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by Barbara Loe Fisher
Memorial Day is for remembering those, who have fought and died to defend America and preserve our civil liberties, including freedom of thought, speech, religious belief and conscience. So every Memorial Day I remember the children, who have died after receiving state mandated vaccines, and honor their mothers and fathers, who grieve for them.
Death Has Always Been A Vaccine Complication
From the first human vaccines developed two centuries ago, smallpox and rabies vaccines, death has always been a complication of vaccination.1 2 In 1933, the whole cell pertussis vaccine’s ability to kill without warning was first reported in the medical literature when two infants died within minutes of a pertussis shot.3 In 1946, American doctors detailed the sudden deaths of twins within 24 hours of their second diphtheria-pertussis shot.4 In 1986, the U.S. Congress passed the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act and has awarded over $2 billion dollars in compensation for deaths and injuries caused by vaccines.5
U.S. Infant Mortality Rate High
According to the most recent National Vital Statistics Report, more than 26,000 American babies born alive in 2009 died before their first birthday, which gives the U.S. a very high infant mortality rate of 6 infant deaths per 1,000 live births.6 In 1960, America ranked 12th in infant mortality among all nations of the world. In 2005, we had fallen to number 30. Today in America, there are more premature babies than ever before and more full term babies die before their first birthday than in most European countries.7 Some people argue that not every country calculates their infant mortality statistics the same way, which artificially inflates the poor ranking for the U.S.8 Even if adjustments would boost the U.S. ranking up several notches, there can be no question that a nation, which spends more per capita on healthcare 9 and legally requires their children to get more vaccines than any other country, should have one of the best – not one of the worst – infant mortality rates, especially for healthy babies born full term.
New Study: More Vaccines = Higher Infant Mortality Rate
Now there is a new study published in a peer reviewed medical journal that NVIC has helped to make publicly accessible to everyone, which reveals that developed nations with poor infant mortality rates, like the U.S., tend to give their infants more doses of vaccines before age one.10 The study’s authors found “a high statistically significant correlation between increasing numbers of vaccine doses and increasing infant mortality rates.” To put this into perspective, doctors give American babies 26 doses of vaccines before age one, which is twice as many vaccinations as babies in Sweden and Japan get. Is it really just a “coincidence” that the infant mortality rate is twice as high in America compared to Sweden and Japan, where half as many vaccinations are given to very young babies?
Sudden Infant Death Syndrome & Vaccination
A mother and father’s worst nightmare is to watch their baby die before reaching their first birthday. When a healthy baby dies unexpectedly shortly after routine vaccinations, often parents ask legitimate questions about whether the vaccines did it. They are usually met with quick denials by doctors and public health officials anxious to defend the safety of vaccines. The death certificates of many babies, who die shortly after vaccination, list Sudden Infant Death Syndrome or SIDS as the cause of death, which means that no specific symptoms or other reason for death could be found.11 That was true in the 1980s, when I was interviewing parents of babies, who died suddenly after DPT shots, for the 1985 book DPT: A Shot in the Dark,12 which Dr. Harris Coulter and I wrote at a time when SIDS – a newly created medical term - was becoming the leading cause of infant mortality in the U.S 13
Vaccine Deaths Described in 1985 Book
What I found and detailed in our book is that most babies dying after DPT shots were not found dead in their cribs without any symptoms before they died. They were dying after suffering plenty of vaccine reaction symptoms within days of their DPT shot, symptoms like high fever; sudden collapse; hours of persistent crying or high pitched screaming with arching of the back that can be a sign of brain inflammation; severe diarrhea; redness, swelling and pain at the injection site and signs of seizures that too many pediatricians were blowing off as unimportant. Other babies, who received several DPT shots, were described by their mothers as suffering a progressive mental and physical deterioration that got worse after each shot before the baby was found dead in the crib.
