Update on CDC Plans to Force
Smallpox Vaccine on the USMy name is Dr. Sherri Tenpenny. I am a physician from Cleveland, Ohio and I am board certified in two medical specialties, including Emergency Medicine.
I am speaking today on behalf of the National Vaccine Information Center, a non-profit, educational organization founded in 1982 which represents more than 40,000 Americans, including parents and grandparents of vaccine injured children.
I have spent more than 2,000 hours researching the vaccination issue and I both personally and professionally support the position set forth by the NVIC. The NVIC opposes giving the vaccine to the general public.
This is not “just another vaccine.”
There are defined risks and known contraindications that can lead to fatal consequences if they are not strictly adhered to. The general public will not have the background to understand these ramifications. In addition, as with all vaccines, this vaccination will not guarantee immunity.[1]
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) lists many other known biological warfare agents; twenty six of these microbes are listed on the CDC website. In addition, there are chemical warfare agents and an infinite number of weapons that could be created through genetic engineering and used in a terrorism attack.
Vaccinating the general public with the vaccinia vaccine will cover only a small fraction of the potential risk that could come from terrorism. However, the risk of medical complications from this vaccine is not potential but real, and that risk exceeds any perceived benefit that may come from the inoculation.
If first responders are offered the vaccine before an actual attack, it must be done in a limited, highly controlled manner with strict isolation of the individual and his body fluids by quarantine, until the scabs from the vaccine lesions have fallen off. The individual will need to be isolated from at-risk family members, as well as from the community at large.
It is estimated that at least 10%, or more than 28 million people in the United States, have eczema.[2] There are 184,000 organ recipients,[3] 850,000 individuals with diagnosed and undiagnosed HIV infection or AIDS,[4] and 8.5 million people with cancer.[5]
An even more extensive list of people at risk is the untold millions who are taking immunosuppressive drugs such as corticosteroids. Prednisone® and Medrol®, given to both adults and children, are prescribed for dozens of conditions including but not limited to: asthma; emphysema; allergies; Crohn’s disease; multiple sclerosis; herniated spinal discs; acute muscular pain syndromes; and all types rheumatoid and autoimmune diseases.
All of these patients would be at risk for serious complications from contact with a vaccinated individual.
Historically, this live virus vaccine has caused more injury and death among those who were vaccinated than any other vaccine that has ever used. The general population has no natural immunity to this virus and even with controlled vaccination of first responders, the virus has the potential to spread throughout the community and then across the globe.
If that were to happen, the eventual end result would be the required mass vaccination of everyone in the world. Tens of thousands of casualties from the vaccine itself will result, and our already over-burdened healthcare system will be crushed trying to care these victims.
I have personally treated many patients, both children and adults, who have suffered from catastrophic brain and immune system damage after vaccination. The potential suffering that could be caused by this highly reactive vaccine cannot be measured in either human or economic terms.
Please be sure to read the Special Report on smallpox vaccination from the National Vaccine Information Center.
VACCINIA VACCINE REACTION RATE VERY HIGH
The live vaccinia virus vaccine to prevent smallpox may be the most highly reactive vaccine that has ever been used in humans. As with most vaccines, when complications occurred with the vaccinia virus vaccine, they were quite similar to the complications of the disease they were designed to prevent.
According to the World Health Organization “existing vaccines have proven efficacy but also have a high incidence of adverse side-effects. The risk of adverse events is sufficiently high that vaccination is not warranted if there is no or little real risk of exposure. Vaccine administration is warranted in individuals exposed to the virus or facing a real risk of exposure. A safer vaccinia-based vaccine, produced in cell culture is expected to become available shortly. There is also interest in developing monoclonal antivariola antibody for passive immunization of exposed and infected individuals, which could also be safely administered to persons infected with HIV.”52
Potential 70,000 Severe Reactions Requiring VIG: According to the Working Group on Civilian Biodefense “It has been estimated that if 1 million persons were vaccinated [with live vaccinia virus vaccine], as many as 250 persons would experience adverse reactions of a type that would require administration of VIG [vaccinia immune globulin].”49
Using these vaccine risk estimates would yield a serious vaccine reaction rate of 1 in 4,000 persons. This would mean that out of 280 million Americans who receive the vaccinia virus vaccine there could be approximately 70,000 persons who would experience reactions severe enough to require VIG.
