Tag: anaphylaxis

Bobby Kennedy’s Vaccine Injury Debate

Why do some folks think that vaccine injuries are so common?

Unlike Bobby Kennedy, the CDC explains that severe injuries from vaccines are very rare.
Unlike Bobby Kennedy, the CDC explains that severe injuries from vaccines are very rare.

Oh, the usual suspects…

Bobby Kennedy’s Vaccine Injury Debate

Hopefully everyone sees what Bobby Kennedy is doing here.

He is mixing up a lot of different things, hoping you won’t notice and that you will walk away scared to vaccinate and protect your kids.

First things first.

Does the CDC say that 1 in 1,000,000 may be injured by shots?

Actually, no.

That sounds like the rate for severe vaccine injuries, like anaphylaxis and death.

What Bobby Kennedy is talking about though, that Federal Study, is a report, Electronic Support for Public Health–Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (ESP:VAERS), that was conducted at Harvard Pilgrim Health Care, Inc.

“Preliminary data were collected from June 2006 through October 2009 on 715,000 patients, and 1.4 million doses (of 45 different vaccines) were given to 376,452 individuals. Of these doses, 35,570 possible reactions (2.6 percent of vaccinations) were identified.”

Electronic Support for Public Health–Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (ESP:VAERS)

The study identified all possible reactions, including minor reactions, like pain and fever, and wasn’t looking at just vaccine injuries, unless that is what you consider to be a vaccine injury. And since the study was looking at VAERS and possible reactions, they were not even necessarily causally related to the vaccines that the kids were given.

What else does Bobby Kennedy say?

“Slide 3 is a table from HHS’s 2016 Neiss-Cades survey published in JAMA reporting an astonishing 19.5% of children under five who are admitted to emergency rooms for drug reactions are suffering vaccine injuries.”

Bobby Kennedy

What kind of vaccine injuries?

They are vaccination reactions – any adverse effect from a vaccine. They could be fever, hives, or a febrile seizure – we don’t know. Importantly, only a very small percentage of those kids who went to the ER were hospitalized.

Lastly, Bobby Kennedy wonders how a pediatrician might claim to have never seen a vaccine injury.

It’s easy to understand his confusion.

Getting listed in a vaccine insert doesn't automatically make something a vaccine injury.
Getting listed in a vaccine insert doesn’t automatically make something a vaccine injury.

Most people reserve the term vaccine injury for the more severe reactions covered under the Vaccine Injury Table, like anaphylaxis, VAPP, thrombocytopenic purpura, and intussusception.

And they use the term side effects for the more temporary reactions that are thought to be caused by a vaccine.

All of these vaccine adverse events can be reported to VAERS online or using a downloadable form.
All of these vaccine adverse events can be reported to VAERS online or using a downloadable form.

That’s very unlike those folks who consider anything and everything that happens after a child is vaccinated, even if it is many months later, to be a vaccine injury, including things like ADHD, diabetes, and autism, etc.

More on Vaccine Injuries

Will SB276 Revoke Legitimate Medical Exemptions?

Bob Sears has already said that SB276 will eliminate medical exemptions and stop doctors from writing medical exemptions.

ITP after MMR is not a reason to get a medical exemption for all vaccines…

What is he saying now?

Will SB276 Revoke Legitimate Medical Exemptions?

Bob Sears is saying that SB276 will revoke legitimate medical exemptions from children who have had “seizures, nerve injuries, and severe allergic reactions after vaccines.”

He also says that they “will be forced to continue just to stay in school.”

To be clear, neither SB276 nor any other vaccine law in the United States forces anyone to get vaccinated.

Yes Bob Sears, what do you mean forced to stay in school?
Yes Bob Sears, what do you mean forced to stay in school?

Although implying forced vaccination is a common anti-vaccine tactic, even his own followers called him out on it…

What else can you see from reading the comments to Bob’s post?

Some medical exemptions might be revoked under SB276, but it isn’t because they are legitimate.

ITP would not be a reason to get a medical exemption to all vaccines.
ITP would not be a reason to get a medical exemption to ALL VACCINES.

A rash that turned in ‘purple blobs’ after the MMR vaccine sounds like it could be ITP, which is actually a table injury.

Since the ACIP lists that as a precaution to getting another dose of MMR, you would almost certainly get a medical exemption, but not to all vaccines!

While scary for parents, ITP typically goes away on its own without treatment in about two weeks to six months.

Anyway, SB276 doesn’t revoke legitimate medical exemptions.

If you actually read SB276, as amended, what it does do is trigger a review by medical professionals to “identify those medical exemption forms that do not meet applicable CDC, ACIP, or AAP criteria for appropriate medical exemptions” if:

  • a school’s immunization rate drops below 95%
  • a doctor writes five or more medical exemptions in a single year (although that doesn’t sound like a lot, keep in mind that true medical exemptions are not very common, so the average doctor who is only writing medical exemptions for their own patients likely won’t write that many each year)
  • a school doesn’t report it’s immunization rates

And once reviewed, inappropriate medical exemptions can be revoked, although that process can be appealed by a parent who thinks that their child does indeed have a legitimate medical exemption.

Keep in mind that just because a doctor writes more than 5 exemptions in a single year, that doesn’t mean that they will automatically be revoked. That simply triggers a review. Even if the doctor writes 10 or 20, if they are legitimate exemptions, then they will be allowed.

