E-NEWS FROM THE NATIONAL VACCINE INFORMATION CENTER

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“Protecting the health and informed consent rights of children since 1982.” =============================================

for immediate release

August 27, 2001

 

NATIONAL VACCINE INFORMATION CENTER URGES PARENTS TO VACCINATE SAFELY

Washington, D.C. -  The National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC), a non-profit, educational organization dedicated to preventing vaccine injuries and deaths through public education, is urging parents to take precautionary measures to minimize vaccine risks. As parents take their children in for school vaccinations, NVIC cautions that parents must be fully informed in order to be effective partners with their doctors in preventing vaccine reactions.

“Although vaccines can prevent serious childhood diseases, every vaccine, like every drug, carries a reaction risk,” said NVIC President Barbara Loe Fisher. “All children are not alike and some children do have problems with vaccination. It is just as important for parents to know how to protect against and recognize vaccine reactions as it is for doctors to work with parents to minimize vaccine risks and report health problems following vaccination to the federal Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System.”

The parent-founded and operated NVIC, which worked with Congress to create the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of 1986 and has served as a consumer advocate watchdog since its implementation, has the following vaccine safety tips:

·        Do not vaccinate a child sick with a viral or bacterial infection - wait until the child has been healthy for several weeks;

·        Do not revaccinate a child who has had a deterioration in health following previous vaccinations until it can be conclusively determined that the vaccines were not the cause;

·        Before vaccinating, give your doctor information about a family medical history of severe autoimmune or neurological disease;

·        Try to avoid administration of many vaccines on one day.

 

“The most important thing parents can do after vaccination is to monitor their child carefully.  If there are dramatic changes in the child’s physical, mental or emotional well being in the days or weeks following vaccination, they need to call their doctor and the doctor needs to take them seriously. Beyond that, doctors should always report any vaccine-related adverse event to the federal Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS),” said Fisher.

The National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of 1986 mandated that all doctors report adverse events which occur within 30 days of vaccination to the federal vaccine adverse event reporting system but there are no sanctions for doctors who do not report. Even though about 12,000 vaccine-related adverse events are reported annually to VAERS, it is estimated that less than ten percent of all doctors actually report vaccine adverse events. This is in line with a 1993 estimate by former FDA Commissioner David Kessler in the Journal of the American Medical Association that indicated perhaps only one percent of all doctors report adverse events following prescription drug administration.

The National Vaccine Information Center will assist parents, whose doctors refuse to report vaccine-related adverse events, with making a report to VAERS. Parents can report suspected vaccine reactions to NVIC at www.909shot.com.

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NVIC is funded through individual membership donations and does not receive government funding. Barbara Loe Fisher, President and Co-founder.

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ALL INFORMATION, DATA, AND MATERIAL CONTAINED, PRESENTED, OR PROVIDED HERE IS FOR GENERAL INFORMATION PURPOSES ONLY AND IS NOT TO BE CONSTRUED AS REFLECTING THE KNOWLEDGE OR OPINIONS OF THE PUBLISHER, AND IS NOT TO BE CONSTRUED OR INTENDED AS PROVIDING MEDICAL OR LEGAL ADVICE.  THE DECISION WHETHER OR NOT TO VACCINATE IS AN IMPORTANT AND COMPLEX ISSUE AND SHOULD BE MADE BY YOU, AND YOU ALONE, IN CONSULTATION WITH YOUR HEALTH CARE PROVIDER.