Actually, from some friends at Big Pharma, that is a MAIN concern.
Flu vaccines simply aren't generating enough revenue. That's why some companies have stopped producing it. Why doesn't it generate enough revenue? Maybe because it doesn't even work.
Whether they work or not doesn't seem to stop people from buying them out of pocket, but they COULD generate positive PR about pharmaceutical companies, which they sorely need. However, enough people have attempted to sue flu vaccine manufacturers because they get sick or die from the flu even though they were vaccinated against it that it makes it a lose-lose situation.
So are you saying that we shouldn't hold vaccine makers to high levels of safety standards? If they are not held responsible for the adverse effects of their products that is exactly what will happen. How would you feel if it was your son that was mercury poisoned from a mandated vaccine and you were told that you had no recourse because we're worried that the drug companies might stop producing vaccines?
Let's go back a sec. I never said that we should lower our standards so they keep making vaccine. In fact, giving your child, or yourself, anything foreign to the body has risks, and I do believe that pharmaceutical companies, like all other parts of the healthcare industry, have to weigh the risk/benefit potential with EVERY product they manufacture. However, there is no easy answer, because there is no vaccine that is 100% safe. You have to choose between your kid possibly contracting a preventable illness that used to kill or cripple thousands of children every year, or that your kid might be in the 1% of the population that has an adverse reaction to the vaccine itself.
I know it must be extremely difficult to feel like you have no recourse, but you do. You can love your son the way he is, and not worry if he would have been autistic whether or not you had him vaccinated.
And as far as the research...you and I both know that the truth always comes out, regardless of research done by the pharmaceutical companies...look at Crestor and Vioxx. And these are blockbuster drugs that these companies have their stock price based upon. If there is any truth to the link between autism and vaccines, we'll know. I know lots of doc who wouldn't prescribe any Cox II inhibitors to their family members, but they all get their kids vaccinated.
That's good enough for me, because in my risk/benefit profile, I see the benefits far outweigh the risks. But I do know that there are risks.
"but they COULD generate positive PR about pharmaceutical companies, which they sorely need"
Since when is the responsiblity of people like you and I to worry about the PR of the pharma industry, or any industry for that matter? If they want better PR they can get it by being honest about their products. Did you know that Merck knew in 1991 that our children were getting 87X the "safe" limit of mercury through vaccines? 87 TIMES! http://www.sfexaminer.com/articles/2005/02/10/news/20050210_ne04_vaccine.txt
But they decided to keep their mouth shut because they didn't want to have to spend more money to produce vaccines that didn't contain neurotoxins. Nice, isn't it. Do you have any idea how many children were poisoned since 1991?
"You have to choose between your kid possibly contracting a preventable illness that used to kill or cripple thousands of children every year, or that your kid might be in the 1% of the population that has an adverse reaction to the vaccine itself."
Like the Hep B vaccine given at birth. Do you know how this disease is spread? Through needle sharing and through unprotected sex. That's one vaccine I think we could have waited on.
"I know it must be extremely difficult to feel like you have no recourse, but you do. You can love your son the way he is, and not worry if he would have been autistic whether or not you had him vaccinated."
What a ridiculous statement that is. Who are you to judge the love I, or any other parent of autistic child, gives to their autistic child? My wife and I love our son, the way he is, more than anything in the world. I love him so much that I'm not willing to write him off the way you seem to be doing. I'll do everything I can to help him recover and reach his god given potential. Would you accept anything less for your child? You make it sound like I had a choice whether or not to vaccinate my son based on risk/reward. You cannot compare childhood immunizations to Vioxx (which by the way was put back onto the market by a team of people that included 10 individuals with ties to the drug industry).
Am I on the wrong site? For some reason I thought it was the conservatives that valued life. I didn't realize that was a secondary goal after pharma profits.
"If there is any truth to the link between autism and vaccines, we'll know."
It's not as easy as you imply. The drug companies are not solely to blame. The FDA failed to do 9th grade algebra and calculate the amount of mercury our children were being exposed to with the new vaccine schedule starting in the early 90's (Merck was smart enough to do this but didn't say anythig). The CDC found a correlation in 1999 but rather than issue a mandate forcing the removal of thimerosal (which would have been very suspicious) they simply recommended it be removed. So millions of vials on the shelves with mercury were still used. Here's a link to a SafeMinds report exposing information obtained on unpublished information from the CDC report in 1999 that shows a clear correlation. Of course the published report, 4 years later in 2003, showed no link at all and declared they would no longer be investigating thimerosal. http://www.safeminds.org/Generation%20Zero%20Pres.pdf