"Legislation mandating the HPV vaccine for pre-adolescent schoolgirls is pending in the District, Maryland and Virginia. Those who advocate it are quick to note that parents can opt out of the program. But few can say exactly how many bureaucratic hoops a parent will have to jump through to do that. Besides, why should the onus be on the parents to figure out how not to be in a government-mandated program? In New Hampshire, parents opt in -- and the burden is on the government to show how the vaccine can benefit their children....So are New Hampshire residents somehow smarter and better able to develop effective public health programs? Are they more concerned about their children than the rest of us? Hardly. What they have that we do not is the right attitude. They take their state motto seriously: "Live Free or Die," while too many of us are content to live and die as slaves." - Courtland Milloy, Washington Post , January 24, 2007, Force Is Not the Only Way to Administer a Vaccine
"Medical ethics require that patients have autonomy in their medical decisions, with informed consent. They have a right to know what they have, what the prognosis is, what the proposed treatment is, what the alternatives are, and what the possible side effects are prior to any treatment. Indeed, a patient has a right to say no, even if by refusing treatment they might die. I as a medical professional cannot overrule their decisions. Here we are talking about forcing a person to undergo mandatory drug therapy (vaccination), when they have no disease, under the presumption that they might get a disease based on future poor behavior. This is medically unethical.....Questions remain. As the [HPV] vaccine may not be effective in the long term, will booster shots at $120 be required? What type of world is it when a large company basically can forcibly take money from our pockets?" - Joseph Desoto, Ph.D., Charleston Daily Mail , January 23, 2007, Commentary: Dr. Joseph DeSoto: Shouldn't Force HPV Vaccinations
Barbara Loe Fisher Commentary:
Congratulations to two brave Americans, who have spoken up publicly for the informed consent ethic, which includes the right of parents to make informed, voluntary vaccination choices for their children. Each undoubtedly knew how much criticism and pressure might come as a consequence, but must have chosen to speak out, nevertheless, as a matter of conscience. They and all those who stand up for truth and freedom, despite the personal or professional risk, are following in the footsteps of those who came to America to escape persecution for their beliefs and fought to create a democracy that protects minorities from exploitation by the powerful.
As we are all witnessing, proposed HPV vaccine mandates are rolling through many state legislatures at warp speed. State and federal health officials (who are supposed to be legally prohibited from playing politics) and drug company lobbyists are in state Capitols pressuring politicians to make every little girl in America get injected with three doses of HPV vaccine before becoming sexually active or be denied the right to attend school. They are voting to mandate a vaccine for a disease which cannot be transmitted in school and which will cost the parents, the states and the nation billions to prevent a cancer, which can be almost 100 percent prevented through either abstinence, condom use or annual pap smears.
Citizens in every state, who want to be free to make vaccine choices in the future, should pick up the phone, get to a fax machine, send an email or get in the car and go visit their state representatives and senators and make their voices heard. There is only one mechanism in a democracy for getting vaccine laws passed, which support the right to voluntary, informed consent: vote for politicians who will vote for freedom or vote them out in the next election.
No forced vaccination. Not in America.
Maryland Threatens Truancy for Unvaccinated Kids
"[Maryland] Officials say they are working with the health department to make sure the remaining students are vaccinated so they may return to school. "If they stay out of school for too many days, it becomes an issue of truancy," Mowen said. Officials have said they might use the court system to encourage parents to get their children vaccinated. Hanlin said before that option is explored officials are "trying to find out what the road blocks are" to being vaccinated." - by Erin Cunningham, The Hagerstown Morning Herald, Maryland, January 23, 2007, Deadline for Vaccinations Passes; School Closed To Some
Barbara Loe Fisher Commentary:
If you want to take a peek at what the future holds for those parents, who do not comply with federal health policies turned into state laws that require children to be injected with dozens of vaccines or be denied an education, just look at the recent strong arm tactics being used in Maryland. For failure to get chickenpox and/or hepatitis B vaccinations, state health and education officials have teamed up to use coercion and intimidation to force vaccination with the threat that the pre-teens will be barred from school and then they and their parents charged with truancy for disobeying state vaccine laws.
