SUPPLIMENTAL INFORMATION ON VACCINES
THE VACCINATION DILEMMA and
YOUR HEALTHY COMPANIONS
Most of this information is from Dr Charles E Loops DVM
Homeopathic veterinarians and other holistic practitioners have maintained for some time that vaccinations do more harm than they provide benefits. Vaccinations represent a major assault on the body's immune system. Attenuated organisms or chemically killed viruses or bacteria are injected directly into the blood stream, an unnatural route of infection. This profound insult, avoiding the body's first line of defenses, and flooding the system with millions of organisms or viral particles, stresses the immune system in a way not of natures design. This insult causes irregularities and abnormalities in the immune system which then manifests as chronic diseases in animals. These chronic diseases range from life-threatening conditions such as auto-immune crises to conditions destroying the quality of life of an animal as in chronic skin allergies.
What we are now seeing are generations of over-vaccinated animals and these current offspring are suffering the penalty of this medical abuse. In an attempt to control a naturally occurring process of population control and survival of the fittest, the medical establishment has convinced people that mass inoculations are for the good of all, overlooking the health of the individual. Where vaccinations have helped in eradicating or reducing the incidence of severe, acute disease processes, the result has been to plague humanity with more insidious, chronic diseases that are much more difficult to treat and that lower the quality of life for many individual animals and people.
In all of this, there needs to be BALANCE, and the following are my recommendations for vaccinating or not vaccinating and some comments about diet.
1. Kittens under three months of age should not be vaccinated.
Vaccinations are much more stressful on the underdeveloped immune system. Also, these vaccinations are much less effective at providing immunity before three months of age.
2. Kittens should only be vaccinated for Panleukopenia and not before three months of age. All other vaccinations should be avoided. One vaccine is sufficient.
3. Common sense should be used in avoiding exposure of very young animals to other, possible unhealthy, animals of the same species.
4. Booster vaccinations are completely unnecessary. Studies are now showing that these vaccinations are effective for many years and most probably for life. Vaccinated animals do not need any boosters.
5. Rabies Vaccinations should be given as dictated by state laws. Clearly, the rabies vaccination is effective for many years more than state laws require booster vaccination.
6. Booster vaccinations can cause SEVERE set-backs when an animal is being treated homeopathically for chronic problems. They can completely erase any progress that has been made towards improving an animal's health.
7. My personal recommendation is NOT to vaccinate at all. The best road to good health is feeding a diet rich in fresh foods, raw meats for the carnivores, and avoiding vaccinations and allopathic medications. Antibiotics and other allopathic drugs should only be used in situations where their use is clearly indicated, and this should be only in potentially, life-threatening situations. Every time you suppress a symptom the body produces, you are potentially lowering the health status of the body system. Treating with the correctly prescribed, homeopathic remedy, herbs, or other non-invasive therapies, not of a chemical nature, will enhance your health and your companions health.
SCIENCE OF VACCINE DAMAGE
by Catherine O’Driscoll
Submitted by Brigitte Copeland
A team at Purdue University School of Veterinary Medicine conducted
several studies (endnotes 1 & 2) to determine if vaccines can cause
changes in the immune system of dogs that might lead to life-threatening
immune-mediated diseases. They obviously conducted this research because
concern already existed. It was sponsored by the Haywood Foundation which
itself was looking for evidence that such changes in the human immune
system might also be vaccine induced. It found the evidence.
The vaccinated, but not the non-vaccinated, dogs in the Purdue studies
developed autoantibodies to many of their own biochemicals, including
fibronectin, laminin, DNA, albumin, cytochrome C, cardiolipin and
collagen.
This means that the vaccinated dogs – ”but not the non-vaccinated dogs”–
were attacking their own fibronectin, which is involved in tissue repair,
cell multiplication and growth, and differentiation between tissues and
organs in a living organism.
The vaccinated Purdue dogs also developed autoantibodies to laminin, which
is involved in many cellular activities including the adhesion, spreading,
differentiation, proliferation and movement of cells. Vaccines thus appear
to be capable of removing the natural intelligence of cells.
Autoantibodies to cardiolipin are frequently found in patients with the
serious disease systemic lupus erythematosus and also in individuals with
other autoimmune diseases. The presence of elevated anti-cardiolipin
antibodies is significantly associated with clots within the heart or
blood vessels, in poor blood clotting, haemorrhage, bleeding into the
skin, foetal loss and neurological conditions.
