Health & Fitness

03/23/20

Safety testing for vaccines typically leaves much to be desired to begin with, but when it comes to fast-tracked pandemic vaccines, safety testing is accelerated and becomes even more inadequate. It looks like that will be the case with plans underway to fast-track a COVID-19 vaccine to market.

As reported by STAT News,¹ researchers are foregoing some of the normally required safety testing in order to get a genetically engineered coronavirus vaccine out in record time. What’s more, at least one vaccine manufacturer is relying on an entirely novel technique to produce their coronavirus vaccine in partnership with the National Institutes of Health, while by-passing traditional animal testing before conducting human clinical trials. STAT News reports:²

“‘I don’t think proving this in an animal model is on the critical path to getting this to a clinical trial,’ said Tal Zaks, chief medical officer at Moderna, a Cambridge, Mass.-based biotech that has produced a Covid-19 vaccine candidate at record speed …

Yet ethicists aren’t so sure that the eventual benefits of rushing this unproven vaccine into clinical trials will outweigh the risks. ‘Outbreaks and national emergencies often create pressure to suspend rights, standards and/or normal rules of ethical conduct.

Often our decision to do so seems unwise in retrospect,’ wrote Jonathan Kimmelman, director of McGill University’s biomedical ethics unit, in an email to STAT.

The question is complicated by the newness of the science at play. The technology that has allowed Moderna to craft an experimental vaccine so fast has not yielded a single immunization that’s made it to market so far.

It’s a trendy idea: Instead of injecting people with a weakened pathogen or proteins from the surface of a pathogen, so that our bodies will learn to fight off such infections in the future, scientists are betting on a kind of genetic hack, a lab-made concoction that gets the body to produce its own virus-like bits which it will then train itself to combat.”

Fear Surrounding Pandemics Makes for Good Testing Grounds

Ethical questions really should be in the forefront of everyone’s mind, considering pandemic hysteria can easily make people take risks they normally might never consider.

Right now, the British company hVIVO,³ which conducts influenza research, is offering healthy volunteers £3,500 (approximately $4,500) in exchange for being infected with a mild coronavirus (strains 0C43 and 229E specifically), both of which cause milder symptoms than COVID-19 and have been in circulation for quite some time.^4,⁵

Infected volunteers will receive antiviral medications and undergo testing in the hopes of finding something that will assist researchers in developing a vaccine against COVID-19. Moderna, however, is using a technology to develop a vaccine that has never been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

Moderna is using synthetic messenger RNA (mRNA) to instruct DNA to produce the same kind of proteins COVID-19 uses to gain access into our cells. As reported by STAT News, the idea is that “Once those … dummy virus particles are there … our bodies will learn to recognize and clobber the real thing.”

Moderna is partnering with the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and started recruiting healthy volunteers March 3, 2020.⁶ In all, 45 men and non-pregnant women between the ages of 18 and 55 will be paid $1,100 to receive two injections of the vaccine, 28 days apart.

The side effects at three different dosages will be evaluated. These clinical trials are taking place before there’s any scientific evidence that the vaccine actually works as intended and doesn’t cause severe side effects in animals.

Considering COVID-19 infection has a high survival rate, with 80% suffering asymptomatic or only mild illness,⁷ is it really wise to use this outbreak as a testing ground for experimental, untested vaccine manufacturing methods?

Mice Don’t Respond to COVID-19 the Way Humans Do

According to the NIAID, an animal trial using conventionally bred mice also began March 3, 2020, with supposedly promising results. The problem is, regular mice do not have the same susceptibility to the virus as humans,⁸ so testing on regular mice is unreliable and may cause a false sense of security if this type of animal is used to prove safety and effectiveness.

During the SARS epidemic 15 years ago, mice engineered to be susceptible to that virus were developed, but once the SARS epidemic and related research died down, most of the colonies were destroyed.

Researchers are now working on breeding new litters of these SARS susceptible mice, but that takes time, and Moderna isn’t waiting. Even so, the fact that phase 1 human trials are starting before animal testing has been completed does not mean there will be a vaccine available for the general public any time soon.

STAT News points out it will likely be at least one year before a COVID-19 vaccine would be released for use by the public. Still, that’s a significantly shorter wait time than the 15 to 20 years it normally takes to bring an experimental vaccine to market.

“Moderna itself acknowledges that the task is daunting, and this effort might not succeed,” STAT News writes.⁹ “‘We have not previously tested our rapid response capability and may be unable to produce a vaccine that successfully treats the virus in a timely manner, if at all,’ the company wrote in a document filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

What the company doesn’t say is that it has not yet brought a single product to market, even in non-emergency times. The majority of candidate vaccines fail.

If against all odds, this rushed project does work out, then the company needs to be extra careful about monitoring what happens to those people who get it, said Arthur Caplan, head of medical ethics at New York University’s Grossman School of Medicine. ‘The more you speed it up … the greater the obligation you have to track what’s going on when you get it out into the real world.’”

