On the Banks

Listen: Against the Medical Narrative

 

Image: Public domain.

 

I talked last week with CJay Engel and Jeremy R. Hammond on the topics of medical propaganda, efforts to squash the vaccine debate - and how those efforts are going to backfire very very badly. Check it out here.

Great Response to Pro-Vax Propaganda from a Doctor

This response, to another piece bemoaning the difficulty of trying to convince people who have done their homework, that vaccines are safe, from Dr. Ray Andrew (whose identity I haven't verified) is beautiful:

 

I am running into increasing numbers of patients/parents who decline to receive vaccinations. I don’t call them “anti-vaxxers” because that is the most immature way I can imagine to refer to another human being with an opinion, whether I consider it informed or not. Name-calling is what people do in politics when they don’t have an intelligent response to an opposing party’s argument or viewpoint. This is supposed to be science, not politics.

Based on my experience, those who choose not to vaccinate care just as much about their children as you and I do. But they are looking for information. They no longer consider the AAP and the CDC as unbiased sources of information because the former has ties to the drug industry and the latter actually owns vaccine patents. These parents want me to show them long-term safety studies, which I am unable to find. They are bothered by the ingredient lists of vaccines, knowing that there are EPA-listed toxins in many of them. Some don’t like knowing that cells and DNA from aborted fetuses as well as animals are used in vaccine production. Some demand true double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled (using saline controls, not adjuvants) trials proving efficacy, which simply do not exist, even though we keep telling everyone that this is the gold standard in medicine. Some ask why—if informed consent exists for every other procedure in medicine—doctors and governments are trying to force vaccination on them, throwing informed consent (a legal right, I was taught) out the window. Some make the argument that, if vaccines are so effective, the vaccinated shouldn’t worry about getting sick from the unvaccinated. And they ask me for scientific proof of the theory of herd immunity. I don’t remember being shown any evidence of this in medical school. It was simply taught as a self-evident fact. But my patients don’t accept “facts” anymore, not without seeing some proof.

So, when I receive all of these communications from different organizations telling me how I am supposed to combat the growing threat of vaccine deniers, I feel like a straw man because these communications never present actual evidence to respond to the questions of these parents. They’re just talking points, empty claims, and official pronouncements.

In conclusion, some of my patients vaccinate, and some don’t. I respect both kinds. They are both intelligent and care for their children. Last I checked, the Hippocratic oath doesn’t require me to insult people with whom I don’t agree. I present what evidence I can find, and let them choose based on their values, not mine. Maybe that’s not allowed anymore. Maybe I’m supposed to kick them out of my practice if they disagree with me. Maybe they should be kicked out of school. Out of the country, even. If that’s the America of the future, that’s not a country I would want to live in.

NY State Health Commissioner Needs Our Support!

 

Yesterday, I signed a letter opposing the emergency declaration and forced quarantine of unvaccinated children in Rockland, NY. One of the recipients of that letter, the New York State Health Commissioner, Howard Zucker, wrote back to me. 

I saw it as a cry for help. This is his email to me, and my response is below.

 

 

Dear Mr. Zucker,

Thank you for writing to me. I am so relieved to hear that you were not involved in the emergency declaration in Rockland. Nevertheless, it must be a great source of embarrassment for you, as many people are now pointing to all of New York as an example of draconian and ill-informed – not to mention anti-Semitic – legislation that demonizes and restricts the freedom of one group of people for no legitimate reason.



You write, "Together with the Rockland County Department of Health, we launched a successful school exclusion initiative for unvaccinated students in the outbreak area and in partnership with the County and local healthcare providers, administered nearly 17,000 MMR vaccinations across the County - more than four times the number given over the same timeframe in each of the last two years."



OK, the first thing is: DON'T PANIC! Yes, you made a stupid decision, but haven't we all? I promise you can get through this if you just stay calm. 



As you know, measles is a relatively benign disease that only a few decades ago nearly EVERYONE contracted and recovered from. Before there even was a vaccine, the case fatality rate was around one in every ten thousand cases. Now we know that vitamin A is an effective treatment for measles, and that number would likely be much lower.

As I'm sure you also know by now, there has only been one confirmed death from measles in the US since 2003 (and a handful of unconfirmed deaths), but there have been more than 200 deaths associated with the MMR vaccine during the same period (the real number is probably much higher, due to well-documented underreporting). I'm sure you are also aware that the Cochrane Review has determined that safety studies for the MMR vaccine are "largely inadequate."



It is understandable if you've been caught up in the media's hysteria over this mild illness – so has most of the country. The hype has been pretty relentless, and completely one sided. So if you're not checking facts on your own, it's easy to get swept up in the misinformation. DON'T WORRY! You are not alone! That's the main thing to remember here: A lot of other people were taken in by this too. Now is not the time for judgement, but for healing. You WILL get through this!

The violation of basic rights (and, I believe, quarantine law), by restricting the unvaccinated (but ONLY the unvaccinated under the age of 18!) from public spaces, will be a bit harder to recover from. The anti-Semitic nature of the ban (which primarily targets an orthodox jewish community, and just before Passover) even more so. But again, you weren't directly involved in that, so I think you should be OK. Just be sure to avoid saying anything in public that might lead people to believe that you support this grotesque infringement of individual and parental rights.

Well that's all I've got. Just know that I'm so happy to hear that your department wasn't involved in this embarrassing travesty, and my thoughts are with you during this difficult time.



Don't give up!



