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Letters to the editor: March 8, 2019

Stand for free choice

In response to the article “Oregon duty-bound to tighten vaccination law,” I would like to add a few additional facts.

First, infectious diseases had declined by nearly 90 percent before the vaccine schedule was ever introduced. Public health measures, clean water systems and improved sanitation were the most influential factors.

Some of the most prevalent diseases in the early 1900s — including tuberculosis, scarlet fever and typhoid — experienced such declines. These diseases were nearly eradicated without a vaccination program.

Second, vaccines wear off over time. Only 73 percent of adolescents vaccinated against pertussis, commonly known as whooping cough, still display antibodies one year post-vaccination. That drops to 34 percent after two years.

Seventy-five percent of the adolescents in a recent whooping cough outbreak in Washington, also site of the measles outbreak now generating headlines around the region, were fully vaccinated. So we will never achieve herd immunity against whooping cough, even with a 100 percent vaccination rate.

The only way to develop lasting long-term immunity is to contract the disease naturally. What’s more, people receiving the diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis vaccine can still be asymptomatic carriers.

Third, vaccines contain harmful toxins such as mercury, formaldehyde, antifreeze, aluminum, MSG, detergents, GMOs and latex. These toxins are known to cause brain damage. They have been linked to SIDS, dementia, seizures, leukemia, diabetes, autoimmune disease, allergies and infertility.

At least 350,000 adverse vaccine reactions have been reported since 1990, and it’s estimated that less than 10 percent of such reactions are ever logged.

We should not forcibly harm any one group of people to ostensibly protect another group. Forced vaccination is in direct opposition to Oregon’s informed consent laws.

We should all be free to choose what we allow into our children’s bodies. The United States is duty-bound to protect our freedom of choice.

Jennifer Morrissey

McMinnville

 

GOP has lost its way

I am a fourth-generation Democrat in Oregon. I have seldom found a Republican who earned my respect.

Dennis Richardson was a unique exception to the rule. I found him cut from the same cloth as Gov. Tom McCall, another unique exception, especially in the recent 10 years.

Sadly, by their actions and words, current Oregon and Yamhill County Republican leaders do not fit the role of “quintessential public servant.” As a result, voters have rejected the GOP to the point it is almost extinct in Oregon’s state government.

That is the reason Oregon has a one-party system of government today, and it’s not vote-by-mail or progressive urbanites outnumbering Neanderthal rural voters.

Oregon’s Republican Party has lost touch with the Oregon voter. And it has only one thing to blame — its own actions and ideologies, which do not resonate with the bulk of the electorate.

I saw a glimmer of hope with the exchange between County Commissioner Casey Kulla and the recently elected head of the party’s county central committee on a hot-button issue. Time will determine if this event is a fluke or a trend in the making.

Personally, I think one-party systems are doomed to failure. I would rather a vibrant, positive, interactive two-party system remained in Oregon — my home.

Until then, I will vote Democratic, as the Republicans have nothing to offer me.

Micheal Groshong

McMinnville

 

 

Sustainability in classrooms

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has stated clearly that we are already way behind in our efforts to reduce the rate of climate change and global environmental degradation. Even a cursory look at the island of plastic in the middle of the ocean, the extinction of species due to habitat loss and looming water shortages along the Colorado River watershed should convince thinking individuals something is terribly wrong.

The vast majority of scientists in every discipline are telling us we need to change our ways in business, industry, politics and every other facet of our daily living practices — and that’s not to solve these problems, just to slow the rate of degradation. This requires a shift in the focus of our collective will toward consideration of sustainability with regard to every aspect of being a human in the world.

We owe it to our children to make the educational tools they will need available to them, emphasize how those tools relate to finding solutions and prioritize those tools in the curriculum.

Our schools have made a good start in emphasizing the mastery of skills in science, technology, engineering, art and math. It is critical that students also learn how those skills are relevant to developing strategies for addressing the problems generations of indifference are leaving behind.