Fast-Tracking Vaccines Is Risky Business

Fast-tracking vaccine development has considerable risks. It might be ineffective (which is typically the case for the seasonal influenza vaccine), or it might cause serious side effects (as was the case with the fast-tracked 2009-2010 H1N1 swine flu vaccine), or it just might worsen infection rather than prevent it. As reported by Reuters:¹⁰

“Studies have suggested that coronavirus vaccines carry the risk of what is known as vaccine enhancement, where instead of protecting against infection, the vaccine can actually make the disease worse when a vaccinated person is infected with the virus.

The mechanism that causes that risk is not fully understood and is one of the stumbling blocks that has prevented the successful development of a coronavirus vaccine.

Normally, researchers would take months to test for the possibility of vaccine enhancement in animals. Given the urgency to stem the spread of the new coronavirus, some drugmakers are moving straight into small-scale human tests, without waiting for the completion of such animal tests.

‘I understand the importance of accelerating timelines for vaccines in general, but from everything I know, this is not the vaccine to be doing it with,’ Dr. Peter Hotez, dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine, told Reuters.”

Coming from a staunch pro-mandatory vaccination propagandist like Hotez, that’s really saying something. The possibility of vaccine-induced immune enhancement became evident during the development and testing of a SARS vaccine.

As reported by Reuters, some vaccinated animals got sicker than unvaccinated animals when exposed to the virus. A more reliable way to determine whether this might be a risk for a COVID-19 vaccine is to use an appropriate animal model during the trials, before the vaccine is given to humans.

Fast-Tracked Swine Flu Vaccine Caused Serious Harm to Youths

One excellent example of what can go wrong when a vaccine is fast-tracked is that of the H1N1 swine flu vaccine released in Europe during the swine flu pandemic of 2009-2010. As reported by WebMD,¹¹ in July 2009, the U.S. National Biodefense Safety Board unanimously decided to forego most safety and efficacy tests to get the vaccine out by September of that year.

Europe also accelerated its approval process, allowing manufacturers to skip large-scale human trials¹² — a decision that turned out to have tragic consequences¹³ for an untold number of children and teens across Europe.

Over the next few years, the ASO3-adjuvanted swine flu vaccine Pandemrix (used in Europe but not in the U.S. during 2009-2010) was causally linked¹⁴ to childhood narcolepsy, which abruptly skyrocketed in several countries.^15,¹⁶

Children and teens in Finland,¹⁷ the UK¹⁸ and Sweden¹⁹ were among the hardest hit. Further analyses discerned a rise in narcolepsy among adults who received the vaccine as well, although the link wasn’t as obvious as that in children and adolescents.²⁰

A 2019 study²¹ reports finding a “novel association between Pandemrix-associated narcolepsy and the non-coding RNA gene GDNF-AS1” — a gene thought to regulate the production of glial cell line-derived neurotrophic factor or GDNF, a protein that plays an important role in neuronal survival.

They also confirmed a strong association between vaccine-induced narcolepsy and a certain haplotype, suggesting “variation in genes related to immunity and neuronal survival may interact to increase the susceptibility to Pandemrix-induced narcolepsy in certain individuals.”

The fact that health authorities seem to have conveniently forgotten this travesty is shocking, considering it was only a decade ago. Do we really want to conduct the same kind of global mass experiment for a relatively mild disease again?

If there were an outbreak of a disease where death was rapid and horrifying, and the lethality high, such as with a hemorrhagic fever virus like Ebola, where the mortality rate can be as high as 50 percent, many people would be willing to risk even lifelong side effects from a fast-tracked vaccine.

But that’s not what we’re facing with COVID-19. According to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, “the immediate health risk from COVID-19 is considered low.”²² Nor was the H1N1 outbreak a “global killer.”

Yet here we are, facing yet another (potentially mandatory?) fast-tracked vaccine for a disease that will likely have run its course by the time the vaccine comes out. Have we really learned nothing from the Pandemrix debacle?

Flu Immunization May Increase Risk of Coronavirus Infection

A study²³ in the January 10, 2020, issue of the Vaccine journal also offers food for thought. As noted in this study, “Influenza Vaccination and Respiratory Virus Interference Among Department of Defense Personnel During the 2017-2018 Influenza Season”:

“Receiving influenza vaccination may increase the risk of other respiratory viruses, a phenomenon known as virus interference. Test-negative study designs are often utilized to calculate influenza vaccine effectiveness.

The virus interference phenomenon goes against the basic assumption of the test-negative vaccine effectiveness study that vaccination does not change the risk of infection with other respiratory illness, thus potentially biasing vaccine effectiveness results in the positive direction.

This study aimed to investigate virus interference by comparing respiratory virus status among Department of Defense personnel based on their influenza vaccination status. Furthermore, individual respiratory viruses and their association with influenza vaccination were examined.”

Results were mixed. Interestingly enough, while seasonal influenza vaccination did not raise the risk of all respiratory infections, it was in fact “significantly associated with coronavirus and human metapneumovirus” (hMPV). Those who had received a seasonal flu shot were 36% more likely to contract coronavirus infection and 51% more likely to contract hMPV infection than unvaccinated individuals.²⁴

Looking at the symptoms list for hMPV²⁵ is telling, as the main symptoms include fever, sore throat and cough. The elderly and immunocompromised are at heightened risk for severe hMPV illness, the symptoms of which include difficulty breathing and pneumonia. All of these symptoms also apply for COVID-19.

