Vaccine Efficacy and Other Unexpected Consequences

Abstract

Vaccine efficacy is the obvious objective of the developer, manufacturer, licensing agency and the user. The degree of attainment, and indeed the validity of its confirmation, is very often a tenuous quantity. Expectations of each of the principals vary. Manufacture is economics and business driven and a premium attends simplest measurement and earliest regulatory approval. Government's licensing procedure is constrained to utilize principally the "reasonable" presentation of the manufacture and is neither authorized nor funded to confirm experimental data independently. Users purchase the product as insurance against anticipated disease that may have earlier been misdiagnosed, misunderstood or even iatrogenic. Users perceive efficacy or failure with equal uncertainty. Degree of challenge, unrecognized agent-host-environment interaction, incomplete or failed diagnosis, all may confound even the most curious or dedicated. Unintended consequence of vaccination, including endointoxication, may further obscure understanding of appearant vaccine failure