VACCINE INJURY VICTIMS: NO SYMPATHY, NO TREATMENT

By Nancy Hokkanen

Years from now, when people look back historically at the current autism epidemic and the tacit neglect of vaccine injury victims, they’ll shake their heads with disbelief. Why did government agencies charged with protecting public health instead perversely treat so many sickened children like road kill?

Currently the U.S. Centers for Disease Control’s vaccination program is a hit-and-run protocol. After a child receives shots, there’s little or no followup by doctors. Adverse reaction symptoms are written off as minor or coincidental, and rarely reported to the Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System (VAERS). Emergency rooms can’t figure out what’s wrong with tiny patients or teens admitted with short-term events like fevers, swelling, rashes, or chronic affects such as seizures, motor loss, and behavioral changes.

Who knows how many parents have observed that after their children received the MMR or other combinations of vaccinations, they regressed physically and mentally. The child’s psychological symptoms were labeled as autistic, though they also manifested a range of illness involving gastrointestinal, immune and other bodily systems. And increasingly lab tests are revealing, to name just a few:

• Lesions lining the intestinal mucosa that contain vaccine-strain measles;
• Autoantibodies to myelin basic protein;
• Toxic levels of mercury and other metals.

But the CDC’s bureaucratic juggernaut refuses to stop, look and listen -- and learn how to prevent further injuries… even when scientists, too, have demanded that the government agency find ways to curb the adverse effects of vaccines.

Just imagine if public school transportation implemented the CDC’s defensive “see no evil” attitude toward program malfunction. Picture a yellow bus full of children on the road to school. Inexplicably the driver veers onto the sidewalk at a bus stop, knocking down one of the waiting children, but fails to stop and help. When questioned, the bus driver dodges the issue by saying, “I got 59 kids to school safely. The benefits of busing outweigh the risks. If you publicize this, parents will stop letting their kids get bused and more children will be injured.”

Sadly, at this point the mainstream media usually walks away satisfied with that response -- without quantifying just how many dead or damaged children it will take before the people in charge finally make an effort to stop the carnage. And the majority of citizens feel uncompelled to act until someone they know is affected.

Why has the CDC’s neglect of vaccine injury victims gone on for so long?

Let’s start with denial. It’s reflexive. It’s easier to dismiss distastefully paradoxical subjects than deal with them. It’s comforting to create fictions that blame the victim (e.g., “desperate parents blame anything.”) Fixing problems can be expensive, so inaction saves money. However millions of taxpayer dollars have gone into funding questionable epidemiological studies attempting to prove that autism rates are not increasing.

Next, ignorance. Breaks in the information chain. Reliance on fifth-generation memos rather than personal study. A dysfunctional administrative network that fails to consider all medical possibilities… that was “asleep at the wheel.” Constant false reports that Thimerosal is out of vaccines. Committee members who purposely walk out of meetings before parent testimony is given.

Then, fear. For consumers, the primal fear of disease. An easy emotion to manipulate with expensive advertising campaigns for increasing numbers of shots. For CDC administrators, concern that one’s on-the-job mistakes could be discovered, because that means consequences – professionally, but so far not criminally. The unimaginable horror that safety concerns of the pejoratively labeled “antivaccine activists” may force an ethical shift in the national immunization program… a zero-injury initiative.

Let’s not forget greed. Career bureaucrats protecting their careers and financial interests. Vaccine policymakers with financial ties to pharmaceutical companies. Vaccine developers and manufacturers pressuring CDC committees for contracts to sell hundreds of millions of shots. Doctors content to sell a product without providing follow-up customer service.

Lastly, hubris. The godlike attitude that one can do no wrong, so the topic of vaccine injury is closed to debate (e.g., ironically, “it’s about faith, not science.”) The insistence that society feel grateful to vaccine administrators because they are preventing disease and saving lives. The herd-immunity concept in which some unspecified percentage of the great unwashed can be written off ethically and financially as collateral damage in the war on disease.

Even without media coverage, stories of vaccine injury are increasing and rightfully creating doubt in the uninjured population. For the CDC to win back public confidence and thus customers, offices in Bethesda and Atlanta need to take a cue from product marketers, priests and Presidents. Here’s a short starting list:

• Apologize. Parents of children injured by vaccines deserve lengthy, sincere apologies from the CDC, from vaccine manufacturers, from vaccine advocacy nonprofits, from legislators that have barred vaccine safety bills, from doctors who turned them away from medical practices. No more denial in the name of the greater good. Acknowledge the damage done, and promise repair and restitution.

