Edited by Louise Kuo Habakus, M.A. (Director, Center for Personal Rights) and
Mary Holland, J.D. (Research Scholar, NYU School of Law)
Skyhorse Publishing, 2011
As it is with most things—more is not always better. It has taken over 15 years of independent world-wide research by extremely concerned parents, doctors, scientists and lawyers to build an undeniable momentum commanding that the protective rubber stamp of approval on vaccine development, safety, mandates and policies be addressed. A book of acute gravity, Vaccine Epidemic, presents an urgent dialogue about the vaccine controversy. The opening dedication—To all who are asking the questions and all who are demanding the answers—summarizes widening public consciousness and mainstream concern regarding vaccine safety.
Through the voices of experts in ethics, law, science, medicine, business, and history, the book requires thoughtful attention and action. An exponential rise in children who are suffering serious vaccine damage will not be ignored, nor will the lack of appropriate medical and governmental action to thwart this trend. Vaccine Epidemic advocates an honest and thorough assessment of vaccination policy and vaccine safety.
Habakus and Holland examine these issues:
- The human right to vaccination choice
- The ethics and constitutionality of vaccination mandates
- Personal narratives of parents, children and soldiers who have suffered vaccine injury
- Vaccine safety science and evidence-based medicine
- Corrupting conflicts of interest in the national vaccine program
- What should parents do? A review of eight advice books on vaccines that span the gamut
The Case for Vaccination Choice
The recognition of intrinsic human rights has been a hallmark of democratic societies. Vaccine Epidemic eloquently clarifies vaccination choice as a fundamental human right. It reveals this in relationship to a wealth of international and national standards such as the Nuremberg Code, free and informed consent, medical autonomy, due process, the human rights revolution, and public health revolutions in sanitation, hygiene and antibiotics. It scrutinizes the far-reaching, inappropriate governmental vaccination policies whereby a child’s right to a free education is at risk as a consequence of partial or full non-compliance.
Herd immunity is at the root of vaccination mandates. However, the book exposes the many flaws in this unproven theory. Habakus states, “What is most troubling about the theory of herd immunity is that the original basis for its validity has nothing to do with vaccines. People observed a protective effect in the community when a sufficiently high number of individuals contracted the wild form of a disease and secured lifelong immunity…In the 1930s and 1940s, health officials began using ‘techniques of mass persuasion’ and ‘aggressive salesmanship’ to increase the public’s compliance in receiving vaccinations.” For herd immunity to dictate vaccination policy, the government must prove that unvaccinated individuals will harm those that are vaccinated. This has never been demonstrated. Interestingly, the book brings to light the fact that a large portion of children who suffer from many childhood diseases were previously vaccinated against them!
Additionally, since the increase in the vaccination schedule and its corresponding rapid rise in children suffering vaccine damage, there has been a lack of justice, including an absence of due process and appropriate compensation for victims. A moral society would not allow a dubious public policy based on the flawed principle of “the greater good” to continue. Parents have the ultimate authority over their children’s medical interventions. Vaccination choice must prevail.
Narratives
The tragedies described in this book represent the wide-ranging effect of careless vaccine development and mandates. I attended the American Rally for Personal Rights at Grant Park in downtown Chicago in the spring of 2010, during the week of the Autism One conference. I was awestruck and absolutely grief-stricken by the many stories of vaccination damage I heard. Vaccine Epidemic is the outgrowth of that powerful rally. I knew that each incomprehensible story represented hundreds of thousands of children and thousands more yet to be harmed.
Contributing author Michael Belkin, a leading investment strategist and former director of the Hepatitis B Vaccine Project of the National Vaccine Information Center explains, “If you doubt the existence of adverse reactions to vaccines, you must first examine with your own eyes the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System (VAERS), which is available and searchable online at www.medalerts.org As of November 17, 2010, VAERS listed 352,650 reports of vaccine adverse events. Former Food and Drug Administration (FDA) commissioner David Kessler wrote in the Journal of the American Medical Association, that ‘only 1% of serious adverse events are reported to the FDA.’ ” Belkin’s daughter died at five weeks of age after hepatitis B vaccination. As of March 11, 2011, the tally has risen to 361,519, acknowledged to represent only 1 to 10% of actual adverse events associated with vaccination.
