Friday, August 31, 2012

H1N1 Influenza Deaths in Children with Neurological Disorders and Anti-Vaxx Autism Groups Don't Care

This past Wednesday, 29 August 2012 a CDC press release, Children with Neurological Disorders at High Risk of Death from Flu was issued.  LeftBrain/RightBrain was the first I could see who relayed this information on 29 August 2012.  In the past couple of days, Disability Scoop, History of VaccinesAutism Science Foundation and a plethora of news outlets have reported this.  The original study can be found in the most recent edition of Pediatrics.
Of the 336 children (defined as people younger than 18 years) with information available on underlying medical conditions who were reported to have died from 2009 H1N1 flu-associated causes, 227 had one or more underlying health conditions. One hundred forty-six children (64 percent) had a neurologic disorder such as cerebral palsy, intellectual disability, or epilepsy. Of the children with neurologic disorders for whom information on vaccination status was available, only 21 (23 percent) had received the seasonal influenza vaccine and 2 (3 percent) were fully vaccinated for 2009 H1N1.
“We’ve known for some time that certain neurologic conditions can put children at high risk for serious complications from influenza,” said Dr. Lyn Finelli, chief of the surveillance and outbreak response team in CDC’s Influenza Division. “However, the high percentage of pediatric deaths associated with neurologic disorders that occurred during the 2009 H1N1 pandemic was a somber reminder of the harm that flu can cause to children with neurologic and neurodevelopmental disorders.”
Remarkably absent from reporting this are the "usual suspects" of anti-vaccine and autism crankery.  The National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC) has absolutely nothing mentioned about this finding.  This is an organisation that prides itself on "informed consent":
The National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC) is dedicated to the prevention of vaccine injuries and deaths through public education and to defending the informed consent ethic in medicine.

As an independent clearinghouse for information on diseases and vaccines, NVIC does not advocate for or against the use of vaccines. We support the availability of all preventive health care options, including vaccines, and the right of consumers to make educated, voluntary health care choices.
Emphasis added.  Yet not a single word about this study for parents of high risk children, in particular to make an informed choice.

Let's take a look at Dr. Joseph Mercola's website, the "alternative practitioner" who actively railed against the potential dangers of H1N1 influenza vaccination and vocally dissuaded his readers from getting the vaccine for themselves and their children no matter what.  Nope, not a word there either about this study.

Surely Dr. Bob Sears another proponent of "informed consent" for vaccines has something about this study.  He is after all a paediatrician and DAN! doctor who takes care of medically-fragile children.  One would think that this is very important information to share with his readers and patients.  Sixty-four percent of the H1N1-related deaths in 2009 were among children with cerebral palsy, intellectual disability, or epilepsy and only 3% were fully vaccinated for H1N1.  No, complete silence there too.  Except of course to register his outrage over California's AB2109 bill which requires informed consent before opting out of vaccines.  At least he is consistently against informed consent by not providing his own patients with any.  Dr. Sears also shares his extraordinary knowledge of H1N1 vaccines, vaccine testing and his ability to sling conspiracy theories around with the best of them. 

Another obvious place to look would be Dr. Jay Gordon's website since he is so terribly concerned with vaccines and vaccine-preventable diseases.   I would imagine that Dr. Jay also has medically-fragile children in his practice and would want their parents to know about how such underlying conditions can be risk factors for things like complications from flu.  No, nothing there either but he is certainly not shy about promoting his interview with Anderson Cooper and letting us know what a particular colour of poop means. Dr. Jay is also against AB2109.  Dr. Jay also had some truly brilliant insights regarding H1N1 pathology, vaccination and epidemiology.

This CDC press release was embargoed which essentially means that their media contact will pre-release it to certain parties in order for them to prepare a story for when the story is released.  It is considered really bad manners to break an embargo.  Needless to say, many anti-vaccine/autism groups have really bad manners and think nothing of breaking embargoes when it suits them.  One of the most egregious anti-vaccine/autism sites, Age of Autism not only minded the embargo but seems to have extended it by not mentioning a word of it.  The only "stories" there were the usual wailing and gnashing of teeth over genetics studies, conspiracy theories and how the IACC won't recommend study directives for vaccinesdidit.

This is clearly inconvenient information for those who take every opportunity to denigrate vaccines, lie about the true risks of vaccine-preventable diseases and vaccines or are just too dumb to disseminate factual information regarding vaccines and the diseases they can prevent.  The true believers will never be swayed and completely miss the point that there are medically-fragile children who are at a greater risk for disease complications and intentionally withholding this information by so-called autism and vaccine-safety organisations and healthcare practitioners is tantamount to lying.

