"The [HPV} vaccine has been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for use in girls as young 9 and up to 26. A government advisory panel recommends that the vaccine be administered before girls become sexually active. However, no sixth-grade girl should be sexually active. Admittedly, probably some kids at this age are. Hopefully a minority of the girls. Why force the vaccine on all youngsters that age? Again, the decision to get the shot should be left up to the parents, who we would suggest urge abstinence at such a young age.....This vaccination is a parental and family decision. It belongs in the house and not the state House." - Dec. 27, 2006 EDITORIAL, The Oakland Press (Michigan)
"The legislation [to mandate HPV vaccine], sponsored by Sen. Bev Hammerstron (R-Temperance) passed 36-1 in the [Michigan] Senate back on Sept. 20. The legislation included an amendment that allowed parents to opt out if so desired. However, there continued to be strong opposition to the bill in the House. The basis of the opposition was that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) had only approved the vaccine in June of this year, and there are claims that some individuals have had negative reactions to the vaccine. What's more, the virus is spread through sexual contact, and some view the idea of presenting the vaccine to girls in schools as a subtle signal that they're expected to be sexually active." - Legislative Update from Sue Waltman, founder, MOM (Michigan Opposing Mandatory Vaccines).
Barbara Loe Fisher Commentary:
During the past few months, Michigan parents took the time and made the effort to educate Michigan state legislators about the potential risks of HPV vaccine and the inappropriate attempt by those trying to persuade politicians to mandate the vaccine for all sixth grade girls. The vaccine education effort was spearheaded by Michigan Opposting Mandatory Vaccination (MOM) headed by Sue Waltman, who has been a longtime informed consent advocate working in Michigan to defend parents' right to make informed, voluntary vaccination decisions.
When state legislators have full and accurate information about the benefits and risks of new vaccines that state health officials and drug companies want to mandate supplied by citizens who will be affected by those mandates, legislators often make different choices than if they only hear from drug company and physician organization lobbyists, who profit from vaccine mandates. It is extremely important for citizens in every state to understand that they CAN affect the choices their legislators make with regard to new vaccine mandates IF they stand up and make their voices heard.
Congratulations to MOM and the other parents and activist citizens in Michigan who cared enough about protecting their informed consent rights to fight for them.
Forced Anthrax Vaccine Crippling Soldiers
"The Pentagon is reviving its mandatory anthrax vaccinations despite allegations that the shots have contributed to as many as 23 deaths and sickened hundreds, and perhaps thousands, of soldiers....The Pentagon has been rocked by criticism that it has failed to adequately track whether the shots have caused diseases. Indeed, as occurred with Francis, many soldiers are injected with several vaccines on the same day, making it harder to identify the cause of illnesses....Col. Randall Anderson, who runs the Military Vaccine Agency, said the Pentagon believes health risks from the anthrax vaccine "are equal to those of other vaccines" that cause illnesses in only a tiny percentage of those vaccinated.....Numerous public health experts believe BioThrax causes a range of problems, particularly among women and people prone to autoimmune diseases. They list Guillain-Barre, which can kill or paralyze; other neurological disorders; diabetes; arthritis; chronic fatigue syndrome; chronic muscle and joint pain; respiratory ailments; vision problems; memory loss, and depression....The afflicted soldiers blame their government...." McClatchy Newspapers, December 22, 2006
Mandatory Anthrax Vaccines Raise Concern
Barbara Loe Fisher Commentary:
The M.D./Ph.D. government health officials employed by the Departments of Defense and Health and Human Services continue to try to cover-up the casualties of anthrax vaccinations forced on U.S. soldiers. The young military recruits, who enlist in America's all-volunteer military forces, are among the strongest and healthiest members of society. Far too many are pushed into poor health after being injected with multiple vaccines, including the notoriously reactive anthrax vaccine, after they become soldiers.Meryl Nass, M.D., Medical Director for NVIC's Military and Biodefense Vaccine Project (MBVP), has treated more than 500 seriously ill men and women, whose health problems began shortly after being injected with anthrax vaccination during military service. She has been in contact with many hundreds more who have reported permanent brain and immune system dysfunction. Whether in a civilian or military setting, government health officials continue to cover-up, deny and minimize the casualties of vaccination. For more information about anthrax vaccine and other military vaccines, go to www.military-biodefensevaccines.org
"No forced vaccination. Not in America. "
Mandatory Anthrax Vaccines Raise Concern
Barbara Loe Fisher Commentary:
The M.D./Ph.D. government health officials employed by the Departments of Defense and Health and Human Services continue to try to cover-up the casualties of anthrax vaccinations forced on U.S. soldiers. The young military recruits, who enlist in America's all-volunteer military forces, are among the strongest and healthiest members of society. Far too many are pushed into poor health after being injected with multiple vaccines, including the notoriously reactive anthrax vaccine, after they become soldiers.Meryl Nass, M.D., Medical Director for NVIC's Military and Biodefense Vaccine Project (MBVP), has treated more than 500 seriously ill men and women, whose health problems began shortly after being injected with anthrax vaccination during military service. She has been in contact with many hundreds more who have reported permanent brain and immune system dysfunction. Whether in a civilian or military setting, government health officials continue to cover-up, deny and minimize the casualties of vaccination. For more information about anthrax vaccine and other military vaccines, go to www.military-biodefensevaccines.org
"No forced vaccination. Not in America. "
HIV (AIDS) Vaccine for Newborns
"Last week, Prof Francis Mmiro, the lead investigator, said the baby [HIV] vaccine trial has been successful so far, adding that he hoped the [HIV] vaccine will be added to the many given to babies at birth and thereafter like polio, tetanus, hepatitis B and measles. Preliminary results are expected by mid 2007 in the two-and-and-half-year study."
Esther Nakkazi, Nationmedia.com, The East African, December 25, 2006
Uganda Offers HIV Vaccine Trials for Babies
Barbara Loe Fisher Commentary:
There are different HIV (AIDS) vaccines in various stages of clinical trials in the U.S. and other countries. In the past, evaluations of the toxicity of experimental HIV (AIDS) vaccines were conducted in adults at high risk for HIV infection, such as IV drug abusers and those with multiple sexual partners. However, children have now become the preferred testing ground for experimental HIV (AIDS) vaccines and will be the eventual target for routine vaccination.
Newborn infants in Africa are now being enrolled in clinical trials. In the U.S., future HIV vaccine trials will involve pre-adolescents and babies.
A worldwide mass vaccination infrastructure is being created by governments in partnership with multinational pharmaceutical companies, the World Health Organization and private donors such as Bill Gates and the Catholic Church. During the next decade, an international campaign to vaccinate every man, woman and child with HIV (AIDS) vaccine will begin and societal sanctions, including denial of an education and health care, may well be levied against citizens in America and other developed countries who refuse the HIV (AIDS) vaccine.
What many people do not realize is that the financing of world vaccination campaigns are dependent upon forcing the citizens of wealthy nations to purchase and use vaccines in order to finance the supply of those same vaccines to underdeveloped countries at a reduced rate. For example, hepatitis B disease is prevalent in Asia and Africa but has never been in the U.S.; and HPV associated cervical cancer occurs at a high rate in underdeveloped countries without routine pap smear screening but cervical cancer is at an all time low in the U.S.. Still, American children are forced to get hepatitis B vaccine or be denied an education and the CDC has told told doctors that pre-adolescent American girls must get HPV vaccine.
In 1996, HIV vaccine developer Stanley Plotkin, M.D., of Pasteur Merieux Pharmaceuticals (who is a co-patent holder on rubella and rotavirus vaccines) explained why mandatory vaccination in rich countries like the U.S. help deliver vaccines to Third World markets:
"The keystone of the [global mass vaccination] system is that the research costs [of drug companies] are recouped in North America and Europe and the vaccines are sold in the developing world at much, much lower margins...the relatively high rate of childhood vaccination seen lately in most parts of the world is the result of that system," explained Plotkin.
One-size-fits-all forced vaccination policies target the genetically vulnerable for injury and death and violate the human right to informed consent to medical risk-taking. The casualties of mass vaccination policies are never acknowledged or counted in the cost benefit analyses drug companies and public health officials publish. This will be especially true when the CDC announces every child in America must be injected with just a little bit of the HIV (AIDS) virus.
"No forced vaccination. Not in America. "
Esther Nakkazi, Nationmedia.com, The East African, December 25, 2006
Uganda Offers HIV Vaccine Trials for Babies
Barbara Loe Fisher Commentary:
There are different HIV (AIDS) vaccines in various stages of clinical trials in the U.S. and other countries. In the past, evaluations of the toxicity of experimental HIV (AIDS) vaccines were conducted in adults at high risk for HIV infection, such as IV drug abusers and those with multiple sexual partners. However, children have now become the preferred testing ground for experimental HIV (AIDS) vaccines and will be the eventual target for routine vaccination.
Newborn infants in Africa are now being enrolled in clinical trials. In the U.S., future HIV vaccine trials will involve pre-adolescents and babies.
A worldwide mass vaccination infrastructure is being created by governments in partnership with multinational pharmaceutical companies, the World Health Organization and private donors such as Bill Gates and the Catholic Church. During the next decade, an international campaign to vaccinate every man, woman and child with HIV (AIDS) vaccine will begin and societal sanctions, including denial of an education and health care, may well be levied against citizens in America and other developed countries who refuse the HIV (AIDS) vaccine.
What many people do not realize is that the financing of world vaccination campaigns are dependent upon forcing the citizens of wealthy nations to purchase and use vaccines in order to finance the supply of those same vaccines to underdeveloped countries at a reduced rate. For example, hepatitis B disease is prevalent in Asia and Africa but has never been in the U.S.; and HPV associated cervical cancer occurs at a high rate in underdeveloped countries without routine pap smear screening but cervical cancer is at an all time low in the U.S.. Still, American children are forced to get hepatitis B vaccine or be denied an education and the CDC has told told doctors that pre-adolescent American girls must get HPV vaccine.
