At its regularly scheduled meeting on January 16, 2013, Houston City Council acted on about 3 dozen routine items including Item 13, a measure to accept and expend US Department of Health and Human Services grant funds for childhood immunizations.
Although the measure had overwhelming support Councilman at large Dr. Jack Christie, a chiropractor and former State School Board member, spoke against it, resulting in a lengthy debate. Dr. Christie’s position is that vaccination programs have left American society generally overmedicated. More pointedly, he claimed that fear of the flu is based on distorted or incorrect information published by the medical industry with the assistance of mainstream media. He argued that flu remedies such as Tami flu cannot kill viruses. There is no way to assure that the virus in the vaccines is “dead,” and it is possible to contract the flu from the vaccine. In addition, there are 4 strains of flu infecting people, but the vaccine could treat only one of them. He further claimed that the vaccine producers assert that the vaccine is only 62% effective. He challenged the widely publicized reports of 21 deaths from the flu, claiming that it is important to consider the actual treatment given in those cases. In a follow-up interview, Christie stated that in one case in Texas, the victim was admitted with flu symptoms to a rural hospital, and then transferred to a larger urban hospital where he received a staff infection. In that case,
Christie also pointed out that in comparison with the 21 deaths arguably attributed to the flu, 37,000 people die every year from improperly administered prescription medications. He claimed as he has stated on other occasions that the best way to assure the health of school students is to enhance physical education programs and teach proper nutrition.
The measure passed with only Dr. Christie voting no.
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