NVIC Vaccine E-NewsletterJuly 17, 2008

Vaccine Facts & Choice: Drawing the Lines

by Barbara Loe Fisher

http://www.vaccineawakening.blogspot.com

http://www.NVIC.org

http://www.StandUpBeCounted.org

As the battle lines are being drawn between those
who want to force all children to use 69 doses of 16
vaccines and those who are defending the right of
parents to exercise voluntary, informed consent to
vaccination, it is coming down to a matter of whose
message do you trust. Should government health
officials, pediatricians and vaccine manufacturers,
who have been denying vaccine risks for three
decades, be trusted to be defacto lawmakers and
force vaccination on everyone or should Americans be
allowed to become informed about vaccination and
legally make voluntary vaccine choices?



Tonight, July 17, Louise Kao Habakus will be
speaking about "Vaccination: Building a Case for
Education and Choice" at the Atlantis Ballroom, Tom's
River Holiday Inn in Tom's River, NJ at 7.pm.. The
mother of two children, Louise is standing up for the
right to know and the freedom to decide. The
presentation is free but to reserve a seat, send e-mail
to terrymillsvactalk@...



As more parents report that their young girls are
suffering disabling reactions to GARDASIL, doctors determined to coverup HPV
vaccine risks are giving out inaccurate information
(see video clip of a FOX News while public health officials
defending vaccine safety write
books and parents want more information and
choices.



All Americans deserve the right to be fully
informed about the risks associated with any
pharmaceutical products or medical procedure and
be allowed to make a voluntary decision about taking
that risk with their own life or the life of their child. The
right to informed consent to medical risk taking is a
human right.




__________________________________________






"Christina Bell says 2 weeks after her 12 year
old daughter Brittany was injected with the HPV
vaccine, "she was walking through my house and
collapsed. She told me, she couldn't feel her leg."
Today, this once athletic girl has a hard time getting
around and often loses her balance. Jessica Vega of
Nevada got the shot at school and became
temporarily paralyzed. Jamie Venice of Florida passed
out and had a seizure after her Gardasil shot. "I don't
think this should have been fast-tracked by the FDA,"
says Barbara Loe Fisher with the National Vaccine
Information Center. She says Merck, the manufacturer
of the drug managed to get Gardasil approved and to
market, after studying the side-effects in just 12-
hundred girls. What was their incentive? "It certainly is
money because the bottom line for their stock holders
is a profit," she says. She claims Merck has taken in
an estimated 1.5 billion dollars world-wide from
Gardasil sales, all for a vaccine she says may do
more harm than good. She says doctors share in the
blame. "I think pediatricians need to pay more
attention to the patient that's sitting in front of them,
rather than thinking they need to implement
government policy or promote a new vaccine that a
drug company rep has come in and promoted to
them."The debate over the HPV vaccine rages on in
Virginia after it became the first state in the country to
mandate the vaccine for sixth grade girls, albeit with
an opt-out provision. Those requirements have been
delayed for at least one year to allow more time to
study the vaccine's effects on young girls." -
Nancy Yamada, WUSA-TV9 (July 7, 2008)
http://www.wusa9.com/rss/local_article.aspx?storyid=73698


"It remains to be seen whether the new
book will
answer all queries. "You are going to continue to see
parents doing their own research and coming up with
a lot of questions," said Barbara Loe Fisher, a
frequent critic of vaccines and co-founder of the
National Vaccine Information Center, a nonprofit,
parent-led organization that seeks to change the
mass vaccination process to allow more opt-out
flexibility regarding immunizations. She said she
looks forward to reading the book but wonders if it will
address the issue now being raised about the effect
on children's health of recent expansion in the
recommended vaccine schedule. "I've seen the
number of vaccines double and the number of doses
triple," Fisher said. "No matter what is published in
that book, it is still an outstanding question until health
authorities give us the answer as to why so many
highly vaccinated children are so sick." -
Susan J.
Landers, American Medical News (July 7, 2008)


http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2008/07/07/hlsa0707.htm




* Make a difference SUPPORT NVIC

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


Gardasil Controversy: Are the HPV Vaccine's
Side Effects a Legitimate Concern?

produced by Ben Evansky

Fox News

July 11, 2008



TO VIEW VIDEO CLIP:
http://www.foxnews.com/video2/video08.html?maven_referralObject=2233990&maven_re\
ferralPlaylistId=&sRevUrl=http://www.foxnews.com/health/index.html



__________________________________________







~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


Could HPV Vaccine Be Dangerous To Girls?

by Nancy Yamada

WUSA-TV9 (Washington, D.C.)

