"Drill Baby, Drill" doesn't sound so fun now does it? The oil leaking into the Gulf of Mexico is making it's way north where it will soon coat the shore, the plants, the animals. There is reportedly a stench hanging over New Orleans--the smell of the oil coming. Fishermen are scrambling to gather shrimp while they still can.
Here's John Lee Hooker watching the waterfront for his baby. It seems appropriate.
I cover the waterfront
Watchin' the ship go by
I could see everybody's baby
But I couldn't see mine
I could see the ships pullin' in
To the harbor
I could see the people
Meeting their loved one
Shakin' hand
I sat there
So all alone
Coverin' the waterfront
And after a while
All the people
Left the harbor
And headed for their destination
All the ships
Left the harbor
And headed for their next destination
I sat there
Coverin' the waterfront
And after a while
I looked down the ocean
As far as I could see - in the fog
I saw a ship
It headed this way
Comin' out the foam
It must be my baby
Comin' down
And after a while
The ship pulled into the harbor
Rollin' slow
So triple (?)
And my baby
Stepped off board
I was still
Coverin' the waterfront
Said "Johnny,
Our ship had trouble - with the fog
And that's why we're so late
So late
Comin' home
Comin' down"
Showing posts with label Green Living. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Green Living. Show all posts
Friday, April 30, 2010
Thursday, April 22, 2010
Earth Day 2010!
The Earth
It's Earth Day! Normally this holiday gets me mad. I think it's a time for people to try and do a couple of things, and then forget about the earth the next day--it seems far more symbolic than real to me. On the other hand, maybe it gets people thinking. That's always a good thing.
Food, Inc. was on PBS last night and I watched it. Wow. If you don't already buy any food directly from a farmer, look around to see if it's possible in your area. The more people who are both buying real, untainted food (no GMOs or pesticides or herbicides or synthetic fertilizers), and supporting small family farms or CSAs (Consumer Supported Agricuture--co-ops of a sort) the more the corporate hold of our food supply starts to crumble a little. That's also always a good thing.
To celebrate today, I am going to go out and buy the latest and best of all of the Green products I can find!
No, I'm not. Joking!!
People keep forgetting, "Reduce, Reuse and Recycle" We mostly have a hold on the recycle bit, but reusing things (hand me downs, garage sale and thrift store finds), and reducing in the first place seems to elude a lot of us.
If you need to replace something, see if you can get it used. If you can't then buy green. Buying green to replace perfectly usable things you have doesn't really help anyone or anything--except the Green manufacturers. That's OK except stuff still ends up in the landfills, doesn't it?
Go do something gentle for the earth today--even if it's as small a gesture as not buying something. Just skip it. You'll be OK, really.
Then, think about doing something tomorrow, and maybe all week. If you survive that, try it for a month. You may surprise yourself at your ability to forego stuff you don't need any way.
Try it and see how strong you are. You are woman!! (Or man, depending...)
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
Things Only a Republican Could Believe
I know not all Republicans believe these contradictory things. I do know this. There are plenty of Republicans who simply want less government interference in the daily life of Americans and want lower taxes. Really, I do know this. I don't think of all Republicans when I read the following list... However, I know there are plenty of Republicans who do believe these contradictory things and who paint our public life in broad strokes and don't see any dissonance in their reasoning.
So with that said, here we go:
Things Only a Republican Could Believe:
Parents who don't want their children to pray in school are Anti-American zealots -- parents who don't want their children to listen to a speech by the President of the United States telling them to work hard and get good grades are noble patriots.
Peacefully demonstrating against the country starting an international war is treason -- showing up with automatic weapons to protest healthcare reform is democracy at its finest.
Any government official with a desk job should have every action scrutinized -- any government official with a badge and a gun should never be questioned or disrespected. At all. Ever.
Questioning the legitimacy of an election because the "winner" was selected by the Supreme Court is sour grapes -- questioning the legitimacy of an election because the winner (by the largest number of votes in American history) is really a Kenyan born Muslim despite all evidence to the contrary is being a vigilant American.
Lying about a blowjob is an impeachable offense -- lying about a war is no big deal, really.
Investigating a shady land deal involving the First Lady is a matter of National Identity -- investigating the use of torture at the direction of the Executive Branch is a partisan witch hunt.
Executing Japanese officers for waterboarding prisoners during WWII shows that we have the moral high-ground on human rights -- waterboarding prisoners of our own shows that we have the moral high-ground on human rights.
Sitting two rows in front of Jane Fonda in a 1970 anti-war rally is an OUTRAGE! Shaking Saddam's hand in 1983...meh, not so much.
Anyone who questions the president during a time of war is giving aide and comfort to the enemy and should be deported...unless the president in question has a (D) next to their name in which case you should undermine them at every turn even if you have to routinely make shit up to do it.
Socialism, Marxism, Communism and Fascism are all interchangeable words that mean pretty much the same thing.
Anyone who abuses drugs should be locked up indefinitely...unless they are a popular Republican radio host in which case they need your prayers as they recover from the illness of addiction.
Health Insurance companies have your best interests in mind and anyone who thinks otherwise is trying to turn America into the Godless heathen nation of Sweden where EVERYONE in the country dies (eventually).
Obama is an atheist communist muslim who attended a radical christian church.
Believing that human activity could impact the global environment is crazy talk -- believing that an invisible man in the sky personally told George Bush to invade Iraq to fulfill Biblical prophecy is logically sound.
The verdict is still out on evolution -- but Jesus Christ returning in our lifetimes is pretty much a given.
The media are unquestionably biased against Republicans -- Talk Radio, The Washington Times, The Weekly Standard, The Wall Street Journal, Rightwing Blogs, Fox News and NewsCorp are not part of the media.
The government should have no part in regulating multi-national corporations as they make decisions that impact the lives of millions of people -- government should regulate individuals by determining who they can marry, what kind of intercourse they can have, what they can smoke, how to manage their pregnancy and how to proceed with end of life decisions.
Communicating with hostile nations is a stab in the back to our great nation -- Reagan communicating with the USSR during the Cold War was Political Genius.
Iran is a mortal threat to our nation and anyone who attempts to talk to them is traitorous scum -- selling weapons to Iran and then funneling the money to start wars in South America is clearly in our National interest.
George Bush kept the nation safe after 9-11 (NOTE: the Anthrax attacks, the DC Sniper and Hurricane Katrina don't count. Also, the fact that 9-11 happened on his watch despite receiving a security briefing specifically warning of the attack doesn't count either.)
Social Security, Meidcare, public schooling, public libraries, fire departments, police departments and the US Military are as American as Apple Pie -- universal healthcare is ZOMGDEATHPANELSOCIALISM!!
George W Bush is a regular 'ole Texas rancher just like you and me despite the fact that he was born in Connecticut, attended two Ivy League schools, bought the Crawford ranch just before running for president, sold it immediately after leaving office and is terrified of horses.
The two guys at the center of the Watergate and Iran-Contra scandals are trustworthy voices in discussions of current national policy and should be taken at face-value.
(I did not write this but found it on numerous sites. I didn't see who the author is or I would give him/her credit. It is good isn't it?)
Thursday, August 6, 2009
Poppies!
My daughter planted seeds back in the spring. In our living room, we had a table top full of seedlings in egg cartons and black plastic trays. The seedlings were full of hope and energy--so earnest. Snow was still on the ground, but inside our house they were pushing their way up through the loose soil and leaning into the light.
And from these hairy, drooping looking plants came...
Poppies!
Poppies and more poppies!
Aren't they beautiful? Nice job daughter. Thanks for growing these and tending them and planting some of them into pots near your shed/wood shack/playhouse doorway--pretty!
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
Random Thoughts...
Here are some thoughts I've had over the last week or so. No real link between them all except that some might recognize a bit of absurdity--and who doesn't love the absurd?
- President Barack Hussein Obama is a United States citizen. No--he really is. Perhaps some of the frenetic, hysterical energy questioning his citizenship is a wee bit misplaced and could serve people in a more positive way. Maybe a protest against mountain top removal, strip mining, injustices around the world. I don't know, get creative.
- Three single servings of Ben and Jerry's ice cream (two cones and a sundae) at Great America really shouldn't cost $19.78. The ice cream guy's smile, as I looked shocked, told me that he commiserates but what's one to do?
- I have all of my Mel's Mix material sitting in the garage--just when do I think I will actually put in a garden? Perhaps at the end of the season, just to be contrary...
