Vaccine Safety in the News

From the Irish Herald:

We need a jab inquiry

The link between the Pandemrix swine flu vaccination and narcolepsy in at least 16 children has to be scrutinised.

Manufacturers GlaxoSmithKline were indemnified by the State from any liability for side effects as the vaccine was rushed through. We need a full explanation from the Irish Medicines Board about how this vaccine was researched and tested.

From The Australian:

CSL slow to reveal flu jab reactions

AUSTRALIA'S drug regulator will demand an explanation from drug-maker CSL after it emerged the company knew two years ago about research suggesting a sharp rise in fevers linked to its seasonal flu vaccine, but omitted this from information given to doctors.

As health authorities noticed a number of serious reactions to the vaccine early last year, the legally required product information sheets continued to rely on figures from 2005. These showed 22.5 per cent of children under three experienced a fever afterwards, dropping to 15.6 per cent among three- to nine-year-olds.

The same study that produced the 2005 figures contained updated figures for 2006 that showed the rate of fever had nearly doubled, to 39.5 per cent for children aged six months to three years and to 27 per cent for older children.

Both sets of results were published in 2009, but CSL has still not included the more alarming set of figures in the product information...

From The Australian:

Dark Specks in Flu Vaccine 'No Risk'

DARK specks floating in vials of swine flu vaccine posed no safety hazard, CSL has concluded after an investigation sought by the US Food and Drug Administration.

CSL was aware a month before it launched its pandemic vaccine in Australia in September 2009 that "foreign particles" had been found in samples for the US market, the FDA reveals in its 2010 audit of CSL's Melbourne laboratory.  [The most interesting thing about this short articles is that it fails to tell us what those nasty particles are, exactly.  Stopper material?  Aluminum?  Mercury?  Fungi?  How does the consumer know these particulates are safe when injected into our bodies?--Nass]