by Barbara Loe Fisher
www.vaccineawakening.blogspot.com
www.NVIC.org
www.StandUpBeCounted.org
Taxpayer dollars funding the multi-billion dollar budget at the CDC are increasingly being used to jerk the media and the public around like puppets on a string. Keeping the politics of mandatory vaccination on the front pages of newspapers and in the broadcast booths is a full time job for the CDC's spin doctors.
As soon as August rolled around, the usual cast of characters promoting forced vaccination got children ready for school by targeting parents making informed vaccine choices and blaming them for 131 cases of measles in the U.S. this year. In a state of high anxiety about the high level of vaccine education in America, officials employed by government health agencies attacked the religious, philosophical and conscientious belief exemptions in state vaccine laws because they are not subject to the legal blessing of medical doctors. Some journalists were prompted to ask whether unvaccinated children should be allowed to play with unvaccinated children although others examined whether public resistance to vaccine mandates might have something to do with gaps in scientific evidence proving vaccines policies are safe.
The doctors pushing "no exceptions" mandatory vaccination laws have had a great time whipping up hysteria about the freedom to choose by alleging that runaway numbers of vaccine resisters are threatening the public health. Along with suggesting that non- medical exemptions should be removed from state laws, they are now calling for an end to medical contraindications to vaccination to give a green light to pediatricians to vaccinate even children who have suffered life threatening allergic reactions to vaccines.
The pathological fear of germs driving those pushing for a license to re-vaccinate children who have suffered life threatening vaccine reactions is nothing more than a license to kill and get away with it. It is a perfect example of why we cannot trust them with our children's lives much less give medical doctors the sole legal authority to decide whether or not any of us can be exempt from government vaccine mandates.
At the end of the month-long "the sky is falling" charade, how did CDC spin doctors decide to end it? By issuing a press release announcing that child vaccination rates in America have reached an all-time record level and that less than one percent of American children are totally unvaccinated!
The question all Americans should be asking is this: Who is going to stop doctors and public health idealogues from playing vaccine politics with our children's lives and our civil rights?
__________________________________________
"From the vaccinating parent perspective, it's a little infuriating because you don't know who these kids are," says Brown, a vaccine proponent and co- author of the book "Baby 411." But do others have the right to know such personal medical information? Should parents inquire about vaccination status before a play date? Some say that's taking things too far. "Do I think it's inappropriate to put a mark on people and kick them out from being able to participate in society, yeah I think it's inappropriate - it's inappropriate and it's dangerous," says Barbara Loe Fisher, cofounder and president of the National Vaccine Information Center, a group in Vienna, Va., that describes itself as "America's Vaccine Safety Watchdog" and opposes forced vaccinations." - Jacqueline Stenson, NBC 11.com (August 25, 2008) http://www.nbc11.com/msnbchealth/17289208/detail.html
"In the meantime, "parents simply have to be educated and put in the best position to consider the risks and benefits of vaccines and the various diseases. And they have to be free to make informed, voluntary decisions for their children. That includes being able to get exemptions and work with physicians to adjust vaccination schedules. Bigger and bigger government clubs are not going to work,'' Fisher said. Dr. Saad Omer, assistant professor at Emory University's School of Public Health in Atlanta, said he agrees that the public health community needs to do a better job communicating both the risks and benefits of vaccines. "And I think government and industry need to spend more, be more proactive, on vaccine safety research. "On the front lines, no provider should be dismissive of parents with concerns about vaccines. You should listen and try to address them, not kick them out of your practice,'' he added. Fisher notes, "The safety movement was largely launched by middle class moms who had the education and time to analyze the medical literature. But now we're in a third generation of parents dealing with these issues, and it's a more diverse group with a much broader reach because of the Internet. They can see that adverse reaction reports are similar around the world." - Lee Bowman, Scripps Howard News Service (August 27, 2008) http://www.scrippsnews.com/node/35756
"The American Academy of Pediatrics says extensive reports from several leading researchers have found no "proven association" between autism and measles vaccines. Experts recently told the Chicago Tribune that autism "tends to emerge at the same age children receive their shots, leading to a false sense of cause and effect." "Parental suspicion is now so high that public health officials fear it could undermine one of the most important advances in medical history," the Tribune reported. "Although vaccination rates have remained fairly steady, pockets of vaccine rejection can lead to outbreaks of childhood diseases that were once thought conquered." - Derek Kravitz, Washington Post (August 28, 2008) http://voices.washingtonpost.com/washingtonpostinvestigations/2008/08/measles_back_with a_vengeance.html
