New Zealand: Meningococcal Mass Vaccination Experiment Scientifically Unjustifiable
New Zealand health authorities have been convinced by Chiron Corp. to initiate a 250 million $ drive to vaccinate more than a million children against the MeNZB strain of meningococcal virus. Chiron Corp. is the pharmaceutical company that has had its UK manufacturing license suspended, leading to a shortage of the US supply of flu vaccine this year.
According to Ron Law, Risk & Policy Analyst, the evidence indicates that there is no epidemic, and if there ever was one, it has subsided during the past few years, and he has the statistics to prove it (in pdf format).
This is reminiscent of the current US flu "epidemic", where deaths have been hyped up by the CDC for years and where a shortage of vaccine, which rightly should be a relief, is widely promoted as catastrophic by the press.
Back to New Zealand. It is a mystery why anyone would endanger over a million children with injection of an experimental vaccine and spend hundreds of millions of (NZ) dollars, when there is no epidemic in sight. Ron Law asks the questions...
In a related development, New Zealand has apparently dismantled its Independent Safety Monitoring Board, the one agency that could get to the bottom of any side effects caused by the vaccination drive. According to this article, the British Medical Journal has questioned the move last July, publishing an open letter by 35 medical doctors from several countries, who said the Institute had contributed very valuably to the safety of medicines in New Zealand and worldwide.
Coincidence?
Meningococcal Disease at 10 to 13 Year Lows
by Ron Law
Risk & Policy Analyst
"Detailed analysis of Ministry of Health data reveals that notified meningococcal disease cases are at a 10 year low, and deaths are at a 13 year low," says risk & policy analyst Ron Law.It doesn't matter how one looks at the data ... Year-to-date, rolling 12 month totals, yearly total, adjusted for laboratory typing, etc, the picture is clearly the same.
[See attachments - available on request from Beyond Alternative Solutions]
These are astonishing facts that appear to have been kept out of sight of politicians and the New Zealand community, and do not appear to have been included in any epidemiological report found on the Ministry of Health and ESR websites or in information received to date under the Official Information Act.
"The question begging an urgent answer is, 'Why?'" asks Ron Law.
"I'm sure that if the Cabinet had known theses facts it would not have approved the rollout of the mass vaccination experiment currently underway; just as the Minister of Health has noted in Parliament that the Norwegian Government rejected mass vaccination in 1990/1991," says Ron Law.
This latest evidence further confirms that the Minister of Health's 7 July statement that there is no evidence of the disease abating, is patently untrue and should be immediately retracted.
The ESR itself estimates that between 10% and 26% of cases notified have been misdiagnosed and are not meningococcal disease.
Analysis of available data shows that nationally, less than 50% of the total notified cases have been confirmed as being caused by the MeNZB type meningococcal bacteria. In Auckland, fewer than 40% have been confirmed as MeNZB-type.
Analysis of Auckland data shows what seem to be significant problems relating to diagnosis within the Pacific Island community, (and less so within the Maori community).
This data suggests one of four possible scenarios;
1. There is serious overdiagnosis of meningococcal disease among Pacific Islanders,
2. Confirmation of diagnosis in Pacific Islanders is pursued less vigorously than in other ethnic groups,
3. There is an as yet unidentified meningococcal-type disease affecting the Pacific Island community,
4. There is some environmental factor affecting Pacific Island communities (and to a lesser extent Maori communities) that is not affecting other groups, especially outside of Auckland, and especially in 1997.The meningococcal B strain alleged to be the cause of the meningococcal epidemic is a mild strain of meningococcal disease compared to other sub-types, and based on available data, is responsible for less than 50% of fatalities.
Meningococcal disease researchers have consistently said, "New Zealand has been experiencing a monoclonal epidemic of Neisseria meningitidis B:4:P1.7b,4 which has resulted in more than 5000 cases and over 200 deaths since 1991."
The researchers have presented the exact same statement at the following conferences in 2004
1. 42nd Annual Meeting of IDSA,September 30–October 3, 2004 –Boston, USA
2. Pediatric Academic Societies Conference, Annual Meeting, May 1–4, 2004, San Francisco,
3. World Health Organisation/UNICEF meeting, 10th March 2004, Auckland."This statement is simply untrue and scientifically indefensible," says Ron Law.
"If a listed company was to make such false and misleading messages to the market place trading in its shares would be halted and there would be an immediate 'please explain,'" says Ron Law. The numbers appear to be false by omission and commission and warrant a closer look by the Audit Office at least.
