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NVIC Vaccine E-Newsletter

December 19, 2008

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Photo courtesy Zichittella-Heeren

New Yorker's Stand Up for Vaccine Exemptions

by Barbara Loe Fisher

In the harbor of New York City stands the Statue of Liberty, a symbol

of freedom that has welcomed millions of immigrants for 112 years,

half of the time that the United States of America has been a nation.

And on the base of the statue is an inscription that says in part

" .....Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to

breathe free.... "

I remembered that phrase when we were driving from Washington, D.C. to

New York City and our van got caught up in the Sunday afternoon

Manhattan traffic that led us past the Empire State Building on our

way to Long Island. Freedom was very much on my mind as we headed for

Stony Brook University to participate in the December 15 Vaccine

Education Roundtable sponsored by New York state Assemblymen Marc

Alessi (D-1st Assembly District) and Gottfried (D-75th

Assembly District), who is Chair of the House Health Committee.

Americans have always cherished the freedom to breathe free; to speak,

write and dissent without fear of retribution; to believe in God and

worship freely without being persecuted; to vote for whom we want to

represent us in government and know our vote counts; to follow our

conscience and stand up for what is right. Although America is only

222 years old, which is very young compared to other countries that

have existed for several thousands of years, during our short history

there is no other nation that has defined and defended the freedom of

citizens to live in a society based on the principle of equal rights

and consent of the governed any better than the United States of America.

These are troubled times for parents in New York and New Jersey and

other states. Every day parents are facing more hostility from

pediatricians throwing them out of doctor's offices for questioning

vaccine safety and are being harassed by government officials

determined to force their children to get dozens of doses of state

mandated vaccines without voluntary, informed consent. New York

currently mandates more than two dozen doses of 11 vaccines for school

attendance while New Jersey leads the nation with nearly three dozen

doses of 13 vaccines, including annual influenza shots.

Religious exemptions are being pulled by state officials after they

throw parents into rooms and grill them for hours about the sincerity

of their religious beliefs. Last year in land, state officials

threatened several thousand parents with jail time and stiff fines for

failing to show proof their children had gotten hepatitis B and

chickenpox vaccinations.

It is in this climate of fear and crisis of trust between parents, who

want a more equal role in making vaccination decisions for their

children, and pediatricians and public health officials, who are

determined to strengthen their power to tell parents what to do, that

Assemblymen Alessi assembled a panel representing both sides to

discuss whether or not a philosophical exemption to vaccination should

be added to New York's vaccine laws. Currently New York only provides

for a medical and religious exemption, even as 18 other states allow a

personal, philosophical or conscientious belief exemption to vaccination.

After the Roundtable, Assemblyman Gottfried expressed strong support

for First Amendment rights and told the audience of parents, doctors

and legislative staff that he is sponsoring two bills to clarify

rights defined under existing religious and medical exemptions so they

cannot be violated by state officials. After the Roundtable concluded,

he said " Important issues were raised. I look forward to seeing

additional data from all sides, especially about the impact of the

personal objection laws in other states. I will be reintroducing my

bills to strengthen the religious and medical exemptions in the 2009

session. I urge parents to contact their local assembly members and

state senators to urge them to co-sponsor. "

Assemblyman Alessi commented that " The discussion framed the fact that

there is still a large debate on the issue. And although some people

in the medical community are adamant that this debate is over, it has

only just begun. The amount of conflicting evidence parents are

presented with regarding the effects of certain vaccines is

staggering. This forum opened the lines of communication between

experts in the debate and provided concerned parents with the most

recent information on the safety of vaccines. As a parent, I know how

difficult it is to make the right decisions regarding our children's

health, but if we are to make good decisions, we need to be well

informed and continue to have discussions like this roundtable. "

At the beginning of the Roundtable, I framed the vaccine safety and

informed consent debate and outlined how the informed consent

principle relates to philosophical/conscientious belief exemption. I

reviewed the general health ranking of New York (25th) compared to the

18 states which have philosophical exemptions (six of the top 10

ranked states have philosophical exemption) and noted that the U.S.

uses more vaccines than any nation in the world but ranks 39th in

infant mortality. Click here to read my entire presentation with live

links to references (see text below).

Other panelists supporting philosophical exemption to vaccination

included New York pediatrician Lawrence Palevsky, M.D. , who called

for an authentic dialogue that " moves past what appears to a growing

number of citizens to be a one-sided, paternalistic, and patronizing

set of policies and language with an unwillingness to engage in a real

discussion about the science of vaccines. " He challenged many of the

myths and misconceptions about the safety and effectiveness of vaccine

policies.

