly pushing out new vaccines every year to combat ‘this year’s disease problems.’ Research labs typically spend 2-4 years identifying virus-like particles, weakened viruses or bacteria, weakened bacterial toxins, or other substances derived from pathogens that can be the antigens to be used for the vaccine. Pre-clinical studies lasting 1-2 years then use tissue culture systems and lab animals to figure out the effectiveness and mode of action of specific antigens being developed against a specific pathogen. Once all the antigen research data is reviewed and recognized as a potential new drug (i.e. the FDA in the U.S.) it is then authorized for three phases of human clinical trials. Phase one determines the type and extent of immune response that the vaccine provokes. Results are then assessed before phase two is authorized, which then studies vaccine’s safety, immunogenicity, proposed doses, schedule of immunizations, and optimum method of delivery (e.g. orally, nose spray, injection, or subcutaneously). Phase three assesses vaccine safety in a very large group of people (tens of thousands) using double blind testing (versus a placebo). Following this, the vaccine goes through a period of approval and eventual licensing. Technically, the FDA can do follow up testing at any time that include phase four trials. Data from these trails should be reported in the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) and the Vaccine Safety Datalink (VSD) both of which were established in 1990.
This sounds all good and above board, BUT it is here that the nobility of the system gets blurry! NOTE: all this research and testing is done on each individual vaccine. There is minimal to no research done on the synergistic use of multiple vaccines administered at the same time or any ‘iatrogenic reactions’ (adverse effects of multiple compounds interacting with each other). Vaccines are a big money maker and there is push to not only get them out but to get everyone to use them often! At least they are being monitored you might think with consequences for the vaccine factory should harm be determined. Well, that is the tip of a big problem. Outside the USA, individual countries make their own rules. For instance, the European Medicines Agency supervises regulation of vaccines and other drugs; however, a committee of the World Health Organization makes recommendations for biological products used internationally and much of this information comes from the CDC. Here the story begins to get insidious.
As the vaccine industry was ramping up its business in the late 1980s, the CDC and FDA established ‘The Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System – VAERS in 1990 – known as the vaccine hazard bill (and the Vaccine Safety Datalink – VSD). The aim was to provide a place for vaccine problems to be complied. About 30,000 events are reported each year with 10% -15% of these reports describing serious medical events that result in hospitalization, life-threatening illness, disability, or death. However, there is massive under-reporting since it is a voluntary reporting system and most people are totally unaware that VAERS is there – this includes health care providers as well as we the people. There is a fund of 75 cents excise tax per dose given for administration, investigation into vaccine problems, and legal costs. Now is where the system gets scary. Lobbying by the vaccine industry has rendered laws that make it immune to lawsuits. Indeed, in 2011, a landmark case in the U.S. supreme court (Bruesewitz v. Wyeth, 562 U.S. 223), now preempts all vaccine design defect claims against vaccine manufacturers. In other words, you cannot sue them at all for any reason. Notably the VAERS fund provides some compensation should any problems be found, and to date over $3.6 billion have been paid out to victims of vaccine problems – proving the vaccine was the problem is difficult.
Once upon a time, vaccines protected us from some of the worst diseases that plagued humanity throughout history. What most people are rarely told is that all vaccines carry a risk, but that risk was once minimal compared to catching the disease it inoculated against. We have become so blasé to the risk that we no longer ask the questions of what modern vaccines are doing. The massive increase of problems has made this risk factor a substantial question to be deliberated. But no one is encouraging you to ask any questions, and if you do, you run into a wall of social shaming and likely be labelled an ‘anti-vaxer.’
So, what is it that is in vaccines that is creating problems? That is a deeper part of the vaccine rabbit hole I’ll cover in the next post.
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