In 1996, HIV vaccine developer Stanley Plotkin, M.D., of Pasteur Merieux Pharmaceuticals (who is a co-patent holder on rubella and rotavirus vaccines) explained why mandatory vaccination in rich countries like the U.S. help deliver vaccines to Third World markets:
"The keystone of the [global mass vaccination] system is that the research costs [of drug companies] are recouped in North America and Europe and the vaccines are sold in the developing world at much, much lower margins...the relatively high rate of childhood vaccination seen lately in most parts of the world is the result of that system," explained Plotkin.
One-size-fits-all forced vaccination policies target the genetically vulnerable for injury and death and violate the human right to informed consent to medical risk-taking. The casualties of mass vaccination policies are never acknowledged or counted in the cost benefit analyses drug companies and public health officials publish. This will be especially true when the CDC announces every child in America must be injected with just a little bit of the HIV (AIDS) virus.
"No forced vaccination. Not in America. "
Lowering Standards for Vaccines and Drugs
"The pharmaceutical industry is getting bad press. Recent books by Marcia Angell, the former editor of the New England Journal of Medicine, and Jerome Kassirer, another former editor of the journal, have harshly condemned the industry for recklessness, insensitivity and all-consuming greed.....critics like Angell and Kassirer are absolutely wrong to portray the nation's big drug companies as heartless, avaricious behemoths that act in whatever manner they choose and always get their way. The truth is, the pharmaceutical industry is too heavily regulated. Its big problem today is not that it's free to run roughshod over the needs of consumers, but that it operates in a hostile and excessive regulatory environment that frustrates sound business decision- making and keeps down pharmaceutical company share prices in the stock market......- Attorney and pharmaecutical industry consultant Richard A. Epstein, LA Times, December 22, 2006
The Myth of the Big Bad Drug Companies
They're not greedy, they're over-regulated. The result is fewer pills to cure our ills.
Barbara Loe Fisher Commentary:
The power and influence of the pharmaceutical industry in American health care is profound. Attorneys, such as Richard Epstein, and medical doctors inside and outside of government who profit from their association with the pharmaceutical industry, often call for less stringent regulation of drugs and vaccines. They want to do away with almost all government requirements that vaccines and drugs be proven safe and effective and they oppose strict guidelines preventing federally employed scientists and medical doctors from taking money from drug companies.
It is dangerous when medical doctors and public health officials use loosely regulated vaccines (and drugs such as anti-depressants and cancer treatments) on citizens while simultaneously enjoying immunity from accountability in a court of law when those prescribed vaccines and drugs injure and kill. Since September 11, 2001, there has been an assault by drug company lobbyists on government regulations and informed consent rights when it comes to the consumer's right to have full information about the risks of vaccines and drugs and make voluntary decisions about using them. The result of this assault on the informed consent ethic has been to endanger the lives of all Americans who seek medical care.
"Buyer Beware' is an old motto that is truer now than it has ever been when it comes to health care in America.
The Myth of the Big Bad Drug Companies
They're not greedy, they're over-regulated. The result is fewer pills to cure our ills.
Barbara Loe Fisher Commentary:
The power and influence of the pharmaceutical industry in American health care is profound. Attorneys, such as Richard Epstein, and medical doctors inside and outside of government who profit from their association with the pharmaceutical industry, often call for less stringent regulation of drugs and vaccines. They want to do away with almost all government requirements that vaccines and drugs be proven safe and effective and they oppose strict guidelines preventing federally employed scientists and medical doctors from taking money from drug companies.
It is dangerous when medical doctors and public health officials use loosely regulated vaccines (and drugs such as anti-depressants and cancer treatments) on citizens while simultaneously enjoying immunity from accountability in a court of law when those prescribed vaccines and drugs injure and kill. Since September 11, 2001, there has been an assault by drug company lobbyists on government regulations and informed consent rights when it comes to the consumer's right to have full information about the risks of vaccines and drugs and make voluntary decisions about using them. The result of this assault on the informed consent ethic has been to endanger the lives of all Americans who seek medical care.
"Buyer Beware' is an old motto that is truer now than it has ever been when it comes to health care in America.
Aluminum, Neuron Death and Anthrax Vaccine
Aluminum adjuvant linked to gulf war illness induces motor neuron death in mice.
Neuromolecular Medicine, February 2007, Volume 9, Issue 1
Petrik MS, Wong MC, Tabata RC, Garry RF, Shaw CA. Department of Ophthalmology and Program in Neuroscience, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
"Whereas many environmental factors have been linked to GWI, the role of the anthrax vaccine has come under increasing scrutiny. Among the vaccine's potentially toxic components are the adjuvants aluminum hydroxide and squalene..... Aluminum-treated groups also showed significant motor neuron loss (35%) and increased numbers of astrocytes (350%) in the lumbar spinal cord....The findings suggest a possible role for the aluminum adjuvant in some neurological features associated with GWI and possibly an additional role for the combination of adjuvants." - Petrik, Wong, Tabata, Garry & Shaw, Neuromolecular Medicine
Barbara Loe Fisher Commentary:
Aluminum is a metal which is neurotoxic when it accesses the nervous system and it also has an affinity for the bones, lung and liver. It can make the blood brain barrier more permeable and cross it, leading to neuron death and chronic inflammation of the brain.
Aluminum is used as an adjuvant in many vaccines, including the HPV vaccine (Gardasil) targeting pre-adolescent girls. Childhood vaccines contain from 170 mcg to 625 mcg of aluminum per dose. Children receiving multiple vaccines on one day (pneumococcal, DTaP, hepatitis B, hepatitis A) could receive as much as 1250 mcg of aluminum.
Symptoms of aluminum poisoning include personality changes, progressive speech disorder, stuttering, tremors, seizures, abnormal EEG, psychosis and dementia. Elevated levels of aluminum have been found in the brains of those diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease, who have symptoms including memory lapses, mood disturbances, agitation, aggression, disturbed sleep, confusion and depression.
There have never been any long term human studies evaluating the pathological changes in brain and immune function resulting from repeatedly injecting aluminum into children and adults.
Neuromolecular Medicine, February 2007, Volume 9, Issue 1
Petrik MS, Wong MC, Tabata RC, Garry RF, Shaw CA. Department of Ophthalmology and Program in Neuroscience, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
"Whereas many environmental factors have been linked to GWI, the role of the anthrax vaccine has come under increasing scrutiny. Among the vaccine's potentially toxic components are the adjuvants aluminum hydroxide and squalene..... Aluminum-treated groups also showed significant motor neuron loss (35%) and increased numbers of astrocytes (350%) in the lumbar spinal cord....The findings suggest a possible role for the aluminum adjuvant in some neurological features associated with GWI and possibly an additional role for the combination of adjuvants." - Petrik, Wong, Tabata, Garry & Shaw, Neuromolecular Medicine
Barbara Loe Fisher Commentary:
Aluminum is a metal which is neurotoxic when it accesses the nervous system and it also has an affinity for the bones, lung and liver. It can make the blood brain barrier more permeable and cross it, leading to neuron death and chronic inflammation of the brain.
Aluminum is used as an adjuvant in many vaccines, including the HPV vaccine (Gardasil) targeting pre-adolescent girls. Childhood vaccines contain from 170 mcg to 625 mcg of aluminum per dose. Children receiving multiple vaccines on one day (pneumococcal, DTaP, hepatitis B, hepatitis A) could receive as much as 1250 mcg of aluminum.
Symptoms of aluminum poisoning include personality changes, progressive speech disorder, stuttering, tremors, seizures, abnormal EEG, psychosis and dementia. Elevated levels of aluminum have been found in the brains of those diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease, who have symptoms including memory lapses, mood disturbances, agitation, aggression, disturbed sleep, confusion and depression.
There have never been any long term human studies evaluating the pathological changes in brain and immune function resulting from repeatedly injecting aluminum into children and adults.
Flu Vaccine Glut - Nobody Wants It
“I sent out a blast fax to 700 physicians in the Youngstown area offering to give it away if they just come pick it up,” said Mr. Stefanak, the health commissioner of Mahoning County, Ohio, which includes Youngstown. So far, he said, there have been few takers..........While experts say an excess is better than a shortage, too large a surplus could hamper the government’s goal of steadily increasing the production and use of flu vaccines. Because makers, distributors, doctors and health departments lose money from vaccine they cannot sell to patients, they may be discouraged from making or ordering as much in coming years — potentially leading to future shortages." - Andrew Pollack, The Ledger, December 16, 2006
After Shortage, Flu Vaccine in Unused
Barbara Loe Fisher Commentary:
What part of "no thanks" do CDC officials and drug company execs not understand when it comes to most Americans refusing to get a flu shot every year? Despite all the hype about how 36,000 Americans die every year from influenza and 200,000 more are hospitalized, it is hard to find somebody who knows anybody who was hospitalized or died from infection with one of the three influenza viruses contained in the flu vaccine. Yet, those figures keep getting bandied about by public health officials, who steadfastly refuse to produce the hard scientific evidence to back up their numbers.
In light of the fact that only 20 percent of all flu-like illness in any given flu season is actually influenza, inquiring minds want to know the truth and are asking for proof that backs up the rhetoric. So far, the flu vaccine studies published in the medical literature fail to give credence to any of the inflated influenza mortality figures the CDC is using to try to scare the people.
Guaranteeing Drug Company Profits - Unable to frighten Americans into getting an annual flu shot, public health officials have taken to playing the sympathy card. On behalf of drug companies, they are pleading for the people to roll up their sleeves, dig deep into their pockets and shell out some bucks for the flu shot to guarantee the drug companies big profits. It doesn't look good on drug company stockholder proft/loss statements when unused surplus vaccine has to be dumped after the flu season is over. No, wait! Now public health officials are saying that there is no such thing as the beginning and ending of a flu season: the flu is actually a killer all year round so everybody should get vaccinated all year round!
Exercising the Immune System - It wasn't so very long ago when the flu vaccine was only recommended for those at very high risk for suffering serious complications from influenza infection, such as the elderly or those already seriously ill. The majority of healthy young Americans accepted getting the flu every couple of years as a part of life. It was a great excuse to take a few days off from school or work and stay in bed with plenty of kleenex, Vicks vapor rub, OJ, chicken noodle soup and a good book. Then, after experiencing the sore throat, chills, fever and other symptoms of acute inflammation that are part of a robust immune system exercise, often recovery from influenza was followed by an extended period of good health. And when that same strain of influenza came around again, there was either no re-infection (immunity) or fewer and milder symptoms of illness.
