[quote=
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/who-a ... le/2560647]Given the lack of research on their side, vaccine opponents have largely focused on questioning studies cited by medical experts — and arguing that there needs to be more research, period. Until you can definitively prove vaccines don't cause harm, they should be suspended or, at the very least, parents should be given ample opportunity to opt out, they say.
Demanding absolute proof that vaccines don't cause a whole host of conditions is an unfair demand on science, according to Sawyer. "That's a fundamental problem with science," he says. "It's very hard to prove a negative."
Another point often made by anti-vaxxers: The National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program. The program, established by Congress in 1988 to shield vaccine-makers from lawsuits, has awarded $2.8 billion for 3,941 claims of injury or death. Another 9,867 claims have been dismissed.
Vaccine advocates say that doesn't prove the 3,941 awarded people have been injured by or died from vaccines — it just means that judges were sufficiently convinced by their claims. But Sears says doctors are too dismissive of the awards.
"I don't think the vaccine injury court would pay out so much money for reactions that aren't really happening," Sears said.
But to many anti-vaxxers, the mere existence of the injury court proves the federal government has conspired to hide all the facts about vaccines while protecting drug companies who make bad products.
"I vaccinated my children, but what I did not understand is that the risks were understated," says Louise Kuo Habakus, a radio host and author of the book Vaccine Epidemic. "They told me, 'they're so safe, they're like water.' I was never told billions of dollars were paid out to people because of injury."
The CDC admits that vaccines can cause some serious side effects, although they're rare. The Tdap shot can cause seizures in one child out of 14,000. That ratio is one to 3,000 for the MMR vaccine. In extremely rare cases — less than one in a million — both shots can lead to long-term seizures, coma or permanent brain damage.
What anti-vaxxers dispute is how often those serious side effects occur.
"There is disagreement about how often it happens," Fisher says. "It's not just we believe, we know it happens more often than the government authorities are willing to admit."[/quote]