- Honey not only helps heal skin lacerations received from a nasty collision with a fire hydrant, but a little dab will heal zits too! Not that my skin is ever anything less than perfect, I'm just saying that I've heard this...
- I want my dryer fixed so even on rainy days and when it's cold out, I can wash our sheets and towels. I think it's allowed, even on The Compact. Husband, do you hear?!
- Are we really using more water by hand washing rather than using our dishwasher, which is also broken? This is what I've heard, but I don't quite believe it. Maybe we have to get that fixed too.
- For our 12th anniversary, my husband and I gave each other a high five. Consummate romantics aren't we? Neither one of us made time to get a card or a gift. It's OK. We love each other and know it.
- Laura Ling and Euna Lee are free which is amazing! But, what of the women they were trying to investigate? North Korean women are lured out to China for a better life and then are captured by traffickers and used both for sexual exploitation and forced labor. Does this story ever get covered now? You know, I'm really sick of the world mistreating women, kids, minorities, certain ethnic groups and so on.
What's new with you, cyber people? What are some of your random thoughts? Please share if so inclined.
Your cyber pal,
Laura
Monday, July 27, 2009
So Long Suckas...
It isn't always this easy. People don't necessarily get these kind of small, but important domestic victories that embolden the spirit, that make you feel triumphant. Back when our dishwasher was working, I once tried out a "natural" dishwasher detergent. I was to use only a teaspoon, and I did, and it didn't work. At all. Egg yolk was still encrusted. Tomato sauce still clung to plates. Awful.
I can report here, however, that our diatomaceous earth get-rid-of-the-giant-black-ants-invading-our-kitchen method WORKED! They are g-o-n-e gone. Long gone. We haven't seen a scurrying black squiggle ever since I dusted the baseboards with an ample amount of the powder.
IT WORKED! The natural nontoxic method worked. Ha!
Take that petrochemical, polluting, better-living-through-chemistry, mainstream paradigm!
Monday, July 6, 2009
How to Make Raw Milk Yogurt
A while ago, I took my Viili Yogurt Starter I got from Cultures for Health and made raw milk yogurt. It turned out! It was delicious and easy to make. I'll show you.
I followed the clear instructions sent with the yogurt starter.
I opened the packet up and poured it into a bowl... (At this point, please note how literal my pictures are. Do you really need to see how I open the packet? No? Well, that is how I illustrate with photos and I will show you every step. I'm sorry, you'll just have to deal with it.)
I poured the Viili starter into a bowl, so I could measure out what I needed.
As you can see, I needed 1/2 teaspoon of starter to add to the 1/2 cup of scalded (and cooled to room temperature) milk.
I sprinkled it in.
I reserved the remaining 1/2 teaspoon of starter to have in case I ever need it. 1 teaspoon per packet--very helpful.
I transferred the starter with the milk into a jar where it would sit out on top of my fridge for about 24 hours or so.
Not using the lid here, rather a cloth held on with a rubber band.
This is the pure, treated starter. The master starter. The main starter. From this, I take a tablespoon and add it to one cup of raw milk, let it culture on top of the fridge for about 12 hours or so, and then put it in the fridge for 6 hours and then voila: RAW MILK YOGURT!!
I would show you a picture of the raw milk yogurt I made but, I ate it... I ate it with raw honey and the kids drank it in a smoothie.
I still have the treated starter, so I'll add a tablespoon of that to some more raw milk and make more raw yogurt. I'll make sure I leave a tablespoon of the starter to add to a new batch of scalded, cooled milk to make another round of pure starter. Then, from that I'll make more raw yogurt.
It's not difficult. It is delicious and so healthy and good for all of us.
We are pretty durned cultured around these parts. Are you and yourn cultured too?
What yeh waitin' fer? Go git yeh some culture!
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
I am Impressed With My Kids
Yesterday, my son complained that he felt a little pressure behind his cheeks and nose. Maybe he had a bit of a sinus infection?I told him about our neti pot and explained how dad uses it and I use it and why and when.
So, he thought he would like to try it too.
"Really?", I thought. "He's going to fill a pot with warm water and a generous pinch of salt and tilt his head over the sink and pour it in one nostril and then let it drain out the other? Really?" OK...
I set it up for him and reminded him to breathe through his mouth and that it would feel like when you get water up your nose at the pool, but he would not choke--it would be OK.
I had him watch me as I filled the neti pot with the warm water and the generous pinch of salt and then poured the water into one of my nostrils and then the other.
OK. His turn.
I filled it up again, and then he poured it into one nostril and didn't like it much, but tried it on the other nostril as well.
Not much got in, but he did do it and was OK and didn't sputter.
Today, he reports that he feels less pressure and maybe the neti pot helped.
Hurray for alternative methods that work that my kids are brave enough to try!
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Ants Begone! Diatomaceous Earth...
We have ants! As my kids sit here and watch Born Free, I realize that I want all of us in Nature to live in harmony and to truly be free. But, that unfortunately doesn't really apply to uninvited guests like big, black, fast, scuttling ants in my kitchen. Sorry, but it doesn't.They arrived a few days ago and seem to have settled in, establishing all sorts of scented paths so their buddies can find their way and also move in and have a party in my cupboards and across my floor.
(Pictured above, an ant in Mexico--beautiful and not in my kitchen...)
My husband and I stomp on them when we're in the kitchen, which is not really an organized form of pest control, but it is effective for the ones under our heels. My son hates this.
He earnestly questions whether we think that the ants know that they're in our house and if they mean to bother us. It's all about intent for him. And, I do see the justice in that. It's not their fault and I wish them no harm, in principle. If they could just go away, I would be fine with that. But, since my son is right--they don't know that they're in our house, they won't feel the territorial pressure and go away from our turf. If I could mark our territory to make them back off I would. But the only scents I have are old perfume that I no longer wear, and lovely essential oils-- lavender, tangerine, clove, tea tree, eucalyptus-- that I use medicinally. That won't work.
I have, however, found something that seems to be working. I have liberally sprinkled Diatomaceous Earth all around our kitchen baseboards. Diatomaceous Earth is a powder comprised of ground up fossilized sea creatures. It feels like flour to the touch, but is quite abrasive and when pests walk through it or have it sprinkled on them, it cuts their skin or exoskeleton. After that, they succumb to extreme dehydration and die.
Sounds awful doesn't it?
Besides being effective, which is apparent today in my relatively ant--free kitchen, it is completely safe and non toxic. You don't want to breathe it in as you sprinkle it, as it can irritate, but other than that it is harmless unless you are measured in millimeters and then it is biological warfare.
Saturday, June 13, 2009
Raw MIlk Yogurt!! Sourdough Bread!!
Cultures for Health has five different yogurt starters and four of them require no yogurt maker and can be made with RAW MILK. That is thrilling to me. Besides raw milk being generally cleaner than pasteurized milk, it is the fact that it is raw that makes it so desirable. It is loaded with enzymes and in tact vitamins and minerals--why would I want to heat it up to make a nicely textured yogurt, but destroy the health benefits? That defeats the whole purpose of buying raw. I want it to stay raw.
On the other hand, I want some yogurt.
Along come Cultures for Health with several choices for making RAW YOGURT!!! Crazy.
I chose the viili yogurt starter and will make it when I pick up my next order of raw milk. In order to maintain the strength of the starter, just a little milk must be heated at the beginning. The starter is added to that and then you add the starter to raw milk, let it culture on the counter (doesn't Culture on the Counter sound like a great band name? No? OK. It's just me then...) set up in the fridge and you have creamy, delectable, RAW yogurt. I can not wait to try it and I will show you, step by step, how easy it all is.
The directions for making it with pasteurized milk are even easier. Homemade, creamy, probiotic-filled yogurt is only a couple of steps away for anyone who wants it.
Cultures for Health also has a huge number of sourdough starters each with subtle taste differences and attributes for making different kinds of bread. Out of the 17 different kinds, I chose the Flemish-Style Desem Sourdough Starter because it is whole wheat based. There are a few rye based ones and several from all over the world: Italy, France, Australia, New Zealand, Denmark. Many are from areas of North America with a long history of great sourdough bread: Alaska, Yukon Territory, The Pacific Northwest, Ozark Mountain.
Cultures for Health offers a kit that has everything you need to start out making sourdough, and a book filled with recipes for bread, biscuits, pancakes and even cookies.
I am so excited to try my new starters and I will post how to make sourdough bread, pancakes, yogurt, yogurt smoothies, etc.
Let's get cooking!
