Now here we see that at least two and probably three great epidemics of fatal disease have originated from vaccine factories and this raises the serious question as to how far other epidemics, or even the recent epidemic of influenza, and pneumonia, may have originated from some vaccine factory or from some of their products extensively or carelessly used. Surely the places where dangerous infectious diseases are constantly propagated on a gigantic scale, and disseminated therefrom into the bodies of millions of animals and mankind, should be the very possible or probable source of epidemic disease. Obviously, therefore, this entire subject of the present extensive manufacture and distribution of diseases or disease cultures or products and its relation to epidemics and public health should be thoroughly investigated by Congress and the Government at an early date. To show you what a gigantic and dangerous medical interest this vaccine manufacture has become, it may be sufficient to state that there are now about 100 concerns licensed by the U. S. Government to manufacture vaccines and serums for animal and human uses. This is one of the great medical interests supporting compulsory vaccination, which is a grave medical malpractice, and should be abolished wherever it exists and replaced by wholly voluntary vaccination as already shown.
EPIDEMICS AND HIGH DEATH RATES IN THE ARMY PROBABLY CAUSED BY WHOLESALE AND REPEATED VACCINATIONS. DEATH RATE OF ARMY FROM DISEASE MUCH GREATER THAN THAT OF CIVIL POPULATION
After careful study of this subject for years I firmly believe that, with the excellent sanitary and hygienic conditions now used in our Army, the dangerous system of disease inoculations, whereby the blood of every man is impregnated with multiple and repeated vaccinations of several diseases, such as smallpox, typhoid, paratyphoid, etc., is a system, to say the least, that is neither necessary nor ultimately useful for army health. And it is probable that this system produces far more disease than it prevents. For example: For one death which naturally occurs in the whole population from smallpox or typhoid fever, ten to one hundred deaths occur from the far more frequent and fatal diseases of tuberculosis, measles, pneumonia and meningitis. And let us here ask, what is the use of having soldiers forced to submit to a whole series of disease infections, if these infections, at best, give immunity only for a little while from such diseases as smallpox and typhoid and make the system more susceptible to the far worse diseases of measles, pneumonia and meningitis, which actually seems to be the possible effects of vaccination from the recurring epidemics of these dangerous diseases in our heavily vaccinated camps?
As a matter of fact, my studies of deaths from vaccination for many years past show that meningitis and pneumonia are some of the most frequent complications; and these two diseases seem to have a certain relation to vaccination and seem to be very fatal where vaccination precedes them, and thus acts in what is called a “double” or “mixed infection,” which is known to be very dangerous to health and life. See Osler’s “Modern Medicine,” 1913, Vol. I, pages 32 and 33. See also Osler’s “Principles and Practice of Medicine,” 8th edition, 1918, page 330, on the “Influence of Vaccination on Other Diseases.” See also pages 135 and 139 in the Supplement.
Another most significant fact in this connection is the high death-rate from disease in the Army, as compared with the civil population, which I will now consider.
On page 18 in the Report of the Secretary of War for 1918 the death rate of the Army in the United States from disease for the year ending August 30, 1918, is given as 6.4; that is, about 6½ deaths for every thousand men in the Army. The age-groups composing the Army are, of course, on the general average, between twenty and forty, inclusive. In the same Report it is admitted that the male civilian death-rate for the same ages as in the Army (twenty to forty) was about 4.7, which is a difference of 1.7 or nearly 2 per 1000 in favor of the civil population or civilian males! This civil death-rate is thus, actually and relatively, much lower than the army death-rate, and this fact is very significant as positively indicating some serious cause at work to lower greatly the vitality and resistance and increase the death-rate in the army! Now what is that cause?
The figures 6.4 per thousand for the Army and 4.7 per thousand for the civil population of the same ages is a great actual difference, but, of course, means, relatively, a much greater total difference against the Army because the army population is made up of “hand-picked” men selected for their nearly perfect health and physique and the absence of all serious constitutional diseases such as tuberculosis and others, which are all excluded from the army group. On the other hand, the civil population of the same age group of twenty to forty includes the healthy and diseased, and particularly those afflicted with tuberculosis, which constitute a big fraction, and which disease is most prevalent and fatal in this very age group of twenty to forty! Yet this civil population, containing all the diseased at the most fatal adult ages, has a much lower death-rate than the “hand-picked” physically perfect army group! Now what is the cause of this much higher death-rate in men of the most physically perfect class, and who are now treated with the best sanitary and hygienic living conditions, and where the death-rate should be the lowest? What is the cause of this difference if it is not that extraordinary medical practice, or malpractice, which deliberately impregnates the bodies of these exceptionally healthy and “hand-picked” men with a whole series of the worst type of disease infections known—that is, septicemic infections, like the typhoids and the variolas, etc.? And should anyone wonder, therefore, if the death lists of the army should show plainly in the blood poisoning diseases of pneumonia, meningitis, etc., which are known to follow frequently after vaccination? See pages 139 to 142 for a convincing proof of this point. Surely no person of ordinary sense—not even an extreme vaccinator—can presume to seriously tell us that impregnating the human body and blood with several disease cultures and infections is a purely healthy practice per se. And surely no person of ordinary sense can come to any other conclusion except this: that such operations must be dangerous and unhealthy per se.
In all this contention, Mr. President, there is, surely, something which is very important, which should be most carefully considered and fully investigated by the Commander-in-Chief, by Congress and the Departments, at an early day.
WONDERFUL WORK OF THE WAR AND NAVY DEPARTMENTS GRATEFULLY ACKNOWLEDGED
Before closing I must here express to you, as Commander-in-Chief, my full appreciation of the wonderful work done by the War and Navy Departments and by the officers of the Army and Navy in raising, encamping, training and equipping our great Army and Navy and putting them into the fighting field so quickly and so potently, with the result of immediately turning the tide of warfare against the brutal enemy, for which majestic result these Departments, and the officers of the Army and Navy, most fully deserve, as they undoubtedly have, the unstinted thanks and congratulations of our whole citizenry, civil and military, man and woman.