By Dr. Mercola

"Your health is now brought to you by Wall Street. If you thought they hurt us with the banks, wait 'til you see what they are doing to our health care." – Jeff Hays, "Bought"

The new documentary Bought dives deeply into the inner workings of the industries at the core of our food and healthcare system, exploring the truth about how vaccines and drugs are developed and rushed to market and the ongoing secrecy behind the genetic engineering of our food supply.

For a limited time proceeds from renting or purchasing this film will be donated to the National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC), a non-profit organization advocating for vaccine safety and informed consent protection in the public health system.

Filmmaker Jeff Hays believes, as I do, that you have a right to the truth so that you can make educated decisions about your health, food, and medicine. Unfortunately, the truth is not easy to come by today.

Like the banks, the food and drug industries have grown more powerful and less transparent over time, and profit has become the primary motive. Hays may be best known for his 2012 documentary "Doctored," which exposes how the medical and drug industry conspire to control the health care system.

Hays' new film peels back the layers to show how the drug, vaccine, and chemical technology industries have joined forces as one supervillain, with its "undisclosed location" smack-dab in the middle of the White House.

You can't effectively address one industry without addressing them all, as they are now inextricably linked. Until enough people raise their voices, nothing is likely to change. According to Hays:¹

"From opiates, to statins, to a blizzard of psychotropic medications that do far more harm than good, the film covers how our entire health care system, from education to practice has been Bought... three story lines converge on Wall Street, in a tale of corruption, greed and shocking lack of conscience."

Federal Vaccine Court: Designed Specifically to Clean Up the Trail of Destruction Left by Vaccines

Vaccines are a $30 billion per year industry. Today, four dominate the world market (Pfizer, Merck, Sanofi Pasteur, and GlaxoSmithKline). Given the furor that erupts when anybody publicly questions vaccine safety, you would assume that the US government considers vaccines completely safe.

But in reality, that's not the case as evidenced by the establishment of a Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (VICP) where vaccine injury claims are decided in a Federal Vaccine Court² to compensate vaccine victims, but in reality protects the vaccine industry from lawsuits. The official line by federal health officials is that vaccines are safe and never cause autism.

However, the fact is that for many years, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Department of Justice and the Federal Vaccine Court have been quietly settling cases of brain inflammation and permanent brain damage (encephalopathy) that included symptoms of autism.

These VICP awards have been made to cover treatments related to autism. The VCIP was established in 1986 when Congress passed the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act,³ which protected vaccine manufacturers, pediatricians and other vaccine providers from nearly all civil liability for injuries and deaths caused by government recommended and mandated vaccines.

If vaccines are so safe, then why has the government set up a federal compensation program specifically to manage the damage they cause? In Bought, families who have won and lost in Vaccine Court share their heartbreaking stories.

These parent and health care professionals speaking out about their experiences are articulate, knowledgeable, and compelling witnesses to the damage that vaccines and one-size-fits-all vaccine policies have done. They are not part of some anti-vaccine campaign—in fact, the reason they were in Vaccine Court is because of what happened when they DID vaccinate their children!

Most Vaccine Reactions Are Never Connected to Vaccines

Proving causation is extremely difficult with vaccine injuries in part because there are huge gaps in vaccine safety science and, also, unless a vaccine reaction is immediate and obvious, parents may not connect their child's deterioration in health to the shots the child was given.

When parents report their child's regression into chronic poor health following vaccination to their child's pediatrician, they are typically told the illness couldn't possibly be related to the vaccine or vaccinations the child was given.

Sometimes reactions occur within hours or days of vaccination and are dramatic and life threatening and the child is taken to the emergency room and the vaccine reaction symptoms are recorded in the child's medical record. Usually, only the most clear cut and identifiable vaccine reactions end up in Vaccine Court—the ones where the "dots" are easily connected.

Unfortunately, at that point the damage is done and the child may be left with lifelong chronic illness and disability. The vast majority of vaccine adverse reactions are never reported to the federal Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System (VAERS). Still, CDC's VAERS database⁴ lists 8,000 different adverse vaccine reactions, from localized swelling and anaphylactic shock to autism, coma, and death.⁵

Because of the factors already discussed, the actual number of reactions is probably much higher than the database reports. As vaccine safety advocate Dawn Loughborough said in "Bought:"

"We used to have this idea we were protecting children from infectious diseases. And we created the National Vaccine program with children in mind, but somewhere in time protecting the program became more important than what's happening to our children."

Physicians Are in a Difficult Position Today

As a parent, you would like to believe your doctor is making decisions that are in your child's best interest—but when you begin to realize how the system really operates, you can see how this may not be the case.

