Tag: contaminated vaccines

What’s the Real Risk from the Contaminated Vaccines in India?

Most people understand that polio vaccines have helped to control and get us close to eradicating polio.

Many even know that there are two types of polio vaccine – the inactivated Salk vaccine and the live Sabin vaccine.

Some might even know that there are actually three strains of polio virus that we have traditionally gotten vaccinated against, and that one of those strains, type 2, has already been eradicated.

“In April 2016 a switch was implemented from trivalent OPV to bivalent OPV in routine immunization programmes.”

OPV Cessation

That’s why we have switched to using a bivalent OPV which only contains type 1 and 3 serotypes.

Contaminated Vaccines in India

What does all of this have to do with the news of contaminated vaccines in India?

“At least three batches of polio vaccines containing 1.5 lakh vials have been found contaminated with type 2 polio virus, putting at risk India’s “polio free” status as children born after April 2016 — when the type 2 virus was withdrawn worldwide including in India — do not have immunity to this particular virus, sources said.”

Unfortunately, some contaminated vaccines were actually administered to children in the Indian states of Maharashtra, Telengana, and Uttar Pradesh before the contamination was discovered.

Will these kids get polio?

No, as the vaccines weren’t contaminated with wild polio virus.

It seems that Bio-Med Private Limited was still producing and distributing polio vaccine with the type 2 vaccine virus, even though this type of vaccine was discontinued a few years ago.

Why?

We will  hopefully find out, as the managing director of Bio-Med Pvt Ltd has been arrested, but we don’t know yet.

We do know that there is little risk from these vaccines and they won’t put India’s “polio free” status at risk.

Why would there be any risk from kids getting an extra vaccine virus strain?

It’s because the type 2 strain of polio is the most likely to cause cVDPV, or outbreaks of polio that are actually caused by the polio vaccine.

Fortunately, these outbreaks are very rare.

A dose of IPV is the backup plan to make sure a problems with the switch to bOPV doesn't end up in a tragedy.
A dose of IPV is the backup plan to make sure any problems with the switch to bOPV doesn’t end up in a tragedy.

But kids in the area are at even less at risk from these “contaminated” vaccines because as part of the plan to switch from trivalent oral polio vaccine (tOPV) to bivalent oral polio vaccine (bOPV), they likely got a dose of IPV, which includes protection against all three polio virus strains.

Not that this means that it isn’t a problem that a company was making and distributing a vaccine that kids shouldn’t have been getting.

That is terrible!

It just isn’t as big a danger as some folks are making it out to be. It is extremely unlikely that there will be any cases of polio in India, and definitely not a resurgence of polio because of these vaccines, as some have suggested.

The real risk will be that an isolated event will scare folks away from getting vaccinated and protected, even though we know that these events are rare and that vaccines are safe.

More on Contaminated Vaccines in India

Update on the Samoa Vaccine Tragedy

Breaking News – MMR vaccination on Samoa will resume on April 15 (see below).

Many people remember that two young children died in Samoa in early July, shortly after getting an MMR vaccine.

Two toddlers died after being vaccinated at Safotu Hospital in Samoa.
Two toddlers died after being vaccinated at Safotu Hospital in Samoa.

Both incidents happened on the same day in the same hospital on the island of Savai’i.

“Until the investigations have been completed and reported on we cannot say what did happen.

However, given the batch of vaccine involved had been in use in that country since August last year, and given the same batch of vaccine has been used in South American countries and the Caribbean island nations without incident, it seems unlikely that there was anything wrong with the vaccine.

The reports from the parents of the children affected on Friday indicate the reactions occurred within minutes after vaccination. This would preclude a response to the vaccine viruses as this takes at least a week. While anaphylaxis occurs within minutes and can be fatal when not treated the odds of seeing this twice in a day at the same place, given a chance of 1 in a million doses, is literally astronomical.”

Dr. Helen Petousis Harrison on What happened in Samoa?

And while many people have speculated on what had happened, we didn’t get much new information until the Attorney General Lemalu Herman Retzlaff issued a press statement:

It can be confirmed that one of the nurses involved with the vaccination injections of the two babies who passed away 6th July 2018, was charged by police on Saturday 4th August 2018. She is set to appear in Court 14th August 2018, where the charges will be confirmed publicly.

According to AG Lemalu, “the file was referred to this office for advice last week, after swift and hard-working investigations by the CID section of the Ministry of Police both in Apia and Savaii, which is to be commended.”

“And the decision to charge was thereafter supported by advice; and it is also confirmed by Police, that investigations are still active and on-going.”

Both nurses have now been charged and both have entered not guilty pleas to charges of manslaughter, negligence and conspiracy to defeat the course of justice.

