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PRESS RELEASE
Tetrahedron, LLC
Health Science Communications for People Around the
World
NEWS RELEASE
Release: No. TB-06; Date Mailed: November 29, 2004
For Immediate Release
Contact: Dr. Leonard Horowitz—808/965-2112
Hawaii Officials and Private Schools Sued by Public
Health Expert For TB Testing “Fraud”
Hilo, HI —The public health practice of skin testing school
children at low risk for tuberculosis has come under legal attack
by internationally recognized public health authority, Dr. Leonard
G. Horowitz. The politically charged, scientifically questionable,
and religiously objectionable case was filed by a Judeo-Christian
ministry on behalf of Hawaiian citizens. The complaint charges officials,
and local school administrators, with “gross negligence”
and doing more harm than good by falsely claiming test benefits
and dishonoring religious exemptions.
To protect federal defendant Dr. Jessie Wing, a Centers for Disease
Control & Prevention (CDC) employee and director of Hawaii’s
“Tuberculosis Control Program (TCP),” federal attorneys
immediately substituted the United States of America as chief defendant
in the controversial case. On behalf of federal officials, proceedings
were forced to move from Hilo’s Circuit Court to U.S. District
Court in Oahu where, according to Dr. Horowitz, state remedies sought
are “simply unavailable.” Dr. Wing is charged with malfeasance,
fraud, and gross negligence for disallowing religious exemptions,
disregarding state statutes, breaching civil rights, and neglecting
an official 2000 CDC report that concluded low risk populations
should not be skin tested for TB due to high percentages of false
positives and damaging side effects from long term antibiotic usage
and chest x-raying.
The case of The Manifestation of Divine Will versus the State of
Hawaii, Department of Public Health, began when Dr. Horowitz’s
children, members of the ministry, were refused enrollment in Malamalama
Waldorf and Christian Liberty schools. This action, according to
the complaint, violated state statute 302A-1156 and Hawaii Administrative
Rule 11-157-5 that specifies the availability of vaccination exemptions,
but does not exclude or prohibit religious exemption for TB skin
testing as most school nurses and administrators believe and falsely
inform parents.
“We are asking the court for judgment on state statutes that
protect people’s right to follow Biblical blood purity laws
without losing basic civil rights, including the right to life,
liberty, the pursuit of happiness and academic advancement through
school education for children,” Dr. Horowitz said.
Public health officials in charge of this potentially deadly program
have been overstepping the authority granted them by past Governor,
Benjamin J. Cayetano, according to the complaint, by breaching civil
and religious rights, violating the state’s informed consent
statute covering medical procedures, and misrepresenting the testing
liquid as “harmless.” In addition, Dr. Horowitz claims,
Dr. Wing is “setting a dangerous federal precedent in Hawaii
that views your children as government properties and their little
bodies as experimental laboratories rather than holy spiritual sovereign
temples.”
Most experts agree that TB testing low risk school children is
risky and runs contrary to official public health standards and
CDC guidelines that read, “screening of low-risk persons is
discouraged because it diverts resources from activities of higher
priority. In addition, a substantial proportion of tuberculin-test-positive
persons from low-risk populations may have false-positive skin tests.”
This standard is being violated in Hawaii, particularly on the
Big Island, where rates of tuberculosis are comparable to the national
average of 6 cases per 100,000. No other state dishonors religious
exemption for TB testing and forces all low risk children who test
falsely positive to receive chest x-rays, known to increase cancer
risks, plus six months of expensive antibiotic therapy laden with
side effects.
Experimenting with public school children in this way is “recklessly
irresponsible” for lacking scientific basis and overall merit,
according to the complaint scheduled for a federal court “status
conference” on January 24, 2005. Dr. Horowitz seeks to have
a jury consider the program’s cost/benefit and risk/benefit,
vitally important determinations disregarded by TCP administrators.
“Far more people, especially children, are being harmed than
helped by this institutionalized fraud,” he says.
With nearly 148,000 people living on the Big Island and less than
one child expected to present an active case of TB, according to
official records, the benefits of skin testing all school children
are illusory. For example, with more than 25,000 children enrolled
in schools here, at least 1 percent, according to official warnings,
is expected to test falsely positive for TB. That is approximately
250. Conservatively 15%, or 37.5 victims, sustain potentially serious
side effects from being forced to take antibiotics for 6 months.
All children who test falsely positive suffer added cancer risks
from chest x-rays that read “normal” even in most latent
TB infection cases. This crude analysis yields an alarming 37-to-1
“risk-to-benefit ratio.” In other words, 37 children
are expected to be harmed by this program compared to less than
one expected to benefit.
Dr. Horowitz testified that the public, including active TB cases
in children and adults, is far better served by dependable non-invasive
screening methods such as history taking and diagnosis of possible
respiratory ailments during routine physical examinations.
Beyond the TCP’s health risks, the complaint asks a jury
to consider additional administrative costs to schools, and social
costs to parents, including time and money spent in obtaining “tuberculosis
clearance” from the state, or being forced to homeschool.
The plaintiffs aim to prove “a reasonably responsible prudent
person” would consider Hawaii’s TCP “institutionalized
fraud,” “public health malpractice,” “human
experimentation without license,” and a “crime against
humanity.”
-end –
NOTE TO JOURNALISTS and OTHERS SEEKING
MORE DETAILS: For review copies of Dr. Horowitz’s
books, please call Jackie Lindenbach at 1-800-336-9266. Dr. Horowitz
is currently living in Hawaii, while directing development of the Steam Vent Inn & Health Retreat.
(See: www.steamventinn.com.)
Posted courtesy of Tetrahedron Publishing Group
206 North 4th Avenue, Suite 147
Sandpoint, Idaho 83864
http://www.tetrahedron.org
Toll free order line: 888-508-4787;
Office telephone: 808-965-2002;
E-mail: tetra@tetrahedron.org
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