Offit is Off It

Anecdotal case reports and uncontrolled observational studies in the medical literature claim that vaccines cause chronic diseases such as asthma, multiple sclerosis, chronic arthritis, and diabetes. Several biological mechanisms have been proposed to explain how vaccines might cause allergic or autoimmune diseases. For example, allergic diseases might be caused by prevention of early childhood infections (the "hygiene hypothesis"), causing a prolongation of immunoglobulin E-promoting T-helper cell type 2-type responses. However, vaccines do not prevent most common childhood infections, and large well-controlled epidemiologic studies do not support the hypothesis that vaccines cause allergies.  [And just what are these "large well-controlled epidemiologic studies"? I am sure that you never studied casein (milk) allergy which is due to the casein in the Hepatitis B shot given to infants before they are 2 months old.  Or how about a soy allergy study? Soy is an ingredient in the Pneumococcal Conjugate vaccine given to babies at 2 months of age. And gee, soy allergy doesn't show up quite as early as milk allergy. Usually it shows up by 3 months of age. And what about the deadly peanut allergy? It is a protected trade secret that peanut oil is used so I guess we don't need to study the effects....  What allergies did you study? I know you studied asthma (Asthma is probably due to medicines that have nasty side effects that are exactly like asthma....)  And I suppose you studied hay fever. Where are you food allergy studies? I suppose you took a vaccine that doesn't contain any egg ingredients and tried to relate it to egg allergy? -bfg]  Autoimmune diseases might occur after immunization because proteins on microbial pathogens are similar to human proteins ("molecular mimicry") and could induce immune responses that damage human cells. However, wild-type viruses and bacteria [It is interesting that "wild-type viruses and bacteria" can contaminate vaccines. But you are saying that wild viruses and bacteria also cause autoimmune diseases but you don't say that vaccines are not responsible! - bfg] are much better adapted to growth in humans than vaccines and much more likely to stimulate potentially damaging self-reactive lymphocytes. Consistent with critical differences between natural infection and immunization, well-controlled epidemiologic studies do not support the hypothesis that vaccines cause autoimmunity. [Your "well-controlled" studies have some major flaws. They don't prove what you say they do. And you should list them. - bfg]

Flaws in proposed biological mechanisms that explain how vaccines might cause chronic diseases are consistent with the findings of many well-controlled large epidemiologic studies that fail to show a causal relationship. ...

Antibiotics that are used during vaccine manufacture include neomycin, streptomycin, polymyxin B, chlortetracyline, and amphotericin B. Only neomycin is contained in vaccines in detectable quantities. However, immediate-type hypersensitivity reactions to the small quantities of neomycin contained in vaccines has not been clearly documented. Although neomycin-containing products have been found to cause delayed-type hypersensitivity reactions, these reactions are not a contraindication to receiving vaccines.  [So, neomycin causes immediate-type hypersensitivity reactions which are documented.... but we haven't bothered to CLEARLY document it. It also causes a DELAYED-TYPE of reaction but we haven't bothered with studying that at all so that makes it safe? And this guy believes he follows scientific evidence-based thinking? Ignore what evidence you have and make sure that no one looks for any more evidence - I guess that is the new scientific method.-bfg]

Parents should be reassured that quantities of mercury, aluminum, and formaldehyde contained in vaccines are likely to be harmless [since when does "likely" mean "actually"??? - bfg] on the basis of exposure studies in humans or experimental studies in animals. Although severe anaphylactic reactions may occur rarely after receipt of vaccines that contain sufficient quantities of egg proteins (eg, influenza, yellow fever) or gelatin (eg, MMR), children who are at risk for severe infection with influenza can be desensitized to influenza vaccine, and gelatin-specific allergies are very rare. Immediate-type hypersensitivity reactions to neomycin or yeast proteins have not been clearly documented and remain theoretical. [No studies about the other food proteins in the vaccines, we only look at immediate-type hypersensitivity reactions not delayed-type, studies are based on exposure studies of individual toxins and not having all these things mixed together and repeated injected into a babies as though it is the same thing..... dang, how can anyone question this man's scientific thinking??? Well, you'd better start!!! - bfg]

http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/

PEDIATRICS Vol. 112 No. 6 December 2003, pp. 1394-1397

Addressing Parents’ Concerns: Do Vaccines Contain

Harmful Preservatives, Adjuvants, Additives, or Residuals?

by Paul A. Offit, MD and Rita K. Jew, PharmD