The Purdue studies also found that vaccinated dogs were developing
autoantibodies to their own collagen. About one quarter of all the protein
in the body is collagen. Collagen provides structure to our bodies,
protecting and supporting the softer tissues and connecting them with the
skeleton. It is no wonder that Canine Health Concern’s (Great Britain)
1997 study of 4,000 dogs showed a high number of dogs developing mobility
problems shortly after they were vaccinated (noted in my 1997 book, What
Vets Don’t Tell You About Vaccines).
Perhaps most worryingly, the Purdue studies found that the vaccinated dogs
had developed autoantibodies to their own DNA. Did the alarm bells sound?
Did the scientific community call a halt to the vaccination program? No.
Instead, they stuck their fingers in the air, saying more research is
needed to ascertain whether vaccines can cause genetic damage. Meanwhile,
the study dogs were found good homes, but no long-term follow-up has been
conducted.
At around the same time, the American Veterinary Medical Association
(AVMA) Vaccine-Associated Feline Sarcoma Task Force initiated several
studies to find out why 160,000 cats each year in the USA develop terminal
cancer at their vaccine injection sites.(3) The fact that cats can get
vaccine-induced cancer has been acknowledged by veterinary bodies around
the world, and even the British Government acknowledged it through its
Working Group charged with the task of looking into canine and feline
vaccines(4) following pressure from Canine Health Concern. What do you
imagine was the advice of the AVMA Task Force, veterinary bodies and
governments? “Carry on vaccinating until we find out why vaccines are
killing cats, and which cats are most likely to die.”
In America, in an attempt to mitigate the problem, they’re vaccinating
cats in the tail or leg so they can amputate when cancer appears. Great
advice if it’s not your cat amongst the hundreds of thousands on the
“oops” list.
But other species are okay, right? Wrong. In August 2003, the Journal of
Veterinary Medicine carried an Italian study which showed that dogs also
develop vaccine-induced cancers at their injection sites.(5) We already
know that vaccine-site cancer is a possible sequel to human vaccines, too,
since the Salk polio vaccine was said to carry a monkey retrovirus (from
cultivating the vaccine on monkey organs) that produces inheritable
cancer. The monkey retrovirus SV40 keeps turning up in human cancer sites.
It is also widely acknowledged that vaccines can cause a fast-acting,
usually fatal, disease called autoimmune haemolytic anaemia (AIHA).
Without treatment, and frequently with treatment, individuals can die in
agony within a matter of days. Merck, itself a multinational vaccine
manufacturer, states in The Merck Manual of Diagnosis and Therapy that
autoimmune haemolytic anaemia may be caused by modified live-virus
vaccines, as do Tizard’s Veterinary Immunology (4th edition) and the
Journal of Veterinary Internal Medicine.(6) The British Government’s
Working Group, despite being staffed by vaccine-industry consultants who
say they are independent, also acknowledged this fact. However, no one
warns the pet owners before their animals are subjected to an unnecessary
booster, and very few owners are told why after their pets die of AIHA.
A Wide Range of Vaccine-induced Diseases
We also found some worrying correlations between vaccine events and the
onset of arthritis in our 1997 survey. Our concerns were compounded by
research in the human field.
The New England Journal of Medicine, for example, reported that it is
possible to isolate the rubella virus from affected joints in children
vaccinated against rubella. It also told of the isolation of viruses from
the peripheral blood of women with prolonged arthritis following
vaccination.(7)
Then, in 2000, CHC’s findings were confirmed by research which showed that
polyarthritis and other diseases like amyloidosis, which affects organs in
dogs, were linked to the combined vaccine given to dogs.(8) There is a
huge body of research, despite the paucity of funding from the vaccine
industry, to confirm that vaccines can cause a wide range of brain and
central nervous system damage. Merck itself states in its Manual that
vaccines (i.e., its own products) can cause encephalitis: brain
inflammation/damage. In some cases, encephalitis involves lesions in the
brain and throughout the central nervous system. Merck states that
“examples are the encephalitides following measles, chickenpox, rubella,
smallpox vaccination, vaccinia, and many other less well defined viral
infections”.