July 7, 2008



TO VIEW VIDEO CLIP:
http://www.wusa9.com/rss/local_article.aspx?storyid=73698

VIENNA, Va. (WUSA) -- Two years ago it was hailed as
a potential life-saver. Tonight there are new questions
about the safety of an HPV vaccine that millions
women and girls have already been innoculated with.
Some of those girls are as young as 9 years old.



"My doctor told me it was a good idea, friends told
me it was a good idea," says Brigitte Alexander, a 23
year old woman who says she had been thinking
about getting the HPV vaccine. She and others say
they were encouraged by the medical community and
television commercials and ads, promoting Gardasil
as the most effective way to prevent cervical
cancer. "They make you feel like young kids should
get it as well as a good mom would do that to protect
her child," says Ruth Ghobadi, mother of a 15 year old
girl. She questions the safety of vaccinations and has
chosen not to vaccinate her daughter.



Others have and are now regretting it. Christina
Bell says 2 weeks after her 12 year old daughter
Brittany was injected with the HPV vaccine, "she was
walking through my house and collapsed. She told
me, she couldn't feel her leg." Today, this once athletic
girl has a hard time getting around and often loses
her balance. Jessica Vega of Nevada got the shot at
school and became temporarily paralyzed. Jamie
Venice of Florida passed out and had a seizure after
her Gardasil shot.




"I don't think this should have been fast-tracked by
the FDA," says Barbara Loe Fisher with the National
Vaccine Information Center. She says Merck, the
manufacturer of the drug managed to get Gardasil
approved and to market, after studying the side-effects
in just 12-hundred girls. What was their incentive? "It
certainly is money because the bottom line for their
stock holders is a profit," she says. She claims Merck
has taken in an estimated 1.5 billion dollars world-
wide from Gardasil sales, all for a vaccine she says
may do more harm than good. She says doctors
share in the blame. "I think pediatricians need to pay
more attention to the patient that's sitting in front of
them, rather than thinking they need to implement
government policy or promote a new vaccine that a
drug company rep has come in and promoted to
them."



The debate over the HPV vaccine rages on in
Virginia after it became the first state in the country to
mandate the vaccine for sixth grade girls, albeit with
an opt-out provision. Those requirements have been
delayed for at least one year to allow more time to
study the vaccine's effects on young girls.



Despite the FDA's own documents that show
more than 78 hundred people have experienced
problems with Gardasil, Merck and the CDC maintain
that Gardasil is safe and effective. They say there is no
link to deaths and that illnesses reported after the
vaccination may not be the result of the shot.



For more information on Gardasil and potential
dangers, click here
(http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?e=0017rwGyCt_5D5j5YHuZLa1XY-HGJE0KJW2QnmFR1pJER32qPrS6mmp\
iD3HtTC34R9KTKxCNEc0Oe1AN-kjjMVNIKUpD_HLDU6uycYe6nORN4jrdfB7hlbvq76fTG06JfOue_Mh\
okBukXZ4jA7IQNNWZQ==).



Written by Nancy Yamada

9NEWS NOW



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


New book aims to provide vaccine answers: AMNews
Interviews Martin Myers, M.D.

by Susan J. Landers

American Medical News

July 7, 2008


http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2008/07/07/hlsa0707.htm

Washington -- Vaccines have long been considered
one of public health's greatest and most life-saving
achievements, yet they continue to spark controversy.
In recent weeks, protesters in Washington, D.C.,
claimed that childhood vaccines are unsafe, while in
Albany, N.Y., others rallied against a mandatory
vaccine bill in that state.



Parents attempting to do the right thing for their
children are often caught in the cross fire.



Now along comes a new book, Do Vaccines
Cause That?! A Guide for Evaluating Vaccine Safety
Concerns. It summarizes the research findings on
vaccines and presents a method for analyzing that
research. The book is by Martin Myers, MD, a
pediatrician and executive director of the nonprofit
National Network for Immunization Information, based
at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston,
and NNii science writer Diego Pineda. NNii provides
information about vaccines on its Web site
(www.immunizationinfo.org). Affiliates include the
AMA, the Infectious Diseases Society of America, the
American Academy of Pediatrics and the American
Academy of Family Physicians, which support its work.
NNii does not accept pharmaceutical company
funding, Dr. Myers said.



The authors evaluate the long-running
controversy linking vaccines with rising rates of autism
as well as claims suggesting vaccines' possible
association with asthma. The book also delves into
the effects of multiple vaccines on a child's immune
system.



