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Shoot First and Ask Questions Later
Scientific Fraud and Conflict Of
Interest In Vaccine Research, Licensing & Policymaking
By Michael Belkin
Presented at The 2nd International Public Conference on Vaccination
2000,
Arlington Virginia
In Business School, (Organizational Behavior) we studied what
can happen to
organizations that suffer ethical management breakdowns (such
as Johns
Manville with asbestos, Owens Corning breast implants, etc.).
Nothing
illustrates the syndrome of management ethical failure more clearly
than the
current scandal faced by Firestone and Ford. Those companies denied
and
concealed deaths and injuries caused by tread separation and a
high center
of gravity in the Ford Explorer for years. Management knew, denied
and
concealed that their products were defective and were killing
people -- the
classic ethical breakdown.
In the vaccine industry, scientific fraud and conflicts of
interest are
causing a similar (but much larger) cycle of deaths and injuries
that is
being concealed and denied by regulators and vaccine manufacturers.
However,
(as with Firestone and Ford) a noose of their own making may be
slowly
tightening around the vaccine scandal perpetrator's necks.
Financial conflict of interest is a complex issue -- because
few investors
(except perhaps Tibetan Monks or Jesuit Priests) are likely to
not have
pharmaceutical shares in their diversified portfolios in this
day and age.
But financial conflicts of interest and scientific fraud (that
lead to
corrupt public policy) damage the public interest and could eventually
bankrupt vaccine manufacturers that have perverted the regulatory
process.
Shareholders should investigate the issue carefully.
There's only about 100 US Deaths from Firestone tire blowouts.
There are
thousands of deaths and many thousands of cases of disability
and
neurological damage lurking in the FDA Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting
System (VAERS). This is a potential legal scandal of much larger
scope than
the Firestone/Ford episode.
US vaccines are licensed by the FDA and immunization recommendations
are
made by the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP),
which is a
committee whose members are appointed by the Centers for Disease
Control
(CDC). ACIP immunization recommendations are enacted into law
by public
health departments and/or legislatures at the state level, via
the energetic
efforts of vaccine manufacturer sales representatives. While the
ACIP does
nothing more than craft and finalize the exact wording detailing
recommended
doses and ages for administration of vaccines, ACIP recommendations
are
extraordinarily influential, because they get turned into mandates
at the state level.
These vaccine mandates are despotic intrusions into personal
liberty and
democracy. School districts and social service departments demand
that: You
must inject these viruses and bacteria into your body (or your
child's body)
or you (or your child) may not attend school, you may be charged
with child
abuse and your children may be removed from your home, placed
in foster care
and forcibly vaccinated.
Such intimidation is taking place with greater intensity and
frequency as more and more ACIP recommendations and subsequent
state vaccine mandates are
enacted. Furthermore, parents are being wrongfully accused and
convicted of
shaken baby syndrome in cases where their children die immediately
after
vaccination and have swollen brains in the autopsy report (brain
inflammation is a classic vaccine adverse reaction).
The enforcement of ACIP vaccine recommendations at the state
and local level
by plodding and heavy-handed health and social service department
employees
is a threat to the neurological systems of those vaccinated. Vaccine
adverse
reactions are defined as the same thing as disease complications
in the
medical literature -- encephalitis. "Acute disseminated encephalomyelitis
(postinfectious encephalomyelitis--see also Acute Viral Encephalitis
and
Aseptic Meningitis) is characterized by perivascular Central Nervous
System
demyelination, which can occur spontaneously but usually follows
a viral
infection or VIRAL VACCINATION (or, very rarely, BACTERIAL VACCINATION),
suggesting an immunologic cause." (Merck Manual
http://www.merck.com/pubs/mmanual/section14/chapter180/180a.htm)
Thousands of reports of adverse reactions such as convulsions,
brain
inflammation, inconsolable screaming syndrome, SIDS and neurological
diseases such as Multiple Sclerosis, Transverse Myelitis and Guillain-Barre
Syndrome continue to flood into the FDA Vaccine Adverse Event
Reporting
System (VAERS), where they are largely ignored or tolerated as
the cost of
some mythical victory over disease. Children and adults are developing
the
same encephalitic and neurological complications after vaccination
that
science takes credit for eliminating through immunization -- but
the CDC,
ACIP and American Academy of Pediatrics all insist the vaccine
adverse
reactions don't exist or are coincidences.
Their double standard is: You are required to receive this
vaccination so
you and society don't develop encephalitic and neurological complications
from disease, but if you die or develop encephalitic or neurological
complications immediately after receiving the vaccine (which contains
the
same virus or
bacteria that causes the neurological complications), then
it's all in your
imagination, it's a coincidence or we're still doing studies and
we'll get
back to you when they are done.
