Time magazine blasts WCA, ICA for vaccine stand

A viewpoint article in the June 7, 2005 issue of Time magazine focused on the public’s increasing wariness of vaccinations and falsely accused the World Chiropractic Alliance (WCA) and International Chiropractors Association (ICA) of opposing the drugs altogether.

The article’s author, Leon Jaroff, was the founding managing editor of Discover magazine and a longtime correspondent, writer and editor for Time and Life..

Using an article published in Dynamic Chiropractic by Stephen Perle, DC, and Randy Ferrance, MD, DC, as ammunition, Time blasted chiropractors for their “zealously anti-vaccination” attitude. They quote the two DCs as saying, “the level of fervor within this subset of the profession is extremely high... similar to the level of fanaticism one sees in some religious meetings.” Jaroff categorized the two chiropractors as “gutsy.”

What Drs. Perle and Ferrance -- as well as Time magazine -- failed to note was that the WCA’s position is that patients have the right to make an informed decision about vaccines and they should be given information about the potential risks and side effects of those drugs, just as they are of any other medication. The WCA also has opposed mandatory vaccines, just as it would oppose forcing people to be subjected to any other drug without their informed consent.

The WCA’s position paper on Vaccinations and Freedom of Choice in Health Care states that:

“No person should be forced by government regulation or societal pressure to receive any medication or treatment, including vaccines, against his or her will. This includes mandated vaccines as a requirement for public school admission or for employment eligibility,” and that

“All medical practitioners and public health care officials should be obligated to provide full disclosure of the potential risks of vaccines, including those given to school children in mass vaccination programs. This disclosure should include the relevant facts about the growing concern about vaccines including, but not limited to ... documented research and actions by health care advocates.”

“If we allow the medical and pharmaceutical industries to dictate what drugs people must take, we are opening a Pandora’s Box that will ultimately deprive all citizens of their freedom of choice when it comes to health care,” stated Terry A. Rondberg, DC, WCA president. 

The WCA is also supporting research into the possible link between chiropractic subluxation correction and the human immune system and publicized a recent report in the Journal of Vertebral Subluxation Research showing that subjects under chiropractic care demonstrated higher mean serum thiol levels than patients with active disease, and produced some values that were higher than normal wellness values. Serum thiols are primary antioxidants, and serve as a measure of human health status. The test provides a surrogate estimate of DNA repair enzyme activity, which has been shown to correlate with lifespan and aging.

“Additional research is expected to prove the hypothesis that chiropractic care can have long-term and far-reaching impact on various wellness factors, including immune system strength,” stated Matthew McCoy, DC, editor of JVSR and co-founder of Research & Clinical Science, a private sector research company.

Jaroff’s commentary included another quote from the Dynamic Chiropractic article: “We are not aware of a single well-controlled study which found that chiropractic care prevented any infectious disease or reduced the severity of such a disease.”

Perle is listed as an “Instructional Staff Member - Mechanical Engineering and Associate Professor of Chiropractic Medicine,” at the University of Bridgeport and was the 2004 recipient of the American Chiropractic Association’s “Academician of the Year” award.

Ferrance is a featured speaker for NCMIC and a member of the Council on Chiropractic Guidelines and Practice Parameters’ pediatrics group. One of his most memorable quotes -- one repeated on several anti-chiropractic Internet sites -- is: “We, as a profession, need to stop paying such overblown homage to a dead Davenport grocer and his megalomaniac son. We need to wake up and smell the data.”

The Time article also took a potshot at the International Chiropractors Association (ICA), noting that it sells a book entitled “Vaccination: 100 Years of Orthodox Research Shows that Vaccines Represent a Medical Assault on the Immune System.”

 ICA President John K. Maltby wrote to Time and complained about the “shallow and incomplete depiction of the very serious issue of vaccination risk and injury, and the likewise incomplete representation of the position of this organization.”

Like the WCA, the ICA’s official policy on vaccination supports the concept of informed consent and opposes compulsory vaccine programs.