|
Association of American Physicians and Surgeons, Inc.
1601 N. Tucson Blvd. Suite 9
Tucson, AZ 85716-3450
Phone: (800) 635-1196 Hotline: (800) 419-4777
A Voice for Private Physicians Since 1943
Omnia pro aegroto
AAPS RESOLUTION CONCERNING MANDATORY VACCINES
"Ethical Medicine" AAPS Annual Meeting October 25 - 28, 2000 St. Louis, MO Submitted for Member approval:
WHEREAS: The statement of Patients' Freedoms adopted by the Assembly at the 47th annual meeting of AAPS in 1990 provides that "Patients have the freedom to refuse medical treatment even if it is recommended by their physician
and to be informed about their medical condition, the risks and benefits of treatment, and appropriate alternatives"; and
WHEREAS: There are increasing numbers of mandatory childhood vaccines, to which children are often subjected without meaningful informed consent, including information about potential adverse side effects; and
WHEREAS: Parents who exercise their freedom to refuse one or more vaccines may be subjected to penalties ranging from deprivation of the right to enroll their child in school, to threats of removing the child from parental custody and forcible vaccination; and
WHEREAS: Safety testing of many vaccines is limited and the data are unavailable for independent scrutiny, so that mass vaccination is equivalent to human experimentation and subject to the Nuremberg Code, which requires voluntary informed consent; and
WHEREAS: The process of approving and "recommending" vaccines is tainted with conflicts of interest;
BE IT THEREFORE RESOLVED: That AAPS calls for a moratorium on vaccine mandates and for physicians to insist upon truly informed consent for the use of vaccines.
FACT SHEET ON MANDATORY VACCINES
AAPS does not oppose vaccines. AAPS has never taken an anti-vaccine position, although opponents have tried to paint that picture. AAPS has only attempted to halt government or school districts from blanket vaccine mandates that violate parental informed consent.
42 states have mandatory vaccine policies, and many children are required 22 shots by first grade.
According to government statistics, children under the age of 14 are three times more likely to suffer adverse effects -- including death --following the hepatitis B vaccine than to catch the disease itself.
The Centers for Disease Control admits that the reported number of adverse effects of vaccines is probably only 10% of actual adverse effects.
The Physician's Desk Reference cites adverse reactions to the hepatitis B in less than 1 percent. However, if more than 70 million American children receive the vaccine, that means more than 700,000 children are likely to
suffer adverse reactions.
Children are a very low risk group for hepatitis B. Primary risk factors are dependent on lifestyle, i.e. multiple sex partners, drug abuse or an occupation with exposure to blood.
Rampant conflicts of interest in the approval process has been the subject of several Congressional hearings, and a recent Congressional report concluded that the pharmaceutical industry has indeed exerted undue influence on mandatory vaccine legislation toward its own financial interests.
The vaccine approval process has also been contaminated by flawed or incomplete clinical trials, and government officials have chosen to ignore negative results. For example, the CDC was forced to withdraw its recommendation of the rotavirus vaccine within one year of approval. Yet
public documents obtained by AAPS show that the CDC was aware of alarmingly high intussuception rates months before the vaccine was approved and recommended.
Mandatory vaccines violate the medical ethic of informed consent. A case
could also be made that mandates for vaccines by school districts and legislatures is the de facto practice of medicine without a license.
The CDC's own "Guide to Contraindications to Childhood Vaccination" warns that when assessing children's common symptoms, "if any one of them is a
contraindication, DO NOT VACCINATE" [caps added]. And yet, under legislated mandates, the vaccines are still required.
|
|
