Holding BC’s Provincial Health Officer Accountable
I am responding to the Opinion piece in the Times Colonist by Dr. Bonnie Henry, BC’s Provincial Health Officer – B.C. finding a balanced approach to immunization (March 13, 2019). https://www.timescolonist.com/opinion/op-ed/comment-b-c-finding-a-balanced-approach-to-immunization-1.23661522
Dr. Henry makes a number of statements that are factual, a number of statements that are misleading, and a number of statements that are outright dishonest and even fraudulent. This is the reason it is so vitally important to encourage public debate, transparency and accountability when it comes to the critically important topic of vaccine safety and effectiveness.
I. Factually Correct Statements
Dr. Henry is factually correct when she makes the following statements:
- Immunization is not strictly mandatory in any jurisdiction in Canada.
- Evidence has shown that (mandatory vaccinations) has downstream adverse effects on children and is likely against the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
- Measles has been rare in B.C. and across Canada for many years.
- For parents who are hesitant about immunization, having their questions answered and concerns addressed by their health-care provider in an open, non-judgmental way is also an important factor in their decision on immunization.
II. Misleading Statements
Unfortunately, Dr. Henry makes a number of statements that are misleading. These include:
- This serious disease (measles) continues to cause illness and sometimes death — primarily in children — in countries around the world.
While this statement is factually accurate, it is misleading. The health conditions in countries around the world, particularly in third world countries, is not relevant to the assessment of measles risk in Canada. The fact is measles is a benign childhood infection in Canada. We have been misled by the for-profit medical industry and the mainstream media into believing that contracting measles in childhood is something we ought to be afraid of.
According to Physicians for Informed Consent, measles is a self-limiting childhood viral infection. In developed countries, measles may be inconvenient for 4 – 6 days, but the risk of permanent injury or death of children from measles is exceedingly rare. If the medical industry and mainstream media were honest about the risk of measles infection there would be no fear of our children contracting measles. https://physiciansforinformedconsent.org/measles/
- Immunization is critical, and tracking those records is especially important for disease prevention, as well as control. Measles is considered eliminated in Canada.
Dr. Henry would have us believe that measles “immunization” has been “critical” in the decline of measles mortality in Canada. This perception is dishonest. The mortality of measles declined 99% prior to the introduction of the measles vaccine. While the MMR vaccine has succeeded in stopping the cyclical rounds of measles in children, there is a big cost. By preventing measles at the most appropriate and safe age, the measles vaccine has eliminated the broad population-based herd immunity that had evolved over millennia. The measles vaccine does not and will not eliminate measles outbreaks in the general population. This is because 2 – 10% of individuals are “non-responders”, and another 8 – 9% of individuals stop producing antibodies within 2 – 10 years.
Thus, instead of eliminating measles as claimed, the measles vaccine has shifted the risk of measles from children to adults because of the waning protection of the vaccine. This has created a paradoxical situation whereby in highly vaccinated societies measles occurs primarily among the adult population. It is well known that the risk of measles morbidity and mortality is much higher in adults than when contracted in childhood.
Gregory Poland made a call for a new measles vaccine in 2012 because of the recognized failure of the MMR vaccine to effectively and safely eliminate measles. (The Re-Emergence of Measles in Developed Countries: Time to Develop the Next-Generation Measles Vaccines?) https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3905323/ The current outbreak of measles is due to vaccine failure, not a failure to vaccinate.
III. Dishonest Statements
Finally, Dr. Henry makes a number of statements that are dishonest, even fraudulent. These include:
- Recent outbreaks have all stemmed from imported cases, primarily from unimmunized people who have travelled to countries where this serious illness is still common.
This is a dishonest statement. What the evidence shows is that most of the individuals who contracted measles in the most recent “outbreak” were fully vaccinated. To blame unimmunized people for the measles outbreak is dishonest and to claim that measles is a “serious illness” in Canada is false. Dr. Henry should issue a retraction.
- In the face of this highly contagious disease, immunization is the safest, most effective and best way to protect our children and our communities.
Dr. Henry’s opinion that immunization is “the safest, most effective and best way to protect our children and communities” is not supported by the scientific evidence. First of all, vaccination is not immunization and for Dr. Henry to use those words as if they are synonymous is misleading.
