America's Vaccine Safety Watchdog            

Read Vaccine Awakening Blog By: Barbara Loe Fisher

Posted: 8/30/2010 3:12:11 PM | with 0 comments

On August 25, the National Vaccine Advisory Committee (NVAC), a public oversight committee created by Congress under the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of 1986, whose members are appointed by the National Vaccine Program Office (NVPO) under the US Department of Health & Human Services, held a public teleconference and discussed how best to monitor the safety of the 2010/2011 influenza vaccine, as well as target groups identified for the vaccine. NVPO staff and advisors strongly promoted the vaccination of pregnant women and supporting the American Medical Association (AMA) and American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommendation that healthcare workers should receive influenza vaccines. 
 
NVIC’s Executive Director, Theresa Wrangham made public comments encouraging the NVAC to step-up the safety monitoring of this year’s vaccine to match the monitoring efforts during 2009/2010 pandemic H1N1 season. During the meeting, the committee voted to accept interim recommendations to pursue safety monitoring of this season’s trivalent influenza vaccine as an inter-agency effort only. It did not recommend convening an independent and external committee to review vaccine safety data as was done to monitor the 2009/2010 monovalent pandemic H1N1 vaccine through the specially appointed Vaccine Safety Risk Assessment Working Group (VSRAWG).  Unfortunately, at this time, NVAC has no plans to extend the life of the VSRAWG or to create another independent, external working group to rapidly review safety and monitoring data of the 2010/2011 trivalent influenza vaccine that contains the 2009/2010 monovalent pandemic H1N1 strain. 
 
NVIC maintains that additional safety and monitoring is warranted due to inclusion of the 2009/2010 pandemic H1N1 STRAIN in this season’s trivalent formulation for two key reasons. 
 
First, the VSRAWG has issued several periodic reports noting the presence of three potential safety signals for the 2009/2010 pandemic H1N1 monovalent vaccine. The VSRAWG’s final report evaluating the signals will not be finalized and released to the public until October, or November.  The three potential signals for serious adverse events associated with the 2009 pandemic H1N1 monovalent vaccine being evaluated by the VSRAWG include Guillain-Barre Syndrome (GBS), Bell’s palsy, and idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP). NVIC’s director of research and patient safety, Vicky Debold, PhD, RN, is a member of the VSRAWG.
 
Second, the 2010/2011 trivalent influenza vaccine formulation that will be used in the United States this season is the same formulation that was used in Australia earlier this year and was reported to cause an increase in convulsions in young children when it was given to Australian children. Recently, Finland has suspended use of the monovalent pandemic H1N1 vaccine in children due to reports of narcolepsy in some Finnish children given pandemic H1N1 shots. NVIC is also concerned that, once again, pregnant women are a target group for this year’s influenza vaccine even though influenza vaccine remains a Category C drug, which means that these vaccines have not been fully studied in pregnant women.
 
These facts support the need for additional, continued safety monitoring or this year’s flu vaccine and the process should include oversight by a group that is external and independent of the federal government group similar to the VSRAWG.
 
During public comment period, NVIC also requested that the committee encourage the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) to fully respond to the NVAC’s 2009 recommendations on the Immunization Safety Office’s (ISO) draft vaccine safety research agenda, which identified significant vaccine safety research gaps. To date, CDC has only partially responded to the NVAC’s recommendations and a written response is expected but no date has been given by the CDC for when the written response will be issued. NVAC’s recommendation for increased efforts to engage the public has yet to be addressed by the CDC.
 
NVIC also encouraged NVAC to announce the public engagement schedule for NVAC’s Charge 2 efforts. Charge 2 requires the NVAC to issue a white paper reviewing the effectiveness and operation of the entire federal vaccine safety system, including improvement options, such as more independent monitoring and assessment of vaccine risks (an option NVIC strongly supports). NVIC also strongly supports broad public engagement and participation with a timelier announcement by the NVAC of the meeting schedule to allow the public adequate notice and ample time and opportunity to participate. 
 
Recent federal public engagement efforts, which have been facilitated by The Keystone Group, have enhanced H1N1 pandemic vaccine benefit/risk communication and have assisted the CDC in developing an effective vaccine safety research agenda. NVIC maintains that a robust public engagement effort is necessary for the important Charge 2 project as well having broad implications for improving the government’s vaccine safety monitoring, evaluation and education programs.
 
NVIC will publish public engagement meeting date once they are announced by the federal agencies and strongly encourages citizens to participate in federal public engagement opportunities. The NVAC was created under the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of 1986. Among the responsibilities Congress tasked the committee with is optimizing vaccine safety.   As a federal advisory committee, citizens may contact the NVAC directly to ask questions or express concerns about NVAC or other federal health agency activities and programs.
 
We hope that you will support the need for increased vaccine safety monitoring and evaluation of the 2010/2011 influenza vaccine and need for broad public engagement opportunities, as the NVAC works to complete is white paper on the nation’s vaccine safety system. To contact the NVAC directly, e-mail nvpo@hhs.gov, or call 202-690-5566. If you send a copy of any comments you make to NVAC to us, we will add your correspondence to NVIC’s federal agency communication archives.
 


