About the anti-vaccination movement and anti-vaccination disinformation

To doctors about the anti-vaccination movement
and anti-vaccination disinformation in the media

A.N.Matz
I.I.Mechnikov Research Institute of Vaccines and Serums of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences
Moscow 2009

Vaccination is one of the most beneficial contributions of medical science to public health. Thanks to her, in developed countries, the frequency of a number of infectious diseases (smallpox, diphtheria, measles, mumps, polio, congenital rubella, hemophilic infection type B) has decreased by almost 100%. To a certain extent, humanity owes it to an increase in life expectancy, not burdened with infectious diseases.

However, the development of vaccine prophylaxis from E. Jenner and L. Pasteur to the present day has invariably been accompanied by incidents of reactions and complications in vaccinated.

In the history of the development and use of vaccines against rabies, tuberculosis, yellow fever, diphtheria and polio, these are tragic pages on which, in addition to the number of victims, the miscalculations of the creators, the mistakes of frivolous manufacturers, the imperfection of methods of inactivation and purification of drugs, and the unexpected manifestation of the activity of pathogenic factors previously unexplored are also imprinted. It was the fear of post-vaccination reactions and complications almost two centuries ago (immediately after the start of mass vaccination) that became the main cause of anti-vaccination sentiments, although at first there was a protest against the paternalism of the state, against encroachment on personal life and the right of a citizen to solve his own health problems, as well as religious attitudes.

Smallpox vaccination, having fulfilled its historical mission, has remained in the past for half a century, along with its complications. Vaccines and their production technology have improved dramatically over the past century. But the public anti-vaccination movement with propaganda misinformation and slander against vaccination continues to develop, multiply and consolidate internationally. Its purpose is to cause an anti–vaccination panic, to provoke a "vaccine crisis" as a mass sociogenic "disease" of vaccination refusals among the population, including among nursing staff and doctors.

Addressing the population, anti-vaccination fighters operate with a set of cleverly packaged false information that defames vaccination in general and individual vaccines in particular. It is thanks to the mythical nature of anti-vaccination disinformation that circulates in the minds of the population in spite of and at the same time with facts that refute it.

Vaccination Monster


Cowpox, or the Miraculous consequences of a new inoculation

The old, two-century-old, and the latest anti-vaccination cartoons are full of the same aversion to vaccination and anti-medical nihilism.

Papilloma virus vaccine – girls' way to free sex

The Russian anti-vaccination movement is not numerous, polyprofessional, expressive and, most often, distanced from clinical pathology. None of its activists have ever been involved in vaccination.

Among the anti-vaccinators, for example, the recently left us acad. RAMS surgeon F.G.Uglov (this place will not remain empty: there are several RAMS academicians who share a rigid version of anti-vaccination views), "academician" of the Petrovsky Academy of Sciences and Arts, healer V.A. Kopylov, chief accountant-physicist M.A. Afanasenkov, Tibetan healer (formerly a doctor) V.A. Asadulin, veterinarian M.Y. Bochkarev and others .

The Russian anti-vaccination movement, as an integral part of the international one, professes a common ideology, uses common propaganda materials (which are repeatedly mutually quoted in different publications) and is engaged in expanding and strengthening international relations by organizing seminars, Internet mailings and translating fresh and classic English-language anti-vaccination literature into Russian with publication on paper and electronic media (for example, books Alfred Wallace, Don Hamilton and Robert Mendelssohn). It is associated with anti–vaccination groups in more than 20 countries and is part of the European Forum for Vaccine Vigilance (EFVV), which has developed its own concept of post-vaccination complications, created its own system for their registration based on questionnaires and prepared a report analyzing the information collected. Of course, the conclusions of this analysis exactly coincide with the long–known postulates of anti-vaccination propaganda: "... unlike official information, the side effects of vaccinations are very common - much more often than officially recognized, much more severe than officially recognized, become more frequent with an increase in the number of vaccinations received, are responsible for the appearance of a new, complex pathology, often this degenerative diseases (fibromyalgia, diabetes, autism, a variety of autoimmune diseases), they are most often not recognized by doctors and therefore are not registered."

More than ten years have passed since the adoption of the Federal Law "On Immunoprophylaxis of Infectious Diseases" dated 17.09.1998 No. 157-FZ, according to which no one can be vaccinated without personal consent or parental consent. However, for the Russian anti-vaccination movement, vaccination remains "universal", "compulsory without choice" and "mandatory no matter what." Anti-vaccinators in a noble pose and "white clothes" continue to defend freedom of choice and the right of the population to refuse vaccination in a situation where legally such protection should be a function of the state.

As a socio-ideological phenomenon, the Russian anti–vaccination movement, like the international one, adheres to alternative and marginal paramedical retrograde trends - homeopathy, homotoxicology, osteopathy, naturopathy, healing, AIDS dissidence, anthroposophical and holistic medicine and valeology, as well as the utopian idea of creating a New Medicine without vaccinations, invasive interventions and pharmaceuticals.

American pediatrician R. Mendelson (1926-1988)He is known for his ultra-radical views on modern medicine, deliberately stupefying and primitivizing it.

