Zostavax (shingles vaccine)
[NVIC june 2006] Shingles
Vaccine Targets Baby Boomers
In a vaccine approval frenzy putting big smiles on the faces of drug
company execs, the FDA approved Zostavax, a shingles vaccine made by
Merck..... the FDA approved a
shingles vaccine that works half the time in people over 60. Merck really
wants to market the vaccine to people 50 and older but the FDA
temporarily said "No" to that idea because studies
hadn't been done. Zostavax is actually a
booster dose of Merck's varicella zoster (chicken pox)
vaccine. It is the equivalent of 14 doses of Merck's pediatric chicken
pox vaccine. The safety of injecting a "souped up" version of the
pediatric chicken pox vaccine into the often immune
compromised elderly is yet another national experiment
on one of the two most vulnerable segments of our
society: the frail elderly. The elderly, along with children, often bear the
brunt of medical science's obsession with eradicating microrganisms and
the exploitation by drug companies in search of
profits. Mass use of chicken pox vaccine in American children since 1995 has
caused a shingles epidemic in older Americans. Before mass chicken pox
vaccine use, Americans who had recovered from chicken pox as children
would have their immunity "boosted" naturally and
asymptomatically by coming into contact with young
children infected with chicken pox. Now, with no chicken
pox around to do the boosting for older Americans, they get shingles
instead. Chicken pox rarely causes severe complications or death in
healthy children with 50 chickenpox related deaths in
children occurring annually before mass use of chicken
pox vaccine..
Some researchers (Goldman, G., International Journal of Toxicology, 2005)
estimate it will take more than 50 years of mass use of chicken pox
vaccine before the shingles epidemic will begin to
subside and will affect 14.6 million Americans at a
cost of $4.1 billion or about $80 million in annual
health care costs. Shingles cases result in 3 times as many deaths and 5
times as many hospitalizations in adults as chicken pox cases do in
children.
Bottom line: Drug companies double their profit potential when they
create vaccines and drugs which create diseases and disorders that
require creation and purchase of new vaccines and
drugs. It gives special meaning to the phrase "a
vicious circle."