The story is repeated over and over—a healthy child is born, and after receiving recommended vaccinations which start on the day of birth, that child is never the same—is stricken with autism—or maybe dead. Those who recover are very fortunate, as many cannot overcome the effects of vaccine-induced encephalitis—brain inflammation—despite a comprehensive array of holistic therapies. Most terrifying are the stories of hopeless parents who take their child’s life along with their own—those who can no longer carry the overwhelming and isolating burden of the care of their beloved.
Contributing author Amy Pingel’s haunting chronicle of her teenage daughter’s descent from perfect health to breathing through a trach and eating from a tube is a result of a severe reaction to the “Gardasil” vaccine. Her saga represents the pervasive acceleration to develop more vaccines for older children and adults—vaccines that are pressured and innocently advertised through medical practitioners and the media as a “must have.” Yet—there is little disclosure of the true risks.
Contributing author Air Force captain Richard Rovet, RN (USAF ret) implores that the enormous risks our servicemen take to defend our country should not include being used as guinea pigs for vaccine experimentation. Yet, this is what is happening to our military personnel. In the Gulf War, more servicemen and service woman were damaged from the experimental vaccines than from the war itself. Why was this allowed? This needs to be brought out to the public.
The truth about vaccines must be widely understood.
The Topics in Debate
Vaccine Epidemic exposes problematic issues about vaccine policy. A rigorous public challenge of these troubling practices must continue.
- Why have pharmaceutical companies recently focused on expanding the vaccine market?
- Why are so many vaccines given a quick stamp of approval from the CDC Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices and recommended to virtually all children?
- Why are the government and media allowed to exhibit bias and a lack of accountability for problems in the vaccine safety and policy?
- Why is forced vaccination for foster children allowed in the U.S.? When parents decline vaccination, how can they be charged with “medical neglect” and risk the forced removal of their children?
- Why aren’t vaccine ingredients and dangers clearly and openly disclosed?
- While doctors are sworn to adhere to the Hippocrates oath, “Do no harm,” why is it admissible for problems with vaccine safety to be ignored by the majority of today’s medical practitioners?
- Why has independent, peer-reviewed research showing the problems with vaccine safety been ignored and systematically suppressed?
Finally, the book moves us to action as vaccination choice is at risk in our country. “The American Academy of Pediatrics and its spokespeople are suggesting the abolition of philosophical and religious exemption rights. They have a lot of influential support behind them—the pharmaceutical industry, public health, government and media. We are in crisis. You can expect more federally recommended vaccines to be added to the schedule…more vaccines of unproven safety to reach the market…more efforts to dismiss vaccine injury…Unless we change course, these projections will likely become reality.”
Things you can do now:
- Take a stand—sign the petition supporting vaccination choice at www.centerforpersonalrights.org
- Stay informed—join the Center’s mailing list
- Reach out—share and recommend the book, which is available on Amazon as a physical book
and at amazon as a Kindle download
. More information is available at www.vaccineepidemic.com
- Attend an event, and offer to sponsor one in your community.
- Donate to support the work of the Center for Personal Rights, a non-profit organization dedicated to defending the human right of vaccination choice.
Health freedom is an inalienable right. Whether it is food freedom or vaccination choice—it is one and the same issue. Just as we seek higher quality in our food choices, we are demanding honesty and choice in all public policies that can affect our health. We must stand together and demand what is ours already—nothing less will do, for ourselves and our children.
Review by Kathryne Pirtle
This article will be published in the July, 2011 edition of the Wise Traditions Journal of the Weston A. Price Foundation. To receive the journal, go to www.westonaprice.org