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Midwives have existed since the
beginning of humanity. Why, then, is it so difficult to find a midwife in America?
What events occured between the mid 1800's until the present day which nearly made
midwifery extinct in America? And why are more families now looking into homebirth as a
refuge from hospital care?
Home Sweet Homebirth
provides the answers. Interviews with noted doctors, historians and midwives. Very
interesting and informative video.
MICHAEL BELKIN'S WRITTEN TESTIMONY TO CONGRESS (PART
1)
Tuesday May 18, 1999
My daughter Lyla Rose Belkin died on September 16, 1998 at
the age of five weeks, about 15 hours after receiving her second Hepatitis B vaccine
booster shot. Lyla was a lively, alert five-week-old baby when I last held
her in my arms. Little did I imagine as she gazed intently into my eyes with all the
innocence and wonder of a newborn child that she would die that night. She was never ill
before receiving the Hepatitis B shot that afternoon. At her final feeding that
night, she was extremely agitated, noisy and feisty -- and then she fell asleep suddenly
and stopped breathing. The autopsy ruled out choking. The NY Medical Examiner ruled her
death Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS).
But the NY Medical Examiner (Dr. Persechino) neglected to mention Lyla’s swollen
brain or the hepatitis B vaccine in the autopsy report. The coroner spoke to my wife and I
and our pediatrician (Dr. Zullo) the day of the autopsy and clearly stated that her brain
was swollen. The pediatrician Dr. Zullo’s notes of that conversation are “brain
swollen ... not sure cause yet ... could not see how recombinant vaccine could cause
problem.”
SIDS is a diagnosis of exclusion .. “it wasn’t this, it wasn’t that,
everything has been ruled out and we don’t know what it was.” A swollen brain is
not SIDS. Through conversations with other experienced pathologists, I subsequently
discovered that brain inflammation is a classic adverse reaction to vaccination (with any
vaccine) in the medical literature.
I set out to do an investigation of the hepatitis B vaccine and attended a workshop at the
National Academy of Sciences, Institute of Medicine on “Neo-Natal Death and the
Hepatitis B Vaccine,” the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP)
February meeting and a debate in New Hampshire between the Chairman of the ACIP Dr. Modlin
and Dr. Waisbren
about the safety of the hepatitis B vaccine. I also obtained the entire Vaccine Adverse
Events Reporting System (VAERS) database on hepatitis B vaccine adverse reactions and have
investigated it thoroughly.
These are my conclusions, supported by the following pages of text and analysis that are
too lengthy to present in entirety in the time allotted for this appearance. Please read
the results of my
investigation, as it will help you understand the magnitude of the
hepatitis B vaccine issue.
Newborn babies are not at risk of contracting the hepatitis B disease unless their mother
is infected.
Hepatitis B is primarily a disease of junkies, gays, and promiscuous heterosexuals.
The vaccine is given to babies because health authorities couldn’t get those risk
groups to take the vaccine.
Adverse reactions out-number cases of the disease in government
statistics.
Nothing is being done to investigate those adverse reactions.
Those adverse reactions include numerous deaths, convulsions and
arthritic conditions that occur within days after hepatitis B
vaccination.
The CDC is misrepresenting hypothetical, estimated disease statistics as real cases of the
disease.
The ACIP is recommending new vaccines for premature infants without having scientific
studies proving it is safe.
The US vaccine recommendation process is hopelessly compromised by conflicts of interest
with vaccine manufacturers, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the CDC.
Conclusion: If (as with the recently-recommended rotavirus vaccine) hepatitis B vaccine
was recommended in 1991 without scientific proof that it was safe in a broad sample of
racially and genetically diverse babies less than 48 hours old before they established
that recommendation, then the CDC has been experimenting on babies like guinea pigs and
this Committee should suspend that universal immunization policy.
_______________________________________________________
The hepatitis B vaccine was effectively mandated in 1991 for universal immunization of
newborn babies by the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) -- an adjunct of
the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Paradoxically, the CDC’s own
Fact Sheet on the hepatitis B disease does not include newborn babies as a risk group for
that disease. That Fact Sheet lists the risk groups as injection drug
users, homosexual men, sexually active heterosexuals, infants/children of immigrants from
disease-endemic areas, low socio-economic level, sexual/household contacts of infected
persons, infants born to infected mothers, health care workers and hemodialysis patients
NOT NEWBORN BABIES.
Question: Why then, did the ACIP establish a policy mandating that newborn babies not at
risk of the disease be automatically administered the 3-shot hepatitis B vaccine as their
first involuntary indoctrination into the pediatric care of America?
Answer: Here is that rationale from the original ACIP 1991 statement establishing the
official vaccination policy “Hepatitis B Virus: A Comprehensive Strategy for
Eliminating Transmission in the United States Through Universal Childhood Vaccination
...” “In the United States, most infections occur among adults and
adolescents ... The recommended strategy for preventing these infections has been the
selective vaccination of persons with identified risk factors ... However, this strategy
has not lowered the incidence of hepatitis B, primarily because vaccinating persons
engaged in high-risk behaviors, life-styles, or occupations before they become infected
generally has not been feasible ... Efforts to vaccinate persons in the major risk groups
have had limited success. For example, programs directed at injecting drug users
failed to motivate them to receive three doses of vaccine ... In the
United States it has become evident that HBV transmission cannot be prevented through
vaccinating only the groups at high risk of infection
... In the long term, universal infant vaccination would eliminate the
need for vaccinating adolescents and high-risk adults ... Hepatitis B vaccination is
recommended for all infants, regardless of the HBsAg status of the mother ... The first
dose can be administered during the newborn period, preferably before the infant is
discharged from the hospital, but no later than when the infant is 2 months of age
...”