Thursday, May 21, 2009
Compost Happens
Yesterday, I turned the contents of our newly constructed compost bin (by the way, thanks son, daughter, and helping husband). I took a pitch fork and brought the wet, moldering, brown leaves from the bottom and turned them over the freshly cut grass that my husband had earlier dumped into the bin. I saw some of the food scraps that hadn't broken down completely yet--sweet potato ends and onion skins and banana peels. But, I can also see that the process has started.
There are worms everywhere--they're loving it.
I know, at some point, that the internal temperature of the pile is supposed to heat up and it can even smoke. It will be cooking, but it's not quite there yet.
Do you compost? Where do you put your compost once it's sweet and ripe? Do you turn it often, or do you just let it slowly melt down, doing its own thing?
I am a bit awed that I can just throw any vegetable matter into a bin and will get a loamy dirt after a few months. To me, that is simply amazing.
Do you know The Weavers? They were a folk group that included Pete Seger and other fabulous signers. These were the kind of singers who have voices like bells; just beautiful to hear their harmony.
Lee Hayes, one of The Weavers, kept a compost bin. And, upon his death, his ashes were scattered on it and mixed in, just as he wished. I think that truly expresses the idea of dust to dust; ashes to ashes. We all melt into the earth when we go. What a great compost pile. What a nice way to become part of the garden he loved.
Here are The Weavers singing, Irene Goodnight.
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
April Fool's...or Our Sponsors Won't Like This!
Dr. Jay Gordon, this past April Fool's Day, sent a fake press release announcing that the AAP (American Academy of Pediatrics) was severing all ties to formula makers...which so isn't true, despite the understanding that breastfeeding is the optimal way to nourish babies. The AAP remains fully in bed with them. Cosy, really.
The AAP is not amused. In fact, they are right pissed off. They answered that in no uncertain terms are they severing ties to the formula manufacturers. But, why in the world not? Why wouldn't they sever a relationship with manufacturers that in several different ways sabotage women's breastfeeding relationship with their infants? Why wouldn't the AAP want to promote the absolute best food for infants--breast milk?
Follow the money...
There is a great post from Hoyden About Town, outlining how it all went down. Please go to her site to see it. I had it fully printed here, and at her request I've edited the piece. See it at her site and be amazed by the AAP's absurd reaction to Dr. Jay Gordon's practical joke. Further, be amazed at their list of sponsors and that they have no intention of severing ties with formula manufacturers.
The AAP is not amused. In fact, they are right pissed off. They answered that in no uncertain terms are they severing ties to the formula manufacturers. But, why in the world not? Why wouldn't they sever a relationship with manufacturers that in several different ways sabotage women's breastfeeding relationship with their infants? Why wouldn't the AAP want to promote the absolute best food for infants--breast milk?
Follow the money...
There is a great post from Hoyden About Town, outlining how it all went down. Please go to her site to see it. I had it fully printed here, and at her request I've edited the piece. See it at her site and be amazed by the AAP's absurd reaction to Dr. Jay Gordon's practical joke. Further, be amazed at their list of sponsors and that they have no intention of severing ties with formula manufacturers.
Amazing...
Here is an excerpt of Hoyden About Town's post:
Background
Dr Jay Gordon is well known on Lactnet, as a passionate and knowledgeable breastfeeding advocate, and as a critic of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP)’s policy of accepting infant formula company funding.
The AAP accepts sponsorship from McDonald’s, the National Dairy Council, Abbott, Gerber, Mead Johnson, Nestle, Pepsi, Playtex, the Corn Products Association, and a variety of pharmaceutical and chemical companies. A lot of people find this funding approach to be unethical, since the AAP is, as they claim, “Dedicated to the health of all children”. (There seems to be an asterisk at the end of that statement on their website, but I can’t see a footnote anywhere.)
The AAP’s history of accepting formula and pharmaceutical funding for conferences, undermining the National Breastfeeding Awareness Campaign at the behest of formula companies, and allowing infant formula logos to be placed on A New Mother’s Guide To Breastfeeding are well documented. When the AAP was contacted by a group of their own pediatricians about the formula logo, they were uninterested, citing financial issues. The AAP also put out “Nestlé Nutrition Centre” advertisements in the header of Table of Contents emails for their flagship journal, Pediatrics.
These facts are not contested, to the best of my knowledge, by the organisation. Nor do they contest the fact that the feeding of breastmilk substitutes has harmed millions of children; again, this is very well documented. Every day, more than 4,000 babies die because they’re not breastfed. (Yes, some of these dead babies are even in America.)
The tide is turning - very slowly. Gradually, even doctors themselves are starting to realise that industry sponsorship is often unethical and inappropriate, and it has been shown over and over that it influences practice - though most doctors like to think they are mysteriously immune. Two weeks ago the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) published “Professional Medical Associations and Their Relationships With Industry: A Proposal for Controlling Conflict of Interest“, co-signed by a large number of different doctors, including a past president of the AAP. The article identified areas of conflict of interest, and asserted that sacrifice is required by professional medical associations in order to maintain integrity. [JAMA. 2009;301(13):1367-1372]
The First Email
On April First, this post appeared on Lactnet, clearly marked as coming from Dr Jay Gordon.
Press Release
4/1/2009American Academy of Pediatrics—For Immediate Release
Dr. David T. Tayloe, President of the American Academy of Pediatrics which represents 60,000 primary care pediatricians, pediatric medical subspecialists and pediatric surgical specialists has announced that it is severing all ties with the infant formula industry.
“This method of feeding substitution has harmed millions of children both in America and throughout the world and we pediatricians can no longer continue our relationship with the manufacturers of infant formula.” said Dr. Tayloe, who assumed the post of AAP President in October of 2008.
“Our alliance with the pharmaceutical industry is unethical. Our accepting millions of dollars and continuing to allow these business people to influence our policies while sponsoring our speakers, conferences and conventions is an ongoing embarrassment and we will end this ethical problem right now.”
“Further, I would like to apologize for our past mistakes involving the breastfeeding advertisement campaign and allowing the maker of Similac infant formula to print its corporate logo on the cover of a special edition of the academy’s book on breastfeeding.”
“Again, I can cannot express enough regret and can assure you that the AAP will immediately seek compliance with the WHO Code and will promote the Baby Friendly Hospital Initiative.”
Sincerely,
David T. Tayloe, MD, President of the American Academy of Pediatrics
April 1, 2009
Read more to see how it all turns out...
Friday, April 3, 2009
I Answer a Reader's Question About My Vaccination Stance
I had no invasive prenatal testing. I didn't have a single ultrasound. I gave birth at home without any kind of drugs. I held my babies almost constantly and breastfed them on demand for years.
We eat very little sugar. We drink raw milk. We eat organic foods as much as possible. We eat meat from grass fed, pastured animals. We use coconut oil in smoothies and in cooking. We eat raw honey. We don't take allopathic medicines of any kind.
My son has never had antibiotics--no medicine from a doctor ever. My daughter and I both had antibiotics once together when I had a breast infection and we were both sick. That was over 7 years ago and no one since that time has had any kind of medicine from a doctor. We're not Christian Scientists and if we ever needed to take something, we would. But, we would first find out how to support the body to heal naturally. It seems to be working for all of us.
My kids do not have asthma. They have no food allergies. They have no skin ailments. They rarely get sick, and when they do they recover quickly. I think they have robust immune systems partly because they've not been tampered with.
As a pregnant woman with my first child, I knew I would have a homebirth. I already knew I would breastfeed as my mother had done. I knew that if I had a son, he would remain intact. I also knew that I didn't want to inject any chemicals into my kids.
Realizing this, I knew I should research and learn what I could and as much as I could.
What were the diseases that had vaccines? What were the current rates of infection? How were these common childhood diseases treated in the past? What were complications in these diseases? How were they treated? What was the risk of complications?
If my kids got sick, in general, how would I care for them? I read Dr. Robert Mendelsohn's book, How to Raise a Healthy Child in Spite of Your Doctor. I read with great interest the areas about fever. I found out that that's the body's way of burning off a bug. The body increases in temperature and the invading bug can't survive. It's curative. I knew then that I wouldn't try to treat fevers, I wouldn't ever give Tylenol. If It got crazy high, I might. But, it's never gotten crazy high in either of my kids. They get warm, briefly, and the next day they're fine.
