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Most doctors are reluctant to admit that his or her injection had caused a death or injury — let alone actually report it to the Adverse Drug Reactions Advisory Committee ... and health officials are fobbing off most cases of vaccine-related deaths and injuries as due to other causes. Dissatisfied Parents Together (DPT) is a national, non-profit organisation located in Vienna, Virginia, USA. Founded in 1982, NVIC/DPT represents parents and health care professionals con- cerned about childhood diseases and vaccines and is dedicated to preventing vaccine deaths and injuries through education, and working to obtain the right of all citizens to make informed, inde- pendent vaccination decisions. In the mid-1980s DPT worked with Congress, physician organi- sations, DHHS and vaccine manufacturers to create the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of 1986, which set up the nation's first vaccine injury compensation program and also mandated that doctors give parents information on vaccine benefits and risks, record vaccine lot numbers, and record and report to DHHS deaths and injuries following vaccinations. * National Vaccine Information Center, 512 W. Maple Avenue, Suite 206, Vienna, Virginia 22180, USA. Ph: (703) 938 0342. also conducted a survey of 159 doctors’ offices in seven states, including Arkansas, California, Georgia, Illinois, Maryland, New York, and Texas. When asked the question, "In case of an adverse event after vaccination, does the doctor report it and, if yes, to whom?", only 28 out of 159, or 18 per cent said they make a report to the FDA, CDC or state health department. In New York, only one out of 40 doctors’ offices confirmed that they report a death or injury following vaccination. "This shameful record of gross underreporting of adverse events following vaccination by doctors around the country coupled with the shameful cover-up of vaccine-associated deaths and injuries by the federal government is an cxample of why more and more par- ents are losing faith in the mass vaccination system. Many times our organisation must help parents report their children's vaccine- associated death or injury because their doctor refuses to make a report,” said Barbara Loe Fisher, NVIC/DPT Co-founder and President. "Parents are legally required to vaccinate their children. Doctors should be forced to live up to their legal duty to report, and DHHS should be forced to live up to its responsibility to seri- ously investigate every vaccine-associated death and injury and, especially, to identify and recall lots of DPT vaccine associated with high numbers of deaths and injuries." In November 1991, while Fisher was a member of the National Vaccine Advisory Committee operated by the DHHS, she present- ed the Committee with a detailed summary of the stories of 90 families who had reported vaccine-associated deaths and injuries to NVIC/DPT. Most of the 90 families with children or grandchil- dren who had suffered deaths and injuries following DPT vaccina- tion, said that their doctors refused to make a vaccine adverse event report to the DHHS. NVIC/DPT had to help the families make the report to DHHS. Upon analysis of the VAERS computer discs, NVIC/DPT dis- covered that some of the deaths and injuries which NVIC/DPT had helped families report to DHHS were either (1) never recorded in the VAERS computer system, or (2) recorded but the informa- tion was inaccurate, or (3) not adequately followed up. The IOM recently released a report that stated: "The committee concludes that the balance of evidence is consistent with a causal relation between DPT and the forms of chronic nervous system dysfunction described in the NCES in those children who experi- ence a serious, acute neurologic illness within seven days after receiving DPT vaccine.". NVIC/DPT has maintained for more than a decade that children can suffer permanent damage and die after suffering a neurological complication following DPT vacci- nation, and has always cited the validity of the data from the British National Childhood Encephalopathy Study (NCES) which was published in the early 1980s and upheld by IOM in their newest report. The National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC) operated by This appalling situation would not be unique, of course, to the United States alone, but is very similar in Australia as in all other countries that have allowed health matters to succumb to the Drug Trust. Therefore, as in the USA, the Australian health authorities, regulatory bodies and physician organisations are doing their utmost to keep the public in the dark about the true extent of deaths and injuries caused by vaccinations. Incredibly, after decades of mass vaccinations in Australia, reporting of adverse reactions caused by vaccinations is not even compulsory in this country, except for the state of New South Wales where it was only made compulsory in 1991 because of strong pressure created by the Immunisation Investigation Group (IG), an Aystralian counterpart of NVIC/DPT. Moreover, the reporting system in this country (not excluding NSW) suffers from the same ill fate as in the United States. Most doctors are reluctant to admit that his or her injection had caused a death or injury—tlet alone actually report it to the Adverse Drug Reactions Advisory Committee (the official federal government body responsible for the monitoring of adverse effects of drugs and vaccines) or to his/her state health department—and health officials are fobbing off most cases of vaccine-related deaths and injuries as due to other causes. For example, they're falsely claim- ing that in most cases the victims would have had certain underly- ing problems that coincidentally were triggered during or near the time of inoculation and would have occurred irrespective of the shot. Vaccine-related SIDS is a typical case. Our view that there is a lack of reporting in this country was reaffirmed during a recent phone conversation with a disillusioned ADRAC official who said, "There is a severe problem of underre- porting because most doctors don't bother reporting adverse reac- tions," or words to that effect. Because of the inaction by Australia's health officials, IG has launched its own register of vaccine-related deaths and injuries. If you or your child's vaccination has caused any adverse reaction or has failed to protect against the targeted disease, write to: « Immunisation Investigation Group PO Box 900, Katoomba, NSW 2780, Australia. For further information on vaccine reactions in the UK, write to: ¢ Association of Parents of Vaccine-Damaged Children 2 Church St, Shipston-on-Stow, Warwickshire, CV36 4AP, UK. 28 « NEXUS FEBRUARY - MARCH 1995