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Posted: 8/17/2010 2:38:57 PM | with 0 comments

Theresa WranghamFrom the Desk of the Executive Director - Theresa Wrangham 

The door to opportunity is always labeled “push”.  – Unknown

We agree!  NVIC has always pushed and explored many avenues and opportunities to protect your right to make voluntary informed vaccine decisions.  As the oldest and largest consumer organization advocating the institution of vaccine safety and informed consent protections, NVIC is proud to announce recent updates to the Vaccine Ingredients Calculator (VIC).

Just in time for going back to school, this powerful tool has been updated with the most current information available on vaccines recommended by the Centers for Disease Control for 2010/2011.  This “push” adds to your ability to plan a vaccine choice based on available ingredient calculation information and is featured on our homepage.  Features include:

  • Built-in safety protections notifying the user of invalid vaccine combinations and appropriate age-based vaccine use;
  • Graphs comparing vaccine ingredients to federally established safe exposure levels (when available);
  • New links to ingredient information resources;
  • A growing library of video tutorials on using the VIC;
  • Calculates exposures to aluminum, bovine protein, egg protein, formaldehyde, mercury (Thimerosal), mouse protein, phenol red, phenoxyethanol, Polysorbate 80 and yeast protein;
  • Vaccination Plan printout to assist in parent/physician dialogue.

Vaccine Ingredients CalculatorThe database that drives the VIC is built from information contained in vaccine manufacturer package inserts  posted on the Food and Drug Administration’s website. The VIC is a free, public, open source project created and maintained by Chris Downey and already enjoysuse by an enthusiastic and diverse group committed to vaccine safety that range from PhD’s who explain the chemistry of ingredients, to busy moms who help test the VIC.

We can’t do this alone and there is always room for improvement! Chris would love to hear your ideas on what new features you would like to see and could also use some assistance from software and database developers, as well as beta testers. If you have a suggestion, or would be willing to help develop future releases of the VIC, please email VaccineCalc@gmail.com
Future improvements of the VIC currently under consideration are:

  • Enhancement of the Vaccination Plan printout to include injection site;
  • Addition of more vaccine ingredients (until all are included);
  • Bovine protein source;
  • Red-flagging ingredient combinations whose potential toxicity is unknown, such as Thimerosal (mercury) and aluminum

We encourage all our readers to include this valuable tool prior to any vaccination decision to better understand what is known and unknown about vaccine ingredients and safe exposure levels.  


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Posted: 8/11/2010 12:29:14 PM | with 0 comments

Theresa WranghamFrom the Executive Director’s Desk
Theresa Wrangham

The well known American anthropologist Margaret Mead once said, "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed it is the only thing that ever has." This famous quote epitomizes NVIC’s humble beginnings and the enormous changes and awareness we have brought to America's vaccine policy.  We continue to be an unbiased one-stop information clearinghouse assisting individuals in making informed vaccine decisions.  
 
NVIC's accomplishments over the past 28 years would not have been possible without you. As a charitable non-profit organization, NVIC depends on tax-deductible donations and volunteers donating their time to make NVIC's vision a reality – informed and voluntary vaccination.  We continue to enjoy the support of our readers, many of whom offer to volunteer! In response to our readers and our need to grow, we are launching a Volunteer Opportunities section on our website. 
 
We understand that your time is precious and we love your passion, so all of our volunteer positions are flexible! If you want to volunteer, but don't see an opportunity posted that interests you, just fill out our volunteer application.  We will keep it on file and contact you when something in your area of interest opens up. If you don't have the time to volunteer, please consider making a donation so that we may continue to protect choice and offer educational information to the public.

We currently have three volunteer opportunities open and look forward to you joining our volunteer team! 
Please visit this section of our website often for new opportunities and thank you for your continued support. Click here to learn more…
 

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Posted: 8/4/2010 8:51:21 PM | with 15 comments

by Barbara Loe Fisher

This summer, inaccurate and misleading information about B. pertussis whooping cough and the pertussis vaccine is being put out there by medical doctors, who should know better. Media campaigns designed to create fear about infectious disease are nothing new. This one appears to have three goals: first, to emphasize pertussis risks while ignoring vaccine risks; second, to place blame for whooping cough cases and deaths on the unvaccinated; and, third, to attack religious and conscientious belief exemptions, which serve as informed consent protections in U.S. vaccine laws.

In 2009, public health officials declared a pandemic H1N1 influenza emergency and played up the potential complications of the swine flu while playing down the potential risks of the untested new swine flu vaccine. 1 When two-thirds of Americans “just said no” to swine flu shots, NBC’s chief medical editor Dr. Nancy Snyderman ridiculed them and quipped “Just get the damn vaccine.” 2

Now Snyderman has issued a similar standing order to “get vaccinated” but, this time, she is accusing parents of unvaccinated children for causing the deaths of six California infants, who have reportedly died from complications of B. pertussis whooping cough. On July 28, 2010, Dr. Snyderman further alleged that “most people” with religious objections to vaccination are not telling the truth and that the “needs” of the “community as a whole” are “better than the individual” and “more important.” 3

Ordinarily I would not take the time to address specific comments by a prominent doctor, who is careless with the facts when voicing an opinion. But as more doctors use the bully pulpit of the national media – unchallenged - to disseminate incorrect information, promote personal ideological views and advance political agendas, it becomes more important for informed Americans to speak up.