Superior Natural Immunity - Experience with type A and type B influenza infection has another bonus: immunological memory that could help resist the ravages of a nastier version of type A or type B influenza that comes around someday. Flu vaccine only provides temporary immunity. So pandemic flu planners are counting on the superior, longer lasting immunity of those Americans, who have actually recovered from influenza infection, because drug companies won't be able to produce pandemic flu vaccine fast enough to provide doses for everyone for up to a year after the pandemic begins.
If public health officials are depending upon Americans with qualitatively superior cell mediated immunity to influenza, which can only be obtained from recovering from the flu the old fashioned way, to limit morbidity and mortality from a future pandemic flu - then why are they insisting that every American get annual flu vaccinations from birth?
Dealing with the Flu - These days, many Americans are taking steps to deal with influenza or flu-like illnesses by enhancing the functioning of the immune system through diet, exercise and other positive lifestyle and health care changes. And if they do get the flu, they are taking a common sense approach. To prevent and treat influenza or flu-like illness that does not involve a fever over 103 F, pneumonia or serious complications which may require special medical intervention, here are a few non-toxic suggestions:
1. Wash your hands frequently.
2. Avoid close contact with those who are sick.
3. If you are sick, avoid close contact with those who are well.
4. Cover your mouth if you cough or sneeze.
5. Drink plenty of fluids, especially water.
6. Get adequate sleep.
7. Eat a healthy diet rich in vitamins and minerals, especially foods containing vitamin C (such as citrus fruits) and vitamins A and D (such as cod liver oil) and spend a few minutes a day in sunlight to help your body make and store vitamin D.
8. Exercise regularly when you are well.
9. Lower stress.
10. Consider including holistic alternatives in your wellness or healing plan, such as chiropractic adjustments, homeopathic and naturopathic remedies, acupuncture and other health care options.
There is little indication that CDC officials are going to stop asking Americans to roll up their sleeves and guarantee drug companies flu vaccine profits. There is also little indication that Americans are paying much attention to that request. In the wings: most likely a CDC and drug industry plan to try to get politicians to mandate the stuff.
"No forced vaccination. Not in America."
Barbara Loe Fisher Commentary:
What part of "no thanks" do CDC officials and drug company execs not understand when it comes to most Americans refusing to get a flu shot every year? Despite all the hype about how 36,000 Americans die every year from influenza and 200,000 more are hospitalized, it is hard to find somebody who knows anybody who was hospitalized or died from infection with one of the three influenza viruses contained in the flu vaccine. Yet, those figures keep getting bandied about by public health officials, who steadfastly refuse to produce the hard scientific evidence to back up their numbers.
In light of the fact that only 20 percent of all flu-like illness in any given flu season is actually influenza, inquiring minds want to know the truth and are asking for proof that backs up the rhetoric. So far, the flu vaccine studies published in the medical literature fail to give credence to any of the inflated influenza mortality figures the CDC is using to try to scare the people.
Guaranteeing Drug Company Profits - Unable to frighten Americans into getting an annual flu shot, public health officials have taken to playing the sympathy card. On behalf of drug companies, they are pleading for the people to roll up their sleeves, dig deep into their pockets and shell out some bucks for the flu shot to guarantee the drug companies big profits. It doesn't look good on drug company stockholder proft/loss statements when unused surplus vaccine has to be dumped after the flu season is over. No, wait! Now public health officials are saying that there is no such thing as the beginning and ending of a flu season: the flu is actually a killer all year round so everybody should get vaccinated all year round!
Exercising the Immune System - It wasn't so very long ago when the flu vaccine was only recommended for those at very high risk for suffering serious complications from influenza infection, such as the elderly or those already seriously ill. The majority of healthy young Americans accepted getting the flu every couple of years as a part of life. It was a great excuse to take a few days off from school or work and stay in bed with plenty of kleenex, Vicks vapor rub, OJ, chicken noodle soup and a good book. Then, after experiencing the sore throat, chills, fever and other symptoms of acute inflammation that are part of a robust immune system exercise, often recovery from influenza was followed by an extended period of good health. And when that same strain of influenza came around again, there was either no re-infection (immunity) or fewer and milder symptoms of illness.
Superior Natural Immunity - Experience with type A and type B influenza infection has another bonus: immunological memory that could help resist the ravages of a nastier version of type A or type B influenza that comes around someday. Flu vaccine only provides temporary immunity. So pandemic flu planners are counting on the superior, longer lasting immunity of those Americans, who have actually recovered from influenza infection, because drug companies won't be able to produce pandemic flu vaccine fast enough to provide doses for everyone for up to a year after the pandemic begins.
If public health officials are depending upon Americans with qualitatively superior cell mediated immunity to influenza, which can only be obtained from recovering from the flu the old fashioned way, to limit morbidity and mortality from a future pandemic flu - then why are they insisting that every American get annual flu vaccinations from birth?
Dealing with the Flu - These days, many Americans are taking steps to deal with influenza or flu-like illnesses by enhancing the functioning of the immune system through diet, exercise and other positive lifestyle and health care changes. And if they do get the flu, they are taking a common sense approach. To prevent and treat influenza or flu-like illness that does not involve a fever over 103 F, pneumonia or serious complications which may require special medical intervention, here are a few non-toxic suggestions:
1. Wash your hands frequently.
2. Avoid close contact with those who are sick.
3. If you are sick, avoid close contact with those who are well.
4. Cover your mouth if you cough or sneeze.
5. Drink plenty of fluids, especially water.
6. Get adequate sleep.
7. Eat a healthy diet rich in vitamins and minerals, especially foods containing vitamin C (such as citrus fruits) and vitamins A and D (such as cod liver oil) and spend a few minutes a day in sunlight to help your body make and store vitamin D.
8. Exercise regularly when you are well.
9. Lower stress.
10. Consider including holistic alternatives in your wellness or healing plan, such as chiropractic adjustments, homeopathic and naturopathic remedies, acupuncture and other health care options.
There is little indication that CDC officials are going to stop asking Americans to roll up their sleeves and guarantee drug companies flu vaccine profits. There is also little indication that Americans are paying much attention to that request. In the wings: most likely a CDC and drug industry plan to try to get politicians to mandate the stuff.
"No forced vaccination. Not in America."
Senate Votes for Secret Vaccine Agency
"Highlights of BARDA include the creation of a new position within the Department of Health and Human Services that would be solely responsible for the oversight of vaccine production and decide what medications would be distributed. Barbara Loe Fisher, the president of the National Vaccine Information Center, has been an outspoken critic of the bill. She was unaware that the bill had been passed by the Senate last night but said she's worried about the effects "secret vaccine production" could have on the American public. "This is an extremely dangerous precedent that is being set," she said." - Mary Shaffrey, Winston Salem Journal, December 6, 2006
Senate Approves Burr's Bioterrorism Bill
Critics warn about the effects of 'secret vaccine production
Barbara Loe Fisher Commentary:
It is almost a done deal. The Senate has voted and the House will soon vote on a bill to create BARDA, a new and very powerful agency within the Department of Health and Human Services that will partner with drug companies to make experimental vaccines and drugs. The actions of the agency and the way these experimental drugs and vaccines are made, what they will contain, and how reactive they are, will be hidden from the public. Under the guise of "protecting national security," citizens will be prevented through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) from being able to obtain information about most of what BARDA is doing.
In the future, when the Secretary of Health and Human Services declares a public health "emergency" under Bioshield and other federal and state legislation passed since Sept. 11, 2001, Americans could be quarantined and forced to use experimental drugs and vaccines and have no recourse to the civil justice system if they are injured by them. Congress has already given complete liability protection to drug companies and those who order citizens to take drugs and vaccines during a declared public health "emergency."
The individual appointed to head BARDA will be one of the most powerful individuals in the U.S.. Congress has already given the Secretary of Health and Human Services, also a political appointee, unprecedented power. The militarization of the civilian public health system with unchecked power residing in the hands of unelected government health officials, who have no accountability to or oversight by the public, is a serious threat to freedom and public safety.
For more information about the possible consequences of the Bioshield laws and the pending BARDA legislation, go to www.nvic.org homepage ("Liability Shield Given to Pharma") and read NVIC's letter to Senate staffer Col. Robert Kadlec, M.D.
The House vote to approve BARDA could take place before this Friday, Dec. 8. If you want to let your Congressperson know how you feel about BARDA, call him or her at 202-224-3121. Go to www.house.gov to find information about your Congressperson.
Senate Approves Burr's Bioterrorism Bill
Critics warn about the effects of 'secret vaccine production
Barbara Loe Fisher Commentary:
It is almost a done deal. The Senate has voted and the House will soon vote on a bill to create BARDA, a new and very powerful agency within the Department of Health and Human Services that will partner with drug companies to make experimental vaccines and drugs. The actions of the agency and the way these experimental drugs and vaccines are made, what they will contain, and how reactive they are, will be hidden from the public. Under the guise of "protecting national security," citizens will be prevented through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) from being able to obtain information about most of what BARDA is doing.
In the future, when the Secretary of Health and Human Services declares a public health "emergency" under Bioshield and other federal and state legislation passed since Sept. 11, 2001, Americans could be quarantined and forced to use experimental drugs and vaccines and have no recourse to the civil justice system if they are injured by them. Congress has already given complete liability protection to drug companies and those who order citizens to take drugs and vaccines during a declared public health "emergency."
The individual appointed to head BARDA will be one of the most powerful individuals in the U.S.. Congress has already given the Secretary of Health and Human Services, also a political appointee, unprecedented power. The militarization of the civilian public health system with unchecked power residing in the hands of unelected government health officials, who have no accountability to or oversight by the public, is a serious threat to freedom and public safety.
For more information about the possible consequences of the Bioshield laws and the pending BARDA legislation, go to www.nvic.org homepage ("Liability Shield Given to Pharma") and read NVIC's letter to Senate staffer Col. Robert Kadlec, M.D.
