Guest guest Posted March 25, 2010 Report Share Posted March 25, 2010 Offit & Rotavirus vaccine Offit has long been known as the spokesperson for pHARMa. A vaccine for rotavirus (Rotateq) developed by Merck, the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and Offit, America's most quoted promoter and apologist for the vaccine industry, was considered for licensure on December 14 and " thought to be safe " and by the Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee of the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research of the FDA. Offit and his partners Merck and the Chidren's Hospital of Philadelphia, first received a patent for a rotavirus vaccine in 1994. Offit later voted to add rotavirus vaccine (a variety from Wyeth not Merck) to the recommended schedule of vaccines when he was a member of the FDA's Advisory Committee of Immunization Practices. Despite his ownership of a rotavirus vaccine patent Offit saw no need to recuse himself from several votes on adding rotavirus to the schedule, which is one of the last steps to inclusion in the mandatory schedules, and a guaranteed market worth billions to a vaccine maker, and comes with complete immunity from lawsuits. Dr. Offit shares the patent on the Rotavirus vaccine in development by Merck and lists a $350,000 grant from Merck for Rotavirus vaccine development. Also, he lists that he is a consultant to Merck. Dr. Offit began his tenure on ACIP in October of 1998. Out of four votes pertaining to the ACIP's rotavirus statement he voted " yes " three times, including, voting for the inclusion of the rotavirus vaccine in the VFC program. Dr. Offit abstained from voting on the ACIP's rescission of the recommendation of the rotavirus vaccine for routine use. He stated at the meeting, " I'm not conflicted with Wyeth, but because I consult with Merck on the development of rotavirus vaccine, I would still prefer to abstain because it creates a perception of conflict. " [lxvii] Its my understanding that 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. Should be disturbing to all ************* " Kirby refers to Merck, a vaccine manufacturer, as Offit's business partner. Offit was a Merck consultant and patent holder for the rotavirus vaccine which netted he and his partner $350,000 in grant money. Merck Vaccine Division, also, purchased 20,000 copies of his vaccine book for distribution to doctors' offices. Offit sat on CDC's Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices (ACIP) which recommends vaccines that end up on states' mandatory list for children's school attendance. Kirby ends his book on a politically somber note. He relates how Merck and GlaxoKline have aggressively marketed pediatric vaccines to other countries. He tells that Xinhua, the Chinese News Agency, reported that autism had suddenly skyrocketed to 1.8 million children in 2004. One researcher estimated that autism was growing at 20 percent annually. Other countries are also reporting high autism numbers.Kirby ends his book with two questions, ' " What if the profitable export of our much vaunted medical technology has led to the poisoning of hundreds of thousands of children? What then?' " http://www.vaccineawareness.org/ Book Review: Evidence of Harm September 13th, 2005 Illinois Vaccine Awareness Coalition " Evidence of Harm " by Kirby (St. 's Press, 2005) 441-page hard cover This book explores the controversy of autism epidemic linked to vaccines' thimerosal (49.6 percent ethyl mercury). It chronicles the searches of three " Mercury Moms: " Sallie Bernard, Liz Birt and Lyn Redwood to find the autism cause and cure for their sons, Bill, and Will. The three mothers take on science, business and government to find answers for their sons' sudden mental and physical decline. The mothers form Sensible Action For Ending mercury-Induced Neurological Disorders (Coalition for Safe Minds). They expose the secret vaccine workings of the Centers for Disease Control, the Food and Drug Administration, Institutes of Medicine and Congress. This book shows government and medicine bureaucracy's denials of " evidence of harm. " Unfortunately, author Kirby, a New York Times contributor, neglects the major media's resistance to investigate and to air this heated controversy. Autism now affects 1 in 166 or approximately 450,000 U.S. children ages 0-18. Early on, Kirby lists vaccines' components, sounding " like something from a poison factory manual: " aborted human fetal tissue diploid cells, aluminum hydroxide, aluminum phosphate, ammonium sulfate, calf serum, casein from pig pancreas, chick embryo, fetal bovine serum, fetal rheus monkey lung cells, monkey kidney cells, neomycin (antibiotic), phenoxyethanol (antifreeze), streptomycin (antibiotic), washed sheep red blood cells. Kirby mentions University of Kentucky's Boyd Haley, a mercury researcher for over a decade. His studies with mouse neuronal cells in culture show a shocking synergistic effect . When he mixed thimerosal with aluminum and neomycin, survival rates plummeted, after twenty-four hours, to less than 10 percent. With thimerosal-testosterone combination, cells died " 'a hundred times faster than those exposed to testosterone alone.' " Estrogen had a protective effect on cells. In other studies, Haley ' " discovered that mercury-laden shots were tenfold to hundredfold more toxic than those without thimerosal.' " He found that the preservative-free MMR vaccine ' " was as toxic as the thimerosal-containing vaccines' " but could not determine the cause. On June 21, 2000, CDC's Dr. Verstraten announced: " 'Researchers found statistically significant associations between thimerosal and neurodevelopmental disorders.' " This verified one of the Mercury Moms theory that two vaccines with more thimerosal, the Hib vaccine, added in 1988 and the hepatitis-B vaccine, added in 1991, contributed to high mercury levels in children. One of vaccines' most passionate supporter remains Offit, M.D., chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. His reaction to the mercury/ autism link is best characterized by his own words to Kirby: " 'ly, until thimerosal is out of all vaccines, nobody's going to be comfortable, which is sad...I think we scared people unnecessarily. And you did more harm than good in sort of, quote/unquote, allowing the parent to be fully informed. There's no politically correct way to say this, but being fully informed is not always the best thing. You can take that out of context and make me look like a jerk, but you know what I'm saying. You need to be appropriately informed. You need to have information in a context. That's what I think gets lost in this.' " Kirby refers to Merck, a vaccine manufacturer, as Offit's business partner. Offit was a Merck consultant and patent holder for the rotavirus vaccine which netted he and his partner $350,000 in grant money. Merck Vaccine Division, also, purchased 20,000 copies of his vaccine book for distribution to doctors' offices. Offit sat on CDC's Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices (ACIP) which recommends vaccines that end up on states' mandatory list for children's school attendance. Kirby ends his book on a politically somber note. He relates how Merck and GlaxoKline have aggressively marketed pediatric vaccines to other countries. He tells that Xinhua, the Chinese News Agency, reported that autism had suddenly skyrocketed to 1.8 million children in 2004. One researcher estimated that autism was growing at 20 percent annually. Other countries are also reporting high autism numbers.Kirby ends his book with two questions, ' " What if the profitable export of our much vaunted medical technology has led to the poisoning of hundreds of thousands of children? What then?' " Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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