Report on vaccine adverse events data in Canada There is an understanding and an expectation that Health Canada is
actively monitoring adverse reactions to vaccination, and that citizens
can easily access this information in their effort to make an informed
medical decision. On a recent segment of CBC’s "The Current", host Anna Maria Tremonti
responded to a parent’s concern about access to vaccine adverse
reaction data with –
“Adverse effects on vaccinations are actually one of the most tracked
things we have and they are available through the public health agency
of Canada. You don’t know that?" “It’s right there." (The Current,
February 9, 2015)
Unfortunately vaccine adverse events data is not “right there” as
discovered by Vaccine Choice Canada (VCC) Board member, Nelle Maxey who
recently completed an in depth investigation of Canada’s vaccine adverse
events reporting system. Originally the object of the report was to compare the Canadian vaccine
adverse events reporting system with the U.S. Vaccine Adverse Events
Reporting System (VAERS) which has recorded over 30,000 adverse vaccine
events a year since 2007. Our goal was to analyze and compare the
quality of data available in Canada and in the U.S. as well as compare
ease of public access to vaccine associated reaction and injury reports
submitted by medical personnel, vaccine manufacturers and the public in
both countries. Unfortunately, this proved impossible. Taking into account the population difference between the two countries,
that both countries purchase vaccines from the same manufacturers and
have a similar vaccine schedule, one would expect to see in Canada about
10% the number of American reports, or at least 3,000 vaccine adverse
reports a year. Our investigation found that while vaccine adverse events data in the
U.S. are readily accessible through a user friendly Med Alerts search
engine, Canada operates a dual reporting system that is confusing, lacks
transparency and is mostly inaccessible to the public. Two databases Our Report reveals that the Canadian government maintains two vaccine adverse
events reporting systems. One, known as the Canada Vigilance (CV)
database, is maintained by Health Canada. This is where all drug product
reactions are reported along with a small number of vaccine adverse
events reports submitted largely by vaccine manufacturers. While this
database is searchable, only 6.5% of the vaccine related data is from
1988 to the present. The Canada Vigilance database is accompanied by
this caveat:
“This database contains only a small proportion of adverse reactions
reported following receipt of vaccines, and is reflective of serious
reactions reported to market authorization holders as required under the
Food and Drugs Act. The majority of reports of these reactions are
submitted to the Canadian Adverse Events Following Immunization
Surveillance System (CAEFISS)."
In 1988 a second data base, the Canadian Adverse Events Following
Immunization Surveillance System (CAEFISS) was created to exclusively
track vaccine adverse reaction reports. This second database, maintained
by the Public Health Agency of Canada is where the vast majority of
vaccine-associated adverse events reports are routed. CAEFISS is the
repository for the bulk of adverse vaccine reports and remains
inaccessible to public scrutiny. The only access to the data is through a
formal access to information request, or from reports released
periodically at the discretion of the government. Even more disconcerting is the low incidences of adverse reactions
reports in the Canada Vigilance database. During the years when the
Canadian system had little vaccine adverse reaction data, the VAERS
system in the United States showed an increasing number of adverse event
reports reflective of the burgeoning increase in the vaccine schedule
since the mid 1980s. For example in 2007 the Canadian Vigilance database
had 18 reports of vaccine adverse events while the VAERS database
documented over 30,000. As an example of what is hidden and what is revealed, the two full
public reports on CAEFISS confirm that in the 20 year period from 1992
to 2012, the CAEFISS database recorded 87,911 vaccine adverse reaction
reports. This is an average of over 4,000 vaccine adverse reports a
year, stored in a database kept from public scrutiny, accessible only
through cumbersome Access to Information requests.
Compare this to the publicly accessible Canada Vigilance database which
recorded 551 reports or less than 1% of all adverse vaccine reaction
reports on CAEFISS during those same years.
