Frank DeStefano

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Frank DeStefano FACPM is a medical epidemiologist and researcher at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, where he is director of the Immunization Safety Office.

Contents

Education

Frank DeStefano graduated from Cortland (NY) High School in 1970. DeStefano graduated from Cornell University in 1974, receiving a Bachelor of Science degree, and the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, from which he received a medical degree in 1978. He received his MPH at Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health in 1984. [1]

Research

DeStefano is an author of a number of scientific studies concluding that vaccines, in particular thimerosal-containing ones, do not cause autism. In March 2013, for example, DeStefano was the lead author on a study in the Journal of Pediatrics, which concluded that exposure of children to particular ingredients in vaccines, namely proteins and polysaccharides, did not increase their risk of autism. In addition, DeStefano et al. concluded that children with autism had received the same number of antigens as children without. [2] This study received widespread media attention. [3] [4] [5]

As director of the ISO, his research focuses primarily on alleged and real adverse reactions to vaccines, and how common these reactions are. As mentioned above, some of DeStefano's research pertains to the use of thiomersal in vaccines; for example, he co-authored a study in 2003 in Pediatrics which concluded that there was no consistent association between thimerosal-containing vaccines and neurodevelopmental disorders. [6] In addition, he was the final author of a study on the alleged link between thimerosal and autism, authored by the Vaccine Safety Datalink team, published in the New England Journal of Medicine. This study concluded that "Our study does not support a causal association between early exposure to mercury from thimerosal-containing vaccines and immune globulins and deficits in neuropsychological functioning at the age of 7 to 10 years." [7] Other topics he has published research on include Guillain–Barré syndrome, [8] as well as the potential link between seizures and the whole-cell pertussis vaccine or MMR vaccine. [9] More generally, with regard to the VSD, he published a study in 2001 summarizing the ability of the project to reveal potential risks associated with vaccination, especially intussusception, through conduction of a population-based cohort study. [10]

Originally, however, DeStefano's research focused on the safety of contraceptives, a topic he researched from 1982 to 1984 as a medical officer at the National Institutes of Health. [11] Also in 1982, he joined the CDC as a senior epidemiologist in the Agent Orange projects.

Career

After completing a residency in pediatrics at the University of Rochester School of Medicine, he joined the Epidemic Intelligence Service in 1979. In 1982, he completed a CDC residency in preventive medicine. In 2004, DeStefano was appointed acting chief of the Immunization Safety Branch of the National Immunization Program, now known as the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases. From 1992 to 1996, DeStefano held a post at the Marshfield Medical Research Foundation in Marshfield, Wisconsin. In 1996, he returned to the CDC. [12]

Selected publications

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vaccination</span> Administration of a vaccine to protect against disease

Vaccination is the administration of a vaccine to help the immune system develop immunity from a disease. Vaccines contain a microorganism or virus in a weakened, live or killed state, or proteins or toxins from the organism. In stimulating the body's adaptive immunity, they help prevent sickness from an infectious disease. When a sufficiently large percentage of a population has been vaccinated, herd immunity results. Herd immunity protects those who may be immunocompromised and cannot get a vaccine because even a weakened version would harm them. The effectiveness of vaccination has been widely studied and verified. Vaccination is the most effective method of preventing infectious diseases; widespread immunity due to vaccination is largely responsible for the worldwide eradication of smallpox and the elimination of diseases such as polio and tetanus from much of the world. However, some diseases, such as measles outbreaks in America, have seen rising cases due to relatively low vaccination rates in the 2010s – attributed, in part, to vaccine hesitancy. According to the World Health Organization, vaccination prevents 3.5–5 million deaths per year.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thiomersal</span> Organomercury antiseptic and antifungal agent

Thiomersal (INN), or thimerosal, is an organomercury compound. It is a well-established antiseptic and antifungal agent.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vaccine hesitancy</span> Reluctance or refusal to be vaccinated or have ones children vaccinated

Vaccine hesitancy is a delay in acceptance, or refusal, of vaccines despite the availability of vaccine services and supporting evidence. The term covers refusals to vaccinate, delaying vaccines, accepting vaccines but remaining uncertain about their use, or using certain vaccines but not others. The scientific consensus that vaccines are generally safe and effective is overwhelming. Vaccine hesitancy often results in disease outbreaks and deaths from vaccine-preventable diseases. Therefore, the World Health Organization characterizes vaccine hesitancy as one of the top ten global health threats.

The Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) is a United States program for vaccine safety, co-managed by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). VAERS is a postmarketing surveillance program, collecting information about adverse events that occur after administration of vaccines to ascertain whether the risk–benefit ratio is high enough to justify continued use of any particular vaccine.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bernard Rimland</span> American psychologist (1928–2006)

Bernard Rimland was an American research psychologist, writer, lecturer, and influential person in the field of developmental disorders. Rimland's first book, Infantile Autism, sparked by the birth of a son who had autism, was instrumental in changing attitudes toward the disorder. Rimland founded and directed two advocacy groups: the Autism Society of America (ASA) and the Autism Research Institute. He promoted several since disproven theories about the causes and treatment of autism, including vaccine denial, facilitated communication, chelation therapy, and false claims of a link between secretin and autism. He also supported the ethically controversial practice of using aversives on autistic children.

