Rotavirus: The Vaccine Nobody Wants

By J.B. Handley
 
It started innocently enough, I just wanted to know which vaccines the State of Oregon “requires” children to get before entering kindergarten in a public school. (As we all know, but few other Americans seem to, “require” is a relative term because parents can opt out of any and all vaccine requirements if they so choose through exemptions.)
 
A quick trip to the Oregon Department of Health website and I found what I was looking for, some of which surprised me:
 
Kindergartners in Oregon must demonstrate they have received the following vaccines: DTaP, Polio, Varicella, MMR, Hep B, and Hep A.
 
This means that kindergartners in Oregon do not need to demonstrate that they have received the following vaccines listed for children on the 2009 CDC Immunization schedule, and vaccines that many parents believe they need to get in order for their children to enter school: Hib, PCV (pneumococcal), Rotavirus, Influenza, and Meningitis (meningococcal).
 
So, of the 11 types of vaccines approved for pediatric use (and given in 36 doses because many are given multiple times), Oregon says you need to prove your child received 6 of them to enter kindergarten, or just over half of the vaccines recommended by CDC.
 
I called the Oregon Department of Health to try and understand why there appears to be a gap between the CDC’s overall recommendations and what the state of Oregon needs from its public school students and here’s what I learned:

For Hib, they believe a child should receive Hib, and that the earlier the better, and that most children receive Hib when they are much younger and when the risks of getting Haemophilus Influenza type B are much higher.
 
For PCV, it’s a newer vaccine (2000) and they just aren’t yet recommending or requiring it (I pressed, and that’s the party line).
 
For Flu, they think it should be a parent’s choice and in any one year the flu shot and actual influenza strain that’s circulating may not match, so making it an entry requirement didn’t make sense.
 
For Meningitis, they don’t have an opinion yet, but the vaccine is on the CDC schedule only for certain high-risk groups so it’s not required for public school
(which is true).
 
That leaves Rotavirus.
 
Sigh.
 
OK, let me just say it so you don’t have to: Paul Offit.
 
You just can’t talk about the Rotavirus vaccine without also talking about Paul Offit, the vaccine industry’s most well-paid spokesperson. The man who made tens of millions of dollars from a Rotavirus vaccine patent and who believes a baby could tolerate 100,000 vaccines simultaneously. The man who the media cannot get enough of (or is he simply the last doctor willing to publicly defend vaccines?) when it comes to discussing vaccine “safety”. The man who wrote a book, Autism’s False Profits, that is filled with lies, misstatements, and false reassurances for unwitting parents.
 
Yup, that guy.
 
One of the big challenges in discussing the possible relationship between vaccines and autism (or the whole concept of vaccine injury in general) with the average American is that very few people have a handle on the actual facts. I find that in particular, people do not understand:

• How many vaccines and doses our kids actually receive
• How the number of vaccines given to kids has changed over time (its nearly tripled in 20 years)
• That autism rates are up geometrically in 20 years
• What diseases the vaccines given actually are designed to prevent (people are always shocked when they learn we vaccinate for chicken pox, as just one example)
• How many vaccines other first world countries give their children
• That flu shots (and swine flu shots) still contain mercury

As I say way too often, the devil is always in the details. Shouldn’t it be fair to say that some vaccines are more important than others? Wouldn’t an average parent care less that their child caught the flu than polio? Don’t these differences matter?
 
Which brings me back to Rotavirus.
 
To me, Rotavirus is a great way to demonstrate how corrupted the process of adding vaccines to the US schedule has become.
 
As about 1,000 Americans understand (and they are all reading AoA right now), there is a little-known federal advisory committee that has ridiculous power to add vaccines to the CDC’s schedule, the Advisory Committee of Immunizations Practices (“ACIP”). For a vaccine maker, landing one of your own people on the ACIP is pay dirt.
 
Because we all know how sleazy the Rotavirus’ admission to the CDC schedule is, I will just summarize:

• Paul Offit, vaccine patent holder for Rotavirus for Merck, was appointed to the ACIP, God knows why
• He voted to add the Rotavirus vaccine to the schedule (it wasn’t Merck’s, because his vaccine wasn’t ready for market yet)
• That Rotavirus vaccine damaged a bunch of kids and was pulled from the market, but Offit abstained from recommending its removal
• A couple years later, rotavirus got added back to the schedule, with Offit’s vaccine leading the way
• Offit made tens of millions of dollars from the sale of the Rotavirus patent he held to Merck.

