Sharyl Atkisson On Vaccines

My opinion: Atkisson is the USA's only reporter. Period. She is the only one who adheres to the pursuit of facts without ideological corruption.

Now to vaccines:

Fact Check: Anne Schuchat’s Claim That Vaccines Can’t Cause Brain Damage

"At the hearing, Dr. Schuchat debunked Dr. Paul’s premise without qualifiers.

“Is there any scientific evidence that vaccines cause profound mental disorders?” Sen. Warren asked.

“No,” replied Dr. Schuchat."

This is the point where the Leftist media machine would halt; the narrative has been stated, authority asserted, full stop.

Not Atkisson:

"But is that accurate?

'Vaccines are extraordinarily safe,' says a medical doctor who has served as a government vaccine safety advisor on Institute of Medicine panels. But he says the risk of vaccine-induced brain disease is “not completely zero.” He asked not to be identified because vaccine safety is such an incendiary topic.

“It’s extremely rare but, yes, it happens,” said the safety expert. “We think it happens.”

Indeed, the DTP (diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis) vaccine was phased out of use and replaced by today’s version, believed to be safer, after the Institute of Medicine concluded it rarely caused neurological damage and death.

So has all risk of brain injury from vaccines evaporated?

The government’s own archives show the idea of vaccines inducing brain inflammation—sometimes called acute encephalopathy or encephalitis–and permanent brain damage have long been accepted in the mainstream medical community. A small sampling of the evidence follows:

1. The CDC lists brain injuries such as “permanent brain damage” as possible vaccine side effects.

The CDC states that reports of brain injury after vaccination are so rare “experts cannot tell whether they are caused by the vaccine or not.” But it clearly acknowledges that a link is possible.

Specifically, CDC vaccine literature states that “long-term seizures, coma, or lowered consciousness” and “permanent brain damage” are very rarely possible from DTaP, MMR and MMRV vaccines. Additionally, CDC literature states that “severe brain reactions” are very rarely possible from Varicella (chickenpox) vaccine.

2. The government compensates for some neurological complications of vaccination, including permanent brain injuries.

The concept of vaccine-induced brain damage is accepted in a special government program that compensates vaccine injury victims. In fact, there is such consensus that if a child’s post-vaccine brain injury meets certain conditions, financial compensation is automatically awarded without dispute.

According to the federal agency that administers compensation, Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), the presumed vaccine-brain injury link applies to an array of widely-used childhood vaccines containing tetanus toxoid (e.g., DTaP, DTP, DT, Td, or TT); whole cell pertussis bacteria, extracted or partial cell pertussis bacteria, or specific pertussis antigen(s) (e.g., DTP, DTaP, P, DTP-Hib); and measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine or any of its components (e.g., MMR, MR, M, R).

From Oct. 1, 1988 to March 4, 2008, the government compensated 1,322 cases of encephalitis, encephalopathy and seizures after vaccination—all brain-related injuries.

3. The CDC acknowledges vaccine links to brain injury in its “who should not vaccinate” recommendations.

For example, CDC recommends “any child who suffered a brain or nervous system disease within 7 days after a dose of DTaP should not get another dose.”

For tetanus, diphtheria, pertussis, CDC states those who had “a coma, or long or multiple seizures within seven days after a childhood dose of DTP or DTaP…should not get Tdap, unless a cause other than the vaccine was found [emphasis added].”

4. The Institute of Medicine lists an additional rare, causal link between vaccines and brain injury.

The Institute of Medicine states there is convincing scientific evidence strongly supporting a causal relationship between MMR vaccine and a brain illness called Measles Inclusion Body Encephalitis (MIBE). MIBE can, in very rare cases, affect people whose immune system is compromised.

'Seizures and altered level of consciousness are the most common initial manifestations,' say medical experts, 'typically followed by rapid clinical deterioration marked by worsening seizures, development of epilepsia partialis continua, deepening coma, and death in the majority of cases.'"

Finally, the overtly politicization of vaccination:

"Government and medical officials often express the desire to strictly control the flow of factual information regarding vaccines because they fear if the public hears information that makes them become wary of vaccines, vaccination rates would decline and preventable diseases would re-emerge in epidemic proportions.

A crisis of that sort threatened the nation’s vaccine program in the 1980′s when vaccine manufacturers began to pull out of the DPT vaccine market due to a spike in lawsuits over DPT vaccine brain damage. As a result, Congress created a special program that protects vaccine companies from civil product liability for injuries caused by federally recommended vaccines. Vaccine injury claims are required to go through a special vaccine court created in 1988, and damages to victims are funded by a fee charged to patients on each dose of vaccine."

In other words, it is worth the health and brains of a few children in order to keep measles "under control", and actual damage due to vaccine has a special blocking from normal recourse procedures.

I had measles. I'd rather have measles than brain damage. And I'd rather make that decision for my child, myself, based on the truth about the probabilities. It is a property of Leftist consequentialist totalitarian mentality that they should make the decision for everyone (and demean those who do make their own decisions). Not to mention placing legal blocks on normal recourse rights.

Please give Atkisson a hit at the link.

In a separate article, Atkisson writes this:

"Vaccines have saved untold millions of lives, and the vast majority of people who get them suffer no major problems.

But there’s a trade-off: occasionally, vaccines cause injury or death. Very rarely, patients are left with what’s known as “encephalopathy”, the medical term for brain damage.

In fact, CBS News has found nearly 1,300 cases in which vaccine-related brain damage has been compensated in court over the past 20 years.

The debate over any links between vaccines and autism – a behavior problem triggered by brain damage – couldn’t be more contentious. The great majority of medical opinion holds that vaccines don’t cause autism. However, many of the same experts don’t dispute that vaccines can, in rare instances, cause brain damage."