To the Arizona Cardiologist Who is Dead-Wrong About Vaccines

Since publishing Maggie’s story as a guest post from Dr. Tim Jacks last week, it’s fair to say a media storm has erupted. I have been absolutely amazed at the response and thankful for how many new readers we have welcomed into the Kid Nurse community. Millions of people have read about Maggie and Eli’s exposure to measles. Countless other reporters and media outlets have picked up the story. In fact, you might have seen Dr. Jack’s interview on Anderson Cooper Monday night. Unfortunately though, Dr. Jacks was not the only physician to discuss vaccines. They also interviewed Dr. Jack Wolfson.

Dr. Wolfson is a medical provider local to Arizona, though I use the term ‘medical provider’ loosely, especially considering he is currently under investigation by the Arizona Medical Board. He refers to himself as a ‘Natural Cardiologist’ and he is vehemently anti-vaccine. In a post last week on Health Impact News, Dr. Wolfson responded to those with ‘misguided anger’ that were critical of his anti-vaccine position with 9 things people should be more angry about than the reemergence of preventable-infectious diseases.

Here is what he wrote and my response, as kindly as I can possibly manage it:

1. Be angry at food companies. Sugar cereals, donuts, cookies, and cupcakes lead to millions of deaths per year. At its worst, chicken pox killed 100 people per year. If those chicken pox people didn’t eat cereal and donuts, they may still be alive. Call up Nabisco and Kellogg’s and complain. Protest their products. Send THEM hate-mail.

Why would I be angry with food companies? Simply because you don’t like what they make? Here’s a novel solution: read the label and DON’T BUY IT! There you go. The problem’s solved and I’m no longer angry at Nabisco and Kellogg. But since you mentioned chicken pox, do you know what makes me angry? What your chiropractor wife wrote to a mother grieving the death of her daughter from varicella. Your wife actually blamed that mother for her child’s death for likely doing “drugs while pregnant, giving her child Tylenol, feeding her garbage food, and exposing her to chemicals.” But the icing on the cake is when she called this mother WHO LOST HER CHILD “ignorant, uneducated, and a danger to all other parents and children.” That type of cruelty makes me mad, no matter how many children suffer and/or die from chicken pox.

2. Be angry at fast food restaurants. Tortured meat burgers, pesticide fries, and hormone milkshakes are the problem. The problem is not Hepatitis B which is a virus contracted by drug users and those who sleep with prostitutes. And you want to inject that vaccine into your newborn?

Why would I be angry at fast food companies? Guess what? I love Wendy’s, eat there about 2-3 times a week, have a healthy BMI, low cholesterol and I LOVE MY LIFE. I have also won fitness competitions and I still think that dollar menus are generally awesome. But again, I have the power to read food labels and DECIDE for myself what I will consume or not. I could do the whack-job diet you recommend, but I’m not personally a fan of kale and starvation. So, I’m not mad at fast food restaurants. But since you mentioned Hepatitis B, I would be angry if I was one of the 12 million people in the US infected with Hepatitis B or one of the 5,000 people who die annually in this county alone just because I wasn’t vaccinated. I’m no “prostitute,” simply a medical provider smart enough to know that Hepatitis B is transferred through body fluids not exclusive to sex.

3. Be angry at the companies who make your toxic laundry detergent, fabric softener, and dryer sheets. You and your children are wearing and breathing known carcinogens (they cause cancer). Call Bounce and Downy and let them know. These products kill more people than mumps, a virus which actually doesn’t cause anyone to die. Same with hepatitis A, a watery diarrhea.

Angry at laundry detergents? Really? Can I kindly suggest counseling? We could be angry about ISIS burning a man to death… but you want to wage a war with Bounce and Downy? I would much rather spend my time fighting soap-refusers’ BO and saving children from mumps-induced sterility and deafness. I don’t know about you, but I am going to make sure I am a grandmother someday.

4. Be angry at all the companies spewing pollution into our environment. These chemicals and heavy metals are known to cause autism, heart disease, cancer, autoimmune disease and every other health problem. Worldwide, these lead to 10’s of millions of deaths every year. Measles deaths are a tiny fraction compared to pollution.

Be angry at companies causing pollution? Which ones? The ones that are responsible for building our entire economy while being forced to follow the EPA’s guidelines? No thanks. I for one happen to think that the measles virus floating through my air space causes as much pollution as any other toxin, so I decide to vaccinate. I also avoid second-hand smoke. Radical, I know. And that ‘tiny fraction’ of global measles death is still 145,700 people. The only thing that’s ‘tiny’ about it is when you compare that number to the measles death rate before the vaccine; which was approximately 2.6 million people annually.