Earlier this year, Generation Rescue looked at the vaccine schedules of 29 other first world countries. We found that compared to the 36 doses the CDC recommends for our kids, the average for the rest of the first world is 18, or half the total vaccine doses we give. And, many first world countries give as few as 11, 12 or 13 doses (Sweden, Finland, and Italy, respectively).
 
More interesting than the aggregate number of vaccines given in the first world was the seeming AVOIDANCE of certain vaccines that are mandated by CDC.
 
For Rotavirus, a vaccine commercially available now for 11 years, the numbers are laughable: Of 29 other first world countries that GR evaluated, only 2 also mandate Rotavirus. Said differently, 27 of 29 other first world countries besides the United States DO NOT think Rotavirus is an important enough disease that the children of their country should receive a vaccine for it, even though a vaccine has been available for over a decade.
 
Which brings me back to the State of Oregon. I mentioned that 6 of 11 vaccines from the CDC’s schedule are “required” to go public school in Oregon. For the ones that were not required, I found the Department of Health to be extremely helpful in explaining why certain vaccines were not on their required list and in giving me general advice about immunization strategy. When it came to Rotavirus, the last vaccine I asked them about, I will just leave you with a quote from their spokesperson:
 
“[A brief chuckle] Well, Rotavirus is just some diarrhea for a day or two. It’s just not a big deal. That one will never be on our list.”

JB Handley is co-founder of Generation Rescue and a Contributor to Age of Autism.

Comments

[Theresa O]

I read with interest the CDC puff piece (linked from the AoA homepage sidebar here: http://www.latimes.com/health/boostershots/la-heb-rotavirus-vaccine-20110922,0,2786024.story) that made the claim that rotavirus vaccination has saved $278,000,000 in doctors' visits and hospital costs.

278 million dollars--that's a lot of money! so I figured I'd look into the costs of the rotavirus vaccination program.

Using uptake figures from the CDC and the Mayo Clinic for 2007 through 2010, and cost figures from the CDC, I calculated that the cost of the shots (not the doctors' visits, just the shots themselves) was $1,009,527,702.28 from 2007 through 2010.

Then I visited the HRSA site to get some data on VICP claims. There have been 24 compensated rotavirus vaccine claims since the vaccine was added to the VICP table in 1998. Total outlays of the VICP program from 1999 through 2001 were $1,278,304,764.42; if we figure that the 24 rotavirus vaccine cases received their proportional share of the 1379 total cases compensated from 1999 through 2011, then the rotavirus vaccine cost VICP $22,247,508.59 during those years.

So... let's see: $278,000,000 in savings this year, compared to just over $1,031,775,210 in total costs.

It reminds me of when I "save" $10 buying a $40 shirt at the Gap!

Now, I did do some estimating when I tried to figure out the VICP portion of the rotavirus vaccine costs, but even the cost of the shots themselves (based entirely on verifiable data) dwarf the supposed savings, which only materialized this year. It's the kind of math I wish the *LA Times* would bother to do before reprinting the latest CDC press release.

And of course, for families who lost children to this unavoidably unsafe product (http://www.ageofautism.com/2008/04/rotateq-causes.html), no dollar amount of "savings" matters one bit.

[Noreen Albright]

I regret letting them inject my jaundice son with Hep B in the hospital. I don't even know why they SUGGEST such a thing. The people/person who recommend this should be SHOT! This child ended up with Autism. I felt they were telling me it is Medically Necessary. I Was NOT informed. My child came down with Autism. When we HE going to be Sexually Active? In addition, my child got Diareaha from the Oral Vaccines you are talking about (for months he did not have a regular solid stool when he was having them before) and his entire lower body inflammed from the FLU shot and he started being in pain and hitting his head. WE are causing these problems (well, the Medical Community) THERE are NO long term studies for a REASON! What are they doing for MY Child??? NOTHING!!!! My child was in PAIN and they could CARE LESS! None of these companies have provided even Charity to these Children. I don't see Social Programs or Camps they provide. You would THINK one would at very Minimum provide some Charitable Services to those who feel they were Damaged by Vaccination. It would just be the Charitable think to DO! I have not spoken with other parents, yet hundreds of thousands or parents say the same thing! WAKE UP AMERICA...THIS IS OUR FUTURE! We will go bankcrupt as the GREEDY don't do the charity, don't make improvements, rob us of our KIDS. SO YES! CRY for your Children (as Jesus said to the Mothers) The GREEDY will devour them if you don't READ THE FINE PRINT.

