Dr. Paul Offit Speaks: Japanese “Foolish” to take Precaution after Vaccine Deaths
Breaking news this morning: Japanese vaccine recalled for contamination: Sanofi Pasteur and partner Daiichi Sankyo have decided to voluntarily recall 13 lots of a paediatric vaccine in Japan, where its use is currently suspended. The affected lots of ActHIB, which are manufactured and marketed by Sanofi and distributed by Daiichi Sankyo in Japan for haemophilus influenza type b, are being recalled due to an investigation which confirmed two cases of contamination inside syringes of diluent used to reconstitute the vaccine...
By J.B. Handley
Is this Paul Offit’s Pharma-Shill moment? It’s nice to have the world see the audacity the Merck-funded Paul Offit often shows when discussing anything to do with vaccines.
First, a quick chronological recap of the Japanese vaccine tragedy:
March 5th:
News services around the world report that Japan has suspended the use of 2 vaccines after four children died subsequent to receiving one or both vaccines. From the Wall Street Journal:
“The deaths of four children in Japan prompted the government there to halt use of the vaccines Prevnar and ActHIB and caused some international health authorities to examine whether the widely used shots cause serious side effects.”
March 7th:
Forbes writer Matthew Herper publishes a blog post with the reassuring title, “Don’t Be Frightened By Japan’s Vaccine Scare” and quotes our favorite Darth Vader-in-Chief, Paulie Profit, with some all-time gems:
“I think the Japanese Ministry of Health was foolish to suspend the HIB and pneumococcal programs,” says Paul Offit, a researcher at Children’s Hospital in Philadelphia who co-invented a Merck vaccine used to combat rotavirus. “It was the wrong thing to do.”
In all likelihood, Offit says, the four deaths are likely to be sudden infant death syndrome or another cause; he says two of the children had serious underlying health conditions. Any time a large number of people are given a vaccine, some of them will get sick and die just by chance…
Offit profited from the creation of the rotavirus vaccine, but does not get ongoing money from vaccine manufacturers for speaking, consulting, research, or as royalties.
March 8th:
A Japanese panel clears the vaccines of causation, while upping the number of dead children to five. From Dow Jones news wire:
“A panel of Japanese medical experts expressed the opinion Tuesday that the deaths of five children over the past two months weren't connected to pediatric vaccines administered just before they died.”
Forbes Added:
“The panel said the deaths were not connected to the vaccines, and that there was nothing wrong with the lots of vaccines.”
Phew, we can all start vaccinatin’ again, that was a close one.
March 10th:
Japan reports a sixth death of a Japanese child aged 6 months to one year after vaccination. From the Vancouver Sun:
“Japan's health ministry on Thursday reported the death of a sixth infant who recently received vaccinations made by Pfizer or Sanofi-Aventis that have been suspended since last week.”
March 11th:
Sanofi and its Japanese subsidiary announce they are recalling 200,000 vaccines from Japan. From the Wall Street Journal:
Sanofi-Aventis SA, maker of the ActHIB vaccine caught up in the suspension, now says it’s recalling 200,000 doses distributed in Japan – but not because of the investigation.
Sanofi took action after finding that two syringes used to dispense the vaccine contained an undetermined “foreign matter,” a spokeswoman tells the Health Blog. The move is precautionary only, and the recalled ActHIB vaccine doses don’t present a safety risk, she says.
The ActHIB vaccine is administered using syringes — which contain a solution that renders the powdered vaccine ready for injection – in Japan, but not in the U.S.
Sanofi is still investigating, but believes the syringes, made in 2009, were contaminated somewhere during the manufacturing process.
* * *
Japan is having a rough week, to put it mildly. Having spent most of my childhood living in Tokyo, my heart and thoughts genuinely go out to the Japanese people. There is no population more prepared or more resilient to rebuild what has been lost.
As a hometown boy, I thought I’d check some of the newspapers I used to read as a kid in Japan, and see how they reported the news. Are there any different takes on what is going on? Here’s a quote from The Japan Times:
“Japan, known for being notoriously slow to accept new vaccines, approved the Hib vaccine in 2007, 20 years after the United States did so. Approval for the streptococcus pneumonia vaccine came in 2009, compared with 2000 in the U.S.
