In a recent letter to the editor published in the medical journal The BMJ titled “We DO need a broad look at vaccination policies and programs,” Allan Cunningham, MD wrote that he agreed with a letter to the journal from Bernadette Pajer of Informed Choice Washington regarding the need to thoughtfully review the effect of vaccination policies on the American public.1 2 3
Dr. Cunningham said, “Bernadette Pajer is absolutely right to criticize the medical community for failing to step back and examine the overall impact of immunization programs on public health.”1
Cunningham noted that while he believed vaccines have contributed to the decline in the incidence of infectious diseases such as measles and polio, he suggested that it was important to include an evaluation of the “possible longer term beneficial or adverse non-specific effects” of the current recommended vaccine schedules. He said, “As immunization schedules have expanded, our ignorance of overall risks and benefits have also expanded.”1
Cunningham appears to be concerned that the science behind vaccines and their effects may not be as settled as many public health officials and physicians believe. He cited the alleged link between vaccines and autism. “I doubt that vaccinations are a major cause of our increase in autism, but without properly controlled trials we can neither prove nor exclude causation, contrary to what we hear endlessly from vaccine authorities,” said Cunningham, who cited a landmark study by public health epidemiologist Dr. Andrew Mawson comparing the health outcomes of vaccinated versus unvaccinated children.1
“A recent survey of US home-schooled children found that neurodevelopmental disorders, including autism, were 3 to 4 times as frequent in vaccinated vs. non-vaccinated children: P<0.001. Partially vaccinated children had intermediate risks,” said Cunningham.1 4
According to Claire Dwoskin, founder of the Children’s Medical Safety Research Institute (CMSRI), “the [Mawson] study concluded that vaccinated children were much more likely to have been diagnosed with a chronic illness (including allergies and learning disabilities) when compared to unvaccinated children. In addition, 7.5 percent of the 666 children in the study had been diagnosed with a neurodevelopmental disorder (NDD).”5
Cunningham also cited so-called “mystery diseases” and how little consideration has been given to the possibility that there could be an association with vaccines or the vaccine schedule. He pointed out…
There are other “mystery diseases” like SIDS and Kawasaki disease that have been associated with vaccinations and dismissed by vaccine authorities, again without properly controlled trials. The latest mystery disease is acute flaccid myelitis/AFM. It afflicts mainly children as they return to school in September. A role has been suggested for vaccinations via “provocation paralysis.” So far, public health authorities have not investigated the possibility.1
Cunningham specifically cited the case of six-year-old Jonathan Daniel Ramirez Porter of Ferndale, Washington who died of an “AFM-like illness with encephalitis” on Oct. 30, 2016. “He had received several vaccinations, including a flu shot, 14 days before the onset of his fatal illness, wrote Cunningham.”1 6
Cunningham’s views coincide with those of Barbara Loe Fisher of the National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC), who has often stressed the problem of a shortage of methodologically sound epidemiological and biological mechanism studies that clearly demonstrate the safety of childhood vaccines.
In 2013, Fisher said that the Institute of Medicine (IOM) had “repeatedly pointed out the astonishing lack of quality scientific studies to support the safety of the CDC-recommended numbers of doses and timing of vaccinations for children 0 to 6 years old in the child vaccine schedule. The committee confirmed there are large knowledge gaps, especially about children with increased biological susceptibility to suffering vaccine reactions and injuries.”7 8
Corrections: The headline for this article was originally “BMJ Editorial Questions Lack of Vaccine Safety Studies,” and the article began, “In an editorial published in the medical journal The BMJ… ” Both were inaccurate. The comments by Allan Cunningham, MD were, in fact, a response to an editorial titled “Measles: neither gone nor forgotten” in The BMJ.9 Dr. Cunningham’s comments were also in reference to a BMJ letter to the editor by Bernadette Pajer, rather than her testimony to the Board of Health of Washington State, as was originally stated in this article. 2
References:
1 Roy We DO need a broad look at vaccination policies and programs. The BMJ Nov. 8, 2018.
2 Pajer B. Wild vs Artificial Exposure to Measles Are Not Equal. The BMJ Nov. 6, 2018.
3 Informed Choice WA. InformedChoiceWA.com.
4 Mawson AR, Ray BD, Bhuiyan AR, Jacob B. Pilot comparative study on the health of vaccinated and unvaccinated 6- to 12-year-old U.S. children. J Transl Sci 2017; 3:1.
5 Dwoskin C. First of Its Kind Survey Shows Vaccinated Children Get Sicker. The Vaccine Reaction Aug. 19, 2017.
6 Hurley D. More cases reported of a mysterious polio-like illness that killed a 6-year-old. The Washington Post Nov. 3, 2016.
7 Fisher BL. IOM Issues Report on Safety of the Child Vaccine Schedule: When Will the Real Science Begin? NVIC Newsletter Jan. 16, 2013.