[Vaccine VooDooMeister]

This past spring, the FDA took a hands-off approach to Merck’s admission that DNA from a lethal pig virus is contaminating doses of RotaTeq vaccine being swallowed by millions of newborn babies. Now the agency responsible for making sure pharmaceutical products do not hurt people is proposing a Rule Change to give one staff employee the sole authority to allow “exceptions or alternatives” when drug companies want to change vaccine ingredients, such as preservatives (like thimerosal) or adjuvants (like aluminum) or the amount of residual protein and antibiotics in vaccines.

June 28 Deadline for Public Comment

The FDA’s proposed change to Requirements for Constituent Materials was quietly published in The Federal Register on March 30 and the deadline for public comment is only days away - on Monday, June 28.

The FDA is arguing that the rule change is necessary to “reduce burdens on industry” and to provide “greater flexibility and reduced regulatory requirements.” It gives one FDA staff Director the power to give drug companies the green light to “employ advances in science and technology as they become available” when companies want to make new vaccines really fast and get more bang for the buck.

[KS RPh]

Billy- I believe the quote in question from the closing line of Mr. Handley's post came from the spokesperson for the Oregon State Health Department. If you feel the comments were harsh, I would encourage you to contact them and relay your experience. I believe that most people that post here on Age of Autism understand that there are risks involved in both receiving a vaccination and also risks of the diseases that the vaccinations may prevent. I'm glad that you shared your experience so that people have this information available in order to make an informed decision. The issue is that I and many others believe that parents should have the right to freely choose whether to fully vaccinate, selectively vaccinate, or refuse to vaccinate their children. If I had gone through the same experience dealing with Rotavirus infection as you did, I may have been more inclined to choose that vaccine for my kids. Or perhaps I would accept the risk of potential rotavirus infection instead of the risk of intussusception or other side effects that can be caused by the vaccine. Either way, the choice should be up to the parent without interference from the government or the American Academy of Pediatrics.

[For Billy]

Billy,
It wasn't J.B.'s quote. If you simply read the paragraph above and note the quotations, you'd see that he was quoting what someone had said at the DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH.

[Billy]

As a mother of twins who got Rota Virus when they were 15 months old and were HOSPITALIZED FOR MORE THAN A WEEK I find it horribly irresponsible for you to end your article with the quote that you did. My children almost died--because it wasn't "a few days of diarrhea"--it was life-threatening dehydration--a race to keep enough fluid in their poor bodies to keep them living.

Fast forward three years and I had another set of twins (yes!) and they got the Rota vaccine (I couldn't wait to get it for them--it was not available when my first ones were young). They too got Rota, but it was MUCH less severe. "A few days of diarrhea" is accurate....

So before you make blanket statements, talk to mothers like me--who have experienced Rota at its worst. Or go a step further and talk to mothers who lost their babies to something that can so simply be prevented....

[john fryer chemist]

Hi

I just wondered why everyone was not getting autism in the USA.

The State of Oregon provides one answer to why some survive all these vaccines.

Mercury is still in vaccines and after ten years its time they fulfilled their promise and removed it - along with aluminium et al.

California that shouts that its autism is rising with no mercury in vaccines has committed one foul by not requiring the mercury content on tins of tuna fish.

Are they also hiding the good mercury in their vaccines from the public too?

Good is the term used by MERCK and MURKY people who search and destroy their enemies (the human race?)

The mercury in our environment has gone up 20 fold in the past 50 years. Not good news but those that claim the industrial use of mercury doesn't compete with natural mercury are also obfuscating or to be blunt LIARS.

It may also be an extra problem to the ozone hole as far as I can see.

Basically if you can measure mercury it is TOXIC - hence the reluctance for tuna fish to be labelled.

[Mary Southon]

This should be sent to Matt Lauer.

[kerbob1]

The approval of rotavirus vaccines is proof the vaccine marketplace is demented. It is particularly perverse that the entire vaccines profession stood aside dumbfounded watching a single individual as he shit diarrhea down the throats of six week old American babies.

(tee shirt size XXXL)

[Ingrid]

I was just thinking - if Paul Offit believes a baby could handle 100,000 vaccines at once.. then why doesn't someone, anyone, just do a study of giving a monkey hundreds (not even hundreds of thousands) of vaccine shots in one day and see what happens. Does the monkey survive it? Does the monkey get brain damage? Does the monkey just get up and play like normal for the rest of it's life? What happens??? I'm so curious and assuming the monkey would be harmed (which I really do think it would be) then it'd be pretty easy to shut him up about how a *baby* could handle 100,000 of these shots in one sitting.