The 2000 Simpsonwood CDC conference was a two-day meeting convened in June 2000 by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), held at the Simpsonwood Methodist retreat and conference center in Norcross, Georgia. The key event at the conference was the presentation of data from the Vaccine Safety Datalink examining the possibility of a link between the mercury compound thimerosol in vaccines and neurological problems in children who had received those vaccines.

The Vaccine Safety Datalink Project (VSD) was established in 1990 by the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to study the adverse effects of vaccines.

Thiomersal is a mercury compound which is used as a preservative in some vaccines. Anti-vaccination activists promoting the incorrect claim that vaccination causes autism have asserted that the mercury in thiomersal is the cause. There is no scientific evidence to support this claim. The idea that thiomersal in vaccines might have detrimental effects originated with anti-vaccination activists and was sustained by them and especially through the action of plaintiffs' lawyers.

A vaccine adverse event (VAE), sometimes referred to as a vaccine injury, is an adverse event caused by vaccination. The World Health Organization (WHO) knows VAEs as Adverse Events Following Immunization (AEFI).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Causes of autism</span> Proposed causes of autism

The causes of autism are environmental or genetic factors that predispose an individual to develop autism, also known as autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Many causes of autism have been proposed, but understanding of the theory of causation of autism is incomplete. Attempts have been made to incorporate the known genetic and environmental causes into a comprehensive causative framework. ASD is a neurodevelopmental disorder marked by impairments in communicative ability and social interaction and restricted/repetitive behaviors, interests, or activities not suitable for the individual's developmental stage. The severity of symptoms and functional impairment vary between individuals.

Neal A. Halsey is an American pediatrician, with sub-specialty training in infectious diseases, international health and epidemiology. Halsey is a professor emeritus of international health and director emeritus of the Institute for Vaccine Safety at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, in Baltimore, Maryland. He had a joint appointment in the Department of Pediatrics at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and serves as co-director of the Center for Disease Studies and Control in Guatemala.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program</span> U.S. no-fault system for litigating vaccine injury claims

The Office of Special Masters of the U.S. Court of Federal Claims, popularly known as "vaccine court", administers a no-fault system for litigating vaccine injury claims. These claims against vaccine manufacturers cannot normally be filed in state or federal civil courts, but instead must be heard in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims, sitting without a jury.

Claims of a link between the MMR vaccine and autism have been extensively investigated and found to be false. The link was first suggested in the early 1990s and came to public notice largely as a result of the 1998 Lancet MMR autism fraud, characterised as "perhaps the most damaging medical hoax of the last 100 years". The fraudulent research paper authored by Andrew Wakefield and published in The Lancet falsely claimed the vaccine was linked to colitis and autism spectrum disorders. The paper was retracted in 2010 but is still cited by anti-vaxxers.

<i>Cedillo v. Secretary of Health and Human Services</i> Legal case in United States Court of Federal Claims, decided February 12, 2009

Michelle Cedillo v. Secretary of Health and Human Services, also known as Cedillo, was a court case involving the family of Michelle Cedillo, an autistic girl whose parents sued the United States government because they believed that her autism was caused by her receipt of both the measles-mumps-and-rubella vaccine and thimerosal-containing vaccines. The case was a part of the Omnibus Autism Proceeding, where petitioners were required to present three test cases for each proposed mechanism by which vaccines had, according to them, caused their children's autism; Cedillo was the first such case for the MMR-and-thimerosal hypothesis.

John Barthelow Classen is an American immunologist and anti-vaccinationist. He received his M.D. from the University of Maryland, Baltimore in 1988, his M.B.A. from Columbia University in 1992 and obtained his medical license in October 1997. He is best known for publishing research concluding that vaccines, in particular the Hib vaccine, cause insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus, a hypothesis he proposed based on experiments he conducted on mice in 1996. His views are disputed and considered unverified.

An alternative vaccination schedule is a vaccination schedule differing from the schedule endorsed by the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP). These schedules may be either written or ad hoc, and have not been tested for their safety or efficacy. Proponents of such schedules aim to reduce the risk of adverse effects they believe to be caused by vaccine components, such as "immune system overload" that is argued to be caused by exposure to multiple antigens. Parents who adopt these schedules tend to do so because they are concerned about the potential risks of vaccination, rather than because they are unaware of the significance of vaccination's benefits. Delayed vaccination schedules have been shown to lead to an increase in breakthrough infections without any benefit in lower side effect profiles.