• Reorganize.  Follow the reasonable suggestions offered by Mark Blaxill and Barbara Loe Fisher in their 2004 white paper [archived here on the Age of Autism blog]. Maintain a separation of vaccine promotion and its safety monitoring. Transfer or fire administrators who have done a disservice to the agency. Set higher ethical expectations for those who select vaccines. Ban mercury from vaccines completely and fund independent testing of manufacturers to ensure they comply.

• Reprioritize.  All human life must be valued equally and demonstrated by helping vaccine injury victims. Set up a vaccine injury department focusing on treatment and prevention. Pay for it with a percentage of manufacturers’ proceeds from vaccine sales. Monitor it with an oversight committee of parents, doctors and autism education professionals.

Belatedly the CDC has begun to take baby steps away from self-regulation. But it’s not enough. If immunization proponents want families to get back onto the vaccination bus, then they need to retrain or replace their drivers.

Nancy Hokkanen lives in Bloomington, Minnesota with her husband and 9-year-old son. She contributes to autism listservs and volunteers for Generation Rescue, A-CHAMP, and the Minnesota Natural Health Coalition.

Comments

[Compound Pharmacy]

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[Gina Hudgens]

My son began showing regression right after his first set of vaccinations. By just 6 months old, we knew he wasn't developing normally. He is now 25 and has lived an difficult life, which is tragic to describe. When he was 10, the schools insisted that he take Ritilen or they would not allow him to continue his special education. Within a year he began showing signs of Tourrette's Syndrome. The school psychologist and Psychiatrist said there would be no side effects, but my son regressed into a combination of horrible syndome's. It's time for the pharmacuetical companies and school officials to be accountable for destroying this young man's life, and tearing a family apart. I have never really known where to turn, but finally even the court's are acknowledging that vaccinations are to blame for autism. It's a start, but it's too late for my son.

[mother of a 13 year old daughter who is recovering from autism (still on the DAN protocol)]

Very nicely put. I pray everyday that God will touch someone's heart and the whole truth will come out before another child is injured due to stupidity. Neurotoxin number one is thermeriosl there are others as well aluminum is another along the list of bad ingriedents in the vaccines. I literary have dedicated the rest of my life to healing my daughter so that she will have a fair chance at life. I have given up everything because nothing matters anymore. My heart is totally broken for her and what she goes through. She's a trooper for the most part. Stays on the diet takes her supplements, loves hyperbaric treatments, ask for the mb12 shots, makes sure I never miss an appointment. What a child hood full of wonderful memories. I couldn't take pictures or use a camcorder because I watched her regress and couldn't figure out why. I was to devestated. She was born in 1994. For five days I listened to a pediatrican and my doctor tell me I had a perfectly healthy baby. What happened to her. Even when she was diagnosed with autism and I was told nothing I could do for her. Autism was still considered rare. Untreatable. this is still the same story the mainstream medical will give to mothers and call us crazy. No my child is a miracle child who responded very well. She has definately done the work God told me she would do:"Touch and change the lives and hearts of many people." I thank God everyday for showing me the way. I thank God for a knowledgeable wonderful DAN doctor who is traveling the same roads that we are. Autism isn't prejuidice it ignores what profession you are in. It's a man made mess. I pray to God to end all of this so that families can stay together and work towards cleaning up "what man has done to man." I thank wonderful people like Dr. Boyd Haley and Dr. Bernard Rimland and his team and the DAN doctors who many have affected children. The compounding pharmacies that have been mericiful. wonderful writers who know the truth through research. God bless you and be with you and lead and guide you.

[Gatogorra]

Nancy-- I've said this before but it's worth repeating. Having a comprehensive understanding of an atrocity seems to be the best "medicine" to ward off going nuts from the awfulness of it. I always marvel at how you manage to condense overwhelming realities into digestible portions without ever being reductionist about it. The "big picture" you provide is longer acting than any crap pharmaceutical product and has no side effects other than compelling people to stand up and do something about it.

[Stan]

And the next area we need to pay closer attention to, to my mind, is the vaccinal link with anaphylaxis and allergies - all kinds of allergies, not just from food. Rita Hoffman in Canada has done excellent work in summarizing studies which lead to the conclusion that there is a link between the molecular weight of proteins in vaccines and those of food proteins, whereby various food proteins encountered via breastmilk while the baby's immune system is processing vaccines can be recognized as 'foreign' because of their similar m. weight, thus triggering reactions. The Hib vaccine in particular, in its enhanced, conjugated form, has been such a trigger. It's definitely right and proper to keep the heat on vaccines, and not let the discussion slide into mere genetics. More is at stake here than just the autism battle. Keep the pressure on the government, folks. The truth is waiting to come out.
Rita's papers: vaccinationnews.com/dailynews/March2002/Anaphylaxis&Vaccines
www.whale.to/vaccines/hoffman

[Anne Dachel]

Nancy, you made excellent points about the power and influence of our federal health agencies. Everything is at stake for these officials. Their worthless studies and statistics will never explain the generation of damaged children everywhere. Their lies simply can't continue.

