FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Wednesday, September 14, 2011
Contact: Vaccine Safety Council of Minnesota
Wayne Rohde 651-705-5030 / 405-973-7049
Latest IOM Report Omits Vaccine Injury Data,
Denies Victims, Says MMR Causes Measles
On August 25 the Institute of Medicine’s Panel on Adverse Effects of Vaccines issued a report that inadvertently reveals that much more rigorous science on vaccine injuries is greatly needed.
The health advocacy group SafeMinds provided statistics from the report that have been omitted from press releases by the IOM. Out of 158 potential adverse outcomes from vaccines that were investigated, 135 or 85% had inadequate research to accept or reject a causal association. Of the 23 judged acceptable, 18 – or 78% – were found supportive of harm.
“These statistics are hardly reassuring to parents who are now asked to give their young children over 32 vaccinations,” said Sallie Bernard, president of SafeMinds.
The IOM report found likely causality of immune dysfunction, seizures and encephalopathy from some vaccines. These conditions are often found in individuals with autism. “The report only looked at a small set of published research studies linking just two vaccines to developmental disorders such as autism,” said SafeMinds. ”Only four epidemiological studies were considered of sufficient quality to evaluate the MMR vaccine in relation to autism, and no studies were deemed of sufficient quality for the DTaP vaccine and autism analysis.”
Editor Mike Adams of the Natural News reported, “[T]his IOM report, even though it goes out of its way to excuse vaccines and dismiss safety concerns, still openly admits that vaccines cause measles [pg. 574], febrile seizures, anaphylactic shock, and other potentially fatal side effects.”
http://www.naturalnews.com/033447_Institute_of_Medicine_vaccines.html#ixzz1WTpLoRp0
According to Adams, the IOM did not interview any parents of children with vaccine-induced regressive autism, and did not review those children’s medical histories. The IOM’s mechanistic weight-of-evidence assessments gave case histories less weight, based on three elements, including a “specified and reasonable time interval (i.e., temporality or latency) between vaccination and symptoms.” But, said Adams, the IOM failed to define this temporality, stating that “[w]hat constitutes reasonable latency will vary across vaccines and across adverse events.”
Adams also noted that the IOM’s report failed to consider long-term adverse reactions or the cumulative effects of multiple vaccines compromising the immune system or nervous system.
“The IOM report took two years to produce, mostly behind closed doors, and was paid for by the Department of Health and Human Services, the government agency which is also a defendant against the vaccine-injured in the government’s vaccine court,” said SafeMinds.
SafeMinds calls on Congress and our Administration to:
• institute rigorous vaccine safety study, and establish an independent Vaccine Safety Agency,
• launch a study comparing health outcomes between vaccinated and unvaccinated children,
• include vaccines as an exposure variable in the National Children’s Study,
• ensure mandatory reporting by physicians to the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System.
Read SafeMinds’ review of epidemiological studies on MMR, thimerosal and autism here:
http://www.safeminds.org/news/documents/Vaccines%20and%20Autism.%20Epidemiology%20Rebuttal.pdf
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