Newly prescribed ADHD medications may cause psychosis, study finds
“Those those who have taken the drug and tolerated it well, should not be concerned,” experts say.
By Linda Carroll
Certain medications used to treat ADHD in teens and young adults may be more likely to cause symptoms such as paranoia, hallucinations, delusions and hearing voices, a new study suggests.
Researchers found that patients who had been newly prescribed amphetamines, such as Adderall and Vyvanse, were more likely to develop psychosis than those who had received a prescription for methylphenidates, such as Ritalin and Concerta, according to the study published Wednesday by the New England Journal of Medicine.
While psychosis with either class of medication is still relatively rare — occurring at a rate of one in 660 patients — experts cautioned that patients should know about the increased risk.
They also noted that the increased risk was only for those who recently began treatment with a new amphetamine prescription for ADHD and that those who have taken the drug and tolerated it well should not be concerned.
“If someone has been on Adderall, they’re tolerating it well, it’s helpful for their symptoms, and they’re taking it as prescribed, there’s really not much cause for concern,” said the study’s lead author, Dr. Lauren Moran, an assistant professor at the Harvard Medical School and a psychiatrist at McLean Hospital.
“Still you have to think about it from the public health scale,” Moran added. “If it’s a fraction of a percent of millions of people then that means there could be thousands of additional cases of psychosis across the United States. In my mind that’s a serious problem.”
Amphetamine prescriptions to treat ADHD have been steadily rising, increasing cause for concern.
“At the beginning of our study, in 2005, a patient had about a 50-50 chance of getting Adderall or Ritalin. There has been a huge increase in Adderall prescriptions over the course of the study to almost four times as many prescriptions for Adderall,” Moran said.
As the number of students with psychosis grew, Moran decided to look further into the issue. What she found was that a common factor among the cases seemed to be amphetamine prescriptions for ADHD.
To determine whether there really was a higher risk of psychosis associated with amphetamines, Moran and her colleagues turned to two large commercial insurance claims databases, which included more than 5 million patients with a stimulant prescription.
The researchers focused on patients 13 to 25 years old who started taking either amphetamines or methylphenidates from Jan. 1, 2004, to Sept. 30, 2015. Among more than 221,846 patients included in the study, 110,923 were taking methylphenidate and 110,923 were taking amphetamines. The study focused only on new users of the medication.
New cases of psychosis were identified in 106 of the patients taking methylphenidate, as compared to 237 in those taking amphetamines, nearly double the rate.
The Food and Drug Administration has been aware of the issue of psychosis. In fact, in 2007 the federal agency mandated that ADHD medication labels include warnings about potential psychiatric and heart issues.
In Moran’s experience, ADHD patients hospitalized for psychosis recovered in two weeks on average, but some patients took as long as two months.
Moran isn’t suggesting that ADHD medications are too dangerous to be prescribed, but wants to inform patients about its use.
“We’re trying to raise awareness,” she said. “Physicians need to be aware of this when prescribing, and people who are getting these medications from friends in college need to know this is a risk.”
Experts interviewed by NBC News agreed that there should be greater awareness of the risks associated with these medications.
The new study emphasizes the need for physicians to be “extremely careful to diagnose ADHD appropriately and to provide appropriate treatment,” said Dr. Antoine Douaihy, a professor of psychiatry and medicine at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and senior academic director of Addiction Medicine Services at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. “And they need to monitor patients closely so they can identify early signs of behavioral changes related to psychotic or manic symptoms.”
While the study shows that psychosis is a risk for both stimulants, it does suggest that amphetamines “may be more implicated than methylphenidates,” said Dr. David Goodman, an assistant professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and director of the Adult Attention Deficit Disorder Center of Maryland. A limitation of the study is that the databases used by the researchers don’t have detailed information on how patients were diagnosed, Goodman said.
Goodman hopes that the study, and the coverage it gets, will make doctors and patients treat these medications with care. But he hopes all the attention won’t scare patients away from ADHD drugs.
“Left untreated, ADHD has so many negative consequences,” Goodman said.
Linda Carroll is a regular health contributor to NBC News and Reuters Health. She is coauthor of “The Concussion Crisis: Anatomy of a Silent Epidemic” and “Out of the Clouds: The Unlikely Horseman and the Unwanted Colt Who Conquered the Sport of Kings.”
On a cold winter morning in November 2007, I watched hundreds of parents line up with their children in front of a Maryland county courthouse. The children had been kicked out of school by state officials and were truant. The mothers and fathers were holding letters threatening them with imprisonment or fines of $50 a day for failing to show proof their children had gotten a chickenpox or hepatitis B shot. 1
Confused, angry and frightened, but mostly resigned, they were working Moms and Dads trudging toward the courthouse on a Saturday morning to face a judge ordering them to vaccinate their children or go to jail.
