This book review is reprinted with the permission of the American Institute of Homeopathy
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Vaccination, Social Violence, and Criminality
The Medical Assault on the American Brain
By Harris L. Coulter
Reviewed by Karl Robinson
263 pages. North Atlantic Books. $14.95 [Editor's note: The price as of March 1996 is $14.50]

Harris Coulter, author of DPT: A Shot in the Dark, is on the attack again. In this book, Vaccination, Social Violence and Criminality; The Medical Assault on the American Brain, Coulter attempts to ascribe a wide variety of medical and social ills to universal immunization programs which were begun in earnest after World War II and have decade by decade included more and more vaccinations. This time his target is not just the danger of the DPT vaccination but most immunizations against childhood diseases. Reading his latest book is like reading all the statistics found in all the newspapers and magazines about what is wrong with America. Unlike the mass media, Coulter ascribes most if not all our troubles to childhood vaccinations.

"This book," he writes in Chapter VI, "advances the perhaps startling thesis that childhood vaccination programs cause a wide range of neurologic disabilities, and that these disabilities yield the bulk of the autistics, minimally brain damaged, and sociopaths who have undermined the American educational system and American society, giving this country during the past two decades the highest crime rate in its history."

Coulter briefly acknowledges the good that has come from the vaccines against the great scourges of the past; i.e., smallpox, yellow fever, typhus, and poliomy-elitis and writes, "Even today, travel or business in most parts of the Third World would be impossible without vaccines. These triumphs of immunology are undisputed, and no criticism is made of them in the following pages."

That said, Coulter has very little good to say about childhood vaccinations against pertussis, rubelia, rubeola, mumps, diphtheria, tetanus and poliomyelitis. He suggests, even warns, that they may be responsible for a host of medical and social ills including autism, minimal brain damage, mental retardation, hyperactivity, dyslexia, and a broad range of criminal behavior such as sociopathy, theft and murder. Less dramatic problems such as narcissism, ego weakness, alienation, impulsiveness, emotional lability, flat affect, anxiety, paranoia, impatience with criticism, rage, depression, and suicidal impulses also may be traced to subtle changes in the cerebral cortex brought on ultimately by vaccinations.

Perhaps the book's most valuable contribution is to point to the alarming, even terrifying, rise in childhood autism and Minimal Brain Damage (MBD). Autism, first described in 1943 and uncommon until the early 1960's, is described vividly and in depth in the first chapter. The second chapter is devoted to MBD, which includes hyperactivity, poor attention, clumsiness, and can be associated with cognitive disorders (learning disabilities) asthma, sleep disturbances, intellectual fragmentation, emotional immaturity, depression, and hypersexuality. It came into public awareness in the 1950's and became epidemic in the 1960's. Various organizations estimate that between 3% and 20% of prepubertal children suffer from one or more manifestations of MBD.

Coulter's third chapter, "Post-Encephalitic Syndrome," has as its thesis that an attack of encephalitis may underly the development of autism and MBD. Furthermore, Coulter believes that this attack may be subclinical. "The symptomatic and pathological parallels between autism and minimal brain damage reflect their common origin in an attack of clinical or subclinical encephalitis," he writes. This is Coulter's idea for he adds, "..... no one has called attention to their common origin in encephalitis." He writes, "Furthermore, it had long been known that a variety of encephalitis was caused by vaccination. So, one would think, the causal connection was evident." This reader feels certain that some cases of encephalitis have been caused by vaccination, presumably the DPT. He does not, however, think that ipso facto most cases of autism and MBD have been caused by encephalitis. Nor is it reasonable to suppose that all or even most cases of encephalitis are triggered by vaccinations. By invoking the entity "subclinical encephalitis" he is saying that even though the child had no symptoms of acute encephalitis, he may have had a silent; i.e., asymptomatic, case of it because later he developed either autism or MBD. As a classical homeopath I find it hard to think about inflammatory diseases that produce no symptoms at the time, only sequelae, though I accept Coulter's case reports that some children without having had acute encephalitis did go on to become autistic or minimally brain damaged.

