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Doctors' Group Votes To Oppose Vaccine Mandates
Nov. 2, 2000
Contact: Kathryn Serkes (202) 333-3855
DOCTORS' GROUP VOTES TO OPPOSE VACCINE MANDATES
A leading national physician organization is calling for a moratorium on all government mandated
vaccines and has passed a resolution to that end at their annual meeting.
Members of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS) voted this week at their 57th
Annual Meeting in St. Louis to pass a resolution calling for an end to mandatory childhood vaccines.
The resolution passed without a single "no" vote. (Resolution and mandatory vaccine fact
sheet posted at www.aapsonline.org)
"Our children face the possibility of death or serious long-term adverse effects from mandated
vaccines that aren't necessary or that have very limited benefits," said Jane M. Orient, MD,
AAPS Executive Director.
"This is not a vote against vaccines," said Dr. Orient. "This resolution only
attempts to halt blanket vaccine mandates by government agencies and school districts that give no
consideration for the rights of the parents or the individual medical condition of the child."
Forty-two states have mandatory vaccine policies, and many children are required to have 22 shots
before first grade. On top of that, as a condition for school attendance, many school districts
require vaccination for diseases such as hepatitis B -- primarily an adult disease, usually spread
by multiple sex partners, drug abuse or an occupation with exposure to blood.
And yet, 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.
Just last week, students in Utica, NY were sent home from school, and told they could not return
until they had been forced to receive hep B vaccinations. Further, parents were threatened by Child
Protective Services with possible seizure of their children based on "education neglect."
"It's obscene to threaten to seize a child just because his parents refuse medical treatment
that is obviously unnecessary and perhaps even dangerous," said Dr. Orient. "AAPS believes
that parents, with the advice of their doctors, should make decisions about their children's medical
care -- not government bureaucrats. This Resolution affirms that position."
(Note: AAPS is a professional association of physicians dedicated since 1943 to the sanctity of the
patient-physician relationship.)
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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.
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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.
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