vaccines

[Larry Pubes]

this is old, but interesting read for any of you who may have kids or give a shit. i'm sure some of you can throw this into your magic hat of NWO evidence as well...

 

 

Deadly Immunity

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. investigates the government cover-up of a mercury/autism scandal

 

ROBERT F. KENNEDY JR.Posted Jun 20, 2005 12:00 AM

 

In June 2000, a group of top government scientists and health officials gathered for a meeting at the isolated Simpsonwood conference center in Norcross, Georgia. Convened by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the meeting was held at this Methodist retreat center, nestled in wooded farmland next to the Chattahoochee River, to ensure complete secrecy. The agency had issued no public announcement of the session -- only private invitations to fifty-two attendees. There were high-level officials from the CDC and the Food and Drug Administration, the top vaccine specialist from the World Health Organization in Geneva and representatives of every major vaccine manufacturer, including GlaxoSmithKline, Merck, Wyeth and Aventis Pasteur. All of the scientific data under discussion, CDC officials repeatedly reminded the participants, was strictly "embargoed." There would be no making photocopies of documents, no taking papers with them when they left.

The federal officials and industry representatives had assembled to discuss a disturbing new study that raised alarming questions about the safety of a host of common childhood vaccines administered to infants and young children. According to a CDC epidemiologist named Tom Verstraeten, who had analyzed the agency's massive database containing the medical records of 100,000 children, a mercury-based preservative in the vaccines -- thimerosal -- appeared to be responsible for a dramatic increase in autism and a host of other neurological disorders among children. "I was actually stunned by what I saw," Verstraeten told those assembled at Simpsonwood, citing the staggering number of earlier studies that indicate a link between thimerosal and speech delays, attention-deficit disorder, hyperactivity and autism. Since 1991, when the CDC and the FDA had recommended that three additional vaccines laced with the preservative be given to extremely young infants -- in one case, within hours of birth -- the estimated number of cases of autism had increased fifteenfold, from one in every 2,500 children to one in 166 children.

 

Even for scientists and doctors accustomed to confronting issues of life and death, the findings were frightening. "You can play with this all you want," Dr. Bill Weil, a consultant for the American Academy of Pediatrics, told the group. The results "are statistically significant." Dr. Richard Johnston, an immunologist and pediatrician from the University of Colorado whose grandson had been born early on the morning of the meeting's first day, was even more alarmed. "My gut feeling?" he said. "Forgive this personal comment -- I do not want my grandson to get a thimerosal-containing vaccine until we know better what is going on."

 

But instead of taking immediate steps to alert the public and rid the vaccine supply of thimerosal, the officials and executives at Simpsonwood spent most of the next two days discussing how to cover up the damaging data. According to transcripts obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, many at the meeting were concerned about how the damaging revelations about thimerosal would affect the vaccine industry's bottom line. "We are in a bad position from the standpoint of defending any lawsuits," said Dr. Robert Brent, a pediatrician at the Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children in Delaware. "This will be a resource to our very busy plaintiff attorneys in this country." Dr. Bob Chen, head of vaccine safety for the CDC, expressed relief that "given the sensitivity of the information, we have been able to keep it out of the hands of, let's say, less responsible hands." Dr. John Clements, vaccines advisor at the World Health Organization, declared that "perhaps this study should not have been done at all." He added that "the research results have to be handled," warning that the study "will be taken by others and will be used in other ways beyond the control of this group."

 

In fact, the government has proved to be far more adept at handling the damage than at protecting children's health. The CDC paid the Institute of Medicine to conduct a new study to whitewash the risks of thimerosal, ordering researchers to "rule out" the chemical's link to autism. It withheld Verstraeten's findings, even though they had been slated for immediate publication, and told other scientists that his original data had been "lost" and could not be replicated. And to thwart the Freedom of Information Act, it handed its giant database of vaccine records over to a private company, declaring it off-limits to researchers. By the time Verstraeten finally published his study in 2003, he had gone to work for GlaxoSmithKline and reworked his data to bury the link between thimerosal and autism.

 

Vaccine manufacturers had already begun to phase thimerosal out of injections given to American infants -- but they continued to sell off their mercury-based supplies of vaccines until last year. The CDC and FDA gave them a hand, buying up the tainted vaccines for export to developing countries and allowing drug companies to continue using the preservative in some American vaccines -- including several pediatric flu shots as well as tetanus boosters routinely given to eleven-year-olds.

 

The drug companies are also getting help from powerful lawmakers in Washington. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, who has received $873,000 in contributions from the pharmaceutical industry, has been working to immunize vaccine makers from liability in 4,200 lawsuits that have been filed by the parents of injured children. On five separate occasions, Frist has tried to seal all of the government's vaccine-related documents -- including the Simpsonwood transcripts -- and shield Eli Lilly, the developer of thimerosal, from subpoenas. In 2002, the day after Frist quietly slipped a rider known as the "Eli Lilly Protection Act" into a homeland security bill, the company contributed $10,000 to his campaign and bought 5,000 copies of his book on bioterrorism. The measure was repealed by Congress in 2003 -- but earlier this year, Frist slipped another provision into an anti-terrorism bill that would deny compensation to children suffering from vaccine-related brain disorders. "The lawsuits are of such magnitude that they could put vaccine producers out of business and limit our capacity to deal with a biological attack by terrorists," says Dean Rosen, health policy adviser to Frist.

 

Even many conservatives are shocked by the government's effort to cover up the dangers of thimerosal. Rep. Dan Burton, a Republican from Indiana, oversaw a three-year investigation of thimerosal after his grandson was diagnosed with autism. "Thimerosal used as a preservative in vaccines is directly related to the autism epidemic," his House Government Reform Committee concluded in its final report. "This epidemic in all probability may have been prevented or curtailed had the FDA not been asleep at the switch regarding a lack of safety data regarding injected thimerosal, a known neurotoxin." The FDA and other public-health agencies failed to act, the committee added, out of "institutional malfeasance for self protection" and "misplaced protectionism of the pharmaceutical industry."

 

The story of how government health agencies colluded with Big Pharma to hide the risks of thimerosal from the public is a chilling case study of institutional arrogance, power and greed. I was drawn into the controversy only reluctantly. As an attorney and environmentalist who has spent years working on issues of mercury toxicity, I frequently met mothers of autistic children who were absolutely convinced that their kids had been injured by vaccines. Privately, I was skeptical.

 

I doubted that autism could be blamed on a single source, and I certainly understood the government's need to reassure parents that vaccinations are safe; the eradication of deadly childhood diseases depends on it. I tended to agree with skeptics like Rep. Henry Waxman, a Democrat from California, who criticized his colleagues on the House Government Reform Committee for leaping to conclusions about autism and vaccinations. "Why should we scare people about immunization," Waxman pointed out at one hearing, "until we know the facts?"