Responding to recent press releases and media reports, in which California health officials say the state is experiencing the worst whooping cough outbreak in 50 years with about 1500 reported cases and six infants dying from B. pertussis, 4 on July 28 Dr. Snyderman offered the following explanation:

“I think that what we are seeing here is a tipping point in unvaccinated children because the hot pockets are in families where, frankly, parents have under-vaccinated or decided not to vaccinate their children.” 5

A quick fact check reveals that both California health officials and Snyderman have not been entirely honest with the people. The Centers for Disease Control’s published morbidity and mortality report shows that in the past 12 months, between July 24, 2009 and July 24, 2010, there were a total of 809 “provisional” cases of whooping cough reported in California.6 In fact, in the entire United States of America for the week ending July 24, there were only 187 reported cases of whooping cough, with no cases occurring in California.

When disease incidence statistics publicized by state health departments do not match those published by federal health agencies, there is something wrong. It is time for California health officials to fully disclose complete details of the 1500 whooping cough cases they allege have occurred in the state during the past year, including how many cases were lab confirmed as B. pertussis; how many cases were classified as “epidemiologically linked”  - which means they were NOT lab confirmed; and the ages and vaccination status of all cases, including whether people with suspected or confirmed cases had been given 1,2,3,4,5,6 or more pertussis shots.

Most doctors know perfectly well that getting 3 to 6 doses of pertussis vaccine or more does not give lifelong immunity to whooping cough, and that other viruses and bacteria, such as parapertussis and RSV - which are not covered by the vaccine - can be misdiagnosed as pertussis if proper lab tests are not done. 7, 8  In addition, public health officials know that B. pertussis bacteria have been evolving and become vaccine resistant, making the pertussis vaccine much less effective. 8

So Snyderman is engaging in pure speculation when she blames whooping cough-related deaths on the unvaccinated. The truth is that infants can be as easily exposed to B. pertussis by coming into contact with a fully vaccinated infected person as with an unvaccinated person. 9

Dr. Snyderman goes on state that, “These are 6 infants who have lost their lives who, frankly, should not have died.”

I agree. It is tragic when babies die from whooping cough and it is tragic when babies get pertussis containing vaccines and suffer convulsions, collapse/shock, high pitched screaming and other signs of brain inflammation and then, die.10 It is a tragedy when any baby dies, regardless of the cause.

No fear campaign about infectious disease would be complete without bringing up polio. Snyderman says, “We were given our polio vaccine and the idea was that, if you get a vaccination, you will not get ill and you will not die.”

Yes, that was the “idea” but it is not a fact.  Every vaccine carries a risk of injury and death that can be greater for some than others. There is no guarantee the vaccine will prevent an infectious disease and, depending upon the vaccine, it could actually give you the vaccine strain of the disease it is supposed to prevent.

In 1999, the U.S. abandoned use of the live virus oral polio vaccine to prevent individuals in America from being paralyzed by vaccine strain polio. 11  A lot of people don’t know that, if you swallow the live virus polio vaccine, you can get paralyzed and die.  On top of that, recently vaccinated persons shed live poliovirus in their body fluids for weeks. People who come in close contact with them can get vaccine strain polio and be paralyzed or die.

Today, a killed polio vaccine is used in America because parents of vaccine injured children lobbied in the 1990’s to get the polio vaccine policy changed.

But Dr. Snyderman only tells one side of the polio story, charging that: “Now people, frankly, have amnesia from the event. They forget what it was like to see people with these communicable diseases.”

There are plenty of Americans, like me, who remember lining up for polio shots in the 1950’s and 60’s and were informed 40 years later, in the 1990’s, that a lot of those experimental polio shots were contaminated with a monkey virus, simian virus 40, that causes cancer in lab animals and has been associated with brain, bone and lung cancers in children and adults. 12, 13

We do remember polio and the iron lung. But we also remember not being told the whole truth about polio vaccine risks.

Then Snyderman takes out the big club and warns: “I worry that, if we are under-vaccinating our children are you start to see things like whooping cough coming back, this is the canary in the coal mine. Last year we saw children die of measles and I worry that, if we see whooping cough and measles, that polio can’t be far away.”

Let’s take another look at official federal disease incidence statistics to see whether that “worry” is justified or is just a lot of hype.  In 2009, out of 300 million people living in the United States, there were 71 cases of measles reported. This year, there have been 32 cases of measles. That’s right: 32.  There have been no cases of polio reported in America this year and only 1 case since 2006.14

Get a grip, Dr. Snyderman.

“In a country like this, where vaccinations are available, these communicable and infectious and deadly diseases shouldn’t even be talked about,”says Snyderman.

Most doctors know that vaccines only give temporary immunity at best and that microbes, like B. pertussis, are constantly evolving to survive. 15, 16  That’s why five or more doses of pertussis vaccine still can’t prevent all whooping cough disease. So we will be talking about whooping cough, measles, mumps, chicken pox and lots of other infectious diseases for a long, long time in this country and in every country, whether we get vaccinated or not.

