SYNOPSIS
Author reports findings that the Universal Varicella Vaccination Program alters the epidemiology of herpes zoster (shingles); and details ways in which the CDC, in collusion with the Los Angeles Department of Health Services apparently manipulated data to conceal unwanted outcomes that supported an immunologically-mediated link between varicella and herpes zoster (HZ) epidemiology
TITLE
The US Universal Varicella Vaccination Program: CDC Censorship of Adverse Public Health Consequences
CITATION
SUMMARY
Trends in vaccine efficacy were masked by averaging varicella vaccine efficacy over several years instead of stratifying efficacy by year. High HZ incidence rates among children that had had natural varicella were masked by reporting a single mean of a bimodal distribution that included children that were administered the varicella vaccine. While CDC researchers initially opposed and criticized the Research Analyst’s methodology and calculation of childhood HZ incidence rates, eventually they used similar methodology and found similar outcomes. The CDC rates, however, represented only half the true rates in the population since two-source capture-recapture statistical methods revealed 50% reporting completeness.
Then CDC mainly published selective studies and manipulated findings to support universal varicella vaccination and aggressively blocked the Research Analyst’s attempt to publish deleterious trends or outcomes (e.g., declining vaccine efficacy, increasing HZ incidence rates, etc.), prompting his resignation in protest against what he perceived was research fraud.