By Christopher Kent, D.C. and Patrick Gentempo, Jr., D.C.
“Knowledge is the antidote of fear” — Emerson
Many chiropractors and their patients oppose mandatory immunization for a variety of reasons. Proponents of vaccination argue that serious adverse effects, including paralysis, brain damage, and death are rare, and that the risks are worth it to “protect” the masses. Yet the risk of adverse reactions to the vaccine recipients is only the tip of the iceberg.
A far more serious, and insidious consequence of vaccination should be considered. At least one scientist feels that in administering vaccines to large segments of the population, we may be inadvertently practicing “uncontrolled genetic manipulation.”
In a letter appearing in Science News, July 31, 1976, Richard DeLong, Professor of Biology at DelMar College in Corpus Christi, Texas wrote:
“There are dangers … grave to the future of mankind which have been imposed inadvertently by entirely uncontrolled genetic manipulation during the last fifteen years or so. This uncontrolled genetic manipulation is the mass administration of attenuated viral vaccines to animal and human populations. Attenuated vaccine viruses are infectious, therefore they infect the recipients’ cells and can do so in a number of ways. Attenuated vaccine viruses have the potential also to be transmitted vertically and these viruses then could be inherited through generations. Some of the genes of these viruses may become integrated with the genomes of the recipients. The damage that could result in the future from such uncontrolled genetic manipulation could be incredible. This is to say nothing whatever of the other potential dangers the vaccine recipients must bear as the result of other aspects of vaccine viral infections such as mutations, chromosomal aberrations, birth defects, cancer, and reversion to virulence.”
DeLong published a paper in the April, 1984 issue of Medical Hypotheses. In it, the possible relationship between live viral vaccines and the appearance of new viral diseases was explored. The paper stated:
“During the last twenty years a number of new and very serious diseases has arisen. Some of these are Reyes’ syndrome, Kawasaki disease, Lassa fever, Marburg disease, non A-non B hepatitis, Ebola hemorrhagic fever, and acquired immune deficiency syndrome. The origination of these diseases is unknown and puzzling … Since 1961 we have been immunizing the human population with attenuated viral vaccines en masse. Such unparalleled use of live viral vaccines may be the reason for the appearance of new diseases…
“Since most humans in the world are now harboring live vaccine viruses of different kinds within their cells, the probability of genetic recombination between these viruses and other viruses as they infect cells becomes quite high…
“All the new diseases listed above appeared after the mass administration of the live poliomyelitis vaccine and followed by mass immunization with other live viral vaccines such as the attenuated measles vaccine, the attenuated mumps vaccine, and the attenuated three-day measles vaccine.”
Although it may be difficult to test DeLong’s hypothesis, and we must not make the error of equating correlation with cause and effect, the potential consequences of inducing both human and viral genetic change are too devastating to be ignored.
The side effects of vaccines are frightening, yet they pale in comparison to haphazard alteration of the gene pool. Mahatma Gandhi stated, “Every action that is dictated by fear or by coercion of any kind ceases to be moral.” This imperative has been completely ignored by public health officials who seek to make vaccinations mandatory.
Doctors of Chiropractic are distinctive primary health care providers. As such, chiropractors must be capable of counseling patients concerning contemporary health care issues. We must be vigilant in protecting minority rights in health matters. As one jurist noted, “It’s not the rights of the majority which must be protected, for these are not at risk. It is the rights of the minority which require constant vigilance.” We must not permit the allopathic model to dominate our public health system.