“You know I have been an unabashed, unapologetic advocate for vaccinations. They are safe. They work,” says Snyderman.

Many American doctors are “unapologetic” mandatory vaccination advocates because that is what they are told to be by public health officials and leaders in major medical organizations, such as the American Academy of Pediatrics17 and the American Medical Association.18  In fact, about 40 percent of pediatricians in America today proudly say they flatly deny medical care to families, who refuse to follow their orders to “get vaccinated.”19 

As important, though, is the question: How many of these doctors refuse to speak to, associate with, and condemn other doctors, who do treat patients making selective vaccine choices?

The truth is, vaccines are not safe for everyone and they do not work for everyone. When doctors only tell half the truth about vaccine benefits and risks, people can sense it. And when they demean and threaten patients, who ask questions or disagree with them, the fragile bond of trust between doctors and patients is broken.

Like when Dr. Snyderman demeans Americans, who exercise religious exemption to vaccination, an exemption which exists in all but two states. “A lot of people are opting out on them [vaccines] and saying, “Well, it’s against my religion” and I would say, for most people, that is just not true,”she says.

It is annoying when anyone pretends to know another person’s mind, heart and soul. But it is frightening when doctors believe they are entitled to judge the sincerity of another person’s religious or conscientiously held beliefs. With this comment, Dr. Snyderman has assumed the position of an Inquisitor. There is some comfort in knowing that the rack is no longer in fashion and the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution 20 has not yet been repealed.

“Make sure your children are vaccinated,”says Snyderman.

This simplistic, one-size-fits-all approach to vaccination is dangerous. Because there are children, who are at higher risk for becoming brain injured or dying after getting pertussis containing vaccines (DTaP, Tdap), including those who have suffered previous vaccine reactions like:21,22

  • Very high fever
  • High pitched screaming or persistent crying 
  • Convulsions (with or without fever)
  • Collapse/shock (also known as hypo-tonic/hypo-responsive episodes)
  • Brain Inflammation and encephalopathy

 

For a full list of precautions for children, teenagers and adults, read the manufacturer product inserts and get more information about how to recognize a vaccine reaction at www.NVIC.org. Find out whether the pertussis vaccine your doctor is recommending for your child has been studied for safety and effectiveness when given at the same time as other vaccines. For example, many pertussis vaccines have not been studied in clinical trials when a flu shot is given at the same time.

“If you are an adult and you are around a child under the age of one, get vaccinated,”says Snyderman.

Again, it is important to know whether you, as an adult, are at high risk for suffering a pertussis vaccine reaction, such as being sick at the time of vaccination.

 “If you are a woman of childbearing years, get vaccinated,”says Snyderman.

How many pregnant women, whose doctors urge them to get a booster shot (Tdap), know that the vaccine has not been thoroughly studied in pregnant women? Or that manufacturer product inserts include this disclaimer: 23

   Animal reproduction studies have not been conducted…..It is not known whether [the vaccine] can cause fetal harm when administered to a pregnant woman, or can affect reproductive capacity. [The vaccine] has not been evaluated for carcinogenic or mutagenic potential, or for impairment of fertility.

But wait - Dr. Snyderman even tries to make us believe that unvaccinated people can infect immune compromised people simply by walking past them in the grocery store! No, really. She says:

 “And if you think, well, you can opt out [of vaccination], remember that, when you go to the grocery store and you walk by someone who has cancer or MS or any other compromised immune system, you put that person in harms way, too.”

Is that the kind of immunology being taught in medical schools today? 24, 25 That an unvaccinated person can transmit infectious disease without hand shaking or kissing or coughing or sneezing - just a simple walk-by will do? 26

And, finally, Dr. Snyderman gets to the heart the matter and promotes her personal ideological belief, which requires devaluing the individual:

“There is a time, when the community as a whole, their needs are better than the individual and, I think, more important,” says Snyderman.

This kind of thinking is called utilitarianism, 27. 28 a political philosophy that was judged to be a pseudo-ethic by the Nuremberg Tribunal at the Doctor’s Trial in 1946.  The judges at Nuremberg exposed what happened when doctors used the utilitarian rationale to conduct scientific research during World War II that forced individuals to risk their lives in drug, vaccine and other medical experiments. 29

The Nuremberg Code, which defined the ethical principle of informed consent, has served as the foundation for the ethical practice of medicine for more than half a century. The informed consent principle makes it clear that the rights of the individual cannot, ethically, be sacrificed to the needs or interests of society. 30

But Dr. Snyderman goes further and marginalizes and condemns individuals, who do not agree with her utilitarian view.

“Right now, individuals are trumping the general populace at large and I find that, frankly, offensive and amoral,”says Snyderman.

It is disturbing when prominent doctors tell half-truths and promote fear, hate and prejudice. We want to believe the doctors we trust with our health and our children’s lives care about us as individuals.

Most people consider it is offensive and amoral to write off a minority of individuals as expendable in service to the rest. Because then, the question becomes: How many individuals can be sacrificed for what some in positions of authority have defined as “the greater good?” Is it 300?  3,000? 30,000? Or can we go as high as three million? That is only 1 percent of 300 million Americans, after all.