Shoot first and ask questions later.
Unelected, unregulated and unaccountable ACIP medical bureaucrats
have
blatant financial conflicts of interest and are committing scientific
fraud
by recommending administration of vaccines that have not been
tested for
safety in the age groups or populations targeted. Dr. John Modlin,
current
Chairman of the ACIP (Merck Immunization Advisory Board 1996-present,
Merck
shareholder) gave his definition of scientific validity in a March
1999
University of New Hampshire debate:
"Has the information withstood the test of peer review?
Has the information
been published in a respected medical or scientific journal? ...
this is the
standard that you should hold me to today ... has the information
been
published in a scientifically reputable journal?"
One month earlier at the February 1999 ACIP meeting Chairman
Modlin lobbied
for the ACIP to recommend the Rotavirus vaccine for premature
infants,
although no safety studies had been done, much less peer reviewed
or
published:
".. available data are insufficient to fully establish
the safety and
efficacy of rotavirus vaccine in premature infants ... there is
a section
under Adverse Events that details what little information there
actually are
with respect to premature infants ... To my knowledge we don't
have data
from a clinical trial specifically ... Some bit of information
from Seattle,
as I recall, that had suggested that was a slight increase in
relative risk
for hospitalization for premature infants ... Obviously a situation
where we
have to make a judgment in the absence of data, and with a vaccine
that has
not yet been tested in the group ..." (ACIP transcript, pages
102-112)
Modlin then held a vote and the recommendation for premature infants
passed
nine to one -- Modlin voted yes.
Shoot first and ask questions later.
As a member of The Vaccines and Related Biological Products
Advisory
Committee (VRBPAC) and Chairman of the Rotavirus working group,
Modlin had
data showing a risk of intussusception (life threatening bowel
obstructions)
in clinical trails of Rotavirus vaccine before that February 1999
ACIP
meeting. The Rotavirus vaccine was withdrawn from the market in
October 1999
after 113 cases of intussusception. One premature baby died after
getting
rotavirus vaccine in a vaccine cocktail and another five-month-old
infant
died after developing intussusception five days after receipt
of the
vaccine.
By ACIP Chairman Modlin's own definition, the ACIP's recommendation
was
scientifically invalid. I'll go one step further and say the ACIP
Chairman
committed blatant scientific fraud by issuing an ACIP recommendation
that
Rotavirus vaccine be given to premature newborns without scientific
proof
that it was safe to do so. And what was the penalty? Modlin
was apparently
reappointed to another term as ACIP Chairman by the CDC. Commit
scientific
fraud that causes death and grievous injury -- and get reappointed.
That is
the incentive system in the US vaccine regulatory system.
Another case suggesting scientific fraud is the still-existing
1991 ACIP
recommendation that every newborn baby receive the hepatitis B
vaccine in
the hospital within hours of birth. Samuel L. Katz, MD, who instituted
that
policy when he was ACIP Chairman in 1991 has admitted they had
no
peer-reviewed, published studies showing that it was safe to give
to
newborns when the ACIP made that recommendation. (Katz is former
Chairman
Committee on Infectious Diseases of the American Academy of Pediatrics,
former Chairman of the Public Policy Council of the Infectious
Diseases
Society of America).
When I asked Katz in the question/answer session after his
April 12, 2000
NY/Cornell Medical School lecture on "Vaccines in the
New Millennium" what
peer-reviewed, published safety study he used when he was ACIP
Chairman to
recommend at-birth immunization of newborns in 1991 he answered:
"you are
quite right there was no published peer-reviewed study"
(tape and transcript
available). Newborns have negligible risk of contracting the hepatitis
B
virus, unless the mother is infected. That risk can easily be
determined by
a maternal blood test. No US vaccine had ever been mandated for
newborn
babies before. But Katz and the ACIP decided it was safe to vaccinate
not-at-risk for hepatitis B newborns without any proper safety
study.
Shoot first and ask questions later.
The results of that uncontrolled experiment are in: upwards
of 36,000
adverse reactions and more than 440 deaths (VAERS). My daughter
died after
receiving the hepatitis B vaccine. Katz also admitted that vaccine
adverse
reactions are the same thing as neurological complications from
disease when
I pressed him if he disagreed with that definition from the Merck
Manual
saying "with measles vaccine it is possible that maybe one
out of 150,000
children who get the vaccine may get something that mimics measles
encephalitis."