An increasing number of people are believed to be receiving these vaccines because of a subsidy program launched last November in which the government agrees to shoulder half the cost of vaccination if municipal governments organize and subsidize vaccination programs.”
20 years before they adopted the shot? A subsidy program to induce compliance? Six dead kids? And, now, and acknowledged contamination issue?
Foolish indeed.
J.B. Handley is co-founder of Generation Rescue and a contributor to Age of Autism.
IMHO, these are all vaccine-induced SIDS deaths. Typical pharma ploy: if you can't blame the victim, why not blame the syringe needles. Pharma thinks of the public as hapless gulls. Yet, prayerfully, the sleeper is starting to awaken!
Posted by: patrons99 | March 19, 2011 at 12:21 PM
While looking for info concerning the stand of the Japanese on these vaccine deaths, I saw this, and again, where is the protection for our children? Can't the newer measures of mixing up lots so as not to identify "hot lots" be considered a criminal act?
http://www.healthcmi.com/index.php/nursingceus/361-fluvaccinesbannedjapan
Justice Ginsburg showed deep concern in this case, “there were an unusual number of adverse reactions to the particular lot that this child's third vaccine came from, and that those adverse reactions were not disclosed to the doctors. And the doctors -- the child's doctor said if I had known about the unusual number of adverse reactions, I never would have used this vaccine.” Justice Breyer noted that the1986 National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act legally protects drug companies from lawsuits due to unavoidable harm (such as side effects from vaccinations) but that the drug company lawyers in this case are now suggesting that they are also protected from avoidable harm lawsuits.
The drug company lawyer argued that pharmaceutical companies are not responsible for informing nurses, doctors, the pubilc, and the government if safer vaccines are available.
Posted by: barbaraj | March 19, 2011 at 12:01 PM
The following speaks for itself:
From "Shadow science: Zyprexa, Eli Lilly and the globalization of pharmaceutical damage control"
"That Lilly intentionally concealed information from physicians is not in question. How they did so is revealing of two facts. First, the company was actively pursuing a strategy of creating a shadow science to drown out noncompany-sponsored research reports on the side effects of the drug. The Zyprexa documents suggest that each time a negative study came out or was about to come out, Lilly commissioned a study intended to counter it. These results were then published and, as part of a general marketing plan, publicized and disseminated in great numbers to overcome the impact of the negative study. Thus, on 16 October 2002, Lilly manager Peter Beardsall sent an email to seven of his colleagues: 'I personally think that the time has come for a ‘stake in the ground’ Meta-analysis of the huge pool of data surrounding the issue of diabetes and antipsychotics. The recent list of all studies relating to diabetes that are now out there is huge, and characterised by a significant weighting overall of those that do not support our position. I would like to suggest that we now urgently embark on getting a credible ‘landmark’ paper written and published … somewhere impactful – e.g. Lancet … Written by someone who we know to be supportive of our position, but who is also clearly independent of us and above all CREDIBLE. The core conclusions of the piece most relevant to our position should be:
– any association is of minimal clinical significance due to the widely documented low levels of incidence
– diabetes is seen more often with those with schizophrenia …
– the risk of any increase in association is equivalent across anti-psychotics"
http://www.palgrave-journals.com/biosoc/journal/v5/n2/full/biosoc20105a.html
Posted by: Carol | March 15, 2011 at 06:07 PM
OOPS -The book I was referring to is called Vaccine Epidemic NOT Vaccine Damage. I wouldn't want anyone buying Offit's book by mistake!!
http://www.vaccineepidemic.com/
Posted by: Jenny Allan | March 15, 2011 at 05:34 PM
A little bit of Paul Offit 'anti-vacciners' invective:-
http://afludiary.blogspot.com/2011/02/dr-paul-offit-dangers-of-anti-vaccine.html
"In “The Monsters Are Due On Vaccine Street” I wrote:
Practically every day I see articles on the internet purporting to tell the `truth’ about vaccines, and in nearly every case it is about as far removed from the truth as you can get and still remain on this planet.
Their techniques are simple, but effective.