"With close monitoring and a few standard precautions, nearly all children with known or suspected vaccine allergies can be safely immunized, according to a team of vaccine safety experts led by the Johns Hopkins Children's Center. Writing in the September issue of Pediatrics, the multicenter research team offers pediatricians a step- by-step tool for quickly identifying children with allergic reactions to vaccines, and a much-needed guide, they say, to safely immunize those who are allergic....Children who have had one allergic reaction are believed to be at a higher risk for future reactions, typically more serious than the first. "We cannot reiterate enough that the vaccines used today are extremely safe, but in a handful of children certain vaccine ingredients can trigger serious allergic reactions," says Robert Wood, M.D., lead author on the paper and chief of pediatric Allergy and Immunology at Hopkins Children's. "For the most part, even children with known allergies can be safely vaccinated." - Johns Hopkins Medicine, Newswise.com (September 2, 2008) http://www.newswise.com/articles/view/543816/
"U.S. toddlers got the recommended vaccinations against childhood diseases at record levels in 2007, federal health officials said on Thursday, as they urged parents to continue to trust vaccine safety. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued its report on vaccination rates for ages 1-1/2 through 3 a day after another study came out showing no link between autism and the vaccine given to guard against measles, mumps and rubella. A record 77.4 percent of children in this age group received the full recommended series of vaccinations, the CDC said. Ninety percent of children got all but one of the six individual vaccines in the series, the CDC said. The one exception was the four doses of diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis or whooping cough vaccine, received by 84.5 percent of toddlers, the CDC said. The CDC report, based on data on 17,017 children, found that fewer than 1 percent got no vaccines." - Will Dunham, Reuters (September 4, 2008) http://www.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idUSN0427308520080904
On The Frontlines: Vaccine Education & Empowerment
by Barbara Loe Fisher
http://www.vaccineawakening.blogspot.com/
http://www.nvic.org/
http://www.standupbecounted.org/
Parents and enlightened doctors are on the front lines educating both parents and politicians about vaccination. Knowledge is power and more parents are coming to the realization that they can best protect their children's health by becoming educated health care consumers.
On September 5, New Jersey vaccine choice advocate Louise Kuo Habakus held a parent demonstration on her front lawn as Presidential candidate Barak Obama and NJ Governor Jon Corzine drove to a Bon Jovi political fund raiser in her neighborhood (also see the beautiful video created by a Mom who attended the demonstration in support of vaccine choice). Louise is giving a vaccine lecture tonight Sept. 10 in East Windsor and on Oct. 1 in Highlands sponsored by the . (Registration is required for attendance by email at vaxRSVP@verizon.net) There will be a parent rally in Trenton, NJ in October sponsored by the Coalition in support of conscientious belief exemption to vaccination.
Pediatrician Lawrence Palevsky, M.D. will be giving a series of lectures on vaccination in New York City on September 22, October 29, November 5 and December 3. President and co-founder of the Holistic Pediatric Association, Dr. Palevsky will discuss current vaccine science, how vaccines work, acute and chronic illness, vaccine requirements and many other vaccine issues. (Call 212-367-9006 or visit www.realbirth.com for more information).
"The public has many questions about the safety and efficacy of vaccines, " said Dr. Palevsky. While more parents are showing increased concern about these issues and the growing number of vaccines to be administered to infants and children from day one of life, there is a growing interest on the part of vaccine manufacturers, state legislatures and medical societies to enforce vaccination on all children, through the passing of more and more state vaccine mandates, without first having a dialogue with the public, or the medical community."
On Saturday, October 18, the Fifth Annual Natural Living Conference sponsored by the Holistic Moms Network (HMN) at the Sheraton Crossroads Hotel in Mahwah, New Jersey will include my presentation on "Vaccines & Chronic Illness: Staying Well in the New Epidemic" and 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 go to http://home.homewebs.com/hmnannualconference/
http://www.vaccineawakening.blogspot.com/
http://www.nvic.org/
http://www.standupbecounted.org/
Parents and enlightened doctors are on the front lines educating both parents and politicians about vaccination. Knowledge is power and more parents are coming to the realization that they can best protect their children's health by becoming educated health care consumers.