I read Neil Z. Miller books, Vaccines: Are They Really Safe and Effective? and Immunization Theory Vs. Reality Expose on Vaccinations which both showed graphs, obtained from Vital Statistics from the government, that showed the precipitous decline of diseases, before the introduction of vaccines. Hmmm... That was very interesting to me. I saw other graphs that showed a low incidence of death from measles, scarlet fever, diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus well before the onset of vaccinations. Interesting.
I read the almost completely unreadable book by Viera Scheibner, Vaccination: 100 Years of Orthodox Research Shows That Vaccines Represent an Assault on the Immune System that showed through orthodox research published in mainstream journals like JAMA and Lancet that vaccines are ineffective and are recognized as an assault on the immune system. Scientific studies showed this, but those are not what's quoted by the AAP, the American Academy of Pediatrics. These studies are also not what doctors look at. They're busy looking at patients. They're not scientists--never were--they treat patients with what they know. What they know is what they learned back in medical school. The medical school curricula is written by pharmaceutical companies. I find that interesting also.
Years later, after both of my healthy kids were born, I came across Dr. Sherri Tenpenny. As a conventionally trained doctor, Dr. Tenpenny has turned around on her understanding of routine vaccination. She has conducted thousands of hours of research into disease and vaccination and has produced an informative video explaining her change in thinking. She used to believe that vaccinations were a panacea, an answer to all that ails...she no longer believes this.
If you have some time, please view this video and see what you think.
As Louis Pasteur said on his deathbed, "The germ is nothing the terrain is everything."
No, I do not worry.
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
What do Doctors Tell Parents About Vaccination?
I'm wondering what doctors tell the parents in their practice who are going to vaccinate their children. Do they talk about side effects? Do they explain about the Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System (VAERS) and that they should report any kind of side effect? Do they talk about contraindications to vaccination--allergies, immunocompromised kids, illness?
Do they ask that parents keep their kids at home for the length of time that the live vaccines in them will be shedding? Do they explain what that means? For all the fervor a while ago with the actress Amanda Peet calling non-vaccinating parents parasites, do doctors tell parents that the live viruses injected into their kids will be excreted through feces, saliva, and nasal secretions for weeks at a time? Do they tell them to stay away from babies, or the elderly in their concern for their weakened systems which may not be able to fight off exposure to live viruses? Do they tell them that vaccines are not 100% effective and that they shouldn't risk exposing people to the live vaccine? Do they explain how negligent that is or how irresponsible or selfish?
I know doctors tell people that vaccines are well tested, but do they tell them that they're not tested for carcinogenic or mutagenic potential or potential to impair fertility? Not that they've been found safe, rather that they're not even tested for that possibility? Do they tell them that Merck and other vaccine manufacturers aren't even looking? You can see that if you read Merck's package insert for MMR II (mumps, measles and rubella vaccine)
That's kind of amazing to me in light of SV40. I guess if you don't look, you don't find. Maybe that's enough of a scientific standard for some, but it seems a little bit shoddy to me.
Do doctors share the package inserts, as they're instructed to do in the package inserts?
Here's some information about the live nature of viruses in some vaccines. There's also some good information in the comments section. Which raises another question for me, has your doctor talked to you about nutrition for you or your kids?
Maybe your doctor should...
Secondary Transmission: The short and sweet about live virus vaccine shedding.
A child gets vaccinated and is from that moment on protected from the vaccine virus, correct? We all realize that vaccines are not 100% failproof, but is that the only concern?
If it only were that simple. The fact is that once a child is injected with a live virus vaccine (and let’s assume that this child is immune as a result of it) there are still other things to consider which most parents do not know about and most pediatricians fail to warn about - which is shedding!
Shedding is when the live virus that is injected via vaccine, moves through the human body and comes back out in the feces, droplets from the nose, or saliva from the mouth. Anyone who takes care of the child could potentially contract the disease for some time after that child has received certain live vaccines. This was a huge problem with the oral polio vaccine, and was one of the reasons why it was taken off the market in the US.
The OPV is still used in developing counties.
Secondary transmission happens fairly often with some of the live virus vaccines. Influenza, varicella, and Oral Polio Vaccine (OPV) are the most common. On the other hand it may happen very seldom or not ever with the measles and mumps vaccine viruses.
Here are the vaccines that shed or have been known to result in secondary transmission:
Measles Vaccine - Although secondary transmission of the vaccine virus has never been documented, measles virus RNA has been detected in the urine of the vaccinees as early as 1 day or as late as 14 days after vaccination. (1)
In France, measles virus was isolated in a throat swab of a recently vaccinated child 4 days after fever onset. The virus was then further genetically characterised as a vaccine-type virus. (2)
Rubella Vaccine - Excretion of small amounts of live attenuated rubella virus from the nose and throat has occurred in the majority of susceptible individuals 7-28 days after vaccination. Transmission of the vaccine virus via breast milk has been documented. (3)
Chicken Pox Vaccine - Vaccine-strain chickenpox has been found replicating in the lung (4) and documented as transmtting via zoster (shingles sores) (5) as well as “classic” chickenpox (6) rash post-vaccination.
Oral Polio Vaccine (OPV) - In areas of the world where OPV is still used, children who have been vaccinated with it pass the virus into the water supply through the oral/feces route. Other children who then play in or drink that water pick up the vaccine viruses, which can pass from person to person and spark new outbreaks of polio. (7)
FluMist Vaccine - The mist contains live attenuated influenza viruses that must infect and replicate in cells lining the nasopharynx of the recipient to induce immunity. Vaccine viruses capable of infection and replication can be cultured from nasal secretions obtained from vaccine recipients.
Transmission of a vaccine virus from a FluMist recipient to a contact was documented in a pre-licensing trial. The contact had a mild symptomatic Type B virus infection confirmed as a FluMist vaccine virus. (8)
Rotavirus Vaccine (RotaTeq) - There is a possibility that one strain of rotavirus which is presently circulating may be an “escaped” vaccine strain, from an old Finnish rotavirus vaccine. (9)
Following are excerpts from the discussion by the FDA Advisory Committee on RotaTeq vaccine shedding: (10)
Page 50:
The latest shedding that we saw was 15 days from dose one.
We had no subjects that shed after dose two, and only one subject shed after dose three. He shed four days from dose three.
Page 51:
A: The quantities were low, similar to what we saw in phase 2 studies, as well.
We also had two placebo recipients that shed, and of course, this raised a red flag for us.
B: Could this have been transmission of vaccine virus from vaccine recipients to placebo recipients?
A: We did a very thorough investigation looking for opportunities for a vaccine transmission to occur and did not find anything. These children were not siblings of a vaccine recipient. They didn’t attend day care with vaccine recipients. They didn’t have a common caretaker with the vaccine recipient, and in the office and clinic in which they were vaccinated, they were not exposed to vaccine recipients.
So going on then to summarize general safety, Rotateq was well tolerated….
Page 70:
Question and answer section -
Then with respect to the possibilities of how these children ended up with vaccine strains in their stool, we really could not find the answer for that. We even went so far as to look and see like on the day that that child was in the clinic, were other children getting vaccine, you know, right before or after them?
And that was not the case. So it has been a puzzle, and we don’t have an answer as to why these children had vaccine strains in their stool.
(One has to ask: Could the reason have been that someone mixed up the placebo with the actual vaccine vials and consequently some kids of the control group got the real vaccine?)
Source:
(1) Detection of Measles RNA
(2) Detection of measles vaccine in the throat of a vaccinated child.
(3) MMR II
(4) Vaccine Oka Varicella-Zoster Virus
(5) Chickenpox Attributable to a Vaccine Virus
(6) Genetic Profile of an Oka Varicella Vaccine Virus
(7) Polio Outbreak in Nigeria
(8) Flumist
(9) Human and Bovine Serotype G8 Rotaviruses
(10) Products Advisory Committee
Comments
2 Comments on Secondary Transmission: The short and sweet about live virus vaccine shedding.
- jules on Mon, 25th Feb 2008 10:18 am
- Marconi on Mon, 25th Feb 2008 10:45 pm
I believe the titer test(blood test) for Measles can also tell if it was the vaccine-type Measles or wild Measles. Someone feel free to correct me if I am wrong:)
Some people never develop an immunity-vaccinated or not. That is why some people get chicken pox more than once, or some women get repeated Rubella vaccines and still show no immunity. Reinfection is also always ‘possible’ if vaccine or natural immunity wears off over time due to NOT being exposed which helps keep immunity level up.
The titre blood test cannot differentiate between vaccine-type measles or wild measles. In order to do that, the virus would have to be typed with a test called Polymerase Chain Reaction, and the “bar code” compared with the reference viruses for either the vaccine virus, or the wild virus. Furthermore, the vaccine virus varies slightly with every new attenuation, so each batch of vaccine might show a slight genetic variation from each other.
