Category: Media

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What a Recent FOIA Court Case Really Says

March 8, 2020: On March 5, a nonprofit organization made public their court filing regarding the failure of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to produce information relevant to their Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) Request. I’m very familiar with the topic, with people involved, and with FOIA (having used it myself many times over the last 20 years). Because I am not directly involved, but realizing the importance of the process and the outcomes; I wanted to give a Hawk’s views – that of the 3,000 feet up and zeroed in.

The Case itself: The Informed Consent Action Network (ICAN) made requests of the CDC through the FOIA process. In the press release, ICAN notes the CDC after many months failed to respond to FOIA requests to provide “All studies relied upon by CDC to claim that the DTaP vaccine does not cause autism.” ICAN also made the same request for HepB, Hib, PCV13 and IPV vaccines. They further asked that the CDC provide studies to support the claim that “cumulative exposure to these vaccines during the first six months of life do not cause autism.”

Why would ICAN do this? After all, its been 20 years of drama around this topic and the government says its ‘settled science’ that vaccines do not cause autism. Having become involved in this issue in 1999 while working for Congress, I realize exactly why and thought I would explain from my perspective. The data the CDC posts on their website, the studies they have conducted and funded, do not truthfully provide a scientific underpinning for their claim that ‘vaccines do not cause autism.’ Just because they say it does, does not make it so. If I look up at the sky and say it is lime green, just because I say it is, does not make it so. If I write on this page that President Trumps’ hair is his natural color and it not chemically enhanced, that does not make that a factually accurate statement.

Zeroing in on ground level: The facts are that the CDC has only investigated and published studies on MMR, thimerosal, and a couple of other ancillary topics (and in my personal view, done that poorly – but that would be a digression). The CDC and their colleagues – have not shown that all vaccines given in the first six months of life individually or as a group have no connection to the epidemic increase of autism rates or the dramatic increase of chronic health conditions in children born since 1988. They have not shown this, because they have not studied this. If CDC had, the document they submitted to the court in response to the court filing by ICAN would be very different. What did the CDC provide in response to the federal court’s stipulation order? They provided the same series of 20 papers and reports they always provide or post, none of which are actually responsive to the requests. To take a page out of former Congressman Trey Gowdy’s recent news interviews, related to political activities, I’ll draw a picture – after 21 years of funding, after 9 months of waiting for the FOIA response, after going to a federal court, the non-profit organization ICAN was handed a basket of stale, moldy apples when it had asked for a basket of fresh peaches.

In the2012, publication by the National Academy of Sciences, Ellen Wright Clayton, Chair Committee to Review Adverse Effects of Vaccines wrote, ” The Institute of Medicine (IOM) was charged by Congress when it enacted the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act in 1986 with reviewing the literature regarding the adverse events associated with vaccines covered by the program, a charge which the IOM has addressed 11 times in the past 25 years. Following in this tradition, the task of this committee was to assess dispassionately the scientific evidence about whether eight different vaccines cause adverse events (AE), a total of 158 vaccine-AE pairs, the largest study undertaken to date, and the first comprehensive review since 1994.

The committee had a herculean task, requiring long and thoughtful discussions of our approach to analyzing the studies culled from more than 12,000 peer-reviewed articles in order to reach our conclusions, which are spelled out in the chapters that follow. In the process, we learned some lessons that may be of value for future efforts to evaluate vaccine safety. One is that some issues simply cannot be resolved with currently available epidemiologic data, excellent as some of the collections and studies are. ” They go on to provide more scientific guidance, ” Some adverse events caused by vaccines are also caused by the natural infection. These effects often cannot be detected by epidemiologic methods, which typically cannot distinguish between the adverse events that are caused by the vaccine itself and the decrease in adverse events due to the decreased rate of natural infection. In addition, even very large epidemiologic studies may not detect or rule out rare events. Subgroup analysis or more focused epidemiologic studies, informed by as yet incomplete knowledge of the biologic mechanisms of vaccine-induced injury, may be required. Examining mechanistic evidence to assess causation is also challenging. Many of the case reports the committee reviewed simply cited a temporal relation between vaccine administration and an adverse event. Association, however, does not equal causation. More is required. The proof can be relatively straightforward, as when vaccine-specific virus is recovered from the cerebrospinal fluid of a patient who develops viral meningitis a few weeks after receiving the vaccine. Alleged adverse effects that appear to be immune-mediated, as many of them are, are more challenging, in part because the biology is not completely understood.