Most physicians DO have good intentions and believe they are helping their patients. But pediatricians and other healthcare providers are overwhelmed, and many "don't know what they don't know"—and the pharmaceutical industry is taking full advantage of that fact.

The current American healthcare system requires physicians to make patient care decisions based on public health policy. Most doctors do not stop to analyze or critique public health policy, including vaccine policy, but simply implement it—and there is great risk to them if they step out of line.

Those who question public health policy face professional criticism, isolation, and potential loss of licensure. But where does this policy come from? It comes from the US government, which gets its data from the drug companies that manufacture vaccines, drugs, and medical equipment—and their lobby. Clinical trials are now nearly entirely funded by both the U.S. government and the medical-pharmaceutical industry in a cozy public-private financial partnership.

Even medical schools in big universities are hugely influenced by pharmaceutical industry money and it affects what's being taught to medical students. So, even academia and our educational system has been bought. In the featured film, former executive sales representative (and whistleblower) for GlaxoSmithKline Blair Hamrick states:

"I have a new respect for those docs that did not want drug reps in their offices. The reps have four-year degrees in public relations, media or whatever, but they're not scientists. They're given these three-week crash courses on these drugs, and they're told exactly verbatim what to say, and they're persuading doctors to make decisions about patient care. The drug reps do not educate physicians—they do nothing."

An Industry Steeped in Corruption

Download Interview Transcript

The drug industry has grown immensely powerful, wealthy, and corrupt, especially over the past 30 years. Science—or what is passed off as science these days—is virtually meaningless when funded by these companies, which cherry-pick results and manipulate data to fit the conclusions they want. Some of the most monumental legal cases of the past decade highlight the degree to which they'll go to maximize their profit, at any cost. Here are a few that were mentioned in the film:

• Pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline plead guilty and agreed to pay a $3 billion fine for illegal marketing and withholding information about health hazards associated with several of its drugs, including Avandia and Paxil. This was the largest fine ever paid by a drug company.
• In 2012, Johnson & Johnson agreed to pay more than $1 billion in a civil suit involving the illegal marketing of their antipsychotic drug Risperdal, which they promoted for off-label use for more than a decade. This massive case required more than 100,000 investigative hours over the course of six years, review of more than a million documents, and 140 depositions.
• In 2010, two Merck virologists filed a federal lawsuit against their former employer, alleging the vaccine maker falsified data related to the efficacy of the mumps vaccine. A US District Court Judge just recently gave them the green light to proceed.

Chances are we've not seen the last of this massive corporate corruption within the drug industry. There's not much incentive for them to clean up their act, when you consider their profit margin in comparison to their fines. For example, Johnson & Johnson paid out $3 billion in fines—for a drug that earned them $44 billion. For them, maybe it's just the cost of doing business.

Autism Rates Explode 30-FOLD in Three Decades

The official line is that vaccines don't cause autism. Yet, the CDC recently reported that the disorder now affects one in 32 boys between the ages of six and 17. Autism rates are at least 30 times higher than they were 30 years ago—and that's a conservative estimate:

• 1985: 1 in 2,500 (other estimates suggest 1 in 10,000)
• 1995: 1 in 500
• 2001: 1 in 250
• 2007: 1 in 150
• 2014: 1 in 77 (other estimates suggest 1 in 50)

Dr. Stephanie Seneff projects that half of all children will have autism by the year 2025. It costs approximately $70,000 per year to raise a child with autism, which is three times as much as raising a healthy child. Not to mention the emotional toll on the parents—80 percent of marriages involving a special needs child end in divorce.

Vaccine Adjuvants Linked to Dangerous Gene Mutations

Rates of autism and other serious immunological and neurological diseases have exploded over exactly the same period of time that our children have been bombarded with one vaccine after another. Industry experts deny that vaccines cause autism, claiming it's a "genetic disease," but it's actually an epigenetic disease—meaning, autism can be triggered by changes to a child's genes. But what's prompting these changes? Environmental chemicals and other toxins can turn genes on that would ordinarily be dormant, and turn genes off that would normally protect you.

Two of the agents shown to do this are mercury and aluminum, and exposure to both has gone up dramatically over the past 30 years, thanks to the outrageous number of vaccines being given today. Recent research has correlated increases in autistic disorder with the introduction of vaccines that use human fetal cell lines and retroviral contaminants. In the 1980s, kids received 23 doses of seven vaccines.

Today, CDC recommends 69 doses of 16 vaccines, starting the day of birth and continuing through age 18—including 49 doses before the age of six. This regimen deals a heavy blow to your child's developing immune system, raising his or her risk for brain abnormalities and autoimmune dysfunction. Although neurotoxic mercury preservatives were removed from many vaccines in the late 1990s, there are still heavy metals in vaccines like aluminum adjuvants, which are also neurotoxic—especially to infants and children. We don't know all of the factors that interact to produce toxic and mutating effects on your DNA because science does not have all the answers yet and much more research needs to be done. 