Patrolling the scene was an armed SWAT team of policemen with dogs.
The U.S. media turned out that day, but they and other members of the public were kept behind barricades and denied access into the building. I was there with my son, who brought his camera. We were there to witness what was going on with parents whose children had been injured by vaccines.
There was no transparency, no public oversight on what was happening to the parents and children inside the building.
I spoke with several mothers leaving the building with their children and learned the sad truth. They were not being asked questions about their child’s medical history or whether the children had experienced health problems after previous vaccinations. No information was given about vaccine side effects or how to monitor their children for signs of vaccine reactions. 2They were not made aware of exemptions to vaccination.
Clearly, preventing vaccine reactions was not a priority for those in charge that day.
The children were being injected with not just the two new vaccines added to the state’s school requirement list – hepatitis B and chickenpox – but also with other required vaccines if the public school system could find no record. One mother told me her children were up-to-date on their shots but the school system lost the records. She agreed to have her children receive the required vaccines all over again on the spot to avoid being fined or, worse, being sent to jail.
This mother and I were talking hundreds of yards from the front of the Courthouse door. We were standing about 12 inches inside a row of large cement stones that had been put there as a barrier to prevent terrorist attacks.
Suddenly, out of the corner of my eye I saw an armed guard with a dog emerge from the Courthouse. He was walking straight toward us.
I got this sick feeling in the pit of my stomach. It was the surge of shock and dread that any citizen of any country in any century has felt when an armed guard with a dog starts advancing.
As if we were criminals or terrorists, he yelled and gestured to us to move behind the stones. I looked at the mother and my son, who was filming our conversation, and we moved without a word.
We were being shown the power of the State wielded by that guard armed with a dog and a gun, just as parents inside the courthouse were being shown the power of the State wielded by doctors with syringes.
U.S. Constitution Protects Freedom To Dissent
When a government policy is unjust and people resist, the last resort is always a show of force. Use of fear, intimidation, discrimination and punishment of dissenting minorities is the hallmark of authoritarian governments and so is censorship and propaganda.
None of these tactics have a place in America, where our Constitution protects civil liberties, including freedom of thought, speech, conscience, religious belief and the right to dissent and petition the government. 3 4 5
Twelve years after I watched a state health department flex its muscle at a county courthouse, this year the whole world is watching the multi-billion dollar vaccine industrial complex flex its muscle in America. 67 8 Declaring a “take no prisoners” war on parents who decline to give their children every dose of every government recommended vaccine, the vaccine industry has been emboldened by the lucrative public-private business partnerships that have been forged over the past four decades with governments and the World Health Organization. 9 10
Vaccine Industry Wants Forced Use of All Vaccines by All People
The win that industry is looking for is a complete shut down of the public conversation about health and vaccination followed by a mandate by every government to force every child and adult to use every vaccine that drug companies develop and sell.
For children born in America in 1983, the federal government recommended 23 doses of seven vaccines given between two months and six years old. 11Today, the child vaccination schedule is 69 doses of 16 vaccines given between the day of birth and age 18, with 50 doses administered before age six, at a current price tag of more than $3,000 per child. 12 13
Child Vaccine Schedule Could Double or Triple in Future
For children born in America in the years to come, that vaccine list and cost could double or triple. The World Health Organization is encouraging drug companies to fast track more than a dozen new “priority” vaccines to market for children, pregnant women and adults – and you can be sure industry will lobby governments to mandate all of them – respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), streptococcus A & B, HIV, herpes simplex virus, gonorrhea, e-coli, shigella, salmonella, tuberculosis, malaria and more. 14
Where is the scientific evidence to support the assumption that forcing everyone to use more and more vaccines to atypically manipulate our immune systems and repeatedly provoke inflammatory responses in our bodies throughout life will produce better health for all? 15 16 17 18 19 20
The Real Public Health Emergency Is Not About Measles
The signs are everywhere that people are trying to throw off the chains binding them to failed medical and public health policies that cost Americans more than three trillion dollars a year in health care costs. 21Americans are beginning to understand that trusting blindly and saluting doctors smartly for the past 40 years has not prevented 1 child in 6 from becoming learning disabled, 22 23 or 1 in 9 from suffering with asthma, 24 or 1 in 10 from struggling with mental and behavior disorders 25 or 1 in 40 from developing autism. 26
America now has the worst infant mortality rates, 27 28 and worst maternal mortality rates, 29 30 and worst life expectancy 31 32 of all developed nations. Highly vaccinated and medicated Americans are very sick, with millions of children and adults suffering with immune and brain dysfunction marked by chronic inflammation in their brains and bodies 33 34 that confines too many of them to special education classrooms and frequent trips to doctors’ offices to try to deal with a lifetime of chronic illness and disability. 35 36
No public health official, professor or legislator in America can explain why millions and millions of children and more than 1 in 2 adults are chronically ill or disabled. 37
This is the real public health emergency that mothers and fathers want to talk about, but Congress and medical trade groups do not want to talk about. This is the elephant in the room at every public hearing on bills proposing to take away or expand vaccine informed consent rights being held in state legislatures today.