On September 5, New Jersey vaccine choice advocate Louise Kuo Habakus held a parent demonstration on her front lawn as Presidential candidate Barak Obama and NJ Governor Jon Corzine drove to a Bon Jovi political fund raiser in her neighborhood (also see the beautiful video created by a Mom who attended the demonstration in support of vaccine choice). Louise is giving a vaccine lecture tonight Sept. 10 in East Windsor and on Oct. 1 in Highlands sponsored by the . (Registration is required for attendance by email at vaxRSVP@verizon.net) There will be a parent rally in Trenton, NJ in October sponsored by the Coalition in support of conscientious belief exemption to vaccination.
Pediatrician Lawrence Palevsky, M.D. will be giving a series of lectures on vaccination in New York City on September 22, October 29, November 5 and December 3. President and co-founder of the Holistic Pediatric Association, Dr. Palevsky will discuss current vaccine science, how vaccines work, acute and chronic illness, vaccine requirements and many other vaccine issues. (Call 212-367-9006 or visit www.realbirth.com for more information).
"The public has many questions about the safety and efficacy of vaccines, " said Dr. Palevsky. While more parents are showing increased concern about these issues and the growing number of vaccines to be administered to infants and children from day one of life, there is a growing interest on the part of vaccine manufacturers, state legislatures and medical societies to enforce vaccination on all children, through the passing of more and more state vaccine mandates, without first having a dialogue with the public, or the medical community."
On Saturday, October 18, the Fifth Annual Natural Living Conference sponsored by the Holistic Moms Network (HMN) at the Sheraton Crossroads Hotel in Mahwah, New Jersey will include my presentation on "Vaccines & Chronic Illness: Staying Well in the New Epidemic" and 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 go to http://home.homewebs.com/hmnannualconference/
Study Fails To Clear MMR/Autism Link
by Barbara Loe Fisher
www.vaccineawakening.blogspot.com
www.NVIC.org
www.StandUpBeCounted.org
As the latest study attempting to disprove a link between vaccination and autism demonstrates: if you really don't want to know the answer, just ask part of the question. When medical researchers take a reductionist approach to investigating vaccine risks, the public can always count on spin doctors to position the conclusions of a narrowly focused study in a way that appears to totally exonerate vaccines from association with all risks, especially autism.
The most recent paper purporting to clear MMR vaccine from any relationship with the development of regressive autism in previously healthy children was published by researchers at the CDC and Columbia University in the online journal of Public Library of Science . The authors report on a federally funded initiative to address the hypothesis published in 1998 by Andrew Wakefield, M.D. and others that some children who receive MMR vaccine develop inflammatory bowel disease and regressive autism due to persistent measles virus (MV) infection.
The examination by three laboratories of intestinal tissues from 25 autistic children, five of whom developed gastrointestinal (GI) and autistic symptoms after MMR vaccination, confirmed the presence of measles virus RNA in one child with autism and one control case. Even though the study only included five children who were previously healthy before regressing into autism after MMR vaccination, it is being touted as concrete proof that MMR vaccine is not in any way involved in the development of regressive autism in previously healthy children.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
While Wakefield may have imperfectly described the biological mechanism for development of MMR vaccine induced autism in 1998 (proposing a persistent measles virus infection in the GI tract that affected the brain), he certainly DID correctly report an association between receipt of MMR vaccine in previously healthy children and subsequent simultaneous development of serious bowel disease and autism. It was an important clinical observation and call for further research published in a respected medical journal (The Lancet) but one that Wakefield and his colleagues would pay for dearly. The hypothesis has been furiously denounced for a decade by mandatory vaccination proponents in government, industry, and medical organizations in Europe and the U.S. as they scramble to defend aggressive one-size-fits-all MMR vaccine policies being used in measles eradication campaigns worldwide.