One potentially useful line of inquiry as science advances is to assess whether the vaccine recipient who suffers harm had a preexisting susceptibility to that particular adverse event as such studies may provide insight into the mechanisms by which such events occur. The committee is aware of the work funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to study such individuals and looks forward to their findings. Most individuals, for example, who develop invasive infection from live vaccine viruses have demonstrated immunodeficiencies. Our work was also complicated by the wide variation in the case reports regarding what other tests had been done to rule out other potential causes. To improve the utility of these reports, periodically convening a group of experts to suggest guidelines, based on the best available science, for providing mechanistic evidence that a particular adverse event was caused by a vaccine may be useful. These guidelines could be made available on the Web, and perhaps more important, shared with clinicians who report cases to the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System so their reports can be as complete and useful as possible. ”

The Committee published these findings:

The framework allows the committee to “favor rejection” of a causal relationship only in the face of epidemiologic evidence rated as high or moderate in the direction of no effect (the null) or of decreased risk and in the absence of strong or intermediate mechanistic evidence in support of a causal relationship. The committee concluded the evidence favors rejection of five vaccine–adverse event relationships. These include MMR vaccine and type 1 diabetes, diphtheria, tetanus, and pertussis (DTaP) vaccine and type 1 diabetes, MMR vaccine and autism, inactivated influenza vaccine and asthma exacerbation or reactive airway disease episodes, and inactivated influenza vaccine and Bell’s palsy. The evidence base for these conclusions consisted of epidemiologic studies reporting no increased risk; this evidence was not countered by mechanistic evidence.

The literature supporting several of the causality conclusions discussed
in the previous section indicates that individuals with certain characteristics
are more likely to suffer adverse effects from particular immunizations.
Individuals with an acquired or genetic immunodeficiency are clearly recognized as at increased risk for specific adverse reactions to live viral vaccines such as MMR and varicella vaccine. Age is also a risk factor; seizures after immunization, for example, are more likely to occur in young children.

The report is thorough and massive. The Cliff notes section, i.e. the chart of vaccines, suspected adverse events evaluated in the data and their findings is more than 600 pages into the report. On page 684, the National Academy of Sciences’ prestigious panel reported that in looking at autism as an adverse event from DTP, DTaP, or TT, the epidemiological assessment was “insufficient”, the mechanistic assessment was “lacking’ and the causality conclusion was “inadequate”.

As an aside, in the same table, the panel finds the mechanistic assessment for MMR and autism “Lacking’ but uses the epidemiological assessment to reject causation.

If you do nothing more than read the chart TABLE D-1 Causality Conclusions Organized by Chapter and Adverse Event which begins on page 674 of the report, your eyes will be opened. When you read how many suspected events have not been studied by the CDC (or anyone else) even with all of the billions of dollars since 1989 that have been directed towards this. The list of suspected events are not isolated incidences, but adverse events reported often enough to raise the red flag and warrant the committee investigate.

Having read this finding, the tenants of evidence-based reporting that the CDC is obligated to follow; the statements on their website AND their public information campaign should have changed in 2012 (and it did not). The CDC, Dr. Sanjy Gupta, and everyone in public health should not be able to say (since 2012) with a straight face that the question of autism and vaccines is settled science (which is a ridiculous unscientific statement anyway). To do so is simply a false statement when the preeminent committee within the scientific community published a report in 2012 which concluded that on one set of vaccines (Diptheria, pertussis, and tetanus) given multiple times to infants the question of causation remains unanswerable because the scientific evidence is lacking. Who will be held accountable? If Congress does not engage in oversight, these misdeeds will continue.

