Dr. Theresa Deisher is no stranger to science, research, and ethics. She holds a PhD in Molecular and Cellular Physiology from Stanford University and has spent over 20 years in commercial biotechnology before founding Sound Choice Pharmaceutical Institute (SCPI), which promotes consumer awareness about the widespread use of electively aborted fetal material in drug discovery, development, and commercialization.
Dr. Deisher is an inventor with 23 issued U.S. patents. She was the first person to discover adult cardiac derived stem cells, and has been a champion of adult stem cell research for two decades. She is also founder of AVM Biotechnology, which is dedicated to the discovery, development, and commercialization of safe, effective, and ethical stem cell technologies for regenerative medicine, oncology, and fully human biologics.
Deisher spoke to Aleteia’s Zoe Romanowsky about why parents and the general public should not be quick to support government mandated vaccines or believe that all vaccines are safe.
Dr. Deisher, your background is in molecular and cellular physiology and the biotech industry. How did you come to be interested in vaccine science and safety?
We took on the task to develop alternative vaccines from a moral and philosophical perspective. In reading about vaccines one cannot miss the vaccine autism controversy. What was striking is that several scientific articles whose purpose was to refute any link, actually demonstrated a very strong association. That association was between autism rates and the use of fetal manufactured vaccines. Therefore, we undertook a survey of as many countries as possible where autism and vaccine information was accessible and accurate. Across decades and across continents there is an association between the use of fetal manufactured vaccines and autism.
Government mandated vaccination programs are a very divisive issue right now. As a scientist and mother, you are not anti-vaccine, but you believe there are serious problems with vaccines that need to be addressed. Could you explain your position?
The FDA has debated the safety of using human fetal cell lines for vaccine manufacture for over 50 years, yet actual safety studies have never been done. There has never been an epidemiological study that has considered the relative risk of autism diagnosis based on receipt of fetal manufactured vaccines, which includes MMR II, Varivax, Vaqta, Havrix and Pentacel.
People who question the U.S. vaccination schedule, which is very aggressive, and the very real dangers of adjuvants in vaccines, and the long term impact of a heavy vaccination schedule on natural immunity, have rational and sound scientific concerns. It is sad and perplexing that civil, complete, and rational discussions of these concerns are obstructed by pharma, by the media, and unfortunately often by our elected officials, pediatricians, and family physicians.
There is still concern out there that vaccines may cause or trigger autism and other developmental problems. A lot of experts say there is no evidence that vaccines cause autism, but many parents aren’t convinced. A graph on the Sound Choice website shows that the three largest spikes in autism coincide with the introduction of vaccines produced with aborted fetal cells. Is this the piece we’re missing here—that it’s not vaccines per se, but what’s incertain vaccines? And why is this not showing up in the studies that the government agencies and pharmaceutical companies say we should believe?
Yes, this is the piece that we are missing. It is not the MMR, but the fetal contaminants in the MMR. This is not showing up in studies because there are several fetal manufactured vaccines. Studies have looked only at MMR, but never all fetal manufactured vaccines. Children are rarely completely unvaccinated, and in the overwhelming majority of cases when parents reject vaccines, they only reject one or two—typically MMR and DTaP, because of the public perception of a link to autism. However, a child who did not receive MMR likely did receive Varivax (chickenpox) and/or Vaqta or Havrix (hepatitis A). Therefore, studies must be conducted to consider the question of the relative risk of autism if a child received any, a combination, or all of the fetal manufactured vaccines. This has never been done.
In fact, no study has ever looked at the relationship between fetal vaccines and autism. If you have five smelly garbage bags and you take one outside yet the smell remains would you conclude that one garbage bag had no relationship to the smell? Of course not. They have looked at MMR II, but most of those children got the chickenpox vaccine and hep A—both fetal vaccines. No study has ever looked at children who get no fetal vaccines. Yet the data exists. Mennonites vaccinate, but will not use the fetal vaccines and their children have zero autism.
Aside from the morality of using aborted fetal cell lines in the first place why are these vaccines problematic?
The vaccines are contaminated with toxic residuals from the fetal cell lines that are known to be able to trigger autoimmunity and insertional mutagenesis, which is when foreign DNA inserts itself into a recipient’s genome. It is by nature a mutation which can cause disease if it inserts in the wrong place. Perhaps 85% of the genome is susceptible to disease if an insertion occurs.
I read that you are also concerned that vaccines using aborted fetal cell lines may be linked to childhood cancers and other diseases that may not show up for years. Can you explain?
Insertional mutagenesis occurs most readily in stem cells. Lymphomas and leukemias include certain subtypes that involve mutations in stem or progenitor cells. If insertional mutagenesis occurs in a stem cell, that stem cell will remain dormant in the germinal center in the case of BL, FL and DCLBL until it is triggered to grow and mature by the presentation of an antigen (bacteria or virus, etc.). The maturation includes a process called hypermutation and class switching. Mistargeted hypermutation is known to be a likely mechanism in B cell lymphomas. If a B cell precursor or stem cell has been the recipient of insertional mutagenesis, this insertion could interfere with normal class switching and lead to chromosomal translocations and other abnormalities, causing cancer. Insertional mutagenesis puts the cell as subsequent risk for additional mutations and disease.
