The Herd Immunity Illusion

Perhaps the most oft-cited truism among those who unequivocally defend the current vaccine program is the notion of “herd immunity.” The idea is that if a large enough percentage of the population is immunized against a certain disease, and then epidemics can be prevented.

Originally, it was suggested that 60-70% of the population needed to be immunized to reach those goals...today some claim that 95-100% immunization is needed.

There is a very strong, and rarely mentioned, case against the perceived state of “herd immunity” in the population today. The mistake lies in the assumption that high percentages of the population are still immune to diphtheria, smallpox, pertussis, etc.

The problem with this is that most of the protection afforded by these childhood vaccines waned many decades ago, so that most baby boomers, the largest percentage of the population, have no protection. In fact, vaccines for most Americans declined to non-protective levels within 5 to 10 years of the vaccines.

This means that for a majority of Americans, as well as others in the developed world, herd immunity doesn't exist and hasn't for over 60 years.

The media and vaccine enthusiasts would have us believe otherwise, like claiming that as many as 40,000 people die from the “flu” every year, despite this claim being completely unsupported by the data.

In fact, Peter Doshi, Ph.D., a Johns Hopkins scientist, recently issued a blistering report, claiming that only a small portion of those diagnosed with the “flu” actually have the influenza virus present.

Promoting influenza vaccines is one of the most visible and aggressive public health policies in the United States, says Doshi of the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. Drug companies and public officials press for widespread vaccination each fall, offering vaccinations in drugstores and supermarkets.

The results have been phenomenal. Only 20 years ago, 32 million doses of influenza vaccine were available in the United States on an annual basis. Today, the total has skyrocketed to 135 million doses. Mandatory vaccination polices have been enacted, often in healthcare facilities, forcing some people to take the vaccine under threat of losing their jobs.

According to Doshi, “The vaccine may be less beneficial and less safe than has been claimed, and the threat of influenza seems to be overstated. For most people, and possibly most doctors, officials need only claim that vaccines save lives, and it is assumed there must be solid research behind it.” That's not the case, he says.

Although the CDC implies that flu vaccines are safe and there's no need to weigh benefits against risk, Doshi disagrees. He points to an Australian study that found 1 in every 110 children under the age of 5 had convulsions following vaccinations in 2009 for H1N1 influenza. Additional investigations found that the H1N1 vaccine was also associated with a spike in cases of narcolepsy among adolescents.

Hopefully, the latest Tamiflu debacle will help reignite this crucial conversation.

Another method of the pro-vaccine scare campaign is to evoke mortality rates in the thousands or millions from previous eras or Third World nations.

If they send out warnings through the media that tens of thousands of infants may die of measles if children (and adults) are not vaccinated each year, it has a major impact on parental decisions to vaccinate.

One of the most common themes among proponents of the flu vaccine is that everything must be done to prevent the 1917-1918 flu epidemic that killed millions.

However, recent research raises serious doubts about blaming a “wild” strain of the influenza virus for the extraordinary number of deaths. Evidence suggests it was none other than Bayer's indefatigable promotion of aspirin that may have been largely responsible.

The hypothesis...is that aspirin contributed to the incidence and severity of viral pathology, bacterial infection, and death, because physicians of the day were unaware that the regimens (8.0–31.2 g per day) produce levels associated with hyperventilation and pulmonary edema in 33% and 3% of recipients, respectively.

Before the mortality rate spiked, Bayer embarked on an aggressive ad campaign to promote their new product. Furthermore, autopsy reports from 1918 are consistent with what we know today about the dangers of aspirin toxicity.

The motivation behind the improper use of aspirin is a cautionary tale, said author Karen Starko, MD. In 1918, physicians did not fully understand either the dosing or pharmacology of aspirin, yet they were willing to recommend it. Its use was promoted by the drug industry, endorsed by doctors wanting to “do something,” and accepted by families and institutions desperate for hope.

Another terrifying epidemic in American history was the 1916 polio outbreak that killed at least 5,000 people. As can be seen by this graph, the 1916 death rate from polio was extremely anomalous, and was one of the many events that inspired the push to develop a polio vaccine when rates began rising again in the 1940s and 50s.

Although originally blamed on “Italian immigrants,” this explanation is beginning to be seriously called into question. A study was published by H.V. Wyatt in 2011 that suggests a much more sinister explanation for the outbreak:

Previous accounts of the 1916 devastating epidemic have been faulty. The unique features of the epidemic and its sudden appearance have never been explained.

Three miles from the epicenter of the outbreak, Simon Flexner and his associates at the Rockefeller Institute at 63rd Street and York Avenue, near Queensborough Bridge on Manhattan Island, had been passaging spinal cord tissue containing poliovirus, from one Rhesus monkey spinal cord to another.

I propose that highly virulent virus escaped and caused the epidemic. Scientists, technical and animal house staff were unaware that they could be infected by poliovirus which could then infect others.

It seems it would be premature to completely dismiss this hypothesis, especially since an extremely virulent multi-virus (MV) strain of polio was being experimented on within walking distance of the worst polio outbreak in half a century. Mortality rates reached 25% among those afflicted, compared to the usual mortality rate of less than 1%.

These past events and their “official” explanations are extremely important to reanalyze, because they could potentially be used to mislead the public.