Scoop has an Ethical Paywall
*NZ Vaccine Information "Typically Misleading"
*NZ Vaccine Information "Typically Misleading" – Researcher*
According to author and researcher Katherine Smith, New Zealanders are being misled about the safety and efficacy of vaccines.
Primary among her targets is IMAC – The Immunisation Advisory Centre, ostensibly an organisation that provides "independent information"[1] about the risks and benefits of various vaccines to New Zealanders.
Smith has observed on many occasions the fact that IMAC has been at least in part sponsored by the vaccine manufacturers themselves, in addition to the Ministry of Health. [2]
On Monday June 13, The Immunisation Advisory Centre (IMAC) issued a press release titled "Reponse to 'No Forced Vaccines' Press Release". IMAC's press release criticises the No Forced Vaccines press release "Coerced Vaccination 'Unacceptable'" (published on the website www.scoop.co.nz on June 10, 2011) [3] as "potentially putting more lives at risk and increasing the burden on our already overstretched health system." [4]
In support of this contention, the author of IMAC's press release, "Communications Manager" Theo Brandt, makes statements that can easily be proven to be false.
Mr Brandt writes:
"I doubt that most families are happy to take a 1 in 1000 gamble that their child will die should they contract measles". It is true that fear of a child dying from measles can motivate parents to vaccinate their children. However, the one "1 in 1000" figure cited by Mr Brandt does not appear to be an accurate figure for the risk of dying from measles for NZ children. According to the /Immunisation Handbook/ (2011 edition) published by the Ministry of Health, in the last major measles epidemic in NZ in 1991, there were an estimated 40-60,000 cases and seven deaths.[5] Even taking the lower figure of the estimated cases (40,000), it can be seen that the risk of death from measles in modern NZ is less than 1 in 5,000.
In the IMAC press release, however, Mr Brandt makes the erroneous statement that there were 7000 cases in the 1991 epidemic, [4] thereby making the number of deaths fit the magic "one in one thousand" risk of death figure typically trotted out when there are measles cases reported in the media.
Moreover during 1997 there were more than 2000 reported cases of measles in NZ and no deaths.[5]
It is true that measles can cause complications. Employees of IMAC, such as Mr Brandt, appear to enjoy scaring parents with statements such as "Thirty percent of those with measles experience complications including diarrhoea, ear infections and pneumonia."
Considered dispassionately, diarrhoea or ear infections are not usually serious complications and they are each potentially able to be managed at home with appropriate medical advice.
Pneumonia certainly is a serious complication of measles, however, it occurs in only a small proportion of the 30% of people who develop complications. According to IMAC's own website, pneumonia occurs in six percent of people who have the measles.[6] The standard treatment for bacterial pneumonia is antibiotics, while viral pneumonia can be treated successfully using intravenous vitamin C, as the recovery of Waikato farmer Alan Smith from white-out pneumonia dramatically demonstrated in 2009 [7], and Dr Klenner reported curing cases of viral pneumonia (and encephalitis) by giving high doses of vitamin C by injection – more than 60 years ago! [8]
Given that appropriate medical treatment has the potential to be able to prevent complications of the measles from developing, [9] or treat them successfully if they occur, [8] it is theoretically possible to prevent deaths from measles.
Moreover, given that according to IMAC's own website, 99% of children who have had two doses of MMR vaccine should be immune to the disease, [10] Mr Brandt's claim that it is important for unvaccinated healthy children to barred from school attendance during a measles outbreak appears to be on shaky ground. If the vaccine efficacy is as good as it is claimed, virtually the only children at the school who are susceptible to the measles will be other unvaccinated children – most of whose parents will generally be happy for them to be exposed to measles, so that they can catch the disease, recover and thereafter be immune for life. Taking all these factors into consideration, the decision to ban unvaccinated children from attending Oratia School in West Auckland [11] appears to designed to coerce parents into getting their children vaccinated – given that most parents need to work outside the home to earn a living for their families, and getting time off work to look after perfectly healthy children will be impossible for many.
Mr Brandt states that "No Forced Vaccines claim that IMAC is somehow in the pharmaceutical industry's pocket is incorrect and insulting." The No Forced Vaccines press release pointed out that IMAC has acknowledged companies supplying vaccines to the NZ market on its website as "sponsors" in the past [2], and currently its site states that it receives financial support from "private industry". [12] This relationship at the very least constitutes a perceived conflict of interest – and one of which the most members of the public would not be aware.
Moreover, Mr Brandt's protestations that the pharmaceutical industry has no influence over the content of IMAC's website, nor the fact that their information has TAPS approval does not change the fact that information intended for parents on its site omits most of the potential side effects of the relevant vaccine.[13] Ultimately, omitting side effects from information intended for parents robs them of the opportunity to make an informed decision about vaccination (if they rely solely upon IMAC and Ministry of Health-produced materials) and undermines trust in vaccination programmes when children suffer side effects about which parents have had no advance warning.
Mr Brandt suggests that No Forced Vaccines spokeswoman Katherine Smith is offering parents medical advice due to the fact that she is quoted as saying that vitamins A, C and D may be helpful in the treatment of measles. A careful reading of the No Forced Vaccines press release makes it clear that Smith recommends that parents obtain appropriate professional advice regarding prior to giving any of the above vitamins to their children.
Mr Brandt claims that Katherine Smith's "assertions that the MMR vaccine is linked to autism" has been "disproven". This is untrue, as the references footnoted to No Forced Vaccines' original press release illustrate. [14] However, perhaps Mr Brandt didn't read the studies that support a link between MMR vaccination and autism. Regardless, his claim that the link between the MMR vaccine and autism is "disproven" is misleading. The taxpayers who pay for much of IMAC's operations (the Ministry of Health is IMAC's major funder) [12] deserve much better than for their hard earned dollars to be squandered on an organisation that refuses to acknowledge the medical and scientific evidence supporting a link between MMR vaccination and subsequent development of autism in some children, given the very serious nature of this condition.
Ends
[1] http://www.immune.org.nz/?t=561 [2] A
screen shot of the relevant page of IMAC's website will be
emailed upon request: please contact the coordinator of www.noforcedvaccines.org
ends
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