For many years vaccine safety advocates have been criticizing the irresponsible recommendation by CDC that the flu shot be administered to all pregnant women, when the flu vaccine package inserts themselves state that the vaccine has not been safety tested on pregnant women*. Now we are learning that the CDC has known for at least two years that one such flu shot series may have made it more than seven times more likely for a woman to suffer a miscarriage, yet chose to withhold this information from mothers. This is yet another serious problem in vaccine safety that the State of Maine, and federal health authorities, refuse to properly address. This lack of seriousness in vaccine safety oversight is likely leading to the avoidable injury and premature death of some Mainers, and to the growing and well earned distrust in the National Immunization Program.
The Maine Coalition for Vaccine Choice calls for the repeal of the 1986 National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act that gives the vaccine industry full liability protection when a vaccine causes death or injury to a Mainer, and for the State of Maine to review all vaccine recommendations made to them by the federal government, which is not providing full informed consent to the public on known vaccine risks.