 

It was only after reading the Simpsonwood transcripts, studying the leading scientific research and talking with many of the nation's pre-eminent authorities on mercury that I became convinced that the link between thimerosal and the epidemic of childhood neurological disorders is real. Five of my own children are members of the Thimerosal Generation -- those born between 1989 and 2003 -- who received heavy doses of mercury from vaccines. "The elementary grades are overwhelmed with children who have symptoms of neurological or immune-system damage," Patti White, a school nurse, told the House Government Reform Committee in 1999. "Vaccines are supposed to be making us healthier; however, in twenty-five years of nursing I have never seen so many damaged, sick kids. Something very, very wrong is happening to our children."

 

More than 500,000 kids currently suffer from autism, and pediatricians diagnose more than 40,000 new cases every year. The disease was unknown until 1943, when it was identified and diagnosed among eleven children born in the months after thimerosal was first added to baby vaccines in 1931.

 

Some skeptics dispute that the rise in autism is caused by thimerosal-tainted vaccinations. They argue that the increase is a result of better diagnosis -- a theory that seems questionable at best, given that most of the new cases of autism are clustered within a single generation of children. "If the epidemic is truly an artifact of poor diagnosis," scoffs Dr. Boyd Haley, one of the world's authorities on mercury toxicity, "then where are all the twenty-year-old autistics?" Other researchers point out that Americans are exposed to a greater cumulative "load" of mercury than ever before, from contaminated fish to dental fillings, and suggest that thimerosal in vaccines may be only part of a much larger problem. It's a concern that certainly deserves far more attention than it has received -- but it overlooks the fact that the mercury concentrations in vaccines dwarf other sources of exposure to our children.

 

What is most striking is the lengths to which many of the leading detectives have gone to ignore -- and cover up -- the evidence against thimerosal. From the very beginning, the scientific case against the mercury additive has been overwhelming. The preservative, which is used to stem fungi and bacterial growth in vaccines, contains ethylmercury, a potent neurotoxin. Truckloads of studies have shown that mercury tends to accumulate in the brains of primates and other animals after they are injected with vaccines -- and that the developing brains of infants are particularly susceptible. In 1977, a Russian study found that adults exposed to much lower concentrations of ethylmercury than those given to American children still suffered brain damage years later. Russia banned thimerosal from children's vaccines twenty years ago, and Denmark, Austria, Japan, Great Britain and all the Scandinavian countries have since followed suit.

 

"You couldn't even construct a study that shows thimerosal is safe," says Haley, who heads the chemistry department at the University of Kentucky. "It's just too darn toxic. If you inject thimerosal into an animal, its brain will sicken. If you apply it to living tissue, the cells die. If you put it in a petri dish, the culture dies. Knowing these things, it would be shocking if one could inject it into an infant without causing damage."

 

Internal documents reveal that Eli Lilly, which first developed thimerosal, knew from the start that its product could cause damage -- and even death -- in both animals and humans. In 1930, the company tested thimerosal by administering it to twenty-two patients with terminal meningitis, all of whom died within weeks of being injected -- a fact Lilly didn't bother to report in its study declaring thimerosal safe. In 1935, researchers at another vaccine manufacturer, Pittman-Moore, warned Lilly that its claims about thimerosal's safety "did not check with ours." Half the dogs Pittman injected with thimerosal-based vaccines became sick, leading researchers there to declare the preservative "unsatisfactory as a serum intended for use on dogs."

 

In the decades that followed, the evidence against thimerosal continued to mount. During the Second World War, when the Department of Defense used the preservative in vaccines on soldiers, it required Lilly to label it "poison." In 1967, a study in Applied Microbiology found that thimerosal killed mice when added to injected vaccines. Four years later, Lilly's own studies discerned that thimerosal was "toxic to tissue cells" in concentrations as low as one part per million -- 100 times weaker than the concentration in a typical vaccine. Even so, the company continued to promote thimerosal as "nontoxic" and also incorporated it into topical disinfectants. In 1977, ten babies at a Toronto hospital died when an antiseptic preserved with thimerosal was dabbed onto their umbilical cords.

 

In 1982, the FDA proposed a ban on over-the-counter products that contained thimerosal, and in 1991 the agency considered banning it from animal vaccines. But tragically, that same year, the CDC recommended that infants be injected with a series of mercury-laced vaccines. Newborns would be vaccinated for hepatitis B within twenty-four hours of birth, and two-month-old infants would be immunized for haemophilus influenzae B and diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis.

 

The drug industry knew the additional vaccines posed a danger. The same year that the CDC approved the new vaccines, Dr. Maurice Hilleman, one of the fathers of Merck's vaccine programs, warned the company that six-month-olds who were administered the shots would suffer dangerous exposure to mercury. He recommended that thimerosal be discontinued, "especially when used on infants and children," noting that the industry knew of nontoxic alternatives. "The best way to go," he added, "is to switch to dispensing the actual vaccines without adding preservatives."

 

For Merck and other drug companies, however, the obstacle was money. Thimerosal enables the pharmaceutical industry to package vaccines in vials that contain multiple doses, which require additional protection because they are more easily contaminated by multiple needle entries. The larger vials cost half as much to produce as smaller, single-dose vials, making it cheaper for international agencies to distribute them to impoverished regions at risk of epidemics. Faced with this "cost consideration," Merck ignored Hilleman's warnings, and government officials continued to push more and more thimerosal-based vaccines for children. Before 1989, American preschoolers received eleven vaccinations -- for polio, diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis and measles-mumps-rubella. A decade later, thanks to federal recommendations, children were receiving a total of twenty-two immunizations by the time they reached first grade.

 

As the number of vaccines increased, the rate of autism among children exploded. During the 1990s, 40 million children were injected with thimerosal-based vaccines, receiving unprecedented levels of mercury during a period critical for brain development. Despite the well-documented dangers of thimerosal, it appears that no one bothered to add up the cumulative dose of mercury that children would receive from the mandated vaccines. "What took the FDA so long to do the calculations?" Peter Patriarca, director of viral products for the agency, asked in an e-mail to the CDC in 1999. "Why didn't CDC and the advisory bodies do these calculations when they rapidly expanded the childhood immunization schedule?"

 

But by that time, the damage was done. At two months, when the infant brain is still at a critical stage of development, infants routinely received three inoculations that contained a total of 62.5 micrograms of ethylmercury -- a level 99 times greater than the EPA's limit for daily exposure to methylmercury, a related neurotoxin. Although the vaccine industry insists that ethylmercury poses little danger because it breaks down rapidly and is removed by the body, several studies -- including one published in April by the National Institutes of Health -- suggest that ethylmercury is actually more toxic to developing brains and stays in the brain longer than methylmercury.

 

Officials responsible for childhood immunizations insist that the additional vaccines were necessary to protect infants from disease and that thimerosal is still essential in developing nations, which, they often claim, cannot afford the single-dose vials that don't require a preservative. Dr. Paul Offit, one of CDC's top vaccine advisers, told me, "I think if we really have an influenza pandemic -- and certainly we will in the next twenty years, because we always do -- there's no way on God's earth that we immunize 280 million people with single-dose vials. There has to be multidose vials."