First, they use biased and inflammatory language, filled with incendiary adjectives like `deadly’, `useless’, `dangerous’, or `untested’ practically anytime the word `vaccine’ is used."
Of course Dr Offit's latest book title would never be categorised as 'biased and inflammatory language' or would it??
"Deadly Choices: How the Anti-Vaccine Movement Threatens Us All." (I am sure this book cover's startling resemblance to the excellent 'Vaccine Damage' book is puely coincidental, and I am sure that we would not grudge Dr Offit getting a few royalies as a result of buyers on Amazon confusing the two books; they both 'come up' as choices at the same time.)
How about “The Monsters Are Due On Vaccine Street”?? ....biased?? imflammatory??? We have a saying in the UK about 'pots calling kettles black'!!!
This is OFFIT ON INFANT CONVULSIONS POST VACCINATION:-
http://www.blogher.com/interview-vaccine-expert-dr-paul-offit?page=0,1
INTERVIEWER "There has been a report that the current swine flu vaccine has been causing febrile seizures in some people. Could you talk about this, and clarify the difference between febrile and classic seizures?"
OFFIT "First of all, it appears that it possibly may have been associated with an increased risk of seizures due to fever, but that's still to be determined. I wouldn't say that's solid yet.
There are about 150,000 children who suffer febrile seizures in this country; my daughter had a febrile seizures, actually, associated with the DTaP vaccine. They're hard to watch -- my daughter's was a grand mal seizure, it lasted for a couple of minutes, she was out of it for a couple of minutes.
The data are very clear -- febrile seizures don't cause sequelae, we know they're benign. Anything that causes fevers in a child less than two at risk for febrile seizures can cause febrile seizures. Ear infections can cause febrile seizures, colds can cause febrile seizures, not just vaccines. One shouldn't make more of this than it is."
Just in case any of you parents are confused about these mealy mouthed 'reassurances'. The official advice about ALL infant seizures is to have the child medically checked out immediately following the seizure. It is perfectly true that seizures do not cause pathological conditions BUT they can be a SYMPTOM of them. I strongly advise new parents to wise up on what to do if their baby should have a seizure, although Offit is correct in saying that most have no lasting effects..
If Dr Offit was giving out this kind of duff advice in the UK, he would be reported to the GMC under 'fitness to practise' guidelines.
Posted by: Jenny Allan | March 15, 2011 at 06:28 AM
SIDS seems to be a default category that is used when the powers that be cannot (or do not want to) figure out the cause of death.
Aasa
Posted by: Aasa | March 14, 2011 at 11:03 PM
Re: SIDS posts
"Scientific evidence shows that babies can have severe adverse reactions to vaccinations at critical intervals following their shots, and that vaccination is the more likely cause of cot death and shaken baby syndrome." Viera Scheibner PhD http://www.whale.to/v/scheibner.html
Posted by: AutismGrandma | March 14, 2011 at 09:57 PM
Simultaneous feeling of heart felt sadness and laughter. Sadness for the constant death, maiming and injury. Laughter at the ridicule without substance from Offit. It is an unconscious and sick individual that insists this is not a problem. I can't fathom a human being more inhumane. WOW, I just typed that as...
"huMAIM"
I'm just want to thank all the parents here and J.B.. Without all you, I would not have the insight of how horrific this is. Thank you everyday.
STOP AUTISM NOW
Posted by: STOP AUTISM NOW | March 14, 2011 at 06:59 PM
In the mid-1990s the U.S. medical industry contrived a new infant death category as Sudden Unexpected Infant Death (SUID) that instantly cut U.S. SIDS deaths in half - from 5,000 per year to 2,500 per year that is close to what it is 16 years later. But, still a total of the two categories of 5,000 per year.
SUID deaths were declared caused by parents accidentally sleeping with their infant causing accidental suffocation or by fluffy blankets (though autopsies could not discern WHY infants actually stopped breathing).
Today the U.S. persists with the godawful tragedies of about 5,000 combined SIDS and SUID deaths a year.
