Countrygirl
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Yesterday, In response to David Tuller’s request for people who were survivors of the Royal Free outbreak, I suggested that he also speak to Dr Byron Hyde, who lives in Canada and who is one of, if not the most, knowledgeable ME doctor alive now .
Dr Hyde, in a lecture to a US ME support group gave a most interesting lecture in 2012. He related the story of one of his patients who had been a survivor of the L.A outbreak in 1933/4.
In the early ‘30s a serious polio outbreak occurred in Los Angeles in which one hundred and ninety-eight medical staff of the General hospital became ill with the first cases of what was to be later called Myalgic Encephalomyelitis.
At that time, Dr Maurice Brodie, a Canadian researcher working in New York City, developed an early polio vaccine that was created by passaging the polio virus through mouse brain tissue as a way to weaken the virus. Meanwhile, two doctors, Dr. John R. Paul, a professor from Yale Medical School and Dr. Leslie Webster from the Rockefeller Institute, travelled to Los Angeles, California in the summer of 1934 to observe the polio outbreak there in order to collect important information. This , of course, meant that they were the first observers of the first recorded outbreak of Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (ME/CFS).
The staff, prior to developing the new disease, had received the early Brodie vaccine along with several thousand children in the region. This early vaccine had an extra ingredient: an "immune serum" preserved with thimerosal, a mercury derivative that was new on the clinical scene. Following the administration of the vaccine, were the first recorded cases of ME and autism. The autism case was in a child whose doctor-parents had ensured she received the new vaccine.
With nearly two hundred staff sick with a new, and unrecognised disease, Dr A.G. Gilliam, an assistant surgeon for the US Public Health Service, was charged with conducting an investigation of this curious new sickness. Coincidentally, Gilliam had just been investigating Brodie's polio vaccine in North Carolina where many children had been given the vaccine. He concluded that the Brodie’s vaccine was suspect and must be dis-continued.
Strangely, Gilliam's report did not appear during the expected time frame. For some inexplicable reason, it was delayed for several months. No reason for the failure to produce the report in a timely manner has been given.
Dr Byron Hyde, in recent years, has conducted him own investigation into the events surrounding the first ME outbreak. He discovered that Gilliam’s report maintained that the ME outbreak (not named until after the Royal Free outbreak in 1955) was caused by this immunisation and it was a human transfer of infectious material from the vaccine.
Gilliam had a huge tussle with the chief of the US public health system of the US who did not want the information to be made public as it would deter the US population from agreeing to receiving vaccines and would put back the programme by an unacceptable period of time. Finally, it was agreed that Dr Gilliam would be allowed to publish his report: but only if he agreed to remove all reference to immunisation and his conclusion that the immunisation had caused the new disease of what was later named –Myalgic Encephalomyelitis.
Strangely, for a new disease, the one hundred and ninety-eight staff who had developed the illness were not followed up over subsequent years as the US determined to air brush the illness out of the picture in order to protect the reputation of the vaccine and not harm the new industry.
There is another interesting twist to the story: a few of the doctor-patients received a massive payout in compensation totalling about an eye-watering hundred million dollars in today’s money. In exchange they had to agree to a gagging clause and never repeat that the Brodie vaccine was associated with the outbreak of the new disease. The financier was allegedly The Rockefeller Institute.
Meanwhile, there was one more personal tragedy in this story: Dr Brodie at the age of thirty-six was found dead in 1939. It was assumed he committed suicide.
It was not until 1951, that scientists started to question the safety of using animal brain tissue for vaccine production and the issue was raised whether it was possible to transfer animal retroviruses to humans via vaccines. No one knew for sure, and it was decided that science would travel forward hopefully. With any luck the answer would be ‘no’. Using animal parts would hopefully prove to be safe and infectious material would not be transmitted to humans.
In the words of Dr Stuart of the WHO when lecturing on the use of animal brain tissue as a medium in which to cultivate viruses for vaccines in 1953: "[T]wo main objections to this vaccine have been voiced, because of the possibility that: (i) the mouse brains employed in its preparation may be contaminated with a virus pathogenic for man although latent in mice . . . or may be the cause of a demyelinating encephalomyelitis; (ii) the use, as antigen, or a virus with enhanced neurotropic properties may be followed by serious reactions involving the central nervous system.
