Grassroots Vaccine Freedom Movement Gears Up

by Barbara Loe Fisher

The grassroots vaccine safety and freedom movement in America, which was launched by parents of DPT vaccine injured children in 1982, has been gaining public support during the past quarter century as the numbers of vaccines medical doctors force children to get has more than doubled. From New York and New Jersey to Missouri and Mississippi Americans young and old in big towns and small cities around the nation are joining together to talk about how to change the increasingly oppressive mandatory vaccination laws in their states so they can make informed, voluntary decisions about vaccination.

It is no surprise that decades of collective denial and neglect by the medical community has led to a demand for fewer and more flexible vaccine laws. The calls jamming the phone lines and the emails and letters from desperate parents pouring into the National Vaccine Information Center have never been more alarming or heartbreaking than they are right now.

Mothers describe how they took their child to a pediatrician or public health clinic for a scheduled well baby "check-up" or sick child visit and witnessed nurses and doctors injecting their child with 5 or 8 or 12 vaccines all at once, Then, they say, they watched their children regress into chronic poor health and disability. Many of the children have suffered previous vaccine reactions, which were ignored or dismissed as "a coincidence" by doctors insisting the children be re-vaccinated. Other children are sick and on antibiotics. Others have been born premature or have personal or family histories of severe allergies and autoimmune and neurological disorders.

Over and over again, mothers describe in identical terms what they witnessed, their babies and children suffer following vaccination - seizures, high pitched screaming, collapse, unconsciousness, high fevers, body rashes, head banging, flapping, profound personality changes - cognitive and physical regression that changes the child physically, mentally and emotionally forever. And over and over again, mothers describe how their pediatricians stubbornly deny the vaccines just given had anything to do with what happened.

As someone who has witnessed the proliferation of vaccines and vaccine laws devastate the health of three generations of children, there are no words to adequately describe the pain, despair and fear that has destroyed the once joyful time of young parenting in America today. Children and their parents have become unwilling victims of a medical- industrial complex driven by the profit motive and powered by an ideology that has a callous disregard for individual human life.

It is no wonder that more and more Americans, young and old, are demanding the right to make informed, voluntary vaccination choices for themselves and their families. The grassroots vaccine safety and freedom movement in America is taking root in many states, particularly in those with the fewest exemptions and most vaccine mandates inflexibly implemented.

The conscientious belief exemption to vaccination should be added to the religious exemption in every state and medical exemptions should be widened to provide enlightened physicians with the power to write exemptions for those who do and do not have medical conditions conforming to the narrow one-size-fits-all contraindication guidelines of the CDC and AAP.

The right to informed consent to use of any pharmaceutical product or medical procedure, which carries a risk of injury or death, is a human right. Vaccination should be no exception.

NVIC supports the efforts in every state to change vaccine laws to allow informed, voluntary vaccine decision-making. In Mississippi, parents will be meeting March 17, 2008 at 6 p.m. at the Flowood Public Library, 103 Winners Circle, Flowood, MS to talk about adding a conscientious belief exemption to Mississippi state laws, which only allow a medical exemption. Go to http://parents.meetup.com/465/ for more information.

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"As states move to require more vaccines for school-age children, an increasing number of parents are saying no to some of the inoculations. They are seeking exemptions from the state in growing numbers....Rita M. Palma, of Bayport, N.Y., sought a religious exemption from vaccines for her three sons but was turned down after a hearing with school officials. She said she had become increasingly uncomfortable with the vaccines the boys were getting.....After submitting a written request for a religious waiver, she was questioned at a two-hour hearing by the lawyer for the Bayport-Bluepoint School District and turned down last February by the school board. The New York Civil Liberties Union is now pursuing her case. "It is unbelievably traumatic to have your religious convictions questioned," Mrs. Palma said. "For schools to be in the religious sincerity business is just outrageous." Sue Collins, co-founder of the New Jersey Alliance for Informed Choice in Vaccination, said parents often face a variety of roadblocks when seeking vaccine exemptions in the state. "We see schools decline letters, or tell parents that clergy must write letters," she said. "Parents are being harassed and being asked to do things above and beyond the law." Assemblywoman Charlotte Vandervalk, a Republican from Bergen County, who introduced a conscientious exemption bill for vaccines, said parents shouldn't have the burden of proving a religious or medical reason to refuse vaccines. "This is America; you don't force it on everybody," Ms. Vandervalk said." - Fran Silverman, New York Times, (March 2, 2008)
http://www.nytimes.com/ 2008/03/02/nyregion/nyregionspecial2/02Rvaccine.ht ml? _r=3&pagewanted=1&ref=nyregionspecial2&oref=slog in&oref=slogin


