My name is Dr. Meryl Nass.
- I am an internal medicine
physician in Ellsworth, Maine.
- I graduated from MIT and the
University of Mississippi School of Medicine.
- I have
testified to 6 Congressional committees, primarily on anthrax vaccine and
Gulf War Syndrome, and the permanent injuries suffered by service-members
who received military vaccines of poor quality.
- I have
also spoken on the issue of vaccine exemptions to legislative committees
in Maine, Vermont and New Brunswick.
I saw firsthand how pharmaceutical industry lobbyists patrolled
legislative halls, provided talking points, schooled public servants, and helped
constrain the terms of this debate.
1. The elephant in the auditorium today is Pharma
profits. Dare I say out loud that our
children's arms and bodies are the delivery system for transferring money from
the citizens of the Commonwealth to the pharmaceutical industry?
The
pharmaceutical industry has undertaken a very ambitious campaign to legislate
away vaccine exemptions in the United States and Canada. France, Italy and Germany have rescinded
vaccine exemptions too, suggesting the campaign is worldwide.
The
pharmaceutical industry exerts enormous influence on government regulators, [1] their advisors,[2]
professional medical organizations,[4] key opinion leaders[5] and medical journals[6] as
well as the mass media and lawmakers.[7] This is not debatable [8]--there are dozens of studies
proving it. Merck has a list on its website of over 1,000 candidates for state
and federal offices to whom they gave money in 2018[9].
Merck also lists payments to hundreds of professional medical organizations, patient
organizations, Pharma lobbying groups, and scores of Republican and Democratic
PACs and committees.[10]Julie Gerberding, the former CDC Director, became president of Merck Vaccines
as soon as she was allowed.[11] The last FDA Commissioner, Scott Gottlieb, just left for Pfizer.[12] The revolving door is slamming Americans.
Pharmaceutical
manufacturers spent $6.4 billion on direct-to-consumer advertising in the US in
2016, and $29.9 billion total on medical marketing.[13] Pharma money does double duty: it purchases the allegiance
of our major media corporations, in addition to buying advertising. And, it's tax deductible.
The pharmaceutical industry does not play by the rules you and I
must follow. Instead, the industry
makes it a rule to break the law, regularly paying civil and criminal penalties
in the billions of dollars. Big Pharma
CEOs have not been sent to jail in decades, and paying settlements for their illegal
behaviors has become simply the cost of doing business.
This is an industry that has thrived by taking big risks--even
when manufacturers knew in advance that their products killed. Merck paid out
$4.85 billion to settle 27,000 Vioxx
injury claims, after it was estimated the drug caused 38,000 deaths from heart
attacks.[14] But annual sales had topped $2.5 billion/year,
likely leading them to break even.
According to Public Citizen:
Pharma's
latest risky strategy is trying to rid the world of vaccine exemptions, to
prevent vaccine opt-outs--before a new crop of vaccines, with inadequate safety
and efficacy testing, [15] and
for which they will have no liability once placed on the childhood schedule, are
approved.
I doubt this is what you have been told. But the industry moves deliberately,
one step at a time. First it got the 21st Century Cures Act passed, in November 2016. This Act:
- directed the FDA
to more readily license vaccines, using "real world evidence" in
place of randomized, controlled clinical trials.
- directed CDC to
immediately place each newly licensed vaccine before its advisory
committee, to be considered for inclusion in the childhood vaccine
schedule. Inclusion in the schedule
is the criterion needed to get a vaccine its waiver of manufacturer liability.
- directed that all vaccines recommended for use in pregnant women (currently influenza and Tdap, but many more are in the pipeline) were granted liability waivers.
Getting a vaccine
approved for use during pregnancy is the newest Pharma gold rush. This despite evidence [16]
[17](which CDC disputes) that flu vaccine is associated with a doubling of miscarriage
rates, and evidence that anthrax vaccine increases the miscarriage rate.[18] Neither flu nor Tdap vaccines were tested and approved by FDA for use in
pregnancy. According to the WHO[19]:
"...pre-licensing
clinical trials of vaccines do not usually include pregnant and lactating
women. Reports available also provide limited post-licensing data, as once
again, pregnant women are usually not included in clinical trials. This in turn
has limited the ability to make evidence-based decisions and provide optimal
guidance on the use of vaccines in this population."
