SafeMinds calls for immediate vaccine safety studies in autistic children

Apr 19 2011

Alison MacNeil issued the following statements today regarding vaccines. MacNeil's family Autism story is running on PBS this week:

"When I vaccinated my son Nick, I did not know vaccine manufacturers are not required to test the safety of vaccines given simultaneously – the outcome remains largely unknown. Many thousands of parents with Autistic children report that, like Nick, their children were progressing normally until they were vaccinated, after which they were never the same again. Following receipt of the DTaP, MMR and Hib at a 15 month doctor's visit, and a loss of skills, Nick was diagnosed with Autism at 21 months. He has since been diagnosed with encephalitis, seizures, inflammation in his gastrointestinal tract, and a mitochondrial disorder."

"In the U.S., we mandate 36 vaccines for 14 diseases by 1st grade. This is the most aggressive vaccine schedule in the world and it is also a grand experiment.  Are we trading the elimination of childhood disease for a lifetime of disability?  One fifth of all U.S. children take at least one prescription medication today. Children in the U.S. are sicker today than ever before, yet few mainstream doctors dare to ask if there might be a vaccine link. This is hardly surprising, given that over 80% of pediatric revenue is derived from well-baby vaccine visits."  

"I have never met a parent willing to sacrifice their child for the good of the herd. The vaccines have become more important than the child. It is time to stop allowing our children to be used as pharmaceutical pincushions. It is time to demand transparency in the tight relationship between pharmaceutical profits and government vaccine mandates."

The Institute of Medicine (IOM) has repeatedly acknowledged that population-based epidemiology studies, which have been relied upon by the government to refute any associations between vaccines and autism, would not be able to detect a sub-set of children who may be genetically vulnerable to vaccine injury.  To date, there has been no effort to understand why some children like Nick suffer vaccine injury.   According to SafeMinds Director Lyn Redwood RN, "It is as unacceptable for a child to suffer life-long injury from a vaccine as it is for a child to be injured by a vaccine-preventable disease.  The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) are responsible for both vaccine promotion and vaccine safety, which puts them in the awkward position of evaluating their own recommendations."  In addition, CDC also holds licensing agreements with vaccine manufacturers under a 1980 law which allows public-private partnerships and creates lucrative financial relationships between government and industry. Vaccine manufacturers are also given immunity from product liability not granted to any other industry, resulting in zero financial incentive for product safety on their part.

SafeMinds calls for congressional oversight of these serious lapses in vaccine safety science and infrastructure.  The United States needs immediate, impartial, properly-designed, and independently-reviewed vaccine safety studies to identify infants at risk for vaccine injury.