Recommended Infection Prevention Strategies

Based on the evidence, the odds of creating a safe-for-all vaccine without rigorous long-term studies are slim to none. Some people are bound to get hurt, which is why it doesn’t make sense to rush a vaccine unless the disease is severe and has a high death rate.

Time will tell what the outcome here will be. At present, health authorities recommend using the following strategies to minimize the spread of infection:²⁶

Frequently wash your hands with soap and water for at least 20 seconds. For further details, see “The Impact of Effective Handwashing Against Infection”
Avoid touching your eyes, nose and mouth
If you need to cough, cough into your flexed elbow or disposable tissue. Discard the tissue in a trash can and wash your hands
If feeling unwell, stay home and avoid public spaces

If you have symptoms of illness such as coughing or sneezing, be sure to wear a surgical mask to contain the spread whenever you’re around others. For additional details about the use of surgical or N95 respiratory masks, see “Will Wearing a Mask Protect You Against Coronavirus?”

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Do We Need a GMO Banana?

Bananas are one of the world’s most popular fruits, with 114 million tons produced globally in 2017.¹ While there are more than 1,000 varieties of bananas, most commercialized bananas sold in U.S. and European grocery stores are the Cavendish type. This variety accounts for about 47% of global banana production.

According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), Cavendish bananas are more resilient to the effects of global travel, making them popular for international trade. Further, they achieve high yields per hectare and are less prone to damage from storms due to their short stems. Cavendish plants are also valued for their ability to recover quickly from natural disasters.²

Taken together, Cavendish bananas may see like the perfect fruit, but there’s a downside to the lack of diversity that comes from widespread production of just one variety of banana: it’s incredibly prone to diseases and has even been said to be at risk of extinction.³

While genetic engineering has been touted as the only way to save the banana, the French Agricultural Research Centre for International Development (CIRAD) has announced the development of a new, 100% organic, disease-resistant banana that’s non-GMO and coming to commercial markets in March 2020.

New Non-GMO Banana Is Naturally Disease Resistant

CIRAD launched an initiative to diversify bananas in order to impart natural disease resistance. The new variety, called Pointe d’Or, was developed through crossing in partnership with the banana industry in Guadeloupe and Martinique and the Tropical Technical Institute, and was selectively bred to be resistant to black Sigatoka, a leaf-spot disease caused by the fungus Mycosphaerella fijiensis.

The disease ravages banana leaves, reducing photosynthetic capability and yields.⁴ CIRAD explained in a press release:⁵

“Currently, just one variety of dessert banana is grown throughout the world for the export market: the Cavendish. But this variety is particularly sensitive to some diseases, such as black Sigatoka, which is present in many production areas, including the French West Indies, and has so far required phytosanitary treatments.

To combat this disease, several actions have been undertaken in partnership with the French West Indian sector, including the creation of a resistant variety … ”

Pointe d’Or, which was previously called Number 925, is naturally resistant to black Sigatoka and was described by CIRAD as a “triumph of research, since past attempts to create new varieties of banana by different international teams have ended in failure.” The new banana variety is entering a commercial testing phase in metropolitan France and was introduced commercially in early March 2020 in the Ile-de-France region.

“This is an opportunity for consumers to obtain a new organic product that meets their expectations in terms of health and environment,” CIRAD noted. Frédéric Salmon, a geneticist and plant breeder at CIRAD in Guadeloupe, added:⁶

“The natural resistance of the Pointe d’Or to black Sigatoka, which now affects all production zones throughout the world, is a considerable advantage since it avoids the need for any phytosanitary treatments against this fungus and paves the way for organic banana production in the French West Indies.”

There are now 35 hectares (86.5 acres) of Pointe d’Or bananas being grown in Guadeloupe and Martinique, and between 1,000 and 1,200 tons are expected to be produced in 2020.

In addition to Pointe d’Or, the CIRAD partnership has also undertaken additional actions to combat black Sigatoka disease in bananas, including developing an agro-ecological cropping system that integrates prophylaxis and biological control methods.⁷

Panama Disease Triggering Race for GMO Banana

While black Sigatoka is susceptible to fungicides, another fungal threat also exists for bananas. Panama disease, i.e., Fusarium wilt, is also ravaging bananas, prompting calls that only genetic engineering can save them. In August 2019, the Colombian government confirmed that a new outbreak of Panama disease caused by the strain Tropical Race 4, or TR4, had emerged.⁸

This is especially problematic considering that growers in this part of the globe are major contributors to the world's banana supply. This situation has created a race to genetically engineer a fruit to withstand the fungus, although this problem has been seen before.

In fact, the Gros Michel was the first banana variety sold in the U.S., but it disappeared due to the TR1 fungus. The Cavendish was introduced next, in part because it was resistant to TR1, but it’s vulnerable to TR4. Researchers have not yet found any fungicide capable of killing the fungus and have determined it is able to live in the soil for up to 30 years.

Using breeding methods to modify the Cavendish is not possible, as the variety is sterile and propagated only by cloning. Now, several teams are employing genetic alterations to save the banana crop, using the gene editing tool CRISPR, which comes with its own set of problems.

However, with the introduction of Pointe d’Or, it’s now been shown that disease-resistant bananas can be created without the use of genetic engineering and even without the need for fungal treatments.