Bretigne Shaffer

 

 

Some Questions About the Rockland Measles "Emergency"

 

 

The county of Rockland, New York, has declared a "state of emergency" over what, only recently, was widely seen as a benign childhood disease: 

Effective at the stroke of midnight, Wednesday, March 27, anyone who is under 18 years of age and unvaccinated against the measles will be barred from public places until this declaration expires in 30 days or until they receive the MMR vaccination.

 

This raises some questions, including:

1. Why only those under 18? If not being vaccinated against what was only recently seen as a benign childhood disease is such a terrifying threat to those around us, then why allow unvaccinated adults (read: MOST adults) out in public?

2. Likewise, why allow those recently vaccinated with a live-virus vaccine out in public? If this is really about protecting people, and preventing the spread of disease, then it is even more important to isolate those who have been recently vaccinated and able to shed, than it is those who are simply not vaccinated.

And 3. How on earth are we going to identify all of these scary children who haven't been vaccinated? Some have suggested little patches that could be sewn on to their clothing. Or maybe tattoos.

...or maybe it's time to stop the hysteria, take a deep breath, and look at what's actually going on here. This is NOT about public health, or protecting people. It's about something else, and that something else actually IS pretty scary.

 

 

 

Libertarians for Forced Vaccination?

 

(Image: Public Domain.)


No, you don't have a "right" to demand that others are vaccinated. From my latest article, on FEE.org:

It's hard to think of a more fundamental right than the right to determine what happens to one's own body. Forcing someone to undergo medical treatment against their will violates this most basic of rights—the right to be free from physical assault. Yet even some libertarians have jumped on the mandatory vaccination bandwagon, arguing that one person not taking every possible precaution against contracting a disease constitutes an assault against another. But this line of thinking requires some very tortured logic...

Del Bigtree: How to Shut Up Anti-Vaxxers Forever

 

 

 

Generally, if I watch a video on YouTube, it's because I'm doing some other task that takes 10-20 minutes or so. so I don't usually watch videos much longer than that. But I am watching this one in pieces because so far, every moment of it is GOLDEN.

Del Bigtree is on fire, and he nails everything here. The stuff on Plotkin trying to cover his ass, and the asses of the other asses who might be called upon to testify on behalf of vaccines only to find that they are asked real questions... is PRICELESS.

And Del is spot on about this: We were pretty quiet about our healthcare decisions for our families, until a bunch of asshole politicians and pharma cronies decided to try forcing their decisions on us. We're not so quiet anymore. And that's a good thing, because it's long past time we had this conversation out in public. Maybe a lot more children will be protected from vaccine harm now, because we're not being so quiet. Maybe the next generation of "anti-vaxxers" won't, in fact, be "ex-vaxxers" like this one is.

Stay tuned.

 

 

 

Here's Another Wakefield Myth You Can Stop Repeating

 

No, any recent upsurge in measles cases cannot be attributed to a drop in MMR vaccination rates following the Lancet paper, because there was none.

My latest, on LewRockwell.com.

 

 

 

Amazon Removes Content Critical of Vaccines After Pressure from Congressman

 

 

From CNN: "Amazon also had not removed some anti-vaccine books that CNN Business had previously reported on, which users searching the site could mistake for offering neutral information accepted by the public health community. Titles still listed include "Miller's Review of Critical Vaccine Studies: 400 Important Scientific Papers Summarized for Parents and Researchers" ...

Let this sink in. According to CNN, a book that summarizes 400 scientific papers on the topic of vaccines is by definition "anti-vaccine."

For those who aren't keeping score, here's what happened:

On March 1, Congressman Adam Schiff wrote to Amazon, and after making the medically inaccurate statement that "there is no evidence to suggest that vaccines cause life-threatening or disabling diseases", expressed his concern that Amazon might be allowing content with "medically inaccurate information."

Schiff asked what actions Amazon was taking to address "misinformation about vaccines." That same day, Amazon removed documentaries critical of vaccines from its streaming service. Now, CNN (or, more accurately, the people pulling CNN's strings) complains that Amazon still allows "anti-vaccine" books to be sold on its platform. Books including the one by Neil Z. Miller, that summarizes 400 scientific papers on vaccines.

So here's how this works: First, the establishment goons assert that there is "no evidence" that vaccines cause serious harm. Next, it pulls out all the stops to remove all signs of this non-existent evidence from the public sphere.

The problem though, is that unlike in regimes like the USSR or North Korea, the US state and its cronies do NOT have a monopoly on the press and channels of communication - much as they would clearly love to. So the more they pull ham-handed moves like this, the more attention they will bring to the issue of vaccine safety.

I say bring it. It's long past time we had this conversation in public.

 

UPDATE: Neil Miller's book is now at #1 on Amazon's Bestseller list for Health Policy. 

 

Image: Public domain.

Six-Year-Old Victim of the War on (Some) Drugs

This is Charly's story. Charly was six years old and had the same genetic condition that our daughter has. Her parents were treating her seizures with THC, but had to drive across state lines to get it, and could not get any advice from doctors on dosing, because the gang that runs the state they live in said they couldn't.

What the news report below doesn't say is that, after Charly had passed away and her mother had called 911, the gang members who showed up threw the family out of the house so they could search it for THC.

If anyone ever wonders why I despise the violent gang known as the state with every fiber of my being, please stop wondering that now. If you wonder why I refer to the monsters who enforce its laws as monsters, you can stop wondering that too. And if you want to help prevent more needless deaths like Charly's, one of the most important things you can do is to stop rationalizing and supporting predation and violence when it wears a uniform.