The Pertussis Vaccine and Sudden Infant Death Syndrome
William Torch
Vaccines
Quotes
''In that same year of 1982 matters came to a crisis when William C. Torch, M.D., Director of Child
Neurology, Department of Pediatrics, University of Nevada School of Medicine, at the 34th
Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Pediatrics, presented a study linking the DPT
shot with SIDS. Torch concluded: "These data show that DPT vaccination may be a
generally unrecognized major cause of sudden infant and early childhood death, and that
the risks of immunization may outweigh its potential benefits. A need for reevaluation and
possible modification of current vaccination procedures is indicated by this study."
Torch's report provoked an uproar in the American Academy of Pediatrics. At a hastily
arranged press conference he was soundly chastised for using "anecdotal data,"
meaning (will you believe it?) that he actually interviewed the families concerned! This
mistake was not made again. Gerald M. Fenichel, MD, chairman of the Department of
Neurology at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, in 1983 published an article on
vaccinations entitled "the danger of case reports," and the pro-vaccination
literature produced in profusion in later years and decades has generally steered away
from and around any such thing as a "case report." These researchers will
examine with minute precision hospital card files, medicare cover sheets, even
physicians' records, but God preserve us from contact with the children
themselves or their families!'' SIDS and Seizures by Harris L.
Coulter, PhD
Torch, W.S., 1982. Diphtheria-pertussis-tetanus (DPT) immunization: a potential cause of the Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS). Neurology; 32(4): A169 abstract).
"At the 34th Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Pediatrics, presented a study linking the DPT shot with SIDS. Torch concluded: "These data show that DPT vaccination may be a generally unrecognized major cause of sudden infant and early childhood death, and that the risks of immunization may outweigh its potential benefits. A need for reevaluation and possible modification of current vaccination procedures is indicated by this study." --Harris Coulte
''In 1982, William Torch, MD, director of Child Neurology, Department of Pediatrics, University of Nevada School of Medicine, presented a study at the 34th Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Pediatrics showing that two-thirds of babies who had died from SIDS had been vaccinated against DPT prior to death. Of these, 6.5% died within 12 hours of vaccination; 13% within 24 hours; 26% within 3 days; and 37%, 61%, and 70% within 1, 2, and 3 weeks, respectively. (Figure 2)
The Pertussis Vaccine and Sudden Infant Death Syndrome
Figure 2. In a study of 103 children who died of SIDS, more than two-thirds had been vaccinated with pertussis prior to death. Of these, 6.5 percent died within 12 hours of vaccination; 13 percent within 24 hours; 26 percent within three days; and 37, 61, and 70 percent within one, two, and three weeks, respectively.
Torch also found that unvaccinated babies who died from SIDS did so most often in the fall or winter while vaccinated babies died most often at 2 and 4 months — the same ages when initial doses of DPT were given to infants. He concluded that:
“DPT may be a generally unrecognized major cause of sudden infant and early childhood death, and that the risks of immunization may outweigh its potential benefits. A need for re-evaluation and possible modification of current vaccination procedures is indicated by this study.”[27] [2015] CDC Lists 131 Ways for an Infant to Die: Vaccines and Sudden Death (SIDS)