Eric de Lucy, president of The Union of Banana Producer Groups of Guadeloupe and Martinique, said during a press conference, “What we are experiencing is a global revolution in the history of the banana. This banana is unique in the world. It is quite an adventure and I am personally emotional about the fact that we developed such an exceptional product.”⁹

The Pointe d’Or banana, by the way, is said to have a smoother flavor than the Cavendish, with a taste that stays longer in your mouth. And while it’s also said to be more fragile and prone to browning than the durable Cavendish, stores are already training their employees about careful handling and signs will educate consumers about the differences.

“The Pointe d’Or is not the same banana. It doesn’t behave the same, it is not grown or packaged in the same way,” Tino Dambas, a Pointe d’Or producer based in Guadeloupe, told Fresh Plaza — and that’s precisely the point.¹⁰

Greater Diversity, Not GMOs, Will Save Bananas

It’s important to reiterate that Pointe d’Or is organic and non-GMO, suggesting that the decadeslong rhetoric that only genetic engineering can save the banana from extinction is wrong.¹¹ What’s more, as far back as 2003, when media reports were warning that bananas could be extinct within 10 years, FAO noted that greater genetic diversity in commercial bananas was necessary:¹²

“The Cavendish banana is a ‘dessert type’ banana that is cultivated mostly by the large-scale banana companies for international trade … Virtually all commercially important plantations grow this single genotype.

Its vulnerability is inevitable and not unexpected. The Cavendish's predecessor, the Gros Michel, suffered the same fate at the hands of fungal diseases, so this is a warning that we may need to find a replacement for the Cavendish banana in the future.”

At the time, FAO noted that small-scale farmers had maintained a broad genetic pool that could be used to improve future banana crops. In calling for the development of more diversity in banana crops, particularly for export bananas, they noted that while the development of resistant bananas would also be important, this did not necessarily mean the use of transgenics.

Further, back in 2003, they called for the promotion of awareness of the “inevitable consequences of a narrow genetic base in crops and the need for a broader genetic base for commercial bananas.”¹³ If this advice had been heeded then, bananas would be in a much better place today.

Promote Diversity — Try Something Besides Cavendish

It’s possible that your only reference point of a banana is the Cavendish — a variety that’s known more for durability during travel than taste. In fact, the Cavendish is said to be mild and mushy, not necessarily tasty, which means you could be in for a treat when it comes to trying one of the many other banana varieties available. These include:^14,^15,¹⁶

Cooking bananas — Sold green, these are almost considered potato-like and can be roasted or steamed like a starchy vegetable.

Red — This one wins the "most delicious" prize most often in the U.S. and is similar to a Philippine staple variety known as Lacatan. Sweet and creamy, this one has a dark magenta shade with dark streaks, and bruises easily.

Churro — Like a squatty version of the Cavendish, these are sometimes marketed as "chunky bananas." Grown in Mexico and found in Latin American markets in the U.S., they taste best very ripe for sweetness with a hint of sour.

Pisang Raja — Also known as Musa Belle bananas, these are popular in Indonesia and often used to make banana fritters.

Plantain — Dryer and not as sweet as the Cavendish, these are often used as an entrée food rather than a dessert. They're cooked so often in the tropics where they're grown that some aren't aware they can be eaten raw.

Manzano — Native to Central and South America, it's often sold in Asian specialty stores and is actually a subspecies of apple bananas; it's firmer than a Cavendish with a strong tart apple aroma that quickly turns sweet.

Lady Fingers — Smaller and sweeter than the longer, milder Cavendish, these 5- to 6-inch treats are good for portion control, especially for kids. They can even be grown in a pot.

Baby — A small variety, these are marketed with different names; Chiquita markets it as the Pisang Mas, from Malaysia. Dole has two types: Orito and Ladyfinger, the latter being the sweetest. The skins are brown with dark streaks when ripe.

Pisang lemak manis — Aka 40-day bananas, they mature quickly, have green, tapered tips when they're unripe and are suitable both fresh and cooked.

Pisang rastali or kesat — This variety is just 4 to 6 inches long and sturdy, with reddish black mottled skin, jelly-like flesh and an apple-like acidity.

Ae Ae — One of the most visually interesting varieties, their peels are green, white and variegated; they can be eaten raw or cooked, and are usually more expensive.

Praying hands — This is one of the oddest-looking types, especially in a bunch. It's very fat with a creamy texture; the flavor is very sweet-tart and fruit-like.

Pitogo — Definitely an odd-looking variety, these look more like a fig than a banana, grow on 10- to 12-foot high plants in tight clusters, and are more flavorful and nutritious than the Cavendish.

Pisang merah — Plump and rather small, these are mild and creamy, blacken only slightly and are quite soft when ripe.

As for nutrition, bananas are an excellent source of vitamin B6, with plenty of dietary fiber and potassium, manganese, vitamin C, biotin and copper. They’re quite high in sugar, however, which is why they should be eaten only in moderation or even unripe, when they contain higher amounts of digestive-resistant starch, which can benefit your gut health.

