By Dr. Mercola
Parents who choose not to vaccinate their children will be
punished severely, and the decision treated as a crime,
according to a warning issued earlier this month by Ugandan
President Museveni.
Speaking at a primary school for the launch of the 10-valent
pneumococcal vaccine (PCV 10), President Museveni said:1
“I'm going to consult with my people on what penalty
should be given to parents who do not bring their children
for immunization because some are just reluctant to do so.”
Jail Time for Making an Informed Medical Decision for Your
Child?
President Museveni’s warning echoes threats being made around
the globe, with the “public health police” coming after those
who choose not to vaccinate their children, or make other
“non-conventional” medical choices for them.
In Uganda, parents may soon face arrest, fines and jail time
if they choose not to have their children vaccinated. In the US,
children have been barred from attending public education
institutions, and adults have been fired from their jobs, and
these are just the latest tactics in a coordinated effort aimed
at eliminating all vaccine exemptions.
Make no mistake … what’s happening in Uganda could soon be
happening in the US, as vaccine choice is increasingly being
targeted by public health officials and other vaccine
proponents. All 50 states have enacted vaccine laws that require
proof children have received a certain number of vaccinations in
order to attend daycare, middle school, high school and college.
However, all 50 states currently allow a medical exemption to
vaccination (medical exemptions must be approved by an M.D. or
D.O.); 48 states allow a religious exemption to vaccination; and
17 states allow a personal, philosophical or conscientious
belief exemption to vaccination for children attending school.
But these exemptions are increasingly under attack.
Is Vaccination Necessary for the Greater Good?
Warnings like the one from President Museveni are often given
under the pretense that such enforcement is necessary to protect
public health. In the Ugandan case, it was referring to the PCV
10 shot, which is intended to protect children from pneumococcal
infections, such as pneumonia and meningitis.
But the real issue surrounding vaccine mandates is not one of
public health; it’s one of money, power and an assault on your
freedom.
In the US, for instance, recent outbreaks of pertussis,
measles, and mumps have officially been blamed on those who are
unvaccinated, even though the diseases have occurred
primarily in people who were vaccinated, and no
one seems to be able to fully explain how that is the fault of
those who are unvaccinated...
If the vaccine theory was correct, these people should have
been protected because they were vaccinated. Published studies
into the outbreaks have revealed that a lot of the blame should
be placed on ineffective vaccines – not on the
unvaccinated minority – yet vaccines continue to be pushed as
the best way to protect against infectious disease.
Even President Museveni acknowledged that parents need to be
boiling drinking water, using clean latrines and eating properly
in order to help curb the spread of pneumococcal infections, yet
still threatened parents with severe punishment for choosing not
to vaccinate, implying that not doing so would put the entire
country at risk.
This concept of “herd immunity,” the idea that when the
majority of the community is vaccinated against a contagious
disease, it offers protection for everyone in the
community because there is little opportunity for an outbreak to
occur, is widely promoted in the US as well, even though
vaccines do not confer the same kind of immunity as being
challenged by and overcoming the natural disease.
The science clearly shows that there's a big difference
between naturally acquired herd immunity and vaccine-induced
herd immunity, as natural infection typically gives lifelong
immunity, while vaccines only confer temporary (and
incomplete) protection. Thus, the idea of vaccine-induced herd
immunity is seriously flawed because when the vaccine’s
protective period wanes, there is no more herd immunity.
In order to eradicate infectious disease from a nation, you
need sanitation facilities, toilets, healthy food and clean
water, as well as children and a population with healthy immune
systems, yet vaccinations are typically touted as the first and
best line of defense, while these important basics are largely
overlooked.
Vaccinations May Increase Resistant Infection Rates
It’s imperative that your right to informed consent is
protected, as the safety and efficacy of taking multiple
vaccinations in childhood has never been proven. Instead what we
are now seeing is a rise in vaccine-induced diseases.
