by Brian Shilhavy

Editor, Health Impact News

The Guardian is reporting that health officials in Pakistan are arresting and throwing into jail hundreds of parents who refuse to allow their children to receive the oral polio vaccine. These health officials are forcing children to receive the vaccine at gunpoint, as can be seen in the photo captured by AP photographer Mohammad Sadjad.

The Guardian reports:

Feroz Shah, a spokesman for the district administration in Peshawar, said 471 people had been imprisoned in the city and surrounding villages under government orders on charges of endangering public security. Parents targeted by police were not arrested if they agreed to vaccinate their children, said Shakirullah Khan, a senior police officer in Peshawar. Authorities have previously made scattered arrests for polio refusals, but such a widespread crackdown is rare. “This is the first time such drastic action was taken,” Shah said. “This shows the determination of the government to eradicate polio.”

Just to emphasize the point here, these are parents of children who are being rounded up and thrown into jail in Pakistan. Not terrorists, not murders, not thieves, but parents who do not want their children to receive the polio vaccine.

As can be seen in the photo above, the oral polio vaccine is being given right on the street, and not in a clinic. How many times were these children forced to receive this vaccine? How would the health worker even know the vaccine history of these children? Do they have pre-existing conditions that would make the vaccine a risk to harm them?

It would seem such basic health questions could not be answered when the order is to vaccinate every child by force right on the street, with no objections allowed.

Is There a Polio “Epidemic” in Pakistan?

Last year (2014) polio made headline news because the World Health Organization (WHO) declared it was now an “epidemic” in certain parts of the world, and Pakistan was claimed to be an area especially hard hit. As usual, “anti-vaccine parents” were blamed for this world-wide “epidemic.”

So how bad was this polio “epidemic” that WHO declared in 2014? In May of 2014, when they made the announcement which was carried as headline news in most U.S. mainstream media outlets, there had been 74 cases – in the ENTIRE WORLD. 59 of those cases were in Pakistan at the time. Today, as of Feb. 25, 2015, there have been 10 cases so far worldwide, but 9 of those are in Pakistan. I could find no cases of any deaths worldwide due to polio in recent years.

Is this an “epidmec” of gloal proportions? Is this justification for authorities to roam the streets in Pakistan and force people by gunpoint to receive the vaccine, and throw hundreds of parents into jail if they don’t comply? The measles “epidemic” in the United States pales by comparison in terms of absurdity in using such fear tactics to justify forced vaccinations. One must ask: Who is actually profiting from this?

UNICEF, which partners with WHO for global vaccine purchases and distribution, is one of the largest purchasers of vaccines for worldwide distribution. In 2013, for example, they purchased 1.7 billion doses of the live oral polio vaccine to administer to children under the age of 5.

The Oral Polio Vaccine is Banned in Western Countries Due to Dangerous Side Effects

The oral polio vaccine is so dangerous that it is no longer used in developed countries like the U.S. But, it is mandated, purchased, and distributed in poor countries.

The real tragedy with the live oral polio vaccines is that they can cause the very thing they are supposed to be preventing: polio. Both “vaccine-associated paralytic poliomyelitis” and “non-polio acute flaccid paralysis” are known side effects of the live oral polio vaccine. It sheds the virus from the vaccine through feces and into sewers and sanitation systems. India recently achieved its “polio-free” status, but at the cost of tens of thousands of non-polio acute flaccid paralysis cases each year (see: The Vaccine Myth of “Polio-free” Status – Polio Vaccine Caused 53,000 Paralysis Victims in India Last Year.)