 

But while public-health officials may have been well-intentioned, many of those on the CDC advisory committee who backed the additional vaccines had close ties to the industry. Dr. Sam Katz, the committee's chair, was a paid consultant for most of the major vaccine makers and was part of a team that developed the measles vaccine and brought it to licensure in 1963. Dr. Neal Halsey, another committee member, worked as a researcher for the vaccine companies and received honoraria from Abbott Labs for his research on the hepatitis B vaccine.

 

Indeed, in the tight circle of scientists who work on vaccines, such conflicts of interest are common. Rep. Burton says that the CDC "routinely allows scientists with blatant conflicts of interest to serve on intellectual advisory committees that make recommendations on new vaccines," even though they have "interests in the products and companies for which they are supposed to be providing unbiased oversight." The House Government Reform Committee discovered that four of the eight CDC advisers who approved guidelines for a rotavirus vaccine "had financial ties to the pharmaceutical companies that were developing different versions of the vaccine."

 

Offit, who shares a patent on one of the vaccines, acknowledged to me that he "would make money" if his vote eventually leads to a marketable product. But he dismissed my suggestion that a scientist's direct financial stake in CDC approval might bias his judgment. "It provides no conflict for me," he insists. "I have simply been informed by the process, not corrupted by it. When I sat around that table, my sole intent was trying to make recommendations that best benefited the children in this country. It's offensive to say that physicians and public-health people are in the pocket of industry and thus are making decisions that they know are unsafe for children. It's just not the way it works."

 

Other vaccine scientists and regulators gave me similar assurances. Like Offit, they view themselves as enlightened guardians of children's health, proud of their "partnerships" with pharmaceutical companies, immune to the seductions of personal profit, besieged by irrational activists whose anti-vaccine campaigns are endangering children's health. They are often resentful of questioning. "Science," says Offit, "is best left to scientists."

 

Still, some government officials were alarmed by the apparent conflicts of interest. In his e-mail to CDC administrators in 1999, Paul Patriarca of the FDA blasted federal regulators for failing to adequately scrutinize the danger posed by the added baby vaccines. "I'm not sure there will be an easy way out of the potential perception that the FDA, CDC and immunization-policy bodies may have been asleep at the switch re: thimerosal until now," Patriarca wrote. The close ties between regulatory officials and the pharmaceutical industry, he added, "will also raise questions about various advisory bodies regarding aggressive recommendations for use" of thimerosal in child vaccines.

 

If federal regulators and government scientists failed to grasp the potential risks of thimerosal over the years, no one could claim ignorance after the secret meeting at Simpsonwood. But rather than conduct more studies to test the link to autism and other forms of brain damage, the CDC placed politics over science. The agency turned its database on childhood vaccines -- which had been developed largely at taxpayer expense -- over to a private agency, America's Health Insurance Plans, ensuring that it could not be used for additional research. It also instructed the Institute of Medicine, an advisory organization that is part of the National Academy of Sciences, to produce a study debunking the link between thimerosal and brain disorders. The CDC "wants us to declare, well, that these things are pretty safe," Dr. Marie McCormick, who chaired the IOM's Immunization Safety Review Committee, told her fellow researchers when they first met in January 2001. "We are not ever going to come down that [autism] is a true side effect" of thimerosal exposure. According to transcripts of the meeting, the committee's chief staffer, Kathleen Stratton, predicted that the IOM would conclude that the evidence was "inadequate to accept or reject a causal relation" between thimerosal and autism. That, she added, was the result "Walt wants" -- a reference to Dr. Walter Orenstein, director of the National Immunization Program for the CDC.

 

For those who had devoted their lives to promoting vaccination, the revelations about thimerosal threatened to undermine everything they had worked for. "We've got a dragon by the tail here," said Dr. Michael Kaback, another committee member. "The more negative that [our] presentation is, the less likely people are to use vaccination, immunization -- and we know what the results of that will be. We are kind of caught in a trap. How we work our way out of the trap, I think is the charge."

 

Even in public, federal officials made it clear that their primary goal in studying thimerosal was to dispel doubts about vaccines. "Four current studies are taking place to rule out the proposed link between autism and thimerosal," Dr. Gordon Douglas, then-director of strategic planning for vaccine research at the National Institutes of Health, assured a Princeton University gathering in May 2001. "In order to undo the harmful effects of research claiming to link the [measles] vaccine to an elevated risk of autism, we need to conduct and publicize additional studies to assure parents of safety." Douglas formerly served as president of vaccinations for Merck, where he ignored warnings about thimerosal's risks.

 

In May of last year, the Institute of Medicine issued its final report. Its conclusion: There is no proven link between autism and thimerosal in vaccines. Rather than reviewing the large body of literature describing the toxicity of thimerosal, the report relied on four disastrously flawed epidemiological studies examining European countries, where children received much smaller doses of thimerosal than American kids. It also cited a new version of the Verstraeten study, published in the journal Pediatrics, that had been reworked to reduce the link between thimerosal and autism. The new study included children too young to have been diagnosed with autism and overlooked others who showed signs of the disease. The IOM declared the case closed and -- in a startling position for a scientific body -- recommended that no further research be conducted.

 

The report may have satisfied the CDC, but it convinced no one. Rep. David Weldon, a Republican physician from Florida who serves on the House Government Reform Committee, attacked the Institute of Medicine, saying it relied on a handful of studies that were "fatally flawed" by "poor design" and failed to represent "all the available scientific and medical research." CDC officials are not interested in an honest search for the truth, Weldon told me, because "an association between vaccines and autism would force them to admit that their policies irreparably damaged thousands of children. Who would want to make that conclusion about themselves?"

 

Under pressure from Congress and parents, the Institute of Medicine convened another panel to address continuing concerns about the Vaccine Safety Datalink Data Sharing program. In February, the new panel, composed of different scientists, criticized the way the VSD had been used in the Verstraeten study, and urged the CDC to make its vaccine database available to the public.

 

So far, though, only two scientists have managed to gain access. Dr. Mark Geier, president of the Genetics Center of America, and his son, David, spent a year battling to obtain the medical records from the CDC. Since August 2002, when members of Congress pressured the agency to turn over the data, the Geiers have completed six studies that demonstrate a powerful correlation between thimerosal and neurological damage in children. One study, which compares the cumulative dose of mercury received by children born between 1981 and 1985 with those born between 1990 and 1996, found a "very significant relationship" between autism and vaccines. Another study of educational performance found that kids who received higher doses of thimerosal in vaccines were nearly three times as likely to be diagnosed with autism and more than three times as likely to suffer from speech disorders and mental retardation. Another soon-to-be published study shows that autism rates are in decline following the recent elimination of thimerosal from most vaccines.

 

As the federal government worked to prevent scientists from studying vaccines, others have stepped in to study the link to autism. In April, reporter Dan Olmsted of UPI undertook one of the more interesting studies himself. Searching for children who had not been exposed to mercury in vaccines -- the kind of population that scientists typically use as a "control" in experiments -- Olmsted scoured the Amish of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, who refuse to immunize their infants. Given the national rate of autism, Olmsted calculated that there should be 130 autistics among the Amish. He found only four. One had been exposed to high levels of mercury from a power plant. The other three -- including one child adopted from outside the Amish community -- had received their vaccines.

