18 Little Known Facts About College Meningitis Vaccines

By Dr. Sherri Tenpenny, DO, AOBNMM, ABIHM

When I wrote this back in 2017, middle schools across the country were trying to strong arm parents into meningitis vaccines. Sadly, that has become the norm, with kids jabbed at age 11 and a booster follow up at age 16. Most colleges require this vaccine as well. While requirements have become stricter since I wrote this six years ago, my 18 facts about meningitis and meningitis vaccines have not changed. They still old true today, having withstood the test of time. As parents across the nation gear up again to send  their children for school, we thought this was worth a reprint.

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Two weeks ago, I posted a blog article about the fraudulent letters being sent to parents in Ohio, and actually across the country, about a new meningitis vaccine said to be a requirement for school. If you missed it, you can read it here. 

As middle schools are trying to strong arm parents into vaccinating their pre-teens without giving them information on their right to refuse, colleges are becoming equally aggressive about forcing the meningitis jab – and other vaccines – prior to granting access to higher education.

About N. meningitis and the meningitis vaccines

While meningitis sounds frightening and the infection can be serious, here are 18 important, yet little-known, facts about the infection and about the meningitis vaccines you need to know:

1. In the 10-year period between 1998-2007, only 2,262 cases of meningitis were reported in the United States. Within a population of more than 300 million, that number is negligible and not worth vaccinating millions for “protection.”
2. Of the 2,262 cases, 11.3% cases were fatal. Not to minimize the loss of life, but that also means that nearly 89% of people survived and recovered.
3. Meningitis does not spread rapidly. According to the Meningitis Research Foundation, the bacterium can only live for a few moments outside the human body, so it is not spread by casual contact and is not passed along on clothing, bedding, toys or dishes.
4. In fact, the Foundation goes on to say the risk of the infection is very low and 97 out of 100 cases occur in isolation, with no other cases.
5. Neisseria has 12 known bacterial strains, with serogroups A, B, C, W, X, and Y causing almost all infections worldwide. There are five  N. meningitidis vaccines approved for use in the U.S.:
   1. Menomune, for serotypes A, C, Y, W-135, approved in 1981
   2. Menveo, for serotypes A, C, Y, W-135, approved in 2010
   3. Menactra, for serotypes A, C, Y, W-135, approved in April 2011
   4. Trumenba, for serotype B, approved in October 2014
   5. Bexsero, for serotype B, approved in January 2015
6. Before – not after – the introduction of the meningococcal conjugate vaccines, the incidence of meningitis in the United States was already at an historic low.
7. Since the introduction of the meningitis vaccines, no significant decrease in serogroup C or Y infection has been seen.
8.  Menomune, Menactra, and Menveo, recommended for middle school and college, do not generate antibodies against the most common form of the illness, serotype B.
9. Menomune still contains mercury.
10. Bexsero contains 1,500 mcg of aluminum per dose, the highest amount in any single vaccine.
11. There have been no safety studies investigating the injection of Menomune at the same time as other vaccines even though several vaccines, including flu shots or the teen pertussis vaccine, are often given together.
12. None of the meningitis vaccines have been tested for carcinogenicity (ability to cause cancer), mutagenicity (ability to disrupt genes) or the ability to interfere with fertility. This holds true for all vaccines.
13. Many reports have been filed with the Vaccine Adverse Reporting System (VAERS), documenting vaccine side effects.
    1. The most recently approved vaccines Trumenba (2014) and Bexsero (2015), have nearly 3,000 adverse events filed with VAERS.
    2. Menactra has been included in 18,646 VAERS reports.
14. Meningitis vaccines may be dangerously disrupting the body’s ability to create its own natural “protection mechanism” against meningitis infection.

The incidence of meningococcal disease decreases rapidly beginning in the second year of life, coincident with the natural colonization by Neisseria lactamica, a normal flora in the nasopharynx in young children. Before 10 years of age, when N. lactamica colonization is common and protective. When colonization by Neisseria meningitidis occurs later in life, the antibodies generated earlier against N. lactamica cross-react and contribute to natural immunity and defense against meningitis infection.

