by Barbara Loe Fisher
www.vaccineawakening.blogspot.com
www.NVIC.org
www.StandUpBeCounted.org
The bad news about GARDASIL vaccine keeps getting worse and it was only a matter of time before government health officials promoted an "epidemic" to deflect attention from GARDASIL risks and create an excuse to point accusing fingers at parents who decline to give their children one or more of the 16 federally promoted vaccines. They did the same thing in 1985, when publicity about DPT vaccine reactions prompted officials at the CDC and American Academy of Pediatrics to allege there were whooping cough epidemics in eight states due to parents rejecting DPT. Then as now, the cases of disease were divided between vaccinated and unvaccinated children and adults, which is hardly big news.
The government's dire warnings came late last week after newspaper articles examined the muscle that Merck used to get GARDASIL fast tracked and licensed, followed by an aggressive multi-media advertising and lobbying campaign targeting teenage girls which has already netted the big pharmaceutical company more than $1.5 billion in sales worldwide. The New England Journal of Medicine published an editorial discussed in the Wall Street Journal asking good questions about the evidence for long term protection and cost effectiveness of mass use of GARDASIL vaccine, questions that NVIC first raised in 2007.
And new concerns are being voiced about whether the vaccine is safe to give to adolescent girls, whose bodies are undergoing hormonal changes, as no studies have been published to evaluate whether there are increased risks for vaccine reactions depending upon when the vaccine is administered during a girl's monthly hormonal cycle.
Last week, a CDC apparently weary of all the bad publicity about GARDASIL got its taxpayer-funded PR machine in gear and issued a media advisory warning that 131 cases of measles have been reported in the U.S. this year and that half of those cases involved unvaccinated children whose parents homeschooled their children or held religious or philosophical beliefs opposing use of one or more vaccines. National news stories and local news coverage examined the measles outbreaks and allegations of growing parental vaccine refusal.
The New York Times published an editorial and repeated unsubstantiated claims made by the CDC about the numbers of children, who were injured and died from measles in the past, stating that there were 400-500 deaths; 48,000 hospitalizations and 1,000 cases of brain injury out of 3-4 million measles cases every year prior to mass use of measles vaccine. A quick look at MMWR historical charts reveals that the highest number of reported cases of measles in the U.S. since 1945 (and before the measles vaccine was licensed in 1963) was 763,094 cases in 1958. Why don't CDC officials publicly release the documented cases of hospitalization, injury and death due to measles in that year - or ANY year - instead of demanding blind faith in their version of the facts? (For decades, parents have been waiting for the CDC to document the widely published allegation that there are "36,000 deaths" due to influenza every year in the U.S., a statistic that is promoted to justify new directives that every baby and child through age 18 get annual flu shots.)
The publicizing of 131 cases of measles out of a population of 300 million people in the U.S. and blaming the "outbreak" on 63 cases that occurred in unvaccinated children, whose parents hold religious or conscientious objections to vaccination or homeschool, is a transparent attempt by federal employees to persecute fellow citizens holding religious beliefs, moral convictions, intellectual positions and wellness lifestyles different from their own. Adopting a strategy that "the best defense is a good offense," CDC officials are whipping up fear of those who do not vaccinate in order to cover up a three decade refusal to scientifically investigate reports of children regressing into autism and other kinds of chronic illness after administration of MMR and other vaccines. They know the truth about vaccine risks is becoming more widely known and are lobbying hard for removal vaccine exemptions they do not control so all Americans will be forced without exception to get every vaccine marketed by industry and mandated by government officials.
The premature licensure and universal use recommendation of GARDASIL is just the latest example of what is wrong with the mass vaccination system. If there is a crisis of confidence in the safety of vaccines, which prompts parents to ask pediatricians more questions and seek alternative health care options for keeping their children well, that crisis of confidence can be laid squarely at the feet of those operating the mass vaccination system for failing to do their job. As Generation Rescue founder J.B. Handley recently commented, "Most parents I know will take measles over autism.
There is a 92 to 100 percent uptake of MMR vaccine and many other federally recommended childhood vaccines among children entering kindergarten in every state. This is one of the highest vaccination rates in the world, especially in such a large population. If the MMR vaccine is so unreliable that a few hundred cases or even a few thousand cases of measles among 300 million people is a cause for panic, then the benefits of MMR vaccine weighed against its risks are far less than industry, government and medical organizations have admitted.
In the 1960's, when the live virus measles vaccine was licensed, parents were told it would give their babies the same lifelong immunity that having the natural disease confers. By the late 1980's, it was clear that was not true because measles was occurring in both vaccinated and unvaccinated children. Government officials eventually recommended another dose of measles vaccine (usually given as MMR) for all children even though there were outstanding questions about the multiplication of different genetic strains of measles and how this may affect the vaccine's ability to prevent measles on an individual and population basis long term.
Today's young mothers do not have qualitatively superior measles antibodies to transfer to their newborns to protect them in the first year of life as past generations of mothers did because most young mothers giving birth today have been vaccinated and never had measles as children, which confers lifelong immunity. So babies born today are vulnerable to measles from birth instead of from ages 15 months to six years, which is when most children in the past experienced measles by age six and severe complications were rare. For several decades, vaccinologists have been attempting to create a "high titer" EZ measles vaccine that can be given to infants under one year that will override any existing natural maternal antibodies and replace them with vaccine induced antibodies but there have been long-standing questions about EZ measles vaccine safety.
Vaccination does not mimic the natural disease process and offers only temporary immunity, which is why vaccine boosters are frequently given. Every vaccine carries a reaction risk that can be greater for some than others. Measles vaccine, which is part of the combination live virus MMR (measles-mumps- rubella) vaccine can cause brain inflammation and permanent brain damage. There have been more than 46,000 reports of health problems associated with MMR vaccination made to the federal Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System (VAERS) . However, there is gross underreporting of vaccine- related health problems to VAERS and it is estimated that, for example, fewer than 4 percent of all cases of thrombocytopenia (potentially fatal blood disorder) following MMR vaccination are ever reported to VAERS.
The CDC's one-size-fits-all, no-exceptions MMR vaccine policies allow almost no contraindications to MMR vaccine use. According to the CDC, a child can be sick at the time of vaccination or recovering from an illness; have a fever; be taking antibiotics; have a history of allergies; or have experienced a seizure or regression after a previous MMR shot and still be eligible for more MMR vaccine. This kind of cavalier disregard for minimizing vaccine risks is one reason why more parents are questioning government vaccine policies.
Parents, whether they do or do not vaccinate their children, should become informed and clearly understand the symptoms and complications of every infectious disease, including measles. Parents who choose to vaccinate should have a 99 to 100 percent guarantee that the vaccine will, indeed protect their child. They should have a similar guarantee that the vaccine will not injure or kill their child.
Like all pharmaceutical products, vaccines should be subject to the law of supply and demand. When people are captive and unable to make informed, voluntary decisions about vaccines that have been rushed to market on greased skids by federal health agencies, where every vaccine reaction is unscientifically labeled a "coincidence," the first casualty is freedom and the second is the health of innocent children.
Public health officials and pediatricians should explain why 20 percent of America's highly vaccinated child population suffers with chronic illness and disability rather than blaming parents who refuse to salute smartly and take the risk of watching the child they love become one more victim of vaccine damage.
To report a vaccine reaction to NVIC's Vaccine Reaction Registry, go to http://www.nvic.org/Report/reaction.htm.
To view vaccine reaction reports, go to the Vaccine VictimMemorial at http://vaccinememorial.org/
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"Ms. Kim and Harvard colleague Sue Goldie concluded that it cost about $43,600 per "quality- adjusted life year" gained, when HPV vaccine is administered to 12-year-old girls. This falls below the $50,000 per quality-adjusted life year threshold that some researchers use as a maximum for cost- effectiveness. Other researchers use a higher maximum benchmark of $100,000 per QALY to gauge cost-effectiveness..... At least one of the factors in the primary Harvard calculations may be a relatively optimistic assumption -- that vaccination would produce lifelong immunity. Because the vaccine was only studied for five years and has been on the market for two years, no one knows for certain if its protection is lifelong, or if it wanes over time. The Harvard researchers concluded that the cost per QALY would rise if the vaccine's effect wanes after 10 years. Merck says the vaccine will offer protection well beyond five years, Dr. Haupt said. The Merck economic model that arrived at the cost per QALY below $50,000 assumed lifelong immunity, he said. Still, the study is likely to fuel skepticism about Gardasil, which has already faced questions surrounding its safety and effectiveness (Merck and the CDC maintain it is safe and effective, with the most common side effect being soreness at site of injection.)" - Peter Loftus, Wall Street Journal (August 21, 2008) http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121928503311259059.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
"Why has there not been any mention of the potentially adverse effects of Merck's cervical cancer vaccination, Gardasil® in relationship to the timing of the vaccination and where a young woman is in her menstrual cycle? This information is especially critical considering the vaccination is recommended for adolescent girls from the age of nine to young women up to 26-years. Why is it that women are constantly forced into a male medical model which blatantly ignores their menstrual health and administers drugs, surgeries, and vaccinations without any regard to where women are in their hormone cycle?....As the female hormone levels of estrogen and progesterone decrease during the premenstrual phase, the female body begins the process of releasing the uterine lining in the act of menstruation. The decrease in hormones actually affects a woman's energy levels and her emotions. The immune system becomes more compromised, and that translates to a lowered defense system to fight off invading, foreign toxins..... In her 1977 groundbreaking book, "The Premenstrual Syndrome", Katharina Dalton noted that drug reactions ".....are common during the premenstruum and may follow administration of antibiotics and inoculations. Confusion may occur as to the real origin of such reactions. In double-blind, clinical trials the placebo drugs are often reported to have side effects such as increased drowsiness, headache, nausea, or increased pain; which may be no more than the usual premenstrual symptoms which have not been meticulously observed and reported." - Leslie Carol Botha and H. Sandra Chevalier-Batik, Holy Hormones (August 21, 2008)
http://holyhormones.com/about-2/articles-by-leslie/now-hold-on-one-hormonal-minute%E2%80%A6/
"Measles cases in the U.S. are at the highest level in more than a decade, with nearly half of those involving children whose parents rejected vaccination, health officials reported Thursday. Worried doctors are troubled by the trend fueled by unfounded fears that vaccines may cause autism. The number of cases is still small, just 131, but that's only for the first seven months of the year. There were only 42 cases for all of last year.....The CDC's review found that a number of cases involved home-schooled children not required to get the vaccines. Others can avoid vaccination by seeking exemptions, such as for religious reasons.....The vaccine is considered highly effective but not perfect; 11 of this year's cases had at least one dose of the vaccine. Of this year's total, 122 were unvaccinated or had unknown vaccination status. Some were unvaccinated because the children were under age 1 - too young to get their first measles shot. In 63 of those cases - almost all of them 19 or under - the patient or their parents refused the shots for philosophical or religious reasons, the CDC reported. In Washington state, an outbreak was traced to a church conference, including 16 school-aged children who were not vaccinated. Eleven of those kids were home schooled and not subject to vaccination rules in public schools. It's unclear why the parents rejected the vaccine. The Illinois outbreak - triggered by a teenager who had traveled to Italy - included 25 home-schooled children, according to the CDC report." - Mike Stobbe, Associated Press (August 21, 2008)
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080821/ap_on_he_me/med_measles_outbreaks
"He was advanced for his age. He was talking when he was 11 months old," recalls Edward Delean. The father of 4 says everything changed after his now 9 year old son who has autism was vaccinated against measles, mumps, and rubella or MMR. It was like that was it. He never talked again, he still doesn't talk. He has about 10 words," he says, adding, "it really devastated our family. I just destroyed us." Testimonials like that have led some parents to shun vaccinations altogether. The Centers for Disease Control says measles cases have dramatically increased from 42 cases in all of last year to 131 in just the first seven months of this year because of parents who are rejecting the MMR vaccine for their kids. "It doesn't serve us well when we have government officials trying to create fear and anxiety" says Barbara Loe Fisher with the National Vaccine Information Center. She says some parents opt out of immunizations for religious or philosophical reasons. Others have said no because their kids have had adverse reactions to the vaccines that are usually given on a set schedule. "Right now we're seeing a one-size fits all approach to vaccination that doesn't really recognize that children are different, that children react differently to vaccinations," she says." - Nancy Yamada, WUSA9-TV (August 21, 2008)
http://www.wusa9.com/news/health/story.aspx?storyid=75284&catid=28
Parents Speak Out For Vaccine Information & Choice
by Barbara Loe Fisher
http://www.vaccineawakening.blogspot.com/
http://www.nvic.org/
http://www.standupbecounted.org/
An Information Revolution is underway in America and in many developed countries around the world. Affordable computers and the worldwide web are bringing new information into the homes of hundreds of millions of people while grassroots efforts to create community forums are also giving people of all ages an opportunity to become activist citizens. People are reaching out to each other in small and large public forums to talk about important health issues which affect their lives. Vaccine information is being communicated at conferences and in "town hall" meetings, where citizens are also organizing to insert legal protections in vaccine laws for the right to make informed, voluntary vaccination decisions.
On August 17, the Jackson chapter of theMississippi Vaccine Information Center held a meeting at a local library where neurosurgeon and wellness expert Russell Blaylock, M.D. spoke about the effects of vaccination on the developing brain. Mississippi is one of two states that only allows a medical exemption to vaccination and the group also discussed the importance of working to insert informed consent protections in state vaccine laws to provide for religious and conscientious/philosophical belief exemptions.
The Jackson meeting was attended by about 60 people and meetings in different parts of the state are held on a regular basis. Hattiesburg Mom, Kellie Bischof, founded the Mississippi Vaccine Information Center a year ago out of concern for the lack of informed consent protections in Mississippi vaccine laws. The group is affiliated with the National Vaccine Information Center and National Autism Association.
On August 27 at the Little Falls Women's Club in Little Falls, New Jersey and on September 4 at the Long Hill Township Public Library in Gillette, NJ, Louise Kuo Habakus will be giving a three hour evening seminar on making informed vaccination decisions. She is a wellness care professional and the mother of two young sons who had serious reactions to vaccines and were left with chronic health issues. Louise is conducting the vaccine information seminar series through the New Jersey Coalition for Vaccination Choice in support of insertion of a conscientious belief exemption in New Jersey vaccine laws. Her evening lectures will also be offered Sept. 10 in East Windsor and Oct. 1 in Highlands. Registration (space limited) is required for attendance (e-mail: vaxRSVP@verizon.net)
On Thursday, September 18 at Noon, the New Jersey Coalition for Vaccination Choice will sponsor a "Raise Your Voice for Vaccination Choice" rally in Trenton, New Jersey. Parents and their children will be gathering in front of the State House to demonstrate their support for the right to make informed, voluntary vaccination decisions.
The Coalition includes NVIC and other parent groups as members. The Coalition is the latest development in the several decade effort of parents in New Jersey to educate legislators about oppressive vaccine laws that began with the founding of an NVIC chapter in the 1980's now known as the New Jersey Alliance for Informed Choice in Vaccination (NJAICV) headed by longtime vaccine safety and choice activist Sue Collins. For more information and to register for the Sept. 18 rally, go to http://njvaccinationchoice.org/
On Sept. 26-28, 2008, the Saving Our Kids, Healing Our Planet National Expo will be held at the Charlotte Convention Center in Charlotte, North Carolina. Organized by Maureen McConnell, RN, formerly of Defeat Autism Now (DAN), the Expo will focus on good nutrition, creating healthy environments by limiting toxic exposures and other wellness options for raising healthier children. For more information, go to www.SOKHOP.com
On Saturday, October 18, I will be a keynote speaker at the Fifth Annual Natural Living Conference sponsored by the Holistic Moms Network (HMN) at the Sheraton Crossroads Hotel in Mahwah, New Jersey giving a presentation entitled "Vaccines & Chronic Illness: Staying Well in the New Epidemic." The HMN conference will also feature a presentation by author and environmentalist Annie B. Bond on "Easy Tips for a Green and Healthy Home." The one-day conference (8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.) will include sessions with parenting experts discussing stress and health; homeschooling, Eco-Action plans and good parenting strategies. For more information and to register (space limited), go to http://home.homewebs.com/hmnannualconference/
The grassroots vaccine safety and informed consent movement begun by parents of vaccine injured children in 1982 is gaining momentum in its third decade of parents educating other parents about the importance of making well informed vaccination decisions. A growing number of parents are understanding that making informed vaccination choices is part of learning how to provide children with healthier alternatives to dependence on the pharmaceutical model for staying well. Knowledge IS power and only an educated health care consumer can make wise decisions in the grocery store, the doctor's office or the ballot booth.
http://www.vaccineawakening.blogspot.com/
http://www.nvic.org/
http://www.standupbecounted.org/
An Information Revolution is underway in America and in many developed countries around the world. Affordable computers and the worldwide web are bringing new information into the homes of hundreds of millions of people while grassroots efforts to create community forums are also giving people of all ages an opportunity to become activist citizens. People are reaching out to each other in small and large public forums to talk about important health issues which affect their lives. Vaccine information is being communicated at conferences and in "town hall" meetings, where citizens are also organizing to insert legal protections in vaccine laws for the right to make informed, voluntary vaccination decisions.