According to the law, if the CDC had data on the vaccines in question they were obligated to provide it. They did not, so, in short, but not providing any relevant studies, and providing the National Academies 2012 report they have shown themselves to be misrepresenting the facts of autism and vaccines to the public. They have by default admitted their data are insufficient to answer the question.

Why does this matter? Setting aside the parent bully technics that have taken place over the last 20 years by public health agencies and officials, as well as social media; setting aside, the miscarriage of justice in the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program, let’s pull the lens back out to 3,000 feet – if the CDC has intentionally or by neglect posted scientifically invalid information on their website about this topic, what else on their site is inaccurate?

If there is any take away from the current infectious disease drama playing out daily in the media, the information posted on the CDC website is the ‘trusted source’. It is where doctors, nurses, families, and policymakers and the world go for information about coronavirus, measles, autism, HIV, and the flu. They have a duty to the public to have only fact-based, scientifically substantiated information on their website. We are not Cuba or Russia, or Venezuela – the agency has a legal obligation not to get caught up in politics or propaganda and stick with the tenants of fact-based, scientifically substantiated information on all topics on their webpages.

Thank you to ICAN and the partnering organizations for staying focused on evidence gathering and being willing to take the agency to court when they do not comply with FOIA law. The families of the vaccine-injured need a “Judicial Watch” equivalent to keeping focused on seeking the truth; and not giving up even when the social media giants suspend free speech, bully the parents of injured children, and elected officials ignore their duty to conduct oversight.

At the end of the day, what this FOIA Case Really Says that after more than 20 years, the question of a link between acquired autism and vaccine injury remains an open question. That inconvenient evidence-based truth is not present on the CDC’s website.

Always,

Beth

Disclaimer: This opinion is purely my own personal view and does not represent the opinion or view of any organization, entity, or person that I am currently working with or have worked with in the past.

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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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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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Observations about CDC Messaging on the Polio-Like Illness from a FOIA Response

30 November 2018

The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) is an important law established to insure citizens may seek access to government materials.  According to FOIA.GOV, its basic function is “to ensure informed citizens, vital to the functioning of a democratic society.”   Since returning to the private sector in 2003, I have utilized the FOIA process numerous times with mixed results.  When reviewing the FOIA logs at the CDC recently I came across a request made by Judicial Watch in 2014 related to Enterovirus.  I requested a copy, knowing that the CDC would have fulfilled their request in line with the stipulated time requirements of the FOIA law because Judicial Watch has a legal team at their disposal to hold federal agencies accountable to the law itself.

The information requested and delivered covered a span of months in 2014 in which there was significant interest in whether children who entered the United States and became known as ‘Unaccompanied Alien Children’ (UAC) had brought with them new viruses which might be linked to the development of the polio-like syndrome being referred to as Acute Flaccid Myelitis (AFM).

News reports indicate that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is stumped and does not know what is causing this. (1) Earlier this month the CDC announced they had formed a task force to investigate the issue. (2) So far in 2018, according to this report there are 106 confirmed cases of AFM in 29 states with all but five in children aged 18 years and under.  That number grew in a week’s time to 116 confirmed cases in 31 states with a total of 286 possible cases. (3)

Investigative journalist Sharyl Attkisson has long reported on this issue on her television show Full Measure (http://fullmeasure.news/)  . She initially reported on the issue in 2014 when the condition first was reported in the United States.  At the time we were dealing with an Ebola crisis as well as upsurge of illegal immigrants coming across the US Southern border.  Thousands of children and teens were apprehended by Border Patrol.  All were designated as “Unaccompanied Alien Children (UAC)”.  Federal data show that children designated as UAC have been released to sponsors in every state. (4)

What I learned about the CDC’s handling of Enterovirus specimen in UACs: 

CDC has a Division on Viral Diseases (DVD) within the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases (NCIRD); Within the DVD, CDC has a Polio and Picornovirus Laboratory Branch (PPLB).