The truth is, nobody knows how many vaccine victims there are in America, how many of the 1 in 6 learning disabled children; or the 1 in 9 with asthma; or the 1 in 100 who develop autism; or the 1 in 450 who become diabetic, can trace their chronic inflammation, disease and disability back to vaccine reactions that have been dismissed by public health officials and doctors for the past century as just “a coincidence.” 31, 32

When parents of vaccine injured children held the first public demonstration in front of the CDC in Atlanta on May 12, 1986, the larger question we asked public health officials was “Do you know how many?” After we marched, we made presentations to the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, (ACIP) and asked the Committee questions and, then, I gave a report on my investigation into whooping cough outbreaks in 1985, which had been heavily publicized by physician officials at the American Academy of Pediatrics. I found that many of the whooping cough cases reported in eight states in 1985 had not been lab confirmed and the majority had occurred in vaccinated children and adults. (You can read a transcript of what happened at that May 1986 CDC meeting on NVIC’s website) 33

Nothing much has changed in the last 25 years. Whooping cough is still infecting both vaccinated and unvaccinated individuals. There are pertussis increases every four to five years, no matter how high the vaccination rate.32  Many children and adults survive whooping cough disease without complications but some do not. And some doctors in positions of power are still in the business of creating fear and demonizing those, who make informed health choices that do not include use of 16 government recommended vaccines. 33, 34,35

Dr. Snyderman concludes her diatribe by focusing on her own fears, while wistfully clinging to the myth that vaccines will eradicate all infectious diseases in America - if only every man, woman and child would dutifully comply with doctors’ orders to “get vaccinated.”

    “I think this winter, as whooping cough upticks, measles continues to be under-vaccinated, we’re going to increasingly see pockets of communicable infections that a few decades ago we thought, frankly, we had eradicated from the United States. These illnesses should not be seen in the United States with the vaccinations that we have at hand,”says Snyderman.

Abe Lincoln once said “You can fool some of the people all of the time and all of the people some of the time, but you can’t fool all the people all of the time.”

How long is it going to take for medical doctors, who have abandoned their critical thinking skills and lost themselves in orthodoxy, to stop fooling themselves so they can accurately inform their patients about the benefits and risks of vaccination 36 37 and respect the choices their patients make? 38 39

Whatever doctors decide to do and whether they ever conduct the good scientific studies that will answer outstanding questions about vaccination, individuals should always have the freedom to exercise informed consent to medical risk-taking. That freedom protects individuals and minorities from exploitation by those in positions of authority in society, who do not know what they do, as well as from those who do know what they are doing.

  The freedom to make an informed, voluntary decision about what we are willing to risk our lives or our children’s lives for is not just an individual need, it is a human right. It is a human right and a freedom worth defending in this and every century.

 

References


1 National Vaccine Information Center. Pandemic H1N1 Swine Flu: What About You & Your Family?

2 MSNBC-TV. “Morning Meeting.” August 25, 2009.

3 NBC-TV. “The Today Show.” July 28, 2010. Meredith Vieira & Nancy Snydernan, M.D.

4 California Department of Public Health. Press Release: CDPH Broadens Recommendations for Vaccinating Against Pertussis: Immunization Key to Controlling Whooping Cough. July 19, 2010.  

5 Transcript of Meredith Vieira interview of Nancy Snyderman, M.D. on NBC-TV “The Today Show.” July 28, 2010.

6 CDC. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR). Vol. 59, No. 29. July 30, 2010.

7 He Q, Vijanen MK et al. Whooping Cough Caused by Bordetella pertussis and Bordetella parapertussis in an Immunized Population. JAMA. 1998; 280: 635-637.

8 Liese JG, Renner C. Clinical and epidemiological picture of B pertussis and B parapertussis infections after introduction of acellular pertussis vaccines. Archives of Diseases in Childhood 2003; 88: 684-687.

8 Preston A. Bordetella pertussis: the intersection of genomics and pathobiology. Canadian Medical Association Journal. July 5, 2005. 173 (1)

9 Mooi F R, van LooI HM, King A. Adaptation of Bordetella pertussis to Vaccination: A Cause for its Reemergence? Emerging Infectious Diseases. Vol. 7, No. 3 Supplement June 2001.

10 HRSA. National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (VICP). Claims Filed and Compensated or Dismissed by Vaccine. (up to May 5, 2010). and Statistics Report: Awards Paid (as of June 7, 2010).

11 Alexander LN, Seward JF et al. Vaccine Policy Changes and Epidemiology of Poliomyelitis in the United States. JAMA. 2004; 298:1696-1701.

12 Carlsen W. Rogue Virus in the Vaccine: Early Polio Vaccine Harbored Virus Now Feared to Cause Cancer in Humans. San Francisco Chronicle. July 15, 2001.

13 Fisher BL. Congressional Testimony: The SV-40 Virus: Has Tainted Polio Vaccine Caused an Increase in Cancer? U.S. House Government Reform Committee. September 10, 2003.

14 MMWR. See Reference #6.

15 Diavatopoulos DA, Cummings CA et al. Bordetella pertussis, the Causative Agent of Whooping Cough, Evolved from a Distinct Human-Associated Lineage of B. bronchiseptica. PLOS Pathogens. December 2005: Vol. 1, Issue 4.

