RE: Fwd: LANDMARK ARTICLE - UPI Investigates: The vaccine conflict

[Guest guest]

The link you sent with the article below is dead, (the first link), do

you know another url address to get it?

 

Marshall

 

http://www.healthcity.ca

 

 

 

 

Frank [califpacific]

Sunday, July 20, 2003 11:26 AM

alternative_medicine_forum

Fwd: LANDMARK ARTICLE - UPI

Investigates: The vaccine conflict

 

 

 

 

:

Sun, 20 Jul 2003 09:20:34 -0800

Sandy Mintz

LANDMARK ARTICLE - UPI Investigates: The vaccine conflict

 

PLEASE PASS ON!

 

As you all know, I rarely send out articles that I have put on my

website.

I am making an exception with this outstanding article:

http://www.upi.com/print.cfm?StoryID=20030718-012134-4422r

 

Note, however, that the incidence is thought to be higher than the 1 out

of

300 cited by Mr. Benjamin, e.g., 1 out of 150 to 170:

http://www.vaccinationnews.com/dailynews/november2002/autismincidence6.h

tm

and as low as 1 out of 86 in England and Wales:

http://www.vaccinationnews.com/dailynews/may2002/hiddenriseautfuelsmmrfe

ars.

htm.

 

If anyone knows what Mark Benjamin's email address is, please send it to

me

and I will send it to the group. We should all thank him for this story.

 

All the best,

Sandy

 

Sandy Mintz

http://www.vaccinationnews.com

http://www.vaccinationnews.com/Scandals/past_scandals.htm

 

" Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty. " - Wendell Phillips

(1811-1884),

paraphrasing John Philpot Curran (1808)

 

http://www.909shot.com

http://www.redflagsweekly.com

 

http://www.upi.com/print.cfm?StoryID=20030718-012134-4422r

 

UPI Investigates: The vaccine conflict

 

By Mark Benjamin

Investigations Editor

Published 7/20/2003 8:45 AM

 

WASHINGTON, July 20 (UPI) -- The screaming started four hours after

8-month-old Chaise Irons received a vaccination against rotavirus,

recommended in June 1998 by the Centers for Disease Control and

Prevention for every infant to prevent serious diarrhea.

 

Within a day he was vomiting and eliminating blood. Doctors performed

emergency surgery, saving him by repairing his intestines, which were

folding in on one another. A doctor later figured out the vaccine caused

Chaise's problem.

 

In October 1999, after 15 reports of such incidents, the CDC withdrew

its recommendation for the vaccination -- not because of the problem,

the agency claims, but because bad publicity might give vaccines in

general a bad name.

 

But a four-month investigation by United Press International found a

pattern of serious problems linked to vaccines recommended by the CDC --

and a web of close ties between the agency and the companies that make

vaccines.

 

Critics say those ties are an unholy alliance in a war against disease

where vaccine side effects have damaged, hurt or killed people, mostly

children.

 

" The CDC is a disgrace. It is a corrupt organization, " said Stephen A.

Sheller, a Philadelphia attorney who has sued vaccine makers for what he

says were bad vaccines. " The drug companies have them on their payroll. "

 

The CDC, based in Atlanta, said it is committed to fighting disease and

balancing vaccine side effects.

 

" Our goal is to protect the public health from both disease and from

serious adverse events, " said Dr. Walter Orenstein, director of the

CDC's National Immunization Program.

 

The agency sets the U.S. childhood immunization schedule, or the list of

shots pediatricians give children. Some states say kids can't go to

public school unless they have had CDC-endorsed vaccines.

 

Since the mid-1980s the agency has doubled the number of vaccines

children get, up to nearly 40 doses before age 2. The CDC also tracks

possible side effects, along with the Food and Drug Administration. This

puts the agency in the awkward position of evaluating the safety of its

own recommendations.

 

An advisory committee of outside experts helps the CDC make vaccine

recommendations. UPI found:

 

-- In two cases in the past four years, vaccines endorsed by the CDC

were pulled off the market after a number of infants and adults appear

to have suffered devastating side effects, and some died. Critics now

worry about a possible link between vaccines and autism, diabetes,

asthma and sudden infant death syndrome, among other ailments.

 

-- Members of the CDC's Vaccine Advisory Committee get money from

vaccine manufacturers. Relationships have included: sharing a vaccine

patent; owning stock in a vaccine company; payments for research;

getting money to monitor manufacturer vaccine tests; and funding

academic departments.

