Page 1476 - Week 05 - Wednesday, 17 April 1991
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I want to make it abundantly clear that I am not anti-vaccinationist - vaccines of one sort or another have conferred immense benefit on mankind - but they have their dangers.
Dr Salk, of Salk polio vaccine fame, made a similar statement. To my knowledge, all medical practitioners and the vaccine manufacturers agree. What is at variance is the matter of the degree of weight given to the advantages versus the dangers. However, anyone who states that vaccination is totally safe is either a liar or a fool or both.
The question has also been asked: Do vaccinations work? No double blind study has ever been conducted in Australia to prove the worth of modern vaccinations manufactured in this country. Also I am unaware of any such scientific study of worth being conducted anywhere in the world. I pose the question in an attempt to influence the initiation of such a study by medical authorities. At the same time, I acknowledge the difficulty of the task.
The question posed, of course, is: What substances make up the vaccination injection? Attenuated - that is, weakened - dosages of either dead or live viruses bred as tissue cultures are mixed with a number of chemical adjuvants, including aluminium phosphate, and in some cases formaldehyde. These are designed to keep the vaccine active for a longer period. And, of course, there is also the bulk carrying saline material. Reactions to these chemicals do occur in susceptible patients who are allergic or who at the time are in ill health.
These serums have a shelf life, but no-one can be sure of their potency and exact composition only days after manufacture. This is particularly so because of the refrigeration requirements. The only way a vaccine in general, or more specifically a particular batch of vaccine, can be accurately tested for its effect on a particular child is to inject it and watch the result. Live virus vaccines against poliomyelitis and influenza may in each instance produce the disease it was intended to prevent, and a vaccine against measles and mumps may produce side effects including, on a rare basis - about 1 : 1,000,000 vaccinations - the brain damaging encephalitis. Encephalitis from the disease is listed at 1 : 100,000 infections. I further note that the standard test for the vaccination "taking" - that is, that it has in fact worked - is for the healthy body to become sick. Severe reactions to some vaccinations have been calculated as high as 1 : 200. Of course, in depressed socioeconomic groups this can be one in every two children. The reference there is Dr Kalokerinos.
I believe that, because the safety of vaccines cannot be guaranteed in each and every case, the necessity for the vaccination of a patient against a particular disease should be ascertained by the patient being blood tested to
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