Despite this, pregnant
women are being told to receive both flu and Tdap vaccines during every
pregnancy. Don't you see something sick
in this?
The year-long media
blitz over measles didn't only usher in bills to remove vaccine
exemptions. It was also a bonanza for
sales. Merck, which makes the only
measles vaccines in the US, saw
sales of its MMRV vaccine increase 58% in 2019.[20]
It has been claimed that vaccines are, by nature, extremely safe.
Yet vaccines are usually injected, bypassing all the body's natural barriers.
Even minute contamination or inadequate microbial inactivation can maim or kill. Contaminated batches of vaccine do occur.[21] Usually contaminated lots are discarded, but in the case of anthrax, polio and
other vaccines, millions of doses were used.[22][23]
Vaccines have caused many autoimmune disorders, from
Guillain-Barre syndrome to narcolepsy. (Both were side effects of swine flu
vaccines used in the 2009 pandemic.)
Vaccines appear safe because the immediate side effects are usually
mild and temporary. Serious vaccine side
effects often take weeks or months to surface, and by then it is difficult to know
what caused them. Only when vaccinated
individuals have rates of illness at least 10 times higher than the unvaccinated, is the
side effect likely to be linked to the vaccine.
A 2009 European swine flu vaccine (GSK's Pandemrix) caused over 1300 cases of severe narcolepsy, mostly in
adolescents.[24] This vaccine was linked to narcolepsy because 15 times the usual number of narcolepsy cases suddenly appeared in clinics. Countries that bought the swine flu vaccines,
through WHO, were required to waive manufacturer liability as a condition of
purchase. Litigation by those injured continues to be active in the UK, where
both the manufacturer and the UK government deny any responsibility for
injuries.
ü It should be apparent, but isn't: government waivers of vaccine liability
discourage manufacturers from ensuring that the vaccines they sell are as safe
and effective as possible.
ü The removal of vaccine exemptions, combined with liability
waivers for vaccine side effects and recently loosened standards for licensing
vaccines, create a highly toxic mix.
2. There is no crisis (no epidemic of
deaths or disabilities) from infectious diseases caused by lack of
vaccinations, either in Massachusetts or the United States.
·
According to the
CDC, vaccination rates in the Commonwealth are consistently better than the US
average. Over 96% of Massachusetts
children have been vaccinated with each of the MMR, DTaP and Polio vaccines
before kindergarten.[25] Only pertussis regularly circulates, due to
failure of the vaccine.
·
While measles made
major headlines in the US all year, the last time a child died from measles in
the US was 2003. This 13 year-old male
had had a bone marrow transplant 3 months earlier. He was not exposed to anyone with measles,
and may have become ill from vaccine strain measles already in his body from a vaccine.
·
The US averages
several hundred measles cases annually, mostly due to travelers who enter the
US while incubating the disease. It has never been totally eradicated.
·
Massachusetts had 1
measles case in 2019.
·
There may be a
million cases of pertussis in the US yearly, because the vaccine works poorly
and wears off quickly. Only a fraction
of cases are diagnosed and counted.
Studies show that most cases of pertussis occur in fully vaccinated people.[26]
·
Therefore, you
cannot achieve herd immunity for pertussis with current vaccines. The
pertussis bacteria regularly circulate, as they would even
with a 100% vaccination rate.
·
There are about 10
pertussis deaths in the US yearly, mostly in infants too young to be
vaccinated. Vaccinating 100%
rather than the current 96.4% of Massachusetts children for pertussis would not prevent
pertussis deaths.
·
There are approximately 2500 mumps cases in the
US yearly, but according to CDC no recent mumps deaths.[27] Two doses of vaccine are only about 86%
effective.[28] Most
mumps cases occur in vaccinated students.