 

-- The CDC is in the vaccine business. Under a 1980 law, the CDC

currently has 28 licensing agreements with companies and one university

for vaccines or vaccine-related products. It has eight ongoing projects

to collaborate on new vaccines.

 

The situation, while legal, gives critics plenty of reason to worry that

vaccine side effects are worse than CDC officials say.

 

" When you take a look at the ever-increasing numbers of doses of

vaccines babies have gotten over the past two decades and you see this

corresponding rise in chronic disease and disability in our children, it

is out of control, " said Barbara Loe Fisher, president of the National

Vaccine Information Center, which does not accept money from vaccine

manufacturers.

 

She worries that vaccines might be linked to ballooning rates of chronic

illness like autism, which has increased tenfold since the mid-1980s,

and asthma, which has more than doubled since 1980.

 

Fisher's group wants to overhaul the mass vaccination system.

 

" The CDC has a very hard time investigating in an unbiased way what is

happening to our children because of ideological and financial conflicts

of interest, " she said. Fisher believes a vaccine injured her son in the

1980s.

 

Developing a vaccine can cost a half a billion dollars. A recommendation

by the CDC guarantees a market and a 1986 law limits manufacturers'

liability for side effects.

 

The annual global market for vaccines is expected to go from $6 billion

today to $10 billion by 2006.

 

The CDC said the best vaccine advisers often have ties to the industry,

making potential conflicts unavoidable. Agency officials review possible

conflicts.

 

" The issue of safety is critical and you need people extremely

knowledgeable about safety to develop the best policy formulations, "

said Orenstein. The agency has to weigh possible side effects against

dangerous disease. " We need to put safety data in context with

risk-of-disease data, " he said.

 

The agency said ethics officials also review partnerships with companies

to make new vaccines.

 

" Each one of those proposed activities is reviewed by the CDC's ethics

officials, by our office of general counsel, and by me to make sure that

there are no conflicts of interest, " said Dixie Snider, CDC associate

director for science.

 

Andrew Watkins, director of the CDC's Technology Transfer Office,

negotiates licensing agreements with outside companies. He said agency

scientists routinely leave to work with vaccine manufacturers.

 

" It does happen that some of our inventors end up working for a

manufacturer, " Watkins said. " In fact, we consider that a wonderful tool

of technology transfer, although we do lose a good scientist. "

 

But Watkins said very little money actually changes hands, making it

unlikely to influence the CDC. He said companies, including vaccine

makers, only gave the CDC around $1 million last year to work on

collaborative projects and the agency only got $150,000 last year in

licensing fees.

 

" We are a real cheap date, " Watkins said.

 

Rep. Dan Burton, R-Ind., who has been investigating vaccines for four

years, said conflicts at the CDC are a problem, particularly on the

vaccine advisory panel. He believes vaccines triggered his grandson's

autism.

 

" This presents a real paradox when the CDC routinely allows scientists

with blatant conflicts of interest to serve on influential advisory

committees that make recommendations on new vaccines, as well as policy

matters, " Burton told UPI. " All the while these same scientists have

financial ties, academic affiliations, and other vested interests in the

products and companies for which they are supposed to be providing

unbiased oversight. "

 

Because of concern over vaccine side effects, Congress in 1986 passed a

law setting up a database at the CDC to track reports from doctors,

manufacturers and the public of possible side effects from vaccines that

started in 1991.

 

As of the end of last year, the system contained 244,424 total reports

of possible reactions to vaccines, including 99,145 emergency room

visits, 5,149 life-threatening reactions, 27,925 hospitalizations, 5,775

disabilities, and 5,309 deaths, according to data compiled by Dr. Mark

Geier, a vaccine researcher in Silver Spring, Md. The data represents

roughly 1 billion doses of vaccines, according to Geier.

 

The reports do not necessarily show that a vaccine caused a problem.

 

 

 

The pain of Rotashield

 

The CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, ACIP, helps the

agency decide what vaccines are safe enough to recommend. It is made up

of 12 experts from hospitals, universities and state health departments.

 

In June 1998, the committee recommended that all infants be vaccinated

against rotavirus. The virus causes bad diarrhea that can be fatal.

 

At the time, vaccine maker Wyeth had a vaccine called Rotashield. Merck

hoped to soon follow with its own version.

 

Wyeth ended up pulling its vaccine off the U.S. market in October 1999

after it was suspected of causing an excruciating contortion where a

child's large intestine folds over the small one.

 

Emergency surgery is sometimes required to prevent death. That was the

case with 8-month-old Chaise Irons.