Inconvenient Truth: More Full Term Babies Dying in America
Several studies in the 1980s showed an association between infant death and DPT vaccinations.14 15 Today, it is thought that genetic and environmental risk factors combine to leave SIDS babies with signs of petechial hemorrhages, lung congestion and brainstem and neurotransmitter dysfunction.16 Most doctors continue to deny that vaccination is a risk factor for SIDS17 and say that SIDS has declined since pediatricians launched a national campaign in the 1990s to put babies on their backs to sleep,18 but others point out that the only reason SIDS death statistics have gone down is because, today, fewer infant deaths are labeled “SIDS” by doctors and coroners.19 The inconvenient truth remains that the numbers of pre-term births continues to increase in America and there are more full-term babies dying before their first birthday than in most developed nations of the world. 20
Half of U.S. Children Chronically Ill
Health officials have no explanation for this horrible child death statistic. They also have no explanation for the fact that, today, an estimated 43 to 54 percent of all American children suffer with at least one chronic illness requiring health insurance reimbursement, including a staggering 26 percent of children under age six years at high risk for developmental, social or behavioral delays.21 Government officials now admit that, In the past decade, developmental disabilities among American children has increased by a whopping 17 percent and is led by a rise in autism and ADHD.22 23
American Children Used To Be Healthier
This is not the way it used to be in America when I was growing up in the 1950s and early 1960s. Back then, women were not getting vaccinated during pregnancy 24 and there were only a few vaccines given to babies25 and there were few children suffering with learning disabilities, ADHD, autism, asthma and severe allergies,26 27 diabetes,28 29 bi-polar disorders30 and taking a cocktail of prescription medications.31 And the U.S. was ranked number 12 among all nations in infant mortality, not near the bottom of the list.
Child Health Report Card: F
This is not a very good health report card for a nation that, in the last 50 years, has paid tens of trillions of dollars to the pharmaceutical industry, public health agencies and pediatricians telling us to trust their advice about how to keep our children healthy. More health insurance and more “medical homes” will not turn F’s into A’s on that bad health report card.
May 1986: Parents Reported Vaccine Infant Deaths to CDC
Exactly 25 years ago, in May 1986, I joined with mothers and fathers, whose babies died after DPT shots, and gave a presentation to the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta. We told physician members of the CDC’s vaccine policymaking committee, who wanted state legislators to strictly enforce laws legally requiring children to get 23 doses of 7 vaccines starting at two months through age six, that doctors did not really know how many children were dying after vaccination. You can read the transcript of that 1986 CDC meeting32 on NVIC’s website and decide for yourself whether anything has really changed in 25 years except the fact that, now, public health officials are ordering doctors to give children 48 doses of 14 vaccines starting on day of birth through age six, with half of those doses given before age one. On NVIC’s website at NVIC.org, you can also visit the virtual International Memorial for Vaccine Victims to read about or post a description of a vaccine-related death;33 you can research and read descriptions of deaths following vaccination made to the federal Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System;34 and you can learn more about vaccine reactions so, if your pediatrician does not educate you, you will be armed with that life saving information.35
Vaccine Safety Assumptions Are Dangerous
A death is a death, no matter what the cause. Every death that occurs after vaccination cannot be automatically presumed to be causally related to the vaccines recently given. However, to assume that all or most infant deaths, which occur within hours, days or weeks after vaccination, are just a “coincidence” and not related to vaccination is both scientifically implausible and dangerous. It is especially dangerous for individual families, as well as for our entire population, to make assumptions about vaccine safety in a vacuum of knowledge. When high infant mortality rates in America correspond with the high numbers of vaccines babies are being given in the first year of life, credible investigation into the child death and chronic disease epidemic should be our highest national priority and vaccination should not be left off the table.
We must remember these children.
Click here to read the new study by Miller & Goldman: Infant mortality rates regressed against number of vaccine doses routinely given: Is there biochemical or synergistic toxicity? Click here to order the book A Shot in the Dark by Coulter & Fisher. Click here to read a partial transcript of the May 12, 1986 Meeting at the CDC.