Economic and social barriers to vaccine access, which can include inadequate information or limited access to public health clinics, are sometimes factors when students have not received all state mandated vaccines. However, other factors may include (1) personal or family history of adverse reactions to vaccinations; (2) illness at the time of vaccination; (3) personal or family history of immune or neurological disease, which may place the child at increased risk for a vaccine adverse responses; (4) religious or conscientious belief objection to vaccination; or (5) wholistic health care preferences within the family that do not include vaccination.
How many of the children and their parents being hunted down in Maryland by needle wielding state officials are at high risk for suffering vaccine reactions? How many of these children being rounded up and given multiple vaccinations will suffer shock, convulsions, arthritis, asthma, GBS or other signs of vaccine-induced brain and immune system dysfunction shortly after vaccination? How many of these adverse responses to vaccination will be written off as a "coincidence" by health and school officials refusing to take responsibility for what they have done? And how many of the healthy partially or completely unvaccinated children come from families, whose parents have chosen to keep their children healthy with preventive health strategies that do not include drug and vaccine use?
Although citizens should have unimpeded access to vaccines they choose to us, they should also have the freedom to choose preventive health care alternatives to vaccines. Americans living in every state should look to their own vaccine laws and consider the following: If the state can tag, track down and force citizens against their will to be injected with biologicals of unknown toxicity today, will there be any limit on what individual freedoms the state can take away in the name of the greater good tomorrow?
Maryland officials are forcing hepatitis B and chickenpox vaccinations today. How many more will they be forcing on kids tomorrow?
No forced vaccination. Not in America.
Barbara Loe Fisher Commentary:
If you want to take a peek at what the future holds for those parents, who do not comply with federal health policies turned into state laws that require children to be injected with dozens of vaccines or be denied an education, just look at the recent strong arm tactics being used in Maryland. For failure to get chickenpox and/or hepatitis B vaccinations, state health and education officials have teamed up to use coercion and intimidation to force vaccination with the threat that the pre-teens will be barred from school and then they and their parents charged with truancy for disobeying state vaccine laws.
Economic and social barriers to vaccine access, which can include inadequate information or limited access to public health clinics, are sometimes factors when students have not received all state mandated vaccines. However, other factors may include (1) personal or family history of adverse reactions to vaccinations; (2) illness at the time of vaccination; (3) personal or family history of immune or neurological disease, which may place the child at increased risk for a vaccine adverse responses; (4) religious or conscientious belief objection to vaccination; or (5) wholistic health care preferences within the family that do not include vaccination.
How many of the children and their parents being hunted down in Maryland by needle wielding state officials are at high risk for suffering vaccine reactions? How many of these children being rounded up and given multiple vaccinations will suffer shock, convulsions, arthritis, asthma, GBS or other signs of vaccine-induced brain and immune system dysfunction shortly after vaccination? How many of these adverse responses to vaccination will be written off as a "coincidence" by health and school officials refusing to take responsibility for what they have done? And how many of the healthy partially or completely unvaccinated children come from families, whose parents have chosen to keep their children healthy with preventive health strategies that do not include drug and vaccine use?
Although citizens should have unimpeded access to vaccines they choose to us, they should also have the freedom to choose preventive health care alternatives to vaccines. Americans living in every state should look to their own vaccine laws and consider the following: If the state can tag, track down and force citizens against their will to be injected with biologicals of unknown toxicity today, will there be any limit on what individual freedoms the state can take away in the name of the greater good tomorrow?
Maryland officials are forcing hepatitis B and chickenpox vaccinations today. How many more will they be forcing on kids tomorrow?
No forced vaccination. Not in America.
