July 8, 1999
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
DOCTORS CALL FOR MORATORIUM ON HEPATITIS B VACCINE
FOR SCHOOLCHILDREN CITING POTENTIAL DEADLY
OUTCOMES
School Districts Requiring Vaccines Accused of Practicing Medicine Without a License
The Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS) is calling for an immediate
moratorium on mandatory hepatitis B vaccines for schoolchildren pending further research
about dangerous side effects, and accused school districts which require the shots of
practicing
medicine without a license.
"Children younger than 14 are three times more likely to die or suffer adverse
reactions after receiving hepatitis B vaccines than to catch the disease," said Jane.
M.
Orient, M.D., Executive Director of AAPS. "It’s one thing to bar a student from
school if
he is carrying an infectious disease posing a threat to other children. But to require a
questionable medical treatment as a condition of attendance crosses over the line to
practicing medicine," said Dr. Orient.
In the U.S. hepatitis B is primarily an adult disease, not spread by casual contact. Risk
is highly
dependent on lifestyle, i.e.multiple sex partners, drug abuse or an occupation with
exposure to
blood. Yet the Centers for Disease Control recommends all newborns be given this vaccine,
and many school districts require it. Even state legislatures are guilty of this medical
malpractice. For example, earlier this year, the Ohio state legislature passed a law
requiring all
schoolchildren to receive three doses of the vaccine.
According to a recent federal government study, serious adverse events after the vaccine -
including 48 deaths - are reported three times as frequently as cases of hepatitis B in
children
under the age of 14. "We suspect the adverse reactions are vastly underreported, as
formal long-term studies of vaccine safety have not been completed," says Dr. Orient.
"We find it shocking that government health officials cavalierly dismiss reports of
serious
adverse vaccine effects as coincidental and that school officials ignore them
altogether."
In calling for the moratorium on hepatitis B mandates, Dr. Orient warns the increasing
"vaccine
cocktails" administered to children may be hazardous to their health. "Mandates
effectively
use schoolchildren as research subjects subjected to unproved medical treatment
without informed consent, in violation of the Nuremberg Code. If school
administrators and government bureaucrats were subject to that code, they could be
prosecuted as war criminals," says Dr. Orient.
A recent study of national vaccine policy published in the Medical Sentinel , The Official
Journal of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons, exposes the secret
process stacked with special interests that decides vaccine policies of the federal
government:
[The CDC] appoints members of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices
(ACIP)...The members are often nominated by the drug companies and have substantial
financial ties to the drug companies....Members are forbidden to publicly discuss what
happens during closed portions of the meetings. The precise scientific, medical, and
political bases for the vaccine recommendations are never revealed. Thus the drug
companies and CDC have strong incentives to expand immunization programs." --
Roger Schlafly, Ph.D., "Official Vaccine Policy Flawed," Medical Sentinel, Vol.
4, #3,
pg. 106.
"We suspect financial ties between vaccine manufacturers and medical groups such
as the American Medical Association and American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP)
which endorse the vaccine," says Dr. Orient, pointing to a substantial donation to
AAP
from Merck & Co. "And the federal government pays the state a bonus up to $100
for
every "fully" vaccinated child. What’s their motive -- money or
medicine?"
A voice for private physicians since 1943, AAPS holds that the patient-physician
relationship is
inviolable, and that parents, not government, should make decisions about their
children’s
medical care.
The Medical Sentinel article and AAPS testimony to Congress on vaccines are posted on our
web site: www.aapsonline.org
CONTACT: Kathryn Serkes (202) 333-3855