 

At the state level, many officials have also conducted in-depth reviews of thimerosal. While the Institute of Medicine was busy whitewashing the risks, the Iowa legislature was carefully combing through all of the available scientific and biological data. "After three years of review, I became convinced there was sufficient credible research to show a link between mercury and the increased incidences in autism," says state Sen. Ken Veenstra, a Republican who oversaw the investigation. "The fact that Iowa's 700 percent increase in autism began in the 1990s, right after more and more vaccines were added to the children's vaccine schedules, is solid evidence alone." Last year, Iowa became the first state to ban mercury in vaccines, followed by California. Similar bans are now under consideration in thirty-two other states.

 

But instead of following suit, the FDA continues to allow manufacturers to include thimerosal in scores of over-the-counter medications as well as steroids and injected collagen. Even more alarming, the government continues to ship vaccines preserved with thimerosal to developing countries -- some of which are now experiencing a sudden explosion in autism rates. In China, where the disease was virtually unknown prior to the introduction of thimerosal by U.S. drug manufacturers in 1999, news reports indicate that there are now more than 1.8 million autistics. Although reliable numbers are hard to come by, autistic disorders also appear to be soaring in India, Argentina, Nicaragua and other developing countries that are now using thimerosal-laced vaccines. The World Health Organization continues to insist thimerosal is safe, but it promises to keep the possibility that it is linked to neurological disorders "under review."

 

I devoted time to study this issue because I believe that this is a moral crisis that must be addressed. If, as the evidence suggests, our public-health authorities knowingly allowed the pharmaceutical industry to poison an entire generation of American children, their actions arguably constitute one of the biggest scandals in the annals of American medicine. "The CDC is guilty of incompetence and gross negligence," says Mark Blaxill, vice president of Safe Minds, a nonprofit organization concerned about the role of mercury in medicines. "The damage caused by vaccine exposure is massive. It's bigger than asbestos, bigger than tobacco, bigger than anything you've ever seen."

 

It's hard to calculate the damage to our country -- and to the international efforts to eradicate epidemic diseases -- if Third World nations come to believe that America's most heralded foreign-aid initiative is poisoning their children. It's not difficult to predict how this scenario will be interpreted by America's enemies abroad. The scientists and researchers -- many of them sincere, even idealistic -- who are participating in efforts to hide the science on thimerosal claim that they are trying to advance the lofty goal of protecting children in developing nations from disease pandemics. They are badly misguided. Their failure to come clean on thimerosal will come back horribly to haunt our country and the world's poorest populations.

 

NOTE: This story has been updated to correct several inaccuracies in the original, published version. As originally reported, American preschoolers received only three vaccinations before 1989, but the article failed to note that they were innoculated a total of eleven times with those vaccines, including boosters. The article also misstated the level of ethylmercury received by infants injected with all their shots by the age of six months. It was 187 micrograms - an amount forty percent, not 187 times, greater than the EPA's limit for daily exposure to methylmercury. Finally, because of an editing error, the article misstated the contents of the rotavirus vaccine approved by the CDC. It did not contain thimerosal. Salon and Rolling Stone regret the errors.

 

An earlier version of this story stated that the Institute of Medicine convened a second panel to review the work of the Immunization Safety Review Committee that had found no evidence of a link between thimerosal and autism. In fact, the IOM convened the second panel to address continuing concerns about the Vaccine Safety Datalink Data Sharing program, including those raised by critics of the IOM's earlier work. But the panel was not charged with reviewing the committee's findings. The story also inadvertently omitted a word and transposed two sentences in a quote by Dr. John Clements, and incorrectly stated that Dr. Sam Katz held a patent with Merck on the measles vaccine. In fact, Dr. Katz was part of a team that developed the vaccine and brought it to licensure, but he never held the patent. Salon and Rolling Stone regret the errors.

 

CLARIFICATION: After publication of this story, Salon and Rolling Stone corrected an error that misstated the level of ethylmercury received by infants injected with all their shots by the age of six months. It was 187 micrograms ? an amount forty percent, not 187 times, greater than the EPA's limit for daily exposure to methylmercury. At the time of the correction, we were aware that the comparison itself was flawed, but as journalists we considered it more appropriate to state the correct figure rather than replace it with another number entirely.

 

Since that earlier correction, however, it has become clear from responses to the article that the forty-percent number, while accurate, is misleading. It measures the total mercury load an infant received from vaccines during the first six months, calculates the daily average received based on average body weight, and then compares that number to the EPA daily limit. But infants did not receive the vaccines as a ?daily average? ? they received massive doses on a single day, through multiple shots. As the story states, these single-day doses exceeded the EPA limit by as much as 99 times. Based on the misunderstanding, and to avoid further confusion, we have amended the story to eliminate the forty-percent figure.

 

Correction: The story misattributed a quote to Andy Olson, former legislative counsel to Senator Bill Frist. The comment was made by Dean Rosen, health policy adviser to the senator. Rolling Stone and Salon.com regret the error.

 

___________

 

kennedy report sparks controversy

[WORDISM45]

interesting I'll take bets against all comers that nothing happens to any of the pharmaceutical companies responsible

[lord_casek]

bush set to veto bill that would remove mercury from vaccines

http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/07-19-2007/0004628856&EDATE=

 

 

 

eugenics again.....

[El Mamerro]

California Study Finds No Link Between Vaccines, Autism

 

 

The mercury-containing vaccine additive thimerosal is not a primary cause of autism, says a study published yesterday in the Archives of General Psychiatry.

 

High doses of thimerosal were used throughout the 1990's in infant vaccines before being largely removed from U.S. supplies in 1999. Mercury is a potent neurotoxin, and some people have blamed it for the dramatic, tragic rise of autism in the United States.

 

Yesterday's study, authored by California Department of Public Health researchers Robert Schechter and Judith Grether, used California Department of Developmental Services data to track rates of autism diagnoses since thimerosal's removal. If thimerosal was responsible for the autism epidemic, there would ostensibly have been a drop in diagnoses in children born after the 1999 removal -- but that's not what they saw. The numbers continued to rise.

 

The CDDS data is considered a gold standard for autism epidemiology, and the study is more convincing than a CDC study published in September. It may be the most conclusive argument yet that thimerosal and autism are not strongly, or even moderately, connected.

 

However, that isn't reason to consider the investigation a waste of time prompted by the "mercury militia," as thimerosal-autism link advocates are derogatorily dismissed. The anonymous Respectful Insolence blogger says the connection "was never particularly scientifically plausible in the first place; it was just barely plausible enough that activists with an agenda could make scientists throw up their hands and say, 'All right, let's take a look.'" The criticism echoes that of UCLA pharmacologist Paul Krugstad, who after the CDC study said, "The removal of thimerosal created the impression of risk, where none existed."