He called for the creation of a utopian New Medicine without invasive interventions, vaccination, male gynecologists, regular X-ray examinations, mammography, coronary bypass surgery, etc. According to Mendelssohn, with the introduction of New Medicine equipped with homeopathy, naturopathy and other alternatives that New Doctors will suffer, a happy life will come without contagious diseases, cancer, congenital pathology and others troubles. The author of several books designed for a layman or a romantic student with an unformed medical and everyday worldview. In a small book "Confessions of a Heretic from Medicine" (1990), along with an exaggerated presentation of well-known vices and problems of modern medicine, he reported several absurdities about vaccination, with which, as it turned out, he was superficially familiar. It refers to renegade doctors who very cleverly use marginal paramedical motives for personal positioning. Pediatricians called him not a "confessional heretic", but a "treacherous traitor". Mendelssohn, as the author of two more books published in Russian, is more popular in Russia than in the USA

Numerous newspaper and magazine articles, pamphlets and books, television programs, videos and Internet resources serve as instruments of anti-vaccination propaganda. Books of pronounced anti-vaccination content periodically appear on the shelves of Russian stores among popular medical literature and are very actively sold out. Two editions of "Merciless immunization" and a booklet "Vaccinations in questions and answers for thinking parents" (publishers "Homeopathic Medicine", Moscow, and "Homeopathic Book", Novosibirsk) were written by A.G. Kotok, who compiled English-language and Russian-language anti-vaccination literature with a very biased analysis of domestic vaccination publications, identifying and protruding in the latter a considerable number of errors, inconsistencies and contradictions.

The purpose of Kotok's books is to introduce into the public consciousness the idea of the senselessness and harmfulness of immunoprophylaxis, offering as an alternative pseudo–medical methods of homo- and naturopathic prevention and treatment of infectious diseases. To achieve this , the following are used:

1) scientific presentation of quotations from classical and modern literature on vaccination by tendentious selection of negative materials without any analysis of their truth;
2) exploitation of any real and fictional errors of vaccination prevention, real and attributed to vaccination complications, antimedical and anti-vaccination prejudices of the population;
3) amateurish (philistine) ideas about the epidemiology, immunology and pathogenesis of infectious diseases, in particular diphtheria, whooping cough and tuberculosis, about the toxicology of vaccines and the pathology of post-vaccination complications;
4) advertising exaggeration of the effectiveness of homo- and naturopathic approaches.

On 436 pages of the first edition of "Merciless Immunization" there are more than 250 factual and interpretative errors, some of which are due to the author's lack of awareness in the above disciplines, and some are deliberately distorted presentation of the material (that is, the author knew how things really are).

Kotok, a graduate of the I.M.Sechenov Moscow Medical Academy (1989), now a Jerusalem homeopath. His god, of course, is Samuel Hahnemann, and the Devil is Edward Jenner. His credo: "Vaccination is a ritual sacrifice of innocent babies and the cause of severe pathology. It is imposed on the population by corrupt, deceitful vaccinators" ("Merciless immunization", 2004). Kotok creates his anti-vaccination works with journalistic agility exclusively "on the tip of his pen": he has never been engaged in pediatrics, infectious diseases, or vaccinology. In PubMed (an Internet search engine for journal medical literature), he has only 4 publications on homeopathy. Kotok is an international expert of the private Russian-language magazine "Home Child", apparently, on homeopathy, home childbirth, immunology and refusals to vaccinate children.

Three books from the national anti–vaccination library: "Vaccinations: myths and reality", "The vaccination calendar is a mistake of medicine of the twentieth century" and "The abundance of post-vaccination complications as a cause of childhood disability", as well as numerous articles in the media belong to the pen of PhD (that is, a specialist without the right to heal) G.P. Chervonskaya. She is especially appreciated in the newspaper Argumenty i Fakty and on television. A significant damage to the coverage of children with calendar vaccinations was caused by the notorious video film "The Truth about Vaccinations", in which, with the blessing of Bishop Hippolytus, Chervonskaya was filmed.

Ippolit, in the world Khilko Alexey Alekseevich – previously Bishop of Tulchinsky and Bratslavsky, now ex-bishop of Khust and Vinogradovsky. He was the initiator of the Interregional scientific and Practical Conference "Salvation of the Soul in the modern world" (Moscow, 10.02.07), the final decision of which, among other medieval obscurantism, contains a call to anathematize vaccination.

The film is still being sold on church shops.

In Chervonskaya's publications, quite reasonable thoughts coexist with youthful maximalism, exaggerations and obvious nonsense. In one of her articles, "district vaccinators... have crippled the consciousness of more than one generation of our country with incredible myths about the benefits of vaccinations." And they acted according to the prescriptions of the former director of the US CIA – "We will throw everything at ... fooling and fooling Russian people. By sowing chaos, we will imperceptibly replace their values with fake ones and make them believe in them. We will find our like–minded people, our allies and helpers in Russia itself..." "And they do!" comments Chervonskaya. But Allen Dulles never said or wrote what she liked so much. The notorious prescriptions were made during the Cold War in the Lubyanka.

In PubMed, G.P.Chervonskaya (Sovetova) has only seven articles (co–authored) related to vaccines - methodological, but not conceptual, properties. Chervonskaya is fighting vaccine prevention allegedly on behalf of a public organization (among whose members she is not) – the Russian National Committee on Bioethics at the Presidium of the Russian Academy of Sciences, forgetting that the term "ethical" implies considering reality in the light of the categories of "good" and "evil", and that it is reprehensible to exaggerate the "evil" of vaccine prevention and ignore the "good" she brings.

In modern Russia, approximately 30 million personal computer users have Internet access. This is the most active part of the population. Therefore, the main tools of the anti–vaccination movement both in the world and in Russia are websites, of which 196 have accumulated in the "Favorites" of my computer (foreign-speaking – 92, Russian–speaking - 104). Among them, the pages of Kotok with an extensive panopticon of anti-vaccination texts have the greatest anti-vaccination power. Some of them belonging to B.V.Noreiko, V.P.Sukhanovsky, G.P.Chervonskaya, B. Haley, R. Kennedy, M. Girard, M. Geyer and D. Geyer, etc., were analyzed by me (under the nickname Skeptic) in the topic "Vaccination" of the Russian medical server, including in these topics: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.