When the dog owners who took part in the CHC survey reported that their
dogs developed short attention spans, 73.1% of the dogs did so within
three months of a vaccine event. The same percentage of dogs was diagnosed
with epilepsy within three months of a shot (but usually within days). We
also found that 72.5% of dogs that were considered by their owners to be
nervous and of a worrying disposition, first exhibited these traits within
the three-month post-vaccination period.
I would like to add for the sake of Oliver, my friend who suffered from
paralysed rear legs and death shortly after a vaccine shot, that “paresis”
is listed in Merck’s Manual as a symptom of encephalitis. This is defined
as muscular weakness of a neural (brain) origin which involves partial or
incomplete paralysis, resulting from lesions at any level of the
descending pathway from the brain. Hind limb paralysis is one of the
potential consequences. Encephalitis, incidentally, is a disease that can
manifest across the scale from mild to severe and can also cause sudden
death.
Organ failure must also be suspected when it occurs shortly after a
vaccine event. Dr. Larry Glickman, who spearheaded the Purdue research
into post-vaccination biochemical changes in dogs, wrote in a letter to
Cavalier Spaniel breeder Bet Hargreaves:
“Our ongoing studies of dogs show that following routine vaccination,
there is a significant rise in the level of antibodies dogs produce
against their own tissues. Some of these antibodies have been shown to
target the thyroid gland, connective tissue such as that found in the
valves of the heart, red blood cells, DNA, etc. I do believe that the
heart conditions in Cavalier King Charles Spaniels could be the end result
of repeated immunisations by vaccines containing tissue culture
contaminants that cause a progressive immune response directed at
connective tissue in the heart valves. The clinical manifestations would
be more pronounced in dogs that have a genetic predisposition [although]
the findings should be generally applicable to all dogs regardless of
their breed.”
I must mention here that Dr. Glickman believes that vaccines are a
necessary evil, but that safer vaccines need to be developed.
Meanwhile, please join the queue to place your dog, cat, horse and child
on the Russian roulette wheel because a scientist says you should.
Vaccines Stimulate an Inflammatory Response
The word “allergy” is synonymous with “sensitivity” and “inflammation.” It
should, by rights, also be synonymous with the word “vaccination.” This is
what vaccines do: they sensitize (render allergic) an individual in the
process of forcing them to develop antibodies to fight a disease threat.
In other words, as is acknowledged and accepted, as part of the vaccine
process the body will respond with inflammation. This may be apparently
temporary or it may be longstanding.
Holistic doctors and veterinarians have known this for at least 100 years.
They talk about a wide range of inflammatory or “-itis” diseases which
arise shortly after a vaccine event. Vaccines, in fact, plunge many
individuals into an allergic state. Again, this is a disorder that ranges
from mild all the way through to the suddenly fatal. Anaphylactic shock is
the culmination: it’s where an individual has a massive allergic reaction
to a vaccine and will die within minutes if adrenaline or its equivalent
is not administered.
There are some individuals who are genetically not well placed to
withstand the vaccine challenge. These are the people (and animals are
“people,” too) who have inherited faulty B and T cell function. B and T
cells are components within the immune system which identify foreign
invaders and destroy them, and hold the invader in memory so that they
cannot cause future harm. However, where inflammatory responses are
concerned, the immune system overreacts and causes unwanted effects such
as allergies and other inflammatory conditions.
Merck warns in its Manual that patients with, or from families with, B
and/or T cell immunodeficiencies should not receive live-virus vaccines
due to the risk of severe or fatal infection. Elsewhere, it lists features
of B and T cell immunodeficiencies as food allergies, inhalant allergies,
eczema, dermatitis, neurological deterioration and heart disease. To
translate, people with these conditions can die if they receive live-virus
vaccines. Their immune systems are simply not competent enough to
guarantee a healthy reaction to the viral assault from modified live-virus
vaccines.
Modified live-virus (MLV) vaccines replicate in the patient until an
immune response is provoked. If a defence isn’t stimulated, then the
vaccine continues to replicate until it gives the patient the very disease
it was intending to prevent.
Alternatively, a deranged immune response will lead to inflammatory
conditions such as arthritis, pancreatitis, colitis, encephalitis and any
number of autoimmune diseases such as cancer and leukaemia, where the body
attacks its own cells.
