A group of parents recently staged a protest in Washington calling for the Institute of Medicine to release all data concerning adverse events resulting from vaccines. The parents, and some researchers, think that the release of such data may shed light on the issue of whether or not the inclusion of mercury in childhood vaccines causes autism.
At least one study of the data, published in the Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons, concluded that such link exists.
The Instiute of Medicine disagrees, claiming that no link between mercury in vaccines and autism exists.
The article linked above concludes with the statement that:
This week the Institute of Medicine is holding meetings, trying to decide just how to share the data.
Good science is promoted when information, including the underlying vaccine data, is distributed as widely as possible so that any number of researchers can see it, test many possible hypotheses against the data, and draw conclusions from the tests.
On what possible basis would the IOM decide that it is not in the best interests of science (as opposed to the best interests of the IOM, the drug companies, the administration, or the public health system) to make the complete database widely available?
Posted by Dwight Meredith at August 25, 2004 06:30 PM | TrackBackPatient privacy issues perhaps?
Posted by: Mike Meredith at August 25, 2004 07:59 PMHi Mike. Happy birthday. Still a "thirty something" but the something is now 18.
I do not think that patiuent priviacy is an issue because, as I understand it, the data does not identify the specific person.
Posted by: Dwight meredith at August 25, 2004 08:04 PM It reminds me somewhat of what parents went through for years...your child is autistic because you are a poor parent, according to medical experts at the time. Parents are still judged so harshly, when all they are trying to do is help this child of theirs who is so hard to understand...
Now the CDC (read "Medical Experts")are blamed for allowing the poisoning our children, and they just can't handle the possible responsibility. Frankly, I don't feel sorry for them.
NOTHING, nothing, nothing convinced me so much of the possibility of that poisoning as Pink Disease or Acrodynia (I can never remember how to spell that.) This is not the first time in the last 50-60 years that susceptible children have been "unknowingly" (that is a GENEROUS assumption)poisoned by mercury. Why don't we learn??
God bless you, Dwight, and your children. You have a tough road to follow, but you've got the heart for it!
Rose in SC, POA
Posted by: Rose at August 26, 2004 04:04 PM