"The point of it is the parents should be in charge of the health care needs of their children," said Drumright, whose daughter is 8 and sons are 6 and 4. "It's not up to the state to dictate to parents how they should make important health care decisions about their children." Sen. John Loudon, R-Chesterfield, said he's considering backing a proposal for a personal exemption. He has headed similar efforts in the past, most recently in 2003. "I am always open to it," Loudon said of the idea of a personal exemption. "I think when a parent does their diligence and has cause for alarm, they should have the authority over government to control the health of their children."......Missouri parents once had the right to exempt their children from immunizations without needing to provide a reason. But the law changed in 1992, and now parents can only opt out of their kids' shots for religious or medical reasons....."As more and more vaccines are being added to the list, that is where you're getting some pushback by parents, and legitimately so," said Barbara Loe Fisher, co-founder and president of the National Vaccine Information Center, a vaccine safety watchdog agency in Vienna, Va. She said parents are feeling pressured and powerless with all the vaccine mandates. "The one- size-fits all approach to vaccinations ... is simply not medically responsible," Fisher said. "Parents have to be given more flexibility." - Andale Gross, Associated Press (February 29, 2008)
http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/new s/stories.nsf/missouristatenews/story/6B1F6136D15D 8F1F862573FF00201C8D?OpenDocument

"Tyler's father, Chris Holzinger, said, "After his 2-year-old vaccinations, he became less verbal; eye contact ceased. He started swaying, head-butting, doing a lot of these autistic characteristics." Tyler's parents and 200 others are active in an online support group backing a bill giving Mississippi parents the choice to not have all vaccines....Kellie Bischoff, president of the support group, said,"Well, that's a scary thought, but if you look at the other 48 states with nonmedical exemptions, it really is not an issue. They do not have outbreaks." Just like the other 48 states, the support group wants religious and philosophical exemptions added to the bill. Mississippi and West Virginia are the only states without the exemptions. Even though it's risky, the support group president stopped vaccinating her oldest daughter, Emma, at 2 years old because she had seizures. Her youngest, 2- year-old Addie, hasn't been vaccinated yet. Bischoff said, "If something were to happen and there were a serious vaccine reaction, the parent is ultimately responsible for taking care of this child, not the doctors, not the state, not the school board." - WAPT-TV (ABC affiliate in Jackson, MS) (February 11, 2008)http://www.wapt.com/news/15276018/detail.html




6 comments:

Anonymous said...

My mom endured so much criticism and ridicule when we were children because she chose not to vaccinate us. Thankfully her choice to not vaccinate us gave me the foundation to question my child's recommended vaccine schedule.

My son's pediatrician hasn't given me a bit of trouble when I've refused vaccines, although Wisconsin's laws may be more lenient than other states. I even think I can enroll my son in public school as long as I fill out a waiver, but if it comes down to it, I'd choose to home-school him rather than inject him with something I am convinced is detrimental.

I am so concerned at the extremist perspective of the government when it comes to vaccines, and I'm very concerned at what that means for my family's future. But hearing that people are standing up, and that there are more and more voices protesting the current vaccination policies, I have hope.

Thank you for writing this blog. I appreciate the information you provide. Thank you.

We Can All Sparkle said...

Here in little ol' Reading, Pennsylvania a middle school student was diagnosed with Mumps. Of course the school immediately reviewed all the health records and barred 44 students from coming to school until they received a Mumps vaccination.

Long story short... the state made a mistake when contacted by the school. PA is in the process of increasing the mumps vaccination from 1 dose to 2 doses. These kids were barred from school because they only had one, which is within the current regulations.

I believe the newspaper stated that 7 students were given the second dose before the error was made public.

It will be interesting to hear the parents' reactions when they get a bill for the second dose which is not yet mandated and probably won't be covered by their insurance.

What a joke this is... it's pretty pathetic when the state health department can't even keep their regulations straight... and apparently the school health system is just blindly following.

Lori Martin

::Sylvia:: said...

How do we go about getting a group in our state (FL) started? Every time I refuse a vaccine I get scrutinized and lectured from my children's pediatrician. I have two autistic nephews and one autistic neighbor and two out of three had severe reactions to vaccines.

Anonymous said...

We as Americans that believe in freedom are getting bulldozed by those who fear that by them being vaccinated that their vaccines (And theory) are going to fail them and they are going to contract all diseases from a-z from the unvaccinated.

What is their driving force? Just that, FORCE. Anytime freedom is the right of the people, you have those that think freedom does not apply or that we the people are not smart enough to blindly accept the herd mentality theory.

Kerry

Anonymous said...

I try to explain to people that ALL the problems that vaccines cause go beyond mercury. Modern application of vaccinations hosts a cocktail of problems and not just to children.

There are people out there who’s church is a clinic. Peer reviewed reports published by the same big pharma ‘independent’ study groups are their bible and their ‘Pope’ is their doctor. If you try and tell them that vaccines are NOT the center of the universe you will be branded as a Heretic, and this is where the ‘FORCED’ medicating mentality stems from. By the way, this forced drugging mentality goes beyond vaccinations and reaches into the so-called ‘drug free’ school zones with the forced medicating of kids ‘diagnosed’ with any number of ‘disorders’ and naturally their only hope is powerful Psychotropic drugs. We certainly would want little sally or Johnny to have a bad day or two would we?

