Massachusetts Citizens for Vaccination Choice

The DTP vaccine is the vaccine that initiated the work of groups such as ours back in the 1980s, when numerous adverse reactions were first being associated with the vaccine--the pertussis portion in particular.

More recently, the Centers for Disease Control moved to recommend the DTaP, because the purified acellular version of the pertussis vaccine was associated with fewer reactions.

MCVC would always recommend, should you decide to vaccinate your child, that vaccines be administered separately when possible. Though it is becoming increasingly difficult to get traditionally ‘trivalent’--or shots with three different vaccines in them, like the DTaP--vaccines separately, you might find some assistance at the bottom of our MDs & Others page.

For more information, visit the National Vaccine Information Center’s DTP webpage.

You can also visit the Center for Disease Control’s DTP webpage.

View the vaccine package insert (Tripedia from Sanofi Pasteur).

Influenza, or ‘the flu,’ is a disease of greatest risk to the elderly and/or those with compromised immune systems. The vaccine prepared prior to each flu season is an educated guess, based on the previous year’s prevalent strains. Its effectiveness, based as it is on a prediction, varies each year.

Not currently required for school admission in the Commonwealth, public health officials nevertheless recommend the influenza vaccine for a number of populations (including all children 6-23 months of age), primarily for the reduction of lost school or work time it might effect.

For further information, visit the National Vaccine Information Center’s influenza webpage.

What groups are at risk for contracting this disease?

*IV drug users
*people who practice unsafe sex
*health care workers
*hemodialysis patients
*infants born to infected mothers

“Although [the hepatitis B virus] is present in moderate concentrations in saliva, it?s not transmitted commonly by casual contact,” said Eric Mast, M.D., the Chief of the Surveillance Section, Hepatitis Branch of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) (1997 public hearing).

According to the October 31, 1997, issue of Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR), published by the CDC, “Hepatitis B continues to decline in most states, primarily because of a decrease in the number of cases among injecting drug users and, to a lesser extent, among both homosexuals and heterosexuals of both sexes.”

Most children do not fall into any of these categories.

Hepatitis B Incidence Low in the US and is Particularly Low in Children

The US has always had among the lowest rates of hepatitis B disease in the world, affecting approximately 0.1% to 0.5% of the general population (National Vaccine Information Center). The CDC estimates a 5% lifetime risk of infection in the United States. Of that 5%, between 90-95% will fully recover, clearing the virus from their bodies. Only the remaining 5 -10% (of the original 5%) may become chronic carriers. This means that the overall lifetime risk of becoming a chronic carrier of hepatitis B is approximately one quarter of one percent (.25%) of the entire U.S. population, leaving 99.75% of the total population at no significant risk.

The CDC acknowledges “...an estimated 91% of hepatitis B infections in the U.S. are acquired during adolesence and adulthood and much of the public health benefit of widespread infant vaccination will not be known until vaccinated infants become adolescents and adults” (MMWR, vol.43, no. 33, August 26, 1994, p.608).

Pregnant women in Massachusetts are routinely screened for hepatitis B disease. This allows for at-risk newborns to be appropriately treated.

Vaccine Effectiveness

One pharmaceutical company, Merck & Co., states in their 1996 hepatitis B vaccine product insert that “...the duration of the protective effect of [our product] in healthy vaccinees is unknown at present and the need for booster doses is not yet defined.” The CDC concurs. With a vaccine that likely confers only 7, or optimistically 10, years of protection, most children who received the hepatitis B vaccine will not be protected as they approach ages at which higher risk behaviors become more prevalent.

Vaccine Safety

Merck & Co. included the following disclaimers on its 1996 hepatitis B vaccine package insert:

“As with any vaccine, there is the possibility that broad use of the vaccine could reveal adverse reactions not observed in clinical trials.”

What they fail to explain is that the clinical trials in question involved only several thousand children, and that those children were monitored for reactions for only four or five days.

The insert continues:

“...it is not known whether the vaccine can cause fetal harm when administered to a pregnant woman or can affect reproductive capacity;” and

“Specific data are not yet available for the simultaneous administration of [our hepatitis B vaccine] with other vaccines.” It is, however, frequently given with other vaccines.

Consumers, Doctors and Governments Question Hepatitis B Vaccine

A September, 1998 report entitled Hepatitis B Vaccine: The Untold Story, available from the National Vaccine Information Center, contains thirty-eight citations of medical articles that discuss hepatitis B vaccine as the cause of chronic immune and neurological disease in both children and adults, including: diabetes, arthritis, chronic fatigue immune deficiency, multiple sclerosis, alopecia (hair loss), lupus, Guillain-Barre syndrome, and demyelinating neuropathy.