·
There are approximately 10 rubella cases yearly
in the US, but since 2012 all cases were infected outside the country.[29]
·
There have been no wild polio cases
originating in the US since 1979.
However, cases of polio due to polio vaccine viruses (or their mutations)
would occasionally occur. This led to
the US switching to killed polio vaccines (Salk, not Sabin type) after 1999.
· Between 2004 and 2017, only 2 diphtheria cases were reported in the entire US.
·
Varicella
zoster causes chickenpox and shingles.
Once infected (or vaccinated with live vaccine) the virus permanently
resides in your body. Thus, it cannot be eliminated from the population using current, live vaccines. The
vaccine is about 85% effective. Many
countries, including the UK, do not recommend it.
·
Most varicella cases occur in vaccinated children.
·
However, there are highly effective treatments for
varicella. While varicella infections
are common in immunocompromised children, usually due to virus already in their
bodies, there is only about 1 child death per year from varicella in the US.
·
Tetanus does not spread from person to person.
It is caused by Clostridium tetani
bacterial spores in the outdoor environment.
There are about 30 cases per year in the US.
·
Hepatitis B is a viral infection that can only
be spread through blood or sexual contact.
Rates of infection in childhood are extremely low in the US. There is one new case reported per 100,000
Americans/year.[30]
·
All pregnant women are screened for hepatitis
B. The few who are positive are treated,
and their newborns treated prophylactically.
·
Neither tetanus nor
hepatitis B can be spread by casual contact. Neither can spread from child to child during
ordinary school activities.
To summarize, below are all the currently required vaccines for
Massachusetts schoolchildren, and the risks related to the diseases they can
prevent. It should be obvious that increasing
96-97% vaccination rates another 2% or 3% will have a negligible effect on
these illnesses:
- Diphtheria--extremely
rare
- Tetanus--non-communicable
- Pertussis--regularly
circulates despite vaccinations
- Measles--rare,
death extraordinarily rare[31]
- Mumps--several
thousand cases/year in US, no recent deaths
- Rubella--no cases
of US origin in recent years
- Varicella--can
circulate despite vaccination, kills 1 highly compromised child/year in
US
- Hepatitis
B--non-communicable in school
- Polio--no cases originating in the US for decades
On the other hand, vaccine injuries are not trivial. Most serious vaccine injuries involve
autoimmune illnesses and/or neurological injuries that affect personality and
intelligence. While I cannot tell you
the rate at which these injuries occur, because the medical literature is
inconsistent, they are not rare. You probably know a family with a vaccine-injured
member.
Were the Legislature to remove most vaccine exemptions, it would
probably not prevent a single death from infection, and prevent only a modicum of
illness. However, significant vaccine
injuries would almost certainly occur in currently exempted children.
3. Proportionality, the Supreme Court and
Vaccine Mandates
The
seminal Supreme Court case regarding a state or municipality's authority to
institute a mandatory vaccination program is Jacobson v Massachusetts. While this 1905 Supreme Court decision
upheld the right of Cambridge, MA to impose smallpox vaccination on adults over
21 during a smallpox epidemic, according to the Congressional Research Service,
the Court "did acknowledge limits to the
state’s power to protect the public health, and set forth a reasonableness test
for public health measures:
[I]t
might be that an acknowledged power of a local community to protect itself
against an epidemic threatening the safety of all, might be exercised in
particular circumstances and in reference to particular persons in such an
arbitrary, unreasonable manner, or might
go so far beyond what was reasonably required for the safety of the public,
as to authorize or compel the courts to interfere for the protection of such
persons."[32]
Furthermore, the penalty Jacobson paid was $5.00--or about $150
today. He was not forced to be
vaccinated, even when smallpox had a 30% mortality rate. He paid a reasonable fine.
In the bills we are discussing today, the penalty for refusing
vaccinations is insuperably harsh. The value of an education to a family is
incalculable, but might be valued in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.[33]
In US law, the doctrine of proportionality means that the punishment
should fit the crime.[34]In the Jacobson case, the punishment
for remaining unvaccinated was about $150, not the $150,000 or more cost of an
education. As for the bills under discussion today, don't they, as the Supreme
Court noted, "go
so far beyond what was reasonably required for the safety of the public..."
