Since the head of the Roman Catholic Church, Pope Francis, has injected himself into the global warming issue, I thought I would take up a new point of contention on my part that has come up. The Catholic News Service reports Kenyan bishops have issued a report stating that the tetanus vaccine given by WHO and UNICEF as part of their vaccination campaigns was laced with beta human chorionic gonadotropin, or beta hCG, which can lead to miscarriages or sterility. The news report went on to quote from the report that no further vaccination campaign should be undertaken in this country without an all-inclusive sampling and testing exercise done before, during and after the vaccination campaign.

The bishops are up in arms by alleging the hCG ingredient in the tetanus vaccine will negatively affect a woman’s ability to give birth as part of a population control conspiracy. The bishops allege they became suspicious after having the version of the tetanus vaccine administered in Mexico, Nicaragua and the Philippines tested it came up with beta hCG. However, a columnist at Forbes, Tara Haelle, addressed this issue back in November of last year. In her column, Ms. Haelle points out:

When the WHO and UNICEF launched a tetanus toxoid campaign in the 1990s, identical rumors about “using women as guinea pigs to test a contraceptive vaccine under the guise of a tetanus toxoid vaccine” undermined immunization efforts (PDF) in Mexico, Venezuela, Tanzania (just south of Kenya) and the Philippines. At the time, as the Kenyan bishops did, Catholic leaders in the Philippines independently tested vaccines and claimed the results showed hCG present in the vaccines. Yet the labs used a standard pregnancy test designed to detect hCG in blood or urine, not in a vaccine, and the tetanus toxoid vaccine contained the preservative thimerosal and an aluminum salt adjuvant, either or both of which may have led to false positives. Subsequent tests conducted appropriately in multiple labs in five countries showed no hCG in the vaccine.

Ms. Haelle also says:

Interestingly, there is evidence the Kenyan bishops likely made similar mistakes with their testing. The bishops said they “struggled and acquired” several vaccine vials and sent them to “four unrelated government and private laboratories in Kenya and abroad,” all of which apparently showed the vaccine “was indeed laced with the Beta-HCG hormone.” In fact, however, the results (PDF) showed tiny measures of hCG well within reference (normal) levels in a non-pregnant individual. Normal levels are below 2.5 mIU/mL for males, below 5 mIU/mL for females and below 9 mIU/mL for post-menopausal females. The four labs showed 0.3 mIU/mL (University of Nairobi College of Health Sciences), 1.2 mIU/mL (Lancet Kenya), 2.7 mIU/mL (Mediplan Dialysis Centers) and <1.0 mIU/mL (METR POLIS Star Lab Kenya). Dr. Ahmen Kalebi at the Lancet lab has now explained that they “tested these samples as we would a request to determine pregnancy,” which is not the appropriate test to use.

According to an American expat Tara Haelle interviewed there is distrust between the Catholic Church and Kenyan government but the church runs lots of hospitals and clinics, and the same tetanus vaccine administered by WHO and UNICEF is given at the church’s facilities too. It is of little surprise that the Catholic Church is involved in a disinformation campaign due to a dispute it has with the Kenyan government. This time it involves a conspiracy in order to scare people (especially women) using a conspiracy in order to achieve its end.