Oral polio vaccines contain live viruses that can cause polio and are being
replaced with a killed-virus version. The DTP (diphtheria, tetanus and
pertussis) inoculation, acknowledged within the federal government to be the
source of brain damage in some cases, still is on the market; a modified
version, the DTaP, is said to be safer and is commonly used. The MMR vaccine
has been a suspected cause of autism for more than a decade. The rotavirus
inoculation, a vaccine against usually mild diarrhea, was recalled last year
after it was found to cause bowel blockage and collapse in infants.
According to Charles Prober of Stanford University, an American
Academy of Pediatrics spokesman on immunizations, Each of the individual
vaccines has some recognized side effects with varying degrees of frequency
but scientifically documented severe reactions are very rare. And autism
has not been shown to be caused by vaccines in any sort of credible study.
Measles shots are given at 15 to 18 months of age and autism typically
appears about the same time. The same [temporal association] is true for
many of the other autoimmune and chronic neurologic disorders. He adds,
Anything that is reasonably plausible in terms of how vaccines interact
with immune and neurologic systems are vigorously explored. Vaccine
developers, governmental organizations and manufacturers have a vested
interest in understanding them.
Nonetheless, after comparing stories with other parents around the
country, Sarkine and her father began to wonder whether government-mandated
vaccines had become a severe children’s health problem. Sarkine has become
an activist for autism awareness and parental consent in vaccinations. She’s
the Indiana representative for Unlocking Autism, an organization founded in
1998 by two mothers whose children suffered experiences similar to those of
Christian and Alex.
Burton’s committee held several hearings in 1999 to examine claims by
health-care consumers and advocacy groups that vaccines have caused
thousands of injuries and deaths, claims which government health agencies
and vaccine manufacturers largely have discounted. They point out that many
theories implicating vaccines as injurious are founded on anecdotal
evidence, not solid scientific research.
But Burton wouldn’t be dissuaded by FDA and CDC denials, saying in
last year’s hearings, We as a government can no longer keep our heads
buried in the sand like an ostrich, pretending there is no problem. The
hearings provided a platform for parents whose skepticism about vaccines has
continued to grow in the face of government and industry insistence that
they are perfectly safe.
One parent who caught Burton’s attention is Rick Rollens, former
secretary of the California Senate and father of a 9-year-old boy whose
autism he believes was triggered by vaccinations. With other concerned
parents he founded the M.I.N.D. Institute to conduct research into the
incidence, causes and treatments of autism and other neurodevelopmental
disorders. Their initial study found a 273 percent increase in cases of
severe autism in California during the last 11 years. Other
neurodevelopmental disabilities such as mental retardation also increased
but only at a population-adjusted rate. Through the late 1970s, only 100 to
200 new cases of autism were reported each year. In 1998, new cases reported
to the public-school system were 1,425. That number jumped another 36
percent to 1,944 in 1999.
Perhaps it’s coincidence that each upsurge in autism has followed the
introduction and mandate of a new vaccine in the state, Rollens observes.
But he’s raising millions of dollars to find out. Vaccines contain numerous
active agents such as live viruses, bacterial agents, preservatives and
toxic chemicals, including formaldehyde and mercury, as well as human,
animal and plant RNA. Not a single safety study has ever been done on the
short-term or long-term effects of the interaction of this potent cocktail
of numerous multiply active agents on the developing brain and immune
systems of our children, Rollens testified before Congress. I must ask the
public-health community: Where is the science?
In April, Burton’s committee will hear more testimony on the possible
link between autism and immunizations. From my family’s experience and from
our hearings, I know how devastating this is to the entire family, he tells
Insight.
But even vaccine naysayers do not insist that childhood inoculations
are all bad or even mostly bad. Their strictest critics acknowledge that
vaccinations may be the most successful public-health triumph in American
history. The CDC statistics make this clear. The worst year for diphtheria,
for instance, was an incidence of 206,939 cases in 1921, its worst
pre-vaccine year. In 1998, thanks to inoculation, only one case was
reported. More than 21,000 cases of polio were reported in 1952, but in 1998
none was seen. Measles hit more than 894,134 people in 1951, its worst year.
Vaccinations cut the caseload to 100 in 1998.
But if some kids are vulnerable to harm from vaccines and their
adverse reactions can be prevented, parents need to know. As much as
parents value the public-health successes, they don’t want to see their
injured children written off as statistically insignificant, says Barbara
Loe Fisher, who founded the nation’s most comprehensive vaccine
consumer-advocacy organization, the National Vaccine Information Center, in
Vienna, Va., after her son suffered brain damage following a DPT shot in the
early 1980s. They want to be taken seriously. They want to know how
vaccines interact with their children’s immune and neurological systems so
that appropriate treatments can be developed. They want other parents to
have the full information on what factors contribute to risks of adverse
reactions so that they can weigh the costs and benefits for themselves and
make informed decisions on which vaccinations to use and when.