On August 17, the Jackson chapter of theMississippi Vaccine Information Center held a meeting at a local library where neurosurgeon and wellness expert Russell Blaylock, M.D. spoke about the effects of vaccination on the developing brain. Mississippi is one of two states that only allows a medical exemption to vaccination and the group also discussed the importance of working to insert informed consent protections in state vaccine laws to provide for religious and conscientious/philosophical belief exemptions.
The Jackson meeting was attended by about 60 people and meetings in different parts of the state are held on a regular basis. Hattiesburg Mom, Kellie Bischof, founded the Mississippi Vaccine Information Center a year ago out of concern for the lack of informed consent protections in Mississippi vaccine laws. The group is affiliated with the National Vaccine Information Center and National Autism Association.
On August 27 at the Little Falls Women's Club in Little Falls, New Jersey and on September 4 at the Long Hill Township Public Library in Gillette, NJ, Louise Kuo Habakus will be giving a three hour evening seminar on making informed vaccination decisions. She is a wellness care professional and the mother of two young sons who had serious reactions to vaccines and were left with chronic health issues. Louise is conducting the vaccine information seminar series through the New Jersey Coalition for Vaccination Choice in support of insertion of a conscientious belief exemption in New Jersey vaccine laws. Her evening lectures will also be offered Sept. 10 in East Windsor and Oct. 1 in Highlands. Registration (space limited) is required for attendance (e-mail: vaxRSVP@verizon.net)
On Thursday, September 18 at Noon, the New Jersey Coalition for Vaccination Choice will sponsor a "Raise Your Voice for Vaccination Choice" rally in Trenton, New Jersey. Parents and their children will be gathering in front of the State House to demonstrate their support for the right to make informed, voluntary vaccination decisions.
The Coalition includes NVIC and other parent groups as members. The Coalition is the latest development in the several decade effort of parents in New Jersey to educate legislators about oppressive vaccine laws that began with the founding of an NVIC chapter in the 1980's now known as the New Jersey Alliance for Informed Choice in Vaccination (NJAICV) headed by longtime vaccine safety and choice activist Sue Collins. For more information and to register for the Sept. 18 rally, go to http://njvaccinationchoice.org/
On Sept. 26-28, 2008, the Saving Our Kids, Healing Our Planet National Expo will be held at the Charlotte Convention Center in Charlotte, North Carolina. Organized by Maureen McConnell, RN, formerly of Defeat Autism Now (DAN), the Expo will focus on good nutrition, creating healthy environments by limiting toxic exposures and other wellness options for raising healthier children. For more information, go to www.SOKHOP.com
On Saturday, October 18, I will be a keynote speaker at the Fifth Annual Natural Living Conference sponsored by the Holistic Moms Network (HMN) at the Sheraton Crossroads Hotel in Mahwah, New Jersey giving a presentation entitled "Vaccines & Chronic Illness: Staying Well in the New Epidemic." The HMN conference will also feature a presentation by author and environmentalist Annie B. Bond on "Easy Tips for a Green and Healthy Home." The one-day conference (8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.) will include sessions with parenting experts discussing stress and health; homeschooling, Eco-Action plans and good parenting strategies. For more information and to register (space limited), go to http://home.homewebs.com/hmnannualconference/
The grassroots vaccine safety and informed consent movement begun by parents of vaccine injured children in 1982 is gaining momentum in its third decade of parents educating other parents about the importance of making well informed vaccination decisions. A growing number of parents are understanding that making informed vaccination choices is part of learning how to provide children with healthier alternatives to dependence on the pharmaceutical model for staying well. Knowledge IS power and only an educated health care consumer can make wise decisions in the grocery store, the doctor's office or the ballot booth.
GARDASIL Vaccine: The Damage Continues
by Barbara Loe Fisher
www.vaccineawakening.blogspot.com
www.NVIC.org
www.StandUpBeCounted.org
The vaccine reaction reports keep coming into the National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC) from mothers describing how they took their healthy teenage girls into a pediatrician or gynecologist's office where they were given a GARDASIL shot and, then, nothing was ever the same again. The reports of HPV vaccine reactions, injuries and deaths continue to roll in, not only to NVIC but also to the federal Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System (Search HPV4 at http://www.medalerts.org/vaersdb/index.html) newspapers, and television stations. And the only response that comes from officials at the CDC, FDA and drug companies when perfectly healthy teenage girls collapse into unconsciousness, suffer a massive seizure, get paralyzed or die suddenly after being injected with GARDASIL is the zombie mantra: "It is a coincidence."
Last week a nurse who is an administrator in the outpatient department for a group of hospitals in California called and asked if NVIC had been getting reports of unusual collapse after GARDASIL vaccination. I said, yes, we are getting those reports and she said "A lot of our patients are collapsing after the shot is given. It happens with GARDASIL more frequently than with any other vaccine we give." That same week, NVIC received a report from the mother of a 15 year old daughter who got her first GARDASIIL shot last month. Within 10 minutes of being injected, she collapsed and had her first grand mal seizure, became incontinent, temporarily lost vision in her right eye, suffered uncontrolled vomiting and had to be taken by ambulance to the hospital. Another report to NVIC that week also involved first-time seizures in a 15 year old girl after she got a GARDASIL shot.
Through June 30, 2008, there have been reports that at least 17 to 20 deaths have occurred following GARDASIL and were filed with the federal Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System (VAERS), although the FDA has yet to admit even one death is causally related to the vaccine, suggesting that the girls would have died that day even if no vaccine had been given. Many of the teenage girls ,who die suddenly after vaccination without explanation, were among the brightest and the best and in top physician condition. This was true for 17 year old Jessica Ericzon, a New York softball player, snowboarder and honor roll student who dropped dead within 48 hours of getting a GARDASIL shot. A coroner could find no cause for her death after an autopsy.
There have been so many reports of reactions, injuries and deaths following GARDASIL vaccination (20-25 percent of all vaccine adverse event reports being filed with VAERS are for GARDASIL vaccine reactions) that the FDA and CDC issued a statement defending the vaccine's safety on July 22.
But one of the vaccine's developers has urged caution and offers practical advice about the need for continued use of Pap screening to prevent cervical cancer rather than relying on the vaccine to do the job. " If you are at all concerned, then don't have the vaccine - have regular Pap smears and you will be equally protected from cervical cancer....Pap screening is still the only proven method we have for cervical cancer prevention," said Professor Diane Harper, Ph.D. "We don't know how long the vaccine will protect a woman from HPV infection, and the vaccine does not protect against all types of HPV infection that cause cervical cancer."
The "coincidence" defense mounted by doctors and drug company officials every time a vaccination is followed by injury and death is as old as it is unscientific. It is amazing that they have been able to get away with it for so long. Babies can't talk and babies can't walk so who they will become is still a dream. But young girls and women have already become much of who they will be and, on the cusp of fulfilling the dream, their vaccine deaths and injuries are much more difficult to sweep under the carpet.
It is immoral for doctors in government and industry to continue to look away from the damage done when vaccines cut down the brightest and most physically fit among us. The suggestion that these healthy, high functioning girls were biologically compromised and would have died or been injured that day even if no vaccine had been given is ludicrous. If those in government responsible for protecting the public health and safety look the other way when healthy individuals die and are injured by pharmaceutical products pronounced by government as "safe" for public use, then we cannot be assured that any licensed drug or vaccine is safe.
Last year, the head of the FDA in China was executed for allowing toxic pharmaceutical products to be licensed and released for public use that ended up killing and crippling people.
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"I just kept thinking about the good outcomes rather than what could actually happen." What happened to Crystal Olivera was arm pain so severe that it left her unconscious immediately after a Gardasil shot, something she had never experienced with her hepatitis and meningitis vaccines. "The next thing I know I am on the floor in the fetal position." Had she known more about Gardasil - "I wish I'd waited a little until it was out in the public more and also that they did more research about the negative side effects." - Jamie Colby, Fox News (July 11, 2008) SEE VIDEO at http://www.foxnews.com/video2/video08.html?maven_referralObject=2233990&maven_referralPlaylistId=&sRevUrl=http://www.foxnews.com/health/index.html
"Jessica Ericzon, 17, was "an all- American teenager," as described by one of her upstate LaFargeville teachers. Last February, she was working on her softball pitches, getting ready for a class trip to Universal Studios in Florida and hitting the slopes to snowboard with her older brother. Then one day, the blond, blue-eyed honors student collapsed dead in her bathroom. It started with a pain in the back of her head. On the advice of her family doctor, Jessie had taken a series of three Gardasil shots. The vaccine, marketed for females ages 9 to 26, is the first found to ward off strains of the sexually transmitted human papillomavirus, or HPV, which can cause cervical cancer. Jessie got the first injection in July 2007. After her second shot in September, she complained of a pain in the back of her head, fatigue and soreness in some joints, said her mom, Lisa. On Feb. 20, while on winter break from school, she got her third and final dose of the vaccine. The next night, "she told me the spot on the back of her head was bothering her again," her mom said. The next morning, Feb. 22, Lisa, a hospital technician, left for work just after 5 a.m., leaving Jessie asleep. Jessie never showed up for the class she was taking at Jefferson Community College. When her mom got home at 3:20 p.m., she found Jessie sprawled on her back on the bathroom floor, with blood spots on her head where it had hit a flowerpot. Jefferson County Medical Examiner Samuel Livingstone is stumped. "She was essentially dead by the time she hit the floor. Whatever it was, it was instantaneous," Livingstone said. His autopsy found no cause." - Susan Edelman, New York Post (July 20, 2008)
http://www.nypost.com/seven/07202008/news/regionalnews/my_girl_died_as_guinea_pig_for_gardasil_120737.htm
" Katherine Kimzey got her first injection of Gardasil along with a Hepatitis-A vaccine and a chicken pox booster. She got the second injection two months later, along with the D-TaP vaccination. Six weeks after the second injection of Gardasil, Katherine passed out. "I tried to get up and my neck was stiff, and I couldn't move it," the teenager explained. "I couldn't move at all." Katherine spent five days in the hospital......Shannon Nelson, 18, from the Chicago area, got the Gardasil shot and two other vaccines-- at the same time. Within a week the soccer star could barely move. "When I went into the hospital I couldn't walk at all. I had to have a wheelchair. It just got worse each day," she explained. Nelson spent 23 days in the hospital and while she's better now the teenager believes one of the vaccines she received is responsible for her illness and her neurologist says it's certainly possible. Katherine Kimzey is back on the soccer field in North Texas. But she still has occasional pain and doesn't know what the future will hold. Thinking about her past experience she says she still worries and so does her mom. Michelle Kimzey says next time; she won't be so quick to jump on the new vaccine bandwagon. "I think the connection is huge," she said.....In a statement to CBS 11 News, Merck -- the maker of Gardasil -- said it has analyzed the reports of paralysis and death, and believes: no safety issue related to the vaccine has been identified." - Ginger Allen, CBS News 11 - Dallas (July 21, 2008) http://cbs11tv.com/health/Gardasil.cervical.cancer.2.776277.html
"Consumer concerns over safety have not been assuaged by "reassurances from the government," said Barbara Loe Fisher, cofounder of the National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC). "We have heard reassurances about safety before - for example, with the whole-cell pertussis (diphtheria- pertussis-tetanus [DPT]) vaccine in the 1980s," she said, noting that this was subsequently withdrawn and replaced by an acellular version in the United States in the 1990s. Ms. Fisher has a son whom she believes was damaged by the DPT vaccine 28 years ago, and she has worked ever since as an activist in the vaccine safety field in various capacities, including a 4- year stint as a consumer member of the FDA Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee.....In addition, the NVIC has been running its own private vaccine reaction registry for the past 26 years, and it currently has about 140 reports on Gardasil, Ms. Fisher said. "These include reports of injury and death, and we are seeing a pattern of what we have termed 'atypical collapse,' " she commented. "These include cases where a girl suddenly passes into unconsciousness either immediately or within 24 hours of vaccination and then revives feeling weak and unable to speak properly or exhibiting other neurological signs. What we are concerned about is that girls are not aware of this possibility and could be crossing the road or driving a car and suddenly pass out." Ms. Fisher also outlined concerns about how Gardasil has been studied. She pointed out that very few of the participants in the clinical trials were aged 11 to 12 years, which is the recommended target age for the vaccine. The New York Times reported in 2006 that of the 20,000 trial participants, 1200 were younger than 16 years." - Zosia Chustecka, Medscape Medical News (August 8, 2008) http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/578110
www.vaccineawakening.blogspot.com
www.NVIC.org
www.StandUpBeCounted.org
The vaccine reaction reports keep coming into the National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC) from mothers describing how they took their healthy teenage girls into a pediatrician or gynecologist's office where they were given a GARDASIL shot and, then, nothing was ever the same again. The reports of HPV vaccine reactions, injuries and deaths continue to roll in, not only to NVIC but also to the federal Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System (Search HPV4 at http://www.medalerts.org/vaersdb/index.html) newspapers, and television stations. And the only response that comes from officials at the CDC, FDA and drug companies when perfectly healthy teenage girls collapse into unconsciousness, suffer a massive seizure, get paralyzed or die suddenly after being injected with GARDASIL is the zombie mantra: "It is a coincidence."
Last week a nurse who is an administrator in the outpatient department for a group of hospitals in California called and asked if NVIC had been getting reports of unusual collapse after GARDASIL vaccination. I said, yes, we are getting those reports and she said "A lot of our patients are collapsing after the shot is given. It happens with GARDASIL more frequently than with any other vaccine we give." That same week, NVIC received a report from the mother of a 15 year old daughter who got her first GARDASIIL shot last month. Within 10 minutes of being injected, she collapsed and had her first grand mal seizure, became incontinent, temporarily lost vision in her right eye, suffered uncontrolled vomiting and had to be taken by ambulance to the hospital. Another report to NVIC that week also involved first-time seizures in a 15 year old girl after she got a GARDASIL shot.
Through June 30, 2008, there have been reports that at least 17 to 20 deaths have occurred following GARDASIL and were filed with the federal Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System (VAERS), although the FDA has yet to admit even one death is causally related to the vaccine, suggesting that the girls would have died that day even if no vaccine had been given. Many of the teenage girls ,who die suddenly after vaccination without explanation, were among the brightest and the best and in top physician condition. This was true for 17 year old Jessica Ericzon, a New York softball player, snowboarder and honor roll student who dropped dead within 48 hours of getting a GARDASIL shot. A coroner could find no cause for her death after an autopsy.
There have been so many reports of reactions, injuries and deaths following GARDASIL vaccination (20-25 percent of all vaccine adverse event reports being filed with VAERS are for GARDASIL vaccine reactions) that the FDA and CDC issued a statement defending the vaccine's safety on July 22.
But one of the vaccine's developers has urged caution and offers practical advice about the need for continued use of Pap screening to prevent cervical cancer rather than relying on the vaccine to do the job. " If you are at all concerned, then don't have the vaccine - have regular Pap smears and you will be equally protected from cervical cancer....Pap screening is still the only proven method we have for cervical cancer prevention," said Professor Diane Harper, Ph.D. "We don't know how long the vaccine will protect a woman from HPV infection, and the vaccine does not protect against all types of HPV infection that cause cervical cancer."
