Dissolving Illusions: Disease, Vaccines, and The Forgotten History

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The decline in mortality from infectious diseases associated with childhood admit no simple explanation. The case of diphtheria is something of an exception, largely because effective interventions became available in the 1890s. Measles can be controlled by large-scale vaccination, and where this is employed successfully the frequency of non-measles associated disease should be considerably reduced. The problem is that Dr Humphries is so fervent in her belief that vaccines are evil that it ultimately “blinds” her, and leads her to become clumsy in her interpretation of studies, which in turn hurts her credibility. The more you delve into her work and consult her sources, the more you will find her guilty of:

Suzanne Humphries, MD and Roman Bystrianyk (2013). “Dissolving Illusions: Disease, Vaccines. and the Forgotten History.” CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform. Breast-feeding for more than three months was negatively associated with a diagnosis of clinical measles infection after adjustment for crowding, social class, measles vaccination, parity and sex with an odds ratio (95% confidence interval) of 0.69 (0.60–0.81) compared with those who never breast-fed. Measles vaccination was highly associated with low risk for measles with: 0.14 (0.13–0.16). Breast-feeding did not notably alter measles immunization efficacy. Though a long proponent of vaccines, only over the past five years have I focused on mainly writing articles supporting them ( Harrison, 2017, Harrison, 2018). I was driven to do so in response to what seems to be an ever-increasing noise and misinformation on vaccine safety and efficacy from anti-vaccinationist groups and web blogs. Since beginning of my writings on vaccines I have contemplated writing on polio. This is not only because polio seems to be one of the antivaccinationist favorite topics, which they often use to demonstrate to their uninformed readers the evils of vaccines and national vaccination programs (e.g., Adams. 2018; Child Health Safety, 2018; Olmsted, 2011, Olmsted, 2016; VacTruth, 2018; whale to, 2018); but also because polio has a special significance for me. As a child I remember my mother not allowing me to go to the local municipal swimming pool nor to the movies during polio season. In my elementary school was a little girl with a steel brace on one leg. During my life I have known several paraplegics, one, in particular, the older sister of one of my oldest andd dearest friends, met a man in the late 1980s who had been in an iron lung for almost 40 years, and several people who suffered from post-polio syndrome. And through my readings I discovered that my hometown, San Diego, had a major epidemic of polio in 1951 and being in the first cohort to receive the new Salk vaccine, I more than likely received a dose from a lot manufactured by Cutter Industries which because of poor production and quality control caused 204 cases of paralytic polio and 10 deaths (to be discussed in a later paper). So, fortunately, I dodged at least two bullets. The estimated annual average number of cases of pertussis from 1934-1943 was 200,752 and 4,034 deaths ( Roush, 1986. reprinted 2007; see also: CDC. Pertussis Cases by Year, 1922-2014). Deaths from Pertussis from 1950 to 1956 declined from 1,118 to 266 ( CDC. Pink Book. Appendix E). DiphtheriaBizarrely, she alleges that this post-vaccine measles rash should in fact be counted as genuine measles to boost the number of annual notifications and prove that the vaccine is ineffective: The substrain of variola minor that was later called “alastrim” (see Chapter 2) remained the dominant form of smallpox in the USA thereafter.

So, Humphries displays a callous disregard for the significant number of cases with long-term paralysis and, based on her use of the Brown paper, her credibility is highly questionable!Polio Cases Were Not Reported. Although diagnosis may have been more accurate and reporting to public health authorities more likely at city hospitals, the number and severity of polio cases during the epidemics may have prevented overwhelmed physicians from reporting the occurrence of polio, especially NPP, to local public health authorities…Furthermore, the Centers for Disease Control did not separately tabulate cases of nonparalytic and paralytic polio until 1951 and did not require the reporting of polio cases until the late 1950s ( Bruno, 2000).

As discussed in the previous claim, antibodies received via breast milk typically only play a role in protecting against local gut infections. In fact, the study she cites as “proof” of her claim did not compare vaccinated versus unvaccinated children, did not claim that breastfeeding protection lasted up to 10 years and in fact concluded that breast feeding played a very minor role in protecting against measles infection compared to the vaccine: In this paper quotes from Humphries and Bystrianyk’s book will be referenced as “(Humphries, p. __).” Note that Humphries uses extensive quotes in her book, so I will do the same.According to Roush the estimated annual average prevaccine from 1936-1945 was 21,053 cases and 1,822 deaths with a rapid decline following the introduction of the vaccine ( Roush, 2007). The authors conclude that vitamin A megadoses appear effective in reducing mortality from measles in children under two years old and have few associated adverse events. There is insufficient evidence to draw conclusions regarding effectiveness in preventing pneumonia or other complications in children. Humphries graph above, Figure 1, and Table 1 from the Bureau of the Census also above give the incidence of poliomyelitis from 1912-1969/70. However, to repeat what I wrote above: Eight studies involving 2574 participants were included in this review and we found that there was no significant reduction in mortality in children receiving vitamin A. However, vitamin A megadoses (200,000 international units (IUs) on each day for two days) lowered the number of deaths from measles in hospitalized children under the age of two years. All the gravely ill patients were also tortured by mucosal symptoms. The tongue was more or less swollen and misshapen and hindered breathing through the mouth. The voice was hoarse and faltering. Swallowing was so painful that the patients refused all nourishment and, in spite of agonizing thirst, often also refused all fluids. We saw patients with deep invasion of the respiratory passages… Wails and groans filled the rooms. The patients were conscious to their last breath ( Fenner, 1988, p. 27). Typhoid and paratyphoid fever

Given that at least 5–10% of measles vaccine result in fever and rash, then there are approx. 650–000–1,300,000 case of measles in the US per year (p 372). Person-to-person spread of poliovirus via the fecal-oral route is the most important route of transmission, although the oral-oral route is possible.Dr Humphries completely misrepresents the study. She concludes somewhat simplistically that an “absence of rash” after measles vaccination signifies an “absence of cellular immune responses” to the virus which in turn leads to degenerative disease later on in life. However, contrary to the 1980s, we do not need to speculate about whether the measles vaccine stimulates cellular immunity or not — we can measure it. The measles vaccine stimulates a full adaptive immune response, involving both antibody mediated and cell-mediated immunity: An example of an excellent early medical book is Vedder’s 1918, Syphilis and Public Health. The book includes statistics, methods of transmission, and “Methods that May Be Taken by the Individual to Prevent Genital Infection [and] Public Health Measures”. An excellent book on the history of syphilis in the U.S. since 1880 is: Allan M. Brandt (1987). No Magic Bullet: A Social History of Venereal Disease in the United States Since 1880 (Enlarged Edition). Oxford University Press. Malaria If we consider that nutrition and living conditions were not very terribly different in the 1960s compared to today, and take an average of 500 measles deaths a year from that period, the measles vaccine possibly prevented up to 23 500 measles deaths from 1968 until 2014 in the US alone. Talk about comparing apples to oranges. Almost all measles deaths are in children, the overwhelming majority with heart disease in middle aged and older adults. And motor vehicle accidents? I’m surprised Humphries didn’t just list the high death rate in those over 65, or murder victims. Maybe in a new edition of her book? As will be clear from my discussion below, the causes, and approaches to prevention, of Humphries hodgepodge of incidence and deaths differ significantly, that is, they are NOT comparable.