Doctors and researchers who understand the dangers and risks of the oral polio vaccine (OPV) have been calling for an end to this terrible vaccine for years now. An editorial appeared in the Oxford Journals Clinical Infectious Diseases periodical in 2005 titled, “When Can We Stop Using Oral Poliovirus Vaccine?” It was written by Dr. Harry F. Hull of the Minnesota Department of Health, and Dr. Philip D. Minor of the Division of Virology, National Institute for Biological Standards and Control, in the United Kingdom. They requested that the oral polio vaccine be stopped:

Why must OPV vaccination be stopped? Vaccine-associated paralytic poliomyelitis was recognized shortly after the introduction of OPV, with cases occurring in both vaccines and their contacts. The time is coming when the only cause of polio is likely to be the vaccine used to prevent it. Ample molecular data are now available to demonstrate that vaccine viruses can revert to full neurovirulence. Outbreaks of polio in China, Egypt, Haiti, Madagascar, and the Philippines caused by circulating, neurovirulent vaccine-derived polioviruses (VDPVs) demonstrate that these revertent strains are fully transmissible and pose significant population risks. (Source.)

Again, in 2009, an editorial was published in the Oxford Journals Clinical Infectious Diseases periodical titled, “Time for a Worldwide Shift from Oral Polio Vaccine to Inactivated Polio Vaccine“, by Dr Aamir Shahzad of the Department of Structural Biology and Biomolecular Chemistry at the University of Vienna. He wrote:

OPV has lost its effectiveness in providing herd immunity. It seems that children are getting polio from OPV, and it also seems that OPV is proving to be ineffective in stopping polio transmission from another source. Therefore, the whole world—and especially developing countries—should shift from OPV to IPV. (Source.)

Who are the Vaccine Dissenters in Pakistan?

The pro-pharma western media in places like the U.S. like to paint vaccine-dissenters in places like Pakistan as ignorant, poor people who need to be forced into a vaccination program against their will for the “greater good” of society. However, is this actually true? Just as is the case in the U.S., researchers and health professionals are not unified in their views on vaccination policies.

Karim Khan is a freelance journalist in Pakistan who has written about the sentiment towards western pharmaceutical companies and the World Health Organization in regards to mass vaccination programs. Writing in the Express Tribune last year, one of Pakistan’s leading English language publications, he wrote:

Is it the ignorance regarding both the disease and the science of the medicine that worries critical thinkers? Yes, but more so it is the lack of freedom of questioning in a country that has effectively given itself to a form of slavery by so-called non-profit international organisations that earn millions from vaccination campaigns. The recent imposition of travel restrictions on Pakistanis as “recommended” by the World Health Organisation (WHO) are more than proof of such slavery. Worse though is the one-sided media reporting that uses language as a tool to shape voice of dissent as “propaganda” by running headlines with terms like “anti-polio” campaigns when the questions raised are in fact directed at the safety of the vaccine claimed to be effective against polio. The important question is: are parents made aware of the risks significantly early to let them make an informed decision on vaccinating their child? (Source: Polio vaccine: Is it really as safe as it is claimed to be?)

What is the Future of Mandatory Vaccinations in the U.S.?

Could we see armed health officials roaming the streets of cities in the U.S. forcing children to be vaccinated against the wishes of their parents at gunpoint?

The rationale and the legal framework for such actions is actually already in place to do just that. As we reported last month (February 2015), the Department of Homeland Security is quietly stockpiling billions of dollars worth of experimental vaccines to presumably use in the case of a “national emergency.” The U.S. government has broad powers granted to them to force people to receive these vaccines by declaring an “epidemic” or “national emergency.” (See: Homeland Security Stockpiling Billions of Dollars of Experimental Vaccines.)

All across the U.S. local state legislators and health officials are moving to take away the right to informed consent regarding vaccines for children. It Americans don’t wake up soon, whether you are pro-vaccine or anti-vaccine, and stop this rush to take away individual rights and liberties, it may not be long before the photo you see at the top of this story represents what is happening in the streets of America, with thousands of parents being arrested and thrown into jail for refusing to comply with mass vaccination programs.

The National Vaccine Information Center has an Advocacy Portal to help you keep updated on proposed legislation in your state attempting to take away your freedom to chose medical procedures like vaccines.

Sign up for alerts from NVIC Advocacy Portal for your state!

Read this article and comment at VaccineImpact.com

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