Author: Beth Clay

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Where is the Moral Outrage? Why are Children in Africa, Asia, and the Middle East Not Given the Safer Polio Vaccine?

A funny thing happened on the way to the loss of religious liberty and parental rights in the United States this spring. The CDC and is public health colleagues kept everyone’s attention firmly focused on Measles, while they quietly published papers acknowledging that the oral polio vaccine continues to spread polio.   

In 2000, the World Health Organization Western Pacific Region declared Papua New Guinea (PNG) free of indigenous wild polio virus. PNG is one of 37 countries or regions with a wild polio-free certification.  As Bauri, et al reported in Notes from the Field (1)  in February 2019, the PNG National Department of Health confirmed an outbreak of poliomyelitis “caused by circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus type 1 (cVDPV1) following isolation of genetically linked virus form a patient with paralysis and non-household community contacts.”  A six- year old boy having received 2 doses of the Sabin oral polio vaccine (OPV), was identified as the ‘index patient’. Six months later, 26 confirmed cases of circulating vaccine-derived polio had been identified in nine of the 22 PNG provinces including 19 in children less than five years of age. 

Bauri also reports that the Acute Flaccid Paralysis (AFP) Surveillance system is being improved in PNG and the 2018 surveillance found 7.0 per 100,000 persons under the age of 15 years with non-polio AFP compared with 0.8 in 2017.  Less than 50 percent of the cases of non-polio AFP were further evaluated through stool sampling.  There is also expressed concern due to the discovery of cVDPV1 (the vaccine strain poliovirus) in seven sewage samples in major urban environments in PNG.  CDC issued a level 2 Travel Health Notice for all travelers to PNG to be fully vaccinated against polio.

In March, Mbaeyi, et al, (2) published, Update on Vaccine-Derived Poliovirus Outbreaks – the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Horn of Africa, 2017-2018. The authors note the use of the live attenuated Sabin oral polio vaccine (OPV) has helped with the global eradication goals while also noted its use is resulting in the person to person transmission of vaccine-derived poliovirus (VDPV) disease. VDPV disease presents with paralysis. 

Two months after this report, Green, et al (3) reported a paper entitled Progress Towards Polio Eradication in which the team recounts the success of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI).  The program which began in 1988, the authors claim that wild poliovirus (WPV) transmission had been interrupted in all countries except Afghanistan, Nigeria, and Pakistan.  Apparently, there are now 3 Wild Polio Virus types.  WPV type 2 (WPV2) was declared eradicated in 2012 and WPV type 3 (WPV3) had not been detected since 2012.  Eight countries during the study period reported 210 cases of circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus (CVDPV) from 2017 to May 2019.   The eight countries (Democratic Republic of Congo, Indonesia, Mozambique, Niger, Nigeria, Papua New Guinea, Somalia, and Syria).  Through concentrated international efforts, 1.8 billion doses of polio vaccines both oral and injected were allocated for use in 2017.

The authors note that the use of AFP Surveillance systems among children less than 15 years of age is how detection of polio cases occurs.  When a child develops AFP, a stool sample is tested.  If a child with either type of polio (wild or vaccine derived) does not present symptoms that include AFP, their case likely will not be detected or counted.  In 2017, 22 wild polio virus type 1 (WPV1) cases were reported in Afghanistan and Pakistan and in 2018 33 cases.  In the first quarter of 2019, 12 WPV1 cases were confirmed in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

All three of these papers discuss measures to curtail the spread of polio virus through increased immunizations. None discuss public health measures to decrease the risk through improvements in sewer systems and reducing the risk of transmission while the virus sheds, which all three report the discovery of circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus in sewage systems. While vaccines are considered the second most important advance in public health, the first is clean water and effective sewer systems. Sadly these public health experts are ignoring the obvious additional measure needed.

It would seem that the CDC and WHO scientists have chosen not to inform the WHO Director-General because Dr. Tedros is quoted in a WHO bulletin, “My wish for 2019 is for zero polio transmission.” (4)

A time for moral outrage. None of these stories presents any discussion on a conversion to the IPV which is not likely to transmit poliovirus.  

My question is why? Why are we as a global community not willing to promote IPV world-wide?

Why haven’t Bill and Melinda Gates through their vaccine promotions in the Gates Foundation used their influence to help stop the spread of vaccine-derived polio? 

Twenty years ago the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices recommended all polio virus vaccines administered in the United States ““be an inactivated poliovirus vaccine (IPV) beginning January 1, 2000.”(5)  In the 1999 decision, it was reported, “Since 1979, the only indigenous cases of poliomyelitis reported in the United States (n=144) have been associated with use of the live oral poliovirus vaccine (OPV) (an additional six imported cases have been reported since 1979, the last of which occurred in 1993).”(6)  The ACIP suggest the risk for vaccine-associated paralytic polio (VAPP) would be anticipated once in every 2.4 million doses distributed.