The "coincidence" defense mounted by doctors and drug company officials every time a vaccination is followed by injury and death is as old as it is unscientific. It is amazing that they have been able to get away with it for so long. Babies can't talk and babies can't walk so who they will become is still a dream. But young girls and women have already become much of who they will be and, on the cusp of fulfilling the dream, their vaccine deaths and injuries are much more difficult to sweep under the carpet.
It is immoral for doctors in government and industry to continue to look away from the damage done when vaccines cut down the brightest and most physically fit among us. The suggestion that these healthy, high functioning girls were biologically compromised and would have died or been injured that day even if no vaccine had been given is ludicrous. If those in government responsible for protecting the public health and safety look the other way when healthy individuals die and are injured by pharmaceutical products pronounced by government as "safe" for public use, then we cannot be assured that any licensed drug or vaccine is safe.
Last year, the head of the FDA in China was executed for allowing toxic pharmaceutical products to be licensed and released for public use that ended up killing and crippling people.
__________________________________________
"I just kept thinking about the good outcomes rather than what could actually happen." What happened to Crystal Olivera was arm pain so severe that it left her unconscious immediately after a Gardasil shot, something she had never experienced with her hepatitis and meningitis vaccines. "The next thing I know I am on the floor in the fetal position." Had she known more about Gardasil - "I wish I'd waited a little until it was out in the public more and also that they did more research about the negative side effects." - Jamie Colby, Fox News (July 11, 2008) SEE VIDEO at http://www.foxnews.com/video2/video08.html?maven_referralObject=2233990&maven_referralPlaylistId=&sRevUrl=http://www.foxnews.com/health/index.html
"Jessica Ericzon, 17, was "an all- American teenager," as described by one of her upstate LaFargeville teachers. Last February, she was working on her softball pitches, getting ready for a class trip to Universal Studios in Florida and hitting the slopes to snowboard with her older brother. Then one day, the blond, blue-eyed honors student collapsed dead in her bathroom. It started with a pain in the back of her head. On the advice of her family doctor, Jessie had taken a series of three Gardasil shots. The vaccine, marketed for females ages 9 to 26, is the first found to ward off strains of the sexually transmitted human papillomavirus, or HPV, which can cause cervical cancer. Jessie got the first injection in July 2007. After her second shot in September, she complained of a pain in the back of her head, fatigue and soreness in some joints, said her mom, Lisa. On Feb. 20, while on winter break from school, she got her third and final dose of the vaccine. The next night, "she told me the spot on the back of her head was bothering her again," her mom said. The next morning, Feb. 22, Lisa, a hospital technician, left for work just after 5 a.m., leaving Jessie asleep. Jessie never showed up for the class she was taking at Jefferson Community College. When her mom got home at 3:20 p.m., she found Jessie sprawled on her back on the bathroom floor, with blood spots on her head where it had hit a flowerpot. Jefferson County Medical Examiner Samuel Livingstone is stumped. "She was essentially dead by the time she hit the floor. Whatever it was, it was instantaneous," Livingstone said. His autopsy found no cause." - Susan Edelman, New York Post (July 20, 2008)
http://www.nypost.com/seven/07202008/news/regionalnews/my_girl_died_as_guinea_pig_for_gardasil_120737.htm
" Katherine Kimzey got her first injection of Gardasil along with a Hepatitis-A vaccine and a chicken pox booster. She got the second injection two months later, along with the D-TaP vaccination. Six weeks after the second injection of Gardasil, Katherine passed out. "I tried to get up and my neck was stiff, and I couldn't move it," the teenager explained. "I couldn't move at all." Katherine spent five days in the hospital......Shannon Nelson, 18, from the Chicago area, got the Gardasil shot and two other vaccines-- at the same time. Within a week the soccer star could barely move. "When I went into the hospital I couldn't walk at all. I had to have a wheelchair. It just got worse each day," she explained. Nelson spent 23 days in the hospital and while she's better now the teenager believes one of the vaccines she received is responsible for her illness and her neurologist says it's certainly possible. Katherine Kimzey is back on the soccer field in North Texas. But she still has occasional pain and doesn't know what the future will hold. Thinking about her past experience she says she still worries and so does her mom. Michelle Kimzey says next time; she won't be so quick to jump on the new vaccine bandwagon. "I think the connection is huge," she said.....In a statement to CBS 11 News, Merck -- the maker of Gardasil -- said it has analyzed the reports of paralysis and death, and believes: no safety issue related to the vaccine has been identified." - Ginger Allen, CBS News 11 - Dallas (July 21, 2008) http://cbs11tv.com/health/Gardasil.cervical.cancer.2.776277.html
"Consumer concerns over safety have not been assuaged by "reassurances from the government," said Barbara Loe Fisher, cofounder of the National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC). "We have heard reassurances about safety before - for example, with the whole-cell pertussis (diphtheria- pertussis-tetanus [DPT]) vaccine in the 1980s," she said, noting that this was subsequently withdrawn and replaced by an acellular version in the United States in the 1990s. Ms. Fisher has a son whom she believes was damaged by the DPT vaccine 28 years ago, and she has worked ever since as an activist in the vaccine safety field in various capacities, including a 4- year stint as a consumer member of the FDA Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee.....In addition, the NVIC has been running its own private vaccine reaction registry for the past 26 years, and it currently has about 140 reports on Gardasil, Ms. Fisher said. "These include reports of injury and death, and we are seeing a pattern of what we have termed 'atypical collapse,' " she commented. "These include cases where a girl suddenly passes into unconsciousness either immediately or within 24 hours of vaccination and then revives feeling weak and unable to speak properly or exhibiting other neurological signs. What we are concerned about is that girls are not aware of this possibility and could be crossing the road or driving a car and suddenly pass out." Ms. Fisher also outlined concerns about how Gardasil has been studied. She pointed out that very few of the participants in the clinical trials were aged 11 to 12 years, which is the recommended target age for the vaccine. The New York Times reported in 2006 that of the 20,000 trial participants, 1200 were younger than 16 years." - Zosia Chustecka, Medscape Medical News (August 8, 2008) http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/578110
Voices for Hiding Vaccine Risks: Follow the $
by Barbara Loe Fisher
www.vaccineawakening.blogspot.com
www.NVIC.org
www.StandUpBeCounted.org
When it comes to hiding vaccine risks from the people, all you have to do is "follow the money" to find out who has always done it the best. There are a number of influential non-profit organizations such as the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), Every Child by Two, and Immunization Action Coalition (IAC) that have been funded by drug companies selling vaccines and/or have been paid by federal agencies using taxpayer dollars to push vaccine use.
On July 25, CBS News reported on some of the financial ties between vaccine manufacturers and non-profit organizations or individuals (i.e., rotavirus vaccine patent holder Paul Offit, M.D.) who are aggressively promoting vaccination and refusing to acknowledge vaccine risks. The report infuriated a new "non-profit" organization, Voices for Vaccines, that demanded CBS News retract its story and "apologize" for informing the public about the money connection between the pharmaceutical industry and individuals and organizations urging people to buy and use vaccines. On August 1, CBS News issued a statement defending the public's right to know:
"Our report last Friday represents one part of the extensive reporting CBS News has done, and will continue to do, on the issues surrounding vaccines and possible links to autism. That continuing coverage has repeatedly reported on the critical importance of the nation's maintaining a robust vaccination program for children. Reporting on what critics, including members of Congress, believe to be potential conflicts of interest for vaccine advocates who receive funding from vaccine makers is also an entirely legitimate aspect of our overall coverage. We believe our report was in no way defamatory of any institution or individual, and that no retraction is warranted."
While parents are doing their own research so they can make educated vaccine choices for their children that minimize vaccine risks, celebrities questioning vaccine safety such as Jenny McCarthy are being challenged by celebrities defending vaccine safety such as Amanda Peet, Yesterday, Peet became the celebrity spokesperson for Every Child by Two.
When you connect the dots in a "Follow the Vaccine Money" exercise, you don't have to look very far to see who is paying who to promote unquestioning faith in the safety of vaccines and one- size-fits-all vaccine policies. It takes a lot of money for the drug companies and their allies to persuade parents that it is necessary to pump 69 doses of 16 vaccines into children from birth to age 18 to keep them healthy.
Here are some of the major players:
* The Carter Center, founded in 1984 by Jimmy and Rosalyn Carter is affiliated with Emory University and sponsors vaccination programs funded by drug companies and operated by former employees of the CDC. (Rosalyn Carter co- founded Every Child by Two with Betty Bumpers in 1991 with funding from vaccine manufacturers.) Several vaccine manufacturers have donated more than $1 million to the Carter Center.
* The International Task Force for Disease Eradication is sponsored by the Carter Center and operates programs that are funded by vaccine manufacturers (see "Health Program Partners"at ) and directed by present and former CDC officials for the purpose of eradicating infectious diseases including polio, mumps and rubella through mass vaccination programs.
* The Carter Center is a partner with the Task Force for Child Survival and Development, which sponsors programs funded by vaccine manufacturers and directed by former CDC officials such as William Foege, M.D., M.P.H. and Alan Hinman, M.D., M.P.H.
* The Task Force for Child Survival and Development is sponsoring Voices for Vaccines, which has a Steering Committee composed of individuals employed by an affiliate of the Carter Center or Every Child by Two and non-profit organizations, many of whom receive funding from vaccine manufacturers such as the American Academy of Family Physicians and Immunization Action Coalition and P-Kids and Families Fighting Flu.
These are only some of the major players keeping the Vaccine Machine up and running smoothly in the U.S. It is a machine powered by a national and international web of individuals working for and with major pharmaceutical corporations, government health agencies, non-profit medical organizations, world banks, the World Health Organization and wealthy philanthropic foundations such as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to make sure that people in every country continue to purchase and use many vaccines without thinking about it.
The public health program that began with a mandate to eradicate smallpox from the earth using smallpox vaccine has turned into a lucrative ATM for the drug companies. It provides a kind of money laundering scheme for "non-profits" who pretend to be free from conflicts of interest with an industry whose products they are hawking. It has also become a money pit for the American taxpayer feeding the insatiable Vaccine Machine creating hundreds of new vaccines being tested in more than 2,000 clinical trials that will no doubt be candidates for future vaccine mandates.
Amanda Peet, who is being coached by doctors to tell parents to "trust the doctors," has learned her lines well but neither she nor Jenny McCarthy will ultimately decide the fate of the vaccine safety and informed consent movement begun by parents of vaccine injured children in 1982. Because what is at stake is not the outcome of a Hollywood celebrity face- off but the ability of the American people to free themselves from the tyranny of the "medical experts" who have betrayed the public trust by failing to do their job.
For nearly three decades, before and after passage of the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of 1986, parents have been calling on doctors in charge of the mass vaccination system to find out how and why vaccines injure and kill some children. We have been asking doctors to give us a good explanation for why so many of our highly vaccinated children are so chronically ill with 1 in 6 becoming learning disabled; 1 in 9 suffering with asthma and 1 in 150 developing autism. And the only explanation we get or action we have seen is doctors and government health agencies sticking their heads in the sand and twisting themselves into pretzels yelling "it's a coincidence" every time a child regresses into chronic poor health after vaccination.
The last thing we need to do is return to the dark ages when we allowed ourselves to be treated like the infants whose lives we entrusted without question to paternalistic pediatricians patting us on the head. You don't have to have an M.D. or Ph.D. written after your name to become an informed health care consumer and weigh the benefits and risks of vaccination in order to make an intelligent, well considered vaccine decision for your child or yourself.
Unquestioning faith belongs in a church and not in a doctor's office.
__________________________________________
"Tonight, on the CBS Evening News, we dig into the allegations of financial conflicts of interest among some widely-quoted "independent" voices in the debates over vaccine safety. We weren't as lucky as Grassley: The groups we approached refused to provide us with a full accounting of their financial relationships. Although two of the groups receive tax benefits for their non-profit status, they are not required to file such details with the IRS and would not provide them to us, either. In the case of a prominent vaccine specialist who is routinely offered up as an "independent" voice to speak on vaccine safety, he, too, was unwilling to disclose to us how much remuneration he's received from the vaccine industry. And the vaccine companies we asked? They said they would not, or could not give such information as: financial support they give to educational institutions, physicians and research projects; a list of outside physicians who are on the payroll as researchers, speakers, advisors or consultants; and an accounting of funding provided to non-profits, medical organizations and government entities such as IOM, NIH, CDC and FDA." - Sharyl Attkisson, CBS News Blog (June 25, 2008) http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2008/07/25/couricandco/entry4295088.shtml?source=search_story
"The vaccine industry gives millions to the Academy of Pediatrics for conferences, grants, medical education classes and even helped build their headquarters.... Every Child By Two, a group that promotes early immunization for all children, admits the group takes money from the vaccine industry, too - but wouldn't tell us how much. A spokesman told CBS News: "There are simply no conflicts to be unearthed." But guess who's listed as the group's treasurers? Officials from Wyeth and a paid advisor to big pharmaceutical clients. Then there's Paul Offit, perhaps the most widely-quoted defender of vaccine safety. He's gone so far as to say babies can tolerate "10,000 vaccines at once." This is how Offit described himself in a previous interview: "I'm the chief of infectious disease at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and a professor of pediatrics at Penn's medical school," he said. Offit was not willing to be interviewed on this subject but like others in this CBS News investigation, he has strong industry ties. In fact, he's a vaccine industry insider. Offit holds in a $1.5 million dollar research chair at Children's Hospital, funded by Merck. He holds the patent on an anti- diarrhea vaccine he developed with Merck, Rotateq, which has prevented thousands of hospitalizations. And future royalties for the vaccine were just sold for $182 million cash. Dr. Offit's share of vaccine profits? Unknown." - Sharyl Attkisson, CBS News (June 25, 2008)
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/07/25/cbsnews_investigates/main4296175.shtml
"Voices For Vaccines objects to the defamatory allegations made by the CBS Evening News on Friday, July 25, against the American Academy of Pediatrics, Every Child By Two, and the Vaccine Education Center at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, with our colleague Dr. Paul Offit singled out for baseless criticism. It is our privilege to partner with these institutions in our mission to disseminate reliable information about vaccines. These groups advocate for immunization based on the overwhelming evidence for the lifesaving power of vaccination, and motivated by a sincere concern for the health of America's children. It is preposterous and deeply offensive for CBS to suggest otherwise by insinuating that the pharmaceutical industry improperly influences the views of these vaccine advocate.... An obvious starting point for an unbiased reporter assigned to investigate this possibility would have been to determine whether the advocates' recommendations were in accord with the scientific consensus on immunization, as articulated by neutral bodies such as the World Health Organization and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention....." - Lisa Randall, Voices for Vaccines letter to CBS (July 31, 2008) http://voicesforvaccines.org/Blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/cbs-vaccine-letter1.pdf
"The new "Vaccinate Your Baby" campaign will address misperceptions about vaccines that cause confusion among parents and put children at risk. "When I was pregnant with my daughter Frankie, I had all kinds of questions, including ones about immunization," said Ms. Peet. "There is a wealth of misinformation about vaccines out there, particularly in Hollywood. My husband and I took the time to speak to several doctors about our concerns. What became clear to us was that delaying vaccines could jeopardize our baby's life. I have teamed up with Every Child By Two to help parents get the facts straight on this very important issue." Ms. Peet added, "My main message to parents is that they should not be taking medical advice from me or any other celebrity. They should look to their pediatrician, the AAP and other experts." - Every Child by Two Press Release (August 5, 2008)
http://www.vaccinateyourbaby.org/news/releases/2008/080805_peet_ecbt.cfm
www.vaccineawakening.blogspot.com
www.NVIC.org
www.StandUpBeCounted.org
When it comes to hiding vaccine risks from the people, all you have to do is "follow the money" to find out who has always done it the best. There are a number of influential non-profit organizations such as the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), Every Child by Two, and Immunization Action Coalition (IAC) that have been funded by drug companies selling vaccines and/or have been paid by federal agencies using taxpayer dollars to push vaccine use.