A Call to End Vaccine Exemptions
"Some would argue that philosophical exemptions are a necessary pop-off valve for a society that requires children to be injected with biological agents for the common good. But as anti- vaccine activists continue to push for easy philosophical exemptions, more and more children will suffer and occasionally die from vaccine-preventable diseases. When it comes to issues of public health and safety, we invariably have laws. Many of these laws are strictly enforced and immutable. We don't allow philosophical exemptions to restraining young children in car seats, to smoking in restaurants or to stopping at stop signs. And the notion of requiring vaccines for school entry, while it seems to tear at the very heart of a country founded on the basis of individual rights and freedoms, saves lives. Given the increasing number of states allowing philosophical exemptions to vaccines, at some point we will be forced to decide whether it is our inalienable right to catch and transmit potentially fatal infections." - Paul Offit, The Wall Street Journal, January 20, 2007, Fatal Exemption
Barbara Loe Fisher Commentary:
Drug company consultant, rotavirus vaccine patent holder and vaccine policymaker Paul Offit is calling for an end to exemptions to vaccination unless approved by a medical doctor or government health official. He argues that the unvaccinated place themselves and others at risk for catching and transmitting infectious diseases and, therefore, government should force citizens to purchase and use vaccines without exception. Although Offit admits this authoritarian approach to disease control “tears at the very heart of a country founded on the basis of individual rights and freedoms,” he takes out the sword and urges the slicing begin.
An argument can be made on scientific grounds that the voluntarily vaccinated should have nothing to fear from the voluntarily unvaccinated if vaccines protect individuals from contracting infectious diseases. However, a more compelling argument can be made for the human right to informed consent to medical procedures, such as vaccination, which carry a risk of injury or death. This is particularly relevant when mass vaccination policies do not identify individuals, who are biologically vulnerable to vaccine-induced serious health problems, as has been demonstrated by the more than $1 billion already awarded to vaccine victims under the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of 1986.
Offit’s flawed analogy comparing no-exception vaccine laws with no-exception laws requiring citizens to buckle a baby in a car seat, to refrain from lighting up in a restaurant and to put on the brakes at stop signs, fails to appreciate that obeying those laws do not require individuals to risk their health or their lives. Even the military draft in times of war allows exemptions for religious and conscientious belief reasons.
Offit and other pro-forced vaccination proponents have various motivations for their totalitarian stance. However, what appears to unite them is a disdain for the intelligence of the average American and an uncontrollable desire to tell other people what to do.
Elitism is alive and well in America and it haunts the corridors of major academic and medical institutions, where those who practice it receive lots of tangible encouragement and support from industry and government. The average American struggling to be free to make informed, independent choices about health care, including vaccination, is being manipulated by elitists seeking to limit both the information and choices available.
The first step to breaking the chains that bind us to elitists in control of health policy is to understand what they believe and want. Paul Offit is making that clear.
Barbara Loe Fisher Commentary:
Drug company consultant, rotavirus vaccine patent holder and vaccine policymaker Paul Offit is calling for an end to exemptions to vaccination unless approved by a medical doctor or government health official. He argues that the unvaccinated place themselves and others at risk for catching and transmitting infectious diseases and, therefore, government should force citizens to purchase and use vaccines without exception. Although Offit admits this authoritarian approach to disease control “tears at the very heart of a country founded on the basis of individual rights and freedoms,” he takes out the sword and urges the slicing begin.
An argument can be made on scientific grounds that the voluntarily vaccinated should have nothing to fear from the voluntarily unvaccinated if vaccines protect individuals from contracting infectious diseases. However, a more compelling argument can be made for the human right to informed consent to medical procedures, such as vaccination, which carry a risk of injury or death. This is particularly relevant when mass vaccination policies do not identify individuals, who are biologically vulnerable to vaccine-induced serious health problems, as has been demonstrated by the more than $1 billion already awarded to vaccine victims under the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of 1986.
Offit’s flawed analogy comparing no-exception vaccine laws with no-exception laws requiring citizens to buckle a baby in a car seat, to refrain from lighting up in a restaurant and to put on the brakes at stop signs, fails to appreciate that obeying those laws do not require individuals to risk their health or their lives. Even the military draft in times of war allows exemptions for religious and conscientious belief reasons.
Offit and other pro-forced vaccination proponents have various motivations for their totalitarian stance. However, what appears to unite them is a disdain for the intelligence of the average American and an uncontrollable desire to tell other people what to do.
