“26,000 people have to be injected with the pneumococcal vaccine in order to prevent a single case of invasive pneumococcal disease!”  

“Of the 21,536 reported cases of pneumococcal-vaccine-related adverse events (reported to VAERS as of May 31, 2019), 2,306 were deaths, with nearly 70 percent occurring in children under 6 years of age.”    

I recently did some deep research concerning the recent findings of the CDC’s (US Center for Disease Control and Prevention) Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) regarding its 2019 conclusion concerning the total lack of efficacy of the two block-buster, multi-billion dollar pneumococcal vaccines, Prevnar-13 (Pfizer) and Pneumovax-23 (Merck).  

The fact that this disturbing information has not been adequately publicized by the CDC should raise a lot of questions about the truthfulness and even the honor of our previously honorable, Big Pharma-co-opted entities such as the CDC, WHO, AAP, AMA, AAFP, etc when it comes to their continued blind recommendations to clinics, physicians and their patients (and now even drugstores!) to continue, rather than suspend, the “routine” injections of these worthless and even dangerous vaccines! This information should raise a lot of doubts about the veracity of the CDC’s prior blanket vaccine mandates will be very difficult for Big Medicine’s leadership, primarily because the handful of Big Pharma corporations that dominate the vaccine market are also major funders/”bribers”/partners of all the entities mentioned in the paragraph above.  

Last year’s revelations from the expert ACIP panel about the uselessness of one of the CDC’s blockbuster vaccines is a sobering revelation that the past few decades of rapidly increasing vaccine mandates should be logically met with skepticism and additional vaccine hesitance about the safety and efficacy of any and all vaccines.   This new information has significant implications for the state legislatures that are in the process of having legislation drawn up for them, often by vaccine industry lobbyists (a la ALEC, the American Legislative Exchange Council), that is intended to make it illegal - and punishable - for parents to refuse to have their children fully-vaccinated – even for non-contagious diseases.in order to attend school. For me, the most important item in the ground-breaking article was the fact that the little-used, ignored, censored-out – but critically-important - Number Needed to Vaccinate (NNV) for the pneumococcal vaccines evaluated by the ACIP was an astronomical 26,000!!   This NNV figure means that 26,000 patients would have to be vaccinated with a pneumococcal vaccine to benefit just one patient.   I have written a number of articles pointing out NNV data on various commonly used/abused vaccines that show similar uselessness - at the same time pointing out the fact that they can be dangerous and disease-producing.  

In a Duty to Warn column from a year ago, I wrote:   “The CDC reported declines in invasive pneumococcal disease among children less than 5 years old well before the vaccine became available. Overall, invasive pneumococcal disease decreased from 100 cases per 100,000 people in 1998 to 9 cases per 100,000 in 2015. Invasive pneumococcal disease caused by the 13 serotypes covered by Prevnar-13 decreased from 91 cases per 100,000 people in 1998 to 2 cases per 100,000 people in 2015. All the improvements occurred before the wide use of the vaccine. Prevnar-13 also contains a neurotoxic aluminum adjuvant, which is known to be capable of causing autoimmune disorders.”  

According to the National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC): “As of May 31, 2019, there have been 21,536 serious adverse events reported to the Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System (VAERS) in connection with pneumococcal vaccinations (PCV7, PCV13, PPSV23). “Over 60 percent of these reported serious pneumococcal vaccine-related adverse events occurred in children 6 and under. Of these…adverse event reports to VAERS, 2,306 were deaths, with nearly 70 % occurring in children under 6 years of age.  However, the numbers of vaccine-related injuries and deaths reported to VAERS may not reflect the true number of serious health problems that occur after pneumococcal vaccination”.  

In order to clarify that statement, it is important to be mindful of the fact that as few as 1% of adverse events from prescription drugs and vaccines are ever reported to authorities. That means that the above reported 21,536 adverse events from pneumococcal vaccines could reasonably be multiplied by 100!  

One must ask, what school administration in its right mind would force its exceptionally healthy, non-contagious (so-called “under-vaccinated”) students to submit to cocktails of untested-for-safety vaccines before they are allowed to attend its public school, where they are not a danger to their fellow students? (As a matter of fact, the students that are a much greater risk to their classmates are the ones that have recently been given a live virus vaccine in the previous days, weeks and months.)   And what physician in his or her right mind would try to promote their clinic’s over-vaccination agendas for children if the parents knew how useless are the pneumococcal vaccine shots?  

