March 5, 2019 Senate Hearing: Vaccines Save Lives. What is Driving Preventable Disease Outbreaks?

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CHD: The Myth of New and Unusual Measles Outbreaks 

MMR vaccine uptakes are holding steady in the high 90% range depending on the state.  CDC data shows there are no significant drops in state vaccination rates.

Historically, measles cases were in the hundreds of thousands annually before the introduction of the vaccine.  Today cases are a small fraction of that and deaths are rare.  Over the period from 2010-2018, there have only been five deaths from measles in the U.S.

This year, from January 1 to February 21, 2019, 159** individual cases of measles have been confirmed in 10 states.  This is within historical norms for the last decade.  (Download/View PDF)

CHD: This Hearing Should Be About Enforcing Informed Consent

Informed consent from a patient or a parent, in the case of a young child, has been at the heart of medical ethics for more than 70 years.  The American Academy of Pediatrics statement on the ethics of informed consent includes the following stipulation, “patients should have explanations, in understandable language, of …; the existence and nature of the risks involved; and the existence, potential benefits, and risks of recommended alternative treatments(including the choice of no treatment).” (Download/View PDF)

CHD: This Hearing Should Be About Lack of Vaccine Effectiveness

Despite the many news stories covering outbreaks of contagious diseases, the questionable effectiveness of some of our vaccines gets little press:

In 2010, California experienced the largest pertussis epidemic since 1958. According to the CDC, the U.S. has experienced increased pertussis disease despite high levels of vaccine coverage. Researchers studying the pertussis outbreaks in adolescents determined Tdap vaccine effectiveness dropped to less than 9% by four years after vaccination (Klein et al., 2016). (Download/View PDF)

CHD: This Hearing Should Be About Vaccine Costs

Since the establishment of the Vaccines for Children (VFC) program of the CDC in 1994, its budget has grown from a low of $231 million to a 2018 budget of $4.4 billion dollars – a 19 times increase.  Vaccines available through the VFC Program are those recommended by the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP). These vaccines protect babies, young children, and adolescents up to age 18 from 16 diseases.  The program covers about half the children in the US.  This program makes up more than one third of CDC’s budget and its funding is mandatory, paid for by a transfer from Medicaid. (Download/View PDF)

CHD: This Hearing Should Be About Vaccine Safety

Inadequate Pre-Licensure Safety Testing – Vaccines are regulated by the FDA’s CBER division as “biologics” and are not always put through the same level of safety testing as new drugs. Inadequate testing currently ensures that the true risk/benefit assessments for the safety and cost of vaccines are impossible to calculate accurately.  Safety problems in vaccine licensing include inadequate follow up for adverse events (2-5 days), lack of placebo controls and lack of studies of vaccinated vs. unvaccinated children.  In addition, the FDA’s approval of new products is largely funded by industry. (Download/View PDF)

CHD: What is Really Driving This Hearing

Think about it – when was the last time that there were hearings in both the House and the Senate on the same topic within 6 days of each other?  This is a coordinated effort by pharmaceutical industry PR and astroturf organizations.  They are laying the ground work to push for federal vaccine mandates – which will maximize their markets. (Download/View PDF)

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