No Exception Vaccine Laws Guarantee Denial of Vaccine Casualties
The pharmaceutical industry, which was handed a partial liability shield from vaccine injury lawsuits by the U.S. Congress in 1986 38 that was turned into a total liability shield by the Supreme Court in 2011,39 40 41 is fighting to keep an economic stranglehold on a crumbling U.S. health care system. 42 43 44 45 With the government having paid vaccine victims more than $4 billion dollars in federal vaccine injury compensation since 1988 under the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act, 46 47 pharmaceutical corporations do not want to give up the no-risk, stable income stream they get from selling mandated vaccines. 48
“No exception” vaccine laws guarantee that the good vaccine science will never be done so vaccine casualties can continue to be swept under the rug by denying they exist,49 50 51 52 53 and nobody has to care about the crippled and dead bodies lying on the ground except the mothers and fathers grieving endlessly for what could have been. 54
Today, everybody knows somebody who was healthy, got vaccinated and was never healthy again. 55 56 This inconvenient truth is why the vaccine industry must find a way to shut down all public conversation about vaccination and eliminate all vaccine exemptions – and do it now.
Vaccine Risks Not Being Shared Equally By All
In January 2019, the World Health Organization announced that “vaccine hesitant” people, especially parents, are one of the top 10 threats to global health. 57 This ominous warning was quickly followed by the declaration of a state of emergency in Washington after a handful of measles cases were confirmed in primarily unvaccinated children. 58 Immediately, the media shifted into overdrive just like in January 2015 when measles cases were reported in Disneyland and the California legislature quickly removed the personal belief vaccine exemption for school children, 59 60 61 despite the biggest public protests the state Capitol had seen since the Viet Nam War.
In the first two months of 2019, we have watched thousands of brave parents and health care professionals travel to state Capitols and line up with their children at public hearings in Washington, 62 63 Arizona, 64 Nevada, 65 Oregon 66 and on Capitol Hill. 67 They are taking time off their jobs and spending their own money to make the journey to beg lawmakers to protect the legal right for children to get a school education and for parents to exercise voluntary informed consent to vaccine risk taking for their minor children. 68
With almost no vaccine contraindications today that qualify for a medical exemption under narrow CDC guidelines, 69 70 vaccine risks are not being shared equally by all. One-size-fits-all vaccine laws place an unequal risk burden on, and discriminate against, a vulnerable minority of children, who have genetic, biological and environmental susceptibility to suffering vaccine reactions.71 72 73 74
Why are the lives of vaccine vulnerable children, who public health officials do not want to acknowledge, valued less than the lives of immune compromised children they will acknowledge?
Calls for Forced Vaccination and Censorship
Since 2015, no state legislature has removed a vaccine exemption. 75 76 This year, while 11 states are proposing to restrict or eliminate vaccine exemptions, NVIC is supporting 61 bills that expand exemptions or protect vaccine informed consent rights (as of Mar.1, 2019), the largest number of bills we have ever supported in a legislative session. 77
This pushback against forced vaccination is being met with fury by doctors and lawyers inside and outside of government and by multi-media corporations demanding that parental rights and vaccine exemptions be stripped from state laws and that all information criticizing government vaccine policy be removed from the web. 7879 80
In the past few weeks, high ranking federal health officials have made false statements in Congress in an effort to mislead lawmakers into believing childhood vaccines like MMR do not carry serious risks. 81
The FDA Commissioner has threatened state legislators with federal government intervention if they do not eliminate vaccine exemptions. 82 83 84
The Chair of the U.S. House Intelligence Committee has pressured Facebook to block conversations about vaccination and Amazon to censor books and videos containing information about vaccine risks and failures.85 86 87
Amazon immediately bowed to that government pressure and removed the movie Vaxxed from Amazon Prime and similar videos critical of vaccine safety. 88 However, CNN is urging Amazon to go further and burn all the books, too. 89 90
A Washington DC lawmaker reacted to the hype by asking, “What if you take parents out of the equation?” and introduced a bill to allow minor children of any age to get vaccines in the city without a parent’s knowledge or consent after a doctor says the child is “mature” enough to make the decision. 91
What is the justification for burning the books and clearing the way for doctors to persuade very young children to get vaccinated without their parents’ knowledge or consent?
