According to the following testimony about 3 times as many children got sick from Hepatitis B vaccine than actually came down with the disease in 1996! Attached is the whole hearing testimony below, but at the top I pulled out a couple of sections that really startled me. This testimony was given on 5/18/99. vaccines like the Hepatitis B vaccine are being required for all regardless of the risk to an individual. For example, according to CDC surveys, in 1996, there were only 279 cases of Hepatitis B reported in children under 14 in the entire United States. That same year, there were 872 reports of serious injuries and 48 deaths occurring in children under 14 who received the Hepatitis B vaccine with other vaccines, and 214 reports of serious reactions and 13 deaths in children under 14 receiving the Hepatitis B vaccine alone reported to the FDA's Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System. Yet, starting August 1, 1998, Texas kindergartners were required by law to be fully vaccinated against Hepatitis B. Parents whose kindergarten children don't fit the disease high risk profile of I.V. drug use or promiscuous sex have NO ability to delay or decline the vaccine based on their conscientious analysis of risks vs.benefits. The 16 states that currently allow for conscientious choice exemptions are AZ, CA, CO, ID, LA, ME, MI, MN, NM, ND, OH, OK, UT, VT, WA, and WI. Additionally, new vaccines are being developed in proliferation. At various stages, from clinical testing to recent licensure to universal recommendation, are vaccines for diarrhea, Strep throat, Lyme disease, ear infections, and sexually transmitted diseases including Herpes and AIDS. To: Greater Houston Area Home Educators Sent: Saturday, June 12, 1999 Hep B Vaccination Information From Congressional Hearing ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Problems with Hepatitis B Vaccine Policy Implementation from a State Perspective: A Case For Nationwide Immunization Conscientious Exemptions & Informed Consent Laws May 18, 1999 To the members of the Criminal Justice, Drug Policy and Human Resources Subcommittee of the U.S. Congressional Committee on Government Reform, Regarding the hearing on the Hepatitis B vaccine on May 18, 1999, please accept the following comments as written testimony to become a part of public record and considered in your investigation. My name is Dawn Richardson. I am a mother, a citizen of the United States, and the president and founder of the Texas-based grassroots support organization Parents Requesting Open Vaccine Education (PROVE). I sincerely believe the concerns being investigated today stem from a much larger problem of an inhumane and inflexible "one-size-fits-all" vaccine policy machine designed to lucratively compensate drug companies while intimidating and persuading parents and health care providers into accepting the sacrifice some of our precious children in the name of protecting the majority. I am urging this committee to please do everything within your power to move us toward more humane and flexible vaccine exemption laws nationwide with the requirement that all parents are educated about the risks as well as the benefits of vaccines and that all parents have the final legal right over what drug is injected into, swallowed, or inhaled by their child. Please don't wait to become passionate about this subject until you or someone you love is hurt or killed by a vaccine that you were told was supposed to keep you healthy. Currently, only 16 states have conscientious or philosophical exemptions available from mandatory vaccination laws. It is insane that in this country a mother has the legal right to kill her unborn child in an abortion but in 34 states we have state laws that prevent a mother from making a conscientious decision to protect her child from a medical procedure that she believes carries an elevated risk of injury or death for her child. When parents hold a deep conviction that their child has a greater risk of being harmed by a vaccine, especially for a child with a family history of vaccine reactions, autoimmune and neurological disorders, or other health conditions which may genetically predispose their children to reacting, and the parent lives in one of the 34 states without a philosophical exemption, the vaccine is still unconscionably legally forced. This is the reality that parents in 34 states must live with every day. There are not even any genetic or other lab screening tests available to identify and exempt which children will react to vaccines. Parents in Texas, for example, who do not have a local doctor who is willing to bear the pressure and opposition that comes with writing a yearly medical exemption or who do not belong to or follow a religion opposing all immunizations are legally required to put their child in harms way with specific doses of a vaccine at very specific times in order to receive a public education and not break the law. According to National Vaccine Advisory Committee figures released by the Texas Department of Health in an open records request to PROVE, the national averages show that less than 0.64% of parents take any kind of vaccine exemption for their child and that 98% of all kindergartners nationally are fully immunized. The bottom line that the numbers bear out is that IF THE CHILD IS TRULY AT RISK FOR A DISEASE WITH HIGHLY PROBABLE SEVERE CONSEQUENCES FOR THE CHILD, and IF A VACCINE IS PROVEN SAFE AND EFFECTIVE, and IF THE CHILD IS NOT AT AN ELEVATED RISK FOR A REACTION, the vast majority of parents will have their child immunized. Parents love their children and don't want their child to suffer needlessly from anything whether it is a vaccine preventable disease or a vaccine reaction. The problem lies in the fact that public health officials and vaccine manufacturers, as shown clearly with what has happened with the Hepatitis B vaccine, are militantly pushing universal vaccination regardless of an individual child's risk for the disease and they are tolerating unacceptable levels of vaccine reactions. The miniscule numbers of exemptions taken show that the availability of conscientious choice exemptions in all 50 states would not be a detriment to vaccination rates for highly communicable and highly debilitating