Addendum 9.1.12:  Commenter lilady linked to Dr. Jay Gordon's views on H1N1 vaccines and disease shortly after H1N1 began circulating.  I added that and Dr. Bob Sears' views as well.  Thank you lilady; I now feel stupid for reading those.

12 comments:

  1. You really didn't expect Dr. Jay Gordon, "pediatrician to the stars" to comment about this study, did you? He's far too busy "tweeting" to his "adoring" publicly about other non-medical items and far too busy "tweeting" about his appearances on local TV and his radio interviews.

    Dr. Jay had negative opinions about the seriousness of the H1N1 influenza epidemic and three articles about why he wouldn't be given the H1N1 vaccine to his special little snowflakes patients:

    http://drjaygordon.com/influenza/swineflu/h1n1-flu-update.html

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  2. Oh no, I had no expectations that Dr. Jay would actually put his money where his mouth is and convey information for "informed consent". I thank you for the reminder about how he also actively dissuaded his patients (the most vulnerable) from vaccinating for H1N1. I will add that to the post.

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  3. Take a look at this post of Jay's 2010 "Overview of Vaccines"

    "The Prevnar vaccine is too new for me to recommend. The number of cases of Pneumococcal ear infections which could be prevented is very small and the number of cases of meningitis prevented is also small. I have no quarrel with doctors who recommend the shot or with parents who choose to get it. I have very strong objections to advertising this immunization to the general public on television. I don’t think enough information can be disseminated in 60 seconds."

    Is the Prevnar vaccine, used in the United States since 2000, still "too new" for Dr. Jay to recommend it?

    http://pediatrics.about.com/b/2010/04/14/prevnar-13-new-pneumococcal-vaccine.htm

    "An updated version of the Prevnar vaccine that can protect children against more types of pneumoccocal bacteria that cause serious infections has been approved. Prevnar 13 is now replacing the older Prevnar 7 vaccine that has been given to kids for the past ten years."

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  4. Here, on YouTube are Dr. Bob Sears AND Dr. Jay Gordon with their *concerns* about giving H1N1 Influenza Vaccine to pregnant women. (Sometimes that publicity that these two doctors strive for backfires on them)

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ow4ceWXvKVs

    Have either of these celebrity publicity-seeking doctors seen this study from Denmark about the safety of the H1N1 vaccine that was given to 53,000 pregnant women...and the pregnancy outcomes of those vaccinated women?

    http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/news/fullstory_127090.html

    Now that the H1N1 strain has been incorporated into every seasonal (2010-2011, 2011-2012 and 2012-2013) flu vaccine, will Drs. Sears and Gordan support the use of seasonal flu vaccine for pregnant women? I don't think so.

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  5. I am not a celebrity publicity seeking doctor, but I have read the outcomes of the study of the vaccinated pregnant women. Why would you have faith in the vaccine because of these results.

    In the current study, no difference in birth weights was detected among babies whose moms got the H1N1 vaccine during pregnancy and no increase in major birth defects was apparent in babies up to 1 year, the authors said.

    why would anyone support this vaccine because of this study? you have faith because it showed no difference in birth weights or birth defects in children from vaccinated mothers? they tested this for up to one year, and that is good enough for you to buy into this? I continue to avoid this vaccine or any other flu shot. Anti vaxers are not commenting because they are ALSO concerned with other ailments such as allergies, neurological disorders, middle ear infections, and so on.


    According to research just published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), infants who received heptavalent pneumococcal conjugate vaccination (PCV-7, brand name Prevnar ) at 2, 4, and 11 months were far more likely than unvaccinated babies to become infected with pneumococcal serotype 19A -- a strain of bacteria that appears to be turning into a superbug because it is quickly developing resistance to multiple antibiotics. Specifically, the vaccinated children had an increased risk of this type of infection in their nasal passages and the upper part of the throat behind their noses.

    Yes, natural news --... like it or not vax happy needle heads!

    Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/029824_vaccination_respiratory_infections.html#ixzz25huHzixU

    My doctor tried to scare me into getting the flu shot when I was 7 months pregnant heading into flu season. He wondered if I cared about my baby as much as he did. He continued, if I have the flu when I deliever, my baby would be taken away from me for the first 48 hours and I would not be able to bond with him. He said it was the only way to protect my baby from the flu, as they are too young to be vaccinated once born. I politely declined, saying I guess you don't have many mothers who decline this shot. He went on to say he talks 99 percent of them into it. My neighbor, due a month after me got the flu shot when she was 7 months, and 2 days later she "caught" the flu and was quite sick and miserable. I, on the other hand went the rest of my pregnancy nary a cold or the flu :-) My son has also been extremely healthy too.