The media would have you believe that calls for censorship and the elimination of state vaccine exemptions and parental rights is based on 206 reported cases of measles identified in 11 states between January and March in our population of 328 million people. According to the CDC, “three or more cases” of measles is considered to be an “outbreak.”92
All the blame for measles outbreaks is being put on parents of the less than two percent of unvaccinated children attending U.S. schools, where nearly 95 percent of children nationwide have received two doses of measles containing MMR vaccine. 93
Aside from the illogical premise that children only catch measles or other infections in school buildings, is the call for censorship and “no exceptions” vaccine laws only about a few hundred cases of measles?
I don’t think so.
The Human Right to Autonomy Limits the Power of the State
The demonization of parents and enlightened doctors, who criticize vaccine science and government policy, is the tip of the spear in a larger culture war going on in this and other countries where economically stable, well educated populations are beginning to understand they are being exploited by corporations that have made business deals with governments. 94 95 96 97 98
The culture wars in the 21st century are about whether the first human right, individual autonomy, 99 will survive or an authoritarian State will own our children and have the power to eliminate civil liberties and sacrifice the lives of certain people for what those in control of the State consider the greater good of society. 100
The human right to autonomy protects individuals and vulnerable minorities from being discriminated against and exploited by the State. Who has the moral right, or should have the legal authority, to demand that mothers and fathers violate their conscience and risk their children’s lives or face punishment for refusing to do it?
What kind of government policy demands that kind of involuntary sacrifice?
And what kind of government demands that information about the risks and failures of a liability free pharmaceutical product be censored and withheld from the people being forced to use it?
There is no more important freedom than the freedom to decide when and for what reason you are willing to risk your life or your child’s life. We give up the human right to autonomy at our peril, no matter where or in what century we live.
The outcome of the Vaccine Culture War will determine what it means to be free. 101 Because if the State can tag, track down and force individuals against their will to be injected with biologicals of known and unknown toxicity today, then there will be no limit on which individual freedoms the State can take away in the name of the greater good tomorrow.
Martin Niemoller prophetically warned that incremental oppression by those in control of an authoritarian State is facilitated by denial, apathy and fear. He said,
“In Germany, they came first for the Communists, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Communist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Jew. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a trade unionist. Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn’t speak up because I was a Protestant. Then they came for me, and by that time no one was left to speak up.” 102
Americans, this is our moment to help determine the outcome of a very real culture war that threatens to destroy long held values and beliefs that are embodied in the Bill of Rights of the U.S. Constitution to protect us from tyranny. The Bill of Rights affirms that we have God given natural rights, known today as civil liberties or human rights, which belong to each one of us and should never be taken away for any reason.
You Will Make the Choice
You and you alone will make the choice to live free or die as a slave. Do not let anyone take away your freedom to think and speak and obey the certain judgment of your conscience.
Use the NVIC Advocacy Portal to contact your state and federal legislators. Defend freedom and educate your family, friends and leaders in your community. Go to NVIC.org and sign up for our newsletter, so that no matter what happens in the weeks and months to come, you will not lose contact with us.
Be the one who never has to regret that you did not do today what you could have done to change tomorrow.
It’s your health. Your family. Your choice.
And our mission continues: No forced vaccination. Not in America.
Note: This commentary provides referenced information and perspective on a topic related to vaccine science, policy, law or ethics being discussed in public forums and by U.S. lawmakers. The websites of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) provide information and perspective of federal agencies responsible for vaccine research, development, regulation and policymaking.
73 Institute of Medicine Committee on the Assessment of Studies of Health Outcomes Related to the Recommended Childhood Immunization Schedule. Summary: Health Outcomes (p. 5-6) and Conclusions About Scientific Findings (p. 11) and Review of Scientific Findings (p. 75-98). The Childhood Immunization Schedule and Safety Stakeholder Concerns, Scientific Evidence and Future Studies; Washington, D.C. The National Academies Press 2013.
