Podcast Notes: The Vaccine Myth: An Issue of Trust May 1, 2016

One of the podcasts to which I listen (when I can) is Shawn Siegel's "The Vaccine Myth: An Issue of Trust" - broadcast on The Logos Radio Network as a live radio show and available (delayed) as a podcast. This post is raw notes of the May 1, 2016 show. 

He begins with a review of the Innate and Adaptive Immune Systems, noting that vaccination bypasses the Innate Immune System which is found in the mucosa. The Innate Immune System is supposed to control the Adaptive Immune System and that our primary defense (immunologically) resides in the mucosa because that is where exposure to disease or pathogens ordinarily takes place (skin, mouth, nose, lungs, eyes, gut, vagina, etc); 

During the first half of the show he is interrupted by noise he can hear but the listener cannot - he isn't sure if the show is on air but he handles this relatively well, though there are stretches of silence long enough to make one wonder what happened. 

He reads excerpts from three journal articles - it would have been helpful if he had also read the PMID for the articles. This information would have been easier and quicker to jot down rather than having to write out the journal name and article title (he does not name the authors). 

He cites "Cell Surface Environment for Pathogen Recognition and Entry" in Clinical and Translational Immunology. 

He briefly mentions findings of the Human Microbiome Project - that pathogens were found to be co-existing without disease symptoms ... the Beauchamp vs Pasteur argument about host vs pathogen - personally I doubt it's all one or the other. 

Another excerpt was from Immunological Reviews and the last was from International Immunology. 

It is worth noting that not all publishers are legit - there is a growing issue with illegitimate journals. https://scholarlyoa.com/ - the home page for Scholarly Open Access where predatory journals are exposed. I am not insinuating that any of the journals he mentioned are predatory or publish junk science - full disclosure, I did not check as I am typing this up late at night. I just mention this as a resource. Verify, then trust - and that applies to me as well - I do not expect my readers to uncritically accept the opinions I express in this blog. 
The Retraction Watch blog is another good resource, though they are unabashedly pro-vaccine and bizarrely suspend critical thinking where vaccines are concerned. 

He discussed vaccine-induced antibodies and that these seem to be qualitatively and quantitatively different than those produced by natural, spontaneous disease (gives examples: Measles, Pertussis, Chickenpox). 

He reviews awards for various vaccine induced injuries - themes of demylinating conditions of various kinds being typical diagnoses and Flu/TDap the most common offenders. 

Of note, at 56m30sec he discusses ITP or Idiopathic Thrombocytopenic Purpura and describes this (inaccurately) as a problem affecting White Blood Cells. This is incorrect. 
ITP is a problem affecting platlets (a blood cell involved in clotting). "Idiopathic" means the cause is unknown.  I don't know how he made this mistake as during the discussion of settlements for vaccine injuries he disclosed he was reading from various medical websites to get accurate information about what he was reviewing. 

The second hour of the show is devoted to interviewing a mother of a 3 month old baby 
who allegedly died as a result of receiving 8 vaccines in one visit. Given the bias in vaccine research stories like this highlight questions that are left begging to be answered. The only way to answer these questions is to do the research - longitudinal (long-term) studies comparing vaccinated and unvaccinated populations, along with double-blind placebo controlled trials of vaccines with long-term follow up (years, not days) - in other words, epidemiological research and clinical research - preferably done by researchers free of conflicts of interest. We could do this - it is just a matter of will.