On July 25, CBS News reported on some of the financial ties between vaccine manufacturers and non-profit organizations or individuals (i.e., rotavirus vaccine patent holder Paul Offit, M.D.) who are aggressively promoting vaccination and refusing to acknowledge vaccine risks. The report infuriated a new "non-profit" organization, Voices for Vaccines, that demanded CBS News retract its story and "apologize" for informing the public about the money connection between the pharmaceutical industry and individuals and organizations urging people to buy and use vaccines. On August 1, CBS News issued a statement defending the public's right to know:
"Our report last Friday represents one part of the extensive reporting CBS News has done, and will continue to do, on the issues surrounding vaccines and possible links to autism. That continuing coverage has repeatedly reported on the critical importance of the nation's maintaining a robust vaccination program for children. Reporting on what critics, including members of Congress, believe to be potential conflicts of interest for vaccine advocates who receive funding from vaccine makers is also an entirely legitimate aspect of our overall coverage. We believe our report was in no way defamatory of any institution or individual, and that no retraction is warranted."
While parents are doing their own research so they can make educated vaccine choices for their children that minimize vaccine risks, celebrities questioning vaccine safety such as Jenny McCarthy are being challenged by celebrities defending vaccine safety such as Amanda Peet, Yesterday, Peet became the celebrity spokesperson for Every Child by Two.
When you connect the dots in a "Follow the Vaccine Money" exercise, you don't have to look very far to see who is paying who to promote unquestioning faith in the safety of vaccines and one- size-fits-all vaccine policies. It takes a lot of money for the drug companies and their allies to persuade parents that it is necessary to pump 69 doses of 16 vaccines into children from birth to age 18 to keep them healthy.
Here are some of the major players:
* The Carter Center, founded in 1984 by Jimmy and Rosalyn Carter is affiliated with Emory University and sponsors vaccination programs funded by drug companies and operated by former employees of the CDC. (Rosalyn Carter co- founded Every Child by Two with Betty Bumpers in 1991 with funding from vaccine manufacturers.) Several vaccine manufacturers have donated more than $1 million to the Carter Center.
* The International Task Force for Disease Eradication is sponsored by the Carter Center and operates programs that are funded by vaccine manufacturers (see "Health Program Partners"at ) and directed by present and former CDC officials for the purpose of eradicating infectious diseases including polio, mumps and rubella through mass vaccination programs.
* The Carter Center is a partner with the Task Force for Child Survival and Development, which sponsors programs funded by vaccine manufacturers and directed by former CDC officials such as William Foege, M.D., M.P.H. and Alan Hinman, M.D., M.P.H.
* The Task Force for Child Survival and Development is sponsoring Voices for Vaccines, which has a Steering Committee composed of individuals employed by an affiliate of the Carter Center or Every Child by Two and non-profit organizations, many of whom receive funding from vaccine manufacturers such as the American Academy of Family Physicians and Immunization Action Coalition and P-Kids and Families Fighting Flu.
These are only some of the major players keeping the Vaccine Machine up and running smoothly in the U.S. It is a machine powered by a national and international web of individuals working for and with major pharmaceutical corporations, government health agencies, non-profit medical organizations, world banks, the World Health Organization and wealthy philanthropic foundations such as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to make sure that people in every country continue to purchase and use many vaccines without thinking about it.
The public health program that began with a mandate to eradicate smallpox from the earth using smallpox vaccine has turned into a lucrative ATM for the drug companies. It provides a kind of money laundering scheme for "non-profits" who pretend to be free from conflicts of interest with an industry whose products they are hawking. It has also become a money pit for the American taxpayer feeding the insatiable Vaccine Machine creating hundreds of new vaccines being tested in more than 2,000 clinical trials that will no doubt be candidates for future vaccine mandates.
Amanda Peet, who is being coached by doctors to tell parents to "trust the doctors," has learned her lines well but neither she nor Jenny McCarthy will ultimately decide the fate of the vaccine safety and informed consent movement begun by parents of vaccine injured children in 1982. Because what is at stake is not the outcome of a Hollywood celebrity face- off but the ability of the American people to free themselves from the tyranny of the "medical experts" who have betrayed the public trust by failing to do their job.
For nearly three decades, before and after passage of the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of 1986, parents have been calling on doctors in charge of the mass vaccination system to find out how and why vaccines injure and kill some children. We have been asking doctors to give us a good explanation for why so many of our highly vaccinated children are so chronically ill with 1 in 6 becoming learning disabled; 1 in 9 suffering with asthma and 1 in 150 developing autism. And the only explanation we get or action we have seen is doctors and government health agencies sticking their heads in the sand and twisting themselves into pretzels yelling "it's a coincidence" every time a child regresses into chronic poor health after vaccination.
The last thing we need to do is return to the dark ages when we allowed ourselves to be treated like the infants whose lives we entrusted without question to paternalistic pediatricians patting us on the head. You don't have to have an M.D. or Ph.D. written after your name to become an informed health care consumer and weigh the benefits and risks of vaccination in order to make an intelligent, well considered vaccine decision for your child or yourself.
Unquestioning faith belongs in a church and not in a doctor's office.
__________________________________________
"Tonight, on the CBS Evening News, we dig into the allegations of financial conflicts of interest among some widely-quoted "independent" voices in the debates over vaccine safety. We weren't as lucky as Grassley: The groups we approached refused to provide us with a full accounting of their financial relationships. Although two of the groups receive tax benefits for their non-profit status, they are not required to file such details with the IRS and would not provide them to us, either. In the case of a prominent vaccine specialist who is routinely offered up as an "independent" voice to speak on vaccine safety, he, too, was unwilling to disclose to us how much remuneration he's received from the vaccine industry. And the vaccine companies we asked? They said they would not, or could not give such information as: financial support they give to educational institutions, physicians and research projects; a list of outside physicians who are on the payroll as researchers, speakers, advisors or consultants; and an accounting of funding provided to non-profits, medical organizations and government entities such as IOM, NIH, CDC and FDA." - Sharyl Attkisson, CBS News Blog (June 25, 2008) http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2008/07/25/couricandco/entry4295088.shtml?source=search_story
"The vaccine industry gives millions to the Academy of Pediatrics for conferences, grants, medical education classes and even helped build their headquarters.... Every Child By Two, a group that promotes early immunization for all children, admits the group takes money from the vaccine industry, too - but wouldn't tell us how much. A spokesman told CBS News: "There are simply no conflicts to be unearthed." But guess who's listed as the group's treasurers? Officials from Wyeth and a paid advisor to big pharmaceutical clients. Then there's Paul Offit, perhaps the most widely-quoted defender of vaccine safety. He's gone so far as to say babies can tolerate "10,000 vaccines at once." This is how Offit described himself in a previous interview: "I'm the chief of infectious disease at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and a professor of pediatrics at Penn's medical school," he said. Offit was not willing to be interviewed on this subject but like others in this CBS News investigation, he has strong industry ties. In fact, he's a vaccine industry insider. Offit holds in a $1.5 million dollar research chair at Children's Hospital, funded by Merck. He holds the patent on an anti- diarrhea vaccine he developed with Merck, Rotateq, which has prevented thousands of hospitalizations. And future royalties for the vaccine were just sold for $182 million cash. Dr. Offit's share of vaccine profits? Unknown." - Sharyl Attkisson, CBS News (June 25, 2008)
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/07/25/cbsnews_investigates/main4296175.shtml
"Voices For Vaccines objects to the defamatory allegations made by the CBS Evening News on Friday, July 25, against the American Academy of Pediatrics, Every Child By Two, and the Vaccine Education Center at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, with our colleague Dr. Paul Offit singled out for baseless criticism. It is our privilege to partner with these institutions in our mission to disseminate reliable information about vaccines. These groups advocate for immunization based on the overwhelming evidence for the lifesaving power of vaccination, and motivated by a sincere concern for the health of America's children. It is preposterous and deeply offensive for CBS to suggest otherwise by insinuating that the pharmaceutical industry improperly influences the views of these vaccine advocate.... An obvious starting point for an unbiased reporter assigned to investigate this possibility would have been to determine whether the advocates' recommendations were in accord with the scientific consensus on immunization, as articulated by neutral bodies such as the World Health Organization and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention....." - Lisa Randall, Voices for Vaccines letter to CBS (July 31, 2008) http://voicesforvaccines.org/Blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/cbs-vaccine-letter1.pdf
"The new "Vaccinate Your Baby" campaign will address misperceptions about vaccines that cause confusion among parents and put children at risk. "When I was pregnant with my daughter Frankie, I had all kinds of questions, including ones about immunization," said Ms. Peet. "There is a wealth of misinformation about vaccines out there, particularly in Hollywood. My husband and I took the time to speak to several doctors about our concerns. What became clear to us was that delaying vaccines could jeopardize our baby's life. I have teamed up with Every Child By Two to help parents get the facts straight on this very important issue." Ms. Peet added, "My main message to parents is that they should not be taking medical advice from me or any other celebrity. They should look to their pediatrician, the AAP and other experts." - Every Child by Two Press Release (August 5, 2008)
http://www.vaccinateyourbaby.org/news/releases/2008/080805_peet_ecbt.cfm
Vaccination, Ignorance, Prejudice & Greed
by Barbara Loe Fisher
www.vaccineawakening.blogspot.com
www.NVIC.org
www.StandUpBeCounted.org
Setting up the Unlocking Autism & NVIC exhibit at Netroots Nation the morning of July 17, 2008
It has been a challenging week for families living with the reality of autism and for those educating Americans about the need to institute vaccine safety and informed consent protections in public health programs. It was a week when individual extremists from the political right and the left revealed their capacity for ignorance and prejudice, even as many enlightened Americans demonstrated their capacity for understanding, concern and compassion. It was a week that ended with a revelation that the American Academy of Pediatrics, Every Child by Two and the pediatrician leading a national effort to eliminate exemptions to vaccination, Paul Offit, M.D., are all taking big money from big Pharma.
Several months ago when Unlocking Autism (UA) President Shelley Reynolds called me and asked if NVIC would join UA in mounting a major exhibit at the Netroots Nation progressive blogger conference in Austin, TX July 17-19, I knew it would be an opportunity to reach out to several thousand Americans blogging on important social and political issues. We worked hard to create a professional exhibit (the largest in the Exhibit Hall) that would include representatives from SAFEMINDS, TACA, and Age of Autism contributing information and helping to staff the booth.
The theme of our exhibit was "Vaccine Safety: What's Choice Got To Do With It?" and the buttons and t-shirts we wore said "Vaccines: Our Children. Our Choice. Our Vote" while the facts listed on the 16 foot high tower exhibit included "Vaccine Market: $21 Billion" and "Toxic Vaccine Ingredients" and "One-Size-Fits-All Vaccine Policies" and "No Vaccine Risk Research" and "Autism: 1 in 150 children; 1 in 94 boys; $3.2M per child" and "Giving Mercury to Children on Purpose Is Stupid." We were ready to answer questions from the more than 2,000 bloggers showing up to listen to Howard Dean, Nancy Pelosi, Al Gore and other speakers talk about issues important to Democrats as well as the nation.
While we were finishing setting up our exhibit on the morning of July 17, Shelley and I, along with Rebecca Estepp (TACA), Theresa Wrangham (SAFEMINDS), Kevin Barry, Paul Arthur (NVIC) and my son, Chris, started networking with other exhibitors. (Later we would be joined by Mark Blaxill from Age of Autism and attorney Jim Moody). The booth directly across from us was Media Matters.
As the bloggers came into the Exhibit Hall and walked by our booth, we handed out vaccine information. Suddenly, a middle-aged woman with a scowl on her face appeared and screamed "baby killer" at Becky but refused to engage in a conversation. Later we were told that several complaints had been lodged with the convention organizers (to which the organizers responded that Netroots Nation welcomed open dialogue on such an important health issue).
A few hours later we learned about the obscene tirade that conservative shock jock Michael Savage had let loose on children with autism and asthma. We had a conversation with our new blogger friends at the Media Matters booth, who were quite familiar with his rants.
By the end of the day, Media Matters, had set their blogger sights on Savage. Their quick action played a major role in galvanizing both the autism community and enlightened Americans from both sides of the political spectrum disgusted by the cruelty of mindless prejudice against children and families suffering with autism and asthma through no fault of their own. Big advertisers like Aflac, Radio Shack and Sears pulled their ads from Savage's nationally syndicated radio show. Radio stations in Virginia, Ohio, Mississippi and elsewhere canceled the show.
During the Netroots Nation convention, we were approached by many bloggers who either had a child with autism in their own family or knew a family living with autism. Pregnant women stopped by our exhibit to learn more about mercury in influenza vaccines. Others stopped by to describe vaccine reactions they or a loved one had suffered in the past. Several longtime NVIC members came up to greet us, grateful that we were there. My son, Chris, brought his camera and filmed my interviews with several bloggers and exhibitors expressing their opinions on topics such as vaccine mandates http://www.youtube.com/v/G_DHFWJpaxU
and diabetes and vaccination http://www.youtube.com/v/tMiWFlCqJ9E
On the last day of the convention, we put our brochures on the luncheon tables. During the final hour, the scowling woman reappeared to hurl one last hateful insult at us. This time she targeted my son, who has come so far in the 28 years since the neurological reaction to his fourth DPT shot that left him with multiple learning disabilities and ADD. She called Chris a "traitor" and shouted "where are your double blind studies?" and then, as he tried to bring me over to speak with her, she ran away shouting "I didn't think so!" before a conversation could take place.
The events of the past week reinforce the fact that ignorance and hate does not belong to any one political party or ideology. The extremists on the right and the left meet at a dangerous intersection which threatens freedom and diminishes the value of individual life.
And when doctors and organizations denying vaccine risks persuade naive public figures to demonize others for making independent vaccine choices, it contributes to an ugly climate of fear and divisiveness. When it turns out those same doctors and organizations get big money from drug companies selling vaccines, the public has no reason to trust what they say or tell us to do.
Vaccination is a subject that elicits emotional responses from both those promoting forced use of multiple vaccines and those defending the human right to informed consent to vaccination. It involves a personal examination of what we know, fear, believe and value because what we choose to do can profoundly affect the health and lives of those we love the most.
Many of the conversations taking place in private and public forums about vaccination are civil and, hopefully, most Americans will turn away from those letting fear, prejudice or greed define who they are. In any case, we should never let someone else define who we are or dictate what we can or cannot do when it comes to protecting the health of our children.
