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Archives | (January 2002)
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MONKEY VIRUS ASSOCIATED WITH RISE IN RARE CANCERS IN HUMANS! (cont.)
------------------------------------------------------------------ Page 4 of 4 NEW REVELATIONS The San Francisco Chronicle has uncovered documents that show that polio vaccine produced years after the 1961 order that it be free of SV 40 may well have been contaminated. Among the most damaging was an internal memorandum from Lederle indicating that in November of 1961, seven months after the ban had taken effect, the company was allowed to distribute 15 lots of the vaccine even though three of them were found to be contaminated with SV 40. According to the Chronicle, the memo said that the decision to release them came from Dr. Roderick Murray, the person in charge of the federal program to ensure vaccine purity! What makes this memo even more of a concern is an October, 1962 letter from Albert Sabin to Lederle warning that one of the strains of poliovirus used to manufacture his version of the vaccine had not been adequately tested. Other Lederle memos Kops uncovered suggest that the additional tests Sabin believed necessary were never performed. Indeed, as recently as 1997, according to Lederle documents, test results from many lots of polio vaccine were missing. There can be no assurance that some of them did not contain SV 40. Kops is sure that they did. He and another lawyer are suing on behalf of the family of Mark Moreno, who had a large brain tumor removed in 1970, and has required multiple operations since. Tests of tissue samples from his brain tumor show it is riddled with SV 40. His parents are certain he was infected with the virus when he took the oral polio vaccine in 1968 - fully seven years after it was supposed to be SV 40 free. Although the government recently tested 30 bulk samples of the polio vaccine for SV 40, the samples only went back to 1972. The government claims it only tested that far back because samples of earlier vaccine were not available. It is not clear, however, whether the tests included the second strain of SV 40 that Dr. Carbone discovered in 1999 - an important fact since it takes longer to show up. The FDA, however, insists that the problem does not exist. "Manufacturers conduct stringent tests to make sure that cell lines used for producing viral vaccines do not contain adventitious agents (unwanted viruses) such as simian virus 40 (SV40), which was found in some early polio vaccines. These vaccines had been manufactured in kidney cells from simians (monkeys) that harbored SV40. Following its discovery, SV40 was removed from vaccines, and vaccines have been free of the virus since the early 1960s. CBER scientists are developing potentially better methods to detect such infectious agents." Soon, however, the government may be forced to take a serious look at the problem. A suit was filed in Los Angeles last year against Lederle by the parents of Alexander Horwin, who died of a brain tumor at the age of 2 and a half. Like Mark Moreno's, Alexander's tumor was riddled with SV 40. His parents believe he was infected when he took the oral polio vaccine in 1997. As his suit and the one filed by Mark Moreno's parents make their way through the courts, the truth may finally be revealed. Even if the truth does come out, though, it may prove small consolation for countless millions who were given contaminated polio vaccine - vaccine the FDA encouraged them to take, and assured them was safe! The FDA's scandalous disregard of the evidence that the polio vaccine was and may still be contaminated is yet another example of the agency's failure to fulfil its statutory responsibility to protect the public from unsafe pharmaceutical products! Time and time again, their actions seemed more aimed at protecting drug company profits than ensuring public safety. It is time for the American public to rise up and say ENOUGH! We must write our elected officials and demand that they take action to make the FDA responsive to the public will. We must make them understand that our patience is at an end! Most important, we must tell our representatives that if they do not act, we will replace them with people who will. In America, power is supposed to be vested in the people. The FDA seems to have forgotten this fact. It is time they were reminded! |
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