It seems that children in the United States are sicker than ever with chronic diseases. From 2001 to 2009 the incidence of Type I diabetes rose by 23%. Nobody knows why, but genetics and environmental factors are thought to be important. I am most concerned about the “environmental factors”.

Between 1960 and 1981 chronic diseases among U.S. children doubled. Asthma was the most common of the conditions.

My heavy suspicion is that among the “environmental factors” thought to be causes we must suspect childhood vaccinations. During my practice I was as strong a supporter of the CDC recommendations as anyone, and found that they did help prevent at least one condition, hemophilus B meningitis in children. This serious infection decreased from around 3 cases for me each winter to none after the Hib vaccine came out. But at what cost?

I just reviewed a study in the Pediatric Infectious Disease Journal, 2002;21(6) by Frank Destefano, et al, which included this: “In our main analysis we found that HiB and hepatitis B vaccines were associated with 18 and 20% increases in asthma risk respectively.” They mentioned a large study from New Zealand which showed that no unvaccinated children developed asthma by 10 years of age compared with nearly 25% pf the vaccinated children.” (!)

In the first study mentioned only 2% of the children involved had not received the vaccines being studied. To answer the question satisfactorily, a large study needs to be done in which half of the children have received no vaccines at all, and the other half have been fully vaccinated according to the CDC schedule.

This study will not be done for at least two reasons. One, those in control of such things believe that it would be “unethical” for that many children to not be vaccinated, and two, they would be taking a large risk of proving that their vaccines are actually causing disease. (a host of other chronic diseases would need to be included as well)

Why has my opinion changed drastically on childhood vaccines? There are several reasons. I will list some here. First of all, decades ago the vaccine manufacturers were being sued so frequently by the parents of vaccine-damaged children that they were about to go bankrupt. They appealed to the federal government for help. Did the government take the opportunity to demand legitimate safety studies on the vaccines to find out why they were causing so much damage? Ha, ha, ha! No, they made the vaccine manufacturers [who give more money to congress than any other group by far] immune from prosecution! You can’t make this stuff up.

Then we find that the government did form a “vaccine injury court”, which has so far paid over $4 billion to the parents of children brain-damaged from vaccines. It is estimated that only 1% of vaccine injuries are even reported.

Here’s the kicker for me. My pediatric colleague in Oregon, Dr. Paul Thomas, has a very large practice. His children who have been fully vaccinated have an autism rate of one in 49, which is the national rate. His group of unvaccinated children have a rate of zero, as does his third group of patients who have been vaccinated according to his “amended plan”, which leaves out some and delays others. I strongly recommended this plan to parents during the time I last practiced, and essentially all of them preferred it. Who wouldn’t?

I have pointed out before that there has never been a proper placebo-controlled, double-blind safety study done on a single childhood vaccine. That is criminal in my estimation.

Nearly half of the U.S. population have at least one chronic disease, and these account for 70% of deaths. There is increased demand for health care, and of course costs have been driven up. Note that when costs go up, someone profits. There is not much money in curing disease, but there are billions of dollars in treating it .

I honestly believe that if the CDC changed its recommendation on childhood vaccines to reflect that of Dr. Thomas, our rates of autism, asthma, diabetes, thyroid disease, lupus, arthritis, hypertension, ADHD, learning problems, and many others would plummet. Maybe if enough parents wake up an demand that proper testing be done, we can save not only our children, but millions of dollars in the process.

Blessings,

Dr. J