Again, SB276 doesn’t revoke legitimate medical exemptions.

Why does Bob Sears think that it does?

Maybe because many of things that Bob Sears considers to be legitimate medical exemptions actually aren’t, which is why he is already under investigation, even before SB276 is enacted…

More on Legitimate Medical Exemptions

How Long Do Side Effects of Immunizations Last?

Immunizations are safe, but they can have some risks and side effects.

Vaccine side effects can be reported to VAERS online or using a downloadable form.
Vaccine adverse events can be reported to VAERS online or using a downloadable form.

Fortunately, most are fairly mild, like pain and fever.

How Long Do Side Effects of Immunizations Last?

And most vaccine side effects go away quickly.

For example, fever and fussiness, two of the most common vaccine reactions, typically only lasts a day or two.

Others can last a little longer, but still usually go away on their own:

  • when kids get a rash after their MMR vaccine, it might last three or four days
  • even when kids get swelling of an entire arm or leg after the DTaP shot is given, it might last for 1–7 days
  • pain at the injection site typically only lasts a few days
  • shoulder injury related to vaccine administration (SIRVA) can last months and sometimes doesn’t go away
  • arthritis after a rubella containing vaccine, which mostly occurs in adults, typically only lasts a few days
  • febrile seizures are usually brief and rarely lead to non-febrile seizures
  • immune thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP) after a measles containing vaccine resolves in two weeks to six months, typically without any treatment
  • intussusception after a rotavirus vaccine resolves with treatment, either an air contrast enema or surgery
  • Guillain-Barré Syndrome after a seasonal flu vaccine, which is very rare, resolves in the majority of people over a period of years

Do any have more long lasting effects?

VAPP or vaccine-associated paralytic polio after the oral polio vaccine might not resolve. Fortunately, it only occurs in about 1 in every 1.27 million children receiving their first dose of OPV. It is even less common after bOPV, which is oral polio vaccine that is now being used. And won’t happen at all once we stop using oral polio vaccines.

Encephalitis or encephalopathy after a pertussis or a measles, mumps, and rubella virus containing vaccine might also lead to long lasting effects.

And some, like anaphylaxis, are life-threatening.

Fortunately, most long-term vaccine studies have shown that immunizations are safe, rarely causing severe reactions, and don’t have many long term side effects.

What to Know About How Long Immunization Side Effects Last

Most vaccine side effects are mild and only last a few days.

More on Immunization Side Effects

Have Doctors in California Stopped Writing Medical Exemptions?

A new law in California, SB276, is getting closer to being passed, and it will help stop doctors that are writing inappropriate medical exemptions.

So why do some folks think that other doctors have stopped writing medical exemptions, even for those children who really need them?

This is not proof that doctors have stopped writing medical exemptions.

Oh, because the usual suspects are telling them that…

Have Doctors in California Stopped Writing Medical Exemptions?

The proof that Bob Sears is pushing?

Recordings of folks who called doctors, saying they recently moved to California and need a medical exemption because their child is reportedly unvaccinated after an anaphylactic reaction.

So some doctors are writing multiple inappropriate exemptions because others stopped writing true medical exemptions?
So some doctors are writing multiple inappropriate exemptions because others stopped writing true medical exemptions?

As you can imagine, this is hardly proof of anything…

For one thing, with the passage of SB 277, many parents have been searching for “vaccine-flexible” pediatricians to write medical exemptions in California, as that law eliminated non-medical exemptions.

Imagine the luck, a doctor finding medical exemptions that you didn't know that your child had!
Imagine the luck, a doctor finding medical exemptions that you didn’t know that your child had!

That likely has offices on high alert for parents whose kids do not have true medical exemptions.

“When we passed SB 277, again as we mentioned, we didn’t really touch the medical exemption, but what our expectation was is that it’s going to be your child’s regular doctor who knows the child granting them… And what we’re seeing is that actually we have physicians… who are not really the primary care doctor.

I mean I find this idea of having medical exemption visits kind of intriguing because you shouldn’t really have medical exemption visits. Either you’re the doctor or you’re not. If you’re the doctor you should take care of them. You have that relationship and if they have an issue with vaccines, you write them the exemption.

That’s it. That’s what’s supposed to normally happen. People shouldn’t be going out finding other doctors for exemptions. If you happen to see a specialist, and they think you can’t get vaccinated safely, then they either submit the exemption or they tell your primary care doctor, by the way, that child should not get vaccinated, we should get an exemption. That’s how it should normally work.”

Richard Pan SB 276 Assembly Health Committee Testimony

And although very rare, an anaphylactic reaction would certainly be a reason to get a medical exemption. It would typically only be an exemption to the vaccine that your child had the reaction to though.

“My son hadn’t been vaccinated since 12 months because he had an anaphylactic reaction and we had a personal belief exemption where we used to live.”

But why didn’t they have a medical exemption where they used to live?

And why did they stop vaccinating at 12 months?

Most importantly, if doctors in California stopped writing true medical exemptions for their patients, why is the statewide medical exemption rate at almost 1%?

So no, a video of a gotcha type phone call, even if it really was to 882 doctors in California, isn’t proof of anything, except what you can expect from the modern anti-vaccine movement.

More on Doctors Writing Medical Exemptions in California