Open, scientific discussion is pivotal to progress in the medical field, but it’s something that remains elusive when it comes to vaccinations. Rather than address questions, concerns and inconsistencies head on via public debate and research, vaccine advocates often resort to name-calling, intimidation and threats against those who question the federal once-size-fits-all vaccine policy.
Pediatricians may also belittle parents who ask questions about vaccine side effects, with many refusing to see patients who choose not to vaccinate or choose an alternate vaccine schedule.
This is why the above video from “When Opinions Collide” is so refreshing — and so necessary in today’s climate when children receive an unprecedented 69 doses of 16 vaccines by the time they’re 18 years old, with 50 doses of 14 vaccines given before the age of 6.1
In the video, Dr. Bethany Rife, a pediatrician in Alabama, and Robyn Sharon, a biologist and attorney who has worked with the Human Genome Project at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, discuss their point of view about vaccinations, which at times are conflicting.
Yet, they manage to educate each other and listeners in a positive way, one that’s ultimately neither “pro” nor “anti” vaccine, but rather focused on doing what’s best to protect public health.
Childhood Vaccine Injury Triggers Lifelong Search for Answers
Sharon starts out by detailing her son’s experience with childhood vaccinations. Many parents of vaccine-injured children describe a similar series of events following vaccination, including excessive sleepiness and inconsolable, high-pitched crying, unlike any cry the parents have heard before.
This was the case for Sharon’s son, who fell into an unusual deep sleep following a round of several childhood vaccinations when he was 2 months old. When he woke up, she said, he was crying a high-pitched, shrill scream. “It was an absolute nightmare,” she said. She called the doctor’s office, which said the reaction was normal, and her son eventually calmed down.
However, high-pitched screaming with arching of the back or inconsolable crying are signs of brain inflammation, one of the most serious vaccine complications.2 In 1993, The New York Times even published a letter to the editor titled “Look for Danger Signs When Baby Gets Shots,” which reads, in part:3
“To parents taking any child in for the first set of shots, I would say to look for a very high fever (over 101 degrees); evidence of a seizure, which in infants shows up as stiffening of the limbs, rapid or other unusual blinking; limpness; paralysis;
… turning pale or blue; unresponsiveness or unconsciousness; prolonged sleeping, with difficulty in awakening or arousing; arrested or difficult breathing, which may indicate an allergic reaction; high-pitched and unusual screaming; persistent, inconsolable crying, and any bulge in the soft spot in the head. Watch for these signs for a few days after the shots.”
In the weeks and months that followed, Sharon’s son developed eczema and food allergies, including a life-threatening peanut allergy, which she believes is related to his childhood vaccines.
Sharon’s story isn’t unique. “So many moms have gone through what I’ve gone through,” she said, noting that the experience turned her into who she is today and sent her on a quest to learn about vaccinations and anaphylactic food allergies.
Health Officials, Fauci Deny Vaccine Injuries
Meanwhile, public health officials, including Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), continue to downplay or flat-out deny that vaccines can and do cause injuries and death, as he did in an interview with CBS News in January 2019.4 The news outlet had featured parents who are concerned about vaccination risks, including one woman whose middle child suffered from severe reactions to vaccinations.
Understandably, Eckhart then refused to vaccinate her youngest son and stated, “If I could go back, I wouldn’t have vaccinated any of my kids.” When asked what to say to such parents, who have experienced adverse vaccine reactions among their own children and are hesitant to have the same procedure performed on another child, Fauci graciously said they shouldn’t be denigrated but that they must be told vaccines are “very safe.”
“[T]he lack of safety and the adverse events, things like autism … that issue is based purely on fabrication and that’s been proven … there is no association whatsoever between the measles vaccine and autism,” he said. When the reporter said that Eckhart believes that perhaps the right studies weren’t being done to show the harm vaccines can cause, Fauci vehemently denied there was any truth in the claim.
“That’s not true … that’s just not true, period,” Fauci said, refusing to even entertain the notion that vaccines may cause adverse reactions in some people, and that parents of vaccine-injured children may be justified in their hesitation to vaccinate their other children.
Vaccinating Against Measles Because It’s so Contagious?
When asked about the once common childhood illnesses that are now the subject of vaccinations, Rife acknowledged that in most cases, those who get measles and especially chicken pox “do just fine.”
The reason why measles is considered to be such a danger, she said, is because it’s so contagious, adding that, “If you are not vaccinated for measles and you’re in a room near, or even after, a person with measles left, maybe two hours ago … your chances of catching measles with exposure is 90%.”
The fact comes from a 1964 study5 titled “Survival of Measles Virus in Air,” which is often cited by the CDC. “In a closed setting,” the CDC noted, “the measles virus has been reported to have been transmitted by airborne or droplet exposure up to two hours after the measles case occupied the area.”6 Sharon goes on to explain what actually took place during the study, which involved a tiny closet in a laboratory.
