Poliomyelitis, or polio, is a contagious disease caused by a virus
that may attack nerve cells of the brain and spinal cord.
Fever, headache, sore throat,
vomiting are some of the milder symptoms, and some victims develop neurological
complications and paralysis of one or more limbs or respiratory muscles. In
severe cases it can be fatal, due to respiratory paralysis.
Some people mistakenly believe that
polio usually leads to paralysis, but this isn't the case.
95% of people exposed to the
natural polio virus don't exhibit any symptoms, even under epidemic
conditions, according to the Physicians' Desk
Reference 2001 and Natural History
of Infectious Disease by Sir Frank
Macfarlane Burnet and David O. White.
The Wikipedia
article on polio initially
cites the figure as 90%, but elsewhere on the page the “asymptomatic” outcome
of poliovirus infection is listed as 90%-95%. According to the source used
for these statistics, “Up to 95% of
all polio infections are inapparent or asymptomatic.”
About 5% of infected people will
experience mild symptoms such as a sore throat, stiff neck, headache, and
fever—often diagnosed as a cold or flu. Muscular paralysis affects
approximately one out of every 1,000 people who contract polio.
This has lead some scientific
researchers to conclude that the small percentage of people who do develop
paralytic polio may be anatomically susceptible to the disease. The vast
remainder of the population may be naturally immune to the polio virus.
[Moskowitz, R. “Immunizations: the other side.” Mothering (Spring
1984):36]
Usually there is a full recovery
from paralytic polio—it rarely is permanent. Only a small percentage of cases
will experience residual paralysis.
There are many serious questions
about what factors contribute to increasing an individual's susceptibility to
serious adverse reactions to the polio virus.
Several studies have demonstrated that injections, either for vaccines
or antibiotics, increase susceptibility to polio. It's been known since the
early 1900s that paralytic poliomyelitis can start at the site of an injection.
When diphtheria and pertussis
vaccines were introduced in the 1940s, cases of paralytic poliomyelitis
skyrocketed. This was documented in Lancet and other medical journals.
McCloskey, BP. “The relation of
prophylactic inoculations to the onset of poliomyelitis.” Lancet (April 18, 1950):659-63
Geffen, DH “The incidence
of paralysis occurring in London children within four weeks after
immunization.” Med Officer 1950;83:137-40
In 1949, the Medical Research
Council in Great Britain set up a
committee to investigate the matter and
ultimately concluded that individuals are at increased risk of paralysis for 30
days following injections; injections alter the distribution of paralysis; and
it did not matter whether the injections were subcutaneous or
intramuscular.
In 1992, a study was published in the Journal of Infectious Diseases that again
confirmed these results after documenting an outbreak of polio in Oman that was
linked to the DTP (diphtheria, tetanus, and pertussis) shot. They concluded, “Injections
are an important cause of provocative poliomyelitis.”
In 1995, the New England Journal
of Medicine published a
study showing that children who received
a single injection within one month after receiving a polio vaccine were 8
times more likely to contract polio than children who received no injections.
The risk jumped 27-fold when
children received up to nine injections...and with ten or more injections, the
likelihood of developing polio was 182 times greater than expected.
Why injections increase the risk of
polio is unclear. Nevertheless, these studies
and others indicate “injections must be
avoided in countries with endemic poliomyelitis.” Health authorities believe
that all “unnecessary” injections should be avoided as well.
A poor diet has been shown to raise one's susceptibility to polio.
In 1948, during the height of the
polio epidemics, Dr. Benjamin Sandler, a nutritional expert at the Oteen
Veterans' Hospital, documented a link between polio and an excessive use of
sugars and starches.
He compiled records showing that
countries with the highest per capita consumption of sugar, such as the United
States, Britain, Australia, Canada, and Sweden (with over 100 pounds per person
per year) had the greatest incidence of polio. In contrast, polio was
practically unheard of in China (with its sugar use of only 3 pounds per person
per year).
Sandler claimed that sugars and
starches lower blood sugar levels which leads to hypoglycemia.
Such food dehydrate the cells and
leech calcium from the body. A serious calcium deficiency precedes polio.
Researchers have always known that polio strikes with its greatest intensity
during the hot summer months.
Dr. Sandler observed that children
consume greater amounts of ice cream, soft drinks, and artificially sweetened
products in hot weather. In 1949, before the polio season began, he warned the
residents of North Carolina, through the newspapers and radio, to decrease
their consumption of these products.
