Massachusetts News 
By Jarrett Conner 

December 1--The Massachusetts Department of Health is again recommending hepatitis B vaccinations for all newborns. 

It had suspended the use of the vaccine on July 24, citing concerns about the mercury contained in its preservative, thimerosal. The vaccine was not to be used for six months while concerns were addressed and a new, mercury-free vaccine was developed and approved – which was accomplished very rapidly. 

After little more than one month, the Massachusetts Department of Health completely reversed its suspension. It is again recommending the hepatitis B vaccinations for all newborns. It cited a meeting at the National Institutes of Health which concluded that the levels of mercury in the vaccine were not dangerous. In addition, the Department recommended the use of a new mercury-free vaccine when it is available. 

Researcher Is Incredulous 

Bonnie Dunbar, Ph.D., a vaccine researcher in the Department of Cell Biology at Baylor Medical College who testified on this topic in Washington, DC, when informed that Massachusetts had reinstated the routine vaccination of infants, told Massachusetts News, "I’m incredulous." 

She added: "They don’t know if the vaccine actually works. They haven’t tested this on infants. They haven’t tested this long term. They haven’t tested this in conjunction with the other vaccines that infants receive. The meeting in Washington didn’t address these issues. The thimerosal [the mercury preservative of the vaccine] was never my concern. It is a distraction from the real issue." 

What is the real concern? According to Dunbar, "The concern is that we are endangering people by mandating the use of a vaccine that might be dangerous and might not protect people. We don’t even know who is protected because there aren’t any studies." 

Jane Orient, M.D., Executive Director of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons and a prominent critic of the national vaccination policy, recently published a letter in the Wall Street Journal in which she highlights a "fundamental flaw in the entire vaccine approval process." She, like Dunbar, is opposed to the widespread use of the hepatitis B vaccine for infants. 

Orient told Massachusetts News, "The hepatitis B vaccine has not been tested thoroughly enough. The mercury concerns were just a red herring. If you need an example of how the process is failing, you simply need to look at the rotavirus example. That has been withdrawn because it is dangerous."  

Rotavirus was initiated to prevent a form of diarrhea in children, but the vaccine produced devastating bowel obstructions in a surprising number of children. That vaccine had been approved by the same organizations that cleared the hepatitis B vaccine. 

The Association of American Physicians and Surgeons pressed Congress to investigate this process to no avail. Neither Congressman Burton, Secretary Donna Shalala, or the Centers for Disease Control have acknowledged the physicians’ attempts to answer basic questions about the vaccine: "How many infants were tested? What populations were tested? How long were tests done for?" 

These vaccines are sped through the approval process in order to get the vaccines on the street faster. Dunbar objects to such treatment of vaccines: "I don’t object to fast-tracking of drugs in some situations, but when you rush something and then mandate that it be given to infants on whom it has not been tested – that’s irresponsible." 

Federal Recommendations 

The turnaround in the vaccination policy was announced by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health on September 10. It cited new information from the Centers for Disease Control and the National Institutes of Health to justify their decision. 

In August, experts had met at the National Institutes of Health to review the risks associated with thimerosal (the mercury preservative) in the hepatitis B vaccine. They concluded that the cumulative mercury exposure from vaccines with thimerosal does not exceed the maximum set by the Food and Drug Administration. The FDA approved a thimerosal-free vaccine on August 27, 1999, and the mercury-free vaccine is to be used when available. 

The Massachusetts Department of Public Health defended its decision, referring to the NIH findings. 

Massachusetts claims that the vaccines have been proven to be safe. Pejman Talebian, from the Department of Public Health, told Massachusetts News that the vaccines have been tested and are in the midst of ongoing studies. He said: 

"There are no documented complications from thimerosal. There isn’t a single documented complication from thimerosal in vaccines." He explained that the American Association of Pediatrics was concerned about the mercury build-up associated with the vaccines, but that subsequent research showed that the vaccine is not dangerous. 

Dunbar, at Baylor, points out that her studies on the vaccine topic are ongoing as well and that they paint a very different picture of the vaccine. The existing studies have not addressed the effects of the vaccines on some populations. Other populations need to be studied in order to get a clear view of the effects of the vaccine long-term. "No one can produce any data to back up the claims that the vaccine is safe," she said. 

Are Massachusetts Children At Risk? 

The Massachusetts Department of Health’s literature reports that Massachusetts has averaged 100 acute cases and 1200 chronic cases of the disease per year over the last 5 years. This figure includes both adults and children. According to the Centers for Disease Control’s own numbers 91% of hepatitis B infections are acquired during adulthood and adolescence. The disease is transmitted through unprotected sexual intercourse, the sharing of contaminated needles, or it is transmitted from mother to baby at birth. 

According to Orient of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons, there is little doubt that: "The risk to infants from the hepatitis B vaccine outweighs the risk to infants from the disease itself. The numbers of children that are infected by this disease is very small, and most of those are treated successfully and do not develop the chronic virus. The common way for a child to get the disease is during childbirth, and that can be addressed without vaccinating the entire population.  

"The figure cited most frequently is that 30% of people with hepatitis B do not know how they got it, and some claim that 30% may have acquired it when they were children, but that is pure speculation. Again, it is an example of how they are using lack of information to support their policies." 

Debbie Bermudes, who became concerned about the dangers of vaccinations while working as an occupational therapist, founded Massachusetts Citizens for Vaccination Choice after her own concerns about DTP (the diphtheria, tetanus, and whooping cough vaccine), pointed out that children are not at risk for these diseases. She claims, "The fact that they suspended the vaccinations for infants tells you that the risk is minimal – these children are not at risk from hepatitis B. It is clear, though, that they are at risk of suffering adverse effects of the vaccine." 

Mercury Was Not The Concern 

The news that a mercury-free vaccine is now available does not soothe the concerns of parents. Bermudes still has a lot of questions about the Massachusetts vaccination policy. She knows that the vaccine with thimerosal caused problems, and now she wonders what problems the new vaccine might cause. 

The hepatitis B vaccine was the first to employ recombinant DNA rather than the actual virus. In a recombinant vaccine, it is scientifically impossible to get the disease itself from the vaccine (a real risk with other vaccines). As a result, according to Dunbar, some people have become negligent in approving vaccines as safe. "These recombinant vaccines are dubbed safe simply because they are recombinant, but that is not necessarily the case. Every molecule needs to be tested – that is immunology 101." 

Dunbar cites the role of the drug companies as a reason for this irresponsible behavior by the government, "The drug companies have researchers working on the vaccines who also work with the Centers for Disease Control and the Food and Drug Administration. These people do have something to gain from this. It is in the drug companies’ best interest to get the vaccinations going. I don’t have anything to gain from this." 

Jane Orient is also concerned about the governing bodies and their private interests in vaccines. "The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices is full of conflicts of interest. Someone needs to follow the money trail. The most charitable thing you can say about the people behind these policies is that there is a lot of money at stake here. What other drug is given to everybody?" Orient said. 
 

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