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* carefully dishonest arguments |
* carefully dishonest arguments |
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In addition, there is a considerable overlap with [[homeopathy]] and [[conspiracy theorist]]s, and a subset of the material shades into the appearance of [[psychosis]]. |
In addition, there is a considerable overlap with [[homeopathy]] and [[conspiracy theorist]]s, and a subset of the material shades into the appearance of [[psychosis]] http://www.aapsonline.org/jpands/vol8no2/schlafly.pdf. |
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Revision as of 01:55, 6 February 2006
Anti-vaccinationists. This article deals with those who, on principled or other grounds, are opposed to vaccination. Since the early 19th century, when vaccination became a standard part of public health and medicine, there have been groups and individuals who are most clearly characterised as anti-vaccinationists opposing such policies. wiktionary, 1913, 1470
The focus of the article is their identity as a group or class, and the genesis and evolution of the repeating arguments, which have shown limited change with time and according to the specific vaccines discussed. These constitute and are discussed as a distinct topic rather than as part of the discussion of infectious diseases and their control.
Technical detail such as the timing of vaccinations are discussed in vaccination schedule and elsewhere and are outside the scope of the intended topic.
Wolfe and Sharp (2002) argue that between the 19th and 20th century the arguments against vaccination used by anti-vaccinationists remained essentially unchanged. Their paper and others offer views regarded as partial.
Time course
Efforts by individuals and communities to avoid death of infectious diseases have been recorded since at least Hippocrates, as have disagreements on their detail. Modern states assert an interest in and a right to control aspects of these efforts.
Widespread vaccination began in the UK, in the early 1800s, after Edward Jenner. It succeeded variolation.
At first the government encouraged vaccination.
compulsion
In the UK, traditionally neither particularly paternalistic and authoritarian, nor particularly laissez-faire, successive Vaccination Acts from 1840 made vaccination compulsory and banned variolation as being less effective and more hazardous than vaccination.
This represented a significant change in the relationship between state and subject.
backlash
A prompt backlash occurred, initially focused on compulsion, which after a time settled on arguments that the vaccine was dangerous or ineffective. After that argument was won, compulsion ceasing and large-scale vaccination having been conducted, arguments on the latter grounds continued to be presented. Some of them derive from a view of the world which rejects the germ theory of Pasteur, and advances as true theories which have been discarded by most scientists active in the relevant fields.
In the United States, smallpox outbreaks had become contained by the latter half of the 19th century. Vaccination had been widespread in the early part the century, and before that smallpox had been widespread. Vaccination then fell into disuse. In the 1870s the disease became epidemic, the population therefore being demonstrated to be susceptible.
Anti-vaccination activity also increased in the United States in the latter part of the 19th century. In 1879, after a visit to New York by William Tebb, the leading British anti-vaccinationist, the Anti-Vaccination Society of America was founded. Subsequently, the New England Anti-Compulsory Vaccination League was formed in 1882 and the Anti-Vaccination League of New York City in 1885.
Initial arguments
Individual Freedom
Arguments against compulsion gained considerable support. See Anti-vaccinationists/arguments against compulsion
Religion
In the UK and abroad, when vaccination was introduced there are reports of individual clergymen supporting objections to it. Since the same applied to the potato, it is not clear that there was a special religious angle. See Vaccination/religion
Safety
Character of anti-vaccinationist material
Anti-vaccination writing, and writing by anti-vaccinationists, on the Web and previously on paper, is characterised by a number of distinct differences from medical and other scientific literature. As well as the underlying thesis to argue and subtle elements of style better analysed by a professor of English, these include:
- promiscuous copying and reduplication[citation needed]
- Tendency to be without corrections, even when an initial report is shown to be false (eg Donnegan and Schreiber references below). See also absent_correction
- Deficiency of references to allow readers, should they wish, to check sources [citation needed]
- Personal and sometimes scurrilous attacks on individual doctors
- An underlying acceptance that, 'of course', the whole of medicine is aimed at doing harm, eg whale.to/a/medical_mafia.html
- carefully dishonest arguments
In addition, there is a considerable overlap with homeopathy and conspiracy theorists, and a subset of the material shades into the appearance of psychosis http://www.aapsonline.org/jpands/vol8no2/schlafly.pdf.