Since toxic outgassing of plastics of crib-mattresses and mattress covers was eliminated back in the 1970s (have to double-check that date), and since "Back to Sleep" is termed a success, today's crib/SIDS/SUID deaths come right along with all the vaccine shots/doses given at 2 months, 4 months, 6 months - and then they begin falling.
Sandy Mintx/Gottstein in the prior post and her(?) testimony certainly indicates SIDS/SUID is indeed caused by vaccines.
Posted by: Autism Uncle | March 14, 2011 at 06:24 PM
This parrot is dead!
IS NOT!
Posted by: Stagmom Cleese | March 14, 2011 at 05:54 PM
So, who looks foolish now? Not to mention heartless.
Offit's tactical blunders are straight out of Monty Python:
"Oh, what a giveaway!"
Posted by: nhokkanen | March 14, 2011 at 05:36 PM
As I have said before, Paul Offit is a dangerous man who is supposed to be in a position of trust? this man is clearly out for himself, he could care less that vaccines are causing harm and deaths!!!!! these comments he made about the japanese should not be taken lightly, and CHOP should censor and take action on their supposedly top infectious doctor and refrain him from making such inhumane commments. Offit needs to go, his stupid remarks are enough, I think everyone needs to write to CHOP and let them know that we dont want him representing our children!!! it will probably do no good but at least its a start...this man is crazy in my opinion.
Posted by: Rod | March 14, 2011 at 04:40 PM
Well said, Garbo.
Posted by: Sandy Gottstein | March 14, 2011 at 04:08 PM
Offit is like a sad yuppie from a Tom Wolfe novel, incapable of understanding that his cocooned world order has ceased to exist. Yes, by all means, lets blame it on SIDS and conveniently forget the cluster of SIDS in Tennessee that was linked to a hot lot of DTP. I guess the Japanese market is too small to break up the big lots of vaccine and ship them to separate areas to avoid suspicion. Or maybe the Japanese actually monitor vaccine safety. Can you imagine the FDA ever suspending suspect vaccines and finding and announcing diluent contamination in the span of a week? After just six deaths? Never. And that's the whole problem.
Posted by: Garbo | March 14, 2011 at 03:11 PM
So five kids die in Minnesota from Hib and it was mentioned oh, by about 10,000 news agencies. Almost half the kids were vaccinated. Now 6 kids die from the vaccine and the only news agency to cover it is, you guessed, AOA.
Posted by: AutismNewsBeatMeOffit | March 14, 2011 at 02:07 PM
Here are some relevant vaers reports re: the vaccines being recalled:
https://www.vaccinationnews.com/sites/default/files/Prevnar_DTaPIPV_deaths_0_days.pdf
https://www.vaccinationnews.com/sites/default/files/Prevnar_all_events_by_age_event_category_and_onset_interval.pdf
https://www.vaccinationnews.com/sites/default/files/Hib_serious_reports_by_age_onset_interval_and_event_category.pdf
https://www.vaccinationnews.com/sites/default/files/combined_Hib_DTaP_by_age_event_category_and_onset_interval.pddf
The search terms are at the bottom.
Are they all coincidences? How many coincidences does it take to make a light bulb go on?
The truth is, other countries seem to have a considerably better history of caring more for their children than they do for vaccines. We don't even recall known "hot lots". http://bit.ly/ea9Atp
As for SIDS re: vaccines, here is what I testified to the IOM in 1993 (for all the good it did): http://www.vaccinationnews.com/Authors/SandyGottstein/IOMTest1993.htm
20 years later we still act like vaccines could have nothing to do with SIDS, even though we have no idea what the SIDS rate was prior to vaccination or is among the never-vaccinated. That's some powerful lobby. Duh.
And contamination? Huge, ongoing problem:
http://bit.ly/e5vSKh
http://bit.ly/f4VeC5
(When I get the time, I'll update the refs.)
Posted by: Sandy Gottstein | March 14, 2011 at 01:35 PM
SIDS is a non-specific term: you cannot say that it is a cause of death. We are in the same logically fallacious territory as saying a vaccine cannot have caused autism because autism is a non-specific diagnosis and therefore doesn't have a cause.
