An email exchange with Dr. Peter Le Souef MD MRCP(UK) FRACP Professor of Paediatrics, Head of School of Paediatrics and Child Health, University of Western Australia, about the Immunization Issue article on this website.

Dear James,

As a paediatrician, I have to look after children who are damaged by infectious diseases that can easily be prevented. I have been practicing in children’s medicine for over 30 years and have seen some serious diseases (such as haemophilus group b meningitis) greatly reduced in frequency by immunization.

I have just read an article on immunization http://www.kt70.com/~jamesjpn/HealthTopics/immunization.htm promoted on your website. It is biased, ill-informed, anecdotal and irresponsible. I think you should remove it as it is very likely to contribute to disease and death in children.

I would sincerely like to be polite to you, but I am afraid you make me very angry. By putting this on your website, I would assume that you are uneducated, blindly religious or mad. In my view, people who promote such articles contribute to ignorance, superstition and fear.

Shame on you.

However, perhaps I have misjudged you? If you wish to attempt to redeem yourself and make a positive contribution to humanity, I suggest that you travel to developing countries and see the widespread tragedies caused by lack of immunization. Please let me know if you would like some guidance on this and I would be pleased to help you.

Yours sincerely,
Peter Le Souef

Dear Dr. LeSouef,

I believe that the required vaccination before coming to Japan from the US of my first born son Jeremy when he was 6 months old may have attributed to his developing Asperger Syndrome. Of course I cannot absolutely prove this, but I have read articles stating that Autism and Asperger Syndrome may be linked to vaccinations.

http://heartsongbooks.com/asperger.html

Doctor, have you ever had to live with a kid with Asperger Syndrome without even knowing such a condition exists? Jeremy was one difficult child and neither me, his mother, nor our friends could understand why. Now as an adult, he still lacks social skills and has no friends. I didn't learn about Asperger Syndrome until after Jeremy reached his 20s. I met social workers who described my son to a T without having ever met him. I can finally understand why he is the way he is. My other two children where born in Japan. They were never vaccinated and are both normal healthy adults today.

Besides this, I have read articles saying that vaccinations directly contributed to the spread of HIV in Africa leading to the early death of millions!

http://blog.360.yahoo.com/blog-RSi98ws0drZO18Am4PlXBu6K_DI-?cq=1&p=61

I understand that from your paradigm as a physician, you may look at the body as a combination of chemicals that evolved over billions of years into complex forms. You were educated under the premise that Evolution is the cornerstone of modern biology. If so, you would certainly reject the doctrine of Creationism. I am a Christian who believes in perfect Design by the Creator. I believe that God has already supplied natural substances that deal with the majority of illnesses. I believe the pharmaceutical industry to be another multinational conglomerate with money, not lives, as the bottom line.

Some may have indeed been helped through vaccinations, but I believe in the long run more harm than good has come from them and other methods such as natural medicines taken orally may be superior with less negative side effects.

You can call me "blindly religious" if you want to, but according to my firm convictions based on sources I trust, I have nothing to be ashamed of by posting the article I posted. As a result of your email, I may also post the following article by Dr. Douglass.

Respectfully,
James
Japan

Dear James,

Thanks for your reply. I have a few comments:
1. I am sorry to hear about your son having Aspergers, but your belief that this is linked to vaccination is an anecedotal observation.
2. The writings of WC Douglass are so full of inaccuracies and assumption that they do not deserve comment. I note that neither Dr Douglass nor Dr Strecker have published in reputable scientific literature (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrezh), despite the apparent scientific content of their writings.
3. Your attempt to define me according to your paradigm is of little value since I see the need to question everything, particularly humbug.
4. You believe in "perfect Design by the Creator" but I wonder if you include hookworm, trachoma and ebola in this?
5. Any reasonable (non-anecdotal) review of the available information will show that vaccinations do far more good than harm.
6. Your "firm convictions based on sources I trust" appear to have arisen from you accepting anecdotal and unsubstantiated opinion.
7. Yes, you should be ashamed of the article you posted.

I challenge you to post this entire email on your website.

Yours sincerely,

Peter Le Souef MD FRACP
Professor of Paediatrics
University of Western Australia

Dear Dr. Le Souef,

First of all I want to thank you for giving me this opportunity to update the Immunization Issue article on my web site. I found a broken external web link and added 5 more external links. And I added your emails which you challenged me to post. I posted my replies with the correction of one typo I made. I changed the word "unless from your paradigm" to "understand from your paradigm".

http://www.kt70.com/~jamesjpn/HealthTopics/immunization-email-debate.html

I perceive that our differences on the subject of immunization are related to many other subjects as well. It touches on the very fabric of our paradigm of life. I am a Christian, and from what I can tell, you are not. It's no wonder our viewpoints differ so greatly.

I do not believe that any truly honest person can lay claim to be completely objective about any issue in life. We all have bias. We all tend to look at the world through the coloured glasses of our own particular paradigm of life. Even two people who love each other and are committed to each other can look at the same thing and have two totally opposite and opposing viewpoints of it. We can only look at the world subjectively, because we are victims of our emotions. Try arguing reason with an angry woman. She's not even interested in what you have to say. When we describe what we see, it is merely an interpretation of what we see, not the actual object itself. What we perceive and believe to be true has a lot to do with who we are as individuals. Belief is related to the will. I choose to believe what I believe because of who I have become after coming to faith in Jesus Christ when I was a young man. You were educated in institutions which reject the concept of God as our loving Father and Creator. Your view of science is purely materialistic. Of course you would discount spiritual factors such as God, Creation, and design. You don't include them in the equation at all.

You yourself admitted to have feelings of anger after reading the article. I have no animosity toward you. It's par for me to receive emails from emotionally upset people from time to time because of some of the articles on my web site that offend people who hold opposing viewpoints.

I do not wish to debate with you further on this subject because I don't think there will be an end to it. It's akin to debates about evolution verses creation, or a conspiratorial view of history verses an accidental view of history. There is no end to debating these and other controversial subjects. I think that the statements in the Immunization Issue article that you refer to as "anecedotal observations" speak for themselves. It would require a total paradigm shift to see and accept the other person's viewpoint. I've had mine when I became a born again child of God in 1971.

Sincerely,
James Arendt,
Missionary for Jesus Christ,
Japan

Dear James,

Thank you for your thoughtful comments. I also do not wish to debate this further with you.

I wish you well,

Peter

Note from the webmaster: I believe Peter Le Souef to be a very sincere man. I am touched that he would go out of his way to write me about an issue that he is obviously very concerned about. I do hope that his zeal to serve humanity will cause him to look a bit deeper into the immunization issue and see if what he was taught during his years in university is really so or not. He says he questions everything. Perhaps he will begin to question the very basic premises of his education.