First of all the science of vaccinations has been turned on it’s head. When vaccinations were first ready for public consumption scientists knew NEVER give an infant a vaccination. Infants have an immune system unlike any other human being. If it didn’t have a different type of immune system it would reject it’s mother’s blood supply just like the body rejects someone else’s organ.

Scientists knew they had to wait at least until the child was 5 or 6 years old (back then) because they knew the dangers of vaccinating a child who’s immune system had not yet developed. It would be much better to give your baby the common cold rather than shots.

Another problem with ‘modern’ vaccination programs and REAL vaccination science has to do with ‘frequency’ of shots. The FDA’s (food and death administration) ‘Safe Baby’ program (written by guess who? Yeah, big pharma.) wants babies to get up to over 30 shots by the age of two, and this number of shots may be as high as into the 40’s since it is constantly increasing. This insane number of shots the FDA and big pharma want to give your baby goes against known science facts regarding shot frequency. When an adult gets ‘A’ (single) vaccination shot the bodies defense mechanism kicks in and changes the bodies chemistry, especially in the brain. After all, the brain has to tell the body (electrochemically) that the body has to protect itself. Science has found the brain actually can stay in this state for up to a year. If the body is NOT allowed to
electrochemically normalize before receiving an other shot the body will be suspended in the above state. It’s for this reason Alzheimer’s is ramped among the elderly who regularly get annual flu shots -vs- their counter parts who do not.

While mercury in vaccines should get the attention it deserves another preservative that is also extremely toxic to the body gets zero attention and it is ALUMINUM. Aluminum is very toxic to the body and is saturated in most vaccines.

With mercury, aluminum, shot frequency and don’t forget the cancers all in vaccines it has to be a multi billion dollar religious cult with the public at large for anyone with two braincells to actually willfully put this garbage not only in their bodies but, the bodies of their babies as well, let alone go along with this insane multi ‘trillion’ dollar industry.

Anonymous said...

We've been told that vaccines eliminated smallpox and polio. I've been doing some research on the Internet on smallpox. There are two books that can be found online: one is Mandatory Vaccination in England, 1884, by Wm. Tebb; the other is Vaccination a Delusion, It's Penal Enforcement a Crime, 1989, by Alfred Russell Wallace.

England made vaccination against smallpox compulsory in 1853. After compulsory vaccination, there were three epidemics: one in 1857-9 with 14,000 deaths; the second in 1863-5 with 20,000 deaths; and the third in 1871-2 with 44,800 deaths.

In the Phillipines, prior to 1905, smallpox case fatality was about 10 percent. In 1905 after vaccination was introduced an epidemic occurred; the case mortality was 25-50 percent. In 1918-1919, with 95 percent vaccinated the worst epidemic occurred. There were 112,549 cases and 60,855 deaths.

In Brooklyn in 1902, there were 357 cases of smallpox; 322 cases were in people who had been vaccinated.

Dr. A.R. Charles Campbell, 1865-1931, found that smallpox was spread by bedbugs (which were probably common in England in those times.) He also found that those who became infected were those who were in ill health and malnourished.

I've read that it was improved sanitation and nutrition that eliminated smallpox rather than vaccination.

I have not even mentioned that injury and death from vaccines were common. There was a incident in 1882, in England, of a mother who drowned herself and her infant rather than have her baby vaccinated. (Her infant was in poor health.) There were a few other cases of mothers who committed suicide rather than vaccinate their children.

Sir Thomas Sydenham, 1624-89, devised a treatment for smallpox that reduced the death rate from 50 percent to 1 or 2 percent.

Smallpox is not as infectious or fast-spreading as we are led to believe, and vitamin C can help to prevent it. However, the Homeland Security Act gives authority to the Secretary of Homeland Security to order mass vaccination against smallpox in the event of an "emergency." This would be a disaster, because there would be a percentage of persons who would suffer a severe adverse reaction. Even if there were an epidemic of smallpox, the best solution would be isolation of persons who are contagious.

I am very concerned about the idea of mandatory vaccination, about all the pro-vaccine propaganda, about the CDC and public health officials stating that there is no relationship between vaccines and autism. It's equivalent to saying that if you give poison to a child and the child dies, that doesn't prove that the poison had anything to do with it. To me, the connection is obvious.
Nevertheless, the evidence is there; it is being ignored by the authorities.

I am a grandmother of six. My oldest granddaughter, who was born in 1991, has Asperger's Syndrome (on the autism spectrum). I don't know her vaccination record, but I know she was frequently on antibiotics as a baby. I believe there is a hereditary factor--my older brother had the characteristics of high-functioning autism--but that vaccines are the trigger or immediate cause.

My younger brother, about 49 years ago, came down with whooping cough one month after his third DPT shot. He was very very sick but recovered.