Thoughtful House, a pediatric care facility and research institute in Austin, Texas founded by Dr. Wakefield, issued a response to the study which said in part: "We are pleased to see that this new study provides further confirmation that children with autism suffer from gastrointestinal problems that deserve to be addressed as a priority. Dr. Andrew Wakefield, Executive Director of Thoughtful House Center for Children, whose work has focused on intestinal disease, and on the possible role of MMR vaccine in regressive autism in children with GI symptoms, welcomed these new findings. Dr. Wakefield was a co-author of the 2002 paper that, unlike yesterday's study, examined children in the majority of whom there was a clear temporal link between MMR exposure and regression. Dr. Wakefield comments, "The search for the 'footprints' of measles virus in the intestine is merited, based upon the previous findings and the intestinal disease that is commonly found in these children. This new study rules out only one possibility - that the measles virus must remain for the long term in the intestine. We need to consider that the MMR vaccine can cause autism as a hit-and-run injury, but not necessarily leave the measles virus behind."
The biological mechanism for MMR vaccine induced regressive autism - as well as autism that develops in previously healthy children following injection with other vaccines like DPT/DTaP, hepatitis B, varicella zoster, pneumococcal - could well involve an interaction between individual genetic vulnerabilities (autoimmunity, allergy) and the known ability of drugs and vaccines to induce immune mediated inflammation in the body, especially brain inflammation. The most serious and feared complication of the very first vaccines - smallpox and rabies - is inflammation of the brain (encephalitis/encephalopathy), which can be mild or severe with a constellation of acute symptoms that are subtle (deep sleep with difficulty arousing) to dramatic (convulsions, high pitched screaming).
Mild to severe brain inflammation can lead to permanent brain dysfunction in at least one-third or more of all who experience it. The residual effects of brain inflammation can vary from learning disabilities and ADHD/ADD to medication resistant seizure disorders, autistic behaviors and mental retardation.
In 1998, officials of the federal Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (VICP) published a review of vaccine injury and death claims submitted to the VICP involving measles vaccine either alone or in combination (such as MMR). They analyzed the medical records of 48 children ages 10 to 49 months who either had died or suffered mental regression and retardation, chronic seizures, motor and sensory deficits and movement disorders following receipt of measles containing vaccines. The authors concluded that "The onset of neurologic signs or symptoms occurred with a nonrandom, statistically significant distribution of cases on days 8 and 9" and "This clustering suggests that a causal relationship between measles vaccine and encephalopathy may exist as a rare complication of measles immunization."
Immune mediated chronic inflammation of the brain, gastrointestinal tract and other parts of the body in previously healthy children following receipt of MMR and other vaccines may not be as rare as CDC officials would have the public believe.
Researchers have found evidence of chronic inflammation in the brains of patients with autism, particularly in the cerebellum. Brains of those suffering with autism have been observed to be in "a chronic state of specific cytokine activity." The suggested biological mechanisms for the observed brain inflammation included chronic disease or an external environmental source. In addition, there is a good possibility that genetic predisposition to immune system dysfunction (autoimmunity, allergy) may be a key to development of regressive autism following vaccination in some children.
The recent study out of the CDC and Columbia University is not good enough evidence to disprove the autism-MMR link first reported by Wakefield and others in 1998. The scope of the most recent investigation was far too narrow and enlightened pediatricians and informed parents know it. As autism advocate Rick Rollens and national autism groups have pointed out, more methodologically sound research must be done before the public jury questioning MMR vaccine safety will stand down. A good start would be a prospective case controlled study comparing immune and brain function of highly vaccinated children to that of unvaccinated children for a period of at least ten years, which has been requested by parents of vaccine injured children for several decades.
For a comprehensive summary of the decade- long persecution that Andrew Wakefield has endured at the hands of individuals with major financial conflicts of interest with government and industry, visit the Cryshame website at http://www.cryshame.net/ maintained in Great Britain. A new essay by British journalist Martin Walker entitled "An Interest in Conflict" examines the tactics used by those determined to punish Wakefield for daring to publish an hypothesis discussing the association between vaccines and autism.
The Cryshame website also features a video tutorial by British pediatrician Richard Halvorson on measles, mumps, rubella, and MMR vaccine. Questions Dr. Halvorsen poses and answers include:
• How dangerous is measles?