Elitism is alive and well in America and it haunts the corridors of major academic and medical institutions, where those who practice it receive lots of tangible encouragement and support from industry and government. The average American struggling to be free to make informed, independent choices about health care, including vaccination, is being manipulated by elitists seeking to limit both the information and choices available.
The first step to breaking the chains that bind us to elitists in control of health policy is to understand what they believe and want. Paul Offit is making that clear.
Lilly Attacks Internet Free Speech
"It is a messy plot that pits Eli Lilly, the pharmaceutical giant at the center of several articles in The New York Times suggesting that the company tried to hide or play down the health risks of its leading antipsychotic drug, Zyprexa, and lawyers representing various individuals, organizations and Web sites - all arguing that their online speech has been gagged. The case has attracted the attention of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the venerable digital rights group based in San Francisco, and one of its lawyers, Fred von Lohmann, who is now representing an anonymous Internet user caught up in the legal fracas. "One of the core missions of the foundation's 16-year history has been to establish that when you go online, you take with you all the same civil rights you had with you in prior media," said von Lohmann. "But of course, you need to fight for that principle." - Tom Zeller, Jr., The New York Times, January 15, 2007, Documents Borne by Winds of Free Speech
Barbara Loe Fisher Commentary:
We have seen it coming for a long time. Wealthy and politically influential pharmaceutical corporations, which market reactive drugs and vaccines, want to shut down free speech on the internet so they can hide the dangers of their products from the public. Right now, pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly is in federal court trying to prevent non- profit health advocacy groups from posting documents on their websites which suggest that Lilly hid or downplayed the dangerous side effects of the antipsychotic drug, Zyprexa, from doctors and patients.
Lilly convinced a federal judge in New York to issue an injunction prohibiting the Alliance for Human Research Protection (www.ahrp.org) headed by Vera Hassner Sharav, as well as MindFreedom International, and their websites from posting Lilly documents detailing Zyprexa risks. The websites were not only barred from posting the company documents but also barred from even directing browsers to other websites that contained the documents.
Lilly is trying to set a legal precedent that the information communicated on the internet by private citizens and advocacy websites based in the U.S. should be exempt from freedom of speech protections guaranteed under the U.S. Constitution, which have historically protected freedom of the press in the U.S. Apparently Lilly would like to pave the way for corporations (and perhaps government agencies?) with something to hide to prevent citizens from talking about what they know on the internet.
The internet, which has become an international forum for free speech and information uncensored by multinational corporations and government agencies, is under attack by those who want to keep the people in the dark, compliant and easily manipulated. Will U.S. District Court Judge Jack B. Weinsten, who is being lobbied by Lilly, put the first nail in the coffin of the last frontier for free speech?
Barbara Loe Fisher Commentary:
We have seen it coming for a long time. Wealthy and politically influential pharmaceutical corporations, which market reactive drugs and vaccines, want to shut down free speech on the internet so they can hide the dangers of their products from the public. Right now, pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly is in federal court trying to prevent non- profit health advocacy groups from posting documents on their websites which suggest that Lilly hid or downplayed the dangerous side effects of the antipsychotic drug, Zyprexa, from doctors and patients.
Lilly convinced a federal judge in New York to issue an injunction prohibiting the Alliance for Human Research Protection (www.ahrp.org) headed by Vera Hassner Sharav, as well as MindFreedom International, and their websites from posting Lilly documents detailing Zyprexa risks. The websites were not only barred from posting the company documents but also barred from even directing browsers to other websites that contained the documents.
Lilly is trying to set a legal precedent that the information communicated on the internet by private citizens and advocacy websites based in the U.S. should be exempt from freedom of speech protections guaranteed under the U.S. Constitution, which have historically protected freedom of the press in the U.S. Apparently Lilly would like to pave the way for corporations (and perhaps government agencies?) with something to hide to prevent citizens from talking about what they know on the internet.
The internet, which has become an international forum for free speech and information uncensored by multinational corporations and government agencies, is under attack by those who want to keep the people in the dark, compliant and easily manipulated. Will U.S. District Court Judge Jack B. Weinsten, who is being lobbied by Lilly, put the first nail in the coffin of the last frontier for free speech?