The periodic government reports on the CAEFISS data require top-notch
analytical skills to decipher and are certainly not widely publicized in
the press. When was the last time Canadians were informed that on
average over 4,000 vaccine adverse events are reported each year to a
database hidden from the public? And at that, it is estimated less than
10% of vaccine adverse events are reported to government health
agencies. Whatever the intent of this dual reporting system, the result is the
Canadian public has little access to reports on adverse reactions
following vaccinations.
The need for change
It is clear the public is getting a very distorted picture of the number
of serious adverse events following vaccination. On behalf of the
Canadian public we ask, to whose advantage is this dysfunctional system
of reporting and tracking? Certainly it is not in the public interest.
It is the firm belief of Vaccine Choice Canada that all vaccine adverse
reaction data should be incorporated in one (or both) databases and that
the public must have full access to that data. Vaccine injury compensation – comparing the United States & Canada
This March 5, 2015 report from the U.S. Department of Justices disclosed that there were 117
cases compensated for vaccine injuries and deaths in the 3 month period
between November 16, 2014 to February 15, 2015. The U.S. government
issues quarterly reports detailing the types of vaccine injuries and
financial compensation given to victims. The report provides the name of
the vaccines, the injury, and the amount of time the case was pending
before settlement. These quarterly reports on vaccine injuries and death
settlements from the U.S. vaccine court are seldom, if ever, reported
in the mainstream media. Since the first National Vaccine Injury Compensation (VICP) claims
were filed in 1989, more than $2.9 billion in compensation awards have
been paid to vaccine injury victims.
The annual Immunization Awareness Week is a vaccination promo fest. In Canada, not only do we not have access to the huge store of vaccine
reaction and injury reports kept hidden by the government, the majority
of Canadians also have no access to compensation for vaccine injuries -
neither through the courts nor a government vaccine injury compensation
plan, although such a plan has been recommended by policy analysts. The injured person must prove two things, 1) the vaccine caused the
injury and 2) the vaccine provider was negligent, a nearly impossible
feat. Because the legal bar has been set so high in this country,
vaccine injury victims have never been awarded compensation by a
Canadian court. Quebec is the only jurisdiction in Canada with a vaccine injury compensation system, established in 1987. Of the 175 vaccine injury claims submitted to
the program over 27 years, only 35 claimants have been awarded damages. National Immunization Week employs Elmo to promote vaccination To kick off National Infant Immunization Week in the U.S., the Surgeon
General teamed up with Sesame Street and Elmo with direct vaccine advertising to your children.
“Apparently, the campaign seeks to convince the real decision makers
when it comes to childhood and infant vaccination; the children and
infants. Having undertones of plain creepiness throughout the
advertisement, the Surgeon General implies to your children and Elmo
that their bodies can fight germs only with the help of vaccines.” This is essentially a drug advertisement aimed directly at children
which violates numerous international advertising guidelines. In Quebec,
Sweden and Norway, advertising to children under the age of 12 is
illegal. In addition Australia, Canada, and Sweden have already adopted
regulations prohibiting advertising on programs targeting audiences of
young children. Vaccine activist and mother of a vaccine injured child,
Ginger Taylor offers powerful commentary on this propaganda directed at children. In Canada, health minister Rona Ambrose launched the National
Immunization Awareness Week(April 25 – May 2) in Surrey, BC. Ambrose wants to make sure that Canadians get their facts about
immunization from credible sources like the Public Health Agency of
Canada (PHAC). Ambrose’s enthusiastic vaccine promotion fails to inform however, that the PHAC, as a “legislated service agency” is also the gatekeeper
of CAEFISS, Canada’s hidden depository of vaccine adverse reaction data. The
PHAC, as a quasi-independent agency does not fall under the scrutiny of
Parliament nor independent oversight process other than the Auditor
General of Canada. Public Health Agency of Canada must have a hefty advertising budget to
be able to offer the dizzying array of ‘educational’ materials promoting vaccine use for
everyone. There are posters, postcards, brochures, booklets, film clips,
contests and cartoons urging you to “Boost Your Power & Get Vaccinated”, and includes a
teaching tool on how to “Reduce the Pain of Vaccination in Babies”, and
most important – a check list on how to determine whether vaccine
