The murder of polio immunization officials

THE barbaric brutal murder of nine polio immunisation officials, most likely by some Boko Haram group of murderers in Kano State is an unfortunate incident which has taken the vaccine debate to a whole new level.  The other time in Malawi, as we pointed out in Vol 14 No 2, it was government officials that was forcing people to receive their (measle) vaccine – at gun point!  Now, it has gone the other way.

One thing all these have confirmed is that the vaccine issue is more than an academic debate, but one that both sides of the divide feel extremely strongly about. 

As polio vaccine advocates seize the moment to demonize everybody asking critical questions concerning the Bill Gates sponsored project, we will like to re-state our position and repeat two basic questions.  (For goodwill sake, we’ll prefer to accept WHO’s explanation that the levels of the anti-fertility chemical, oestrogen,  reportedly found by sceptical Islamic scientists in samples of vaccines brought to Kano in 2004, were contaminations inadvertently introduced and occurring at levels lower than that ordinarily found in breast milk, see CA! vol 7 no 2, and vol 13 no 2).  Here are the basic questions still begging for answers:

One, how do figures of incidents of wild polio that so much efforts and money is being expended on, compare with figures of polio that is known to be associated with the (massive) administration of the polio vaccine itself ?  As we pointed out in Vol 14 No 4, a significant number of children are guaranteed to contact the polio virus from the very vaccine they are given.  Figures of risk of a normal child contacting polio strictly from the oral vaccine itself range from 1 per 750,000 (www.chop.edu/service/vaccine-education-center/a-look-at-each-vaccine/polio-vaccine.html), 1 per million (www.usatoday.com/news/world/2009), or 1 per 2.4 million (www.babycenter.com/0_the-polio-vaccine_1566.bc).  All these figures are cited by strongly pro-vaccine lobbies. Underscoring the gravity of the matter, a special report in the USA Today concluded:  “Nigeria's vaccine-linked outbreak underlines the need to stop using the oral polio vaccine as soon as possible, since it can create the very epidemics it was designed to stop, experts say. WHO is researching other vaccines that might work better, but none is on the horizon.” http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2009.  To worsen matters, several children are repeatedly administered with the oral polio vaccine at home, church/mosque, school, market place, etc thus increasing the likelihood of incidents of vaccine-linked polio! (see CA! Vol 14 No 4).

 Another unanswered simple question related to the above is why is the vaccine being used in Nigeria and other developing countries different from the ones being used in developed countries such as America?  The vaccines used in Nigeria for instance is known to be preserved in thimerosal, containing 49.55% by weight, highly toxic Mercury, which is deadly to babies. (see relevant information at  www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=49094).  This is a vaccine that cannot be administered in the United States!

CA! sincerely commiserates with the Federal Ministry of Health (and particular the families of the innocent people involved) on the gruesome murder of its personnel.  But it is never too late that the Ministry in charge of the nation’s health begins to ask relevant questions.