Which vaccines out there are being made with aborted cell lines and which ones are not? Isn’t there enough reliable research to show these are safe, and if not, why not?
We have a list on our website. No, there is no evidence that these are safe. The contaminants in Varivax (chickenpox) are so high that Merck was compelled to do some additional safety studies. Unfortunately, they did the studies in mice and not human cell lines. The toxicities will not occur in mice as the responses to the contaminants are species specific. Scientists at Merck are bright and clearly know this, so why then did they use mice? One must consider all possible motivations, including fraud…. Merck is presently being sued by its own scientists for knowingly conducting fraudulent studies regarding the effectiveness of its Mumps vaccine. 1999 FDA meeting minutes record an FDA Director stating that while the dangers of autoimmunity and insertional mutagenesis are real the FDA preferred to do intellectual rather than actual experiments, which means they sat around and discussed it, rather than did any real studies.
With respect to the vaccines you consider unethical and possibly unsafe, what do you advise a parent to do if they are concerned, but live in a state that has a mandated vaccination program?
Homeschooling is an option. A trip to Japan to get alternative MMR and hepatitis vaccines is an option. Exposure to natural chicken pox is an option and much better for children than the vaccine.
How do you respond to the position that since the personal risk is small it is our civic and moral duty to vaccinate our kids in order to achieve the greater good of "herd immunity" because when unvaccinated people group together herd immunity is lost and illness spreads, putting everyone at risk?
The personal risk is not small at all, and as a matter of fact, the personal risk greatly exceeds the risk from the illnesses the vaccines are designed to protect against. Therefore it is not our civic or moral duty to sacrifice our children to lifelong autism or suffering and death from lymphoma to protect a few people from diseases like measles and mumps and chickenpox. Rubella, which can be serious for the unborn children, can be protected against by administering immunoglobulin to pregnant women—a much better civic minded solution since the immunoglobulin will be given only to those who need it and does not carry the risks that vaccines do.
In the last major outbreak of measles 47,000 people were infected and six died. In contrast, 44,000 children come down with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) annually, a lifelong disability. About 4,320 children under age 20 will come down with lymphoma (300 with Burkitts) each year and suffer horrors as they undergo extreme and severe chemotherapy. About 864 children will die each year from lymphoma (and about 60 will die from Burkitts). They will die after incredible horror and suffering.
As you know, there is a great deal of distrust about vaccines and this has pitted parents against parents, parents against doctors, and now parents against the government. Where did this distrust come from? How do we make progress on this issue to ensure maximum protection for everyone’s children?
Distrust comes from the fact that parents watch their perfectly healthy, well developing children regress into autism shortly after vaccination. Why would they trust big pharma, who has no liability, saying vaccines are safe? Why would parents trust the FDA, NIH, and CDC who are dis-incentivized to insure vaccine safety because the pharmaceutical companies have no liability and the FDA, CDC, and NIH employees regularly go on to big fat salaries in pharmaceutical companies?
How do we make progress? Make the pharma companies liable in civil court for vaccine injuries and vaccines will become safe and targeted towards truly life threatening diseases. Allow each parent to choose whether or not and how much to vaccinate their children. Parents of immune compromised children will have to take steps to protect their own children. I had to do this with my son, which I did; I certainly did not demand that the world around me force-vaccinate their children because I would not do the work to protect my son.
Do you believe children should receive vaccines for (typically) non-life threatening illnesses like influenza, Hep B, and chickenpox?
No, I don’t believe children should be mandated to receive vaccinations for non-life threatening illnesses. Vaccinations are not demonstrated to be beneficial to our natural immune systems.
Any further advice you have for parents who are confused about vaccines? How do parents navigate this issue and figure out what to do?
The FDA has been captured in meeting minutes saying they prefer to do intellectual rather than actual experiments about the risks of fetal contaminants in vaccines. If Ford introduced a new brake system, and the engineers sat around a table and "thought" the new system was safe without testing it, would you buy that car? No, because you’re not stupid. A parent would not buy an untested car, or car seat, or crib for their child. Parents need to know that vaccines are also untested and demand tests. Some data is actually available regarding these unanswered vaccine questions in the Vaccine Safety Datalink, however, the controllers of that database, which includes the CDC, refuse to do the studies or to allow anyone else to do them.
I would advise parents to demand actual safety studies, rather than the "intellectual" safety studies the FDA performed, regarding the fetal contaminants in vaccines, as well as actual safety studies regarding the adjuvants in vaccines.
To find out more about Dr. Deisher’s work, visit Sound Choice Pharmaceutical Institute (SCPI) and AVM Biotechnology.
Zoe Romanowsky is lifestyle editor and video content producer for Aleteia.
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