A modern understanding of the immune system turns vaccine science on its head
Vaccine science - a simplistic explanation
Vaccines, we are told, provoke an immune reaction to a weakened or dead pathogen, so, if we come in contact with the wild-type pathogen, our immune cells remember it and attack the germ right away.
This is how the WHO (World Health Organization) explains the way vaccines work:
Vaccines reduce risks of getting a disease by working with your body’s natural defenses to build protection. When you get a vaccine, your immune system responds. It:
◾ Recognizes the invading germ, such as the virus or bacteria.
◾ Produces antibodies. Antibodies are proteins produced naturally by the immune system to fight disease.
◾ Remembers the disease and how to fight it. If you are then exposed to the germ in the future, your immune system can quickly destroy it before you become unwell.
The vaccine is therefore a safe and clever way to produce an immune response in the body, without causing illness.
Our immune systems are designed to remember. Once exposed to one or more doses of a vaccine, we typically remain protected against a disease for years, decades or even a lifetime. This is what makes vaccines so effective. Rather than treating a disease after it occurs, vaccines prevent us in the first instance from getting sick.
⇒This is a very simple way of describing how vaccines interact with the immune system, but is that the whole story? Could the immune system be that simple and uncomplicated? Are vaccines fool proof?
Th1 and Th2 immune systems
The immune responses recognized over the past century, and upon which vaccinology is based, are the cell-mediated Th1 and humoral-mediated Th2 responses. When someone gets sick, germs that have entered his/her body through the nose or mouth enter the person's cells, provoking a cell-mediated or Th1 response. Th stands for T-helper. They are a type of white blood cells that recognize foreign bodies in the cells and trigger the innate immune response, as guest writer Dr. David Jockers wrote for Thyroid Nation.
Th2 cells, on the other hand, are the body's defense against foreign bodies found outside the cell. This system stimulates the production of antibodies and is called the acquired immune response. This system stimulates the production of antibodies in response to pathogens found outside the cells.
This means that the body's innate immune system will initially attack any foreign body with a non-specific (Th1) immune response. The (Th2) humoral response is more specific; it develops antibodies to attack a specific germ. It will take care of those germs that evaded the innate immune system.
Vaccines vs. natural immunity
Vaccines primarily work with the Th2 system, since the antigen and adjuvants in the vaccine are injected into your limbs, avoiding the normal pathways of illness, the nose and mouth, from where the germs would first enter the cells and encounter the innate immune system.
A healthy immune system balances itself between Th1 and Th2, Dr. Jockers explains.
In a healthy immune system, these groups of T helper cells work synergistically to balance the system. They become more active in response to any increase in pathogens or toxins but then they stabilize and reduce their cytotoxic effects once the threat is eradicated.
The key to a strong immune system is balance and coordination. The TH -1 system is classified by Killer T cells, T helper cells, and T suppressor cells. When we have too many T suppressor cells our immune system is too weak and we get colds/fevers/flu’s. When the Killers are too many or the helpers and suppressors too little we end up with a poorly coordinated immune response that damages our own tissue. This is commonly seen in autoimmune disorders.
Vaccines prevent the development of a balanced immune system
During pregnancy a mother's immune system is predominantly Th2 in order to prevent her innate immune system from recognizing the fetus as a foreign body and aborting the baby. Consequently, babies are born with an underdeveloped and unbalanced immune system that leans towards Th2. Since the vaccines also shift the immune system towards Th2, infants and children who are vaccinated do not have the opportunity to develop a balanced immune system.
At birth, an infant’s immune system is immature and relies on humoral or antibody immunity. As it encounters infectious pathogens and builds symbiotic microbial cultures it develops a robust cellular immunity. Various environmental factors such as the use of antibiotics and vaccines interfere with the development of a healthy cellular immune response. This can be the cause of a TH-2 dominance and resulting hyper-inflammatory conditions. (Emphasis added.)
Can children survive without vaccines?
BMJ science Editor Abi Berger in his science commentary "Th1 and Th2 responses: what are they?" explains that Th1 immune responses are by necessity inflammatory while Th2 are anti-inflammatory. An excess of Th2 can lead to atopy (a tendency to develop allergic diseases due to a heightened immune response allergens). He concludes with a short discussion of how an infant's immune system is skewed towards Th2, though he concludes that vaccines do not cause atopy and that the benefit of vaccines outweighs their danger, as he believes a failure to vaccinate would endanger a child's life.
The optimal scenario would therefore seem to be that humans should produce a well balanced Th1 and Th2 response, suited to the immune challenge.
. . .
Some people have suggested that immunisation programmes (and the subsequent reduction in microbiological exposure) are responsible for the increasing incidence of atopy. There is, however, no evidence that immunisation causes atopy. Moreover, this is not an argument that we should be exposing children to potentially fatal diseases again. If experiencing native diseases reduces the incidence of atopy, then the task of immunologists must be to develop vaccines that mimic the positive effects of infection. (Emphasis added.)
Studies do show that vaccines cause allergies
As we've learned from Dr. Stanley Plotkin and other doctors, as well as vaccinologists, the requisite studies have never been done to understand the adverse effects of vaccines, so the evidence for vaccines causing atopy that Berger claims doesn't exist may be because they never looked. Or perhaps, it's because they are ignoring "inconvenient" evidence — many studies confirmed that vaccines cause food and other allergies, as Rodef Shalom 613 showed.
