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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-criticism/

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, the pro-vaccine group Every Child by Two,

and Offit,

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 in the New York Times saying that the vaccine court had

been turning its back on scientific evidence.

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