Maine DHHS Admits that They Keep No Data on Vaccine Injury. Does Your State?
by Ginger Taylor, MS
In February, LD 798 was written by the pharmaceutical industry and introduced in Maine. It removes the religious and philosophical vaccine exemption from Maine state law. For everything.
Because Maine has high vaccine rates, and little incidence of
outbreaks of vaccine targeted illnesses, the vaccine industry in the
state needed a justification for the bill, and they chose
immunocompromised children. The Maine DHHS holds the position that Maine should have a 100% vaccine uptake rate for schools (and daycare and preschool and college and health corporations) to protect children with compromised immune systems, and create "safe schools" for them to attend that will not pose a threat to their health.
Last month, in the run up to the hearings on the bill, The Maine Coalition for Vaccine Choice asked the Committee on Education and Cultural Affairs to ask Maine DHHS for the foundational data that must be provided to the public before a bill that removes one risk group of children from school, to protect another risk group, should even be considered.
How many children are being harmed by the Maine Immunization Program as compared to how many children are being harmed by the diseases for which we vaccinate in Maine?
Specifically the Committee was asked:
The Number of Vaccine Injuries Recognized by the State of Maine
immunocompromised children. The Maine DHHS holds the position that Maine should have a 100% vaccine uptake rate for schools (and daycare and preschool and college and health corporations) to protect children with compromised immune systems, and create "safe schools" for them to attend that will not pose a threat to their health.
Last month, in the run up to the hearings on the bill, The Maine Coalition for Vaccine Choice asked the Committee on Education and Cultural Affairs to ask Maine DHHS for the foundational data that must be provided to the public before a bill that removes one risk group of children from school, to protect another risk group, should even be considered.
How many children are being harmed by the Maine Immunization Program as compared to how many children are being harmed by the diseases for which we vaccinate in Maine?
Specifically the Committee was asked:
"We are looking for data that informs the baseline question that should be asked before LD 798 is considered, and thousands of Mainers are dismissed from work or a lifetime of schooling.
Under the current policy, what are the permanent adverse outcomes of participation in the Maine Immunization Program as compared to the permanent adverse outcomes of the illness for which we are vaccinating.
Can you ask Maine DHHS:
What is the rate of serious vaccine adverse events in Maine that result in permanent injury, illness, disability and death per year?
What is the number of serious vaccine adverse events in Maine that result in permanent injury, illness, disability and death per year?
What is the estimated cost to Maine for permanent adverse vaccine outcomes?
What is the rate of serious complications from vaccine targeted illnesses in Maine that result in permanent injury, illness, disability and death per year?
What is the number of serious complications from vaccine targeted illnesses in Maine that result in permanent injury, illness, disability and death per year?
What is the estimated cost to Maine for permanent adverse outcomes from vaccine targeted illnesses?
Thank you for your attention to this important matter,
Ginger Taylor, MS
Director
Maine Coalition for Vaccine Choice
207-200-8469"
DHHS has answered that question for the committee. They "actually have no available answers to these questions."
DHHS then goes onto discuss the Vaccine Events Reporting System administered by CDC, which does not investigate the cases of vaccine injury reported to them, and which is considered to be a useless metric of true vaccine injury by anyone involved in the vaccine safety conversation.
VAERS was investigated by Harvard Pilgrim a decade ago at the behest of the US CDC, to make recommendations for improvements to the system. Harvard Pilgrim found that less than 1% of reactions actually found there way into the database, but they were unable to finish their contracted work because CDC simply stopped returning their calls. Full report here.
Finally, health care providers and subject to mandated reporting of adverse reactions to VAERS (section 2125(b) of the Public Health Service Act (42 U.S.C. 300aa-25(b))), yet the Maine Immunization Program Provider Policy and Procedure Manual 2019 (attached) presents the information on VAERS reporting as if it is optional:
This answer alone should kill LD 798. Yet it has passed out of the Education Committee and will be voted on in the Maine House of Representatives as soon as Tuesday.
Not only should LD 798 be shut down immediately, the Maine Immunization Program should be investigated, scuttled and rebuilt from the ground up.
You cannot justify a public health program, which MANDATES medical products for children, and which refuses to conduct any surveillance of adverse outcomes to their program, or and which refuses to provide any medical care or compensation for injured Mainers for even the most severe injuries, up to and including, death.
There is no vaccine safety infrastructure in Maine.
Additionally, please note, Maine DHHS did not provide ANY information on the adverse outcome rate for vaccine targeted illnesses for Maine children, immunocompromised or otherwise, whom the bill sponsor is claiming are in danger from those he wants denied the right to an education. The Maine Coalition for Vaccine Choice can find NO reports of permanent harm or death in Maine children from vaccine targeted illnesses in the 21st century.
During the hearings, a legislator asked the Maine CDC:
Ginger Taylor, MS
Director
Maine Coalition for Vaccine Choice
207-200-8469"
DHHS has answered that question for the committee. They "actually have no available answers to these questions."
"From: Perkins, Scott [mailto:Scott.Perkins@maine.gov]
Sent: Thursday, March 7, 2019 2:20 PM
To: Grant, Ben
Subject: RE: Question from concerned citizen
Good afternoon Ben,
We actually have no available answers to these questions.
The Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) is a self-reporting system that any individual, healthcare provider, or healthcare facility can use to report an adverse event following a vaccine. These reports are then used by the Vaccine Safety Datalink (VSD) to conduct vaccine safety studies based on any data that has raised questions or concerns. Neither of these systems are related to the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (NVICP) which is a separate federal program that provides compensation to individuals whose injuries may have been caused by certain vaccines.
Most VAERS reports are made within days of the event and include no documentation on long term outcomes. VAERS receives an average of 196 Maine reports (not necessarily adverse events) per year, 15.5% of these not actually being side effects, but administration errors or vaccine storage errors. The symptoms on these reports range from no adverse event (minor) to an anaphylactic reaction (serious), but no follow up to include the actually long-term outcome. It is impossible to determine based on this data what a federal court system would deem “serious adverse events resulting in permanent injury, illness, disability, or death” or award compensation for.
In follow up, data would come from NVICP: https://www.hrsa.gov/vaccine-compensation/data/index.html"
DHHS then goes onto discuss the Vaccine Events Reporting System administered by CDC, which does not investigate the cases of vaccine injury reported to them, and which is considered to be a useless metric of true vaccine injury by anyone involved in the vaccine safety conversation.
VAERS was investigated by Harvard Pilgrim a decade ago at the behest of the US CDC, to make recommendations for improvements to the system. Harvard Pilgrim found that less than 1% of reactions actually found there way into the database, but they were unable to finish their contracted work because CDC simply stopped returning their calls. Full report here.
"...fewer than 1% of vaccine adverse events are reported...Unfortunately, there was never an opportunity to perform system performance assessments because the necessary CDC contacts were no longer available and the CDC consultants responsible for receiving data were no longer responsive to our multiple requests to proceed with testing and evaluation."Further Maine DHHS didn't even bother to run a search on how many total adverse outcomes were reported to VAERS from Maine. The number is 3,758, including 6 deaths. They all may be unfounded reports, or we may need to add a zero to that number to discern the true number. We have no idea.
Finally, health care providers and subject to mandated reporting of adverse reactions to VAERS (section 2125(b) of the Public Health Service Act (42 U.S.C. 300aa-25(b))), yet the Maine Immunization Program Provider Policy and Procedure Manual 2019 (attached) presents the information on VAERS reporting as if it is optional:
"Reports of adverse events are welcome from all concerned individuals, includingThe State of Maine has admitted that they don't know how many people are permanently harmed or killed by their vaccine program. Thus the functional vaccine adverse outcome rate for their vaccine program is ZERO. This despite thousands of reports, which may in reality be tens of thousands of injuries.
the following:
• Patients,
• Parents,
• Healthcare professionals,
• Pharmacists, and
• Vaccine manufacturers."
This answer alone should kill LD 798. Yet it has passed out of the Education Committee and will be voted on in the Maine House of Representatives as soon as Tuesday.
Not only should LD 798 be shut down immediately, the Maine Immunization Program should be investigated, scuttled and rebuilt from the ground up.
You cannot justify a public health program, which MANDATES medical products for children, and which refuses to conduct any surveillance of adverse outcomes to their program, or and which refuses to provide any medical care or compensation for injured Mainers for even the most severe injuries, up to and including, death.
There is no vaccine safety infrastructure in Maine.
Additionally, please note, Maine DHHS did not provide ANY information on the adverse outcome rate for vaccine targeted illnesses for Maine children, immunocompromised or otherwise, whom the bill sponsor is claiming are in danger from those he wants denied the right to an education. The Maine Coalition for Vaccine Choice can find NO reports of permanent harm or death in Maine children from vaccine targeted illnesses in the 21st century.
During the hearings, a legislator asked the Maine CDC:
"How many school-aged children in Maine do not physically attend school (stay at home) because they have an autoimmune disease?"Maine CDC answered in writing:
"Maine CDC does not have this information."
Those who voted the Maine bill "ought to
pass" in our Education Committee, recognized that the law would violate
religious and minority rights, but said it should be done for "The
Greater Good." So how exactly do you calculate The Greater Good with no
data on either side of the equation? According to the majority of the
education committee:
"We don't know" vs. "We have no data" = The Greater Good is whatever you want it to be
This equation and this bill is bereft of logic.
So what about your state?
How many vaccine injuries are recognized by
the State of New York as they seek to force vaccinated? What is the
vaccine injury rate in Washington according to the State of Washington?
What is the number for RISK in the risk/benefit analysis of your state vaccine program?
Ask them.
Request that your state representative ask your state health department or vaccine program the following questions:
Request that your state representative ask your state health department or vaccine program the following questions:
- What is the rate of serious vaccine adverse events in our state that result in permanent injury, illness, disability and death per year?
- What is the number of serious vaccine adverse events in our state that result in permanent injury, illness, disability and death per year?
- What is the estimated cost to our state for permanent adverse vaccine outcomes?
- What is the rate of serious complications from vaccine targeted illnesses in our state that result in permanent injury, illness, disability and death per year?
- What is the number of serious complications from vaccine targeted illnesses in our state that result in permanent injury, illness, disability and death per year?
- What is the estimated cost to our state for permanent adverse outcomes from vaccine targeted illnesses?
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