The spread of polio through the oral polio vaccine is well documented.  Burns, et all provide a detailed description of the issues in their 2014 paper, Vaccine-Derived Poliomyelitis. (7) They also note that the OPV can result in chronic polio infection.

In looking at this, I am reminded of the discussions before the Oversight Committee, at the State Department during the Mercury Treaty discussions and at numerous scientific and advisory committee meetings.  When Congressman Burton asked HHS to ‘get the mercury out’ and to set a preference for mercury-free (i.e. thimerosal) vaccines, he was told repeatedly that the United States could not make a recommendation or policy to promote mercury free vaccines in the United States and not do the same world-wide.  And yet, that is exactly what has been going on with polio since 1999.  So, CDC and others at the same time they were saying we must shift from OPV to IPV in the US for safety reasons, were unwilling to use the same strategy to accelerate the removal of thimerosal from vaccines.  And misrepresented this policy of needing to have some recommendations globally as domestically to Congress and the public.

Polio is one of those infectious diseases that freak people out.  The goal for 30 years has been to eradicate polio.  To succeed, maybe it is time to discuss a shift from OPV to IPV vaccines globally. I do not want to see the WHO continue their focus on discussing vaccine hesitancy as a condition to be diagnosed, but rather to talk about how to improve the safety of the vaccines administered globally and to incorporate into this discussion a need to make increased efforts to improve the availability of  safe, clean water and adequate sewage systems to reduce the transmission of all types of polio and other conditions such as cholera.  

Sources Cited

1.     Bauri M, Wilkinson AL, Ropa B, Feldon K, Snider CJ, Anand A, et al. Notes from the Field: Circulating Vaccine-Derived Poliovirus Type 1 and Outbreak Response – Papua New Guinea, 2018. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep. 2019;68(5):119-20. doi: 10.15585/mmwr.mm6805a6. PubMed PMID: 30730867; PubMed Central PMCID: PMCPMC6366675 potential conflicts of interest. No potential conflicts of interest were disclosed.

2.    Mbaeyi C, Alleman MM, Ehrhardt D, Wiesen E, Burns CC, Liu H, et al. Update on Vaccine-Derived Poliovirus Outbreaks – Democratic Republic of the Congo and Horn of Africa, 2017-2018. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep. 2019;68(9):225-30. doi: 10.15585/mmwr.mm6809a2. PubMed PMID: 30845121; PubMed Central PMCID: PMCPMC6421971 potential conflicts of interest. No potential conflicts of interest were disclosed.

3.    Greene SA, Ahmed J, Datta SD, Burns CC, Quddus A, Vertefeuille JF, et al. Progress Toward Polio Eradication – Worldwide, January 2017-March 2019. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep. 2019;68(20):458-62. doi: 10.15585/mmwr.mm6820a3. PubMed PMID: 31120868; PubMed Central PMCID: PMCPMC6532951 potential conflicts of interest. No potential conflicts of interest were disclosed.

4.    Public health round-up. Bull World Health Organ. 2019;97(2):77-8. doi: 10.2471/BLT.19.010219. PubMed PMID: 30728612; PubMed Central PMCID: PMCPMC6357566.

5.     Centers for Disease C, Prevention. Updated recommendations of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) regarding routine poliovirus vaccination. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep. 2009;58(30):829-30. PubMed PMID: 19661857.

6.    Centers for Disease C, Prevention. Recommendations of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices: revised recommendations for routine poliomyelitis vaccination. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep. 1999;48(27):590. PubMed PMID: 10428098.

7.     Burns CC, Diop OM, Sutter RW, Kew OM. Vaccine-derived polioviruses. J Infect Dis. 2014;210 Suppl 1:S283-93. doi: 10.1093/infdis/jiu295. PubMed PMID: 25316847.

Always,

Beth Clay, June 27, 2019

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Are Public Health Authorities the Authors of Fake Measles News?

Dozens and now hundreds of times a day media outlets are reporting with great drama that after measles was ‘eliminated’ in the United States in 2000 it is making a comeback. They and laying the blame on that bad bad doctor from the UK and parents in the US who have avoided giving their children the MMR vaccine according to the CDC recommended schedule. 

Was Measles Really Eliminated in 2000 in the USA?  In all these stories I’ve watched, listened to and read, not a single journalist or news reporter has questioned this talking point.  It is obvious someone has scripted the daily talking points regarding measles.  The only person so far who has brought this up is investigative journalist Sharyl Attkisson who mentioned on the Larry O’Connor radio show on Friday, April 26th that measles was not actually eliminated in 2000.  The radio segment was not long enough for her to get into details.  I was intrigued and wondered if yet again (I’ve seen it too many times in 20 years to count), the American public was being duped by government officials.  So, I decided to investigate it myself. 