New York's Gilmore, executive director of Autism United, who has

a vaccine injured son with autism and said " without trust, the

proponents of forced vaccination have nothing but authority and

authority is an unacceptable basis for any public policy in a

democratic society. " He pointed out operational flaws and conflicts of

interest in vaccine safety regulation and policymaking. Louise Kuo

Habakus, of the New Jersey Coalition for Vaccination Choice, who has

two young sons recovering from vaccine injuries, presented slides

summarizing vaccine risks and questioning whether vaccines can be

credited with major infectious disease morbidity and mortality

decreases in the 20th century. She recounted her impression of the

day's events at www.ageofautism.com. (In related events, New Jersey

parents held several open houses this week to educate New Jersey

legislators about the need to support pending conscientious belief

exemption legislation in that state.)

Panelists defending current vaccine policies and opposing

philosophical exemptions included New York pediatricians Lee,

M.D. , who agreed vaccine safety should be a high priority but

disagreed that the amount of mercury and aluminum in vaccines posed a

health risk; and longtime vaccine policymaker and American Academy of

Pediatrics spokesperson Louis Z. , M.D. , who agreed trust

between pediatricians and parents needs to be strengthened but

defended the safety of existing vaccine policies; and Debra Blog, M.D.

, medical director of the Immunization Program, New York State

Department of Health, who showed slides of children with infectious

diseases and strongly opposed adding philosophical exemption to New

York state vaccine laws.

Following panelist presentations there was a spirited debate that

lasted for more than two hours as panelists argued and defended their

positions. NVIC's videographer, Fisher, will be making a video

of the day's events available on NVIC's website.

By the end of the day, I thought about how long parents of vaccine

injured children have been asking pediatricians to become partners

with them in preventing vaccine injuries and deaths. After nearly

three decades, parents and doctors inside and outside of government

could not be further apart. The failure of pediatricians and public

health officials to take seriously the many cases of regression into

poor health after vaccination has become the Number One public health

problem in the U.S. today.

There will be no resolution until every state has embraced the

informed consent ethic and adopted conscientious or philosophical

exemption to vaccination in state vaccine laws. At that point,

Americans will be free to vote with their feet and the vaccines the

public considers to be necessary, safe and effective will be used and

those they do not consider to be necessary, safe and effective will be

driven off the market. And then, a real time comparison of the long

term health of highly vaccinated, less vaccinated and unvaccinated

citizens will tell us a lot about the safety and effectiveness of

vaccine policies in the last half of the 20th and first half of the

21st centuries.

....

Left to right: Barbara Loe Fisher; Gilmore; Lawrence Palevsky,

M.D. at Dec. 15, 2008 NY Vaccine Education Roundtable. (Photo courtesy

Zichittella-Heeren)

....

Left to right: Lee, M.D., Louis , M.D., Marc Alessi,

Gottfried, Debra Blog, M.D., Louise Kuo Habakus at Dec. 15, 2008 NY

Vaccine Education Roundtable (Photo courtesy Zichittella-Heeren)

Statement of Barbara Loe Fisher

Co-founder & President, National Vaccine Information Center

December 15, 2008 at New York Stony Brook University

Vaccine Education Roundtable

Assemblyman Alessi and NY State Legislators:

Thank you for holding this Vaccine Education Roundtable to discuss

issues which impact on Assembly Bill 5468 to insert philosophical

exemption in New York vaccine laws. I appreciate the invitation to be

part of this panel on behalf of New York members of the National

Vaccine Information Center, non-profit organization founded in 1982 to

prevent vaccine injuries and deaths through public education and

defend the informed consent ethic.

Vaccination is a medical intervention performed on a healthy person

which carries an inherent risk of injury or death. The risk of harm

can be greater for some than others and there is no guarantee that

vaccination will, in fact, confer immunity. With very few predictors

having been identified by medical science to give advance warning that

harm or failure to confer immunity will occur, vaccination is a

medical procedure that could reasonably be termed as experimental each

time it is performed on a healthy individual.

Further, the FDA, CDC and vaccine makers openly state that often the

numbers of human subjects used in pre-licensing studies are too small

to detect all adverse events caused by a new vaccine. This makes

government recommended use of newly licensed vaccines by millions of

children a de facto uncontrolled national scientific experiment. In

this regard, the ethical principle of informed consent to vaccination

attains even greater significance.

Informed consent means that a patient or guardian has the right to be

fully informed about the benefits and risks of a medical procedure and

be allowed to make an informed, voluntary decision about whether or

not to take the risk. Informed consent is an important check and

balance for the relationship between physicians and patients that

encourages physicians to obey the Hippocratic oath to " first, do no harm. "

The affirmation of the informed consent ethic in the practice of

modern medicine is rooted in a rejection of the traditional

paternalistic medical model, which places the patient or guardian in

an unequal, powerless position with a physician and facilitates

uninformed, involuntary risk taking. The human right for individuals

to exercise informed consent to participating in scientific

experiments was officially acknowledged by the judges of the Nuremberg

Tribunal after World War II. Their ringing endorsement of individual

inviolability and the right to self determination when taking medical

risks has became an internationally accepted moral guidepost for the

ethical practice of modern medicine. The first principle of the

Nuremberg Code begins with:

" The voluntary consent of the human subject is absolutely essential.

