Vaccine Safety
SYNOPSIS
To assess the association between cumulative aluminum exposure from vaccines before age 24 months and persistent asthma at age 24 to 59 months.
TITLE
Association Between Aluminum Exposure From Vaccines Before Age 24 Months and Persistent Asthma at Age 24 to 59 Months
CITATION
SUMMARY
In a large observational study, a positive association was found between vaccine-related aluminum exposure and persistent asthma. While recognizing the small effect sizes identified and the potential for residual confounding, additional investigation of this hypothesis appears warranted.
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SYNOPSIS
Autoimmune/inflammatory Syndrome Induced by Adjuvants (ASIA; Shoenfeld’s syndrome) comprehends a group of autoimmune conditions that flourish in genetically predisposed individuals, following an external stimulus by the so-called adjuvants. Many adjuvants were described, such as vaccines, aluminum and other metals, silicone, tattoos, among others. Here we report on a case of an 18-year-old woman who presented with extreme cachexia due to severe dysautonomia caused by the ASIA syndrome induced by the tetanus, diphtheria, and pertussis vaccine (Tdap).
TITLE
Dysautonomia following Tetanus, Diphtheria, and Pertussis vaccine (Tdap): The first case of extreme cachexia caused by autoimmune/inflammatory syndrome induced by adjuvants (ASIA syndrome) in a human 2022
CITATION
Hen, Or et al. “Dysautonomia Following Tetanus, Diphtheria, and Pertussis Vaccine (Tdap): The First Case of Extreme Cachexia Caused by Autoimmune/Inflammatory Syndrome Induced by Adjuvants (ASIA Syndrome) in a Human.” Medicina (Kaunas, Lithuania) vol. 57,12 1333. 6 Dec. 2021, doi.org/10.3390/medicina57121333
SUMMARY
This is a case study of an 18-year-old female who presents with severe cachexia (wasting disease). Post-vaccination she experienced headaches, dizziness, arthralgia, myalgia, extreme fatigue, orthostatic intolerance, mouth ulcers and new food and pollen allergies, that she still deals with. Cachexia has gotten progressively worse since vaccination. She was diagnosed with ASIA following the Tdap vaccination given when she was 14 years old. This is based in part on high titers of anti-tetanus antibodies present in her immune system.
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SYNOPSIS
The prevalence of asthma, wheeze and eczema among children at 12 months of age might be related to the amount of inactivated vaccine exposure before 6 months of age.
TITLE
Cumulative inactivated vaccine exposure and allergy development among children: a birth cohort from Japan
CITATION
Yamamoto-Hanada et al. Environmental Health and Preventive Medicine (2020) 25:27
https://doi.org/10.1186/s12199-020-00864-7
SUMMARY
Adjuvants used in inactivated vaccines often upregulate type 2 immunity, which is dominant in allergic diseases. The authors hypothesised that cumulative adjuvant exposure in infancy may influence the development of allergies later in life by changing the balance of type 1/type 2 immunity and examined the relationship between immunisation with different vaccine types and later allergic disease development. They found that physician-diagnosed asthma was associated with receiving three or four to five different inactivated vaccines, compared with children who received only one inactivated vaccine. Similar results were found for two questionnaire-based symptoms, i.e. wheeze (three vaccines vs. a single vaccine) and
eczema (four or five vaccines vs. a single vaccine).
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SYNOPSIS
The risk antibody‐dependent enhancement (ADE) during COVID-19 vaccine trials was sufficiently obscured in clinical trial protocols and consent forms that adequate patient comprehension of this risk is unlikely to occur, obviating truly informed consent by subjects in these trials.
