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The MMR Vaccine – A Comprehensive Overview of the Potential Dangers and Effectiveness

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Last updated on: March 29, 2016

The MMR vaccine is an immunization against three viral diseases: measles, mumps, and rubella (German measles) that is scheduled to be given to children 12-15 months old and 4-6 years old. Adults are scheduled to receive 1-2 doses after the age of 19.

Contents

The MMR is one of the most controversial vaccines due to claims that it causes autism. While Merck, the MMR II manufacturer, does not list autism as one of the possible side effects of this vaccine, it does list many other serious, adverse reactions. This list includes meningitis, encephalitis, pancreatitis, diabetes, decreased blood platelets, convulsions, seizures, arthritis, bronchial spasm (asthmatic reaction), pneumonia, anaphylactic shock and death. The list also includes many severe illnesses/reactions that are not commonly recognized or understood by the general public. These include:

  • Pneumonitis – inflammation of the lungs
  • Guillain-Barré Syndrome (GBS) – a severe, life-threatening disease in which the body attacks the nervous system causing paralysis.
  • Subacute sclerosing panencephalitis (SSPE) – a rare, fatal neurological disease
  • Encephalopathy – abnormal brain function that may denote structural damage
  • Acute disseminated encephalomyelitis (ADEM)- a post infection or post vaccine inflammatory demyelinating disease of the central nervous system. (Attacks brain tissues and nerves).
  • Transverse myelitis – an inflammatory disease of the spinal cord that causes weakness and loss of sensation and it affects the autonomic nervous system (breathing, the heart, digestion, reflexes).
  • Ataxia – lack of control of muscles suggesting brain and nerve damage.
  • Polyneuritis – weakness, numbness and pain – nerve damage
  • Polyneuropathy – damage to nerves causing tingling and pain that may begin in the hands and feet and spread to other parts of the body and may affect the autonomic nervous system
  • Ocular palsies – Damage to the nerves of the eye affecting eye movements, pupil constriction, and eyelid movement often resulting in an inability to focus without double vision.
  • Panniculitis – inflammation of the fat layer and connective tissue just under the skin
  • Stevens-Johnson syndrome – following a painful rash, the top layer of skin blisters, dies, and sheds.
  • Erythema multiforme – skin reaction similar to Stevens-Johnson syndrome.
  • Nerve deafness – hearing loss and dysfunction.
  • Retinitis – damage to the retina causing damage to vision.
  • Optic neuritis – inflammation of the optic nerve, which can cause temporary blindness.
  • Papillitis – Inflammation of the optic nerve head
  • Epididymitis – Inflammation of the tube at the back of the testicle.
  • Orchitis – inflammation of the testicles. 1

Of course, less serious reactions also occur including fever, vomiting, swollen glands, diarrhea, rashes, pain and swelling of the injection site, and contracting measles, mumps, or rubella from the vaccine.

The question we need to ask ourselves before deciding to swallow, apply, inhale, or inject any pharmaceutical is whether the benefits outweigh the risks. We are repeatedly told that vaccines are safe and effective. As the listed adverse reactions  confirm, the MMR vaccine is not safe for everyone. The vaccine manufacturer freely admits the vaccine may cause one or more serious, lifelong, debilitating conditions or even cause death. Their stance is two-fold: they claim the benefits outweigh the risks and that it is our civic duty to take that risk to protect others.

The government and the pharmaceutical industry are asking for compliance without full disclosure. Although this list of adverse reactions seems comprehensive, we are not told the percentage of risk, how often any of these singular reactions occur. And of course, it is clear that autism is left off the list. As parents, we need to know the odds. Is there a one in a million chance my child will experience a severe life threatening or life altering reaction? One in a thousand? One in a hundred? One in 50? One in ten?

We could and we should be able to make a truly informed decision. We could and should know the number of adverse reactions- the risks and the chances of actual vaccine injury.  With any operation or other medical procedure, we make a choice, an informed decision based on percentages. For example, when faced with triple bypass surgery, the patient is told the risk of serious complications that leads to death is 1-4% – that the survival rate is 96-99%.

Why do the government and the pharmaceutical companies refuse to supply this information? We not only need to know the risk for each possible outcome, we need to know the cumulative risk- the risk of sustaining any serious vaccine injury.  Instead the pro-vaccine argument remains an emotional one, devoid of logic and real scientific information. This lack of information and the corruption of the pharmaceutical industry, an industry that has paid out billions and billions of dollars in fines due to fraud, make informed consent impossible. This lack of confidence and information is the primary driving force behind the anti-vaccine movement.