On July 14, 2014, CDC personnel notified personnel in the NCIRD that specimens from 35 UACs who were sick with Acute Respiratory Illness (ARI) were sent to the CDC for TAC testing. The next day one of the NCIRD team mention that the respiratory bacteria group has their own TAC card and wondered if they were running tests or not. The response to that inquiry was that they didn’t have the money.   Nothing seems to have happened in July or August with these specimens. There was an apparent nudge to get the results in part due to media and public interest in the issue and a member of Congress making inquiries about Enterovirus.

On September 21, 2014 a microbiologist within the PPLB of the NCIRD acknowledged receipt of 23 specimens.  There is no discussion included about the missing 12 specimens included in the FOIA.  Which of course raises the question of how a third of the specimens go missing and no one seems to notice or care.

The test results show a date of September 18, 2014.  The outcome of the 23 NP swabs (acquired in California, Texas and Oklahoma) tested by the CDC Enterovirus Reference Diagnostic Laboratory showed the presence of Enterovirus C105 in 13; Enterovirus – C117 in 2; and one case each of Human Rhinovirus (HRV) 9, HRV 38, and HRV 37.

CDC was in the final stages in 2014 of developing a Quick Response test for Enterovirus (EV) D68.  Did this cause them to zero in on EV 68 at the expense of keeping all possible causes of AFM on the table in 2014?

Internal emails confirm an expert considered there to “clearly be an EV C-105 outbreak/cluster” and suggested they look at the locations and clinical/epidemiological data.

There was also an internal discussion about what might occur if a child had an entero and a rhino virus simultaneously.  All of these issues are topics the public should be fully informed about and have not been.

What I learned About what the CDC Told the Media and Public in 2014:

One of the lessons I have learned over the many years is that one should pay very close attention to whether or not the question asked of the CDC is actually answered.  What I observed when reviewing this FOIA information is that the question the media and public initially asked was not actually answered.

The question initially asked was if the the Unaccompanied Alien Children (UACs) has been responsible for importing enteroviruses into the US. The concern being that these tens of thousands of immigrants had brought with them a new virus that was at the root of the polio-like AFM.  Remember, there was a great lack of transparency of where these children were being housed before being sent to their sponsors.  The news was filled with stories of mystery buses taking kids to unknown facilities and even plane loads of kids being moved to various locations in the country.  During 2014, according to media treports, about 3,000 children were housed on military bases in California, Texas and Oklahoma.  While I do not have confirmation of this, it is likely this is where the specimens referenced above were obtained.

One CDC manager blamed Sharyl Attkisson in an email for circulating a ‘conspiracy theory’ about a link between the UACs and AFM. A highly ranked CDC employee expressed relief that the 23 specimens did not show EV-D68. One of the documents produced with examples of questions being asked by the media noted that the concern being expressed was on ‘conservative’ learning new outlets websites.

There were media questions from Brietbart, Fox News, Media Matters, and Accuracy in Media.  There was also an inquiry from a doctor who at the time worked for Congresswoman (now Senator-elect) Marsha Blackburn.  This doctor now works for Senator Grassley.  Cong. Blackburn went so far as to visit the CDC in the fall of 2014 and had a lot of questions.  I see no evidence to suggest she was informed about the EV-C105 discovery in the UACs.

Among the internal discussion was a discussion about the Accuracy in Media reporter’s request for information and a CDC staffer telling another CDC staffer via email that he would ‘just have to make a FOIA request and that by the time he got his response, the numbers would be different.’  There was no inclusion of Media inquiry from any of the networks (ABC-CBS-NBC) or print newspapers such as the New York Times.