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The National Plan to Vaccinate Every American

Scientists at the National Institutes of Health are working with a biotech company to quickly start clinical trials of an experimental messenger RNA vaccine and fast track it to licensure.¹ The FDA has not yet licensed messenger RNA vaccines that use part of the RNA of a virus to manipulate the body’s immune system into stimulating a potent immune response.^2,³

It looks like the coronavirus vaccine will be the first genetically engineered messenger RNA vaccine to be fast tracked to licensure, just like Gardasil was the first genetically engineered virus-like particle vaccine to be fast tracked to licensure.^4,⁵

There likely will be lots of questions about whether the fast-tracked coronavirus vaccine was studied long enough to adequately demonstrate safety, especially for people who have trouble resolving strong inflammatory responses in their bodies and may be at greater risk for vaccine reactions.^6,^7,^8,^9,¹⁰

However, there is no question about what will happen if the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP)^11,¹² recommends that all Americans get the newly licensed coronavirus vaccine.

The government has a national vaccine plan. It is a plan designed to make sure you, your child and everyone in America gets every dose of every vaccine that government officials recommend now and in the future.

1986 to 1996: Establishing and Creating the Plan

Established under the 1986 National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act during the Reagan Administration,¹³ the plan didn’t really get traction until Congress funded the Vaccines for Children program in 1993 under the Clinton administration^14,¹⁵ and gave the Department of Health and Human Services authority to fund a network of state-based electronic vaccine tracking registries¹⁶ that can monitor the vaccination histories of children without the informed consent of their parents.

In 1995, then Secretary of Health Donna Shalala used rule-making authority to authorize the Social Security Administration to disclose the Social Security number of every baby born in the country to state governments without parental consent.¹⁷

Federal officials explained that “public health program uses of the Social Security numbers would include, but are not limited to, establishing immunization registries” and that new routine use of Social Security numbers would help the government operate “a national network of coordinated statewide immunization registries.”¹⁸

By 1996, when Congress established a national Electronic Health Records (EHR) system under HIPPA,¹⁹ the stage had been set for a government-operated electronic surveillance system to monitor the personal medical records and vaccination status of all Americans.^20,^21,^22,²³

The justification for this big data grab by the government, which clearly violated the privacy of Americans, was to “protect the public by reducing disease.”

Nationwide Electronic Health Records and Vaccine Tracking

Today, the nationwide federally funded Electronic Health Records system captures the details of every visit you make to a doctor’s office, hospital, pharmacy, laboratory or other medical facility; every medical diagnosis you get; every drug you have been prescribed and every vaccine you accept or refuse.

Your Electronic Health Record can be accessed not only by government health agencies like the Social Security Administration, Medicaid and federal and state health and law enforcement agencies,^24,²⁵ but also can be shared with authorized third parties such as doctors, health insurance companies, HMOs and other corporations, hospitals, labs, nursing homes and medical researchers.^26,^27,²⁸

A new Health Information Exchange^29,^30,³¹ initiative funded by the government will make it even easier for computerized health and vaccine records databases to tag, track down and sanction Americans who do not go along with the National Vaccine Plan in the future.^32,^33,^34,^35,^36,^37,³⁸

What Happened to the Duty to Prevent Adverse Reactions?

Ironically, when Congress directed the Department of Health and Human Services to create the National Vaccine Program in the 1986 Act, federal health officials were told to put together a plan to “achieve optimal prevention of human infectious diseases through immunization and to achieve optimal prevention against adverse reactions to vaccines.”³⁹

The plan was not supposed to focus solely on vaccine development and promotion but to equally focus on preventing vaccine reactions. Yet, in the very first 1994 National Vaccine Plan only four out of 25 “objectives” and only two out of 14 anticipated “outcomes” addressed preventing vaccine reactions.⁴⁰

The 2010 version of the Plan⁴¹ also largely ignored the legal duty of HHS to conduct vaccine safety research to fill in long standing knowledge gaps and take steps to make vaccines and vaccine policies less likely to cause harm.^42,^43,^44,^45,^46,^47,^48,^49,^50,^51,⁵²

Looking back, it appears Congress was not really committed to funding research and creating substantive initiatives to reduce vaccine risks, regardless of what was stated in the 1986 Act, or there would been congressional oversight and federal agencies would have been directed to follow the law rather than ignore it for more than 30 years.⁵³

Government’s Vaccine Marketing Plan for Big Pharma

Instead, government agencies have brazenly forged lucrative public private business partnerships with the pharmaceutical industry and the medical establishment to:

Develop many new vaccines^54,^55,^56,⁵⁷
Increase public demand for vaccines⁵⁸
Raise vaccination rates among children to nearly 100%⁵⁹
Create and expand electronic vaccine tracking registries^60,^61,^62,^63,⁶⁴
Promote global vaccination programs,^65,⁶⁶ even though the primary purpose of the 1986 Act was to reduce vaccine reactions and protect the U.S. childhood vaccine supply,⁶⁷ not fund and expand global vaccination programs

In fact, federal health officials accurately characterize the U.S. vaccination system in the 21st century as a business. A decade ago they admitted that “The 2010 National Vaccine Plan provides a vision for the U.S. vaccine and immunization enterprise for the next decade.”⁶⁸

That’s because they know the National Vaccine Plan is really a Vaccine Marketing Plan for the pharmaceutical industry.^69,^70,^71,⁷²

So, if you are wondering why many states are trying to pass laws eliminating all vaccine exemptions and mandate every vaccine the pharmaceutical industry produces and the CDC recommends,^73,^74,^75,⁷⁶ you don’t have to look any further than the government’s well-financed National Vaccine Plan.