As an aside, kudos to Larry O’Connor, the first media personality that I am aware of in a major marketplace (WMAL just after Rush Limbaugh in the DC marketplace) not to parrot the talking points and to give both sides of the issue air time.  Before having Sharyl on, Larry gave air time to Dr. Anthony Fauci, Director of the NIAID at the NIH the day before. He also allowed the public to call in and give their perspective.

Mandatory Reporting of Measles: The media is getting measles statistics in 2019 in almost real time about because it is one of the dozens of diseases for which doctors are required to make a mandatory report to public health officials.  Local and state authorities gather these data from health professionals and hospitals and then report them to the CDC.  It typically takes CDC staff about two years to gather and evaluate this data and publish it in their own online newsletter, the Mortality and Morbidity Weekly Report.  When it suits them, the CDC will make weekly reports on disease outbreaks as well. 

What Does the Word ‘Eliminate’ Mean to You?  To me it means to get rid of, to eradicate.  I looked it up at dictionary.com and confirmed that eliminate means among other things to ‘remove or get rid of’ and ‘to eradicate or kill’. In running down the facts last night, the song “Only in America” kept running through my head and then when I read the article entitled, “Measles Eradication: Is It in Our Future?”  that Dr. Walter A. Orenstein, from the CDC’s National Immunization Program and colleagues, authored, I had a flashback to the Bill Clinton impeachment proceedings and his dialogue on what the definition of ‘is’ is.

Enter from Stage Left, Dr. Walter Orenstein from the CDC:  In 1997, Dr. Orenstein and his colleagues from the CDC joined with public health officials at the Dahlem Conference on Disease Eradication and set their own definition for what measles eradication would mean.  As stated in their abstract, “The authors evaluate the biological feasibility of eradicating measles according to 4 criteria: (1) the role of humans in maintaining transmission, (2) the availability of accurate diagnostic tests, (3) the existence of effective vaccines, and (4) the need to demonstrate elimination of measles from a large geographic area.”

Measles eradication was supposed to be Dr. Orenstein’s legacy it seems, and now that legacy appears at risk.

Diseases Appear to Run in Cycles Much Like the Weather: As much as he and others have attempted to blame that ‘bad bad doctor from the UK”, through the media talking points which also always blame parents including those who have medical and religious exemptions, the truth is that disease outbreaks are cyclic and why this happens is not always controllable.  Measles outbreaks wax and wane much like snow amounts in Washington, DC.  Sometimes we get no snow, sometimes we get 10 inches, and sometimes we get 3 feet of snow two or three times in a single winter. 

Even Dr. Orenstein’s paper acknowledges for instance that there was a ‘measles resurgence from 1989 to 1991.  Keep in mind, worldwide, 7 million measles cases are estimated to occur annually, and since 2016, measles incidence has increased in five of the six World Health Organization regions.

1997 Set the Stage for Orenstein’s Strategy:  In 1997, the CDC staff decided that because there were only 138 cases reported in 1997 their epidemiology suggested that no endemic measles virus was circulating in the United States. In the 1997 report, the staff published their ‘Case Classification’ on indigenous and imported measles.  “Reported measles cases are classified as imported or indigenous based on where transmission of measles virus is likely to have occurred. Cases in persons who traveled outside the United States within 18 days before rash onset are classified as international importations. Indigenous measles cases are classified into three groups:

  1. cases linked epidemiologically to a known international importation,
  2. cases in which a measles virus strain is isolated that has been associated with other countries, and,
  3. all other cases in which no association to an importation was detected. 

“The 138 confirmed measles cases in 1997 represent a record low since measles became a nationally reportable disease in 1912. Since the 1989-1991 measles resurgence, the number of reported measles cases has declined substantially, with record low numbers reported during 1993-1997 and less than 500 cases reported during 1993, 1995, and 1997.” 

Year Total Measles Cases
1999 100
2000 86
2001 116
2002 44
2003 56
2004 35
2005 66
2006 55
2007 43
2008 140
2009 71
2010 63
2011 220
2012 55
2013 187
2014 667
2015 188
2016 72
2017 120
2018 372
2019 704 (Jan 1 to May 1)

No Longer Endemic Becomes ‘Eliminated”: During March 2000, CDC convened a consultation of measles experts to evaluate data on the elimination of endemic measles from the United States. The data indicated that, during 1997–1999, measles incidence has remained low (<0.5 cases per 1,000,000 population) and that most states and 99% of counties reported no measles cases. In addition, measles surveillance was sensitive enough to consistently detect imported cases, isolated cases, and small outbreaks. Evidence of high population immunity included coverage of >90% with the first dose of measles vaccine in children aged 19–35 months since 1996 and 98% coverage among children entering school. In 48 states and the District of Columbia, a second dose of measles vaccine is required for school entry. A national serosurvey indicated that 93% of persons aged >6 years have antibody to measles. Because of these findings, the experts concluded that measles is no longer endemic in the United States. From there, the CDC began their marketing campaign that measles had been eliminated in 2000.