Stand4Lyme Foundation’s educational Lyme video is catching the attention of those who need to listen
CUPERTINO, CALIFORNIA, USA, March 19, 2019 /EINPresswire.com/ — Controversy to Consensus: Taking A Stand 4 Lyme
Stand4Lyme’s video is catching the attention of those who need to listen
Stand4Lyme® Foundation’s video, Taking A Stand 4 Lyme, is making a positive impact demonstrating the first high-level, multidisciplinary consensus regarding the serious nature of tick-borne diseases. Facts stated by over 10 heads of departments at a major institution have caught the attention of those who need to listen. Controversy has stagnated federal funding for tick-borne disease research for decades. This educational video is being distributed to senators and congressman. The goal of this video is to help educate all stakeholders from a scientific perspective and garner increased government support and funding.
In Stand4Lyme Foundation’s credible and critically needed video, scientists tackle the Lyme disease epidemic. Experts address the serious consequences of Lyme and tick-borne diseases, an increasing source of morbidity and mortality worldwide. Stand4Lyme makes a clear business case for pharmaceutical support and federal research funding to develop reliable diagnostic tools and accessible, effective medical treatment.
In a time when Lyme disease is fraught with controversy and basic assumptions about Lyme and tick-borne disease are being called into question, we need robust studies that utilize technological advances for highly sensitive and comprehensive characterization of the host-pathogen interaction now more than ever, as tick-borne diseases are increasing at an alarming rate global, as well as the number of patients who remain ill after treatment.
Feedback received on the Taking A Stand 4 Lyme video has been extremely positive from senators, scientists, physicians, and patients, as well as media.
1. Senators responded with appreciation. Many thanked Stand4Lyme for creating and sharing the important information in the video, Taking A Stand 4 Lyme.
2. Scientists love it. The Stand4Lyme video demonstrated the first high-level, multidisciplinary consensus regarding the serious nature of tick-borne diseases. We hope this resonates with the folks at the NIH.
3. Physicians have requested, and been granted permission, to put the Stand4Lyme video on their websites. Many stated that they learned something from the video,
4. Patients feel validated and hopeful. The video has helped family members increase understanding and compassion around Lyme and other tick-borne diseases, as well as, clearing up misconceptions.
5. A leading internet entertainment service has expressed interest in making a tick-borne disease documentary inspired by the Taking A Stand 4 Lyme video.
Please share this critically needed, educational video: Taking A Stand 4 Lyme
Learn more at: Stand4Lyme.org.
Consensus is the path to change
Why isn’t there more government support for Lyme and other tick-borne diseases, largely because of a lack of consensus among Lyme and other tick-borne disease epidemiology and advocacy groups, therefore, discrepancies get tabled in Congress. Stand4Lyme encourages collaboration among all stakeholders, diligently advocating for a global Lyme and tick-borne disease perspective and consensus. “To change the current trajectory, we must build a consensus to receive the adequate research funding support needed to resolve the public health epidemic of Lyme and other tick-borne diseases and to develop solutions for the millions of Lyme patients that remain debilitated,” says Sherry Cagan, Stand4Lyme Foundation president and founder.
About Lyme disease
The Lyme disease bacterium, Borelli burgdorferi, is a spirochete similar to syphilis. Lyme disease is the fastest-growing infectious disease in the United States and the most common vector-borne disease worldwide, now prevalent in all 50 states and over 80 countries. According to the CDC, there are over 300,000 new cases each year, yet Lyme research remains significantly underfunded. Currently, there is no known cure and diagnostic tests are unreliable, subjecting patients to suffering, loss of physical and cognitive function, and occasionally death. A tick can transmit multiple bacterium in one bite, making diagnosis and treatment difficult. Lyme patients are often misdiagnosed as having other diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis, ALS, autism, and Alzheimer’s.
About Stand4Lyme Foundation
Stand4Lyme® Foundation joins forces with scientists to pave a medical path to wellness for Lyme disease patients, with the goal of ending the prolonged suffering of millions. With a strategic mission, the Stand4Lyme Fund, established at the Stanford School of Medicine, helps support the Stanford Lyme Disease Working Group and their collaborators’ research. Stand4Lyme is dedicated to accelerating a cure for Lyme disease by actively facilitating promising studies of key collaborators with resources to transform the currently underfunded Lyme paradigm. Stand4Lyme is a Silicon Valley–based 501(c)(3) charitable organization and is volunteer led. Tax ID: 47-5095146; Stand4Lyme.org .
Sherry Cagan President/Founder
Stand4Lyme Foundation
….. email us here
Taking A Stand 4 Lyme: Scientist Tackle the Lyme Epidemic
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**Comment**
If you haven’t seen this video, you need to. This is probably one of the best videos I’ve seen. Please share this with others. There is some great work being done. Don’t give up hope!