I only have two grandchildren, and both of them had adverse events,
says Burton. In my family, that is statistically significant. The
congressman’s daughter adds, The only person that has stood by me on this
has been Dad. The manufacturer is not going to step up to the plate. I don’t
know if the FDA and the CDC are ever going to. I constantly get calls from
people with autism from people just dying to speak with him.
Fisher sees 1999 as a turning point in the battle to secure more
research into the safety and efficacy of vaccines and to have
informed-consent provisions taken seriously. In the NVIC’s end-of-the-year
report, she said she saw an upswing in public recognition that the vaccine
safety and informed-consent issue is a serious one, with a significant
medical, legislative, social and political history behind it.
The NVIC report says the sea change in public perception began in
January 1999 when ABC’s 20/20 ran an investigative report on the hepatitis B
vaccine publicizing interviews with health-care workers who were
experiencing arthritis, muscle and nerve damage and vision and memory loss
after receiving the shot. By the next month the debate had begun to spread
through articles in Insight and other print media. The media are beginning
to realize this is not a black-and-white issue. It’s not about being
pro-vaccine or antivaccine, says Fisher. It’s not about using every
vaccine according to government standards or recommendations or using no
vaccines. It’s about having information and being able to make informed
choices. It’s also about reforming the mass-vaccination system to make it
safer.
In addition to the national congressional hearings, debate in many
state legislatures was intense as parent groups battled pharmaceutical
lobbyists to alert lawmakers to widespread concern and to push through
legislation allowing parents to choose not to vaccinate their children.
But is anyone among the vaccine manufacturers acknowledging these
concerns or investing in research to make vaccines safer? No, says Fisher.
I think because they have such a tremendous investment in future vaccines,
they are very reluctant to admit that they’ve got problems with current
vaccines. A 1995 study by research firm Frost & Sullivan projected that the
worldwide vaccine market would skyrocket from $2.9 billion to $7 billion by
2001. At least 200 more vaccines are in development, including mandatory
shots to protect 12-year-olds against sexually transmitted diseases
Unlike the situations with almost any other medical product,
pharmaceutical companies can pursue vaccine development and licensure nearly
risk-free, thanks to indemnity assured them by Congress in 1986 when it
established the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program. Within the guidelines
of this program, parents who believe their children have been injured by
vaccines can’t sue the manufacturers directly. The General Accounting Office
reported last month that families whose children have been injured by
vaccines have experienced undue difficulty obtaining assistance from the
compensation fund.
Parents need to know their options, says Burton. Parents certainly
need to have more information about their rights and about vaccines
themselves, he says. He recommends that parents get a copy of the package
insert of every vaccine their child is to receive before setting up a
vaccination appointment and that they prepare questions for their
pediatricians. Because some people believe risks for adverse reactions to
vaccines to be higher when a child’s immune system is weak, Burton adds,
“The health of the child should take precedence over the convenience of
keeping a child on shot schedule. A child with the sniffles or other illness
should not be vaccinated.
Burton says he has heard reports that some schools have refused to
enroll unvaccinated children even when their families have received
exemptions allowed by their states. Families need to be informed of their
exemption rights prior to vaccination and their decision should be respected
by the medical community and school officials.
Leading vaccine developer and public-health proponent Neal Halsey’s
response to Insight’s initial vaccine investigation reflects the sentiments
of many leading officials (see Ounce of Prevention, Pound of Misery?,
March 22, 1999). Bad things happen to people all the time. It’s unfortunate
that we don’t know the causes of many of those. Consulted for this article
about whether the growing controversies about vaccines have changed his
views, he reiterates: Just because something bad happened after a vaccine
does not mean that the vaccine caused the problem. Halsey heads the
Institute for Vaccine Safety at Johns Hopkins University, which receives
research-grant support from government sources including the FDA and the
World Health Organization and educational-grant support from vaccine
manufacturers such as Merck & Co., SmithKline Beecham, North American
Vaccine and Pasteur Mirieux Connaught.
Until we do independent scientific studies, allowing subspecialties
like immunology, cell biology and molecular biology to come in and evaluate
the precise effects of these vaccines on the human body, we’re not going to
have the answers to the questions we’re asking, says Fisher. I think this
year has been important because there has been recognition that vaccines do
bcause significant side effects. And there’s beginning to be recognition in
Congress that we’ve got to fund studies.
Indeed, Burton says, I anticipate a series of hearings looking at
varying issues regarding vaccine policy development, vaccine research and,
where necessary, vaccines themselves.
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