[Sandy Gottstein]

PS I should have submitted a more recent, updated version of the "faith" column: http://www.vaccinationnews.com/Scandals/2003/Mar_7/Scandal58.htm

[Sandy Gottstein]

Former FDA commissioner David Kessler has said (http://www.vaccinationnews.com/Scandals/Feb_22_02/KesslerJAMAQuote.pdf) that it is thought 1% of serious drug reactions are reported to the FDA. A vaccine manufacturer testified (http://www.vaccinationnews.com/Scandals/Feb_22_02/Connaught%25Underreporting.pdf) that in their experience, a passive system (which is what VAERS is) results in around 2%. Because of this, we do not have any idea how many actual adverse vaccine-associated reactions those reported to VAERS, a passive-reporting system, actually represent. But, almost certainly, reports to VAERS represent considerably more than are being reported.

[Sandy Gottstein]

Superb overview, Nancy. Thanks for this and everything else you do.

I "like" to call the vaccine fiasco a "scandal of ep(idem)ic proportions". (With or without the parentheses.)

And while autism is at least being paid attention to (more than anything, I attribute this to the fact that the parents are so involved and insistent that their once healthy children were changed by vaccines.), the many other deaths and injuries possibly caused by vaccines continue to be ignored.

Even deaths shortly after vaccination are attributed to coincidence. The party line is always that the deaths are within the expected frequency for such events. But the expected frequency - no surprise here! - is among the vaccinated. We know nothing about the frequency of infant deaths among the never-vaccinated. (I have written about this repeatedly, including in the 2002 column "Scandals: Infant Vaccine Deaths - But Who's Counting? (No news is NOT good news.)" at http://www.vaccinationnews.com/Scandals/Feb_22_02/Scandal5.htm. As I once asked in reference to Mary Robinson's story (http://www.vaccinationnews.com/Scandals/April_12_02/Scandal12.htm) - she has five autistic children and believes the MMR caused their autism - "How much anecdotal evidence does it take to change a.......make a light bulb go on?"

And although the "experts" would like to characterize the controversy as pitting parents against "science", in my opinion, a compelling case can be made that it is actually parents and science vs. faith. I wrote about this re: hepatitis B vaccine in the column "Scandals: 'But Faith, fanatic Faith, once wedded fast To some dear falsehood, hugs it to the last.' - Thomas Moore" at http://www.vaccinationnews.com/Scandals/May_24_02/Scandal17.htm.

[Raymond Gallup]

There are over 200,000 cases reported in the Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System (VAERS)but nothing is done by the FDA and CDC about these cases other than to document. Many different vaccines are involved and it does show that vaccines are unsafe if you have an adverse reaction to them.

In NJ they introduced 4 new vaccines to the vaccine schedule in December 2007. Was there a deal between Governor Corzine and Bob Franks to get toll roads pushed through in exchange for pharmaceutical company help??
Something really stinks in NJ and it isn't the garbage......Garden State to Toxic Wasteland for the NJ motto.

Per.............

Already, the knives are out. Some Republicans are spreading rumors that Franks is helping Corzine in return for the governor's veto of a wrongful death bill opposed by the pharmaceutical industry, which Franks now represents.
http://www.nj.com/columns/ledger/moran/index.ssf?/base/columns-0/1200202552269900.xml&coll=1&thispage=3

Bob Franks
http://www.opensecrets.org/politicians/indus.asp?CID=N00000810&cycle=2000

Former Representative Bob Franks, fresh from his second straight defeat in a statewide race, is about to embark on a campaign of a different sort, as the chief lobbyist for the pharmaceutical industry in New Jersey.
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E07E3D71438F935A35754C0A9679C8B63

Raymond Gallup

[Dan Olmsted]

This is about as good a summary of where things stand -- and where they need to go -- as I can imagine in a single article. The school bus analogy is great. And I shake my head a LOT at the obviousness of the situation and the refusal of public health authorities and the media to acknowledge and address it. I only hope it won't be "years from now" when the truth emerges. I like JB's quote that "We are not far from the day of truth and reckoning on autism, where people will be remembered by where they stood when this growing controversy finally exploded into the health scandal earthquake of our time."