Although the British government continues to insist that the MMR (measles, mumps, rubella) is completely safe, a UK court panel -- consisting of two medical doctors and a judge -- has ruled that the vaccine caused severe brain damage in Robert Fletcher, now aged 18, and has ordered the government to pay £90,000 ($138,889US as of 09.09.10) in compensation.
The boy's mother, Jackie Fletcher, has been fighting her legal battle for more than 13 years. Robert was 13 months old when he received the MMR vaccination as part of the UK's normal, recommended childhood vaccines. Ten days later, he began experiencing epileptic seizures and became unresponsive. Now severely disabled both physically and mentally, the young man still cannot talk, feed himself or even stand up unaided.
In a BBC report, his mother stated: "I feel vindicated by it because over the years I've been labelled anti-vaccine and a scaremonger and all sorts of things, when all I've been trying to do is highlight what's happened to my son, to help safeguard other parents' children. What I'm hoping now is that other parents whose children have suffered a similar reaction to Robert can maybe go down the same route that we've gone down to achieve justice for their children."
Although this is thought to be the first successful case to result in compensation for damages done by the MMR vaccine, between 1997 and 2005, the British government paid out £3.5 million ($5,399,568US as of 09.09.10) to patients who were disabled by vaccinations. The real extent of the vaccine's damage may never be known since most claims are denied, and claims are automatically denied for children under the age of two years, even though the government recommends vaccines for children under that age. Regardless of how severe the disabilities are, the payout is a flat £100,000 ($154,273US as of 09.09.10) per successful claim.
The US has a similar program, called the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program. Since 1988, 13,479 claims have been filed and nearly $2 billion has been paid in compensation (with another $71 million going to legal fees).
I find it difficult to believe the governments of the UK and US will pay billions of dollars in compensation for deaths and injuries PROVEN to be the result of vaccines, and yet continue to deny there are any risks involved.
While I personally feel that vaccines are ineffective, costly and dangerous, I am not advocating the abolition of all vaccines. That would be imposing my beliefs on others. But I feel strongly that people should have the right to make an informed decision about what drugs they and their children should receive (and vaccines ARE drugs). To do so, they must have access to all information available, including the risks involved. This is not what they're getting from our public health officials, who use scare tactics, misinformation, and legal mandates to coerce people to get shots they may not want or need and which may do them irreparable harm.
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