Stimmen aus dem Ausland

14.3.2002

--> http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/0,,2-227532,00.html

"British News, March 06, 2002

Anti-vaccine town struck by measles epidemic

Homoeopaths who reject MMR are
blamed for German outbreak"

John Logreco

Aribert, 

I logged onto your URL about the outbreak of measles in certain areas in 
Germany. 

Those so-called homeopathic doctors pollute small areas of the USA also but 
they use some form of religion for their excuse to not vaccinate.

I lost a cousin because the father refused to allow his daughter to get a 
vaccination. A beautiful young girl needlessly died before she could grow up. 
I call that close to being murder.

John Logreco

R. David Otten

Gentlemen,

first, I was the biologicals product manager for a pharmaceutical company
from the late '60s through the mid-'70s. I helped set up, manage and run, in
conjunction with the CDC, mass immunization campaigns against Measles
[Rubeola] and German Measles [Rubella]. At that time there were four
companies supplying the vaccines used in these campaigns -- actually only
three, as we manufactured the vaccine for one of the other three companies,
as well as our own. We were in the business because the NIH had asked us to
enter it to provide competition and additional sources for the vaccine. Note
that I said "NIH" [National Institutes of Health]. Vaccines are licensed by
NIH. FDA has nothing to do with them.

Measles vaccine was developed by John Enders and Sam Katz. It was an
important vaccine, as measles was often a severe disease, and could and did
lead to encephalitis, or an attack on the lining of the patient's brain,
which could and did cause mental retardation or death fairly often.

A vaccine is a foreign protein, and any foreign protein, when introduced
into the human body, can cause a reaction. That's what allergies are. The
trick with a vaccine is to attenuate it, or reduce its potency, to the point
where the introduction of the actual disease-causing virus into the body
will generate the antibodies to protect the host [person] against the
disease, without actually causing the symptoms to appear.

The ideal is a vaccine that protects the person for life, and causes no
symptoms when introduced.

There are two kinds of antiviral vaccines: "killed" and "live." Killed
vaccines introduce a dead virus, which does produce antibodies, but they are
usually not life-long. A live vaccine introduces a limited number of live
viruses into the body, usually affording life-long protection, but also
tending to cause more vaccine reactions, usually a very mild case of the
disease against which one is vaccinating. Often, the recipient isn't even
aware they have any of the symptoms.

This is also one of the reasons a vaccine sometimes needs a booster, or is
administered as a series over a period of time. These vaccines are usually
of the killed type.

Okay, so what about reactions, serious and otherwise? With live measles
vaccine, the estimate, as the result of a lot of studies, was that there
might be one death per 100,000, plus some cases of non-fatal encephalitis,
plus a number of kids that would exhibit symptoms, sometimes severe, of the
disease. Our first mass immunization campaign was held in Oklahoma, where
about 125,000 kids were vaccinated over a two-day period. There were no
deaths, and no cases of encephalitis. A number of children did indeed
exhibit varying degrees of symptoms, some enough to keep them out of school
for a couple of days. However, all of these reactions were much less than
would have occured if the kids had the actual disease, which they probably
would have had eventually, as measles was still epidemic.

Over the next few years several million children were vaccinated in mass
immunization campaigns, and yes, there were indeed a few deaths and a few
cases of encephalits, again at a much lower rate than if the child had the
actual disease. And there were, of course, lawsuits.

A word about this subject. Every parent or guardian was given a phamplet
outlining the possibilities for reactions, and the reasons for the vaccine.
The parent or guardian then had to sign a release, indicating they had read
and understood the phamplet. However, in court, one cannot prove the parent
or guardian read the phamplet, nor that they understood the thing if they
did read it. As a result, two of the four companies bailed out by the time
we got around to the rubella vaccine. Ultimately, a cap has been put on
vaccine-related awards, and the government now handles the insurance for
vaccine manufacturers. This is also one of the reasons a 15 dose vial of DPT
vaccine, which used to sell to the physician for $7.95 to $15.00 is now $75.00.

Also, there are different reasons for different vaccines. DPT
[diptheria-pertussis-tetanus] are not epidemic, but until these vaccines
were invented, wiped out a large number of children. That is why DPT has
been a standard vaccine for many, many years.

Rubella was the next disease against which there were mass immunization
campaigns. With this disease, the reason was different. Rubella does not
often cause the host or patient any major problems, and in fact, is often so
mild as to not even be diagnosed. However, in a pregnant female, it almost
always causes birth defects. In this case, the reason for wanting to be rid
of the disease was to prevent a major cause of birth defects, not to prevent
untoward effects on the patient. One argument given against the vaccine was
that it would probably be better to allow girls to simply get the disease as
children and then be protected for life. However, rubella-caused birth
defects were so numerous that this argument did not hold water.

Another vaccine that was developed at about the same time was mumps vaccine.
This one causes impotency in males, when they get the disease as adults. In
other words, if you get the mumps while a child, you're protected. However,
mumps also caused a certain level of encephalitis and other stuff similar to
measles, but not nearly as often. As a result, mumps vaccine did not make it
to the mass immunization campaigns, but did become a part of the DPT package
routinely given children by pediatricians.

Finally, while many diseases have been virtually eliminated in the US, this
is not true of the rest of the world. Any of them can be contracted while
visiting other countries or imported back into the US when one returns to
the US.

Diptheria and tetanus are not transmitted from person to person as airborne
viruses, but require an external contact with something else. This is also
true of, for example, yellow fever, which is transmitted by mosquitos, and
for which there is a vaccine, which is killed and therefore requires boosters.

So what is the point of this diatribe? Vaccines are safe and effective, but
being foreign proteins they can and do cause occasional reactions and even
death. It's okay if the one death per 100,000 happens, as long as it doesn't
happen to you or to your child.

This is a case of situation ethics in practice. The greater good for the
greater number of people.

And it's also the reason so few manufacturers are willing to remain in the
vaccine producing business.

I was vaccinated, my kids were vaccinated and my grandkids were and are
vaccinated.

And by the way, vaccines are even better and safer these days than even just
25 years ago.


R. David Otten, Pres. - SIGNATURE Software Systems, Inc.
6125 Yarborough LN, Lakeland FL 33813-4173
Tel: Voice/Fax 863-646-0759 (office)