FIRST INTERNATIONAL PUBLIC CONFERENCE ON VACCINATION PUTS VACCINE RISKS ON THE RECORD
On September 13-15, 1997, the National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC) brought together more than 500 parents, doctors, scientists, health officials, lawyers, ethicists, journalists and consumer activists from 34 states and five countries to the U.S. Capitol for the First International Public Conference on Vaccination to talk about why and how vaccines cause injury, death and chronic illness and what to do about it.
The first day of the conference, which was held at the Holiday Inn Hotel and Suites in Alexandria, Virginia, featured distinguished medical doctors and vaccine researchers from the US, Canada and Great Britain discussing the biological mechanisms of vaccine injury and death and why chronic illness in the form of immune and neurological dysfunction can be caused by vaccination. Topics included vaccines and infant death; biological mechanisms of vaccine injury and vaccine reaction blood tests; vaccines and learning disabilities; measles virus and measles vaccine; hepatitis B vaccine injuries; viral vaccines and chromosome damage; vaccine administration combined with other hazardous exposures; and vaccine regulation and polio vaccine contamination.
Scientific Evidence Presented by Physicians and Researchers — A cross section of specialties within medical science, clinical research and law were represented by speakers on the first day of the conference, each of whom offered scientific evidence that vaccines can cause a wide range of chronic immune and neurological disorders.
Presenters included:
Mark Geier, MD, PhD, Co-Director Genetic Consultants, and Director, Institute of Immune-Oncology and Genetics;
Terry M. Phillips, D.Sc., Ph.D., Professor of Medicine and Director, Immunochemistry Laboratories & Hematology/Oncology Laboratory, Department of Medicine, The George Washington University Medical Center;
Marcel Kinsbourne, M.D., Research Professor, Center for Cognitive Studies, Tufts University and Professor of Psychology, New School University;
Andrew J. Wakefield, MD, Chairman of an Inflammatory Bowel Disease Study Group in London;
Byron M. Hyde, MD, Chairman, The Nightingale Research Foundation, Canada;
Howard B. Umovitz, Ph.D., Founder and Science Director, Chronic Illness Research Foundation and Founder and Chief Scientific Officer,
James J. Tuite, III, International Security and Science and Technology Consultant and Director, Gulf War Research Foundation; and
Walter Kyle, Vaccine Product Liability Expert.
Barbara Loe Fisher, Co-Founder & President, National Vaccine Information Center, delivered the keynote address.
A United Call for Truth in Science — Some of the more important observations made by individual presenters on the first day were:
- the "p" part of the old DPT vaccine is so highly toxic to the human brain that the whole cell pertussis vaccine should be immediately withdrawn from the market;
- lab blood testing techniques can be used in some cases to prove that a vaccine caused an individual's immune mediated brain injury; live virus vaccines, such as MMR vaccine, have never been fully scientifically investigated for long term effects on the human immune and neurological system;
- vaccines which cause brain inflammation and severe brain damage, such as DPT, are biologically capable of causing mild brain damage, which can take the form of learning disabilities and attention deficit disorder;
- there are many reports of adults in Canada, who have suffered central nervous system and immune dysfunction or died following hepatitis B vaccination;
- live viral vaccines may have caused genetic damage in humans; polio vaccines contaminated with monkey viruses may have caused the development of HIV-1 and rare forms of bone, brain and lung cancers in humans;
- a combination of multiple vaccinations and multiple exposures to environmental and chemical toxins may cause immune and neurological dysfunction in the general population like that being suffered by Gulf War veterans;
- government health officials in federal health agencies have withheld information about vaccine risks from the public.
The general consensus among the research scientists was that current vaccination programs are causing injuries and deaths because of inadequate vaccine safety research, testing, manufacturing and monitoring for long term effects. NVIC called for funding of scientific investigation by non-governmental researchers into the persistently reported links between vaccines and chronic illness, citing the inherent conflict of interest in the federal government's role in developing new vaccines, promoting mandatory vaccination and monitoring vaccines for side effects.
