Tag: vaccine injury

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

Who Are the Medically Fragile Children?

As SB 276 becomes law in California, one thing we have been hearing about from some folks is how it will affect medically fragile children.

No one is coming to take the medical exemptions from medically fragile children.
No one is coming to take the medical exemptions from medically fragile children…

Will SB 276 or vaccine laws in other states take away the medical exemptions from medically fragile children?

Of course not!

Who Are the Medically Fragile Children?

The first thing to understand is that when folks like Rob Schneider talk about medically fragile children, they are using the term differently than when medical professionals and most parents do.

“Medically fragile” means having an acute or chronic health problem which requires therapeutic intervention and skilled nursing care during all or part of the day. Medically fragile problems include, but are not limited to, HIV disease, severe lung disease requiring oxygen, severe lung disease requiring ventilator or tracheostomy care, complicated spina bifida, heart disease, malignancy, asthmatic exacerbations, cystic fibrosis exacerbations, neuromuscular disease, encephalopathies, and seizure disorders.

2005 California Health and Safety Code Sections 1760-1761.8 FACILITIES HEALTH AND SAFETY CODE SECTION 1760-1761.8

The medically fragile kids as defined by the California Health and Safety Code, who require skilled nursing care, are not typically the kids who are getting routine medical exemptions.

Sure, some of them might need one. A child with severe HIV disease or a malignancy being treated with chemotherapy would likely get a medical exemption for live vaccines, etc.

A child with an acute encephalopathy or uncontrolled seizures would also qualify for a medical exemption.

And since vaccines aren’t 100% risk free, there might be some kids with a vaccine injury among these medically fragile kids. It is likely not a high number though, as severe reactions to vaccines are very rare.

“CMC {children with medical complexity} are likely increasing in prevalence because of increased survival rates of infants born prematurely, those born with various congenital anomalies, and/or those with chronic conditions, as well as improved treatments for acute illnesses in fields such as intensive care and oncology.”

Cohen et al on Children With Medical Complexity: An Emerging Population for Clinical and Research Initiatives

In most other cases, medically fragile kids wouldn’t need a medical exemption and would greatly benefit from being vaccinated and protected!

They would also greatly benefit if everyone around them was vaccinated and protected, especially if they did have a medical exemption.

Again, no one is coming to take their necessary medical exemptions if they have one though.

More on Medically Fragile Children

Del Bigtree’s Caught on Tape Claim

Del Bigtree responded predictably to John Rushing’s report, The Viral Threat: Measles and Misinformation.

Why doesn't Del just explain what he said in the interview?
Why doesn’t Del just explain what he said in the interview?

Del, who produced VAXXED, complains that it was a one-sided hit piece. And implies that his interview was the result of editing.

Behind the Scenes with Del Bigtree

Del was given a lot more than just a words in the final edit.

For example, when given an opportunity, Del doesn’t explain his own conflict of interests because he doesn’t seem understand them.

“I’m simply finding the information as I find it.”

Del Bigtree

And if you notice, there are no cuts in Del Bigtree’s scenes.

John Rushing: The numbers the way you’re using them though, it implicitly warns against using them that way.

Del Bigtree: Yeah. Yes.

John Rushing: You’re saying that there are 412 deaths last year.

Del Bigtree: I – no. What I’m saying is there’s 412 reported deaths. I never said there were 412 confirmed deaths reported.

John Rushing: So, so some of those causes of death on VAERS

Del Bigtree: Yeah.

John Rushing: one was a drowning.

Del Bigtree: Sure.

John Rushing: One was from co-sleeping. One was from a pre-existing heart condition. There’s no – because a death is reported in VAERS – there’s no way to show causation to the vaccine.

Del Bigtree: Okay.

John Rushing: But in watching your speech and watching your show – man, you would come away thinking 400 people died from vaccines last year.

Del Bigtree: Okay.

John Rushing: And then I can start to see

Del Bigtree: Okay.

John Rushing: where they get the number. And then I go to the source and the source says “don’t use the number that way.”

The Viral Threat: Measles and Misinformation

Del wants you to think that he had a lot more to say in those scenes, things that were edited out, but Rushing didn’t cut away.

