Page 7 - Winter2019

Letters

people is at best 95.3 percent. PPD (paraphenylenediamine) found in ing cohorts in this manner made it easy
However, we must consider the the traditional box hair color products. to tell the ages of the birds and to track
“secondary failure rate.” This term Catherine Cartwright-Jones, PhD, has the productivity of certain varieties.
refers to the percentage of people who championed the path to safe hair color- Over the years, I have had Wyandottes,
lose their immunity over time after vac- ing with plants that have been used for Barred Rocks, Buff Orpingtons, Rhode
cination. This happens because without centuries. Island Reds and New Hampshires.
the working together of the cellular and I first became aware of Dr. Cart- After two years of a cohort, egg pro-
humoral immune systems, most people wright-Jones’ work when doing my ductivity would begin to drop off and I
will not develop lifelong immunity. In own research to find a better way after would process the cohort for meat.
fact, peer-reviewed studies show that experiencing an itchy scalp every time Each new cohort required six
between 0.5 and 1 percent of vaccinated I used box hair dye. The natural henna months of tending before I got the first
people lose immunity to measles for and other plants finely ground, mixed egg, and within a couple of weeks, they
each year that passes. In other words, and applied to even stubborn grey hair all were laying. It was like clockwork.
for thirty-year-olds, whose last vaccine result in lustrous, shiny, healthy hair in That pattern was well-established for
was at age ten, they have between a 10 a wide variety of shades. The mehandi. all of the chickens, except the last batch.
to 20 percent chance of no longer hav- com website not only educates against I was astounded to have some of
ing immunity to measles. If you do the PPD and fake henna, but also provides the chickens laying eggs within three
math and average this all out, one finds videos, boxed or bulk plant hair prod- and four months. I could barely believe
that the maximum level of immunity to ucts and all of the history and scientific it. When their egg-laying rate started
measles that can be achieved through research available. They also have a to taper off in less than two years, I
vaccination is about 65 percent in the Facebook page. also was surprised—but not so much.
entire population—far, far below the I highly recommend reading the I figured that “normal growth and
level we are told needs to occur to information on the site, even if you are metabolic signals [had] been dramati-
achieve effective herd immunity. not interested in coloring your hair! cally interfered with”—using Nenah’s
Herd immunity is a make-believe Betty Armbrecht, words—but I suspected a different
concept, used to “herd” unsuspect- DNP APRN, FNP-BC, CEN cause. I was buying the same heritage
ing people into a behavior that they Richmond, Texas lines from the same supplier and using
wouldn’t choose otherwise. As Dr. the same feed and forage. I could under-
Albert Sabin noted, official data have CHICKENS AND CABBAGES stand how through selective breeding,
shown that large-scale vaccination in With each passing issue of Wise the supplier, remaining true to heritage
the U.S. has failed to obtain any sig- Traditions, my affinity increases for lines, chose to select for a more rapid
nificant improvement of the diseases the ideas and events discussed. No maturity to enhance marketability.
for which the vaccines are supposed to sooner had the Fall 2019 copy arrived Nenah’s cabbage might be mutant.
provide immunity. In essence, vaccina- when I read Nenah Sylver’s “Mutant I have no doubt that our changing bio-
tions were and are a failure. Cabbages” letter, which reinforced the logical (viruses), chemical (pesticides)
Thomas Cowan, MD experience I have had with chickens. and physical (radiation) environment
San Francisco, California For ten years I have raised chick- may be the culprit for Nenah’s inferior
ens, primarily for their eggs, selling cabbage. It might also be an overlooked
DYEING TO LOOK GOOD most of them through a CSA. My modus side effect of aggressive breeding by the
Regarding the article “Dyeing to operandi was to buy a cohort of twenty- seed supplier seeking any of a myriad of
Look Good” (Fall, 2019), there is a five-day-old chicks of the same variety. “preferred attributes” such as a higher
global movement concerning the dan- Six months later I would buy another germination rate; greater disease,
gers of sensitization associated with cohort of a different variety. Sequenc- heat and drought resistance; or faster

WINTER 2019 Wise Traditions 5