The House vote to approve BARDA could take place before this Friday, Dec. 8. If you want to let your Congressperson know how you feel about BARDA, call him or her at 202-224-3121. Go to www.house.gov to find information about your Congressperson.
UK Pays Millions for Vaccine Injuries
One Northern Ireland family who believe their son died as a result of a vaccine said the 25 children who have been compensated are only a fraction of the children who had been affected. Anne Coulter found her 15-year-old son Christopher dead in bed ten days after receiving the measles and rubella (MR) vaccine at school in 1994....."My requests for information about Christopher's death have been blocked at every turn by the Government," Mrs Coulter said."Christopher was an active, healthy boy who had enormous energy and was head chorister at St Anne's Cathedral," she explained. Seven days before Christmas, she found her previously healthy son dead." - Sam McBride, Belfast Telegraph, UK , December 4, 2006
£2m Payout Over Children Disabled by Vaccinations
Barbara Loe Fisher Commentary:
Parents in every country of the world continue to take healthy, bright children of all ages to pediatrician's offices and public health clinics to get vaccinated and then, tragically, watch their children die or be left brain injured. After a child is killed or injured by a vaccine or combination of vaccinations, almost always government health officials deny and cover up what really happened. They are more anxious to reassure the public with a lie than to honestly acknowledge the truth about vaccine risks and take action to minimize them. It is no wonder that parents have become mistrustful of those operating a mass vaccination system more concerned about protecting the status quo than protecting the lives of innocent children who have no voice and, often, have no choice.
£2m Payout Over Children Disabled by Vaccinations
Barbara Loe Fisher Commentary:
Parents in every country of the world continue to take healthy, bright children of all ages to pediatrician's offices and public health clinics to get vaccinated and then, tragically, watch their children die or be left brain injured. After a child is killed or injured by a vaccine or combination of vaccinations, almost always government health officials deny and cover up what really happened. They are more anxious to reassure the public with a lie than to honestly acknowledge the truth about vaccine risks and take action to minimize them. It is no wonder that parents have become mistrustful of those operating a mass vaccination system more concerned about protecting the status quo than protecting the lives of innocent children who have no voice and, often, have no choice.
DTaP Injured Son
Barbara Loe Fisher Commentary:
On May 31, 2003, Jackson Presley Diamond was born to Chaney and Lee Diamond, of Chicago. A healthy 9 pound boy at birth, his Mom nursed him for eight months and she said "he slept well, ate well, grew well, never cried too much." Jackson met all his developmental milestones during the first 18 months of his life, and he loved to dance, pretend to talk on the phone and have his parents read his favorite books to him. Jackson was an energetic, high functioning toddler right up until Dec. 8, 2004, the day he went to his pediatrician's office for a well- child check-up and got vaccinated.
Within 24 hours of his vaccinations, which included the DTaP shot, Jackson suffered a collapse/shock and stopped breathing. Brain inflammation and seizures followed. During his hospitalization, doctors denied the vaccinations he received were responsible. His mother said: "Every time we would see a new doctor, we would make sure they knew about the vaccinations Jackson had the day before. When we would ask each doctor if they thought it could be a reaction to the vaccinations, they would dismiss the idea very quickly without a second thought. 'Vaccination reactions don't happen this way' one of them told us. " A reaction would happen weeks after, not the day after."
Jackson's parents encountered a typical response by doctors who are not taught in medical school how to recognize a vaccine reaction. Unfortunately, because most medical doctors have been misled by the rhetoric of CDC and AAP officials denying the reality of vaccine induced brain and immune system injury, out of ignorance many doctors end up misleading parents whose children have suffered vaccine injury. Therefore, many parents do not know why their children regressed physically, mentally and emotionally after vaccination until they do their own research and become educated about the risks and complications of vaccines.
The National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of 1986 makes it clear that brain inflammation, which occurs within 72 hours of DTaP, DTP, DTP-Hib vaccination, is presumed to be caused by vaccination when no other cause can be found. Jackson's collapse/shock and brain inflammation, which ended in serious brain injury, fits the classic post-DPT and post-DTaP vaccine reaction profile. In the absence of another credible scientific explanation, Jackson is presumed to be vaccine damaged.
Although the acellular pertussis vaccine in the DTaP shot causes fewer cases of brain inflammation than the DPT shot, the pertussis toxin in the acellular pertussis portion of DTaP still has the capacity to cause brain injury just like Jackson suffered within 24 hours of vaccination. For more information about DPT and DTaP vaccine reactions, go to www.nvic.org
Lee Diamond, Jackson's father and the drummer for the Douglass Kings and Replica Republic has helped to organize a concert benefit in Chicago Dec. 29-30, 2006 for the Jackson Presley Diamond Fund, the National Vaccine Information Center, Physicians for a National Health Program, Children's Neurobiological Solutions Foundation and Easter Seals. For more information about Jackson's vaccine reaction as well as this special event, go to www.jacksonpresleydiamond.com
Bernard Rimland, Autism Pioneer 1928-2006
Bernard Rimland, Ph.D., a visionary autism research pioneer and the man most responsible for debunking the "refrigerator Mom" theory of autism, died Nov. 21, 2006 in San Diego at the age of 78. A California psychologist and father of a child diagnosed with autism at age two, Dr. Rimland wrote his landmark book "Infantile Autism: The Syndrome and Its Implications for a Neural Theory of Behavior" in 1964.
Rejecting the theories promoted by psychiatrist Leo Kanner and psychoanalyst Bruno Bettleheim, Dr. Rimland argued for a biological, specifically a neurological, basis for autistic behavior. He documented the similarities between brain injured children and autistic children, liberating parents from the destructive guilt associated with having an autistic child and pointing autism research in the direction it should always have taken: investigation into the biological mechanisms underlying brain and immune system dysfunction.
After founding the Autism Society of America (ASA) in 1965 and establishing the Autism Research Institute (ARI) in 1967, Dr. Rimland began distributing a questionnaire to parents of autistic children. Some 33 years later, he analyzed information he had collected in his databank pertaining to the age of onset of autism. He discovered that before the early 1980's, most of the parents reported their children first showed signs of abnormal behavior at birth or in the first year of life. But after the mid-1980's, there was a reversal of this pattern. By 2000, the numbers of parents reporting that their children developed normally in the first year and a half of life and then suddenly became autistic, doubled. Rimland commented "now the onset-at-18-month children outnumber the onset-at-birth children by 2 to 1."
In 2002, the National Vaccine Information Center awarded Dr. Rimland NVIC's Courage in Science Award. The award was presented to "Bernard Rimland, Ph.D. for demonstrating intellectual independence and personal courage in challenging medical science and its widely held view that the causes of autism are psychological and not biological. With the publishing of his ground-breaking 1964 book, Dr. Rimland shattered the view in psychiatry that autism in children is an emotional illness caused by cold and destructive mothering. His pioneering research established that the causes of autism are biological and not psychological.
"He helped to raise public awareness about autism when he worked on the academy award winning film, "Rain Man," whose lead character was modeled after his own autistic son. After having devoted more than 35 years to the study of autism, its biological causes and the development of healing therapies, Dr. Rimland today is once again challenging medical science as he publicly questions whether vaccination is one of the biological causes of autism in some children. For his dedication to truth in science and the public's right to know, Bernard Rimland is an outstanding example of what it means to have courage in science and is given NVIC's Courage in Science Award."
Bernie, as many of us called him, was a brilliant man with uncommon determination and a true love for the autistic children and their families, who he devoted his entire life to helping. Fearless and uncompromising in pursuit of the truth, his leadership and his great, good heart will be missed by all who knew him and by those who never knew him but whose lives are better because he was here.
Our deep sympathy is extended to his wife, family and his colleagues at the Autism Research Institute and Defeat Autism Now (DAN), which he co- founded with physicians committed to developing protocols for healing the brain and immune system dysfunction that defines autism.
Sad News from the Autism Research Institute
We are sorry to report that Dr. Bernard Rimland passed away earlier today [Nov. 21, 2006).
More information about Dr. Rimland will be posted on ARI's website, www.AutismResearchInstitute.com, in the next few days.
A graveside memorial service will be held Wednesday, November 22, 2006 at 2 p.m. on the Shalom lawn at Greenwood Memorial Park in San Diego. The public is welcome to attend.
In lieu of flowers, Dr. Rimland's family asks that donations be made to the Autism Research Institute (4182 Adams Avenue, San Diego, CA 92116). Donations can also be made online on ARI's website.
Rejecting the theories promoted by psychiatrist Leo Kanner and psychoanalyst Bruno Bettleheim, Dr. Rimland argued for a biological, specifically a neurological, basis for autistic behavior. He documented the similarities between brain injured children and autistic children, liberating parents from the destructive guilt associated with having an autistic child and pointing autism research in the direction it should always have taken: investigation into the biological mechanisms underlying brain and immune system dysfunction.
After founding the Autism Society of America (ASA) in 1965 and establishing the Autism Research Institute (ARI) in 1967, Dr. Rimland began distributing a questionnaire to parents of autistic children. Some 33 years later, he analyzed information he had collected in his databank pertaining to the age of onset of autism. He discovered that before the early 1980's, most of the parents reported their children first showed signs of abnormal behavior at birth or in the first year of life. But after the mid-1980's, there was a reversal of this pattern. By 2000, the numbers of parents reporting that their children developed normally in the first year and a half of life and then suddenly became autistic, doubled. Rimland commented "now the onset-at-18-month children outnumber the onset-at-birth children by 2 to 1."
In 2002, the National Vaccine Information Center awarded Dr. Rimland NVIC's Courage in Science Award. The award was presented to "Bernard Rimland, Ph.D. for demonstrating intellectual independence and personal courage in challenging medical science and its widely held view that the causes of autism are psychological and not biological. With the publishing of his ground-breaking 1964 book, Dr. Rimland shattered the view in psychiatry that autism in children is an emotional illness caused by cold and destructive mothering. His pioneering research established that the causes of autism are biological and not psychological.