The Autism Connection

The vast majority of doctors say there is no link between the MMR shot and autism, but you can’t tell that to countless parents like Aidan Quinn. The Irish actor says his daughter was healthy and perfectly normal until she received the MMR vaccine.

“So we had a normal child that was walking, talking, doing everything way faster than she was supposed to. Then, after an MMR she got 106 fever and turned blue and woke up the next day with dark circles and not knowing who she was. And uncoordinated. And her arm lifted up. Of course the doctors are all saying ‘Oh that’s normal’.” 2

Parents all over America report that their children were fine the day they received the MMR vaccine – moments, hours, or days passed and the lights went out. The child they knew was gone, lost forever.

Vaccine Court

Naturally, you would expect vaccine-injured families to sue the vaccine makers, but our government has passed laws to make it illegal to sue pharmaceutical companies for vaccine injuries or deaths. Instead a special vaccine court hears cases and passes judgment. All vaccines are taxed. These taxes are pooled and used for any and all awards made by the vaccine court.

As of May 2011, there were 13,755 claims filed in the federal government’s Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (VICP). As of that time 2,621 awards had been paid: a ratio of about 1 in 5 complainants received compensation with 5,277 cases dismissed and 5,857 cases pending. 3

Knowing how the MMR vaccine interacts with other vaccines is an additional issue that has never been addressed. No studies for the cumulative effects of the MMR vaccine with all of the other vaccines in the schedule seem to exist.

Many argue that the triple shot is the problem – that the vaccines need to be separated because they overwhelm the immune system. And doctors do not seem to have any clear guidelines when it comes to administering vaccines off schedule. Stories about childhood deaths or vaccine injuries after a child was injected with multiple vaccines (such as the MMR along with the DTP and more) are frequent.

Others argue that measles, mumps, and rubella are mild childhood diseases that rarely cause serious side effects, especially in countries with good medical care and effective treatment for secondary infections, should one occur. And some argue that the death count alone is higher for the vaccine than the diseases.

Measles

Measles is a common childhood disease that is caused by the rubeola virus. When first infected, symptoms do not typically present for 10-14 days. Measles is highly contagious; it is easily spread by coughing and sneezing. The virus can persist for hours in the air or on solid surfaces after an infected person has coughed or sneezed. Infected individuals can spread measles four days before the first rash appears and four days after the rash fades away. 4

Measles is a member of the genus Morbillivirus, which belongs to the family Paramyxoviridae. It is most closely related to the rinderpest virus. Like smallpox, scientists believe that measles evolved from viruses found originally in cows, like the rinderpest virus. The rinderpest virus is also called RPV, steppe murrain, cattle plague, or contagious bovine typhus. This highly contagious disease plagued cattle worldwide until the 21 st century. The last reported case occurred in Kenya in 2001. It is now believed to have been eradicated. 5

Symptoms of measles include fever, coughing, sneezing, and pink eye, followed by a characteristic red rash. With adequate nutrition (Vitamin A is especially important) the disease rarely proves fatal. Worldwide, measles infects approximately 30 million people a year; 0.65% of those infected do not survive the disease. Most of these deaths occur in 3 rd world countries. 7

Mumps

Mumps is a contagious disease caused by the parotitis virus. It is distantly related to measles, as it is also a member of the paramyxoviridae family.

The time from infection to the onset of symptoms (incubation period) can vary a bit, 2-3 weeks (12-25 days) is typical. Typical early symptoms include headache, loss of appetite, and a low fever. The most notorious symptom of mumps is a pronounced and painful swelling of the parotid salivary glands (parotitis), these glands are located right by the ears, below and in front of the ears. More serious complications are less common but do occur in a minority of those afflicted with the disease. 8

One of the more serious complications of mumps is orchitis, which is pain and/or swelling in the testicles. In severe cases, this can cause sterility. Mumps can infect other organs of the body, and in very rare cases it can be fatal. Mumps tends to be more serious in adults. 9

Rubella

Rubella is caused by the rubivirus, a member of the togaviridae family of viruses. Rubella (also known as German measles) is spread in a similar fashion as measles or mumps and many other viruses, through an infected person coughing, sneezing, and contaminating surfaces that others touch. 10

Those who have contracted rubella are contagious for about a week before they develop symptoms and for another four days after developing the rash. 11 The symptoms are generally mild and the most characteristic symptom is a red bumpy rash. Other symptoms include a slight fever, enlarged lymph glands, sore throat, and your run-of-the-mill upper respiratory tract infection (coryza).

