E-NEWS FROM THE NATIONAL VACCINE INFORMATION CENTER

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UNITED WAY/COMBINED FEDERAL CAMPAIGN

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"Protecting the health and informed consent rights of children since 1982."

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BL Fisher Note:

It is ludicrous for Kaiser Permanente and the CDC to claim "privacy" invasion when Congressman Burton asks for access to the raw data in the Vaccine Safety Datalink (VSD) the CDC operates and is used to conduct "research" to discredit all reported links between vaccines and chronic disease and disability. The CDC and Kaiser want exclusive access to the VSD's "private" data but they don't want Congressman Burton or any independent scientist to look at it because they are afraid someone will find out just how far they have been willing to go to the CDC's one-size-fits-all vaccine policies that are hurting so many children.

Since the early 1990's, the CDC has attacked privacy and informed consent protections in vaccine laws, including funding and creating vaccine tracking systems that use unique health care identifiers to tag and track all children's health and vaccination status as well as lobbying for elimination of informed consent rights embodied in the religious and conscientious belief exemptions to vaccination. The CDC and Kaiser officials invoke "privacy" rights when it protects their self interest but seeks to take away privacy rights when it is in the public interest. What hypocrisy.

Burton Interested in Vaccine Data

.c The Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) - Insurance companies say a congressman's threatened subpoena of medical information about millions of people could violate patient privacy and force them to close a database that lets the government study vaccine safety.

Another congressman urged Rep. Dan. Burton, R-Ind., a frequent vaccine critic, ``to drop your threats'' to subpoena the records.

``I know you are deeply interested in the safety of immunizations,'' Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., wrote Burton Thursday. But ``a subpoena would have the opposite effect, jeopardizing the (database) system and thereby reducing vaccine safety.''

Burton's office didn't return phone calls seeking comment.

The Vaccine Safety Datalink, or VSD, contains medical information about 7.5 million Americans provided by several large HMOs. Names and other obvious identifiers are removed.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention uses the database to study whether vaccines cause various side effects. For example, a diarrhea vaccine was pulled off the market in 1999 after database studies uncovered injured infants.

Scientists are now debating whether a mercury-containing preservative called thimerosal - once used in several child vaccines, but now almost completely replaced - ever harmed infant development. CDC's database studies so far haven't confirmed any damage.

Burton wants nongovernment scientists to double-check the results.

Burton's staff developed a draft subpoena for access to the records, Waxman said. HMOs argue the subpoena will threaten patient privacy so much that they are considering dismantling the database.

``It is really a dire threat,'' said Steven Black of Kaiser Permanente.

Even without names, the database contains enough personal information that it would be possible for a dogged researcher to identify someone and see all his or her medical records, Black said. A Kaiser researcher proved that by finding his own daughter's records simply by searching for someone her age who'd broken an arm on a certain date.

Waxman urged Burton to accept a CDC compromise to let Burton's researchers do their study under certain conditions, including not leaving the CDC building with any records.

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