"SV40 can do all the things required to make a human cell malignant. It can block the Rbs and p53 [cell protectors]. It can activate several oncogenes [cancer causing genes] that can lead to unlimited cell growth. And it can induce telemerase activity [making the cells immortal.] It is one of the most potent carcinogens that we know."
-- Michele Carbone, MD
from The Virus and the Vaccine (Page 209)
The newly released book, The Virus and the Vaccine, by Debbie Bookchin and Jim Schumacher, reads like a suspense novel. The first 10 chapters chronicle the story of the discovery and production of the polio vaccine. Early on, researchers knew that a contaminant, later identified as simian virus 40 (SV40), was present in the polio vaccine. They knew it came from monkey kidney tissue cultures used to grow the polio viruses and they knew it had cancer-causing abilities. The government and the pharmaceutical industry also knew it and they chose to do nothing about it.
The last half of the book tells the story of the modern day SV40 researchers, and in particular, the work of Dr. Michele Carbone. A prestigious virologist, Carbone proved the connection between SV40 and mesothelioma, a rare cancer of the lung pleura thought mainly to be caused by asbestos. His research, published in the 1997 publication of Nature Medicine, was the first of many studies published in Italy, Germany and the United States that showed the association between SV40 and human cancers.
The Vast Vaccine Cover Up
Beyond the historical saga of the polio vaccine and SV40, this book has a much larger and foreboding message. The book connects the incestuous interrelationships between the federal government, the major governmental health agencies such as [the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), the National Cancer Institute (NCI)] and the pharmaceutical industry. If there were ever any misgivings as to how deeply enmeshed these groups are, this book removes all doubt.
The impeccable research exposes the extensive use of power, coercion and cover up used to maintain the public's confidence in vaccines.
For more than 40 years, researchers have catalogued experiment after experiment demonstrating the link between SV40 and cancer. Beginning in 1960, when Dr. Bernice Eddy first discovered a contaminant in the polio vaccine that could cause cancer in hamsters, and continuing through 2003, with articles published by Dr. Janet Butel documenting the presence of SV40 in lymphomas, the world's most respected scientists have proven the connection.
However, the federal government's response has been to either dispute or neglect it. The cover up has been universal.
Introducing the Polio Vaccine
The polio vaccine was the first vaccine to achieve "legendary status." Suggesting the polio vaccine could cause cancer was not just considered "bad science," the notion could be detrimental to the future of one's career.
When Dr. Eddy, working for the NIH at the Division of Biological Standards (DBS), concluded that the cause-and-effect relationship between SV40 and cancer in laboratory animals was irrefutable, she envisioned the same effects occurring to America's children. Alarmed, she knew something needed to be done. However, when she approached her boss, Dr. Joe Smadel, with her findings, her concerns were less than welcomed.
Smadel was one of the vaccine's staunchest defenders. At one time, after the Cutter vaccine had caused a polio outbreak, a congressional committee had considered completely withdrawing the Salk vaccine from the market. It was the "persuasiveness of Smadel's testimony and his stature in the world of virology that convinced the panel not to cancel the vaccine program outright." (Page 63)
Rather than praising Eddy for her discovery and demanding more NIH funding for further research, Smadel responded with intense anger. The last thing that the NIH, the federal government and the pharmaceutical houses wanted to hear from the DBS was information that might scare people away from receiving the vaccine.
Consequences and Impact of Speaking Out
Admitting the polio vaccine contained a dangerous contaminant would be a serious affront to his career, Smadel took matters into his own hands. He conspired with Dr. Thomas Rivers of the National Polio Foundation and Dr. Roderick Murray, the Director of the DBS, to ensure that Eddy's information was wholly suppressed.
In spite of direct warnings forbidding her to speak out, she went public with her findings at a meeting of The Cancer Society in 1960. Her courage came with a price: it eventually cost her her laboratory, staff, position, and essentially her career as a serious investigator. This sent a chilling message: The agency responsible for regulating vaccines was not interested in safety nor was it interested in ensuring the removal of the cancer-causing virus, SV40, from vaccines.
Despite the consequences, she had accomplished her mission. The information received the attention of the scientific community and other concerned scientists around the world began replicating Eddy's findings. As more and more papers documenting SV40 in monkey kidney tissue were published, the pharmaceutical companies became alarmed. However, instead of urgently seeking to answer the question, "What needs to be done to make the vaccine safer?" they asked, "If the viral contaminants are later found to be dangerous, will we be liable?"
A Victory For Vaccines, a Loss to Public Safety
As early as 1960, manufacturers began lobbying for government backing and unilateral protection from product liability surrounding defective vaccines. The industry pushed to have regulations crafted so "they would not be responsible for anything about which they did not know." (Page 77) They eventually won their arguments and the FDA changed the regulations to include language that gave the vaccine makers their best advantage: They would have no responsibility to detect SV40 and no responsibility to screen it out of the final vaccine. (Page 82)
This was just the beginning of the bonanza for the drug companies and vaccine manufacturing processes. Product liability protection was taken to the highest level with the eventual passage of the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Act of 1986 in which they became insulated from all problems associated with faulty vaccines.
Today, even though nearly 100 studies have been published in peer-reviewed, scientific journals identifying SV-40 as a causative agent in human cancer, federal officials steadfastly maintain that there is "no proof" that the virus is carcinogenic. This type of response has become the hallmark of the federal government regarding SV40 -- and all other problems associated with vaccines.
Science has clearly been sacrificed for profit and for the personal reputations of those in charge. Nothing will be allowed to threaten "one of the nation's most important public health programs," mass vaccination.
The Vaccine Spin
The Virus and the Vaccine is a "must read" for everyone wanting to fully understand the cover-up template the government has established to protect the vaccine industry. It goes something like this:
-
A researcher documents a serious problem with a vaccine. Then the government publishes "the definitive study" to "set the record straight." A flurry of media campaigns and medical journal articles are launched to convince and reassure the medical establishment that the conclusions of the "definitive study" are the final truth. There is no reason to look any further.
-
Upon critical examination, the "definitive study" is found to have serious flaws. The rebuttals are announced at government hearings, in journal publications, over radio broadcasts and throughout the Internet -- but are barely acknowledged. The "definitive study" has quickly become "established medical fact," flaws and all.
- Well-meaning physicians who do not want to change their devotion-like belief in the value of vaccines will propagate the misinformation. And the patients who receive their advice and the vaccines will continue to suffer the consequences indefinitely.
Nationwide, there are approximately 77,500 children born each week. Every parent, faced with the decision regarding vaccination, assumes that the vaccines have been proven to be safe and the governmental agencies regulating them have their best interest in mind. However, The Virus and the Vaccine documents a different truth.
Vaccination is a part of routine healthcare for people of all ages and therefore, The Virus and the Vaccine is a "must read" for everyone. A shift is occurring in the medical paradigm regarding mandatory vaccination as more and more people are questioning the safety, efficacy and value of vaccines.
The information substantiated by this thoroughly researched book should cause everyone -- parent and healthcare providers alike -- to reevaluate their trust in vaccines, and their blind confidence in the governmental agencies that control them.
