Letters

We commend the young ladies’ “Viewpoint” in the January 16 editions of The Press [“School Board’s Letter Dismisses Real Science”]; however, the letter is an example of how information gets distorted and erroneously perpetuated — a failure to fact-check, then repeated with biased interpretations.

Did they miss the point of the Southampton Board of Education’s letter because their perspectives are limited to classroom education? Does government truly know what’s best for one’s child, or one’s medical history?

We hear all too often, “Big Pharma owns everyone,” “You can’t trust government.” And with a movement toward tailored biologic medicine, how can vaccines continue with broad-stroke applications and be ignored?

However, the School Board did not advise its constituents to vaccinate (or not) for HPV or flu, and The Press is not the arena to debate vaccine science and safety.

The Scientific Method uses double-blind placebo testing. This method was not used in testing vaccines. Specifically speaking, Gardasil was tested against an adjuvant solution, and Gardasil 9 was tested against Gardasil.

Scientists of the World Health Organization have stated that it would be unethical to test on children. Therefore, there are no double-blind placebo tests. Scientists and medical experts attending the WHO Summit on Vaccination Safety held on December 2, 2019, stated that much more investment is needed to conduct safety studies, including on the carcinogenicity and mutagenicity of the human and animal cells used in the development of vaccines, as well as on the potential cross-reactions between different vaccinations by different manufactures, often given to infants and children in a single visit. But to do so in all of these areas is quite challenging.

The National Childhood Vaccination Injury Act of 1986 indemnified manufacturers of vaccines from any liability (some will dispute this, because of a 75-cent tax on all units to fund the awards given through vaccine injury court) and at the same time charged the secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services to submit product development and safety assessments to Congress every two years, beginning in 1987. A 2018 court case revealed that such reports have never been submitted to Congress.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s vital statistics reports through the 1960s show that disease mortality declined nearly 90 percent due to improvement of water systems, sanitation and hygiene years before the introduction of the vaccine program.

Look at CDC charts for flu vaccine effectiveness, as referenced in the board’s letter: The majority of those subgroups were far less effective. Last year, it was 29 percent effective; this year, it’s not effective at all. The board’s interpretation was generous.

“The capacity to learn is a gift; the ability to learn is a skill; the willingness to learn is a choice” — Brian Herbert.

Vickie Bovio

Southampton

Kevin Lubbe

Southampton

Carli Simon

East Quogue