"He helped to raise public awareness about autism when he worked on the academy award winning film, "Rain Man," whose lead character was modeled after his own autistic son. After having devoted more than 35 years to the study of autism, its biological causes and the development of healing therapies, Dr. Rimland today is once again challenging medical science as he publicly questions whether vaccination is one of the biological causes of autism in some children. For his dedication to truth in science and the public's right to know, Bernard Rimland is an outstanding example of what it means to have courage in science and is given NVIC's Courage in Science Award."
Bernie, as many of us called him, was a brilliant man with uncommon determination and a true love for the autistic children and their families, who he devoted his entire life to helping. Fearless and uncompromising in pursuit of the truth, his leadership and his great, good heart will be missed by all who knew him and by those who never knew him but whose lives are better because he was here.
Our deep sympathy is extended to his wife, family and his colleagues at the Autism Research Institute and Defeat Autism Now (DAN), which he co- founded with physicians committed to developing protocols for healing the brain and immune system dysfunction that defines autism.
Sad News from the Autism Research Institute
We are sorry to report that Dr. Bernard Rimland passed away earlier today [Nov. 21, 2006).
More information about Dr. Rimland will be posted on ARI's website, www.AutismResearchInstitute.com, in the next few days.
A graveside memorial service will be held Wednesday, November 22, 2006 at 2 p.m. on the Shalom lawn at Greenwood Memorial Park in San Diego. The public is welcome to attend.
In lieu of flowers, Dr. Rimland's family asks that donations be made to the Autism Research Institute (4182 Adams Avenue, San Diego, CA 92116). Donations can also be made online on ARI's website.
Autism Picture Still Incomplete
Others are convinced potential harm also may lurk in other components of the ever-expanding childhood immunization schedule.
"It is just as logical to argue that the chronic disease and disability epidemic that has developed during the past 25 years, in which autism takes a leading role, is more associated with an increase in the different types of live virus and inactivated bacterial vaccines given to all children, as well as the increases in total number of doses, than it is to one component of those many vaccines," said Barbara Loe Fisher, co- founder and president of the advocacy group National Vaccine Information Center.
"Human infants have never in the history of man experienced their environment in the way that they are now experiencing it, which includes having their first immunological experience at 12 hours of age with an atypical manipulation of the immune system when hepatitis B vaccine is injected," she explained.
"This is followed by continuing atypical introduction of lab altered live viruses and inactivated bacteria into the body during the first six years of life, including seven vaccines at 2 months, seven more at 4 months, eight more at 6 months ... (B)y age 6, a child will have received 48 doses of 14 vaccines," Fisher said.
"The cumulative effects of over-vaccinating children, especially the effects of simultaneous injection (of) many vaccines at once, whether the vaccines contain mercury or not, is a plausible explanation for why so many children today are chronically ill, suffering with a variety of brain and immune system problems, including autism," Fisher concluded. - Lidia Wasowicz, UPI, November 22, 2006
Autism Picture Still Incomplete
To view the full article you must first register at UPI
"It is just as logical to argue that the chronic disease and disability epidemic that has developed during the past 25 years, in which autism takes a leading role, is more associated with an increase in the different types of live virus and inactivated bacterial vaccines given to all children, as well as the increases in total number of doses, than it is to one component of those many vaccines," said Barbara Loe Fisher, co- founder and president of the advocacy group National Vaccine Information Center.
"Human infants have never in the history of man experienced their environment in the way that they are now experiencing it, which includes having their first immunological experience at 12 hours of age with an atypical manipulation of the immune system when hepatitis B vaccine is injected," she explained.
"This is followed by continuing atypical introduction of lab altered live viruses and inactivated bacteria into the body during the first six years of life, including seven vaccines at 2 months, seven more at 4 months, eight more at 6 months ... (B)y age 6, a child will have received 48 doses of 14 vaccines," Fisher said.
"The cumulative effects of over-vaccinating children, especially the effects of simultaneous injection (of) many vaccines at once, whether the vaccines contain mercury or not, is a plausible explanation for why so many children today are chronically ill, suffering with a variety of brain and immune system problems, including autism," Fisher concluded. - Lidia Wasowicz, UPI, November 22, 2006
Autism Picture Still Incomplete
To view the full article you must first register at UPI
Flu Drug and Vaccine Risks Revealed
"Officials at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration don't know if the more than 100 new cases of strange behavior, including three deaths from falls, are tied to the drug, to the flu itself, or a combination of both, the Associated Press reported. The FDA is mulling changes to the Tamiflu label that may recommend that all patients, especially children, be closely monitored while on the drug.........In related news, a study in the Nov. 13 issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine finds that the flu vaccine slightly increases the risk of Guillain-Barre syndrome, which occurs when the body's immune system attacks part of the nervous system, resulting in tingling or weakness and possible paralysis." - Steven Reinberg, HealthDay
"I'd like the flu shot to actually work and be safe. This is where things start to fall apart. Surprisingly, even though the flu vaccine is one of the few immunizations recommended for most of the population, we're still not certain about its efficacy, and only a few large-scale studies have been done on its safety in small children. Scientists have even raised questions about whether U.S. death figures from the flu are accurate because of the confusion between flu and flulike illnesses." - Julie Deardorf, Baltimore Sun
Barbara Loe Fisher Commentary:
Tamiflu and flu vaccine apparently have one thing in common: they both can cause brain dysfunction and consumers should become fully informed before taking the risk. Influenza and flu-like illnesses have been part of the human condition for centuries. Only 20 percent of all flu-like illness is actually caused by influenza viruses.
Exposure to and recovery from type A and type B influenza results in immunity which is qualitatively superior to vaccine-induced temporary immunity. Most published studies examining influenza vaccine effectiveness are methodologically flawed and very few have demonstrated that influenza vaccine is effective in preventing influenza in children and adults.
To prevent and treat influenza or flu-like respiratory illness that does not involve fever over 103 F., pneumonia or serious complications which may require medical intervention, the National Vaccine Information Center offers the following non- toxic suggestions:
1. Wash your hands frequently.
2. Avoid close contact with those who are sick.
3. If you are sick, avoid close contact with those who are well.
4. Cover your mouth if you cough or sneeze.
5. Drink plenty of fluids, especially water.
6. Get adequate sleep.
7. Eat a healthy diet rich in vitamins and minerals, especially foods containing vitamin C (such as citrus fruits) and vitamin D (such as cod liver oil) and spend a few minutes a day in sunlight to help your body make and store vitamin D.
8. Exercise regularly when you are well.
9. Lower stress.
10. Consider including holistic alternatives in your wellness or healing plan, such as chiropractic adjustments, homeopathic and naturopathic remedies, acupuncture and other health care options.
For more information about studies which fail to prove that influenza vaccine is safe or effective, see NVIC's Oct. 31 press release on flu vaccine at www.nvic.org
"I'd like the flu shot to actually work and be safe. This is where things start to fall apart. Surprisingly, even though the flu vaccine is one of the few immunizations recommended for most of the population, we're still not certain about its efficacy, and only a few large-scale studies have been done on its safety in small children. Scientists have even raised questions about whether U.S. death figures from the flu are accurate because of the confusion between flu and flulike illnesses." - Julie Deardorf, Baltimore Sun
Barbara Loe Fisher Commentary:
Tamiflu and flu vaccine apparently have one thing in common: they both can cause brain dysfunction and consumers should become fully informed before taking the risk. Influenza and flu-like illnesses have been part of the human condition for centuries. Only 20 percent of all flu-like illness is actually caused by influenza viruses.
Exposure to and recovery from type A and type B influenza results in immunity which is qualitatively superior to vaccine-induced temporary immunity. Most published studies examining influenza vaccine effectiveness are methodologically flawed and very few have demonstrated that influenza vaccine is effective in preventing influenza in children and adults.
To prevent and treat influenza or flu-like respiratory illness that does not involve fever over 103 F., pneumonia or serious complications which may require medical intervention, the National Vaccine Information Center offers the following non- toxic suggestions:
1. Wash your hands frequently.
2. Avoid close contact with those who are sick.
3. If you are sick, avoid close contact with those who are well.
4. Cover your mouth if you cough or sneeze.
5. Drink plenty of fluids, especially water.
6. Get adequate sleep.
7. Eat a healthy diet rich in vitamins and minerals, especially foods containing vitamin C (such as citrus fruits) and vitamin D (such as cod liver oil) and spend a few minutes a day in sunlight to help your body make and store vitamin D.
8. Exercise regularly when you are well.
9. Lower stress.
10. Consider including holistic alternatives in your wellness or healing plan, such as chiropractic adjustments, homeopathic and naturopathic remedies, acupuncture and other health care options.
For more information about studies which fail to prove that influenza vaccine is safe or effective, see NVIC's Oct. 31 press release on flu vaccine at www.nvic.org
Pentagon Won't Stop Forcing Anthrax Vaccine
"But as recently as this spring, the Government Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress, said questions remain about the vaccine. "The long term safety of the licensed vaccine has not been studied," the agency said in a May 9 report. ". . . Also, there is some evidence that the current anthrax vaccine may have diminished efficacy against certain virulent strains of anthrax." Barbara Loe Fisher, president of the National Vaccine Information Center, said her nonprofit advocacy group is adding more information to its Web site about the research and development of biological defense vaccines. "The DOD has a moral duty to fully disclose anthrax vaccine risks, as well as benefits, to soldiers and allow them to make an informed, voluntary decision," she said in a statement" - Christopher Lee, Washington Post, October 17, 2006 Mandatory Anthrax Shots to Return
"The forthcoming mandatory program is just as senseless as before and the FDA's new determination remains legally and scientifically flawed," said Mark Zaid, one of the attorneys. Winkenwerder, who has not taken the anthrax vaccine, said the FDA's final order settles legal questions and the Pentagon is prepared for a court challenge......Under the voluntary program, only 50 percent of troops offered the shot accepted it.Winkenwerder said those numbers were too low and left U.S. forces unprepared for bioterrorist attacks. He said service members expect a shot to be mandatory if it is important." - Kristin Roberts, Reuters, October 16, 2006, Pentagon to Resume Forced Anthrax Vaccine Program
Barbara Loe Fisher Commentary:
The attorneys, who have represented U.S. soldiers forced to take the experimental anthrax vaccine without their voluntary informed consent, are going to continue to battle the Pentagon's immoral policy in federal court. And the National Vaccine Information Center, which yesterday launched the Military and Biodefense Vaccine Project (www.military-biodefensevaccines.org) to better inform the public about military and biodefense vaccines which can be forced on both military and civilian populations, will continue our 25-year effort to defend the human right to voluntary, informed consent to vaccination or any other medical intervention.
