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#31
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Just a vent...
Jo wrote:
I am copying an article here which includes references to several studies. This article has so many problems I hardly know where to begin. Admittedly, we mommies and daddies were not caught in the mainstream with this somewhat rebellious act. Today's conventional wisdom says to go with the shot, which many parents do "to be on the safe side." But we at the party were doing what we felt was safest, after weeding through the propaganda and rhetoric about America 's latest "Red Scare": the deadly scourge of chickenpox panic. This is just propaganda rhetoric. Varivax, the varicella vaccine manufactured by Merck, was approved by the FDA in 1995. That right there refutes your statement that "adults" are now getting chickenpox. Two years after vaccine licensure, in the 14 states that maintained continuous reporting of varicella, the incidence remained completely unchanged, at 107.0 cases per 100,000 population. (The national incidence, however, was reported by the CDC as dropping to 36.9. 4 ) Two years after licensure...that hardly means anything. We're now -eleven- years after licensure. While the CDC estimates the vaccine to be 86 percent effective in children, a 2001 CDC study showed that that effectiveness might actually be as low as 40 percent. 5 But authorities at Maryland's Takoma Park Elementary School might quarrel even with that. There, reportedly, 12 of the 16 cases of a recent chickenpox outbreak involved children who had already been vaccinated. 6 Well. 86% is not a wonderful effectiveness rate, but the other 14% of children get less severe cases of chickenpox when they do happen. This one school is proof of nothing, because if you randomly drop a bunch of dots all over the floor, some of them will randomly bunch together. It began with a child who had been vaccinated, contradicting the theory that "breakthrough" cases-i.e., children who develop true chickenpox despite having been vaccinated-are not contagious. I've never heard that theory, and the research I've seen doesn't claim it. Studies from Cedars-Sinai Medical Center also refute the idea that vaccine-borne varicella is not contagious. 8-10 Where is the statement that says it's never contagious? Because the information I've read says this: Transmission Post-marketing experience suggests that transmission of vaccine virus may occur rarely between healthy vaccines who develop a varicella-like rash and healthy susceptible contacts. Transmission of vaccine virus from vaccines without a varicella-like rash has been reported but has not been confirmed. Therefore, vaccine recipients should attempt to avoid, whenever possible, close association with susceptible high-risk individuals for up to six weeks. In circumstances where contact with high-risk individuals is unavoidable, the potential risk of transmission of vaccine virus should be weighed against the risk of acquiring and transmitting natural varicella virus. Nor, perhaps, is the vaccine as safe as advertised. A 2000 article in the Journal of the American Medical Association disclosed a wealth of reports made by doctors and parents to the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS). "This FDA report confirms our concern that the chickenpox vaccine may be more reactive than anticipated in individuals with both known and unknown biological high risk factors," said Barbara Loe Fisher, president of the National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC). 11 The problem with VAERS is that it both over- and under- reports. ANY illness a child might have after a vaccine is reportable to VAERS. That doesn't mean the vaccine caused it. Allowing for underreporting, the authors estimated that 4 percent of vaccine-induced adverse reactions IOW, they made these numbers up and words backwards from a pre-determined conclusion. (about 1 in 33,000 doses) were serious, resulting in shock, convulsions, encephalitis, thrombocytopenia, and 14 deaths. The report adds 17 adverse events to the manufacturer's product label, including secondary bacterial infections (cellulitis), secondary transmission (infection of close contacts), and Guillain-Barré syndrome. For an actual study about effectiveness, side effect, and etc of Varivax in clinical trials, try this: http://64.233.167.104/search?q=cache...ient=firefox-a "This vaccine should not be mandated," said Fisher. "There are too many questions about the true adverse event and efficacy profile of this relatively new live virus vaccine." 12 Fisher's concerns are not theoretical. Her son was left with multiple learning disabilities and attention deficit disorder after a severe reaction to a DPT shot. Wow, let's try to question the effectiveness of Varivax, using a scare tactic by someone who supposedly was damaged by an unrelated vaccine that isn't even in use any more! And for which the causality from that shot to those problems is extremely suspect. But, some vaccine critics say, the wild version has its advantages. Allegedly, it produces much higher antibody levels than the vaccine, making individuals less prone to developing shingles, the adult version of chickenpox. Herpes Zoster Overall, 9454 healthy children (12 months to 12 years of age) and 1648 adolescents and adults (13 years of age and older) have been vaccinated with Oka/Merck live attenuated varicella vaccine in clinical trials. Eight cases of herpes zoster have been reported in children during 42,556 person years of follow-up in clinical trials, resulting in a calculated incidence of at least 18.8 cases per 100,000 person years. The completeness of this reporting has not been determined. One case of herpes zoster has been reported in the adolescent and adult age group during 5410 person years of follow-up in clinical trials resulting in a calculated incidence of 18.5 cases per 100,000 person years. 5 All nine cases were mild and without sequelae. Two cultures (one child and one adult) obtained from vesicles were positive for wild-type varicella zoster virus as confirmed by restriction endonuclease analysis. 5,17 The long-term effect of VARIVAX on the incidence of herpes zoster, particularly in those vaccines exposed to natural varicella, is unknown at present. In children, the reported rate of zoster in vaccine recipients appears not to exceed that previously determined in a population-based study of healthy children who had experienced natural varicella. 5,18,19 The incidence of zoster in adults who have had natural varicella infection is higher than that in children. Getting chickenpox naturally works something like this: The virus enters the body through the mucous membranes and the upper respiratory and gastrointestinal tracts, giving the body time to work up a strong immune response. Once the body's immune system has built an antibody for the virus, the body will always build that same antibody on future contacts with the virus. Theoretically, if the first encounter with chickenpox is through vaccination, the resulting inferior antibody that the body develops is what will be used whenever the body encounters chickenpox in the future. This theory is supported by no research that I'm aware of. Critics of vaccines say that catching the wild version can mean the difference between temporary and lifelong immunity. According to Merck's literature, "the duration of protection of Varivax is unknown at present." Although studies in Japan report a 20-year vaccine duration, the CDC theorizes that that immunity will wane if wild viruses are wiped out. 13 The study I posted suggests a booster may be a good idea. Painful or not, catching chickenpox may be necessary for health, claim some clinicians. Internet medical celebrity Dr. Joseph Mercola theorizes that since varicella virus is a member of the Human Herpes virus family (herpesvirus 3 or HHV3), naturally acquired chickenpox may provide protection against other herpesviruses that have been implicated in causing cancer, Bell's Palsy, multiple sclerosis, AIDS, and chronic fatigue syndrome. 18 o.O And here we are into WAG territory again. "Internet medical celebrity"? Are ya kiddin' me, here? Technically speaking, people die not from chickenpox, but from complications, such as pneumonia, staph infection, meningitis, and encephalitis. Vaccinating for the original disease protects against the complications. Moreover, some investigators suggest that modern medicine is to blame. After reviewing the medical records of several children who had allegedly died of chickenpox, Gary Krasner, director of the Coalition for Informed Choice, an anti-vaccine advocacy group, concludes: "Nearly all of these deaths were a result of standard medical care. Physicians would treat the children with antibiotics, analgesics, or steroidal medications as their condition grew progressively worse. . . . The doctors responded to each new symptom with yet another drug, until the children died." 20 Here's one such report: I'm taking this less and less seriously with every paragraph like this. Michelle Flutist |
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