Political Vaccinology: A Full Time Job

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?



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"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