 

" Chaise was vomiting blood and blood was coming out of his stool, " said

his mother, Jayne Irons, from her home in Malibu, Calif. Doctors

performed emergency surgery to repair Chaise's intestines, saving his

life.

 

Jayne said she never questioned her doctor's advice to give Chaise the

vaccine. " I had no reason to doubt anybody. I am such a believer in

vaccinations, " Irons said.

 

The Irons' will get $25,000 for Chaise's injuries from a government

compensation program.

 

For Rotashield, the CDC's public database contains 664 total reports

possibly caused by the vaccine, including 288 emergency room visits, 63

life-threatening reactions, 232 hospitalizations, 10 disabilities and

eight deaths.

 

" Eight deaths, " said Jayne Irons. " You just have to thank God that you

are not one of the deaths. "

 

Republican staff on the House Government Reform Committee looked into

the CDC panel that recommended the vaccination. Their August 2001 report

found that " four out of eight CDC advisory committee members who voted

to approve guidelines for the rotavirus vaccine in June 1998 had

financial ties to pharmaceutical companies that were developing

different versions of the vaccine. "

 

A transcript from that June 1998 meeting shows the committee voted down

an effort by one member to phase in the vaccine because of concern over

possible bad side effects. " I'm still a little concerned about the

safety issues, " Marie Griffin from Vanderbilt University said before

that vote.

 

When asked, members of the committee told UPI their potential conflicts

do not affect their judgment.

 

" I am probably just the kind of person you are talking about, " said Paul

Offit, chief of infectious diseases at the Children's Hospital of

Philadelphia, who was a committee member until last month. At the same

time, he shared a patent for another rotavirus vaccine. Merck has funded

Offit's research for 13 years.

 

" I am a co-holder of a patent for a (rotavirus) vaccine. If this vaccine

were to become a routinely recommended vaccine, I would make money off

of that, " Offit said. " When I review safety data, am I biased? That

answer is really easy: absolutely not. "

 

" Is there an unholy alliance between the people who make recommendations

about vaccines and the vaccine manufacturers? The answer is no. "

 

Merck bought and delivers copies of Offit's book, " What Every Parent

Should Know About Vaccines, " to American doctors. The book has a list

price of $14.95.

 

" Merck Vaccine Division is pleased to present you with a copy of the

recent publication, 'What Every Parent Should Know About Vaccines,' "

says a Dear Doctor letter from Merck. " The authors designed the book to

answer questions parents have about vaccines and to dispel

misinformation about vaccines that sometimes appears in the public

media. "

 

Offit said he does not know how many copies of his book Merck purchased.

" I don't have any control over that, " he said.

 

The 2001 Government Reform Committee's investigation noted potential

conflicts with another committee member. The chairman of the CDC's

Vaccine Advisory Committee, Dartmouth Medical School Professor Dr. John

Modlin, owned $26,000 in Merck stock.

 

In a telephone interview with UPI, Modlin said he had sold that stock,

but that he had recently agreed to chair a committee to oversee Merck

vaccine clinical trials. Modlin, who was the committee chairman until

last month, said he does not know how much compensation he receives from

that post, but that Merck " pays my expenses " to attend meetings.

 

In October 1999, the committee reversed its recommendation that all

infants should get rotavirus vaccinations. Modlin said the vaccine was

safe enough, but the committee reversed itself out of concern that bad

press over Rotashield might make some people stop getting vaccinated

altogether.

 

" There could be some spill-over effects that would have a net negative

effect, " Modlin said. " I thought that was the committee's finest hour. "

 

Meeting transcripts over the past decade showed that at some meetings,

half of the members present had potential conflicts with vaccine

manufacturers.

 

The CDC said that in October 2002 it adopted new guidelines for

participating on that advisory committee that in the future will

preclude people with conflicts like Offit's from sitting on the

committee.

 

" We learned from that experience (with rotavirus) and have now put in

force more stringent criteria recently so we do not nominate people with

those kinds of conflicts, " said the CDC's Snider.

 

At the June 2002 committee meeting -- the last meeting for which minutes

are available -- four of the 11 members present acknowledged conflicts

with Wyeth, GlaxoSmithKline, Merck, Pfizer, Bayer and Aventis Pasteur.

Two of the four did research or vaccine trials for manufacturers. One of

the four was a co-holder of a vaccine patent as well as a consultant to

Merck.

 

 

 

At odds over autism

 

At 8:05 a.m. on Monday, July 16, 2001, a vaccine safety committee of the

influential Institute of Medicine convened a public meeting at the

Charles Hotel in Cambridge, Mass.

