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Attached is a superb article published today in Ohio, where
the legislature is reconsidering its mandatory Hepatitis B vaccine.
Note two important aspects of this article: (1) it discusses
actual physicians opposed to the vaccine and (2) it discusses
the financial ties of the AMA and AAP which taint their endorsement
of the mandatory vaccine.
It is worth sending this article to any legislators in other
states considering the mandatory vaccine requirements.
Some oppose hepatitis vaccine for kids
Kevin Lamb
DAYTON DAILY NEWS
Wednesday, April 28, 1999
Children younger than 14 are three times more likely to be killed
or seriously injured by hepatitis B vaccines than to catch the
disease, the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons said
in opposing Ohio's mandate that children entering kindergarten
this fall must begin receiving three doses of the vaccine.
An Ohio House committee will continue hearings and possibly vote
today on legislation that would suspend the requirement for one
year.
"I'm gratified that a physicians' group is courageous enough to
finally speak up," said Kristine M. Severyn of Centerville, a pharmacist
with a Ph.D. that involved the composition and physical effects
of drugs. As director of Ohio Parents for Vaccine Safety, Severyn
already had given the Health, Retirement and Aging Committee letters
opposing the mandate from 24 individual physicians.
The American Medical Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics
have endorsed the vaccine, but Severyn and the AAPS expressed concern
about the organizations' financial ties to vaccine manufacturers.
Severyn has a thank-you letter from the AAP for a $100,000 donation
in 1988 from Merck & Co., which manufacturers vaccines for
hepatitis B and other diseases.
The AAPS statistics came from the federal National Vaccine Information
Center's last tabulated year, 1996, when there were 872 "serious
adverse events" and 48 deaths associated with hepatitis B vaccinations
of children younger than 14, compared with 279 cases of hepatitis
B in that age group. "Serious" was defined as requiring an emergency
room visit or hospital stay, or causing death or life-threatening
or disabling injuries.
"Nevertheless, government health officials cavalierly dismiss
reports of serious adverse vaccine effects as coincidental," said
Dr. Jane M. Orient, AAPS executive director.
Dr. Virginia Haller, chief of the Ohio Department of Health's
family and community health division, calls the vaccine's risks
slim and vaccines in general "the No.1 accomplishment in the effort
to improve the health and well-being of U.S. citizens." Haller
told the House committee that only about one in 600,000 recipients
suffers severe allergic reaction to the hepatitis B vaccine and
that it successfully immunizes 90 percent to 95 percent of them.
Hepatitis B is not spread by casual contact. The U.S. Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention recommends targeting the vaccine
to people with the disease's distinct risk factors: multiple sex
partners, injection-drug use, frequent occupational exposure to
blood and transmission at birth from an infected mother. Ohio's
mandatory hepatitis B vaccine was tacked onto a hazardous waste
bill last year without debate because committee chairman Dale Van
Vyven, R-Cincinnati, was unaware of opposition. Now Van Vyven plans
to introduce two amendments to the bill under consideration.
One would require state health officials to study the vaccine
in the next year. The other would enable informed parents to decline
any vaccine for personal or religious reasons, in which case schools
could not bar their children unless county health officials declare
there is a risk the disease will be transmitted at school.
The AAPS said no Ohio school has reported hepatitis B transmission.
CONTACT Kevin Lamb at 225-2129 or e-mail him at kevin_lamb@coxohio.com
(c) 1999 Cox Interactive Media |