_________________________________________
"What Michael Savage said was foolish, mean-spirited, and hurtful," said J. Jioni Palmer, spokesman for Media Matters. "It's unfortunate he would use his radio program to make fun of and belittle these kids. Instead of ridicule and cheap shots, the children suffering from autism and asthma and their families need support and compassion." During the July 16 edition of his show, Savage claimed that autism is "[a] fraud, a racket.... I'll tell you what autism is. In 99 percent of the cases, it's a brat who hasn't been told to cut the act out. That's what autism is. What do you mean they scream and they're silent? They don't have a father around to tell them, 'Don't act like a moron. You'll get nowhere in life. Stop acting like a putz. Straighten up. Act like a man. Don't sit there crying and screaming, idiot.' Savage also stated: "[W]hy was there an asthma epidemic amongst minority children? Because I'll tell you why: The children got extra welfare if they were disabled, and they got extra help in school. It was a money racket. Everyone went in and was told [fake cough], "When the nurse looks at you, you go [fake cough], "I don't know, the dust got me." "See, everyone had asthma from the minority community." - Media Matters (July 18, 2008) http://mediamatters.org/items/200807180001
"Conservative radio talk show jock Michael Savage used his nationally syndicated show Monday to defend his controversial remarks on autism, even as outraged parents protested outside the Manhattan offices of his broadcaster, calling for his firing. "My comments about autism were meant to boldly awaken parents and children to the medical community's attempt to label too many children or adults as 'autistic,' Savage wrote on his Web site and read on his broadcast Monday. "Many children are being victimized by being diagnosed with an "illness" which may not exist in all cases. .....Let the truly autistic be treated. Let the falsely diagnosed be free.".....His controversial remarks drove several dozen parents and advocates Monday to protest outside WOR-710 in Manhattan. "That isn't just freedom of speech, it is hateful speech when you say 99 percent of children with autism are brats," said Evelyn Ain, whose 8-year-old son has been diagnosed with autism and who organized the demonstration. "I'll tell you, I wish I had a brat." - Carol Polsky, Newsday (June 21, 2008) http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/nation/am-sav0721,0,1239587.story
Eventually her brother-in-law arranged a series of phone calls between Peet and his own mentor, Paul Offit, M.D., who is chief of infectious diseases at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, a co-inventor of the rotavirus vaccine, and a board member of Every Child by Two, a pro-vaccine organization co-founded in 1991 by former first lady Rosalynn Carter. "Once we had spoken, I was shocked at the amount of misinformation floating around, particularly in Hollywood," says Peet, who quickly boned up on the hot-button controversies surrounding the topic, including the unproven link between certain vaccines and autism; the safety of preservatives like mercury-based thimerosal; and the fear that the relatively high number of shots kids receive today can overwhelm young immune systems. Her conclusion? Well, not only is Frankie up-to-date on her vaccines (with no staggering), but her mom will soon appear in public-service announcements for Every Child by Two. "I buy 99 percent organic food for Frankie, and I don't like to give her medicine or put sunscreen on her," says Peet. "But now that I've done my research, vaccines do not concern me." What does concern her is the growing number of unvaccinated children who are benefiting from the "shield" created by the inoculated-we are protected from viruses only if everyone, or most everyone, is immunized: "Frankly, I feel that parents who don't vaccinate their children are parasites." - Jennifer Tung, Cookie Magazine (July 12, 2008) http://www.cookiemag.com/entertainment/2008/07/amandapeet
"The vaccine industry gives millions to the Academy of Pediatrics for conferences, grants, medical education classes and even helped build their headquarters. The totals are kept secret, but public documents reveal bits and pieces.....Every Child By Two, a group that promotes early immunization for all children, admits the group takes money from the vaccine industry, too - but wouldn't tell us how much. A spokesman told CBS News: "There are simply no conflicts to be unearthed." But guess who's listed as the group's treasurers? Officials from Wyeth and a paid advisor to big pharmaceutical clients..... Offit was not willing to be interviewed on this subject but like others in this CBS News investigation, he has strong industry ties. In fact, he's a vaccine industry insider. Offit holds in a $1.5 million dollar research chair at Children's Hospital, funded by Merck. He holds the patent on an anti-diarrhea vaccine he developed with Merck, Rotateq, which has prevented thousands of hospitalizations. And future royalties for the vaccine were just sold for $182 million cash. Dr. Offit's share of vaccine profits? Unknown." - Sharyl Attkisson, CBS-TV News (July 25, 2008) http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/07/25/cbsnews_investigates/main4296175.shtm
www.vaccineawakening.blogspot.com
www.NVIC.org
www.StandUpBeCounted.org
Setting up the Unlocking Autism & NVIC exhibit at Netroots Nation the morning of July 17, 2008 It has been a challenging week for families living with the reality of autism and for those educating Americans about the need to institute vaccine safety and informed consent protections in public health programs. It was a week when individual extremists from the political right and the left revealed their capacity for ignorance and prejudice, even as many enlightened Americans demonstrated their capacity for understanding, concern and compassion. It was a week that ended with a revelation that the American Academy of Pediatrics, Every Child by Two and the pediatrician leading a national effort to eliminate exemptions to vaccination, Paul Offit, M.D., are all taking big money from big Pharma.
Several months ago when Unlocking Autism (UA) President Shelley Reynolds called me and asked if NVIC would join UA in mounting a major exhibit at the Netroots Nation progressive blogger conference in Austin, TX July 17-19, I knew it would be an opportunity to reach out to several thousand Americans blogging on important social and political issues. We worked hard to create a professional exhibit (the largest in the Exhibit Hall) that would include representatives from SAFEMINDS, TACA, and Age of Autism contributing information and helping to staff the booth.
The theme of our exhibit was "Vaccine Safety: What's Choice Got To Do With It?" and the buttons and t-shirts we wore said "Vaccines: Our Children. Our Choice. Our Vote" while the facts listed on the 16 foot high tower exhibit included "Vaccine Market: $21 Billion" and "Toxic Vaccine Ingredients" and "One-Size-Fits-All Vaccine Policies" and "No Vaccine Risk Research" and "Autism: 1 in 150 children; 1 in 94 boys; $3.2M per child" and "Giving Mercury to Children on Purpose Is Stupid." We were ready to answer questions from the more than 2,000 bloggers showing up to listen to Howard Dean, Nancy Pelosi, Al Gore and other speakers talk about issues important to Democrats as well as the nation.
While we were finishing setting up our exhibit on the morning of July 17, Shelley and I, along with Rebecca Estepp (TACA), Theresa Wrangham (SAFEMINDS), Kevin Barry, Paul Arthur (NVIC) and my son, Chris, started networking with other exhibitors. (Later we would be joined by Mark Blaxill from Age of Autism and attorney Jim Moody). The booth directly across from us was Media Matters.
As the bloggers came into the Exhibit Hall and walked by our booth, we handed out vaccine information. Suddenly, a middle-aged woman with a scowl on her face appeared and screamed "baby killer" at Becky but refused to engage in a conversation. Later we were told that several complaints had been lodged with the convention organizers (to which the organizers responded that Netroots Nation welcomed open dialogue on such an important health issue).
A few hours later we learned about the obscene tirade that conservative shock jock Michael Savage had let loose on children with autism and asthma. We had a conversation with our new blogger friends at the Media Matters booth, who were quite familiar with his rants.
By the end of the day, Media Matters, had set their blogger sights on Savage. Their quick action played a major role in galvanizing both the autism community and enlightened Americans from both sides of the political spectrum disgusted by the cruelty of mindless prejudice against children and families suffering with autism and asthma through no fault of their own. Big advertisers like Aflac, Radio Shack and Sears pulled their ads from Savage's nationally syndicated radio show. Radio stations in Virginia, Ohio, Mississippi and elsewhere canceled the show.
During the Netroots Nation convention, we were approached by many bloggers who either had a child with autism in their own family or knew a family living with autism. Pregnant women stopped by our exhibit to learn more about mercury in influenza vaccines. Others stopped by to describe vaccine reactions they or a loved one had suffered in the past. Several longtime NVIC members came up to greet us, grateful that we were there. My son, Chris, brought his camera and filmed my interviews with several bloggers and exhibitors expressing their opinions on topics such as vaccine mandates http://www.youtube.com/v/G_DHFWJpaxU
and diabetes and vaccination http://www.youtube.com/v/tMiWFlCqJ9E
On the last day of the convention, we put our brochures on the luncheon tables. During the final hour, the scowling woman reappeared to hurl one last hateful insult at us. This time she targeted my son, who has come so far in the 28 years since the neurological reaction to his fourth DPT shot that left him with multiple learning disabilities and ADD. She called Chris a "traitor" and shouted "where are your double blind studies?" and then, as he tried to bring me over to speak with her, she ran away shouting "I didn't think so!" before a conversation could take place.
The events of the past week reinforce the fact that ignorance and hate does not belong to any one political party or ideology. The extremists on the right and the left meet at a dangerous intersection which threatens freedom and diminishes the value of individual life.
And when doctors and organizations denying vaccine risks persuade naive public figures to demonize others for making independent vaccine choices, it contributes to an ugly climate of fear and divisiveness. When it turns out those same doctors and organizations get big money from drug companies selling vaccines, the public has no reason to trust what they say or tell us to do.
Vaccination is a subject that elicits emotional responses from both those promoting forced use of multiple vaccines and those defending the human right to informed consent to vaccination. It involves a personal examination of what we know, fear, believe and value because what we choose to do can profoundly affect the health and lives of those we love the most.
Many of the conversations taking place in private and public forums about vaccination are civil and, hopefully, most Americans will turn away from those letting fear, prejudice or greed define who they are. In any case, we should never let someone else define who we are or dictate what we can or cannot do when it comes to protecting the health of our children.
_________________________________________
"What Michael Savage said was foolish, mean-spirited, and hurtful," said J. Jioni Palmer, spokesman for Media Matters. "It's unfortunate he would use his radio program to make fun of and belittle these kids. Instead of ridicule and cheap shots, the children suffering from autism and asthma and their families need support and compassion." During the July 16 edition of his show, Savage claimed that autism is "[a] fraud, a racket.... I'll tell you what autism is. In 99 percent of the cases, it's a brat who hasn't been told to cut the act out. That's what autism is. What do you mean they scream and they're silent? They don't have a father around to tell them, 'Don't act like a moron. You'll get nowhere in life. Stop acting like a putz. Straighten up. Act like a man. Don't sit there crying and screaming, idiot.' Savage also stated: "[W]hy was there an asthma epidemic amongst minority children? Because I'll tell you why: The children got extra welfare if they were disabled, and they got extra help in school. It was a money racket. Everyone went in and was told [fake cough], "When the nurse looks at you, you go [fake cough], "I don't know, the dust got me." "See, everyone had asthma from the minority community." - Media Matters (July 18, 2008) http://mediamatters.org/items/200807180001
"Conservative radio talk show jock Michael Savage used his nationally syndicated show Monday to defend his controversial remarks on autism, even as outraged parents protested outside the Manhattan offices of his broadcaster, calling for his firing. "My comments about autism were meant to boldly awaken parents and children to the medical community's attempt to label too many children or adults as 'autistic,' Savage wrote on his Web site and read on his broadcast Monday. "Many children are being victimized by being diagnosed with an "illness" which may not exist in all cases. .....Let the truly autistic be treated. Let the falsely diagnosed be free.".....His controversial remarks drove several dozen parents and advocates Monday to protest outside WOR-710 in Manhattan. "That isn't just freedom of speech, it is hateful speech when you say 99 percent of children with autism are brats," said Evelyn Ain, whose 8-year-old son has been diagnosed with autism and who organized the demonstration. "I'll tell you, I wish I had a brat." - Carol Polsky, Newsday (June 21, 2008) http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/nation/am-sav0721,0,1239587.story
Eventually her brother-in-law arranged a series of phone calls between Peet and his own mentor, Paul Offit, M.D., who is chief of infectious diseases at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, a co-inventor of the rotavirus vaccine, and a board member of Every Child by Two, a pro-vaccine organization co-founded in 1991 by former first lady Rosalynn Carter. "Once we had spoken, I was shocked at the amount of misinformation floating around, particularly in Hollywood," says Peet, who quickly boned up on the hot-button controversies surrounding the topic, including the unproven link between certain vaccines and autism; the safety of preservatives like mercury-based thimerosal; and the fear that the relatively high number of shots kids receive today can overwhelm young immune systems. Her conclusion? Well, not only is Frankie up-to-date on her vaccines (with no staggering), but her mom will soon appear in public-service announcements for Every Child by Two. "I buy 99 percent organic food for Frankie, and I don't like to give her medicine or put sunscreen on her," says Peet. "But now that I've done my research, vaccines do not concern me." What does concern her is the growing number of unvaccinated children who are benefiting from the "shield" created by the inoculated-we are protected from viruses only if everyone, or most everyone, is immunized: "Frankly, I feel that parents who don't vaccinate their children are parasites." - Jennifer Tung, Cookie Magazine (July 12, 2008) http://www.cookiemag.com/entertainment/2008/07/amandapeet
"The vaccine industry gives millions to the Academy of Pediatrics for conferences, grants, medical education classes and even helped build their headquarters. The totals are kept secret, but public documents reveal bits and pieces.....Every Child By Two, a group that promotes early immunization for all children, admits the group takes money from the vaccine industry, too - but wouldn't tell us how much. A spokesman told CBS News: "There are simply no conflicts to be unearthed." But guess who's listed as the group's treasurers? Officials from Wyeth and a paid advisor to big pharmaceutical clients..... Offit was not willing to be interviewed on this subject but like others in this CBS News investigation, he has strong industry ties. In fact, he's a vaccine industry insider. Offit holds in a $1.5 million dollar research chair at Children's Hospital, funded by Merck. He holds the patent on an anti-diarrhea vaccine he developed with Merck, Rotateq, which has prevented thousands of hospitalizations. And future royalties for the vaccine were just sold for $182 million cash. Dr. Offit's share of vaccine profits? Unknown." - Sharyl Attkisson, CBS-TV News (July 25, 2008) http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/07/25/cbsnews_investigates/main4296175.shtm
Vaccine Facts & Choice: Drawing the Lines
by Barbara Loe Fisher
http://www.vaccineawakening.blogspot.com/
http://www.nvic.org/
http://www.standupbecounted.org/
As the battle lines are being drawn between those who want to force all children to use 69 doses of 16 vaccines and those who are defending the right of parents to exercise voluntary, informed consent to vaccination, it is coming down to a matter of whose message do you trust. Should government health officials, pediatricians and vaccine manufacturers, who have been denying vaccine risks for three decades, be trusted to be defacto lawmakers and force vaccination on everyone or should Americans be allowed to become informed about vaccination and legally make voluntary vaccine choices?
Tonight, July 17, Louise Kao Habakus will be speaking about "Vaccination: Building a Case for Education and Choice" at the Atlantis Ballroom, Tom's River Holiday Inn in Tom's River, NJ at 7.pm.. The mother of two children, Louise is standing up for the right to know and the freedom to decide. The presentation is free but to reserve a seat, send e-mail to terrymillsvactalk@hotmail.com
As more parents report that their young girls are suffering disabling reactions to GARDASIL (see a video clip of the WUSA-TV coverage), doctors determined to coverup HPV vaccine risks are giving out inaccurate information (see video clip of a FOX News story ) while public health officials defending vaccine safety write books and parents want more information and choices.
All Americans deserve the right to be fully informed about the risks associated with any pharmaceutical products or medical procedure and be allowed to make a voluntary decision about taking that risk with their own life or the life of their child. The right to informed consent to medical risk taking is a human right.
__________________________________________
"Christina Bell says 2 weeks after her 12 year old daughter Brittany was injected with the HPV vaccine, "she was walking through my house and collapsed. She told me, she couldn't feel her leg." Today, this once athletic girl has a hard time getting around and often loses her balance. Jessica Vega of Nevada got the shot at school and became temporarily paralyzed. Jamie Venice of Florida passed out and had a seizure after her Gardasil shot. "I don't think this should have been fast-tracked by the FDA," says Barbara Loe Fisher with the National Vaccine Information Center. She says Merck, the manufacturer of the drug managed to get Gardasil approved and to market, after studying the side-effects in just 12- hundred girls. What was their incentive? "It certainly is money because the bottom line for their stock holders is a profit," she says. She claims Merck has taken in an estimated 1.5 billion dollars world-wide from Gardasil sales, all for a vaccine she says may do more harm than good. She says doctors share in the blame. "I think pediatricians need to pay more attention to the patient that's sitting in front of them, rather than thinking they need to implement government policy or promote a new vaccine that a drug company rep has come in and promoted to them."The debate over the HPV vaccine rages on in Virginia after it became the first state in the country to mandate the vaccine for sixth grade girls, albeit with an opt-out provision. Those requirements have been delayed for at least one year to allow more time to study the vaccine's effects on young girls." - Nancy Yamada, WUSA-TV9 (July 7, 2008) http://www.wusa9.com/rss/local_article.aspx?storyid=73698
"It remains to be seen whether the new book will answer all queries. "You are going to continue to see parents doing their own research and coming up with a lot of questions," said Barbara Loe Fisher, a frequent critic of vaccines and co-founder of the National Vaccine Information Center, a nonprofit, parent-led organization that seeks to change the mass vaccination process to allow more opt-out flexibility regarding immunizations. She said she looks forward to reading the book but wonders if it will address the issue now being raised about the effect on children's health of recent expansion in the recommended vaccine schedule. "I've seen the number of vaccines double and the number of doses triple," Fisher said. "No matter what is published in that book, it is still an outstanding question until health authorities give us the answer as to why so many highly vaccinated children are so sick." - Susan J. Landers, American Medical News (July 7, 2008)
http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2008/07/07/hlsa0707.htm
Gardasil Controversy: Are the HPV Vaccine's Side Effects a Legitimate Concern?
produced by Ben Evansky
Fox News
July 11, 2008
TO VIEW VIDEO CLIP:
http://www.foxnews.com/video2/video08.html?maven_referralObject=2233990&maven_referralPlaylistId=&sRevUrl=http://www.foxnews.com/health/index.html
http://www.vaccineawakening.blogspot.com/
http://www.nvic.org/
http://www.standupbecounted.org/
As the battle lines are being drawn between those who want to force all children to use 69 doses of 16 vaccines and those who are defending the right of parents to exercise voluntary, informed consent to vaccination, it is coming down to a matter of whose message do you trust. Should government health officials, pediatricians and vaccine manufacturers, who have been denying vaccine risks for three decades, be trusted to be defacto lawmakers and force vaccination on everyone or should Americans be allowed to become informed about vaccination and legally make voluntary vaccine choices?