This means that the person involved should have legal capacity to give

consent; should be so situated as to be able to exercise free power of

choice, without the intervention of any element of force, fraud,

deceit, duress, overreaching or other ulterior form of constraint or

coercion; and should have sufficient knowledge and comprehension of

the elements of the subject matter involved as to enable him to make

an understanding and enlightened decision. "

In America, the closest we come to upholding the informed consent

principle with regard to vaccination is in the 18 states which allow

personal, philosophical or conscientious belief exemption to

vaccination. In the 2008 edition of America's Health Rankings, Vermont

is ranked the number one healthiest state. Vermont allows

philosophical exemption to vaccination. In fact, out of the top ten

ranked healthiest states, six of them allow philosophical exemption

(Vermont, Minnesota, Utah, Idaho, Maine, Washington).

New York ranks 25th in health behind the nation's most populous state,

California. The state of California has twice as many residents as New

York, as well as more foreign born residents and those who speak

English as a second language. However, in almost all other

demographics, California is nearly identical to New York in ethnic

diversity; numbers of children under age 18; median household income

and persons living below poverty.

California allows philosophical exemption to vaccination.

What is interesting is that in the top 10 healthiest states, four had

among the lowest vaccination rates for children ages 19 to 35 months:

Utah (37th) , Idaho (45th), Maine (40th) and Washington (48th).

California which is ahead of New York in overall health ranking, is

31st in vaccination coverage of 19 to 35 month olds while New York is

number 9. The healthiest state, Vermont, is 29th in vaccination coverage.

In fact, health is not primarily measured by high vaccination rates or

an absence of infectious disease. High vaccination rates are not the

most important measure of the overall health of citizens. The 18

states allowing philosophical exemption to vaccination have not

compromised individual or public health when compared to other states.

This past September, the CDC announced that national childhood

vaccination rates are at near record levels, with at least 90 percent

of young children receiving all but one CDC recommended vaccine. Less

than 1 percent of children aged 19 to 35 months remain completely

unvaccinated.

Today, the U.S. government recommends the use of more vaccines than

any other country in the world: 69 doses of 16 vaccines for girls; 66

doses of 15 vaccines for boys given between the day of birth and age

18. That is triple the numbers of vaccinations recommended by public

health officials and physician organizations a quarter century ago,

when 23 doses of seven vaccines (DPT, MMR, OPV) were routinely given.

But in comparison to other nations, the overall health of Americans

has not improved since 2004 and there are 27 countries that exceed the

US in healthy life expectancy while the U.S. ranks 39th in infant

mortality.

Today, 1 in every 143 babies born in America dies; 1 child in 450

becomes diabetic; 1 in 150 develops autism;1 in 9 suffers with asthma;

and 1 in every 6 child is learning disabled.

The chronic disease and disability epidemic that has developed in the

last quarter century is killing and injuring more children than any

infectious disease epidemic in the history of our nation, including

smallpox and polio. The social, economic, and human costs are

enormous: nearly two billion dollars has been paid to vaccine victims

by the federal government in the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program

while three-quarters of the more than $2 trillion dollar annual price

tag for health care is spent to care for the chronically ill and

disabled.

The big question vaccine educated parents are asking is: why are so

many of the most highly vaccinated children in the world so sick,

suffering with all kinds of chronic brain and immune system

dysfunction? Why are babies born in the richest country in the world

dying more often than babies born in poorer countries, who do not get

vaccinated at all or who get far fewer vaccines?

It is a question that has not been answered by any scientific study

conducted to date because there has never been a large, prospective

study comparing the long term health of highly vaccinated children to

unvaccinated children. In the absence of definitive answers, the right

to freely exercise medical, religious and philosophical exemption to

vaccination is a human right that may well determine the biological

integrity of this and future generations in America.

Because vaccines are pharmaceutical products that carry significant

risks greater for some than others; because doctors and public health

officials are not infallible; because what is considered scientific

truth today can be proven false tomorrow; because philosophical

exemption to vaccination does not negatively impact on the health of

individuals or states; and because informed consent to medical risk

taking is a human right, the National Vaccine Information Center urges

legislators to affirm the freedom of all New Yorkers to make informed,

voluntary vaccination decisions for themselves and their children by

supporting philosophical exemption to vaccination.

National Vaccine Information Center

NVIC E-News is a free service of the non-profit 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 www.nvic.org

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