TITLE
Commentary: Informed consent disclosure to vaccine trial subjects of risk of COVID-19 vaccines worsening clinical disease
CITATION
Timothy Cardozo; Ronald Veazy; Informed consent disclosure to vaccine trial subjects of risk of COVID-19 vaccines worsening clinical disease. International Journal of Clinical Practice. October 28, 2020; https://doi.org/10.1111/ijcp.13795
SUMMARY
COVID‐19 vaccines designed to elicit neutralizing antibodies may sensitize vaccine recipients to more severe disease than if they were not vaccinated. Vaccines for SARS, MERS and RSV have never been approved, and the data generated in the development and testing of these vaccines suggest a serious mechanistic concern: that vaccines designed empirically using the traditional approach (consisting of the unmodified or minimally modified coronavirus viral spike to elicit neutralizing antibodies), be they composed of protein, viral vector, DNA or RNA and irrespective of delivery method, may worsen COVID‐19 disease via antibody‐dependent enhancement (ADE). This risk is sufficiently obscured in clinical trial protocols and consent forms for ongoing COVID‐19 vaccine trials that adequate patient comprehension of this risk is unlikely to occur, obviating truly informed consent by subjects in these trials.
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Delay or catch-up vaccination due to COVID19 social distancing should be done judiciously if at all, to minimize aluminum toxicity.
TITLE
Impact of catch-up vaccination on aluminum exposure due to new laws and post social distancing
CITATION
Lyons-Weiler, J. G McFarland and E La Joie. 2020. Impact of catch-up vaccination on aluminum exposure due to new laws and post social distancing; Journal of Trace Elements in Medicine and Biology Volume 62, December 2020, 126649 http://sciencedirect.
SUMMARY
This study utilized the established clearance and accumulation models to calculate expected per-body-weight whole-body toxicity of aluminum from vaccines considering for children of all ages under CDC’s Catch-Up schedule from birth to ten years, assuming social distancing for 6 months. Our updated Pediatric Dose Limit (PDL) model assumes a linear improvement in renal function from birth to two years. The results indicate that due diligence in considering alternative spacing and use of non-aluminum containing vaccines when possible will reduce whole body toxicity and may reduce risk of morbidity associated with exposure to aluminum. The study concludes that careful consideration of expected aluminum exposures during regular and Catch-Up vaccination is found to be especially important for infants and children below 2 years of age. We urge caution in the mass re-starting of vaccination under CDC’s Catch-Up schedule for children under 12 months and offer alternative strategies to minimize per-day/week/month exposure to aluminum hydroxide following the COVID-19 period of isolation.
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SYNOPSIS
Pandemrix vaccine contributed to the onset of narcolepsy among those 4 to 19 years old during the pandemic influenza in 2009–2010 in Finland. Further studies are needed to determine whether this observation exists in other populations and to elucidate potential underlying immunological mechanism. The role of the adjuvant in particular warrants further research before drawing conclusions about the use of adjuvanted pandemic vaccines in the future.
TITLE
AS03 Adjuvanted AH1N1 Vaccine Associated with an Abrupt Increase in the Incidence of Childhood Narcolepsy in Finland
CITATION
Nohynek H, Jokinen J, Partinen M, Vaarala O, Kirjavainen T, et al. (2012) AS03 Adjuvanted AH1N1 Vaccine Associated with an Abrupt Increase in the Incidence of Childhood Narcolepsy in Finland. PLoS ONE 7(3): e33536. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0033536
SUMMARY
To protect the population from death and serious forms of disease caused by the pandemic AH1N1 infection, the ASO3 adjuvanted vaccine Pandemrix was introduced nation-wide in Finland from October 2009 onwards. Following recommendation of the European Medicines Agency (EMA), enhanced passive surveillance of vaccine related adverse
events was initiated. Excess number of narcolepsy-cataplexy among children and adolescents was observed a few months after the A(H1N1) epidemic and pandemic vaccination. No increase was observed in other age groups. The incidence of narcolepsy was 9.0/100,000 person years in the vaccinated as compared to 0.7/100,000 person years in the unvaccinated individuals.
Pandemrix vaccine contributed to the onset of narcolepsy among those 4 to 19 years old during the pandemic influenza in 2009–2010 in Finland. Further studies are needed to determine whether this observation exists in other populations and to elucidate potential underlying immunological mechanism. The role of the adjuvant in particular warrants further research before drawing conclusions about the use of adjuvanted pandemic vaccines in the future.
