During a subcommittee last week on a bill that would require the date and type of the last vaccination given to any child 0-3 years old who dies in Iowa be listed on the medical examiner’s investigation form, an interesting exchange took place.
A representative from the Iowa Department of Public Health expressed concern the bill would be “duplicative” because medical examiners already have access to the information.
That was backed up by Dr. Jonathan Thompson, a medical examiner here in Iowa.
Thompson said the medical records of anyone who is autopsied are subpoenaed and received.
“It’s just part of our standard practice to review those medical records, which for the most part include the decedent’s vaccination history as well,” Thompson said.
But, later in the subcommittee, Republican State Sen. Jim Carlin asked Thompson how many children he had done autopsies on in the last year.
Thompson estimated he had performed around 30-50 on kids.
Carlin asked about ages 0-3.
“I would estimate around 10-15,” he said. “The vast majority of those are SIDS cases, which would be 0-1.”
Carlin then asked Thompson how many times he documented the vaccinations the deceased children had up until that point.
“As far as documenting them in an autopsy report,” Thompson asked.
“Did you in any of those autopsies supply vaccination information to that database,” Carlin asked.
“No,” Thompson replied.
