The National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC) is providing this webpage to educate the public about contamination of vaccines that could harm human health. This page will be updated as new information becomes available and help you take action to protect your health. Please subscribe to our free enewsletter for those alerts.
NVIC’s supports and defends an individual’s right to make fully informed, voluntary decisions regarding pharmaceutical products, including vaccines. This includes the right to know exactly what is in vaccines and how vaccine ingredients could affect health in positive or negative ways.
Deficits in vaccine safety research and contamination of vaccines necessitate a more open public conversation about vaccines, their ingredients and contamination that can harm human health. Please join with NVIC defend the inalienable right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness - take responsible action now to require that vaccine manufacturers, government health officials, doctors and legislators be more transparent and accountable for vaccine safety.
At the bottom of the page are links on how to take action. Please read our updates and take action today!
Our Latest Press Release – June 1, 2010
Vaccine Safety Critics Call For RotaTeq Vaccine Recall & Clean-Up
The National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC) joins with holistic health pioneer Dr. Joseph Mercola in calling for Merck to voluntarily recall its live rotavirus vaccine - RotaTeq – which is contaminated with parts of a lethal virus that infects pigs - porcine circovirus 2 (PCV2) - and publicly pledge to clean-up the vaccine.
On May 7th, GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) publicly pledged to re-formulate its rotavirus vaccine, Rotarix, by removing DNA from a non-lethal pig virus (PCV1). RotaTeq is contaminated with DNA from both PCV1 and PCV2. PCV2 is an aggressive virus that causes immune suppression, wasting disease and death in baby pigs.
“Responsible corporations voluntarily recall contaminated foods and drugs that could possibly compromise safety,” said NVIC Co-Founder & President Barbara Loe Fisher. “When RotaTeq is squirted into the mouths of babies, how many doctors or parents know those babies are swallowing DNA from a virus that can injure and kill baby pigs?”
“No company marketing a product found to be contaminated should be given a free pass,” said Dr. Joseph Mercola. “It is always dangerous to assume safety. Vaccines contaminated with viral DNA that could evolve and infect humans cannot and should not be assumed to be safe,” said Dr. Mercola.
The FDA recommended in March that doctors temporarily suspend use of GSK’s Rotarix vaccine after an independent lab using new technology detected PCV1 DNA in the rotavirus vaccine given to infants 2 to 6 months of age. At a special FDA advisory committee meeting on May 7, NVIC called on the FDA to legally require manufacturers to adhere to regulations for testing of vaccines before and after licensure for contamination and also require stricter labeling standards to fully inform consumers about any foreign DNA content that remains in vaccines.
On May 14, the FDA withdrew its suspension of Rotarix vaccine recommendation and pronounced both vaccines safe, even though both remain contaminated and safety data on PCV2 contamination of RotaTeq was not evaluated by the FDA advisory committee.
NVIC and Mercola.com defend informed consent to vaccination and support public access to vaccines that meet high standards for proof of safety and effectiveness. “Rotavirus vaccine is not required for daycare or school entry,” said Fisher. “The American Academy of Pediatrics and doctors should be informing parents they have a choice and that one rotavirus vaccine is contaminated with DNA from a lethal pig virus while the other is not.”
Dr. Mercola pointed to the recent voluntary recall of medicines for children that were contaminated with unidentified “particles,” as well as past voluntary recalls of contaminated food products. “Why should for-profit vaccine corporations which, unlike other industries, are shielded from liability by our government, be different from any other company selling a product in the U.S.? The American consumer has a right to demand that the products they use are pure and free from contamination,” he said.
TAKE ACTION NOW!
NVIC launched the vaccine safety and informed consent movement in the U.S. in 1982 and has three decades of consumer advocacy experience working to institute safety and informed consent reforms in America’s public health programs. We have provided background information for reporters and participated in thousands of news reports on vaccination; effectively worked with state and federal legislators to create legislation that protects vaccine choices and enhances vaccine safety; testified in state legislatures and in the U.S. Congress; and represented consumers on U.S. vaccine advisory committees and government public engagement initiatives.
You can help NVIC help your community, state and our nation participate in a long overdue open public conversation about vaccine ingredients, especially contamination of vaccines with substances – like DNA from a lethal pig virus – that could potentially harm human health
Please refer to NVIC in your correspondence as a valuable and trusted resource for legislators, media and health care professionals to turn to for more information. Click on the links below for sample letters that can be used as a guideline when writing your legislators, local media and pediatricians.
I want to contact
June 1, 2010 NVIC PSA (60 sec) on RotaTeq vaccine contamination
June 1, 2010 VIDEO COMMENTARY: Vaccine Contamination: A Threat to Human Health
June 1, 2010 VIDEO INTERVIEW (30 min) with Dr. Joe Mercola and NVIC President Barbara Loe Fisher on RotaTeq Vaccine Contamination.
NVIC Information on Rotavirus & Rotavirus Vaccine