So in the CDC and ACIP’s own words, almost every newborn US baby is now greeted on
its entry into the world by a vaccine injection against a sexually transmitted disease for
which the baby is not at risk -- because they couldn’t get the junkies, prostitutes,
homosexuals and promiscuous heterosexuals to take the vaccine. That is the essence of the
hepatitis B universal vaccination program.
Question: What are the risks and benefits for administering this vaccine to infants?
Answer: Hepatitis B is a rare, mainly blood-transmitted disease. In 1996 only 54 cases of
the disease were reported to the CDC in the 0-1 age group. There were 3.9 million births
that year, so the observed incidence of hepatitis B in the 0-1 age group was just 0.001%.
In the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS), there were 1,080 total reports of
adverse reactions from hepatitis B vaccine in 1996 in the 0-1 age group, with 47 deaths
reported. Total VAERS hepatitis B reports for the 0-1 age group outnumber reported cases
of the disease 20 to 1.
Question: Why don’t they just screen the mother to see if she is
infected with hepatitis B (since that’s about the only way a baby is
likely to get the disease), instead of vaccinating all infants?
Answer: Selling vaccines is extremely profitable and the process of
mandating vaccines is fraught with conflicts of interest between vaccine manufacturers,
the ACIP and the American Academy of Pediatrics. The business model of having the
government mandate everyone must buy your product is a monopolist’s delight.
Question: What studies are being done on the data from the FDA's Vaccine Adverse Event
Reporting System (VAERS)?
Answer: Absolutely nothing. The 25,000 reports are going into a drawer and being
forgotten. How many reports are enough to show a drug or vaccine is dangerous -- 2,500?
25,000? 250,000? Chen of the CDC and Ellenberg of the FDA monitor this data, write reports
and deliver speeches about how VAERS hepatitis B adverse reaction reports show nothing out
of the ordinary and show “the relative safety of HB vaccine when given to neonates
and infants.” VAERS shows nothing of the kind.
TAKE A LOOK AT THE VAERS DATA YOURSELF. The health authorities continue to negligently
downplay the steady stream of serious adverse reactions to this vaccine and more infants
and adults continue to die and suffer central nervous system and liver damage after HB
vaccination.
Question: Why do the CDC, ACIP and Merck say that there are
140,000-320,000 new infections/yr (70,000-160,000 symptomatic infections/yr) when their
own CDC data shows only 10,000 reported cases year?
Answer: They are passing off estimated, hypothetical numbers as actual cases. This is
statistical fraud. In the financial world such
mis-representation would lead to criminal charges. If a company inflated its earnings or
revenues by 300% (as the CDC does hepatitis B disease statistics) and foisted those
figures off as official data (and not some back-of-the-envelope guess-timate) - that
company would be investigated by the SEC and sued by shareholders. Why doesn’t that
happen in the medical world? There’s no regulator to keep the CDC honest. They do not
say those figures are hypothetical estimates, they misrepresent the
data. Go try to audit those 320,000 supposed new infections/yr. You will not find them.
The whole exercise is designed to increase public hysteria about the risk of a low-risk
disease so the CDC can extend it’s pervasive influence and Merck can increase
it’s $900 million/year vaccine revenues.
Question: What process does the Center for Disease Control employ to make a vaccine
recommendation?
I attended the February Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) meeting in
Atlanta and was absolutely appalled. Every vote by the Committee on new vaccine mandates
was unanimous (except for one dissenting vote on Rotavirus vaccine for premature infants).
There was hardly any discussion of adverse reactions, the ACIP simply rubber-stamped every
proposal on the agenda. I call it Vaccination Without Representation. In one instance, the
ACIP passed a recommendation for Rotavirus vaccine for premature infants even though no
scientific studies had been done showing it was medically safe. Dr. Modlin, (Chairman of
the ACIP), said in a pro-hepatitis B vaccine debate in New Hampshire “How do we
determine whether something is
scientifically valid or not? ... 1) Is the theory biologically plausible? 2) Has it been
tested by appropriate methods? 3) Is the study
well concluded? 4) Are the results statistically sound?” But at the
February ACIP meeting, when it came time for the ACIP to rubber-stamp approval of
Rotavirus vaccine for premature infants, here are Modlin’s quotes from the official
transcript: “.. available data are insufficient to fully establish the safety and
efficacy of rotavirus vaccine in premature infants ... there is a section under Adverse
Events that details what little information there actually are with respect to premature
infants ... To my knowledge we don’t have data from a clinical trial specifically ...
Some bit of information from Seattle, as I recall, that had suggested that was a slight
increase in relative risk for hospitalization for premature infants ... Obviously a
situation where we have to make a judgment IN THE ABSENCE OF DATA, AND WITH A
VACCINE THAT HAS NOT YET BEEN TESTED IN THE GROUP ...” (ACIP transcript, pages
102-112, emphasis added) Modlin then held a vote and the recommendation for premature
infants passed nine to one -- Modlin voted yes, Dr. Glode against. This is a clear example
of how the medical bureaucracy (led by the CDC and ACIP), is recommending vaccines without
scientific evidence that those vaccines are safe in a broad sample of
racially and genetically diverse infants.
What Should Be Done? This Committee should investigate the 1991 ACIP recommendation
establishing universal hepatitis B vaccination of newborn babies in the hospital -- and if
(as with the Rotavirus vaccine example above) no studies were done to prove this was safe
in a broad sample of racially and genetically diverse babies less than 48 hours old before
they established that recommendation, then the CDC has been experimenting on babies like
guinea pigs and this Committee should suspend that universal immunization policy.
GO HERE FOR PART 2
or