If a pregnant woman contracts rubella, it could lead to serious complications for her unborn child. There is a significant risk of miscarriage or for the child to be born with CRS, congenital rubella syndrome. 12  The three major symptoms of CRS are sensorineural deafness, eye abnormalities, and congenital heart disease, but there are other possible damaging conditions including physical and intellectual disabilities.

MMR Vaccine Ingredients

The MMR vaccine contains three different live attenuated viruses- rubeola (measles), parotitis (mumps), and rubivirus (rubella or German measles).

There are many steps to manufacturing the MMR vaccine and a multitude of ingredients used in the manufacturing of the final product.

The MMR vaccine contains the following ingredients along with remnants of prior processing. Note the vaccine contains MSG, animal products, and the antibiotic neomycin. The MMR vaccine also contains human protein that has been genetically modified.

Ingredients: Sucrose, hydrolized gelatin, urea, sodium chloride, sorbitol, monosodium L-glutamate, sodium phosphate, human albumin sodium bicarbonate, potassium phosphate, potassium chloride, residual components of MRC-5 cells (including DNA and protein), neomycin, bovine serum albumin, other buffer and media ingredients, sodium phosphate dibasic, potassium phosphate monobasic, potassium phosphate dibasic 13

Some of the More Controversial Ingredients

WI-38 human diploid cells

WI-38 fibroblasts are derived from the lung tissues of a fetus aborted in 1964. 14 15

MRC-5 cells

MRC-5 cells are cell lines that are commonly used in vaccines, but they are also used in other medical research. The cells are grown in culture, and then distributed widely. J.P. Jacobs originated this cell line in September of 1966. The cells were taken from tissue of an aborted fetus.14

Recombinant Human Albumin

The MMR vaccine contains genetically engineered human albumin, the most common protein found in blood. The FDA warns that all drugs containing human albumin could have the possibility of prion or viral disease contamination. 18

Animal Ingredients

The MMR vaccine includes ingredients derived from poultry and cows. The measles and mumps viruses are cultivated in cultures of chick embryonic cells while the growth medium for all three viruses contains fetal bovine serum.

History

Maurice Hilleman first developed the measles, mumps and rubella vaccines in the late 1960s. By 1960, improvements in medicine, sanitation, hygiene, and diet had already rendered measles a manageable disease, and death from measles was becoming a thing of the past in the industrialized world. 20 One of the reasons for this change was the availability of antibiotics to treat pneumonia, the most frequent cause of death associated with measles.

The three vaccines were combined in 1971 as the MMR vaccine. In the U.S., it is difficult to find individual vaccines for measles, mumps, or rubella.

In 1993, Japan banned the MMR vaccine, instead opting for separate measles, mumps, and rubella vaccinations. Dr. Hiroki Nakatani of Japan’s Ministry of Health and Welfare stated that administering three separate vaccines costs twice as much as the MMR vaccine “…but we believe it is worth it”. 21

Moral Objections

Many churches are outspoken critics regarding the use of tissue used from abortions for vaccines or for any other product. There are many different religious objections to vaccines; the following are statements from three well-known Christian denominations.

Catholic Church View

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) has issued the following statement about vaccines derived from aborted fetal tissue culture lines.

“Should a government agency or private company use tissue from induced abortions for vaccine development or other research? The Catholic bishops have answered in the negative. Such use tends to legitimize abortion as a source of “life-affirming” treatments, and requires collaboration with the abortion industry, which should be avoided. This judgment is reflected in policies governing Catholic health care.” 22

Orthodox Church View

The Eastern Orthodox position is one opposed to abortion and any products that involve abortion. This includes using aborted fetal cell lines in vaccines.

A Baptist Pastor’s View – Utilizing Tissue from Aborted Fetuses

To get a broader Christian perspective, Pastor Scott Miller of the Summit Baptist Church was asked about Baptist views on fetal cell lines in vaccines. He gave the following statement:

“The statement I have written below does not represent the view of an entire denomination.  Baptist churches are autonomous.  I share this as a follower of Christ. God’s Word prioritizes life from the very beginning – in the mother’s womb.  In Psalm 139:13-16, David celebrates life before birth, and we should join our God in respecting and protecting every human being from conception to the grave.  Tissue from an aborted, pre-born child should not be utilized in any vaccine.  Such medical steps could rationalize or even promote and mobilize the abortion industry.  Think of the paradox – should a preborn baby be destroyed in order to enhance the life of a living person?  Let’s pursue both and a solution.  Let’s protect preborn children and continue to search for God-honoring, appropriate life-enhancing vaccines.”

