Barbara Loe Fisher on IOM Vaccine Report
By Anne Dachel
The news that the Institute
of Medicine has again
cleared vaccines of safety concerns hit the media last week.
It reminds me of the famous 2004 IOM Report that was supposed to end the debate over vaccines and autism once and for all: THE SCIENCE WAS IN BACK IN 2004---VACCINES DON’T CAUSE AUTISM. IT’S TIME TO MOVE ON. This was of course only a little detour and it wasn’t long before the controversy was in full swing as though the IOM Report had never happened. And although the media still continued to refer to the 2004 Report as conclusive for years, the public didn’t buy it. There are just too many kids out there whose parents say they were fine until they were vaccinated. Vaccines triggered their autism. Doctors have no alternate explanation. They can only point to studies—all linked to the vaccines makers---showing no link.
Why should we accept another IOM Report? In 2004, there was not yet Hannah Poling, not yet the 83 children whose cases had been compensated by the federal government, and not yet the two recent cases talked about this past week. Things are piling up and not in the government’s favor.
Back in 2004, the U.S. autism rate was one in every 166 children. Today it’s one in every 88. And officials remain clueless as to the cause, prevention, or cure.
Today we have own resources. Leslie Manookian told me that over a million people (more likely a million and a half) have watched her stunning movie, The Greater Good.
Today we have more science on our side. There are over 200 independent studies done by well-credentialed experts that raise serious concerns about vaccine side effects shown on The Greater Good website.
So what’s wrong with this latest attempt to shore up waning confidence in the vaccine program? Plenty. Despite coverage like the Reuters story, Vaccine timetable for children is safe, experts say, the science simply isn’t there.
Reuters: “IOM's panel of independent scientists looked at the schedule of immunizations and all available scientific literature to determine safety. They also reviewed CDC and the Food and Drug Administration databases that track side effects.”
“In what they called the most comprehensive review to date, scientists at the Institute of Medicine (IOM) said there is no evidence that giving children vaccines according to the recommended timetable causes other problems such as autism or asthma.”
There’s nothing new here. “Studies show no link” has been around for over two decades and it simply doesn’t work. Lots of official initials like CDC, FDA, and IOM, don’t impress the public. As soon as I read about the new IOM Report, I immediately thought of what the late Dr. Bernadine Healy, former head of the National Institutes of Health and past president of the American Red Cross and the American Heart Association, said about the vaccine—autism controversy in 2008 on CBS News.http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-500803_162-4090144-500803.html
CBS: “According to Healy, when she began
researching autism and vaccines she found credible published, peer-reviewed
scientific studies that support the idea of an association. That seemed to
counter what many of her colleagues had been saying for years. She dug a little
deeper and was surprised to find that the government has not embarked upon some
of the most basic research that could help answer the question of a link.
“The more
she dug, she says, the more she came to believe the government and medical
establishment were intentionally avoiding the question because they were afraid
of the answer.
“Why?
Healy says some in the government make the mistake of treating vaccines as an
all-or-nothing proposition. The argument goes something like this: everybody
gets vaccinated at the same time with the same vaccines or nobody will get
vaccinated and long-gone deadly diseases will re-emerge. (When I asked about
cases of brain damage resulting in autism that have been quietly compensated by
the government in vaccine court over the years, one government official
recently told me that ‘it's still better overall to get vaccinated than not to get
vaccinated."’)...
“Lastly, Healy says the government has a long way to go to even do basic research that could get at the heart of what she believes is an open question. For example: why in the past decade hasn't the government compared the autism/ADD rate of unvaccinated children with that of vaccinated children? If the rate is the same, it tends to point away from vaccines. If the rate is markedly lower in unvaccinated children, it tends to point toward vaccines.”
On the CBS video, Healy said, "I think the government or certain public health officials in the government have been too quick to dismiss the concerns of these families without studying the population that got sick. I haven't seen major studies that focus on 300 kids who got autistic symptoms within a period of a few weeks of a vaccines. ..."
This CBS interview was 2008, four years after the IOM Report so obvisouly Dr. Healy hadn’t been convinced that all the science was in. Now five years later, we again are being told by major news outlets the same thing they said in 2004: vaccines are safe; they don’t cause autism.
The big headlines out there assure us once again, vaccines are
safe—the IOM says so.
