For example, while ‘where there is a risk, there should be a choice” makes a catchy slogan, it is obvious that these folks only care about the rights, risks, and choices of those who don’t want to vaccinate their kids.
Remember that parents nearly always have a choice on whether or not to vaccinate their healthy kids, even if they live in a state without non-medical exceptions.
You don’t have that choice if your child can’t be vaccinated though.
And they very obviously only care about their imagined right to send their intentionally unvaccinated child to school, where they pose a risk to those who can’t be vaccinated and who have immune system problems.
Don’t parents who vaccinate and protect their kids have rights?
What about their right to send their kids to school and not have to worry about being unnecessarily exposed to a vaccine-preventable disease?
That’s especially important if their child can’t be vaccinated or can’t be fully vaccinated, including those with immune system problems or cancer, who may be immunodeficient because of chemotherapy.
That’s actually from the Vaccine Injury Compensation Trust Fund, during a time when billions and billions of doses of vaccines have been given. And while the the great majority of those vaccines are given safely, since vaccines are not 100% safe, we have the Vaccine Court to help folks get compensated if they do suffer a vaccine injury.
In fact, the “200 vaccines” in the pipeline include:
124 for infectious diseases, including 36 to prevent or treat HIV, 25 to prevent influenza, including new nasal flu vaccines, 8 for RSV, and 8 for ebola
105 for cancers
thirteen for allergies
eight for neurological disorders
seven for other conditions
So the only concerning part is that most won’t make it out of the pipeline and few are actually new vaccines to treat infectious diseases…
Of course it is also very concerning that they continue to push this kind of misinformation that scares parents away from vaccinating and protecting their kids.
What is relatively new are all of the exemptions that were added to the very effective vaccine mandates that helped eliminate measles in the United States.
Bob Sears warned us these measles outbreaks were coming. Of course, many people blame him for stoking those fears that made parents avoid the MMR…
It should be clear that we now need vaccine mandates without non-medical exemptions as too many people have been abusing these vaccine exemptions.
It’s a big part of the reason why we are seeing a rise in measles and outbreaks of other diseases.
How many will be enough?
Do we have to wait until even more kids are dying before we get everyone’s attention? Do we have to go back to the pre-vaccine era?
Do we need to wait until more kids are dying before we strengthen our vaccine mandates?
And for what it’s worth, science isn’t something that gets “debated in an open court of law.”
Debating science in the court room got us The State of Tennessee v. John Thomas Scopes or the Scopes Monkey Trial, which made it unlawful to teach evolution in schools.
Neither should laws be made simply because our legislators are influenced by a very vocal minority of people who want to take away the choices and rights of everyone else so that they can send their intentionally unvaccinated kids to school.
Why do some folks think that the Gardasil vaccine is being pushed to help Merck pay for their Vioxx lawsuits?
The latest anti-vax conspiracy theory from Bobby Kennedy.
The usual suspects…
Is Gardasil Helping Merck Pay for Vioxx Lawsuits?
Could it be true?
“Three years after withdrawing its pain medication Vioxx from the market, Merck has agreed to pay $4.85 billion to settle 27,000 lawsuits by people who claim they or their family members suffered injury or died after taking the drug, according to two lawyers with direct knowledge of the matter.”
Merck Agrees to Settle Vioxx Suits for $4.85 Billion
Merck settled most of those lawsuits in 2007.
“But for Merck, which has already spent more than $1.2 billion on Vioxx-related legal fees, the settlement will put to rest any fears that Vioxx lawsuits might bankrupt the company, or even have a significant financial impact. While eye-popping, the settlement payment represents less than one year’s profits for the company, the third-largest American drug maker.”
Merck Agrees to Settle Vioxx Suits for $4.85 Billion
All together, Merck has paid more than $8.5 billion to settle litigation and pay fines and legal costs.
“Merck’s recovery is proceeding as planned. The stock is up from $44 when we wrote about it to just shy of $55 on Oct. 22, a gain of nearly 25%. The latest push came from strong third-quarter earnings aided by robust sales of Gardasil, new diabetes pill Januvia, and asthma drug Singulair. The company’s cost-cutting program also helped.”
Update: Merck recovers from Vioxx
And they long ago recovered from the lawsuits, with their stock price now at about $87, reaching multi-year highs.