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SYNOPSIS
The European Medicines Agency (EMA) reports that AAHS was introduced without any prelicensure safety evaluation.
TITLE
Was amorphous aluminium hydroxyphosphate sulfate adequately evaluated before authorisation in Europe?
CITATION
Petersen SB, Gluud C; Was amorphous aluminium hydroxyphosphate sulfate adequately evaluated before authorisation in Europe? BMJ Evidence-Based Medicine Published Online First: 06 August 2020. doi: 10.1136/bmjebm-2020-111419
SUMMARY
The Merck Sharp & Dohme Corp aluminium adjuvant ‘amorphous aluminium hydroxyphosphate sulfate’ (AAHS), primarily used in the Gardasil vaccines against human papilloma virus, has been criticised for lack of evidence for its safety. Documentation from Danish authorities and answers from the European Medicines Agency (EMA) suggest that AAHS may not have been sufficiently evaluated. Documentation from the Danish Medicines Agency shows discrepancies in the trial documents of two prelicensure clinical trials with Gardasil in 2002 and 2003. For both trials, the Agency seems to have authorised potassium aluminium sulfate as the adjuvant and not AAHS. In addition, the participants in the trial launched in 2002 were informed that the comparator was saline, even though the comparator was AAHS in an expedient consisting of L-histidine, polysorbate-80, sodium borate and sodium chloride. According to the EMA, AAHS was first introduced in Europe in 2004 as the adjuvant in Procomvax, a vaccine against the hepatitis B virus and Haemophilus influenza type b. The EMA reports that AAHS was introduced without any prelicensure safety evaluation. The adjuvant is described by the company to be both physically and functionally distinct from all other previously used aluminium adjuvants. There is a need for rigorous evaluation of benefits and harms of the adjuvant AAHS.
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SYNOPSIS
The CDC vaccine schedule results in a high degree of chronic aluminum toxicity in the first seven months of life.
TITLE
Acute exposure and chronic retention of aluminum in three vaccine schedules and effects of genetic and environmental variation
CITATION
SUMMARY
This study shows that the CDC vaccine schedule results in a high degree of chronic aluminum toxicity in the first seven months of life—a time period critically important to neurodevelopment and immune system development. The authors reached this conclusion after assessing “time spent in toxicity” (defined as “the percentage of days of each week an infant spends with a body burden that exceeds the minimum safe level”) for the CDC schedule and two other lower-aluminum schedules. Important safety considerations include aluminum adjuvant dose per vaccine, spacing of aluminum-containing vaccines, the child’s weight at the time of vaccination and genetic variants that may limit ability to clear aluminum. Changes to the vaccine schedule, including use of vaccines that do not contain aluminum, can significantly reduce “time spent in toxicity.”
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SYNOPSIS
More than one in ten vaccine-related adverse events in Zimbabwe are serious (11%), and measles-containing vaccines are one of the vaccines most frequently responsible for serious and systemic reactions.
TITLE
Adverse events following immunisation (AEFI) reports from the Zimbabwe expanded programme on immunisation (ZEPI): an analysis of spontaneous reports in Vigibase from 1997 to 2017
CITATION
SUMMARY
The authors examined passively collected reports of adverse events following immunization (AEFI) in Zimbabwe from 1997 to 2017. Given widespread underreporting to the country’s still-developing vaccine surveillance system, just 272 Individual Case Safety Reports (ICSRs) were available, of which 11% represented “serious events.” Of these, 6% were deaths and 5% were life-threatening or involved prolonged hospitalization. Measles-containing vaccines had the highest AEFI reporting rate and were also strongly associated with serious events, as was a six-component vaccine containing antigens for oral poliovirus, diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, Haemophilus influenzae type b and hepatitis B (OPV/DTP-Hib-HepB). The majority of AEFI were systemic (versus vaccine site reactions)—and systemic events, again, were associated with measles-containing vaccines.