An example of a carefully dishonest argument would be to move from the claimed - that immunisation reduces disease - to dismissing immunisation as ineffective, since it has not eliminated any disease. Even this only works until 1979, when Smallpox was eradicated, or at most contemporary time when polio having been eliminated as distinct from eradicated, in the USA and UK, the change from a live vaccine to a killed one occurs.
See Mendelsohn quote below
The People
Organisations wholly or largely existing to oppose immunisation
Historical
The initial aims and results of the early movements:- In the UK vaccination was provided free and Variolation outlawed from 1840 under the Vaccination Act. Widespread or organised resistance or protest is not reported at that time.
1873 Act: In 1873 a further Vaccination Act made vaccination compulsory. Records of the reasoning for this are not widely available. However it is apparent that soon after this there was considerable resistance to the compulsion, and this grew. In 1885 a Royal Commission sat, following riots in Leicester and reported 7 years later, recommending the abolition of cumulative penalties. A new Vaccination Act in 1898 removed cumulative penalties and introduced a conscience clause, allowing parents who did not believe vaccination was efficacious or safe to obtain a certificate of exemption. This act introduced the important concept of the "conscientious objector" into English law.
The aims of the protesters and organisations had thus been achieved in 1898.
tables
Name | Started | Finished | Location | Membership | Unique Proposition | Notes | |
Anti-vaccination Society | 1798 | England | new = bad? | Remarkably quick off the mark Surely they came from anti-variolationists? | |||
Anti-Compulsory Vaccination League | 1866 | 1880 (segue) | Mr. R. B. Gibbs (d. 1871) started it [citation needed]. Revived 1876, President: Rev. W. Hume-Rothery | ||||
London Society for the Abolition of Compulsory Vaccination | 1880 | 1896 (segue) | Victoria Street, Westminster, London | Secretary: Mr. William Young. Adopted The Vaccination Inquirer established 1879 William Tebb as the organ of the Society.
Published:-
The movement grew [citation needed] and the London Society soon became national so reformed as ... | |||
National Anti-Vaccination League | 1896 (Feb) | before 1970? | England |
objectives:—
The entire repeal of the Vaccination Acts; the disestablishment and disendowment of the practice of vaccination; and the abolition of all regulations in regard to vaccination as conditions, of employment in State Departments, or of admission to Educational, or other Institutions.[citation needed] |
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Anti-vaccination Society | mid-C19 | Boston USA | "the law of god prohibits the practice," [citation needed] | ||||
A rather separate organisation with a general anti-vaccination view but with other more significant characteristics was the Nazi party. http://www.newscientist.com/channel/opinion/mg18725131.600
Current
Since the reversion from compulsory immunisation in the UK, (... other states...) opposition has continued, albeit at a low level and with the termination of the national organisations set up to oppose compulsion (see their charters).
This opposition could no longer focus upon the abridgement of vicarious individual liberty - the right to determine what is done to one's children - and adopted the arguments that immunisation did not have an effect; that it had an effect but the effect was overwhelmingly bad; or that although immunisation had a beneficial effect that beneficial effect was less than lifelong and produced perverse consequences.
This was a change of ground and toward hypotheses that in theory require evidence and are susceptible to disproof rather than the philosophical questions of the relationship of individuals to state or deity. Accordingly, scientific investigation has been undertaken, and also accordingly subsidiary arguments essentially consisting of the serial assertion that each scientific investigation which did not prove one of those hypotheses had been incorrectly designed, conducted, interpreted or punctuated and spelled.
General
Specific People
Name Qualification Dates Medical Practitioner? |
Biog | peer-reviewed publications |
Other (vacc related)Pubs | Notes | ||||
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Reportedly sometime academic at Comenius University Bratislava | One: Tye K, Pollard I, Karlsson L, Scheibner V, Tye G. Caffeine exposure in utero increases the incidence of apnea in adult rats. Reprod Toxicol 1993;7:449–52 | Book: Scheibner V. Vaccination: 100 years of orthodox research shows
that vaccines represent a medical assault on the immune system. Blackheath (NSW): Viera Scheibner; 1993. |
a peer reviewed paper about her [UToronto.ca (pdf) - 'Public opponents of vaccination: a case study", Julie Leask, Peter McIntyre, National Centre for Immunization Research & Surveillance, University of Sydney
Vaccine, vol 21, p 4700-4703 (2003) PMID 14585678 ] | ||||
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Stood up in Court and told a judge that several papers supported her arguments. He read them. They didn't. She was obliged to agree with this in open court[1].
