Tag: vaccine injury

cVDPV

Circulating vaccine-derived polio virus or cVDPV are outbreaks of polio that are actually caused by the polio vaccine.

Very rarely, the attenuated (weakened) virus in the oral polio vaccine can revert to a form that can cause the person who was vaccinated or their close contact to actually develop polio.

It should not be confused with VAPP or vaccine-associated paralytic polio. With VAPP, the original strain of attenuated vaccine virus reverts to a form that can cause polio, but it does spread from one person to another, so does not lead to outbreaks.

cVDPV Outbreaks

Fortunately, both VAPP and cVDPV are rare.

How rare? VAPP only occurs in about 1 in every 1.27 million children receiving their first dose of OPV.

And according to the WHO, there had only been about 24 outbreaks of cVDPV over the past 10 years. Tragically, this has resulted in at least 750 cases of paralytic polio in 21 countries.

An outbreak of cVDPV in Syria will be controlled by 355 vaccination teams that will vaccinate up to 328,000 children.
The WHO reports that an outbreak of cVDPV in Syria will be controlled by 355 vaccination teams that will vaccinate up to 328,000 children.

A new outbreak of cVDPV in Syria adds to those numbers though.

After being polio free for 15 years, since 1999, Syria began having cases of wild type polio again in 2013 (35 cases) and 2014 (1 case). Those polio cases and the emergence of an outbreak of cVDPV2 (there are three strains of polio virus – this outbreak was caused by the type-2 strain) highlight the effects of years of poor immunization rates because of war.

While there are many challenges to getting kids vaccinated in Syria, up to 355 vaccination teams with 61 supervisors will be working out of five vaccine distribution centers to vaccinate 328,000 children to control the outbreak and get kids vaccinated.

Circulating Vaccine-Derived Polio Virus

Just like wild type polio, we can stop cVDPV by increasing vaccination rates and increasing access to improved sanitation facilities.

Why?

Although anti-vaccine folks routinely cry wolf about shedding, the oral polio vaccine really does shed – in the stool of people who have been recently vaccinated. You can then be exposed to the attenuated polio vaccine virus (which can help give immunity to others in the community by passive immunization) or a strain of cVDPV (which can, unfortunately, help give others, especially if they are not vaccinated, paralytic polio) if they are exposed to open sewage or can not practice proper hygiene, etc.

Can’t we just stop using the live, oral polio vaccine?

Although a serious side effect of the vaccine, the vaccine’s benefits clearly outweigh the risk of both VAPP and cVDPV while polio is endemic (lots of cases) in a region, after all, without the vaccine, hundreds of thousands of children would get polio and would be paralyzed.

In polio-free countries, the risks of VAPP and cVDPV becomes greater than the risk of polio though, and they move to the inactivated polio vaccine. That helps prevent a situation in which the polio vaccines actually causes more cases of polio than wild type polio viruses.

Eventually, all countries will move to the IPV vaccine as we move closer to polio eradication. We came one step closer to that point in April 2016 when all countries that were still using the oral polio vaccine switched from trivalent OPV (three strains) to bivalent OPV (two strains) for their routine immunization programs. This could eliminate up to 90% of cases of cVDPV (most are caused by the type-2 strain which is not in bOPV)!

What To Know About cVDPV

Circulating vaccine-derived polio virus outbreaks are a rare side effect of the oral polio vaccine.

More Information About cVDPV

How the Anti-Vaccine Movement Hurts Autistic Families

Many people see Jenny McCarthy battling doctors to save or recover her son as being anti-autism.
Many people see Jenny McCarthy battling doctors to save or recover her son as being anti-autism.

People have different reasons for skipping or delaying vaccines.

Some are simply scared of things they have heard from friends or family members – the common anti-vaccine myths and misinformation that float around on Facebook.

Others feel that either they or someone in their family has been a victim of a vaccine injury. While vaccine injuries are real, as no vaccine is 100% safe, these injuries almost certainly don’t occur as often as some people think they do.

Consequences of the Anti-Vaccine Movement

Although the anti-vaccine movement has been around as long as there have been vaccines, we are starting to see new consequences.

In addition to harming herd immunity levels and triggering outbreaks, by pushing their anti-vaccine ideas, many of these folks often hurt autistic families too.

How the Anti-Vaccine Movement Hurts Autistic Families

Many people think that the anti-vaccine message is anti-autism.

“Autism, as I see it, steals the soul from a child…”

Dr. Jerry Kartzinel writing in the introduction to Jenny McCarthy’s first autism book Louder Than Words

Why?

In addition to the imagery of a soulless child, Jenny McCarthy said multiple times that it would be better to have a life threatening vaccine-preventable disease instead of autism. Folks would line up for it she said.

