Vinay Prasad and RFK Jr. Hypocrisy and Reason for Questions
Vinay Prasad discusses RFK Jr. in an article in The Free Press. Let’s start with Vinay’s hypocrisy. I have no argument with what Vinay says in this tweet of his about malpractice. But he then goes on to say that vaccine makers should be liable in the courts? It’s bad if it hits him and his friends, but the same thing should be restarted to destroy the vaccine suppliers? That will kill people, mostly kids. Vinay doesn’t know his medical history.
I’ll quote Vinay here, “A 1986 law prevents vaccine makers from being litigated in court — even though drugmakers can be litigated. This is based on the idea that the manufacturing of vaccines is not a lucrative business…” Um, no. That is not why that vaccine law was passed.
The 1986 law was passed because all vaccine makers were shutting down. Why were they shutting down? Because tears and fury on the faces of parents wins the jury every time. Science does not enter into the matter very much. Dry statistics don’t matter when a parent is yelling across the room, “You did this to my child!” One of the last vaccine production facilities going at the time was only allowed to operate because it was a national crisis. It was not fit for purpose due to lack of money for maintenance. It took a long time to build the system for producing vaccines back up. We now have a healthy system, and it is not injuring people in a way that deserves huge liability lawsuits.
Nothing has changed in the American legal system. This has gotten worse — as Vinay knows is true of malpractice awards.
The reason why there is a call for manufacturer liability is exactly the same reason today as the reason vaccine makers shut down. Tears and rage from parents combined with grifters like Wakefield and “Dr.” Mercola who make millions off the ignorant with their lies are appealing to politicians.
Trial lawyers are still upset about losing their “vaccine injury” cash cow, and they want it back. If they get it back they will get $100 billion dollar wins, and pharma will shut down vaccines again. That’s why we have the vaccine court. And yes, Vinay, vaccine makers today stop offering vaccines when they get a small possible issue.
Myocarditis is an example of a “vaccine injury”. The rate of diagnosable myocarditis was 1 in ~12,000 for the original smallpox vaccine (vaccinia virus). (I have gotten that vaccine twice.) It wasn’t diagnosed as much back in the 1960’s when smallpox still caused epidemics. Myocarditis happens with viral infections, including influenza. The normal rate of myocarditis from virus infection is 10–22 per 100,000 people.
A big problem with all the hue and cry over any possible effect of a vaccine, real, or (mostly) imagined, is that weakening vaccines makes them less effective. The original smallpox vaccine is still effective in old age, and it is the only vaccine that appears to confer reliable sterilizing immunity. Live vaccines usually do better. Is Vinay familiar with this seminal paper?
Amanna, I. J., Carlson, N. E., & Slifka, M. K. (2007). Duration of humoral immunity to common viral and vaccine antigens. The New England journal of medicine, 357(19), 1903–1915. https://doi.org/10.1056/NEJMoa066092
Folks — Dr. Oz was a celebrity doctor, and Vinay Prasad appears to be going for that — it will make him rich. Oz has been called a grifter and become rich. Be careful.