Do You Trust China to Make Your Vaccines?

Quality control is far from adequate with vaccines. The majority of vaccines are manufactured in China. This puts the safety of vaccine manufacturing in doubt. There are many stories of Chinese manufacturing resulting in harm to their consumers. A prime example of this is the melamine contamination that left an estimated 300,000 babies sick and six dead. 23

There are dangers that should not be ignored or minimized. If the manufacturers mistakenly put toxic ingredients in food products, what might they do with products that are supposed to have precise levels of toxins in them for them to be effective?

If we make vaccines mandatory while we simultaneously make it difficult to hold vaccine companies accountable, then this sets an incredibly dangerous precedent. The products don’t need to be of the highest quality and safety when the vaccine makers can’t be sued. This would mean that the profit motive would not necessarily motivate business to manufacture safe vaccines. Vaccines could be the invitation into the sick care system, so you can be a customer for life. Bad genetics is what is usually blamed instead of vaccines. But genetic epidemics don’t happen so quickly. We are in an age of autism where 1 in 88 children are diagnosed with autism.

It Takes A Lot Of Trust To Believe The MMR Vaccine Has No Connection To Autism

If we are going to trust a product to be injected into us, we need to trust the company. Also the product should be of such high quality that it can stand on its own, without special protections. A free market should not have coercion. If the MMR vaccine really is as perfectly safe as the pro vaccine crowd claims it is then it should be selling itself without the help of mandates. In California, current bills are being discussed that would force all children to be enrolled in public schools as well as all adults who work with children to be vaccinated, including the MMR vaccine. These bills would do away with religious and philosophical exemptions. 24 We have a one size fits all vaccination program, which doesn’t take into account genetic vulnerability to vaccines. Why should healthy individuals be forced to take the MMR vaccine? Why should it be mandated to medically treat the absence of disease with medicine?

And as for the company, Merck is currently facing charges of defrauding the U.S. government due to two whistleblowers revealing how the company overstated the effectiveness of the MMR vaccine in order to meet the contracted efficacy. 25 

A Whistleblower Steps Forward

In the summer of 2014, William Thompson became a reluctant whistleblower when telephone conversations with another scientist were recorded and released without his permission. Thompson, a senior scientist with the CDC since 1998, admitted that he and others omitted data from a report that indicated a link between autism and the MMR vaccine in African American boys given the vaccine under age one.  In his statement, Dr. Thompson goes on to state his support for vaccines but says that it is the duty of the CDC to properly communicate those risks to those who receive those vaccines. 26 Since this story broke, Thompson was granted whistleblower immunity status by the Obama administration.

A Doctor Who Dared to Speak Out is Vindicated

In 1998, Andrew Wakefield, a British physician, and 12 other doctors published a paper that showed a possible correlation between autism and the MMR vaccine. The paper called for further study into the subject.

Although the paper itself did not state a definite causal effect, Dr. Wakefield publically stated his belief that the MMR caused autism and called for the MMR vaccine to be discontinued in favor of single vaccines for each disease.

The outcry that followed resulted in a sharp drop in vaccine compliance and a backlash against Wakefield and others. The paper was declared fraudulent by The United Kingdom General Medical Council regulatory board (GMC) and  was retracted by the publisher.

Ten of the doctors signed a statement retracting any claim that the MMR caused autism (although the paper never said it did). Wakefield, Prof John Walker Smith, and Dr. Simon Birch refused and were brought up on charges of misconduct by the GMC.  Wakefield and Smith lost their licenses to practice medicine.

However, Smith won an appeal against the GMC in 2012 that not only restored his license, it ruled that the published paper was not fraudulent and the study it was based on met required standards.

Although Wakefield has not sued for restoration of his license, he certainly has been vindicated for the study and the publication in question. 27

The MMR Comes With No Guarantees

A vaccine is considered successful if it generates antibodies some time after being administered. This does not impart lifetime or even long lasting protection from the disease, and the protection granted from the disease is not at all absolute. Many individuals who have had the MMR vaccine still contract measles, mumps, or rubella. This has been noted in criticisms of the MMR vaccine. Outbreaks among vaccinated populations occur frequently.