 

The purpose: to discuss whether CDC-recommended vaccines might be

responsible for a wave of autism and neurological problems in tens of

thousands of American children during the 1990s.

 

The concern: most vaccines contained a mercury-based preservative called

thimerosal. Too much mercury has known toxic effects on the brain.

 

Since the mid 1980s, the number of childhood vaccinations recommended by

the CDC had nearly doubled. The agency recommends nearly 40 doses of

vaccines for children today. Also since the mid-1980s the autism rate in

the United States had soared by 10 times to an astonishing one child in

every 300.

 

Cause and effect or coincidence?

 

The vaccine manufacturers deny any connection, but the Institute of

Medicine -- part of the National Academy of Sciences and a key adviser

to the federal government on medical concerns -- wanted to hear from Dr.

Thomas Verstraeten, a CDC expert on the issue.

 

When Verstraeten appeared before the committee, he made a surprise

opening statement.

 

" First, I should mention that as of 8 a.m. European time I have been

employed by a vaccine manufacturer, " Verstraeten told the panel,

according to a transcript. " That means since 2 a.m. American time, " just

hours before he spoke on behalf of the CDC.

 

Verstraeten had been working at the CDC on a study of 76,659 children to

determine if thimerosal might be causing neurological problems like

autism.

 

Signs of autism usually show up around age 2. Sometimes children who had

previously appeared to interact normally will suddenly regress, become

withdrawn and stop responding to their parents and the outside world.

They may perform repetitive motions, like spinning or flapping their

arms, have seizures, scream uncontrollably and resist physical touch.

 

Manufacturers had used thimerosal, which contains ethyl-mercury, as a

preservative in multi-dose vials of vaccine. The vials allow needles to

be inserted repeatedly and the vaccine drawn out. The vials are cheaper

than packaging doses of vaccine separately, without thimerosal.

 

Depending on what vaccines a child got during that period, a visit to

the doctor during the 1990's may have exposed some children to 125 times

the limit on mercury set by the Environmental Protection Agency.

 

A February 2000 draft of Verstraeten's study, obtained by United Press

International, appears to show that thimerosal might cause brain

problems.

 

That draft cites " increasing risks of neurological developmental

disorders with increasing cumulative exposure to thimerosal. "

 

" We can state that this analysis does not rule out that receipt of

thimerosal-containing vaccine in children under 3 months of age may be

related to an increased risk of neurologic developmental disorders, " the

study said.

 

To discuss the findings in Verstraeten's study, the CDC convened a

meeting at the Simpsonwood Retreat Center in Norcross, Ga., on June 7-8,

2000. The agency invited vaccine experts and representatives of four

vaccine manufacturers.

 

After discussing that study, Dr. David Johnson, a Michigan state public

health officer advising the CDC on vaccines, said that the findings were

troubling, according to a transcript.

 

" My gut feeling? It worries me enough, " said Johnson. " I do not want

(my) grandson to get a thimerosal-containing vaccine until we know

better what is going on. "

 

Later in the same conversation, CDC officials agreed to keep the study

private.

 

" We have been privileged so far that given the sensitivity of

information, we have been able to manage to keep it out of, let's say,

less responsible hands, " said Bob Chen, head of CDC's Vaccine Safety and

Development unit.

 

Dr. Roger Bernier, who was then CDC's associate director for science,

responded, " I think if we will all just consider this embargoed

information, if I can use that term. "

 

The CDC's Walter Orenstein said the agency wanted to look hard at the

study before discussing it in public, not cover it up. The CDC never

published a study based on the data, but said it would soon.

 

GlaxoSmithKline declined UPI's request to interview Verstraeten from

Rixensart, Belgium, but Orenstein said Verstraeten left the CDC to move

back to Europe.

 

For Lara Bono of Durham, N.C., the connection between vaccines with

thimerosal and her son's autism is obvious.

 

Bono said her son Jackson began to change drastically within days of

receiving a group of thimerosal-containing vaccinations.

 

Bono says that on Aug. 14, 1990, four days after receiving the last of a

group of shots, 16-month-old Jackson was becoming withdrawn. Within two

weeks he stopped responding or acknowledging his parents. Two weeks

after that Jackson no longer would make eye contact. It soon became

difficult to get Jackson to eat or sleep. He has had bouts of spinning

uncontrollably and seizures.

 

" Fast forward another couple of months and he was gone. The mercury was

in his brain, " Bono said.