Further, it should be noted how extremely anti-vaccination pages of the German philologist G. Lobanova, numerous websites where texts of G.P.Chervonskaya are copied, pages of the physicist (and at the same time the accountant of his own sole proprietor) M.A. Afanasenkov, pages of anti-vaccination veterinarians: the American Don Hamilton and M.Y. Bochkarev published from Serbia, where acute critical monographs with chewing are laid out materials related for some reason to the vaccination of people, not animals. Special attention should be paid to the pages of the St. Petersburg teacher A. Yastrebov, who is engaged in a sports hunt for errors in statistical approaches and calculations, as well as for semantic errors in the vaccination periodical press (as a consequence of the ignorance of the authors and the shortcomings of reviewing and editing). He selects publications from reputable institutions – the A.L.Tarasevich GISK, Gosotrebnadzor and the Research Institute of Epidemiology – and finds what he is looking for. He identified a number of errors in the digital data of the vaccination literature and used it in anti-vaccination propaganda: "Vaccinators cannot be trusted for a penny."

Among the Russian-language anti–vaccination web pages, Ukrainian ones stand out: homeopath N. Kostynskaya (Kiev), who called vaccination prevention "criminal medicine", phthisiologist B.M. Noreyko (Donetsk), whose BCG vaccination is responsible for the rise in the incidence of tuberculosis, and the pseudo-medical page "Holistic Medicine in Lviv" A.R. Zadorozhny, a member of the Board of the Association of Homeopaths of Ukraine, a medical valeologist (sanologist) who seriously stated that "Vaccines are a rotten, stinking commodity. Vaccinators are waiting for pogroms." From Chicago, Russian anti–vaccinators are supported by a former employee of the Cancer Center on Kashirskoye Highway, neuroimmunologist Elena Kols, according to whom, "Vaccination is the introduction of tested and untested rubbish into the blood of living people – earning on other people's children."

When typing in two search engines – Google and Yandex – the words "Vaccinoprophylaxis" out of 1600 pages turned out to be anti-vaccination 41 (2.5%), whereas when typing Vaccine prophylactic out of 1300 pages, only 13 (1%) were such. In other words, the expansion of Russian-language anti-vaccination web pages is observed on the Internet (as a reflection of the increased activity of the Russian anti-vaccination movement).

The peculiarity of the situation in Russia is that about two dozen web pages are near-church, "patriotic" and nationalist resources in which anti–vaccination ideas are presented on a religious, anti-Semitic and conspiracy lining. Deacon Andrey Kuraev co-authored the "Social Concept of the Russian Orthodox Church" with an exaggerated negative assessment of biotechnology – the basis of vaccinology. From the pulpit, the vaccine prophylaxis was anathematized by Bishop Diomid (Dzyuban), now deposed from his dignity.

The attitude of the ROC to these marginal speeches is restrained and negative. Moreover, Patriarch Alexy II in twothousandfour. He blessed the immunoprophylaxis campaign in St. Petersburg. There, in 2007, a very reasonable vaccination book was published by the Chairman of the Society of Orthodox Doctors of St. Petersburg, MD, PhD. theology of Archpriest Sergius Filimonov and Candidate of Medical Sciences A.V. Zakrevskaya. "Orthodox view on vaccination prevention" This book is the only constructive judgment on vaccination in the Orthodox way today, directed against a dozen publications in the media associated with the ROC, in which the usual anti–vaccination nonsense is served on a religious, mythological and conspiracy background.

A number of incorrect points and outdated provisions can be forgiven. But they are available in very significant moments. For example, about the ability of a newborn to respond to vaccination against hepatitis B and BCG, as well as about the effectiveness of such vaccination. The importance of physiological deficiency of secretory IgA is exaggerated. Doubts are expressed about the adequacy of the national vaccination calendar, which has quite reliable immunological and epidemiological grounds, and the opponent's arguments either do not correspond to reality, or rely on exaggerations and simply ignorance of known facts.

And on 23.09.2008, the synodal department of the Moscow Patriarchate hosted a round table meeting "Vaccination in children: problems and ways to solve them". The clergy and doctors came to a consensus: "There is no alternative to vaccination today."

The anti-vaccination movement is supported by quasi-patriots and nationalists. In propaganda texts, vaccination is called a Jewish Masonic conspiracy. For example, in the revelations of a functionary of the Russian National Union (RONS)

V. D. Balashova: "The purpose of vaccination is to reduce the population of the globe with all possible care not only about the death of bodies, but most importantly – about the eternal death of souls!"

Anti–vaccination fabrications are the main product of the anti-vaccination movement. In the form of slogans and myths, they are the essence of anti–vaccination propaganda addressed to the population and medical personnel. Like Pandora's box, anti-vaccination mythology is filled with a series of fictions that truly have no end.

