Committee hears testimony on alleged side effects
WASHINGTON -- Benjamin Converse was born two years ago into a healthy family with no history of autism or seizure disorder. At birth he appeared to be a normal healthy child with full command of his reflexes. Four days after being released from the hospital, Benjamin had his first seizure.
Several episodes followed within the next week, along with recurring fevers, insomnia, and incessant crying and vomiting.
"Frantic calls to the emergency room fell on dead ears," recalled Benjamin's mother, Judy Converse, who claims Recombivax HB -- the much-heralded immunization against hepatitis B -- is the lone culprit of her son's condition.
Testifying yesterday before the House Government Reform and Oversight Subcommittee on Criminal Justice, Drug Policy and Human Resources, Converse reported that Benjamin was officially diagnosed last week with autism spectrum and pervasive developmental disorder. That is, among other things, "he can't reliably sense, organize, or prioritize the information his brain receives about gravity, balance, sound, light, (or) emotion." Although Benjamin has the opportunity to somewhat recover, the Converses are unsure if he will ever be able to attend school or function as a normal child.
Many other self-proclaimed victims of the vaccine submitted similar testimony, urging Congress to order the National Center for Infectious Diseases, Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to conduct further studies on the drug and its effects on gender and age, specifically for newborns and babies who are not at risk to the disease. In addition, the oversight committee was asked to consider the repercussions of state mandates that require all children to be inoculated with the vaccine in order to attend school. Currently, 42 states require vaccination against the hepatitis B infection before allowing children to enroll in daycare, kindergarten, elementary school, or high school; only 16 states allow parents to "philosophically opt-out" of vaccinating their children.
At the forefront of the crusade against mandatory vaccination is the National Vaccine Information Center, a national non-profit organization dedicated to the prevention of vaccine-related injuries and deaths. In her testimony before the subcommittee, NVIC President Barbara Fisher argued that, because "there is a clear pattern to hepatitis B vaccine reaction symptoms," Congress should not only appropriate funds to conduct "non-government, non-industry" research of vaccine-associated cases, but also investigate policy-making standards applied to the vaccine.
Fisher charged that the information on hepatitis B produced by the CDC in compliance with 1986 National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act established by Congress as a safety-net for people like Benjamin "does not come close to meeting the informed part of informed consent."
Further, Fisher claimed that the results of independent reviews of the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS), which is designed to alert federal agencies such as the CDC to the negative effects of vaccines, confirmed that, in 1996 alone, 214 children under the age of 14 experienced serious adverse reactions from the hepatitis B vaccine.
Subcommittee Chairman John Mica, R-Fla., agreed with the need for additional studies -- particularly after hearing vague testimony from CDC's Hepatitis Branch Chief Harold Margolis and FDA's Biostatistics and Epidemiology Division Director Susan Ellenberg. Both agency officials failed to offer Mica reliable statistics defending the accusation that the vaccine may cause more harm than good to infants and babies. However, they acknowledged the need for additional research and revealed that the agencies are currently conducting several studies hoping to define the correlation between the hepatitis B vaccine and the reported injuries and deaths to VAERS, which total more than 11,000 per year.
Among the agency's efforts, Margolis reported the CDC is in the process of developing a vaccine safety datalink that would link the vaccine history of children and their medical outcome, thereby enabling CDC to combat future reactions to the hepatitis B vaccine.
In the meantime, Mica concluded, there was "inadequate warning" to parents of the effects of vaccine "given the number of adverse reactions" and suggested further hearings be held to update Congress on the CDC and FDA's progress of identifying the ratio of children vaccinated to those who develop severe side-effects. Future hearings will not only challenge federal health agencies to offer more information to the public, but will expand the forum for victims who, thus far, have not received any compensation for their suffering, despite past congressional legislative efforts.
Hepatitis B is an inflammatory liver disease that kills approximately 5,000 people per year in the United States. The hepatitis B virus is transmitted in much the same way as HIV, and, like HIV, injection drug users and those who engage in multiple sexual relationships are at a higher risk. But the hepatitis B virus is even more contagious. Consequently, the CDC and the FDA, along with those who have survived this extremely debilitating disease strongly advocate vaccination, even for healthy infants and babies.
Despite the potential adverse effects of the vaccine, federal health agencies insist it is "cost/benefit effective to vaccinate early," reminding that 25,000 children infected with the hepatitis B virus come from low-risk families. Therefore, in 1991, nine years after the vaccine was made available, the CDC began to require routine vaccinations. Since that time, more than 5 million people worldwide have received the hepatitis B vaccine. Today, 90 percent of American children are vaccinated.
Tricia Holly is a WorldNetDaily contributor.