For related articles and more information, please visit OCA’s Health Issues page.
On April 29, 2013 the Minnesota Department of Health announced its intent to add even more vaccines to the already overcrowded shot schedules for infants and children.
Infants and children already are given up to 69 vaccines, whose combined and potential ill effects over time receive inadequate study. New vaccines proposed include:
• Hepatitis B and Hepatitis A for infants in child care;
• Meningococcal and Pertussis vaccines for 7th graders;
• Chickenpox vaccine at an earlier age.
By law, MDH can adopt new vaccination rules without having a public
hearing… UNLESS 25 or more persons submit written requests for a hearing
on the rules, by end of day on May 31.
According to the Vaccine Safety Council of Minnesota:
Children in America are the most heavily vaccinated children in the world, and also have some of the highest rates of chronic illness. One in ten children now has asthma. One in 6 children has learning difficulties and requires special education. One in 50 children now suffers from autism. We know from independent studies that children who have not been vaccinated do not have these high rates of chronic illness. Vaccination can lead to chronic immune system problems, and American children have ADHD, auto-immune diseases, juvenile diabetes, and arthritis at rates never seen before.
Public health authorities focus on vaccine-preventable diseases, but the elephant in the room is the reality that some children are killed or disabled by vaccine injury. This fact is not conveyed to parents by the people advocating more and more shots. The MDH wants to add new vaccines for infectious diseases that affect only a handful of our children. But these chronic diseases are now affecting tens of thousands of MN children. The exemption from vaccination will continue to be available to parents, but many parents are not aware of the risks of the vaccines and the number of vaccine injuries being reported.
One of the major reasons that the MDH has cited in adding new vaccines to the vaccination schedule is to bring it into line with recommendations from the federal Advisory Committee on Immunization Policy (ACIP). However, this committee is known to have conflicts of interest – a majority of people on ACIP have ties to the vaccine pharmaceutical industry.
HEPATITIS B VACCINE:
MDH wants to require infants in child care to receive the hepatitis B vaccine. But hepatitis B is a disease primarily found in adults, and is related to risky behavior, such as sharing needles for illegal drugs, and sex with multiple partners. Babies are not at risk of the disease, except for during childbirth, if their mothers are infected. However, mothers are now screened in pregnancy, and if they are positive for hepatitis B, their infants are treated. About 1 in 10,000 children in MN have hepatitis B, most derived in childbirth from their mothers. These children cannot transmit the disease to other children through coughing sneezing, or sharing drinking glasses. It can only be transmitted through contact with blood or bodily fluids.
The hepatitis B vaccine has one of the worst track records for safety, and vaccinating healthy babies that are not at risk for the disease only puts them at risk for vaccine injury.
Hep B adverse effects: The Vaccine Injury Court reviews claims of vaccine injury and does extensive reviews to see whether someone’s disability or death was caused by the vaccine. . 575 people have gone through the process of documenting to the court a serious injury from the hepatitis B vaccine, including 44 deaths, and the court has ruled in favor and compensated 225. These have included death, lupus, multiple sclerosis, rheumatic arthritis, and a host of auto-immune illnesses.
HEPATITIS A:
Hep A rates in MN babies are very low and are not increasing.
Who is most at risk for acquiring HAV infection?
• travelers to countries that have high levels of HAV infection
• men who have sex with men
• people who have clotting-factor disorders, such as hemophilia
• users of injection illegal drugs
• people working with nonhuman primates
The hepatitis A vaccine is known to have fragments of residual human DNA in it, because the vaccine was cultured on human fetal tissue. Some research has shown increases in auto-immune reactions in children receiving vaccines containing human DNA.
MENINGOCOCCAL VACCINE:
There have been no MN deaths from meningococcal disease in 11 – 22 year olds in eight years (2004-2011), including a year before the vaccine was licensed, that could have been prevented by the vaccine. One nineteen-year old who had been vaccinated, and a 17-year-old both died after contracting a strain of meningitis not covered by the vaccine.