"The fact that a $250 million mass experiment, that at most will save one or two lives, has been launched on 1.15 million otherwise healthy children in New Zealand based on false, incomplete and misleading information, and courtesy of a mass-fear campaign is a travesty of good policy making, totally unethical and warrants a full Royal Commission of Inquiry," says Ron Law (09-832 4773)
In explaining the rationale to invade Iraq, based on false evidence that weapons of mass destruction existed, the Telegraph reported a former secretary to the UK Joint Intelligence Committee, as saying, "interested policy-makers quickly learn that intelligence can be used the way a drunk uses a lamppost - for support rather than illumination"
This would appear to be how the meningococcal disease statistics have been used in New Zealand.
All of this major and ongoing reduction in the cases and deaths relating to Meningococcal Disease has occurred before the introduction of the MeNZB vaccination experiment.
"There is simply no credible scientific evidence that, placed before an unbiased panel of politicians, scientists, economists or a jury of ordinary citizens, could justify the continuation of the existing mass vaccination experiment," says Ron Law
See also related:
Open Letter to Minister of Health: Serious MeNZB(tm) Adverse Effects Covered Up
Medical Veritas: 'Tragic Consequences' of Childhood Vaccinations
Meningococcal Disease Continues to Abate
Saturday, 6 November 2004 Ron Law - Beyond Alternative Solutions
"The latest figures released by the Ministry of Health yesterday show that, despite denials by the Minister of Health, the meningococcal disease epidemic continues to abate," says independent risk & policy analyst Ron Law.Insight: The Biology Of A Meningococcal Vax Company
Thursday, 11 November 2004 - By Barbara Sumner Burstyn and Ron Law
Chiron Corporation. Does that name a ring a bell? In North America, itÃs gone from barely known to highly recognized in less than a month since 45 million doses of flu vaccine made by the company in its British factory, were found to be contaminated. In Brazil the company made headlines when over 5 million doses of a vaccine were recalled following serious adverse reactions.Ministry's Meningitis Data at Odds With Minister's
Friday, 12 November 2004 - by Ron Law, Independent Risk & Policy Analyst
Beyond Alternative Solutions
"The Ministry of Health is singing from a different hymn book to the Minister in deliberately trying to obfuscate the facts surrounding the meningococcal disease debate," says independent risk and policy analyst, Ron Law.Ministry's Meningitis Data at Odds With Minister's
Friday, 12 November 2004 - by Ron Law, Independent Risk & Policy Analyst
Beyond Alternative Solutions
"The Ministry of Health is singing from a different hymn book to the Minister in deliberately trying to obfuscate the facts surrounding the meningococcal disease debate," says independent risk and policy analyst, Ron Law.Evelyn Pringle: Get Mercury Out Of Vaccines - NOW!
Thursday, 17 March 2005 SCOOP NZ
Mercury-based, thimerosal, used as a preservative in childhood vaccines until recently, is now being blamed for a host of neurological problems, including autism, ADD, ADHD, and other learning disabilities. The number of children with these problems can vary greatly depending on who you listen to, some experts say there are about eight hundred-thousand learning disabled children in the US, while others put the number as high as eight million, according to Dr Jay Gordon.
30 November 2004:Hawke's Bay District Health Board Joins Meningococcal Pseudo-Science
By Ron Law
Independent Risk & Policy Analyst"The Hawke's Bay District Health Board Meningococcal Figures issued in its 25 November 2004 press release continues the promulgation of the Ministry of Health's false and falsified pseudoscience," says risk & policy analyst, Ron Law.
New Zealand has never been in the "grip of a meningococcal B epidemic that has killed 220 people since 1991 and has seriously affected thousands more. More than 5400 cases have been reported and the country has one of the highest rates of the disease in the developed world."
This statement is pseudo-science on numerous counts.
1. According to official statistics released by the Minister of Health, less than 50% of all cases of reported meningococcal disease have been confirmed as being of the meningogoccal B strain targeted by the MeNZB(tm) vaccine. To knowingly claim or imply that all cases of meningococcal disease is due to the MeNZB(tm) strain is fraudulent science.
2. The ESR has stated in its reports that between 10 and 25% of all cases are falsely diagnosed as meningococcal disease; the Minister has refused to deny this and mysteriously says that the figures have been 'taken out of context'.
3. The Minister of Health yesterday released data showing that the number of confirmed cases of meningococcal disease in the Hawkes Bay District Health Board Region due to the bacteria targeted by the MeNZB(tm) vaccine have declined by at least 82% since peak levels in 1997 in the Hawkes Bay DHB region -- [cases in all of NZ peaked in 2001] in the targeted vaccine group, under 20 year olds.
4. The Ministry of Health's cost benefit analysis released this week under the Official Information Act and used to justify the MeNZB(tm) vaccination program was based on all under one year olds being vaccinated FIVE times and all others FOUR times. That fact has not been made public until now. Cabinet was not told this either, but told that under one year olds 'might' need a single booster, but that over one year olds wouldn't.
5. The target for meningococcal disease reduction in the Hawkes Bay region [60% in the Ministry of Health's cost benefit analysis] has already been exceeded - NATURALLY and without the benefit of any experimental vaccine.
