Sunday, June 22, 2014

Financial incentive for doctors to push vaccines?

Greetings,

Lets start with a brief overview of what has happened since my last entry.

My daughters fiance' got his stitches out- no further talk of vaccines.   I got a bottle of VaccinePro at the Autism One conference to counter act any negative effects of the vaccine.

The Autism One conference was fantastic!   So much great info.   Dr. Brian Hooker gave a great talk on the lies that are occurring within the CDC towards the public.   Mark & David Geier got a look at the Vaccine Safety Datalink that shows the REAL dangers of vaccines.   This info isn't available to the general public.

During the Autism One conference, I was on a segment of the Robert Scott Bell show. (robertscottbell.com)   I did a video clip about advice for new parents that are looking at the vaccine issue.  This was a bit nerve wracking since I had to come up with 4 minutes of advice with only about 10 minutes to really think about it.

Racing has been sidelined for this year.  We didn't get the car winterized in time before a cold snap hit.  We believe we have a cracked engine block.  We traveled down to Missouri last weekend to get a Dodge Neon hoping that the engine would be ok to put into my car.   We weren't able to listen to it in Missouri because the fuel line was cut in the engine compartment.   We started it this past week & it was belching blue smoke indicating that the rings are shot on the pistons.   So, the everything is on hold for this year & hoping to have a good start to the season next year.

Now on to our topic -

Many nurses & doctors will deny that there is any financial incentive for doctors to push vaccines on their patients.  I've known this to be a lie since the late 90's.  My husband & I used to clean a clinic.  About twice a month we would have to clean up after a luncheon that was thrown by a pharmaceutical rep to show the latest & greatest drugs that were available to doctors - including vaccines.   These lunches included expensive entree's like brisket, roast beef & expensive deserts.   When we cleaned out the garbage cans in the doctor offices we would find the info about the drugs that was given to them & the LONG list of side affects associated with the drug.  If the side affects are longer than the symptoms I believe that is a warning sign that drug is something you shouldn't be taking.

A lady I know on Facebook put a question on her FB wall - Any nurses out there that want to chime in about vaccines? I am curious if you believe they are beneficial, or see reactions go unreported, or anything else.

Another lady said a nurse posted this on a vaccine page -

I used to be a vaccine believer simply because I *knew* on a very superficial level vaccines prevent disease. I had never researched them before, but that's what we hear as a general knowledge topic.

When I started working in pediatrics, the shear number of parents calling in terrified about their children's behavior after being vaccinated and the doctors' dismissive attitude to their concerns peaked my interests. I started asking questions to the drug reps when they came in and they either full on said they didn't know the answer, there was no data, or made a generic (false) statement about the vaccine. Then I was told by the doctors NOT to ask questions. All they need to know is the insurance reimbursement amount. 

As time when on, I noticed we were constantly seeing patients for sick visits shortly after they received shots. I ran a report using our billing software and found over 80% (I believe it was 82.something%) of the children who received shots came back for a sick visit within 10 days. These were upper respiratory infections, coughs, fevers, eat infections.....overall just sick stuff. Of course children get sick, but I found the high proportion soon after getting shots interesting. 

During my time in pediatrics, while I did work for doctor who DID accept non vaccinating families, I also saw how staff were instructed to LIE about vaccines being required for school and daycare for financial reasons. The difference between the insurance reimbursement for a fully vaccinated early childhood visit and a vaccine free well child visit was $400+ vs. about $50.

There were a handful of times patients had severe enough and immediate enough reactions to vaccines 911 was called. One that stands out in particular was when an obnoxiously outspoken pro-vaccine mom brought in her 12 year old son against her husbands wishes for his first HPV shot. While checking out at the front desk, within about 20 minutes of his shot, the boy fell to the ground and had a seizure lasting about 3 minutes. It ended just before the paramedics arrived. He spent a couple days in a coma and just over a week in the hospital. Another time a 2 month old baby girl left the office after her shots and was rushed back into the office by her parents not 10 minutes later. She had completely stopped breathing. The ambulance was called, CPR and oxygen given. She did not die, but was severely brain damaged after that. 

VAERS is an important tool and doctors are REQUIRED by law to report ALL possible vaccine reactions. They don't. Many, many, times I asked the doctors if/how/when they would be filing the report. I even asked how I should get the reports started for them to make them less time consuming and (when they actually know what VAERS was) always sort of scoffed and dismissed it.

While my experiences and time spent researching make me confident in never vaccinating myself of children, I am not "anti" vaccines. I believe in informed choice. My risk factors for certain diseases may be different than yours. Your experiences may be more on the danger of diseases than danger of the vaccine. 

I am "anti" 3 commonly held beliefs of many people who are adamantly pro vaccine:

The belief that vaccines are mandatory to attend school/daycare. Exemptions are available. 

That non vaccinated people are walking biohazards and need to be avoided at all costs. (The majority of the adult population is under or non vaccinated based on the current vaccine schedule)

The refusal to acknowledge that vaccine injures can and do happen and that they can be devastating and far more expensive, dangerous and deadly than many of the vaccine preventable diseases.



Go back & reread the insurance payout wording again.   The doctors get more money from the insurance companies if kids are fully vaccinated compared to a non-vaccinated child.


At the Autism One conference, one of the moms told me that New York schools get thousands of dollars per child that is fully vaccinated.

So, is there a financial incentive to vaccinate kids?   I think that answer is a resounding yes.

Until next time,
Lori