H1N1 Vaccine may not be right for pregnant women
Posted on 2010-06-16 07:44:03
To vaccinate or not to vaccinate – that is the question.
This week, we’re going to jump further into the controversial H1N1 vaccination, specifically when it comes to pregnant women and how the lack of knowledge is dangerous and perhaps deadly.
Even though it’s been many months since the CDC (Centers for Disease Control) put children and pregnant women at the top of their priority list for getting the H1N1 vaccine, the controversy continues to grow.
In fact, the vaccine was released with very little clinical testing, and absolutely none on pregnant women. Imagine that! Then, in a shoot first, ask questions later move, the National Institutes of Health and vaccine manufacturers began seeking pregnant volunteers for several H1N1 vaccine safety trials. Meanwhile, many women who believe that this vaccine caused them to lose their babies are forming support groups and blogs to record their experiences, with the intent of warning others not to get the vaccine. But in reality, pregnant women should not be getting any vaccines.
It’s not that I’m anti vaccine. I’m just pro vaccine-safety. That's safety, as in making sure that anything injected into your body has been tested and shown to be safe before it's put on the market. That’s safety, as in when it comes to children, we should be especially vigilant in making sure that extensive clinical trials have proven a particular vaccine is unequivocally safe before it's given to a child – including a child in the womb of a pregnant woman. Unfortunately – and tragically for some – the CDC and the FDA don't necessarily think the same way.
It was bad enough that bloggers around the U.S.and newspaper reports in Great Britain began reporting miscarriages, stillbirths and other ill effects in mothers and their babies almost as soon as the H1N1 vaccination campaign started. Since then, according to the H1N1 summary report, more than 9,000 adverse reactions of all sorts were reported through January 2010, including 46 deaths. Some of those reports are of miscarriages, which have been tallied by a group of women who have formed a support group for women who believe the vaccine caused them to lose their babies.I’m sorry to say the governments not doing much to help it’s own case. If you go to the government's website on clinical trials, you’ll see that at least one vaccine manufacturer is still recruiting pregnant volunteers for testing the safety and efficacy of the H1N1 vaccine. First, I have serious concerns about conducting any kind of pharmaceutical testing on pregnant women. But the sad thing about this testing is that it didn't start until months after the CDC ordered women and their unborn babies to the head of the H1N1 vaccine line!
As previously reported, this vaccine was NEVER tested in pregnant women – until now. That's because, when it comes to "emergencies" such as pandemics, certain things like clinical trials can be dismissed in order to speed up the delivery of what officials define as life-saving drugs. In other words, making H1N1 an emergency gave officials the right to shoot first, and ask questions later, when it came to safety trials for this vaccine.
One place that many women logically search when they're looking for information on how to have a healthy pregnancy and baby is the CDC's own website. There, under "Birth Defects: Having a Healthy Pregnancy," the CDC lists the ABC's of pregnancy tips for ensuring nothing bad happens to your baby while you're pregnant.
I find it interesting, if not ironic, that the "A" of the ABC's is Avoid exposure to toxic substances and chemicals – such as cleaning solvents, lead and mercury, some insecticides, and paint. Pregnant women should avoid exposure to paint fumes.
The "C" is Cigarette smoking, which can cause major health problems for both mother and child, from birth defects, to premature delivery, to Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS), and more.
The "L" of the ABC's is for legal drugs such as alcohol – which has no known safety level – and caffeine, which can be found in many over-the-counter drugs, off-the-shelf foods and in beverages besides coffee and tea.
So – if you're pregnant, the CDC advises you to avoid smoking, alcohol, caffeinated food, drugs, paint fumes, pesticides, and other environmental toxins that you might breathe, ingest or even absorb through your skin.
Under "V," the CDC does say that vaccines are a "very important concern" during pregnancy. A "non-working" hyperlink directs you to what is supposed to be the CDC's website on getting vaccines during pregnancy. No luck there. But if you do your own search through Google, there’s a website where you'll find which vaccines the CDC recommends for pregnant women, and which ones they don't.
For example, the measles shot is a no-no. So is the live flu virus. But the regular flu shot is recommended, even though studies have shown that flu vaccinations don't make a bit of difference in whether a pregnant woman is going to get sick with the flu or not. The point is that the CDC goes to great lengths in spelling out the ABC's of protecting an unborn baby from all kinds of toxic substances – except those in vaccines.
What the CDC isn't bothering to tell is that one reason no evidence of risk exists is because several vaccines, including the ones for the flu, have never actually had any clinical trials done on pregnant women; until now.
Before Novartis and the other manufacturers started their flu vaccine clinical trials for pregnant women this fall, all they had was the public health experiments called post-marketing surveillances. Right now, the only information we have about flu vaccines and pregnancy is the post-marketing surveillance reports which, as I already said, show that some women have been reporting miscarriages after a flu vaccine, whether it's seasonal or H1N1.
The tragic thing about this is that many of these women have physicians who refused to even consider the possibility of the vaccine causing harm to them or their babies.
What’s really distressing to me, though, is that so many physicians, as well as the mainstream media, steadfastly ignore compelling research that shows that flu vaccines have no effect on whether pregnant women get sick with the flu or influenza-like illnesses – meaning it's not necessary to even give pregnant women flu vaccines in the first place!
This story is far from over!
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