MEASLES. Incidence, * by year — United States, 1977–2012

*Per 100,000 population.

† In the inset figure, the Y axis is a log scale.

Measles vaccine was licensed in 1963. Endemic measles was declared eliminated from the United States in 2000.

Alternate Text: This figure is a line graph that presents the incidence per 100,000 population of measles cases in the United States from 1977 to 2012.

2019 Reporting:  Among the 704 cases, 689 (98%) occurred in U.S. residents. Forty-four cases were directly imported from other countries, including 34 (77%) that occurred in U.S. residents; 23 imports resulted in no known secondary cases. Among the 44 internationally imported measles cases, 40 (91%) were in unvaccinated persons or persons whose vaccination status was unknown; all 40 were age-eligible for vaccination, including two infant travelers aged 6–11 months. Source countries included Philippines (14 cases), Ukraine (8), Israel (5), Thailand (3), Vietnam (2), Germany (2), and one importation each from Algeria, France, India, Lithuania, Russia, and the United Kingdom. Four travelers went to multiple countries during their exposure period, including Italy/Singapore, Thailand/Cambodia, Ukraine/Israel, and Cambodia/Thailand/China/Singapore. Among 245 (35%) cases for which molecular sequencing was performed, B3 and D8 were the only genotypes identified, which were the most commonly detected genotypes worldwide in the past 12 months.

The Truth Matters:  In a nation of 330 million, the difference in 100 and 1,000 is not huge. The difference in being honest with the public about the fact that measles has never truly been eliminated in the United States and marketing a fake talking point about measles being eliminated IS HUGE.  The trust factor of Americans in the public health community has eroded in the last 20 years because of numerous instances of manipulation of data and messaging just like this.

The Emperor Has No Clothes: Like the childhood story, the public has the facts and is disgusted by the lack of integrity displayed by so many in public health.  The greatest of the manipulation of messaging is the fake reporting that there is no link between autism and vaccine injury.  The truth is that the US Government knows there is and has known it for many years. I do not even have to get into the details of the research, I just have to focus on the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (VICP) and compensated cases- meaning the government agreed with parents’ claims that a vaccine-induced brain injury resulted in the onset of autism.  There is one legal case I can specifically point to without even having to look it up and a legal research article that confirms this. 

The case of Hannah Poling in the VICP is proof of a link. Hannah has a mitochondrial disorder and suffered serious life-altering injuries from her vaccines, so severe, so well documented, and so obviously linked to her vaccines that the government officials who managed the program at Health and Human Services (HHS) offered to settle her case rather than use it in the Autism Omnibus Proceedings.  They manipulated the messaging by stating, “Hannah had an underlying cellular disorder that was aggravated by the vaccines, causing brain damage with features of autism spectrum disorder (ASD).”   That is government speak for admitting to the autism-vaccine link.

While Hannah’s mitochondrial disorder is rare in the general population, it likely affects about 1 in 5 on the autism spectrum (and that 1 in 5 typically are the kids whose parents make the vaccine injury claim). Frustratingly, and in an abdication of their duties to public health, neither Dr. Anthony Fauci nor any other government public health leader launched a research project to investigate the incidence and prevalence of mitochondrial disorders in acquired autism cases nationwide.

The second evidence that parents are aware of which is evidence the government has known for decades of an autism link to vaccine injury is the peer-reviewed paper, that was published in the Pace Law Review:  “Unanswered Questions from the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program: A Review of Compensated Cases of Vaccine-Induced Brain Injury.”  The researchers asked the question, “Are the cases of ‘autism’ that the VICP rejected in the Omnibus Autism Proceeding really different from the cases of ‘encephalopathy’ and ‘residual seizure disorder’ that the VICP has compensated before and since?  After a review of over a thousand cases, the answer would be yes.  They found 83 compensated cases in which autism was the result of the vaccine injury.  Some of these cases mentioned autistic disorder in the published decision. Even after this was published in 2011, government officials still deny the link. 

It is this digging in to protect the immunization program above all else that undermines the public’s confidence.  The media haven’t helped either because they are ‘all in’ with regurgitating the public health communities’ talking points, compounding it by name calling and judging without actual investigation.  We need a thousand Sharyl Attkisson’s digging in across the country into local, state, and federal data and asking the tough questions regarding the measles outbreak and measles vaccines.