A new theory, stumbled upon by Open University student Gary Smith,
explains what holistic practitioners have been saying for a very long
time. Here is what a few of the holistic vets have said in relation to
their patients:
Dr. Jean Dodds: “Many veterinarians trace the present problems with
allergic and immunologic diseases to the introduction of MLV vaccines...”
(9)
Christina Chambreau, DVM: “Routine vaccinations are probably the worst
thing that we do for our animals. They cause all types of illnesses, but
not directly to where we would relate them definitely to be caused by the
vaccine.” (10)
Martin Goldstein, DVM: “I think that vaccines...are leading killers of
dogs and cats in America today.”
Dr Charles E. Loops, DVM: “Homoeopathic veterinarians and other holistic
practitioners have maintained for some time that vaccinations do more harm
than they provide benefits.” (12)
Mike Kohn, DVM: “In response to this [vaccine] violation, there have been
increased autoimmune diseases (allergies being one component), epilepsy,
neoplasia [tumours], as well as behavioural problems in small animals.”
(13)
A Theory on Inflammation
Gary Smith explains what observant healthcare practitioners have been
saying for a very long time, but perhaps they’ve not understood why their
observations led them to say it. His theory, incidentally, is causing a
huge stir within the inner scientific sanctum. Some believe that his
theory could lead to a cure for many diseases including cancer. For me, it
explains why the vaccine process is inherently questionable.
Gary was learning about inflammation as part of his studies when he struck
upon a theory so extraordinary that it could have implications for the
treatment of almost every inflammatory disease – including Alzheimer’s,
Parkinson’s, rheumatoid arthritis and even HIV and AIDS.
Gary’s theory questions the received wisdom that when a person gets ill,
the inflammation that occurs around the infected area helps it to heal. He
claims that, in reality, inflammation prevents the body from recognising a
foreign substance and therefore serves as a hiding place for invaders. The
inflammation occurs when at-risk cells produce receptors called All (known
as angiotensin II type I receptors). He says that while At1 has a
balancing receptor, At2, which is supposed to switch off the inflammation,
in most diseases this does not happen.
“Cancer has been described as the wound that never heals,” he says. “All
successful cancers are surrounded by inflammation. Commonly this is
thought to be the body’s reaction to try to fight the cancer, but this is
not the case.
“The inflammation is not the body trying to fight the infection. It is
actually the virus or bacteria deliberately causing inflammation in order
to hide from the immune system.” (14)
If Gary is right, then the inflammatory process so commonly stimulated by
vaccines is not, as hitherto assumed, a necessarily acceptable sign.
Instead, it could be a sign that the viral or bacterial component, or the
adjuvant (which, containing foreign protein, is seen as an invader by the
immune system), in the vaccine is winning by stealth.
If Gary is correct in believing that the inflammatory response is not
protective but a sign that invasion is taking place under cover of
darkness, vaccines are certainly not the friends we thought they were.
They are undercover assassins working on behalf of the enemy, and vets and
medical doctors are unwittingly acting as collaborators. Worse, we animal
guardians and parents are actually paying doctors and vets to unwittingly
betray our loved ones.
Potentially, vaccines are the stealth bomb of the medical world. They are
used to catapult invaders inside the castle walls where they can wreak
havoc, with none of us any the wiser. So rather than experiencing frank
viral diseases such as the ’flu, measles, mumps and rubella (and, in the
case of dogs, parvovirus and distemper), we are allowing the viruses to
win anyway - but with cancer, leukaemia and other inflammatory or
autoimmune (self-attacking) diseases taking their place.
The Final Insult
All 27 veterinary schools in North America have changed their protocols
for vaccinating dogs and cats along the following lines; (15) however,
vets in practice are reluctant to listen to these changed protocols and
official veterinary bodies in the UK and other countries are ignoring the
following facts.
Dogs’ and cats’ immune systems mature fully at six months. If modified
live-virus vaccine is given after six months of age, it produces immunity,
which is good for the life of the pet. If another MLV vaccine is given a
year later, the antibodies from the first vaccine neutralise the antigens
of the second vaccine and there is little or no effect. The titre is not
“boosted,” nor are more memory cells induced.