Tonight, July 17, Louise Kao Habakus will be speaking about "Vaccination: Building a Case for Education and Choice" at the Atlantis Ballroom, Tom's River Holiday Inn in Tom's River, NJ at 7.pm.. The mother of two children, Louise is standing up for the right to know and the freedom to decide. The presentation is free but to reserve a seat, send e-mail to terrymillsvactalk@hotmail.com
As more parents report that their young girls are suffering disabling reactions to GARDASIL (see a video clip of the WUSA-TV coverage), doctors determined to coverup HPV vaccine risks are giving out inaccurate information (see video clip of a FOX News story ) while public health officials defending vaccine safety write books and parents want more information and choices.
All Americans deserve the right to be fully informed about the risks associated with any pharmaceutical products or medical procedure and be allowed to make a voluntary decision about taking that risk with their own life or the life of their child. The right to informed consent to medical risk taking is a human right.
__________________________________________
"Christina Bell says 2 weeks after her 12 year old daughter Brittany was injected with the HPV vaccine, "she was walking through my house and collapsed. She told me, she couldn't feel her leg." Today, this once athletic girl has a hard time getting around and often loses her balance. Jessica Vega of Nevada got the shot at school and became temporarily paralyzed. Jamie Venice of Florida passed out and had a seizure after her Gardasil shot. "I don't think this should have been fast-tracked by the FDA," says Barbara Loe Fisher with the National Vaccine Information Center. She says Merck, the manufacturer of the drug managed to get Gardasil approved and to market, after studying the side-effects in just 12- hundred girls. What was their incentive? "It certainly is money because the bottom line for their stock holders is a profit," she says. She claims Merck has taken in an estimated 1.5 billion dollars world-wide from Gardasil sales, all for a vaccine she says may do more harm than good. She says doctors share in the blame. "I think pediatricians need to pay more attention to the patient that's sitting in front of them, rather than thinking they need to implement government policy or promote a new vaccine that a drug company rep has come in and promoted to them."The debate over the HPV vaccine rages on in Virginia after it became the first state in the country to mandate the vaccine for sixth grade girls, albeit with an opt-out provision. Those requirements have been delayed for at least one year to allow more time to study the vaccine's effects on young girls." - Nancy Yamada, WUSA-TV9 (July 7, 2008) http://www.wusa9.com/rss/local_article.aspx?storyid=73698
"It remains to be seen whether the new book will answer all queries. "You are going to continue to see parents doing their own research and coming up with a lot of questions," said Barbara Loe Fisher, a frequent critic of vaccines and co-founder of the National Vaccine Information Center, a nonprofit, parent-led organization that seeks to change the mass vaccination process to allow more opt-out flexibility regarding immunizations. She said she looks forward to reading the book but wonders if it will address the issue now being raised about the effect on children's health of recent expansion in the recommended vaccine schedule. "I've seen the number of vaccines double and the number of doses triple," Fisher said. "No matter what is published in that book, it is still an outstanding question until health authorities give us the answer as to why so many highly vaccinated children are so sick." - Susan J. Landers, American Medical News (July 7, 2008)
http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2008/07/07/hlsa0707.htm
Gardasil Controversy: Are the HPV Vaccine's Side Effects a Legitimate Concern?
produced by Ben Evansky
Fox News
July 11, 2008
TO VIEW VIDEO CLIP:
http://www.foxnews.com/video2/video08.html?maven_referralObject=2233990&maven_referralPlaylistId=&sRevUrl=http://www.foxnews.com/health/index.html
HPV Vaccine Victims Pile Up: $1.5B for Merck
by Barbara Loe Fisher
http://www.vaccineawakening.blogspot.com/
http://www.nvic.org/
http://www.standupbecounted.org/
While Merck has pulled in $1.5B from sales of GARDASIL vaccine worldwide, there are continuing reports that girls are being crippled and dying after getting the HPV vaccine fast tracked and licensed by the FDA in 2006. Although the roll-out of GARDASIL with an unparalleled multi-million dollar mass media advertising blitz has created a profitable market for the drug company that took huge losses from Vioxx injury/death lawsuits, the persistent reports of Guillain Barre Syndrome (GBS) paralysis, arthritis, seizures and sudden loss of consciousness within 24 hours of vaccination continue to haunt the marketing campaign.
Last week Judicial Watch issued a report on more than 8,000 GARDASIL reaction reports to the federal Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) obtained under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). A search of the VAERS database , which includes reaction reports through April 30, 2008 released to the public by the FDA, reveals nearly 6,700 reports of injury and death after GARDASIL. Two GARDASIL vaccine injury claims recently were filed in the federal Vaccine Injury Compensation Program under the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of 1986.
Exactly two years ago, NVIC sounded the first public warning about GARDASIL risks pointing out that Merck had not adequately proven the vaccine was safe and effective to give to girls under age 16. NVIC pointed out that pre- licensure trials were flawed because they used an aluminum containing placebo that may have masked the true reactivity of GARDASIL, which also contains 225 mcg of aluminum. Like mercury, aluminum can cause inflammation in the body and kill brain cells.
The fact that Merck had only studied the vaccine in fewer than 1200 girls under age 16 and followed them up for less than two years before licensure did not seem to bother doctors working for the CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), who saluted Merck smartly and promptly recommended that all 11 year old girls entering sixth grade get three doses.
By the end of 2006, Merck had marshaled its well- paid lobbying forces bolstered by a flashy television advertising campaign in an unprecedented effort to persuade legislators in every state to turn CDC recommendations into law and pass HPV vaccine mandates. Texas Governor Rick Perry went so far as to issue an Executive Order mandating the vaccine for all sixth grade girls.
GARDASIL had only been on the market for a few months and nobody, including Merck, knew the full range of side effects when GARDASIL was given to millions of girls entering puberty. Nevertheless, the pressure was on young girls, their parents and state legislators to trust blindly that the vaccine had no real risks.
In early 2007, NVIC again warned the public that there were significant risks associated with GARDASIL , especially when it was combined with other vaccines. NVIC warned that there was evidence that giving GARDASIL during active HPV infection may increase the risk for cervical cancer while girls were not being tested for active HPV infection before getting vaccinated. NVIC also advised that girls should not drive home after getting the shot because of the risk for sudden loss of consciousness after leaving the doctor's office.
In March 2007, the CDC admitted that there was no scientific evidence that GARDASIL can be safely co- administered with other vaccines (like TDaP, meningococcal, varicella, MMR, influenza). Even so, without a second thought, the CDC urged doctors to assume safety and go ahead and give GARDASIL simultaneously with other vaccines.
By end of May 2007 almost every state had rejected proposed mandates for GARDASIL vaccine and there were more than 2,000 GARDASIL adverse events reported to VAERS. In August 2007, NVIC released a comprehensive analysis of GARDASIL reaction reports to VAERS and a critique of the CDC's universal use recommendation. In a letter, NVIC asked the CDC to warn doctors that the simultaneous administration of Menactra with GARDASIL increases the risk for GBS and other serious adverse event reports.
The CDC chose to blow off NVIC's report and do nothing.
Two years after licensure, it is clear that GARDASIL has plenty of risks for young girls. Among the more than 130 GARDASIL reaction reports that have been filed with NVIC's 26-year old Vaccine Reaction Registry is one that was posted by a mother, who witnessed what happened to her daughter on the International Memorial for Vaccine Victims.
Amanda's mother describes her daughter as "a beautiful, active girl that was brought down." Only 14 when she was vaccinated, Amanda "became weak, tired and sick to her stomach" but the symptoms subsided. One week after the second HPV vaccination, her legs "became very weak and she started losing feeling in her feet." She was hospitalized in the Intensive Care Unit for four days with a diagnosis of Guillain-Barre Syndrome.
Amanda's mother said "The doctors thought we were CRAZY when we mentioned that the HPV vaccine could cause this."
"Amanda is constantly sick," says her Mom. "Something has suppressed her immune system so badly she can barely function. The depression got really bad because she is experiencing a lot of pain in her knees now and can't do any sports. She was once very active and right now can barely go to school We were told me her doctors that there is nothing more that they can do and that she could use a good psychiatrist."
How many more girls like Amanda and her mother have had their futures stolen by a vaccine that is supposed to prevent a viral infection that is cleared without any residual effects by more than 90 percent of all who get it to prevent a cancer that causes less than 1 percent of all new cancer cases and cancer deaths in the U.S. every year? Did Amanda and her mother know that cervical cancer can be prevented nearly 100 percent of the time with annual pap smears and early intervention when pre-cancerous cervical lesions are diagnosed?
Or did Amanda's Mom believe Amanda would be "one less" because a pediatrician told her so?
NVIC continues to receive reports from grieving mothers and fathers who can't find doctors to treat their once-healthy daughters who are now chronically ill and disabled after being injected with GARDASIL. In almost every case, the doctors are denying the vaccine had anything to do with what happened.
The tragic denial by the medical profession of the harm vaccines can do continues decade after decade after decade. When will doctors stop being marketers of pharmaceutical products and implementers of government policy and embrace the moral imperative to "first, do no harm?"
The "its all a coincidence" defense mounted by doctors when something bad happens after vaccination is illogical, unscientific and dangerous. When will Americans get up off their knees and stop worshipping men and women in white coats who do not know what they are doing?
__________________________________________
"Katherine Kimzey started suffering debilitating headaches, fainting spells and arthritis-like stiffness last November. Six weeks later, the 14-year-old Dallas resident became so dizzy she could barely walk. She was hospitalized and missed three weeks of school. Then, she had a seizure. For weeks, she bounced back and forth between specialists and was eventually diagnosed with epilepsy. Katherine's mother, Michelle Kimzey, now believes her daughter's symptoms were caused by a new vaccine that was supposed to protect her against cervical cancer...... The HPV vaccine has generated debate across the country and in Texas. Gov. Rick Perry issued an executive order in February 2007 requiring that all sixth-grade girls get the HPV shot. But angry parents and conservative groups fought the mandate, fearing it condoned premarital sex and took away parental rights. The Legislature defeated the order last April. The National Vaccine Information Center heralded the decision, saying that testing of the vaccine was not extensive enough in girls under 12. The nonprofit center had already started warning about the possibility of adverse reactions such as extreme fatigue, arthritis and loss of consciousness. Barbara Loe Fisher, co-founder and president of the center, said she's frustrated that the CDC has "assumed safety" for Gardasil, which has been tested only in conjunction with the vaccine for Hepatitis B. Today, girls often receive the Gardasil shot at the same time as a meningitis vaccine and another new booster that immunizes against tetanus, diphtheria and pertussis. The FDA has approved all the vaccines separately, but studies on administering them together are still ongoing. "Not only was Gardasil put on the fast track and licensed quickly," said Ms. Fisher, "but to say safety is assumed and you can give any vaccine with it is even more shocking." - Jessica Myers, Dallas Morning News (June 6, 2008) http: //www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/local news/stories/DN- vaccine_06met.ART.North.Edition1.46ef875.html
"Gardasil has been a shot in the arm for pharmaceutical giant Merck. The company had been reeling from the withdrawal of its anti-arthritis drug Vioxx because of increased risk of heart attacks and resulting lawsuits. Now, however, Merck's new vaccine against the human papilloma virus (HPV) - aimed at combating cervical cancer - has been deployed worldwide, earning an estimated $1.5 billion in sales. But the drug is coming under increasing fire from anti-vaccine activists. Already very vocal about childhood innoculations, now they are expressing concern about the effects of Merck's drug on young girls, a primary focus of the company's big ad campaign....."This issue is not going away as more and more vaccines are brought to the market," Barbara Loe Fisher, president of the National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC) who became an activist after a serious reaction in her son to a DPT vaccine (a combined innoculation against Diptheria, Whooping Cough - pertussis - and Tetanus). Fisher, who has served on an Federal Drug Administration consumer advisory committee on vaccines, takes issue with the CDC's read of the VAERS Gardasil reports. Her organization, NVIC, has called on the CDC and FDA to warn the public that Gardasil has been associated with at least 15 cases of Guillain-Barre Syndrome (GBS), an autoimmune disorder; and it says there is an increased risk for GBS when Gardasil is co- administered with other vaccines, particularly Menactra, a meningitis vaccine....NVIC is concerned about the growing number of vaccinations required by schools and the push, in some public health quarters, to mandate more vaccines. The political fight has been taken to New York and New Jersey. New York state public health officials have endorsed state legislation that would take the CDC's recommended vaccine list for children and declare it to be mandatory, Fisher says, and she sees that as a move that should alarm parents. Vaccinations should be voluntary, Fisher says, and be made with "informed consent" by parents." - Hilary Hylton-Austin, Time/CNN (June 19, 2008) http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1816507,00.html
"Judicial Watch, the public interest group that investigates and prosecutes government corruption, today released a report based on new documents obtained from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) under the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act, detailing reports of adverse reactions to the vaccination for human papillomavirus (HPV), Gardasil. The adverse reactions include 10 deaths since September, 2007. (The total number of death reports is at least 18 and as many as 20.) The FDA also produced 140 "serious" reports (27 of which were categorized as "life threatening"), 10 spontaneous abortions and six cases of Guillain-Barre Syndrome - all since January 2008." - Judicial Watch (June 30, 2008) http://www.judicialwatch.org/news/2008/jun/judicial-watch-uncovers-new-fda-records-detailing-ten-new-deaths-140-serious-adverse-e
"About a month after being vaccinated against the cervical cancer-causing HPV virus, 13- year-old Jenny Tetlock missed the lowest hurdle in gym class, the first hint of the degenerative muscle disease that, 15 months later, has left the previously healthy teenager nearly completely paralyzed....Her father, Philip Tetlock, a psychology professor at UC- Berkeley's Haas School of Business, has embarked on an odyssey to find out whether the vaccine or random coincidence is to blame..... Tetlock, though, wonders if Jenny carries genes that predisposed her to problems with the Gardasil vaccine. At age 10, Jenny developed a rare skin disease called pityriasis lichenoides that's thought to be triggered by an overactive immune system, and her grandmother died of a nervous system disease. Could it be that certain genetic tendencies make some people more likely to develop severe reactions from vaccines?....Jenny endures terrible suffering each day."..... "She must watch her capacity to control her own body gradually ebb away-and each day her hopes of ever having a normal human life recede ever further into memory. The disease is cruel beyond belief." - Deborah Kotz, US News & World Report (July 2, 2008) http://www.usnews.com/blogs/on-women/2008/07/02/is-hpv-vaccine-to-blame-for-a-teens-paralysis.html
"Lawyers last month filed the first two claims on behalf of girls with ailments blamed on Gardasil under a federal program to compensate victims of vaccine-caused illness, The Post has learned. Both girls got the injections at their middle schools. One is Jesalee Parsons, now 15, of Oklahoma, who began vomiting the day she got a Gardasil shot and developed pancreatitis, her claim says. "It makes me mad because they're saying how great it is, but they never mention how many people have been hurt by it," Jesalee told The Post. Healthy all her life, her family says, Jesalee has been hospitalized on and off for more than a year. She restricts her diet, takes pain pills and misses many school days. "I'm pretty sick all the time," she said. The other claim was filed for Jessica Vega of Nevada, who came down with Guillain-Barré Syndrome, an immune-system disorder, at age 14 - a week after her second Gardasil shot. Thirty others have reported the syndrome after getting the vaccine. JESSICA'S mom, Rhonda Vega, says the girl's lower legs and arms were paralyzed, but she's learned to walk again. "Protecting girls against cervical cancer is a fabulous thing, but if this is what's going to happen, they need to research it more," she said......Merck spokeswoman Kelley Dougherty said the company "actively monitors" reports of side effects. "An event report does not mean that a causal relationship between an event and vaccination has been established - just that the event occurred after vaccination," she said. - Susan Edelman and Bruce Golding, New York Post (July 6, 2008) http://www.nypost.com/seven/07062008/news/nationalnews/feds_warning_shot_118716.htm
http://www.vaccineawakening.blogspot.com/
http://www.nvic.org/
http://www.standupbecounted.org/
While Merck has pulled in $1.5B from sales of GARDASIL vaccine worldwide, there are continuing reports that girls are being crippled and dying after getting the HPV vaccine fast tracked and licensed by the FDA in 2006. Although the roll-out of GARDASIL with an unparalleled multi-million dollar mass media advertising blitz has created a profitable market for the drug company that took huge losses from Vioxx injury/death lawsuits, the persistent reports of Guillain Barre Syndrome (GBS) paralysis, arthritis, seizures and sudden loss of consciousness within 24 hours of vaccination continue to haunt the marketing campaign.