    As for Prevnar. This is not too new for Dr Jay or people like me - It is just bad medicine.

    SAFETY TRIAL
    Of the 17,066 children involved in the Prevnar safety trial, there were 24 hospitalisations, including 2 cases of pneumonia and 1 case of otitis media (the very things they are supposed to be immunizing against) and 1 case of congestive heart failure. In addition to this there were also 162 visits to the emergency room department including 20 cases of seizure, 15 cases of otitis media, 6 cases of pneumonia and 1 case of sepsis.
    12 cases of SIDS death also occurred in subjects receiving Prevnar and 1 SIDS like death in a child over 1 year old. This included 1 death within 1 week of vaccination, 2 deaths 2 weeks after vaccination, 2 deaths one month after vaccination and 4 deaths in the year following vaccination. (4).
    There have also been 217 DEATHS reported to Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System in the US since 2000.
    E.G. VAERS case number 167703 states: ‘Information has been received from an investigator regarding a 3 month old female who received her first dose of Prevnar as part of a post-marketing safety surveillance trial. At 39 days, post vax, the infant died due to Sudden Infant Death Syndrome.’ (5).

    Prevnar has not been evaluated for any carcinogenic or mutagenic potential, or impairment of fertility (i.e. they don’t know if it causes cancer, mutates into other illnesses or impairs people’s ability to have children). (4).

    http://www.vaccineriskawareness.com/Prevnar-Vaccination

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    1. I am not a celebrity publicity seeking doctor, but I have read the outcomes of the study of the vaccinated pregnant women. Why would you have faith in the vaccine because of these results.

      Are you in the right place Anon? This is about children with neurological disorders who were disproportionately deaded by H1N1 during the 2009-2010 flu season.

      According to research just published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), infants who received heptavalent pneumococcal conjugate vaccination (PCV-7, brand name Prevnar )

      Again, what does this have to do with the topic of H1N1 deaths in certain cohorts?

      Yes, natural news --... like it or not vax happy needle heads!

      Yes, Natural News for the "too dumb to think for themselves" lowest common denominator.


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  6. my statements were in response to Liladys comments about the study in Denmark you silly toxic cocktail drinker, with an olive as you like it!

    lilady: Have either of these celebrity publicity-seeking doctors seen this study from Denmark about the safety of the H1N1 vaccine that was given to 53,000 pregnant women...and the pregnancy outcomes of those vaccinated women?

    do you read and understand much SM.

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  7. @ Science Mom: This troll wandered in from whale.to or some other anti-vaccine website.

    Here are the CDC recommendations for the 2012-2013 Seasonal Influenza vaccine. Note each seasonal influenza vaccine, (2010-2011, 2011-2012 and 2012-2013) protect against the H1N1 influenza strain. Concerns about egg allergies...see that detailed section in the MMWR link for people who report an egg allergy.

    http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrht

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  8. my statements were in response to Liladys comments about the study in Denmark you silly toxic cocktail drinker, with an olive as you like it!

    No, that would be a twist of lemon. Can't even get that straight eh? You may wish to note the disproportionate number of pregnant women and infants who also died of H1N1 complications. People should simply weigh the risks and make the decision with their physician, not using anti-vaxx sites. The publication that lilady referred to and you mangled the results of is evidence of safety. Something which celebritricians like Dr. Bob and Dr. Jay don't even talk about, just screed about how vaccines haven't been tested on pregnant women yet they have.

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  9. think I care to remember your choice of cocktail garnsih? haha

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  10. just screed... spell much. they are not scared, they are smart! something you will never be. The toxins must be killing your brain cells.

    Do you have anything substantive to add or are you using this blog in lieu of the street corner you would normally be using for your prophesies?

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  11. you are free to drink the koolaid SM .... my agenda in participating in your blog is simple. it is my choice to vaccinate or not! I will not be bullied into vaccinating my child by YOUR silly prophesies that my unvaccinated child will spread diseases to your vaccinated children! perhaps my words will reach another parent who questions vaccines. in the meantime, I will enjoy my healthy son who is not keeping me up for 4 hours straight from a post vaccine ear infection. best of luck to those who choose to gamble with the recommended koolaid.

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