Implementation of the Plan Accelerated in 2011

Implementation of the Plan was accelerated in 2011 after the U.S. Supreme Court declared FDA licensed vaccines to be “unavoidably unsafe” for the purpose of removing almost all remaining liability from drug companies when vaccines hurt people.^77,⁷⁸

Since 2011, two powerful CDC-appointed vaccine advisory committees influenced by members associated with the pharmaceutical and medical trade industries — the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP)^79,^80,^81,^82,⁸³ and the National Vaccine Advisory Committee (NVAC)^84,^85,⁸⁶ — have been busy coming up with new ways to meet strategic goals of the National Vaccine Plan.

When highly publicized cases of measles were reported in California’s Disneyland in 2015⁸⁷ and in New York in 2019,^88,⁸⁹ with military precision pursuit of the plan was kicked into even high gear.^90,⁹¹ During the past five years, California, Vermont, New York, Maine and Hawaii have lost vaccine exemptions, even though tens of thousands of Americans rose up in protest.⁹²

In 2019, the people managed to hold on to exemptions in Oregon, Arizona and New Jersey⁹³ but this year, bills to force vaccine use are already threatening parental, civil and human rights in Virginia, Massachusetts, Florida, Washington, Pennsylvania and more.⁹⁴

Five Main Types of Vaccine Laws Being Proposed in States

These are the five main types of laws being proposed in the states and your state may be one of them:

1. State laws that eliminate all personal belief vaccine exemptions allowing you to follow your conscience or religious beliefs and make it illegal for physicians to grant a medical exemption unless it strictly conforms to very narrow CDC-approved contraindications to vaccination.

National vaccine coverage rates among school children are at 95% for core vaccines like polio, pertussis, measles and chickenpox, yet, government health officials are not satisfied.⁹⁵ They have narrowed vaccine contraindications so that almost no medical history or health condition qualifies as a reason for a medical exemption.⁹⁶

If you or your child have had previous vaccine reactions, are vaccine injured, have a brother or sister who was injured or died after vaccination, or are suffering with a brain or immune system disorder that the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) does not consider to be a contraindication to vaccination, states like California^97,⁹⁸ denying physicians the right to exercise professional judgment and give children a medical exemption to vaccination are threatening human rights.⁹⁹

No wonder less than 1% of vaccine reactions are ever reported to the federal Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System¹⁰⁰ and doctors feel free to discriminate against and deny medical care to anyone who is not vaccinated according to CDC schedules.¹⁰¹

Laws that eliminate medical, religious and conscience exemptions to vaccination and ban citizens from getting a school education — even a college education — violate civil and human rights and so do vaccine mandates by employers who fire or refuse to hire workers based on their vaccination status.^102,^103,¹⁰⁴

The two professions being targeted first for workplace vaccine mandates are health care^105,^106,¹⁰⁷ and child care workers,^108,¹⁰⁹ but they certainly will not be the last.¹¹⁰

2. State laws that turn unelected members of the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices into de facto lawmakers and automatically mandate all current and future federally recommended vaccines without any public discussion or vote by duly elected state legislators.

Under the U.S. Constitution, state legislatures hold the majority of power to pass public health laws, so vaccine laws are state laws.^111,¹¹²

If states hand that constitutional authority over to an unelected federal government committee, the people no longer can work through their elected state representatives to make sure laws do not force involuntary medical risk taking and punish citizens exercising civil and human rights.¹¹³

It is clear that Pharma and medical trade lobbyists partnering with government officials to implement the National Vaccine Plan are unhappy they have to spend so much time and money trying to strong arm state legislators into mandating every CDC recommended vaccine.

At the same time, some politicians are not happy that a growing number of Americans are showing up in state Capitols to oppose oppressive vaccine mandates. Today, it costs a staggering $3,000 to give a child every one of the 69 doses of 16 vaccines on the federal government’s schedule.¹¹⁴

In addition to coronavirus vaccine, there are more than a dozen experimental vaccines being fast tracked to market for TB, influenza, HIV/AIDS, gonorrhea, herpes simplex, strep A and B, E. coli, RSV, salmonella and malaria,¹¹⁵ with several hundred more being developed in a global vaccine market estimated to balloon to nearly $100 billion by 2026.^116,¹¹⁷

State laws that automatically mandate all federally recommended vaccines are handing Big Pharma a big blank check and putting an unknown number of vaccine vulnerable children and adults at risk for serious health problems if they are forced to use every one of them.^118,^119,^120,^121,¹²²

3. State laws that allow doctors to declare minor children mentally competent to consent to vaccination so children can be vaccinated without the knowledge of their parents.