Long-standing anti-vaccination myths

● Vaccination does not and has never protected the population from infections
● homeopathic vaccines and naturopathic effects can replace vaccine prophylaxis
● vaccination is immoral, since the vaccine technology uses cow, pig, bird and human fetal (abortion) "unclean" material
● "the complete abolition of vaccination promises a healthy life without severe infectious, allergic, autoimmune and oncological diseases"

Modern anti-vaccination myths ● the newborn's immune system is unable to respond to immunization, and vaccination destroys it

● vaccines are a conglomerate of highly toxic substances (phenol, formaldehyde, twin 80, aluminum hydroxide, ethylmercury sodium salicylate, squalene, neomycin, etc.)
● Vaccination may be the cause of sudden infant death and Guillain-Barre syndromes
● it provokes intercurrent infectious diseases – post-vaccination syndrome, arthropathy, thrombocytopenia, immunosuppression, infertility, hearing loss, optic neuritis, delayed neuropsychic development (autism)
● vaccines contain pathogens of incurable diseases: cancer (SV 40 virus), AIDS (HIV-1), urolithiasis ("nanobacteria"), tuberculosis (BCG), aseptic meningitis (mumps vaccine virus), "mad cow disease" (prions)
● vaccination is the cause and provoker of allergic and autoimmune diseases (anaphylaxis, atopic eczema, allergic rhinitis and bronchial asthma, pollinosis, diabetes 1 and 2, post–vaccination encephalopathy, multiple sclerosis).

The latest "conceptual" anti-vaccination myths

Epidemiology, immunology and vaccinology are not sciences
● The effectiveness and safety of vaccine prophylaxis cannot be determined by evidence-based medicine methods at all
● Randomized double-blind clinical trials, in particular, the case-control method, are not suitable for determining the effectiveness and safety of vaccines
Reductionism has brought rational medicine to a dead end. We need an integrative holistic, anthroposophical approach to vaccine prevention
● Vaccinoprophylaxis – a secret conspiracy of the pharmaceutical mafia, WHO, the Ministry of Health and Social Development and Gosotrebnadzor against the population

It may seem that anti–vaccination myths are the product of the mental creativity of a certain destructive sect. Not at all! This is quite professional propaganda, mostly accessible to the population, perceived by them, having a positive resonance in society and supported by them for objective reasons:

● Extremely rare post-vaccination complications and frequent post-vaccination reactions (but the population does not distinguish the first from the second)
● Unrealized medical withdrawals (paramedicism, since withdrawal is a medical gesture)
* Meager state compensation for post-vaccination complications.

The social harm of the anti–vaccination movement, perceived by its participants as "victories", is repeated refusals from vaccination and a decrease in coverage under the influence of anti-vaccination propaganda and, as a result, epidemic outbreaks of vaccine-controlled (that is, preventable) infections with post-infectious complications and deaths in Russia and abroad:

1. Smallpox, Stockholm (1873-1874). As a result of the decrease in vaccination coverage from 90% to 50%, an outbreak occurred, which was dealt with by expanding smallpox vaccination.

In the 1960s and 70s, the high vaccination coverage of DPT in Hungary, East Germany, Poland and the USA reduced the incidence of whooping cough by 10-100 times compared to the USSR, Sweden, Japan, Great Britain, Ireland, Italy, West Germany and Australia, where anti-vaccination propaganda against whole-cell pertussis vaccine significantly reduced vaccination coverage:

2. Whooping cough, Great Britain (1970-1980). A decrease in vaccination coverage from 81% to 31% caused outbreaks of whooping cough. In England and Wales, over 200,000 children a year fell ill and at least 100 children a year died. The decline in morbidity and mortality was observed after an increase in coverage to 90%.

3. Whooping cough, Japan (1975-1980).

4. Whooping cough, Sweden (1979-1996). The cessation of vaccination led to the fact that 60% of children under the age of 10 became ill.

5. Rubella, Russia (1986-2000).

6. Diphtheria, CIS (1990-99). A decrease in vaccination coverage to 30-40% and the penetration of diphtheria corynebacteria (gravis) strains from the Afghan-Pakistani focus caused 140 thousand cases of the disease and 5 thousand deaths.

7. Tetanus, USA. From 1992 to 2000, 386 cases of tetanus were registered, 15 of which were in children under 15 years of age. In 8 cases, artificial ventilation of the lungs was required. The average duration of hospitalization is 28 days. 12 children were not vaccinated due to parental refusals for religious (Mennonite) or pseudo-medical (holistic) reasons. In 2 cases of neonatal tetanus, women in labor were incompletely vaccinated or completely unvaccinated due to vaccination refusals. One child was not revaccinated.

8. Measles, The Netherlands (1999-2000). 3250 cases of measles, 650 severe, 5 encephalitis and 3 deaths in the community of ultraconservative Protestants who reject anti-infective vaccination. There are more than 500 thousand Christians of this denomination in the world. In 2005, an outbreak of rubella was observed among them in Canada.

9. Measles, Ireland (2000). In 1999, London gastroenterologist Andrew Wakefield, having previously agreed with representatives of the near–vaccination legal business, after prepayment published falsified materials allegedly proving that the cause of autism in children is vaccination with live measles-mumps-rubella vaccine (MMR). The purpose of the scandal was a lawsuit against the vaccine manufacturer in favor of the "victims" of vaccination, the lawyers leading the process and, of course, the doctors serving it. After 6 years, Andrew Wakefield was exposed, but the immediate consequence of the MMR scandal was a decrease in measles vaccination in Ireland from 79 to 60% and an outbreak of measles. 1,500 children fell ill, about 100 seriously, 3 of whom died. Two more children who had kidney transplants in London suffered from measles encephalitis with severe consequences.

