Suspension of Hepatitis Vaccination is "Window Dressing" 
Temporary Suspension of Vaccinations for Newborns Announced 
 

  
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