Extensive investigation into vaccines and autism spectrum disorder has shown that there is no relationship between the two, causal or otherwise, and that the vaccine ingredients do not cause autism. Vaccinologist Peter Hotez researched the growth of the false claim and concluded that its spread originated with Andrew Wakefield's fraudulent 1998 paper, with no prior paper supporting a link.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vaccination policy of the United States</span> Overview of the vaccination policy in the United States of America

Vaccination policy of the United States is the subset of U.S. federal health policy that deals with immunization against infectious disease. It is decided at various levels of the government, including the individual states. This policy has been developed over the approximately two centuries since the invention of vaccination with the purpose of eradicating disease from the U.S. population, or creating a herd immunity. Policies intended to encourage vaccination impact numerous areas of law, including regulation of vaccine safety, funding of vaccination programs, vaccine mandates, adverse event reporting requirements, and compensation for injuries asserted to be associated with vaccination.

Misinformation related to immunization and the use of vaccines is the mainstream media Information sponsored by important lobby groups of the most powerful industry that in ww2 was petrochemical and now is also a petrochemical with growing prominence of pharmaceutical industry in mass media and social media in spite of the fact that there is no serious hesitancy or debate within mainstream medical and scientific circles about the benefits of vaccination. Unsubstantiated safety concerns related to vaccines are often presented on the internet as being scientific information. A high proportion of internet sources on the topic are "inaccurate on the whole" which can lead people searching for information to form "significant misconceptions about vaccines".

References

  1. ↑ "Frank DeStefano MD MPH". WebMD . Retrieved 14 August 2013.
  2. ↑ "The Risk of Autism Is Not Increased by "Too Many Vaccines Too Soon"". Journal of Pediatrics. 29 March 2013. Retrieved 14 August 2013.
  3. ↑ "Vaccine-autism connection debunked again". CNN . 29 March 2013. Retrieved 11 September 2013.
  4. ↑ Trotter, J. K. (29 March 2013). "Nope, Vaccinations Don't Cause Autism". The Atlantic Wire . Retrieved 11 September 2013.
  5. ↑ Hamilton, Jon (29 March 2013). "Number Of Early Childhood Vaccines Not Linked To Autism". NPR.org . NPR . Retrieved 11 September 2013.
  6. ↑ Verstraeten, Thomas (November 2003). "Safety of Thimerosal-Containing Vaccines: A Two-Phased Study of Computerized Health Maintenance Organization Databases". Pediatrics. 112 (5): 1039–1048. doi:10.1542/peds.112.2.e98. PMID   14595043.
  7. ↑ Thompson, W. W.; Price, C.; Goodson, B.; Shay, D. K.; Benson, P.; Hinrichsen, V. L.; Lewis, E.; Eriksen, E.; Ray, P.; Marcy, S. M.; Dunn, J.; Jackson, L. A.; Lieu, T. A.; Black, S.; Stewart, G.; Weintraub, E. S.; Davis, R. L.; Destefano, F.; Vaccine Safety Datalink, T. (2007). "Early Thimerosal Exposure and Neuropsychological Outcomes at 7 to 10 Years". New England Journal of Medicine. 357 (13): 1281–1292. doi: 10.1056/NEJMoa071434 . PMID   17898097.
  8. ↑ Haber, P.; Destefano, F.; Angulo, F. J.; Iskander, J.; Shadomy, S. V.; Weintraub, E.; Chen, R. T. (2004). "Guillain–Barré Syndrome Following Influenza Vaccination". JAMA. 292 (20): 2478–2481. doi:10.1001/jama.292.20.2478. PMID   15562126.
  9. ↑ Barlow, W. E.; Davis, R. L.; Glasser, J. W.; Rhodes, P. H.; Thompson, R. S.; Mullooly, J. P.; Black, S. B.; Shinefield, H. R.; Ward, J. I.; Marcy, S. M.; Destefano, F.; Chen, V.; Immanuel, J. A.; Pearson, C. M.; Vadheim, V.; Rebolledo, D.; Christakis, P. J.; Benson, N.; Lewis, R. T.; Centers for Disease Control Prevention Vaccine Safety Datalink Working Group (2001). "The Risk of Seizures after Receipt of Whole-Cell Pertussis or Measles, Mumps, and Rubella Vaccine". New England Journal of Medicine. 345 (9): 656–661. doi: 10.1056/NEJMoa003077 . PMID   11547719.
  10. ↑ Destefano, F.; Vaccine Safety Datalink Research Group (2001). "The Vaccine Safety Datalink project". Pharmacoepidemiology and Drug Safety. 10 (5): 403–406. doi:10.1002/pds.613. PMID   11802585. S2CID   20854409.
  11. ↑ Ory, H. W.; Rubin, G. L.; Jones, V.; et al. (1984). "Mortality among young black women using contraceptives". JAMA: The Journal of the American Medical Association. 251 (8): 1044–1048. doi:10.1001/jama.1984.03340320030022. PMID   6229648.
  12. ↑ "NCIRD Milestones". National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases. September 2006. Archived from the original on 2013-08-15. Retrieved 15 August 2013.
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