The hallmark of vaccination is that it bypasses the cell-mediated response in favor of a “mock infection,” while encouraging a disproportionate humoral response. According to an elegant new book by Dr. Thomas Cowan (Vaccines, Autoimmunity, and the Changing Nature of Childhood Illness), this “reckless” suppression of the cell-mediated response is a very bad idea: “Interfering with such a precise immune response” (the result of “millions of years of evolutionary fine-tuning”) carries with it “massive risk of unintended consequence[s]”—and those consequences are now manifesting in the form of an autoimmunity crisis. Cowan states:
“The deliberate provocation of antibodies without prior cell-mediated activity produces an imbalance in our immune system and a state of excessive antibody production. This excessive antibody production actually defines autoimmune disease. …With millions of people suffering from autoimmune disease, at a number unheard of before the introduction of mass vaccination programs, how can this connection be deemed controversial?” [Emphasis in original]
Forfeiting protections
Immunologic dysregulation—including dysfunction of the type brought about by vaccination—is associated not just with autoimmunity but also with cancer, and childhood cancers are skyrocketing. In contrast, many of the once-universal childhood illnesses were, in fact, protective against various cancers. Stated another way, acute infections, and especially those that caused fever, were historically “antagonistic to cancer.” For example:
Naturally acquired mumps engendered immunity to ovarian cancer through antibodies against a cancer-associated antigen.
Individuals who experienced fever-inducing infectious illnesses in childhood (such as rubella and chickenpox) had a lower risk of non-breast cancers, including melanoma and ovarian cancer.
Acute childhood infections protected against Hodgkin’s lymphoma, and measles, in particular, protected against non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.
…children who successfully go through measles…have less heart disease, arthritis, allergies, autoimmune diseases, and overall better health than those who never get measles.
Frenzied media stories about “measles outbreaks” notwithstanding, there are multiple reasons to view natural measles infection in childhood as beneficial. As summarized in Cowan’s book, “children who successfully go through measles…have less heart disease, arthritis, allergies, autoimmune diseases, and overall better health than those who never get measles.” Children’s Health Defense has noted previously how the benefits of measles used to be taken for granted—until, says Cowan, the vaccine came along “and changed the way we think about measles.”
Ironically, viruses’ potential to serve as “possible agents of tumor destruction” attracted interest as long as a century ago, when clinical experiences showed that, “given the right set of conditions, cancers would sometimes regress during naturally acquired virus infections.” In the current era, the use of viruses as an anti-cancer treatment has morphed into the “respectable field” of oncolytic virotherapy, even leading to clinical trials—and “measles virus still represents a highly interesting candidate for such an approach.”
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