Posted by: John Stone | March 14, 2011 at 01:02 PM
Thank you for this piece JB. Regarding Offit's idea that the babies could have died of SIDS. I suspect that "sudden infant death", that is a perfectly healthy baby suddenly dying, is the result of vaccines they just received, not the fact that they went to sleep on their stomachs.
Posted by: Mfischer | March 14, 2011 at 12:51 PM
I appreciate your ability to put everything in context and provide chronology to give us all proper perspective. I recently came across your Jan. piece on Anderson Cooper and Brian Deer which summarizes the long story so expertly. Let's hope CNN and Anderson Cooper read the documents you provided them. You may like the video I created: "Who is Brian Deer? The Man Accusing Dr. Wakefield of Fraud in the BMJ" (see the Reference tab at Duty to Inform on Facebook).
Posted by: DutytoInform | March 14, 2011 at 12:07 PM
The Japanese took the prudent route by suspending the vaccinations pending investigation. At this point in time, in their utter devastation from the earthquake/tsunami/nuclear disasters, and when they need all the help they can get from the U.S. they may be capitulating from the real causes to stay in the U.S.' good graces.
Posted by: Julie Penny | March 14, 2011 at 11:37 AM
Oh good, suspending Prevnar should slow down the replacement of the vaccine strains with more virulent non-vaccine strains:
"With routine childhood vaccination using heptavalent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine [PCV 7 aka Prevnar], one concern has been the potential for emergence and expansion of replacement disease caused by serotypes not contained in the heptavalent conjugate vaccine....Alaska Native children are experiencing replacement invasive pneumococcal disease with serotypes not covered by heptavalent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine....The illnesses due to IPD replacement disease among Alaska Native children were similar to IPD cases before PCV7 introduction except for increases in the proportion of hospitalized IPD, pneumonia, and empyema cases."
http://jama.ama-assn.org/content/297/16/1784.full
Posted by: Carol | March 14, 2011 at 11:25 AM
Does Merck still fund the Maurice Hilleman chair of infectious disease to the tune of 1.5 million dollars? As a lowly clinical MD in academic medicine at a University Medical center I find it problematic that drug company lunches, pens, and pads are verboten as they may unduly influence clinicians but 1.5 million dollar chairs are welcome and do not influece the opinions of key opinion leaders
Posted by: clinical monkey | March 14, 2011 at 11:01 AM
As I write this, Japan is attempting to contain a potential meltdown at an earthquake damaged nuclear power station, in addition to coping with thousands of dead citizens and hundreds rendered homeless by this tsunami holocaust.
It seems facile to even comment on the inane (or insane) utterings of Paul Offit, himself a very much ‘interested party’ in the continuation of ‘forcing’ vaccines onto increasingly unwilling and sceptical populations. Bovine like, we are all supposed to submit ourselves and our children unquestioningly to more and more vaccines imposed in order to maintain some fictitious concept called ‘herd immunity’, (bovine again), never mind that vaccine manufacturers and patent holders, including Offit, have themselves complete ‘immunity’ from prosecution or litigation, caused by contamination or hitherto unseen consequences, often as a result of these same vaccines being rushed on the market without properly conducted or sufficiently rigorous clinical trials.
I have always regarded the Japanese people as eminently sensible, regarding their vaccination programmes and protocols. In the UK we ONCE had a ‘safety first’ agenda regarding vaccines and medications. If there was the merest doubt about safety or efficacy, the product was withdrawn and only reintroduced if and when further safety checks and modifications had taken place. One of the first single measles vaccines was quickly withdrawn after family doctors reported widespread problems. Now the doctors get struck off if they DARE to question the safety of vaccination programmes; indeed in the UK the GPs only get a bonus payment if they can prove a 95% compliance rate for vaccinations. Now it is PROFIT first and patient safety a poor second, or even third after political and medical establishment interests and face saving strategies.
It is insulting for Paul Offit to criticise the Japanese Government for their safety conscious decisions regarding this contaminated unsafe vaccine. I only wish the persons holding high offices in my country had as much integrity as their counterparts in Japan.
