Recently by Dr. David Brownstein: Should You Get an Ineffective, Toxic, FluVaccine?
The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) immunization schedule was updated in January, 2013 to recommend that a dose of Tdap vaccine be administered to all pregnant women during each pregnancy whether or not they have received the vaccine previously. This is a new recommendation.
What is the reason for this change? The CDC changed its recommendations due to the pertussis (whooping cough) epidemic that affected more than 41,000 people in the U.S. last year. Whooping cough occurs as a result of an infection from the bacterium Bordatella pertussis. Signs of pertussis include paroxysmal cough, inspiratory whoop, and vomiting after coughing. It is fatal in 1.6% of hospitalized infants less than one year of age. In the U.S., approximately 5-30 children die per year due to pertussis. Pertussis is rarely fatal for older children and adults. Pertussis can be treated with antibiotics. However, in most cases it is a self-limited illness lasting a few weeks to six months.
Pertussis is a serious illness in an infant. We definitely want to minimize pertussis infections in very young children. However, is giving the Tdap immunizaition during every pregnancy the right thing to do?
The Tdap vaccine is a combination vaccine that is supposed to protect against tetanus, diphtheria and pertussis. Does the Tdap vaccine protect against pertussis? The answer is probably yes. What do I mean by probably? There have not been definitive studies on the efficacy and safety of this vaccine. There is no question that the incidence of pertussis has declined over the last 70 years. However, the CDC’s data shows that the pertussis illness was declining well before the onset of the vaccine.
But, what is in the vaccine? The Tdap vaccine contains aluminum phosphate, formaldehyde, polysorbate 80 and may contain traces of thimerosal. Polysorbate 80 (also known as Tween 80) has been shown to cause infertility in animals. Parenteral injection of aluminum has been shown to cause neurotoxicity. Thimerosal contains 50% mercury by weight. Mercury is a known neurotoxin and carcinogen. Formaldehyde is a human carcinogen and highly toxic to all animals. If you add in all the recommended childhood vaccines, the total amount of polysorbate 80, mercury, formaldehyde, and aluminum can reach toxic levels. I will write more about that in a future blog.
David Brownstein, M.D. is a Board-Certified family physician and is one of the foremost practitioners of holistic medicine. He is the Medical Director of the Center for Holistic Medicine in West Bloomfield, MI. Dr. Brownstein has lectured internationally to physicians and others about his success in using natural hormones and nutritional therapies in his practice.
