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Franklin Roosevelt's death, that the Foundation of Infantile Paralysis told the world, using every possible means of publici- ty, that the vaccine devised by Dr Jonas E. Salk was "safe, potent and efficient". "At a meeting of 500 doctors and scientists at Ann Arbor, Michigan, Dr Salk and Dr Francis made such sweeping claims for the vaccine that nearly every American newspaper declared that Dr Salk had abolished poliomyelitis. "Only thirteen days after the vaccine had been acclaimed by the whole of the American press and radio as one of the greatest medical discoveries of the century, and two days after the English Minister of Health had announced he would go right ahead with the manufacture of the vaccine, came the first news of disaster. Children inoculated with one brand of vaccine had developed poliomyelitis. In the following days more and more cases were reported, some of them after inoculation with other brands of the vaccine. Then came another, and wholly unlooked-for complication. The Denver Medical Officer, Dr Florio, announced the development of what he called "satellite" polio, that is, cases of the disease in the parents or other close contacts of the children, who had been inoculated and, after a few days' illness in hospital, had returned home; they communi- aoe the disease to others, although not suffering from it them- selves, "On June 23rd 1955, the American Public Health Service announced that there had been 168 confirmed cases of poliomyelitis among the vaccinated, with six deaths, and 149 cases among the con- tacts of children given the Salk vaccine, with six deaths. h Pe! with regard to the i" cases the situation is far worse. According to isetts, t € a ne children ber inoculated with a faulty vaccine may become carriers o' Ae _ roe Fed estimated em Express, t 55) that all of the 1,500 vaccinat- ‘urred atter ed pm ne had — ps. "We have created a group of carriers," he dren were said, “and then this will be another ith the Salk group and so the cycle will go on. It is 5 very distressing." Some of the contacts ccine. acquired the disease in its deadliest form. "The interval between inoculation and the first sign of paralysis ranged from 5 to 20 days, and ina arge proportion of cases it started in the limb in which the injection had been given. Another fea- ture of the tragedy was that numbers developing polio were far omg! than would have been expected had no inoculations n carried out. In fact, in the State of Idaho, according to a statement by Dr Carl Eklund, one of the government's chief virus authorities, polio struck only vaccinated children, in areas where there had ane no cases since the preceding autumn; in 9 out of 10 cases the paralysis occurred in the arms in which the vaccine had been injected. (News Chronicle, 6/5/1955.) "An article in Time (30/5/1955) commented: “In retrospect, a ood deal of the blame for the vaccine fiasco also went to the ational Foundation which, with years of publicity, had built up the danger of polio out of all proportion to its actual inci- dence, and had rushed into vaccinations this year with patently insufficient preparation. gastro-enteritis and so on." Franklin Roosevelt's In their well-researched book, A Shot in the Dark, co-authors H. _ Paralysis told the wo! Coulter and B. Fisher list potential side-effects and reactions to the _‘tY, that the vaccine de DPT vaccine. They include skin reactions, fever, vomiting and diar- and efficient". rhoea, screaming and persistent crying, collapse, convulsions, infan- At a meeting of 5 tile spasms, inflammation of the brain, blood disorders, diabetes, re ae - mie hypoglycaemia and SIDS. . that Dr Salk had abol) In the USA, 1984, Edward Brandt Jnr, Assistant Secretary for "Only thirteen days Health, stated in a congressional testimony that each year the DPT the whole of the Ame vaccine will be associated with an estimated: medical discoveries - 150 cases of brain inflammation or injuries, 50 with perma- English Minister of F nent damage; ahead with the manu of disaster. Children developed poliomyel cases were reported, - 9,000 cases of convulsion; - 9,000 cases of collapse—a shock-like state in which a child becomes limp, pale and unresponsive, brands of Che wae - 17,000 cases of unusual high-pitched screaming; unlooked-for compli - 25,000 cases of fever of at least 105 degrees; — + the - 450,000 f i lable crying lasting from one to lio, that is, cases c than 20 rime —— — Footacts of the childr - sa few days' illness in he In 1985 in the USA, an ABC television research team, known as cated the disease 4 20/20, uncovered massive amounts of documented evidence reveal- selves ing the disastrous effects of DPT vaccine. 20/20 said that much of "Op June 23rd 19! this information had been concealed by the drug companies, and ahnosaced that thi that much of it was known by both government and medical authori- ties who failed to take any action. 20/20 counted in excess of 2,500 cases of serious reactions, including brain damage, and over 60 deaths, all linked to the whooping cough vaccine. Evidence on the dangers of in Massachusetts the this vaccine went as far back as 1948. ‘ - , pee 20/20 found that government officials, doc- worst polio epidemic in tors and vaccine manufacturers had held high-level xecieas on the San of this its history occur red after vaccine, without ever providing appropri- * ate warning to the public! 130,000 children were Foomote: In the USA, the cost of a sin- H . - gle DPT shot had risen by 1,000% from 11 vaccinated with the Salk cents in 1982 to $11.40 in 1987. The man- 1 H ufacturers of this vaccine were putting polio vaccine. aside $8 per shot to cover legal costs and damages they were paying out to parents of brain-damaged children and children Who had died after immunisation. ture of the tragedv w. POLIO VACCINE "The vaccine is safe, and you can’t get safer than safe." Dr Jonas Salk, referring to his polio vaccine in 1955. The first large-scale trial of the Salk (polio) vaccine commenced in the USA on 26 April 1954 where 440,000 children were vaccinat- ed. After almost a year of analysis, the results were presented on 12 April 1955. The Foundation for Infantile Paralysis announced to the world that the vaccine devised by Dr Jonas Salk was “safe, potent and efficient". The announcement to the American public of a suc- cessful polio vaccine resulted in ceremonious rejoicing throughout the nation. Dr Jonas Salk was declared a national hero, and Hollywood even wanted to make a movie of his life. Within two weeks of this announcement, a major disaster occurred. On 24 April 1955, a case of paralytic polio occurred in a recently vaccinated child. Two days later, the Californian State Health Department advised the National Institute of Health that six children had developed polio a week to 10 days after the first shot. In what would become known as the Cutter Disaster (Cutter being the company who prepared the vaccine), investigations found that there were about 250 vaccine-associated cases, 150 of which were partially or totally paralysed. Eleven died. The following account of this tragedy was written by Dr M. Beddow Bayly and published by the National Antivivisection Society in 1956: This disaster proved to be the first link in the chain of events that eventually banished the Salk vaccine from the US. On 15 October 1955, The American Capsule News, published in Washington, D.C., issued the following statement: "REPORT ON SALK VACCINE. Those who hopefully believed the sales talk of Salk vaccine vendors and the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis, are disillusioned and disap- pointed. Far from wiping out polio, it has apparently increased it in many states and cities." In Massachusetts, the worst polio epidemic in its history occurred after 130,000 children were vaccinated with the Salk polio vaccine. Compared with the 1954 level of 273 polio cases, in 1955, 2,027 polio cases were reported, whereupon the authorities immediately NEXUS¢29 JUNE - JULY 1993 "It was on April 12th 1955, the tenth anniversary of President