This “deficit model” of thinking about autism, “which focuses almost exclusively on impairments and limitations, ultimately leads us to see autistic individuals as broken people who are ill and, as my child’s first psychologist explained, need to be fixed.”

“I look at autism like a bus accident, and you don’t become cured from a bus accident, but you can recover.”

Jenny McCarthy

Hopefully, no one looks at their autistic child and thinks about a child in a bus accident, or a child who has lost their soul, been kidnapped by autism, or that they have a damaged child.  That kind of thinking is offensive to many, and hopefully more and more people.

Other reasons the anti-vaccine message is often seen as anti-autism include that:

  • Anti-vaccine/anti-autism rhetoric might get in the way of a parent accepting their child’s diagnosis of autism.
  • They push expensive, often unproven, sometimes disproven, and dangerous  non-evidence based biomedical treatments and cures on hopeful parents of autistic kids. Things like bleach enemas (miracle medical solution), chemical castration with Lupron, hyperbaric oxygen chambers, chelation, restrictive diets, stem cell therapy, raw camel milk, vitamin supplements, antifungal drugs for Candida, secretin injections, and so on, etc.
  • They waste resources. Every dollar that is spent defending vaccines, refuting an antivaccine study, controlling an outbreak, or on a MAPS doctor (the new DAN! doctors), is a dollar that cannot be invested in the needs of actually autistic people and their families.
  • They lead others from understanding that “communicating a strengths-based approach to autism may not only afford autistic patients the respect and dignity they deserve, but may also help family members better understand and support their loved ones.”
  • It leads to ableist messaging when we respond to anti-vaccine fears by saying “don’t worry, vaccines don’t cause autism” without pointing out that “autism and neurodiversity are far from the worst things that could happen to a parent.”

The anti-vaccine movement also harms the relationship many of these parents have with their pediatrician (who they characterize as vaccine pushers controlled by Big Pharma), pushing them to alternative providers who will be more likely to pander to their fears about vaccines and allow their kids to follow a non-standard, parent-selected, delayed protection vaccine schedule. These are often the same types of providers who push biomed treatments, instead of more standard therapies that a pediatrician or neurologist might recommend, who would also be more likely to explain that “autistic children can and do exhibit improvement in their symptoms simply through growth and development.”

And of course, in addition to being anti-autism, the anti-vaccine movement is typically anti-science.

Sarah Kurchak sums it up well in her recent article, Here’s How the Anti-Vaccination Movement Hurts Autistic People, saying that “The anti-vaccine argument is wrong in both the scientific and moral sense.”

“A huge thing for parents in the anti-vaccine movement is the emotional support. The talk of cures and biomedical interventions is almost secondary to the feeling of connectedness with other parents. A lot of the appeal of the community is just being able to talk to people who can relate to what you’ve been through.”

Seth Mookin author of The Panic Virus

It is certainly understandable to want and need support, but parents of autistic children should know that they can get that support from other parents who don’t think that their child is damaged.

In advocating for vaccines, I refuse to stigmatize autistic people.
In advocating for vaccines, I refuse to stigmatize autistic people. I will use neurodiversity over ableist messaging.

What To Know About the Anti-Vax Movement Hurting Autistics

Autism is not vaccine damage. Instead of a deficit model, it is best seen through a neurodiversity model, which “sees autistic individuals as possessing a complex combination of cognitive strengths and challenges.”

More on How Anti-Vax Movement Hurts Autistic Families

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Can Vaccines Cause Shaken Baby Syndrome?

Some anti-vaccination experts not only believe that vaccines cause shaken baby syndrome (now called abusive head trauma), they actually work to defend people accused of harming or killing children.

At the very least, they provide a defense for these parents or caregivers, who can claim it wasn’t the fact that they shook the child, but rather it was the vaccines.

The NVIC even offers advice to parents who have been accused of shaken baby syndrome.

“Despite a proliferation of internet websites devoted to the claim that a negative reaction to a vaccination can result in brain damage which could be mistaken for shaken baby syndrome injuries, such claims are completely without scientific foundation.

It was pointed out that there is no medical article in the peer-reviewed literature which proves a causal link between vaccines and brain damage , let alone retinal hemorrhages, diffuse axonal injury, subdural hemorrhage or any of the other findings that are seen in the shaken baby syndrome. Experts illustrated why there is no conceivable mechanism which would link vaccine reaction to shaking injuries.

Certain irresponsible experts attempt to confuse juries by claiming that since there seems to be a temporal connection between young infants being vaccinated and the infliction of severe or fatal head injuries, that is proof that it was the vaccination which caused the injuries.”

National Center on Shaken Baby Syndrome

Fortunately, the National Center on Shaken Baby Syndrome offers their own, better advice – “prosecutors of shaken baby cases should be aware of this untrue defense and be prepared to exclude this irresponsible medical testimony.”