There is plenty of scientific evidence that children’s brains are not developed enough before or during teenage years to support rational benefit and risk decision-making, especially if they are subjected to pressure.^123,¹²⁴

Giving doctors the legal authority to, in effect, go behind parents’ backs and persuade a minor child to get liability-free vaccines violates the legal right of parents to consent to medical interventions performed on their children.¹²⁵ It also puts vaccine vulnerable children at greater risk for suffering reactions.¹²⁶

Parents know their child’s personal and family medical history best and if parents are left in the dark, not only are they blocked from preventing vaccine reactions but there is no way for them to monitor a child after vaccination for signs of reactions so they can immediately take their child for treatment.¹²⁷

4. State laws requiring schools to publicly post vaccine coverage rates for the purpose of shaming schools that allow students with vaccine exemptions to receive a school education.

Publicly posting school vaccination rates and numbers of students with exemptions creates a hostile community environment by targeting certain schools and families, whose children have vaccine exemptions, for discrimination and abuse.^128,^129,¹³⁰

It is an illusion that some schools are safer based on vaccination rates. For example, even schools with 100% vaccination rates and zero exemptions have had outbreaks of pertussis¹³¹ and schools with very high vaccination rates have had outbreaks of measles and mumps.^132,¹³³

That is because vaccinated children and adults can get infected with and transmit infectious diseases but sometimes show few or no symptoms and are never diagnosed or reported.^134,^135,^136,^137,^138,^139,¹⁴⁰ Children and teachers interact with many other vaccinated and unvaccinated people outside of the school setting.

It is discriminatory to require public posting of the numbers of healthy students with vaccine exemptions, when schools are not required to publicly post the numbers of students who are infected with transmissible diseases like hepatitis B and C, HIV, streptococcal, mononucleosis, cytomegalovirus, E. coli, Fifths disease, herpes simplex and more.

5. State laws that operate vaccine tracking registries and integrate them into Electronic Health Records systems without the consent of those being tracked.

The National Vaccine Information Center has a two-decade public record of opposing the creation of national or state based electronic surveillance systems that automatically enroll children and adults without their informed consent to monitor their vaccination status and health histories.¹⁴¹

Not only have there been past security breaches with electronic databases dumping personally identifying information into the public domain,¹⁴² but there is legitimate concern that the government should not be conducting electronic surveillance on citizens while pursuing a National Vaccine Plan that encourages punitive societal sanctions, such as the inability to get a school education or a job, for individuals who refuse to go along with the Plan.

Federal and State Police Powers to Compel Vaccine Use

For more information on the history and types of public health laws that allow the federal government and states to use police powers to compel vaccine use, go to NVIC’s website at NVIC.org.

To learn more about vaccine legislation pending in your state and talking points you can use to educate your legislators, go to NVIC Advocacy.org and become a user of NVIC’s free online Advocacy Portal.

You will be put into direct contact with your own state and federal representatives and sent emails when bills that threaten or expand your freedom to make voluntary vaccine choices are moving in your state so you can make your voice heard, including showing up at scheduled public hearings.

Making Government Work for You

In America, we are governed by laws that the representatives we elect make, so it is important to vet all candidates for positions on issues you care about before going to the polls.

Already this year, there have been more than 50 good bills introduced in a number of states that defend voluntary vaccine choices. This is a time for positive action. It’s your health. Your family. Your choice.

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Stem cells and nerves interact in tissue regeneration and cancer progression

Researchers show that different stem cell populations are innervated in distinct ways. Innervation may therefore be crucial for proper tissue regeneration. They also demonstrate that cancer stem cells likewise establish contacts with nerves. Targeting tumor innervation could thus lead to new cancer therapies.

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What one study from China tells us about COVID-19 and children

As we try to predict what will happen here in the US with COVID-19, it’s natural to look at the experience in China, where the epidemic began. In a study published in the journal Pediatrics, we learn about how the pandemic affected children.

What this study tells us

The study looked at information about 2,143 children with COVID-19 infections that were reported to China’s Centers for Disease Control from January 16 to February 8 of this year. Of the infections, about a third were confirmed with a laboratory test for COVID-19. The others were diagnosed based on symptoms and the results of other tests, such as x-rays.

The best news in this study is that 90% of the children had illness that was asymptomatic, mild, or moderate — as opposed to severe or critical. While 4.4% were reported as asymptomatic, given that only a third had laboratory testing, it’s very likely that the actual number of asymptomatic infections in children during that time period was higher. Only one child died.

In adults, it appears that more like 80% have mild to moderate infections. We don’t know why children appear to have milder disease overall. It’s likely a combination of factors related to body chemistry, immune function, and even social factors such as how children are cared for and spend their days. But whatever the reason, it’s good news.

What else is important to know

However, there is a part of the study we need to pay attention to: younger children are at higher risk of running into trouble. Among children less than a year old, 10.6% had severe or critical disease. For children ages 1 to 5, that number was still high at 7.3%. It dropped to 4.2% for 6-to-10-year-olds, 4.1% for 11-to-15-year-olds, and 3% for those 16 and older. Interestingly, the only child who died was 14 years old.

It’s not really surprising that the youngest children, especially infants, are more vulnerable. In most epidemics, such as influenza, it’s the very young and the very old that have the highest risk.

How can this information help us?

How can we use this information? Aside from all the advice already given to parents about hand washing, social distancing, and maintaining healthy habits, parents of young children should take extra care.

