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One of the primary pro-vaccine arguments is that vaccines can prevent cancer by preventing viral infections. But do viruses truly cause cancer and, if so, could the vaccines, rather than being preventative, be the cause?
Mainstream medicine tells us that the hepatitis B virus (HBV) causes liver cancer which is why it is so necessary for US newborns to be vaccinated within hours of birth. We are told that the human papillomavirus (HPV), which is supposedly so prevalent in our population, causes cervical cancer which is why there is such a push to vaccinate girls and boys in the US as early as 9 years old. Let's not forget about Simian Virus 40 (SV40) which is known to have contaminated polio vaccines and is associated with a wide variety of human cancers. Conventional wisdom tells us that viruses cause cancer. But is this true? Let's investigate the story further.
The first recorded cases of HBV infection occurred following the administration of the smallpox vaccine containing human lymph to shipyard workers in Germany in 1883. HBV is transmitted through contact with infected bodily fluids. It is estimated that over 2 billion people worldwide have been infected and that approximately 350 million are chronic carriers. Chronic HBV infection is believed to cause up to 80% of all hepatocellular carcinomas. Sounds scary right? But when you look deeper you find that, in the US, HBV is found predominantly in adults who are either I.V. drug users or engaging in high-risk sexual behavior.
The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that only 0.1-0.5 % of the US population are chronic carriers. This is due, in large part, to the fact that only about 5% of acute HBV infections ever become chronic. In other words, about 95% of people clear the infection and never become chronic carriers. But those who do become chronic carriers will definitely get liver cancer right? No. The CDC estimates that only about 25% of those with chronic HBV infection die prematurely from liver cancer or cirrhosis decades after the initial infection.
Is it possible that over those decades, other factors could have caused or, at least contributed, to their liver disease? Ok, but if the mom tests positive for Hep B, her infant will definitely get infected right? Wrong again. According to the CDC, there is only a 10% chance that a mother who tests positive only for the Hep B surface antigen (s-antigen) will infect her baby. Additionally, does it make sense to indiscriminately vaccinate newborns if mothers have already tested negative for Hep B? It does if your motivation is ease of access.
HPV is recognized by mainstream medical authorities as the most commonly sexually transmitted infection in the US with an estimated 20 million persons infected and over 6 million new infections annually. They state that in the 1980s, cervical cancer cells were discovered to contain HPV. Although there are more than 100 types of known HPV, only a few are considered oncogenic or cancer causing.
The CDC claims that 99% of cervical cancers contain oncogenic human papilloma viruses with types 16 and 18 found in 70% of all cervical malignancies. The 2 most common types of cervical cancer are squamous cell carcinoma and adenocarcinoma. Those numbers would certainly frighten the average woman. On deeper analysis, however, you learn that the CDC admits that HPV has never been isolated in culture. In other words, wild HPV has never been seen. But let's assume that HPV does exist.
The CDC also says that most HPV infections are asymptomatic resulting in no clinical disease and that HPV by itself is not sufficient to cause cancer because the vast majority of women with the infection do not develop cancer. In fact, a recent study published in the journal Vaccine estimates that 90% of HPV infections are cleared from the body within 2 years.
As an interesting side note, Merck, the maker of the HPV vaccine Gardasil, presented information to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) prior to approval that their vaccine increased the risk of pre-cancerous changes by 44.6% in women exposed to HPV types 16 or 18 pre-vaccination. How many doctors do you know who test for the presence of these strains prior to administering the HPV vaccine? I have yet to hear of such a doctor.
Not all viruses linked to cancer are natural inhabitants of the human body. Many of the early polio vaccines, which were cultured on monkey kidney tissue and given to millions of children in the mid-1950s and early 1960s, were found to be contaminated with live Simian viruses. One in particular, known as Simian virus 40 (SV40), was found to have powerful oncogenic effects and has been discovered in numerous tumors including various types of brain, bone and lung cancers. SV40 has even been found in tumors of individuals who were never given those early polio vaccines.
There is mounting evidence that this monkey virus can pass from generation to generation. Also, it has been suggested that SV40 is contaminating current polio vaccines since the inactivated poliovirus vaccine (IPV) and the oral poliovirus vaccine (OPV) viruses are still seeded from and cultured on monkey kidney tissue (vero-cell line). Government health officials will deny this possibility since widespread testing for contamination was mandated in the early 1960s, however, if you research the issue further, you will discover that methods used to test for contamination are often inadequate or non-existent.
But why didn't every person who was infected with SV40 get cancer? Claude Bernard, considered the Father of Experimental Medicine and a contemporary of Louis Pasteur, once said so eloquently that "[t]he terrain is everything; the germ is nothing." Following this pronouncement, he is said to have gulped down a glass of water filled with cholera without getting sick. This demonstration was a bold attempt to prove that individuals with a healthy internal environment and a robust immune system provide an inhospitable environment for pathogenic germs and are unlikely to succumb to illness while those who are malnourished and toxic provide a diseased terrain which is far more likely to be inhabited by disease causing microorganisms. This certainly is a plausible explanation with regard to SV40.
Furthermore, although human viruses, including HBV and the phantom HPV, are associated with cancer, their presence alone does not prove that they, in fact, caused the cancer. Consider, for a moment, that cancer may be an intelligent adaptation by the body's cells in response to a deficient and toxic internal environment. These viruses may simply be innocent bystanders, or at worst accomplices, who find refuge in sick and weakened tissues that have been damaged by years of neglect and abuse. Rudolph Virchow, known as the Father of Pathology, stated that "[i]f I could live my life over again, I would devote it to proving that germs seek their natural habitat - diseased tissue - rather than being the cause of diseased tissue." He sums up nicely the moral of our story; a moral that I wished more people truly understood.
Resources
- "The Pink Book: Epidemiology and Prevention of Vaccine-Preventable Diseases", CDC (12th Edition, May 2012)
- "Fear of the Invisible: An Investigation of Viruses and Vaccines, HIV and AIDS", Janine Roberts (2008-9)
- "The Virus and the Vaccine: Contaminated Vaccine, Deadly Cancers, and Government Neglect", Debbie Bookchin & Jim Schumacher (2004)
- "New Evidence Demolishes Claims of Safety and Effectiveness of HPV Vaccine", Dr. Joe Mercola (Oct 16, 2012)
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