Sheila, I agree that caution is certainly deserved here. The FDA doesn't have the most sparkling track record when it comes to drugs that have been approved quickly or without enough trials.
That said, I did follow your link and found that:
-More than 16 million doses of the vaccine have been given, as of June 30 of this year;
-Of those, there were just under 10,000 reports of adverse effects. That's 1 in 1,600.
-Of those 10,000 adverse affects, 94% were considered non-serious events. That leaves about 600 events considered serious.
-The serious events included death and Guillain-Barre Syndrome (GBS), a rare neurological disorder that causes muscle weakness.
-There were 20 deaths. That's one in 800,000 who received the vaccine. Though the cause of death was not always determined to be the vaccine; in cases where autopsy, death certificate and medical records were available, there were causes of death other than the vaccine.
I have no links to any governmental agency and I have no links to any medical or pharmaceutical agency in any way. In fact I agree with you that even 20 deaths is way too many, for any reason. But many medical treatments today have even higher risks, and with a doctor's advice, they are still proper treatment for some individuals. While I totally agree that medical testing should be more thorough and that medical approval of drugs sometimes seems way too fast, saying the FDA "gives drug makers the right to kill" seems just a little harsh.
Thanks for listening.
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Sheila, I agree that caution is certainly deserved here. The FDA doesn't have the most sparkling track record when it comes to drugs that have been approved quickly or without enough trials.
That said, I did follow your link and found that:
-More than 16 million doses of the vaccine have been given, as of June 30 of this year;
-Of those, there were just under 10,000 reports of adverse effects. That's 1 in 1,600.
-Of those 10,000 adverse affects, 94% were considered non-serious events. That leaves about 600 events considered serious.
-The serious events included death and Guillain-Barre Syndrome (GBS), a rare neurological disorder that causes muscle weakness.
-There were 20 deaths. That's one in 800,000 who received the vaccine. Though the cause of death was not always determined to be the vaccine; in cases where autopsy, death certificate and medical records were available, there were causes of death other than the vaccine.
I have no links to any governmental agency and I have no links to any medical or pharmaceutical agency in any way. In fact I agree with you that even 20 deaths is way too many, for any reason. But many medical treatments today have even higher risks, and with a doctor's advice, they are still proper treatment for some individuals. While I totally agree that medical testing should be more thorough and that medical approval of drugs sometimes seems way too fast, saying the FDA "gives drug makers the right to kill" seems just a little harsh.
October 6, 2008 - 9:16amThanks for listening.
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