Last week Judicial Watch issued a report on more than 8,000 GARDASIL reaction reports to the federal Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) obtained under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). A search of the VAERS database , which includes reaction reports through April 30, 2008 released to the public by the FDA, reveals nearly 6,700 reports of injury and death after GARDASIL. Two GARDASIL vaccine injury claims recently were filed in the federal Vaccine Injury Compensation Program under the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of 1986.
Exactly two years ago, NVIC sounded the first public warning about GARDASIL risks pointing out that Merck had not adequately proven the vaccine was safe and effective to give to girls under age 16. NVIC pointed out that pre- licensure trials were flawed because they used an aluminum containing placebo that may have masked the true reactivity of GARDASIL, which also contains 225 mcg of aluminum. Like mercury, aluminum can cause inflammation in the body and kill brain cells.
The fact that Merck had only studied the vaccine in fewer than 1200 girls under age 16 and followed them up for less than two years before licensure did not seem to bother doctors working for the CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), who saluted Merck smartly and promptly recommended that all 11 year old girls entering sixth grade get three doses.
By the end of 2006, Merck had marshaled its well- paid lobbying forces bolstered by a flashy television advertising campaign in an unprecedented effort to persuade legislators in every state to turn CDC recommendations into law and pass HPV vaccine mandates. Texas Governor Rick Perry went so far as to issue an Executive Order mandating the vaccine for all sixth grade girls.
GARDASIL had only been on the market for a few months and nobody, including Merck, knew the full range of side effects when GARDASIL was given to millions of girls entering puberty. Nevertheless, the pressure was on young girls, their parents and state legislators to trust blindly that the vaccine had no real risks.
In early 2007, NVIC again warned the public that there were significant risks associated with GARDASIL , especially when it was combined with other vaccines. NVIC warned that there was evidence that giving GARDASIL during active HPV infection may increase the risk for cervical cancer while girls were not being tested for active HPV infection before getting vaccinated. NVIC also advised that girls should not drive home after getting the shot because of the risk for sudden loss of consciousness after leaving the doctor's office.
In March 2007, the CDC admitted that there was no scientific evidence that GARDASIL can be safely co- administered with other vaccines (like TDaP, meningococcal, varicella, MMR, influenza). Even so, without a second thought, the CDC urged doctors to assume safety and go ahead and give GARDASIL simultaneously with other vaccines.
By end of May 2007 almost every state had rejected proposed mandates for GARDASIL vaccine and there were more than 2,000 GARDASIL adverse events reported to VAERS. In August 2007, NVIC released a comprehensive analysis of GARDASIL reaction reports to VAERS and a critique of the CDC's universal use recommendation. In a letter, NVIC asked the CDC to warn doctors that the simultaneous administration of Menactra with GARDASIL increases the risk for GBS and other serious adverse event reports.
The CDC chose to blow off NVIC's report and do nothing.
Two years after licensure, it is clear that GARDASIL has plenty of risks for young girls. Among the more than 130 GARDASIL reaction reports that have been filed with NVIC's 26-year old Vaccine Reaction Registry is one that was posted by a mother, who witnessed what happened to her daughter on the International Memorial for Vaccine Victims.
Amanda's mother describes her daughter as "a beautiful, active girl that was brought down." Only 14 when she was vaccinated, Amanda "became weak, tired and sick to her stomach" but the symptoms subsided. One week after the second HPV vaccination, her legs "became very weak and she started losing feeling in her feet." She was hospitalized in the Intensive Care Unit for four days with a diagnosis of Guillain-Barre Syndrome.
Amanda's mother said "The doctors thought we were CRAZY when we mentioned that the HPV vaccine could cause this."
"Amanda is constantly sick," says her Mom. "Something has suppressed her immune system so badly she can barely function. The depression got really bad because she is experiencing a lot of pain in her knees now and can't do any sports. She was once very active and right now can barely go to school We were told me her doctors that there is nothing more that they can do and that she could use a good psychiatrist."
How many more girls like Amanda and her mother have had their futures stolen by a vaccine that is supposed to prevent a viral infection that is cleared without any residual effects by more than 90 percent of all who get it to prevent a cancer that causes less than 1 percent of all new cancer cases and cancer deaths in the U.S. every year? Did Amanda and her mother know that cervical cancer can be prevented nearly 100 percent of the time with annual pap smears and early intervention when pre-cancerous cervical lesions are diagnosed?
Or did Amanda's Mom believe Amanda would be "one less" because a pediatrician told her so?
NVIC continues to receive reports from grieving mothers and fathers who can't find doctors to treat their once-healthy daughters who are now chronically ill and disabled after being injected with GARDASIL. In almost every case, the doctors are denying the vaccine had anything to do with what happened.
The tragic denial by the medical profession of the harm vaccines can do continues decade after decade after decade. When will doctors stop being marketers of pharmaceutical products and implementers of government policy and embrace the moral imperative to "first, do no harm?"
The "its all a coincidence" defense mounted by doctors when something bad happens after vaccination is illogical, unscientific and dangerous. When will Americans get up off their knees and stop worshipping men and women in white coats who do not know what they are doing?
__________________________________________
"Katherine Kimzey started suffering debilitating headaches, fainting spells and arthritis-like stiffness last November. Six weeks later, the 14-year-old Dallas resident became so dizzy she could barely walk. She was hospitalized and missed three weeks of school. Then, she had a seizure. For weeks, she bounced back and forth between specialists and was eventually diagnosed with epilepsy. Katherine's mother, Michelle Kimzey, now believes her daughter's symptoms were caused by a new vaccine that was supposed to protect her against cervical cancer...... The HPV vaccine has generated debate across the country and in Texas. Gov. Rick Perry issued an executive order in February 2007 requiring that all sixth-grade girls get the HPV shot. But angry parents and conservative groups fought the mandate, fearing it condoned premarital sex and took away parental rights. The Legislature defeated the order last April. The National Vaccine Information Center heralded the decision, saying that testing of the vaccine was not extensive enough in girls under 12. The nonprofit center had already started warning about the possibility of adverse reactions such as extreme fatigue, arthritis and loss of consciousness. Barbara Loe Fisher, co-founder and president of the center, said she's frustrated that the CDC has "assumed safety" for Gardasil, which has been tested only in conjunction with the vaccine for Hepatitis B. Today, girls often receive the Gardasil shot at the same time as a meningitis vaccine and another new booster that immunizes against tetanus, diphtheria and pertussis. The FDA has approved all the vaccines separately, but studies on administering them together are still ongoing. "Not only was Gardasil put on the fast track and licensed quickly," said Ms. Fisher, "but to say safety is assumed and you can give any vaccine with it is even more shocking." - Jessica Myers, Dallas Morning News (June 6, 2008) http: //www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/local news/stories/DN- vaccine_06met.ART.North.Edition1.46ef875.html
"Gardasil has been a shot in the arm for pharmaceutical giant Merck. The company had been reeling from the withdrawal of its anti-arthritis drug Vioxx because of increased risk of heart attacks and resulting lawsuits. Now, however, Merck's new vaccine against the human papilloma virus (HPV) - aimed at combating cervical cancer - has been deployed worldwide, earning an estimated $1.5 billion in sales. But the drug is coming under increasing fire from anti-vaccine activists. Already very vocal about childhood innoculations, now they are expressing concern about the effects of Merck's drug on young girls, a primary focus of the company's big ad campaign....."This issue is not going away as more and more vaccines are brought to the market," Barbara Loe Fisher, president of the National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC) who became an activist after a serious reaction in her son to a DPT vaccine (a combined innoculation against Diptheria, Whooping Cough - pertussis - and Tetanus). Fisher, who has served on an Federal Drug Administration consumer advisory committee on vaccines, takes issue with the CDC's read of the VAERS Gardasil reports. Her organization, NVIC, has called on the CDC and FDA to warn the public that Gardasil has been associated with at least 15 cases of Guillain-Barre Syndrome (GBS), an autoimmune disorder; and it says there is an increased risk for GBS when Gardasil is co- administered with other vaccines, particularly Menactra, a meningitis vaccine....NVIC is concerned about the growing number of vaccinations required by schools and the push, in some public health quarters, to mandate more vaccines. The political fight has been taken to New York and New Jersey. New York state public health officials have endorsed state legislation that would take the CDC's recommended vaccine list for children and declare it to be mandatory, Fisher says, and she sees that as a move that should alarm parents. Vaccinations should be voluntary, Fisher says, and be made with "informed consent" by parents." - Hilary Hylton-Austin, Time/CNN (June 19, 2008) http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1816507,00.html
"Judicial Watch, the public interest group that investigates and prosecutes government corruption, today released a report based on new documents obtained from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) under the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act, detailing reports of adverse reactions to the vaccination for human papillomavirus (HPV), Gardasil. The adverse reactions include 10 deaths since September, 2007. (The total number of death reports is at least 18 and as many as 20.) The FDA also produced 140 "serious" reports (27 of which were categorized as "life threatening"), 10 spontaneous abortions and six cases of Guillain-Barre Syndrome - all since January 2008." - Judicial Watch (June 30, 2008) http://www.judicialwatch.org/news/2008/jun/judicial-watch-uncovers-new-fda-records-detailing-ten-new-deaths-140-serious-adverse-e
"About a month after being vaccinated against the cervical cancer-causing HPV virus, 13- year-old Jenny Tetlock missed the lowest hurdle in gym class, the first hint of the degenerative muscle disease that, 15 months later, has left the previously healthy teenager nearly completely paralyzed....Her father, Philip Tetlock, a psychology professor at UC- Berkeley's Haas School of Business, has embarked on an odyssey to find out whether the vaccine or random coincidence is to blame..... Tetlock, though, wonders if Jenny carries genes that predisposed her to problems with the Gardasil vaccine. At age 10, Jenny developed a rare skin disease called pityriasis lichenoides that's thought to be triggered by an overactive immune system, and her grandmother died of a nervous system disease. Could it be that certain genetic tendencies make some people more likely to develop severe reactions from vaccines?....Jenny endures terrible suffering each day."..... "She must watch her capacity to control her own body gradually ebb away-and each day her hopes of ever having a normal human life recede ever further into memory. The disease is cruel beyond belief." - Deborah Kotz, US News & World Report (July 2, 2008) http://www.usnews.com/blogs/on-women/2008/07/02/is-hpv-vaccine-to-blame-for-a-teens-paralysis.html
"Lawyers last month filed the first two claims on behalf of girls with ailments blamed on Gardasil under a federal program to compensate victims of vaccine-caused illness, The Post has learned. Both girls got the injections at their middle schools. One is Jesalee Parsons, now 15, of Oklahoma, who began vomiting the day she got a Gardasil shot and developed pancreatitis, her claim says. "It makes me mad because they're saying how great it is, but they never mention how many people have been hurt by it," Jesalee told The Post. Healthy all her life, her family says, Jesalee has been hospitalized on and off for more than a year. She restricts her diet, takes pain pills and misses many school days. "I'm pretty sick all the time," she said. The other claim was filed for Jessica Vega of Nevada, who came down with Guillain-Barré Syndrome, an immune-system disorder, at age 14 - a week after her second Gardasil shot. Thirty others have reported the syndrome after getting the vaccine. JESSICA'S mom, Rhonda Vega, says the girl's lower legs and arms were paralyzed, but she's learned to walk again. "Protecting girls against cervical cancer is a fabulous thing, but if this is what's going to happen, they need to research it more," she said......Merck spokeswoman Kelley Dougherty said the company "actively monitors" reports of side effects. "An event report does not mean that a causal relationship between an event and vaccination has been established - just that the event occurred after vaccination," she said. - Susan Edelman and Bruce Golding, New York Post (July 6, 2008) http://www.nypost.com/seven/07062008/news/nationalnews/feds_warning_shot_118716.htm
Vaccine-Educated Parents Push Pharma Back in New York
by Barbara Loe Fisher
http://www.vaccineawakening.blogspot.com/
http://www.nvic.org/
http://www.standupbecounted.org/
Vaccine-educated parents in New York stood up for their human right to make informed, voluntary vaccine choices and pushed back Pharma-inspired attempts to pass laws mandating every childhood vaccine the CDC endorses (A10942) and giving children vaccines for sexually transmitted diseases without their parents' knowledge or permission. Parents held rallies and press conferences in Albany at the State Capitol and organized a grassroots email, letter and phone campaign to voice their opposition to all attempts by government officials, drug companies and doctors to force vaccination without parental consent.
The successful challenge by parent activists in New York to powerful and wealthy special interest groups promoting the forced use of multiple vaccines and the removal of non-medical exemptions to vaccination will be followed by a similar grassroots effort in the next legislative session to protect the religious exemption to vaccination (A03064), obtain a philosophical exemption to vaccination (A05468) and widen the medical exemption to vaccination (A03180) in New York.
Rita Palma (http://www.ourkidsourchoice.com/), who had a religious exemption to vaccination for her son denied by Suffolk school officials, organized the rallies attended by families with vaccine injured as well as healthy children. She and Assemblyman Mark Alessi (D-Wading River) appeared on Fox News June 20 to talk about why parents in New York do not want laws mandating their children get more than five dozen vaccinations currently promoted by the CDC and more vaccines in the future endorsed by CDC employees.
Congratulations to all New York citizens and supportive state legislators who stood up and defended freedom. Every vaccine carries a risk of injury or death and that risk is higher for some than others. No individual or self-appointed group in government, industry or medicine should force fellow Americans to put their lives or the lives of their children on the line for pharmaceutical products that can injure or kill without voluntary informed consent.
__________________________________________
"This is something that is a personal issue. It's our children's bodies and that's what we're here to protect, our rights," said Kim Slavis of Canandaigua......The Department of Health says it's a public health issue, but these parents say when it comes to getting shots it's just too many, too soon. "When we were kids, we were getting 10 vaccinations. Now these kids are getting 37 vaccinations before they get into kindergarten," said Michael Smith of Clifton Park.....If they start with this, what are they going to enforce on us next? What will be the next freedom that they take away from us in terms of our medical rights?" Slavis wondered." - WNYT-TV- Albany (June 10, 2008) http://wnyt.com/article/stories/S472932.shtml?cat=300
"A few parents at Tuesday's rally said they endured grueling questioning when they cited religious beliefs to avoid immunizing their children. Dr. Lynn Friedman, a chiropractor, said she unsuccessfully sued the Clarkstown School District in Rockland County to allow her son, now 12, to attend school without vaccinations. The school district questioned the validity of her request for a religious exemption. She went through hours of questioning and had her medical records pored over, she said. Her son goes to private school. "It should be our choice to vaccinate our child," she said.....Carolyn Catalano of Hopewell Junction, Dutchess County, said her 12-month-old son, Tyler, would not be vaccinated. Some of the viruses that there are vaccines against, such as rubella, are normal childhood diseases that healthy children can fight, she said. "He can make his own choice once he's older," said Catalano, a pediatric occupational therapist in Mahopac, Putnam County, who has autistic patients. Angela Luhrs, also of Hopewell Junction, said her 1-year-old son is fully vaccinated, but she wants to start delaying some shots because she doesn't want to overwhelm his system. Eventually, he will get everything, she said. "I am here because I do believe there has to be a point at which parents' choice comes into play," she said. Elisa DiBari of North Salem, Westchester County, said her son, now 10, stopped speaking after receiving the measles/mumps/rubella vaccine at 15 months. He was diagnosed with autism and has had a lot of treatments over the years and is doing well." - Cara Matthews, Democrat & Chronicle (June 11, 2008)
"In my childhood, two vaccines were the extent of it. We muddled through whooping cough, measles, German measles, chicken pox and emerged with stronger immune systems. No one that I knew died of any of these diseases. Multiple vaccines in one needle are obscene. I wouldn't do that to my animals. Stepping on a rusty nail, I went for a tetanus shot. After, the nurse said, "You are all set with your tetanus and diphtheria shots." I was enraged. I spent the next week in bed with a high fever and no way of assessing which vaccine was the culprit. Let us not forget the chief beneficiaries of the vaccine craze: our friends in the pharmaceutical industry who cross over to take Food and Drug Administration posts when they cannot get Congress to do their bidding. The payoffs are enormous, according to a reliable friend who once worked in the FDA. The time is overdue for parents to unite and assert themselves against the tyranny of forced medications. The state does not own our children - yet." - Catherine Portman-Laux, The Journal News (June 23, 2008)
http://www.vaccineawakening.blogspot.com/
http://www.nvic.org/
http://www.standupbecounted.org/
Vaccine-educated parents in New York stood up for their human right to make informed, voluntary vaccine choices and pushed back Pharma-inspired attempts to pass laws mandating every childhood vaccine the CDC endorses (A10942) and giving children vaccines for sexually transmitted diseases without their parents' knowledge or permission. Parents held rallies and press conferences in Albany at the State Capitol and organized a grassroots email, letter and phone campaign to voice their opposition to all attempts by government officials, drug companies and doctors to force vaccination without parental consent.