So did the vaccine transfer a new infection into the human population or did the medical staff become ill because of the typical double-hit theory of ME: they were fighting the polio virus and then received a major immune challenge by receiving the new Brodie vaccine?
Dr Hyde, in a lecture to a US ME support group gave a most interesting lecture in 2012. He related the story of one of his patients who had been a survivor of the L.A outbreak in 1933/4.
In the early ‘30s a serious polio outbreak occurred in Los Angeles in which one hundred and ninety-eight medical staff of the General hospital became ill with the first cases of what was to be later called Myalgic Encephalomyelitis.
At that time, Dr Maurice Brodie, a Canadian researcher working in New York City, developed an early polio vaccine that was created by passaging the polio virus through mouse brain tissue as a way to weaken the virus. Meanwhile, two doctors, Dr. John R. Paul, a professor from Yale Medical School and Dr. Leslie Webster from the Rockefeller Institute, travelled to Los Angeles, California in the summer of 1934 to observe the polio outbreak there in order to collect important information. This , of course, meant that they were the first observers of the first recorded outbreak of Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (ME/CFS).
The staff, prior to developing the new disease, had received the early Brodie vaccine along with several thousand children in the region. This early vaccine had an extra ingredient: an "immune serum" preserved with thimerosal, a mercury derivative that was new on the clinical scene. Following the administration of the vaccine, were the first recorded cases of ME and autism. The autism case was in a child whose doctor-parents had ensured she received the new vaccine.
With nearly two hundred staff sick with a new, and unrecognised disease, Dr A.G. Gilliam, an assistant surgeon for the US Public Health Service, was charged with conducting an investigation of this curious new sickness. Coincidentally, Gilliam had just been investigating Brodie's polio vaccine in North Carolina where many children had been given the vaccine. He concluded that the Brodie’s vaccine was suspect and must be dis-continued.
Strangely, Gilliam's report did not appear during the expected time frame. For some inexplicable reason, it was delayed for several months. No reason for the failure to produce the report in a timely manner has been given.
Dr Byron Hyde, in recent years, has conducted him own investigation into the events surrounding the first ME outbreak. He discovered that Gilliam’s report maintained that the ME outbreak (not named until after the Royal Free outbreak in 1955) was caused by this immunisation and it was a human transfer of infectious material from the vaccine.
Gilliam had a huge tussle with the chief of the US public health system of the US who did not want the information to be made public as it would deter the US population from agreeing to receiving vaccines and would put back the programme by an unacceptable period of time. Finally, it was agreed that Dr Gilliam would be allowed to publish his report: but only if he agreed to remove all reference to immunisation and his conclusion that the immunisation had caused the new disease of what was later named –Myalgic Encephalomyelitis.
Strangely, for a new disease, the one hundred and ninety-eight staff who had developed the illness were not followed up over subsequent years as the US determined to air brush the illness out of the picture in order to protect the reputation of the vaccine and not harm the new industry.
There is another interesting twist to the story: a few of the doctor-patients received a massive payout in compensation totalling about an eye-watering hundred million dollars in today’s money. In exchange they had to agree to a gagging clause and never repeat that the Brodie vaccine was associated with the outbreak of the new disease. The financier was allegedly The Rockefeller Institute.
Meanwhile, there was one more personal tragedy in this story: Dr Brodie at the age of thirty-six was found dead in 1939. It was assumed he committed suicide.
It was not until 1951, that scientists started to question the safety of using animal brain tissue for vaccine production and the issue was raised whether it was possible to transfer animal retroviruses to humans via vaccines. No one knew for sure, and it was decided that science would travel forward hopefully. With any luck the answer would be ‘no’. Using animal parts would hopefully prove to be safe and infectious material would not be transmitted to humans.
In the words of Dr Stuart of the WHO when lecturing on the use of animal brain tissue as a medium in which to cultivate viruses for vaccines in 1953: "[T]wo main objections to this vaccine have been voiced, because of the possibility that: (i) the mouse brains employed in its preparation may be contaminated with a virus pathogenic for man although latent in mice . . . or may be the cause of a demyelinating encephalomyelitis; (ii) the use, as antigen, or a virus with enhanced neurotropic properties may be followed by serious reactions involving the central nervous system.
So did the vaccine transfer a new infection into the human population or did the medical staff become ill because of the typical double-hit theory of ME: they were fighting the polio virus and then received a major immune challenge by receiving the new Brodie vaccine?