"... The judge found this doctor guilty of using "selective quotations", of making "unsubstantiated claims", and of "being confused in her thinking, lacking logic, minimising the duration of a disease, making statements lacking valid facts, ignoring the facts, ignoring the conclusion of papers, making implications without any scientific validation, giving a superficial impression of a paper, not presenting the counter argument, quoting selectively from papers, and of providing in one instance no data and no facts to support her claim". It was Dr Donegan's evidence that Lord Justice Sedley dismissed as "junk science" at the subsequent appeal. Yet 12 months later, thanks to the flourishing network of anti-immunisation parents' groups out there, Dr Donegan's junk science is readily available to anyone trying to make informed decisions about vaccinations. ..." [0] http://www.spiked-online.com/articles/0000000CA6F2.htm [1] http://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWHC/Fam/2003/1376.html [2] http://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWCA/Civ/2003/1148.html
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Charles Creighton | ||||||||
Neil Miller |
Walter Hadwen | |||||
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Gerhard Buchwald |
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English | Website: whale.to | a large and slightly sorted collection of conspiracy theory save the whale, illuminati, weird "science" COPYVIO and stuff which is not corrected to reflect demonstrated mistakes. |
The State
"Vaccination is unique among de facto mandatory requirements in the modern era, requiring individuals to accept the injection of a medicine or medicinal agent into their bodies, and it has provoked a spirited opposition. This opposition began with the first vaccinations, has not ceased, and probably never will. From this realisation arises a difficult issue: how should the mainstream medical authorities approach the anti-vaccination movement? A passive reaction could be construed as endangering the health of society, whereas a heavy handed approach can threaten the values of individual liberty and freedom of expression that we cherish." BMJ
Some of the United States in America make no requirement for immunisation, but a legislative requirement for immunisation before admission to school, and another for schooling. An overlap between followers of contemporary anti-vaccinationists and home-schoolers must arise from this.
Anti-Vaccinists quotes
- "The greatest threat of childhood diseases lies in the dangerous and ineffectual efforts made to prevent them through mass immunization.....There is no convincing scientific evidence that mass inoculations can be credited with eliminating any childhood disease."--Dr Robert Mendelsohn, M.D (Ref: How To Raise Your Child In Spite Of Your Doctor)
- "I found that the whole vaccine business was indeed a gigantic hoax. Most doctors are convinced that they are useful, but if you look at the proper statistics and study the instances of these diseases you will realize that this is not so."--Dr Archie Kalokerinos MD (Interview---- International Vaccine Newsletter June 1995 [2])
- "The 'victory over epidemics' was not won by medical science or by doctors--and certainly not by vaccines.....the decline...has been the result of technical, social and hygienic improvements and especially of improved nutrition.....the claim that vaccinations are the cause for the decline of infectious diseases is utter nonsense."--Dr. med. Gerhard Buchwald (Ref: The Vaccination Nonsense. ISBN 3-8334-2508-3 page 108.)