U.S. News & World Report: Childhood Vaccine Schedule Is Safe, Report Says
NBC News: Crowded vaccine schedule for babies safe, study finds
Fox News: Vaccine timetable for children is safe, US experts say
ABC News: Childhood Vaccine Schedule Safe, IOM Says
What is the basis for the new safety claims? Did they government finally do the comparison study of never-vaccinated and fully vaccinated children that Dr. Healy called for? Can they show us a comparable rate of autism among never-vaccinated children? Did they look at the children who regressed into autism following routine vaccinations? Do they have proof that it wasn’t the vaccines? Have they finally run studies on the cumulative effect of the ever-expanding vaccination schedule?
It should come as no surprise that the answer to each of the above questions is NO.
Barbara Loe Fisher, head of the National Vaccine Information Center, put out a response to the IOM Report.
NVIC: “The non-profit National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC.org) supports three out of five recommendations made by an IOM committee asked by federal health officials to make recommendations for studying the safety of the current U.S. child vaccine schedule. NVIC is calling for transparency, independence and replication in future research to assess the safety of federal vaccine policies, including evaluating health outcomes of vaccinated and unvaccinated children and those using alternative vaccine schedules.
(Con’t. )
The NVIC Summary of the 2013 IOM Report outlined how this report failed to thoroughly address vaccine safety questions.
Barbara Loe Fisher was quoted by Amanda Gardner in the US News story, Childhood Vaccine Schedule Is Safe, Report Says.
“‘The IOM Committee has done a good job outlining core parental concerns about the safety of the U.S. child vaccine schedule and identifying the large knowledge gaps that cause parents to continue to ask doctors questions they can't answer,’ said Barbara Loe Fisher, co-founder and president of the National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC), a nonprofit organization ‘advocating for the institution of vaccine safety and informed consent protections in the public health system.’
“But, she added, ‘The most shocking part of this report is that the committee could only identify fewer than 40 studies published in the past 10 years that addressed the current 0-6-year-old child vaccine schedule. We still don't know if the doubling of the numbers of doses of vaccines that children are given since 1982 is associated with health problems in premature infants or development of chronic brain and immune system disorders, such as asthma, atopy, allergy, autoimmunity, autism, learning disorders, communication disorders, developmental disorders, intellectual disability, attention-deficit disorder, disruptive behavior disorder, tics and Tourette's syndrome, seizures, febrile seizures and epilepsy.’"
Barbara was also interviewed by NPR in a discussion where Dr. Alfred Berg, a member of the IOM committee declared, “There was no evidence of any adverse health effects related to the vaccine schedule.”
Barbara Loe Fisher: “We do not have the scientific evidence to assure doctors and parents that the current vaccine schedule is safe. They make statements like we are reassured, but there are less than 40 studies that they had to look at. That's not nearly enough science to give parents confidence that the current vaccine schedule is safe.”
I asked Barbara more about her thoughts on this latest IOM Report and this is what she said.
"It is a very bad idea to place the future of vaccine safety science research in the hands of the same health officials working in federal agencies, which develop and patent new vaccines, regulate the vaccine industry, make universal use policy for vaccines, and aggressively promote vaccine mandates by the states. That is asking the fox to guard the chicken coop. The IOM's last two recommendations discouraging prospective clinical trials, including cohort trials, and encouraging the use of closed patient databases like VSD to study the safety of federal vaccine policies will result in more junk vaccine science that the public will not trust. These closed patient databases operated by CDC in collaboration with for-profit corporations mean that future conclusions DHHS comes up with about the safety of the vaccine schedule cannot be independently verified or replicated. Transparency, independence and replication is the hallmark of good science because it prevents fraud in science.
"It is sad that IOM did not take this last opportunity to open up the way for vaccine safety science that people can trust to be performed. It is up to the people, now, to find a way to get the necessary science done outside of the conflict-of-interest ridden government health agencies and to fight for their informed consent rights in the states. Through the online Advocacy Portal (www.NVICAdvocacy.org) NVIC is helping parents take action in states like Colorado, Texas, Arizona, Oregon and others, where this year the pharmaceutical-medical trade-government lobby is working overtime to take vaccine exemptions away. This IOM report will be another piece of evidence to show legislators that doctors operating the mandatory vaccination system in the U.S. have developed a child vaccine schedule that has placed the love of power and money before love for children and respect for good science."
Anne Dachel is Media Editor for Age of Autism.