Coulter states... the most probable cause of a widespread epidemic of encephalitis is the childhood vaccination program." The "childhood vaccination program" includes all the immunizations, yet all but three of the cases he cites were due to the DPT vaccination. The other three were due to MMR. So although he talks about vaccinations in general being the culprits, he only cites DPT cases and three MMR cases. That is misleading.

I do, however, agree that DPT has caused some severe problems. Even without an acute reaction to DPT, if the child developed symptoms of autism or MBD within I to 12 weeks, then I think it reasonable to suspect the DPT. Coulter writes, "Thus it was puzzling to find that about half of the new families interviewed for the present investigation could not remember any marked vaccine reaction, even though the child began the develop symptoms of autism or other severe neurology shortly after one of the shots."

He continues, "Two conclusions could be drawn. Either the neurology in these cases had nothing to do with a vaccine reaction (i.e., was 'congenital,' as medical authorities often maintain) or, alternatively, serious long-term sequelae can develop in the absence of an acute reaction."

Very reasonably he continues, "This important point should eventually be resolved through appropriate research." Agreed. "In the meantime," he writes, "The second alternative must be accepted, or at least considered..." Yes, it should be considered. But also to be considered are such horrors as environmental toxic pollutants, use of drugs medicinal and recreational by the mother during pregnancy, and child abuse, any of which one might postulate could cause symptoms of either autism or MBD.

At the end of Chapter III he writes, "The three preceding chapters have sought to demonstrate that the conditions known as 'autism' and 'minimal brain damage' are only parts of a large entity-the post-encephalitic syndrome which, in turn, is caused primarily by the childhood vaccination programs." Though Coulter did marshall some cases suggesting the DPT caused certain cases of autism and MBD, there was scant mention of the many other vaccinations. Coulter's evidence is simply too spotty to convince anyone other than the most rabid anti-vaccinationists. And I say this as someone who is not at all happy with vaccinations. I just don't think Coulter's evidence is convincing.

Coulter, himself, tries to be fair. He says, "While the vaccination program is, of course, not responsible for every instance of the above disabilities and social woes, it nonetheless makes a substantial contribution to them. The full extent of the contribution will become known only after the necessary specialized investigations have been performed to substantiate this working hypothesis." But in the very next paragraph his enthusiasm for his cause gets the better of him. He writes, "Awareness of the relationship between these neurological disabilities and the post-encephalitic syndrome has been blocked here to fore by subconscious reluctance to admit that the childhood vaccination program is the only possible cause of a mass epidemic of clinical and subclinical encephalitis," Only possible cause? Come on.

In Chapter V Coulter devotes 12 pages to serial killer Ted Bundy in which he explores in depth his aberrant personality. Why should he even include a mention of Ted Bundy? Coulter has an idea which is "...that he was suffering from post-encephalitic syndrome." Testing of Bundy revealed "an extraordinary gap between his superior verbal IQ and a very inferior ability to perceive spatial relationships," that in itself "is highly suggestive of central nervous system dysfunction. Such dysfunctions are usually caused by an encephalitis which, as we have seen, is most commonly due to vaccination."

Admitting that nothing is known of Bundy's vaccination history, that he did not have a seizure disorder, that he was not mentally retarded, Coulter writes, "But in him the post-encephalitic syndrome came out most striking in the form of an uncontrollable urge to rape, mutilate, and kill young women." Had this been a jury trial I somehow doubt that on the evidence a vaccination would have been found guilty.

Coulter may be right. Most of childhood and teenage medical and social ills may be due to vaccinations which produce brain dysfunction. It's an interesting hypothesis. But stating an hypothesis, however forcefully, is not the same as marshalling plausible evidence that the scientific community could take seriously. Coulter just hasn't done that. He will convince the already convinced. But how many skeptics will he win over? I can't help thinking of one 8-year-old boy I am currently treating for hyperactivity and truculent, obnoxious behavior (which included standing on a roof and peeing on people passing below) who has never been vaccinated.

About the Author: Karl Robinson practices classical homeopathy in Albuquerque, New Mexico and Dallas, Texas. He is the managing editor of the JAIH.

JAIH December 1991, Vol. 84, No. 4