Fortunately, the Oregon Green Schools project, working in conjunction with the National Wildlife Federation’s Eco-Schools USA, offers a framework “correlated with next generation science standards, common core state standards … (and) STEM opportunities through the lens of sustainability.” Effecting global change begins in local communities, which means us here in McMinnville.

Lovetta Dill

McMinnville

 

Losing community asset

I’m sorry to learn Dr. Michael Vessely is leaving the Willamette Valley Medical Center’s Joint Replacement Institute.

The team Dr. Vessely assembled over the past several years worked seamlessly to provide exceptional care before, during and after surgery. His patient-oriented outreach program drew many patients, including me, to the institute.

My family has had numerous medical procedures over the years, and my recent hip replacement experience was without question the best patient experience of all. 

Hopefully, Dr. Vessely will build a new program nearby with a facility that recognizes and appreciates his unique skills. We are losing not only an accomplished surgeon but also an exceptional advocate for patient care.

Michal Wert

Newberg

[Editor's note: A version of this letter that ran in the print issue stated the Joint Replacement Institute was set to be terminated. The program will continue to operate past Dr. Vessely's departure.]

 

Vaccination case overstated

I was disappointed by last week’s guest editorial by Scott Gibson, “Oregon duty-bound to tighten vaccination law.”

It was a long piece. I’ll just touch on four main points.

1. Measles may indeed have been “declared eliminated from circulation in the United States in 2000.” But obviously that was not true, and should not be presented as fact today. Nor has the disease been eliminated in any other country.

2. It is not true that vaccines confer herd immunity. Pre-1957, most kids got measles. They acquired life-long immunity, and mothers passed those antibodies on to their children. That is herd immunity.

3. To understate the case, much of the language used was inappropriate. “Reality-deniers” seems to derive from Holocaust deniers. “Unpersuadables” harks back to “deplorables,” a derogatory term arising during the 2016 election. And “conspiracy theorists” is code for crazy.

4. Then there was the declaration: “We, as a society, cannot let those who sneer at science threaten the health and safety of our children.” Does that suggest legal action?

In fact, such action could go the other way. It could be brought against parents who had their children vaccinated.

After all, 38 percent of suspected measles cases in the 2015 Disneyland measles scare in California turned out to be vaccine-related. They were not caused by transmission of measles in the wild.

Dan Katz

McMinnville 

 

Vaccination carries risk

Just say no to mandatory vaccination.

Ask your doctor? Better yet, read the science.

Dr. Toni Bark, a pediatrician, rehab specialist and former emergency department chief, opposes mandatory vaccination. At YoutubeToniBarkMDvaccines, she warns, “Vaccines are neither safe nor effective for everyone.”

The field of epigenetics has demonstrated that certain children, perhaps 15 percent or more, are susceptible to vaccine injury. Bark warns it can include status epilepticus, asthma, respiratory arrest, encephalopathy and even death.

Paul Mullen, a vaccineologist of the Mayo Clinic, says in “The Paradox of Measles” that it’s impossible to eliminate a virus like measles with a live virus vaccine.

The majority of measles outbreaks around the country have occurred among vaccinated children. As Mullen notes, mandatory vaccination “doesn’t guarantee eradication of measles.”

New York City’s largest outbreak started with a 22-year-old receiving a mumps/measles/rubella booster. Some 35 to 40 residents who had already been vaccinated contracted a vaccine strain of measles as a result.

In 1983 in Corpus Christi, Texas, 400 vaccinated students came down with measles. And the city boasted a 98 percent vaccination rate.

Since 2003, only two children have died of measles. But more than 400 have died of the vaccine.

Vaccines have been liability-free for drug companies since 1986. A separate vaccine injury court system established in lieu has cost taxpayers more than $4 billion.

Medical exemptions are difficult to get, as the medical community is about 30 years behind the science of epigenetic risk factors. And without exemptions, patients are susceptible to serious risks, including death.

Forty doses of 14 different vaccines by age 6?