information on the internet is trustworthy. Threats to vaccine exemptions and media censorship For many months now, families across the U.S. have mobilized their
political will to oppose newly introduced Bills in various states intent
on eliminating the right to religious and philosophical vaccine
exemptions. Without vaccine exemptions, unvaccinated or partially
vaccinated children would be barred from public and private schools. For
the countless families whose children have already suffered varying
degrees of vaccine injury, being forced to vaccinate is unthinkable. On Apr. 22, more than 1,000 Californians, many accompanied by their
infants and children, lined up outside and packed four floors of the
state Capitol building in Sacramento waiting to voice their opposition
to SB277 sponsored by pediatrician turned politician Richard Pan. Despite enormous public opposition, testimonies of vaccine injured families, large demonstrations and
powerful speeches given by environmental lawyer Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and other presenters urging the
legislators to vote NO, both the Health and Education committees
succumbed to the medical industry’s dirty politics. Their vote to eliminate philosophical and religious exemptions
strikes a moral blow against the basic human right to freedom from
forced medication. Hope of stopping this Bill from going further now
rests with the Judiciary Committee. The ‘capture’ of regulatory agencies, politicians and mainstream media
by the medical industry is at the root of this descent into medical
tyranny with a goal of imposing “cradle to grave” vaccination on all
people. “The political leaders have been subverted in many ways through
vaccine money”, said Robert Kennedy Jr. at a recent press conference in
New Jersey where he focused on the corruption, collusion and malfeasance
at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). It was a
scathing report about the ethics of the agency in charge of vaccine
safety. Kennedy refers to the CDC as "a troubled agency, in fact, a
cesspool of corruption." How bad is the corruption? It's
"pervasive," according to Kennedy. He cites the years of studies that
have exposed the CDC as "hopelessly corrupt and dysfunctional." In an interview with Age of Autism’s Anne Dachel, Kennedy said, "The trillion dollar pharmaceutical industry is now the
largest advertiser on television, radio and newspaper pages, spending
from $3 billion to $5.4 billion annually over the past decade”. Kennedy cited Dan Shulman, who in 2005, “wrote a scathing and somewhat
bewildered critique of the airtight censorship among media organs of any
debate over vaccine safety or CDC corruption. He said that many
reporters considered covering this issue to be a potentially 'career
ending' hazard. Today that censorship extends not just to the mainstream
media but also to the so-called 'alternate media' like Salon, Slate,
Huff Post and Mother Jones. There is simply no national forum for this
debate. We have been forced from the public square”, said Kennedy.
As in the U.S., Canadian regulatory agencies and media have been captured by the pharmaceutical/medical conglomerate. Its controlled and
internationally co-ordinated, one sided vaccine messages seek to
obliterate all dissent and to quash the natural human impulse to seek
optimal ways of creating health without reliance on complex chemical
compounds that once injected, cannot be removed if something goes wrong.
Increasingly people are seeking a new paradigm of health outside the
current destructive medical industry model which inevitably will
stimulate foundational changes in medical science. An essential part of
nurturing this change is for all of us to continue to educate ourselves
and to learn from the exceptional teachers dedicated to presenting a new
scientific model of health. Dr. Suzanne Humphries’ is a leader among
teachers, and her lecture series is a positive place to start.
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Spring Membership Drive
If you have not yet become a member Vaccine Choice Canada, we would
encourage you to do so. By joining Vaccine Choice Canada, you become a
non-voting member in support of helping individuals and families make
informed healthcare choices concerning vaccination. You will receive our
internationally acclaimed newsletter mailed to our members twice a
year. Each 28 page newsletter offers cutting edge articles by medical
professionals, researchers and diverse commentaries on vaccine issues.
New members also receive a comprehensive information package totaling
over 100 pages of information. As well members have privileged access to
our newsletter archive reaching back to 1994.
Your membership helps us continue our educational work as well as
maintain an international presence as a consumer watchdog group. To
become a member, please visit our website. Tell a friend or family
member about Vaccine Choice Canada!
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