PAAM Medical Letter, Vol. 4, Issue 2, Special Edition, April 13, 2017
Dear PAAM Colleagues!
Welcome to this special edition of the PAAM Medical Letter. Thanks for being members or supporters of PAAM! Last month’s issue was devoted to influenza and the influenza vaccine. This special edition will be devoted to vaccinations. You may well ask why have a special edition on vaccinations? Haven’t there been several issues already having some articles on vaccinations? While this is true, the whole issue of modern vaccines and vaccinations is a complex one. There is more public debate on vaccination safety and having them be mandatory. The Trump administration’s suggestion of having Robert F. Kennedy Jr., head a vaccine safety and scientific integrity commission has been both praised by various consumer and anti-vaccine groups as well as ridiculed and criticized by physicians and scientists who support the ostensibly overwhelming health benefits of vaccines.
PAAM’s official position is to oppose mandatory vaccinations and to have adequate informed consent and provide an individual assessment with input from the patient or parent about whether or not to vaccinate. This is no longer possible in California, after passage of SB 277 that requires mandatory vaccinations for children if they are going to attend public schools and only allows certain accepted medical exemptions. In many states now there are bills that have been introduced into the legislatures to have similar laws to the California one. We, who are in anthroposophic medicine, need to be aware of the current issue regarding vaccines, their efficacy and safety, and we need to know about a few studies that point to deep questions and doubts about the safety of current vaccines. This special edition cannot possibly provide readers with all the necessary literature and information about vaccines and vaccination. However, with previous issues having articles on vaccines, and with this current issue, we can hope to be better informed about the factual aspects of the debate and not have to accept what public officials and vaccinologists broadly state about the efficacy and safety of vaccines. Let’s take a look at the science and what an analysis of the scientific literature has to say.
Please note: This Letter is for your thoughtful consideration and personal research and is not to be taken as something dogmatic to believe in nor promote as something official from PAAM or the international anthroposophic medical movement.
But, first we turn to two quotes and two mantric verses by Rudolf Steiner that can frame this special edition and remind us of our spiritual path.
Nothing but the will to lead life in a spiritual way, the will to allow spiritual decisions, spiritual motivations, to play a part in what we do in the physical world, can make humanity truly healthy again.
- Rudolf Steiner, “How to Listen to the Spirit”, lecture, Heidenheim, 6/12/19, in The Meaning of Life and Other Fundamental Issues (CW, 193, Rudolf Steiner Press, 1999).
Human beings must embark upon the unpleasant task of abandoning the mode of thinking which the universities produce in the so-called educated classes today; a time must come when a number of human beings declare themselves ready to accept this uncomfortable world-conception which takes its direction, its concepts, its ideas, from the spiritual world. For humans must not, dare not, linger in the condition of sleep that is so congenial to those abstract concepts for which the age of materialism strives and then calls “noble.”
- Rudolf Steiner, “Behind the Scenes of External Happenings”, lecture, Zurich, 6th November 1917 CW 178
The Calendar of the Soul mantras (opposing streams that meet in us):
Verse #50
There speaks to the human "I"
Powerfully revealing itself,
And releasing forces of its being,
The Joy-in-Becoming of World Existence:
In you, bearing my life
Out from its enchanted spell,
I ever reach my true aim. Verse #3
There speaks to the Cosmic All,
Forgetting itself
And [yet] mindful of its primal state,
The human being's waxing "I":
In you, freeing myself
Out from my subjective fetters,
I ever fathom my true being.
ATTACHMENTS
Attachment #1 This a copy of a 2014 online article (http://www.greenmedinfo.com/blog/vaccines-we-trust) written by Suzanne Humphries, MD, in response to a Medscape video by Paul Offit, MD, Chair of Pediatrics at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and head of the Vaccine Education Center. The transcript of his video is printed at the end of her article. Humphries takes issue with Offit’s view of science and religion. While Humphries argues from a particular religious Christian point of view, she makes many good points about our willingness to accept “experts’ advice” instead of digging in and looking at the research oneself. She also points to the inadequacy of the science on vaccines. In addition she points out that most so-called vaccine experts, like Offit, are not unbiased, but instead have biased, Ahrimanic views about the greatness of science, the body as a machine that is flawed and needs fixing, and about conventional, materialistic science’s superiority to other viewpoints, such as minority scientific views and religious or philosophical views. One can almost palpate the arrogance of the man. Of course, he is a child and symptom of our age. He contributes regularly to Medscape where you can read more about his point of view and his ridicule of others who don’t accept his science (the only one there is). We need to know this Ahrimanic viewpoint well, have arguments against it and work at promoting positive contributions to society such as AM, Waldorf education and Bio-Dynamic agriculture.
