wsj echoes cbs: Vaccine Proponents Not Immunized From Criticism

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Vaccine Proponents Not Immunized From Criticism

Posted by Mundy

July 28, 2008, 2:34 pm

http://blogs.wsj.com/health/2008/07/28/vaccine-proponents-not-immunized-from-cri\

ticism/

Many parents, concerned about risks from childhood vaccines, are putting

the kibosh on shots for their kids despite advice from government

officials, the medical establishment and academics

Gaps in immunization are starting to show. A lack of vaccination against

measles was known or suspected in 63 of 64 U.S. cases of the disease in

the first third of the year, according to a report from the Centers for

Disease Control and Prevention. Measles was declared eliminated in the

U.S. in 2000, after decades of vaccination.

Still, consumers' suspicion of vaccine advocates runs deep. On Friday,

the CBS Evening News took a look at the financial ties between advocates

of vaccines and makers of the shots. The CBS report came in the wake of

the network news' ongoing stories on vaccines and autism.

The CBS report focused on the American Academy of Pediatrics

<http://www.aap.org/about.html>, the pro-vaccine group Every Child by

Two <http://www.ecbt.org/aboutecbt/>, and Offit

<http://www.med.upenn.edu/immun/offit.shtml>, a vaccine researcher and

staunch defender of immunization.

Drugmakers have given millions in grants and other kinds of payments to

the AAP and helped build its headquarters, CBS reported, noting specific

payments of $433 million from Merck and $342 million Wyeth.

Another recipient of industry funds is Every Child By Two, a nonprofit

organization co-founded by former First Lady lynn , which told

CBS that it has doesn't have any conflicts of interest. CBS said that

AAP treasurers have included a former Wyeth executive and a Big Pharma

consultant.

Offit, chief of infectious diseases at Children's Hospital of

Philadelphia and a professor at the University of Pennsylvania, declined

to be interviewed by CBS for the piece. But the story pointed out that

Offit's $1.5 million chair is funded by Merck and that he shares a

patent with the company for a vaccine against rotavirus, a cause of

childhood diarrhea.

All three subjects of the CBS report told the network they are " upfront

about the money they receive and that the funding doesn't sway their

opinions. "

Vaccine makers have been worried by the federal vaccine court's decision

in March to compensate Hannah Poling, a child who developed autism,

though the court did not specifically link autism to the medicines. At

the time, Offit wrote an op-ed

<http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/31/opinion/31offit.html?ex=1364788800 & en=1253849\

7fcd46dfd & ei=5124 & partner=permalink & exprod=permalink>

in the New York Times saying that the vaccine court had been turning its

back on scientific evidence.

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