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In an era when too many people remain suspicious of vaccines, one of the world’s largest manufacturers may have made matters worse while trying to control dengue fever.

For the past two weeks, Sanofi has been engulfed by scandal in the Philippines after disclosing that its Dengvaxia vaccine could worsen — rather than prevent — future cases of the mosquito-borne virus in people who had not previously been infected. About 830,000 children in the Philippines were vaccinated; now the government is demanding a $59 million refund and probing whether the vaccine was approved improperly.

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Unfortunately, there are indications that the company, which could use a blockbuster product, should have taken its corporate foot off the gas pedal.

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  • ‘Baseless mistrust of vaccines’? I think we’re there. This type of disaster happens when things just aren’t quite right, and no amount of backpedaling, or parades showing off the emperor’s new clothes, will change that.

  • Lucky for me I already got Multiple Sclerosis from a vaccine so my mistrust is from personal experience. This does however confirm that these things are not safe, not by a long shot. I have to say as a person who was not concerned about the issue before it ended up ruining my life , the ex-vax crowd does a way better job of presenting their case time and time again. These people spend countless amounts of time researching this stuff and their is plenty of valid science to support their claims. I’m telling you people now there is no warning, no window of danger to avoid , no way to know who it will happen to . When you roll up your sleeve to get those shots you can either walk away ok or become damaged beyond anything you ever thought was possible. It doesn’t matter if you have had shots before and were fine. The next could destroy you.

  • “… we run the risk that too many people will end up being inoculated with baseless mistrust of vaccines.” Baseless? How do you define baseless? Nearly $4 billion already paid out to families of those injured or killed by vaccines in the U.S. since the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (NVICP) was passed in 1986 and initiated in 1988. Mistrust of vaccines and the makers of those vaccines is anything but baseless. What’s your definition of baseless, Ed?

    • I will agree with, the author should not have used the word “Baseless mistrust” at end of the article.
      http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/128/5/848?download=true This study published in Pediatrics shows 13% of parents follow an alternative vaccine schedule and 53% skip certain vaccines. This is 2011, I am sure it is higher now.
      You don’t have to look very hard to find stories about parents with vaccine damaged kids. I guess it is about the risk/benefit ratio. All vaccines and drugs have risk. I would get a measles vaccine, but never a flu shot. And like the parents in the Pediatrics study, I would delay it a year.

  • This is unconscionable! Whatever happened to following the rules? Regulations are usually there for a reason, having had a previous adverse experience. Vaccines need to be reliable and efficient. Future preventive medicine depends on it. Infectious disease is rising, virus is implicated as causative in many if not all cancers. Prevention is the key!

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