Dissolving Illusions:
Disease, Vaccines, and the Forgotten History
Suzanne Humphries & Roman Bystrianyk, 2015.
This
book was meant to question, even refute the general belief that
vaccines have been the greatest factor in relieving humanity of a swath
of contagious diseases. We cannot say that Humphries and Bystrianyk
have been wholly successful in their endeavor. They have taken on a
huge task: two independent investigators attempting to pull down a wall
of what most consider to be “accepted science” in one book. Many
commentators would immediately conclude that such a stance is
discredited out of hand.
They would say, “You have no proof. You are talking out of ignorance.”
But then, these authors counter with their studied version of facts
accumulated over the generations. They also suggest that “the science”
involved in vaccinology is far from complete and convincing, correct
and pure.
The beginnings of their book cover the history of contagious diseases
in the West and early efforts to inoculate or vaccinate humans against
them. They suggest that dirty cities of past centuries were ripe for
contagion, that the worst diseases passed away largely because of clean
water, sewers, better food, and modern living conditions.
Thomas Jefferson once wrote, “Great cities are great sores.” Until the
20th century, Paris was a city of 85,000 cesspools. Many others were
similarly loaded with filth which could readily provide fodder for
contagion.
The latter pages of this book focus on the philosophy and physiology of
immunity and vaccines. They quote Garry Fathman, MD, professor of
immunology and rheumatology and associate professor of the Institute
for Immunology, Transplantation and infection, who said, “the immune
systems remains a black box … It’s staggeringly complex,
comprising at least 15 interacting cell types …”
Humphries and Bystrianyk conclude that “we can’t even be sure how to
tell when the immune system’s not working right, let alone why not,
because we don’t have good metrics of what a healthy immune system
looks like…. The more scientists learn about the immune system, the
more they realize their profound lack of understanding.”
In the midst of an unfathomable complexity, vaccinologists do know that
the immune system responds with more than just antibody. But because
markers of cell-mediated immunity are elusive, antibodies found in the
blood outside of the cells have become the measure of whether or not a
person is immune.
The writers suggest that the reliance on antibody testing is
fallacious, since “the antibody part of immunity is not at all
necessary for the natural recovery of measles” and other infectious
ills.
Simply put, vaccinology “has been hampered by an incomplete understanding of protective immunity …”
“The greatest obstacle to discovery is not ignorance –
it is the illusion of knowledge.”
Daniel Boorstin
But once vaccines came into vogue, physicians and politicians took
control. Propaganda became mixed with changing scientific facts and
public policy. “Fear sets in when risks are broadcast, people hand over
responsibility and decision making.”
Faith in vaccines became gospel and those without the faith were
denigrated. “The reality … is that vaccinology, as portrayed to the
public today, amounts to writing religion on the back of ignorance.”
The writers of this small tome move step by step through the history of
contagious ills (smallpox, measles, whooping cough, polio, etc.) and
the production of vaccines which they fostered. They share many telling
stories and data points in the likes of:
• More people died of smallpox in the 20 years after the strict
compulsory laws in the mid 1800s in the United Kingdom than in the 20
years before.
• In the late 1800s, there were outbreaks of smallpox in Bavaria in the highly vaccinated (95 percent rate).
• Likewise, there was also a high rate of mortality in highly vaccinated Prussia in the same period.
• The community of Leicester in the United Kingdom balked at
vaccination despite fines and imprisonment in the 1880s. Its overall
child mortality declined after 1885 even while vaccination plummeted.
The success of the “Leicester experiment” was never publicized.
• Technology – field drainage, flush toilets, water purification, pasteurization, etc. were the key to reducing contagions.
• “By the middle of the 20th century, except for the 1918 influenza
pandemic, death from infectious disease in Western industrialized
countries was no longer a major component of mortality statistics.”
• “It is estimated that at most 3.5 percent of the total decline in
mortality since 1900 could be ascribed to medical measures introduced
for the diseases considered here.”
The fundamental tenet of this book is that “accepted science” which has
generated public policy regarding vaccinated should be studied and
reviewed by impartial investigators. Propaganda rather than truth has
reined because fear, conflict of interest, political purposes, etc. All
these reasons suggest that vaccinators rather than vaccine deniers may
one day – however distant – be themselves discredited.
Finally, we should add that this book by different-thinking is not the
only one on the market. There hardly an abundance of such literature,
but there are a number of other texts which address the situation and
problem in various ways. We think there is room for many more until the
medical community dares to take on the subject with disinterested but
honest interest.
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