Are the unvaccinated now enemies of the state?

To the Editor:

While the usual barrage of vaccine hype is predictable this time of year, I was deeply disturbed by the tone of the article published in last week's Banner Graphic. The article, titled "Response To Measles Hailed as Exemplary" (and authored by State Health Commissioner Dr. Gregory Larkin) is just one more instance of the vilifying of those who choose not to vaccinate.

There are many plausible reasons why the subjects of this article may have elected not to vaccinate. Perhaps they were aware of the fact that just last year a team of scientists at an independent research lab in San Francisco discovered low levels of DNA fragments from avian (bird) leucosis virus in the measles vaccine. (As a side note, swine viral DNA was found in the Rotarix vaccine and simian (monkey) retrovirus in the RotaTeq vaccine.) Interestingly, avian and swine virus has been in the news a lot over the past several years, but never in relation to the contamination of childhood vaccines.

Maybe the unvaccinated in this article are opposed to receiving vaccines that may be produced using aborted human fetal cell lines. The MMR does fall into this category along with certain polio, varicella (chicken pox and shingles), Hepatitis A and Rabies vaccines. Setting aside the unknown long-term health consequences of DNA contamination and religious beliefs about the use of aborted fetal tissues, the ethics of non-disclosure and reprehensible.

The statement was made that "none of the individuals who were infected during the measles outbreak were fully immunized; most were not vaccinated at all." Shouldn't they have the right to choose? If vaccines are safe and effective for everyone, then those who choose to get vaccinated should have nothing to fear from those who choose not to.

If vaccines are not safe and effective for everyone, then it is unethical to require anyone to get vaccinated without their voluntary, informed consent. I am sure that there are many alive today who still remember the measles or chicken-pox "parties."

Much is made of the rare instances of disability and death from complications of normally self-limiting childhood diseases, the much larger problem of vaccine side-effects and damage are downplayed or outright denied.

Maybe those who make the choice not to vaccinate are reluctant to trust in an industry that by 2013 will enjoy a $36 billion vaccine market. An industry that funds medical organizations that profit from mass vaccination policies to press politicians into quickly passing laws that force Americans to use dozens of doses of vaccines. Maybe they were aware that in February of this year the U.S. Supreme Court gave the pharmaceutical industry total immunity from lawsuits, even if a less harmful vaccine could have been made. What kind of message does that send? Where are the checks and balances?

Perhaps the individuals implicated as the source of the recent outbreak of measles in Indiana wonder why Americans, who are the most highly vaccinated population on the planet, aren't enjoying the robust health but instead having experienced an explosion of auto-immune disorders and cancer to say nothing of the fact that today in America 1 in 6 children are learning disabled, 1 in 9 has asthma, 1 in 10 are diagnosed with ADHD, 1 in 110 have Autism (1 in 70 boys), 1 in 450 become diabetic and millions are suffering with severe allergies, inflammatory bowel disorders, depression, and other kinds of brain and immune system dysfunction.

Maybe those who choose not to vaccinate are bothered by the cookie-cutter fashion that vaccines are administered. What kind of screening protocol exists to identify those at great risk of reaction to vaccines? Today, our kids receive three times as many vaccines as they did in the early 1980. With over 3,000 new vaccine clinical trials under way, when will parents say enough is enough? I submit that instead of allowing ourselves to be manipulated into a certain mind-set regarding vaccines it would be well for us all tot educate ourselves and not rely on the "experts" to do our thinking for us. Check into vaccine studies for yourself and pay attention to the source of funding.

In America today there is an unprecedented assault on our right to informed consent and the right to choose whether or not to vaccinate. As the pharmaceutical industry is now immune from any legal consequence, the only barrier to unlimited vaccine profit making is the freedom for Americans to choose.

If you don't believe that then perhaps you should ask one of the nearly 1,000 parents and children who were summoned to a Maryland courthouse by public health officials in 2007 to show proof that their kids had gotten chickenpox and Hepatitis B shots. Armed guards and dogs policed the courthouse. Parents were threatened with fines and even jail time if they did not comply! This is America? Perhaps you don't have to look that far. To resist vaccine mandates means you can be denied an education, medical care, or a job. The unvaccinated have become enemies of the state. If the state can tag, track down and coerce individuals to be injected with biologicals of known and unknown toxicity today, then there will be no limit on which individual freedoms the state can take away in the name of the greater good tomorrow.

This article I read in last Wednesday's Banner Graphic was not from some futuristic horror story; it was here in good, old Indiana, Summer of 2011.

Rosie Semak

Greencastle