It’s also located in the Video section in this website. The tab for this is at the top of the website under “Videos.” https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/videos/ along with other helpful videos on everything from patient testimony, pathology findings, and advocacy endeavors.
If you know of others that are worth sharing, please forward to me.
The annual numbers of reported measles cases since 2000 have ranged from a low of 37 in 2004 to a high of 667 in 2014. By March 7, 2019, a total of 228 measles cases had been reported across the U.S.
The last recorded measles-associated death in the U.S. occurred in 2015. Before the measles vaccine was developed, the annual death toll from reported measles cases in the U.S. was between 450 and 500
In 2016, 20,360 children aged 1 to 19 died. Motor vehicle crashes, firearm-related injuries, cancer, suffocation, drowning, drug overdoses, heart disease and chronic respiratory disease are the major causes of child deaths
Recent research shows that when measles infection is delayed, negative outcomes are 4.5 times worse than would be expected in a prevaccine era in which the average age at infection would have been lower
A March 5, 2019, U.S. Senate hearing on measles outbreaks and vaccine exemptions centered around the testimony of five witnesses in favor of vaccine mandates.Hundreds of people, a majority mothers of vaccine injured children, remained unheard, and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was prevented from speaking on the grounds that the hearing was full
The following referenced information contains opinion and perspective on a health topic related to vaccine science, policy, law or ethics that is being discussed in public forums, including in medical, law and other professional journals; newspapers, magazines and other print; broadcast and online media outlets; state legislatures and the U.S. Congress.
Readers are encouraged to go to the websites of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) for the perspective of federal agencies responsible for vaccine research, development, regulation and policymaking, including the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) for information on vaccine policymaking; to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for information on regulating vaccines for safety and effectiveness; and to National Institutes of Health’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) for information on research and the development of new vaccines.
The World Health Organization has stated that “vaccine hesitancy” is one of the top 10 global public health threats.
Mandatory use of the first vaccine — the smallpox vaccine — became common in the 19th century because that infection had a mortality rate of 30 percent.1Measles is not and was never as deadly as smallpox. In 1962, a year before the measles vaccine was licensed in the U.S., the measles death rate was reported to be 1 in 1,000 cases.2
However, that 20th century death rate has been challenged by Physicians for Informed Consent arguing that the case fatality figures are based on reported cases and most cases of measles are benign and go unreported.3
Recovery from measles confers lifelong naturally acquired immunity. There is evidence that whatever immunity the measles vaccine provides can wane over time and wear off completely within a decade4 or two.5,6
The answer, we’re told, is booster shots, and making sure every single individual is vaccinated in order to ensure “herd immunity” — a concept that historically applies to naturally-acquired immunity following the recovery from the disease.
Measles infection in developed countries like the U.S. very rarely involves complications that lead to injury or death. If you’re over 50, you might recall a time when measles was a common childhood illness, and most children experienced it and were immune by age 15.7
Parents were not extremely fearful of measles before the vaccine was widely used because, like chickenpox, it was accepted as a childhood rite of passage and complications were rare.
However, measles does have more serious complications for older children and adults, which is why parents in the past wanted their children to get the disease when they were young. Authors of a recent study8 in The Lancet Infectious Diseases reported that when measles infection is delayed, negative outcomes are 4.5 times worse “than would be expected in a prevaccine era in which the average age at infection would have been lower.”
Measles Statistics
According to U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) data9 published in 2018, the annual number of reported measles cases since 2000 has ranged from a low of 37 in 2004 to a high of 667 in 2014. As of March 7, 2019, a total of 228 measles cases have been reported across the U.S.10
You can see a graph of the exact number of measles cases for each year going back to 2010 on the CDC’s website.11 The National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC) also has a page detailing the history of measles in the U.S. and other countries with accompanying statistics and references.12
According to the CDC, the last recorded measles-associated death in the U.S. occurred in 2015.13 But even before the measles vaccine was introduced and given to children in the early 1960s, the annual death toll from measles in the U.S. was between 450 and 500,14 and never approached the high death rate of smallpox, which was a far more deadly disease, and which prompted calls for states to pass mandatory smallpox vaccination laws for children.15
While any death, for any reason, is tragic, it is reasonable to ask whether it makes sense to mandate that children receive vaccines for diseases with low mortality rates when there are many other causes of death that are not only easier to prevent but would save far more lives.
According to a special report16,17 on child mortality published 2018 in The New England Journal of Medicine, 20,360 children aged 1 to 19 died in 2016; it goes on to list the top 10 causes of death in this age group.