The fact is that we don’t really know the overall safety of the current childhood vaccination program because the science has not been done. When you examine the vaccine science, what one discovers is that none of the vaccines on the childhood vaccination schedule were tested against a neutral placebo. The reason that this is important is that you cannot determine the safety profile of a medical product unless it has been tested against a neutral placebo. This standard of safety testing is required for all pharmaceutical products excepting vaccines.
This fact was recently uncovered by the Informed Consent Action Network (ICAN). ICAN requested all the scientific evidence of vaccine safety from Health and Human Services in the US, then meticulously reviewed every single study provided by HHS. The results will alarm you. You can access their White Paper at: https://icandecide.org/hhs/ICAN-Reply.pdf
Another concern is the unacceptably short period for pre-licensing safety testing for vaccines. Most childhood vaccines undergo pre-licensing testing of a few days to a maximum of a few weeks. This brief pre-licensing testing is unable to reveal if the vaccine causes autoimmune, neurological or developmental disorders. These will only be apparent after the child is a few years of age. Given the dramatic increase in autoimmune, neurological and developmental disorders, it is critical we know the answer.
It is also important to understand that the vaccine industry in the US (and effectively in Canada) is not legally liable for the harm, injuries or deaths caused by their products. Vaccines are the only product, medical or otherwise, where the manufacturer is not legally responsible for harm or injury. The very real consequence of liability free products is that there is no financial or legal incentive for vaccine manufacturers to make their products safer. Combine this reality with the growing efforts to take away the right of parents to informed consent and you have a very dangerous situation.
Vaccines given in the combinations recommended for our children today have never been tested for safety, which makes this practice a medical experiment. You will also discover that there is a systemic underreporting of adverse events following vaccination. A Harvard Pilgrim Hospital study revealed that less than 1% of vaccine injuries are reported. This means that more than 99% of vaccine adverse reactions are not reported or acknowledged.
Vaccinated vs. Unvaccinated Study
The only scientific way to determine whether vaccines are the “safest, most effective and best way to protect our children” is to conduct a large, independent, vaccinated vs. unvaccinated study. Health Canada has never conducted this study. The vaccine industry measures success based upon vaccine uptake. This is an irrelevant measurement of success.
The Journal of Translational Science published the first independent, non-industry funded study comparing the overall health of vaccinated and unvaccinated 6 to 12-year old children in the United States. The results of the study revealed that while vaccinated children were significantly less likely to have chicken pox or whooping cough, they were significantly more likely to have pneumonia, allergies, otitis media (ear infection), eczema, a learning disability, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), Autism Spectrum Disorder, neuro-developmental disorders, and chronic illness.
https://www.cmsri.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/MawsonStudyHealthOutcomes5.8.2017.pdf
It is fraudulent for Dr. Henry to make the claim that vaccines are “the safest, most effective and best way to protect our children and our communities”. The fact is that the risk of permanent injury and death from the MMR vaccine has not been proven to be less than that of natural measles infection. Additionally, we know that the waning vaccine immunity in adults increases the risk of measles complication and death in the adult population.
Dr. Henry needs to ascertain whether her opinion about the safety of vaccines is based on hope, faith, fear or knowledge of the actual science.
Call for Independent Body to Monitor Health Claims
Timothy Caulfield, the research chair in health law and policy at the University of Alberta issued a call for the creation of an independent body in Canada to monitor the claims of health professionals (CBC News, May 29, 2018). Caulfield states –
“If they are science-based, step up and be science-based. If they’re not science-based, make that explicit, and then society can have an interesting discussion about whether we should have these philosophies … as part of our health-care system.”
I support Mr. Caulfield’s call for an independent body to monitor the claims of health professionals. Such misleading and fraudulent claims as are being perpetuated by BC’s Provincial Health Officer cannot be go unchallenged. I also support an independent press that will facilitate the kind of honest dialogue needed to hold governments accountable and to ensure that vaccine consent is truly informed.
Sincerely,
Ted Kuntz, parent of a vaccine injured child, now deceased
VP, Vaccine Choice Canada
cc.
The Honourable John Horgan, Premier of British Columbia
West Annex Parliament Buildings
Victoria, BC V8V 1X4
The Honourable Adrian Dix, Minister of Health
Government of British Columbia
Room 337 Parliament Buildings
Victoria, BC V8V 1X4
