The Health Forum

A place for open discussions – with no cover ups – about health issues

by Richard Seah

Cases of anaphylaxis – severe allergic reactions – in Canada following H1N1 vaccination are much worse than originally reported.

Early reports said there were six cases. This was enough to raise alarm bells and to have vaccine manufacturer GlaxoSmithKilne recall a batch of vaccines associated with the cases. The batch contained 170,000 doses, of which about 150,000 doses had been administered. This meant that the incidence of anaphylaxis was 4 in 100,000, which is about 13 times the expected incidence of just 0.32 in 100,000.

Now, the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) has confirmed that there were, in fact, 24 cases of anaphylaxis, including one death of a man in his 80s. This means the incidence rate is actually 16 in 100,000, or about 50 times higher than expected!

Not surprisingly, PHAC Head Dr. David Butler-Jones was quick to divert blame from the flu vaccine, but to point out that the person who died had other medical conditions. This has been the typical response of pro-vaccine doctors and government health officials whenever an adverse event follows vaccination.

“It’s important to remember that just because a medical event follows vaccination, it may not have been caused by the vaccination; it may have been caused by other factors, as unfortunate events continue to occur with or without vaccine,” Dr Butler-Jones told a news conference.

This is what Barbara Fisher, Co-founder & President of the US National Vaccine Information Center, has to say about such responses. Speaking in 2001 about the Prevnar PCV7 vaccine (for pneumonia) being approved in spite of several babies dying during the vaccine trials, she said: “What’s scientific about that? That every time something bad happens after vaccination it’s ‘coincidence’? That’s not science, that’s politics.”

Anaphylaxis develops quickly, usually within minutes of being exposed to a substance (most commonly food, insect stings and drugs/vaccines) that the person is allergic to. Symptoms include breathing difficulties, weak but rapid pulse, sudden drop in blood pressure, swollen lips / tongue / throat that makes breathing and swallowing difficult, hives. vomiting, anxiety, feelings of “impending doom”, etc. Immediate medical treatment is needed, failing which the person may lose consciousness and die.

Such severe allergic reactions are rare but have happened before. Some years back, when Australia rolled out its HPV vaccination programme (against cervical cancer), it also recorded a higher than normal anaphylaxis rate of 2.6 in 100,000.

However, nobody seems able to explain how anaphylaxis might be associated with ONE BATCH of vaccines but not others, which was apparently what happened in Canada. When asked about that by a Canadian newspaper, Dr John Treanor, a flu vaccine expert at the University of Rochester, New York said it is “a difficult question to answer”.

by James Ong

Reproduced below is the text of my letter to Dr. Hariharan, after learning, with great surprise, that only two vaccines are really compulsory.  I am aware that when parents are enrolling their children into Primary One, the schools do check that the children have completed their vaccinations according to the National Childhood Immunisation Programme.

So, it’s getting complicated.  MoH says eight of the ten vaccines are not mandatory but MoE has the right, it appears, to refuse school enrolment for any child who did not complete all his vaccinations.  Does this mean that parents who refuse any or most of the other eight vaccines for their child have to home-school their kids or find a private school willing to take them?  There seems to be no justice in all this.

Dear Dr. Hariharan,

Thank you so much for your reply to my emails, on behalf of the Health Minister.

I am quite relieved that the PCV-7 and many other childhood vaccines are not compulsory in Singapore. It has renewed my faith that the Ministry of Health honors parents’ right of medical freedom. As I have stated in my first email, the prevention (PCV-7) appears to be more dangerous than the disease itself, based on the clinical trials and US VAERS data.

At the same time however, I am concerned that many parents in Singapore are not aware of their rights. Parents are routinely “coerced” into vaccinating their children according to the immunization schedule. I believe the general public is of the impression that they have to vaccinate their children with all the vaccines in the Childhood Immunization Program or risk certain repercussions.

I would like to offer the following feedback and suggestons which I hope the MoH will look into seriously:

1. MoH should publicly clarify in the local newspapers and on its website and the HPB’s website that only two vaccines – measles and diphtheria – are compulsory by law; the rest are entirely voluntary.