@Paul S.
are you kidding??...please tell me you are...what's the difference to the vaccine brain-injured child, or to his/her parents??
splitting hairs is one thing, but the ultimate conclusion of what is really happening remains the same. All the public health organizations are to be held accountable for this ongoing tragedy of conducting human experiments on the most vulnerable.
Posted by: Stand Up!! | January 30, 2013 at 11:43 AM
"Things are piling up and not in the government’s favor."
We have MORE than enough evidence NOW.
Two Simple Messages can bring down this whole corrupt genocidal mess.
1) Do NOT "Vaccinate"
2) HHS KNOWS "Vaccination" is a MAJOR factor in Autism and neurodegeneration to include all the ASDs, Alzheimer's, Dementia, Musculoskeletal Disorder and MANY others
All we have to do is inform our friends.
Posted by: Lou | January 27, 2013 at 02:59 PM
Wait a minute. I take that last comment back. Completely irresponsible, but not complete insanity. At the bottom of the article I just posted, there's this:
SOURCE: American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology, news release, Jan. 11, 2013
Not insane after all. They're just drumming up business. While a flu shot at the local drugstore is $25-$30, it would be several hundred dollars to get one from a specialist, and the aftercare for a reaction, if one survives, would run into, well, a lot of money. Now it all makes sense. Shame on them.
Posted by: Linda | January 24, 2013 at 09:58 AM
Complete insanity:
"People With Egg Allergy Can Safely Get Flu Shot: Experts"
"The benefits of the flu vaccination far outweigh the risks," Sublett said. "The best precaution for children that have experienced anaphylaxis, a life-threatening allergic reaction, after ingesting eggs in the past is to receive the vaccination from an allergist."
http://healthyliving.msn.com/diseases/allergies/people-with-egg-allergy-can-safely-get-flu-shot-experts?ocid=vt_twmsnhlt
Posted by: Linda | January 24, 2013 at 09:43 AM
I wish the alphabet soup of government organizations, IOM,NIH,HHS,FDA,and CDC would redirect their study efforts from clearing vaccines as a cause of autism to what ingredients in the vaccines cause autism.
Posted by: Paul S | January 23, 2013 at 10:15 PM
Thank you Barbara Loe Fisher for all you hard work and dedication.The government failed to protect the most vulnerable citizens,our babies and our children. They also continue to ignore the scientific advice and findings regarding mercury and aluminum adjuvants. Providing big pHarma with a blanket immunity was also a horrendous mistake,that needs to be taken away from them.The government must invest money with independent researchers and scientist who truly protect our future,our children.Safety and well being of our children is the number ONE priority.
Posted by: oneVoice | January 23, 2013 at 08:56 PM
Thank You Angus.
Is is
We
Not I
and Thank God!
Posted by: Benedetta | January 23, 2013 at 07:05 PM
Benedetta we still fight this corrupt science were al here and we will just fight on and spread the word...vaccines kill ...refuse all vaccines ...
Posted by: ANGUS FILES | January 23, 2013 at 05:07 PM
This is our last word,
Okay this is our last word.
Alrighty then we will do a study and this is the last word.
Okay, Okay, Okay - we will do another study and this will be our very last word - the science has spoken.
Do we need to visit this issuse again? How come it won't go away?
Poor IOM,NIH,HHS,FDA,and CDC, having to revisit this issue again and agan because of some wild eyed crazy radicals out there.
*1997
"FDA has been actively addressing the issue of thimerosal as a preservative in vaccines. Under the FDA Modernization Act (FDAMA) of 1997, the FDA conducted a comprehensive review of the use of thimerosal in childhood vaccines. Conducted in 1999, this review found no evidence of harm from the use of thimerosal as a vaccine preservative, other than local hypersensitivity reactions (Ball et al. 2001)."