Posted by: Jenny Allan | March 14, 2011 at 10:42 AM
Yeah right paul. No money from the drug company? But lets not mention the laundered millions via the royalty co and the pharma funded chair at CHOP. Weasel words by PO. No suprise there. Offit-you dont have to put on that red dress tonight (Sting)
Posted by: Anonymous | March 14, 2011 at 10:31 AM
The bigger issue is this...now that the supreme ct has spoken, the same thing can happen in the us and no one will even have to investigate. Never mind that no one knows the cause of sids. PO is an ahole...but he knows that he can say and do whatever he wants now bc there is NO right to discovery in the US now for vaccines. Even bailey banks and hannah poling could have been victims of bad batches. If that is the case, you can study groups and vaccines until the cows come home and will never find it bc we do not get to know the lot numbers anymore.
For all we know, that has always been the problem...whatever contamination kids got in their live virus vaccines, a bad batch with who knows what. That is why they nerd to yse thimerosal...imagine the increased chance of contamination with 36 doses of vaccine.
Posted by: Anonymous | March 14, 2011 at 10:15 AM
Wow. Let's just hope Japan doesn't turn to Offit for advice on nuclear reactors.
どのようなクソのバカ.
Posted by: Donna L. | March 14, 2011 at 10:13 AM
"In all likelihood, Offit says, the four deaths are likely to be sudden infant death syndrome or another cause; he says two of the children had serious underlying health conditions. Any time a large number of people are given a vaccine, some of them will get sick and die just by chance…"
First of all .. was it routine for Japan's doctors to give this particular vaccine to children with "serious underlying health conditions" .. or .. do Japan's doctors normally vaccinate children regardless if they have "serious underlying health conditions"?
In any event, I gotta give it to the "marketing director" for his finely tuned "damage control" skills .. immediate .. public dismissal of any connection between the vaccine and the deaths under investigation .. because .. "in any large number, some children get sick and die just by chance."
Posted by: Bob Moffitt | March 14, 2011 at 08:45 AM
Wow, I would really like to hear what the parents of those babies think-
Posted by: Katie Wright | March 14, 2011 at 08:40 AM
Of course, it may be that six deaths is not a lot. According to VAERS there have been 183 reports of death in the USA associated with Offit's Rotateq vaccine since it was introduced 5 years ago, and while reports do not prove causation passive recording systems are widely held to pick up only between 10 and 1% of cases. The proportion of reports to hospitalisations and death seem remarkably consistent since I first looked in March 2008:
2008 2270:523:58
2011 6468:1722:183
http://tinyurl.com/3a5n9t
http://tinyurl.com/3ysn8g
http://tinyurl.com/3xstxj
Anyway, it is obviously not in Offit's interest to encourage curiosity.
Posted by: John Stone | March 14, 2011 at 08:38 AM
Can you sue the syringe manufacturer? The needle company? The plunger people? The folks who make the dye for the ink that's on the syringe? The shipping company who delivers the shots to the warehouse - to the doctor's office? All of the above?
Posted by: Stagmom | March 14, 2011 at 07:57 AM
Sanofi is withdrawing 200000 vaccine doses because the syringes are contaminated.
Hmmm.
Posted by: GH | March 14, 2011 at 07:45 AM
Japan has a history of acting foolishly. Nanking, Pearl Harbor, living in a country subject to typhoons and earthquakes. How can you challenge him that the Japanese people act foolishly? Just because it is a condescending, racist, jingoistic, paternalistic, megalomaniacal, thoughtless, heartless, thing to say- no matter. The big white chief has spoken, now the inferior intellect of the Japanese must (pardon the pun) bow before the medical omniscience of the Western medical expert. Oh- BTW- which country has better health outcomes in all categories from pediatrics to geriatrics and everything in between? Japan or US?
Posted by: Ottschnaut | March 14, 2011 at 07:20 AM
Offit is not a smart man, he's just another in a long list of pharma-funded sociopaths.
But if people are willing look past a connection this obvious, just because someone like Paul Offit says " .. there's no connection", then people really must not want to know the truth.
Posted by: Barry | March 14, 2011 at 07:14 AM
Offit recognises that everything depends on blanket denial: once you introduce a culture of due caution the vaccine schedule as we know it will have had it: the thin end of the wedge.
Posted by: John Stone | March 14, 2011 at 06:34 AM