Special Award for Lea Thompson — The special dinner guest and speaker at Saturday evening's dinner was NBC-TV consumer reporter Lea Thompson, whose Emmy award winning 1982 documentary 'DPT: Vaccine Roulette" alerted American parents to the risks associated with the DPT vaccine and brought together the co-founders of Dissatisfied Parents Together (DPT), the organization known today as the National Vaccine Information Center. Lea was presented with an engraved award that said, "On the 15th Anniversary of the National Vaccine Information Center, this public education service award is presented to LEA THOMPSON in recognition of courage, excellence and integrity in journalism and with deep appreciation for her historic, lifesaving contribution to protecting the health of America's children by informing their parents about the DPT vaccine.”
Health Care Alternatives for Staying Well Explored — The second day of the conference featured doctors discussing health care options for maintaining wellness and providing innovative therapies for vaccine injured children such as chiropractic, homeopathy, naturopathy, nutritional and metabolic support, and neuroimmuno therapeutics. Arno Burnier, DC, of the International Chiropractic Pediatric Association, kicked off the second day of the conference with a lecture on the universal intelligence inherent in all living things and the need to protect the biological integrity of the human organism by maintaining wellness through non-toxic avenues such as reduction of stress, good nutrition and chiropractic care.
Other presenters on the second day included —
Amy Rothenberg, ND, Editor of New England Journal of Homeopathy and Instructor, New England School of Homeopathy;
Patricia Kane, PhD., Director of Medical Research and Director of Metabolics, Kaplan Foundation;
Stephen C. Marini, PhD, DC, Director, Family Chiropractic Center and Lecturer, Life College of Chiropractic;
Terry Rondberg, DC, President, World Chiropractic Alliance
Philip Incao, MD, Founder and Director, Gilpin Street Holistic Center;
Hugh Fudenberg, MD, Founder and Director of Research, Neuro lmmuno Therapeutic Research Foundation;
Harold E. Buttram, MD, Director, Woodlands Healing Research Center and Founding Medical Director, Foresight-America Foundation for Preconception Care;
J. Barthelow Classen, MD, MBA, Founder and CEO, Classen Immunotherapies, Inc.;
Murry J. Cohen, MD, Co-Chair, Medical Research Modernization Committee;
Peter H. Meyers, JD, Professor of Clinical Law and Director, Vaccine Injury Project, George Washington University Law School; and
David J. Walsh, PhD., Professor of Politics, Catholic University of America.
Terry Rondberg, DC, President, World Chiropractic Alliance
Some of the important observations made by presenters on the second day were:
- homeopathy, naturopathy and chiropractic can be used to lessen the severity of some kinds of vaccine-induced immune and neurological problems;
- children injured by vaccines and other toxic insults, who have disturbances in biochemistry (such as imbalances in fatty acid metabolism) and neurologic dysfunction (such as autistic spectrum disorders and seizure disorders) have been helped to recover through individually tailored metabolic and nutritional support programs;
- children injured by live virus vaccines, such those left autistic following MMR vaccine, have been helped to recover with the help of a blood cell therapy called "transfer factor," which improves immune system functioning;
- natural recovery from some childhood diseases, like measles, may have played a key role in generations past in "priming" the immature immune system to resist disease later in life;
- data from New Zealand and several European countries suggests that early childhood vaccination has caused an increase in juvenile diabetes;
- animal research cannot be used to draw scientific conclusions for humans and using animals to screen vaccines for safety is conceptually and methodologically unsound;
A discussion about vaccination, the law and informed consent led by legal and ethics experts included questions from the audience. During open discussion periods, many parents went to the microphone and talked about how vaccines injured their children or how public health officials in their state refuse to allow medical, religious and philosophical exemptions to vaccination for their children
Parents Go to Capitol Hill — On Monday, September 15, about 100 of the conference attendees, some of them carrying pictures of their children, who had been injured or died following vaccine reactions, took buses to Capitol Hill and visited their representatives and senators. They asked for more scientific research into the long term effects of vaccines and for oversight hearings on the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of 1986 to investigate why only one in four vaccine injury victims, who apply for compensation under the law, are given financial support for their often catastrophic vaccine injuries.
