Supreme Court Saves Nation’s Immunization Program by John Snyder, MD, Tufts University

http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/?p=11127

"The Supreme Court of the United States made a ruling the other day that has profound implications for the health of millions of children. Since October 12, 2010, The Court has been quietly deliberating the case of Bruesewitz v. Wyeth, inc. The case centers on Russell and Robalee Bruesewitz’s allegation that their 18 year old daughter, Hannah, was irreversibly injured by a DTP vaccine she received when she was 6 months old. What is important about this case is not the allegation itself (I will discuss its merits, or lack thereof, in a moment), but the ramifications the ruling has for the future of childhood immunization in this country. The Supreme Court’s ruling against the Bruesewitz’s and in favor of the U.S. vaccination program was the right one, and safeguards our children from the irrationality of the anti-vaccine movement. Some important background is necessary here to understand why this is so.

Prior to the development of effective vaccines, diphtheria, tetanus, and pertussis were common diseases, terrifyingly familiar to all parents. Death records from Massachusetts during the latter half of the 1800’s indicate that diphtheria caused 3-10% of all deaths. In the first part of the 20th century, these dreaded organisms still caused illness in hundreds of thousands of people each year in the United States. These are devastating diseases which, if not resulting in death, often produced severe and permanent damage to those afflicted. In the 1920’s, vaccines against each of these scourges were finally developed, and in the mid 1940’s the combined DTP vaccine was introduced. The vaccines were so effective that cases of these deadly infections were practically eliminated. Today, few parents know the terror once routinely wrought by these pathogens.


Despite the effectiveness of the original DTP vaccine, it did frequently produce reactions in the children who received it. Fever (and fever seizures in those genetically predisposed), irritability, and sometimes frightening hyporesponsive episodes were seen. The side effects of the DTP vaccine were attributable to its pertussis component. The vaccine was produced using the whole pertussis organism in an attenuated state so that it could not cause the disease itself. Utilizing the whole organism, however, exposed the child to a large number of proteins, some of which were responsible for the fever and other side effects the vaccine produced. These deleterious reactions certainly paled in comparison to the dangers of the diseases themselves. Nonetheless, as the diseases prevented by the vaccine disappeared, parents began to take more seriously these annoying and often frightening reactions. Because some of these reactions were so frightening, including febrile, or fever seizures, many people began to believe the vaccine was responsible for more serious side effects, including brain damage and even death. As outlined in an earlier SBM post, the side effects of the original “whole cell” DTP vaccine (DTwP) were not, however, life-threatening and produced no long-term problems in those receiving it. In 2006, a retrospective case-control cohort study of more than 2 million children concluded there was no increased risk of developing encephalopathy following administration of the original DTwP vaccine1. But when encephalopathy or a new onset seizure disorder occurred in temporal association with the receipt of the DTwP vaccine, causation was often ascribed to it.

It was the escalating, yet unfounded fears surrounding the original DTwP vaccine that led to the emergence of the modern-day anti-vaccine movement in this country. In 1982, the shockumentary “Vaccine Roulette” appeared on a local NBC TV affiliate. It purported to show the child victims of the DTwP vaccine, housed in a dark and dismal chronic care facility, damaged by doctors and forgotten by society. The show awakened the nation to the alleged dangers of this vaccine, and the fear quickly spread like wild fire. Fear of the DTwP vaccine and of vaccines in general enveloped the nation, and lawsuits against vaccine manufacturers over a host of alleged reactions rained down upon the courts. This torrent of legal action threatened the future of the vaccination program in this country. While in 1979 there was only 1 DTP-related lawsuit, by 1986 there were 255, with a total of over $3 billion sought by claimants. This clearly was not sustainable for the vaccine industry, and in fact manufacturers went out of business. In 1967 there were 26 US manufacturers of vaccines. By 1980 this number had dropped to 15, and by 1986 there were only 3 companies still making vaccines in this country. Vaccine prices skyrocketed, and manufacturers found it difficult to obtain liability insurance.

..."


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For more perspective on this decision, see:

Supreme Court Decision on Vaccine Injury
http://theness.com/neurologicablog/?p=2896

Supreme Court Saves Nation’s Immunization Program
http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/?p=11127


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Sometimes the Supremes get it right, even in this day and age.

:hi:

as my daughter, born in '85, had a frightening tho transitory reaction to DPT.

Yes, the Supremes do get it right.

is the fears that the anti-vaccine groups were promulgating because no causation could be established to the vaccine for their horror stories.

way we allow profit to run the vaccine process... I can't say I know if the Supremes got it right or not.... So I'll leave that for independent medical analysis... Just the process needs more independence.....

:shrug:

Because the diseases we have vaccinations against are relatively rare, we've forgotten how incredibly devastating they are. And because most Americans have been vaccinated, those who are not vaccinated have less chance of contracting these diseases.

When a parent has to watch a child suffer the consequences of measles or mumps, and even loses that child because of complications, they will re-think vaccination.

Some people can't be vaccinated for one reason or another. So it is important for others who can be vaccinated to do so in order to protect them. This is particularly critical if children are traveling to other countries where the herd immunity may be lower. By not being vaccinated they could contract diseases and bring them back, putting vulnerable individuals at risk.

They merely, yet again, backed big corporations. Perhaps our vaccine and immunization program survived but that was not the intent of the dancing fools no matter how mealy mouthed they wrote up their decision. They were insuring the little guy had no voice, no right to anything.

As they did when selecting our president for us, they helped in some ways. We had no riots over an illegitimate president. And today we still have an immunization program that might not have held up to scrutiny.

There are some unintended consequences and the saving of the immunization program in the US was an unintended consequence of the dancing supreme's love for the bribes they take from corporate America.

Unfortunately, they lose their value when they are applied blindly.