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SYNOPSIS
Aluminum adjuvants in vaccines produce toxic effects ranging from benign to fatal, depending on the physicochemical properties of the adjuvant and the physiological response of the vaccine recipient.
TITLE
Unraveling the enigma: elucidating the relationship between the physicochemical properties of aluminium-based adjuvants and their immunological mechanisms of action
CITATION
Shardlow E, Mold M, Exley C. Unraveling the enigma: elucidating the relationship between the physicochemical properties of aluminium-based adjuvants and their immunological mechanisms of action. Allergy Asthma & Clinical Immunology 2018;14:80.
SUMMARY
The two types of aluminum salts commonly used as adjuvants in vaccines are chemically and biologically dissimilar and may play distinct roles in vaccine-related adverse events. Understanding their physicochemical properties—within the physiological environment of the injection site—can help explain their role in adverse events. The authors suggest that “some degree of toxicity and cell death is probably inevitable” following injection of aluminum salts, but they note that the type of iatrogenic effect observed may “range from benign to fatal” depending on the properties of the specific adjuvant “and, critically, the physiological response of the recipient.” Pointing out that aluminum-based adjuvants have never received approval for intramuscular or subcutaneous injection into humans, the researchers call for evaluation of their safety “independently of their presence in vaccine formulations.”
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SYNOPSIS
An allergic response to thimerosal, nickel, mercury and cobalt often manifests as hand eczema.
TITLE
Hand eczema in children. Clinical and epidemiological study of the population referred to a tertiary hospital
CITATION
Ortiz-Salvador JM, Subiabre-Ferrer D, Rabasco AG, Esteve-Martínez A, Zaragoza-Ninet V, de Miquel VA. Anales de Pediatria (Barc.) 2018;88:309-314.
SUMMARY
Hand eczema is a common condition in children. The most common cause is atopic dermatitis, although cases of allergic contact dermatitis manifesting as hand eczema are not uncommon. Using children with hand eczema exclusively, researchers conducted patch-testing. The most frequent allergens detected were thimerosal, nickel, mercury and cobalt.
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SYNOPSIS
Food proteins in vaccines can sensitize the immune system and trigger development of food allergies and other chronic conditions such as autism and type 1 diabetes.
TITLE
Milk containing vaccines cause milk allergies, EoE, autism and type 1 diabetes
CITATION
Arumugham V. BMJ. 2018;361:k2396. [Letter in response to Schulze MB et al., Food based dietary patterns and chronic disease prevention, BMJ 2018;361:k2396.]
SUMMARY
Responding to an article about food and chronic illness, the author criticizes the researchers for overlooking “a major cause of why food has become dangerous,” noting that vaccines contain food proteins that can “program the immune system to recognize food as pathogens.” Injection of vaccines containing cow’s milk proteins can cause sensitization to several bovine proteins (casein, folate receptor and insulin). In addition, studies suggest an association between vaccine-induced sensitization to cow’s milk proteins and the development of eosinophilic esophagitis (EoE), autism and type 1 diabetes.
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SYNOPSIS
Aluminum adjuvants in vaccines can initiate and promote feline cancers.
TITLE
Feline vaccine-associated sarcomagenesis: is there an inflammation-independent role for aluminium?
Citation
AbdelMageed MA, Foltopoulou P, McNeil EA. Feline vaccine-associated sarcomagenesis: is there an inflammation-independent role for aluminium? Veterinary and Comparative Oncology. 2018;16(1):E130-E143.
Summary
This study, which examined whether aluminum adjuvants in vaccines can cause tumors in cats, found that the aluminum hydroxide adjuvant causes DNA damage and mutation. The study followed up on the observation that up to 10 of every 10,000 vaccinated cats develop an aggressive and invasive feline cancer at the site of vaccine administration within one to three years post-vaccination. The study confirmed that aluminum is highly persistent, continues to damage cells “for significant periods of time after initial exposure” and may “directly facilitate carcinogenesis” through the initiation and promotion of tumors.
