vaccination

"I have expressed my opinion publicly as to the precautions against the spread of so-called infectious and contagious diseases in the following words: Rather than quarrel over vaccination, I recommend, if the law demand, that an individual submit to this process, that he obey the law, and then appeal to the gospel to save him from bad physical results. Whatever changes come to this century or to any epoch, we may safely submit to the providence of God, to common justice, to the maintenance of individual rights, and to governmental usages. This statement should be so interpreted as to apply, on the basis of Christian Science, to the reporting of a contagious case to the proper authorities when the law so requires. When Jesus was questioned concerning obedience to human law, he replied: 'Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's,' even while you render 'to God the things that are God's."

"I say, 'Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's.' We cannot force perfection on the world. Were vaccination of any avail, I should tremble for mankind; but, knowing it is not, and that the fear of catching smallpox is more dangerous than any material infection, I say: Where vaccination is compulsory, let your children be vaccinated, and see that your mind is in such a state that by your prayers vaccination will do the children no harm. So long as Christian Scientists obey the laws, I do not suppose their mental reservations will be thought to matter much. But every thought tells, and Christian Science will overthrow false knowledge in the end."

"The MMR vaccine has been linked to autism, Crohn's disease, inflammatory bowel disease and other serious chronic stomach problems, epilepsy, brain damage including meningitis, cerebral palsy, pancreatitis and diabetes mellitus, encephalopathy, encephalitis, hearing and vision problems, arthritis, behavioural and learning problems, chronic fatigue syndrome, diabetes, Guillain-Barre syndrome, idiopathic thrombocytopaenic purpura, subacute sclerosing panencephalitis (SSPE), leukaemia, multiple sclerosis, and death."

"The process of vaccination consists in injecting into the skin the liquid that is obtained by applying the discharge from the body of a small-pox patient to the udder of a cow… Vaccination is a barbarous practice, and it is one of the most fatal of all the delusions current in our time, not to be found even among the so-called savage races of the world. Its supporters are not content with its adoption by those who have no objection to it, but seek to impose it with the aid of penal laws and rigorous punishments on all people alike. ..."

"I cannot also help feeling that vaccination is a violation of the dictates of religion and morality. [Pg 108]The drinking of the blood of even dead animals is looked upon with horror even by habitual meat-eaters. Yet, what is vaccination but the taking in of the poisoned blood of an innocent living animal? Better far were it for God-fearing men that they should a thousand times become the victims of small-pox and even die a terrible death than that they should be guilty of such an act of sacrilege."

"I have no doubt in my mind that vaccination is a filthy process, that it is harmful in the end and that it is little short of taking beef."

"Compared to those who are unvaccinated, the mortality rate is 5X higher if you get vaccinated twice. The purpose of receiving vaccination is indeed to reduce the mortality rate, but ironically, the rate was five times higher after receiving the vaccine."

"I don't trust the vaccine. The whites don't like us. They want to kill us with vaccines in which they have slipped in illegal products."

"Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) has developed as one of the major urgent threats to public health causing serious issues to successful prevention and treatment of persistent diseases. In spite of different actions taken in recent decades to tackle this issue, the trends of global AMR demonstrate no signs of slowing down. Misusing and overusing different antibacterial agents in the health care setting as well as in the agricultural industry are considered the major reasons behind the emergence of antimicrobial resistance. In addition, the spontaneous evolution, mutation of bacteria, and passing the resistant genes through horizontal gene transfer are significant contributors to antimicrobial resistance. Many studies have demonstrated the disastrous financial consequences of AMR including extremely high healthcare costs due to an increase in hospital admissions and drug usage."

"Let's avoid those unnecessary antibiotics. Let's not feed the antimicrobial-resistance demon."

"The cost of antimicrobial resistance is immense, both economically as well as for human health and lives. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has released a new report (Stemming the superbug tide, 7 Nov 2018), which predicts that 2.4 million people in Europe, North America and Australia will die from infections with resistant microorganisms in the next 30 years and could cost up to US$3.5 billion per year. Southern European countries are predicted to have the highest mortality rate due to resistant infections among countries included in the study. Furthermore, many low and middle-income countries already have high resistance rates, which are predicted to increase disproportionately. For example, in Brazil, Indonesia and Russia 40–60% of infections are already caused by resistant microorganisms, and resistance is predicted to rise 4–7 times faster in these countries than in other OECD countries."

"The development of antibiotics is considered among the most important advances of modern science. Antibiotics have saved millions of lives. However, antimicrobial resistance (AMR) threatens this progress and presents significant risks to human health. ... The increase in AMR has been driven by a diverse set of factors, including inappropriate antibiotic prescribing and sales, use of antibiotics outside of the health care sector, and genetic factors intrinsic to bacteria. The problem has been exacerbated by inadequate economic incentives for pharmaceutical development of new antimicrobial agents. A range of specific AMR concerns, including carbapenem- and colistin-resistant gram-negative organisms, pose a clinical challenge. Alternative approaches to address the AMR threat include new methods of antibacterial drug identification and strategies that neutralize virulence factors."

