by Barry Forbes

The Tribune, Mesa, Arizona
Sunday, August 6, 2000

Dr. Steven C. Burns' response to my recent article on vaccinations was terrifically entertaining. It was also patently misleading and categorically wrong.

Allow me to briefly explore his major points.

"Mr. Forbes' statement that these diseases were on the decline before immunizations is an attractive falsehood."

I didn't say that. However, I agree with that statement and so does Dr. Gordon T. Stewart. He published a study in the Lancet, January 29, 1997 that showed the death rate from pertussis was declining at the same rate before vaccination as afterward. His conclusion: The pertussis vaccine had NO IMPACT on the decline of the death rate from pertussis. Dr. Stewart's conclusion is shared by an ever-expanding number of colleagues.

"Mr. Forbes' 'statistic' about 1,000 deaths yearly from vaccines is just
tomfoolery."

There are 11,000 to 20,000 adverse effects reported to the
Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System every year. Approximately 1% of all adverse effects are "deaths" due to vaccine. However, as every immunologist and many physicians are well aware, this is one of the most underreported phenomena of our time. Dr. David Kessler, former head of the FDA, estimated that less than 10% of vaccine adverse effects are actually reported.

"His rumor about Japan's decrease in childhood death cannot be traced to decreased immunization."

I never mentioned a decline in childhood death in Japan. I simply stated that Japan's infant mortality rate is the lowest in the world, while America's is embarrassingly high. In part, Japan's success can be traced to the dramatic alterations the Japanese made to their vaccine schedule due to safety concerns. For more info, check with the March of Dimes.

"There is no tie between autism and immunization."

The autism/immunization transcripts from the House Committee on Government Reform, April 6, 2000 are available to everyone. Dr. Andrew Wakefield, Dr. Bernard Rimland and Dr. Vijendra Singh all forcefully testified that the tragic connection does indeed exist, in spades. However, the statistics I originally quoted really tell the story. Since 1988, autism is up a staggering 571% in Florida
alone.

"The assertion that asthma and allergies are caused by vaccines is silly and not even mentioned in the anti-immunization literature I found."

In the Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics, February, 2000, you can read that the history of asthma is twice as great in the vaccinated as the unvaccinated. Then check out Immunology Today, March, 1998. Read about vaccines and allergies, how natural measles infection actually protects against some allergies, and how the vaccines themselves cause allergies. Quite obviously we are trading disease control for a wide range of escalating chronic illnesses and disorders, now being termed the "new epidemics."

"Mr. Forbes implies that childhood diseases are benign illnesses."

There are 100 deaths in the US per year due to COMPLICATIONS of the chicken pox, not the chicken pox itself. These complications, pneumonia and staph, occur in unhealthy people and can be treated if caught early enough. In fact, many of these deaths are in adults, not children. Healthy children do not die from chicken pox. Nor do they die from measles, mumps, or rubella.

For anyone with the slightest interest in the subject - which hopefully
includes parents as well as medical professionals - there is a world of
printed, documented information to peruse. More arrives every day. I have waded through much of it.

In my research I also talked to, or communicated with, vaccine researchers, immunologists, physicians, and a dozen or so parents of vaccine-injured children. I personally called and chatted with individuals and diverse groups pushing vaccines, as well as those fighting against them.

That list includes Dr. Jeff Bradstreet, a physician from Palm Bay, Florida. Once a strong advocate of vaccinations, personal experience changed his mind forever. "Being the dutiful family practitioner," he wrote to me, "I made sure my son Matt got his shots on schedule. Following the MMR at age 15 months, Matt 'fell apart.' He cried for 8 hours a day and had constant temper tantrums. This went on for 3 months until I put him on a series of special animo acids and got control of the symptoms."

Matt has secondary autism as a side effect of the MMR vaccine. Dr. Bradstreet now treats hundreds of autistic children, most of who are being studied for various metabolic errors.

The bottom line: Every parent needs to seriously study every vaccine, and be aware of any possible side effects, BEFORE allowing it to be given to any child.

Since we're talking about our children's lives and health, who could possibly, rationally object?