Usage of the herbicide glyphosate on core crops in the USA has increased exponentially over the past two decades, in step with the exponential increase in autoimmune diseases including autism, multiple sclerosis, inflammatory bowel disease, type 1 diabetes, coeliac disease, neuromyelitis optica and many others.
Most disturbing is the presence of glyphosate in many popular vaccines including the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine, which we have verified here for the first time.
Contamination may come through bovine protein, bovine calf serum, bovine casein, egg protein and/or gelatin.
The live measles virus could produce glyphosate-containing haemagglutinin, which might induce an autoimmune attack on myelin basic protein, commonly observed in autism.
Glyphosate is the active ingredient in the pervasive herbicide Roundup and in many other formulations of herbicides used to control weeds on agricultural, residential and public land worldwide.
While correlation does not necessarily mean causation, causation becomes much more likely if a plausible mechanism can be found. Swanson et al. found a remarkable 0.98 correlation coefficient between the rise in autism rates in the USA and the use of glyphosate on crops.
[We] analyzed a number of animal protein products for glyphosate. These included the bones of pigs, cows, horses’ hooves, bees and bee products, collagen and gelatin products, vitamins, protein powders, enzymes and vaccines.
Since Monsanto found bioaccumulation of glyphosate in all animal tissues, with the highest levels in the bones and marrow, one would expect that all tissues derived from animals fed a diet containing glyphosate residues and used for food by people around the globe would be contaminated.
Results for nineteen different vaccines, from five manufacturers, are shown in Table 4. Some vaccines do not contain live viruses and do not involve gelatin in their preparation, but many involve the use of eggs, bovine calf serum, fetal bovine serum or bovine proteins.
[A]ll of the vaccines that listed gelatin as an excipient tested positive for glyphosate, and nearly all of them also included bovine serum (including Varicella, MMR-II, MMRV and Zoster).
It is significant that MMR-II consistently contained the highest levels of glyphosate, significantly more than any of the other vaccines. This vaccine uses up to 12% hydrolysed gelatin as an excipient–stabilizer; as well as foetal bovine serum albumin, human serum albumin and residual chick embryo; all of which are contaminated by glyphosate during animal production.
Post-vaccination allergic reactions to MMR and varicella vaccines have been linked to the gelatin excipient, and confirmed through observation of induced gelatin-specific IgE antibodies.
Puppies immunized with the rabies vaccine and a multivalent canine vaccine were compared to unvaccinated control puppies. The vaccinated puppies, but not the unvaccinated ones, developed autoantibodies to their own collagen.
It is becoming increasingly acknowledged that autism may be an autoimmune disease. Family members of autistic children have a significant increased risk to other known autoimmune diseases such as hypothyroidism, rheumatic fever and multiple sclerosis. Several studies on both humans and monkeys have revealed a potential link between maternal antibodies directed against specific foetal brain proteins and a future autism diagnosis in the foetus.
[V]accines are capable of inducing autoimmune antibodies against proteins in the brain.
A follow-on serologic study of antibodies to viruses associated with autism published in 2003 revealed a statistically significantly elevated level of measles antibody in children with autism compared to their siblings…
In a later study, 60% of 125 autistic children had significantly elevated levels of antibodies to measles haemagglutinin unique to the MMR strain of the virus, compared to the 92 control children.
[H]igh measles antibody titres have been previously linked to MS.
In an epidemiological study from 1998, encephalopathy was clearly demonstrated as an acute reaction to measles vaccine, where 48 cases were found following vaccination, with no cases identified after administration of either monovalent mumps or rubella. Among these 48 children, eight died, and the remainder experienced mental regression, chronic seizures, movement disorders and sensory deficits in the subsequent months.
Our earlier studies on VAERS comparing MMR with an age-matched, equal-sized distribution of all other vaccines showed a significant association of MMR with autism.
[B]oth chronic exposure to glyphosate from food, water and air and direct exposure to glyphosate residues in the vaccine are relevant factors. A child with a disrupted gut microbiome due to chronic glyphosate exposure will also suffer from a leaky blood–brain barrier, and this will lead to a much greater possibility of measles antigenic proteins entering the brain and causing anaphylaxis and seizures.
In this paper, we have shown that widespread misincorporation of glyphosate for glycine during protein synthesis could explain the aetiology of multiple autoimmune diseases that are currently increasing in incidence in the USA.
Using the VAERS database, we have shown that severe adverse reactions to the MMR vaccine have increased significantly over the past decade in step with the increased use of glyphosate. Glyphosate in MMR may originate from growth of the live virus on culture materials derived from glyphosate-exposed animals and/or from gelatin used as an excipient stabilizer.
We have confirmed the presence of glyphosate contamination in MMR and in many other vaccines where the live virus is cultured in eggs, bovine protein or gelatin, or where animal products are used as an excipient component.