Vaccine-Injured Families and Their Doctors Change the Minds of Directors at the Medical Board of California

NEWPORT BEACH, Calif., June 18, 2019 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- An unexpected and overwhelming public outcry at the May 28, 2019, quarterly meeting of the Medical Board of California (MBC) led some of its directors to change their minds about supporting SB 276, the bill currently at the California Assembly that would prevent doctors from being able to protect their patients from vaccine injuries. After hearing testimony from hundreds of parents, as well as physicians, Dr. Randy Hawkins rescinded his initial support of SB 276: "I withdraw my second. I've reconsidered. I was impressed by the amount of concern from the public, and I thought I decided before I came in, but I've gotten some literature and that makes me rethink it..."[1]

Dr. Felix Yip voted against SB 276 and stated, "...listening to the public and reading the literature...I'm not sure how many amendments we'd need to make in order to support this bill with amendments; you'd pretty much have to change the whole bill."

PIC Founder and President Dr. Shira Miller spoke at the meeting and submitted written testimony that explains how SB 276 contradicts the MBC's mission to protect patients and promote patient access to quality care.[2] Dr. Miller writes, "Since the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of 1986, which indemnifies both vaccine manufacturers and physicians from liability for vaccine injuries, and the creation of the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program, which has awarded about $4 billion in compensation to only one-third of petitioners, it has mostly been those families with a history of vaccine injuries and their physicians who have had a heightened awareness of their risk of suffering more vaccine injuries." Less than 1% of schoolchildren have obtained medical exemptions in California, after their doctor determined that their risk of vaccine injury exceeds the benefit of a vaccine(s)?but there are only a small number of physicians who are skilled at meeting this public healthcare need. "If SB 276 passes, the California families who need them most will no longer be able to effectively access the doctors who are best able to protect them from vaccine injuries," explains Dr. Miller.

The risk of seizure after the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine is about 1 in 250 in siblings of children with a history of febrile seizures[3] (and 5% of those would develop epilepsy[4]). Although SB 277, which passed in 2015, permits a physician to exempt such a sibling from the MMR vaccine, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines and SB 276 would not.

In terms of measles, before the measles vaccine was introduced in 1963, there was a 1 in 10,000 (0.01%) chance of dying from measles (that's about the same as one's lifetime chance of being struck by lightning), not 1 in 1,000, which is the often-publicized misrepresentation of historical data.[5] In addition, three treatments are available to help prevent the rare severe complication: Vitamin A, immune globulin, and the antiviral medication, ribavirin.[6,7,8,9]

Because the facts of SB 276 are often misrepresented, PIC has written the California Assembly Health Committee a letter that clearly explains the facts, and has also developed an informational document entitled "SB 276 Myths vs. Facts: Setting the Record Straight" to help the public gain a deeper understanding of the issues involved with this bill, which threatens public health. Click here to read it.

Physicians for Informed Consent is a nationally recognized 501(c)(3) nonprofit educational organization representing doctors and scientists whose mission is to safeguard informed consent in vaccination. In addition, PIC's Coalition for Informed Consent consists of more than 150 U.S. and international organizations. Visit physiciansforinformedconsent.org for more information.

References
1. https://youtu.be/jItwZh4dajY
2. https://physiciansforinformedconsent.org/physicians-for-informed-consent-testimony-urges-medical-board-of-california-to-oppose-sb-276/
3. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15265850
4. https://academic.oup.com/aje/article/165/8/911/184889
5. https://physiciansforinformedconsent.org/government-doctors-make-gross-errors-concerning-measles-statistics-misinform-senators-threaten-public-health/
6. https://physiciansforinformedconsent.org/measles/dis/
7. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22480102
8. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7008941
9. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23629813

SOURCE Physicians for Informed Consent