Although parents are its intended audience,
physicians and others in the health care field can
benefit from reading it, according to former Health and
Human Services Secretary Louis Sullivan, MD, and
Samuel Katz, MD, chairman emeritus of pediatrics at
Duke University in Durham, N.C. Together they wrote
the book's forward.



"One hopes -- anticipates -- that besides a broad
lay audience, health care personnel at every level will
take advantage of this book to augment their own
perspectives so they can discuss vaccines more
comfortably and convincingly with the families for
whom they are responsible," write Dr. Sullivan and Dr.
Katz.



It remains to be seen whether the new book will
answer all queries. "You are going to continue to see
parents doing their own research and coming up with
a lot of questions," said Barbara Loe Fisher, a
frequent critic of vaccines and co-founder of the
National Vaccine Information Center, a nonprofit,
parent-led organization that seeks to change the
mass vaccination process to allow more opt-out
flexibility regarding immunizations. She said she
looks forward to reading the book but wonders if it will
address the issue now being raised about the effect
on children's health of recent expansion in the
recommended vaccine schedule.



"I've seen the number of vaccines double and the
number of doses triple," Fisher said. "No matter what
is published in that book, it is still an outstanding
question until health authorities give us the answer as
to why so many highly vaccinated children are so
sick."



AMNews recently talked to Dr. Myers about the
book.



AMNews: Why did you write this?



Dr. Myers: For a couple of reasons. The
first, and maybe the most important, was that readers
of our [NNii] Web site asked us to. They liked the
essays on our site and asked us to put them together
in a book.



The second was when we went to bookstores to
see what was available, we could only find anti-
vaccine materials and advocacy books. But we
couldn't find a book written to help parents sort their
way through conflicting information.



It is meant as a tool to help parents understand
what they are hearing and how to evaluate it. We do
not advocate. Each section of the book was reviewed
by technical experts and parents. We had a panel of
parents read the book and tell us whether we were
clear or not.



One of my favorite anecdotes concerns a parent
who acknowledged that the book was informative but
also said it was boring and not the kind of thing a
parent is going to read. So we went back and started
over.



We hope it's helpful for parents who want more
evidence and also to those who need help sorting
through the evidence.



AMNews: What's in it for physicians?



Dr. Myers: As Dr. Katz and Dr. Sullivan
wrote in the forward to the book, we do review the
evidence in some detail. We want to have it all there.
They noted that it's something that health
professionals should read also, since it's the one
place where it is compiled.



A number of physicians at meetings said they
were anxious to see the book because they thought it
would help them talk to parents.



AMNews: Do physicians and researchers
have difficulty communicating clearly to lay people?




Dr. Myers: We use words in a different
way. We included a table of words in the book and
what they mean to vaccine researchers and what they
mean in common English. As we started to compile
that table, we kept finding more words.



"Bias" is one of the words. "Plausible" is
another. "Significant" to the scientist means it is
probably not due to chance, but it could be. But when a
parent hears the word significant, it means
important.



Then there is the phenomenon of the missing
information. If it turns out that a safety concern is
caused by the vaccine, like it was with
intussusceptions and [the first] rotavirus vaccine
[which was withdrawn in 1999], it doesn't take very
long to prove it. [Two new rotavirus vaccines were
licensed in 2006.] But you can never prove a negative.
You have to have lots of studies done by different
people, and it might take years until the scientific
community says, 'OK, the weight of the evidence is so
compelling we think we can reject this.' We used a
quote from Einstein that Diego found: 'Many
experiments will never prove me right, but one
experiment can prove me wrong.'



AMNews: How great is the danger posed
by unimmunized children?



Dr. Myers: We have a section in the book
called 'community immunity' that addresses how
important it is for children to be immunized to protect
neighbors. It's an important concept for people to
understand that when immunization levels go down,
outbreaks can occur.



Attacks of misinformation on vaccine safety can
cause that breakthrough. We saw it with whooping
cough in the 1970s and 1980s. And we saw it with
measles and mumps in the United Kingdom just
recently.



AMNews:So are the same vaccine safety
debates occurring in other countries?



Dr. Myers: The same discussion on
vaccines causing autism was held in England and
Europe related to the measles vaccine -- that
argument has been discredited now. But as a result,
parents became confused and didn't immunize their
children, and they had an outbreak of measles and an
epidemic of mumps which spread to the United
States.