Legislators at the state and federal level bare some of the responsibilities as well. Parents have gone year in and year out and asked for investigations and legislative changes only to ignored or given false hope that something will be accomplished and at the same time their rights as parents are being undermined.

A Sampling of Questions I want Media to Start Asking CDC and Public Health Authorities:

  1. What are the vaccine strains that are showing up in these 704 cases?
  2. How many of the 704 cases were actually unvaccinated? (Rather than unknown vaccine status)?
  3. How many of the 704 cases had one dose of the measles vaccine?
  4. How many of the 704 were fully immunized?
  5. When will the CDC make public all data on measles strains related to the outbreaks?
  6. If as is reported, most cases of the measles are imported, are there known or suspected links to those coming across the southern border with illegal immigrants to make it across without detection and establish themselves in communities across the US?
  7. How many cases of measles are related to exposure through health facilities?

Conclusion:  At the end of the day, one can only conclude that the CDC’s claim that measles was eliminated in 2000 was a false story from the beginning based on the framework they established to be able to fulfill a goal they helped set.  They wanted to pat themselves on the back for a job well done and have consciously and maliciously perpetuated this lie on the public for 19 years.  Shame on them! 

URLs to Sources Cited

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1446359/pdf/11029981.pdf

https://www.cdc.gov/measles/cases-outbreaks.html

https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/mmwr_nd/

http://content.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1721109,00.html

https://digitalcommons.pace.edu/pelr/vol28/iss2/6/

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Looking at the Suggested ‘Scarlet A’ for Unvaccinated Kids through the Lens of Ryan White

Today I saw a Facebook posting that reminded me of the 1980s and the 1640s.  The posting was one of many ill-informed, potentially fake and hate-filled railings against parents who have made a medical or religious decision not to vaccinate their child with the Measles, Mumps, Rubella (MMR) vaccine.  This particular posting suggested that unvaccinated children should wear a skull and crossbones marking to identify them as unvaccinated.  The posting suggested it be on the child’s forehead, which is why I think it may have been a propaganda posting because hopefully no American actually posted something so egregious. I worry we are quickly devolving as a society over the measles matter.  I will not call 626 cases of measles in the US over the course of four months in a population of 330 million an epidemic because it is not. 

The Scarlet Letter: As the day went on, the comment stuck in my mind.  This is not the Boston of the 1640’s depicted in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “Scarlet Letter” a work of fiction in which a woman is forced to wear the Scarlet “A” on her clothing to announce to all in the public that she is an adulteress. Can we even imagine an America in which everyone who for instance has speeding tickets has to wear on the front of their clothing a Scarlet “S” when in public; or someone who has a sexually transmitted disease has to wear a Black X.  As I write this, I am reminded of how Hitler forced people who were Jewish to declare their religion by wearing a Star of David on their jacket, setting them up for persecution and discrimination. Do we really want to persecute unvaccinated children?

Ryan White:  It is also not 1984 when a young boy named Ryan White developed HIV/AIDS from a blood transfusion he received to manage his hemophilia.  In 1985 after his Mom prevailed in court against the Kokomo, Indiana school district that had refused to allow Ryan to attend public school, Ryan shared how he was verbally abused and harassed.  If you are too young to remember HIV/AIDS in the 1980s and early 1990s and how the public and politicians treated those who were infected, it is not one of those times we as a nation can be proud of.  Many from school officials, to politicians, to families and the general public who feared the ‘unknowns’ associated with HIV/AIDS, stood in judgement of those who contracted the disease from sexual activity especially if they were gay men.  Ryan’s case was different, he was a teenager who did nothing ‘wrong’ in the eyes of society.  He was young, middle class, white, and from the Heartland of our country.  He could have been the young boy next door to any of us.  I remember discussions about Ryan and the fear that he might infect classmates. This was about the same time there was a circulating story that the government could not rule out that if a mosquito was flying around and landed on and drew blood from an HIV/AIDS infected individual; and then flew off and landed on someone else that they would not infect that second individual.  The fear of just being in the room with someone with HIV was real. 

In the early 1990s, after having worked with Dr. Richard Krause, the former Director of the NIAID during those early HIV days; I learned a great deal about our ‘microbial’ world. He had retired from the NIH to go to Emory; which proved not to be a good fit for him, so he returned to the NIH as a Senior Scientist at the Fogarty International Center where I got to know him.  In 2005, in the tribute that Dr. Krause wrote about his friend Mac McCarty, the “last survivor of the three-man team that demonstrated that genes are made of DNA” (and not protein as many originally thought). Dr. Krause quoted Dr. McCarty’s paper, “The 1944 paper on pneumococcal transformation begins: “Biologists have long attempted by chemical means to induce in higher organisms predictable and specific changes which thereafter could be transmitted in series as hereditary characters.” All that, and then some, has come to pass: witness the human genome, recombinant DNA technology, and genetically engineered animals that produce complex proteins such as human antibodies.”(1)