Using Religion to Promote Flu Vaccine
"Although it is too early to say what the effect would be in humans, an initial course of two or three shots [of universal type A influenza vaccine] could provide long-lasting immunity, topped up with booster shots given every five to ten years. Dr Ashley Birkett, of Acambis, said: "It wouldn't be that one shot protects for life but you would need fewer doses over your lifetime." In addition, the jabs could be produced in vast quantities and stockpiled ahead of a flu pandemic - or even given to people in advance....it may also be possible to create a similar jab against influenza B, which causes a milder form of winter flu....Professor John Oxford, Britain's leading flu expert, said the development of a universal vaccine was the "holy grail" of flu research. He added: "If you get a M2 vaccine which protects against the whole caboodle in the same vaccine, the possibilities are huge." - Fiona MacRae, The Daily Mail, UK, December 28. 2006
The Vaccine To Cure Every Strain of Flu
Barbara Loe Fisher Commentary:
Medical scientists masquerading as saints are once again invoking a familiar religious symbol to describe a new vaccine they are creating. The term "the Holy Grail," which refers to the chalice Christ drank from at the Last Supper, has been used frequently in the past by vaccinologists creating vaccines they want the people to purchase and use on a mass basis. This time scientists working for drug companies in Great Britain and Switzerland are referring to a "universal" vaccine they say will banish type A influenza infection from the earth - and prepare the way for a similar universal type B influenza vaccine.
The assumption that preventing humans from ever experiencing type A (or type B) influenza will result in superior long term health is not based on scientific evidence. Like a religious belief, that assumption is based on faith. It is no wonder the vaccinologists are using religious symbols to describe their new vaccines. They have forgotten who they are. Or perhaps they just want people to believe they - and their creations - are holy.
Experiencing infectious disease, including influenza, has been part of the human condition since man has walked the earth. Why do vaccinologists insist on assuming that the human immune system is incapable of dealing with that experience? Or benefiting from it? Where is the evidence that it is good to never, ever get the flu? Or that "universal" vaccines will not put pressure on microorganisms to mutate into vaccine-resistant strains?
Those who use religious terms to describe the vaccines they want people to believe in and buy may well be asking mankind to use the product based on faith, not scientific evidence.
The Vaccine To Cure Every Strain of Flu
Barbara Loe Fisher Commentary:
Medical scientists masquerading as saints are once again invoking a familiar religious symbol to describe a new vaccine they are creating. The term "the Holy Grail," which refers to the chalice Christ drank from at the Last Supper, has been used frequently in the past by vaccinologists creating vaccines they want the people to purchase and use on a mass basis. This time scientists working for drug companies in Great Britain and Switzerland are referring to a "universal" vaccine they say will banish type A influenza infection from the earth - and prepare the way for a similar universal type B influenza vaccine.
The assumption that preventing humans from ever experiencing type A (or type B) influenza will result in superior long term health is not based on scientific evidence. Like a religious belief, that assumption is based on faith. It is no wonder the vaccinologists are using religious symbols to describe their new vaccines. They have forgotten who they are. Or perhaps they just want people to believe they - and their creations - are holy.
Experiencing infectious disease, including influenza, has been part of the human condition since man has walked the earth. Why do vaccinologists insist on assuming that the human immune system is incapable of dealing with that experience? Or benefiting from it? Where is the evidence that it is good to never, ever get the flu? Or that "universal" vaccines will not put pressure on microorganisms to mutate into vaccine-resistant strains?
Those who use religious terms to describe the vaccines they want people to believe in and buy may well be asking mankind to use the product based on faith, not scientific evidence.