“Our performance in 2007 shows that the customer-focused, more efficient business model we began implementing more than two years ago is working,” said Richard T. Clark, chairman, president and chief executive officer. “We have a strong portfolio of products, a robust pipeline of potential new therapies and a leadership team focused daily on improving operational performance. This positions us to build on our record of delivering essential breakthrough medicines and vaccines like JANUVIA, ISENTRESS and GARDASIL to the global marketplace.”
It certainly didn’t hurt, but Merck’s biggest seller is now the “blockbuster” cancer drug Keytruda.
Back in 2007, it was Singulair, which is now generic.
Gardasil makes up a smaller percentage of Merck’s total sales.
Anyway, profits from Gardasil have been rising in recent years because of sales in China and Europe, not mandates in the United States.
Keytruda – $3.07 billion in the last quarter
Gardasil / Gardasil 9 – $1.32 billion
Januvia / Janumet – $1.31 billion
Proquad/M-M-R II/ Varivax – $623 million
Bridion – $280 million
Isentress / Isentress HD – $250 million
Nuvaring – $241 million
Pneumovax 23 – $237 million
Simponi – $203 million
Implanon / Nexplanon – $199 million
But did Merck really have a “HPV: Help Pay for Vioxx” plan?
Where is the document from Merck that says “this time we have no liability and we can’t get caught?”
Did their recovery require Gardasil becoming mandatory around the world?
Kennedy’s Help Pay for Vioxx Bombshell is a Dud
With just a little research, it is easy to review Merck’s plan after Vioxx.
“I tell the (Merck) organization if you want Vioxx off the front page, if you want it out of the news, we have to put Gardasil on the front page and have to put Januvia on the front page,” Richard Clark, Merck’s CEO said at the Reuters Summit in New York on Wednesday.
It included closing five manufacturing plants and 3 research laboratories and laying off 11 percent of its work force. And introducing new drugs and vaccines, including Januvia, Isentress, Keytruda, and yes, Gardasil.
But since there are currently mandates for Gardasil in just two states, Rhode Island and Virginia, and the District of Columbia, it is pretty obvious that their recovery didn’t hinge on vaccine mandates.
Still, since Gardasil is approved and recommended for children when they are 11 to 12 years old, it shouldn’t be surprising that Merck did lobby state legislatures to make it mandatory, like other vaccines that are needed to attend school.
And as much as folks like Bobby Kennedy wish there was a new scandal, it is very easy to see that Merck is doing well because they have a vaccine that prevents cancer, a drug that treats cancer, and other important products.
“One activist who frequently criticizes pharmaceutical companies, Vera Hassner Sharav, and a co-author suggested that the H.P.V. vaccine stood for a campaign to “Help Pay for Vioxx” losses. “
Furor on Rush to Require Cervical Cancer Vaccine
What’s really surprising is that Bobby Kennedy‘s bombshell “Help Pay for Vioxx” idea isn’t even new.
“A fourth factor that soured many policymakers on mandates was consternation over the involvement of the vaccine’s manufacturer, Merck, in the policy process. Merck undertook a multifaceted marketing campaign to promote the passage of mandate legislation. Representatives of the company met with legislators and hired political consultants to promote the vaccine. Merck also provided unrestricted funds to Women in Government, a national organization of female legislators. Many of the bills to require HPV vaccination were introduced by Women in Government members.
Although Merck’s lobbying was a key catalyst in the initial push for mandates, many stakeholders came to view the company’s efforts as a liability. As media coverage called attention to the company’s aggressive tactics, suspicion grew that policy decisions were not being based on the product’s merits, and people who were otherwise supportive pulled back. The belief that mandate bills were an effort to make money for the company overshadowed whatever principled arguments might exist for them.”
Colgrove et al on HPV Vaccination Mandates — Lawmaking amid Political and Scientific Controversy
An article in the New York Times talked about it way back in 2007…
Merck is doing very well even though Gardasil is only mandated in two states and Washington D.C.
It sure does sound scarier to say that you discovered all of this during a lawsuit instead of a simple Google search though. But that’s how propaganda works.
#SaidNoDoctor, except Dr. Jay Gordon, who made this statement about the HPV vaccine on the Ricki Lake Show. Although he says he has changed his mind and now recommends it, how many kids weren’t vaccinated and are at risk to develop cervical cancer because their parents listened to him and they weren’t vaccinated?
Fortunately, many parents aren’t buying it anymore.
