False Statements from David Tayloe and Paul Offit About Dangerous, Withdrawn Vaccine
By Jake Crosby
Recently, Dr. David Tayloe, past president of the American Academy of Pediatrics, gave false statements about Dr. Paul Offit’s involvement in both the approval and the removal of the first Rotavirus vaccine, RotaShield. The vaccine was taken off the market more than a decade ago because it caused intussusception – a severe gastrointestinal condition that killed eight children. Last year, Paul Offit denied his involvement in RotaShield’s approval, claiming he did not vote to add it to the CDC’s childhood vaccination schedule, when he in fact voted for it three times.
These are hardly the first false statements to have come from Tayloe and Offit, however. Paul Offit previously said that an infant can conservatively take up to 10,000 vaccines at once and David Tayloe claimed on the Today Show that “credible studies don’t show any relationship between vaccines and permanent injury.”
Tayloe’s latest false statement followed my question to “Pox” author Michael Willrich, who was speaking at the College of Physicians of Philadelphia. I asked him if he was aware that Paul Offit was involved in the approval of RotaShield – the vaccine that caused intussusception in Willrich’s own infant son. Professor Willrich did not answer my question, but said he would talk to me afterwards. Now I know why.
Willrich’s talk was being taped by Book TV for CSPAN-2. He then answered my question privately.
In my article about the talk – The Original Paul Offit – I described a white-haired man who stood up right after me and flat-out denied what I said (46:28):
“To be perfectly clear, when the data came forward on the RotaShield incidents of intussusception Dr. Offit was among the first to say with the ACFE (sic) – the council – ‘this must be withdrawn,’ and that was not in his interest in the way it’s been portrayed here.” [gesturing towards me]
Although I had suspected it at the time, watching the C-SPAN2 video now has confirmed that the white-haired man who did not introduce himself at the lecture was indeed Dr. David Tayloe Jr., former president of the American Academy of Pediatrics whose father was successfully sued over a DTP vaccine injury sustained by one of his patients in the 1980s. The $3.5 million lawsuit was settled for $1.1 million, costing Dr. David Tayloe Sr. $400,000, which was not covered by his insurance.
Despite Tayloe Jr.’s claim that voting RotaShield onto the schedule was not in Paul Offit’s interest, it was in fact very much in his interest because its approval opened up the market to future Rotavirus vaccines, including Offit’s. Secondly, Tayloe argued that Offit was “among the first” to say the vaccine should be withdrawn. That statement was also false – Offit merely said intussusception should be included on the label as a side effect – hardly a call for the vaccine’s withdrawal. Furthermore, Offit only voted to add the vaccine onto the schedule, never to remove it.
According to a blogger and proponent of “neurodiversity”, Paul Offit wrote her the following claim in an email exchange (boldface mine):
Although I was brought onto the ACIP [Advisory Council on Immunization Practices] because of my expertise in rotaviruses and intestinal immunology, I didn’t first vote until October 1998. So I didn’t get to vote RotaShield onto the infant vaccine schedule. [He only missed the first vote, but voted the three subsequent times] However, I did vote to approve RotaShield for the VFC [Vaccines For Children] program, which in those days could follow the vote to put a vaccine onto the schedule by several months. I was allowed to vote because I was not involved with a competing vaccine (our vaccine was still years away). Ironically, when I voted to approve RotaShield for the VFC program, I couldn’t imagine how anyone could declare a conflict of interest because the product would only compete with the vaccine we were working on. But I guess I was dammed if I did and dammed if I didn’t.
In three out of four votes, including all three votes while Offit was on the ACIP, he voted in favor of the council’s position on vaccinating against Rotavirus with RotaShield. Then, as a result of ACIP’s advice, the CDC published the renewed vaccination schedule, which included RotaShield among its recommendations.
Therefore, Paul Offit voted RotaShield onto the infant vaccine schedule – three times – and, like Tayloe, denied it later. I wonder how they will rewrite history 10 years from now - perhaps claim that Paul Offit was the first to point out the pig virus in his own vaccine and say it should be withdrawn.
Jake Crosby has Asperger Syndrome and is a contributing editor to Age of Autism. He is a 2011 graduate of Brandeis University with a BA in both History and Health: Science, Society and Policy. He currently attends The George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Services where he is studying for an MPH in epidemiology.
Hi Jake,
I noticed in your byline that you have Asperger's and are studying Epi at GWU. I just started the MPH in Epi program there too, and my husband has Asperger's. He and I are very interested in Aspie issues and would love to chat with you sometime. Please feel free to get in touch with me via email.
Jen
Posted by: Jen G. | November 29, 2011 at 11:04 AM
Rock and a Hard Place,
I don't have any experience with Humira, I'm afraid.
