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MICHAEL BELKIN TESTIMONY TO CONGRESS
Tuesday May 18, 1999

VAERS ANALYSIS (Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System) studied statistics
at the University Of California at Berkeley and went on to develop
sophisticated proprietary risk/reward statistical models at Salomon
Brothers from 1986-91 -- and in my subsequent, ongoing business provide
statistical economic and financial forecasts to mutual funds, investment
banks, pension funds and hedge funds.

I studied VAERS hepatitis B vaccine data obtained by the National Vaccine
Information Center (NVIC) under the Freedom of Information Act. The data
has some flaws (incomplete fields, some multiple reports) but any
qualified, impartial quantitative analyst or statistician not affiliated
with Merck, Smithkline, the CDC, the FDA or the AAP who examines these
reports will find a clear and undeniable pattern of central nervous system
(CNS) and liver disease striking thousands of people within 0-4 days after
vaccination with hepatitis B vaccine. These reports have been ignored,
explained away, or considered "acceptable" by the FDA, CDC and drug
companies. This Committee should launch an investigation of the VAERS
hepatitis B data by a team of independent scientists not beholden to
vaccine manufacturers or the FDA/CDC bureaucracy. The following is intended
to be a starting point for such an investigation. This does not profess to
be a complete, exhaustive analysis -- simply an overview, highlighting
aspects of the data that may not previously have been brought to your
attention.

The total 24,775 VAERS hepatitis B reports from July 1990 to October 31,
1998 show 439 deaths and 9673 serious reactions involving emergency room
visits, hospitalization, disablement or death.

Therefore, more than one third of total reports were serious events. 17,497
of those total reports were for hepatitis B vaccine only, the remainder
were vaccine cocktails where hepatitis B was administered along with DPT,
HIB, IPV, OPV, etc.

The hepatitis-B-vaccine-only reports show a shocking cluster of reactions
in females starting in their teenage years (the male/female reporting ratio
is balanced before age 16). For ages 16-55, 77% of VAERS reports are women
-- more than three times as many women as men are reporting adverse
reactions to hepatitis B vaccine. The median onset of adverse event after
vaccination is one day, 70% of reactions happen within four days of
vaccination. Independent scientists should investigate why females are more
disposed to have adverse reactions to hepatitis B vaccine and/or report
them to VAERS. One possible explanation is that nurses have to take this
vaccine for their jobs and are thus more exposed than most adults to
hepatitis B vaccine adverse reactions. Rather than dismiss that factor as
an "over-reporting bias" as Dr. Chen of the CDC did at the February ACIP
meeting, perhaps investigators might consider that nurses are alert health
care workers and ought to be listened to with regard to the dangers of
adverse events with any vaccine (rather than ignored). Personal case
studies reported to the author have showed many teenage girls getting
severe, debilitating adverse reactions to hepatitis B vaccine, having
nothing to do with nursing. Do women have a greater vulnerability to
auto-immune reactions to hepatitis B vaccine? Is the government
discriminating against women by administering this vaccine without regard
for genetic risk of CNS and liver disease? Those are questions that
independent scientists should investigate.

A second area of concern is the VAERS reports involving hepatitis B vaccine
administered with other vaccines (vaccine cocktails). Health officials are
fond of dismissing those reports as being attributable to hepatitis B
vaccine, because of the multiple other antigens present (almost as if they
wanted to cloak hepatitis B vaccine reactions from scrutiny). Let's avoid
that controversy and focus on the extremely disturbing VAERS data of
hepatitis B vaccine with other vaccines. These reports amount to only one
third of total reports (7,275), but account for two thirds of total deaths
(291). The median onset of those deaths was 2 days after vaccination --
displaying a clear temporal association. The median age of death was 0.5
years in this group. 50% of all hepatitis-B-vaccine-cocktail reports were
serious (died, emergency room, hospitalized, disabled). I grouped
convulsive reactions together from the hep-B-vaccine-cocktail data and
found a deeply disturbing pattern. These were anything labeled convulsions,
seizures or tremors in the VAERS hep-B-cocktail data. Of the 1189 such
reports, fully 80% (950) were serious (died, ER, hospitalized, disabled)
median age 0.5 years, median onset after vaccination 0 days (less than one
day). Someone should do follow-up and find out what happened to those poor
infants who suffered severe convulsions after a hepatitis B-multi-vaccine
cocktail. In the personal reports I've taken of similar adverse reactions,
the children were left brain damaged and developmentally disabled.

Looking beyond the debate over whether VAERS reports of vaccine cocktails
can be attributed to hepatitis B, the data strongly suggests combining
multiple vaccines may be convenient and profitable for pediatricians -- but
fatal or debilitating for infants. Where are the scientific studies showing
hepatitis B vaccine is safe to administer with DPT, HIB, IPV, OPV, etc.?
Did anyone doing cost/benefit analysis for those studies include data
showing the higher mortality and serious reactions present in the VAERS
data? Why not? Is there an identifiable genetic marker in those who
suffered convulsive reactions to screen out those vulnerable in the future?
These are all matters for independent scientists to audit.

Another area that leaps out of the VAERS database is something I dubbed
arthritic reactions. These are joint pains, tingling, numbness, aching,
fatigue, etc. I found 2,400 of those reports in just a quick survey of the
first reporting column of VAERS (hepatitis B vaccine only). Almost one half
of those are serious, involving an ER visit, hospitalization, death or
disablement. These are the type of adverse reactions reported by many
adults who are forced to take the hepatitis B vaccine for their jobs. In
the reports of such adverse reactions I've taken, the symptoms do not go
away, most patients complain it gets worse over time. Scientists not
corrupted by drug company or CDC/FDA institutional bias should examine the
thousands of VAERS hepatitis B arthritic reaction reports and develop a
diagnosis of their hepatitis B vaccine-related illness.

Anyone who doubts if hepatitis B vaccine adverse reactions exist should sit
down and read the

symptoms and text comments of a random selection of VAERS reports. When one
does so, they will find a similar but wide-ranging list of CNS and liver
reactions that occur within days of vaccination. The Merck package insert
claims "Injection site reactions and systemic complaints were reported
following 17% and 15% on the injections, respectively." The standard rule
of thumb is only about 10% of reactions are reported to VAERS. So the
actual number and full horror of the hepatitis B vaccine reaction story is
potentially much larger than even VAERS suggests.

REACTION ONSET AFTER VACCINATION

(DAYS) HEPATITIS B VACCINE ONLY

72 % OF ADVERSE REACTIONS (HEPATITIS B VACCINE ONLY) HAPPEN WITHIN 4 DAYS
Days After Vaccination

12% happen beyond 40 days



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.