Katy Redford-Traynor has started a petition to stop the introduction of Rotarix being added to the childhood vaccine schedule, namely on grounds that:
Rotavirus is not a life-threatening illness yet the side effects stated in the product information include increased risk from intussusception and death from pneumonia. The vaccine is live and sheds for several weeks afterwards from most babies, and the JVCI says the introduction will cost £25 million – more than it hopes to save. Exclusive Breastfeeding and hygiene are key in reducing infection yet if these messages are not being promoted then how can parents make an informed choice?
Full details, hard copy petitions and letter frames for MPs can be found in the files here
https://www.facebook.com/groups/531961973506473/
PLEASE SHARE WITH:
Midwives, natural parenting sites, natural birthing sites, doulas, breastfeeding groups, vaccine pages, pregnancy yoga teachers, local NCT classes, local birthing professionals, etc etc – We all must know at least 10 local people who would sign (keep a copy in your bag) and be on a few groups where we can share the information, as well as on your own FB page of course!
…but please don’t forget to tell us about the side effects!
European Vaccine Groupscounter European Immunization Week (EIW) 22–27 April 2013
Recent Prescribing guidelines (2013) from the GMC (General Medical Council) remind GPs that they must share “the likely benefits, risks and burdens, including serious and common side effects” but how often does that happen at the 8 week baby check or in schools where some vaccines are given? Most parents accept that the benefit of vaccination outweigh the risks but this is not enough say the GMC, each patient must be warned of the possible outcomes according to their situation. Consent Guidelines from 2008 made it clear that informed consent must not be taken for granted or overlooked and ‘Serious or persistent failure to follow this guidance will put your registration at risk.” So how are GPs putting these guidelines into practice when it comes to vaccination and how do they balance calls to increase vaccination rates?
Each year the WHO Europe coordinates events and resources to increase vaccination rates and their campaign starts on the 22nd April. It is an understandable focus for the WHO but one that should not pass unchallenged suggest The European Forum for Vaccine Vigilance (EFVV). The aim to increased vaccination rates must be second after making sure full informed consent is given on possible side effects feel the EFVV.
EFVV is a pan-European group campaigning for natural immunity, as well as researching and highlighting the potential problems caused by vaccinations. EFVV members come from ten different European countries, some health polices of which mandate vaccination. Each country will be taking different actions to remind the public that vaccines also carry risk of unwanted side effects and sometimes serious injury.
Here in the UK, all 12 year old girls are recommended the HPV vaccine (now Gardasil) which is marketed at reducing some of the virus that may reduce the risk of cervical cancer. The UK has one of the highest HPV uptakes in Europe and indeed has a very successful advertising campaign with some areas of the UK rewarding girls with shopping vouchers (ref).
Even though the ASA (Advertising Standards Authority) ruled that ARMED FOR LIFE could not be used as the HPV slogan, as the evidence just wasn’t there that this vaccine lasted for life, the message has stuck. (In Holland an advert that said “Don’t be a sissy” in promoting the HPV vaccine has also been removed.) 12 years olds can decide for themselves under the Gillick Law (ref) and the HPV is given in school where peer pressure is considerable which may mean that consent is not fully informed.
The UK representative for the EFVV is Arnica and they have put together a new website and leaflet to address the background issues and concerns that parents and their daughters may have about the HPV vaccine. The UK has been wary of any patient groups or individuals challenging the Immunisation Policy, giving them the negative label ‘anti-vaccine‘ but Arnica, a Parent Network with 80 UK groups, feels that it is important to keep debate open. ” Are the girls told that Gardasil is in fact a Black Triangle drug due to limited safety information from clinical trials? Are they told that in the US Gardasil is associated with more reports of adverse reactions than any other vaccine? Are they told that there is no evidence that this vaccine will reduce cervical cancer or by how much? The CDC confirm that … it will take decades before the impact of the vaccine is observed.“
Anna Watson continues “Adverts sit on the back of buses to encourage girls to accept the HPV vaccine and the WHO runs an annual Spring campaigns to increase vaccination rates overall but the EFVV encourage all citizens to read the vaccine inserts and make sure that you are fully informed of the risks and the benefits of immunisation for your family.”
NHS website reports side effects & so should the BBC…
and the UK has a vaccine damage payment fund for those left more than 60% disabled.
Jackie Fletcher whose 20 year old son can’t speak or walk, is doubly incontinent and who has fits every day. His injury was officially linked to the MMR this year and received a payment under the Vaccine Damage Payment Fund.
