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.
“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.
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.
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.
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?
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.
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.
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…
One possible problem though, SIRVA, isn’t necessarily caused by the vaccine itself, but how it is given.
Or more precisely, where it is given.
What is SIRVA?
SIRVA is an acronym for shoulder injury related to vaccine administration.
It can occur when a vaccine is injected into the underlying bursa of the shoulder joint, instead of the deltoid muscle, causing shoulder pain and limited range of motion.
“These symptoms are thought to occur as a result of unintended injection of vaccine antigen or trauma from the needle into and around the underlying bursa of the shoulder resulting in an inflammatory reaction. SIRVA is caused by an injury to the musculoskeletal structures of the shoulder (e.g. tendons, ligaments, bursae, etc.). SIRVA is not a neurological injury and abnormalities on neurological examination or nerve conduction studies (NCS) and/or electromyographic (EMG) studies would not support SIRVA as a diagnosis (even if the condition causing the neurological abnormality is not known).”
Vaccine Injury Table
Why would someone want to give you a vaccine in the shoulder joint?
They shouldn’t!
In addition to giving shots in the correct location, to prevent SIRVA, it is also important to use the proper needle length.
In older kids and adults, intramuscular injections are typically given “in the central and thickest portion of the deltoid muscle – above the level of the armpit and approximately 2–3 fingerbreadths (~2″) below the acromion process.”
Giving the shot properly can prevent SIRVA, keeping in mind that you might use a 5/8 inch needle in younger children.
If the shot is given in the shoulder joint, then it was given too high, typically in the upper 1/3 of the deltoid muscle.
Improved education will hopefully decrease SIRVA cases, but tell your doctor and report your case to VAERS if you think you developed SIRVA within 48 hours of getting a vaccine in your upper arm.
As a table injury, folks with SIRVA can also get compensated under the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of 1986.
The Vaccine Injury Table was created by the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of 1986.
“The Table makes it easier for some people to get compensation. The Table lists and explains injuries/conditions that are presumed to be caused by vaccines. It also lists time periods in which the first symptom of these injuries/conditions must occur after receiving the vaccine. If the first symptom of these injuries/conditions occurs within the listed time periods, it is presumed that the vaccine was the cause of the injury or condition unless another cause is found.”
What You Need to Know about the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program
A table injury is an illness, disability, injury or condition covered by the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program.
“For example, if you received the tetanus vaccine and had a severe allergic reaction (anaphylaxis) within 4 hours after receiving the vaccine, then it is presumed that the tetanus vaccine caused the injury if no other cause is found.”
What You Need to Know about the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program
To quality as a table injury, the illness, disability, injury or condition has to occur within a specific “time period for first symptom or manifestation of onset or of significant aggravation after vaccine administration.”
The Vaccine Injury Table is easier to understand if you actually look at the table.
Wait, does anyone dispute that vaccine injuries are real?
No one says that vaccines are 100% safe, so yes, of course, it is known that they have risks and cause adverse effects. While most of these adverse effects are usually mild, they can rarely be severe or even life threatening.
Yes chronic arthritis after a rubella containing vaccine is a table injury, but it is very rare. Arthritis after the rubella vaccine is typically mild and temporary, lasting just a few days.
While rubella containing vaccines can cause arthritis, they do not cause lifelong rheumatoid arthritis. So even if you were to be one of the very rare people who developed chronic arthritis after a rubella containing vaccine, a table injury, it would still not be the same thing as rheumatoid arthritis.
“The association between rubella vaccination and chronic arthritis is less clear. Most recently published research, has shown no increased risk of chronic arthropathies among women receiving RA27/3 rubella vaccine and do not support the conclusion of the IOM (Slater et al., 1995; Frenkel et al., 1996; Ray et al., 1997). These studies have included a large retrospective cohort analysis which showed no evidence of any increased risk of new onset chronic arthropathies and a double-blind historical cohort study. One randomised placebo-controlled, double-blind study of rubella vaccination in sero-negative women demonstrated that the frequency of chronic (recurrent) arthralgia or arthritis was marginally increased (1.58 [1.01-2.45], p = 0.042) (Tingle et al., 1997). In 2011, the United States Institute of Medicine (IOM) reviewed available research and concluded that the evidence is inadequate to accept or reject a causal relationship between MMR vaccine and chronic arthralgia in women.”