Twenty percent of deaths (4,074 children) were caused by motor vehicle crashes, which came in at No. 1, followed by firearm-related injuries at 15 percent (3,143 deaths). In terms of disease, cancer was the primary cause of death (1,853 deaths), followed by suffocation (1,430 deaths) and drowning (995 deaths). A total of 982 children died from drug overdoses. Heart disease killed 599 children and chronic lower respiratory disease took the lives of 274.
Where is the evidence that measles is a catastrophic public health concern comparable to smallpox that warrants forcing all children to get vaccinated or be barred from getting a school education?
Senators Paid by Big Pharma Lead Fight for Mandatory Vaccinations
The U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions held a hearing March 5, 2019 titled “Vaccines Save Lives: What Is Driving Preventable Disease Outbreaks?” 18The entire hearing centered around the testimony of five witnesses, all of whom were in favor of vaccines.
Meanwhile, more than 500 people, a majority of them mothers of vaccine-injured children, remained unheard in a crowded hallway or overflow rooms, unable to enter the small hearing room.19 According to The Washington Post, Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., was the only senator or witness who made a statement questioning vaccine mandates and the threat they pose to autonomy and liberty.20
It’s worth noting that two of the most impassioned senators advocating for mandatory vaccinationsand the elimination of vaccine exemptions, Sens. Bill Cassidy, R-La., and Bob Casey, D-Pa., have also received the largest payments from the drug industry.21 Cassidy received $156,000 from the pharmaceutical industry in 2018, and Casey received $532,859 that year.
Fourteen other Republicans and 12 Democrats also received tens of thousands of dollars apiece from Big Pharma last year. For a complete listing of each member and the exact amount, see Matt Novak’s February 26, 2019, article in Gizmodo.22Many other members of Congress have received hundreds of thousands of dollars from Big Pharma.23
How can we expect impartiality from lawmakers advocating that everyone should be forced to buy and use vaccines when so many members of Congress have financial conflicts of interest with Big Pharma?
Ironically, while defending the absolute safety of vaccines, Casey and Cassidy are cosponsors of the Vaccine Access Improvement Act (S.3253), introduced in 2018-2018.
This legislation aimed to streamline the taxation for new vaccines eligible for coverage under the federal Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (VICP), which was created by Congress in the 1986 National Childhood Vaccine Injury and expanded under the 21st Century Cures Act enacted in 2016. Cosponsor senator Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., commented on the bill in July 2018:24
“The Vaccine Access Improvement Act offers a commonsense solution to get vaccines to patients more quickly, helping to protect Americans against life-threatening diseases while ensuring that the small number of patients who experience side effects get the care they need.”
The Acts passed by Congress in 1986 and 2016, as well as the Vaccine Access Improvement Act (which died in committee in July 2018),25 acknowledge that damage occurs from FDA licensed and CDC recommended vaccines and that injured children and adults should receive financial aid.
So why were no individuals who have been personally affected by vaccine injuries and deaths allowed to speak at the hearing?
Healthy Eighteen-Year-Old Complains About Mother’s Decision to Not Vaccinate Him
One of the five witnesses was 18-year-old Ethan Lindenberger, whose mother made an informed decision and did not vaccinate him as a child. After doing his own online research, when he turned 18 he made the choice to get vaccinated. In his testimony, a transcript26 of which can be found on the U.S. Senate website, he talks about his mother’s views, saying:
“These beliefs were met with strong criticism, and over the course of my life seeds of doubt were planted and questions arose because of the backlash my mother received when sharing her views on vaccines. These questions and doubts were minor and never led to a serious realization of how misinformed my mother was.”
Repeating identical talking points offered by all of the invited witnesses and all but one senator on the committee, Ethan also stated confidently, “In its essence, there is no debate. Vaccinations are proven to be a medical miracle, stopping the spread of numerous diseases and therefore saving countless lives.”
“There is no debate?” Typically, only talking heads paid by industry take a denialist position like that. A rationally thinking person who has taken the time to look at all of the evidence quickly realizes that
the debate is far from over and vaccine science is nowhere near settled.
House Hearing on Measles Outbreak
The week before the senate’s hearing on vaccines, the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee held a hearing on the measles outbreak and response efforts.27 This hearing can be viewed in its entirety on C-SPAN’s website.28
As expected, the witnesses and members of the committee denied there are serious vaccine risks — or if there are, they are almost nonexistent — and pointed the finger at parents with unvaccinated children attending school as the reason for measles outbreaks.