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SYNOPSIS
The contamination of vaccines with animal proteins that resemble human proteins can trigger autoimmunity.
TITLE
Cancer immunology, bioinformatics and chemokine evidence link vaccines contaminated with animal proteins to autoimmune disease: a detailed look at Crohn’s disease and Vitiligo
Citation
Arumugham V, Trushin MV. Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences and Research. 2018;10(8):2106-2110.
Summary
Vaccines are contaminated with animal proteins that resemble human proteins, and this can result in autoimmunity. This study, which used bioinformatics to analyze animal proteins in vaccines and their similarity to human proteins, adds to growing evidence of vaccines inducing autoimmune diseases such as type 1 diabetes, Crohn’s disease, vitiligo, systemic lupus erythematosus and rheumatoid arthritis. The authors suggest that the live viruses and aluminum adjuvants in certain vaccines can stimulate the activation of particular T cells that, upon activation, may cause autoimmune disease. Because autoimmune reactions vary from person to person, “not everyone will develop overt disease”; thus, autoimmune illness may represent the tip of a broader “iceberg” of subclinical effects.
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SYNOPSIS
Severe, long-term disability and even death can occur in a subset of individuals vulnerable to “HPV vaccination syndrome.”
TITLE
Autoimmunity, autonomic neuropathy, and the HPV vaccination: a vulnerable subpopulation
Citation
Schofield JR, Hendrickson JE. Clinical Pediatrics. 2018;57(5):603-606.
Summary
The authors describe the first biopsy-proven case of serious nerve damage developing within days of HPV vaccination, with an evident link between symptom onset and vaccination. The authors advocate for “increased [provider] awareness of the potential for neurological complications” resulting from HPV vaccination, particularly due to the “devastating clinical outcome of severe, long-term disability and even death of [a vulnerable subset] affected by the HPV vaccination syndrome.”
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Adolescents given meningococcal vaccines have experienced a wide variety of serious adverse events, including new autoimmune conditions and death.
TITLE
Post-licensure safety surveillance study of routine use of quadrivalent meningococcal diphtheria toxoid conjugate vaccine
CITATION
Hansen J, Zhang L, Klein NP, et al. Vaccine 2017;35(49 Pt B):6879-84.
SUMMARY
Adolescents receiving the Menactra® meningococcal vaccine (MenACWY-D) in 2005-2006 experienced a variety of adverse events in the six months following vaccination—including death—but the researchers (one of whom was affilated with the vaccine’s manufacturer, Sanofi Pasteur) concluded that only two diagnoses (diabetes and juvenile rheumatoid arthritis) were “possibly related to vaccination.” After comparing 31,000 Kaiser Permanente patients who received the MenACWY-D vaccine to 31,000 matched teens who had received a tetanus-diphtheria (Td) or hepatitis vaccine the previous year, the researchers assessed 1660 outcomes and determined that 1.3% were “significantly elevated” in the meningococcal group. There were two deaths in vaccinees with cancer (“with onset preceding vaccination”) following MenACWY-D vaccination as well as a third cardiac-related death; there was also one fetal death in a young woman who received Menactra® during pregnancy. Many of the adverse events, including difficulty breathing, occurred two or more months following vaccination.
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Aluminum adjuvants promote brain inflammation, and males appear to be more susceptible to aluminum’s toxic effects.
TITLE
Subcutaneous injections of aluminum at vaccine adjuvant levels activate innate immune genes in mouse brain that are homologous with biomarkers of autism
CITATION
Li D, Tomljenovic L, Li Y, Shaw CA. Journal of Inorganic Biochemistry. 2017;177:39–54.