What To Know About Vaccines and Shaken Baby Syndrome

Vaccines do not cause shaken baby syndrome.

More Information on Vaccines and Shaken Baby Syndrome

 

Vaccine Induced Diseases

In addition to autism, many anti-vaccination ‘experts’ continue to claim that vaccines cause other diseases and conditions, including SIDS and Shaken Baby Syndrome.

Vaccine Injuries

Are there any real vaccine induced diseases?

There is vaccine-associated paralytic poliomyelitis (VAPP), which can rarely occur after getting the oral polio vaccine.

And there are other conditions that are listed as table injuries under the NVICP, including brachial neuritis, Guillain-Barré syndrome, thrombocytopenic purpura, and encephalitis, etc.

Vaccine Induced Diseases

Vaccines can also sometimes cause fainting and febrile seizures.

Most other ‘vaccine induced diseases’ that are supposed to be caused by a vaccine injury have been proven to not be though.

These include:

  • ADHD
  • Alzheimer’s disease
  • ASIA
  • seasonal allergies
  • asthma
  • Celiac disease
  • diabetes
  • Down syndrome (Trisomy 21)
  • eczema
  • Graves disease
  • Gulf War Syndrome
  • Henoch-Schoenlein purpura
  • infertility
  • Kawasaki syndrome
  • leprosy
  • Lou Gehrig’s disease
  • multiple sclerosis
  • myasthenia gravis
  • obesity
  • Parkinson’s disease
  • peanut allergies
  • POTS
  • SSPE

The NVIC even provides “new evidence for a connection” between diabetes and vaccination reactions – from 1998.

And many sites claim they can ‘heal’ your child’s vaccine induced diseases (VIDS) with homeopathy or detox plans scams.

What To Know About Vaccine Induced Diseases

Vaccines are not 100% safe, but it is rare for them to cause serious conditions, and they certainly do not cause all of the ‘vaccine induced diseases’ that some folks try to scare you about.

More About Vaccine Induced Diseases

Vaccines and Seizures

A newborn baby getting an EEG.
A newborn baby getting an EEG.

Can vaccines cause seizures?

Unfortunately, they sometimes can.

Vaccines and Febrile Seizures

The CDC reports that “There is a small increased risk for febrile seizures after MMR and MMRV vaccines.”

We also know that:

  • there is a small increased risk for febrile seizures when the influenza vaccine is given at the same time as either the Prevnar13 vaccine or the DTaP vaccine, although “the risk of febrile seizure with any combination of these vaccines is small and CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) does not recommend getting any of these vaccines on separate days.”
  • there is a small increased risk for febrile seizures if the combined MMR and chicken pox vaccine (ProQuad) is given to infants between the ages of 12 to 23 months vs their getting the shots separately.

But remember that febrile seizures, while scary for parents and other caregivers, are rarely dangerous.

It is also important to note that while febrile seizures are common, they are not commonly triggered by vaccines. A 2016 report in Pediatrics, “Vaccines and Febrile Seizures: Quantifying the Risk,” states that “The risk is 1 febrile seizure per pediatric practice every 5 to 10 years.”

Not surprisingly though, vaccines can likely prevent many febrile seizures, as chicken pox, flu, Hib, measles, mumps, rubella, pneumococcal infections and other vaccine-preventable diseases often cause fever and can trigger febrile seizures themselves.

Also, a study recently found that children who got sick with pertussis could be at increased risk for developing epilepsy, or recurrent seizures. That’s just another good reason to get vaccinated and protected against vaccine-preventable diseases.

Vaccines and Other Types of Seizures

While vaccines can sometimes trigger febrile seizures, they do not typically cause other types of seizures.

It was once thought that seizures were a common side effect of the DPT vaccine, but many studies have found that to not be true and seizures following DPT was even removed as a table injury from the NVICP. In fact, many of these children were instead found to have Dravet syndrome, which put them at increased risk for febrile seizures.

Long-term non-febrile seizures are still listed as side effects for the DTaP and MMR vaccine, but they “are so rare it is hard to tell if they are caused by the vaccine.”

A 2010 study in Pediatrics, “Lack of Association Between Acellular Pertussis Vaccine and Seizures in Early Childhood,” did not find any “increased risk for seizures after
DTaP vaccination among children who were aged 6 weeks to 23 months.”

Do report any reaction to VAERS if you think it was caused by a vaccine though.

Seizures After Getting Vaccines

If vaccines don’t usually cause seizures, then how do you explain a healthy infant developing seizures a few days, weeks, or months after getting his vaccines?

We’re always looking for reasons why something happened. The example I use is from my wife, who is a pediatrician. She was about to vaccinate a four-month-old baby, and while she was drawing the vaccine from the syringe, the baby had a seizure — and went onto have a permanent seizure disorder. Now, my wife hadn’t given the vaccine yet. But if she had given that vaccine five minutes earlier, there would have been no amount of statistical data in the world that would have convinced that mother that the vaccine hadn’t caused the baby’s seizure. You can do studies that show no increased risk with vaccines and seizure disorders, but that mother might still say “well, that’s true for the population but it’s not true for my child.”

