Committee chairman seeks additional study of vaccine safety

Committee chairman seeks additional study of vaccine safety

By PAUL RECER

WASHINGTON (August 3, 1999 9:49 p.m. EDT http://www.nandotimes.com) - Too many American children are experiencing reactions to vaccines for the problem to remain ignored by the government, according to Rep. Dan Burton, R-Ind., who says his grandchildren are among those who have suffered.

Burton, chairman of the House committee on government reform, said at a hearing Tuesday that there were reports last year of more than 11,000 cases of children getting sick after inoculations. Many of their ailments were minor, yet some required hospitalization, he said.

Burton said most American children are required to get 22 shots by the time they start school and "some have described the current mandating of an increasing number of vaccines to children to be a good intention gone too far."

He said his grandchildren are among the youngsters who have developed illnesses after getting their shots. Burton said his granddaughter had to be hospitalized within hours of receiving a Hepatitis B vaccine, and his grandson became autistic after getting the shots.

"You can call that a coincidence, but I think it is more," said Burton.

Later he added: "We are going to be beating on this issue as long as I am chairman of this committee."

Rep. Henry A. Waxman, D-Calif., ranking minority member of the committee, chided Burton for not having doctors who have studied vaccines for years and experts from vaccine manufacturers testify at the hearing.

"I deeply regret that these groups are not here today to provide us with balanced and informed testimony," said Waxman. "That's what a hearing is supposed to be all about."

Several citizens testified at the hearing about how their children became ill after getting vaccinations. Other witnesses, however, talked about relatives who were harmed because vaccines were not used and their family members contracted serious disease.

U.S. Surgeon General Dr. David Satcher, lead witness at the hearing, defended the use of mandatory childhood inoculations. He said children exempted from getting shots put others at risk of contracting diseases such as measles, whooping cough, Hepatitis B, mumps and chicken pox.

Satcher said vaccines and a vigorous program of inoculation have saved millions of lives. In 1943, before there was a vaccine for whopping cough, 190,000 American children got the disease and 3,500 died, he said. That compares with only 5,000 cases and five deaths in 1995.

The surgeon general said Mississippi and West Virginia are the only two states where children are absolutely required to get vaccinations before school. The other 48 states, Satcher said, allow exemptions for religious or philosophical reasons.

Less than 1 percent take the religious exemption, said Satcher.

Since some parents now are reluctant to get shots for their children, Burton asked if immunization would work if it was voluntary.

"When children are not immunized, outbreaks (of disease) occur," said Satcher. "If states didn't have rules (requiring shots) for getting into school, then many would get sick."

He noted that when immunizations were not done recently in Russia, there were 2,000 cases of diphtheria, an uncommon disease in the U.S.

Satcher, however, acknowledged that vaccines are not "100 percent safe."

"They have risks," he said. "A small percentage of children do suffer injuries."

Satcher said the Public Health Service has the toughest vaccine controls in the world, but there were still children who would react in unusual ways to vaccinations.

"Vaccines are very safe and effective," he said, "but they are not perfect."