VACCINES AND THE BRAIN

Jennifer Brandon Peet, DC

Thomas D. Pound, MEd

INTRODUCTION

Our present generation of children is subjected to more than fifty vaccines before the age of seven.¹ One has to wonder what are the long-term effects on the child’s brain and ability to function in school and beyond. Documented neurological damage from commercially dictated, government-supported (or mandated) medicines and vaccines is duly reported in scientific journals. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) states the medical practitioner often underreports many vaccine complications.

BACKGROUND

Since 1988, the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program has paid nearly $2 billion to petitioners for injuries related to immunizations.² Some side effects are common, such as redness and swelling at the site of the injection, but in some cases the side effects are as great as death. CDC mandated infant vaccinations have more than tripled from 1983 to 2004. During this period, there has been an explosion in neurological disorders such as ADHD and autism, particularly in boys, who represent four out of five cases. Today most children in the United States receive at least 50 individual vaccines, many of which are grouped into one shot.

EFFECTS ON EDUCATION

This article will emphasize the impact vaccines have had on our children in regard to their scholastic achievement. This area has not been of great enough concern. Most research has concentrated on the immediate effects of immunizations and few studies have studied long-term consequences. One such study states:

"The odds of receiving EIS [special education services] were approximately nine times as great for vaccinated boys as for unvaccinated boys, after adjustment for confounders. This study found statistically significant evidence to suggest that boys in United States who were vaccinated with the triple series Hepatitis B vaccine with thimerosal, were more susceptible to developmental disability than were unvaccinated boys." ³

DECLINING SCHOLASTIC ACHIEVEMENT

In 1948, a national vaccine schedule was developed for children ages 0-6 that included immunizations for diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus, and smallpox. In 1992, when most of the 2010 college bound seniors were born, the vaccine schedule included eight vaccines.⁴ Given this, it is important to see how scholastic achievement, as determined by the composite (Verbal/Critical Reading and Math) SAT average score may be affected by the changing vaccine schedule. This SAT composite average is used as a dependent variable in a multiple regression with the number of scheduled vaccines and national wealth as independent variables. For this study, the annualized growth rate of the S&P 500 Index during the 18 year period that represents the life span of a typical college bound senior is used as the wealth indicator.

SUMMARY

The multiple regression yields a significant model showing the impact of the national wealth and the vaccine schedule on the results of the SAT. Important for this research though, is how the vaccine schedule may be impacting scholastic achievement. Based on this model, each time a vaccine is added to the schedule, the SAT scores are lowered by an average of 8.255 points for college bound seniors. Therefore, vaccines have a significant negative relationship with student achievement.

Chiropractors are dedicated to optimizing nerve supply and brain function. It is important for the members of the chiropractic profession to share this kind of information with the patient community and show the lasting impacts that vaccines may have on the young minds of our children. While this is just an initial finding, it does shed light on the possible permanent effects vaccines have on developing brains years later.

REFERENCES

1.     “2010 Child & Adolescent Immunization Schedule for Persons Aged 0 through 6 Years—United States, 2010,” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, last modified August 24, 2010, http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/recs/schedules/downloads/child/2010/10_0-6yrs-schedule-pr.pdf.

2.     “National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program,” United States Department of Health and Human Services: Health Resources and Services Administration, last modified October 12, 2010, http://www.hrsa.gov/vaccinecompensation/statistics_report.htm#post_1.

3.     Carolyn Gallagher and Melody Goodman, “Hepatitis B Triple Series Vaccine and Developmental Disability in US Children Aged 1-9 Years,” Toxicological and Environmental Chemistry 90 (September 2008): 997-1008.

4.     “History of Vaccine Schedule,” Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, last modified June 2010, http://www.chop.edu/service/vaccine-education-center/vaccine-schedule/history-of-vaccine-schedule.html

5.     “Historical Prices: S&P 500 Index,” Yahoo Finance, accessed 11/02/2010.

6.     “Digest of Education Statistics”, National Center for Education Statistics, accessed July 1, 2010, http://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/

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