-- suggesting the courts should interfere to protect the
unvaccinated?
If versions of these bills pass, won't the Commonwealth become entangled
in litigation over them for years to come?
4.
Parallel with the effort to end non-medical vaccine exemptions is a major federal/state
effort to restrict medical exemptions.
- The CDC recently revised
its advice on vaccine exemptions, significantly reducing the list of
conditions for which vaccinations might be dangerous.[35] [36]
- The CDC also issued
revised "Vaccine Information Statements" in August and October
2019,[37] which
must be given to parents before their child is vaccinated, according to
federal law.
- The new Vaccine
Information Statements removed the statement, "Some people should not
get this vaccine"; removed many reasons not to vaccinate; and removed
information on adverse vaccine reactions.
- I am providing
you with the old and new polio Vaccine Information Statements so
you can see this for yourself
- The intention is
to both restrict and federalize the granting of medical exemptions for
vaccines.
- Proposed laws
would have state health department employees issue medical exemptions for
patients they have never seen, using suddenly appearing CDC guidelines
which lack supporting evidence -- usurping the role of physicians in
determining eligibility to be safely vaccinated.
5. The
bedrock expectation of medical ethics is that patients
must give informed consent for all medical procedures, including vaccines.
Informed consent means that patients must be informed about the procedure, have the right
to refuse, and may not be coerced to accept it. Isn't
withholding an education an extreme form of coercion?
Without any discussion of its moral
or ethical dimensions by media, medical societies or government officials, the requirement
for informed consent for medical procedures, including vaccinations, vanishes
in the blink of an eye when patients are not allowed the right to refuse.
6. Must the issue of childhood vaccine
exemptions be politicized?
- Both political parties
enjoy Pharma's largesse. In other states, party leadership has corralled Members
and Senators in order to push through legislation to rescind and tighten
vaccine exemptions, despite constituent opposition. Will this happen in
Massachusetts?
- Please weigh carefully
the risks to society against the risks to vulnerable children whose parents
have decided not to fully vaccinate them.
- Please consider
the damage such a law would make to our right to bodily autonomy and to informed
consent.
- Eliminating the right
to refuse vaccinations places us on a very slippery slope.
- Please do not allow
yourselves to do the dirty work of Pharma, unscrupulously couched as an
effort to protect vulnerable citizens.
- If passed, these
bills will harm far more vulnerable citizens than they help.
Thank you very much for your consideration. I would be happy to answer your questions or
provide additional documentation for any of these points.
[11] https://www.mrknewsroom.com/news-release/corporate-news/merck-announces-appointment-dr-julie-gerberding-executive-vice-president
"Gerberding
joined Merck as president of Merck Vaccines in January 2010. Since then,
Merck’s vaccines are reaching more people than ever, and Merck became the
global leader in the vaccine market based on sales. In addition, the Sanofi
Pasteur MSD joint venture in Europe, Merck’s European vaccine business for
which Gerberding is the Board co-chair, has improved in both population reach
and financial performance. She also helped lead the successful launch in India
of the Merck Wellcome Trust non-profit joint venture for vaccine development"
[15] https://ccl.yale.edu/sites/default/files/files/Avorn%20Kesselheim%20-%20NEJM%20-%2021st%20Century%20Cures%20Act.pdf The 21st Century Cures Act — Will It Take Us Back in Time?
Jerry Avorn and Aaron Kesselheim. NEJM 6/3/2015.
Owen Dyer. BMJ. 2004 Oct 16; 329(7471): 876. Factory's
loss of license halves supply of flu vaccine to US.
[25] 2017-2018
Kindergarten Vaccination and Effective Exemption Rates. CDC--accompanies
document
[30] "Selected
nationally notifiable disease rates and number of new cases: United States,
2016"--accompanies text
Mandatory Vaccinations: Precedent
and Current Laws. Congressional Research Service. Jared P. Cole Legislative Attorney Kathleen
S. Swendiman Legislative Attorney. May 21, 2014
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