Publications
- 1884 Compulsory Vaccination in England by William Tebb [3]
- 1898 VACCINATION A DELUSION by Alfred Russel Wallace [4]
- 1936 The Case AGAINST Vaccination By M. Beddow Bayly M.R.C.S., L.R.C.P. [5]
- 1951 The Truth About Vaccination and Immunization by Lily Loat [6]
- 1957 THE POISONED NEEDLE by Eleanor McBean [7]
- 1990 UNIVERSAL IMMUNIZATION Medical Miracle or Masterful Mirage By Dr. Raymond Obomsawin [8]
Anti-Vaccinationist Assertions
(See also Vaccine_controversy)
table section 1
This is a list of the essential assertions of anti-vaccinators:
By essential, we mean, as a consensus: ....... |
First By |
Supplementary | These are a list of responses | first published ;in | |
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*unquantified danger to diseases and immunisations can always allow changing the grounds... | ||||
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How dangerous are the diseases (A-v view)? |
complication rates in children Prove specific benefits from the specific infections Necessary: in the absence of them, demonstrate harm occurs; supposing harm occurs, could it be averted by causing infection unnaturally?; supposing it could, could most or all the harm be averted by unnaturally causing infection with a weakened version of the disease in question, or providing exposure to the products of such infection?; if not, why not? |
table section 2
This is a list of the essential assertions of anti-vaccinators: | First; By | Supplementary | These are a list of responses | first published ;in | |
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Calculate the numbers involved in a 99.4% decline in deaths after vaccination (in E&W). There is an asymptotic process here, with successive reductions taking more effort. |
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Smallpox has been eliminated. Much of the world has abject poverty still Polio is vastly decreased, immunisation is part of the process, when immunisation was interrupted in the Kano state of Nigeria in 2003, Polio increased. |
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Morbidity and mortality of several diseases are greater than anti-vaccinationist writings make clear |
table section 3
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The US government is run by the oil industry
Google indicates many thousand pages of anti-vaccinationism |
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**Unhealthy, and/or malnourished children should not be vaccinated (ie most third world children). | While there is malnutrition and ill-health in the Third World, it is a grotesque exaggeration to suggest this is most children. It is seriously inconsistent to suggest that vaccination is not needed for the properly nourished, but that the poorly nourished should not receive it. |
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This falls into the category of natural experiments
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Also:
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First said by, and in | Supplementary info
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responses |
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Pasteur's demonstration is repeatable and his explanation well-established. Bechamp was wrong. |
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says... | Supp
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The Welcome Foundation is a not-for-profit Vaccine production in Cuba is not highly profitable.([19] cover) Experiments test hypotheses. emotional polemic, and yet immunisations are not confined to children. The world is full of lawyers. They don't think so. |
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State by state, and for other countries, this is susceptible to factual testing and citing laws... |
This is demonstrably untrue of Georgia, US http://public.doe.k12.ga.us/askdoe.aspx?PageReq=ASKNewcomer (viewed Feb 2006) |
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Dr Dunbar |
Present knowledge of the immune system allows us to make successful matched bone-marrow transplants and do many other clever things requiring an understanding. Package inserts are heavily regulated in the UK |
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In on-line responses, fora and WP
Responses to papers or reports of scientific or political enquiry in the BMJ attract responses deploying arguments of the usual types and in the usual fashion from a small population of frequent responders.
On WP similar behaviour is demonstrated, as can be seen in the history of various articles, for instance Mumps.
Attacks on a broad front
Many attacks are made, not apparently on vaccination itself, but on some individual component of a vaccine or of the social arrangements around it. They appear from the association of the people involved to be anti-vaccinationist activity, rather than as may be asserted, an effort to improve the safety of vaccines. If an overlap with another group who have an interest in discrediting the use of some technique can be found, the tactic seems likely to generate even more activity.
Thimerosal
- For considerable detail see thimerosal controversy. For information about its chemical properties, see thimerosal
An example involves the thimerosal controversy. Recently, but largely in the United States, it has been suggested that thimerosal in childhood vaccines could contribute to autism or the autism epidemic. This claim rests on the organic mercury content of the chemical. Government pharmaceutical companies clearly have an interest in denying this, and there are potentially gains for litigants if a connection can be shown in court.
The substance is being phased out. Vaccines in use in the UK are largely free of it, and there is no suggestion that it is required for the immunogenic effect of the preparations, therefore that when and where it is not needed it will be omitted.
The 2004 Institute of Medicine panel favoured rejecting any causal relationship between thimerosal-containing vaccines and autism.
See also
Anti-vaccine websites
- Vaccination.org.uk which is essentially a clone of the vaccination material of http*//whale.to
- VRAN (Canada)
- AVN (Australia)
- Vaccination Liberation (USA)
Websites commenting upon them
References
- Wolfe RM, Sharp LK. Anti-vaccinationists past and present. BMJ 2002;325:430-2. Fulltext. PMID 12193361.
- The Anti-Immunization Activists: A Pattern of Deception - Ed Friedlander, MD