I haven’t seen any evidence definitively linking brachial plexus neuropathy to any particular vaccine, including DT. It’s been described in association with a number of different vaccines, but as previously noted, vaccine associations are considerably less common than than others*, and we’re talking about a very uncommon malady to begin with.
The idea that it’s inadvisable to give multiple vaccines at once because of the risk of an allergic or other reaction thus untraceable to a specific shot, runs counter to expert recommendations.
For instance, I see experts consider it safe to give Shingrix (RZV and influenza vaccine) on the same visit.
“Can I give our long-term care residents RZV, injectable influenza, and pneumococcal vaccines on the same day?”
“Yes. CDC’s General Best Practice Guidelines for Immunization advise that non-live vaccines, such as RZV, can be administered concomitantly, at different anatomic sites, with any other live or non-live vaccine. They should be given as separate injections, not combined in the same syringe.”
http://immunize.org/askexperts/experts_zos.asp
If it was risky to give multiple vaccines on the same visit, children would be obliged to make many more visits to the pediatrician with their parents, with greater trauma to the kids and cost - and combination vaccines wouldn’t be approved. But that’s not the case. Administering several vaccines simultaneously is safe and does not compromise immunity to any individual vaccine. This makes sense, seeing that we’re constantly being bombarded with multiple foreign antigens (via respiratory and G.I. routes, as well as the occasional ones that get in via scrapes, cuts and other trauma), and our immune systems routinely handle such stimulation effectively.
VAERS is a passive reporting system to which anyone can and does contribute - health care providers, patients, lawyers, you name it. It’s a starting point for garnering data on potential vaccine side effects, but only a small proportion are ever convincingly linked with vaccination. Much is made by the antivaccine contingent (for example) about cases of postural orthostatic hypotension syndrome, infertility and even death reported after HPV vaccination, but good evidence (including clinical studies) refutes any such link. If I was a meanie I’d bring up some of the most notorious cases where reports appeared in VAERS where it was flamingly obvious that there was no connection to a vaccine (one such deemed it significant that a young woman fell down a well and died a couple weeks after her HPV shot), but I won’t :). The incident where a wiseass reported that a vaccine turned him into the Incredible Hulk never made it into VAERS, but if the guy had insisted to the VAERS people that it be included, they would have been obligated to include it in the database.
As for the lack of studies showing an advantage to “stretching out” the vaccine schedule, it’s the obligation of those promoting such alternate schedules to show that they have any safety advantage and don’t cause harm through delaying immunity to dangerous diseases. The most strident advocates of such schedules (for instance, pediatricians Paul Thomas and Bob Sears) have been promoting them for years on safety grounds, yet to my knowledge have never bothered to publish data from their practices.**
**Thomas and Sears, not coincidentally, are among the most well-known of antivax M.D.s; Thomas advises delaying or avoiding most childhood vaccines, and Sears has been investigated by his medical board (and sanctioned in one case) for granting improper childhood vaccine exemptions.