The successful challenge by parent activists in New York to powerful and wealthy special interest groups promoting the forced use of multiple vaccines and the removal of non-medical exemptions to vaccination will be followed by a similar grassroots effort in the next legislative session to protect the religious exemption to vaccination (A03064), obtain a philosophical exemption to vaccination (A05468) and widen the medical exemption to vaccination (A03180) in New York.
Rita Palma (http://www.ourkidsourchoice.com/), who had a religious exemption to vaccination for her son denied by Suffolk school officials, organized the rallies attended by families with vaccine injured as well as healthy children. She and Assemblyman Mark Alessi (D-Wading River) appeared on Fox News June 20 to talk about why parents in New York do not want laws mandating their children get more than five dozen vaccinations currently promoted by the CDC and more vaccines in the future endorsed by CDC employees.
Congratulations to all New York citizens and supportive state legislators who stood up and defended freedom. Every vaccine carries a risk of injury or death and that risk is higher for some than others. No individual or self-appointed group in government, industry or medicine should force fellow Americans to put their lives or the lives of their children on the line for pharmaceutical products that can injure or kill without voluntary informed consent.
__________________________________________
"This is something that is a personal issue. It's our children's bodies and that's what we're here to protect, our rights," said Kim Slavis of Canandaigua......The Department of Health says it's a public health issue, but these parents say when it comes to getting shots it's just too many, too soon. "When we were kids, we were getting 10 vaccinations. Now these kids are getting 37 vaccinations before they get into kindergarten," said Michael Smith of Clifton Park.....If they start with this, what are they going to enforce on us next? What will be the next freedom that they take away from us in terms of our medical rights?" Slavis wondered." - WNYT-TV- Albany (June 10, 2008) http://wnyt.com/article/stories/S472932.shtml?cat=300
"A few parents at Tuesday's rally said they endured grueling questioning when they cited religious beliefs to avoid immunizing their children. Dr. Lynn Friedman, a chiropractor, said she unsuccessfully sued the Clarkstown School District in Rockland County to allow her son, now 12, to attend school without vaccinations. The school district questioned the validity of her request for a religious exemption. She went through hours of questioning and had her medical records pored over, she said. Her son goes to private school. "It should be our choice to vaccinate our child," she said.....Carolyn Catalano of Hopewell Junction, Dutchess County, said her 12-month-old son, Tyler, would not be vaccinated. Some of the viruses that there are vaccines against, such as rubella, are normal childhood diseases that healthy children can fight, she said. "He can make his own choice once he's older," said Catalano, a pediatric occupational therapist in Mahopac, Putnam County, who has autistic patients. Angela Luhrs, also of Hopewell Junction, said her 1-year-old son is fully vaccinated, but she wants to start delaying some shots because she doesn't want to overwhelm his system. Eventually, he will get everything, she said. "I am here because I do believe there has to be a point at which parents' choice comes into play," she said. Elisa DiBari of North Salem, Westchester County, said her son, now 10, stopped speaking after receiving the measles/mumps/rubella vaccine at 15 months. He was diagnosed with autism and has had a lot of treatments over the years and is doing well." - Cara Matthews, Democrat & Chronicle (June 11, 2008)
"In my childhood, two vaccines were the extent of it. We muddled through whooping cough, measles, German measles, chicken pox and emerged with stronger immune systems. No one that I knew died of any of these diseases. Multiple vaccines in one needle are obscene. I wouldn't do that to my animals. Stepping on a rusty nail, I went for a tetanus shot. After, the nurse said, "You are all set with your tetanus and diphtheria shots." I was enraged. I spent the next week in bed with a high fever and no way of assessing which vaccine was the culprit. Let us not forget the chief beneficiaries of the vaccine craze: our friends in the pharmaceutical industry who cross over to take Food and Drug Administration posts when they cannot get Congress to do their bidding. The payoffs are enormous, according to a reliable friend who once worked in the FDA. The time is overdue for parents to unite and assert themselves against the tyranny of forced medications. The state does not own our children - yet." - Catherine Portman-Laux, The Journal News (June 23, 2008)
AAP Leadership Fights Informed Vaccine Choices
by Barbara Loe Fisher
http://www.vaccineawakening.blogspot.com/
http://www.nvic.org/
http://www.standupbecounted.org/
In another fit of pique aimed at the growing number of vaccine-educated parents questioning pediatricians about the safety of vaccines, the largest private medical organization representing medical doctors treating children - the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) - recently announced to its membership that it will fight doubting parents in their offices, in the media, on the internet and through a partnership with other wealthy and powerful organizations funded by a pharmaceutical industry committed to doing the same thing.
On May 30, the AAP leadership reports that it met with the leaders of 15 allied organizations in Elk Grove, Illinois to discuss the growing refusal of parents to vaccinate their children according to recommendations of the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and AAP. A recent letter to AAP members stated:
"The group agreed that recent attacks on vaccines have left parents confused. The rates of exemptions are climbing, and the protection of communities from vaccine preventable diseases is in jeopardy. Participants identified several factors that promote anti-vaccine information:
· Parent-to-parent spread of myths,
· A public that does not understand the risk of vaccine-preventable diseases,
· Internet and media exposure that is not balanced,
· Decreased trust in the government and health care providers,
· Slow response to negative news coverage, and · Increasing calls for philosophical exemptions.
The group recognized strategies that have worked in the past to address these drivers, agreed to jointly promote the positive value of vaccines, and will come together again in July to develop a cohesive message for dissemination. This message will be disseminated in mainstream media, through professional organizations, and via Internet tools. Materials are expected to be available by fall 2008. The group will formally be known as the Immunization Alliance."
Information on the AAP website gives pediatricians instructions about what to do with parents who refuse to obey the doctor's orders, including a sample letter that states:
"By not vaccinating your child you are taking selfish advantage of thousands of others who do vaccinate their children, which decreases the likelihood that your child will contract one of these diseases. We feel such an attitude to be self-centered and unacceptable. We are making you aware of these facts not to scare you or coerce you, but to emphasize the importance of vaccinating your child. We recognize that the choice may be a very emotional one for some parents. We will do everything we can to convince you that vaccinating according to the schedule is the right thing to do.
However, should you have doubts, please discuss these with your health care provider in advance of your visit. In some cases, we may alter the schedule to accommodate parental concerns or reservations. Please be advised, however, that delaying or "breaking up the vaccines" to give one or two at a time over two or more visits goes against expert recommendations, and can put your child at risk for serious illness (or even death) and goes against our medical advice as providers....such additional visits will require additional co-pays on your part. Furthermore, please realize that you will be required to sign a "Refusal to Vaccinate" acknowledgement in the event of lengthy delays.
Finally, if you should absolutely refuse to vaccinate your child despite all our efforts, we will ask you to find another health care provider who shares your views. We do not keep a list of such providers nor would we recommend any such physician."
Educated parents of America attempting to make informed, voluntary vaccination decisions for your children be warned: your pediatrician is out to change your mind about vaccination or teach you a lesson you will never forget.
Hang on to your child because the doctor you have trusted with your child's life might just try to make you out to be a bad parent and not only throw you out of the office but notify state officials to charge you with child medical abuse if you don't agree to give your child every one of those 69 doses of 16 vaccines that doctors working for the Centers for Disease Control say all children from birth to age 18 must get.
Be prepared that the doctor, who you pay to keep your child well, may dutifully obey recent orders given by the AAP leadership to implement one-size- fits-all government vaccine policies: no questions asked. The next time you visit your pediatrician and attempt to ask a question about vaccine reactions or suggest your child get fewer or no vaccines (especially if your child has already suffered serious vaccine reactions your doctor refuses to recognize) be prepared to be humiliated, harassed, threatened and thrown out of the office.
The message from the AAP leadership to vaccine-educated parents is: you WILL give your children every vaccine that industry produces even it brain damages or kills them. You DO NOT have the human right to protect your child from vaccine injury and death because you MUST sacrifice your child for what AAP and government officials have decided is the "greater good." Your child does NOT belong to you and if you don't agree to do exactly what we say, we will make sure your family is denied medical care.
Sounds like a smart plan to me, pediatricians of America, if you want to fatally compromise the last remaining shred of trust that mothers and fathers have in your knowledge about vaccine risks and how to minimize them for the children they love more than anyone in the world.
In the words of Jim Carrey: "How stupid do you think we are?"
Twenty-six years ago, the co-founders of the National Vaccine Information Center came to the table with the AAP leadership to talk about compensating children injured by mandated vaccines because the AAP said it was a matter of "simple justice for children." We believed the AAP leadership really cared about minimizing vaccine risks for the individual child rather than just wanting to pass the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of 1986 for the purpose of protecting drug companies and pediatricians from liability for vaccine injuries and deaths so they could continue to implement one-size-fits-all vaccine policies. Time and time again over the past quarter century, the AAP leadership has demonstrated that they betrayed the trust of parents then and now by refusing to work with parents to minimize vaccine risks.
In 1982, it was far easier to sweep vaccine injured children under the carpet because 1 in 6 American child was not becoming learning disabled and 1 in 150 child was not regressing into autism. Today, there are so many highly vaccinated children who are sick and disabled that there is no place to run and no place to hide.
The vaccine safety and informed consent movement has been led by educated middle class mothers and fathers who DO know how to tell a bad scientific study from a good one; who DO know how to calculate the amount of mercury or aluminum in a vaccine; and who DO know the difference between being told a lie and being told the truth about vaccine risks.
AAP: we are not stupid. We will not stand by and watch our children and grandchildren become vaccine damaged because you are obsessed with forcing every child to use every vaccine that Pharma produces with no concern for protecting the children who cannot use every vaccine safely. You can deny us medical care and try to take away our human right to voluntary, informed consent to vaccination but you will never win the war you have declared on millions of vaccine-educated parents in America.
http://www.vaccineawakening.blogspot.com/
http://www.nvic.org/
http://www.standupbecounted.org/
In another fit of pique aimed at the growing number of vaccine-educated parents questioning pediatricians about the safety of vaccines, the largest private medical organization representing medical doctors treating children - the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) - recently announced to its membership that it will fight doubting parents in their offices, in the media, on the internet and through a partnership with other wealthy and powerful organizations funded by a pharmaceutical industry committed to doing the same thing.
On May 30, the AAP leadership reports that it met with the leaders of 15 allied organizations in Elk Grove, Illinois to discuss the growing refusal of parents to vaccinate their children according to recommendations of the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and AAP. A recent letter to AAP members stated:
"The group agreed that recent attacks on vaccines have left parents confused. The rates of exemptions are climbing, and the protection of communities from vaccine preventable diseases is in jeopardy. Participants identified several factors that promote anti-vaccine information:
· Parent-to-parent spread of myths,
· A public that does not understand the risk of vaccine-preventable diseases,
· Internet and media exposure that is not balanced,
· Decreased trust in the government and health care providers,
· Slow response to negative news coverage, and · Increasing calls for philosophical exemptions.
The group recognized strategies that have worked in the past to address these drivers, agreed to jointly promote the positive value of vaccines, and will come together again in July to develop a cohesive message for dissemination. This message will be disseminated in mainstream media, through professional organizations, and via Internet tools. Materials are expected to be available by fall 2008. The group will formally be known as the Immunization Alliance."
Information on the AAP website gives pediatricians instructions about what to do with parents who refuse to obey the doctor's orders, including a sample letter that states:
"By not vaccinating your child you are taking selfish advantage of thousands of others who do vaccinate their children, which decreases the likelihood that your child will contract one of these diseases. We feel such an attitude to be self-centered and unacceptable. We are making you aware of these facts not to scare you or coerce you, but to emphasize the importance of vaccinating your child. We recognize that the choice may be a very emotional one for some parents. We will do everything we can to convince you that vaccinating according to the schedule is the right thing to do.
However, should you have doubts, please discuss these with your health care provider in advance of your visit. In some cases, we may alter the schedule to accommodate parental concerns or reservations. Please be advised, however, that delaying or "breaking up the vaccines" to give one or two at a time over two or more visits goes against expert recommendations, and can put your child at risk for serious illness (or even death) and goes against our medical advice as providers....such additional visits will require additional co-pays on your part. Furthermore, please realize that you will be required to sign a "Refusal to Vaccinate" acknowledgement in the event of lengthy delays.
Finally, if you should absolutely refuse to vaccinate your child despite all our efforts, we will ask you to find another health care provider who shares your views. We do not keep a list of such providers nor would we recommend any such physician."
Educated parents of America attempting to make informed, voluntary vaccination decisions for your children be warned: your pediatrician is out to change your mind about vaccination or teach you a lesson you will never forget.
Hang on to your child because the doctor you have trusted with your child's life might just try to make you out to be a bad parent and not only throw you out of the office but notify state officials to charge you with child medical abuse if you don't agree to give your child every one of those 69 doses of 16 vaccines that doctors working for the Centers for Disease Control say all children from birth to age 18 must get.
Be prepared that the doctor, who you pay to keep your child well, may dutifully obey recent orders given by the AAP leadership to implement one-size- fits-all government vaccine policies: no questions asked. The next time you visit your pediatrician and attempt to ask a question about vaccine reactions or suggest your child get fewer or no vaccines (especially if your child has already suffered serious vaccine reactions your doctor refuses to recognize) be prepared to be humiliated, harassed, threatened and thrown out of the office.
The message from the AAP leadership to vaccine-educated parents is: you WILL give your children every vaccine that industry produces even it brain damages or kills them. You DO NOT have the human right to protect your child from vaccine injury and death because you MUST sacrifice your child for what AAP and government officials have decided is the "greater good." Your child does NOT belong to you and if you don't agree to do exactly what we say, we will make sure your family is denied medical care.
Sounds like a smart plan to me, pediatricians of America, if you want to fatally compromise the last remaining shred of trust that mothers and fathers have in your knowledge about vaccine risks and how to minimize them for the children they love more than anyone in the world.
In the words of Jim Carrey: "How stupid do you think we are?"
Twenty-six years ago, the co-founders of the National Vaccine Information Center came to the table with the AAP leadership to talk about compensating children injured by mandated vaccines because the AAP said it was a matter of "simple justice for children." We believed the AAP leadership really cared about minimizing vaccine risks for the individual child rather than just wanting to pass the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of 1986 for the purpose of protecting drug companies and pediatricians from liability for vaccine injuries and deaths so they could continue to implement one-size-fits-all vaccine policies. Time and time again over the past quarter century, the AAP leadership has demonstrated that they betrayed the trust of parents then and now by refusing to work with parents to minimize vaccine risks.
In 1982, it was far easier to sweep vaccine injured children under the carpet because 1 in 6 American child was not becoming learning disabled and 1 in 150 child was not regressing into autism. Today, there are so many highly vaccinated children who are sick and disabled that there is no place to run and no place to hide.
The vaccine safety and informed consent movement has been led by educated middle class mothers and fathers who DO know how to tell a bad scientific study from a good one; who DO know how to calculate the amount of mercury or aluminum in a vaccine; and who DO know the difference between being told a lie and being told the truth about vaccine risks.
AAP: we are not stupid. We will not stand by and watch our children and grandchildren become vaccine damaged because you are obsessed with forcing every child to use every vaccine that Pharma produces with no concern for protecting the children who cannot use every vaccine safely. You can deny us medical care and try to take away our human right to voluntary, informed consent to vaccination but you will never win the war you have declared on millions of vaccine-educated parents in America.
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