For instance, certain hard-to-treat bacterial infections in
children are on the rise because of the widespread use of
antibiotics and the conjugated pneumococcal vaccines2
and a rise in shingles cases in adults has been linked to the
chickenpox vaccine.3
The Prevnar pneumococcal vaccine has also been linked to the
development of a deadly form of strep bacteria called 19A,4
which has developed super resistance and is spreading.
To put it simply, the widespread use of vaccinations may
trigger bacterial adaptations leading to antibiotic-resistant
bacterial diseases and vaccine-resistant viral diseases. Cases
noted in the literature include:
- Whooping Cough: In Australia, dangerous
new strains of whooping cough bacteria were reported in
March 2012.5
The vaccine, researchers said, was responsible. The reason
for this is because, while whooping cough is primarily
attributed to Bordetella pertussis infection, it is
also caused by another closely related pathogen called
B. parapertussis, which the vaccine does NOT protect
against.
Two years earlier, scientists at Penn State had already
reported that receiving the pertussis vaccine significantly
enhanced nasal colonization of B. parapertussis, thereby
promoting vaccine-resistant whooping cough outbreaks.6
- Hepatitis B: In 2007, immunologists
discovered mutated vaccine-resistant viruses were causing
disease.7
- Polio: The oral polio vaccine, which is
still used in many third-world countries, is made from live
polio viruses, and carries a risk of causing polio. The
viruses in the vaccine can also mutate or recombine into a
deadlier version, igniting new outbreaks.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
admits that 154 cases of polio in the US that occurred
between 1980 and 1999 were vaccine-associated, or on average
8 cases per year in the US.8
Your Freedom is Under Attack
Informed consent to medical risk taking is a human right. You
have the right to be fully informed about the benefits and risks
of pharmaceutical products – like vaccines – and be allowed to
make a fully conscious choice about whether or not you decide to
take the risk, without being punished for it like Ugandan
President Museveni is suggesting. More than $2.5 billion dollars
has been awarded to children and adults in America who have been
seriously injured by vaccines. Yet those rights are increasingly
being taken away.
For example, last year health officials in New Mexico changed
their vaccine exemption form so that philosophical
objections are no longer an option. In Vermont, the legal right
to take a vaccine exemption for philosophical beliefs was also
threatened with bills promoted by two Vermont legislators, State
Senator Kevin Mullin and State Representative George Till.
They joined with the Vermont Health Commissioner, Dr. Harry
Chen, to lead a crusade to take away philosophical exemption to
vaccination but the bills went down in defeat after supporters
of the National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC) and Vermont
Coalition for Vaccine Choice educated legislators and the public
about the need to keep the philosophical exemption from being
stripped from Vermont public health laws.
Get Informed Before You Vaccinate
All Americans need to know their options for legally
opting-out of vaccinations, and you also need to know why
it's so important to protect this legal option, whether you
choose to use every federally recommended vaccine for yourself
and your children or not. No matter what vaccination choices you
make for yourself or your family, there is a basic human right
to be fully informed about all risks and have the ability to
refuse to allow substances you consider to be harmful, toxic or
poisonous to be forced upon you.
Unfortunately, the public-private business partnership
between government health and defense agencies and
pharmaceutical corporations manufacturing and marketing vaccines
in the US is getting closer and closer. There is some serious
discrimination against Americans, who want to be free to
exercise their human right to informed consent to medical
risk-taking when it comes to making voluntary decisions about
which vaccines they and their children use. We cannot allow that
happen!
It's vitally important to know your legal rights and
understand your options when it comes to using vaccines and
prescription drugs. For example, your doctor is legally
obligated to provide you with the CDC Vaccine Information
Statement (VIS) sheet and discuss the potential symptoms of side
effects of the vaccination(s) you or your child receive BEFORE
vaccination takes place. If someone giving a vaccine does not do
this, it is a violation of federal law. Furthermore,
the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of 1986 also requires
doctors and other vaccine providers to:
- Keep a permanent record of all vaccines given and the
manufacturer's name and lot number
- Record serious health problems, hospitalizations,
injuries and deaths that occur after vaccination in the
patient's permanent medical record
- File an official report of all serious health problems,
hospitalizations, injuries and deaths following vaccination
to the federal Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System
(VAERS)
If a vaccine provider fails to inform, record or report, it
is a violation of federal law. It's important to get all the
facts before making your decision about vaccination; and to
understand that you have the legal right to opt out of
using a vaccine that you do not want you or your child to
receive. But as mentioned earlier, vaccine exemptions are under
attack in a number of states, and it's in everyone's best
interest to protect the right to make informed, voluntary
vaccination decisions.