 

But the thimerosal-autism link was plausible, at least in the lab: studies found that the preservative damaged cell cultures and mice. I have vivid memories of being shown a video by Columbia University epidemiologist Mady Hornig, who gave mice thimerosal doses proportionate to those received by human babies, then watched as the mice exhibited autism-like symptoms, particularly repetitive behavior. In some instances the mice repeated their customary grooming habits until they'd chewed holes in each other.

 

The doses received by children were several times the EPA's recommended maximums; those maximums were rules of thumb rather than precise scientific markers, but they were guidelines nonetheless. Allowing thimerosal doses to increase through the 1990s as the routine infant immunization schedule expanded was extraordinarily careless. Vaccine manufacturers and public health officials dodged a bullet -- and it's still not clear, and might not ever be clear, whether thimerosal might have caused autism in a statistically insignificant number of children unable to metabolize mercury.

 

The autism-thimerosal link appears, for public health purposes, to be dead. But rather than mocking the understandable anger of confused parents trying to grapple with early and imperfect science, critics ought to be grateful that vaccine carelessness didn't wreak havoc on the mental development of a generation.

 

http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/01/california-stud.html

[lord_casek]

dude, those are lies. they increased thimerosol levels in vaccines.

 

from their own papers. i can dig them up a little later on.

[El Mamerro]

Yeah, it says it right there:

 

Allowing thimerosal doses to increase through the 1990s as the routine infant immunization schedule expanded was extraordinarily careless.

 

Up till '99-01 apparently, which is quite recent.

[lord_casek]

Yeah, it says it right there:

 

 

 

Up till '99-01 apparently, which is quite recent.

 

now check out guardasil....

[2342]

I did not want to start a new thread for this- so I posted it here. I have been VERY skeptical of this vaccine since I first read about it- I got this article today from natural news and thought I would share it.

 

1300 Girls Harmed by HPV Vaccines in UK; Bizarre Side Effects Like Paralysis and Epilepsy

 

http://www.naturalnews.com/z026293.html

 

1300 Girls Harmed by HPV Vaccines in UK; Bizarre Side Effects Like Paralysis and Epilepsy

by David Gutierrez, staff writer

 

(NaturalNews) More than 1,300 girls in the United Kingdom have experienced negative reactions to the government-mandated Cervarix vaccine for the human papillomavirus (HPV), according to adverse events reports collected from doctors by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA).

 

"When they introduced this new vaccine, we had major concerns about its safety," said Jackie Fletcher of Jabs, a support group for those negatively affected by vaccines. "The current statistics detailing adverse reactions -- including cases of epilepsy and convulsions -- bears out that we were right to be concerned."

 

Cervarix, manufactured by GlaxoSmithKline, inoculates patients against strains 16 and 18 of HPV, which are believed to be responsible for 70 percent of cervical cancer cases. The British government began a program to vaccinate all secondary school girls in September 2008, and 700,000 have received the injections so far. The government's plan is to have all girls under the age of 18 vaccinated by 2011.

 

Critics have objected, however, that the government based its decision on studies of women under the age of 26, rather than studies conducted on school-age girls. In addition, while the vaccine has been shown to prevent against HPV infection in the short term, there is no evidence of its long-term efficacy or that it actually lowers cancer rates.

 

The MHRA reports show a total of 2,891 adverse events reported in 1,340 girls. The majority were minor and short-lived problems, such as swelling, rashes, pain or mild allergies to the vaccine. A number of cases were more severe, however, including 20 cases of blurred vision, four cases of convulsions, one case of seizures and one epileptic fit. Five cases of partial paralysis were reported, including Bell's palsy (face), Guillain-Barre syndrome (legs), hyopaesthesia (loss of sense of touch) and hemiparesis (severe weakening or paralysis of half the body).

 

"The government needs to look at the future of this program given the number of side-effects coming through," Fletcher said.

 

Sources for this story include: http://www.dailymail.co.uk.

[YouMad.GIF]

Pretty much everyone on this board from the UK says dailymail is a crap tabloid

[2342]

Vaccinations Designed

To Sterilize Women?

by Kjeld Heising

11-9-7

 

http://www.clubconspiracy.com/forum/f24/vaccinations-designed-sterilize-women-5619.html

 

Women are being drawn into a medical trap.The outcome is toxication and health erosion. The tool is vaccinations * presented as a solution to "fight" an ever growing number of dangers from the world of microbes. The medical world has got its own Al Qaeda * the invisible army of viruses. With exactly the same attributes: Unknown, being everywhere and nowhere. Invincible.

 

The answer is also approximately the same: More fear, more death. And now, with growing clarity, targeting women. We have for more than a decade had the campaigns for mandatory HIV-tests of pregnant women. Only women. In the Third World, we have had numerous vaccination campaigns targeting women in their fertile age. Only women. Recently, in Denmark, the great drug donor, Bill Gates, has donated USD 10m to a Copenhagen university to further studies on a Malaria vaccine * target group: Women of the Third World.

 

And then, the latest stunt: Vaccination of 12 year old girls in many countries * allegedly against the HPV virus which might (or might not) eventually cause Cervical Cancer. Target group: Girls in the age of just becoming fertile. In some states mandatory, in others just heavily propagandized.

 

What is all this about? Money? Of course but that doesn't account for the focusing on women. Special care for women? Nice. But in fatal opposition to the agenda of "women's lib". Women's lib doesn't include reproduction and is uninterested in the female sex.

 

Could it be ?

 

Yes, it could be exactly the opposite, and I'll tell you why.

 

First, "women's lib" is not a population movement fostered by women being sick-and-tired of oppression. It it a masculine invention, defined in policy papers back from the 1950's, most eagerly promoted by the Rockefeller all-seeing-everywhere-being dynasty and it's political operators. Approximately at the same time when the first feminists surfaced, and already up and run as the project culminated. That happened with the 1974 Henry Kissinger <i>National Security Study Memorandum 200</i> about "the consequences of the global population growth for the US security and overseas interests".

 

This paper, which should be given much much more attention , states that Urgent immediate measures must be taken to reduce fertility. The memo recommends Zero growth rate in the developed countries by 1985 and Zero growth rate in Lesser Developed Countries by 2000. Notice: Defertilization first in the West, then down to the poor.

 

It also recommends the tools. For the industrialized world:

 

Reproductive health - a nicer word for abortion, use of condoms etc. Sex education Improved health Women' equality Day care Government participation Improved social security Reduced infant mortality

 

Well, in Europe, we used to call this "welfare". It now seems, it was just a means to make us stop reproducing ourselves. A great success: Today, we find declining birth rates all over the Western World * only Albania (the poorest country of Europe * no "welfare") is maintaining the size of of its population.

 

The picture becomes clearer when we learn that our Rockefeller-friend John D. the Third back in the 1950's also began advocating that all vaccines should have added Mercury. That served a tripple purpose: Mercury works as a preservative. It can help the chemical industry get rid of a highly toxic waste product (just like Fluoride in toothpaste did). And, most important, the Mercury is absorbed in our body, is not automatically excreted and has various toxic effects.