16 McIntosh M. Bacteria Take Short Cuts to Evolve on Fast Track. UA News (University of Arizona). May 10, 2001.

17 Diekema DS. Responding to Parental Refusals of Immunization of Children. Pediatrics. Vol. 115, No. 5. May 2005; pp: 1428-1431. (Reaffirmed as AAP Policy on May 1, 2009).

18 Medical News Today. AACAP Applauds AMA’s Support for Universal Vaccinations. June 19, 2009.

19 Flanagan-Klygis EA, Sharp L, Frader JE. Dismissing the Family Who Refuses Vaccines. Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med. 2005; 159:929-934.

20 U.S. Constitution – First Amendment.

21 National Vaccine Information Center. Pertussis (Whooping Cough) and Pertussis Vaccine.

22 Sanofi-Pasteur. DAPTACEL Product Insert. March 2008.

23 GlaxoSmithKline. Boosterix Product Insert. December 2008.

24 Siegel JD, Rhinehart E et al. 2007 Guidelines for Isolation Precautions: Preventing Transmission of Infectious Agents in Healthcare Settings.  CDC.

25 Andre JB, Gupta S. Frank S, Tibayrenc M. Evolution and immunology of infectious diseases: What’s new? An E-debate. Infection, Genetics and Evolution (2004) 69-75.

26 Oklahoma Department of Public Health. Public Health Fact Sheet: Preventing Infectious Diseases Daily With Healthy Behavior. November 2007.

27 Mautner, T. Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832). The Penguin Dictionary of Philosophy. and Utilitarianism. The Penguin Dictionary of Philosophy.

28 Ross KL. The Mummy’s Curse: Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832). 

29 Seidelman WE. Nuremberg lamentation: for the forgotten victims of medical science. BMJ 1996; 313:1463-7.

30 Katz J. The Consent Principle of the Nuremberg Code: It’s Significance Then and Now. The Nazi Doctors and the Nuremberg Code (New York: Oxford University Press, 1992), pp. 227-239.

31 Coulter HL, Fisher BL. DPT: A Shot in the Dark (San Diego: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1985).

32 Fisher BL. Vaccines, Autism & Chronic Inflammation: The New Epidemic. 2008.

33 Transcript (partial). May 12, 1986 Meeting of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP). Transcribed in 1986 from audio tapes.

32 MSNBC. Health Today: Growing outbreaks of whooping cough raise health fears. July 28, 2010.

33 Cox L, Walker E. Doctors May ‘Fire” Parents Who Don’t Vaccinate Children. ABC News. October 23, 2009.

34 Nguyen P. Parents who don’t vaccinate their kids put us all at risk. UCLA Today. June 1, 2010.

35 PBS. Frontline: The Vaccine War. April 27, 2010.

36 Legido A, Tenembaum SN, Katsetos CD, Menkes JH. Autoimmune & Postinfectious Diseases (Chapter 8). Child Neurology – 7th Edition. Lippencott Williams & Wilkins, 2006. Pages 631-634 (Neurologic Complications of Immunizations).

37 Fisher BL. Whooping Cough Outbreaks & Vaccine Failures. NVIC. July 7, 2010. http://www.nvic.org/NVIC-Vaccine-News/July-2010/Whooping-Cough-Outbreaks-Vaccine-Failures.aspx

38 NBC “The Today Show.” March 1997. Matt Lauer, Barbara Loe Fisher, Neal Halsey, M.D.

39 Fisher BL. National Vaccine Advisory Committee. The Moral Right to Religious, Conscientious or Personal Belief Exemption to Mandatory Vaccination Laws. May 2, 1997.


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Posted: 7/8/2010 3:10:31 PM | with 7 comments


UPDATE:  CLICK HERE TO VIEW NVIC'S PERTUSSIS VACCINE & DISEASE PAGE
by Barbara Loe Fisher
 
Reports of whooping cough outbreaks in California1,2 and in other states this summer are nothing new. Every four to five years – no matter how high the vaccination rate is - there are reports of whooping cough increases.
 
Whooping cough is a respiratory disease. Toxins in Bordetella pertussis bacteria stimulate the production of large amounts of thick, sticky mucus that can clog the airways of tiny babies and children, making it difficult for them to take a breath without vomiting, choking and making a whooping sound3 as they struggle to breathe.
 
There is an acellular pertussis vaccine – DTaP - which was licensed for American babies in 1996.4 DTaP replaced an older, very reactive whole cell pertussis vaccine - DPT - that was associated with more cases of high fever, collapse/shock, convulsions, brain inflammation and permanent brain damage.5,6
 
It is well known that pertussis vaccines, which can contain various amounts of bioactive toxins7,8,9,10,11 and also aluminum12,13,14 and mercury15 additives, have killed and brain injured some children. Over half of the 2,480 awards for vaccine injury and death totaling $2 billion dollars made under the 1986 National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act involve pertussis vaccine.16
 
Pertussis vaccination rates are very high in the U.S. According to the CDC, 84 percent of children under age three have received four DTaP shots.17 By the time American children enter kindergarten nearly every child has gotten all the CDC recommended pertussis shots.18 In 2009, the CDC said that the proportion of totally unvaccinated children in America is only six hundredths of one percent (0.06).19
 
Even with super high pertussis vaccine coverage in America and other countries like the Netherlands, Australia, Finland and Canada, whooping cough disease cannot be prevented.20 There are two main reasons for this fact.
 
