By Barbara Loe Fisher
These are desperate times for those denying vaccine
risks. We know it because we are witnessing so many acts of
desperation being committed by doctors determined to shut down
the public conversation about vaccination and health.
Vaccine risk deniers are working overtime to restrict public
access to information, cover up vaccine injuries and deaths and
violate the human right to informed consent to medical
risk-taking.
No Flu Shots? No Employment
2013 was only a few days old when public health agencies and
medical trade groups called for veteran nurses and other health
care workers to be fired for refusing to obey orders to get
annual flu shots – no exceptions and no questions asked.1
It did not matter that the risky and notoriously ineffective
influenza vaccine turned out to be almost useless in preventing
infection with the most prevalent influenza strains circulating
in the US this year.2
Proposed State Legislation to Force Vaccine Use
This was followed by the introduction of legislation backed
by public health officials and Pharma-funded medical trade
groups like the American Academy of Pediatrics in states like
Texas, Oregon, Arizona and Vermont.3
Their goal is to remove or restrict non-medical vaccine
exemptions in state laws so doctors have more power to force
vaccine use by children and adults - no questions asked and no
exceptions.
Institute of Medicine Report: Where Is the Good Vaccine Science?
In mid-January came the eye-opening Institute of Medicine
committee report acknowledging that only 37 scientific studies
have examined the safety of the current US vaccine schedule for
newborns and children under age six,4
which now totals a stunning 49 doses of 14 vaccines5
compared to 23 doses of 7 vaccines recommended in 1983.6
The lack of enough good scientific studies meant the
committee could not determine whether the number of doses and
timing of government recommended vaccinations is - or is not -
associated with development of chronic health problems like
seizures, autoimmunity, allergies, learning disabilities and autism
in the first six years of life.7
New U.S. Autism Prevalence Statistic: 1 Child in 50
In March, a report was issued by the National Center for
Health Statistics estimating that among children attending
school in America, today 1 child in 50 has been diagnosed with
autism spectrum disorder (ASD).8
In 2004, that number was 1 child in 150. In 1992, it was 1 child
in 500 and in 1986 it was 1 child in 2000.9
By April, which is Autism Awareness Month in the US, there
was a full court press by doctors inside and outside of
government to dismiss any association whatsoever between steep
increases in the numbers of vaccinations given to children
during the past 30 years and corresponding steep increases in
the numbers of children developing autism.
Those doctors know, but a lot of young parents today don’t
know, that the public conversation about vaccine-induced brain
inflammation and chronic brain and immune system dysfunction,
including autism, began 16 years before a study was published in
The Lancet in 1998 examining the potential association
between the MMR vaccine and autism.10,
11
CDC Study Fails to Confirm Offit’s Claim 10,000 Vaccines Safe
for Babies
On Good Friday, April 1, during Easter and Passover
observances, a study conducted and funded by the Centers for
Disease Control was released by the Journal of Pediatrics
declaring that “increasing exposure to antibody stimulating
proteins and polysaccharides in vaccines is not associated with
risk of autism” and, therefore, vaccines don’t cause autism.12
It was a pathetic attempt to validate a Machiavellian
hypothesis forwarded in 2002 by pediatric vaccine developer Paul
Offit claiming that an infant could safely respond to 10,000
vaccines given at any one time.13
However, an eighth grade science class student with an
elementary understanding of health research methods,14
the bioactivity of various vaccine ingredients15,
16,
17,
18 and the difference between naturally acquired and
vaccine acquired immunity,19
could figure out that the absence of an unvaccinated control
group meant the study was fatally flawed. It proved absolutely
nothing about the potential relationship between administration
of multiple vaccinations in early childhood and the development
of autism among genetically diverse children with and without
increased biological susceptibility to adverse responses to
vaccination.20
Pediatricians Label Social Networking Parents 'Nonconformers'
On April 15, Pediatric News published an online
survey stating the obvious: a person’s knowledge, values and
beliefs, as well as the opinions of friends and families in
social networks, strongly influences decisions about
vaccination.21
Parents, who expressed doubts about vaccine safety and used
alternative vaccine schedules for their children, were
pejoratively labeled as "nonconformers."