REFERENCES:
1 CME Resource. Smallpox Vaccination: An Update . 2009.2 Time Magazine. Infectious Disease: Preventing the Incurable. August 14, 1964.3 Madsen T. 1933. Vaccination against whooping cough. JAMA 1933; 101(3): 187-884 Werne J, Garrow I. Fatal anaphylactic shock occurrence in identical twins following second injection of diphtheria toxoid and pertussis antigen. JAMA 1946; 131(9): 730-35.5 Health Resources Services Administration (HRSA). National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program Vaccine Injury Table.6 Kochanek KD, Xu J. Deaths: Preliminary Data for 2009. National Vital Statistics Report March 16, 2011. 59(4): 1-68.7 MacDorman MF, Matthews TJ. Behind International Rankings of Infant Mortality: How the U.S. Compares With Europe. National Center for Health Statistics Data Brief: November 2009.8 MacDonald E. Financial Times Gets It Wrong on U.S. Infant Mortality Rates. Fox Business News. April 13, 2011.9 UC Atlas of Global Inequality. Health Care Spending.10 Miller NZ,, Goldman GS. Infant mortality rates regressed against number of vaccine doses routinely given: Is there a biochemical or synergistic toxicity? Human and Experimental Toxicology: Published online May 4, 2011.May 4 Press Release: Think Twice Global Vaccine Institute.11 National Institutes for Health. National Center for Biotechnology Information. National Library of Medicine. Sudden Infant Death Syndrome.12 Coulter HL, Fisher BL. DPT: A Shot in the Dark. 1985. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich. (1991, Avery, Penguin).13 See Reference #10, Page 5. 14 Torch WC. Diphtheria-pertussis-tetanus (DPT) immunization: a potential cause of the sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS). American Academy of Neurology, 34th Annual Meeting, 1982. Neurology 32(4).15 Walker AM, Jick H et al. Diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis immunization and sudden infant death syndrome. Am J Public Health 1987; 77:945-951.16 Hunt CE, Hauck FR. Sudden infant death syndrome. CMAJ 2006: 174(13).17 Centers for Disease Control. Vaccine Safety: Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) and Vaccines.18 Robert Woods Johnson Medical School. News Release: Study Identifies that Multiple Risk Factors Existed in 78 Percent of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome Cases. February 15, 2010.19 See Reference #6, Page 9. Also Reference #10, Pages 5-6. 20 See Reference #7: Key Findings21 Bethell CD, Kogan MD et al. A National and State Profile of Leading Health Problems and Health Care Quality for US Children: Key Insurance Disparities and Across-State Variations. Academic Pediatrics 2011; 11(3S): 22-33.22 Boyle CA, Boulet S et al. Trends in the Prevalence of Developmental Disabilities in US Children 1997-2000. Pediatrics. Published online May 23, 2011.23 Ostrow N. Autism Leads Rise in Developmental Disabilities in U.S. Kids. Bloomberg News. May 23, 2011.24 Brooks M. Jump in Influenza Immunization Rates Among Pregnant Women. Medscape. December 3, 2011.25 Immunization Action Coalition. Historic Dates and Events Related to Vaccines and Immunization.26 Asthma and Allergy Foundation. Asthma Facts & Figures.27 Enriquez R, Addington W et al. The relationship between vaccine refusal and self-report of atopic disease in children. JACI 2005; 115(4) 737-744.28 Lee JM, Okumura MJ et al. Trends in Hospitalizations for Diabetes Among Children and Young Adults – United States 1993-2004. Diabetes Care 2007; 30: 3035-3039.29 Boyles S. Type 1 Diabetes May Double in Young Kids. Medicine.Net. May 27, 2009.30 Carey, Benedict. Bipolar disorder cases rise sharply in U.S. children. New York Times. September 3, 2007.31 Mathews AW. So Young and So Many Pills. Wall Street Journal. December 28, 2010.32 Partial Transcript of the May 12, 1986 ACIP Meeting, Centers for Disease Control, Atlanta.33 NVIC. International Memorial for Vaccine Victims.34 Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System (VAERS). MedAlerts Searchable Database.35 NVIC. If You Vaccinate, Ask 8 Questions.
Click here to watch the video
14 Ağustos 2012 Salı
The Vaccine Injured: Where Has Compassion Gone?
