Lou Conte - Vaccine Injuries: Documented Adverse Reactions to Vaccines

Copyright 2014 by Louis Conte and Tony Lyons

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available on file.

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Print ISBN: 978-1-62914-447-4

Ebook ISBN: 978-1-63220-170-6

Printed in the United States of America

I think certainly there are dedicated groups like the National Vaccine Information Center, which used to be called Dissatisfied Parents Together, and others such as Moms Against Mercury, Safe Minds, and Generation Rescue. These are the professional anti-vaccine groups, but I think the bigger group, frankly, is made of parents who become scared. Theyre not sure who to trust. Theyre not sure what to believe. They have this vague sense that maybe pharmaceutical companies have too much influence and maybe doctors arent to be trusted, and theyre choosing to delay or withhold one or more vaccines at their childrens risk.

Dr. Paul Offit

As a full-time professional research scientist for 50 years, and as a researcher in the field of autism for 45 years, I have been shocked and chagrined by the medical establishments ongoing efforts to trivialize the solid and compelling evidence that faulty vaccination policies are the root cause of the epidemic. There are many consistent lines of evidence implicating vaccines, and no even marginally plausible alternative hypotheses.

Bernard Rimland, PhD; Director, Autism Research Institute; Editor, Autism Research Review International; Founder, Autism Society of America

CONTENTS

PART I

HOW TO USE THIS BOOK

V accination has always been controversial. Proponents declare that vaccines have saved millions of lives, while critics claim that their success has been overstated and that vaccines may even be dangerous for some people. Many consider mandatory vaccinations a violation of individual rights or religious principles. Many in public health argue that vaccine mandates are justified and that anti-vaccination sentiment has reduced uptake rates in certain communities, resulting in outbreaks of preventable, and sometimes fatal, childhood illnesses. Opponents of vaccination point out that serious vaccine preventable diseases declined in severity and frequency before mass vaccination commenced due to better living conditions and the effectiveness of modern sanitation engineering.

The reality of vaccine injury has been horribly mishandled by the medical establishment for two hundred years, as we shall show. Denial, secrecy, and persecution of those who raise concerns about vaccine safety continue to this day. Are vaccines really safe and effective? Are the successes overstated? Are other public health initiatives more effective? Are vaccines acceptable to people with unique religious traditions? Are they contaminated? Do they sometimes spread the diseases they seek to prevent? Are they being over-used, and are severe diseases being replaced by vaccine-induced chronic diseases and conditions?

The fact is that vaccine injuries have happened in the past and continue to happen today. Even though reliance on vaccines has increased, mainstream medicine has never fully and transparently addressed the reality of vaccine injury. We must recognize that vaccines are drugs, and the more drugs one takes, the more numerous the adverse reactions to those drugs will be.

In the 1980s the United States addressed individual cases of vaccine injury by establishing the NVICPthe National Vaccine Injury Compensation Programa controversial Department of Health and Human Resources program. The NVICP was intended to be non-adversarial, compassionate and generous to vaccine injury victims. However, as we write this book, Congress is considering hearings on the effectiveness of the NVICP. Many vaccine injury victims and vaccine safety advocates believe that the program is not functioning as Congress intended. The concern is that the NVICP is not an open and fair justice forum. There are also concerns that the program is keeping the reality of vaccine injury away from public inspection. While some (but perhaps not all) case decisions are posted on the United States Court of Claims website, most people dont know that the NVICP even exists.

We intend to publish Vaccine Injuries annually. Each years book will feature all of the reported case decisions, by filing date, that resulted in the decision to compensate. While we have edited these cases for readability, we feel that these reported decisions, which may be referenced for legal purposes, provide an invaluable insight into the nature of vaccine injury and how the NVICP actually works. These case decisions are not easy reading. Vaccine injury can result in death and suffering. As these are public documents and petitioners have the right to file motions to redact personal information before the cases are posted, we have not removed case names. However, we ask the reader to respect the privacy of the litigants, their doctors, and expert witnesses.

We will also publish a sampling of unreported compensated cases. These cases, while public, are not reference material for legal purposes. Publishing all of the compensated cases of vaccine injury in the unreported section of the website would be excessive.

To place the current cases in context and to shed light on how the NVICP has evolved, we will also feature selected historical decisions.

The vast majority of cases filed in the NVICP do not result in compensation, as the 2013 statistical report shows.

Historically, the majority of claims have been filed for varieties of diptheria, pertussis, and tetanus and varieties of measles, mumps, and rubella vaccines. Most of these claims involved children whose alleged injuries were seizures and brain damage (encephalopathy). At the present time, the majority of cases compensated by the NVICP feature neurological injury to adults, such as Guillain-Barr syndrome (GBS), from adverse reactions to various influenza vaccines. Of the 993 NVICP cases reported for 2013, 627 were dismissed and 366 were compensated. Petitioner award amounts totaled $254,666,326.70. Since 1988, 3,540 individuals have been compensated and $2,671,223,269.97 has been paid out to victims of vaccine injury.

For those who have accepted the oft-repeated claim that vaccines are safe and effective, these numbers may be shocking. However, it is critical to note that these statistics do not reflect the fact that the vast majority of vaccine injuries are not even reported to the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) and that the vast majority of suspected injuries never result in NVICP filings.

The statute of limitations for filing vaccine injury claims in the NVICP is three years. It is critical that those who claim vaccine injury have information at their fingertips so that they can act promptly.