In 1968 and 1971, Dr. Krause and his colleagues’ studying rabbits and immune response to immunization reported:

“A number of variables are known to influence the magnitude of the immune response including the chemical and physical nature of the antigen, the method of immunization, prior sensitization to the same or a similar antigen, and the genetic background of the animal. Furthermore, these factors may either amplify or limit the wide variability in the characteristics of the immune globulins which are produced.” (2)

“Certain rabbits immunized with streptococcal and pneumococcal vaccines produce high concentrations of antibodies to the carbohydrate antigens.  These antibodies may have a remarkable molecular uniformity, and studies on their primary structure are currently underway. Since only a small percentage of random-bred rabbits produced uniform antibodies in quantities which were sufficient for extensive structural studies selective breeding of these special rabbits was begun in order to increase the number of rabbits which respond in this way.” (3)

Scientists like Dr. Krause recognize that the different rabbits responded differently to the vaccines they were studying based on several factors including genetics and prior exposures. His 1971 report focused on increasing the stock of animals that would be useful in research; however, the two papers highlight key factors that can be translated to our understanding of the human response to vaccines – different people respond differently based on numerous factors including genetics, environmental factors, and prior exposures.

It is why we cannot have a one sized fits all vaccine program.

It’s About Preserving Rights:  One of the reasons I am vocal about the rights of parents to make medical decisions whether to or not to vaccinate is because I believe in liberty.  I also believe in religious liberty. Our nation was founded on the premise of liberty.  I have twice sworn an oath to protect and preserve the Constitution. It is not an oath that ended when I left government service. We must stand together and protect parental rights and religious liberty. I did not get involved in investigating the state of our vaccine policies in the United States, and concerns about vaccine injury because someone I loved suffered a serious reaction to a vaccine, but initially because it was my job.  I stayed engaged when it was no longer my job because it is a moral obligation to continue seeking truth and justice. 

Doesn’t the MMR Vaccine Protect the Vaccinated? Government authorities, Merck the vaccine manufacturer in the United States and doctors who appear on television promoting vaccines all say that the MMR is great. The public has been told that the vaccine is safe and effective. If the vaccine is everything that it is promoted to be, given the high immunization rates nation-wide the herd immunity public health officials promote as the goal to protect those who cannot be vaccinated has been met.

The suggestion that parents who have obtained medical or religious exemptions to measles (MMR) vaccination must be forced to vaccinate their child to protect those who can’t be vaccinated is a perverse view of public health.  Parents with children too young to be vaccinated, or with medical conditions that preclude getting the MMR have suggested that their rights to take their child out in public during an outbreak is more important than the rights of parents of unvaccinated children. They seem to ignore the reality that the MMR is a live virus vaccine and can shed measles virus (as well as Mumps and Rubella) for months after given.  We do not know if the increased number of measles cases in the US in 2019 is at all related to vaccine strain measles because so far, there are no journalists asking the tough questions, like whether or not those diagnosed with measles have been tested to confirm the strain of measles, to determine if it was brought in from Israel, Honduras, or the Philippines or if it originated in the US from wild-type measles. So far public health authorities have failed to report if they are testing and if so to make those test rules public.

I would suggest that it is the responsibility of the parents of a child who is unvaccinated because of age or medical condition to protect that child.  It is not your neighbor’s job to protect your child, nor the parent of another child, but yours.  Measles is not the bubonic plaque. It can be deadly but typically is not.  And even if Measles was a deadly disease in the US in 2019, taking away the rights of others, labeling unvaccinated children so they can be discriminated against and bullied is not the answer. Demonizing the parents, advocates, and medical professionals who speak out about vaccine injury and call for improved quality and a restoration of parental rights is not the answer.  And it is not the fault of Dr. Andrew Wakefield! (The misinformation campaign about Andy is a story for another day.)

Is our Nation Lost?  Our civilized society is devolving quickly into a nation that bullies parents, threatens $1,000 fines and jail for the failure of parents to compromise religious belief and vaccinate their child. Local and national media outlets dutifully report about the measles outbreak and shame parents who have not vaccinated.  I have seen repeatedly reporters on Fox News who promote themselves as conservatives, and anti-abortion shame parents for not giving their kids the MMR vaccine without acknowledging (or maybe oblivious to the reality) that the MMR is produced on two cell lines developed from tissue that was taken two aborted human fetuses. Can you be anti-abortion and pro-MMR?  I  have watched some of my favorite local media anchors (who happen to be African American) push the vaccine without acknowledging the CDC Whistleblower who saved the data covered up by his colleagues in the Atlanta MMR study that showed a statistically significant increased risk of autism to African American boys based on the timing of the vaccine (before 36 months).  I have yet to see a single outlet have a true discussion that is fair and balanced. Where are the interviews with parents of kids who were injured by the MMR and compensated in the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program?  It is as if investigative journalism has been banned when it comes to the measles outbreak. The power of Merck and the pharmaceutical industry to control news stories is real.  Think about all the moneys the networks make at local and national level from drug ads.