SUMMARY
Autism manifests in early childhood, during a window of early developmental vulnerability where the normal developmental trajectory is most susceptible to xenobiotic insults. Aluminum (Al) vaccine adjuvants are xenobiotics with immunostimulating and neurotoxic properties to which infants worldwide are routinely exposed. This research found that aluminum triggered innate immune system activation and altered neurotransmitter activity in male mice, observations which are consistent with those in autism. Female mice were less susceptible to aluminum as the frontal cortex was the most affected area in males and the cerebellum in females. These findings suggest that aluminum adjuvants promote brain inflammation and that males appear to be more susceptible to aluminum′s toxic effects. (Note: This study has since been retracted by the Journal of Inorganic Biochemistry, but the importance of the topic prompted our decision to keep it in our science library.)
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SYNOPSIS
Serious adverse events observed in pre-licensure trials of Gardasil-9 cast doubts on HPV vaccine safety, but the trial investigators described the adverse events as not vaccine-related.
TITLE
Vaccine-related serious adverse events might have been under-recognized in the pivotal HPV vaccine randomized trial
Citation
Martínez-Lavín M. Vaccine-related serious adverse events might have been under-recognized in the pivotal HPV vaccine randomized trial [Letter]. Clinical Rheumatology 2017;36(4):975.
Summary
The largest pre-licensure trial of the Gardasil-9 vaccine—which compared Gardasil-9 against Gardasil rather than against an inert placebo—showed that Gardasil-9 had significantly more serious adverse events than Gardasil (3.3% versus 2.6%, p=0.01). However, the trial investigators judged that 0% of the serious adverse events in both groups were vaccine-related. Gardasil-9 has “more than double [the] HPV virus-like particles and aluminum adjuvant” as Gardasil. The under-recognition of serious adverse events associated with Gardasil-9 “casts further doubt on HPV vaccine safety.”
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SYNOPSIS
Italian scientists find unexpected contaminants in all pediatric vaccines, including lead, stainless steel, tungsten, iron, and chromium
TITLE
New Quality-Control Investigations on Vaccines: Micro- and Nanocontamination
CITATION
Dr. Antonietta M. Gatti, Stefano Montanari. International Journal of Vaccines and Vaccination, January 2017.
SUMMARY
Scientists found contaminants in all vaccines that are not listed on the label of the vaccines. “The analyses carried out show that in all samples checked vaccines contain non biocompatible and bio-persistent foreign bodies which are not declared by the Producers, against which the body reacts in any case. This new investigation represents a new quality control that can be adopted to assess the safety of a vaccine. Our hypothesis is that this contamination is unintentional, since it is probably due to polluted components or procedures of industrial processes (e.g. filtrations) used to produce vaccines, not investigated and not detected by the Producers. If our hypothesis is actually the case, a close inspection of the working places and the full knowledge of the whole procedure of vaccine preparation would probably allow to eliminate the problem.”
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SYNOPSIS
There is evidence of a significant relationship between increasing organic mercury exposure from Thimerosal-containing vaccines and the subsequent risk of PDD diagnosis in males and females.
TITLE
A Case-Control Study Evaluating the Relationship Between Thimerosal-Containing Haemophilus influenzae Type b Vaccine Administration and the Risk for a Pervasive Developmental Disorder Diagnosis in the United States
CITATION
David A. Geier & Janet K. Kern & Paul G. King & Lisa K. Sykes & Mark R. Geier; Biological Trace Element Research, (2015) 163:28–38.
SUMMARY
In this case-control study of pervasive development disorder (PDD) in U.S. children, cases were consistently exposed to higher levels of thimerosal via infant vaccines at both 6 months of age and 15 months of age, based specifically on Haemophilus influenzae type b vaccines. Differences between exposures in cases and controls were statistically significant at both ages evaluated.
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The odds of a VAERS report submission during the implementation period were 30.2 times greater than the odds during the comparable preimplementation period when an open-source, electronic health record–based clinical decision support system is used.
TITLE
Advanced Clinical Decision Support for Vaccine Adverse Event Detection and Reporting
CITATION
SUMMARY
Reporting of adverse events (AEs) following vaccination can help identify rare or unexpected complications of immunizations and aid in characterizing potential vaccine safety signals. We developed an open-source, generalizable clinical decision support system called Electronic Support for Public Health–Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (ESP-VAERS) to assist clinicians with AE detection and reporting.