First, pertussis vaccines widely used since the 1950’s have not prevented whooping cough disease from circulating in vaccinated populations. Unknown numbers of children and adults, who have gotten all government recommended pertussis shots, can and do develop whooping cough or are carriers without symptoms.21,22
 
Because pertussis vaccine immunity is only temporary and does not last, health officials are now telling teenagers and adults to get more booster shots.23 But that is not going to matter if scientific evidence that B. pertussis organisms have mutated and become vaccine-resistant turns out to be correct.24
 
A second important reason is that another Bordetella organism – parapertussis – also can cause whooping cough.25 B. parapertussis symptoms, while often milder, can look exactly like B. pertussis. But doctors rarely recognize or test for parapertussis.26 And there is NO vaccine for parapertussis. 
 
The DTaP vaccine given 5 times to children under age 6 and booster doses for teenagers and adults does not protect against whooping cough caused by B. parapertussis. In highly vaccinated countries like the U.S., parpertussis is on the rise and it is estimated that perhaps 30 percent or more of whooping cough disease is actually caused by parapertussis!27
 
So which bacterial organism is causing much of the whooping cough being seen in California, Nevada,28 Oregon and other states this summer? Is it B. pertussis or B. parapertussis? Has there been any attempt by health officials to do expensive PCR lab tests on suspected whooping cough cases to find out?29
 
Another question: Are public health officials being transparent with the public about just how many children and adults reported to have whooping cough have been fully vaccinated? In 1985 there was a lot of publicity about whooping cough outbreaks in eight states and all the blame was put on parents of DPT vaccine injured children calling for a safer pertussis vaccine. But 25 years ago I investigated those whooping cough outbreaks and found 50 to 80 percent or more of the children and adults with whooping cough symptoms had been vaccinated.30
 
Bordetella organisms causing whooping cough disease live in animals like sheep, pigs, cats and dogs, as well as humans, and have been part of the earth’s ecosystem, evolving to survive, for thousands of years. 31 32 Yet, mass vaccination of humans with pertussis vaccine is only 60 years old.
 
So why are the unvaccinated being blamed for whooping cough outbreaks in California,33 Oregon34 and other states? The majority of Americans alive today have gotten 3 to 5 pertussis shots.
 
The truth is that, whether you are vaccinated or not, you can get a mild or serious case of whooping cough from B. pertussis or B. parapertussis organisms. And both whooping cough disease and pertussis vaccines carry a risk of injury or death, which can be greater for some than others.
 
There are no guarantees.
 
It is time for public health officials and doctors to look at themselves and stop pointing fingers at those, who have examined pertussis vaccine benefits and risks and come to a different conclusion.
 
After my precocious two year old son suffered a convulsion, collapse/shock and brain inflammation following his fourth DPT shot in 1980 and was left with multiple learning disabilities and attention deficit disorder, in 1993 my two youngest children, then 5 and 10 years old, came down with whooping cough. They coughed violently and spit up huge amounts of thick mucus for 8 weeks before fully recovering and going on to become honor roll students.
 
The profile on whooping cough in the 1985 book I co-authored with medical historian Harris Coulter, “DPT: A Shot in the Dark,35 is about my sister and her family, who were fully vaccinated. Her newborn baby almost died of whooping cough but survived and attended college on a full academic scholarship. Even so, other babies who get whooping cough do not survive.
 
There are no guarantees.
 
A quarter century later, DPT: A Shot in the Dark still stands as the most comprehensive, referenced analysis of whooping cough and pertussis vaccine risks and why America’s mass vaccination system is in urgent need of reform. Become a family donor supporter of the National Vaccine Information Center and you will receive a complimentary copy of that historic book.
 
Protect yourself and your child by making educated vaccine decisions. It’s your health. Your family. Your choice.
 
 
References


1 California Department of Health. Press Release: Whooping Cough Epidemic May Be Worst in 50 Years. June 23, 2010.
2 Scheck J. Whooping cough afflicts region. Wall Street Journal. June 24, 2010.
                                                     
3 Centers for Disease Control (CDC). Pertussis (Whooping Cough) Sounds. Accessed June 6, 2010.
 
4 CDC. FDA Approval of a Second Acellular Pertussis Vaccine for Use Among Infants and Young Children. MMWR. 1997;46:110-111.
 
5 Gold, R. Pertussis: The Disease & the Vaccine. Canadian Family Physician. Vol 32, January 1986, pp. 79-83. 
 
6 Legido A, Tenembaum SN, Katsetos CD, Menkes JH. Autoimmune & Postinfectious Diseases (Chapter 8). Child Neurology – 7th Edition. Lippencott Williams & Wilkins, 2006. Pages 631-634 (Neurologic Complications of Immunizations).
 
7 Sidney M, Furman BL, Wardlaw AC. Effect of hyperreactivity to endotoxin on the toxicity of pertussis vaccine and pertussis toxin in mice. Vaccine. Vol. 7, Issue 3. June 1989. Pages 237-241.
 