~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


Immunity Gap: A Growing Number of Concerned
Parents Exempt Children from Required Shots


As more parents refuse vaccines for their kids, health
officials worry.

by Andrea Orr

May 27, 2008


Edutopia.org

The George Lucas Education Foundation



http://www.edutopia.org/health-child-vaccinations



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


...

Late last year, Jessie Griffiths took a notarized
document into the rural New Hampshire school her
three-year-old son Cole attends, stating that, because
of religious objections, he was not up-to-date on his
vaccines. Later she admitted, "This is not actually the
truth."



Cole had suffered a series of seizures days after
receiving his measles, mumps, and rubella vaccines
that alarmed Griffiths enough for her to stop all future
vaccinations. She could have sought a medical note
from her son's doctor, but she decided it would be
easier just to take the religious exemption that every
state except Mississippi and West Virginia allows --
often with no questions asked.



Across the country, a small but growing number
of parents are doing the same thing. A 2006 survey
from the Journal of the American Medical Association
found that the number of parents exempting their
children from some or all of their state's required
vaccines, for any stated reason, grew by 6 percent per
year between 1991 and 2004. All anecdotal evidence
suggests their ranks have continued to grow since
then.



Certain religious groups, such as the Amish,
often choose not to vaccinate, and other people, like
Griffiths's son, suffer serious side effects. But health
officials believe that many of the parents opting out
today are doing so out of fear that the vaccines may
contribute to other conditions such as autism, a link
long suspected but repeatedly refuted in scientific
research.



It's easy to overlook these thousands of parents
who opt out of vaccinations for hepatitis A and B, polio,
chicken pox, whooping cough, and other illnesses
among the millions who vaccinate right on schedule.
Indeed, overall immunization coverage has risen
steadily across the United States for many years.



But Lance Rodewald, who directs the
Immunization Services Division at the federal Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), says he
suspects there are already areas within the country
where large numbers of parents taking exemptions
have caused compliance to fall below 90 percent, a
level generally considered a good measure of "herd
immunity." Abstention is especially high in the
Western states.



Sandy Cano, school nurse at John Muir
Elementary School, in Santa Monica, California,
estimates that, because of a high proportion of what
she calls "free-to-be-me parents" in the school district,
5 percent or more of the children at her school have
not received all their mandated vaccinations (all of
them claiming religious exemption). "We try to
reassure parents, but parents do their own research,"
Cano says. "School nurses are always worried."



Worried for good reason, says Rodewald. If
parents who opt out of vaccines assume they are
putting no one but their own child at risk, the reality is
more complex. All vaccines have some small failure
rate, meaning certain children who have been
immunized against something like measles are still
at risk -- a risk that only rises if they are going to
school with other potential carriers.



"If a vaccine is 95 percent effective, and you have
a lunchroom full of 300 kids, that means fifteen of
them are susceptible, even if they have all been
vaccinated," says Rodewald. An increasingly mobile
society also means more people are traveling to and
from developing nations, and the risk rises even
more. A 2005 measles outbreak in Indiana began
when one young girl who had not been immunized
caught the measles during a trip to an orphanage in
Romania. About thirty people in the community
eventually came down with measles.



"I'm concerned when even one kid isn't
vaccinated," says Cindy Lovell, school nurse at
Midvale Elementary School, in Madison, Wisconsin.
Having read much of the scientific research, Lovell
remains convinced the benefits vaccines provide to
the public health outweigh any risks.



But more and more parents who are skeptical of
that research are turning to groups such as the
National Vaccine Information Center, in Vienna,
Virginia, which continues to explore possible hazards
of vaccines and educates people to make their own
decisions. The group's cofounder, Barbara Loe
Fisher, argues that our concerns must go beyond the
good of the "herd."



"I believe you cannot separate individual health
from public health," she says. "We are at a point
where one in five children is learning disabled. We
cannot say our public health is being served."



Andrea Orr is a freelance writer based in San
Francisco.

This article originally published on 5/27/2008

This article was also published in the June 2008
issue of Edutopia magazine


_______________________________________


Source URL:


http://www.edutopia.org/health-child-vaccinations


Links:

[1] http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines

[2] http://www.NVIC.org



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
National Vaccine Information CenterNVIC E-News is a free service of the
National Vaccine
Information Center and is supported through
donations.



NVIC is funded through the financial support of its
members and does not receive any government
subsidies. Barbara Loe Fisher, President and Co-
founder.



Learn more about vaccines, diseases and how to
protect your informed consent rights http://www.nvic.org


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Make a difference SUPPORT NVIC



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