To contact us Click HERE
Posted 12/08/2011
By Barbara Loe Fisher
During this season of remembrance and thanksgiving, I am grateful for the blessings that I have had in my life, including the hard times, when I learned that faith and hope can overcome fear and doubt. Adversity can make us stronger but it is also an opportunity to feel and offer compassion to others to ease their suffering.
In great numbers,[1] Americans reach out to help victims of hurricanes,[2] floods, earthquakes,[3] poverty,[4] violence[5] and disease.[6] Journalists often profile individuals, who are suffering from adversity: the earthquake survivors in Haiti;[7] the victims of hate crimes;[8] children living in poverty dying from starvation and neglect.[9] These stories of human suffering are reminders of why we should listen to our conscience[10] and act in compassionate ways to lessen the suffering of others.
The ability to have compassion for others is an antidote to cruelty, inequality, injustice, and tyranny.
Valuing Individual Life, Freedom & Compassion
America was founded by men and women immigrants, who had personally suffered oppression and adversity, and knew how important it is to treat individuals with respect and compassion. There is a ringing endorsement in the U.S. Declaration of Independence for the individual’s right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness,[11] and in the Constitution for the right to freedom of speech and personal religious beliefs.[12] Perhaps it is that fundamental appreciation for the value of the individual, which is part of our history and culture, that has taught us to value conscience and compassion.
Vaccine Injured Not Treated with Compassion
So it is sad to see what happens in America today when babies, children and adults react to vaccines and become permanently injured or even die.[13] [14] [15] [16] When healthy people suffer complications from infectious diseases, they are treated with compassion.[17] [18] [19] [20] But when healthy people suffer complications from vaccination, often they are not treated with compassion.[21] [22] Many times, vaccine victims [23] [24] [25] are victimized all over again by those, who deny the reality of what happened [26] [27] [28] or use a utilitarian [29] [30] [31] rationale to dismiss them as acceptable losses in the War on Infectious Disease.[32] [33] [34] [35]
Media Failing to Protect Vaccine Injured & Safety Advocates
In the past decade, this persecution of a growing minority of vaccine-injured citizens has been facilitated by the fourth estate,[36] the free press, which has historically served as a check and balance on inequality and injustice in America.[37] The vital function of a free press, ensured in the U.S. Constitution, is failing to do what it could do to protect the health and lives of the vaccine injured[38] [39] or defend freedom of speech for citizens calling for inclusion of vaccine safety and informed consent protections[40] in public health policies and laws,[41] [42] [43] while the chronic disease and disability epidemic destroys the health and economic stability of our nation[44] [45] [46] [47] [48] and the public health community has no answers, so the band plays on.
Institute of Medicine Acknowledges Vaccine Safety Science Gaps
The Institute of Medicine issued an historic report this year that acknowledged there is not enough quality vaccine science in the medical literature to determine whether or not many of the vaccines routinely given to children and adults cause more than 100 different types of brain and immune system dysfunction.[49]
These are serious inflammatory brain and immune system disorders, which are part of the exploding chronic disease epidemic in America, and range from heart and blood disorders to strokes, sudden infant death syndrome, asthma, multiple sclerosis, fibromyalgia, GBS, rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, diabetes and encephalitis that can lead to seizures, learning disabilities and autism.
Institute of Medicine Acknowledges Individual Biological Susceptibility
In that historic report, the Institute of Medicine also acknowledged there are pre-existing biological susceptibilities that can make some individuals more vulnerable than others for suffering harm from vaccination, such as genetic variations; age or developmental stage at the time of vaccination; coinciding illness or other environmental exposures.[50]
If one-size-fits-all vaccine policies and mandates are putting an unknown number of biologically susceptible individuals at risk for injury and death, why do so few doctors care or want to do something about it?
Doctors Denying Medical Care to Families
It is disturbing to watch doctors, who we have always believed to be the most compassionate among us, coldly turn away families questioning the government policy of giving children 69 doses of 16 vaccines.[51] [52] Families wanting to choose or delay vaccines, are being denied medical care even if children have experienced previous vaccine reactions or have become chronically ill and disabled after vaccination and could be made sicker if more vaccines are given.[53]
How unethical.
