Vaccine Conflict Disclosure Isn’t Sufficient
3 CommentsBy Ed Silverman // June 4th, 2007 // 8:25 am
In an Op-Ed piece in The Boston Globe this weekend, Paul Offit, a vaccines expert, laments an upcoming lawsuit to be heard by a federal claims court in which parents will argue that vaccines cause autism.
“If successful, these claims could exhaust the pool of money currently set aside to compensate children who have been hurt by vaccines. Further, lawyers will likely take their claims that vaccines cause autism to civil court, where awards could be enormous,” writes Offit, the chief of infectious diseases at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. He goes on to cite a litany of obstacles vaccine makers have faced over the years and then argues that, thanks to the litigation, “vaccine makers are again threatened.”
The essay did note that Offit is co-inventor of the rotavirus vaccine currently licensed in the United States. The disclosure is helpful, but should have been more explicit. That vaccine is Merck’s Rotateq, and Offit has served as a consultant to the drugmaker for many years. Merck has also been in the vaccine business for many years.
In other words, Offit may be directly affected by any litigation that questions the worth of vaccines and, by extension, makes life more difficult for these companies. This is what he told UPI in 2003, before Rotateq was approved by the FDA: “I am a co-holder of a patent for a (rotavirus) vaccine. If this vaccine were to become a routinely recommended vaccine, I would make money off of that.”
Space considerations in newspapers often mean something gets left on the cutting room floor. But controversial topics require vested interests be fully disclosed, and explained. This is not nitpicking. The Globe should be commended for listing Offit as a co-inventor, but the tag line isn’t sufficient - not everyone may immediately understand the extent to which he may profit from the events he writes about.
anniepema
I cannot understand why all the studies that link the risk of some autism to a family history of autoimmune disorders are not widely known. The reacction to vaccinations is part of what autism is and for anyone who does not realize it childhood schizophrenia was taken out of the diagnostic manual in 1994 when DSM IV was published so some autism is schizophrenia confusing as that may seem to some. Vaccination as a cause of autism has been an awful detour in the elucidation of the true nature of why there is an increase in autism. Advanced paternal age, advanced maternal grandfather’s age at the time of the mother’s birth, a family history of autoimmune disorders, a combination effect, a family history of autism, a family history of schizophrenia, etc. etc. the causes are known and the beat goes on about the “mystery” and the fund raising to find the causes and the “Cures”. Autism needs to be prevented and there is enough evidence as to how to do this now.
These are all links to abstracts and papers on autoimmunity disorders and autism. There are plenty of papers on paternal age past 32 in one generation or another and autism already published. What we need are public health advisories. Parents are mislead by those profitting immensly from the autism epidemic and vaccines are just a distraction from the true risk factors for autism/childhood schizophrenia and other disorders included in the vast category of autism.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?cmd=retrieve&db=pubmed&list_uids=5172389&dopt=Abstract
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=10385847&dopt=Citation
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=10385847&dopt=Citation
http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/cgi/content/full/112/5/e420
http://ajp.psychiatryonline.org/cgi/content/full/163/3/521
http://www.vetmed.ucdavis.edu/cceh/pubs/vandewater.pdf
Heidi Roger
Thanks for highlighting the conflict of interest problem inherent in just about everything Paul Offit says and/or writes. It would also have been helpful to point out that the latest Rotavirus vaccine is version #2 of Offits royalty generating immunizations. The first version was recalled after killing and maiming infants by causing the same bowel intussusception as the disease it was supposed to prevent. There are other inaccuracies and misinformation in this piece including the reference to SAFE MINDS who have no part of the lawsuits discussed. Beware of Paul Offit changing history.
Christine Gorman
Conflicts of interest should be clear–on all sides. Still, a potential link between autism and vaccines has been explored many times in scientific studies–and simply not found.