6. The HBDHB stated that meningococcal disease, "has seriously affected thousands more." In fact, fewer than 1,000 people of all ages have been adversely affected by all strains of meningococcal disease; simply put, the Ministry of Heath has not bothered to research the sequelae caused by the MeNZB(tm) strain of bacteria... based on the fact that the so-called epidemic strain of meningococcal disease have the lowest recorded fatality rate of any meningococcal bacteria anywhere in the world, it is unlikely that more than a few hundred New Zealanders have suffered permanent adverse effects during the whole so-called epidemic. The 20% 'serious sequelae" figure is a simple guess based on adverse effects of the much more severe types A and C strains.
7. The HBDHB stated that the MeNZB(tm) vaccination experiment "was started in Counties/Manukau last year and is being implemented progressively throughout the country." This is incorrect; It was started in July of this year.
8. Given that Treasury's independent cost benefit ratio revealed that the costs of the experimental vaccine were 700% more than the threshold for normal approval and unwarranted in economic terms when meningococcal cases were at [national] peak levels in 2001, and given that the number of cases due to the MeNZB(tm) strain of meningococcal disease have declined 80% since then, there is no rational reason for commencing the proposed experimental vaccination program in the Hawkes Bay region.
It is morally and scientifically wrong and fallacious for the Hawkes Bay District Health Board to be using total meningococcal cases for all age groups in New Zealand to justify the experimental and untested mass vaccination of all under 20 year olds in the Hawkes Bay area.
"Why don't the Hawkes Bay District Health Board's Spin Doctors use factual, meaningful and relevant scientific data to attempt to justify the experimental mass MeNZB(tm) vaccination campaign?" asks Ron Law (09 832 4773) "Is it because the Board knows that it simply wouldn't stand up to rational scrutiny? Regurgitating the Ministry of Health's pseudo-science uncritically is scientifically indefensible."
"This is another reason why there needs to be a formal royal commission of inquiry into the falsification of meningococcal disease data, via omission and commission, by the Minister and Ministry of Health," says Ron Law.
See also:Meningococcal Death Rate Lowest Since 1991
Red Flags Weekly: Vaccines and Immune Suppression
Meningococcal Vax Campaign Starts Derailing
Friday, 20 May 2005
Ron Law & Barbara Sumner Burstyn
"The Minister of Health has confirmed that none of the five deaths acknowledged as being due to meningococcal disease so far this year could have been prevented by the MeNZB(tm) vaccination programme," say risk & policy analyst Ron Law, and writer/researcher Barbara Sumner Burstyn.Dr Stewart Reid's Competing Interests
The Ministry failed to disclose Dr Reid's role as a Chiron Corporation MeNZB clinical researcher at the same time as advising the New Zealand Meningococcal Management Team on licensure matters as an independent expert.
posted by Sepp Hasslberger on Tuesday October 26 2004
updated on Wednesday December 8 2010URL of this article:
http://www.newmediaexplorer.org/sepp/2004/10/26/new_zealand_meningococcal_mass_vaccination_experiment_scientifically_unjustifiable.htm
Related ArticlesNew Zealand: Meningococcal Mass Vaccination Experiment Scientifically Unjustifiable
New Zealand health authorities have been convinced by Chiron Corp. to initiate a 250 million $ drive to vaccinate more than a million children against the MeNZB strain of meningococcal virus. Chiron Corp. is the pharmaceutical company that has had its UK manufacturing license suspended, leading to a shortage of the US supply of flu vaccine this year. According to Ron Law, Risk & Policy Analyst, the evidence indicates that... [read more]
October 26, 2004 - Sepp HasslbergerMeningococcal Disease at 10 to 13 Year Lows - Yet The Vaccine Propaganda Continues
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October 27, 2004 - Chris GuptaChiron: Vaccine License Suspended - Doubts Over Flu And Meningococcal Vaccines
According to a report of BBC News, the manufacturing license of vaccine maker Chiron has been suspended for three months, making it impossible for the manufacturer to sell its Fluvirin vaccine in the "flu season" of this coming winter. There may be a severe shortage in the wings for the US flu vaccine market. Last year, the nasal-application FluMist vaccine was launched with a big promise and a high price,... [read more]
October 06, 2004 - Sepp HasslbergerVaccine Shenanigans - Meningococcal Disease
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My comments are inerted in bold italics in body. See also: Pharmaceutical Quality Control Myth Chris By Mark Benjamin Investigations Editor Published 7/20/2003 8:45 AM WASHINGTON, July 20 (UPI) -- The screaming started four hours after 8-month-old Chaise Irons received a vaccination against rotavirus, recommended in June 1998 by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for every infant to prevent serious diarrhea. Within a day he was vomiting and... [read more]
August 03, 2003 - Chris Gupta
