SCIENTISTS CONCLUDE PERTUSSIS VACCINE CAUSES PERMANENT BRAIN DAMAGE

republished below in full unedited for informational, educational and research purposes:

BACK TO THE FUTURE: Following
is an article from TVR’s historical archives published in the Spring
1990 print edition on a scientific conference sponsored by the National
Vaccine Information Center in 1989 evaluating serious complications of
pertussis infection and whole cell pertussis vaccine in DPT. 

On September 28-October 1, 1989, the
National Vaccine Information Center sponsored an international Workshop
on the Neurological Complications of Pertussis and the Pertussis
Vaccine. The scientists attending the multidisciplinary workshop
concluded that both whooping cough and the current whole cell pertussis
vaccine can cause permanent brain damage.

During the three-day workshop, the scientists agreed that toxins within the B. pertussis
bacterium, which cause whooping cough and are in the pertussis vaccine,
can cause a spectrum of permanent brain damage ranging from learning
disabilities to severe retardation and seizure disorders. According to
UCLA Professor of Pediatrics and Neurology John Menkes, MD, who
coordinated the workshop, it was the consensus of opinion that the
neurologic complications of the disease and vaccination are in part
caused by the interaction of pertussis toxin and endotoxin present in B.
pertussis bacteria.

DPT Convulsions Due to Effects of Toxins

The scientists also concluded that
the convulsions which accompany severe cases of whooping cough and which
follow vaccination are not solely caused by fever but are likely to be
due to the combined effects of pertussis toxin and endotoxin. They also
agreed that, although the vaccine may accelerate neurologic signs in
some children with an underlying neurologic disorder, in many others no
pre-existing brain abnormality exists. The scientists supported
replacement of the current whole cell vaccine with less toxic acellular
or genetically engineered pertussis vaccines.

Scientists from America and Abroad Attend

The workshop was international in
scope and among the 19 scientists who came from Europe and Japan were:
British epidemiologist Martin Bellman, MD, who co-authored Britain’s
National Childhood Encephalopathy Study (NCES); Swedish epidemiologist
Jann Storsaeter, MD, who coordinated the Swedish clinical trials of
Japanese acellular vaccine; neuroimmunologist P.O. Behan, MD, of
Scotland’s Institute of Neurological Sciences; molecular biologist
Toshiaki Katada, PhD, of the Tokyo Institute of Technology; Canadian
bacteriologist John Cameron, MD, of the University of Quebec; and French
neurologist Jean Aicardi, MD of Hopital des Engants Malades. Also
attending was Reno Rappuoli, MD, who represented SCLAVO, an Italian
vaccine manufacturer conducting clinical trials in Italy of a
genetically engineered pertussis vaccine.

American scientists included
pediatric infectious disease specialist James Bass, MD, of Tripler Army
Medical Center in Hawaii; bacteriologist Robert Bond, MD, of University
of South Carolina; neurologist Anthony Campagnoni, MD, of UCLA;
neuropathologist Pasquale Cancilla, MD, of UCLA; statistician David
Lane, PhD, of University of Minnesota; behavioral neurologist Marcel
Kinsbourne, MD, of Eunice Kennedy Shriver Center; epidemiologist Donald
Peterson, of University of Washington; epidemiologist Edward Mortimer,
MD, of Case Western Reserve University; neurologist William Oldendorf,
MD, of Brentwood VA Hospital; and neurologist Soloman Moshe, MD, of
Albert Einstein School of Medicine.

The workshop was held on the grounds
of Airlie Foundation located in the Virginia countryside near
Washington, D.C. NVIC’s Executive Vice President Barbara Loe Fisher, who
assisted Dr. Menkes in coordinating the workshop, emphasized that
conclusions reached by the scientists help to clarify the question of
whether the pertussis vaccine causes brain damage.

“This workshop brought together 19 of
the finest basic science researchers and medical specialists in the
world. Their unanimous agreement that toxins in the B. pertussis
bacteria definitely have the capability of causing permanent brain
damage both during the course of the disease and after vaccination is
validation of what parents in our organization have been maintaining for
eight years. Health officials in the government and the American
Academy of Pediatrics, who maintain the vaccine does not cause permanent
brain damage, are deliberately ignoring the evidence.”

A formal summary of the conclusions reached at the workshop will be published in a medical journal.1

References:

1 Menkes JH, Kinsbourne M. Workshop on Neurologic Complications of Pertussis and Pertussis Vaccination. Neuropediatrics 1990; 21(4): 171-176.