That summer, North Carolinians
reduced their intake of sugar by 90%; polio decreased by the same amount! The
North Carolina State Health Department reported 2,498 cases of polio in 1948
and 229 cases in 1949. [Data taken from North Carolina State Health Department
figures]
One manufacturer shipped one
million less gallons of ice cream during the first week alone following the
publication of Dr. Sandler's anti-polio diet. Soft drink sales were down as
well.
But powerful Rockefeller Milk
Trust, which sold frozen products to North Carolinians, combined forces with
soft drink business leaders and convinced the public that Sandler's findings
were a myth and the polio figures a fluke. By the summer of 1950 sales were
back to previous levels and polio cases returned to “normal.” [McBean, E., Allen, H.]
As can be seen by this graph of
United States polio rates, polio
epidemics became a serious problem in the late 1940s and early 1950s, although
it never quite reached the levels of 1916 (when the epicenter of the epidemic
was mere miles from a Rockefeller research lab that was experimenting with an
extremely virulent strain of the polio virus).
In 1952, Salk combined three types
of polio virus grown in cultures made from monkey kidneys. Using formaldehyde,
he was able to “kill” or inactivate the viral matter so that it would trigger
an antibody response without causing the disease.
In 1955, the first polio
immunization campaign was launched in the United States. Almost immediately, it
became clear that something was very wrong with the vaccine. In the end, 70,000
school children became seriously ill from Salk's vaccine—the infamous “Cutter
Incident.”
The mistake resulted in the
production of 120,000 doses of polio vaccine that contained live polio virus.
Of the children who received the vaccine, 40,000 developed abortive
poliomyelitis. The Cutter incident was one of the worst pharmaceutical
disasters in U.S. history.
The renowned surgeon Alton Ochsner even gave the vaccine to two of his grandchildren...one
died and the other was paralyzed. “Apparently, Salk's killed-virus vaccine was
not completely inactivated.”
Perhaps it was their eagerness to
get the polio vaccine developed and distributed as quickly as possible, but
unfortunately the NIH did receive dire warnings before the release of the
vaccine...a warning from one of their own.
Dr. Bernice Eddy and her research partner Dr. Sarah
Stewart are two of the most important
scientists of the 20th century in the field of viral research.
Stewart developed an interest in
researching viral links to cancer in light of the pioneering research of Jonas
Salk in developing a vaccine for the virus which caused polio. Stewart is
credited with discovering the Polyomavirus in 1953.
She and research partner, Dr.
Bernice Eddy, were successful in growing the virus in 1958 and the SE
(Stewart-Eddy) polyoma virus is named after them. Stewart was the first to
successfully demonstrate that viruses causing cancer could be spread from
animal to animal.
The NIH Laboratory of Biologics
Control, which had certified the Cutter polio vaccine, had received advance
warnings of problems: in 1954, staff member Dr. Bernice Eddy had reported to
her superiors that some of the inoculated monkeys had become paralyzed
(pictures were sent as well). William Sebrell, the director of NIH wouldn't
hear of such a thing.
Perhaps he should have listened,
for a result, “The director of the microbiology institute lost his job, as did
the equivalent of the assistant secretary for health. Dr Sebrell, the director
of the NIH, resigned.”
Incredibly, instead of
acknowledging Eddy for her validated concerns, they took her off polio
research and instead ordered her to the influenza research division. Eddy
continued her polio research on her own time, ultimately leading to one of the
greatest medical conspiracies of the 20th century.
Following the Cutter Incident, the
authorities acted quickly to alleviate the public's legitimate concerns about
the safety of the recently developed polio vaccine.
The vaccine was redeveloped, and by
August 1955 over 4 million doses were administered in the United States. By
1959, nearly 100 other countries were using Salk's vaccine.
In 1957 Albert Sabin
developed an oral live-virus polio vaccine over concerns that Salk's
killed-virus vaccine would be ineffective at preventing epidemics. Sabin's goal
was to simulate a real-life infection.
This meant using an attenuated or
weakened form of the live virus. He experimented with thousands of monkeys and
chimpanzees before isolating a rare type of poliovirus that would reproduce in
the intestinal tract without penetrating the central nervous system.
The initial human trials were
conducted in foreign countries. In 1958, it was tested in the U.S. In 1963,
Sabin's oral “sugar-cube” vaccine became available for general use.
However, it cannot be given to
people with compromised immune systems. Plus it is
capable of causing polio in some recipients of the vaccine, and in individuals with compromised immune systems who
come into close contact with recently vaccinated children.
