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“Protecting the health and informed consent rights of
children since 1982.”
http://www.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0202/25/ltm.02.html
AMERICAN MORNING WITH PAULA ZAHN The Big Question: Do Vaccinations Actually
Help or Hurt Children?
Aired February 25, 2002 - 07:45 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS
FINAL FORM AND MAY BE
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: We return now to the big question
this hour: Do vaccinations actually help or hurt children? By the time most
kids are two, they have had as many as 20 immunizations against a variety of
diseases. And it has been a debate here in the U.S. among parents for the past
few years about whether the shots actually harm children’s immune systems. And
just recently, the issue became front- page news in London, when Prime Minister
Tony Blair refused to answer questions about whether his infant son was vaccinated.
Joining us now to talk about a new study that addresses
these health concerns, from Boston, Marie McCormick, with the Institute of
Medicine. And from Washington, Barbara Loe Fisher, with the National Vaccine
Information Center. Welcome to you both.
All right. I’m going to start off this morning with the child
immunization study that was completed last week. Dr. McCormick, are you with us
yet? Not yet—OK, so Dr. Fisher, I need for—Ms. Fisher, for you to react to this.
Dr. McCormick actually chaired the committee that completed this report, and it
concluded that the schedule of 20 vaccines before the age of two was, quote, “...
does not increase a child’s risk of contracting type one Diabetes or various
infections, such as pneumonia or meningitis.” And the study, though, is
inconclusive as to whether the shots increase the risk of asthma.
Now I got to tell you, as a parent, this is extremely
confusing information.
What is it that parents are supposed to do here?
BARBARA LOE FISHER, NATIONAL VACCINE INFORMATION CENTER:
Well I think it’s very important for people to have access to this Institute of
Medicine report. And they can do that by going to the Web site 909shot.com. We
are linked directly to the Institute of Medicine Web site.
This report did not say that we should go home and not worry
about the multiple vaccinations we’re giving to our children. Quite to the
contrary, it is a wonderful report that outlines in detail the possible
biological mechanisms that could be at work when vaccines create auto immunity
in some children. It is a research blueprint for the federal health agencies
and for industry to do the kinds of scientific studies that need to be done to answer
the outstanding question of whether or not vaccines—the multiple vaccines we’re
giving our children—have contributed to the doubling of asthma in the last 20
years in our kids, the doubling of learning disabilities and Attention Deficit
Disorder, the tripling of Diabetes, and the increase of autism in every state
by 600 percent.
We have a lot of kids who are sick, and we need to find
out why. And we need to know whether or not the many vaccines we’re giving our
children are contributing to this rise in chronic disease and disability.
ZAHN: All right. Dr. McCormick, do you acknowledge that
this study has some shortcomings? Because it did not come up with any
conclusive evidence about some of the things that Ms. Fisher just mentioned,
when it comes to asthma and ADD and perhaps other learning disabilities.
MARIE MCCORMICK, INSTITUTE OF MEDICINE: Certainly, we were
not able to examine the full range of either auto immune or allergic diseases.
I would point out, however, that although we were only able to look at type one
Diabetes and some—and allergy, asthma and infection, I would also point out
that when we looked at the biological mechanisms, we did not find that these
mechanisms provided strong evidence for an effect that would generate the kinds
of conditions we’re talking about. In fact, the evidence we found was either
theoretical or relatively weak.
ZAHN: So, Dr. McCormick, what is it that parents are
supposed to do in the meantime before all of this is sorted out? Are they
supposed to take the full (UNINTELLIGIBLE) -- have their children take the full
(UNINTELLIGIBLE) of these shots?
MCCORMICK: I would like to point out that the type of
evidence we looked at was, in some instances, hypothesis-raising, as was
indicated by the prior speaker. The risk of disease is very real. These are
very serious diseases that cause severe morbidity that cause death. I think
that when a parent thinks about the risk, they have to trade off the notion of
a hypothetical risk that may be—that may be reproducing these kinds of
conditions, but may not, versus the very, very real risk of the diseases that
are being prevented.
ZAHN: What about this balance you must strike, Ms. Fisher,
as a parent, whether—I think Dr. McCormick just addressed it pretty well. You
know, whether you want to face the risk of this—potentially a deadly disease, or
perhaps the not proven consequences of other illnesses caused by these shots.
FISHER: Well one of the things that the Institute of
Medicine report pointed out was that there may be groups of genetically
susceptible children who cannot handle the process of vaccination like other
children can. You know, we’ve been taking vaccine reaction reports for the last
20 years at the National Vaccine Information Center. And in the last decade
particularly, we have seen more and more parents report to us they take in
perfectly normal, healthy, high-functioning children to be vaccinated. And then
within hours, days or weeks, these children exhibit illness, high fevers,
convulsions, brain inflammation. They start to regress physically, mentally and
emotionally. More and more parents are reporting that. And when the doctors tell
them it’s all a coincidence, that the vaccines had nothing to do with what
happened to their children, the parents are beginning not to believe them. We
need to do the good science that will give us the answers to whether or not
more and more children—potentially genetically susceptible children—are not
being able to handle the process of vaccination.
ZAHN: But, Ms. Fisher, until those studies are completed,
what is it that you recommend parents to do?
FISHER: Parents need to become educated about vaccines and
infectious diseases. They need to know how to monitor their children, following
vaccinations for signs that there’s health deterioration. Doctors need to report
hospitalizations, (UNINTELLIGIBLE) and deaths following vaccination. We have potentially less than 10 percent—maybe
less than one percent— of all doctors reporting these adverse events to the
federal vaccine adverse event reporting system. We need more education, we need
better science, and we need to examine our policies.
ZAHN: But, Dr. McCormick, you are wholly comfortable with
the immunizations that are being required of most school aged children?
MCCORMICK: Yes, I am. But I’m also very—and our committee
is very concerned that we do everything in our power to establish the safety of
the current vaccine schedule and vaccines that are coming on down the pike.
This is too serious an issue to brush to the side. I agree with Ms. Fisher that
we should report these incidents, we should investigate these incidents. And, in fact, the Institute of Medicine has
a 10-year track history—
10-year track record of looking at vaccines and
establishing what vaccine adverse events really occur.
So I think this is an ongoing process, and that—and a
very, very serious one. And the report, and a whole series of reports, keeps
iterating this as an important feature of the vaccine system.
ZAHN: So parents, read as much as you can. Stay informed.
You’ve got to make the choices for your own children, along with your doctor.
Dr. Marie McCormick, thank you so much for joining us. And Barbara Loe Fisher,
thanks for your time as well.
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