This low incidence of disease does not justify the risk of vaccinating all 7thgraders, especially given the waning of immunity in just 2 – 5 years, when the government has paid individuals for injuries and disabilities from the vaccine. The Federal Vaccine Court has compensated individuals for multiple sclerosis, Guillain-Barré Syndrome, acute disseminating encephalomyelitis, and transverse myelitis, following vaccinations which included the meningococcal vaccine.
A bill has been introduced in Congress to require the Dept of HHS to do studies of the health of vaccinated vs unvaccinated children. Until these studies are done, we should not be pushing even more vaccines on our children.
To learn more about reasons for concern over MN Department of Health attempt to add more vaccines to the vaccination schedule visit the Vaccine Safety Council of Minnesota
By law, MDH can adopt new vaccination rules without having a public hearing… UNLESS 25 or more persons submit written requests for a hearing on the rules, by end of day on May 31.
If enough people write to express opposition, a rules hearing will take place on Thursday, June 27. A judge will preside, and people who oppose increasing the number of vaccines required for infants and children will be able to testify.
Minnesota’s exemption for philosophical reason to vaccines will still apply in all cases.
According to Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) website:
• You have until 4:30 p.m. on Friday, May 31, 2013, to submit written comment in support of or in opposition to the proposed rules or any part or subpart of the rules.
• Your comment must be in writing and received by the agency contact person by the due date.
• Your comments should identify the portion of the proposed rules addressed, the reason for the comment, and any change proposed.
Please email, fax or mail your letter to the MDH by May 31.
Take this opportunity to write the Minnesota Department of Health about the adverse impact that vaccines and over-vaccination have had on you, your family and your community. Provide any scientific references and links that you can. You can write your own comments or use something like the sample letter below.
To read more about VSCMn’s concerns about the proposed rule changes, click here.
Write to the MDH Contact Person:
Patti Segal Freeman
Minnesota Department of Health
Freeman Building
625 Robert Street North
PO Box 64975
St. Paul, Minnesota 55164-0975
Email: health.immrule@state.mn.us
Fax: 651-201-5501
______________________
SAMPLE LETTER
To: Minnesota Department of Health
From: [YOUR NAME & ADDRESS HERE]
I ask the Minnesota Department of Health to withdraw its proposed vaccine increases to the state’s school and child care immunization law, as per its April 4, 2013 Statement of Need and Reasonableness.
The proposed vaccine schedule changes are not needed, and are not reasonable. MDH’s plan raises consumers’ concerns about a variety of health damage caused by the over-vaccination of our nation’s children.
According to the Institute of Medicine, “Vaccines are not free from side effects, or ‘adverse effects.'” So far the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program has had 14,000 petitions filed.
Worse, 200,000 vaccine injuries have been reported to the Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System… though estimates say that is only one to ten percent of all cases. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control has failed to investigate the cause or provide treatment for vaccine injury cases in VAERS, thus ensuring that the number of iatrogenic victims continues to rise.
Increasingly scientific studies link over-vaccination to developmental delay and health damage in infants and children. Now in the U.S., one child in six receives special education services. One in fifty has autism; one in fourteen has asthma.
The vaccine bureaucracy is out of touch with product consumers. Thus I again ask MDH to remove its proposal to increase the number of vaccines and to hold a hearing on this topic.
[YOUR SIGNATURE]
Please forward to family, friends and fellow advocates. Thank you!
More information:
Minnesota Immunization Rule Proposed Revisions – Chapter 4604
http://www.health.state.mn.us/divs/idepc/immunize/immrule/
Public Comment and Hearing Information
http://www.health.state.mn.us/divs/idepc/immunize/immrule/public.html
http://www.health.state.mn.us/divs/idepc/immunize/immrule/contact.html
Get an email alert when information on the Immunization Rule Revisions is added or updated.
https://public.govdelivery.com/accounts/MNMDH/subscriber/new?topic_id=MNMDH_235&pop=t
Click here for more information on the proposed rule changes and concerns of VSCM.