What You Can Do to Make a Difference
While it seems "old-fashioned," the only truly effective
actions you can take to protect the right to informed consent to
vaccination and expand your rights under the law to make
voluntary vaccine choices, is to get personally involved with
your state legislators and the leaders in your community.
THINK GLOBALLY, ACT LOCALLY.
Mass vaccination policies are made at the federal level but
vaccine laws are made at the state level, and it is at the state
level where your action to protect your vaccine choice rights
will have the greatest impact.
Signing up to be a user of NVIC's free online Advocacy Portal
at www.NVICAdvocacy.org
gives you access to practical, useful information to help you
become an effective vaccine choice advocate in your own
community. You will get real-time Action Alerts about what you
can do if there are threats to vaccine exemptions in your state.
With the click of a mouse or one touch on a Smartphone screen
you will be put in touch with YOUR elected representatives so
you can let them know how you feel and what you want them to do.
Plus, when national vaccine issues come up, you will have all
the information you need to make sure your voice is heard.
So please, as your first step,
sign up for
the NVIC Advocacy Portal.
Contact Your Elected Officials
It is so important for you to reach out and make sure your
concerns get on the radar of the leaders and opinion makers in
your community, especially the politicians you elect who are
directly involved in making vaccine laws in your state. These
are your elected representatives, so you have a right and a
responsibility to let them know what's really happening
in your life and the lives of people you know when it comes to
vaccine mandates. Be sure to share the "real life" experiences
that you, or people you know, have experienced with vaccination.
Internet Resources
I also encourage you to visit the following web pages on the
National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC) website at
www.NVIC.org:
-
NVIC Memorial for Vaccine Victims:
View descriptions and photos of children and adults, who
have suffered vaccine reactions, injuries and death. If you
or your child experiences an adverse vaccine event, please
consider posting and sharing your story here.
-
If You Vaccinate, Ask 8 Questions:
Learn how to recognize vaccine reaction symptoms and prevent
vaccine injuries.
-
Vaccine Freedom Wall: View or post
descriptions of harassment by doctors or state officials for
making independent vaccine choices.
Find a Doctor Who will Listen to Your Concerns
If your pediatrician or doctor refuses to provide medical
care to you or your child unless you agree to get vaccines you
don't want, I strongly encourage you to have the courage to
find another doctor. Harassment, intimidation, and refusal
of medical care is becoming the modus operandi of the medical
establishment in an effort to punish patients and parents who
become truly educated about health and vaccination and want to
make vaccine choices instead of being forced to follow risky
one-size-fits-all vaccine policies.
If you are treated with disrespect or are harassed in any way
by a doctor (or government official), do not engage in an
unproductive argument. You may want to contact an attorney, your
elected state representatives or local media if you or your
child are threatened.
However, there is hope.
At least 15 percent of young doctors recently polled admit
that they're starting to adopt a more individualized approach to
vaccinations in direct response to the vaccine safety concerns
of parents. It is good news that there is a growing number of
smart young doctors, who prefer to work as partners with parents
in making personalized vaccine decisions for children, including
delaying vaccinations or giving children fewer vaccines on the
same day or continuing to provide medical care for those
families, who decline use of one or more vaccines.
So take the time to locate and connect with a doctor, who
treats you with compassion and respect and is willing to work
with you to do what is right for your child.
© Copyright 1997-2013 Dr. Joseph Mercola. All Rights Reserved.