* 2001
The Safety Review of Thimerosal-containing Vaccines and Neurodevelopmental Disorders Conducted by the Institute of Medicine
In 2001, the Institute of Medicine convened a committee (the Immunization Safety Review Committee) to review selected issues related to immunization safety. [For more information regarding this committee, their charge, and their reports, find the link to IOM's Web site in "Related Links" below.] " ------------ issue was brought to the fore primarily as the result of the hypothesis, formulated by S. Bernard and others from Cure Autism Now, that autism is a novel form of mercury poisoning (Bernard et al. 2001); this hypothesis, linking autism to mercury, was based on a comprehensive review of the scientific literature on mercury toxicity. ---------------"
"In its report of October 1, 2001, the IOM's Immunization Safety Review Committee concluded that the evidence was inadequate to either accept or reject a causal relationship between thimerosal exposure from childhood vaccines and the neurodevelopmental disorders of autism, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and speech or language delay.-----------------------"
*2004
"In 2004, the IOM's Immunization Safety Review Committee issued its final report, examining the hypothesis that vaccines, specifically the MMR vaccines and thimerosal containing vaccines, are causally associated with autism. In this report, the committee incorporated new epidemiological evidence from the U.S., Denmark, Sweden, and the United Kingdom, and studies of biologic mechanisms related to vaccines and autism since its report in 2001. The committee concluded that this body of evidence favors rejection of a causal relationship between thimerosal-containing vaccines and autism,"
* Denmark: hmmmm Sweden, Hmmm
*Does it bother you that the CDC recruited a scientist from outside the country, way over in Denmark?
*Do you wonder how, or why they chose this guy?
*Does it bother you that he embezzled the money given to his Universities. Getting lots of money out of the fund the CDC gave his universities with written statements saying that he had performed certain test, but there is evidence he never did them?
*Does it bother you that he has been indicted, by our government?
*Does it bother you that 2 million dollars is gone. 1 million is accounted for - Dr. Paol Thorsen from Denmark has it. Dr. Paol Thorsen- the scientist that did the 14 studies has it. The other million my guess - is in the hands of some CDC employees that helped him along in his crime.
Hell yes it bothers us all.
The problem is real, and it will continue to show up.
Posted by: Benedetta | January 23, 2013 at 01:38 PM
It's all about money plain and simple. If it was proved that vaccines are causing autism in some children then it would cause a major panic and financial disaster for the pharmeceutical companies that make them.
Posted by: AnnaLaura Brown | January 23, 2013 at 12:39 PM
"To summarize, of the 58 empirical reports on autism and heavy metal toxins [including mercury in thimerosal], 43 suggest some link may be present, while 13 reports found no link. Even with the tendency for null results not to be reported, it cannot be said there is no evidence for a link between heavy metal toxins and autism: although the question may still be open--in sum, the evidence favors a link."
From "Sorting out the spinning of autism: heavy metals and the question of incidence," DeSoto and Hitlan, 2010
http://www.ane.pl/pdf/7021.pdf
Posted by: Carol | January 23, 2013 at 11:26 AM
Zed
Institue of Medicine
is not the same organization as the National Institue of Health
IOM
NIH
I bet IOM is answerable to big pharma companies.
Posted by: Benedetta | January 23, 2013 at 10:59 AM
"There’s nothing new here" they say .......
I couldnt agree more with them .
Medicine\Doctors have been poisoning our children with mercury & aluminium for 25 years + now . And are no nearer to admitting their crime .
Someone wrote yesterday , that everyone who attended SimpsonWood is actually a criminal and should be looking at serious prison time . I could not agree more with that comment and next time I speak with a politically elected individual I will be making those views known (its no longer a question of whether vaccines cause autism , its that vaccines do cause Autism no doubt , and we are now very much in criminal territory - NAZI style .)
Posted by: Farmer Geddon | January 23, 2013 at 09:36 AM
Except, Bob, that the IOM isn't what most people believe.
"The Institute of Medicine (IOM) is an American non-profit, non-governmental organization founded in 1970, under the congressional charter of the National Academy of Sciences."
They are accountable to....no one?
Posted by: Zed | January 23, 2013 at 07:26 AM
"Lastly, Healy says the government has a long way to go to even do basic research that could get at the heart of what she believes is an open question. For example: why in the past decade hasn't the government compared the autism/ADD rate of unvaccinated children with that of vaccinated children? If the rate is the same, it tends to point away from vaccines. If the rate is markedly lower in unvaccinated children, it tends to point toward vaccines.”
The excuses the IOM has given for not conducting this common sense study would be laughable were the issue not so serious.
As I understand the IOM .. a vaccinated v unvaccinated study to ascertain .. once and for all .. if vaccines are as "safe" as the IOM insists they are .. would be just "too darn hard to do".
It is one thing for a lazy student to expect his teacher to accept his claim the "dog ate his homework" .. and .. quite another when the IOM .. a very prestigious public health organization .. claims they can't do their homework because "its just too darn hard".
Both the recalcitrant student and the IOM have access to the data and resources to do their homework .. the only thing they lack is the WILL TO DO IT.
Posted by: Bob Moffitt | January 23, 2013 at 06:39 AM