"Despite our modern arsenal of antibiotics, of viral and bacterial vaccines, of antiviral drugs, advanced intensive care treatment, and nonpharmaceutical interventions, we are still doing a poor job of preventing influenza deaths. The most important lesson from the devastation of the 1918 pandemic may be the need to produce better antiviral drugs and prophylactic and therapeutic monoclonal antibody therapies. We need effective vaccines against multiple bacterial pneumopathogens, especially S. aureus and S. pyogenes, and effective broadly protective “universal” influenza vaccines to prevent, or at least mitigate the impact of, future pandemics and to prevent deaths from seasonal influenza in the periods in between pandemics. Vaccines that could confer long-term broad immune responses against all influenza viruses, and especially against viruses with the most pathogenic HAs found in nature, would greatly enhance public health preparedness."

"Production capacity is another limitation to deployment of pandemic influenza vaccine. Current global capacity for pandemic influenza vaccine production is less than 3 billion doses per year, far short of the 7 billion doses that would be needed for universal coverage. To address some of these problems with egg-based vaccine production, some pharmaceutical companies are attempting to eliminate eggs from the process altogether. Novartis produces influenza vaccine from virus cultivated in cells derived from canine kidney cells (see the FDA information on this vaccine). Protein Sciences Corporation produces influenza vaccine using recombinant DNA technology and an insect virus system (see the FDA information). Other companies are developing influenza vaccine produced from different types of cell lines. Given that it takes roughly the same amount of time for influenza virus to replicate in eggs and in cell culture, shifting to cell culture will not necessarily speed up this phase of production. However, using cell culture technology will eliminate the lead time necessary to secure fertilized eggs for vaccine production and will reduce some of the variables related to the quantity of vaccine virus achieved with eggs. Additionally, egg-based influenza vaccine production requires a step in which the influenza virus is altered so that it reproduces well in eggs. If cell-based manufacturers can skip that step, they can begin vaccine production 4-6 weeks earlier than egg-based manufacturers."

"Other approaches to accelerating influenza vaccine production involve use of what are referred to as dose-sparing technologies. These are innovations that allow less antigen to be used for each vaccine dose, without compromising immunogenicity or safety. Dose-sparing technologies have the potential to markedly increase vaccine production potential in a pandemic. Adjuvants (compounds that enhance the immune response to a vaccine and therefore reduce the amount of vaccine virus required for each dose) are one such technology. The most commonly used adjuvant today is an aluminum compound found in many childhood vaccines, but which is not used in influenza vaccine. Oil-in-water emulsion adjuvants show the greatest advancement and promise in terms of dose sparing for influenza vaccines. Other potential technologies might involve self-adjuvanting recombinant or molecular vaccines that have built-in antigen-sparing properties. Other promising candidates and technologies may emerge that lead to development of a universal influenza vaccine, which is the ultimate goal for many influenza vaccine programs. Such a vaccine might need to be given only once, rather than every year as with current seasonal vaccines. Such a universal vaccine would ideally provide protection against all, or at least most, of the many strains of influenza capable of making people sick, including future pandemic influenzas. Plant-produced influenza vaccines are in clinical trials and may prove to be a useful alternative to egg- and cell-based vaccines."

"Many challenges remain to improving influenza vaccines. Current seasonal influenza vaccines, at best, are only moderately effective in preventing illness and often have low effectiveness. Greater monitoring of vaccine effectiveness is needed to better inform incremental improvements in current influenza vaccines. A more broadly protective and longer-lasting (i.e., “universal”) vaccine could decrease the current need for frequent formulation change and improve prevention of influenza worldwide, especially in low-resource and middle-income countries. Rapid development of vaccine candidates, accelerated clinical trials, and reducing the time required to formulate and distribute pandemic vaccine can reduce pandemic morbidity and deaths. Therefore, reducing the current pandemic influenza vaccine availability timeframe from 20 to 12 weeks is a key priority in the 2017 Update of the Health and Human Services Pandemic Influenza Plan."

"In the last 100 years, numerous vaccines have become available for influenza prevention. In the United States, national vaccine policy recommends influenza vaccination annually for everyone older than age 6 months. There are multiple types of vaccine that use different inactivated, live-attenuated, and egg-free formulations. Recent efforts through WHO’s Global Action Plan for Influenza Vaccines and the Pandemic Influenza Preparedness framework supported efforts to increase vaccine manufacturing and laboratory capacity for identifying viruses for use in vaccines. The global pandemic influenza vaccine production capacity in 2015 was estimated to be 6.4 billion doses—a record level, but not enough to provide the potential need for 2 doses for even half the world’s population. The current timeline for vaccine production also limits the usefulness of pandemic vaccine, as reflected in 2009, when the bulk of pandemic vaccine was not available until after the peak of the pandemic. However, increased use of new vaccine formulations that do not rely on growing viruses in eggs, such as cell-based vaccine and recombinant protein vaccine, will reduce the time required for vaccine manufacturing. In addition, further expansion of seasonal influenza vaccine manufacturing capacity worldwide, and continued increases in use of vaccine, will facilitate pandemic vaccine production and global access to pandemic vaccines."