 

Years later, Bono discovered that at one point, Jackson's mercury

exposure may have been more than 40 times the limit set by the EPA. Nine

years later, Bono says, Jackson was diagnosed with mercury poisoning she

says came from the vaccines.

 

Boyd Haley, chairman of the Chemistry Department at the University of

Kentucky, has done studies that he says show some children with autism

do not excrete harmful mercury from vaccines, but keep it in their

bodies. He says the CDC knows the vaccines the agency recommended may

have harmed a generation of children.

 

" I know that they know and that is what bothers me more than anything

else, " Haley said. " You can't do a study showing it (thimerosal) is

safe. It is just too damn toxic. "

 

In June of 2000, the agency's Vaccine Advisory Committee signed on to a

statement calling for the removal of thimerosal from vaccines " because

any potential risk from mercury is of concern. "

 

" However, there remains no convincing evidence of harm caused by low

levels of thimerosal in vaccines, " the statement said.

 

In October 2001, the Institute of Medicine panel that heard from

Verstraeten found that it is " biologically plausible " that thimerosal

causes autism, but that, " current scientific evidence neither proves nor

disproves a link. "

 

To avoid any conflict of interest, that panel specifically excludes

" anyone who had participated in research on vaccine safety, received

funding from vaccine manufacturers or their parent companies, or served

on Vaccine Advisory Committees. "

 

 

 

 

 

Laid low by Lyme vaccine

 

The rotavirus recommendation is not the only controversial call made by

the CDC. Another involves a vaccine to fight Lyme disease, a tick-borne

illness that can cause profound fatigue, headache, fever and severe

muscle pain.

 

" It was after the booster shot that I absolutely collapsed, " said Lewis

Bull, a farmer from East Lyme, Conn. Bull, now 49, volunteered in 1996

to take shots during a clinical study for a new vaccine to prevent Lyme

disease developed by SmithKline Beecham, now GlaxoSmithKline. Clinical

studies are tests on humans to make sure vaccines are safe and work

before going on the market.

 

In the study, Bull first received placebo shots containing no vaccine

and felt fine.

 

But soon after his second shot of the real vaccine he began to suffer

from debilitating arthritis, memory loss and fatigue. Some doctors

believe the Lyme vaccine side effects mirror the disease itself.

 

" For the first six months I could not get out of bed. The memory loss

was incredible. I've played guitar all my life and I could not remember

how to play guitar. I could not find the town hall and I used to go

there four times a week, " he said in a recent telephone interview.

 

Bull said his fatigue was so severe he would sleep for stretches of 22

hours or more. Without medical insurance, Bull was forced to sell his

farm.

 

On Feb. 18, 1999, the CDC endorsed Lyme disease vaccine for people age

15-70 who work or recreate in possible tick-infested areas.

 

By October of 2000, more than 1.4 million people had received the

vaccine, according to the CDC.

 

But 19 months later, in February 2002, SmithKline Beecham pulled the

vaccine off the market because " sales of LYMERIX are insufficient to

justify the continued investment. "

 

The company also faced hundreds lawsuits by people who said they

suffered side effects, many similar to Lewis Bull's.

 

Although he never sued, Bull said he complained to the CDC to report

what he says were obvious side effects from the vaccine, called LYMERIX.

 

The government's database of possible side effects for LYMERIX lists 640

emergency room visits, 34 life-threatening reactions, 77

hospitalizations, 198 disabilities and six deaths after people took the

shots since the CDC endorsed it.

 

According to CDC meeting transcripts where the advisory committee

weighed its recommendation, five of 10 committee members disclosed their

financial conflicts of interest with vaccine manufactures. Three of the

five had conflicts of interest with SmithKlineBeecham.

 

The committee ignored a plea from a consumer advocate to delay a

recommendation on LYMERIX because it might not be safe, according to a

February 1999 transcript.

 

" We are just saying there is a wealth of information out there that is

different than the information you have been provided. I think the

honorable thing to do would be to wait, " said Karen

Vanderhoof-Forschner, founder of the Lyme Disease Foundation, a

patient's advocacy group that eventually opposed the vaccine.

 

UPI found that the CDC and SmithKline Beecham worked together on a Lyme

vaccine. A 1992 CDC activity report obtained by UPI says the agency had

an agreement " with SmithKline Beecham that currently funds three

positions at (the CDC) for the purpose of providing information of use

in developing advanced test methods and vaccine candidates. "

 

In June 2001, the General Accounting Office delivered a report to Sen.