2. Parents should be made aware that they have a legal right to delay or postpone even compulsory vaccinations like measles and diphtheria. This can be covered in the same announcement stated in point one above.

3. Doctors, nurses and hospitals should not “coerce” or unduly influence parents into vaccinating their children with non-compulsory vaccines. I was told that newborns are not permitted to leave the hospital until the BCG and Hep B jabs are given. As far as I am aware, parents are hardly ever consulted whether they would agree to have their children vaccinated. The vaccines are just routinely given as if they were a must.

4. MoH should ensure that there is no discrimination by publicly-run schools or kindergartens against children who have not been vaccinated with the non-compulsory vaccines. It is my understanding that the MoE requires all the recommended vaccinations to be completed before a child can be enrolled into Primary One. I hope that the MoH and MoE can work together to ensure that no child is discriminated against just because of incomplete adherence to the recommended childhood vaccination schedule.

5. Parents should be given all the facts regarding the risks vs. benefits of each vaccine and asked to sign a consent form before the vaccine is given.

6. After any vaccine is given, parents should be advised to observe their child for at least 30 days to see if there are any adverse reactions and notify the HSA immediately (with a hotline number given) by means of a formal reporting system and to seek medical help if necessary. This advisory should be in the form of a printed handout. An online notification system should also be developed as soon as possible to facilitate online reporting. Parents should also be advised as to their legal right to claim damages should there be a serious adverse reaction following vaccination. Who is responsible? The clinic, vaccine supplier or the MoH?

7. Since only the measles and diphtheria vaccines are compulsory, MoH should ensure that single vaccines for measles and diphtheria are available at all polyclinics and private clinics, to meet the demand by parents for these single vaccines. I feel that parents should not be forced to have their children vaccinated with 3-in-1s like MMR and DtaP just because there are no alternatives?

8. MoH should put in more effort to educate parents on how to build their children’s immunity, beyond just a balanced diet, sleep, exercise and personal hygiene. The officers responsible for infectious disease policy and control should read books like “Beyond Antibiotics” by Dr. Michael Schmidt and “Herbal Antibiotics” by Stephen Harrod Buhner and then teach the public how to prevent infectious diseases through all natural means possible and improve the chances of a speedy, uncomplicated recovery should their child succumb to the disease, by fortifying the immune system. This should apply to all the other diseases now covered by the Childhood Immunization Program – mumps, rubella, tetanus, polio, Hep B, etc.

9. MoH should evaluate the use of natural medicines for the treatment of infectious diseases in light of the growing resistance of many types of pathogenic bacteria to antibiotics and the threat of dengue fever, HFMD, chikungunya disease, H5N1 bird flu, H1N1 swine flu and SARS. It is an accepted medical fact that many antibiotics are fast becoming powerless against drug-resistant bacteria.

10. MoH should rename the “National Childhood Immunization Program” as the “National Childhood Vaccination Program” because vaccination is not synonymous with immunization. People should not be complacently led to believe that they are immune from a disease just because they have been vaccinated against it. Vaccines are not 100% effective and do not confer lifelong immunity. For instance, a child can still be infected with invasive pneumococcal disease caused by other strains of bacteria not covered in the PCV-7.

Further to the above, I would like to request MoH to provide answers to the following questions:

1. Why the oral polio vaccine is still being given when it has already been replaced in many countries by the injectable form which is safer. Oral polio vaccine was responsible for causing several cases of polio in the West.

2. Are there still any routine childhood vaccines that contain thimerosal or ethylmercury as preservatives (these have been banned in many Western countries)?

3. If all childhood vaccines are thimerosal- or ethylmercury-free now, when were they removed from childhood vaccines? MoH should provide a timetable showing the dates they were removed.

4. In view of almost universal coverage for the BCG, Hep B, MMR and DtaP vaccines, why are there still significant numbers of cases of tuberculosis, measles, hepatitis B, mumps, rubella and pertussis in Singapore each year?