To say some people never develop immunity, vaccinated or not is very simplistic. If you mean, some people never show antibodies on a titre test, that too is very simplistic. The current titre test offered to parents is a crude measure. Using other tests such as ELISA, antibodies can be picked up, which the standard titre test does not.
It is “normal” for some people to develop antibodies, for antibotides to subside over time, and for a titre test years later to show no antibodies. However, if you vaccinated those people, or blood tested them before and after a known exposure and subclinical infection during with the person shows no signs of infection, the immediate rise in detectable antibodies over a period of days is a specific curve which shows an anamnestic response. What that means is that the person actually did have immunity, but it was “memory” immunity. Just because a person doesn’t have “detectable” immunity according to a titre test, doesn’t mean they have lost their immunity.
What it means is that immunologists have not yet devised a method for detecting permanent “memory” immunity.
Virology texts are also interesting, in that they point out that many children who don’t have antibodies cope very well with diseases like measles. The reason for that is that the key to survival of a first exposure to disease in any person, isn’t antibodies anyway. When you first come in contact with any disease, how well you survive that is due to your “cellular” immune system, which does utilise IgA, and IgM at some point if you have a normal immune system. But most textbooks, even older ones by ‘greats’ like McFarlane Burnett, describe in great detail, children who have no antibodies, who cruise through measles and polio. The rate of paralytic polio in normal children (using the most virulent strain as a reference point) is one case of paralysis, per 100 children with mild symptoms. The historical rate of paralysis in children with no antibodies is 6 per 100. So while children with no antibodies are 6 times more likely to get paralytic polio, the cellular immune system of those children guarantees that 94 out of 100 of them will not.
Yes, some children with no antibodies will get sick and die. But not all of them will.
The key to fighting an infection for the first time, in everyone, normal or not, is a well functioning cellular immunity is nutrition, nutrition, and nutrition. A person can have a normal immune system, but if they have malnutrition or bad nutrition, their immune system will not work properly, and they can die regardless. Anyone working in Africa can tell you that. The connection between nutrition, infection and immunity has been, and is very strong in the medical literature.
A huge amount of “immunity” is based on the integrity of the gastro-intestinal system, and the person’s nutritional status. Antibodies are essential the net at the bottom of the cliff, which while vital, isn’t the most important factors.
Using Tetanus as an example, were antibodies the most important part of the immune system with regard to protection against tetanus, then the human beings on the earth would never have got past the first generation. Even in the western world, civilians had no access to a tetanus vaccine until around 1960 (at least in the country in which I live). You just have to look at your own family tree to realise that your great great grandparents probably died of other things rather than tetanus during childhood.
So the use of antibodies as a measuring rod of “immunity” is not only a very crude measure, it’s inaccurate. But it’s a very useful “weapon” with which to create fear.
Note: I didn't bold or enlarge the font in the first two paragraphs on purpose. I don't really mean to be yelling with my post up there. I'm just trying to talk and I can't correct it, darn it. Sorry about the bold and the large... that's a soap opera, right?
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Who's up for Some Light Reading? Adventitious Agents in Vaccines
Occasionally, I check out the Vaccines forum at Mothering.com. There are all sorts of varying points of view, but more importantly there are great links to government sites where you can read things that aren't generally written for the public--in other words, they're not dumbed down, or written to scare people into compliance with certain public health agendas. They are minutes from meetings, or information compiled for doctors (the CDC Pink Book for example).
You can read the source material yourself and see what you can glean from it all.
Good one doc, "...especially if you were a sheep." Ha, ha.
Back to humans.
Yikes. Glad Churchill skipped that vaccine too. Albumin are the egg whites that were in there. Let's continue.
I wonder if there are other proteins in other vaccines that can cause this kind of response. Hmmm.
Do they still use mouse brains?
What are SPFs? What's that you say? It means Specified Pathogen Free? So if a vaccine is made from eggs that are not SPF it means that there may be pathogens in there?! "It's not a trivial usage." The doctor said. Meaning, a LOT of vaccines are made on materials where they don't know whether there are any harmful pathogens in there or not... The doctor continued, "In fact, when you go through and consider what vaccines are actually made on these days, they are quite primitive, if you like, in some respects." Huh, ya think?! Yeah, I've got to agree on this one. It sounds like a noxious witches brew. (Not to offend Wiccans. I think they would use some nice herbs or something. Nothing noxious...)
"Oh, but that's crazy." you're thinking. Yep, it is.
Onward to SV40.
OK. So no one wants to change things that they think are working. Some might argue about the whole "reasonably safe and effective" thing, in light of SV40. Nonetheless, let's hear you explain about SV40 *cough, harmful, cough*--let's hear more about that. But before that, let's hear about some other problems first.
Ah!! Suspended one because, "There were quite a variety of infectious agents were actually found in this." Great. But, what about the infections that aren't found right away, like SV40? What's your point here?
And you said that, "most of the vaccines that are made in the world probably come from other primary cultures or eggs or things of that nature." Well, I see why that would be a concern, certainly. Animals and eggs have their own viruses and infections and they just get mixed into the vaccines don't they?
Tell us about SV40.
Tell us more about the kids and their cancer. If there was no more SV40, how did they get it?
Vertical transmission? Where a mother passes on an infection while the baby is in utero? It's continuing to another generation? Cancer causing monkey viruses are being passed from generation to generation?
What other known or unknown infections, viruses or other contaminants will be passed from generation to generation?
I'm not sure what "reverse transcriptase" is. It doesn't sound good and the doctor explained it's involved with chicken cell grown vaccines: flu, yellow fever, measels, mumps and rubella. As he said, "In other words, every egg is a new experiment. You are really not quite sure what you are dealing with in that. I think that is quite an unfortunate position to be in. I'm not sure how you control it."
It doesn't sound to me like any of these vaccines grown and harvested on living animal tissues or cadaveric tissues is controlled or understood very well. Of course I'm not a doctor, but I just read the words of one--he sounds concerned.
Wow, "...a large number of other examples of this type which don't actually get published." A large number? How big a problem is this? Why don't they get published...
I'm glad to help out. I'm spreading the word here. You can count on me.
That was all the presentation of Dr. Minor. If you look at the index,
you see that it continues on for some time. I didn't read the rest. I'm going to. You might take a look at it too.
This is all public record. Not surprisingly, it is not the kind of thing that's included in the flu vaccine public service announcements I've seen recently. They're not talking about flu vaccines being produced from eggs that may or may not have viruses that may or may not be harmful to humans when injected into their blood streams that may or may not be transmitted vertically to the next generation. It just doesn't come up.
Maybe it should.
You can read the source material yourself and see what you can glean from it all.
I came across this link in a woman's signature at the bottom of her post. It is a set of meeting minutes from the fda.gov site from a workshop for government agencies dealing with infected animal tissues which are used to grow diseases which are then harvested and used to make vaccines. Whew--did you get that? Monkey kidneys, the sides of calves, eggs have all been used to grow diseases. This workshop speaks to contaminants (adventitious agents) in the cells of monkey kidneys, the sides of calves and eggs that inadvertently get mixed into the vaccines themselves.
A well known contaminant is SV40. It was a monkey virus that was in polio vaccine for years and years before anyone realized it was in there. It has shown up in various cancerous tumors even now. Millions of people were exposed to this monkey virus through vaccination.
This workshop speaks to trying to control these kinds of contaminants.
Let's read some together, shall we? I'll have the minutes in blue so you can differentiate between what they said and what I will say. After you read this post, you might want to go and check out the original minutes from the meeting for yourself.
Welcome:
My take away at this very early point in the presentation is acknowledgment of problems in vaccine production. Carry on.
Whoa, whoa whoa! Hold on a minute. A disease is passed on to people in France from growth hormone which was derived from producing it in human cadaveric material. "A very unpleasant disease." he said. "Almost impossible to detect the agent other than by standing back and waiting for the incubation period to go." You can't detect it except after the people have it?!? Around 10% of people receiving growth hormone in France will come down with this disease?!
Huh. Sounds a little sloppy. Let's continue.
A well known contaminant is SV40. It was a monkey virus that was in polio vaccine for years and years before anyone realized it was in there. It has shown up in various cancerous tumors even now. Millions of people were exposed to this monkey virus through vaccination.
This workshop speaks to trying to control these kinds of contaminants.