Not only are annual boosters unnecessary, but they subject the pet to
potential risks such as allergic reactions and immune-mediated haemolytic
anaemia.
In plain language, veterinary schools in America, plus the American
Veterinary Medical Association, have looked at studies to show how long
vaccines last and they have concluded and announced that annual
vaccination is unnecessary.(16-19)
Further, they have acknowledged that vaccines are not without harm. Dr.
Ron Schultz, head of pathobiology at Wisconsin University and a leading
light in this field, has been saying this politely to his veterinary
colleagues since the 1980s. I’ve been saying it for the past 12 years. But
change is so long in coming and, in the meantime, hundreds of thousands of
animals are dying every year - unnecessarily.
The good news is that thousands of animal lovers (but not enough) have
heard what we’ve been saying. Canine Health Concern members around the
world use real food as Nature’s supreme disease preventative, eschewing
processed pet food, and minimise the vaccine risk. Some of us, myself
included, have chosen not to vaccinate our pets at all. Our reward is
healthy and long-lived dogs.
It has taken but one paragraph to tell you the good and simple news. The
gratitude I feel each day, when I embrace my healthy dogs, stretches from
the centre of the Earth to the Universe and beyond.
About the Author:
Catherine O’Driscoll runs Canine Health Concern which campaigns and also
delivers an educational program, the Foundation in Canine Healthcare. She
is author of Shock to the System (2005), the best-selling book What Vets
Don’t Tell You About Vaccines (1997, 1998), and Who Killed the Darling
Buds of May? (1997; reviewed in NEXUS 4/04). She lives in Scotland with
her partner, Rob Ellis, and three Golden Retrievers, and she lectures on
canine health around the world. For more information, contact Catherine
O’Driscoll at Canine Health Concern, PO Box 7533, Perth PH2 1AD, Scotland,
UK, email catherine@carsegray.co.uk , website
http://www.canine-health-concern.org.uk. Shock to the System is available
in the UK from CHC, and worldwide from Dogwise at http://www.dogwise.com.
Endnotes
1. “Effects of Vaccination on the Endocrine and Immune Systems of Dogs,
Phase II", Purdue University, November 1,1999, at
http://www.homestead.com/vonhapsburg/haywardstudyonvaccines.html.
2. See www.vet.purdue.edu/epi/gdhstudy.htm.
3. See http://www.avma.org/vafstf/default.asp.
4. Veterinary Products Committee (VPC) Working Group on Feline and Canine
Vaccination, DEFRA, May 2001.
5. JVM Series A 50(6):286-291, August 2003.
6. Duval, D. and Giger,U. (1996). “Vaccine-Associated Immune-Mediated
Hemolytic Anemia in the Dog", Journal of Veterinary Internal Medicine
10:290-295.
7. New England Journal of Medicine, vol.313,1985.
See also Clin Exp Rheumatol 20(6):767-71, Nov-Dec 2002.
8. Am Coll Vet Intern Med 14:381,2000.
9. Dodds, Jean W.,DVM, “Immune System and Disease Resistance", at
http://www.critterchat.net/immune.htm.
10. Wolf Clan magazine, April/May 1995.
11. Goldstein, Martin, The Nature of Animal Healing, Borzoi/Alfred A.
Knopf, Inc., 1999.
12. Wolf Clan magazine, op. cit.
13. ibid.
14. Journal of Inflammation 1:3,2004, at
http://www.journal-inflammation.com content/1/1/3.
15. Klingborg, D.J., Hustead, D.R. and Curry-Galvin, E. et al., “AVMA
Council on Biologic and Therapeutic Agents’ report on cat and dog
vaccines", Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association
221(10):1401-1407, November 15,2002,
http://www.avma.org/policies/vaccination.htm.
16. ibid.
17. Schultz, R.D., “Current and future canine and feline vaccination
programs", Vet Med 93:233-254,1998.
18. Schultz, R.D., Ford, R.B., Olsen, J. and Scott, P., “Titer testing and
vaccination: a new look at traditional practices", Vet Med 97:1-13, 2002
(insert).
19. Twark, L. and Dodds, W.J., “Clinical application of serum parvovirus
and distemper virus antibody liters for determining revaccination
strategies in healthy dogs", J Am Vet Med Assoc 217:1021-1024,2000.