By Catherine J. Frompovich
The Belgium court at Tournai recently ruled in favor of individual human rights when it rescinded Belgium’s long-time mandatory polio vaccination law. That is a rather bold concession to and enforcement of individual human rights especially since the World Health Organization (WHO) in May 1974 initiated its Expanded Program on Immunization (EPI) to vaccinate all the children of the world.
Probably one of the issues authorities had to grapple with was: Children in Belgium are unlikely to get polio these days except when they receive the polio vaccine. What?
Yes, those children who do contract polio are getting it from the very vaccine that’s supposed to ‘immunize’ them against it. That is not an anomaly in Belgium; it also has been happening in the United Kingdom.
Mad Cow Disease Connection to Polio Vaccine
Apparently, nvCJD, a new variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease [mad cow disease], was suspected as being connected to the polio vaccine in five males in Southampton, UK. Notices went out to the medical profession and the polio vaccine was withdrawn. Word about that problem spread throughout the European Union and parents became concerned about getting their children vaccinated against polio.
Parents Get Jail Sentence for Not Vaccinating Child
Furthermore, parents in Belgium received jail sentences and fines in the past for not getting their children vaccinated with the mandatory polio vaccine. In February 2008, the British Medical Journal published the article “Belgian parents are sentenced to prison for not vaccinating children” [BMJ 2008; 336: 348]. According to the BMJ article, two sets of parents [four people] were fined $8,000 (U.S.) for each individual and sentenced to five months in prison early in February 2008. The judge convicted the parents on the basis of police reports. Even though there was a jail sentence handed down, colleagues in Belgium say they don’t believe parents actually spent time behind bars.
The recent Belgian polio vaccine case regarding a four-year-old male child, Oliver Comblet, seems to be the impetus for the court’s rescinding the mandatory polio vaccine law.
Leave a Reply