Finally I wish to personally testify that I have not consumed a single antibiotic, antiviral or medical drug (except for an antifungal medication once for a bad foot fungal infection) over the last eight years. I am confident that thousands of Singaporeans who know how to support their immune system naturally also share the same experience. I am pleased to enclose herewith several papers showing the power of natural medicines such as elderberry, zinc, vitamin C, oregano, cumin, sage and cinnamon against viral and bacterial pathogens for your review. There is evidence that such natural medicines are also effective against HFMD, dengue fever, chikungunya disease, chicken pox and rubella.

Best regards,

I await Dr. Hariharan’s reply.  It looks like parents may have to address their concerns to the Ministry of Education as well.

by James Ong

The day following my second letter of appeal, Dr. Hariharan Subramony sent me a reply on behalf of the Minister for Health.  Reproduced below is the full content of the letter:

Dear Mr Ong

We refer to your email to Mr Khaw Boon Wan, Minister for Health, dated 19 Nov in which you raised various points on vaccine safety. We thank you for your feedback, and would like to provide the following information.

The National Childhood Immunisation Programme is a recommended schedule of vaccinations for infants and young children aimed at preventing dangerous diseases which may result in significant morbidity or mortality. These diseases include diptheria, measles, mumps, rubella, pertussis, tetanus, poliomyelitis, hepatitis B, tuberculosis and pneumococcal disease. The safety and efficacy of a vaccine is reviewed by MOH’s Expert Committee on Immunisation before a decision is made to include that vaccine in the NCIP.

With respect to this statement in your email : “…….there has been no response from your Ministry regarding the concerns raised about the decision to make pneumococcal vaccination compulsory for all children under the age of five”,

we would like to clarify that of the vaccinations included in the NCIP, only 2 (measles and diptheria) are compulsory. The remaining vaccinations, including pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV), are recommended, but are not compulsory by law.

Possible side-effects after PCV vaccination include reactions at the injection site (eg pain, redness, swelling) and fever. These are generally self-limiting. So far, no serious reactions have been causally linked to this vaccine. In Holland, authorities have banned a batch of Prevnar following the deaths of 3 babies who received Prevnar. However, a definite link between the use of Prevnar and the deaths has not been established, and other batches of Prevnar continue to be used in Holland. In Singapore, adverse reactions to vaccines are monitored by the Health Sciences Authority (HSA). If there is any evidence to suggest that a vaccine is unsafe, HSA and MOH will provide appropriate guidance.

Invasive pneumococcal disease is a serious disease. Between 2000 and 2008, there were a total of 157 deaths from invasive pneumococcal disease in Singapore, of whom 5 were under the age of 5 years. Neurologic sequelae may occur among those who survive. Vaccination against pneumococcal aims to minimise the mortality and morbidity associated with the disease. Nonetheless, no vaccine can be guaranteed to be 100% effective or to be totally free of side-effects. The decision whether or not to vaccinate a child with PCV should be made in consultation with a medical practitioner, and an understanding of the risks associated with the disease, and the potential risk of vaccine-related adverse reactions.

Regards

In Dr. Hariharan’s own words, no vaccine can be guaranteed to be 100% effective or to be totally free of side effects.  Parents beware!  What came as a real surprise to me and I am sure, to many parents as well, is that only two vaccines are compulsory by law – measles and diphtheria.  You will get fined if you do not vaccinate your child with these two vaccines.  The fine can be as high as $10,000 and could carry jail sentences as well.  The rest of the ten vaccines are only recommended.  I wonder how many parents are aware of this.  Isn’t it true that children are routinely vaccinated with all the prescribed vaccines according to schedule?  I doubt parents are ever told their rights and asked if they would like to postpone or refuse any vaccines for their children.  So I wrote another letter, this time addressed directly to Dr. Hariharan.  This will be in the next post.

by James Ong

Here is the second letter that I sent to the Minister for Health, Mr. Khaw Boon Wan, after having waited for seven days without reply:

Dear Minister Khaw,

I am rather concerned that despite my email of November 12 (sent a week ago), there has been no response from your Ministry regarding the concerns raised about the decision to make pneumococcal vaccination compulsory for all children under the age of five. As the safety of innocent babies are at stake here, I would expect the Ministry to respond swiftly to these queries.

