New Vaccine Science Can Help Bridge the Divide

[Guest guest]

New Vaccine Science Can Help Bridge the Divide

by Barbara Loe Fisher

Fear

of the unknown is what terrifies us the most, fear of being unable to

have control over what the future holds. At the root of that fear is

knowing that the choices we make today could have a profound impact on

what happens tomorrow. Fear is a strong emotion that helps people take

action but fear does not help people think clearly and make well

informed choices.

Fear Jeopardizes Vaccine Safety Research

Fear has dominated the public debate about the risks of infectious

diseases and the risks of vaccination during the past three decades. Now

it is jeopardizing the urgent need to create a supportive environment

for researchers to conduct well designed studies to answer outstanding

questions about vaccine safety, questions that the Institute of Medicine

pointed out in 1991 and 1994 needed to be answered and that the

National Vaccine Advisory Committee outlined in 2009 and 2010 during a

public engagement initiative.

Getting lost in the avalanche of accusations, finger pointing and

demonization of individuals challenging the status quo is the more

important question: What can be done now to fill in gaps in the science

that stand in the way of our making well informed vaccine choices and

public health policy based on evidence and not fear?

Vaccine Safety Conference Reviews Vaccine Science

On January 3-7, 2011, a vaccine safety conference was held in

Montego Bay, Jamaica that included a diverse groups of delegates from

around the world, including senior scientists and physicians, editors of

scientific journals, experts in vaccine regulation, social science and

health policy, consumer child health advocates, legal experts and

members of the media. Public observers in the audience included Jamaican

physicians, wellness practitioners, graduate and medical students in

public health programs and parents.

The international meeting was underwritten by individuals and

private family foundations and co-sponsored by the National Vaccine

Information Center. The goal was to further evaluate vaccine safety

science and vaccine policy in light of the fact that 89 percent of

recently polled American parents put vaccine safety at the top of their

list of medical research priorities, while health consumers in other

developed countries are also questioning the quality of vaccine science.

Concern About Inflammatory Disease Increases

All of the delegates expressed concern about increases during the

past three decades in the numbers of children and adults affected by

immune and inflammatory diseases, ranging from asthma and

neurodevelopmental disorders to the emergence of previously rare but

serious autoimmune health conditions. Many delegates presented

information from the peer reviewed scientific literature and pointed out

gaps in knowledge about the biological mechanisms for vaccine induced

brain and immune dysfunction... to read more and access 40 references with live

links or watch the video, click here.

In the News

MSNBC-TV Debate - Barbara Loe Fisher vs. Dr. Max

Witnitzer on parents' concerns about vaccine safety and the need for better

vaccine science. November 23, 2010. MSNBC-TV.

The Truth Wears Off - " ... Replicability is how the

community enforces itself. It's a safeguard for the creep of

subjectivity. Most of the time, scientists know what results they want,

and that can influence the results they get. The premise of

replicability is that the scientific community can correct for these

flaws.

But now all sorts of well-established, multiply confirmed findings have

started to look increasingly uncertain. It's as if our facts were losing

their truth: claims that have been enshrined in textbooks are suddenly

unprovable... " Jonah Lehrer. The Truth Wears Off: Is there something wrong with

the scientific method? The New Yorker: December 13, 2010.

BMJ Claims Study Linking Vaccines to Autism is " Fraudulent " -

" When Deer exposed the fact that Wakefield had received payment from

the personal injury attorney to help the lawyer's case, 10 of his 13

co-authors on the 1998 paper retracted their involvement with the work.

In his book, Callous Disregard, Wakefield maintains that he informed his

colleagues and the dean of the medical school of his involvement as a

medical expert... supporters continue to question the role that vaccines

may play in triggering autism in some children. Barbara Loe Fisher, who

co-founded the National Vaccine Information Center as a advocacy group

for vaccine safety, responded in a email with the following

statement- " [Dr. Wakefield's] finding of an association between

vaccination and developmental delays in some children has been expanded

upon in subsequent studies published in medical journals. Research into

the potential link between vaccination and regression of health in some

children continues and should continue to answer outstanding questions

about the impact of vaccination on brain and immune function. " Alice Park. Study

Linking Vaccines to Autism is " Fraudulent. " Time Magazine: January 6, 2011.

Skyhorse Publishing: 2010

Wakefield details his experiences in Callous Disregard: Autism &

Vaccines: The Truth Behind a Tragedy.

One in 26 Americans Will Develop Epilepsy - " An estimated 1

in 26 Americans will develop epilepsy in their lifetime, a risk that

translates to about 12 million people in the United States, report

researchers. This number is much higher than current estimates by the

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that suggest roughly 2

million people in the United States currently have epilepsy. The CDC

reports the total indirect and direct cost of epilepsy in the United

States is more than $15.5 billion. The authors of this new report,

published in the January 4 issue of Neurology, suggest this amount could

increase in years to come. " Ganday. One in 26 Americans Will Develop

Epilepsy. Medscape: January 7, 2011

Deadly Medicine - " Prescription drugs kill some 200,000

Americans every year. Will that number go up, now that most clinical

trials are conducted overseas-on sick Russians, homeless Poles, and

slum-dwelling Chinese-in places where regulation is virtually

nonexistent, the F.D.A. doesn't reach, and " mistakes " can end up in

pauper's graves? The authors investigate the globalization of the

pharmaceutical industry, and the U.S. Government's failure to rein in a

lethal profit machine... The only people who seem to care about the

surge of clinical trials in foreign countries are the medical

ethicists-not historically a powerhouse when it comes to battling the

drug companies. A team of physician-researchers from Duke University,

writing last year in the New England Journal of Medicine, observed that

" this phenomenon raises important questions about the economics and

ethics of clinical research and the translation of trial results to

clinical practice: Who benefits from the globalization of clinical

trials?... In 2007, residents of a homeless shelter in Grudziadz,

Poland, received as little as $2 to take part in a flu-vaccine

experiment. The subjects thought they were getting a regular flu shot.

They were not. At least 20 of them died. " - L. Bartlett & B.

Steele. Deadly Medicine, Vanity Fair: January 2011.