Glenn F. Ivey, State’s Attorney in Prince George’s County, issued summons to more than 2300 parents of children who had not provided certificates of immunization for their children. Parents were told to appear in Court on Saturday, November 17, 2007 and to subject their children to on-the-spot state-mandated vaccines or face imprisonment.
Parents who ignored the court’s demands were threatened with a $50 fine for every day their child is out of compliance or up to 10 days in jail. These children had been barred from attending school since September 20, the deadline for meeting the requirements.
The American Academy of Pediatricians recommends vaccinations against 11 diseases given in 20 different shots within the 1st 15 months of your baby’s life. This does not include diseases like influenza, HPV, meningitis, and Rotavirus (diarrhea). The State of Maryland follows this schedule and made it mandatory. School districts lose a substantial amount of state funding if students do not comply with the vaccine mandate.
This whole issue raises several questions:
Why are vaccinations in the State of Maryland mandatory? Why can’t the legal guardians decide what is best for their children? Why is this whole vaccination issue linked to education? Why may the constitutional right of a child for education be revoked because the child is not vaccinated? What gives the PG County authorities the right to ignore the most basic standards of medicine: individual physical exam, detailed medical history, and informed consent? Why does conventional medicine have to threaten people with fines or jail to take their drugs? Why are physicians, the Department of Education, and the pharmaceutical companies that produce vaccines exempt from lawsuits arising from side effects of vaccines? Doesn’t your common sense tell you that it may be hazardous to bombard an infant who has had no chance to develop his/her own immune system with 20 shots before age 15 months? Why is it permissible that some vaccines contain formaldehyde, mercury, aluminum, antifreeze (yes, this is not a typo), wood alcohol, Borax, MSG, animal organ tissue and blood, latex, to name a few? For most of these substances, there is no safe level established, definitely none for infants. Is this scientific or does it sound more like quackery? You decide.
There are too many parties who think that they are God or act like they have absolute divine powers: The State of Maryland, the Department of Educational, the American Academy of Pediatricians, and of course the driving force behind all this: Big Pharma business. This article is already too long to prove the close link between the pharmaceutical industry, the FDA, and the AMA. Maybe another time or homework for you.
Just some facts: Double blind, multi center, placebo controlled studies are the gold standard for medical research. There are no such long-term studies available for any vaccines. Case in point: the new HPV vaccine against papilloma virus of the cervix: It is effective against 4 of the 19 “high-risk” HPV types that can lead to the development of cervical cancer. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate that about 6.2 million Americans become infected with genital HPV each year. Only a small percentage of women with HPV goes on to develop cervical cancer. On average, there are 9,710 (incidence 0.16%) new cases of cervical cancer and 3,700 deaths attributed to it in the United States each year. The vaccine was evaluated and approved by the FDA within 6 months in spite of the study period not being long enough to assess long term (side) effects and for cervical cancer to develop. The vaccine is recommended for gilrs and women between 9 and 25 years. The median age for girls at first intercourse is 17.4 years. Why then start at age 9? It is not recommended for men who can transmit the disease. Does this make sense? The cost is $360.00, definitely a social issue. Bottom line: Big Pharma makes $$$. The issue deflects from safe preventive measurements like free annual PAP smears, protected sex, and sex education.
Unfortunately today’s trend to standardize everything is spreading: education, medicine, agriculture, etc. By doing so we lose diversity and individualization. Especially in medicine we must look at each patient’s needs to restore his/her health based on his/her individual physical, emotional, and mental status. Conventional medicine is the only medical modality that ignores this. Yes, for some people vaccinations are indicated, but make them mandatory…?
Peter Hinderberger, M.D., Ph.D., DIHom practices at Ruscombe. The mission of his practice is to promote optimal wellbeing by providing health care through an integrated approach, combining conventional and complementary therapies, which include Anthroposophic medicine, homeopathy, and salutogenesis.