 

One of the effects is that it destroys the cilia inside the female sex, removing the ability of the mucous membrane to transport men's semen to the egg cells. Which obviously impedes natural conception. Another effect is that children who are born become autistic - the frequency of autistic children increases clearly with the amount of Mercury consumed. And there are other effects of this additive which is called <i>thiomesal</i> - such as diabetes.

 

So, any vaccine containing Mercury, is a defertilization drug. That means almost all vaccines almost all over the world.

 

We get another clue by studying simple facts on HIV and AIDS. As shown in many papers and documentaries, the existence of a virus destroying our immune system has never been documented * to this day it remains a rumour having obsessed most of the medical world and, by being backed up by deeply corrupt statal medical authorities, a fully controlled political layer and a centralized media network loving the "scary setup", it has also obsessed most common people.

 

The facts are that as well as there is no disease-causing HIV virus, there is no test which can prove it's presence in human blood. The so-called HIV-tests test the presence of antibodies and antibodies belong in a functioning immune system. The tests are known to crossreact with many conditions having nothing to do with any particular virus. One of these conditions is you better sit down pregnancy.

 

That's where the AIDS swindle becomes a depopulation tool. For the next step from a positive HIV test is prescription of deadly toxic drugs (charmingly named "Life Prolonging Medication") destroying the immune system and the intestine's ability to absorb nutrients - and causing defective children. These drugs are the most toxic chemicals ever invented by the pharmaceutical industry.

 

In Africa, HIV tests are only performed on pregnancy clinics. And guess where the deadly drugs go.

 

Another clue becomes clear when we look at the WHO vaccination campaigns in the Third World. Most famous are the campaigns from the mid nineties against Tetanus. Despite the fact that 70% of all Tetanus occurred in men, the vaccinations were only given to women. And only women between 14 and 44 years old. The vaccines were mixed with hCG Gonadotropine. Now, hCG is a hormone which is naturally formed in the foetus within the first few days, and which is necessary for it's continued life and growth. When the mixture of vaccine and hCG is inoculated in a woman's blood, her immune defence will not only produce antibodies to the Tetanus bacteria but also to the hCG. As a result, she looses her foetus.

 

These vaccination campaigns were performed on millions and millions of women in Nicaragua, Mexico, Nigeria, Tanzania and the Philippines.

 

Other vaccination campaigns have had other effects. In Uganda, a polio vaccination was performed, killing 600 children in just one month and just one village (Mbarara) - in which there was by coincidence a counting. In Nigeria, polio vaccine was distributed, contaminated with estradiol and a number of carcinogen (cancer generating) agents. How many more of these criminal campaigns have been performed through the years?

 

Then we have the bogus on the Malaria vaccine. Malaria is no microbe disease, so what has a vaccine to do with this? Nothing. But the funny scientist came up with a funny story on a "certain molecule" being necessary for the Malaria parasite to fix on the inside of women's uterus. It's the molecule the vaccine is supposed to target. But only in women.

 

The average age of women getting Cervical Cancer is 50 * as Dr. Tim O'Shea writes in his excellent article "HPV - The First Cancer Vaccine" on Rense.com (http://www.rense.com/general78/hpv.htm). The creator of the HPV vaccine, company Merck, promises an effect-time of five years. So, what the point of vaccinating 12 years old girls?

 

I have no doubt anymore: This has nothing to do with medicine. It has nothing to do with anything based on science. It has nothing to do with diseases. It is a money machine, yes, but it is more. We have another war, and this war is moving from covert to overt. We have a global war on women. -------

 

Heising is a Danish Men's activist. He can be reached at kjeld@heising.dk

[Boris The Butcher]

Edit.

[2342]

Bloody Hell..........

 

SMALLPOX VACCINATION, ADVERSE EVENTS - USA: PROGRESSIVE VACCINIA

*********************************************

A ProMED-mail post

<http://www.promedmail.org>

ProMED-mail is a program of the

International Society for Infectious Diseases <http://www.isid.org>

 

Date: Tue 19 May 2009

Source: CDC. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep 2009; 58 (early release); 1-4 [edited] <http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm58e0519a1.htm?s_cid=rr58e0519a1_e>

 

 

Progressive vaccinia in a military smallpox vaccinee -- United States, 2009

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Progressive vaccinia (PV), previously known as vaccinia necrosum,

vaccinia gangrenosum, or disseminated vaccinia, is a rare, often

fatal adverse event after vaccination with smallpox vaccine, which is

made from live vaccinia virus (1). During recent vaccination programs

potential cases of PV were investigated, but none met standard case

definitions (2). PV has not been confirmed to have occurred in the

United States since 1987 (3). On [2 Mar 2009], a US Navy Hospital

contacted the Poxvirus Program at CDC to report a possible case of PV

in a male military smallpox vaccinee. The service member had been

newly diagnosed with acute myelogenous leukemia M0 (AML M0). During

evaluation for a chemotherapy-induced neutropenic fever, he was found

to have an expanding and nonhealing painless vaccination site 6.5

weeks after receipt of smallpox vaccine. Clinical and laboratory

investigation confirmed that the vaccinee met the Brighton

Collaboration and CDC adverse event surveillance guideline case

definition for PV (4,5). This report summarizes the patient's

protracted clinical course and the military and civilian interagency

governmental, academic, and industry public health contributions to

his complex medical management. The quantities of investigational and

licensed therapeutics and diagnostics used were greater than

anticipated based on existing smallpox preparedness plans. To support

future public health needs adequately, the estimated national supply

of therapeutics and diagnostic resources required to care for

smallpox vaccine adverse events should be reevaluated.

 

Case description

----------------

On 13 Jan 2009, a healthy service member aged 20 years received a

primary smallpox vaccination (ACAM2000 [Acambis, Inc., Cambridge,

Massachusetts]) in accordance with the US Department of Defense

smallpox vaccination policy*; no other vaccinations were administered

that day. Twelve days later, the patient visited a local hospital

with fever and headache of one day's duration and was admitted for

workup of leukopenia after his white blood cell count was found to be

1400 cells/mm3. On [28 Jan 2009], after transfer to a US Navy

tertiary-care facility, he was diagnosed with AML M0. On [30 Jan and

13 Feb 2009], the patient underwent 2 successive rounds of induction

chemotherapy with cytarabine, idarubicin, and dexamethasone. Before

initial chemotherapy, the vaccination site pustule had a central

crust and measured approximately 1 cm [0.4 in] in diameter with

minimal surrounding erythema. During the patient's hospital stay from

the end of January to the beginning of March [2009], his vaccination

site dressing was changed daily.

 

On [2 Mar 2009], during the evaluation of neutropenic fever, the

failure of the patient's vaccination site to heal was described. An

annular lesion with a deep bulla, raised violaceous leading edge, and

a central crust that bled with pressure was noted. The size of the

lesion had progressed to approximately 4 x 4 cm [1.6 x 1.6 in] with

minimal surrounding erythema or induration. The patient described no

pain at the site, although he reported occasional pruritus. A swab of

the lesion and serum were sent to CDC for viral and serologic

analysis. Viral analysis of the swab by multiple real-time polymerase

chain reaction (PCR) assays for orthopoxvirus and vaccinia yielded

evidence of viral DNA; viral culture was positive for orthopoxvirus.

