Letter to the editor, Grapevine, July 11, 2023
Submitted by Stephen Malthouse, MD
Dear editor,
Dr. Scruton could be right, but he could be wrong (Letter, July 6). How is a layperson to know, if information comes from a respected professional and conflicting views are labelled as propaganda, misinformation, unsupported assertions and disinformation, without explanation or scientific references? Here we have two doctors with completely opposing perspectives. The only conclusion is that you cannot blindly trust the experts, especially public health and the medical profession, and must do your own research and use your own judgment.
As far as I’m concerned, masks do not stop aerosolized flu or corona viruses (as opposed to droplet-spread viruses) (1-4), lockdowns were invented by a 14-year-old science student in Albuquerque, New Mexico (5), the six-foot separation rule was based upon by how far you can spit, and influenza probably disappeared because it was falsely diagnosed as Covid. The PCR test was cycled a minimum of 40 times in Canadian laboratories and produced a 90% (at least) false positivity rate. Even Fauci admits that a meaningful cycle rate is below 35 (6). The overall number of Covid-19 cases was nowhere near the officially reported levels. Millions of false positive “cases” plus biased death attribution, stoked by politicians and the media, was the real cause of the “pandemic”. The average age of the 15,600 Canadians who supposedly “died of Covid-19” in 2020 was 83.8 years. Two-thirds of these people were over the Canadian life expectancy of 82 years.
The life-years lost with Covid-19 vaccination is another story entirely. If we want to protect “at-risk groups”, we should not be giving the Covid-19 vaccine to anybody including seniors, but especially pregnant women, children and infants, who don’t need it and for whom there is inadequate (if any) safety research and no studies showing real-life effectiveness.
The good thing that has come out of the Covid 19 vaccination debacle is that people are beginning to re-examine childhood vaccinations. It is not a big leap to recognize that the criminality and exemption from liability of the pharmaceutical companies and the corruption of Health Canada, the CDC and our public health institutions also apply to everything else these people touch. Would it be surprising, after watching their behaviour over the last 3 years, to find that they are creating their own market?
Meanwhile, Mr. Porteous’ criticism (Letters, June 15, 29), after talking with him on the telephone, appears to be that I promote anti-vaccine literature and contributed, in some way, to an outbreak of pertussis (whooping cough) 9 years ago. I was not involved in his family’s medical care at the time. Nevertheless, a few words about pertussis vaccines might illustrate my concerns.
Pertussis is a bacterial infection that is easily transmitted and has an early phase that is very similar to a regular cold, but may progress into a 2nd stage which has the characteristic whooping cough. Vaccination did not cause the decline in pertussis, as can be seen from the chart below, using data from England and Wales as an example.
England and Wales whooping cough mortality vs. DTP vaccine coverage from 1901 to 2008. (Record of Mortality in England and Wales for 95 years as provided by the office of National Statistics, published 1997; Health Protection Agency Table: Notification of Deaths, England and Wales, 1970–2008
(Editor: Chart available at https://dissolvingillusions.com/graphs-images/#Charts – half way down the page on the right)
In fact, the pertussis vaccine (cellular) caused more deaths and brain injuries than the natural disease and, in Sweden, was removed from the childhood schedule. From 1981 to 1993, the odds of dying from pertussis in Sweden were about one in 13 million, even when there was no national vaccine program (7). In England, a study published in 1984 showed that there was a decrease in whooping cough hospital admissions and deaths after vaccination rates declined (8). A major report by the Institute of Medicine published in 1994 confirmed that there was a relation between DTP vaccine and brain injury:
“Evidence is consistent with the causal relation for acute encephalopathy, shock and unusual shock-like state.” (9)
Regarding the acellular pertussis vaccine, now used by most developed countries, a study published in 2004 involving 1,793 adolescents and adults who received this newer vaccine, showed that only 20% had measurable concentrations of IgG antibody to pertussis toxin after one month (10). A previous study showed that pertussis antibody levels did not guarantee protection (11). Furthermore, if a vaccinated person contracts real pertussis, the bacteria can wreak more havoc if the vaccine has misdirected the immune system away from specific bacterial signals (antigens) (12).
Like the Covid-19 shot, the pertussis vaccine might reduce symptoms, but does not prevent transmission. In a 2014 study of baboons (similar to humans and theoretically ethical), it was shown that the pertussis vaccine (DTaP) actually increased the duration that the bacteria remained in the throat and extended the period of contagion (13). Furthermore, post-vaccine baboons could catch and harbour pertussis when later exposed, while natural immunity in previously infected baboons was protective. With some reduction in symptoms, a vaccinated person may actually be more dangerous: trusting in the vaccine to prevent transmission while, in fact, presenting an increased risk to their family and community as an asymptomatic carrier – essentially a pertussis version of Typhoid Mary. Meanwhile natural infection can provide protection for up to 30 years, yielding a far better herd immunity than unpredictable, short-lived, and incomplete vaccine-type immunity (14).