Let's read some together, shall we? I'll have the minutes in blue so you can differentiate between what they said and what I will say. After you read this post, you might want to go and check out the original minutes from the meeting for yourself.
Welcome:
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICESA Dr. Phil Minor was introduced to open up the meeting and to give an overview of the issues involving cell substrates in vaccine production.
PUBLIC HEALTH SERVICE
FOOD AND DRUG ADMINISTRATION
CENTER FOR BIOLOGICS EVALUATION AND RESEARCH
INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR BIOLOGICALS
NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND
INFECTIOUS DISEASES
NATIONAL VACCINE PROGRAM OFFICE
WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION
+ + + + +
EVOLVING SCIENTIFIC AND REGULATORY PERSPECTIVES ON
CELL SUBSTRATES FOR VACCINE DEVELOPMENT
+ + + + +
WORKSHOP
+ + + +
Friday,
10 September 1999
10 I would like to introduce the first
11 speaker, Dr. Phil Minor, from the National Institute
12 of Biological Standards and Control, who will be
13 giving us an introduction to adventitious agent
14 issues, both reviewing the past and current experience
15 with adventitious agent contamination of biologicals
16 in vaccines.
17 DR. MINOR: Thanks. Thanks very much.
18 Can I have the slide on, please, or do I just press it
19 here?
20 What I am going to do is to review firstly
21 all of biologicals, if you like, from an adventitious
22 agent point of view. So it won't just be vaccines.
23 In particular, I will be talking about the range of
24 source materials that people have used in preparing
25 biologicals. There will be a clear message that comes
5
1 out of that, which is that the more you use well-
2 characterized cells, the better.
3 I will also be talking about the SV40
4 story in some detail, which has been gone through a
5 number of times, but I will be going through it from
6 a particularly regulatory point of view because again,
7 there is a message there which says that if you get it
8 wrong, you will still be working on it 40 years later.
Let's read more.
11 So there are a variety of source materials
12 that you can use if you are preparing biologicals.
13 They are sort of listed here, if you like. There are
14 biological materials which are made from whole
15 animals. That would include things like blood and
16 blood products. I will describe that in a moment. So
17 you can just go to a whole animal and take something
18 out and make your biological from that.
19 You can use your whole animal as a
20 substrate for growth. I will discuss that in the
21 context of things like influenza vaccines and the
22 like.
23 You can grow material on primary cells.
24 This was the main starting point for things like polio
25 vaccines in the early days, where the SV40 issue
6
1 arose. Finally, you can grow materials on well-
2 characterized cell preparation.
3 The further down the list you go on this
4 thing, probably the happier you are from the
5 adventitious agent point of view.
6 This shows some examples of contaminants
7 which have arisen when whole animals have been used as
8 source materials or the origin of the source material.
9 Most of these will be human rather than anything else,
10 but really an awful lot of the serious adventitious
11 agent problems that have arisen have arisen because of
12 materials sourced from whole animals or using pooled
13 preparation.
My take away at this very early point in the presentation is acknowledgment of problems in vaccine production. Carry on.
14 The first one on this list here is CJD,
15 Creutzfeldt Jakob Disease, which was transmitted by
16 growth hormone. The growth hormone was produced from
17 human cadaveric material. A very unpleasant disease.
18 It's almost impossible to detect the agent other than
19 by standing back and waiting for the incubation period
20 to go.
21 In France, there are still a large number
22 of cases coming through as a result of this. It may
23 well be that around 10 percent are recipients of
24 human-derived growth hormone, will actually wind up
25 going down with CJD in France.
Whoa, whoa whoa! Hold on a minute. A disease is passed on to people in France from growth hormone which was derived from producing it in human cadaveric material. "A very unpleasant disease." he said. "Almost impossible to detect the agent other than by standing back and waiting for the incubation period to go." You can't detect it except after the people have it?!? Around 10% of people receiving growth hormone in France will come down with this disease?!
Huh. Sounds a little sloppy. Let's continue.
6 Scrapie was first shown to be a
7 transmissible agent by the use of a TBE vaccine, which
8 was grown in the brains of sheep. TBE being tick-
9 borne encephalitis, which then transmitted scrapie to
10 a large number of the sheep that were actually
11 inoculated with it. So again, this is a whole animal
12 source material, if you like, that had quite serious
13 consequences, especially if you were a sheep.
Good one doc, "...especially if you were a sheep." Ha, ha.
Back to humans.
14 Over the last 15 or 20 years or so, one ofContinuing on...
15 the best examples of serious or disease-causing
16 transmissions of infectious agents has been through
17 human blood and blood-derived materials, clotting
18 factors in particular. In all of these things, the
19 entire alphabet soup of hepatitis viruses has been
20 transmitted by blood product.
21 In the early days at least, some of these
22 were really regarded as really a hazard, if you like,
23 of being a hemophiliac. So, for example, hepatitis C,
24 in the days when there was a non-A, non-B hepatitis,
25 it was really regarded as an inevitable consequence of
8
1 using factor 8 to treat hemophilia. I am not sure
2 that that is an acceptable way of actually doing
3 things any more. I am sure that hemophiliacs would
4 agree with that. B-19, paravirus B-19 is still
5 transmitted by clotting factors.
6 Finally, this one down at the bottom here
7 is a classic example of a transmission by a vaccine,
8 if you like, where hepatitis B was transmitted by
9 yellow fever vaccine back in the 1940s. The hepatitis
10 B actually came from the stabilizers of the albumin
11 that was actually put in there to keep it stable.
12 There is a story that Fred McCallum, who
13 is head of the Public Health Service in the United
14 Kingdom tells to the effect that he basically won the
15 war because he prevented Winston Churchill having a
16 yellow fever vaccine when he was going off to talk
17 with Stalin around 1944.
18 So most of the serious consequences really
19 come from whole animal source materials, if you like.
20 You can use whole animals as substrates. I'm using
21 the term "whole animals" in a fairly broad sense.
22 Eggs in the definition of the Animal Regulated Use Act
23 in the United Kingdom count as an animal because they
24 are embryonated.
Yikes. Glad Churchill skipped that vaccine too. Albumin are the egg whites that were in there. Let's continue.
25 For many years, rabies vaccines wereWait. Wait just a minute. Hold it right there. "You can get encephalitis as a result of immune responses to the non-invasic protein." The protein that's in there can cause encephalitis?! Not some additional contaminant causing it?! (Adventitial agents. Unknown pathogens that are present in the cell lines that are used to produce vaccines and that can become part of the final vaccine.) Your body's natural immune response can bring on the encephalitis?!
9
1 produced in mouse brain or sheep brain. They have
2 quite serious consequences, but not necessarily
3 associated with adventitial agents. You can get
4 encephalitis as a result of immune responses to the
5 non-invasic protein.
I wonder if there are other proteins in other vaccines that can cause this kind of response. Hmmm.
Do they still use mouse brains?
6 The Japanese encephalitis vaccine, whichReading on...
7 is used for travelers in the United Kingdom, is still
8 made in mouse brain. So it's not an unusual source of
9 material, if you like. Smallpox for a long time was
10 made on the scarified flanks of calves. Like I said,
11 isn't any more. However, while these things seem
12 really quite primitive, in terms of how you make
13 vaccines nowadays, you still have a number of vaccines
14 that are made in eggs. Yellow fever is the classic
15 example, and influenza.
4 Influenza is an actuated vaccine. Again,
5 it's not made on SPF eggs, that is, specified
6 pathogen-free eggs. They are avian leukosis free, but
7 they are not free of all the other variety of
8 pathogens that you would choose to screen for measles
9 vaccine production system, for example.
10 So even today then you have to bear in
11 mind that a large amount of vaccine that's made is
12 made on really quite crude materials, from an
13 adventitious agent point of view. It's not a trivial
14 usage. In fact, when you go through and consider what
15 vaccines are actually made on these days, they are
16 quite primitive, if you like, in some respects.
What are SPFs? What's that you say? It means Specified Pathogen Free? So if a vaccine is made from eggs that are not SPF it means that there may be pathogens in there?! "It's not a trivial usage." The doctor said. Meaning, a LOT of vaccines are made on materials where they don't know whether there are any harmful pathogens in there or not... The doctor continued, "In fact, when you go through and consider what vaccines are actually made on these days, they are quite primitive, if you like, in some respects." Huh, ya think?! Yeah, I've got to agree on this one. It sounds like a noxious witches brew. (Not to offend Wiccans. I think they would use some nice herbs or something. Nothing noxious...)