diseases. We are clearly talking about a small minority of parents that want the flexibility to delay or decline a dose of a vaccine to protect their child from a health policy encouraged by the CDC and enforced by states that has little regard for the individual child. I believe it is the basic human right of all patients to choose their health care provider and their modes of treatment and prevention. It is my experience that parents are capable of making informed decisions about the health care of their children and must not be placed in a position in which exercising a conscientious objection to the administration of any vaccine to protect their child from harm means breaking the law. The 16 states that currently allow for conscientious choice exemptions are AZ, CA, CO, ID, LA, ME, MI, MN, NM, ND, OH, OK, UT, VT, WA, and WI. It is time for all states to have these exemptions because any vaccine can sometimes cause permanent injury or even death. The National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program has paid out over one billion dollars in damages to families for injuries and deaths caused by the core set of mandated vaccines in less than 10 years. The significance of the legal right to conscientious choice exemptions is dramatically increasing because vaccines like the Hepatitis B vaccine are being required for all regardless of the risk to an individual. For example, according to CDC surveys, in 1996, there were only 279 cases of Hepatitis B reported in children under 14 in the entire United States. That same year, there were 872 reports of serious injuries and 48 deaths occurring in children under 14 who received the Hepatitis B vaccine with other vaccines, and 214 reports of serious reactions and 13 deaths in children under 14 receiving the Hepatitis B vaccine alone reported to the FDA's Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System. Yet, starting August 1, 1998, Texas kindergartners were required by law to be fully vaccinated against Hepatitis B. Parents whose kindergarten children don't fit the disease high risk profile of I.V. drug use or promiscuous sex have NO ability to delay or decline the vaccine based on their conscientious analysis of risks vs. benefits. This is significant because 10% of all children born in the United States each year are born in Texas. I am continually contacted by families who absolutely do not want this vaccine given to their child and can't understand why in the United States of America they don't have the right to say no. Additionally, new vaccines are being developed in proliferation. At various stages, from clinical testing to recent licensure to universal recommendation, are vaccines for diarrhea, Strep throat, Lyme disease, ear infections, and sexually transmitted diseases including Herpes and AIDS. While these vaccines hold promise for many in the high risk categories, parents should always be able to evaluate their child's risk of contraction of these and any other diseases for which vaccines are available, the sequelae of the disease, and the side effects of the vaccine and then be protected legally to make an informed consent decision for their child. The harsh reality is that in 34 states this is impossible. The MANUFACTURER/ACIP/AAP vaccine machine makes federal recommendations which translate into inflexible state mandates for all children with little-to-no education about vaccine side effects. It is horrific that the casualties are just accepted as a necessary sacrifice. Vaccines have protected millions of children from highly communicable deadly and debilitating diseases like smallpox and polio. But they are also powerful drugs that provoke a complex immune response that sometimes goes wrong and injures or kills a child, so they need to be respected and not used indiscriminately. There is no research being done into the cumulative effects of all these vaccines together on a baby's developing immune system. With that in mind, let's please reserve vaccine mandates for diseases of the caliber of smallpox and polio. Chickenpox is not smallpox, and diarrhea (rotavirus) is hardly a lethal killer in the United States. These along with the Hepatitis B vaccine are available to any parent in the United States who wants them for their child - they do not need to be forced. When parents learn the risk factors for contracting Hepatitis B and they hear that reaction reports are continually being denied and dismissed, they really question what is going on. Also, I am concerned that if drug companies and health officials continue on their recent trend of demonizing generally mild childhood illnesses like varicella (chicken pox) and rotavirus (diarrhea) with the hopes that state implemented vaccine mandates will create an unlimited supply of customers boosting profits, that when a disease evolves in our society of the likes of smallpox or polio, distrust of the system is going to push parents and health care providers away from it just when they may need it the most. It is like "the boy who cried wolf." The forced use of the Hepatitis B vaccine is unquestionably adding fuel to this fire. Resentment and anger is building in parents around the country toward health officials who presume to care more for their children than their parents. It is the parents who must care for their children, nurture their development, soften their defeats and cheer their accomplishments throughout the children 92s lives. Bureaucrats come and go without even the slightest knowledge of a child hopes and dreams or how lives are shattered and destroyed when a vaccine goes wrong. I ask you: who is more qualified to determine what=92s best for an individual child? Do minor children belong to the government or to their parents? Your answer to these question will probably determine your resolve to take the necessary steps to get immunization conscientious exemptions and informed consent laws available for every U.S. citizen. No parent should be forced to sacrifice their child. All our children, including MY child, deserve the opportunity to live a long healthy life. It is time that the definition of public health in the United States of America is changed to accommodate a community of healthy individuals where EVERY person is important and NOBODY is expendable.