| Reprinted From
Parents Requesting Open Vaccine Education
(PROVE)
(Critical Update 10/25/00 - All
three of the flu vaccines for the 2000-2001 season still contain mercury.
The CDC has since updated the link referred by my article below - it is
no longer valid, but their new answer to the question who is most vulnerable
to methyl mercury is much more revealing: "Two groups are most vulnerable
to methyl mercury: the fetus and pregnant women. Premature babies are
more vulnerable because they tend to be very small and their brain is
not as developed as a full term baby").
October 8, 1999
Flu Vaccine: Stay Out of My Womb!
Commentary by Dawn Richardson
Pregnant women everywhere know the feeling of making
it to the milestone of their second trimester. For most, queasiness starts
to subside, energy returns in spurts, and of course there is that indescribable
feeling of becoming aware of your developing baby's movements.
You've altered your diet, exercised, stayed away
from over the counter medications, your true hair color is revealing itself,
and that wonderful bottle of wine with the Surgeon General's warning will
continue stay buried in the back of the refrigerator awaiting the skinnier
days ahead.
You ask yourself, "Is there anything more that
I can do for me and my baby during the remainder of my pregnancy?"
Well, according to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and the federal
government's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) there
is - get the flu vaccine before this year's flu season hits. According
to the CDC and ACIP, it was estimated that an average
of 1 to 2 hospitalizations among pregnant women could be prevented for
every 1,000 pregnant women immunized. (Prevention and Control
of Influenza: Recommendations of ACIP. MMWR - May 1, 1998; 47)
My initial pregnant maternally protective hormonal
response to this was utter disbelief. How could a biological pharmaceutical
product be recommended for routine use for all healthy second and third
trimester pregnant women? As I looked into this further, I became outraged
and inspired to share the truth with pregnant women so they could make
up their own minds. Here is what I found.
There are four drug manufacturers for this year's
flu vaccine. The product package inserts published by the manufacturers
state the disclaimer that "Animal reproduction studies have not been
conducted with influenza virus vaccine. It is also not known whether influenza
virus vaccine can cause fetal harm
when administered to a pregnant woman...Although animal reproductive studies
have not been conducted, the prescribing health-care provider should be
aware of the recommendations of the Advisory Committee on Immunization
Practices...The ACIP states that, if used during pregnancy, administration
of influenza virus vaccine after 14 weeks of gestation may be preferable
to avoid coincidental association of the vaccine with early pregnancy
loss..."
Additional reading and phone calls to the manufacturers
confirmed that all four flu vaccines contain thimerosal,
a mercury derivative preservative
banned by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in over-the-counter (OTC)
drug preparations because of questions over safety. (Federal Register:
April 22, 1998 (Volume 63, Number 77)][Page 19799-19802].
On July 7, 1999, the American Academy of Pediatrics
(AAP) and the United States Public Health Service (PHS) issued a joint
statement that because of the "neuro-developmental effects posed
by exposure to thimerosal", "thimerosal-containing vaccines
should be removed as soon as possible." The PHS and AAP recognized
that because of thimerosal in vaccines, some children would be exposed
to "a cumulative level of mercury over the first six months of life
that exceeds one of the federal guidelines on methyl mercury."
Hospitals around the country responded this summer
by halting the administration of the thimerosal containing vaccine for
hepatitis B at birth, deferring vaccination until the baby is older and
more developed. What about my beloved little baby that isn't even developed
enough to live outside the womb yet?
A quick internet search showed that even the CDC,
in a revealing self-contradiction at another location, posted:
Q. Who is
most vulnerable to mercury?
A. Two groups are most vulnerable
to methyl mercury: the fetus and children ages 14 and younger."
More searching on the National Library of Medicine
site almost effortlessly produced hundreds of articles and studies in
medical and scientific journals clearly documenting the damaging
effects of prenatal exposure to mercury.
The results of one recent study published in the
August 1, 1999 issue of the American Journal of Epidemiology stated that
"the greatest susceptibility to methylmercury neurotoxicity occurs
during late gestation, while early postnatal vulnerability is less"
which is the precise point in time that ACIP and the CDC is recommending
we get the shot.
I then decided to call the CDC's Influenza Division
myself, as a pregnant mother baffled by this scientifically unfounded
and potentially unsafe recommendation. Maybe I was missing something that
an "expert" could reveal for me. I was told that there was no
scientific proof that the flu vaccine caused fetal harm. Well of course
not, the manufacturers are right up front when they state that this hasn't
been studied - isn't that convenient. I was also told that the CDC had
no intention to change the recommendation for pregnant women because of
thimerosal. The doctor blamed the recent concerns on "politics"
rather than science. What a shame.
Even though the CDC does claim that a single study
of a small number of pregnant women have demonstrated no adverse fetal
effects associated with influenza vaccine; they continue and say, "however,
more data are needed." Maybe this scientifically unsubstantiated
recommendation is how the CDC plans on getting that data. So
much for the Nazi war criminal trials at Nuremberg outlawing human
experimentation without informed consent.
While I would absolutely hate to be one of the 1
in 1000 pregnant women needing to go to the hospital for the flu this
winter, at this point, I feel far more threatened by the public health
bureaucrats recklessly willing to experiment on me and my unborn child
with a flu vaccine not proven safe for my baby.
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