“Coverage estimates for HPV vaccination are low despite evidence of the vaccine’s effectiveness and safety. This large pool of unvaccinated adolescents in the United States means that considerable public health benefits are not being realized; many vaccine-preventable cancers caused by HPV will occur… Mandating HPV vaccination for school entry is a move that will protect the public’s health by preventing HPV-related morbidity and mortality.”
Barraza et al on Human Papillomavirus and Mandatory Immunization Laws
They know that HPV vaccines are safe, with few risks, and more and more are vaccinating their kids, although even more kids would get vaccinated and protected if Gardasil was finally mandated like other vaccines.
Do you know why some folks still don’t vaccinate and protect their kids, even as we are seeing more and more outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases?
Why don’t anti-vax folks have to give informed consent?
Yup.
They are in on the “missing information” about vaccines that the rest of us don’t seem to know about…
The Missing Information That Big Pharma Won’t Tell You About Vaccines
Of course, we all know about this “missing information.”
“We feel that there’s things that public health are not telling the people and these are facts that are not well known. That are not given. So it’s not misinformation, it’s missing information. And there’s always two sides and more to information that should be given to all of us, right? We should be getting fully informed consent, right?”
But for the sake of argument, let’s try and think about what they are trying to say.
They are implying that ‘we’ tripled the number of vaccine doses after the passage of the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of 1986, which set up the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program.
Of course that didn’t happen.
What’s missing from the anti-vax protestors sign? That the immunization schedule hardly changed in the 1980s.
Has Bobby Kennedy Taken Over the Anti-Vaccine Movement?
What did he have to say?
“It’s a sad day for California. And it’s a sad day for our country. And I have asked a question and I would like to ask this legislature who voted for this God awful bill. If we can give government and big industries the right to inject untested medical products that are zero liability into our children coercively, where does the power of government end? What else can they order us to do? Can they do the same thing that they do in China? Which is to tell people that they have to abort their babies for “the good of society?” Can they euthanize people for “the good of society?” Where is the legal boundary?
Bobby Kennedy
It is a sad day when a Kennedy is spouting this kind of stuff…
Vaccines are well tested and everyone has a choice on whether or not to get vaccinated. Mandates to attend school do not force parents to vaccinate their kid.
Comparing these mandates that protect those who can’t be vaccinated to forced abortion and euthanasia is unconscionable.
“We have signed treaty after treaty after treaty saying you can not force an American citizen or any citizen of the civilized world to take a medication or to submit themselves to a medical procedure without informed consent. What has happened to the Democratic party? What has happened to the party that used to stand for listening to women? Why are they listening to pharmaceutical companies and not to the women?
Bobby Kennedy
What has happened to the Kennedys?
Again, vaccine mandates do not force anyone to get vaccinated and protected.
“And yet, you have all of the members who voted for this and none of them can answer the question – where is all of the autoimmune diseases coming from? If it’s not the vaccines, then where is it coming from? We have, from my generation, according to HHS, 12% of the people in my generation, prior to 1986, had chronic diseases. Today, 54% did. Let’s pretend all of those hundreds and hundreds of studies aren’t there that say it’s the vaccines.”
Actually, let’s not, because it isn’t true. Although often cited by anti-vaccine folks, the number comes from a 2011 report, A national and state profile of leading health problems and health care quality for US children: key insurance disparities and across-state variations, but doesn’t mean what most people think it means.
“An estimated 43% of US children (32 million) currently have at least 1 of 20 chronic health conditions assessed, increasing to 54.1% when overweight, obesity, or being at risk for developmental delays are included; 19.2% (14.2 million) have conditions resulting in a special health care need, a 1.6 point increase since 2003.”
Bethell et al on A national and state profile of leading health problems and health care quality for US children: key insurance disparities and across-state variations.
Is obesity a vaccine injury?
Where are the “hundreds and hundreds of studies… that say it’s the vaccines?”
“Let’s pretend that all the vaccines, everyone of those diseases, the autoimmune diseases – Guillain-Barré syndrome , cerebral palsy, diabetes, Rheumatoid arthritis. The neurodevelopmental diseases, ADD, ADHD, speech delay, language delay, tics, Tourette syndrome, ASD, autism. The allergic diseases – allergies, food allergies, eczema, asthma, anaphylaxis. Where can we find those listed? In two places. One in the list of chronic diseases that are now epidemic among American children and on the vaccine inserts. And why would the company put them on the vaccine insert? They put them there because the only way you can sue them under NCVIA is if they know or suspect of an injury being caused by a product and they failed to put it on the insert. So it’s the one place where their honest. For many years they told us, well, just because we put it on the insert, it doesn’t mean that it is actually a vaccine adverse event or caused by the vaccine. But the code of Federal regulations says you can not put it on an insert unless you believe that it’s caused by the vaccine. So they are lying.”
