Interesting Information and Books: February 14, 2015
Tetyana Obukhanych’s
THE VACCINE ILLUSION:
How Vaccination Compromises Our Natural Immunity and What We Can Do To Regain Our Health
Yesterday’s post on vaccines sparked a spirited discussion on Facebook between two of my nieces. I promised them–and have been intending to do so anyway–to post the links to Tetyana Obukhanych’s book THE VACCINE ILLUSION.
As I said yesterday, the news is full of vaccine stories lately, mostly around the recent measles outbreak. These stories often uncritically repeat (mindlessly) the same old crop of myths. Clearly, the media is not remotely doing good journalism. Instead, as is the case these days, the media is creating sensation and fear, rather than trying to uncover and share the many, complicated facets of our current vaccine policy. This situation, too, is how the market works.
For me, vaccine policy is a poster child for Cultural Studies work–my field. Current vaccine policy is mostly all about the needs of the market–not about the needs of humans. And plenty of well meaning, kind, caring folks are caught up in promulgating the current general vaccine knowledge. But that knowledge is simplistic and terribly flawed. There is a place for vaccines–especially if one is going to a foreign nation where diseases exist that are not in our ancestral template (as friend Meg Barclay puts it). There may be a place for other kinds of vaccines as well. But there are, also, genuine and terrible risks–which are being ignored. Worse, there are many, many unintended consequences to vaccines that are not being thoughtfully explored.
That’s where Tetyana Obukhanych, a stone-cold scientist in immunology comes in. (See her credentials below.) Her little book is clear, blessedly easy to read and understand, and cuts to the chase of what is wrong on a number of fronts. She wrote it to help parents think about what to do about vaccines and is very clear that these are decisions parents have to make and with which they have to be willing to live. She also blows the whistle on the box that the field of immunology finds itself enclosed–a box that will not allow for genuine exploration and discovery.
The biggest thing that needs to be discovered is exactly how naturally acquired immunity to diseases occurs. (There is no money in the system for this work–which is, in my terms, another effect of the market at work.) Obukhanych argues, also, that we need to recognize that our current vaccine policy not only cannot simulate naturally acquired immunity, it only provides a short-term “fix”–leaving teenagers open to getting the “childhood” diseases when these diseases are more serious for them. She argues, too, that the vaccine policy is creating the unintended consequence of disrupting the maternal imuno-protection of infants–which is why some are getting measles. And, there is much, much more. She discusses the history of the development of vaccines and explains that vaccines derive from flawed theory that has never been adequately tested. She discusses the dangers of using aluminum in vaccines as alum is famous for producing allergic reactions (another unintended consequence) and may be a root cause of all the allergic reactions our children have today–1 in 13 children today has a serious food allergy. Aluminum in vaccines can produce skin eruptions, esophagus problems, asthma, and anaphylactic shock (a blood reaction). She also discusses the fact that vaccines target certain strains of a disease, but that diseases are biodiverse so that other strains get stronger as one strain is diverted. I suppose it’s a bit like the superweeds and superbugs that have evolved in response to herbicides and pesticides.
Here’s a quote from the book with Obukhanych’s credentials:
Tetyana Obukhanych earned her Ph.D. in Immunology at the Rockefeller University in New York, NY with her research dissertation focused on understanding immunologic memory, perceived by the mainstream biomedical establishment to be crucial to vaccination and immunity.
During her subsequent involvement in laboratory research as a postdoctoral fellow within leading biomedical institutions, such as Harvard Medical School and Stanford University School of Medicine, Dr. Obukhanych realized the flaws and limitations of current immunologic paradigms. Key to her realization was taking a broader look at scientific findings from many related disciplines, rather than confining her search, as customary in her professional circles, strictly to basic immunologic literature.
After parting with the mainstream biomedical establishment and dissolving her prior allegiance to its doctrines, Dr. Obukhanych continues her independent in-depth analysis of peer-reviewed scientific findings related to vaccination and natural mechanisms of immunity. Her aim is to bring a scientifically- substantiated and dogma-free perspective on vaccination and natural immuno-enhancing approaches to parents and health care practitioners involved in making vaccination decisions. Dr. Obukhanych has been a frequent guest speaker on natural immunity and vaccines and is available for private consultations to share her accumulated knowledge.
I hope that before you or your children get one more vaccine, that you read this book, which takes less than an hour. And I hope that you share it. Obukhanych is very, very brave to take on this issue. And she is already being demonized. (Remember this familiar pattern from the cigarette industry.) Ask yourself WHO is denigrating Obukhanych’s work, what are their credentials, who is paying them or supporting the web site. There are a number of so-called “scientific” web sites that are nothing more than shills for industry. So, beware…
The Vaccine Illusion: How Vaccination Compromises Our Natural.
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