This book review is reprinted from The Homoeopath, 2 Artizan Road, Northampton NN1 4HU, United Kingdom.

Vaccination
by Viera Scheibner
Reviewed by Janice Gravett
First Australian Edition 1993

I found this book a fascinating and illuminating read. It is educational, instructive and thought-provoking. It is also quite challenging in some respects because it summarises a volume of international research on the short and long-term side effects of vaccines.

It is Viera Scheibner's view that vaccines represent a medical assault on the immune system with the result that vaccinated children commonly exhibit a deranged immunological response, and that new diseases derive from vaccination. She concludes from her extensive study of a wide selection of research papers that all vaccination programmes should be suspended.

Her arguments revolve around the thesis that it is absurd to set out to eradicate childhood diseases which play an important role in the maturation of the immune system of children. There is evidence to suggest that people who develop cancer, experienced few childhood diseases.

And her arguments make a lot of sense, especially as Viera Scheibner came to this study from an objective and detached position. Whilst running a research project, the Cotwatch programme with Leif Karlsson to monitor babies potentially at risk of cot death, she saw vaccination emerging as a contributory factor. As babies' breathing patterns were monitored and recorded, a significant link was establish between cot death and vaccination.

Her subsequent study of over 30,000 pages of medical research papers, indicated that there was no evidence of the effectiveness of vaccines. The base contents alone of a vaccine are highly suspect. A Swedish trial of Japanese acellular pertussis vaccines showed an alarming level of reaction to the non-vaccine placebo injected into 6-11 month old babies and containing formalin, thiomersal (a preservative containing mercury) and aluminium phosphate in phosphate-buffered saline in a final preparation of 0. 15mg of aluminium.

This toxicity is compounded by the addition of the actual vaccines which lack homogenous levels of quality control not only across manufacturers but also within batches, and in the processes for preparation and refrigeration, and in shelf-life and levels of reactivity.

Whilst there are important questions to be asked about financial interests and profit margins, there are the bigger questions about the real action and effectiveness of vaccines. In each chapter Viera Scheibner presents summaries of specific vaccinations and diseases, and analyses the evidence. She demonstrates that they are not only ineffective but also dangerous, even lethal. She cites a significant number of cases of increasing and changing disease, for example, atypical measles, as a result of vaccinations.

She also identifies weaknesses in the pro-vaccination research, such as the nature of the sample; the time-scale for evidence collection - can 48 hours after vaccination be sufficient? the relevance of social conditions; a lack of regard for children's medical history; the appropriateness of one vaccination for one particular country.

This makes engrossing reading because it is so informative and often detailed, and written for a medical/health care audience in a language and style which educates and intrigues. There are occasions where she is too dismissive of a pro-vaccination study, simply describing it as ineffective research, and where the reader would enjoy a sharper analysis. However, the volume of her material is convincing and very credible.

Each example - DPT, measles, mumps, hepatitis B, rubella, polio, the influenzas, smallpox - is well documented from an impressive range of research across the world: Australia, Canada, UK, US, Sweden, Switzerland. The medical information is presented clearly and, generally, fairly objectively in a flowing and invitational style. Complex issues are deconstructed and defined to the source concern: health and the consequences of experimentation on young lives.

The penultimate chapter entitled 'Adverse Effects of Vaccine Validate Homoeopathy' offers a resounding recognition of its facility as a medical science. Here Viera Scheibner sets out the principles of homoeopathy against the laws of conventional medicine and the results of research into vaccination.

She argues that vaccination is the epitome of ignorance and the unscientific approach to medicine. Conventional medicine lacks detailed knowledge and meticulous observation of the human body, and without it will continue to do more harm than good. Her unequivocal view is that the time has come to accept homoeopathy as the most modern and scientific medical system.

THE HOMOEOPATH
Number 65, Spring 1997