Be especially careful about who has contact with your young children

Choose caregivers carefully. Limit the number overall, and choose those who have limited contact with other people and who can be trusted to practice social distancing, wash their hands frequently, and stay away if they feel at all sick.
Limit the number of people who have contact with or hold young children.
To the extent that it is possible, keep young children at home. If you take them out, keep them inside strollers or otherwise limit what they touch.
Wash their hands even more often. They just can’t stop themselves from touching things and touching their face.

Be particularly watchful should young children get sick

Call your doctor for advice rather than bringing your child in for mild or moderate illness (there’s nothing your doctor can do at the office, and you are just adding the risk of more exposures). However, you should absolutely seek medical care if your child has

any trouble breathing — rapid or forceful breathing, a pale or blue color to skin, trouble feeding or talking, or doing usual activities because of breathing problems
a high fever you can’t get down (while it’s not certain, there have been some concerns raised about using ibuprofen with COVID-19 — out of an abundance of caution, best to use acetaminophen instead)
unusual sleepiness
pain or irritability you can’t soothe
trouble drinking or refusal to drink, and is making less urine.

Follow me on Twitter @drClaireMD

For more information on coronavirus and COVID-19, see the Harvard Health Publishing Coronavirus Resource Center.

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Skin tag removal: Optional but effective

Skin tags are common, benign skin growths that hang from the surface of the skin on a thin piece of tissue called a stalk. They are made up of many components, including fat, collagen fibers, and sometimes nerve cells and small blood vessels. It’s possible that these collagen fibers and blood vessels become wrapped up inside a layer of skin, leading to the formation of a skin tag. The medical term for a skin tag is acrochordon, and they can also be referred to as soft fibromas or fibroepithelial polyps.

Skin tags are frequently found in areas of friction on the skin, such as the neck, underarms , under the breasts, eyelids, and other skin folds. They start as small, often flesh-colored bumps. They may stay that size and go largely unnoticed, enlarge and continue to be painless, or enlarge and become irritated due to friction or pressure.

It’s not entirely clear what causes skin tags, and there are no proven ways to prevent them. Some studies have shown that skin tags are more common in people who have diabetes or are overweight. Pregnancy may also lead to increased numbers of skin tags, most likely due to hormonal changes in the body.

Many methods are available for skin tag removal

Skin tags do not have to be removed. They are not harmful, and will not become so over time. However, some people find them unsightly and choose to have to have them removed. Skin tag removal can be accomplished via a number of different methods. One commonly used method is cryotherapy, in which a physician, usually a dermatologist, freezes off the skin tag using liquid nitrogen. Another option is electrocautery, in which an electric probe or needle is used to burn off the skin tag. Snipping or excision, either with scissors or a scalpel, may be a better option for larger skin tags. Because skin tag removal is considered cosmetic, these procedures are usually not covered by insurance.

Home remedies for skin tag removal are largely unproven

While home remedies are available, their efficacy is largely anecdotal and not supported by significant data. Some commercial kits contain ligation bands that can be placed around the base of skin tags, thereby cutting off their circulation and causing them to fall off. Home “freezing” kits are also available, but typically require multiple applications. Tea tree oil and apple cider vinegar have also reportedly been used to treat skin tags; however, there is little research data to support their effectiveness. Furthermore, these substances often cause skin irritation. Tea tree oil, in particular, is known to cause allergic skin reactions in some people.

Keep an eye out for atypical features

Sometimes, what may look like a skin tag could actually be a different type of skin growth. If you notice a fleshy growth that has features that are not typical of skin tags, such as variations in color, sudden changes in size, or areas of bleeding or pain.

Follow me on Twitter @KristinaLiuMD

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Graphite nanoplatelets on medical devices kill bacteria and prevent infections

Graphite nanoplatelets integrated into plastic medical surfaces can prevent infections, killing 99.99 per cent of bacteria which try to attach -- a cheap and viable potential solution to a problem which affects millions, costs huge amounts of time and money, and accelerates antibiotic resistance.

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Health forums: Style of language influences credibility and trust

Informations on health topics in Internet forums are often so complex that laypersons are barely able to form considered judgements on the advice. One criterion which users apply instead in evaluating the information is the style of the language used.

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New brain disorder discovery

AI may help predict responses to non-small cell lung cancer systemic therapies

Using standard-of-care computed tomography (CT) scans in patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), researchers utilized artificial intelligence (AI) to train algorithms to predict tumor sensitivity to three systemic cancer therapies.

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ACE inhibitors and angiotensin receptor blockers may increase the risk of severe COVID-19

People rate their own bodies as more attractive when viewed from a third-person perspective

How accurately can you judge your own looks? Researchers looked at how we rate our own bodies when viewed from a first-person perspective compared to when viewed from an outside perspective. They did this by creating three virtual bodies ('avatars') for each participant. Participants rated their own body as more attractive when viewing it from a third-person perspective in virtual reality and showed that our internal representation of our own body shape is highly inaccurate.

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Loss of protein disturbs intestinal homeostasis and can drive cancer

An international team of researchers has identified a novel function for the cell death regulating protein MCL1: It is essential in protecting the intestine against cancer development -- independent of bacterial-driven inflammation. These findings have implications for the use of MCL1 inhibitors, currently being tested for cancer treatment.

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