Is the great experiment of our Constitutional Republic going to be lost because our federal government in the 1980s took away the rights of parents to sue Merck, the maker of the MMR and to sue the doctor, nurse, or pharmacist who injected the vaccine only to have that assault on civil liberty compounded by forced vaccination by the state and local authorities?

Ryan White’s legacy with HIV/AIDS turned out not to just be about getting to attend public school.  His legacy lives on every year at the NIH where it is mandated that each agency track how much money is spent on HIV/AIDS. He short life lives on every time we fight against discrimination and bullying.  And his legacy lives on when we promote the rights of every citizen.

It is my hope that we can move past the fear-mongering and hysteria, the name-calling and divisiveness of the propaganda campaigns online and in the news and in statehouses across the country.

Always,

Beth

Sources Cited

1.         Krause RM. Obituary: Maclyn McCarty (1911-2005). Nature. 2005;433(7024):372. doi: 10.1038/433372a. PubMed PMID: 15674278.

2.         Braun DG, Eichmann K, Krause RM. Rabbit antibodies to streptococcal carbohydrates. Influence of primary and secondary immunization and of possible genetic factors on the antibody response. J Exp Med. 1969;129(4):809-30. PubMed PMID: 5766948; PubMed Central PMCID: PMCPMC2138622.

3.         Eichmann K, Braun DG, Krause RM. Influence of genetic factors on the magnitude and the heterogeneity of the immune response in the rabbit. J Exp Med. 1971;134(1):48-65. PubMed PMID: 5558071; PubMed Central PMCID: PMCPMC2139032.

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Lessons on Faith From My Two Fathers

God, my Father in Heaven sent me a father on earth. I am a daughter in both their images. My father on earth- my dad gave me characteristic features such as my high forehead and distinctive Clay family nose. My Father in Heaven gave me a heart that beats to keep my body alive, while it also feels emotions to keep my soul alive. 

God, my Father in Heaven, gave me eyes to see, while my father on earth taught me to use my eyes to see a person not just as they appear, but as they are beyond the surface. God granted me discernment; Dad taught me how to discern. God granted me intelligence, and Dad taught me to always seek knowledge.

God my Father in Heaven teaches ‘And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength…’ and he teaches, ‘Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.’

Just as I have always known my Father in Heaven loves me even when I am disobedient, obstinate, and willful; I have always known that my father on earth loves me as I am, imperfect, willful, and stubborn. God’s love is ever present, even though I cannot see Him. Through the years, and the miles apart, Dad, my father on earth’s love has never been in doubt.  I know he loves me, as sure as I know that just as God gave his Son to the world as our Redeemer. Love is an energy that cannot be destroyed.  Love transcends time, space, and dimensions.

As my father on earth transcended this dimension to join my Father in Heaven, the greatest lesson in faith is delivered. God teaches us to have faith in what is unseen, and my Dad has gone from seen to unseen when he passed from this world.

And yet, he is not gone, he is moving from one mountain top to the highest of mountain tops. Dad’s physical decline is no more, he is exalted to join his father and mother, his sister and brother and my brothers in Heaven. The love a daughter feels for her Father on earth and heaven can never be separated, just as it is written in Roman’s, ‘Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.’

Just as God said, “Be Still and Know that I am God;” I can pause, be still and know that my Father lives.  

Beth Clay – April 2019

@ All Rights Reserved 2019

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An Attack on Free Speech We Cannot Ignore

Lovers of Liberty got black roses yesterday from Rep. Adam Schiff via a letter he sent to the CEO of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg and Sundar Pichai of Google. The letter makes it clear that the California Democrat seeks to limit the free speech online of American parents and groups who use their inalienable right to free speech and open expression granted to us by our Creator and spelled out in our nation’s founding documents when it comes to discussing vaccinations.

The Bloomberg News story reported that ” Google’s YouTube unfurled a change in the way it recommends videos — an automated system that has been criticized for promoting misinformation. YouTube said it would start cutting videos with “borderline content” that “misinform users in harmful ways” from its recommendation system. “

Mr. Zuckerberg, whose wife, Dr. Priscilla Chan is a pediatrician famously posted a picture in 2016 of him taking his daughter to the pediatrician and talking about vaccines on his page. In a 2016 Time article, it was suggested that he would do well to ‘shut down’ pages.