Information Sheet Observed Rate of Vaccine Reactions Measles, Mumps and Rubella Vaccines
And it wouldn’t even be clear if your chronic arthritis was caused by the vaccine!
“The Table lists and explains injuries and/or conditions that are presumed to be caused by vaccines unless another cause is proven.”
What You Need to Know about the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program
To be added to the Vaccine Injury Table, there only has to be scientific evidence that a condition could be caused by a vaccine.
“Where there is credible scientific and medical evidence both to support and to reject a proposed change (addition or deletion) to the Table, the change should, whenever possible, be made to the benefit of petitioners.”
Guiding Principles for Recommending Changes to the Vaccine Injury Table
That makes sense, as the NVICP is a “is a no-fault alternative to the traditional legal system for resolving vaccine injury petitions” for VICP-covered vaccines.
Vaccines Covered by the Vaccine Injury Table
Most routinely used vaccines are covered by the Vaccine Injury Table, including vaccines that protect against:
diphtheria, tetanus, and pertussis – DTaP, Tdap, Td
measles, mumps, and rubella – MMR, ProQuad
chickenpox – Varivax, ProQuad
polio – IPV, OPV
hepatitis B
hepatitis A
Hib
rotavirus
pneumococcal disease – Prevnar
influenza – seasonal flu vaccines
meningococcal disease – MCV4, MenB
human papillomavirus – HPV4, HPV9
In fact, “any new vaccine recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for routine administration to children, after publication by the Secretary of a notice of coverage” is automatically included, at least for Shoulder Injury Related to Vaccine Administration and vasovagal syncope.
New vaccines are also covered if they are already “under a category of vaccines covered by the VICP.”
A few others, including vaccines that protect against pandemic flu, smallpox, and anthrax are covered by the Countermeasures Injury Compensation Program (CICP).
Vaccines Not Covered by the Vaccine Injury Table
What about vaccines that aren’t routine?
Other vaccines that are used in special situations, including vaccines that protect against rabies, yellow fever, Japanese encephalitis, cholera, and typhoid aren’t listed in the Vaccine Injury Table and aren’t covered by the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program.
Have you seen any TV ads for lawsuits against the first shingles vaccine?
Shingles vaccines and the older pneumococcal vaccine, Pneumovax, aren’t covered either.
And since they are not covered by the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program, there are no restrictions on lawsuits against the manufacturers of these vaccines or the health providers who administer them.
Remember, the NVICP and Vaccine Injury Table were created by the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of 1986. The vaccines that aren’t covered are not on the routine childhood immunization schedule.
“There are no age restrictions on who may receive compensation in the VICP. Petitions may be filed on behalf of infants, children and adolescents, or by adults receiving VICP-covered vaccines.”
National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program Frequently Asked Questions
Still, since many of the covered vaccines can be given to adults, they are included, even if some of the vaccines adults routinely get aren’t covered.
Will they ever be covered?
“They found a low liability burden for these vaccines, that serious adverse events were rare, and that no consensus existed among stakeholders. After considering the staff report, NVAC chose, in 1996, not to advise the Department of Health and Human Services to include adult vaccines in VICP.”
Loyd-Puryear et al on Should the vaccine injury compensation program be expanded to cover adults?
Adding more adult vaccines to the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (VICP) is something that has been looked at in the past, but it wasn’t thought to be necessary.
What to Know About the Vaccine Injury Table
The Vaccine Injury Table is a list of conditions set up to make it easier for people to get compensated from the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program.