• Is measles a killer?
• Can measles be good for you?
• Does vaccination give life-long protection?
• Is MMR necessary?
COMING UP IN THE NEWS: On Monday, Sept. 8, the Dr. Mehmet Oz show on the Oprah & Friends Network is scheduled to broadcast a radio debate on hepatitis B vaccine ( http://www.oprah.com/oafhost/moz); On Tuesday, Sept. 9 the new daytime CBS show "The Doctors" will feature a segment on Gardasil vaccine; On Sept. 18, "The Doctors" will broadcast a segment on mandatory vaccination. For more information or to post a comment after the segments have aired, go to http://www.tvweek.com/news/2008/09/video_cbs_tv_distributions_the.php
__________________________________________________________________
"We are certain that there's no link between autism and the MMR," Dr. W. Ian Lipkin, director of the Mailman School of Public Health Center for Infection and Immunity at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, said at a Wednesday teleconference...... Not everyone is convinced, however, that the vaccine does not play a role in causing gastrointestinal problems that can precede the onset of autism. "This study addresses one hypothesis. This study, by itself, does not exonerate the role of all vaccines. There are many biological mechanisms where environmental factors could present in the development of autism," said Rick Rollens, the father of an autistic son and one of the founding members of the M.I.N.D. Institute at the University of California, Davis. Rollens was also part of the teleconference." - Serena Gordon, U.S. News & World Report (September 4, 2008) http://health.usnews.com/articles/health/healthday/2008/09/04/study-dispels-link-between-autism-and-measles.html
"While several researchers said this study is "conclusive" proof that there is no link, Tampa pediatrician, Dr. David Berger says the study is too small (38 children) to make that claim and not comprehensive enough to give parents 100 percent assurance. Dr. Berger says larger, longterm studies are needed. The Tampa board certified pediatrician advises parents to separate the live combination virus vaccine so they can tell if their child has had an allergic reaction to any of the vaccines. That will help parents when it comes time to give kids their MMR booster shot around kindergarten.....'If this study was done in an attempt to try and replicate the original research that was done by Dr. Wakefield, the researchers completely missed the point. Dr. Wakefield specifically looked at children- who had developed symptoms of both autism and intestinal abnormalities after receiving the MMR vaccine, and in those particular patients he was able to identify the presence of the measles virus. In this current study 80% of the patient'st had abnormal gastrointestinal symptoms prior to receiving MMR.'" - Heather VanNest, Tampbays10-TV (September 4, 2008) http://www.tampabays10.com/news/health/story.aspx?storyid=89044&catid=12
"For years, parents have claimed that MMR triggered their child's subsequent GI (gastrointestinal) disease and autism. In a 2002 paper where the majority of autistic children were found to have measles in their intestines, the children examined showed a clear temporal link between MMR exposure and regression. The CDC's attempt to replicate the 2002 study fell far short of proving the safety of the MMR vaccine.....Inflammatory bowel disease in the absence of MMR RNA does not mean that MMR shot didn't precipitate the GI disease and didn't precipitate autism." - National Autism Association (September 3, 2008) http://www.nationalautismassociation.org/press090308.php
www.vaccineawakening.blogspot.com
www.NVIC.org
www.StandUpBeCounted.org
As the latest study attempting to disprove a link between vaccination and autism demonstrates: if you really don't want to know the answer, just ask part of the question. When medical researchers take a reductionist approach to investigating vaccine risks, the public can always count on spin doctors to position the conclusions of a narrowly focused study in a way that appears to totally exonerate vaccines from association with all risks, especially autism.
The most recent paper purporting to clear MMR vaccine from any relationship with the development of regressive autism in previously healthy children was published by researchers at the CDC and Columbia University in the online journal of Public Library of Science . The authors report on a federally funded initiative to address the hypothesis published in 1998 by Andrew Wakefield, M.D. and others that some children who receive MMR vaccine develop inflammatory bowel disease and regressive autism due to persistent measles virus (MV) infection.