I'm very, very sorry to hear about your daughter.
Carol
Posted by: Carol | November 08, 2011 at 11:55 PM
No one but the families of the injured are listening and researching. There are almost enough of us to really start making a difference, and they know it.
Posted by: KFuller | November 08, 2011 at 11:30 PM
Jake- superb analysis!
I cannot stand Offit/Tayloe playing dumb. OBVIOUSLY Offit would favor adding rotavirus vaccines to the schedule because it gave him a ready-made market when his Rota-teq vaccine came out.
Every time i hear about Offit, i feel like i need to go take a shower!
As usual - well done, Jake!
-Bob
Posted by: Bob Sullivan | November 08, 2011 at 10:45 PM
Rotateq contains a live virus vaccine that can be veryu contagious. So, giving it to a newborn is assinine. The next move....go take a look at the marketing stragegy on medscape...is to say that the basically toddler illness should now be given to adults!
The whole thing is one big marketing joke now. Just take a look at the "studies"....look carefully for "might", "may", "should" ..meaning...we are going to use rhetoric 101 to snow you over with the art of persuasion. PO said himself he was just like his dad...a bullshitter!
Posted by: allenisnosaint | November 08, 2011 at 09:12 PM
(Benedetta, thank you. I am truly sorry for all of your vax-related troubles, too.)
Posted by: Donna L. | November 08, 2011 at 08:22 PM
Donna L said:-
"The newer versions of rotavirus vaccine - RotaTeq (Offit) and Rotarix - have both been associated with intussusception and death, just like the withdrawn RotaShield vaccine."
Recently, our UK Prime Minister borrowed £millions, to be repaid by taxpayers, to buy vaccines for African and other third world children via GAVI, 2011. GlaxoSmithKline very 'generously' agreed to sell their dodgy Rotarix vaccine to GAVI for half price.
http://www.salisonline.org/market-research/gsk-to-make-available-rotavirus-vaccine-rotarix-to-gavi-alliance-at-2-50-per-dosage/
In view of the fact that Rotarix had already been suspended by the FPA for viral contamination the previous year, this looks suspiciously like GSK ‘offloading’ stocks of otherwise unsaleable vaccines.
http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/718941
“March 22, 2010 — The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced today viral contamination of GlaxoSmithKline's Rotarix vaccine. The agency is recommending that doctors stop using the vaccine until further investigations are complete.”
I was pleased to read in the Bolen Report that the African countries are at last rebelling against potentially harmful vaccines getting dumped on them!!
http://www.bolenreport.com/unep%20mercury.htm
"1) On the first day of the United Nations Environment Programme - Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee to prepare a global legally binding instrument on Mercury (INC3) being held in Nairobi, Kenya, Africa, the African Delegation, representing fifty four (54) of the one hundred fifty (150) total delegates rose and spoke to the Assembly stating EMPHATICALLY that they don't care a wit about the WHO recommendations, nor the US CDC positions on Thimerosal in vaccines, they want a word wide ban on Thimerosal (mercury) in vaccines right now."
Oh and well done Jake & Co. You people are AWESOME!
Posted by: Jenny Allan | November 08, 2011 at 08:02 PM
Eventually the "truth" shall be exposed!
Well done Jake.
Elizabeth
Posted by: AussieMum | November 08, 2011 at 06:40 PM
Donna L;
Once again I am truly sorry. Dr. Wakefield addressed in a recent speech, to a room full of doctors of that very problem, that too many vaccines given at one time confussed and hide which vaccine did what. It was linked here on this website.
But back to Michael Willrich and his cavalier attitude about his son's vaccine injury. It seems to me that he left the little woman all alone to change those diapers, while he looked up quotes from grief strickened Benjamin Franklin.
Benjamin Franklin at least grieved for his son enough to write it down, but not Michael Willrich.
Posted by: Benedetta | November 08, 2011 at 05:32 PM
Does Paul Offit truly believe that one should only abstain from committee voting if one is or represents a competitor to the vaccine being proposed for approval? Does he think that his resultant profit following voting approval is not a conflict of interest? And/or is he saying that because the committee didn't force his abstention, he need not?
Ethics demand that policymakers avoid even the appearance of a conflict of interest.
Posted by: nhokkanen | November 08, 2011 at 05:00 PM
Don't these turkeys know it's not the act that sinks you, it's the cover-up?
Posted by: Garbo | November 08, 2011 at 03:05 PM
Benedetta,
The newer versions of rotavirus vaccine - RotaTeq (Offit) and Rotarix - have both been associated with intussusception and death, just like the withdrawn RotaShield vaccine.
http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/vpd-vac/rotavirus/intussusception-studies-acip.htm
http://www.ageofautism.com/2008/08/rotateq-vaccine.html
The only difference is that now, nobody is investigating these reactions and nobody is pulling these vaccines off the market.