A recent special report by Generation Rescue (USA) revealed that countries that have fewer mandatory vaccines have much lower rates of autism. It is pertinent that Iceland and Sweden, which lead the world in under-five mortality rates, have far fewer mandatory vaccines than the USA, UK, Australia and New Zealand (countries cited by the Ministry as partial support for the decision to introduce compulsory pneumococcal vaccinations here). A copy of the report is enclosed.

Also enclosed is a document of the findings by the US House of Representatives Subcommittee hearings on vaccines and their risks. There is strong evidence that vaccines are responsible for epidemic levels of autism in the USA and other developed countries.

Autism now affects roughly 1 in 600 children in Singapore today. It is the leading cause of disability among children here. Has the MoH ever considered that vaccinations could have contributed to this problem and conduct a thorough investigation into the causes?

As all vaccinations carry risk of injury (despite what the MoH says), parents should be given all the facts – the scientific studies relied upon, the declaration of any potential conflicts of interest among the panel of experts, risk-benefit analyses done, etc. In the USA, investigations have revealed that the experts that sit on immunization committees do, on occasion, have links with manufacturers of vaccines or stand to gain financially if the vaccines were approved for mass use, which may have influenced their decisions.

The Expert Committee presupposes that a vaccine such as Prevnar is the only weapon in preventing this disease. That is because they received their training only in conventional medicine. In truth, many knowledgeable parents know that if they breastfeed their babies for 6-12 months, feed their children with nutritious foods and fortify their diets with supplements (cod liver oil, multivitamins/minerals, probiotics, colostrum); do not send them to daycare centers at a young age, and exercise good hygiene and sanitation at home, their children are at a very low risk of contracting invasive pneumococcal infection. These parents should not be forced to vaccinate their children.

All parents do have a constitutional right of life and personal liberty and religious freedom to choose what is best for their children. The right to make an informed choice/refusal is a universally-accepted medical ethic.

I do look forward to hearing from your Ministry soon regarding this matter.

Meanwhile, I urge that healthcare policy makers watch this video documentary, Vaccine Nation, that dispels the myth that vaccines are safe or is the answer for control of infectious diseases:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6531447125053615129&ei=trAES5SNM5S8wgP82LmICg&q=Vaccine+Nation#

Another important video is “Vaccines: What the CDC Documents and Science Reveal” by Dr. Sherri J. Tenpenny. It is available from www.amazon.com.

Best regards,

You can get a copy of the Generation Rescue Special Report and Report of the US House of Representatives Subcommittee on Human Rights and Wellness Hearing (which lasted three years) by going to:

http://www.generationrescue.org/documents/SPECIAL%20REPORT%20AUTISM%202.pdf

http://www.generationrescue.org/pdf/burton.pdf

You will learn about the dangers of mercury in vaccines; yet children were routinely injected with thimerosal-laden vaccines until 2002, when most of the children’s vaccines became mercury-free.  Most flu vaccines still contain thimerosal.

by James Ong

In late October 2009, the Ministry of Health (MoH) announced that it had adopted the recommendation of the Expert Committee on Immunisation and included pneumococcal vaccination as the tenth vaccine in the National Childhood Immunisation Programme.  Parents can draw on their Medisave, Baby Bonus or Child Development Account to pay for the three shots of vaccines, which will cost them slightly over $500 in total.

As the announcement was silent on whether parents have the right to opt out of the vaccine, I was rather concerned that children are now to be given a total of 16 shots by the time they are two.  Vaccines have been implicated in the dramatic rise in autism and neurological and learning disorders seen in children around the world.  Further, vaccines have been known to cause severe adverse reactions, even death and permanent disability.

By the way, it should be borne in mind that the money in parents’ Medisave, Baby Bonus and Child Development Accounts are their money.  So, it is as if the MoH wants you to vaccinate your children but you have to pay for them!  This is the same scenario with the Hepatits B vaccine, which costs roughly the same amount.