Pertussis is no longer a dangerous disease in most cases, unless an infant is unusually susceptible (15). Most people believe that all whooping cough is a serious and easily identifiable disease in children, but it is neither. The “whoop”, which most patients do not exhibit, can be bothersome, but is very unlikely to be life-threatening and the majority of doctors fail to diagnose pertussis because the disease presentation often does not get to the second stage, where the whoop is present. Frequently doctors do not consider whooping cough in children who are fully vaccinated (believing they are protected) or in the adult population (16). Many long-lasting coughs in the older population are actually undiagnosed pertussis cases, as proven by lab testing (17). Treatment of whooping cough with antibiotics is believed by some to shorten its period of transmissibility, but does not reduce severity and may prolong the cough (18).
As medical professionals, we have been indoctrinated regarding childhood vaccinations and the public has been misled by fear-mongering, gas-lighting and censorship. There is a truck-load of vaccines coming our way, mostly mRNA vaccines, for just about every disease imaginable. To make wise healthcare decisions, it will be necessary to uncover what is myth and/or wishful thinking about vaccination. Especially, it is our responsibility to protect our children, while a physician’s duty is to advise his patients accurately. For that reason, I am extending a challenge to Dr. Scruton or any Island(s) doctor to publicly debate the harms and benefits of childhood vaccines, including the Covid jab and its attendant public health measures. Choose any three vaccines and contact the Grapevine when you’re ready to go. I look forward to the opportunity to investigate the complex and important topic of vaccination, about which there is so much “misinformation and disinformation”.
References
(1) J Yan et al. Infectious virus in exhaled breath of symptomatic seasonal influenza cases from a college community. Biological Sciences. No. 115 (5), Jan 2018, pp. 1081-1086.
(2) Article <https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/influenza-general/study-confirms-flu-likely-spreads-aerosols-not-just-coughs-sneezes>
(3) J Lv et al. Aerosol Transmission of Coronavirus and Influenza Virus of Animal Origin. Front. Vet. Sci., Vol. 8, April 2021.
(4) BJ Cowling et al. Aerosol transmission is an important mode of influenza A virus spread. Nat Commun. vol. 4, 2013, p. 1935.
(5) https://stream.org/the-idea-for-lockdowns-started-with-a-high-school-science-project/
(6) <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A867t1JbIrs> (Fauci)
(7) Letter from Victoria Romanus, MD, PhD, Department of Epidemiology Swedish Institute of Infectious Disease Control, Stockholm Sweden, August 25, 1995.
(8) T. M. Pollock, at al. Severity of Whooping Cough In England Before and After the Decline in Pertussis Immunization. Archives of Disease in Childhood, vol. 59, 1984, P. 164.
(9) Adverse Events Associated with Childhood Vaccines: Evidence Bearing on Causality. Vaccine Safety Committee, Institute of Medicine, 1994, p. 316.
(10) JD Cherry et al. Prevalence of antibody to Bordetella pertussis antigens in serum specimens obtained from 1793 adolescents and adults. Clinical Infectious Diseases, volume 39, number 11, December 2004, pp. 1715-1718.
(11) CL Weingart et al. Characterization of Bacterial Immune Response Following Vaccination with Acellular Pertussis Vaccines in Adults. Infection and Immunity, vol. 68, no. 12, December 2000, pp. 7175-7179.
(12) JD Cherry at al. Determination of Serum Antibody to Bordetella Pertussis and Anenylate Cyclase Toxin in Vaccinated and Unvaccinated Children and in Children and Adults with Pertussis. Clinical Infectious Diseases, vol. 15, no. 4, February 2004, pp. 502-507.
(13) JM Warfel et al. Acellular pertussis vaccines protect against disease but failed to prevent infection and transmission in a nonhuman primate model. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2013.
(14) AM Wendelboe et al. Duration of Immunity against Pertussis After Natural Infection or Vaccination. Pediatric Infectious Disease Journal, volume 24, number 5, May 2005, p. S58
(15) PE Fine and JA Clarkson. Distribution of Immunity to Pertussis in the Population of England and Wales. Journal of Hygiene, vol 92, no. 1, February 1984, pp. 21-26
(16) M. Bykowski. Pertussis and adults. International Medical News Group, 1999
(17) JD Cherry, MD. The Epidemiology of Pertussis: A Comparison of the Epidemiology of the Disease Pertussis with the Epidemiology of Bordetella Pertussis Infection. Pediatrics, vol. 60, November 1999, P. 2148.
(18) D. Jenkinson. Natural Course of 500 Consecutive Cases of Whooping Cough: A General Practice Population Study. British Medical Journal, volume 310, February 1995, pp. 299-302.