However, according to the CDC, over 94 percent of kindergarten children nationwide have received two doses of measles-containing MMR vaccine and only about 2 percent of children attend school with vaccine exemptions.29
The herd immunity threshold for vaccine-acquired artificial immunity is thought to be between 80 and 95 percent,30 depending on the disease in question. For measles, it’s between 90 and 95 percent. Yet, the high vaccination rate in the U.S. isn’t enough to thwart outbreaks, and evidence suggest they would probably continue to occur even if vaccine coverage was at 100 percent.
Measles Outbreaks Repeatedly Occur in Highly Vaccinated Populations
One of the problems is that measles outbreaks occur even in highly-vaccinated populations.31,32,33,34,35,36A 1994 study37 looking at measles incidence in Cape Town, Africa, indicated that as vaccination rates increased, measles became a disease in populations where the majority of children had been vaccinated. The immunization coverage was 91 percent and vaccine efficacy was estimated to be 79 percent.
According to the authors,
“The epidemiology of measles in Cape Town has thus changed as evinced in this epidemic, with an increase in the number of cases occurring in older, previously vaccinated children. The possible reasons for this include both primary and secondary vaccine failure.”
By the early 1980s, about 95 percent of children entering kindergarten in the U.S. had received a dose of measles-containing vaccine but, in 1989-1990, there were outbreaks of measles among school-age children and college students.
Public health officials responded by recommending a second dose of MMR vaccine for all children. In an article published in Clinical Microbiology Reviews in 1995, researchers stated:38
“Measles, which was targeted for elimination from the United States in 1979, persisted at low incidence until 1989, when an epidemic swept the country. Cases occurred among appropriately vaccinated school-age populations and among unimmunized, inner-city preschool children.
In response to the epidemic, measles immunization recommendations have been modified. To prevent spread among school-age populations, a second dose of MMR vaccine is recommended at 5 to 6 or 11 to 12 years of age.”
Today, measles outbreaks are occurring even in populations that have received two or more doses of measles vaccine, and/or where vaccination rates are above the “herd immunity” threshold. Examples include:
• A 2017 measles outbreak in a highly vaccinated military population in Israel, ranging in age from 19 to 37. The first two patients identified had both received two doses of measles vaccine. Patient zero, a 21-year-old soldier, had documentation of having received three doses.39
• A 2014 study40 conducted in the Zhejiang province in China found that populations that have achieved a measles vaccination rate of 99 percent through mandatory vaccination programs are still experiencing consistent outbreaks far beyond what the World Health Organization expects.
What’s more, 93.6 percent of the 1,015 participants in this study tested seropositive for measles antibodies, which theoretically means they should have been protected against the disease.
Ignoring Vaccine Injuries Is What Causes Mounting Public Distrust
Parents who have experienced the pain of watching a perfectly healthy child decline shortly following vaccination, or who die or are left with disabilities and chronic poor health, are legitimately crying foul for being left out of congressional hearings that called for stricter mandatory vaccination laws, and which criticized parents of unvaccinated children while suggesting vaccine conversations about vaccine risks should be censored on social media.
Public concern about the safety of vaccines is indeed growing. There is a growing distrust of federal health agencies responsible for regulating the safety of vaccines and making vaccine policy, and it’s because Big Pharma and the government are trying to bury the evidence.
Where are the scientifically sound studies comparing the health outcomes of vaccinated and unvaccinated individuals?
When government officials flat-out deny the obvious, the seeds of public mistrust are planted. Today, many of us know someone who has been injured by a vaccine, and more and more people are sharing their stories in an effort to prevent others from having to live through the same pain. It is a reality that simply cannot be denied any longer. To learn more about vaccine injury reports, visit:
The NVIC International Memorial for Vaccine Victims,41 where you can search for vaccine injury reports by state and by vaccine or post a vaccine injury report yourself. You can also record your own video reporting a vaccine injury or death and post.
Vaccine Injury Stories on Vaxxed.com.42 Here, you can find nearly 7,000 written and recorded stories detailing people’s vaccine injuries, sorted by state or by vaccine. To submit your own story, use this online submission form.43
MedAlerts is a searchable database of vaccine injury reports made to the federal Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System (VAERS) and can be accessed through the website of the National Vaccine Information Center at NVIC.org
Vibrant Presents Dr Jill Carnahan for Mold and Mycotoxins
Join us for this highly educational session with Dr Jill Carnahan, a leading expert in mold and mycotoxin illnesses while she discusses the available technology and testing methods for mold and mycotoxin exposure, walks through some case studies, and gives suggestions for pre-test measures and treatment.
Time: Mar 26, 2019 6:00 PM in Central Time (US and Canada)