Over 100 years ago, Nobel Laureate Charles Richet discovered that injecting a protein into animals (and humans) can promote a reaction that causes the body to become sensitive to that protein. Re-exposure to the same protein later on could result in severe allergic reactions—including anaphylaxis.”
Today we have an unprecedented, and growing, number of children (and adults) who are allergic to foods, many of whom have anaphylactic reactions. While there are many probable triggers, one of the most important may be vaccines. Vaccines contain a number of food proteins such as hydrolyzed casein and casamino acids (from dairy), bovine serum albumin (from cows), yeast protein, hydrolyzed gelatin (from cows or fish), egg protein, soy peptone broth, and more. Polysorbate 80, sorbitol, and other synthetic ingredients in vaccines may be sourced from a variety of foods including coconut, wheat, corn, and legume and nut oils. Since these proteins are injected into the bloodstream, rather than going through and processed by the digestive system, the body reacts to them as foreign materials and activates the immune system against them.
. . .
Based on the work of Richet, other scientists have determined that food proteins in vaccines can induce allergies:
◾ Wells, 1908 – Injecting as little as 50 ng of ovalbumin into guinea pigs caused sensitization. Later injections of ovalbumin resulted in an allergic reaction. Ovalbumin is an egg protein used in vaccine manufacture.
◾ 1940, Cooke et al. – Found that allergy was caused by the tetanus vaccine. [The allergen was a plant protein [such as from peanuts and soy].]
◾ 1952, Ratner – Found a significant increase in anti-ovalbumin antibodies caused by egg protein in the influenza vaccine.
◾ 1999, Nakayama et al. – Found evidence of a causal relationship between administration of the DTaP vaccine and the development of gelatin allergy. Nakayama also observed that “… gelatin content in DTaP (48-200 mcg) was sufficient to cause sensitization but not enough to cause elicitation. MMR contained enough gelatin (0.2%) to result in elicitation.
. . .
◾ 2018 – Dr. Stanley Plotkin, one of the world’s top vaccinologists admitted in a deposition hearing that injecting calf serum could create allergies to cow products. . . . All three types of the MMRV vaccine ProQuad have bovine calf serum, as does the IPV vaccine Ipol, the refrigerator stable Varivax, and both forms of Zostavax. Other vaccines contain bovine serum and fetal calf serum. (Emphases added.)
CDC - Improved hygiene, not vaccines, responsible for reduced mortality
Berger may also err in claiming that not vaccinating your child would subject them to deadly diseases. As evident from Child Health Safety's graph below, since the beginning of the 1900s, the mortality from childhood diseases declined by about 95% before most vaccines were rolled out.
Included in the list are scarlet fever and typhoid, for which there never have been any vaccines. Learn the Risk quoted the CDC which attributed the decline in these diseases to improved hygiene, not vaccines. "This report," it noted, "was written before the CDC became grossly intertwined with the pharmaceutical industry."
“The occurrence of diseases such as cholera and typhoid dropped dramatically. In 1900, the occurrence of typhoid fever in the United States was approximately 100 cases per 100,000 people. By 1920, it had decreased to 33.8 cases per 100,000 people. In 2006, it had decreased to 0.1 cases per 100,000 people (only 353 cases) with approximately 75% occurring among international travelers.
Typhoid fever decreased rapidly in cities from Baltimore to Chicago as water disinfection and treatment was instituted. This decrease in illness is credited to the implementation of drinking water disinfection and treatment, improving the quality of source water, and improvements in sanitation and hygiene.
It is because of these successes that we can celebrate over a century of public drinking water disinfection and treatment – one of the greatest public health achievements of the 20th century.”
The following graph, from Child Health Safety, is the same as above with the addition of tuberculosis, influenza and pneumonia, including the big flu spike in 1918.
The immune system — much more complex than vaccinologists recognize
The immune system, however, is more than just these two systems which vaccinologists focus on almost exclusively. But as Dr. Shiva Ayyadurai, PhD (M.I.T.) explains, in the video below, the theory of the immune system being used by vaccinologists hasn't changed much in the past 70 — 100 years. (Edited for clarity.)
The theory of the immune system that's used dates back to 1915 . . . about 100 plus years old or if you want to give them a little bit better about . . . 70 years now. . . . So before we go into really talking about what the modern immune system looks like, let's really educate you on what the concept of the immune system that's 100 to 70 years old that's being used today, so you understand . . the backward science that's being used to look at things like vaccine intervention
He demonstrates how vaccines fit into the picture and concludes with the observation that there has never has been a risk-benefit assessment done to make sure the vaccines aren't causing more harm than good, especially since vaccination is expected to create herd immunity, to vaccinate the many to protect the few with compromised immune systems or who cannot be vaccinated.
In light of the complexity and intricacy of the immune system really is, another assertion by Berger, that "the task of immunologists must be to develop vaccines that mimic the positive effects of infection," may be an impossibility.
The information contained in this article is for educational and information purposes only and is not intended as health, medical, financial or legal advice. Always consult a physician, lawyer or other qualified professional regarding any questions you may have about a medical condition, health objectives or legal or financial issues.
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