10. Measles, USA, Indiana (2005). On May 15, 2005, a 17-year–old girl, unvaccinated against measles, returned from Romania with signs of an incipient disease, on the same day attended a meeting of a church community where there were many unvaccinated children, and caused an outbreak of measles – 34 cases, 32 of which were unvaccinated (a consequence of refusals due to fears of autism, inspired by anti-vaccination propaganda in the media). In three cases, measles was complicated and intensive therapy was required. The pathogen had the genotype D4, endemic to Romania. Measles was virtually eliminated in the United States by 2000, which was the reason for numerous refusals of vaccination.

11. Polio, measles, diphtheria, Nigeria (since 2001). Refusals to vaccinate due to distrust of Western medicine led to outbreaks of measles with 20 thousand. sick and 600 dead in twothousandfive. In Borno State alone, in 2007, about 400 children fell ill with severe measles and 50 died. There were outbreaks of diphtheria. The situation with polio became especially acute after the Muslim population of the northern states of Nigeria actually stopped vaccinating children in 2004-2005 under the influence of their religious leaders, who stated that the live polio vaccine was intended to spread HIV infection among Muslims and induce infertility. In January-May 2009, out of 396 cases of polio caused by wild virus in the world, 236 were registered in Nigeria.

12. Epidemic mumps, Canada (since 2008). An outbreak of mumps in Chilliwack. 196 cases in the sect of conservative Protestants who reject anti-infective vaccination.

These observations indicate, first of all, that the cancellation or reduction of vaccination coverage naturally leads to a rapid increase in infectious morbidity, and the resumption of vaccinations and an increase in coverage leads to the cessation of the outbreak. Actually, this fundamentally proves the protective effect of vaccination.

Other "victories" of anti-vaccinators:

● Elimination of sodium ethylmercury – "science has yielded to prejudice"
● The emergence of anti-vaccination journalism
Formation of an irrational perception of the risks of post-vaccination complications in the mass consciousness of the population.

The "victories" of the anti-vaccination movement were possible precisely thanks to the support in society. The most important victory is psychological. Table 1 shows the risks of a number of serious post–vaccination complications, similar complications during infection and the risks for every average Russian to die in an accident or plane crash. As you can see, the first ones are 2-3 orders of magnitude smaller than the second and third, but the population is psychologically hypersensitive to the complications of vaccination and tolerant to the consequences of diseases and violations of traffic rules. At the household level, this irrationality can cause a hidden decrease in immunization coverage, the issuance of false vaccination certificates and the appearance of the same entries in children's outpatient records. Falsification of reports by officials and inadequate anti-vaccination decisions of the authorities are also possible. The population's dissatisfaction with any trials of new vaccines has irrationally increased. There are elements of democracy in the life of the modern Russian state, and the anti-vaccination attitude of the population can result in anti-vaccination decisions of the governing structures.

It should be taken into account that the current risks of infectious diseases (despite the contribution of hygiene and improvement of living and working conditions for part of humanity) due to globalization and possible bioterrorism are incomparably higher than during past epidemics. Usually, anti-vaccination fighters meet objections to the myth of the high frequency and severity of post-vaccination complications with a reproach of "cold statistical cynicism": allegedly, defenders of vaccination prevention ignore the tragedy of an individual affected child and the family where the complication occurred. This is a delusion. Objections to the anti-vaccination myth are based solely on the medical understanding that there is no alternative to vaccination in real life. Cynicism as a disregard for moral traditions and ethical norms is categorically absent in vaccination, socially and individually ethical in accordance with medical ethics.

As with any invasive medical intervention, vaccination may develop adverse consequences due to circumstances that are not obvious in advance. Each case of a post-vaccination complication, in addition to a sharply negative moral assessment, has a professional one. Medical disregard of obvious contraindications and unrealized medical withdrawal from vaccination is a reason for a lawsuit. A proven post–vaccination complication is a consequence of the damage caused by vaccination. This potential harm (not by intention, but by unforeseen consequences), unfortunately, is inevitable in modern medicine. The main task of the vaccine and vaccination business is to reduce it to a minimum.

"I will direct the regime of the sick to their benefit, according to my strength and understanding, refraining from causing any harm or injustice." This phrase from the Hippocratic oath is absolutely no reason to reproach the doctor in connection with the complications of vaccination. None of the "vaccinators", according to their understanding, seeks to cause any harm to the vaccinated, but takes care of protection from infections with the utmost care, constantly remembering the complications and deaths of infectious pathology.

Psychological classification of participants in the anti-vaccination movement.The driving force of the anti–vaccination movement is post-vaccination reactions and complications.

It is the psychology of their perception, or rather, its anomalies in the participants of the movement, that have become the subject of detailed study. Clinical psychology specialist M.A.Polishchuk (Odessa) identifies five groups:

1. "Reactive group" – real and imaginary victims of post-vaccination reactions and complications.

2. "Anxiety-phobic group" – those who are worried about their health and the health of their loved ones, who require guarantees of absolute safety of vaccination (under the influence of vaccination propaganda or iatrogenism).

3. "Ideological group" – rejection of vaccination for religious, exotic and conspiracy reasons.

4. "Participation orientation group" in the social movement (creating charisma among leaders and familiarizing with followers).

5. "Group of Entrepreneurs" – legal business, homeopathic "vaccines", homeopathic and naturopathic prevention and therapy of post-vaccination complications, financial and political games around vaccination prevention.

Table 1. Relative risk of complications after vaccinations and related infections

1. "Werewolf doctors" who left rational medicine for alternative medicine (homeopathy, naturopathy, valeology, etc.). Their total anti–vaccination is a tool for promoting their business.