It does not matter if you have safety concerns about vaccines or if you are pro-vaccine, or have no opinion, your liberty is being attacked all the same. Today it is a suggestion to block free speech of people who talk about vaccines, tomorrow it might be people who talk about climate change, or abortion, or immigration, or domestic violence. The real issue at hand here is that a legislator is promoting the idea to very powerful businesses that speech should be limited.

Remember, vaccine injury, rare or not rare is a reality. It became such a problem to the vaccine industry due to the lawsuits they were loosing in the early 1980’s that they joined with the medical establishment and got Congress to pass the National Vaccine Injury Protection Act of 1986 which abridged your freedom to seek legal recourse and provided liability protection for the manufacturers and the health professionals who administer vaccines. About $4 billion dollars has been paid out to the vaccine injured in this program. Sadly, the program has many problems and many of the vaccine injured – the collateral damage of the vaccine mandates are not compensated. That is a conversation for another day.

What do I mean by mandates? I mean that the US government provides recommendations and the states create mandates that force parents to get their kids vaccinated if they want them to be able to go to daycare or school. In three states, religious liberty has been taken away. In California, where all but medical exemptions have been removed, there is now a discussion led by Senator Pan to remove even the medical exemption. So if state Senator Pan (who is a physician himself) gets his way, the child with a compromised immune system, who has a mitochondrial disorder, or who is allergic to an ingredient may be forced to be vaccinated in order to attend a public school their parents pay very high taxes to support! 

You may be asking yourself why would someone have a religious objection?. There are religions that oppose the use of all medicines. I will not judge them, as religious liberty is a tenant of our nation’s foundation. There are others who object on religious grounds to some of the ingredients – after all, there are cow, pig and human DNA included in various vaccines. In the Measles vaccines (MMR and MMRV) there are two aborted fetal tissue cell lines. It is vile to suggest that a family who has strong feelings about the right to life and opposes abortion should be forced to inject their babies with vaccines that contain aborted fetal tissue cell lines. Likewise for anymore who opposes the consumption of pork on religious grounds or beef to be forced to inject their child with a vaccine that contains these animals’ DNA.

Social Media is a modern form of free expression that many of us enjoy. It has helped us build bonds with friends and families who live near and far. It has helped us developed groups in which we can share like ideas and discuss topics with friends and online acquaintances. It is a place in which businesses promote products and politicians are able to promote their agendas. Its frustrating enough to learn over the last couple of years about the political bias within some of the social media companies and the manipulation of information based on political ideology; but to suggest that people and groups who have an honest discussion about medical injury aka vaccine injury should be shut out because some do not believe the risks are real, is absurd. Think about issues that many presumed not to be true, but turned out to be real: The cancer link to – glyphosate in Monsanto’s Roundup comes to mind immediately. The issue of lead in drinking water and paint; child abuse by Catholic priests; and mercury in fish. Think about the issue of PTSD and TBI in our returning military and the high rate of suicide. What if someone in government convinced Facebook and other social media sites cut off those who talked about these issues? is it far fetched, no.

What now? Well, I hope that the thousands of families in Rep. Schiff’s district who have concerns about vaccine safety especially those with vaccine injured families members demand a meeting immediately.

When Government and Media Join Forces Look Out! As a nation, we should by now recognize the warning signs. When the government – in this case, the public health officials begin a fear mongering campaign, our antenna should go up. When you see wall to wall coverage about a topic -be it flu shots or the measles outbreak, listen carefully to the word crafting and do your own research. A story about 1 in 4 kindergarteners – tied to the measles outbreak was a misdirect. The study was about kids not being fully immunized before starting school. It was not specific to measles. Are 200 cases of measles in a nation of 330 million really a crisis?

There is no honest discussion taking place about how many of those who contracted measles were vaccinated and got the disease anyway, too little focus on what it means when an international traveler brings an infectious disease into the US; and no discussion about the failure of the vaccine to provide lifelong immunity.

What is really happening is that government officials and the media have colluded to force members of the public to take a specific action, in this case, get a vaccine. They don’t remind you that the measles vaccines are live virus vaccines and a child will shed the viruses for months afterward – potentially spreading the diseases. So the mom who goes online hysterical that her 7 months old might get measles because some other mom didn’t get her child the measles vaccine totally gets it wrong – its the kid who just got vaccinated who is more likely to shed the virus and give your child vaccine strain measles. Could it be that the government creates the measles outbreak by pushing the vaccination programs so aggressively? It’s also very convenient that these all seem to happen when state legislators have before them bills to curtail personal liberty of their citizens.

We cannot ignore attacks on free speech. I may not like what you say, but I will defend your right to say it – that has to be our mantra as people if we are to preserve liberty. I have twice taken an oath to protect the Constitution. Taking that oath means something that I do not take lightly. I have been in countries in which free speech is not acknowledged, I never want to see that happen in the United States of America. #Liberty #FreeSpeech.

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