The examination by three laboratories of intestinal tissues from 25 autistic children, five of whom developed gastrointestinal (GI) and autistic symptoms after MMR vaccination, confirmed the presence of measles virus RNA in one child with autism and one control case. Even though the study only included five children who were previously healthy before regressing into autism after MMR vaccination, it is being touted as concrete proof that MMR vaccine is not in any way involved in the development of regressive autism in previously healthy children.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
While Wakefield may have imperfectly described the biological mechanism for development of MMR vaccine induced autism in 1998 (proposing a persistent measles virus infection in the GI tract that affected the brain), he certainly DID correctly report an association between receipt of MMR vaccine in previously healthy children and subsequent simultaneous development of serious bowel disease and autism. It was an important clinical observation and call for further research published in a respected medical journal (The Lancet) but one that Wakefield and his colleagues would pay for dearly. The hypothesis has been furiously denounced for a decade by mandatory vaccination proponents in government, industry, and medical organizations in Europe and the U.S. as they scramble to defend aggressive one-size-fits-all MMR vaccine policies being used in measles eradication campaigns worldwide.
Thoughtful House, a pediatric care facility and research institute in Austin, Texas founded by Dr. Wakefield, issued a response to the study which said in part: "We are pleased to see that this new study provides further confirmation that children with autism suffer from gastrointestinal problems that deserve to be addressed as a priority. Dr. Andrew Wakefield, Executive Director of Thoughtful House Center for Children, whose work has focused on intestinal disease, and on the possible role of MMR vaccine in regressive autism in children with GI symptoms, welcomed these new findings. Dr. Wakefield was a co-author of the 2002 paper that, unlike yesterday's study, examined children in the majority of whom there was a clear temporal link between MMR exposure and regression. Dr. Wakefield comments, "The search for the 'footprints' of measles virus in the intestine is merited, based upon the previous findings and the intestinal disease that is commonly found in these children. This new study rules out only one possibility - that the measles virus must remain for the long term in the intestine. We need to consider that the MMR vaccine can cause autism as a hit-and-run injury, but not necessarily leave the measles virus behind."
The biological mechanism for MMR vaccine induced regressive autism - as well as autism that develops in previously healthy children following injection with other vaccines like DPT/DTaP, hepatitis B, varicella zoster, pneumococcal - could well involve an interaction between individual genetic vulnerabilities (autoimmunity, allergy) and the known ability of drugs and vaccines to induce immune mediated inflammation in the body, especially brain inflammation. The most serious and feared complication of the very first vaccines - smallpox and rabies - is inflammation of the brain (encephalitis/encephalopathy), which can be mild or severe with a constellation of acute symptoms that are subtle (deep sleep with difficulty arousing) to dramatic (convulsions, high pitched screaming).
Mild to severe brain inflammation can lead to permanent brain dysfunction in at least one-third or more of all who experience it. The residual effects of brain inflammation can vary from learning disabilities and ADHD/ADD to medication resistant seizure disorders, autistic behaviors and mental retardation.
In 1998, officials of the federal Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (VICP) published a review of vaccine injury and death claims submitted to the VICP involving measles vaccine either alone or in combination (such as MMR). They analyzed the medical records of 48 children ages 10 to 49 months who either had died or suffered mental regression and retardation, chronic seizures, motor and sensory deficits and movement disorders following receipt of measles containing vaccines. The authors concluded that "The onset of neurologic signs or symptoms occurred with a nonrandom, statistically significant distribution of cases on days 8 and 9" and "This clustering suggests that a causal relationship between measles vaccine and encephalopathy may exist as a rare complication of measles immunization."
Immune mediated chronic inflammation of the brain, gastrointestinal tract and other parts of the body in previously healthy children following receipt of MMR and other vaccines may not be as rare as CDC officials would have the public believe.
Researchers have found evidence of chronic inflammation in the brains of patients with autism, particularly in the cerebellum. Brains of those suffering with autism have been observed to be in "a chronic state of specific cytokine activity." The suggested biological mechanisms for the observed brain inflammation included chronic disease or an external environmental source. In addition, there is a good possibility that genetic predisposition to immune system dysfunction (autoimmunity, allergy) may be a key to development of regressive autism following vaccination in some children.
