4 years ago tomorrow

[Guest guest]

Please show this to parents reluctant to treat their children

because they believe Public Health officials are interested in

investigating vaccine safety...

_____________________________________________

http://www.byronchild.com/vacc.htm

" From the beginning of the IOM committee's meeting behind the closed

doors of the National Academies of Science building on January 12,

2001, committee members repeatedly expressed their " need for

reassurance " and concern over their charge, evidence, methodology,

and public communication goals, especially to parents.

" We've got a dragon by the tail here, " states a committee member in

the transcript. " At the end of the line, what we know is – and I

agree – that the more negative that presentation [the report] is,

the less likely people are to use vaccination, immunization, and we

know what the results of that will be. We are kind of caught in a

trap. How we work our way out of the trap, I think, is the charge. "

Instead of focusing on scientific data which could possibly tarnish

the current routine childhood vaccine policy, " The transcript sets

forth in significant detail stated biases, preferences and/or

predetermination of various committee members in January, 2001, i.e.

before any medical or scientific evidence had been presented to the

committee (emphasis added), " states the court document.

Specifically sited are statements by the IOM's study director

Kathleen Stratton, PhD, and committee chair Marie McCormick, MD.

These statements, the law firm says, strongly suggest Stratton and

McCormick deliberately railroaded their committee into specific

outcomes (all in italics directly from court document):

Dr. McCormick, for example, in speaking of the CDC, noted that the

agency " wants us to declare, well, these things are pretty safe on a

population basis. " (See Exhibit 1 at page 33).

" The committee's bias and predetermination of the causality issues

presented are found at page 74 in a comment from Dr. Statton:

Dr. Stratton: " We said this before you got here, and I think we said

this yesterday, the point of no return, the line we will not cross

in public policy is to pull the vaccine, change the schedule. We

could say it is time to revisit this but we will never recommend

that level. Even recommending research is recommendations for

policy. We wouldn't say compensate, we wouldn't say pull the

vaccine, we wouldn't say stop the program. "

Similarly, Dr. McCormick, at page 97 in discussing whether autism

could be associated with vaccines, stated that " we are not ever

going to come down that it is a true side effect, " despite the fact

that the committee had not yet considered any evidence on this

issue.

At page 123, Dr. Stratton indicated that, despite not having heard

any of the evidence, the probable conclusion was going to be that

the evidence was " inadequate to accept or reject a causal

relation. " " Chances are, when all is said and done, we are still

going to be in this category. It is just a general feeling that we

probably still are not going to be able to make a statement. "

Stratton joined the IOM in 1990 and was later awarded the IOM's

Cecil Research Award for her contributions to vaccine safety.

McCormick is the Sumner and Esther Feldberg Professor of Maternal

and Child Health at the Harvard School of Public Health. "