"The forthcoming mandatory program is just as senseless as before and the FDA's new determination remains legally and scientifically flawed," said Mark Zaid, one of the attorneys. Winkenwerder, who has not taken the anthrax vaccine, said the FDA's final order settles legal questions and the Pentagon is prepared for a court challenge......Under the voluntary program, only 50 percent of troops offered the shot accepted it.Winkenwerder said those numbers were too low and left U.S. forces unprepared for bioterrorist attacks. He said service members expect a shot to be mandatory if it is important." - Kristin Roberts, Reuters, October 16, 2006, Pentagon to Resume Forced Anthrax Vaccine Program
Barbara Loe Fisher Commentary:
The attorneys, who have represented U.S. soldiers forced to take the experimental anthrax vaccine without their voluntary informed consent, are going to continue to battle the Pentagon's immoral policy in federal court. And the National Vaccine Information Center, which yesterday launched the Military and Biodefense Vaccine Project (www.military-biodefensevaccines.org) to better inform the public about military and biodefense vaccines which can be forced on both military and civilian populations, will continue our 25-year effort to defend the human right to voluntary, informed consent to vaccination or any other medical intervention.
Medical Doctors Violating Informed Consent Rights
In response to an editorial in The New York Times, October 12, 2006
Foolish Vaccine Exemptions
"The pendulum has swung too far toward letting parents opt out. States need to work harder at educating parents about the value of vaccination and should get tougher in granting exemptions." - Editorial, New York Times, October 12, 2006
"It is of paramount importance that the United States government stands on solid ethical and scientific ground before sanctioning experimental research on its citizens without their consent," the Iowa Republican [Senator Charles Grassley] said in a letter to HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt." - Lisa Richwine, Reuters, October 11, 2006
"Four senior doctors at Kaplan Hospital in Rehovot and the Hartzfeld Geriatric Hospital in Gedera were arrested yesterday on suspicion of carrying out hundreds of illegal experiments on elderly patients without their consent. The doctors - including Shmuel Levy, deputy director of Kaplan-Hartzfeld, who was responsible for Hartzfeld; Nadya Kagansky; and Alona Smirnov - are suspected of wrongful death through negligence, abuse of helpless victims, aggravated assault, fraud, violation of a statutory obligation and interference in an investigation." - Jonathan Lis & Ran Reznik, Haaretz, Israel, October 10, 2206
Barbara Loe Fisher Commentary:
When medical interventions are forced on individuals without their voluntary, informed consent, the human right to self determination and individual autonomy is violated. Medical doctors and scientists exploiting others for ideological reasons or personal and professional gain, using the immoral utilitarian rationale that some may be harmed for the theoretical benefit of many others, often require the consent of government officials to facilitate that exploitation. Therefore, it is extremely important for citizens to be vigilant and oppose all attempts by scientists, medical doctors and public health officials to erode individual rights when it comes to voluntary, informed health care decision making.
Those who choose to become scientists or medical doctors are not exempt from the temptations which plaque humans, including the desire for prestige, honor, money and power. Over time, the public health will not be benefited by an erosion of individual freedoms which serve as a needed check and balance on accumulaton of too much power by any one person or elite group within society.
An examination of the role that scientists and medical doctors, especially those in public health, have played in human rights abuses in history is very instructive and serves as a warning to those who would give up the right to informed consent to medical interventions, such as vaccination. The book "Nazi Doctors and the Nuremberg Code" by George Annas and Michael Grodin reinforces the need for restrictions on the power that society takes away from individuals and gives to medical doctors and scientists - for any reason.
Foolish Vaccine Exemptions
"The pendulum has swung too far toward letting parents opt out. States need to work harder at educating parents about the value of vaccination and should get tougher in granting exemptions." - Editorial, New York Times, October 12, 2006
"It is of paramount importance that the United States government stands on solid ethical and scientific ground before sanctioning experimental research on its citizens without their consent," the Iowa Republican [Senator Charles Grassley] said in a letter to HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt." - Lisa Richwine, Reuters, October 11, 2006
"Four senior doctors at Kaplan Hospital in Rehovot and the Hartzfeld Geriatric Hospital in Gedera were arrested yesterday on suspicion of carrying out hundreds of illegal experiments on elderly patients without their consent. The doctors - including Shmuel Levy, deputy director of Kaplan-Hartzfeld, who was responsible for Hartzfeld; Nadya Kagansky; and Alona Smirnov - are suspected of wrongful death through negligence, abuse of helpless victims, aggravated assault, fraud, violation of a statutory obligation and interference in an investigation." - Jonathan Lis & Ran Reznik, Haaretz, Israel, October 10, 2206
Barbara Loe Fisher Commentary:
When medical interventions are forced on individuals without their voluntary, informed consent, the human right to self determination and individual autonomy is violated. Medical doctors and scientists exploiting others for ideological reasons or personal and professional gain, using the immoral utilitarian rationale that some may be harmed for the theoretical benefit of many others, often require the consent of government officials to facilitate that exploitation. Therefore, it is extremely important for citizens to be vigilant and oppose all attempts by scientists, medical doctors and public health officials to erode individual rights when it comes to voluntary, informed health care decision making.
Those who choose to become scientists or medical doctors are not exempt from the temptations which plaque humans, including the desire for prestige, honor, money and power. Over time, the public health will not be benefited by an erosion of individual freedoms which serve as a needed check and balance on accumulaton of too much power by any one person or elite group within society.
An examination of the role that scientists and medical doctors, especially those in public health, have played in human rights abuses in history is very instructive and serves as a warning to those who would give up the right to informed consent to medical interventions, such as vaccination. The book "Nazi Doctors and the Nuremberg Code" by George Annas and Michael Grodin reinforces the need for restrictions on the power that society takes away from individuals and gives to medical doctors and scientists - for any reason.
Secret Vaccine Agency Being Created
Burr's bill, commonly referred to as BARDA, would create a new position within the Department of Health and Human Services that would be solely responsible for the oversight of vaccine production. This individual, who would require Senate confirmation, would administer a billion-dollar fund for the next two years that would aid the development of vaccines. Bob Kadlec, a bio-defense and public- health consultant, used to work for Burr. He said that Hurricane Katrina demonstrated the need to have one person in charge, and though the bill has many components, this is perhaps the most critical. "This was something that (has been) left in flux," Kadlec said. "It's important to have one identifiable person in charge." - Mary Shaffrey, Winston Salem Journal, Nov. 14, 2006
Barbara Loe Fisher Commentary:
Bob Kadlec and his former boss, Senator Burr, have lobbied for the creation of a new agency, BARDA, headed by an individual empowered to spend billions of taxpayer dollars developing experimental drugs and vaccines behind closed doors with no public oversight. Whenever the Secretary of Health gives the green light, these experimental drugs and vaccines can be forced on American citizens.
The millions of Americans who will become the U.S. government's human guinea pigs will have no legal recourse if they are injured. Kadlec and Burr made sure of that when they helped ram Bioshield Two (Biodefense and Pandemic Vaccine and Drug Development Act of 2005) through Congress in the middle of the night without public knowledge.
BARDA is a bad idea, especially since the BARDA czar sitting in back rooms with drug company execs will have access to hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars but their activities will be exempt from FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) requests from the public to find out how that money is being spent. Nobody but the BARDA czar and his boss, the politically appointed Secretary of Health, will know just how toxic those experimental vaccines and drugs might be before they are forced on citizens in the name of protecting the public health and national security.
For more information on the plans that bi- partisan supporters of authoritarian biodefense legislation have for America, read the letter NVIC sent to Bob Kadlec in November 2005 at www.nvic.org (Under News & Features on homepage, click on "Liability Shield Given to Pharma).
If you want to voice your opinion about plans to create BARDA so drug companies can develop experimental drugs and vaccines in secret, it is important for you to write,email and fax your Senator and Congressperson at their Washington, D.C. office and their home office in your state without delay. If you oppose the legislation, ask for public hearings in both the House and Senate in January 2007 before any legislation is passed. Go to www.house.gov or www.senate.gov to find out how to contact your federal legislators.
Barbara Loe Fisher Commentary:
Bob Kadlec and his former boss, Senator Burr, have lobbied for the creation of a new agency, BARDA, headed by an individual empowered to spend billions of taxpayer dollars developing experimental drugs and vaccines behind closed doors with no public oversight. Whenever the Secretary of Health gives the green light, these experimental drugs and vaccines can be forced on American citizens.
The millions of Americans who will become the U.S. government's human guinea pigs will have no legal recourse if they are injured. Kadlec and Burr made sure of that when they helped ram Bioshield Two (Biodefense and Pandemic Vaccine and Drug Development Act of 2005) through Congress in the middle of the night without public knowledge.
BARDA is a bad idea, especially since the BARDA czar sitting in back rooms with drug company execs will have access to hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars but their activities will be exempt from FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) requests from the public to find out how that money is being spent. Nobody but the BARDA czar and his boss, the politically appointed Secretary of Health, will know just how toxic those experimental vaccines and drugs might be before they are forced on citizens in the name of protecting the public health and national security.
For more information on the plans that bi- partisan supporters of authoritarian biodefense legislation have for America, read the letter NVIC sent to Bob Kadlec in November 2005 at www.nvic.org (Under News & Features on homepage, click on "Liability Shield Given to Pharma).
If you want to voice your opinion about plans to create BARDA so drug companies can develop experimental drugs and vaccines in secret, it is important for you to write,email and fax your Senator and Congressperson at their Washington, D.C. office and their home office in your state without delay. If you oppose the legislation, ask for public hearings in both the House and Senate in January 2007 before any legislation is passed. Go to www.house.gov or www.senate.gov to find out how to contact your federal legislators.