Chris Dodd, D-Conn., on this issue. It says that CDC employees " are

listed on two Lyme-disease related patents " including " a 1993 joint

patent between CDC and SmithKline Beecham Corporation. " The report also

said that six of 12 consultants working for the CDC on Lyme vaccines

" reported at least one interest related to a vaccine firm. "

 

 

 

 

 

Do babies need Hep B?

 

In 1991 the CDC recommended that all infants get their first Hepatitis B

vaccination just hours after birth. The disease is mostly spread from

dirty needles and unprotected sex. It can create deadly liver disease.

 

The vaccine has been blamed for mysterious deaths following the shots,

sometimes filed as sudden infant death syndrome.

 

One is the Sept. 16, 1998, death of Lyla Rose Belkin at age 5 weeks. She

died 15 hours after getting her second Hepatitis B vaccine booster shot.

 

Michael Belkin said in a telephone interview from Seattle that his

daughter was lively and alert prior to receiving the shot. She became

agitated and noisy, suddenly fell asleep, and died 15 hours later.

Belkin said the coroner indicated that his daughter's brain was swollen;

a reaction some researchers believe could be caused by the vaccine.

 

" So in the CDC and (the Vaccine Advisory Committee's) own words, almost

every newborn U.S. baby is now greeted on its entry into the world by a

vaccine injection against a sexually transmitted disease for which the

baby is not at risk -- because they couldn't get the junkies,

prostitutes, homosexuals and promiscuous heterosexuals to take the

vaccine, " Belkin told a congressional panel on May 18, 1999.

 

" Parents need to understand that the system providing the vaccines

injected into their children's veins is corrupt and scientifically

flawed, " Belkin told UPI. " Parents should do their own homework and

investigate this question: What is the risk of getting a severe

neurological vaccine adverse reaction versus the risk of getting

neurological complications from the disease? "

 

The CDC's files contain 32,731 total reports of possible reactions

following Hepatitis B vaccinations since 1991, including 10,915

emergency room visits, 685 life-threatening reactions, 3,700

hospitalizations, 1,200 disabilities and 618 deaths.

 

In October 2002, the Institute of Medicine reported that the " evidence

is inadequate " to prove or disprove that some vaccines might be behind

some cases of SIDS, and called for more research.

 

The CDC says, " There is no confirmed evidence which indicates that

hepatitis B vaccine can cause chronic illnesses. "

 

Some of the officials involved in the agency's 1991 decision to

recommend that all infants receive the Hepatitis B vaccine also had

close ties to vaccine manufacturers.

 

Dr. Sam Katz was the advisory committee chairman at the time. A

professor at Duke, Katz said 30 percent of children who get the disease

get it from unknown causes, possibly in daycare.

 

He said the CDC tried to give the shots to teens, but it was hard to get

them to show up for all three doses.

 

" So they said, 'Well, we've got a captive audience and we want to give

it to the newborns anyways.' "

 

Katz developed a measles vaccine now manufactured by Merck, which also

manufactures a Hepatitis B vaccine. Katz said when he was chairman of

the committee in 1991 he also worked as a paid consultant for Merck,

Wyeth and most major vaccine manufacturers.

 

He said conflicts do not pose a real problem.

 

" I think it has increasingly become a problem, but it is a perceived

problem, not a real problem, " Katz said.

 

Another member of the committee in 1991 was Dr. Neal Halsey, director of

the division of disease control at Johns Hopkins University. He

continued to advise the committee throughout the rest of that decade, as

did Katz.

 

Halsey is a former CDC employee who has done research paid for by most

of the major vaccine manufacturers. When he testified before the House

Government Reform Committee in 1999, he disclosed a salary at that time

for work on a Lyme vaccine.

 

He also established the Johns Hopkins Institute for Vaccine Safety,

started in part with " unrestricted educational grants in 1997 from

several vaccine manufacturers and some private donations, " according to

Halsey. Congressional investigators said that support included $50,000

in start-up funds from Merck and a payment from Wyeth. Halsey said

vaccine manufacturers do not fund the center's vaccine education

activities.

 

Halsey said the CDC needs experts like him to get the best advice.

 

" In order to get the people with experience, you need people who have

done the research, " Halsey said in a telephone interview. " To do that,

you have to have people who have done research for vaccine

manufacturers. "

 

Halsey said, however, that the CDC should not recommend vaccines and

evaluate safety at the same time.

 

" I think it is a problem and I think it would be better if an

independent body evaluated safety, " Halsey said.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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