"Oh, but that's crazy." you're thinking. Yep, it is.
Onward to SV40.
24 SV40 is one that I'm going to talk about
25 in some detail in a minute. This was in polio
11
1 vaccines in the 1950s and very early 1960s, probably,
2 a source from rhesus monkey kidney. Polio vaccines
3 are still made on monkey kidney, though they are not
4 usually on rhesus monkey kidney. It would be
5 cynomologous or something like that, for reasons which
6 I'll describe in a moment.
7 Nonetheless, a great deal of vaccine is
8 still made in primary monkey kidney cells. There are
9 reasons for that. There's a deep conservatism I think
10 about changing the vaccine production process if you
11 have a vaccine that works, largely because you are
12 dealing with a prophylactic material rather than a
13 therapeutic material. So you don't want to mess about
14 with anything if it's reasonably safe and effective.
OK. So no one wants to change things that they think are working. Some might argue about the whole "reasonably safe and effective" thing, in light of SV40. Nonetheless, let's hear you explain about SV40 *cough, harmful, cough*--let's hear more about that. But before that, let's hear about some other problems first.
15 I'll mention very briefly the defective
16 retrovirus story in chick embryos. I think Jim
17 Robertson will probably mention this in more detail,
18 but I will mention that just as I go by. Finally
19 recently, the FDA released a talk paper on a
20 preparation of urokinase, which is used in treating
21 the heart. This material was grown from primary
22 cultures made from aborted fetuses. I think it was
23 aborted fetuses or miscarriages, or whatever. There
24 were quite a variety of infectious agents were
25 actually found in this. I believe this one has now
12
1 been suspended.
Ah!! Suspended one because, "There were quite a variety of infectious agents were actually found in this." Great. But, what about the infections that aren't found right away, like SV40? What's your point here?
2 The point is that there are still a large"Primary cultures"? Oh you mean animals and animal parts where infectious agents can get mixed in? Wait, I skipped that part. Let's look again:
3 number of materials which are made on really quite
4 basic culture systems, if you like, where adventitious
5 agents are a serious consideration, if you like. So
6 it's not all continuous cell lines versus the rest.
7 I mean there are -- most of the vaccines that are made
8 in the world probably come from other primary cultures
9 or eggs or things of that nature.
17 Primary cultures as been described
18 previously around here, are really cultures that are
19 made directly from the animal. So they are not one
20 pass. They are directly from the animal, if you like.
21 Here are a number of examples where agents are
22 actually being found or at least located in these kind
23 of cultures.
And you said that, "most of the vaccines that are made in the world probably come from other primary cultures or eggs or things of that nature." Well, I see why that would be a concern, certainly. Animals and eggs have their own viruses and infections and they just get mixed into the vaccines don't they?
Tell us about SV40.
10 I will now talk about SV40. I'm sure inWow. That sounds awful. An entire generation exposed to Sv40. I wonder if there was some kind of carcinogenic effect with that additional monkey virus. Was there? Surely vaccine safety standards would have ensured that that was studied for years and years.
11 this audience there are people who know far more about
12 SV40 than I do. But nonetheless, I'll talk about this
13 from what you might call the regulatory adventitious
14 agent point of view, if you like.
15 So it's a very common polyoma virus of old
16 world monkeys, and particularly rhesus macaques. The
17 difficulty with this was that when the rhesus macaque
18 monkeys are sacrificed and a primary monkey kidney
19 culture is made from him or her, as the case may be,
20 a silent infection is set up. So there is on evidence
21 of infection just by looking at the cultures. In
22 fact, these cultures can throw out as much SV40 as
23 they do polio, when you start infecting it with polio.
24 So you wind up with a culture that's just stiff with
25 adventitious agent which you really don't want.
13
1 It's able to transform non simian cells in
2 vitro, and it can be tumorigenic if you have the right
3 kind of animal that you put it into. Between 55 and
4 62, probably at least a third of all the vaccines that
5 were made on these kind of cultures, because they were
6 pooled and the like, were almost certainly
7 contaminated with SV40. It wasn't a trivial
8 contamination. It was really quite a serious
9 contamination.
10 Because it was mainly an activated polio
11 vaccine, there wouldn't have been that much live SV40
12 in it perhaps. But SV40 is more resistant to formalin
13 than polio is. So almost everybody who received the
14 shot of inactivated polio in the 1950s, which would
15 include me, would have received live SV40 in some form
16 or another.
17 So the concern is really summarized here,
18 which is basically that everybody, I mean this is my
19 own take on it, that everybody -- I mean you can argue
20 that it might not have been sort of everybody, but I
21 think it probably was. But almost everybody who
22 received the full course of polio vaccine between 1955
23 and 1965, also got live SV40 stuck into them. That's
24 millions of people basically.
Such adverse conditions may not show up for years and years afterwards? But, vaccines have no long term studies like that...
25 There were epidemiological studies that
14
1 were done at the time which really didn't cause much
2 concern, but they can all be criticized. Some of the
3 studies were really quite short-term, about two or
4 three years or so, looking to see if there were cancer
5 effects basically, as a result of SV40. It may be
6 that two or three years is not enough to actually find
7 such an effect, if it actually exists.
16 So while the studies were reassuring, theOK. So maybe a little monkey virus between friends is no big deal. No problem! Wait, what?
17 most reassuring thing was that there was no sudden
18 surge of cancers that you can actually trace back to
19 polio vaccine usage in the United States or in Europe
20 where these things were used in a big way. So it
21 really did seem that in the long term, over about 19
22 to 20 years, there was no real cause for alarm.
23 However, in 1992, Michaili Carboni andSay, I have a question--how did SV40 cancer causing monkey virus show up in kids if the contaminated polio was discovered in the early 60's? How is it effecting kids and giving them cancer? You did change the monkeys to the ones without SV40, right? Let's read.
24 colleagues and others, a number of others, including
25 Janet Butelle down in Texas and the like, identified
15
1 SV40 sequences which were present in a variety of
2 relatively rare tumors. So mysathelia, which is the
3 asbestos tumor, osteosarcomas, pendymonas, actually
4 the young chorioid plexus tumors of children, these
5 sequences do appear to be genuine SV40 sequences.
6 Where they come from is really not quite
7 clear. Part of the argument was that you could get
8 similar types of tumors in experimental animals, like
9 hamsters. I think that is probably the only example
10 where a hamster is cited as a good model for a human
11 being perhaps. But who knows? In fact, this might
12 actually be an argument that this has got nothing to
13 do with it.
14 So the question then arises as to where
15 did the SV40 sequences come from. Of course the
16 classic response really would have been it must have
17 come from the polio vaccine because why not?
18 Now SV40 was discovered around 1961 orGood. We're listening. Continue.
19 1962 or thereabouts, 1960 perhaps. Directly it was
20 discouraged. There were precautions put in place to
21 exclude it from polio vaccines, because it was known
22 to be a tumor kind of virus, if you like. These were
23 the kind of things that were put in place. They are
24 listed in WHO requirements from about 1962 onwards.
25 They reached their final fully flowered form, if you
16
1 like, by about 1965. A number of countries certainly
2 had put this in place before that.
3 The first thing you can do is to use
4 seronegative animals as the source of cells. So you
5 can use animals that have no evidence of SV40
6 infection as your source. That really is something
7 which is now very firmly in place, which manufacturers
8 now do.
9 The second thing is, you remember I saidGotcha. Go on.
10 that it was the rhesus macaques with the problems.
11 The problem was that the cell cultures didn't show any
12 sign of having defect, when they were actually
13 infected with SV40. What you can do then is you can
14 use species, such as cynomolgus or pattus monkeys,
15 where the primary monkey kidney culture cell, when
16 infected with SV40, will actually wrinkle up and die
17 on you. So at least you know you have got something
18 nasty and you can throw it away.
19 Finally, you can test your control of
20 production cultures for SV40 by the same kind of
21 procedure. That is why using sesetral cells to see if
22 anything comes through.
23 Around the period that this was takingYeah, I again have to agree with you--it all sounds sloppy and impossible to control. But, I'm not a doctor--what do I know?!
24 place, wild caught monkeys were being used extensively
25 in vaccine production. Up to a half of the cultures
17
1 would have been thrown away because of adventitious
2 agent contamination, mainly foamy virus, but certainly
3 other things as well. I think that just illustrates
4 the kind of lack of control, if you like, over the
5 source materials that was going on, and the extent to
6 which adventitious agents are really a serious problem
7 in finding monkey kidney cultures or primary cultures
8 in general.