Attachment #2 The CDC has written and published several epidemiological articles countering the view that the mercury in vaccines, Thimerosal, and vaccines in general, are safe. However, the attached article by Brian Hooker and colleagues looked critically at the evidence that the CDC and Offit often cite “proving” Thimerosal (ethyl mercury) is safe and that it doesn’t cause autism. Hooker paints a very different picture. He calls into question the scientific legitimacy of the evidence by showing significant methodological issues with 6 published studies that had some CDC involvement, and the malfeasance of the CDC’s research. This is a well written paper outlining the problem with the epidemiological "science” that shows vaccine safety. He and colleagues also cite the basic science-biological literature and small clinical studies showing the toxicity of Thimerosal. Many have already heard about the CDC whistle blower, William Thompson, PhD, stating that CDC scientists on the team he was working with destroyed scientific evidence pointing to the harmful effect of the MMR to African American boys. Thompson surreptitiously kept a copy of the records. The CDC supervisors prevent him from speaking, but Thompson is hoping that a congressional committee would subpoena him so that he can present his case. So far, that hasn’t happened. This attached article gives some scientific vigor to the poor science and malfeasance of the CDC. Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., is aware of this and is attempting to sue the CDC. You can go onto his website, World Mercury Project, for more information.
For your reference, you may want to have Attachment #3 (PubMed abstract) which details the mechanism of toxicity with alkyl mercury compounds, ethyl mercury and methyl mercury. This review article was written by members of the toxicology division of the CDC and not the vaccine division. We know that most vaccines in the US, but not all, have no mercury in them. However, many of vaccines have aluminum salts as adjuvants in them and these are suspected of causing ASIA (Autoimmune/inflammation Induced by Adjuvants) that has been featured in a previous issue. Yehuda Shoenfeld, MD, has been a leading researcher in this field. Aluminum salts are also neurotoxic and have demonstrated biopersistence in the brain. Christopher Exley, PhD, has done a lot of the scientific and biological work on aluminum, its mechanism of action, toxicity and potential treatment.
Attachment #4 This 2017 Italian paper has done careful research and has shown shocking levels of micro- and nanocontamination of non-biodegradable and non-biocompatible foreign body particulates and precipitates in a wide variety of vaccines. There appears to be something very wrong with the quality control of the vaccine manufacturers (who are the big pharmaceutical companies). The authors recommend inspection of the labs and their procedures to eliminate this unrecognized problem. Despite the small amount and size of this debris, science and medicine now recognizes the important biological effects of micro- and nanoparticles.
Attachment #5 This online article written by Suzanne Humphries, MD, questions the real possibility of herd immunity by vaccines, because they don’t provide the degree of beneficial, natural immunity from the natural infection. Natural herd immunity comes from the broad, immunologic response, both humoral and cellular to the natural infection and the periodic boostering of immunity that occurs from periodic re-exposure from infected children (when talking about varicella and measles). Vaccines provide an inferior type of short-lived and incomplete humoral immunity that, with booster doses, can certainly wipe out clinical epidemic infectious diseases but cannot eliminate them entirely. There can be outbreaks of measles and varicella, even in fully vaccinated people. Furthermore, the inferior type of humoral immunity cannot be transmitted maternally via the placenta to the fetus and infant; only the natural antibody immunity, and with antibodies in breast milk, can offer protection to the infant in the first year of life against many childhood infectious diseases. The elderly will likely not be well protected from the vaccine-induced immunity because of the poor duration of protection. With widespread vaccination of childhood infectious diseases, we now have infants and the elderly more vulnerable than before, when there was true herd immunity. If you’re interested, Humphries has a section at the end about small pox and the vaccinia vaccination that is very interesting.
Attachment #6 Lastly, I thought you might like to read what the Mahatma Gandhi thought and wrote about vaccines and vaccinations. He was against compulsory vaccinations on ethical, rational and medical grounds. We can see that he prefigured many of the arguments used against vaccines today. In addition, there is a possibility of getting a free downloadable book by Tetyana Obukhanych, PhD immunologist, called Vaccine Illusion. I have provided the original URL for you to get the original posting and links (including for the book). The free book offer is time limited.
CONTRIBUTIONS
There are potentially several contributions that will need to appear in a subsequent issue. Look for the next edition!
On behalf of the PAAM Board and to you, the PAAM colleagues,
Ricardo Bartelme, M.D.