I did some investigations on the incidence and severity of invasive pneumococcal disease (PD) in Singapore and the risks versus benefits of the current PCV-7 vaccine (the number 7 indicates that is meant to deal with only 7 strains of bacteria that causes invasive PD), which carries the trade name Prevnar.  What I found shocked me and you will find out why by reading the letter below.

I therefore wrote an appeal letter to the Minster for Health, Mr. Khaw Boon Wan, asking him to make the vaccine entirely voluntary.  Reproduced below is the letter in its entirety:

Dear Minister Khaw,

It is regrettable that the Ministry of Health has made pneumococcal vaccination compulsory for all children under the age of 5. This makes a total of 15 vaccine shots by the time a child is two.

Based on the Ministry of Health’s (MOH) own studies, the incidence of hospitalization for invasive pneumococcal infection is below 0.04 percent for children below five. For children aged 5-14, it is 0.0124 percent. Since 2000, there have been only seven deaths (less than one a year).

The only large-scale clinical trial on the Prevnar pneumococcus vaccine, involving some 17,000 children, resulted in at least 12 deaths. Side effects included seizures, irritability, high fevers, vomiting, swelling and anaphylactic shock.

Since the vaccine’s introduction in the US, there have been more than 28,000 adverse events reported, more than 12,000 of which were serious, including 558 deaths, 555 life-threatening situations and 238 permanent disabilities (as of November 11, 2009). Evidently, the prevention is more deadly than the disease!

Recently, 3 babies died in Holland within two weeks of receiving the Prevnar vaccine, causing the Dutch health authorities to ban the particular batch of vaccines used.

Moreover, Prevnar covers only seven types of bacteria. With vaccination, more people are now affected by about 80 other types of bacteria that cause pneumonia. There will be greater problems ahead.

Vaccines are being made compulsory by heath authorities because antibiotics are no longer effective, as the overuse of antibiotics (in medicine and farming) has led to bacteria developing antibiotic resistance. Conventional medicine is fast running out of options, yet doctors and the MOH do not explore safer, natural alternatives: breastfeeding, good diet, exercise, sunshine, fresh air, sleep, hygiene and sanitation (in homes and childcare centers), dietary supplements, herbs and aromatic essential oils.

According to the WHO and UNICEF, the best solution to infectious diseases is an adequate diet (for infants, that includes breastfeeding) with good sanitation and hygiene. In many third world countries, Vitamin A, zinc and iron supplements have achieved excellent results in combating infection.

I need to reiterate that all of the above assertions and statements are based on either reliable media reports or the scientific literature.

We need greater transparency. How were the members of the Expert Committee on Immunization selected? Have they any financial ties (present or previous) to pharmaceutical companies that manufacture vaccines, e.g. research grants, Board positions, etc? What are the studies they relied on? Have they considered why other industrialized countries have not made the vaccine compulsory? Will the ministry be setting up an independent agency to monitor adverse effects of the vaccine?

Children are gifts from the Divine, not the offspring of the State. Compulsory vaccinations deny parents their Divinely-given and fundamental human right to choose what is best for their children. This, I feel, is morally irresponsible, especially when the recommendations are based on shadowy science and the vaccine subjects their children to a measurable level of risk of serious injury or even death. The vaccine is freely available to the public and they can use their Baby Bonus or Medisave to pay for it. Why not just keep it that way?

Finally, I need to point out too that there is no universal consensus among scientists on the value of vaccinations in the prevention of infectious diseases. There is however overwhelming consensus that proper nutrition, clean drinking water, food safety, hygiene and sanitation have done more to prevent the spread of such diseases than vaccines. And for this, we have to thank our civil engineers, food safety and environmental health officers.

I therefore urge the Minister to call for a comprehensive review of the decision to make the pneumococcal vaccine compulsory.

Best regards,

I waited for a week and did not receive any reply from the Minister.  So I followed up with a second letter, as a chaser.  Please see the next post for the contents of the second letter.