9 An alternative way of doing this is toYou think it's foolish for the seed virus to have SV40 in it--even if it's a little, teeny, tiny bit?
10 actually use a validated cell bank. Certainly many
11 manufacturers use MRC5, and Mary of course used vira
12 cells, as we heard last night.
13 Nonetheless, a significant, if indeed not
14 a large proportion of the world's supply of polio
15 vaccine is still made on primary monkey kidney cells,
16 which should really fit this kind of criteria for
17 excluding SV40.
18 One of the questions that then arises is
19 were these precautions good enough? What we did at
20 NIBSC, because we happened to have about 150-odd
21 batches of vaccine archived from the years, was to go
22 back and look at them by PCR. PCR of course is the
23 cat's pajamas. It's really the best technique that
24 anybody ever invented in terms of sensitivity. It's
25 probably about as good as infectivity, at least in our
18
1 hands anyway.
2 But nonetheless, we went back and we
3 looked by PCR at 133 preparations of polio vaccine
4 which had been used in the United Kingdom between 1966
5 and about 1997. What we had done was looked at all
6 batches of vaccine which had been used since 1980, and
7 all of those were free of SV40 sequences. So that
8 gives you some reassurance that these precautions were
9 actually appropriate.
10 In fact, the only preparation which had
11 any SV40 sequence in it at all was a seed virus which
12 was used by a manufacturer for making vaccine from.
13 The amount that was in there was around two logs worth
14 of genome as opposed to seven logs of genomes in a
15 really full-fledged infected preparation. So there
16 wasn't that much in there. The manufacturer had also
17 treated this stuff with toluidine blue, which is
18 supposed to kill of SV40. This was done on the advice
19 of Albert Sabin back in 1960-something or other.
20 But nonetheless, it does seem to me that
21 it's rather a foolish thing to have a seed that's got
22 SV40 sequences in it at all. I think the WHO
23 requirements have now been changed so the seed has to
24 be checked to see if it does have SV40 sequences in
25 it or not.
Tell us more about the kids and their cancer. If there was no more SV40, how did they get it?
1 This particular seed was not infectiousWhat?! Are you telling me that it's possible that parents who were infected with SV40 in the polio vaccine that they got before the early 60's could be passing it down to their kids?
2 SV40. We did some quite serious studies on it, like
3 transvecting the DNA into cells to see if it would
4 work, infecting monkeys with it to see if we could
5 actually get seroconversion. There was no
6 seroconversion. So there was no infectious virus
7 there that we could actually detect. But nonetheless,
8 the seed did have material in it.
9 If on the other hand you look at materials
10 from around the 1960s or from other parts of the world
11 a little bit later than that, you can pick up SV40
12 sequences quite easily. So the method would have
13 picked it up had it been there.
14 So our conclusion from that was then that
15 really as soon as these kind of precautions were put
16 in place, no SV40 would have been present in all polio
17 vaccines used, at least in the United Kingdom and I
18 would guess in the United States as well, because it's
19 after the same kind of precautions were put in place.
20 So the precautions were adequate. Which means that
21 SV40 exposure of the population through polio vaccines
22 would have stopped around 1962.
23 So what you then have is the problem of
24 the chorioid plexus and appendinoma tumors, which
25 occur in children who are around two years of age or
20
1 maybe less. You have to say well how did they get a
2 hold of the SV40 sequences? One possibility, which is
3 mooted with some enthusiasm is that maybe you are
4 getting passage of SV40 from parents who did receive
5 the SV40 contaminated polio vaccine to their children.
6 So how this stuff gets around is quite important.
7 One of the things that we have been
8 involved in is doing serological surveys of
9 populations to see who has got SV40 antibodies and who
10 hasn't. It is about a five percent seropositivity by
11 the assay that we're using at least. It seems to peak
12 at around age 10 or thereabouts, and doesn't arise
13 after that.
14 So what you could argue then is that you
15 are seeing vertical transmission from parents down to
16 their children.
Vertical transmission? Where a mother passes on an infection while the baby is in utero? It's continuing to another generation? Cancer causing monkey viruses are being passed from generation to generation?
What other known or unknown infections, viruses or other contaminants will be passed from generation to generation?
2 The point about this long story which IYeah, that seems patently obvious...
3 have just been telling you about SV40 is that SV40 was
4 a problem between 1955 and 1962, and it's now 1999,
5 and we still don't really know what was going on.
So
6 if you actually make a mistake, it's really quite
7 serious. It may keep you occupied for the rest of
8 your working life.
9 One last quick thing or two last slides
10 here. One is about reverse transcriptase of vaccines.
11 Dr. Schuepbach will be talking later and Jim Robertson
12 will be talking in a moment about detection of reverse
13 transcriptase in chicken cell grown vaccines, such as
14 flu or yellow fever or measles, mumps, rubella.
15 This appears to be due to the presence of
16 defective non-infectious particles. There are
17 sequences from EAV and ALV both in these things, a
18 ratio of about nine to one as I understand it. It
19 does seem to me that you are not really quite sure
20 what the AV sequence is in there and what ALV sequence
21 is in there. It's probably going to vary from chicken
22 to chicken in so far as these chickens have not been
23 bred. In other words, every egg is a new experiment.
24 You are really not quite sure what you are dealing
25 with in that. I think that is quite an unfortunate
23
1 position to be in. I'm not sure how you control it.
I'm not sure what "reverse transcriptase" is. It doesn't sound good and the doctor explained it's involved with chicken cell grown vaccines: flu, yellow fever, measels, mumps and rubella. As he said, "In other words, every egg is a new experiment. You are really not quite sure what you are dealing with in that. I think that is quite an unfortunate position to be in. I'm not sure how you control it."
It doesn't sound to me like any of these vaccines grown and harvested on living animal tissues or cadaveric tissues is controlled or understood very well. Of course I'm not a doctor, but I just read the words of one--he sounds concerned.
2 Finally, this is my last slide, and this
3 has to do with characterized cells. The issues that
4 I have been dealing with really have been to do with
5 primary cells and primary cell problems where the
6 virus comes in direct from the animal origin. I think
7 there is no doubt in my mind that that's the main
8 source of concern in terms of human health.
9 Nonetheless, there are clearly problems
10 which also arise with characterized cells and the
11 continuous cell lines, in particular. We have some
12 down here.
13 Now the regulatory authorities in the room
14 will be well aware of a large number of other examples
15 of this type which don't actually get published. I
16 think that's not so good. I think this stuff really
17 should be out there in the public literature.
Wow, "...a large number of other examples of this type which don't actually get published." A large number? How big a problem is this? Why don't they get published...
I'm glad to help out. I'm spreading the word here. You can count on me.
That was all the presentation of Dr. Minor. If you look at the index,
I N D E X
SPEAKER PAGE
Philip Minor, Ph.D. 4
James Robertson, Ph.D. 32
Jorg Schuepbach, M.D. 51
Jens Mayer, Ph.D. 66
Thomas Broker, Ph.D. 78
Neil Cashman, M.D. 102
Panel Discussion 129
Dr. Onions, Chair
John Sedivy, Ph.D. 176
Frits Fallaux, Ph.D. 199
Panel Discussion 212
Dr. Coffin, Chair
you see that it continues on for some time. I didn't read the rest. I'm going to. You might take a look at it too.
This is all public record. Not surprisingly, it is not the kind of thing that's included in the flu vaccine public service announcements I've seen recently. They're not talking about flu vaccines being produced from eggs that may or may not have viruses that may or may not be harmful to humans when injected into their blood streams that may or may not be transmitted vertically to the next generation. It just doesn't come up.
Maybe it should.
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Hey Laura,
I'm new to this topic. I've got an almost two year old who has been vaccinated on the recommended schedule. Her doctor is great (she's my doctor as well) and did give us information on side effects and when to not have the vaccine (during illness,etc.).
I've heard of the Dr. Sears method where you space out the shots given to your child,etc. But, how does not vaccinating your child work? Are your kids at a greater risk of developing some of these viruses,etc. because they haven't been vaccinated? As a daycare provider I'm sent letters every year that update me on what dangerous sicknesses are spring up around the state, and children in past years have even died from some of these random illnesses.
So...that was a lot of rambling :) Sorry! I'm just curious about whether you worry about your kids getting sick and how you deal with all of those worries or fears. Or..maybe you don't have them at all!! Thanks!
April 2, 2009 12:57 PM