The school listserv – another source of vaccine information, or misinformation

May 2008

A short while ago, my daughter forwarded to me a posting on my granddaughter’s school website titled “U.S. death toll associated with human papillomavirus vaccine jumps to 11, 3,779 adverse reactions reported.”

It goes on to say, “The adverse reports coming from the HPV vaccine are increasing daily at an alarming rate.” It is interesting to examine the facts and also the identity of the people posting this message. Parenthetically, their response to my reply was that I was not entitled to post listings on their listserv, as I did not have a child in the school. They rejected the fact that I could provide some factual information and that I was a grandparent of one of the students. They did not, however, contest any of the information in my posting. These pernicious messages are difficult to contest, as we often are not aware of the content of the listservs of our patients’ schools. It is important that when we do become aware, that we take the time to respond.

Presumably the data on this listserv was gleaned from Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) data. On the VAERS website (http://vaers.hhs.gov/info.htm) it is clearly stated that “in some media reports and on some websites on the internet, VAERS reports are presented as verified cases of vaccine deaths and injuries. Statements such as these misrepresent the nature of the VAERS surveillance system.”

VAERS officials go on to state on their website, “When evaluating data from VAERS, it is important to note that for any reported event, no cause and effect relationship has been established. VAERS is interested in all potential associations between vaccines and adverse events. Therefore, VAERS collects data on any adverse event following vaccination, be it coincidental or truly caused by a vaccine. The report of an adverse event to VAERS is not documentation that a vaccine caused the event.”

The data on adverse events associated with the HPV vaccine are not a secret. They appear in the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices statement on HPV vaccine (MMWR. 2007; 56(RR02);1-24) and in the package insert. In these reports, they are presented in comparison with a placebo group so one can discern what is attributable to the vaccine; ie, the difference between the two groups. There is a very slight increase in injection site reactions or slight temperature elevations. There were essentially the same number of deaths in the two groups.

In contrast, the data cited on the listserv show no comparison group. The VAERS reports encourage individuals to report events temporally associated with immunization. It is designed to detect major trends that may suggest problems with vaccines; eg, intussusception and rotavirus vaccine. These are events anyone can report by calling 1-800-822-7967.

In the posting on the listserv, they refer to 11 deaths reported to VAERS out of approximately 13 millions doses of vaccine. In the years before the vaccine was released, there were approximately 20 deaths daily in this age group. Two of the 11 deaths were cited on the basis of secondhand information; ie, someone told someone else. Two additional cases were reported after someone heard about them at a conference. In examining these reports, I find no consistent pattern to explain the deaths. Many cases were remote from the vaccination; one, an “anaphylactic reaction” that occurred three days later. Two cases were due to thrombotic episodes in contraceptive takers. One had multiple organ failure secondary to influenza B and staph sepsis. In some, there were autopsies that revealed nothing remarkable. I am unimpressed that any of these deaths were due to the vaccine, but investigation of some of the cases is continuing. They include 13 cases of Guillian-Barre Syndrome temporally associated with the vaccine, which frequently was given at the same time as meningococcal vaccine and is well below the expected baseline number of cases.

The source

Who is posting this information on the listserv? The nature of the sponsors is readily apparent as the HPV information is buried amongst diatribes against Obama and Clinton. They fail to mention John McCain, as quoted in Newsweek on March 24, that there is strong evidence that autism is connected to a preservative in the vaccines.

Larry Klayman, who has brought suit against the current president, founded Judicial Watch, the organization quoted in the listserv. Lawsuits have also been filed by a donor to Judicial Watch and a former director of the Miami district office against the current organization. They claim that the organization has been “hijacked” and they question the management of their funds. Apparently, the director claimed to have been a graduate of George Washington University when he applied to Klayman for a job and indeed he has no college degree. So much for their stated mission to “promote a return to ethics and morality in our nation’s public life.”

These organizations vowing to protect our morality should clean up their own act, starting with the information they are disseminating. Attempting to frighten the parents of young women who can receive a vaccine that may prevent them from getting cervical cancer is hardly what I would describe a defendable moral position. If withholding this vaccine is a way they plan to promote abstinence, good luck to their daughters and daughters-in-law.

One does not have to look to listservs or politicians for attacks on vaccines. The family of a child with a mitochondrial enzyme defect who appears to have developed autism after receiving five vaccines simultaneously has received a financial award from the Vaccine Injury Compensation program.

Infectious Diseases in Children Editorial Board member Paul Offit reminds us in his excellent contribution to the New York Times on March 31 that the criterion for awards has been changed from burden of proof to a biologically-plausible connection. “The decision will likely draw more personal-injury lawyers to the fray.”

“It’s a beginning,” said Kevin Conway, a Boston-based lawyer who represents more than 1,200 families with vaccine injury claims.

At the time I was a visiting professor in London, Andrew Wakefield published his later-to-be-condemned paper on measles vaccine and autism. Recently, he has applied for reinstatement, still defending his actions. My British colleagues were so distressed at the time by the subsequent fall in immunization that one of them stated that it will take some deaths to shake the vaccine rejecters.

Since that time the number of cases of measles has increased 20-fold to approximately 1,000 cases per year and there has been at least one death in Dublin. There was a transient increase in those who rejected vaccine after the notoriety about the association of autism and immunization in the United States. (Pediatrics. 2008:121;811). Let us hope we do not need to learn the same lesson.