Google “Merck Pharmaceuticals and Fraud.” Read “How to Raise Healthy Children” by Dr. Robert Mendelsohn, who practiced obstetrics, gynecology and pediatrics for more than 50 years in Chicago.

Then join me, a chiropractor of long standing in this community, in just saying no to mandatory vaccination.

George Siegfried

McMinnville

 

 

Reserve rights for citizens

Please help me understand why rights reserved for U.S. citizens are being extended to illegals.

Being illegals, they have already broken the law, and we have found that many other crimes, including murders, are also attributable to them. Then please tell me why they are being allowed driver’s licenses and voting privileges.

Why are our legislators and other officials violating their oath to uphold and enforce the law? They are not above the law, so what is their intent? Why should they be allowed to remain in office?

This being a law-abiding nation, we are all compelled to obey the law. Right?

Mary Novak

Yamhill

 

Comments

Don Dix

Lovetta Dill -- You are 'most likely' confused.

First, Oregon has one of the lowest graduation rates in the nation. And Oregon spends more per capita (on education) than 45 other states. Until those positions improve, claiming any sort of 'mastery of skills' is more fallacy than reality.

Plastic floating in the oceans is related to climate change? How? Most would label it garbage, but that doesn't fit the 'scary narrative' of the climate change hypothesis, right?

Species extinction? Apparently, it would surprise you if you were to find that 99.9% of all living species have gone extinct since the Earth formed.

Looming water shortage on the Colorado River? (Looming -- that threatening little 'maybe word'). Were you aware the most populous state (Cal.) uses nearly one third of the entire water flow of the Colorado River?

One more point -- Has the IPCC put forth any accurate forecasts without 'adjusting the raw data to make it fit'? Nope, not one! If you were to thoroughly study the IPCC and it's true intentions, your mind 'might be subject to change'.

Jim

Micheal Groshong your name calling is so typical of a liberal Democrat. I lived here all my life and it’s statements by people like you that got President Trump elected. All of us Neanderthal’s keep you fed and clothed with a roof over your left wing heads. The people you speak of are farmers,loggers,ranchers and people that work with their hands. Good honest hard working people. It all started to change in the late 60’s and early 70’s when the California people moved here to join the rest of you narrow minded people. Before that time this state was very conservative. Three towns control this whole state and if you think that’s fair to all of us your mistaken.

Don Dix

Micheal Groshong -- So, in your narrow view, the best policy is to vote party line? How thoughtful and original!

You are wanting those elected to be “quintessential public servants”? By 'voting only D', that implies you are satisfied by the performance of the state government over the last 30 years+ (or blinded by partisan politics). Tax at every chance and to foolishly waste money has been the path, and the only benefactors are the PERS crowd. It takes very little acumen to realize a super majority of lackeys is hardly 'quintessential'!

Finch

Micheal Groshang - And the Democrats have nothing to offer me except confiscation of the money I've been working decades for to give to those who don't and won't. Same old stories of how more money will fix this or that and the numbers are never enough. Until everyone has some skin in the game and contributes it will always be a hostage situation with the Democrats. Just as you feel that the R's have nothing to offer you there are millions of us you know the D's have nothing to offer us. They just keep moving farther left with more and more insane policies.

Mike

M. Groshong. I agree with you one-party systems are doomed to failure and I wish there was a vibrant, positive, interactive two-party system here in Oregon. And it looks like you scratched some from the R party about being a D. I assume the Rs do agree with you about one party control is doomed to failure. They sure want to chew on you about how bad the D's are. You mention a glimmer of hope at the local county level. What was it about the interaction that gave you hope? Was it two politicians willing to listen to one another's views?

Don Dix

Sorry Mike. My allegiance is reserved to my family and Oregon, not a passel of control freaks on either side.

And it's glaringly evident which pack of thieves is responsible for the financial dilemma facing Oregon. The knowledge of who has been in charge of the state's financial decisions for over 30 years is all the information necessary.

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