By Geri Procaccini
When we go to the grocery store and buy a box of pasta or a bag of rice, or just about any food product, there’s a label on the packaging listing the ingredients, the nutritional values, calories, etc. That information is required, along with a list of other regulations, by the Fair Packaging and Labeling Act (FPLA) enacted in 1967. Yet when it comes to vaccines, there is no requirement to inform the public of what it is they’re being injected with, or what the possible side effects may be.
Here are some of the chemicals and heavy metals contained in more common vaccines recommended for adults, children, and babies:
formaldehyde, aluminum hydroxide, aluminum phosphate, thimerosal, polysorbate 80, benzethodium chloride, gelatin, glycerin and phenol (a compound obtained by distillation of coal tar), ammonium sulphate, sorbitol, mercury (in multi-dose vials of flu vaccines), phenoxyethanol, monosodium glutamate.
The FDA has in the past defended the inclusion of many of these toxic ingredients by stating that the trace amounts are too insignificant to cause adverse reactions. Even if that is true, children today are injected with up to 72 doses of various vaccines by the age of 18, which significantly increases the total amount of these toxins being injected. One has to wonder why there are so many common childhood diseases today (such as autism, ADD, ADHD, peanut allergy) that were rare 30 years ago; and if there could be a possible connection of this steep rise in chronic illnesses in kids and the multitude of injections that they are now given.
The National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act was passed in 1986, eliminating all liability of pharmaceutical companies for vaccine injuries. What if we lost a limb in a car accident due to a faulty brake system by the car manufacturer, and were told the car company wasn’t liable? What if our house burned down due to an electrical fire caused by an incorrectly installed electrical system, and told the same thing? There is no industry that I know of other than the pharmaceutical industry that is not required to stand by their customers and be held accountable. When it comes to our health, the opposite should be true, they should be more accountable. It is baffling how this act was slipped through, passed by both the House and Senate, then signed into law by our president.
While it’s true that there have been many incredible treatments developed by pharmaceutical companies that can increase both the quality and longevity of people’s lives, drugs are a hugely profitable and potentially dangerous commodity that need oversight. Remember Vioxx, the FDA-approved pain medication? I was prescribed Vioxx by my orthopedist. Only after tens of thousands of deaths were undeniably tied to the ingestion of this drug did the FDA finally pull it from the market.
There are two bills currently proposed in the Vermont House. Bill H.188, which will require medical practitioners and persons administering treatments to provide patients with the immunization’s package insert and provide the risk/benefit analysis of the treatment. Bill H.189 calls for the Vermont Department of Health to submit a yearly report to the Vermont Legislature’s health and welfare committees listing adverse reactions to vaccines reported by Vermont citizens to the Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System -- a system that was developed by the CDC -- and to publish this data on their website.
This information is critical in order for us to make informed health choices. We all have a constitutional and human right to know the risks of treatments that are recommended and what alternatives are available. If that information needs to be provided for the cereal we eat, it should certainly be required to be provided for the drugs we’re prescribed and/or given. Please consider contacting your representatives in the house and let them know that you support these two important bills.
Procaccini lives in Fayston.