Del knows that the deaths in VAERS aren’t confirmed vaccine deaths, even though he never says that on his show. But if he explained that, he wouldn’t be able to scare people with “vaccine deaths” anymore.

Del Bigtree’s Caught on Tape Claim

There is also no “big reveal” as the HIGHWIRE cameras kept rolling, as Del claims.

“I vaccinated mine, but I wasn’t aware of this issue. Although one of my neighbors, who is very intelligent and who I respect a lot, who did vaccinate their kids and one of them has autism. Uh, is a believer in this and she sent me, well a ton of your information before I started this story. And we don’t invalidate the way people like her feel at all.”

John Rushing

Or any “other side” of John Rushing that agreed with Del Bigtree.

What does he agree to at the end of his talk with Del?

Del is explaining how he doesn’t think that parents are making a knee-jerk reaction when they blame vaccines for their “injured children.”

“Yeah, I agree.”

John Rushing

What is he agreeing to?

Del Bigtree is once again caught using messaging that hurts autistic families.
Del Bigtree is once again caught using messaging that hurts autistic families.

Maybe he is agreeing that parents aren’t making a knee-jerk reaction, but more than anything, it sounds like he is just being polite.

He is certainly not agreeing with Del that there are no safety studies, that VAERS is a slopping system, or even that parents should blame themselves.

Not surprisingly, Del’s caught on tape claims were enough to satisfy his followers, who have already forgotten that he admitted to misleading them about VAERS reports. Hopefully, they soon realize that misinformation about vaccines is keeping them from vaccinating and protecting their kids.

More on Del Bigtree’s Caught on Tape Claim

Which Countries Have a Vaccine Injury Compensation Program?

Vaccines are safe, effective, have few risks, and are obviously necessary.

They aren’t perfect though, which is why “the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (VICP) may provide financial compensation to individuals who file a petition and are found to have been injured by a VICP-covered vaccine.”

But the NVICP is only in the United States.

Which Countries Have a Vaccine Injury Compensation Program?

What do other countries do?

The United States isn't the only country with a vaccine injury compensation program. We weren't even the first to have such a system.

You will likely be surprised to know that many have their own vaccine injury compensation programs, including:

  1. Germany ( year of introduction – 1961)
  2. France (1963)
  3. Japan (1970)
  4. Switzerland (1970)
  5. Denmark (1972)
  6. Austria (1973)
  7. New Zealand (1974)
  8. Sweden (1978)
  9. UK Vaccine Damage Payments Unit (1979)
  10. Finland (1984)
  11. Government of Québec Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (1985)
  12. United States NVICP (1988)
  13. Taiwan (1988)
  14. Italy (1992)
  15. Korea National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (1994)
  16. Norway (1995)
  17. Iceland (2001)
  18. Slovenia (2004)
  19. Hungary (2005)

Does this prove that vaccines are dangerous?

“Vaccines are extremely safe and harm is rare. World-wide, more than 30,000 vaccine doses are delivered per second through routine immunization programs, which,in turn, prevent an estimated 2 million to 3 million deaths annually. The occurrence of serious adverse events, such as those that result in death, threaten life, require inpatient hospitalization, or result in significant disability, are rare (eg, <1 adverse event occurs per 10 million doses for tetanus toxoid vaccines, 1-2 adverse events per 1 million doses for inactivated influenza vaccine, and none for hepatitis A).”

Halabi et al on A Global Vaccine Injury Compensation System

Of course not!

Remember, payouts from these programs, compared to the number of doses of vaccines given, are rare.

Should all countries have a compensation program?

“The most important justification, however, is an ethical argument from justice and equity: introduction of a vaccine injury compensation scheme acknowledges the unique situation that routine childhood immunization is a public health measure, given and accepted in good faith, that may occasionally damage the recipient.”

David Isaacs on Should Australia introduce a vaccine injury compensation scheme?

Sure.

People shouldn’t have to fight for compensation for the rare circumstance for when a true vaccine injury does occur.

More on International Vaccine Injury Compensation Programs