May 5, 2008
Last week, CDC officials sent out a press release about significance of 64 cases of measles reported during the past four months in contrast to the 37 to 508 cases of measles reported annually between 1996 and 2006 in the U.S.. One-quarter (14) of the 64 children and adults who got measles in the past four months were hospitalized but there were no deaths.
A CDC press release and Fact Sheet revealed that nearly half of the 64 measles cases occurred in those too young to be vaccinated or whose vaccination status was not known. Only one fifth (14) of the cases were American children whose parents claimed a religious or personal belief exemption. This fact didn't stop CDC from trying to blame the measles "outbreaks" on the exemption-takers by stating "These cases and outbreaks resulted primarily from failure to vaccinate, many because of religious or personal belief exemption." In addition, the CDC made the following undocumented statement: "Before the measles vaccination program, about 3- 4 million persons in the U.S. were infected each year, of whom 400 to 500 died, 48,000 were hospitalized, and another 1,000 developed chronic disability from measles encephalitis." A quick look at the MMWR historical tables shows that the highest number of measles cases reported since 1945 in the U.S. was 763,094 cases reported in 1958. CDC, CDC officals, CDC press releases, etc are not allowed, under the provisions of the IQA, to give information to the American Public, the American media, etc, that does not have a scientific basis in reality. IT IS ILLEGAL. Fabricating numbers, misrepresenting statisitcs, or any prevarication done is a violation of the IQA or Data Quality Act. This type of pervarication has become endemic at the CDC when making pronouncements about infectious disease and in promoting vaccine policy. No exaggereated, fabricated or unsubstaniated misrepresentation seems to be too outlandish.
I am a pediatrician and vaccine disinformation affects me directly.
Kenneth Stoller
International Hyperbaric Medical Association