It is hoped that this article will strengthen the resolve of the small number of enlightened members of state and federal legislatures that are actually considering introducing legislation to prohibit forced vaccinations on innocent children whose over-obedient parents know nothing about the motivations, morality or criminality of those corporate entities that are planning to make a killing (in more ways than one) by selling their often toxic and often useless, mandated vaccines for school children.  

This article is being widely forwarded to many of the state legislators that are involved in pushing through the above-mentioned forced vaccination legislation in every state of our post-truth, disunited, unraveling, corporate-controlled nation.   This article is also being widely emailed to hundreds of whistle-blowing, anti-over-vaccination activists as well as to parents of vaccine-injured children that are now suffering from a wide variety of permanent, disabling, vaccine-induced disorders such as autism spectrum disorders, brain disorders, seizure disorders, autoimmune disorders, rheumatoid disorders, Type 1 Diabetes, etc, etc).  

This article will also be emailed to hundreds of investigative journalists and websites all around the globe, many of whom will be contributing articles about the issue, posting the article online, re-publishing it or passing it on to other interested parties.   Here is the important Zuger article:

How Should We Use Conjugate Pneumococcal Vaccine in Immunocompetent Older Adults?  

By Abigail Zuger, MD - July 25, 2019 (From NEJM [New England Journal of Medicine] Journal Watch) (1167 words)  

https://www.jwatch.org/na49611/2019/07/25/how-should-we-use-conjugate-pneumococcal-vaccine   (Note: The bolding and font 12 italicizations of Dr Zuger’s article that have been added have not changed Dr Zuger’s original text or meaning. But the font 11 italicizations below have been added - for emphasis - by Gary G. Kohls, MD)  

“The standard metrics of public health suggest that PCV13 is an expensive and unnecessary intervention. The CDC estimates its price tag at between US$200,000 and >$500,000 per quality-adjusted life-year.”  

“26,000 people will have to receive the vaccine in order for I case of invasive pneumococcal disease to be prevented!”   “An expert panel no longer recommends it for everyone (nor any other pneumococcal vaccine): Now clinicians and patients will have to decide on their own.”

During the past 20 years, rates of invasive pneumococcal disease among older U.S. adults (age, ≥65) have plummeted. (Some Big Pharma-affiliated) experts ascribe this trend entirely to beneficial effects of the conjugate vaccines given to children, which (allegedly) have greatly reduced carrier states and boosted herd immunity (NEJM JW Gen Med Aug 15 2019 and Clin Infect Dis 2019; 69:34).  

“In the 5 years since the 13-valent conjugate vaccine (PCV13; Prevnar) was first recommended for all older adults, it has had no discernable further direct effect on risks for either invasive disease (i.e., bacteremic pneumonia or meningitis) or nonbacteremic pneumonia in this population. “  

“The ‘number needed to vaccinate’ (NNV) to prevent 1 case of invasive pneumococcal disease is estimated to be 26,000 annually; (ie, 26,000 people will have to receive the vaccine in order for I case of invasive pneumococcal disease to be prevented!).”  

In fact, as is now the case in many countries, most pneumococcal disease in the U.S. is caused by serotypes not covered by the conjugate vaccine.  

In June 2019, the CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices noted these trends and reconsidered its 2014 recommendation that all healthy older adults receive a dose of PCV13 (Branswell H. STATnews.com. June 26, 2019).   Rather than continuing to endorse universal use of the vaccine, or reversing policy and advising against its use, the committee recommended that clinicians decide on their own whether or not to vaccinate, after a “shared clinical decision-making” process with their patients. This recommendation undoubtedly will soon become official CDC policy.  

A video of the committee's deliberations is freely available on YouTube and provides an immensely educational 90-minute lesson on both the complexities of modern pneumococcal epidemiology and the impressive difficulties of creating sensible health policy.   The standard metrics of public health suggest that PCV13 is an expensive and unnecessary intervention. The CDC estimates its price tag at between US$200,000 and >$500,000 per quality-adjusted life-year.  

The “number needed to vaccinate” (NNV) to prevent 1 case of invasive pneumococcal disease (pneumococcal pneumonia and pneumococcal meningitis) is estimated to be 26,000 annually; (ie, 26,000 people will have to receive the vaccine in order for I case of invasive pneumococcal disease to be prevented!); the estimated number to prevent 1 case of (just) pneumonia ranges from 2,600 to 14,000.  

