Anti-Vax HCG-Tetanus Conspiracy Theory Backed By Catholic Groups In Kenya

From LifeSiteNews:

…According to a statement released Tuesday by the Kenya Catholic Doctors Association, the organization has found an antigen that causes miscarriages in a vaccine being administered to 2.3 million girls and women by the World Health Organization and UNICEF. Priests throughout Kenya reportedly are advising their congregations to refuse the vaccine.

“We sent six samples from around Kenya to laboratories in South Africa. They tested positive for the HCG antigen,” Dr. Muhame Ngare of the Mercy Medical Centre in Nairobi told LifeSiteNews. “They were all laced with HCG.”

Dr. Ngare, spokesman for the Kenya Catholic Doctors Association, stated in a bulletin released November 4, “This proved right our worst fears; that this WHO campaign is not about eradicating neonatal tetanus but a well-coordinated forceful population control mass sterilization exercise using a proven fertility regulating vaccine. This evidence was presented to the Ministry of Health before the third round of immunization but was ignored.”

It was reported last month that Catholic Bishops in Kenya were warning against the vaccine.

LifeSiteNews also carries a choice quote from Brain Clowes, of Human Life International in Virginia, who explains the nefarious motivation behind it all:

“Racism,” is Brian Clowes’ first explanation.  “Also, the developed countries want to get hold of their natural resources. And lately, there is the whole bogus global warming thing.”

There are several articles about Human Life International on Right Wing Watch. It’s not clear to what extent the organization is behind the current scare in Kenya, but it has been promoting the claim that the jab is a secret sterilization plot for many years.

In 1995, the organization’s campaigning featured in an academic paper entitled “Damage to Immunisation Programmes from Misinformation on Contrceptive Vaccines“, by Julie Milstien, P. David Griffin and J.W. Lee and available here. The authors wrote:

This publicity campaign apparently stemmed from reports in the scientific literature of a clinical trial carried out to assess the effectiveness of a prototype antifertility vaccine designed to provide protection against unplanned pregnancies for a period of one to two years, carried out by a group in India led by [Professor G. P.] Talwar. The active ingredient in this vaccine is a subunit of human chorionic gonadotrophin (hCG), a hormone necessary for the initiation of pregnancy and produced in large amounts throughout pregnancy. It is hCG which is detected by pregnancy tests. The hCG used in the clinical trial was coupled with a protein ‘carrier’ so that it would stimulate the production of antibodies against hCG and thus prevent pregnancy. In the case of the study in question, the protein carriers used were diphtheria and tetanus toxoids, which are available relatively cheaply and produced under conditions which make them acceptable for human use.

There is no connection between tetanus immunisation programmes and this small clinical trial, carried out in India in 1994, and not sponsored, supported, nor executed by WHO. However, in order to discredit the development of anti-hCG vaccines, the information concerning these two separate activities has been erroneously linked and distorted to confuse people. Unfortunately this confusion can result in endangering the lives of infants and of their mothers by interfering with their access to immunisations.

After these rumours were spread, attempts were made to analyse TI vaccines for the presence of hCG. The vaccines were sent to hospital laboratories and tested using pregnancy test kits which are developed for use on serum and urine specimens, and are not appropriate for a vaccine such as ‘IT, which contains a special preservative (merthiolate) and an adjuvant (aluminum salt). As a consequence of using these inappropriate tests, low levels of hCG-like activity were found in some samples of TT vaccine. The laboratories themselves recognised the insignificance of the results, which were below the reliable detection capability of the kits and were due to a nonspecific interaction between the adjuvant or other substances in the vaccine and the test kit. However, these results were misrepresented by the ‘pro-life’ groups with the resulting disruption of immunisation programmes.

That was almost 20 years ago. In 2006, a British journalist – Tom Whipple, now with the London Times  – covered the same issue for the Sri Lanka Daily Mirror:

It was at a pro-life conference in Colombo that I first heard about the United Nations’ plans to sterilise the female population of the developing world. The press release for the “Asia under siege” anti-abortion roadshow introduced the case: “The so far unsuspecting and vulnerable Sri Lankan people will learn about the harm that women are exposed to through birth control potions. They will be told how government departments are pressurised into implementing racist and ideological policies enforced from abroad.”

Whipple cited studies which again show the accusation to be false – and on Twitter he has now said that he left the Catholic Church over to the issue.

It’s true that the WHO has been developing a hCG anti-fertility vaccine, but with rather less ambitious aims than the Kenyan Bishops fear; in 2004, the body explained that:

A number of agencies have been trying for some years to develop a totally new method of contraception—immunocontraception—based on the production of an immune response to specific molecules. The Programme’s work in this area has focused on the development of an immunocontraceptive based on, and directed against, human chorionic gonadotrophin (hCG), a protein produced by the early embryo to allow successful implantation in the endometrium. A successful anti-hCG vaccine could theoretically provide long-lasting protection against pregnancy (approximately 6 months), without producing the endocrine and other metabolic disturbances often associated with long-acting hormonal preparations.

Granted, this was more than ten years ago; but a browse of the American Journal of Reproductive Immunology‘s special issue for July 2011, on Contraceptive Vaccines, shows that such an hCG vaccine is still in the process of development. The editorial (which is free to view), by Rajesh K. Naz of West Virginia University, includes the following:

The hCG vaccine is the first vaccine to under Phase I and II clinical trials in humans. Both efficacy and lack of immunopathology have been well demonstrated for this vaccine. At the present time, studies are focused on increasing the immunogenicity and efficacy of the birth control vaccine and examining its clinical applications in various hCG-producing cancers.

Here’s what Clowes wants us to believe: that the originators of the vaccine published their findings in 1994, despite the need for secrecy; that large numbers of twenty-first century health professionals have been co-ordinating on a covert and highly unethical (indeed, illegal) project that risks destroying the credibility of all international health interventions, motivated by greed and racism; that the programme has managed to continue despite exposure by groups like IHL; that vast numbers of women have been sterilized already without anyone noticing any impact on demography; and that professional scientists working on the subject are under the false impression that the vaccine is still at trial stage.

Claims that vaccinations are a secret sterilization plot have also adversely affected anti-polio vaccination programmes – most famously in Nigeria, where local Islamists promoted a parallel conspiracy theory about oestrogen.

Footnote

The LifeSiteNews article also includes the following quote about the Kenyan anti-vaxxers:

Why, they ask does it involve an unprecedented five shots (or”jabs” as they are known, in Kenya) over more than two years and why is it applied only to women of child-bearing years, and why is it not being conducted without the usual fanfare of government publicity?

“Usually we give a series three shots over two to three years, we give it anyone who comes into the clinic with an open wound, men, women or children.” said Dr. Ngare. “If this is intended to inoculate children in the womb, why give it to girls starting at 15 years? You cannot get married till you are 18. The usual way to vaccinate children is to wait till they are six weeks old.”

I don’t think most people would struggle to grasp why a campaign against neo-natal tetanus would focus on “women of child-bearing years”, and a bit of googling shows that a course of five shots is actually normal. As to why girls aged between 15 and 17 are included, despite not being able to get married until they are 18 – perhaps someone ought to explain the way of the world to Dr Ngare.

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