New Autism Studies and Vaccine Court

All over America, autism is on the rise, and for decades the government has vehemently denied that the vaccines have any connection with autism. But a new study reveals government duplicity regarding the vaccine autism link. The study was peer reviewed and published in Pace Environmental Law Review. The study was authored by Mary Holland, Louis Conte, Robert Krakow, and Lisa Colin.

The Federal Vaccine Injury Compensation Program Court records show 83 different cases of children with autism compensated for vaccine-induced injury. The study’s authors state this is probably just the tip of a very large iceberg. They also call on Congress to examine a potential lack of credibility; the lack of fairness and inconsistency in VICP compensation determinations.

How do the 5,000 cases of autism differ from compensated cases of “encephalopathy,” “residual seizure disorder,” and “developmental regression” 28 that were compensated? Given how little we know about autism, how can we trust the vaccine court ruling that vaccines caused those injuries but that vaccines didn’t cause the other cases of autism?

These semantics are stretched even further in the case of Hannah Poling “In acknowledging Hannah’s injuries, the government said vaccines aggravated an unknown mitochondrial disorder Hannah had, which didn’t “cause” her autism, but “resulted” in it.” 29

America’s infant mortality rate is the highest in the industrialized world, and we have the most aggressive vaccination schedule of the industrialized world with more vaccines than any other country in the world. We also have the highest SIDS rate in the world, with higher rates of autism, learning disabilities, and asthma than the rest of the industrialized world.

The Japanese not only banned the MMR, they vaccinate about half as much as we do. Their infant mortality rate is about half the rate of the U.S.

The Italians May Be Seeing The MMR Vaccine Differently

A landmark Italian ruling has been more straightforward in assigning blame. The Italian court has said that Valentino Bocca’s autism was provoked by the MMR vaccine that he received at 9 months old. 30

It’s hard to find stories like this reported in mainstream media. With many other subjects, anecdotal evidence makes for good news stories, but not with vaccine injuries. This shows a clear bias in reporting.

Pharmaceutical companies heavily fund mainstream media. They bring enormous influence to bear in how vaccines are presented in the news. People who raise questions about vaccines are labeled as “anti-vaxx fanatics”. When the CDC whistleblower first came forward, mainstream media ignored the story. The media is very quick to present the pro side of the vaccine argument. Talking heads like CNN’s Campbell Brown proclaim the judgment is in and vaccines are safe. Vaccine “experts” like Paul Offit make bold claims such as “each infant would have the theoretical capacity to respond to about 10, 000 vaccines at any one time.” 31

The medical model’s argument for vaccines isn’t that there is no risk of an adverse reaction, their argument is that it is a bigger risk not to vaccinate than it is to vaccinate. But when the evidence for these claims is provided primarily by studies done by the CDC, you have to question the reliability of the source.

The CDC and the American Academy of Pediatrics (with their deep ties to the pharmaceutical industry) choose to pretend that there is no evidence of a link between vaccines and autism. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommendation is suspect because they get a lot of money from vaccine manufacturers to recommend their products.

Beyond what many consider to be morally questionable ingredients, live attenuated viruses, GMOs, animal products, human products, The MMR vaccine is said to work when the patient generates antibodies to the diseases, this does not equate to complete protection from the diseases. Outbreaks among vaccinated individuals still happen.

Conclusion

The mainstream media wants us to believe that vaccines are perfectly safe or that the risk is so minimal no one needs to be concerned. They want us to believe that anyone questioning a currently recommended vaccine is anti-science. Shutting down dialogue and ignoring and/or suppressing evidence is anti-science. All of the ingredients in the MMR vaccine are toxic to the body. The question is, do the benefits outweigh the risks? This is a very difficult question to answer when we don’t know the risks (because they don’t want us to know), we don’t know the efficacy (the few numbers they do provide do not add up), and we do know that corporations, pharmaceutical corporations or any other, put profit before human beings.

Also check out How To Detoxify and Heal From Vaccinations – For Adults and Children.

Further Reading:
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Joel Edwards

Joel Edwards

Joel Edwards is a senior at Kennesaw State University, an anthropology major with a broad interest in the humanities and an organic lifestyle.

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Joel Edwards
Joel Edwards

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