The efficacy rate is more like 95% so tens of thousands of kids every year will have the MMR but it will not work for them. 5% of a million a year.
The reply was returned as quick as you could say “No conflicts of Interests” with the opening line “Firstly, we’d like to reassure everyone that no programme on CBeebies receives commercial sponsorship of any kind.” Obvious what other complaints they had received that morning, but nothing in response to my concerns.
Please lets be clear with our children:
* children should never play with needles
* children should never be asked to make a decision to take a medication or injection without a guardian to share in making an informed choice
* No medication is totally safe and effective, in fact some children are seriously injured
http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbctrust/our_work/complaints_and_appeals/
https://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/tell-us/specific-programme-epg
I have several experiences in the last month that I have to share!
So lets all have a great year of communicating with the health professionals and sharing our learning and respect for nature… be bold like the Chinese Dragon.
Dear Sir / Madam, (to HIV agencies in Sudan)
The vaccine insert warns against this practice but I am interested to know how many babies are there in Sudan of this age who may have HIV or Aids, and what surveillance and testing is being done before vaccination? I was pleased to read that the WHO report on Sudan’s Rotavirus vaccine program stressing that “
the use of rotavirus vaccines should be part of a comprehensive strategy to control diarrhoeal diseases; this strategy should include, among other interventions, improvements in hygiene and sanitation, zinc supplementation, community-based administration of oral rehydration solution and overall improvements in case management.”
http://www.emro.who.int/sudan/news.htm
Breastfeeding must also be included in this comprehensive strategy. For example, breastfed children are over 6 times less likely to die from diarrhea, The Disease Control Priorities Project (DCPP) gives this important data: Exclusive breastfeeding means no other food or drink, not even water, is permitted, except for supplements of vitamins and minerals or necessary medicines. The optimal duration of exclusive breastfeeding is six months (WHO 2001). A meta-analysis of three observational studies in developing countries shows that breastfed children under age 6 months are 6.1 times less likely to die of diarrhea than infants who are not breastfed (WHO Collaborative Study Team 2000).
http://www.dcp2.org/pubs/DCP/19/Section/2542
I look forward to hearing what strategies you have to support these sensible interventions and what safety protocol you will be following or supporting when vaccinating children who may already have an infection such as HIV or Aids.
Many thanks for your work in the area of health in Sudan and for your considered reply,
On Monday 18th, a toddler will be taken to the nurse for his vaccinations. In this case it is not a normal event. The mother is having to comply with a court order to catch up on all vaccines by the age of 2 years (11 vaccines in 8 months) on request of the absent father in a custody hearing.
How is it that the main carer can be forced to vaccinate against his or her wishes, when this ‘preventable’ medical intervention comes with high potential risks?
Judges have ordered vaccinations for children when one parent fights for them in this way, usually fathers in custody hearings, but may be doing so emotively. The non-vaccinating mother is not a pretty social picture and the judge is asked to consider that she is acting irresponsibly by the father’s lawyers. Often GPs, not always the family GP who may have a considered opinion in the case, suggest that the mother has not adequately ‘protected’ her child or children. The judge has always acted for the father and current medical advise.
Jayne Donegan GP was called as the family doctor to support a mother who was in this position. Dr Donegan stated that the mother was not acting irresponsibly and went further to say that she was not putting her child in any mortal danger by not vaccinating. The judge accused her of peddling Junk Science and promptly reported her to the GMC who bought charges of serious professional misconduct. The judge also ordered that the child in question be forcibly vaccinated.
Jayne won her case but was asked not to discuss it by her Union and so the verdict is not common knowledge. Perhaps it should be. If the courts in our member’s case had been aware of the GMC summing up perhaps they would have taken a different view. http://www.jayne-donegan.co.uk/gmc
It was later ruled that indeed the rights of the main carer’s over ruled the first judgement, and the child could not be vaccinated against the mother’s will. For a while it seemed that sense prevailed…. but unfortunately what then happened could not be undone. 2 years later the father, now with custody, took the child to a GP and vaccinated anyway….
Our first mother facing the start of so many catch up vaccines starting on Monday knows all this. She knows that even if she wins her case under human rights as a main carer, the father’s father, who is a GP, will just vaccinate her son anyway, if he wins custody, and if she doesn’t comply with the courts at this stage it may affect the custody outcome.