In the 8 months following implementation, 91 622 vaccinations were given. ESP-VAERS sent 1385 messages to responsible clinicians describing potential AEs. Clinicians opened 1304 (94.2%) messages, responded to 209 (15.1%), and confirmed 16 for transmission to VAERS. An additional 16 high-probability AEs were sent automatically. Reported events included seizure, pleural effusion, and lymphocytopenia. The odds of a VAERS report submission during the implementation period were 30.2 (95% confidence interval, 9.52–95.5) times greater than the odds during the comparable preimplementation period.
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SYNOPSIS
Genetic and environmental factors can interact to trigger vaccine adverse events, but researchers’ understanding of genetic susceptibility is still limited.
TITLE
The ontology of genetic susceptibility factors (OGSF) and its application in modeling genetic susceptibility to vaccine adverse events
CITATION
Lin Y, He Y. The ontology of genetic susceptibility factors (OGSF) and its application in modeling genetic susceptibility to vaccine adverse events. J Biomed Semantics 2014;5:19.
SUMMARY
Vaccination can trigger adverse events in population subgroups with genetic susceptibility, often in interaction with environmental factors. These authors argue for the need for a “consensus-based robust…framework for systematically representing and studying…genetic susceptibility and the genetic factors contributing to the susceptibility.”
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SYNOPSIS
Background data (not reported in print) suggest a strong link between thimerosal exposure and autism.
TITLE
Methodological issues and evidence of malfeasance in research purporting to show thimerosal in vaccines is safe
CITATION
Hooker B, Kern J, Geier D, Haley B, Sykes L, King P, Geier M. BioMed Research International. 2014, Article ID 247218.
SUMMARY
This review article shows methodological flaws in six separate CDC studies claiming that thimerosal does not cause autism. In three specific instances (Madsen et al. 2003, Verstraeten et al. 2003 and Price et al. 2010), evidence of malfeasance on the part of CDC scientists is shown. Background data (not reported in print) from these three publications suggest a strong link between thimerosal exposure and autism.
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SYNOPSIS
Vaccination can trigger adverse events in genetically susceptible individuals.
TITLE
The ontology of genetic susceptibility factors (OGSF) and its application in modeling genetic susceptibility to vaccine adverse events
Citation
Lin Y, He Y. The ontology of genetic susceptibility factors (OGSF) and its application in modeling genetic susceptibility to vaccine adverse events. Journal of Biomedical Semantics. 2014;5:19.
Summary
Vaccination can trigger adverse events in genetically susceptible individuals. The researchers describe their framework for measuring the robustness of the genetic association with specific vaccine adverse events.
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The report makes useful recommendations for future investigations, for the problem has yet to be solved of finding a vaccine which causes only slight reactions and provides long-lasting immunity.
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More Work on Measles Vaccine
CITATION
SUMMARY
Discussing the indications for the large-scale use of measles vaccines, the report stresses the need to consider the importance of the disease in different countries individually. It shows that there is an urgent need for effective protection against measles in developing countries where the disease generally has a high death rate. Against this must be weighed the characteristics and properties of the available vaccines-for example, safety, efficacy, acceptability, availability, cost, and ease of administration. Unfortunately none of the vaccines at present available is completely satisfactory. The further-attenuated vaccines are effective and relatively easy to administer, though great care is necessary to avoid contamination of the syringe with preservatives, detergents, alcohols, or other lipid solvents, since these rapidly inactivate the virus. These vaccines are expensive and not yet available in large quantities, though these objections may be overcome in the future, but the main drawback to their mass use remains-namely, the severity of the reaction in a few of the children vaccinated. The report makes useful recommendations for future investigations, for the problem has yet to be solved of finding a vaccine which causes only slight reactions and provides long-lasting immunity. Meanwhile further trials of the Beckenham 20 vaccine are proceeding, this time in Great Britain.