A trial is set for January 21 June 2019.

Apparently though, an ongoing investigation into the deaths of the two toddlers that had been adjourned until September 12, 2018 as they were still waiting on the the post mortem reports from the pathologist in Australia, has been suspended even further.

“The inquiry into the deaths of two babies in Samoa has been suspended until further information is available from post mortem results”

Delays in Samoa deaths inquiry

So, we still don’t know what happened.

Were the vaccines contaminated somehow?

Was an error made?

Why were the nurses charged with manslaughter? Many think the main issue is that the nurses continued to use the MMR vaccine even after the first baby died.

“This particular vaccine batch lot arrived to Samoa in August 2017 and has been in use since then. The same vaccine batch lot used in Samoa is also in use in a number of South American and Caribbean countries (Belize, Ecuador, St. Vincent, Trinidad Tobago, Chile, Aruba, Dutch Antilles, St. Kitts & Nevis and Cuba) with no reports of adverse events from those countries.”

Government of Samoa – Ministry of Health Press Statement

Whatever happened, it is important to remember that these kinds of tragedies are very rare and that vaccines are safe.

There certainly doesn’t seem to be a good reason to continue to halt all vaccinations in Samoa!

“This stop order is for the M.M.R. to be put on hold for the time being until the case and the investigation are completed,” said Tagaloa.

“But in relation to other vaccines, the ministry did not have any stop order on this. We advise that the other vaccination still continue, especially the vaccinations relating to newborns.”

He added the stop order in question was issued by the National Health Service (N.H.S.) and it involves all vaccinations from the day of the incident.

“But we have already advised them to continue with the other vaccines except for the M.M.R. vaccinations.”

Order to stop immunisation only for M.M.R.

Vaccinations in Samoa, except for MMR, did resume already thanks to a push by their Nurses Association.

What’s next?

MMR vaccinations are scheduled to restart on April 15.

We will have to wait until June for the trial though…

They have said that human error caused the tragedy. It wasn’t the MMR vaccine itself.

More on Samoa Vaccine Tragedy

Updated on April 10, 2019

Is the Polio Vaccine Linked to Outbreaks of Hand Foot Mouth Disease?

Wait, why would anyone think that the polio vaccine could be linked to outbreaks of hand, foot, and mouth disease?

“Scientific researchers have discovered that the infectious disease Hand,Foot and Mouth Disease is vaccine-induced and then spread to others through shedding from the Polio Vaccine. Enterovirus 71 (EV71) causes Hand, Foot, and Mouth Disease. The polio vaccine (OPV and IPV) is contaminated with EV71. It, along with EV-D68 and several other enteroviruses and coxsackie viruses are used in the manufacturing of the polio vaccines, which are given to children three times in the first year of life, and again between 4-6 years of life. Bottom line: children recently vaccinated with the polio vaccine are shedding the EV71 that causes the most serious complications of HFMD. ”

Health Freedom Idaho

Shedding…

Is the Polio Vaccine Linked to Outbreaks of Hand Foot Mouth Disease?

Health Freedom Idaho makes some very serious claims and even links to a research article, which in most cases, you would expect to support their claims.

Not surprisingly, the article, A Dominant EV71-Specific CD4+ T Cell Epitope Is Highly Conserved among Human Enteroviruses, says absolutely nothing about contamination of vaccines and nothing about shedding.

“Recognizing disingenuous claims made by the anti-vaccination movement is essential in order to critically evaluate the information and misinformation encountered online.”

Anna Kata Anti-vaccine activists, Web 2.0, and the postmodern paradigm – An overview of tactics and tropes used online by the anti-vaccination movement

What about a link between polio vaccines and hand, foot, and mouth disease?

It is sad that anti-vaccine propaganda gets shared so quickly among parenting groups.
It is sad that anti-vaccine propaganda gets shared so quickly among some parenting groups, who’s members obviously don’t read the articles when they do their research.

Well, hand, foot, and mouth disease is typically caused by the coxsackievirus A16 and EV71, which are enteroviruses. So is the polio virus. In fact, the Enterovirus genus is made up of 15 different species and 100s of different viruses. And they are all in the same Picornavirus family.

And that’s likely why researchers have found that “the most dominant epitope is highly conserved among enterovirus species, including HFMD-related coxsackieviruses, HFMD-unrelated echoviruses and polioviruses.”

Epitope?

“An epitope refers to the specific target against which an individual antibody binds.”

What is an Epitope?

So basically, this research isn’t saying that the polio vaccines are contaminated or that they cause hand, foot, mouth disease.

What it is saying, is that if you have been vaccinated with the polio vaccine, then you might have some protection against other enteroviruses!

