September 5, 2001

Follow the money on vaccines---Phyllis Schlafly


It isn't often that a governor vetoes a bill that was passed unanimously by
both Houses of the State Legislature. It reminds us of the old saying of the
mother, watching her son drill for the first time with the troops:
"Everybody's out of step except my son Jim." This time the one who is out of
step is George, as in Gov. George Ryan of Illinois. He vetoed Senate Bill
1304, entitled "An Act Concerning Immunizations."

This bill would have provided that a person is ineligible to serve on the
Illinois Immunization Advisory Committee if the person or his spouse is an
officer, employee, or agent of, or has any ownership or other financial
interest in a pharmaceutical company that manufactures vaccines. It also
would have prohibited committee members or their spouses from soliciting or
accepting anything of value or any other economic benefit from a
pharmaceutical company that manufacturers or produces vaccines unless it is
offered and available generally to licensed physicians or the public.

That sounds like an excellent rule and we wonder why it hasn't always been
the law. Those who officially advise government agencies whether or not to
force Americans to submit to vaccines should not be on the payroll of the
corporations that profit from the government mandates.

Ryan's veto message states that "Senate Bill 1304 would severely limit the
number of pediatric disease specialists and pediatric physicians in general,
who would be eligible to serve on the Immunization Advisory Committee." This
amazing statement indicates that it's difficult to find anyone to advise
making vaccines mandatory other than those who are paid in some way by the
corporations selling the vaccines.

This conflict of interest was confirmed by an emotional outburst against
S.1304 from one of the members of the Illinois Immunization Advisory
Committee at its meeting on July 12, 2001. He said, "No infectious disease
specialist will be able to serve on this committee! We all take money from
pharmaceutical companies."

Ryan's veto message acknowledged that Illinois depends on vaccine company
contractors for its vaccine policy-making. Here is what Ryan wrote:

"Many physicians with expertise in the field of immunizations and infectious
disease have contractual relationships with pharmaceutical companies with
regards to speaking engagements. Also, many medical schools and academic
centers employ infectious disease specialists that perform research funded
by the pharmaceutical industry."

So that's how the racket works! "Experts" who are being paid by the vaccine
manufacturers have an official pipeline through which they "advise" the
state government authorities to mandate vaccines. This incestuous
relationship between the pharmaceuticals and governmental bodies is not
unique to Illinois. A hearing before the U.S. House Committee on Government
Reform on June 14, 2000, produced evidence that similar conflicts of
interest are common practice for the federal advisory committees: the FDA's
Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee and the CDC's
Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices.

Most children entering public school today have been forced to take up to 33
immunizations and more and more vaccines are in line for government mandates
despite widespread controversy over their efficacy and their side effects.

The hepatitis B vaccine is widely administered to newborns while still in
the hospital, even though there is no scientific evidence to justify it
before the age when the child is subject to risk factors, such as sexual
promiscuity or sharing dirty needles. Hepatitis B immunizations have been
associated with 53 deaths and 828 serious injuries, but the yearly incidence
of the hepatitis B disease itself is only 191 among the 38 million children
younger than 10, according to a letter recently published in the Journal of
the American Medical Association.

Furthermore, the Asian Liver Center at Stanford University recently reported
that more than half of the total hepatitis B cases in the United States are
among Asian-Americans. The rate is 70 times greater for Asians than for
whites or Hispanics, and 14 times greater than for blacks.

Another letter in JAMA described the benefits to newborn hepatitis B
immunization: (1) It is too confusing to just vaccinate those who need it;
(2) there are some (very rare) cases of young kids at risk; (3) it gets all
the kids on the vaccine schedule right away; and (4) it is easier to get to
babies than adolescents. You don't need to be an "expert" to understand that
those are mighty poor reasons to vaccinate all newborns.

It looks like the manufacturers have figured out that they can't make big
money selling their hepatitis B vaccine only to those at risk for the
disease, so they have managed to get the vaccine administered routinely to
all newborns. Vaccine advisory committees should not be beholden to the drug
makers.

(c)2001 Copley News Service