2. "Non-doctors" (chemists, biochemists, mathematicians, physicists, biologists, teachers, philologists, journalists, psychologists, ecologists, theologians, etc.). The goals are to gain spiritual leadership and charisma of "defenders of rights" and saviors of humanity in the face of the "conspiracy of the international corrupt pharmaceutical mafia".

3. Doctors (often pediatricians), untrained in vaccinology and exaggerating invectives and frightening myths about vaccinoprophylaxis in the media, who tend to see in the real shortcomings of Russian immunoprophylaxis evidence of its uselessness and harm, often amateur practitioners of alternative (non–traditional, they are also traditional) quasi–medical methods of diagnosis (follistics, iridodiagnostics) and treatment (homeopathy, naturopathy, Tibet, acupuncture, herbal medicine, chiropractic, psychoanalysis, anthroposophy, etc.).

Who finances the anti-vaccinators? Readers who are interested in the mercantile side of life are often interested in this question.

The answer is unexpectedly simple. The anti–vaccination movement itself is a source of considerable profit, that is, it satisfies the entrepreneurial and rental interests of its participants as follows:

● Legal business – the share of compensation to victims of post-vaccination complications in lawsuits from the state or vaccine manufacturers. For example, the unsatisfied claim in the MMR scandal amounted to 14 million pounds.

Representatives of alternative medicine (homeopaths, naturopaths, healers, sanologists, homotoxicologists, anthroposophists, etc.) use anti-vaccination propaganda as a tool to increase the market value of their services to the population and their own charisma of the saviors of deceived humanity (this is sometimes sponsored separately).

For example, on the website of the Regional "non-profit" (actually, commercial) organization NPVMC "VITA-ELIN" (Moscow, trans.Romanov, 2, p.1), as if from the Ministry of Health and Social Development of the Russian Federation (the coat of arms of Russia and the inscription of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation), a mixture of excerpts from official documents with arbitrary inserts of anti-vaccination fabrications is published. In the section "Preventive vaccinations" the following is cleverly mounted:

"It should be borne in mind that vaccinations cause diseases of varying severity in vaccinated people, which, if successful, leads to the formation of appropriate immune protection." "On average, as a result of diseases caused by vaccinations, 2-3 people per 10 thousand vaccinated die, 10-15 become permanently disabled; a much larger number of vaccinated have persistent health disorders (and the younger the age of vaccinated, the more complications)… Therefore, in general, no vaccinations are shown to children in the first year of life (except for special rare cases from risk groups) ... It should be noted with regret that according to current regulations, no vaccine can be recognized if it has not been successfully tested on children. In world medicine, children of underdeveloped countries are used for such experiments (these vaccinations are carried out absolutely free of charge, and all vaccinated and host countries receive appropriate financial assistance and benefits). In recent years, Russia has become such a testing ground. Moreover, often, quite a large fee is charged from residents of the Russian Federation for experimental vaccinations, explained by the fact that "this vaccine is imported and very effective"…
If the disease persists or even progresses against the background of mass vaccinations (for example, tuberculosis or influenza), then there are no effective vaccines yet. Vaccinations with such vaccines often do much more harm to the health of the nation than good. But they allow you to directly officially "saw" the state budget (mass vaccinations from the budget have been paid for and carried out!), and therefore they are so obsessively offered or forcibly carried out to children without parental consent by local performers ... who receive cash bonuses of about 10 thousand rubles per month for this (for the implementation of the "vaccination plan" – otherwise the premiums will be cut)". These inserts represent dirty misinformation, do not correspond to reality, contradict the principles and practice of vaccination prevention in Russia and violate the law on advertising (website – advertising)

and about the media (however, in Russia, Internet resources do not have to be registered as media). Of course, after reading this, no parent will agree to a calendar vaccination. That's where homeopaths will arrive with their pseudo-medical services, which are advertised by the VITA-ELIN NSAID, along with other dubious stuff: culinary exotic dishes, 217 diets for weight loss, contraceptive cream, antihemorrhoidal liniment, etc.

● Homeopaths and other charlatans sell homeopathic "vaccines" and post-vaccination "detoxicants", that is, they compete with vaccine prophylaxis in the medical services market with a clear financial interest.

● The victory of anti-vaccinators in the operation "elimination of thimerosal" significantly enriched several large international pharmaceutical corporations, which increased the prices of single-dose final containers of vaccines without organic mercury antiseptic. And was there a rollback for anti-vaccinators? Explicit evidence has not yet been published.

● Literary anti-vaccination activities bring certain income. Books, articles, CDs are selling well.

● Anti-vaccination journalism is directly related to earnings, focusing public anxiety on one's own person and politicking.

● The state spends considerable budgetary funds on vaccination. Alternative applicants for them are directly interested in anti-vaccination activities. Recently, interest in homeopathic "vaccines" as a replacement for the current ones has been circulating among biologists working at the Russian Academy of Sciences. Of course, these scientists did not hide their desires to pay for the implementation of their pseudoscientific, but profitable idea.

● Both the investigation of encephalitogenic and allergy-inducing properties of pertussis vaccine in the 1970s and 80s, and modern studies of immunosuppressive properties of live measles and mumps vaccines by inadequate modeling under the slogan "Improving vaccines" were paid and paid, oddly enough, from the Russian state budget.

Features of the anti-vaccination movement in Russia

● Participation of near-church media and individual ministers of the ROC, quasi-patriotic (nationalist) functionaries and Russian-speaking anti-privateers who have retired abroad

● Aggressive anti-vaccination journalism and excessive support of anti-vaccinators in the media

● Society mistakenly perceives rational medicine and the anti–vaccination movement as equals ("scientists are arguing"), and the latter as a kind of "kind of medical orientation"

● Lack of modern Russian-language manuals on vaccinology

Weak professional resistance to anti–vaccination fabrications is a direct consequence of moderate anti-vaccination views professed by many pediatricians and researchers professionally engaged in vaccine prevention.