Did the RotaShield vaccine cause permanent damage to my son? I can't know for sure...I can tell you that in the days and weeks following this vaccine, he had large amounts of blood in his stool, followed by many months of severe constipation and horrible discomfort. The problem is, he was also given DTaP, Hib, and IPV vaccines at the same visit, so (conveniently for his pediatrician and pharma) we have no way of knowing which vaccine caused his reaction.
Posted by: Donna L. | November 08, 2011 at 02:34 PM
Thanks for setting the record straight for us once again Jake! Paul Offit likes to always point out the children that have died from Measles, Mumps etc... but quickly forgets the ones that died directly from his vaccine for which he made millions. (He also seem to quickly forget those that have died or have been injured from vaccines.)
Posted by: Son in Recovery | November 08, 2011 at 01:00 PM
Donna L;
I am sorry for your son.
But listening to Michael Willrich - he seems okay with his son's vaccine reaction. It did not appear to be part of his historical carreer or even part of his personal life.
Donna L; I am lead to believe that this vaccine injury is minor and something that can easily be accepted and lived with? Is that true?
If not - then Michael Willrich either needs a lot more time to grow angier, or needs to spend more time home with his son, or letting his wife do all the care taking as he travels around the country doing big important things, or he is a hopless whimp????
So on to the naive:
The last woman to ask a question in this video - the one that had to stand on her toes - who asked about what role the government was going play - perhaps becoming Food Nazis in the health issues of obsesity and diabeties. Was she playing naive and innocent or was she really naive and innocent in not reliazing just how linked those two diseases are to vaccines??? Anyone out there know anything about her?
Sad though - because I think she probably does not have a clue?
And by the way; Way off the subject though;
I was in the health department yesterday (first time ever) trying to get my cholestrol checked (I was asked all kinds of filthy and personal sex questions) -- all going into the CDC data base - I wished I said - I am not answering but being a WHIMP like Michael Willrich -- I did. Athough when she asked if all my vaccines were up to date - I asked if she could right in the margins that the CDC could stick it.
Now back to the subject:
On one of the walls of the health department totally covering it- so they don't ever have to paint it were plastered large pictures of plates, with food on it with titles about food proportions; and half the plate should be vegetables.
The other wall also totally covered over with information on diabetes. They love a picture of a fat bellied human being testing himself with a painful needle puncher - sure don't want that disease!
All of course LINKED TO VACCINES. Without vaccines messing up the metabolism there would be no epidemic of obestity and diabeties. IF the American People ever figure it out - there is going to be Hell to pay!
Posted by: Benedetta | November 08, 2011 at 12:28 PM
Carol,
I am interested on your take on Humira because my daugther was just proscribed the drug to treat her GI issues. We have tried steroids and 6MP and have found nothing that has worked to alleviate her pain. She has significant self injurious behavior issues relating to her GI disease and we have heard that Humira is helping kids with similar issues but we are definately concerned about the listed side effects. Do you or anyone else have direct experience with this drug for your child with autism and GI issues? Thank you.
Posted by: Rock and a Hard Place | November 08, 2011 at 11:56 AM
Way to wrestle with these weasels, Jake!
Posted by: Jen | November 08, 2011 at 10:30 AM
Does Paul Offit not know how to spell "damned"? Curious.
On a related topic:
"How did Abbott Laboratories' Humira become an $8 billion a year drug, capable of anchoring an entirely new drug company as Abbott splits into two?
How did it become a blockbuster even though such drugs (which include Remicade, Enbrel and Cimzia and are called TNF blockers) are linked to TB, rare cancers and lethal infections like histoplasmosis?
How did it become a blockbuster even though Humira is only approved for the rare conditions of rheumatoid arthritis, juvenile idiopathic arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis adults, Crohn's disease, psoriatic arthritis and chronic plaque psoriasis?
The same way all expensive, dangerous drugs become blockbusters: an easy touch FDA, bought doctors and doctor groups, PR firms to establish diseases as 'public health threats' and massive direct-to-consumer advertising!"
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL1111/S00058/blockbuster-us-drug-causes-cancer-tb-and-lethal-infections.htm?
Posted by: Carol | November 08, 2011 at 09:20 AM
I think RotaShield will go down (very quietly) in history as the very last vaccine ever to be taken off the market. Even though my son got - and reacted to - that filthy vaccine, I still long for the days of 1999, when the medical and pharmaceutical industries would even consider examining more closely the effects of a vaccine and making the ethical decision to pull it off the market. Those days are long, long gone.
Posted by: Donna L. | November 08, 2011 at 08:49 AM