During the course of his research in a project funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Dr. Goldman discovered several inconsistencies while computing the risk associated with shingles, a disease he had been studying since January, 2000. The fact that shingles can cause excruciating pain and suffering even after the resolution of the rash, combined with the fact that shingles is a reactivation of the same virus that causes chickenpox, caused Dr. Goldman to pursue further scientific investigations.

Virtually all positive findings presented by Dr. Goldman were incorporated into medical journal articles published by officials from the CDC and Los Angeles County Department of Health Services. There seemingly appeared to be success with a dramatic decline in reported chickenpox cases by nearly 80% from the licensure of the chickenpox vaccine on March 17, 1995 through 2000. However, the negative or deleterious findings that Goldman began objectively reporting in 2001 and thereafter were treated much differently.

Dr. Goldman sought a more comprehensive understanding of the biological mechanism that might explain the reason for the unexpectedly high incidence of shingles he found among children in a community where chickenpox vaccination was wide-spread. Searching through the medical literature, Goldman uncovered a study by Dr. Hope-Simpson published in 1965 that first suggested an adult’s immune system may be boosted to prevent or postpone the reactivation of shingles every time an adult was exposed to a child with chickenpox. Dr. Goldman, later joined by other researchers, logically reasoned that if that hypothesis were correct and chickenpox vaccination nearly eradicated cases of childhood chickenpox, adults would no longer receive the immunologic boosting that they received previously and a shingles epidemic might ensue.

After concluding an analysis of the preliminary data, Dr. Goldman navigated a range of challenges, some of which may have been rather unexpected, including a degree of opposition and a notice to “cease and desist” publication in a medical journal. It soon became clear to Dr. Goldman that the CDC was interested in publishing only “half the story” about chickenpox vaccination. Dr. Goldman resigned in 2002 stating, “Whenever research data and information concerning potential adverse effects associated with a vaccine used in human populations are suppressed and/or misrepresented by health authorities, not only is this most disturbing, this goes against all accepted norms and compromises professional ethics.”

To expose, warn against, and encourage steps to remedy what Dr. Goldman knew to be such abuses of ethics and public trust, he has approved the release of the 300 page book entitled The Chickenpox Vaccine: A New Epidemic of Disease and Corruption.

While the book is an accessible resource documenting what he perceives as a “cover up” concerning the increase in shingles arising from the Universal Varicella Vaccination Program, Dr. Goldman integrates scientific information and straightforward commentary on adverse outcomes associated with the Hepatitis B vaccine, Thimerosal-containing vaccines, the shingles vaccine, water fluoridation, the practices of instant or early cord clamping (ICC/ECC) and flat on-the-back or semi-sitting birth positions, and others.

The concluding sections of the book discuss conflicts of interests between public health officials and the pharmaceutical industry that may have “undermined the stated health aims” of various large scale health initiatives. Considerable appendices are incorporated as an accessible resource that can be shared with healthcare professionals.

Thus, parents with school-age children, grandparents, and even single active adults and the elderly, all of whom will be at increased risk of shingles, stand much to gain through the insightful discussion of health issues that are related in the book. Different from other medical exposes, Dr. Goldman’s book is not based on only fringe data and reports gleaned from a medical journalist on the “outside”, but his account is that of a true research insider—one who made significant contributions to investigational research and interfaced with public health authorities impacting national health policy.
The facts and references presented are no exercise in alarmism or exaggeration. Dr. Goldman’s balanced and candid discussion will enhance your appreciation of medical issues and enable you and your loved ones to make better informed healthcare decisions. His book suggests valuable reform measures necessary to restore the health and wealth of the U.S. and halt the continual cycles of disease and treatment.