Vaccines

All vaccines approved for use in the United States have been shown to be safe and effective in rigorous clinical testing. “Safe” does not mean 100% safe and “effective” does not mean 100% effective, but for almost everyone, the risks and benefits of the vaccine are incredibly more favorable than the risks of the disease.

In the particular case of H1N1, over 10,000 people received it in clinical trials (far more than is typical for other medications that don’t get questioned) and nothing serious happened to any of them as a result of the vaccine. Yes, some women have lost their babies after taking the vaccine — but on any given day, hundreds of American women to lose their babies even without the vaccine. Failure to take into account background rates of adverse events is a common tactic of the people who are spreading false information about vaccines and we all lose if we pay attention to them.

Regarding mumps, women can transmit the disease to men, and mumps can cause miscarriages. Hence women should get vaccinated.

Finally, profit margins are incredibly low for vaccine manufacturers, who are basically distributing the vaccine out of their desire to be good corporate citizens. They would make a lot more money by investing their resources elsewhere.

I have always been confused on this topic. I feel like everyone is biased and has an agenda and I want real information (preferably without working too hard for it!) If anyone has done research, please post!

“Finally, profit margins are incredibly low for vaccine manufacturers, who are basically distributing the vaccine out of their desire to be good corporate citizens. They would make a lot more money by investing their resources elsewhere.”

I find that assertion very difficult to believe. Any alleged lower profit margin must certainly be made up for by the sheer volume of vaccines they sell.

As this is a capitalist society and these are public corporations who are accountable to their share-holders, I have no doubt the vaccine manufacturers are in this business for money, not kindness, and therefore must be subject to the same scrutiny as any health-care business should be, and not be automatically trusted due to their alleged goodwill.

Essentially, everyone relies on governmental regulatory agencies to ensure these vaccines are in fact, safe and appropriate.

May Hashem watch over and protect His children.

HaKatan,

Yes, vaccine manufacturers are subject to the same scrutiny as are all the rest of their pharmaceutical manufacturing operations. The US Government has a well deserved reputation for insuring quality of pharmaceuticals. (And we would not want it any other way.)

Regarding profit, vaccine manufacturers often sell their vaccines to government agencies or nonprofits. The government has much better leverage at negotiating prices that does the private sector and as a result the vaccine manufacturers only make a small profit on each dose. (Had the Republicans permitted this kind of negotiation for Medicare Part D, a lot of money would have been saved, but they wanted to pay off the pharmaceutical industry for their support.) Vaccines are also time consuming to produce taking much longer than modern synthetic pharmaceuticals and therefore costing much more to produce. So vaccine makers do earn a profit, but not a large one. Any pharmaceutical company would do much better with a big selling cholesterol drug for which they can (and do) charge any price they wish.

HaKatan,

Correct, we need government regulation of all pharmaceutical manufacturing including vaccines, and that is the one area in which the FDA has done a good job. There are some people for whom vaccines are contraindicated, mostly persons with allergies to eggs, but for almost everyone else, the recommended schedule can and should be safely followed. Almost every pediatrician and family doctor will have the recommended vaccine schedule on the wall in his/her clinic/office.