In this article we begin to address the subject of vaccinosis, the general name for chronic disease caused by vaccines. For some readers the very idea that vaccines are anything but wonderful and life-saving may come as a surprise, and it's not a very pleasant one. After all, the general population pictures vaccines as one of modern medicine's best and brightest moments, saving literally millions from the scourge of diseases like poliomyelitis and smallpox.

However, there is a great deal of statistical evidence to show that the incidence of these and other major communicable diseases was on the decline before the vaccine programs were enforced. Improvements in sanitation as well as nutritional teachings seem to be the obvious reason for the decline, since other communicable diseases, for which no vaccines were available, were declining, and continued to decline, at the same time.

There are many different aspects of the subject of vaccinosis which we will explore on a regular basis in Wolf Clan, such as how vaccines work, whether they're safe, whether they're even effective, and what evidence there is for the growing belief that what vaccines have done is actually convert what is in nature an acute viral disease into a chronic disease never before seen.

Richard H. Pitcairn, D.V.M., Ph.D., author of Dr. Pictorial’s Complete Guide to Natural Health for Dogs & Cats, is a renowned homeopathic veterinarian practicing in Eugene, Oregon. Dr. Pitcairn received his Ph.D. when he returned to school after becoming a veterinarian in order to study veterinary immunology, virology and biochemistry. This return to school was prompted by his search for basic answers about the body's ability to defend and heal itself.

While Dr. Pitcairn began homeopathic practice without considering vaccination as a factor of any special importance, he found a troubling number of cases in which the appropriately chosen homeopathic remedy, based on the symptoms presented, would improve but not cure the case. After being frustrated by the lack of a definitive cure in these cases for some period of time, he began to believe that the cases represented a chronic state of illness induced by vaccination. His intuition proved to be correct when a remedy selected solely on the rubric (symptom ) "Vaccination, effects of," rather than the seemingly correct remedy based on the total symptom picture, would in fact cure or greatly improve the case. The remedy Thuja, one of about forty remedies listed under that rubric, has proven to be one of the most important remedies for vaccine related disease.

Wolf Clan spoke with Dr. Pitcairn this past October about the question of vaccinosis. Some of his comments, from both that interview as well as the text of his address on this question in 1993 before the American Holistic Veterinary Medical Association, follow.

"My understanding of the importance of vaccination in animal diseases gradually developed over several years. In case after case, progress was dependent on the use of Thuja, the anti-vaccine remedy. Though this was not necessarily the final remedy for these patients, it seemed to be a necessary prescription. It is as if vaccinations have the ability to block response to a constitutional remedy, an obstacle that must be dealt with before cure can be underway. Sometimes, when the picture is muddled, perhaps because of prior treatment with allopathic drugs, Thuja can bring clarity into the situation.

"This does not mean that in every case of previously vaccinated animals (which is nearly all animals, since vacciin equal indicator of effectiveness. There is not really a system for tabulating the incidence of the common diseases of dogs and cats. There are figures for some of the reportable diseases of livestock, but the rapid turnover of these animals makes long-term studies almost impossible. However, since there are statistics for the common human diseases, we can reverse the process we usually find ourselves using as veterinarians: instead of using animals to study human disease, we can use human disease to answer our questions about animals.

"Looking at the statistics available for smallpox, polio, measles, and pertussis (whooping cough), we find that besides the fact that the incidence of these diseases was already declining before vaccination programs were enforced, the incidence actually increased once these programs were instituted. Some countries, looking at statistics showing this lack of efficacy and increase in disease incidence, together with deaths resulting from reactions to the vaccination, have terminated compulsory vaccination. When Australia did so in the case of the smallpox vaccine, smallpox virtually disappeared in that country (three cases in fifteen years). In the case of the polio vaccine, many European countries refused to systematically inoculate their citizens, yet polio epidemics also ended in these countries as well.

"Measles is an especially interesting disease to look at because of its close similarity to canine distemper. The measles vaccine was introduced in 1963, even though in the United States and England a greater than 95% decline in the measles death rate had already occurred between 1915 and 1958. Also, the death rate from measles in the mid-1970s (post-vaccine) was exactly the same is it was in the early 1960s (pre-vaccine). A study by the World Health Organization concludes that chances are 14 times greater that measles will be contracted by those vaccinated against the disease than by those who have not been vaccinated. The federal government reported in 1985 that 80% of the 1,984 cases of measles occurred in people who had been properly vaccinated. More recently, outbreaks have continued to occur throughout the country, sometimes among 100% vaccinated populations.

"One particularly harmful effect of this continued use of a useless vaccine is that the disease now affects primarily a different age group. The peak incidence of measles no longer occurs in children, but in adolescents and young adults. As a result the risk of complications of pneumonia and liver abnormality have increased. Also, before the vaccine was introduced, it was extremely rare for an infant to contract measles. However, by 1993 more than 25% of all measles cases were occurring in babies under one year of age. The Centers for Disease Control anticipates a worsening of this situation and attributes it to the growing number of mothers who were vaccinated during the last 30 years, therefore passing on no natural immunity to their children.

"In the process of training as a doctor or veterinarian, one goes in as a relatively naive young person. The conditioning is heavy; it costs a lot of money, and of course you want to do well. Students are told how wonderful vaccines are, and they don't really question it; they accept as a fact that they're these great boons to health, are never harmful, and have saved a lot of lives—it's black and white. The companies making the vaccines have great amounts of money and influence to campaign and advertise. You have a situation on the one hand where doctors are conditioned to accept, and on the other hand companies powerful enough to squelch negative comment.

"I realize the topic is a controversial one, but I have observed that if one can look at the question with an open mind, one will be surprised at the amount of evidence that is actually there. I believe that the attitudes and feelings people now have about vaccinations are the same ones people used to have about bleedings. The prominent doctors, all the most important authorities, agreed they were absolutely beneficial. Anyone who dared to question that assumption was ridiculed. Now we look back on that practice with amazement that so many people bought into the idea for so long that bleedings were helpful and good. I trust we will be doing the same thing someday when we look back at the practice of vaccination.