Strebel, PM., et al. “Epidemiology of polio in U.S. one
decade after the last reported case of indigenous wild virus associated
disease.” Clin Infec Dis, CDC (Feb
1992):568-79
In 2000, the CDC “updated” its U.S.
polio vaccine recommendations, reverting back to policies first implemented
during the 1950s, namely the killed-virus shot. The oral polio vaccine should
only be used in “special circumstances” (several countries still use the
live-virus, oral vaccine).
However, a fact sheet on polio
published by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services warns parents
that the inactivated polio vaccine can cause “serious problems or even deaths.”
One of the
manufacturers of the IPV also admits
that Guillain–Barré
syndrome has been “temporarily linked to
administration of another IPV.”
Yet, despite these “danger alerts,”
medical authorities continue to assure parents that the currently available
inactivated polio vaccine is both safe and effective.
Now that we understand the dangers
of Salk's early vaccine and the possibility of it actually infecting the
recipient with serious cases of polio, it should come as no surprise that
statistics confirm that the reported cases of polio following mass inoculations
with the killed-virus vaccine may have more than doubled in the U.S. as
a whole. [McBean, E. & Allen, H.]
For example, Vermont reported 15
cases of polio during the one-year report period ending August 30, 1954 (before
mass inoculations), compared to 55 cases of polio during the one-year period
ending August 30, 1955 (after mass inoculations)—a 266% increase.
Rhode Island reported 22 cases
during the before inoculations period as compared to 122 cases during the after
inoculations period—a 454% increase.
In New Hampshire the figures
increased from 38 to 129; in Connecticut they rose from 144 to 276; and in
Massachusetts they swelled 273 to 2027—a whopping 642% increase.
Many NIH doctors and scientists at
the NIH during the 1950s were aware that Salk's vaccine was causing polio.
Some frankly stated that it was
“worthless as a preventive and dangerous to take.” They refused to vaccinate
their own children. Health departments banned the inoculations.
Salk himself allegedly said: “When
you inoculate children with a polio vaccine you don't sleep well for two or
three weeks.” [As reported by Saul Pett in an Associated Press dispatch from
Pittsburg (October 11, 1954)]
The Idaho State Health Director
angrily declared: “I hold the Salk vaccine and its manufacturers responsible”
for a polio outbreak that killed several Idahoans and hospitalized dozens
more.” [McBean, E. The Poisoned Needle (Mokelumne Hill, CA: Health
Research, 1957): pp. 140-44]
But the National Foundation for
Infantile Paralysis, and drug companies with large investments in the vaccine
coerced the U.S. Public Health Service into falsely proclaiming the vaccine was
safe and effective. [Ibid., pp. 142-45]
Salk continued to worry. Despite
its regulatory and statistical ‘success’, the reputation of his vaccine was
plummeting. In June 1955 the British doctors’ union the Medical Practitioners’
Union wrote: “These misfortunes would be almost endurable if a whole new
generation were to be rendered permanently immune to the disease. In fact,
there is no evidence that any lasting immunity is achieved.”
The following month Canada
suspended its distribution of Salk’s vaccine. By November all European
countries had suspended distribution plans, apart from Denmark. By January 1957
17 US states had stopped distributing the vaccine. The same year The New York
Times reported that nearly 50% of cases of infantile paralysis in children
between the ages of five and 14 had occurred after vaccination.
In 1976, Salk even testified that
the live-virus vaccine (used almost exclusively in the U.S. from the early
1960s to 2000) was the “principal if not sole cause” of all reported cases of
polio in the U.S. since the early 1960s. [Washington Post, September 24,
1976.]
In 1992, the federal Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) published an
admission that the live-virus vaccine had
become the dominant cause of polio in the United States.
Although authorities claimed that
the vaccine caused only 8 cases of polio each year, an independent
study “uncovered 13,641 reports of
adverse events following use of the oral polio vaccine. These reports included
6,364 hospital/emergency room visits and 540 deaths.” [Vaccine Adverse
Event Reporting System (VAERS); OPV Vaccine Report—Document #14]
Eventually, after the public became
increasingly aware of the dangers of the oral polio vaccine, it was removed
from immunization schedules.
There has been much speculation
that the polio vaccine did little, if anything, to cause the virus to
disappear. Dr. Robert
Mendelsohn, a medical researcher and
pediatrician, claimed that there was no scientific evidence this was the case.
From 1923 to 1953, before
the Salk killed-virus vaccine was introduced, the polio death rate in the
United States and England had already declined on its own by 47% and 55%
respectively. Statistics show a similar decline in other European countries as
well. [Alderson, M. International
Mortality Statistics (Washington,
DC: Facts on File, 1981):177-8]
And when the vaccine did become
available, many European countries questioned its effectiveness and refused to
systematically inoculate their citizens. Yet, polio epidemics also ended in
these countries.
