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Do More Vaccines Mean More Chronic Disease?
excerpted from "Shots in the Dark" by Barbara Loe Fisher, National Vaccine Information Center
In the May 24, 1996, New Zealand Medical Journal, J. BarthelowClassen, MD, a former researcher at the US National Institutes ofHealth (NIH) and the founder and CEO of Classen Immunotherapies inBaltimore, reported that juvenile diabetes increased 60 percentfollowing a massive hepatitis B vaccination campaign for babies sixweeks or older in New Zealand from 1988 to 1991. In the October 22,1997, Infectious Diseases in Clinical Practice, Classen showed thatFinland's incidence of diabetes increased 147 percent in childrenunder five after three new vaccines were introduced in the 1970s, andthat diabetes increased 40 percent in children aged five to nine afterthe addition of the MMR and Hib vaccines in the 1980s. He concludedthat "the rise in IDDM [juvenile onset diabetes] in the different agegroups correlated with the number of vaccines given."
Classen discounts the conclusions of many vaccine safety trials,especially 48-hour or several-day vaccine reaction follow-ups, whichcan miss the development of autoimmune dysfunction that can take yearsto develop.
Nevertheless, in 1998, US federal health officials told the public ina report written to rebut Classen's findings, "Dr. Classen's resultsare not consistent with current scientific thinking and have not beenverified by other researchers.... Comparison of diabetes rates betweencountries with different vaccination policies also provides weakevidence because many factors, including different vaccinationschedules, may differ by country. Many factors, including geneticpredisposition and a number of possible environmental exposuresunrelated to vaccines, may influence the development of diabetes indifferent countries." [In other words, the federal government'srebuttal did not even attempt to disprove Classen's results, butinstead simply discounted his entire study on grounds that he useddata from more than one country.--Ed.]