The recent study out of the CDC and Columbia University is not good enough evidence to disprove the autism-MMR link first reported by Wakefield and others in 1998. The scope of the most recent investigation was far too narrow and enlightened pediatricians and informed parents know it. As autism advocate Rick Rollens and national autism groups have pointed out, more methodologically sound research must be done before the public jury questioning MMR vaccine safety will stand down. A good start would be a prospective case controlled study comparing immune and brain function of highly vaccinated children to that of unvaccinated children for a period of at least ten years, which has been requested by parents of vaccine injured children for several decades.
For a comprehensive summary of the decade- long persecution that Andrew Wakefield has endured at the hands of individuals with major financial conflicts of interest with government and industry, visit the Cryshame website at http://www.cryshame.net/ maintained in Great Britain. A new essay by British journalist Martin Walker entitled "An Interest in Conflict" examines the tactics used by those determined to punish Wakefield for daring to publish an hypothesis discussing the association between vaccines and autism.
The Cryshame website also features a video tutorial by British pediatrician Richard Halvorson on measles, mumps, rubella, and MMR vaccine. Questions Dr. Halvorsen poses and answers include:
• How dangerous is measles?
• Is measles a killer?
• Can measles be good for you?
• Does vaccination give life-long protection?
• Is MMR necessary?
COMING UP IN THE NEWS: On Monday, Sept. 8, the Dr. Mehmet Oz show on the Oprah & Friends Network is scheduled to broadcast a radio debate on hepatitis B vaccine ( http://www.oprah.com/oafhost/moz); On Tuesday, Sept. 9 the new daytime CBS show "The Doctors" will feature a segment on Gardasil vaccine; On Sept. 18, "The Doctors" will broadcast a segment on mandatory vaccination. For more information or to post a comment after the segments have aired, go to http://www.tvweek.com/news/2008/09/video_cbs_tv_distributions_the.php
__________________________________________________________________
"We are certain that there's no link between autism and the MMR," Dr. W. Ian Lipkin, director of the Mailman School of Public Health Center for Infection and Immunity at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, said at a Wednesday teleconference...... Not everyone is convinced, however, that the vaccine does not play a role in causing gastrointestinal problems that can precede the onset of autism. "This study addresses one hypothesis. This study, by itself, does not exonerate the role of all vaccines. There are many biological mechanisms where environmental factors could present in the development of autism," said Rick Rollens, the father of an autistic son and one of the founding members of the M.I.N.D. Institute at the University of California, Davis. Rollens was also part of the teleconference." - Serena Gordon, U.S. News & World Report (September 4, 2008) http://health.usnews.com/articles/health/healthday/2008/09/04/study-dispels-link-between-autism-and-measles.html
"While several researchers said this study is "conclusive" proof that there is no link, Tampa pediatrician, Dr. David Berger says the study is too small (38 children) to make that claim and not comprehensive enough to give parents 100 percent assurance. Dr. Berger says larger, longterm studies are needed. The Tampa board certified pediatrician advises parents to separate the live combination virus vaccine so they can tell if their child has had an allergic reaction to any of the vaccines. That will help parents when it comes time to give kids their MMR booster shot around kindergarten.....'If this study was done in an attempt to try and replicate the original research that was done by Dr. Wakefield, the researchers completely missed the point. Dr. Wakefield specifically looked at children- who had developed symptoms of both autism and intestinal abnormalities after receiving the MMR vaccine, and in those particular patients he was able to identify the presence of the measles virus. In this current study 80% of the patient'st had abnormal gastrointestinal symptoms prior to receiving MMR.'" - Heather VanNest, Tampbays10-TV (September 4, 2008) http://www.tampabays10.com/news/health/story.aspx?storyid=89044&catid=12
"For years, parents have claimed that MMR triggered their child's subsequent GI (gastrointestinal) disease and autism. In a 2002 paper where the majority of autistic children were found to have measles in their intestines, the children examined showed a clear temporal link between MMR exposure and regression. The CDC's attempt to replicate the 2002 study fell far short of proving the safety of the MMR vaccine.....Inflammatory bowel disease in the absence of MMR RNA does not mean that MMR shot didn't precipitate the GI disease and didn't precipitate autism." - National Autism Association (September 3, 2008) http://www.nationalautismassociation.org/press090308.php
Gardasil Meets Measles: A Coincidence?
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/
__________________________________________
"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
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/
__________________________________________
"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.
__________________________________________
"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
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