Advisory Commission on Childhood Vaccines: Who do they really work for?

[SaneVax:  The ACCV “advises and makes recommendations to the Secretary of Health and Human Services on issues relating to the operation of the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (VICP).” If this government agency was doing the job taxpayers pay for, everyone receiving a vaccine would be aware of the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program and how it works. Why have so few people heard about it?] 

Advisory Council of Childhood Vaccines to the Department of Health and Human Services

By Wayne Rohde

Has anyone heard of the ACCV, the Advisory Council of Childhood Vaccines to the Department of Health and Human Services?  Most people have not and what is worse, a very large majority of the public does not know about the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program.

Last month I talked about the horrendous injuries of Gardasil and how the Vaccine Court was handling those petitions for compensation.  That has not improved, just more petitions filed and more of them being dismissed.  A couple of them were awarded minimal compensation but that is secondary to the damage that the Gardasil vaccine is causing normal, active teenagers.

The ACCV was formed as the advisory committee to the program or specifically to the Secretary of HHS.  There are several members, most serving as representatives for industry and medical agencies, an attorney representing the petitioner attorneys, and two parent representatives, who have vaccine injured children.  The meetings are held quarterly, the last one Thursday, Sept 6^th.  The general public is invited to attend via conference call if they cannot attend in person.  Most of the meetings are setup as a 2 day, 6 to 8 hours each day to discuss topics of concern to the committee plus status reports about the adjudication of petitions, a report from DOJ attorneys on the status of cases that are appealed or remanded back to the Vaccine Court, plus workgroup reports on recommendations that can be sent on to the Secretary of HHS.

After reading the transcripts of quarterly meetings for the past several years, I have noticed that most of the members are not advocates for the general public or vaccine safety, only the attorney member and parent representatives are the ones challenging the status quo of our nation’s vaccine policy.

A topic that is very important to all of us is the committee’s charge and responsibility of conducting public outreach, in other words, educating the general public and medical communities about the VICP.   But as with all issues regarding vaccine policy, special interests and their political clout enters the chambers of the committee and puts a damper on what should be a clear and laser focused effort to provide information to the general public about vaccine compensation.

Read the entire article here.