Two babies killed by the MMR shot in Samoa

Two babies died in Samoa, both of them within minutes of being given the MMR shot. The tragedy happened last Friday at a hospital in Savaii. A one-year old girl, Lannacallystah Samuelu, started turning blue right after walking out of the hospital. The parents ran back to the doctor’s office with the little girl still breathing. However, the child died while the medical team was working on her.
Since the cause of death has not been established, you might want to call it an accident. Yet, what happened to the second child was downright murder.
The second family arrived at the hospital roughly two hours after the death of the little boy and heard about the tragedy that had just taken place. The mother of Lameko Si'u,also aged one, did not want to go through with the vaccination under the circumstances. However, the nurse started putting pressure on her and finally administered the vaccine without consent.
They had just made it outside the hospital when the boy closed his eyes and his head went limp. Like in the first case, the boy died while doctors were scrambling to save his life.

Yesterday, the government of Samoa ordered that all the MMR stocks be seized. The autopsies have yet to be performed and it is too early to say whether the vaccine was contaminated or there was some human mistake involved.
However, authorities in neighboring New Zealand went into damage control mode, reassuring the population that vaccines are safe.
Dr Helen Petousis-Harris, the University of Auckland's Director of Research at the Immunisation Advisory Centre, released a statement arguing vaccines have good safety record and such incidents are extremely rare.
"The vaccine used in New Zealand and Samoa is extremely safe."
It is not the first time, children are killed on the spot by the MMR vaccine.
In 2014, 15 children died in Syria, when the powder was accidentally mixed with a muscle relaxant instead of water. Last year, another 15 children were killed in Sudan, after being given the MMR shot with the same needle and the solution had not been refrigerated properly.
Even if the case in Samoa turns out to be an accident of some sorts, the fact remains that having a second child vaccinated immediately after an unexplained tragedy is beyond irresponsible. Such a decision can only be explained by the pressure put on health workers to have as many children vaccinated as possible.

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