5. Be angry at your parents for not breastfeeding you, co-sleeping with you, and stuffing your face with Domino’s so they can buy more Tide and finish the laundry. Breastfeeding protects your children from many infectious diseases.

Ah yes. Breastfeeding and co-sleeping, the holy grail of a healthy childhood. Might I suggest that while breastfeeding is helpful and a healthy option, it is not the end-all, be-all of preventing infectious diseases? And furthermore, co-sleeping has been proven time and time again to increase the rate of SIDS. No matter what my child eats or where my child sleeps, he or she won’t be catching any vaccine-preventable disease on my watch.

6. Be angry with your doctor for being close-minded and not disclosing the ingredients in vaccines (not that they read the package insert anyway). They should tell you about the aluminum, mercury, formaldehyde, aborted fetal tissue, animal proteins, polysorbate 80, antibiotics, and other chemicals in the shots. According to the Environmental Working Group, newborns contain over 200 chemicals as detected by cord blood. Maybe your doctor feels a few more chemicals injected into your child won’t be a big deal.

I’m ‘close-minded’? For what? Dedicating my entire career to working with children who usually have limited access to healthcare? Answering questions about immunizations at every single visit? For using all of my free-time blogging (FOR FREE) to answer parents who are desperate for information, while you charge $750 for your initial consultation and refuse to accept insurance???? And NEWS FLASH: everything has chemicals! Yes, vaccines contain chemicals. Your kid’s car seat has chemicals, but that doesn’t mean you should stop using it! Water purification contains chemicals, but that doesn’t mean we should stop drinking and die of dehydration! Burnt marshmallows contain carcinogens, but like heck that’s gonna stop me from having an occasional campfire s’more!

7. Be angry with the cable companies and TV manufacturers for making you and your children fat and lazy, not wanting to exercise or play outside. Lack of exercise kills millions more than polio. Where are all those 80 year olds crippled by polio? I can’t seem to find many.

No cable company or TV manufacturer has ever made a child ‘fat and lazy.’ Last I checked, this happens when parents make a CHOICE not to encourage exercise. And the 80-year-olds crippled by polio you can’t find? That would be my uncle who has been in a wheelchair since his early childhood. But he’s not alone because 35,000 people became disabled annually from polio during the 40’s and 50’s before the vaccine was introduced.

8. “In fact, be angry with Steve Jobs and Bill Gates for creating computers so you can sit around all day blasted with electromagnetic radiation reading posts like this.”

Be angry with the tech geniuses of our time? The only type of electromagnetic radiation I’m worried about is the feeling that my brain is melting from reading the garbage you wrote. Thank you Steve Jobs and Bill Gates for making the most amazing inventions of our lifetime so I can set the record straight, and also, thank you Bill Gates for being the world’s most generous person. I appreciate that he has given away more than $28 billion dollars mainly to fight global infectious diseases. Side note: thankfulness is always better than anger.

9. “Be angry with pharmaceutical companies for allowing us to believe living the above life can be treated with drugs. Correctly prescribed drugs kill thousands of people per year. The flu kills just about no one. The vaccine never works.”

Be angry with pharmaceutical companies? No. I won’t. Because the average age of death for a woman in 1850 was 40 years old. Today, it’s 80+. The average lifespan has doubled and that never would have happened without pharmaceutical companies and vaccines. Big pharma doesn’t exist. However, I will likely exist long enough to see several future generations live long healthy lives. What an amazing gift.

“Finally, be angry with yourself for not opening your eyes to the snow job and brainwashing which have taken over your mind. You NEVER asked the doctor any questions. You NEVER asked what is in the vaccines. You NEVER learned about these benign infections. Let’s face it, you don’t really give a crap what your children eat. You don’t care about chemicals in their life. You don’t care if they sit around all day watching the TV or playing video games. All you care about is drinking your Starbuck’s, your next plastic surgery, your next cocktail, your next affair, and your next sugar fix!”

Finally, I don’t think that any parent should be angry at themselves. Because deep-down, no matter what you think about vaccines, I understand that parents are just trying to do the best they can with the information they have been given. That was the case for me when I was previously anti-vaccines. So, here is my attempt at giving better information, because I believe the only one giving the ‘snow job and brainwashing’ is you, Dr. Wolfson.

I think you should go back to selling your non-approved magical vitamins, fighting to keep your currently jeopardized license, and leave the kids to the medical providers who actually care about them.

Thanks in advance!

Dani