Bobby Kennedy
Well, someone is lying…
Although listed in the vaccine insert, if they are in the Adverse Reactions section, they may not actually be caused by the vaccine.
What goes into a vaccine insert is dictated by the FDA, specifically the Code of Federal Regulations Title 21, and Section 314 of the NCVIA, after consultation with the Advisory Commission on Childhood Vaccines, including:
Warning and Precautions – all adverse reactions and safety hazards that may occur after getting the vaccine and what you should do if they occur
Adverse Reactions – this section includes clinical trials experience, post-marketing experience, and voluntary reports, and it is very important to understand that it is not always possible to establish a causal relationship to vaccination for these adverse effects. So just because something is listed here, whether it is SIDS, autism, drowning, or a car accident, doesn’t mean that it was actually caused by the vaccine. Updated in 2006 to require that only adverse events “for which there is some basis to believe there is a causal relationship between the drug and the occurrence of the adverse event,” it still doesn’t mean the adverse event was definitely caused by the vaccine.
As a lawyer, you would expect, or at least hope, that Bobby Kennedy understands how vaccine inserts really work…
“This state is doing something horrendous. It is stepping between a doctor and the 4000 children in this state whose doctors have told them you can not afford to get a vaccine because it could kill you or it could cripple you. Their doctor, who has known that child often-times since birth, who has reviewed the medical records, who has done all of the tests on that baby, who knows the family, has said it is dangerous to receive this product. Don’t ever do it. And yet, the State of California, is going to come in, a bureaucrat, between that doctor and that child, and say that we are going to give it to him anyway. This is criminal.”
Bobby Kennedy
This is probably one of the biggest myths about California’s new vaccine law.
Did Ron Kennedy know these kids since birth and think that vaccines would kill or cripple them because they had a learning disability or food allergies?
And the problem hasn’t typically been the legitimate medical exemptions from doctors who have known kids since birth, but rather inappropriate exemptions from doctors who advertised medical exemption consultations and appointments for new patients.
“Big pharmaceutical companies are the most evil companies on earth. Who are commoditizing our children. Who are giving our children this tsunami of chronic disease and then making the money to try and tell us that we are going to get rid of infectious disease, like chickenpox and measles, but we are going to trade that for rheumatoid arthritis and diabetes and autism and ADD and ADHD. And all of those infectious diseases are treatable and curable, usually within a week, and none of the chronic diseases that they are causing are treatable or curable. And they are making $50 billion dollars selling our kids these mandated vaccines that are untested and liability free, but they are making $500 billion a year selling them the epi-pens, the seizure medications, the Prozac, the albuterol inhalers, the rhumatoid arthritis medication, the diabetes medications that our children are now addicted to for life because of these vaccines. ”
Bobby Kennedy thinks the pharmaceutical industry is in “a war against our children.” Do you?
So what’s their next plan?
Lawsuits.
Lawsuits so that they can help keep kids unvaccinated and unprotected.
“We are an insurgency. They can not stop us now. We are not going to go away.”
Bobby Kennedy
Of course the anti-vaccine movement is not going away. It has been around since before we had the first real vaccine, when folks were getting variolated to protect them against smallpox.
“You know this is the most important battle, probably in human history.”
“What we have to understand is that the domination of business by government is called communism. The domination of government by business is called facism. And what we’re fighting for is the essential tenets of American democracy, which is free market capitalism, which we don’t have. They destroyed the markets didn’t they. There’s no market for vaccines because they couldn’t sell them, so they had to disable the markets and force us to take them against our will. And for democracy and they’ve taken democracy from us. And they’ve taken the institution of Justice directly. They have gotten rid of the 6th and 7th amendment guarantees. The Federal Constitution guarantees of a jury trials. We are the only people in our country who you can injure – a private corporation can injure and disable and you can’t get a jury trial.”
Bobby Kennedy
Except that you can’t usually get a jury trial if you think you have a vaccine injury. The only thing is that you have to go through the Vaccine Court first.