Flu Vaccine Survey Finds America Clueless
"A survey of 9,024 people conducted by Zogby International, a public opinion group, between Oct. 27-30 of this year, found that many people are uninformed about vaccinations, but have strong opinions when provided with information. According to the survey, when asked what they knew about flu shots, 74 percent of respondents were unaware that most flu shots contained mercury." - Manny Alvarez, Fox News, November 13, 2006, Anti-Vaccine Group Challenges CDC's Flu Shot Guidelines for Infants
"We are concerned that we're going to have more doses of flu (vaccine) than we might use," said Dr. Julie Gerberding, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. More than 110 million doses — a record amount — are being made for the 2006-07 flu season. The previous record was 95 million in 2002-03. That year 12 million doses went unused and one manufacturer quit making shots. CDC officials said they want to prevent a repeat of that experience and are promoting Nov. 27-Dec. 3 as "National Influenza Vaccination Week." - Mike Stobbe, Associated Press, November 13, 2006, CDC Urges More People To Get Flu Shots
Barbara Loe Fisher Commentary:
While the CDC pleads with Americans to roll up their sleeves and get a flu shot and parent groups concerned about the mercury preservative, thimerosal, call for it to be removed from flu vaccine, the National Vaccine Information Center stands by its position that whether flu vaccine contains mercury or not, the right to informed consent to medical risk taking is a human right and vaccination is no exception. It will be many years before the idealogues at the CDC or the executives making stock decisions at the big pharmaceutical companies or the researchers in academia taking both CDC and drug company money ever come clean with the American people about the real risks of mercury-containing or mercury-free vaccines.
Vaccination involves atypical manipulation of the immune system with lab altered viruses and bacteria as well as many potentially harmful components from aluminum and formaldehyde to endotoxin and residual DNA from animal and human cell substrates. The biological mechanisms for brain and immune system dysfunction caused by live virus or killed bacterial vaccines are varied. Removing mercury from vaccines will lessen the toxic load from vaccination but will not eliminate vaccine injury and death, including vaccine induced autism and other developmental delays.
It is sad that health officials at the CDC cannot embrace the "first do no harm" principle and remove a known neurotoxin from the flu vaccine. Their refusal to take this logical step should be a warning to the public that becoming an informed consumer when it comes to vaccination can mean the difference between long term good health or a lifetime of chronic illness and disability.
"We are concerned that we're going to have more doses of flu (vaccine) than we might use," said Dr. Julie Gerberding, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. More than 110 million doses — a record amount — are being made for the 2006-07 flu season. The previous record was 95 million in 2002-03. That year 12 million doses went unused and one manufacturer quit making shots. CDC officials said they want to prevent a repeat of that experience and are promoting Nov. 27-Dec. 3 as "National Influenza Vaccination Week." - Mike Stobbe, Associated Press, November 13, 2006, CDC Urges More People To Get Flu Shots
Barbara Loe Fisher Commentary:
While the CDC pleads with Americans to roll up their sleeves and get a flu shot and parent groups concerned about the mercury preservative, thimerosal, call for it to be removed from flu vaccine, the National Vaccine Information Center stands by its position that whether flu vaccine contains mercury or not, the right to informed consent to medical risk taking is a human right and vaccination is no exception. It will be many years before the idealogues at the CDC or the executives making stock decisions at the big pharmaceutical companies or the researchers in academia taking both CDC and drug company money ever come clean with the American people about the real risks of mercury-containing or mercury-free vaccines.
Vaccination involves atypical manipulation of the immune system with lab altered viruses and bacteria as well as many potentially harmful components from aluminum and formaldehyde to endotoxin and residual DNA from animal and human cell substrates. The biological mechanisms for brain and immune system dysfunction caused by live virus or killed bacterial vaccines are varied. Removing mercury from vaccines will lessen the toxic load from vaccination but will not eliminate vaccine injury and death, including vaccine induced autism and other developmental delays.
It is sad that health officials at the CDC cannot embrace the "first do no harm" principle and remove a known neurotoxin from the flu vaccine. Their refusal to take this logical step should be a warning to the public that becoming an informed consumer when it comes to vaccination can mean the difference between long term good health or a lifetime of chronic illness and disability.
HPV Vaccine Prepares Teens for HIV Vaccine
"The goal of "Team Vaccinates Teens" is for researchers to learn what structures are effective for engaging youth in an extended vaccination program, creating a model that will eventually allow for delivery of an HIV vaccine once one becomes available.......it is expected that HIV vaccine trials will be open to adolescents in approximately two to four years.... Stephen Lewinstein, part-owner of the Boston Celtics said. "With half of all diagnosed AIDS patients today under the age of 25, a safe and effective vaccine is the best way to control the spread of this deadly disease. Through the combined strengths of those involved in the 'Team Vaccinates Teen' program, we will ensure that when a HIV vaccine is approved it will make a significant and direct impact on infection rates in adolescents." - Medical News Today, November 10, 2006
First Teen Vaccination Delivery Program In The Country Funded By Boston Celtics
Barbara Loe Fisher Commentary:
The National Vaccine Information Center has been warning the public for more than a decade that the long term strategy of those creating electronic vaccine tracking systems and vaccine mandates for sexually transmitted diseases like hepatitis B are preparing for the eventual mandating of HIV vaccine for all children. Now, the Boston Celtics are partnering with a hospital that wants to enroll teenagers in its HIV vaccine trials tomorrow by creating an infrastructure to deliver HPV vaccine to teenagers today.
States like Michigan are already moving to mandate HPV vaccine, which seeks to prevent infection with a sexually transmitted virus (HPV) that sometimes leads to cervical cancer in women who do not get routine pap smears. Most people clear HPV from the body and there has been a nearly 75 percent drop in cervical cancer cases in the U.S. since the 1950's when pap smears became a routine part of physicals for women. Merck's Gardasil vaccine has not been thoroughly tested for safety (see NVIC's June 27 Gardasil press release at www.nvic.org).
Hepatitis B disease is most prevalent among adult IV drug users and those with multiple sexual partners. When the CDC recommended in 1991 that all 12 hour old infants in the newborn nursery be injected with hepatitis B vaccine, there were only a few hundred cases of hepatitis B reported in children under 14 years old annually. Seven years after hepatitis B vaccination there are no detectable antibodies. Hepatitis B vaccination has been associated with multiple sclerosis, optic neuritis, rheumatoid arthritis, chronic fatigue syndrome, and other kinds of brain and immune system dysfunction.
The human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) associated with AIDS is notoriously unstable and can mutate in individuals who become infected. Scientists around the world privately express doubts that an HIV vaccine can be developed that will prevent HIV infection and also be safe for everyone.
The children of America are being set up to become the human guinea pigs for testing an HIV vaccine. Will they and their parents be fully informed about all risks when they are offered up to the scientists? Every teenager who is injected with HIV vaccine will test positive for HIV for the rest of his or her life. And for the rest of their lives they will not know if the part of the HIV organism that was injected into them will cause serious health problems.
HIV vaccination, like hepatitis B vaccination mandated for children in the last decade of the 20th century and like the HPV vaccine on its way to being mandated for children in the first decade of the 21st century, will be mandated for children when it is licensed. And if these children get sick or die after they are vaccinated, their sickness and death will be written off as a "coincidence" by those who have forced them to get vaccinated.
The well meaning Boston Celtics have done America a favor by getting the AIDS vaccine agenda out in the open. Now Americans must decide what they will do.
The right to informed consent to medical interventions that can cause injury or death is a human right. No forced vaccination - not in America.
First Teen Vaccination Delivery Program In The Country Funded By Boston Celtics
Barbara Loe Fisher Commentary:
The National Vaccine Information Center has been warning the public for more than a decade that the long term strategy of those creating electronic vaccine tracking systems and vaccine mandates for sexually transmitted diseases like hepatitis B are preparing for the eventual mandating of HIV vaccine for all children. Now, the Boston Celtics are partnering with a hospital that wants to enroll teenagers in its HIV vaccine trials tomorrow by creating an infrastructure to deliver HPV vaccine to teenagers today.
States like Michigan are already moving to mandate HPV vaccine, which seeks to prevent infection with a sexually transmitted virus (HPV) that sometimes leads to cervical cancer in women who do not get routine pap smears. Most people clear HPV from the body and there has been a nearly 75 percent drop in cervical cancer cases in the U.S. since the 1950's when pap smears became a routine part of physicals for women. Merck's Gardasil vaccine has not been thoroughly tested for safety (see NVIC's June 27 Gardasil press release at www.nvic.org).
Hepatitis B disease is most prevalent among adult IV drug users and those with multiple sexual partners. When the CDC recommended in 1991 that all 12 hour old infants in the newborn nursery be injected with hepatitis B vaccine, there were only a few hundred cases of hepatitis B reported in children under 14 years old annually. Seven years after hepatitis B vaccination there are no detectable antibodies. Hepatitis B vaccination has been associated with multiple sclerosis, optic neuritis, rheumatoid arthritis, chronic fatigue syndrome, and other kinds of brain and immune system dysfunction.
The human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) associated with AIDS is notoriously unstable and can mutate in individuals who become infected. Scientists around the world privately express doubts that an HIV vaccine can be developed that will prevent HIV infection and also be safe for everyone.
The children of America are being set up to become the human guinea pigs for testing an HIV vaccine. Will they and their parents be fully informed about all risks when they are offered up to the scientists? Every teenager who is injected with HIV vaccine will test positive for HIV for the rest of his or her life. And for the rest of their lives they will not know if the part of the HIV organism that was injected into them will cause serious health problems.
HIV vaccination, like hepatitis B vaccination mandated for children in the last decade of the 20th century and like the HPV vaccine on its way to being mandated for children in the first decade of the 21st century, will be mandated for children when it is licensed. And if these children get sick or die after they are vaccinated, their sickness and death will be written off as a "coincidence" by those who have forced them to get vaccinated.
The well meaning Boston Celtics have done America a favor by getting the AIDS vaccine agenda out in the open. Now Americans must decide what they will do.
The right to informed consent to medical interventions that can cause injury or death is a human right. No forced vaccination - not in America.