“Considering the low risk of hepatitis B, and the published reports of serious adverse effects of the vaccine, why can’t school mandates wait for more research?” asks Jane Orient, M.D., Executive Director of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons. “Mandates effectively use school children as research subjects without informed consent, in violation of the Nuremberg Code.”

Bonnie Dunbar M.D., a molecular biologist at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, has said, “I am horrified by what I am seeing on this issue. I can’t believe this is happening in this country. “Public Health” is being used as a rationale to undermine individual responsibility and to legitimize intrusion on family autonomy.”

For further information, visit the National Vaccine Information Center’s hepatitis B webpage.

You can also visit the Center for Disease Control’s hepatitis B webpage.

View the vaccine package insert for the hepatitis B vaccine given to children in the Commonwealth.

Click here for the vaccine package insert for the hepatitis B vaccine given to adults in the Commonwealth.

Children aged 6 to 48 months are in the highest risk group for developing HIB infection, especially if they are immune compromised or live in crowded, substandard living conditions. HIB disease is spread through inhalation of the respiratory tract secretions--most often via sneezing or coughing--of an infected person. HIB infections occur most often during the late winter and spring.

For further information on HIB and the vaccine, visit the National Vaccine Information Center’s HIB webpage.

You can also click here to visit the Center for Disease Control’s HIB webpage.

Here is the vaccine package insert (ActHIB from Sanofi Pasteur).

There are currently several meningitis vaccines in use. None are required for school admission, though two are being recommended for secondary school students attending boarding schools and residential college students. Of note is the fact that a parent, guardian or age-of-majority adult can decline this vaccine simply by signing a Department of Public Health waiver.

You can find additional information at the National Vaccine Information Center’s meningitis webpage.

For more meningitis information, you can also visit the Centers for Disease Control site.

Check with your healthcare provider to see which meningitis vaccine s/he uses. Click on Menactra to read a copy of the vaccine package insert for menactra from Sanofi Pasteur.

Thimerosal is an ethylmercury-based preservative that has been used in many vaccines since the early 1930s. Because ethylmercury is a known neurotoxin, thimerosal has more recently come under attack as a potential factor in the explosion of autism our country has seen, particularly since the 1990s (when more vaccines were added to the recommended schedule).

Acting on this concern, almost every vaccine used for children is now produced in a thimerosal-free form. In fact, according to the medical director of the immunization program at the state Department of Public Health, all state-made vaccines are thimerosal-free. However, because other manufacturers may continue to use trace amounts of thimerosal, you would do well to ask your doctor for the thimerosal-free versions. For the sake of surity, you might also request to see the package insert and the vial that contains the vaccine. 

Click here to view the Institute for Vaccine Safety’s webpage listing the thimerosal content in some U.S. licensed vaccines.

To calculate how much mercury your child has cumulatively received via vaccination, visit the National Vaccine Information Center’s mercury calculator.

Thimerosal in the News
Deadly Immunity: Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. investigates the government cover-up of a mercury/autism scandal
Rolling Stone; June 30, 2005

Merck Misled Public On Vaccines Containing Thimerosal
Los Angeles Times; March 7, 2005

For information on these diseases and the MMR vaccine, visit the National Vaccine Information Center’s MMR webpage.

Of note is the fact that the second dose of MMR is required of 100% of children because 5% do not show sufficient measles antibodies after the first administration. If your child is in the 95% that appears to have sufficient antibodies, s/he is not required by law to receive this second dose. You may consider having your child’s blood tested (titred) to determine if a second dose of measles vaccine is recommended.

MCVC would always recommend, should you decide to vaccinate your child, that vaccines be administered separately when possible. Though it is becoming increasingly difficult to get traditionally ‘trivalent’--or shots with three different vaccines in them, like MMR--vaccines separated, you might find some assistance at the bottom of our MDs & Others page.

You can also visit the Center for Disease Control’s MMR webpage.

View the vaccine package insert (MMR II from Merck).

Pneumococcal disease is a bacterial infection that can cause serious illness, including inflammation of the brain, blood infections and pneumonia. Most children and adults harbor pneumoccocal organisms in their noses and throats. It is not clear why some individuals will go on to develop severe pneumococcal disease and others do not, although those with weakened immune systems are at risk.

There are currently two pneumococcal vaccines in use in Massachusetts. Pneumococcal Conjugate Vaccine 7-Valent (PCV7) is being recommended (though not required) by the DPH for all children from 2-23 months of age and older children in certain high risk groups. Pneumococcal Polysaccharide Vaccine 23-Valent (PPV23) is being recommended for all people 65 and over and others in high risk groups.

For further information on the pneumococcal vaccine being recommended for children (PCV7), visit the National Vaccine Information Center’s pneumococcal webpage.