Serum showed equivocal to absent levels of anti-orthopoxvirus

immunoglobulin G (IgG) and immunoglobulin M (IgM) by enzyme-linked

immunosorbent assay. The results of the diagnostic testing combined

with the patient's medical history met the PV level 1 case definition

as defined by the Brighton Collaboration and the confirmed case

definition as described by CDC surveillance guidelines (4,5). The

criteria met by both case definitions were 1) a documented clinical

diagnosis of a disease that is known to be associated with

cell-mediated immunodeficiency (in this case AML M0), 2) the primary

vaccination site's failure to resolve (in this case more than 6 weeks

post vaccination), and 3) the laboratory confirmation of vaccinia

virus as the causative agent.

 

On [3 Mar 2009], imiquimod was applied directly to the lesion. Within

24 hours of confirmation of PV on [4 Mar 2009], the patient received

licensed Vaccinia Immune Globulin Intravenous (Human) (VIGIV)

(Cangene Corporation, Winnipeg, Canada). On [5 Mar and 6 Mar 2009],

oral and topical ST-246 (SIGA Technologies, Corvallis, Oregon) were

administered under an Emergency Investigational New Drug (E-IND)

application. The patient remained stable until the evening of [7 Mar

2009], when he became septic with _Pseudomonas aeruginosa_, likely

from a perirectal abscess. He required intubation, maximal

vasopressor support, multiple antibiotics, and stress dose

corticosteroids. He then developed multiorgan failure and began

continuous venovenous hemodialysis. During the next 12 days, the

patient slowly stabilized. As a consequence of the duration and

amount of vasopressor support, the patient required a bilateral

trans-tibial amputation because of dry gangrene of his feet.

 

During [6-19 Mar 2009] the patient received additional oral and

topical ST-246 and VIGIV; his ST-246 levels were noted to be lower

than those achieved both in healthy subjects in phase I clinical

trials and in successful treatment of nonhuman primates with systemic

orthopoxvirus disease. The lesion size remained unchanged, but the

central crust of the vaccination site sloughed off, followed by most

of the outer "ring" flattening, leaving a shallow ulcer with

healthy-appearing granulation tissue. During his steroid taper,

additional satellite lesions surrounding the vaccination site

appeared on [18 Mar 2009], and viral DNA was detected again in the

blood. These lesions became vesicular in nature, and on [26 Mar

2009], after a 2nd E-IND was issued, CMX001 (Chimerix, Inc., Research

Triangle Park, North Carolina), a lipid conjugate of cidofovir, was

administered.

 

From [24 Mar 2009] onward, the satellite and main vaccination site

lesions continued to crust, the scabs separated, and underlying

tissue epithelialized. Blood viral DNA levels cleared on [29 Mar

2009]. On [10 Apr 2009], the borders of lesions again appeared

raised; a shave biopsy grew methicillin-resistant _Staphylococcus

aureus_, which responded to antibiotic therapy. The patient received

intermittent granulocyte colony-stimulating factor, and his absolute

neutrophil and lymphocyte count increased over time. By [1 May 2009],

significant portions of the scabs/eschars had fallen off or were

removed manually, revealing healthy epidermis. Numerous therapeutics

with different biologic mechanisms were used to treat PV in this patient.

 

From [21 Feb 2009] onward, the patient had remained in contact

isolation, first for a _Clostridium difficile_ infection and then for

his progressive vaccinia infection. On [5 May 2009], contact

precautions were discontinued because of the lack of viable virus in

lesion specimens from the previous 4 weeks. No cases of contact

vaccinia were identified among this patient's health-care workers or

close contacts.

 

During [3 Mar-18 May 2009], nearly 200 clinical specimens (lesion and

satellite swabs/crusts, ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid [EDTA] blood,

bone marrow, and serum) were collected and submitted to CDC to

evaluate disease progression and guide therapeutic interventions.

After [23 Apr 2009], swabs from satellite lesions or the main

vaccination site showed significantly reduced or absent levels of

viral DNA, and no viable virus was detected after [2 Apr 2009].

Oropharyngeal sampling and bone marrow biopsies from early and late

March [2009], respectively, were negative for vaccinia virus.

Orthopoxvirus DNA was detected in EDTA blood at intermittent times

during the course of the patient's infection; however, no viable

virus was cultured from blood. As of [12 May 2009], the patient had

no demonstrable IgM response to orthopoxvirus; IgG levels appeared

fully reliant on VIGIV infusion.

 

During [3 Mar-18 May 2009], a total of 20 conference calls to discuss

patient status and treatment options were held between the Vaccine

Healthcare Centers Network, Military Vaccine Agency (MILVAX), Bureau

of Medicine and Surgery of the Navy, CDC, Food and Drug

Administration (FDA), National Institutes of Health (NIH), SIGA

Technologies, Chimerix, Inc., and academic and health-care

professionals. As of [18 May 2009], MILVAX provided 22 and the

Strategic National Stockpile (SNS) provided 254 vials of VIGIV used

in treatment of this case.

 

[Reported by: E Lederman, MD, H Groff, MD, T Warkentien, MD, A Reese,

MD, US Naval Medical Center. D Hruby, PhD, T Bolken, D Grosenbach,

PhD, S Yan, PhD, SIGA Technologies, Corvallis, Oregon. W Painter, MD,

L Trost, MD, B Lampert, MD, Chimerix, Inc., Research Triangle Park,

North Carolina. J Cohen, MD, National Institutes of Health; R Engler,

MD, Walter Reed Vaccine Healthcare Center; W Davidson, MPH, S Smith,

MS, K Wilkins, Z Braden, Y Li, PhD, I Damon, MD, Div of Viral and

Rickettsial Diseases, National Center for Zoonotic, Vector-Borne, and

Enteric Diseases, CDC]

 

MMWR editorial note

-------------------

Although PV is a rare adverse event (one case per million during

routine vaccination during 1963-1968), its case fatality rate in

primary US vaccinees was 15 percent despite treatment with massive

amounts of VIG (intramuscular) (6). Extensive surgical debridement

was sometimes required, even necessitating disarticulation of the arm

to "debulk" the amount of infectious material (7). Before smallpox

vaccination, patients are screened for numerous contraindications

(8). At the time of his vaccination, the patient described in this

report did not have any obvious signs or symptoms that would meet any

exclusion criteria for vaccination. Training in use of, and careful

adherence to, screening tools can identify vaccine candidates at risk

for PV and other adverse events (2). Despite this, vaccinees with

occult immunodeficiencies might not be recognized, and therefore

appropriately deferring vaccination in these persons is not always possible.