UK Doctor Vaccine Scandal Exposed
"Up to 60 per cent MORE shots have been given to children than should have been. Some youngsters appear to have received THIRTY jabs — when they should have had just 13. Amazingly some children are shown as having nine jabs in a single DAY. Doctors are paid whopping bonuses of more than £10,000 if they hit high vaccination targets." - Jane Symons, The Sun (UK), November 8, 2006, National Jabs Scandal Exposed
Barbara Loe Fisher Commentary:
For years, medical doctors in Britain have been bribed with money bonuses by the government to achieve high vaccination rates in their practices. In the United States, state governments are bribed with money bonuses through CDC grants to achieve high vaccination rates in public schools. Britain doesn't have mandatory vaccination laws that doctors can use as leverage to force vaccination like in the U.S. but, apparently, some British doctors in search of more money from pushing vaccines have either over- vaccinated children or lied about the number of vaccines actually given.
Mass vaccination is big business. The dozens of doses of vaccines that public health doctors are now telling children (and adults) they MUST use has created a cash cow for pediatricians and drug companies, as well as for public health agencies being appropriated tax dollars to expand and implement mass vaccination programs.
Chemicals Brain Damaging Children
“The brains of our children are our most precious economic resource, and we haven’t recognized how vulnerable they are,” says Grandjean. “We must make protection of the young brain a paramount goal of public health protection. You have only one chance to develop a brain.”
Harvard School of Public Health Press Release, November 7, 2006 -
A Silent Pandemic: Industrial Chemicals Are Impairing the Brain Development of Children Worldwide
Barbara Loe Fisher Commentary:
Rachel Carson said it first in "Silent Spring" in 1962. Now a re-acknowledgement that exposure to industrial chemicals can damage the developing human brain has been made in a chemical toxicity review published in The Lancet on Nov. 8 by researchers associated with the Harvard School of Public Health and Mt. Sinai School of Medicine. Although the authors point to obvious environmental toxins such as lead, mercury, and arsenic, there is no mention of the potential neurotoxic effects of injecting newborns and babies with vaccines containing endotoxin, pertussis toxin, aluminum, mercury, formaldehyde, phenoxyethanol, gluteraldehyde, sodium chloride, hydrochloric acid, aluminum sulfate, sodium acetate and other substances as well as lab altered bacteria and live viruses.
Limiting chemical exposures in the environment will help prevent children's brains from being damaged. But until the neurotoxicity of vaccines is systematically evaluated and steps are taken to clean up vaccines and modify one-size-fits-all vaccine policies, the "silent pandemic" of brain and immune system dysfunction among children around the world will not be halted. Until the focus of preventive health is redirected from reliance on toxic drugs and vaccines toward wellness care that respects and enhances the natural functioning of the immune system, sickness and disability will plaque too many children who will grow up to be chronically ill and disabled adults.
Harvard School of Public Health Press Release, November 7, 2006 -
A Silent Pandemic: Industrial Chemicals Are Impairing the Brain Development of Children Worldwide
Barbara Loe Fisher Commentary:
Rachel Carson said it first in "Silent Spring" in 1962. Now a re-acknowledgement that exposure to industrial chemicals can damage the developing human brain has been made in a chemical toxicity review published in The Lancet on Nov. 8 by researchers associated with the Harvard School of Public Health and Mt. Sinai School of Medicine. Although the authors point to obvious environmental toxins such as lead, mercury, and arsenic, there is no mention of the potential neurotoxic effects of injecting newborns and babies with vaccines containing endotoxin, pertussis toxin, aluminum, mercury, formaldehyde, phenoxyethanol, gluteraldehyde, sodium chloride, hydrochloric acid, aluminum sulfate, sodium acetate and other substances as well as lab altered bacteria and live viruses.
Limiting chemical exposures in the environment will help prevent children's brains from being damaged. But until the neurotoxicity of vaccines is systematically evaluated and steps are taken to clean up vaccines and modify one-size-fits-all vaccine policies, the "silent pandemic" of brain and immune system dysfunction among children around the world will not be halted. Until the focus of preventive health is redirected from reliance on toxic drugs and vaccines toward wellness care that respects and enhances the natural functioning of the immune system, sickness and disability will plaque too many children who will grow up to be chronically ill and disabled adults.
Doctors Want Power To Kill Disabled Babies
"The college’s [Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynecology] submission to the inquiry states: “We would like the working party to think more radically about non-resuscitation, withdrawal of treatment decisions, the best interests test and active euthanasia as they are ways of widening the management options available to the sickest of newborns.”
"However, John Wyatt, consultant neonatologist at University College London hospital, said: “Intentional killing is not part of medical care.” He added: “The majority of doctors and health professionals believe that once you introduce the possibility of intentional killing into medical practice you change the fundamental nature of medicine. It immediately becomes a subjective decision as to whose life is worthwhile.” - The Sunday Times, Britain, November 5, 2006, Doctors: Let Us Kill Disabled Babies
Barbara Loe Fisher Commentary:
The tragic consequence of allowing one small group of individuals in society - those who choose to become medical doctors (M.D.'s) or scientists (Ph.D.'s) - to make life and death decisions for others is that they can become drunk with power and end up exploiting people. Those elitists who would force people to take medical risks or even kill people in the name of the greater good of society cannot and should not be trusted.
Blind faith and trust in those who practice any profession is dangerous, but it is especially dangerous if it requires abandoning individual autonomy and the human right to informed consent. If the birthing rooms and newborn nurseries of the world become killing fields and those who practice science and medicine become the executioners, then it will be a very short time before nursing homes, doctor's offices and public health clinics are legally allowed to stock lethal injections.
History that is not remembered will be repeated. We would do well to remember what happened in pre-World War II Germany, when doctors were legally allowed to kill anyone in society considered to be a threat to the public health and welfare. Are we preparing for the day when doctors can not only kill handicapped newborns but also handicapped older children and adults, including the vaccine injured who face a lifetime of long term care? Anyone the medical elite consider to be an economic liability for society and, therefore, expendable could be a target for elimination in what could become the ultimate free exercise of the utilitarian rationale discredited at the Doctor's Trial at Nuremberg in 1947 as inherently evil.
I remember when the U.S. Supreme Court issued its famous 1973 legal decision in Roe v Wade, siding with the medical doctors and scientists, who argued that life did not begin at conception but only at birth and, therefore, termination of not only handicapped babies but also healthy babies in the womb was not murder. Like many young women, I ignored the warnings of spirtual leaders who argued that legalized abortion was devaluation of individual life and would lead to future legalized murder after birth when an individual's life became inconvenient or expensive.
I caught my breath when I read the following from a British bioethicist commenting how the morality of giving doctors a legal license to kill: "The college’s submission was also welcomed by John Harris, a member of the government’s Human Genetics Commission and professor of bioethics at Manchester University. “We can terminate for serious foetal abnormality up to term but cannot kill a newborn. What do people think has happened in the passage down the birth canal to make it okay to kill the foetus at one end of the birth canal but not at the other?” he said.
Anyone who has had to make the difficult decision of whether to cease employing extraordinary measures to prolong a terminally ill loved one's life knows well the difference between a "do not resuscitate" order and a lethal injection. Perhaps we should have listened a little more carefully to the spiritual leaders who warned that giving the medical profession the power to deliberatey kill before birth would tempt them to seek the power to deliberately kill after birth. In any case, it is time to put the breaks on giving more power to those in society who are supposed to be healers, not executioners.
"However, John Wyatt, consultant neonatologist at University College London hospital, said: “Intentional killing is not part of medical care.” He added: “The majority of doctors and health professionals believe that once you introduce the possibility of intentional killing into medical practice you change the fundamental nature of medicine. It immediately becomes a subjective decision as to whose life is worthwhile.” - The Sunday Times, Britain, November 5, 2006, Doctors: Let Us Kill Disabled Babies
Barbara Loe Fisher Commentary:
The tragic consequence of allowing one small group of individuals in society - those who choose to become medical doctors (M.D.'s) or scientists (Ph.D.'s) - to make life and death decisions for others is that they can become drunk with power and end up exploiting people. Those elitists who would force people to take medical risks or even kill people in the name of the greater good of society cannot and should not be trusted.
Blind faith and trust in those who practice any profession is dangerous, but it is especially dangerous if it requires abandoning individual autonomy and the human right to informed consent. If the birthing rooms and newborn nurseries of the world become killing fields and those who practice science and medicine become the executioners, then it will be a very short time before nursing homes, doctor's offices and public health clinics are legally allowed to stock lethal injections.
History that is not remembered will be repeated. We would do well to remember what happened in pre-World War II Germany, when doctors were legally allowed to kill anyone in society considered to be a threat to the public health and welfare. Are we preparing for the day when doctors can not only kill handicapped newborns but also handicapped older children and adults, including the vaccine injured who face a lifetime of long term care? Anyone the medical elite consider to be an economic liability for society and, therefore, expendable could be a target for elimination in what could become the ultimate free exercise of the utilitarian rationale discredited at the Doctor's Trial at Nuremberg in 1947 as inherently evil.
I remember when the U.S. Supreme Court issued its famous 1973 legal decision in Roe v Wade, siding with the medical doctors and scientists, who argued that life did not begin at conception but only at birth and, therefore, termination of not only handicapped babies but also healthy babies in the womb was not murder. Like many young women, I ignored the warnings of spirtual leaders who argued that legalized abortion was devaluation of individual life and would lead to future legalized murder after birth when an individual's life became inconvenient or expensive.
I caught my breath when I read the following from a British bioethicist commenting how the morality of giving doctors a legal license to kill: "The college’s submission was also welcomed by John Harris, a member of the government’s Human Genetics Commission and professor of bioethics at Manchester University. “We can terminate for serious foetal abnormality up to term but cannot kill a newborn. What do people think has happened in the passage down the birth canal to make it okay to kill the foetus at one end of the birth canal but not at the other?” he said.
Anyone who has had to make the difficult decision of whether to cease employing extraordinary measures to prolong a terminally ill loved one's life knows well the difference between a "do not resuscitate" order and a lethal injection. Perhaps we should have listened a little more carefully to the spiritual leaders who warned that giving the medical profession the power to deliberatey kill before birth would tempt them to seek the power to deliberately kill after birth. In any case, it is time to put the breaks on giving more power to those in society who are supposed to be healers, not executioners.
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