Many hearts go out to her and her son, and trust that he remains as healthy as he is today. After all, there is no study that shows he will be healthier with all those vaccines and no doctor in the land, including Dr David Eliman, who can guarantee that an adverse reaction will not happen.
ON MONDAY 13TH JUNE
Gather from 8am to lunch time
Press conference finishes the “Saving Children’s Lives” conference at 1.30pm
Meet outside location
THE GRANGE HOTEL
10 GODLIMAN STREET
ST. PAULS
LONDON
EC4V 5AJ
Question put to Bill Gates on the Save the Children Phone in..
“Each year half a million children die from diarrhoea caused by rotavirus, but
over a million die from lack of clean water and sanitation.
Vaccines may have helped reduce child deaths by 30% since 1990 but the WHO found
that mortality has reduced overall by 23% in the developing world just from the
introduction of vit A supplements.
How is the Gates Foundation getting on with your “aim to help reduce death and
disability due to micronutrient deficiencies and to prevent undernutrition in
children age 0 to 24 months in developing countries?”
And what plans will you build in for water and sanitation programs to support
your vaccine program please?
Adam Smith
Science and Communications Officer, ANH-Intl
KEY POINTS
European Parliamentarians have refused to sign off the European Medicines Agency’s accounts, citing “grave” concerns
The MEPs are worried about the Agency’s lack of independence from pharmaceutical companies
The Nordic Cochrane Centre accuses the Agency of working to protect pharmaceutical profits
This is among several signs of MEPs increasingly questioning aspects of the European Union’s stance aspects relating to natural healthcare
Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) have bared their teeth in no uncertain manner over the independence of the European Medicines Agency (EMA), the body entrusted to determine the safety and effectiveness of drugs in the European Union (EU).
In a damning indictment of the EMA, of the type many people had despaired of ever witnessing in the closed environment of the European Parliament, an overwhelming majority of MEPs – 637 to 4! – voted not to sign off on the EMA’s accounts.
MEPs said that there appears to be no proper guarantee of the independence of experts hired to carry out scientific evaluations of pharmaceutical drugs. Furthermore, MEPs believe that some of the experts involved in evaluating drugs have conflicting interests and that the EMA’s hiring practices are dubious and indicate further conflicts of interest, in particular the way in which they get funding and spend public money.
American prosecutors are attempting to extradite a Danish scientist.
Poul Thorsen has been charged with 13 counts of wire fraud and nine counts of money laundering; a federal grand jury alleges that Thorsen stole over $1 million from autism research funding between February 2004 and June 2008.
Thorsen is said to have used the proceeds to buy a home in Atlanta, two cars and a Harley Davidson. He is said to have stolen the money while serving as the ‘principal investigator’ for a program that studied the relationship between autism and exposure to vaccines.
The Copenhagen Post reports:
“… [O]ver the four-year period he submitted over a dozen false invoices from the CDC for research expenses to Aarhus University, where he held a faculty position, instructing them to transfer the funds to a CDC account, which was in fact his personal account …
Thorsen’s research on autism is widely known in academic circles, where he was until this week a highly respected figure. A paper of his on the subject, which is known as ‘The Danish Study’, is quoted extensively to refute the autism vaccine connection.” And not forgetting Paul Offitt…
Attkisson had previously reported on the vaccine industry ties of Dr. Offit and others in a CBS Evening News report ‘How Independent Are Vaccine Defenders?… Offit told the OC Register that he provided CBS News “the details of his relationship … with pharmaceutical company Merck”, but documents provided by CBS News indicate Offit did not disclose all of his financial relationships with Merck.
I attended the BSEM conference and heard an amazing presentation on the JVCI. Under the FOI Dr Lucia Tomljenovic obtained meeting notes from our Joint Committee of Vaccines and Immunization from the past 30 years, which appeared to show attempts to protect the vaccine program above safety concerns.
I am sad to admit this may be the case with evidence such as Japan and Canada leading the way to replace the Urabe strain of the mumps in 1988, while the JCVI avoided any statement on the risk of neurological reaction. Finally the lawyers of the vaccine manufacturers advised them to withdraw this vaccine several years later!
From my conversation with Dr David Salisbury of the JCVI, where he told me with pride that only the most safe and pure vaccines were used as placebos in safety trials, I can see that a blind belief in the safety and efficacy of vaccines may be partly to blame for a reluctance for openness and action.
Please email her from the link here if you need
http://www.foodsmatter.com/conference_reports/articles/bsem_2011_tablet_a_day.html