A typical maxim: "mass vaccination is impractical, selective, individual, with less coverage is needed, based on the results of preliminary immunological examinations."

In practice, no matter how optimistic the declarations may be, coverage barely reaches 80%, which means that no more than 50% of the child population is actually protected. This is not enough for collective immunity to contagious infections such as whooping cough, meningitis, measles and chickenpox.

The idea of individual selective vaccination will not only dramatically reduce coverage, but will also confound any vaccination campaign with a huge volume of preliminary determination of antibodies or skin tests, the meaning of which, in fact, has not been proven. At the same time, the number of incorrect estimates will inevitably increase.

In principle, vaccines are developed in such a way that they are harmless for the vast majority of vaccinated, and the number of contraindications to vaccination is minimal. With mass vaccination, of course, those who do not need vaccination will also be vaccinated, but this, as long-term practice has shown, does not reduce its harmlessness.

Characteristic features of the "justification" of anti-vaccination fictions

False or erroneous assumptions (someone else's, random, meager and unconfirmed material from a single group of researchers).

● Violations of logic and statistics.

The chronological sequence serves as the only evidence of a causal relationship.

● References to false or improper expertise.

● Pseudoscientific justifications.

● Hidden conflict of interest (financial interest).

Anti-vaccination enthusiasts, as a rule, keep their distance from the practical vaccine and vaccination business, from clinical pediatrics, infectious diseases and from practical laboratory diagnostics and pathoanatomic analysis, and do not have their own materials. Their fabrications are a secondary product of intentionally distorted and often falsified interpretations of other people's primary materials published in the media and in the current scientific and medical literature.

The fighters against vaccination seek out any preliminary, inadequate and simply incorrect information discrediting it, biasively giving them the status of irrefutable facts.

A typical example: on page 193 of "Merciless immunization" (2004) by A.Kotok it is reported:
"In France, in the last three pre-war years, from 13 to 16 thousand cases of diphtheria per year were registered. During the occupation regime in onethousandninehundredfortyone. mandatory vaccinations were imposed on the French, during the following years the incidence of diphtheria steadily increased and reached 46 thousand cases in 1943, although all these years there were no military operations in France..."

The purpose of the Kotok falsifications is to prove that anti–diphtheria vaccination initiates an increase in the incidence of diphtheria and mortality from it. When checking, the opposite is found.

We will check according to the information of a direct participant in the events – Gaston Ramon ("Forty years of research work", translated from French, M.. Medicine. 1962.) In France, according to the State Institute of Hygiene, the incidence of diphtheria from 1919 to onethousandninehundredfortyfive. It was kept at the level of about 20,000 patients and at least 2,200 deaths from this disease per year (p. 100). G. Ramon notes in the same place: "In wartime statistics (1941-1945) there is a significant increase in the incidence of diphtheria. This is not surprising, since the difficulty of implementing anti-diphtheria vaccination was also joined by all sorts of other difficulties (non-compliance with hygiene rules, movement of large masses of the population, etc." That's where 46 thousand cases came from.

"The machinations of the occupiers" is another falsification. In France in onethousandninehundredthirtyeight. The law on mandatory anti-diphtheria vaccination for children from 1 to 14 years old was introduced, supplemented by mandatory tetanus vaccination in the association on 11/24.40. Fulfilling this law, and not under the pressure of the occupation regime, which was not up to vaccinations, vaccination was carried out by doctors of municipalities and children's sanatoriums: Romer and Ul in Alsace, Poulain in Lyon, Bestier, Dusan and Tadden in Marseille, Besson in Paris. However, neither before nor during the war vaccination coverage (for example, in Lyon) "it did not exceed 25% of the total number of children, which, of course, could not give certain results." In Lyon from 1943 to onethousandninehundredfortyseven., indeed, there was a large epidemic outbreak, which was managed by vaccinating 95% of the child population from 3 to 15 years old. After that, cases of the disease among vaccinated people were observed on average 15 times less often than among an equal number of unvaccinated adults and children. For 5 years, 108 deaths from diphtheria were observed among unvaccinated adults and children, and there were no deaths among vaccinated during this time (Ramon, p. 97).

The next falsification is the increase in morbidity as a result of vaccination. In fact , in onethousandninehundredfortytwo. In Paris, 92% of schoolchildren were vaccinated, after which only 99 cases of diphtheria with 4 deaths were registered (all in unvaccinated children).

In Marseille in onethousandninehundredfortythree. there was an outbreak of diphtheria – 248.65 diseases and 9.73 deaths per 100,000 population. The expanded vaccination campaign led to a decrease in morbidity to 8.09 and mortality to 0 per 100,000 population by onethousandninehundredfifty. (Ramon, p. 98).