Pediatricians commenting on the survey suggested that
nonconforming parents did not base their vaccine decisions on
“rational logic” and “scientific evidence” because they were
influenced by nonconforming friends and misleading information
on nonconforming websites.22
Apparently, there was no consideration given to the fact that
nonconforming parents found the poor science and empty rhetoric
buttressing one-size-fits-all vaccine policies entirely
unconvincing.23
Journalist and Magazine Attacked for Article Questioning
Gardasil Safety
April was also the month that a veteran journalist and radio
show host was personally attacked by pediatricians and public
health officials in Buffalo, New York for daring to write an
article questioning the safety of the
Gardasil vaccine and urging parents to make informed vaccine
choices.24
Outraged doctors threatened to financially ruin the magazine
that published the article by destroying the magazine’s paid
advertising base unless the article was retracted.25
Offit Plays Class and Race Card to Demonize Smart Nonconforming
Parents
By the end of April, a CNN reporter quoted doctors blaming
outbreaks of whooping cough, measles and mumps on unvaccinated
people in developed nations, who spread their vaccine safety
doubts on the Internet and jeopardize the health of people
around the world.26
Crassly playing both the class AND race card, the magical
thinking, attention seeking Dr. Offit offered the opinion that
“It is the upper middle class, well-educated Caucasian parents
who are shunning vaccines. They have generally gone to graduate
school, are in positions of management and are used to being in
control,” he said flatly.
Doctors playing the blame game apparently disagree about
whether nonconforming parents asking questions about vaccines
are simply stupid and irrational or are just over-educated, rich
white folks refusing to acknowledge the intellectual superiority
and infallibility of those with M.D., PhD or MPH written after
their names regardless of the color of their skin or how much
money they make.
Doctors like Offit,27
Halsey,28,
29,
30 Plotkin,31,
32 Omer33,
34,
35,
36 and others denying vaccine risks are blaming
everyone but themselves for the miserable statistic that 1 child
in 50 in America develops a type of brain and immune dysfunction
labeled autism when it used to be 1 child in 2000 before they
dumped three times as many vaccinations on babies.
Regression into Poor Health After Vaccination: A Universal
Experience
What doctors drowning in denialism37
refuse to accept is that, today, everybody knows somebody who
was healthy, got vaccinated and was never healthy again.38
That pattern of regression into poor health,39
that universal experience of suffering after use of a
pharmaceutical product that has a long, well documented history
of risks40,
41,
42 and failures,43,
44 is why the public conversation about health and
vaccination in the 21st century must and will continue. It will
continue until doctors, who are pushing more and more vaccines
on children and adults already more highly vaccinated and sicker
than ever, come up with a much better explanation than it’s “bad
genes,” “better diagnosing” or all “a coincidence.”
Vaccine Makers and Doctors Shielded from Liability Have Ethical
Duty
In the US, vaccine manufacturers are shielded from product
liability in civil court and doctors promoting and administering
vaccines are also shielded from vaccine injury lawsuits.45,
46 Doctors without legal accountability have an even
greater ethical duty to encourage patients and parents of minor
children to become educated about all risks and honor the
vaccination decisions patients or parents make, even if the
doctor does not personally agree with the decision made.47,
48
Freedom of thought, speech and conscience are deeply valued
and constitutionally protected rights in America.49
The public trust in the integrity of public health policies is
destroyed when defensive doctors unwilling to share
decision-making power fail to respect the human right to
informed consent to medical risk taking and behave like
schoolyard bullies instead of compassionate healers committed
to, first, doing no harm.
© Copyright 1997-2013 Dr. Joseph Mercola. All Rights Reserved.