I studied VAERS hepatitis B vaccine data obtained by the National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC) under the Freedom of Information Act. The data has some flaws (incomplete fields, some multiple reports) but any qualified, impartial quantitative analyst or statistician not affiliated with Merck, Smithkline, the CDC, the FDA or the AAP who examines these reports will find a clear and undeniable pattern of central nervous system (CNS) and liver disease striking thousands of people within 0-4 days after vaccination with hepatitis B vaccineany qualified, impadial quantitative analyst or statistician not affiliated with Merck, Smithkline, the CDC, the FDA or the AAP who examines these reports will find a clear and undeniable pattern of central nervous system (CNS) and liver disease striking thousands of people within 0-4 days after vaccination with hepatitis B vaccine. These reports have been ignored, explained away, or considered "acceptable" by the FDA, CDC and drug companies. This Committee should launch an investigation of the VAERS hepatitis B data by a team of independent scientists not beholden to vaccine manufacturers or the FDA/CDC bureaucracy. The following is intended to be a starting point for such an investigation. This does not profess to be a complete, exhaustive analysis -- simply an overview, highlighting aspects of the data that may not previously have been brought to your attention.

The total 24,775 VAERS hepatitis B reports from July 1990 to October 31, 1998 show 439 deaths and 9673 serious reactions involving emergency room visits, hospitalization, disablement or death. Therefore, more than one third of total reports were serious events. 17,497 of those total reports were for hepatitis B vaccine only, the remainder were vaccine cocktails where hepatitis B was administered along with DPT, HIB, IPV, OPV, etc.

The hepatitis-B-vaccine-only reports show a shocking cluster of reactions in females starting in their teenage years (the male/female reporting ratio is balanced before age 16). For ages 16-55, 77% of VAERS reports are women -- more than three times as many women as men are reporting adverse reactions to hepatitis B vaccine. The median onset of adverse event after vaccination is one day, 70% of reactions happen within four days of vaccination. independent scientists should investigate why females are more disposed to have adverse reactions to hepatitis B vaccine and/or report them to VAERS. One possible explanation is that nurses have to take this vaccine for their jobs and are thus more exposed than most adults to hepatitis B vaccine adverse reactions. Rather than dismiss that factor as an "over-reporting bias" as Dr. Chen of the CDC did at the February ACIP meeting, perhaps investigators might consider that nurses are alert health care workers and ought to be listened to with regard to the dangers of adverse events with any vaccine (rather than ignored). Personal case studies reported to the author have showed many teenage girls getting severe, debilitating adverse reactions to hepatitis B vaccine, having nothing to do with nursing. Do women have a greater vulnerability to auto-immune reactions to hepatitis B vaccine? Is the government discriminating against women by administering this vaccine without regard for genetic risk of CNS and liver disease? Those are questions that independent scientists should investigate.