The Massachusetts Department of Public Health site also has information on the two vaccines at:
Pneumococcal Conjugate Vaccine 7-Valent (PCV7) and
Pneumococcal Polysaccharide Vaccine 23-Valent (PPV23).

The polio vaccine is credited with eradicating poliomyelitis from the Americas and much of the rest of the world. But since 1979, the great preponderance of positive cases of polio in the western hemisphere--approximately 121 of 125--were directly linked to the live (oral) virus vaccine being used. In 1996, this fact moved the Centers for Disease Control to recommend the use of a killed (injected) virus polio vaccine, which is currently in use.

Poliomyelitis is caused by several different types of polioviruses that live in the nose, throat and, especially, the intestinal tract of a person infected with it. The incubation period is usually between one and two weeks. The wild (naturally-occurring as opposed to vaccine-induced polio) poliovirus produces varying symptoms and degrees of neurological signs and complications, depending upon the type of polio virus involved. According to infectious disease experts, approximately one percent of wild polio infections result in paralytic disease.

Most wild virus infections are mild and the milder forms of polio usually begin abruptly and last, at most, a few days. When symptoms are present, they include fever, sore throat, nausea, headache and stomachache. Sometimes the individual will feel pain and stiffness in the neck, back and legs. Usually there is full recovery with no muscular or nerve damage. The vast majority of children and adults who got polio in the 1950s recovered from this milder type of polio.

Visit the Centers for Disease Control polio webpage.

View the vaccine package insert (IPOL from Sanofi Pasteur).

According to the American Medical Association?s Encyclopedia of Medicine (1989), chickenpox is a “common and mild infectious disease of childhood” and “all healthy children should be exposed to chickenpox...at an age at which it is no more than an inconvenience.” The American Academy of Pediatrics states in its brochure on chickenpox (1996) that “Most children who are otherwise healthy and get chickenpox won’t have any complications from the disease."`

Of the approximately 4 million cases of chickenpox in the United States each year, the death rate is only .0025%, with a hospitalization rate of .23%, making it one of the most benign diseases in existence.

According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, “when an adult gets chickenpox, the disease usually lasts longer and is more severe, often developing into pneumonia. Adults are almost 10 times more likely than children under 14 to need hospitalization from chickenpox and more than 20 times more likely to die from the disease.”

Yet despite these facts, the Massachusetts Department of Public Health mandated universal vaccination for all children, not adults. This blanket policy can be expected to move the incidence of this mild childhood disease into the adult population where it generally poses a greater threat.

The natural disease typically offers lifetime immunity, while vaccine effectiveness wanes. No one knows exactly when or how a booster schedule can be successfully implemented.

“Many primary care physicians either do not recommend the vaccine or suggest that children be immunized only if they have not developed the chickenpox by 12 years of age” (Journal of the American Medical Association, Nov., 1997).

The varicella (chickenpox) vaccine is a live-virus vaccine. It is made from the Oka/Merck strain of live, attenuated (weakened) varicella virus. The virus was initially obtained from a child with natural varicella, then introduced into human embryonic lung cell cultures (aborted fetal tissue), adapted and propagated in embryonic guinea pig cell cultures and finally propagated in human diploid cell cultures. The vaccine contains sucrose, phosphate, glutamate, neomycin, fetal bovine serum and processed gelatin (Merck & Co., Inc., 1995; Fisher, 1997).

Scientists are concerned about the long-term effects of viral DNA, from live-virus vaccines, being incorporated into human genes.

The marketing of this vaccine by both the manufacturer, Merck & Co., and the American Academy of Pediatrics, is mainly focused on the economic consideration of parental work loss, or the inconvenience of a child missing a soccer game or birthday party (images used in corporate advertising), rather than on any pressing health issues facing the public. The chief of the Pediatric Infectious Disease Department of New England Medical Center, who also participated in the development of the chickenpox vaccine, has stated, “Studies suggest that widespread use of the varicella vaccine will be cost effective, primarily through a reduction in the number of work days missed by parents caring for sick children.”

For further information, visit the National Vaccine Information Center’s chickenpox webpage.

You can also visit the Center for Disease Control’s chickenpox webpage.

View the vaccine package insert (Merck’s Varivax).

Visit the state DPH site for information regarding the exclusion of unvaccinated children from schools where cases of chickenpox have been positively identified.

It is not the intention of Massachusetts Citizens for Vaccination Choice to argue the medical wisdom of the state Department of Public Health’s recommended vaccination schedule. What we question is the appropriateness of compelling everyone to conform to it, as we feel that such decisions should ultimately rest with individuals or their families.

That being said, here, as a point of departure for those interested, is the recommended vaccine schedule established by the state DPH.