Researchers sprayed measles virus in the air then collected petri dishes to find out if they contained the virus. There’s no mention of what an infectious dose of the virus may be, but what is noted, she said, is that the humidity in the closet was only 15%.
Increasing research is highlighting the importance of humidity levels in the spread of infectious diseases like influenza and COVID-19. Not only does dry air impair the built-in defenses in your respiratory tract,7 but studies on the survival of influenza virus also show a humidity connection, with one suggesting that aerosolized influenza survived the longest when the relative humidity was below 36%.8
Humidity levels in the 40% to 60% range appear to be ideal in lowering your risk of infection, a level you may achieve by placing a humidifier in your bedroom. Some experts suggest public spaces should also maintain minimum humidity levels to protect public health.
The point is, the study that the CDC uses to support measles’ contagiousness does not translate to real-world conditions, which are rarely that dry. According to Sharon, when humidity levels were increased, “measles fell to the floor and died.”
Even 100% Vaccination Rate Not Enough for Herd Immunity
The media, as well as public health organizations, typically blame pockets of unvaccinated individuals for measles outbreaks in the U.S., but the percentage of people vaccinated with the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine is actually very high.
In the 2013-2014 school year, almost 95% of U.S. children entering kindergarten had received two doses of MMR vaccine,9 as had 91.8% of school children ages 13 to 17 years.10 That high rate of vaccination for MMR among U.S. school children continues today.11 This high MMR vaccination rate should theoretically ensure “herd immunity,” but cases of both measles and mumps keep occurring, which hints at vaccine failure.
Sharon mentioned an article published by New York Daily News in May 2019, written by Dr. Daniel Berman,12 which again blamed measles outbreaks in parts of New York on unvaccinated communities. Fauci was quoted, stating:13
“Coverage in a given community, when it falls below a certain critical level, you get the kinds of outbreaks that we’re seeing, particularly in places like New York City and the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn … his is a relatively closed community, a Hasidic Jewish community in that area — that are not vaccinating their children at a rate that would provide that broad umbrella of protection that we call herd immunity…
When you drop down to the 80s or even the 70s or even lower, where it is now in that community, that’s exactly the explanation of why we’re seeing the outbreaks that we’re seeing.”
The statement is misleading, according to Berman, who noted that the measles vaccination rate among Jewish school-age children in Brooklyn, New York, is 96%, which is above the 95% threshold said to be required to achieve herd immunity.
Population density, social mixing patterns and other factors all affect viral transmission, and there’s also the glaring fact that immunity from the MMR vaccine likely declines in the years following the last booster.14
Unfortunately, with the waning effectiveness of MMR vaccine, protection is not lifelong the way it is following natural infection, leaving older adults potentially vulnerable. As pregnant women no longer have natural immunity to pass on to their newborns, very young infants are also more susceptible to the disease.
Authors of one study in The Lancet Infectious Diseases reported that when measles infection is delayed, negative outcomes are 4.5 times worse “than would be expected in a prevaccine era in which the average age at infection would have been lower.”15 Meanwhile, in the majority of cases, measles infection resolves on its own without complications
Is Forced Vaccination Coming?
In a question from viewers of the “When Opinions Collide” video, someone asked whether forced vaccination is on the horizon. Rife said she doesn’t think the public will stand for forced vaccination, but others, like Alan Dershowitz, a lawyer and legal scholar, believe otherwise. According to Alan Dershowitz’s interpretation of Constitutional law:
“You have no constitutional right to endanger the public and spread the disease. Even if you disagree, you have no right not to be vaccinated. You have no right not to wear a mask. You have no right to open up your business. And if you refuse to be vaccinated, the state has the power to, literally, take you to a doctor’s office and plunge a needle into your arm.”
As the basis and justification for his legal orientation on this issue, Dershowitz relies on a 1905 Supreme Court ruling in the matter of Jacobson v. Massachusetts, which involved the smallpox vaccine.
Jacobson had been injured by a previous vaccine and took the case to the Supreme Court in an effort to avoid the smallpox vaccine. He lost and paid a $5 fine for refusing the vaccine.
Dershowitz agreed that the 1905 ruling “is not binding on the issue of whether or not you can compel someone to get the vaccine,” but that “the logic of the opinion … strongly suggests that the courts today would allow some form of compulsion if the conditions that we talked about were met: [the vaccines are] safe, effective, [and] exemptions [given] in appropriate cases.”
It remains to be seen what the future holds with mandatory vaccination, particularly in light of COVID-19, but one thing is clear: Public health depends not on the compulsory use of vaccines but on the ability for leading minds to openly debate, research and brainstorm solutions to the chronic and acute diseases plaguing the world — solutions that may include vaccinations but must not ignore their potential for harm.