 

Lack of inflammation at the expanding vaccination site is the

hallmark of PV. Any smallpox vaccinee who has an expanding,

nonhealing, painless vaccination site without inflammation for more

than 2 weeks should be evaluated for an underlying immunodeficiency,

and diagnosis of and treatment for PV should be considered.

Health-care providers should report suspected cases of PV or other

adverse events to the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS).

Suspected cases of PV also should be reported to state health

officials and CDC for clinical consultation and to obtain select

therapeutics available only through the SNS. State health departments

should call the CDC Emergency Operations Center at 770-488-7100.

 

This patient's protracted clinical course is consistent with

previously published cases reports and surveillance summaries. The

development of progressive vaccinia, historically observed in

patients with cellular immunodeficiencies, often leads to

superinfection and subsequent sepsis (that is, fungal, parasitic, and

bacterial infections resulting in toxic or septicemic shock, then

ultimately death). Past treatment typically included massive doses of

VIG, administration of thiosemicarbazone, blood products, and

supportive care for accompanying infections (7,9). The improvement of

progressive vaccinia in this patient was associated with receipt of

VIGIV (the only licensed product for treatment of vaccinia adverse

events stockpiled by the SNS), ST-246, and CMX001, and an increase in

lymphocyte count. The use of 2 antiviral agents with different

mechanisms of action (see note 1) was enabled by the research and

development of medical countermeasures for smallpox preparedness

activities, as well as the use of the emergency IND process. As of

[18 May 2009], the patient had shed nearly all of the scab material

on and around the vaccination site.

 

The rapid mobilization of military, CDC, FDA, NIH, drug manufacturer,

and academic and health-care human resources to review the case's

status and to provide daily, then biweekly laboratory findings that

guided treatment recommendations, was enabled by smallpox public

health preparedness research and training efforts.

 

Continuing medical education and reinforcement of training related to

the prevention, early recognition, and treatment of smallpox

vaccine-related adverse events should be part of smallpox vaccination

programs. The patient described in this report received VIGIV in the

amount originally estimated to treat 30 persons. The extraordinary

amounts of VIGIV used to treat this single case of PV underscore the

need to reevaluate the adequacy of the national stockpiled supply of

this or other medical countermeasures (treatment or prophylactic).

Such reevaluation, with additional focus on immunocompromised hosts,

will aid in the smallpox vaccination program planning and overall

smallpox preparedness efforts.

 

References

----------

1. CDC: Recommendations for using smallpox vaccine in a pre-event

vaccination program. Supplemental recommendations of the Advisory

Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) and the Healthcare

Infection Control Practices Advisory Committee (HICPAC). MMWR 2003;

52 (No. RR-7) [available at

<http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/rr5207a1.htm>].

2. Vellozzi C, Lane JM, Averhoff F, et al: Generalized vaccinia,

progressive vaccinia, and eczema vaccinatum are rare following

smallpox (vaccinia) vaccination: United States surveillance, 2003.

Clin Infect Dis 2005; 41: 689-97 [abstract available at

<http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16080092>].

3. Redfield RR, Wright DC, James WD, Jones TS, Brown C, Burke DS:

Disseminated vaccinia in a military recruit with human

immunodeficiency virus (HIV) disease. N Engl J Med 1987; 316: 673-6. 4. Nell P, Kohl KS, Graham PL, et al: Progressive vaccinia as an

adverse event following exposure to vaccinia virus: case definition

and guidelines of data collection, analysis, and presentation of

immunization safety data. Vaccine 2007; 25: 5735-44.

5. CDC. Surveillance guidelines for smallpox vaccine (vaccinia)

adverse reactions. MMWR 2006; 55 (No. RR-1) [available at

<http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/rr5501a1.htm>].

6. Aragon TJ, Ulrich S, Fernyak S, Rutherford GW: Risks of serious

complications and death from smallpox vaccination: a systematic

review of the United States experience, 1963-1968. BMC Public Health

2003; 3: 26 [abstract available at

<http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12911836>].

7. Maurer DM, Harrington B, Lane JM: Smallpox vaccine:

contraindications, administration, and adverse reactions. Am Fam

Physician 2003; 68: 889-96 [available at

<http://www.aafp.org/afp/20030901/889.html>].

8. Fulginiti VA, Papier A, Lane JM, Neff JM, Henderson DA: Smallpox

vaccination: a review, part II. Adverse events. Clin Infect Dis 2003;

37: 251-71

9. Bray M, Wright ME: Progressive vaccinia. Clin Infect Dis 2003; 36:

766-74 [abstract available at <http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12627361>].

10. Quenelle, DC, Prichard MN, Keith KA, et al: Synergistic efficacy

of the combination of ST-246 with CMX001 against orthopoxviruses.

Antimicrob Agents Chemother 2007; 51: 4118-24 [available at

<http://aac.asm.org/cgi/content/full/51/11/4118>].

 

Note 1. ST-246 prevents viral egress, whereas CMX001 inhibits viral

replication, and some data suggest they are synergistic in vitro (10). Note 2. * Information about US Department of Defense policies

regarding smallpox vaccination and screening before smallpox

vaccination is available at <http://www.smallpox.army.mil>. CDC's

clinical evaluation tools for smallpox vaccine adverse reactions are

available at <http://emergency.cdc.gov/agent/smallpox/vaccination/clineval>.

 

--

Communicated by:

ProMED-mail

<promed@promedmail.org>

 

[The essential message of this episode is that future cases of PV

likely will require similar intensive and multidisciplinary clinical

consultation. Experts with background in vaccine safety, PV

treatment, clinical virology, infectious disease, and

immunodeficiencies should be engaged.

 

The extraordinary amounts of VIGIV used to treat this single case of

PV underscore the need to reevaluate the adequacy of the national

stockpiled supply of this or other medical countermeasures (treatment

or prophylactic). Such reevaluation, with additional focus on

immunocompromised hosts, will aid in the smallpox vaccination program

planning and overall smallpox preparedness efforts.

 

The text of the original article (available at the source URL above)

is accompanied by graphic images of the progressive vaccinia lesion

over a period of 8 weeks. - Mod.CP]

 

[see also:

2003

----

Smallpox vaccination adverse events - USA (12) 20030712.1716 Smallpox vaccination adverse events - USA (11): few 20030620.1519 Smallpox vaccination adverse events - USA (10) 20030404.0825 Smallpox vaccination adverse events - USA (09) 20030329.0781 Smallpox vaccination adverse events - USA (08) 20030327.0772 Smallpox vaccination adverse events - USA (07) 20030326.0749 Smallpox vaccination, adverse events - USA (06) 20030314.0635 Smallpox vaccination, adverse events - USA (05) 20030311.0592 Smallpox vaccination, adverse events - USA (04) 20030307.0569 Smallpox vaccination, adverse events - USA (03) 20030306.0557 Smallpox vaccination, adverse events - USA (02) 20030306.0556 Smallpox vaccination, adverse events - USA 20030301.0515 Smallpox vaccination, adverse event monitoring - USA 20030206.0324 Smallpox vaccination strategies 20030103.0018] ...................................mpp/cp/mj/mpp

 

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