8 World Health Organization (WHO). Requirements for Diphtheria, Tetanus, Pertussis 7 Combined Vaccines (Revised 1989). Technical Report Series, No) 500. 1990.
 
9 Steinman L, Weiss A et al. Pertussis toxin is required for pertussis vaccine encephalopathy. Proc Natl Acad Sci, 1985. December; 82(24) 8733-8736.
 
10 Businesswire. Chiron Biocine Genetically Engineered Acellular Pertussis Vaccine Proves Superior to Currently Licensed Vaccine. Chiron Press Release: July 13, 1995.
 
11 Hofstetter HH, Shive CL, Forsthuber TC. Pertussis Toxin Modulates the Immune Response to Neuroantigens Injected in Incomplete Freund’s Adjuvant: Induction of Th1 Cells and Experimental Autoimmune Encephalomyelitis in the Presence of High Frequencies of Th2 Cells. The Journal of Immunology, 2002. 169: 117-125.
 
12 Gupta RK, Relyveid EH. Adverse reactions after injection of adsorbed diptheria – pertussis – tetanus (DPT) vaccine are not due only to pertussis organisms or pertussis components in the vaccine. Vaccine. Vol. 9, Issue 10. October 1991. Pages 699-702.
 
13 Bergfors E, Trollfors B, Inerot A. Unexpectedly high incidence of persistent itching nodules and delayed hypersensitivity to aluminum in children after the use of adsorbed vaccines from a single manufacturer. Vaccine. Vol. 22, Issue 1. December 8, 2003. Pages 64-69.
 
14 Rimaniol AC, Gras G et al. Aluminum hydroxide adjuvant induces macrophage differentiation towards a specialized antigen-presenting cell type. Vaccine. Vol. 22, Issues 23-24. 13 August 2004. Pages 3127-3135.
 
15 Waly M, Olteanu H. Activation of methionine synthase by insulin-like growth factor – 1 and dopamine: a target for neurodevelopmental toxins and thimerosal. Molecular Psychiatry (2004) 9, 358-370. 
 
16 HRSA. National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (VICP). Claims Filed and Compensated or Dismissed by Vaccine. (up to May 5, 2010). and Statistics Report: Awards Paid (as of June 7, 2010).
 
17 CDC. Immunization Rates Remain Stable at High Levels Among the Nation’s 19 through 35 month old children. CDC Press Release: August 27, 2009.
 
18 CDC. Vaccination Coverage Among Children Entering School – United States, 2005-2006 School Year. MMWR. October 20, 2006. 55(41); 124-1126.
 
19 See Reference #17.
 
20 Mooi F R, van LooIHM, King A. Adaptation of Bordetella pertussis to Vaccination: A Cause for its Reemergence? Emerging Infectious Diseases. Vol. 7, No. 3 Supplement June 2001.
 
21 Grilc E, Pirnat N. Pertussis outbreak in recently vaccinated children in a kindergarten in Ljubljana during a resurgence in pertussis incidence. Eurosurveillance. Vol. 10, Issue 33. 18 August 2005.
 
22 Srugo I, Benilevi D et al. Pertussis Infection in Fully Vaccinated Children in Day-Care Centers, Israel. Emerging Infectious Diseases. Vol. 6, No. 5 September-Oct. 2000.
                                         
23 Brooks DA, Clover R. Pertussis Infection in the United States: Role for Vaccination of Adolescents and Adults. Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine 19:603-611. 2006.
 
24 See References #20 and #21
 
25 Kheief N, Danve B etal. Bordetella pertussis and Bordetella parapertussis: two immunologically distinct species. Infection & Immunity. 1993 February; 61(2): 486-490.
 
26 He Q, Vijanen MK et al. Whooping Cough Caused by Bordetella pertussis and Bordetella parapertussis in an Immunized Population. JAMA. 1998; 280: 635-637.
 
27 Liese JG, Renner C. Clinical and epidemiological picture of B pertussis and B parapertussis infections after introduction of acellular pertussis vaccines. Archives of Diseases in Childhood 2003; 88: 684-687. Also see Reference #26.
 
28 Magin K. Low vaccination rates cause worry over whooping cough. The Union (Nevada). June 15, 2010.
 
29 LabCorp. A Technical Review: Bordetella pertussis and Bordetella parapertussis Detection using Real-time PCR. 2007.
 
30 Fisher, BL. Presentation to the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, Centers for Disease Control, May 12, 1986.
 
31 Preston A. Bordetella pertussis: the intersection of genomics and pathobiology. Canadian Medical Association Journal. July 5, 2005. 173 (1)
 
32 Diavatopoulos DA, Cummings CA et al. Bordetella pertussis, the Causative Agent of Whooping Cough, Evolved from a Distinct Human-Associated Lineage of B. brohchiseptica. PLOS Pathogens. December 2005: Vol. 1, Issue 4.
 
33 Weerasekara P. California Mulls Mandatory Shot for Whooping Cough. New American Media. July 3, 2010.
 
34 The Oregonian. Putting other kids in harm’s way. July 4, 2010.
 
35 Coulter HL, Fisher BL. DPT: A Shot in the Dark. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich. 1985.
 


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