, writes in Jay Carpenter, M.D. Crisis magazine, Feb. 13, 2015:
In recent days a controversy has arisen over whether parents should be required to vaccinate their children. Some politicians [notably Sen. Rand Paul] with presidential aspirations were criticized for defending the rights of parents to make that decision. As an internal medicine doctor, I believe strongly in the efficacy of vaccines. I also believe strongly that our vaccines (and all of our medical advances) should be safe and derived in a morally principled fashion.
There is an ethical concern about the measles vaccine issue that I do not believe the American public is aware: a component of the current MMR vaccine is derived from an aborted fetal cell line. As such, there is a large group of Americans who will not avail themselves of this "tainted" therapy. The unfortunate truth is that there are ethical, morally acceptable alternative vaccines that are simply not made available to Americans.
Measles is a viral disease that can lead to infection of the brain (encephalitis) in 1 in 1,000 cases, resulting in serious neurologic complications and sometimes death. In addition, it can lead to other problems such as pneumonia. Vaccines for measles are now commonly combined in the MMR vaccine with vaccines for rubella and mumps. These diseases can also result in deadly complications. Vaccination can nearly eliminate the risks from these viral infections.
In order for vaccines to be made for viruses, the virus must first be isolated, then grown in a cell line to provide sufficient numbers of the virus. That viral material is again isolated and put into a vaccine to be injected into the recipient. In isolating the virus after it is grown in a cell line, particles from the cells, including particles of the host DNA in which it was grown, are collected and become part of the material that is injected into the recipient. When the cell line used is of human origin, legitimate concerns about the consequences of injecting another's DNA into the recipient have been raised and not yet answered.The rubella virus used in the rubella component of the MMR vaccine was obtained from a fetus that was aborted in the 1970s. To make the current MMR vaccine, it is grown in a human cell line, WI-38, that was derived from a 3-month-old fetus that was electively aborted in the early 1960s because the parents felt they had too many children. The cells from that original fetus have been kept in culture media, and have given rise to multiple daughter populations that are use in making vaccines.
The strain of virus used in the measles and mumps components of the MMR vaccine were derived from the blood of living children who had the disease in question and is grown in chick embryo cells, hence, there is no ethical concern about these components of the vaccine.
Prior to 2009, Merck , the manufacturer of the MMR vaccine used in the U.S. and in many other countries, made available individually separate vaccines for mumps and measles that were derived from the ethically acceptable sources as described. In 2009, they stopped making these vaccines available , despite reassurances to the contrary. Since then, Merck has refused to license these vaccines to other companies who were interested in making them available to the public. It has been since 2009 that the incidence of measles in this country has risen, so it is not inconceivable that legitimate ethical concerns have been at least one factor for the decline in the rate of measles vaccination.
The ethical problem is not isolated to the MMR vaccine. Cell lines from aborted fetuses are used in the vaccines for Hepatitis A, chicken pox, shingles, rabies, some small pox vaccines, some polio vaccines, some combination polio vaccines such as Pentacel and Quadracel, and in some of the new Ebola vaccines. Additionally aborted fetal cells are utilized in some treatments for hemophilia, cystic fibrosis, and rheumatoid arthritis. The fact is, that none of these need to come from such sources, but could be made from other cell lines readily available in research circles.
For instance, the Kitasato Institute in Japan makes MMR vaccines that are ethically acceptable . Regrettably, the FDA decided not to allow their importation into the United States. Individuals can travel to Japan to receive these vaccines, but obviously, that is not a sensible solution to improving vaccination rates significantly.
Politicians and some in the media have suggested mandating vaccinations of children against the moral objections of their parents. Those same public figures would serve us better by helping to promote the manufacture or importation of vaccines that are derived ethically. Parents and their children deserve wholesome untainted vaccine alternatives to promote the health and the safety of their children.
Note: is a U.S. pharmaceutical company and the 7th largest pharmaceutical company in the world. Headquartered in Kenilworth, New Jersey, the company was established in 1891 as the United States subsidiary of the German company Merck KGaA, founded 1668. Merck & Co. was confiscated by the US government during World War I and subsequently established as an independent American company.
In addition to Dr. Jay Carpenter's warning (above) about Merck using aborted human fetal cells to derive its MMR vacines that include the measles vaccine, another physician, Dr. David Brownstein , maintains that the current measles vaccine, specifically the human DNA from aborted fetal cells, may be causing the recent increase in autism. He :
There is concern that the increase in autism that has occurred may be due to the introduction of human DNA-from fetal cells-in the MMR and chicken pox vaccines.(3) A scientific review from Dr. Helen Ratajczak , a former scientist at a pharmaceutical firm, reviewed the body of published research since autism was first described in 1943. Dr. Ratajczak stated, "What I have published is highly concentrated on hypersensitivity. The body's immune system is being thrown out of balance" by the increasing number of vaccines given in a short period of time. She also felt that the introduction of human DNA contained in vaccines has markedly increased the risk of developing autism. Presently, human tissue is used in 23 vaccines. Dr. Ratajczak feels that the increased spike in autism related to the introduction of human DNA into the MMR and chicken pox vaccines. She goes on to state that the foreign DNA from vaccines can be incorporated into the host DNA which causes the immune system to fight against the foreign cells. This could start an inflammatory process that never ends, leading to chronic illnesses like autoimmune disease and allergies. Maybe this is why we are seeing so many children with severe, life-threatening allergies to common foods like peanuts.
Is the measles vaccine 100% safe? No way. I wrote about the problems with the MMR vaccine in past blog posts. I showed you research by Dr. Andrew Wakefield which found measles virus in the lymph tissue of 12 autistic children. These children never had measles, but they were vaccinated with the measles vaccine. Dr. Wakefield felt that vaccine could be causing the gut inflammation that most autistic kids suffer from. For that crime, he was prosecuted by the media and the medical profession. I wrote to you in August, 2014, ( http://blog.drbrownstein.com/toxic-vaccines-and-autism-a-cdc-coverup/) that the Center for Disease Control-CDC-altered a 2004 study which hid the data that supported Dr. Wakefield's research. A CDC whistleblower and author on that 2004 paper came forward to announce the 2004 paper was a fraud; the CDC hid data in the paper which showed a clear link between the early administration of the MMR vaccine and autism.
[...] I am still waiting for the highest levels of our Government to examine the CDC fraud. We need the U.S. Congress to call an open hearing to address this matter. Until this matter is resolved how can you fault any parent for questioning the safety of the MMR vaccine?
Perhaps Dr. Wakefield's research was fraudulent (I have studied it and I don't think it is). Until we know the truth from the CDC, a parent cannot know for sure whether the MMR vaccine is safe to give their child.
One last comment. Both of my much-older-than-I sisters had measles. Back then, it was a benign illness that everybody got. Just like chicken pox. That generation did just fine with measles. They did not suffer the plethora of autoimmune, allergic and chronic illness that the younger generations suffer from. Perhaps we need to do research comparing vaccinated with non-vaccinated populations. Unbelievably, this work still has not been done. There has not been a single randomized, controlled study of a vaccinated versus a non-vaccinated population.
H/t California Catholic Daily and FOTM's MomOfIV
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