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Suspension
of Hepatitis Vaccination is "Window Dressing"
Temporary Suspension of
Vaccinations for Newborns Announced
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Normal babies born
after July 14 will not be getting hepatitis B shots until they are at least
six months old. But the delay is not
an end to the shots. The law still
requires all children to be immunized against hepatitis B before they enter
school, even though babies and children are rarely diagnosed with
hepatitis
B, let alone die from it.
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The Net Result of the National and
state action in Massachusetts
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Massachusetts News
September 2--Local activists are saying that last month’s
suspension of hepatitis B vaccinations for infants is "window
dressing" and "damage control."
They cite the article in Massachusetts
News as a prime reason why Massachusetts was one of the few states in the
country that acted quickly on the suspension and urged all hospitals to
temporarily cease the vaccination of infants.
"It’s a classic damage-control
measure–classic B.S.," declared Judy Lafler Converse, 39, of West
Falmouth, the mother of a child who suffered severe nerve damage from the
shot.
"They wanted to make some preemptive
gesture to keep control of this issue, so they decided to proclaim, gee,
mercury, is bad, and gee, by coincidence we have a mercury-free vaccine just
down the pike," she said.
"This is their way of saying, ‘We’ve
got everything under control; don’t worry, we’re taking care of what may have
been the problem.’"
Judy Converse has a Masters in Public
Health degree from the University of Hawaii. Her Husband, Chris, 39, is a
mechanical engineer whose consulting practice includes the Woods Hole
Oceanographic Institution.
Mercury Buildup Feared
The temporary suspension of these
vaccinations for newborns was announced last month in a joint statement by
the American Academy of Pediatrics and the U.S. Public Health Service. The
joint statement expressed concern about a vaccine preservative, thimerosal,
which contains tiny amounts of methyl mercury. It said repeated use might
conceivably cause a mercury buildup in infant brains. It recommended that
thimerosal-containing vaccines be removed from the market quickly, even
though thimerosal has been in use for 40 years without problem. Massachusetts
was one of the few states whose health department repeated and amplified the
suspension.
The authorities said there was no evidence
that children have been harmed by getting their shots on the usual shot
schedule. Nevertheless, they recommended delaying hepatitis B shots for
normal babies until they are six months old. The suspension means that no
healthy babies will get hepatitis B shots for a few months. But on January
15, six-month-olds will be getting the shots again. Officials said
non-thimerosal vaccines should become available soon.
The net result of the national and state
actions will be this in Massachusetts: Normal babies born after July 14 will
not be getting hepatitis B shots until they are at least six months old. But
the delay is not an end to the shots. The law still requires all children to
be immunized against hepatitis B before they enter school, even though babies
and children are rarely diagnosed with hepatitis B, let alone die from it.
The current vaccine protest is fueled by
worried men and women whose children, relatives or co-workers became ill
after receiving hepatitis B shots. Nationally, the protest’s center is the
private National Vaccine Information Center, at 1-800-909-SHOT. This group
has pressured Congress for investigations into charges that the hepatitis B
vaccine was not properly tested.
Questions about Yeast and Safety
A key issue, Judy Converse says, is
whether vaccines made by new recombinant genetic methods can be truly safe.
The hepatitis B vaccine is made by merging a strand of genetic material from
the hepatitis virus with normal baker’s yeast. The altered yeast is grown in
a vat. Later, the crop of yeast is broken down. The hepatitis antigen is removed,
purified, and made up as a vaccine. Hepatitis B is the first vaccine made
this way. Converse and others wonder if traces of yeast end up in the
vaccine. Some think the baby’s immune system may identify both the hepatitis
and the yeast as invasive agents, and launch a confused attack against both.
They wonder if the baby’s rudimentary, fragile immune system is thrown out of
whack by the vaccine, and begins an autoimmune attack on the baby’s own
nerves. They see the current political battle as a clash of "big-money
drug companies" (which gross almost a billion dollars a year from this
one vaccine) against small bands of concerned parents. The recombinant
production methods are a key issue here, she says, because they are cheap.
"Bottom-line focused companies won’t easily give up a low-cost
production method," Converse says.
How could a vaccine that has been in use
more than 10 years just now be producing reports of nerve damage or even
death? Many doctors just tag the complainers as "vaccine nuts" or "vaccine
crazies."
But the complainers may have a case.
Clinical studies before vaccine licensure can miss real but rare side
effects. And it’s a fact that hepatitis B is the only widely used vaccine
grown in a vat of yeast, and the only one given on the day of birth. In any
case, the small, focused uproar about vaccine policy is not over. In
mid-July, the New York Times published a long article in their New
Jersey Edition about parents fighting to exempt their children from hepatitis
B vaccination.
On August 3, another Congressional hearing
was held on vaccine safety issues before the House Government Reform
Committee. The six-hour hearing was titled "Finding a Balance Between
Public Safety and Personal Choice." According to Kathi Williams of the
National Vaccine Information Center, the chairman of the committee,
Congressman Dan Burton (R, Indiana), has two grandchildren whom he believes
were adversely affected by vaccines.
Later this fall, Boston researchers are
expected to report on the ongoing study of "Harvard Nurses." The
study is looking for correlations between the inoculation of nurses and later
nerve-damage problems
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