VIG is ineffective in treating postvaccinal encephalitis.20 Estimates are that postvaccinal encephalitis following live vaccinia vaccine occurs in between 1 in 81,000 to 1 in 345,000 persons receiving their first smallpox vaccination,20,22 which would add thousands of cases of postvaccinal encephalitis in the initial mass vaccination of all Americans, for whom VIG treatment is not beneficial.
Potential Neurological Reactions in the Young: One 1992 study by the State Research Institute of Standardization and Control of Medical Biologics in Russia reported a neurological complication rate of 1 in 3,200 persons aged five years and older who received a first live vaccinia virus vaccination.61 Approximately 120 million Americans are between the ages of 5 and 35 according to the US 2000 census. If all those Americans were first-time vaccinees, approximately 37,500 of them could suffer a neurological reaction.
Re-Introducing Vaccinia Virus A Risk: The vaccinia virus vaccine has not been used on a mass basis in the U.S. since the early 1970’s so the virus is not circulating in our population and no one under age 30 has had any experience with it. Because live vaccinia virus vaccine can cause vaccinia viral infection in the vaccine recipient or in a close contact of the recently vaccinated person, those who get vaccinated will be exposing themselves and others to the vaccinia virus and potential complications.
The CDC reports that one 10-state survey revealed that transmission of vaccinia virus infection occurred in 27 per million total vaccinations (1 in 37,000 vaccinations) and 44 percent of those contact cases occurred among children. Approximately 60 percent of contact transmissions in the survey resulted in the inadvertent inoculation of otherwise healthy persons. About 30 percent of the eczema vaccinatum cases were a result of contact transmission.20,62
Common Vaccinia Virus Vaccine Reactions: Fever, fatigue and irritability are common, especially in children, during the vesicular and pustular stages and swollen lymph glands may persist for months after vaccinia virus vaccination.22
Inadvertent inoculation at other body sites: According to the CDC: “Inadvertent inoculation at other sites is the most frequent complication of vaccinia vaccination and accounts for approximately half of all complications of primary vaccination and revaccination.” Autoinoculation occurs when the recently vaccinated person touches or scratches the lesion at the vaccination site and transfers the live vaccinia virus to other parts of the body, such as the face, eyelid, nose, mouth, genitalia and rectum, and more lesions form. Most lesions heal without therapy but vaccinia immunoglobulin (VIG) can be used when the eye is involved, unless there is inflammation of the cornea (because VIG can increase corneal scarring). The CDC estimates inadvertent inoculation occurs in 1 in 1,890 first time vaccinations.20
Fever: According to the CDC, approximately 70 percent of children experience temperatures under 100 F. for 4-14 days after the first vaccination and 15-20 percent will experience temperatures under 102 F. After revaccination, 35 percent of children experience temperatures under 100 F. and 5 percent experience temperatures under 102 F. Fever is less common in adults. 20
Rashes and Hives: A raised rash (erythema) or hives (urticaria) can occur approximately 10 days after a first vaccination, which usually does not involve a fever and resolves within two to four days. Sometimes erythema and urticaria can be confused with generalized vaccinia. 20
More Severe Reactions: Moderate and severe immune and neurological complications of live vaccinia vaccination occur more than ten times more often among first-time vaccinees than among those who are revaccinated and are more frequent among infants. 20 Well known serious complications of live vaccinia virus vaccination include progressive vaccinia, postvaccinal encephalomyelitis; eczema vaccinatum; and generalized vaccinia, and reaction rates for these serious vaccine complications vary.
Progressive Vaccinia (vaccinia gangrenosa, vaccinia necrosum): When the live vaccinia virus continues to grow in the body and healing of the primary vaccinal lesion caused by smallpox vaccination does not occur, there can be a slowly progressive destruction of large areas of skin (necrosis), subcutaneous tissue, viscera (internal organs) and bone. Progressive vaccinia almost always occurs in persons with a severe immune deficiency caused by cancer, radiation or chemotherapy, and AIDS or other serious immune system disorders such as lupus. Those who develop progressive vaccinia almost always die within six months.19,20,22,49
In the past, it was estimated that this reaction occurred in 1 in 1 million to 1.6 in 1 million vaccinations with a case fatality ratio of almost 90 percent.20,22,53 However, this severe reaction to live vaccinia virus vaccine will most likely occur more often today if mass smallpox vaccination campaigns are introduced in populations with a high incidence of undiagnosed HIV/AIDS or other immune system deficiencies.
