Vaccine conspiracies: Bahh. yet

I have worked in poor areas of the USA and overseas, and I tear my hair out when I see upper middle class celbrities etc. decry vaccines and have their stuff picked up by conspiracy sites, by "major" newspapers who report the controvery, and then by ignorant Mullahs (or sometimes bishops) who persuade people to avoid vaccines.

Attention: Measles kills. Whooping cough Kills. Polio cripples. Tetanus kills.

I've seen these things, and not just in the USA.

A lot of this is people needing a scapegoat for their child's autism etc. I always wonder how there are huge outcries against vaccines when much of the "epidemic" seems to be a change in the diagnostic criteria (and also that kids who 40 years ago would have been labled "retarded" and put into institutions, and parents went on to have more kids, and were assured the child was better off with "experts".

But now they are left at home for their parents to try to cope... in a society where extended families are non existant and where financially both parents are forced to work to keep in a middle class lifestyle...bearing the high cost of medical care, the loss of money from a job, and the inability to care for the other kids in the family...often parents divorce since often the stress of the child means that parents fight, blame each other subconsciously, and divorce).

So modern"bioethicists" insist it is better for the parents and the family just to kill the kids to avoid these terrible problems.

Ah, but another way to cope is to blame someone else.

I just read The Litigators, (audiobook link here) about a class action lawsuit and the legal shennaingans around it. It was probably fake (some problems but not the death pill claimed by the lawyers)...

but a subplot was about a child left brain damaged from lead in a toy. A toy manufactured in China. A toy subcontracted by an ethical firm that didn't know some corrupt manufacterer in China was cutting cost by using lead paint on a toy. In the book, the toy manufacter took responsibility and gave a huge settlement without fighting.

So was this based on reality?

2011 article in the NYDN:

Toxic lead replaced by even more toxic cadmium in children's toys, trinkets

Now that lead has been banned from children’s products, some Chinese manufacturers have been substituting the even more dangerous heavy metal cadmium, especially in costume jewelry, an Associated Press investigation reveals.

Cadmium is a known carcinogen that, like lead, can delay brain development in young children, leading to learning disabilities. Research also shows that long-term exposure can cause cancer and kidney problems.

but there were no cadmium standards in 2011 so Walmart pled they followed the letter of the law in selling such things.

In a written statement, Wal-Mart insists that it makes safety a priority. "We consistently seek to sell only those products that meet safety and regulatory standards," Wal-Mart states. "Currently there is no required cadmium standard for children's jewelry."

so is this still true in 2016?

This 2015 article from the Environmental working group webpage  notes the law hasn't been updated since 1976, and has denied consumer petitions to update standards in testing cadmium in toys and children's jewelry.

The dirty little secret is that it is not only big business avoiding regulations, but that much of the US manufacturing is now done overseas, where there is less oversite, and in places like China (and to a lesser extent India) where you can get away with it if you bribe the right people or if the regulator is a family member.

NaturalNews article 2013 about "organic food" from China...even if the farmers follow the law ..that irrigates using contaminated water.

we grow organic brown rice.

The bad news: brown rice concentrates some heavy metals. NYT article here.

most are small and not dangerous. Polished rice is healthier this way but has lost it's fiber and B vitamins.

Arsenic can come from ground water (especially deep wells: The use of clean deep well water in Bengladesh has cut deaths from dystentary but now they have an epidmic of arsenic).

But we are probably safe from pollution, being upstream from Manila...but what about all those newfangled mercury containing light bulbs thrown out carelessly here? or other toxins from the city dump upstream from our farm?


(note: Here we pretty well went broke following the law because we competed with rice growers who did use chemicals and pesticides when the regulator wasn't around.).

so anyway: Lack of environmental regulations not only hurt people but hurt those who try to follow the rules (how many US factories went under competing with substandard manufactured stuff from China? )

ah, but getting back to vaccine conspiracies:

Guess what: There is a major vaccine problem in China.

Via Weibo (the Chinese equivalent to twitter/facebook).

The Shandong State Food and Drug Administration is investigating the illegal distribution of vaccines, including those for hepatitis B and rabies, by nine different pharmaceutical companies. As authorities are checking where the vaccines have been sold, media are reporting they have been sold in a total of 24 different places, including municipalities and provinces all over China such as Beijing, Sichuan, Shandong, Shanxi, Hunan, Xinjiang etc.
This is original, researched content by What's on Weibo. You are free to link to this article. Please identify this website or author when you base content on this source or quote from it. Do not reproduce our content without permission – you can contact us at info@whatsonweibo.com, we’re happy to hear from you. Copyright (C) http://www.whatsonweibo.com. Read more at: http://www.whatsonweibo.com/vaccine-scandal-illegal/

a longer article on ChinaDaily:

A mother and daughter from Shandong province have allegedly sold vaccines worth 570 million yuan ($88 million) illegally since 2010 in China, posing severe health risks to users, police said on Friday.
It is believed to be the largest case of its kind in China in terms of the amount of money involved, according to media reports.
The police in Jinan, the provincial capital, confirmed an earlier report by the Paper, a Chinese news organization based in Shanghai, that the two suspects allegedly sold vaccines that were not properly refrigerated, as required by national standards, in 18 provinces and regions across the country.

and here is the kicker:

The fact that they are suspected of doing it for so long exposes flaws in the supervision system of the country’s vaccine industry, he said.

ya think?

ah, but the WHO lauds the entrance of China in to the world vaccine marketplace  (2014)at the same time that "counterfeit" and substandard drugs (mainly from China and India) are killing millions.

the article notes that it is not just manufacturing that has to be careful: You also have to store and ship the vaccines so they don't get hot and lose their ability to work.

and for those following the paper trail of donations to the CLinton foundation being used to get influence with the US Gov't, this is nor comforting:

The Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI) has been working with Chinese suppliers to support their applications for WHO prequalification for several vaccine candidates for the last two years, says Joshua Chu, CHAI’s Director, Vaccines Markets.The initiative also works with donors and other agencies to implement innovative market-based mechanisms, such as long-term volume guarantees, to make donor funds go further when purchasing vaccines. So far it has established volume guarantees with vaccine manufacturers in India and with other developing countries for other health products.

then there is this "Whoops":CZ magazine article that mentions the heptatis vaccine deaths.

and laments the meme: But they will be cheap! We Need Cheap!

So the conspiracy vaccine conspiracies will notice:

not just the mullahs or bishops but those in the USA:

this vaccine scandal was carelessness in storing and shipping.

But what about carelessness in manufacturing?

Or outright fraud, as in the heparin or melamine baby milk scandals, where regulation was in place and being done correctly, but the manufacturer figured out a cheaper way to make the stuff that woudn't be detected by ordinary regulatory testing.

Sigh.
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Shanghai daily reports: China is going to fix the loopholes that let these ladies in business.

Lots of other suspects involved.