The drug and agricultural industries have thrown caution to the wind, with the assistance of a government that's gone from watchdog to accomplice. A recent study⁶ reveals just how rampant conflicts of interest are among FDA advisors. On average, 13 percent of the members in any given committee have a financial interest in the company whose drug is up for review by that committee. The Precautionary Principle—"first, do no harm" and establish safety first—has been replaced with do whatever it takes to rush a drug or vaccine to market, then deal with the fallout later. But this recklessness isn't reserved solely for the pharmaceutical industry—the corporate food system has been silently allowing genetically engineered ingredients to be injected into our food supply for more than three decades.

The United States Is World's Top Producer of GE Foods

Genetically engineered (GE) ingredients have made their way into our food supply, without our knowledge, permission, or labeling, since 1976. Essentially no scientific studies have been done to determine whether or not it's safe to eat these foreign proteins, and plants soaked with toxic herbicides that can't be washed off, for years on end. Ninety percent of processed foods contain GMOs, and the US is the top producer. Monsanto is the top manufacturer of GE seeds, producing 90 percent of the GE seeds across the globe.

Studies about the effects of GMOs on human health are sorely lacking, but those involving livestock show some pretty disturbing evidence of developmental abnormalities, disturbed organ development, and damaged microflora. Research has shown that a child's microbiome plays an important role in autism. Pesticides inserted into GMO crops are also finding their way into pregnant women's bloodstreams. Many scientists maintain that we haven't had enough time for the effects of GMOs to fully reveal themselves across populations—and when they do, the damage may be irreparable.

Cheap Food Brings Expensive Healthcare

Since 1996, the incidence of chronic diseases has escalated at the same rate as GE crops have increased, to meet the growing demand for "cheap food." In order to meet this demand, farmers are pushed daily for higher yields. The current system, which employs monoculture, has been devastating to our bee colonies and soils, as well as causing massive environmental pollution and a glut of ecological problems. Forty years ago, Americans spent 16 percent of their income on food and eight percent on healthcare; today, those numbers are reversed. This "cheap food" system has bought us the most expensive healthcare in the world.

In the same way that medical schools and universities are controlled by the drug industry, the food system is controlled by the agrichemical industry. The industrialized food system is putting many small farmers out of business. Land grant universities, funded by corporate agribusiness, are under enormous pressure to shush any research that goes against the party line. Educational institutions are afraid to "bite the hand that feeds them."

Mark Kastel, Co-Founder of the Cornucopia Institute, explains how other strategies are used to ensure that the public never finds out about the health dangers of GMOs:

"Monsanto and others actually have contracts with farmers, a technology agreement that prohibits the farmers from using any of their crop for research—other than agronomic research and yield research. So they can't partner with a physician or a medical researcher to take a look at the impact on human health. They've really impeded our ability to know whether or not GMOs are safe."

Big Bucks Buys Big Votes

Money changes everything... take Prop 37, for example. In 2012, California's GMO labeling bill was a shoe-in to win. Surveys showed as much as 85 percent of the public favored GMO labeling; $6.7 million was raised and the proposition was headed for passage. Then Monsanto, Dow, and food manufacturing giants poured more than $45 million into the anti-labeling campaign, replete with false claims, misrepresentations and scare tactics. Who knew that it is perfectly legal to lie in these types of campaigns? The proposition was defeated by six points. Bought!

Between 2012 and mid-2014, Monsanto and the Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA) successfully blocked GMO labeling laws in over 30 states, at a price tag of more than $100 million. According to the most recent analysis, opponents of GMO labeling spent more than $27 million on lobbying in the first six months of 2014 alone—this is about three times more than they spent during all of 2013.

On Being 'Pro-Evidence'

It's time to stop the insanity. As a nation, we've gone from a society that values and utilizes science to caring only about what's best for industry. But if enough of us make our voices heard, things CAN change. Think about it... what fuels industry? Money. And how does industry make its money? Off of YOU! You vote with your wallet every day with every purchase, be it at the drug store or grocery store or garden center. For example, you can boycott GMA Member Traitor Brands, which helps level the playing field.

As always, continue educating yourself and sharing what you've learned. Think of yourself as being pro-evidence, as opposed to anti-GMO or anti-vaccine. Just because you question something doesn't mean you're opposed to it—you just want more evidence so that you can make a good decision for yourself and your family. The movie Bought is an excellent learning tool, so I urge you to forward it to your friends and family.