"Recent pandemics illustrate another problem that must be faced with an impending pandemic. The time between recognition of the emergence of a new pandemic virus and the occurrence of the first wave may be short. The lead time for the production and distribution of the currently licensed influenza vaccine, trivalent influenza vaccine is 6 months. It is highly unlikely that sufficient vaccine can be produced, distributed and administered to the entire population before the first wave of the pandemic. In 1918 and 1957, the first wave of the pandemic peaked in late October allowing less time than usually occurs before the onset of interpandemic outbreaks, in the usual sequence of vaccine production starting in January."

"The use of licensed inactivated trivalent influenza vaccine is increasing, but even if all high risk persons currently given priority for this vaccine should be vaccinated each year, influenza epidemics would continue to occur."

"In the case of an influenza pandemic, existing vaccines would likely be ineffective against a radically new strain. Developing and globally distributing a new pandemic influenza vaccine will likely take 4-6 months (4 months to produce first doses of vaccine, and 6 months to produce enough to give to a large number of people), even while mathematical models demonstrate that pandemic influenza could spread globally within 6 months. Another complicating factor to pandemic influenza vaccine production involves how the vaccine is made. Since the 1940s, seasonal and pandemic influenza vaccines have been produced in chicken eggs. The virus is introduced in the allantoic fluid of the fertilized egg (this is the fluid that bathes the embryo and yolk sac), and it replicates in the membrane surround the fluid. After about three days, the virus-containing fluid is harvested from each egg, and the rest of the manufacturing process proceeds. Dependence on egg-based vaccine production is, however, problematic even with non-pandemic seasonal influenza vaccine. First, eggs must be available in large quantities when vaccine production is to begin. Any disruption in egg supply – such as disease affecting chickens, or bad weather interfering with the shipping of eggs – can mean a delay in vaccine production. Second, some influenza strains grow more slowly or less robustly than others, which can result in delays or in lower yields of vaccine virus from each egg. Third, it is possible that some viral vaccine strains, given the origin of some influenza viruses in birds, may be toxic to eggs. In that case, egg-based influenza vaccine production methods would be useless."

"Two doses of the measles vaccine are recommended and roughly 95 per cent of the population needs to be vaccinated to ensure immunity and prevent outbreaks, according to the World Health Organization. In DRC, measles immunization coverage was only 57 per cent in 2018."

"It is a race against time to deliver the vaccine before it overheats in the equatorial sun. Nine hours later, and shortly after sundown, the team arrives with their precious cargo in Boso Manzi, the nearest town to Macau. The fleet of motorcycle drivers wearily unload cool-boxes into MSF’s temporary warehouse – a white tent lined with refrigerators powered by a series of generators. After checking the 2,900 vials are intact, the temperate log for each cool-box is plugged into a computer. Seconds later, a graph appears, showing every change in temperature since leaving the manufacturer’s warehouse in India. This is just the first phase of a herculean effort. Over the next 10 days, the vials will be loaded back onto the motorbikes and transported to villages such as Macau, and deeper into the forest, to reach children missed in previous vaccination efforts. After overcoming logistical challenges in reaching remote communities in the DRC, the cost per vaccine increases five-fold, according to Sodjinou."

"The delivery of measles vaccine in endemic areas must contend with a biological catch-22. From birth to about nine months of age, most infants have maternal antibodies that protect them from measles infection. But these antibodies also prevent the measles vaccine from conferring lifelong immunity. Those children whose maternal immunity wears off early are at risk of infection at an age when measles infection can be most severe. Thus, health systems in endemic regions, like the DRC, employ a first dose at a relatively early age (nine months) to immunise these vulnerable children. Later they provide a second dose to catch those for whom the first dose didn’t provide protection."

"Outbreaks of new viruses, such as the Wuhan Coronavirus, are a constant reminder of the need to invest in research in emerging virus biology and evolution, how they infect and interact with human cells, and ultimately, to identify safe and effective drugs to treat – or vaccines to prevent – serious disease."

"Edward R. Murrow: Who owns the patent on this vaccine? Jonas Salk: Well, the people, I would say. There is no patent. Could you patent the sun?"

"Look, you have some vaccines that are so amazing, the polio vaccine I happen to think is amazing. A lot of people think that Covid is amazing. You know there are many people that believe strongly in that. But you have some vaccines that are so incredible, and I think you have to be very careful when you say that some people don't have to be vaccinated. It's a very, you know, it's a very tough position, so I'll give you an answer. I'll give you the feeling, but just initially I heard about it yesterday and it's a tough stance. Look, you have vaccines that work. They just pure and simple work. They're not controversial at all, and I think those vaccine should be used. Otherwise some people are going to catch it and they endanger other people, and when you don’t have controversy at all, I think people should take it."

"Vaccines not only protect individual children from measles, but also contribute to community immunity, protecting those who are unable to be vaccinated due to medical reasons."

"It is courage based on confidence, not daring, and it is confidence based on experience."