8 Cáceres M. Safety of Childhood Vaccination Schedule Still Unproven. The Vaccine Reaction Jan. 10, 2018.
9 Bedford H, Elliman D. Measles: neither gone nor forgotten. The BMJ Sept. 25, 2018.
14 Responses
Thank you for this article. I’m very glad to see in the medical community the beginning of conversation about the need to step back and take a broad look at the impact of vaccination programs. I want to clarify, however, that Dr. Cunningham’s editorial was in response to my own, rather than to my testimony before the WA State Board of Health.
https://www.bmj.com/content/362/bmj.k3976/rr-11
Thank YOU Dr Cunningham, for your bravery and honor, standing up for your word to Do No Harm.
This is a great article in a prestige journal. Nice to see more MD’s stepping out of the shadows to question science based medicine. Unfortunately for Dr. Cunningham, the establishment will probably take away his license to practice.
Our country was founded on the right to debate and the right to be represented. Where are the parents’ concerns represented in the debate on vaccinations and disease in this country today? Without even knowing the evidence I know that the pharmaceutical companies are a total sham based on the one fact that they have bullied the CDC and the media into silence. Ask yourself, whatever side of this “argument” you are on, when was the last time you heard an open, honest and scientific debate about the facts of vaccinations? When was the last time you heard of an improvement to vaccine science? Shouldn’t they be trying to improve their product? And, since they unequivocally deny responsibility, one would have to believe that the vaccine manufacturers were busy trying to prove that others (phthalates? GMO’s? pesticides? EMFs’?) are responsible for the rising autism rates. But no one wants to run those studies. So until “they” can prove to me that their products are safe I will assume they are not. I can buy organic or GMO-free, I can not purchase phthalates, I can minimize EMF/radiation frequency in my home; but I cannot protect my children from vaccines and that is a crime. My children are being taxed, but I am not being represented. Because if I were, my children would have recieved many fewer vaccinations than I was forced to give them.
When was the Editorial published in the BMJ? I can’t find it using the search at BMJ.
Jane, the editorial can be found here: https://www.bmj.com/content/362/bmj.k3976/rr-12
In a recent ruling, judges at the German Federal Supreme Court (BGH) confirmed that the measles virus does not exist. Furthermore, there is not a single scientific study in the world which could prove the existence of the virus in any scientific literature. This raises the question of what was actually injected into millions over the past few decades.
https://www.sott.net/…/340948-Biologist-wins-Supreme-Court-case-proving-that-the-…
This is not surprising to me and if true is criminal. We don’t know for all the viruses blamed to cause childhood disease, which ones if any of them passed Kochs Postulates, the gold standard for causation. Polio was when Kochs postulates was discarded. Thank you David.
Thank you Barbara Loe Fisher of the National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC) for your tenacity. You are to be commended for sticking with this idea. Let us pray they will now study this and do it the right way. Thank you.
Thank you for this article! This research needs to happen these children are our future. While I can not blame vaccinations for everything I have 2 children, 1 vaccinated and 1 not. The difference in the overall health of the 2 children is amazing. More MD’s need to step back and study the research.
I couldn’t agree more in the need for a thoughtful and thorough review of vaccine policies and practices. The key is that the review needs to be independent of the medical industry and government influence. This is where the challenge comes in as the industry and government are heavily invested in a particular outcome rather than the truth.
I have requested the Chief Medical Officer in Canada provide scientific evidence of safety conducted by Health Canada . See: https://vaccinechoicecanada.com/in-the-news/questions-for-canadas-chief-medical-officer/
Based on the comments on these articles on this site I’m pretty sure 99.9% of you are lying about any vaccine reaction you claim to have seen. Using science (which I know you guys all hate because it deals with facts and truth), we know reactions are rare, and when they do happen they are mild. Severe reactions are super super SUPER rare. Barring allergic reactions (BTW if you’re allergic to the vaccine don’t get it, duh) the reactions have nothing to do with the vaccine and everything to do with the persons immune/lymph/compliment cascade etc. systems. But hey, if lying about a reaction you claim to have seen just to get some sympathy from internet strangers makes you feel good then please get psychiatric help ASAP.
@tim, I think despite yourself, you hit the nail on the head: “the reactions have… everything to do with the persons immune/lymph/compliment cascade etc. systems.”
Precisely. The live viruses, adjuvants, etc. cause shifts and malfunctioning of the immune system. More recent science has found the immune system to be more systemic than we ever previously believed, extending to the brain, gut, etc.
Thus, we see a wide range of symptoms and reactions, TRIGGERED by the vaccines. Try leaving your own echo chamber long enough to read the work of the scientists and doctors who have outlines the mechanisms and SCIENCE behind these effects.
Could you please quantify, in SCIENTIFIC terms, what “super, super, SUPER rare” means?….
>lol<