Each of the reporters and the doctor-legislative staffer was told “no EV-D68 in the UACs”.  They were not told there was Enterovirus found in the specimens and that in fact there was a cluster/outbreak of EV-C105.

Sadly, from the information provided in the FOIA, it does not look like these individuals thought to clarify and ask about other viruses or that the CDC staff took the initiative to clarify to the media or Cong. Blackburn and her staff what was found in the 23 specimens.  Four years of silence – intentional (malicious) act or a lack of initiative (mediocrity) by those involved?  I have no evidence to determine either.

Polio and the C-Series of Enteroviruses

I did a specific search for Enterovirus C105 on the CDC’s website and found an article that specifically connects polio to the C-Series of Enteroviruses. “Acute Flaccid Paralysis Associated with Novel Enterovirus C105” The article authored by a team out of the University of Virginia reported on a case of a young girl who developed Acute Flaccid Paralysis and was confirmed to have EV C105. (5)

It has been four years since the analysis of these 23 samples.  Four years since this young girl’s became ill, and three years since her physicians published the above-mentioned paper identifying EV C105; however, the CDC has made no updates to their web pages and does not appear to have focused their efforts on looking at this specific Enterovirus.

Concluding Thoughts – More Questions than Answers

Like most of you, I am increasingly concerned about this paralytic disease that is being called ‘polio-like’, Acute Flaccid Paralysis or Acute Flaccid Myelitis.

I am curious as to what testing has been done in the last four years both in the children who developed this condition and among the Unaccompanied Alien Children related to infectious diseases including EV C105.  I believe this information needs to be published online and available to everyone in as close to real time as possible.  I learned through this FOIA response that the CDC has a ‘master database’ on their specimen outcomes.  Will the Task Force have access? Where is the public access?  Is anyone at the CDC looking beyond EV D68?  Are their quick response tests being developed for other enteroviruses?  Are the doctors treating the AFM cases testing for other enteroviruses like C105?  Has the CDC even made this suggestion?

I cannot help but worry that the migrants who are sitting in Tijuana, 60 percent of whom have respiratory illness already may be carrying EV C105 or something else that will develop into a life-threatening illness for these individuals and those in the surrounding areas. Because of the deteriorating conditions at this migrant camp site, some have now been bused to another location in Mexico about an hour away.  They will hopefully have better conditions, but whatever viruses they may carry, are going with them.  I hope the public health sector of the Mexican government along with the organizers of the caravan are working on improving the sanitation and reducing the spread of infections.

There is No Cure – Yet.

The CDC admits they have no cure to offer for this polio-like condition. They advise close attention to frequent hand washing with regular soap.  Entero and Rhino viruses can live on clothing and surfaces for many hours – up to 72 hours on hard surfaces like door knobs.  So, hygiene remains the number one best prevention.

Be smart – if you are sick, stay home and away from others.  Forgo hand shaking for the winter months. Up your intake of Vitamin D and Vitamin C. Get adequate rest.  If you have a child who tends to ‘catch everything’ avoid taking him or her to large public spaces like the mall, movie theaters, big box stores especially on high attendance days especially if there are reports of flu and respiratory illnesses in your community.  I am shocked at how often I see people cough and sneeze in public and make no attempt to cover nose and mouth.

Given what I learned in this FOIA’d information from 2014, I see a new FOIA request in my near future.

Sources Cited:

Links to the CDC’s websites of possible interest:

https://www.cdc.gov/non-polio-enterovirus/about/symptoms.html

https://www.cdc.gov/non-polio-enterovirus/about/ev-d68.html

https://www.cdc.gov/non-polio-enterovirus/hcp/ev-d68-hcp.html

https://www.cdc.gov/non-polio-enterovirus/about/ev-a71.html

https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/21/10/15-0759_article

Always,

Beth Clay