“As shown here, poliovirus vaccination may have an impact on subsequent severity of HFMD disease. Cross-reactivity between EV71 A3 epitope and the A3v epitope of poliovirus 3 Sabin strain, may lead to the stimulation of protective, cross-reactive T cell responses, limiting the severity of subsequent HFMD.”

Wei et al. on A Dominant EV71-Specific CD4+ T Cell Epitope Is Highly Conserved among Human Enteroviruses

Yay for cross-reactivity!

“Cross-reactivity between antigens occurs when an antibody directed against one specific antigen is successful in binding with another, different antigen. The two antigens in question have similar three-dimensional structural regions, known as epitopes, which allow the antibody for one antigen to recognize a second antigen as being structurally the same antigen.”

Stephen J. Chadwick, MD

So you get antibodies from the polio vaccine and these antibodies cross react with the viruses that cause hand, foot, and mouth disease, which could lead to milder symptoms, because it is like you already have some antibodies to that virus too!

“HFMD outbreaks could occur where polio vaccination has failed, due to lack of refrigeration or other breaks in the cold chain that (might) go unreported.”

Exploring the Link between Polio Vaccination and Hand Foot Mouth Disease

In China, where outbreaks of hand, foot, and mouth disease are much more severe than they are in the United States, often leading to life-threatening disease, there has been a concern that the increased number of outbreaks could be linked to a failure of their polio vaccines, since getting vaccinated could be protective.

That’s the link the research is talking about…

I actually asked one of the researchers about what anti-vaccine folks were saying about their study and they told me:

“Well, that’s actually totally backwards. Our article suggests that FAILURE to get vaccinated with polio vaccine might set you up for Hand Food Mouth disease (EV71).”

Bottom line: polio vaccines are not contaminated and children recently vaccinated with the polio vaccine are not shedding the EV71 that causes the most serious complications of HFMD. Health Freedom Idaho made the whole thing up.

More on Linking the Polio Vaccine to Hand Foot Mouth Disease

Are There Hidden Ingredients in Vaccines?

We know all of the ingredients in vaccines.

We know that they are safe and aren’t toxic.

So what now? Anti-vaccine folks move the goalposts and start talking conspiracy theories about hidden ingredients in vaccines.

Are There Hidden Ingredients in Vaccines?

There are no hidden ingredients in vaccines.

A list of ingredients is included on the vaccine’s package insert and can be found on a number of articles on the Internet.

That’s how we know that vaccines do not contain a vaginal spermicide, antifreeze, aborted fetal tissue, or peanut oil.

Multi-dose vials of flu vaccine still contain the preservative thimerosal.
It is no secret that multi-dose vials of flu vaccine still contain the preservative thimerosal, and that most flu vaccines are now thimerosal free.

One anti-vaccine group did test and find thimerosal in a vaccine, but it was a flu vaccine that said it contained thimerosal. How much did they find? The amount that was supposed to be in the vaccine… If they were really reporting about some kind of conspiracy, you would have thought they would have tested one of the thimerosal free flu vaccines that are available.

What about the idea that “some information regarding additives and residuals is considered to be a trade secret and thus confidential?”

The chapter in the book Vaccines where that quote comes from also states that because of FDA regulations “the use of, and quantity of, additives and residuals should be disclosed on the vaccine label.”

Specifically, vaccines labels must include:

  • the preservative used and its concentration
  • known sensitizing substances
  • the type and calculated amounts of antibiotics added during manufacture
  • the inactive ingredients when a safety factor
  • the adjuvant, if present
  • the source of the product when a factor in safe administration
  • the identity of each organism used in manufacture, and, where, applicable, the production medium and method of inactivation

So what are the trade secrets?

“It is important to recognize that FDA-approval of all new vaccines involves not only assessment of the antigens and final contents, but the entire process of synthesis. Each and every component introduced and used in the manufacture is scrutinized. While there are a wide array of excipients required to either manufacture, package or deliver effective immunity, each of these is part of this approval process.”

Vaccinophobia and Vaccine Controversies of the 21st Century

They are likely very specific details about the production process. In other words, how exactly they put all of the ingredients together to actually make the vaccine.

There is no secret about what’s in your child’s vaccines. No hidden ingredients either.

What about warnings over contaminates in vaccines?

When they rarely occur, contaminated vaccines are discovered and removed. Keep in mind that vaccines are very safe from contamination and the only issue with any recent incidents is that they are used by the anti-vaccine movement to further scare parents who are on the fence about vaccines.

What to Know About Hidden Ingredients in Vaccines

There are no secret or hidden ingredients in vaccines.

More on Hidden Ingredients in Vaccines