Earlier this month (March 2011), Japanese authorities ordered doctors to stop using pneumococcal and Hib vaccines because four children died after receiving the shots. However, the real news was never reported: more than 2,000 babies died in the United States after receiving vaccines for these very same diseases, yet authorities refuse to warn parents and halt production. A safety review is vital to determine whether a recall of the dangerous shots may be necessary to protect additional American babies from disability and death.
William Schaffner, chairman of the department of medicine at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, believes, like Offit, that the deaths are "most likely...a coincidence." In a twist of irony, it may also be a coincidence that Schaffner receives money from vaccine manufacturers - whose stock prices traded lower after the announcement by Japan - for consulting and speaking about vaccines. Offit and Schaffner have never seen the dead children, nor have autopsies been conducted, so their assessments regarding the true cause of death are not based on science.
In the last five years, from 2006 through 2010, 17,595 people in the U.S. reported adverse reactions to pneumococcal and Hib vaccines; 464 of these people died after receiving their shots. It should also be noted that these numbers only represent "official" reports to VAERS. The former head of the FDA, David Kessler, has estimated that for every official report of an adverse drug reaction, about 100 other people are also hurt but fail to make a report.
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