Vaccine news story on WFAA tv in Dallas(long)

February 21, 2001

Hi all,

Just wanted to let you know of a great news story we just watched on WFAA tv

channel 8 in Dallas. Valeri is the reporter. It was about the

vaccine Prevnar. They showed one family who lost their 9 month old baby

after her 2nd Prevnar dose. She began having horrible seizures and passed in

and out of a comma before she died. They could not stop the seizures. Of

course, all concerned have said that this was simply a coincidence. They

said that the parents were encouraged to give their child Prevnar to reduce

her chances of getting otitis media (sp? You know, it means ear infections.)

However, the reporter said that the drug was never actually licensed for use

to prevent otitis media. She interviewed a Dr. Cantekan who said that in

fact, it does NOT prevent otitis media. He said that it is very typical for

the FDA to wait until many babies have been lost before they will recall a

drug. They then interviewed someone from the CDC--I think--who said that

Prevnar is not marketed for the prevention of otitis media. Then when she

showed him a fact sheet which is sent to the doctors, otitis media is listed

under the uses. He suddenly got flustered and said, " You are confusing

apples and oranges. " The reporter went on to say that the drug company and

the CDC also deny that a potential side effect of this vaccine is seizures.

Yet, she did some investigating and found that out of 800 children studied, 1

in 10 suffered some type of seizure after receiving the vaccine. Prevnar was

in fact approved for preventing meningitis, yet she said that last year there

were only 1500 reported cases of meningitis. Tomorrow night she continues

her investigation with a story about the conflicts of interests of people on

the board of directors of drug companies. (At least that is what I think she

said.) It was a wonderful story and I encourage all of you to go to their

website and email the news staff about how much we appreciate her

investigation. And anyone in the Dallas area should watch tomorrow night. The

reporter was Valeri .

(Who hopes she didn't get too many of these facts screwed up.)

Recommended Posts