Disinformation from Robert F. Kennedy, Jr Regarding Polio Vaccines:
Question:
This is from "The Policy Times" (May, 2020) about Robert F. Kennedy's views on vaccination:
"Around 2000 (Bill) Gates was having full control of India’s National Technical Advisory Group on Immunization (NTAGI) and promised to share $450 million for eradicating polio, which led to over 50 doses of polio vaccination to children up to the age of five through overlapping vaccination programs. After which Indian doctors attributed the Gates campaign to be devastating for the children. Around 490,000 children have been disabled due to the Non-Polio Acute Flaccid Paralysis (NPAFP) epidemic from 2000 to 2017. After watching out the situation and the increased number of disability of children, The Government of India refused Gates’ vaccine and also raised questions about Gates and his vaccine policies. After which a rapid decline in NPAFP rates was also observed.
In 2017 world health organization admitted that strains of vaccines have been a reason for the increasing rate of polio. Many horrific cases were linked to the vaccines in Congo, Afghanistan, and the Philippines. Vaccine strains were responsible for 70% of global polio cases by 2018."
Dr. Bruno, please address this.
Dr. Bruno’s Response:
I read Robert Kennedy, Jr’s confused, careless and unsupported allegations in his article in “The Policy Times.” Just one example of disinformation is Kennedy stating, “A 2017 study (Morgenson et al., 2017) showed that the WHO’s popular DTP vaccine is killing more African children than preventing the disease.” The Morgenson study was published in 2017 but was a review of “diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis (DTP) and oral polio vaccine (OPV) in one urban community in Guinea-Bissau” in 1980-1983. (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5360569)
The study measured the mortality rate in 651 children ages 3-5 months; 4.5% of those unvaccinated died compared to 35% receiving the DTP vaccine. However, the mortality rate in children receiving the DTP vaccine plus the OPV dropped to 12%. The article stated that “There were no deaths” following OPV and concluded that “Co-administration of OPV with DTP may have reduced the negative effects of DTP.”
A study of data from the early 1980s can’t be used to support Kennedy’s claim the DTP vaccine “is killing” children today. And Gates’ can’t be blamed, or lauded, for the helpful effects of the OPV in the study since his global polio eradication program was not launched until 1988.
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr's confusing and changing "theories" about vaccination for me are not to be trusted. There is no data presented, so I can't comment on the existence of a "Gate's Vaccine" that is causing a problem in India. And "a 70% increase" in polio cases in 2018 -- whether unsubstantiated "horrific cases linked to the vaccines" or those caused by wild poliovirus -- would number a total of just 13 cases world-wide. Thirteen. Beware misused statistics.
However, there have been around 490,000 children disabled due to Non-Poliovirus Acute Flaccid Paralysis from 2000 to 2017. When I was asked by the Indian government in 2013 to establish Post Polio Institutes across India, I reviewed the extensive data from the Indian National Polio Surveillance Program. I found a powerful correlation between the number of oral vaccine doses given each year and the emergence of Non-Poliovirus Acute Flaccid Paralysis. (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22591873/)
As Albert Sabin found in testing his oral polio vaccine in the 1950s, OPV-induced antibodies eliminate poliovirus in the gut and make room for the growth of non-polio enteroviruses, e.g., Coxsackie and echoviruses (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19712176/). These viruses not only are known to cause paralysis but also are shown by the Indian data to cause nearly three times the number of deaths as do wild polioviruses. India’s estimated 200,000 yearly cases of polio have been replaced by 40,000 to 60,000 cases of Non-Poliovirus Acute Flaccid Paralysis. (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6121585/)
When I discussed these data with CDC, they were dismissed. When I discussed these data with the Indian government and asked that Non-Poliovirus Acute Flaccid Paralysis patients be treated by the new "Post-Polio" Clinics, I was dismissed. As the articles in the Indian Journal of Medical Ethics describe, the race to claim credit for “world polio eradication” is extracting a significant monetary, medical and human price. Billions of dollars that could be used to provide clean water and sanitation (which themselves would limit polio cases) are spent only on repeated polio vaccination.
With India’s estimated 200,000 yearly cases of polio being replaced by 40,000 - 60,000 cases of Non-Poliovirus Acute Flaccid Paralysis, would it not be better for India to work toward being proclaimed "paralysis-free" rather than just “polio-free?” (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22591873/)