Temporal associations are powerful, and they’re hard to defeat with statistics or studies.

Paul Offit, MD interview for The Thinking Persons Guide to Autism

There are many seizure disorders that begin in infancy.

Some even start in the newborn period, before a baby is a month old.

They are not triggered by vaccines though.

They include:

  • Infantile Spasms (first described in 1841) – typically begin when infants are about 4 months old, just when they get their second set of vaccines, which weren’t available when Dr. West described his own son’s repeated spasms
  • Benign Familial Neonatal Seizures – often genetic, seizures may begin on a baby’s third day of life
  • Benign Neonatal Convulsions – begin on the fifth day of life – the “fifth day fits,” and the seizures stop in about a month

If your child got her first hepatitis B vaccine when she was five days old and began having seizures, would you accept a diagnosis of Benign Neonatal Convulsions or would you blame the shot?

Would you remember the saying about correlation and causation?

For More Information on Vaccines and Seizures:

Vaccine Excise Tax

The Vaccine Injury Compensation Trust Fund was set up by the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of 1986 as a source of funds to compensate people found to be injured by certain vaccines by the Vaccine Court.

Vaccine Excise Tax

Money for the Vaccine Injury Compensation Trust Fund comes from a $0.75 excise tax on each vaccine that kids routinely get as recommended by the CDC.

Who pays this vaccine tax?

Is it the drug companies or folks getting the vaccines?

The U.S. Department of the Treasury collects the tax from the vaccine manufacturers.

But like other manufacturing costs, they likely just add it to the price of the vaccine. They are still paying it though.

Vaccine Injury Compensation Trust Fund

How much does the IRS collect?

Between 2009 and 2013, it has averaged about $200 million a year.

The Vaccine Injury Compensation Trust Fund has a balance of over $3 billion, as in addition to the excise tax, it gains interest on investments. That balance has grown because the Fund’s income has outpaced its payments (about $3.5 billion) over the years.

For More Information on the Vaccine Excise Tax

Table Injuries and Vaccine Court

Vaccine injuries, while rare, are certainly real.

In fact, as most people are aware, since 1988, almost $3.5 billion dollars have been paid out by the Vaccine Court for 4,899 compensated awards under the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program.

While most were settled and “cannot be characterized as a decision by HHS or by the Court that the vaccine caused an injury,” some of the claims were either compensated by a court decision or by concession and for which “it is more likely than not that the vaccine caused the injury or the evidence supports fulfillment of the criteria of the Vaccine Injury Table.”

History of the Vaccine Injury Table

The Vaccine Injury Table was created by the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of 1986 and includes “a table of vaccines, the injuries, disabilities, illnesses, conditions, and deaths resulting from the administration of such vaccines, and the time period in which the first symptom or manifestation of onset or of the significant aggravation of such injuries, disabilities, illnesses, conditions, and deaths is to occur after vaccine administration for purposes of receiving compensation under the Program.”

The Vaccine Injury Table:

  • “is a listing of covered vaccines and associated injuries,” although some covered vaccines, like Hib, hepatitis A, chicken pox, flu, HPV, Prevnar, and the meningococcal vaccines, are not on the table
  • “makes it easier for some people to get compensation,” since if a symptom of a table injury occurs within the time frame of getting a table vaccine, then unless another cause is found, “it is presumed that the vaccine was the cause of the injury”
  • “lists and explains injuries and/or conditions that are presumed to be caused by vaccines,” from anaphylaxis and encephalopathy to thrombocytopenic purpura
  • has been modified several times, most notably in 1995 (HHE and seizures from DTP were removed as table injuries and chronic arthritis from rubella was added), 1997 (thrombocytopenia (measles), brachial neuritis (tetanus), and anaphylaxis (hepatitis B) were added as table injuries), and 2002 (intussusception (rotavirus) added as a table injury).
  • is typically only modified if an Institute of Medicine report finds scientific evidence that a condition could be caused by a vaccine with guidance of the Advisory Commission on Childhood Vaccines

Some people, especially anti-vaccine folks who think it is too hard to get compensated under the NVICP, will be surprised that one of the main overarching guiding principles for making changes to the Vaccine Injury Table is that:

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

Changes to the Vaccine Injury Table were proposed last year.

Off Table Injuries

As you can imagine, since most new vaccines do not have table injuries, the VICP has shifted from Vaccine Injury Table to off-Table claims.

While that may change if last years proposed changes are adopted, off-Table claims can still be compensated, a vaccine is not just presumed as causing an injury in these cases.

For More Information on Table Injuries