For individuals, though, the vaccine's benefits are not dismissed so easily. It might well be lifesaving for an older adult who is challenged by a vaccine-type pneumococcus, especially one who does not fit the CDC's definition of “immunocompromised” but might still have difficulty clearing an infection caused by this sometimes-lethal organism. However, these rare cases of potential benefit are impossible to identify in advance.  

The advisory committee ruefully noted the off-putting complexity of the current adult pneumococcal vaccine recommendations and its concern that making yet more drastic changes would be confusing, demoralizing, and burdensome for patients and providers (not to mention those in charge of the vaccine sections of the nation's electronic medical records.)  

Further, committee members fully sympathized with clinicians who are supposed to engage in “shared clinical decision making” without clear clinical signposts to guide them.   Assuming few clinicians will have the time or inclination to watch the entire committee discussion, some of its take-home points might help them help their patients: The new policy is not intended to affect use of the older 23-valent vaccine (PPV23; Pneumovax), which still is recommended for all immunocompetent older adults (age, ≥65). The new policy does not apply to immunocompromised patients, who should continue to receive PCV13 in series with PPV23. PCV13 remains a safe vaccine, with no post-marketing concerns. PCV13 might be a reasonable intervention for patients living in communities with higher-than-average incidence of pneumococcal disease; for those with diabetes or serious liver, lung, or heart disease; and for frail elders. Patients' own risk calculations will (in theory) help clinicians make vaccination decisions.  

Still, once mundane considerations of cost and convenience have been addressed, the outcome of the shared decision-making process is predictable: Patients who embrace all medical interventions likely will opt for vaccination, and those who avoid whatever can be avoided likely will opt out. The rest will probably do whatever the clinician suggests.  

Meanwhile, speaking of PPV23, what's in store for that old standby?  

The venerable polysaccharide vaccine generally is considered to be less immunogenic than conjugate vaccines, although it does address a broader spectrum of pneumococcal serotypes.   PPV23 contains 12 of PCV13's serotypes, and, clearly, its public health metrics also have been affected by the rapidly changing landscape of pneumococcal disease, but they were not part of the June 2019 committee agenda.  

New pneumococcal conjugate vaccines are on the horizon, with almost as broad an array of serotypes as PPV23, and their availability likely will force specific reconsideration of PPV23's use in the near future.   (Dr Zuger has served on the editorial boards of Clinical Infectious Diseases and the Open Forum Infectious Diseases)

 GGK Note: The Mayo Clinic’s website states that “Immunization (vaccination) against pneumococcal infection is not recommended for infants and children younger than 2 years of age, because these persons cannot produce enough antibodies to the vaccine to protect them against a pneumococcal infection.” Mayo’s website also states that “This vaccine is to be administered only by or under the supervision of your doctor or other health care professional.” However, the website www.healthline.com (https://www.healthline.com/health/pneumonia-vaccine-side-effects#in-babies) states that: “The CDC recommends that babies start being injected with the PCV13 pneumococcal vaccine and is to be given in “several” (ie, four) doses.” “The first dose is given at 2 months of age. The subsequent doses are given at 4 months, 6 months, and between 12 to 15 months.” Also, all major pharmacies, with no medical training (or vaccinology literacy anywhere in the store) are somehow being allowed to inject Pneumococcal vaccines as well as these vaccines:

Vaccination costs at Costco’s Pharmacy (which takes pride in charging significantly less than the other drugstore chains, each of which makes it difficult to find out what they actually charge)

Hepatitis A (Havrix) - $69.38

Hepatitis B (Engerix-B) - $55.29

Hepatitis A and Hepatitis B (Twinrix) - $94.60

Human Papilloma Virus (Gardasil 9) - $235.42

Meningitis (Menactra) - $126.99

Pneumovax® 23 - $108.18

Prevnar 13® - $198.81

Seasonal 4-Strain Flu Shot (No Cost on Most Insurance) - $19.99

Shingles (Shingrix) - $154.20

Tetanus, Diphtheria, Whooping Cough (Tdap) (Boostrix) - $41.65

Since most health insurance companies have no idea how useful or useless or sickness-inducing these vaccines are, one wonders how they have come to be so ridiculously generous in covering the costs of vaccines for their insurance customers. It should come as no surprise that America’s Big Pharma-co-opted health care non-system is bankrupting the nation as it is over-vaccinating its unaware citizens.

NOTE: The views expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily represent or reflect the views of Reader Weekly.”