***Immune System Destruction: The Adverse Effects of Vaccines on Health

The immune system is the body’s intricate regulatory system. Composed of cells, tissues, mediators and antibodies, it plays a role in destroying tumors, eliminating viruses, bacteria and other microbes, neutralizing toxins, and performing other defense functions. It has a memory system capable of recalling previous encounters with infectants and can mount a strong response upon re-challenge. For example, when you have had measles or chickenpox, your immune system “remembers” and eliminates the virus upon re-exposure without signs of the infection. This function is called lifetime immunity.
Any substance that leads to an antibody response is called an immunogen. For a molecule to be immunogenic, it must be seen as foreign by the host. Vaccines are called effective because they are immunogenic. They are considered “antigens” because they lead to the production of an antibody. While antibodies are considered markers of immunity and protection, they do not guarantee protection from infection.

An antibody is a molecule that produces its effect while circulating in the bloodstream. There are five distinct classes of antibodies: IgG, IgA, IgM, IgE and IgD, easily remembered by the word GAMED. The most abundant type of antibody found in the blood is IgG, a protein shaped like a capital letter Y. It is the upper tips of the Y that bind with a specific foreign antigen, creating a complex that in effect neutralizes and eliminates a foreign particle such as a virus or bacteria. The presence of IgG means the person has responded to a vaccination.

Two different types of IgG responses occur after vaccination. The first injection stimulates the immune system to respond and causes an initial IgG spike, initially detected about six days after the shot. The spike levels off in 12 to 14 days and then settles to a lower level. When the second shot is given, a strikingly large IgG response quickly occurs and lasts for several years. Because blood tests (called titers) are never ordered, a third dose of vaccine is administered routinely to children and adults who may not need it.

The immune response is categorized into two general areas: humoral, which involves the production of antibodies; and cell-mediated, which includes different types of white blood cells, including macrophages and several different lymphocytes. Active immunity and lifetime protection is gained when a person experiences and recovers from an infection. It is the interplay between the humoral and cell-mediated divisions that locks the event into the long-term memory of the immune system. When re-exposed to the pathogen, the immune system recognizes and eliminates it without having to experience the illness.

Alternatively, vaccination introduces only temporary, or passive, immunity. By engaging only the humoral immune system and producing antibodies, no lifelong protection is obtained from vaccination. Vaccine induced antibodies are gone within a few years. In other words, a person’s immune system and overall, long-term health are more robust if an illness such as chickenpox or measles is contracted and resolved naturally, as opposed to trying to avoid the infection through vaccination.
Despite all we know about the intricacies of the adult immune system, an investigation of the immune system of infants and small children has only recently begun and it is minimally understood. At the First International Neonatal Vaccination Conference held in Washington, D.C. (March 2-4, 2004), Professor Claire-Ann Siegrist, from France, delivered a detailed presentation on the complexities of a newborn’s immune system. Within the first moments of life, the infant is bombarded with millions of antigens. Both the humeral and cell-mediated immune system begins the process of developing resistance to the exposures and helpful protection is passed to the newborn through breast feeding. According to researchers, this process continues exponentially through out the first few months of life. Injections such as hepatitis b vaccine and the vitamin K shot during the initial moments of life disrupt the rapidly developing, delicate and complex communication system within the newborn. When complex messenger molecules, such as cytokines and interleukins, lose their interconnection, serious immune system dysfunction can occur later in life.

Evidence of serious health consequences from vaccinating infants was recently confirmed in the Journal of Pediatrics. A group of randomly selected infants in a neonatal intensive care unit were given two or more vaccines on the same day. A separate group of infants were given one shot at a time, every three days. The vaccines in the study were DTaP, Hib, polio [IPV], hepatitis B and Prevnar. An abnormal elevation of CRP occurred in 85% of infants who received simultaneous vaccines and up to 70 percent of those given a single vaccine. CRP, short for “C-reactive protein,” is a protein found in the blood that is a marker indicating a heightened state of inflammation in the body. In addition, 16 percent of all infants had cardiorespiratory events (stopped breathing) within 48 hours after the vaccines.
 An elevated CRP, gastroesophagel reflux (GERD) and severe intraventricular hemorrhage (bleeding in the brain) were found in infants who received multiple vaccines. Infants who received DTaP, Prevnar and Hib as single injections had elevated CRP levels and experienced cardiorespiratory events. 

There are further concerns about elevated CRP levels. A study of 62 children who were part of a Diabetes Autoimmunity Study of the Young (DAISY) in Denver, Colorado, revealed that an elevated CRP level in infants and young children may be a marker for the risk of progression to type 1 diabetes (insulin-dependent) later in life.

It is difficult to imagine that the introduction of viruses, bits of bacteria, mercury, aluminum and more than 100 additional chemicals into the body of an infant can be considered harmless. In truth, the impact of vaccines on the immune system of a child under 2 years of age cannot be predicted.

If a child develops an autoimmune disorder, such as rheumatoid arthritis or insulin-dependent diabetes, vaccines are rarely, if ever, suspected as the inciting event even though evidence points to vaccines as a source of immune system disruption. In 2005, the journal Vaccine reported a study in which all relevant publications between 1966 and June 2004 were reviewed to determine if there was an association between auto-immune manifestations and vaccination. The most frequently reported autoimmune manifestations for the various vaccinations were 1) Hepatitis B, rheumatoid arthritis, reactive arthritis, vasculitis, encephalitis, neuropathy and thrombocytopenia; 2) MMR—acute arthritis or arthralgia, chronic arthritis and thrombocytopenia; 3) Influenza—Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS) and vasculitis; 4) Polio—GBS; and 5) Chickenpox (varicella) mainly neurological syndromes.

In addition to autoimmune disorders, vaccines and vaccine components are associated with chronic diseases. Tetanus toxoid, influenza vaccines, polio vaccine, rubella vaccines and others have been related to phenomena ranging from auto antibody production to full blown chronic illness (such as rheumatoid arthritis). The hepatitis b vaccine has been particularly troublesome with nearly 200 reports in the medical literature of illnesses associated with the vaccine.

Pediatricians point to the abundance of epidemiological studies to reassure parents that there is no association between vaccines and asthma. Large epidemiological studies make the thousands of children who have developed asthma after vaccinations “statistically insignificant” in comparison to the millions of shots given. The larger the denominator, the easier it is to discount the size of the numerator. For example, 231 injured in a study that involved 679,900 persons makes the percentage of those injured (0.034 percent) appear extremely small.

Nonetheless, evidence of the connection between vaccines and illness exists, and individual experiences affirm the connection. A study from Australia found that fully vaccinated children had a higher risk of developing asthma as adults. In a study of 450 children, 11 percent who had received the pertussis vaccination suffered from asthma, as compared with only 2 percent of the children who had not been vaccinated.

A small study published in 2000 uncovered an association between vaccines with allergies and allergy related respiratory symptoms. The results showed that the odds of developing asthma were twice as great among vaccinated subjects with DTaP or tetanus than among un-vaccinated subjects. In addition, the odds of developing allergy related symptoms within 12 months of a vaccine were 63 percent greater among vaccinated subjects than un-vaccinated subjects. This association was greatest among children ages 5 through 10 years of age.

Drugs are prescribed when symptoms develop. Severe disruptions, such as autoimmune diseases, asthma, allergies, ADD/ADHD, seizure disorders and cancer, can create customers for life for the pharmaceutical industry. There are safer, more effective ways to stay healthy. Saying no to vaccines may be your first step to better health.

Excerpted from Saying No To Vaccines: A Resource Guide for All Ages by Dr. Sherri Tenpenny (2008).