Part of the reason for the apparent
decline in polio rates after the introduction of the vaccine, even while it was
infecting many people with polio, was that polio was redefined at
the same the vaccination program began.
The subject was controversial
enough to be discussed during congressional hearings in 1962, when Dr. Bernard Greenberg, chairman of the Committee on Evaluation and Standards
of the American Public Health Association, provided expert testimony
documenting this important fact.
Prior to the introduction of the
vaccine the patient only had to exhibit paralytic symptoms for 24 hours.
Laboratory confirmation and tests to determine residual paralysis were not
required.
The new definition required the
patient to exhibit paralytics symptoms for at least 60 days, and
residual paralysis had to be confirmed twice during the course of the disease.
Also, cases of aseptic meningitis, a condition with many variations and causes, were
formally distinguished from the polio vaccine after the vaccine was introduced,
as well as coxsackie virus infections (which can also lead to aseptic meningitis).
Both
Guillain-Barré disease and aseptic meningitis were diagnosed as polio during the US epidemics prior to 1957. If you use the
pre-1957 definition, then there are many more cases of poliomyelitis occurring
in the US today, than there were in 1952—at the height of the US polio
epidemics.
The Textbook of
Child Neurology reported: “Coxsackie
virus and echoviruses can cause paralytic syndromes that are clinically
indistinguishable from paralytic poliomyelitis.” This new requirement for
doctors caused a vast drop in the number of cases registered as poliomyelitis—a
drop that ever since has been credited solely to the vaccine.
Dr. Bernard Greenberg, who also was
head of the Dept. of Biostatistics for the University of North Carolina School
of Public Health, “testified that not only did the cases of polio increase substantially
after mandatory vaccinations—a 50% increase from 1957 to 1958, and an 80%
increase from 1958 to 1959—but that the statistics were deliberately
manipulated by the Public Health Service to give the opposite impression.”
According to Greenberg:
Prior to 1954 any physician who
reported paralytic poliomyelitis was doing his patient a service by way of
subsidizing the cost of hospitalization....Two examinations at least 24 hours
apart was all that was required....In 1955 the criteria were changed...residual
paralysis was determined 10 to 20 days after onset of illness and again 50 to
70 days after onset.
This change in definition meant
that in 1955 we started reporting a new disease....Furthermore, diagnostic
procedures have continued to be refined. Coxsackie virus infections and aseptic
meningitis have been distinguished from poliomyelitis....Thus, simply by
changes in diagnostic criteria, the number of paralytics cases was
predetermined to decrease.
Some have speculated that
approximately 90% of polio cases were eliminated from statistics by health authorities’ redefinition of the disease when
the vaccine was introduced. In reality, the Salk vaccine contributed to
increased cases of polio in numerous countries at a time when there were no
epidemics being caused by the wild virus.
Polio has not been eradicated by vaccination, it is lurking behind a redefinition and new diagnostic
names like viral or aseptic meningitis...there are some 30,000 to 50,000 cases
of viral meningitis per year in the United States alone. That's where all those
30,000 to 50,000 cases of polio disappeared after the introduction of mass
vaccination.
According to proponents of this claim, polio now “hides” behind the following conditions: acute
flaccid paralysis, transverse myelitis, viral or aseptic meningitis,
Guillain–Barré syndrome, Chinese paralytic syndrome, spinal meningitis,
inhibitory palsy, etc.
The Los Angeles
County health authorities stated:
“Most cases reported prior to July 1, 1958 of non-paralytic poliomyelitis are
now reported as viral or aseptic meningitis.”
In July 1955, before the new polio definition was introduced, there
were 273 reported cases of polio in Los Angeles County, as compared to 50
reported cases of aseptic meningitis.
In July 1961, after the new
definition was introduced, there were 65 cases of polio and 161 cases of
aseptic meningitis. In September 1966, there were only 5 reported cases of
polio, and 256 reported cases of aseptic meningitis. [Los Angeles County
Health Index: Morbidity and Mortality, Reportable Diseases.]
The incidence of meningitis
skyrocketed as “official” polio cases declined, as the following
data, compiled from national
surveillance reports, shows.
Non-paralytic polio cases vs.
aseptic meningitis cases:
1951-1960: 70,083 - 0
1961-1982: 589 - 102,999
1983-1992: 0 - 117,366
If this process of reclassification
had not occurred, it would have been impossible to hide the fact that infantile
paralysis cases had sharply increased after the introduction of Salk’s vaccine.
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