15. Serotype B vaccines have not been manufactured until very recently because the sugar sequences on the surface of this bacteria are very similar to the sugar sequences on the surface of human brain and nerve cells. Therefore, vaccine-induced antibodies against serotype B could attack the brain and the nerves, causing a debilitating, life-long, autoimmune reactions.

16. Bexsero was approved soon after an unofficial trial at Stanford University in 2013. Read my full report about the slick maneuver Novartis pulled on American parents to get this vaccine approved.

17.  N. meningititis vaccines do not have a long lasting effect. In fact, the CDC admits:

As part of the licensure process, both meningococcal conjugate and serogroup B meningococcal vaccines showed that they produce an immune response that suggests the vaccines are protective,but there are limited data available on how well they work to protect against disease… 

Available data suggest that protection from meningococcal conjugate vaccines decreases in many within 5 years…..Early data on serogroup B meningococcal vaccines suggest that protective antibodies also decrease fairly quickly after vaccination.

Parents, Once Again, You’re Being Lied To

The CDC, the media, colleges, universities and especially pediatricians have terrorized parents into vaccinating their college-aged kids saying that they are a “greatly increased risk” of contracting meningitis if they live in a dorm.

You may have heard  statements such as this:

College freshmen living in dormitories were more than seven times as likely to acquirethe infection leading to meningitis than college students in general and three and a half times as likely as the population of 18- to 23-year-old non-students.

That’s interesting because in one of the early CDC papers (2005) on vaccinating college students with the meningitis vaccine actually said something very different:

A retrospective cohort study conducted in Maryland during 1992–1997 indicated that the overall incidence of meningococcal disease among college students was similar to students of the same age who are not going to college (1.7/100,000 and 1.4/100,000, respectively); however, rates of infection among students living in dormitories were higher than rates among students living off campus (3.2/100,000 and 1.0/100,000, respectively; p = 0.05).

U.S. surveillance data from the 1998–99 school year indicated that the overall rate of meningococcal disease among college students was lower than the rate among persons aged 18-23 years who were not enrolled in college (0.7 and 1.4/100,000, respectively).

So, Fact #18 points out that increasing the risk from 1 per 100,000 to 3.2 per 100,000 makes it “three times” the risk. This blatant number twisting happens all the time; one must dig to find the truth.

Here’s another example:

Over a 10 year period, 1,039 meningitis cases that were reported in Oregon (1993-2004). Only 10 cases (<1%) occurred in four-year college students (0.7/100,000 students). Of these, there was a single death; it was caused by a serogroup B strain.

Universities, colleges, and their governing boards are not protected from liability by the National Injury Injury Compensation Act of 1986 (NVICP.) Parents are being forced to inject their children with a vaccine that offers little and has many risks in exchange for a $20,000 to $50,000+ per year education. This college “mandate” needs to be seriously challenged, perhaps even in court.

What Your Student Can Do to Keep Well

Here is a list of the most important things you can encourage your college teen to do:

• Get more sleep, eat better food, get fresh air – often hard to do in college, but a good habit to adopt as a life-time skill.
• Don’t share lip-gloss or lipstick.
• Wash hands frequently with soap and water.
• If you have had close contact with a person who has had a fever and meningitis is suspected, a 7-day course of prophylactic antibiotics — given with a good quality probiotic — may be prudent.
• Gargle or wash out the nasal passages with colloidal silver or with a Lugol’s solution and a netty pot at least once a week.
• Take Vitamin C ascorbates 3,000-6,000mg/day
• Keep your Vitamin D level around 80 ng/ml can both be very supportive to the immune system.

Each of these suggestions is definitely better than acquiescing to an unnecessary vaccine that offers little protection and can potentially lead to serious, long term autoimmune consequences.

Think Before You Vaccinate — Health Does Not Come Through a Needle.

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