| WHAT DOES HOMEOPATHY TELL US about vaccination? The debate over vaccination dates from the first Western attempts in the 18th century to mimic the immunity conferred by nature. Given that there are valid questions as to the medical effects of modern vaccinations, and that parents are increasingly seeking advice from homeopaths, it is important to know and understand what homeopathic theory and practice tell us about this medical practice. |
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Homeopathy has an ambivalent attitude toward vaccination. Homeopathic organizations seem reluctant to discuss the issue publicly and it does not seem to be taught as part of any regular curriculum. There is no question that the strong support of the medical establishment and governments for vaccination, despite growing concerns even from within the medical research community, makes opposition to this policy risky. Nevertheless, our position must not be based on expedience; it should be founded upon what we know medically.
The purpose of this article is not to consider the evidence for or against vaccination, but rather to examine what the theory and practice of homeopathy over the past 200 years have taught us about vaccination. This article explores these issues based on the writings of several respected homeopaths, their extensive clinical observations, and inductive reasoning. What emerges is a consensus that vaccination is not consistent with the principles of homeopathy, even if it is a crude application of the law of similars. Clinical evidence further suggests that vaccination holds serious short and long-term consequences both because of its effect upon the miasms, and because some constitutional types are particularly susceptible to vaccination shock. However, a complete understanding of vaccination continues to elude us. The functioning of the immune system remains shrouded in mystery. What we do not know about disease and prevention far outweighs what we do know. The evidence, both from allopathic and homeopathic sources, strongly suggests that the long-term effects of modern, mass, and multiple vaccinations in early childhood are significant. The these of this article, therefore, is that homeopaths should be opposed to vaccination as a medical practice because (1) vaccination is not consistent with homeopathic principles of health and cure, and (2) because vaccination may potentially arouse latent inherited and constitutional weaknesses. We homeopaths should discuss our knowledge of vaccination openly, and publicly. It is not a simple matter of being pro- or anti-vaccination. It is a matter of speaking from our knowledge about the process of health and disease, as well as from clinical evidence. That knowledge strongly suggests that the cost of vaccination far outweighs any benefit. The pertinent theory and evidence should be more consistently taught during a homeopath's training. Homeopathic journals and organizations should also be more active in the discussion of vaccination from a medical and homeopathic perspective, seeking to present the evidence in objective and homeopathic terms. Correctness of Vaccination Policy Far From Proven in Medical Literature The intent of this paper is not to debate the issue of vaccination from an allopathic point of view using medical studies. However, the issue of vaccine effectiveness and safety, both short and long-term, is by no means proven or settled within the scientific community. What evidence there is, is open to interpretation. One previously pro-vaccination medical researcher who conducted a study of the literature came to the conclusion that vaccines were both ineffective in eradicating (the initial claim) or protecting (the later claim) against the claimed diseases and had serious consequences for chronic illness, in particular cancer and auto immune disorders: "After studying the extensive literature demonstrating ineffectiveness of vaccines and their dangers, I concluded that the call for suspension of all vaccination programs is now inevitable." (Viera Scheibner, Ph.D., Vaccination: 100 Years of Orthodox Research shows that Vaccines Represent a Medical Assault on the Immune System, 1993, p. xx) Much of allopathic practice has never been submitted to the very tests allopaths deem critical to proving efficacy and safety. Such practices continue because the medical profession finds they provide useful collective clinical experience. That the pro-vaccination stance remains the official one does not indicate its correctness; it only thrusts the burden onto those who would challenge a status quo of over two centuries. In history, the burden is always on those who challenge the paradigm of the day. Given the considerable amount of time that can pass between vaccination and sequelae, cause and effect is difficult to prove – we have to wait for the epidemiological evidence to mount as time passes, in much the same way that we waited for statistical evidence correlating smoking and lung cancer. Homeopathic Evidence Homeopathy has a unique means of testing its theory that vaccination may induce a state of ill health or a departure from optimum health. Homeopaths who suspect that a state of ill health resulted from a vaccination can treat for that shock to the system. They can then make the reasonable claim that if the health of the patient improves after the treatment for vaccination shock, this is valid clinical evidence implicating vaccination in the previous state of ill-health. Every homeopath will see cases where a person's health has "never been well since" vaccination. I can think of several recent cases. One involved two brothers who suffered from cough and persistent upper respiratory infections for over three years – since they received the meningitis vaccination during an epidemic. The "epidemic" consisted of several well-publicized cases in the local paper. The Medical Officer of Health stated that the overall incidence was not abnormal and no mass vaccination was justified, but parental panic forced the declaration of the "epidemic" and the ordering of the mass vaccination of adolescents.
Medical authorities admitted that it was being done for political, not medical, reasons. It is interesting to note that the cases of paralytic polio used to justify the polio vaccine during the famous polio epidemic of 1949-50 in England were determined by one doctor in 1950 to have been triggered by earlier pertussis and/or pertussis diphtheria toxoid. This provocation poliomyelitis was also recorded in other countries following the mass introduction of vaccination against tetanus and whooping cough in the 1940s (Scheibner, ibid, p. xviii). The case of the two brothers is typical of others that I have dealt with over the past three years where the vaccination is the trigger for a host of disorders, including personality changes. Treatment with the Meningitis vaccine nosode resulted in a striking improvement in health and the removal of the cough which had resisted all other treatments, both allopathic and natural.
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