Gates Money Polluting
"The Gates Foundation has poured $218 million into polio and measles immunization and research worldwide, including in the Niger Delta. At the same time that it is paying for inoculations to protect health, it has invested $423 million in Eni, Royal Dutch Shell, Exxon Mobil, Chevron and Total of France — the companies responsible for most of the flares blanketing the delta with pollution, beyond anything permitted in the United States or Europe. A sampling of the Gates Foundation's largest investments between $100 million and $1 billion: Abbott Laboratories, Archer Daniels Midland, British Petroleum, Canadian National Railway, Exxon Mobil, Freddie Mac, French Government, Japanese Government, Merck, Schering Plough, Tyco International, Waste Management.....Indeed, local leaders blame oil developments for fostering some of the very afflictions that the foundation combats." - Charles Piller, Edmund Sanders, Robyn Dixon, Seattle Times, January 7, 2007
Barbara Loe Fisher Commentary:
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which has more than $60 billion at its disposal - an amount higher than the gross domestic products of 70 percent of the world's nations - is reportedly financially backing corporations which pollute the same areas of Africa that are targeted for vaccines made by companies that Gates also funds. A report in the LA Times points out that:
"Oil bore holes fill with stagnant water, which is ideal for mosquitoes that spread malaria, one of the diseases the foundation is fighting. Investigators for Dr. Nonyenim Solomon Enyidah, health commissioner for Rivers State, where Ebocha is, cite an oil spill clogging rivers as a cause of cholera, another scourge the foundation is battling. The bright, sooty gas flares — which contain toxic byproducts such as benzene, mercury and chromium — lower immunity, Enyidah said, and make children more susceptible to polio and measles — the diseases that the Gates Foundation has helped to inoculate against.
There have been suggestions in the past that most of the diseases affecting modern man have been caused by negligent multinational corporations seeking high profits and doctors and scientists, who mistakenly believe they are helping people by encouraging the use of many toxic drugs and vaccines marketed by multi-national corporations. Sadly, Africa appears to be a place where this is occurring and the poorest people are suffering the most. They are being exploited twice: first by being sickened by manufactured toxins which poison their bodies; and again when that sickness is used to justify purchase and use of many vaccines to theoretically prevent the manmade illnesses.
Ironically, the clueless average American is also helping to exploit the children of Africa and other underdeveloped countries: the more mandated vaccines which Americans are forced to use and pay high prices for, the wealthier the drug companies making vaccines get. The vaccine manufacturers use the high profits they make off of American vaccine mandates to sell the stuff to poor countries like Africa at a reduced rate.
And so the little children are exploited and suffer, American and African alike, and will continue to suffer until Americans stand up and stop the vicious cycle.
"No forced vaccination. Not in America."
Barbara Loe Fisher Commentary:
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which has more than $60 billion at its disposal - an amount higher than the gross domestic products of 70 percent of the world's nations - is reportedly financially backing corporations which pollute the same areas of Africa that are targeted for vaccines made by companies that Gates also funds. A report in the LA Times points out that:
"Oil bore holes fill with stagnant water, which is ideal for mosquitoes that spread malaria, one of the diseases the foundation is fighting. Investigators for Dr. Nonyenim Solomon Enyidah, health commissioner for Rivers State, where Ebocha is, cite an oil spill clogging rivers as a cause of cholera, another scourge the foundation is battling. The bright, sooty gas flares — which contain toxic byproducts such as benzene, mercury and chromium — lower immunity, Enyidah said, and make children more susceptible to polio and measles — the diseases that the Gates Foundation has helped to inoculate against.
There have been suggestions in the past that most of the diseases affecting modern man have been caused by negligent multinational corporations seeking high profits and doctors and scientists, who mistakenly believe they are helping people by encouraging the use of many toxic drugs and vaccines marketed by multi-national corporations. Sadly, Africa appears to be a place where this is occurring and the poorest people are suffering the most. They are being exploited twice: first by being sickened by manufactured toxins which poison their bodies; and again when that sickness is used to justify purchase and use of many vaccines to theoretically prevent the manmade illnesses.
Ironically, the clueless average American is also helping to exploit the children of Africa and other underdeveloped countries: the more mandated vaccines which Americans are forced to use and pay high prices for, the wealthier the drug companies making vaccines get. The vaccine manufacturers use the high profits they make off of American vaccine mandates to sell the stuff to poor countries like Africa at a reduced rate.
And so the little children are exploited and suffer, American and African alike, and will continue to suffer until Americans stand up and stop the vicious cycle.
"No forced vaccination. Not in America."
Michigan Kills HPV Mandate
"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.
"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.
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