Another demonstrative example. In March 2009, a reprint of a ten-year-old horror film appeared on the anti-vaccination website "War and Peace" about how the WHO and the Rockefeller Foundation tried to secretly and villainously reduce the population of a number of developing countries by immunizing women of childbearing age with tetanus vaccine, which was spiked with chorionic gonadotropin. This message is excellent conspiracy nonsense for the following reasons:

1. In rational medicine, there is a normal research topic – the development of an immunological method of contraception and cancer immunotherapy based on the use of chorionic gonadotropin (HCT) – a hormone that produces the chorial part of the placenta, embryonic and tumor tissues. If a woman is immunized with human HCG, antibodies to HCG are produced, which, with sufficient titer, complicate the development of pregnancy at the earliest stages in some immunized women. With a decrease in the titers of these antibodies, fertility is restored after six months. However, this direction has not yet led to the creation of a contraceptive vaccine (which is much better than hormonal contraceptives for delayed side effects) due to its low effectiveness. Immunization with HCG in cancer patients inhibits the development of the tumor, but it has not yet reached the creation of an anti-cancer vaccine. Pure human HCG is not immunogenic. To impart immunogenicity, it must be covalently "sewn" (conjugated) to a carrier, for example, to tetanus, diphtheria or cholera toxoid. In this case, the conjugates lose their ability to cause an antitoxic immune response.

2. In rational medicine, there is another serious, but already practical problem – neonatal tetanus in countries with undeveloped obstetric care. The only approach to effective prevention of tetanus of a newborn and a woman in labor is vaccination of women before and during pregnancy with tetanus toxoid.

3. The incident with the discovery of a secret contraceptive admixture of chorionic gonadotropin in tetanus toxoid is a pure artifact. During the investigation, it was found that the test system used for enzyme immunoassay contained antibodies to HCT, which cross-linked with tetanus toxoid. When several commercial HCG test systems were used, the results were negative.

4. Even if the "pest doctors" would have dropped HCT into the tetanus vaccine due to negligence or malice, then without conjugation with anatoxin, an anti-HCT immune response would have been impossible.

5. Vaccinated responded to vaccination with tetanus toxoid. This means that an anatoxin was injected, not a conjugate.

The false anti-vaccination batch, which is not the first time it pops up in the media, was fabricated in a certain American public institution "Global Vaccine Institute". This institution – a club of homeopaths, naturopaths and victims (as it seems to them) of vaccination – is engaged in malicious anti-vaccination propaganda, near-vaccination legal business and advertising alternative pseudo-medical services. However, they lawfully accompany each of their publications on the Internet (there is such a law in the USA, but it is not in Russia) with the following statement:
"The decision to get vaccinated or not is made only by you personally. The authors from Thinktwice Global Vaccine Institute, being neither lawyers nor doctors, have nothing to do with this decision. Therefore, no information on this website can serve as a basis for legal or medical advice. Any association of the content of this website with recommendations for or against vaccines is excluded. If you have any questions about any of the information presented on our website, then study the problems of immunizations more fully on your own in order to be able to make a reasonable and informed choice."

What is necessary to counteract the anti-vaccination movement in Russia?

● Improving the vaccine and vaccination business, primarily through the development of modern biomedical technologies and industry-specific financial investments.
● Conducting comparative tests of the effectiveness and harmlessness of foreign-made vaccines under the auspices of WHO before registration on the domestic market of biopharmaceutical medicines.
● Training of pediatricians in vaccinology and filling the shortage of literature in the specialty: in Russia, apart from compilations and reference books, there is no special literature on vaccinology. We need books like the V edition of the “Vaccines” manual Plotkin, Orinstein and Offit (2008), with an analysis of modern world literature, created by specialists and focused on the principles of evidence-based medicine.
● Posters for parents for each calendar vaccination with a visual indication of the epidemiology and frequency of infection, the frequency of reactions and complications of vaccination, the comparative risk of complications of vaccination and infection, as well as contraindications.
● Posters for nursing staff on vaccination techniques, emergency care for anaphylaxis, storage and transportation of vaccines.
●Introduction of a new ideology: the appointment and withdrawal from vaccination is not a paramedic, but a medical gesture.
●Training in the diagnosis and treatment of post-vaccination complications.
●Training in vaccination in chronic diseases and pregnancy.
● Professional response to anti-vaccination propaganda in the special and mass media (articles, booklets, leaflets, TV and radio broadcasts).
● Displacement of healing, malakhovism, homeopathy and naturopathy from the field of vaccination
● Creation of a competent vaccination journalism. There are examples of this both abroad and in Russia:

Brian Deere– a columnist for the Sunday Times, spent six years investigating the scam of London gastroenterologist Andrew Wakefield – the memorable scandal around the measles-mumps-rubella vaccine. Revealed fraud, lies and corruption: Wakefield documented more than £438,000 as part of the £3,400,000 that went for services to doctors and researchers who agreed to support legal claims against vaccine manufacturers totaling more than £14,000,000.
Mark Deitch, a columnist for the Moscow Komsomolets, investigated together with pediatrician prof. V.K.Tatochenko the Volgograd anti–vaccination scandal and revealed fraud, unfounded slander against doctors and the hidden interests of the local authorities

● Supplement on preschool and school vaccination to the Federal Law "On Immunoprophylaxis" and increase cash benefits and provision of benefits to families affected by post-vaccination complications.
● Supplement on anti-vaccination propaganda in the media to the Law of the Russian Federation "On Mass Media".
● The public organization "Russians for Vaccination" is needed.

The director of the Children's Hospital in Pennsylvania, Paul Offit, proposed to create a public organization for independent, trustworthy support and promotion of immunization among Americans, "Americans For Immunization" (People For Immunization), which, together with the CDC, will provide scientifically based, understandable, clear information about the usefulness and danger of vaccines and vaccine-preventable diseases for the population, professionals-doctors, political leaders and their organizations. This organization should represent millions of people who support immunization and speak loudly about the importance of immunization, and object to anti-vaccination insinuations. Such an organization "Russians for Vaccination" is very necessary in Russia.

Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru08.10.2009