Parents report their children were perfectly normal until receiving
the MMR
measles/mumps/rubella vaccine, at which point the children became
autistic
after a neurological adverse reaction to the MMR vaccine ("something
that
mimics measles encephalitis"). The incidence of measles
disease may be down
to about 100 cases annually in the US, but the rate of Autism
has soared
hundreds of percent -- a disease historically called "post-encephalitic
syndrome."
For vaccine manufacturers -- the ACIP is a gold mine. ACIP
recommendations
are a license for vaccine manufacturers to use state governments,
school
systems and social service systems as a marketing department for
their
products. With an ACIP recommendation in hand, vaccine manufacturers
use the
government to say "you must buy my product and inject it
into your body,
even if it kills you or causes brain damage."
This is a huge Anti-Trust violation. The Orwellian spectacle
of monopolistic
and oligopolistic pharmaceutical manufacturers subverting government
agencies to ram unsafe products down children's veins is a violation
of the
basic principals of the Constitution and Bill of Rights.
Our forefathers said "No Taxation Without Representation"
to their British
oppressors. I say "No Vaccination Without Representation"
to the corporate
tyrants at Merck, Smithkline and other vaccine manufacturers who
have so
utterly subverted the US vaccine regulatory process.
Dr. John Modlin must be removed as Chairman of the ACIP and
the
scientifically invalid newborn hepatitis B vaccine policy instituted
without
safety studies by Dr. Katz must be revoked. The investors and
directors of
vaccine manufacturers such as Merck and Smithkline must recognize
that those
companies are conducting the classic ethical blunder of selling
products
that are killing and injuring people -- and then concealing and
denying the
evidence.
A Canadian doctor who treats hepatitis B vaccine adverse event
victims told
me when he called Merck, they told him he was the first one who
had ever
called them with such a problem. There are upwards of 36,000 reports
in
VAERS and I would be delighted to provide them to anyone who cares
to
investigate the issue for themselves, sorted by deaths, convulsions,
screaming syndrome, liver disorder and neurological damage --
median onset
one day after vaccination.
This is the CDC's Mission Statement
"To promote the health and quality of life by preventing
and controlling
disease, injury and disability." "CDC pledges to to
be a diligent steward of
the funds entrusted to it." "CDC pledges to base all
public health decisions
on the highest quality scientific data, openly and objectively
derived." CDC
Core values: Accountability -- we ensure that our services are
based on
sound science and meet real public needs ..."
That's What They Say, Here's What They Do The CDC misallocated
funds that
were targeted for chronic fatigue syndrome (a vaccine adverse
event) to some
other non-vaccine related pet project. The
ACIP Chairman recommended the Rotavirus Vaccine for premature
infants
without any data whatsoever showing that it was safe. The ACIP
recommended
the hepatitis B vaccine for newborns without any public, peer-reviewed,
published study showing it was safe. The head of epidemiology
of the CDC
presented a slide showing serious reactions to the hepatitis B
vaccine were
approximately 10 times higher than for other vaccines at the February
1999
ACIP meeting. The CDC has ignored FOIA requests for the scientific
data used
to justify the 1991 newborn hep B vaccine mandate.
The CDC has violated its own mission statement and current
leadership needs
to be replaced. Most people don't realize that the CDC is a quasi-Military
organization that takes great pride in dressing up in uniforms
and strutting
around one day a week.
That might be part of the problem. If they were just dressing
up and playing
soldier marching around their compound in Atlanta and not harming
anyone
than they would just be comical figures like Colonel Klink of
Hogan's
Heroes.
But it's not funny -- the reality is that these vaccine mandates
are being
rammed down the US public health system by the CDC and ACIP and
are being
imposed at the local level like the US is ruled by some Vaccine
Gestapo. The
agenda for recent CDC and vaccine industry conventions has had
numerous
panels on "How Can We Communicate Our Message to the Public
More
Effectively." Obviously the CDC, ACIP and National Immunization
Program
(NIP) are extremely concerned with brainwashing the public to
keep
vaccinating no matter how defective the vaccines are and how many
kids die
or become autistic.
Personally I think that's the wrong message and they ought
to stop killing
people and destroying lives. But if the CDC wants to communicate
their
message more effectively, as a management consultant I have a
suggestion.
They need a more charismatic front man. I suggest they get
someone like
Joseph Goebbels -- propaganda chief of the Third Reich to go out
and carry
the CDC-ACIP-NIP message to the airwaves.
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Michael Belkin is President of Belkin Limited, a financial
and economic
forecasting firm in New York City.
This is dedicated to Lyla Rose Douglas Belkin, who died hours
after
receiving the hepatitis B vaccine. May other innocents be spared
her
tragedy.
for more, visit www.craiganderson.net
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