-Caveat Lector- Sunday, May 30, 2004
Rutland Herald Vermont authors contend that virus tainted polio vaccine - May. 29, 2004 By WILSON RING The Associated Press MONTPELIER - A monkey virus that was introduced to humans in the polio vaccine that was given to hundreds of millions of people in the 1950s and 1960s is the cause of a variety of rare cancers appearing now, a new book argues. "The Virus and the Vaccine" by a Burlington couple argues that the medical establishment in the United States refused to publicize the danger posed by the virus after it was first discovered in 1961. The system used to make polio vaccine was not changed until 1963 and the risk of contamination was not eliminated completely until 2000. As a result, millions more Americans were unnecessarily exposed to the virus, known to scientists as SV40, the book argues. "Wiping out polio was an incredible public health advance. Nobody would ever want to see the return of polio," said co-author Jim Schumacher. "The story of SV40 is that when this virus was discovered in 1961 the response was not 'let's fix the vaccine,' the response was 'let's not tell anybody about it."' Schumacher wrote "The Virus and the Vaccine" with his wife Debbie Bookchin, a longtime Vermont journalist. It was published this month by St. Martin's Press of New York. Bookchin and Schumacher say they are not opposed to the use of vaccines. "Vaccines are a critical public health tool," Bookchin said. "There is no excuse for not preventing disease through vaccines." But Schumacher continued, "There is no excuse for not making them safe." Scientists across the world have come to recognize the dangers of SV40 and many studies are looking into the virus' link to certain cancers, scientists said. "The Virus and the Vaccine" argues that SV40 is linked to cancers of the bone and brain as well as mesothelioma, a virulent and deadly cancer of the lining of the lungs, and non-Hodgkins lymphoma. Much of the science in the book is based on research done by Dr. Michele Carbone, a physician and scientist at Loyola University in Chicago. Carbone has spent the last decade studying SV40. He said scientists were initially cautious about accepting the link between SV40 and cancer. "I think in general the amount of skepticism was very high, but not unusual. Scientists are skeptical. We went through three scientific reviews," Carbone said. "When people started seeing that other people are seeing what we found, this was something popping up all over the world and others were reproducing our discoveries, then the skepticism has gone down consistently," he said. Schumacher said he first became aware of SV40's link to cancer and the polio vaccine almost a decade ago while working as a law clerk on a divorce case. A spouse was fighting her husband about being able to make health care decisions for their children; the wife didn't want her children vaccinated. And in researching her position Schumacher came across an article about SV40, the polio vaccine and cancer. "I went home to Debbie and said 'this is great. We ought to research this.' That eventually got us to the story of SV40." Brooke Mossman, a pathologist at the University of Vermont, is studying SV40 and its connection to mesothelioma, which she says is one of the most deadly cancers. She is familiar with the thesis of the book by Bookchin and Schumacher. Mossman said the book would stimulate much-needed further debate in the scientific community about the dangers of SV40. "There have been sporadic reports of SV40 in various tumor types. When you put it all together in terms of the history, the patters of exposure and that it's in several tumors that are derived from the same types of cells then it makes a compelling case as SV40 as a human carcinogen," Mossman said. "No one has really put it together. And that's what they do." SV40 was discovered in the polio vaccine in 1961 and a scientist at the time linked the virus to cancer. But it wasn't until 1963 that a different process was used to make the vaccine, reducing the threat. Schumacher and Bookchin argue that in the early 1960s the scientific world didn't want to create fear about one of the greatest medical advancements in history. Those early studies were pushed aside and the issue was largely forgotten until Carbone started studying the issue about a decade ago. The threat from SV40 contaminated polio vaccine didn't disappear completely until Jan. 1, 2000 when vaccine producers stopped using monkeys to make the vaccine. "Some of the people who have top positions (in the public health community) are people who 40 years ago made the determination that it was harmless to humans," Schumacher said. "The federal government constantly passes judgment on its own work and has very little incentive to say 'oops we made a mistake."' Neither the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention nor the National Institutes of Health responded to questions about the premise of the book. However, a 2002 study by the Institute of Medicine concluded there was too little evidence to conclude that SV40 could cause cancer in humans. And it said that although studies of people who received the vaccine have not shown increased cancer rates, a connection could not be completely ruled out. And a National Cancer Institute study reported in 1998 that the millions of Americans who were given contaminated polio vaccine during the 1950s do not have a higher incidence of that or other rare cancers some had thought could be linked to the virus. Schumacher said he would like to see his book spark debate about SV40 and increase research funding. "The original contamination was nobody's fault," Schumacher said. "After 1962, when there was an alternative, the resistance that we document in our book is really unconscionable. It is absolutely unconscionable that Americans had no choice but to receive a polio vaccine made up of mashed up monkey kidneys." Carbone said he had had no first hand knowledge of the reaction of the scientific community to SV40 40 years ago. Much of the debate he said he learned from reading "The Virus and the Vaccine." "I found those chapters extremely fascinating because 40 years ago was when I was born," Carbone said. But he said much of his research and that of others studying SV40 is funded by the organizations that Schumacher and Bookchin criticize for not doing enough to correct the problem. "Things change with time," Carbone said. "I would hope today that such things would not happen." Copyright © 2004 Rutland Herald and Barre-Montpelier Times Argus www.ctrl.org DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance—not soap-boxing—please! 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