Doctors Tell Employees: Get Vaccinated or Be Fired
It is shocking that health care professionals are being threatened by doctors running hospitals and medical facilities that, if they do not obey orders to get an annual flu shot, they will be fired [54] [55] [56] - even if they are pregnant; have had previous vaccine reactions or have medical conditions that could be made a lot worse if they get more vaccines.[57]
How heartless.
Doctors Strip Parents of Legal Right to Make Vaccine Decisions for Minor Children
It is hard to accept that doctors we have trusted are pressuring our elected state legislators to pass laws stripping us of the legal right to make medical risk decisions for our children so minor children can be given vaccines without a parent’s knowledge or consent.[58] [59]
How dangerous.
Pharma Funded Doctor Associations Attack Vaccine Safety Advocates
It is frightening to know that medical trade associations and doctors taking money from drug companies[60] [61] [62] [63] are mounting disinformation campaigns to demonize vaccine safety advocates[64] and censor public access to information about health and vaccination so the American people cannot make fully informed vaccine decisions.[65]
How ignorant.
Mainstream Media Facilitates Public Attacks on Advocates
And it is tragic to witness the mainstream media facilitating the public attack on vaccine victims and those calling for a move away from one-size-fits all vaccine mandates[66] [67] that punish individuals, who are biologically vulnerable to vaccine reactions in part because of the genes they inherited.[68] [69]
How cruel.
Vaccine Makers & Doctors Giving Vaccines Shielded from Liability
In 1986, Congress passed a law acknowledging that vaccines can and do cause brain and immune system damage and that more should be done to protect individuals from vaccine injury and death.[70] In that law, Congress shielded drug companies selling vaccines and doctors giving vaccines from civil lawsuits when someone is seriously injured or dies after being vaccinated.
So why are doctors, who are shielded from liability, so unwilling to treat vaccine injured children and their families with compassion or understand the need for people to have the freedom to protect themselves and their loved ones from vaccine injury?
Loss of Compassion Leads to Exploitation
When you enter the Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C., you see an inscription that says “The first to perish were the children…. From these a new dawn might have risen.”[71]
The loss of compassion and, then, freedom in any society always begins with people looking the other way when those in power justify exploiting a vulnerable minority for what they say is the benefit of the majority.
NVIC: Three Decades of Defending Informed Consent Rights
It has been 30 years since the parent co-founders of our non-profit charity, the National Vaccine Information Center, launched the vaccine safety and informed consent movement in America. We were parents of children, for whom the risks of vaccination had been 100 percent, and we took on the mission of preventing vaccine injuries and deaths through public education and defending the human right to informed consent to medical risk-taking.
That is still our mission.
During this holiday season, please consider sending a donation – no matter how big or small - to the National Vaccine Information Center so we can continue to fight for the freedom for Americans to use every government vaccine, a few vaccines or choose other preventive health care options for staying well. You can make a tax-deductible donation online at NVIC.org.
You can also visit NVIC’s Vaccine Freedom Wall on our website and read the true stories told by Americans, whose parental and informed consent rights are being violated in schools, doctors’ offices, hospitals and state legislatures across our nation.
You can sign up to be a user of NVIC’s free online Advocacy Portal and learn how to stand up in your state for the legal right to make informed, voluntary vaccine choices.
And if you or a loved one has suffered a vaccine reaction, injury or death, please consider going to our website to share your story on NVIC’s Memorial for Vaccine Victims and make a report to the federal vaccine adverse event reporting system.
Compassionate Doctors Will Count & Minimize Vaccine Casualties
During this season of remembrance and thanksgiving, I pray that doctors developing, selling, giving and promoting the use of vaccines will stop to consider the way they are treating the vaccine injured and their families. I pray that they find it in their hearts to replace their fear, anger, doubt and prejudice with compassion and take positive steps to accurately count and minimize the numbers of vaccine casualties rather than dismissing them as a “coincidence” or unimportant.
Thank You for Your Encouragement and Support
Thank you to all who have financially supported the National Vaccine Information Center this year and throughout the past three decades. You have made it possible for us to continue this life-affirming work. We also are grateful for your cards and letters of encouragement as they help strengthen our faith and hope in the future.
Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah and may your New Year be filled with many opportunities to celebrate life and offer compassion to those facing adversity.
Watch a video profile of a family with three generations of vaccine reactions struggling to protect their healthy children from becoming vaccine injured.
Watch a video profile of a Professor of Nursing, who suffered a reaction to a flu shot and was left paralyzed.
REFERENCES
[1] The Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University. U.S. Charitable Giving Shows Modest Uptick in 2010 Following Two Years of Declines: Donations of 290.89 billion. June 20, 2011.
[2] Godlasky A. How to Help Victims of Hurricane Katrina. USA Today. Sept. 2, 2005.
[3] Sydell, L. Donations to Haiti Pour In Via Text Message. NPR. Jan. 14, 2010.
[4] Post T. Setting a Goal to End Poverty and Hunger in the United States. Bread for the World Institute. February 2009.
[5] National Network to End Domestic Violence.
[6] The Global Fund Welcomes U.S. Budget Allocation of U.S. $1.05 Billion for 2011. Press Release: The Global Fund to Fight ADIS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. Apr. 18, 2011.
[7] Hensel B. Haiti Quake Victim’s Surgery Successful. NBC. Aug. 10, 2011.
[8] Blair E. ‘Ten Years Later,” the Matthew Shephard Story Retold. NPR. Oct. 12, 2009. Stump S. Teen’s Parents: After Suicide, He’s Still Being Bullied. Today Show. MSNBC. Sept. 27, 2011.
[9] Associated Press. Once again, children are starving in Ethiopia. MSNBC. May 20, 2008.
[10] Merriam-Webster Dictionary. Definition of conscience.
[11] U.S. History.org. Declaration of Independence. July 4, 1776.
[12] U.S. History.org. First Ten Amendments to the U.S. Constitution: Bill of Rights.
[13] Coulter HL, Fisher BL. DPT: A Shot in the Dark. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich. 1985.
[14] NVIC. Memorial for Vaccine Victims.
[15] MedAlerts.org. Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System Database.
[16] Miller NZ,, Goldman GS. Infant mortality rates regressed against number of vaccine doses routinely given: Is there a biochemical or synergistic toxicity? Human and Experimental Toxicology: Published online May 4, 2011.
[17] PBS. American Experience: The Polio Crusade. Feb. 2, 2009.
[18] Friedman E. Viagra Used to Treat Rare Meningitis Attack, Student Fights for Her Life. ABC. Feb. 5, 2009.
[19] Sunseri G. Rick Perry’s HPV Stance Grounded in Case of Heather Burcham, Who Died of Cervical Cancer. ABC. Sept. 15, 2011.
[20] Yang L. Girl’s Death Believed to Be Flu Related in Nassau. ABC. Mar. 1, 2011.
[21] Wood RL. Vaccine Intolerant Child Wants Public Education. Gazette-Mail (WVA). Nov. 11, 2011.
[22] NVIC. Cry for Vaccine Freedom Wall. Harassment reports.
[23] Conrick T. Parents Find It Hard to Ignore Evidence of Vaccine Injury. Janesville Gazette (WI). Dec. 5, 2011.
[24] Planinz T. Federal Court Awards Compensation to Boy Injured by Vaccines. Examiner.com. July 20, 2009.
[25] HRSA. Vaccine Injury Compensation Award Statistics.
[26] Offit, P. Vaccines and Autism Revisited: The Hannah Poling Case. New England Journal of Medicine 2008; 358: 2089-2091.
[27] Wallace A. An Epidemic of Fear: How Parents Skipping Shots Endangers Us All. Wired Magazine. October 19, 2009.
[28] Melnick, M. The Dangers of the Anti-vaccine Movement. Time Magazine. Feb. 24, 2011.
[29] Business Dictionary.com. Definition of Utilitarianism.
[30] White R. The Principle of Utility. College of Mount St. Joseph.
[31] Gunn A. Peter Singer: The Most Dangerous Man on Earth? The New Doctor. Winter 2000.
[32] Holland M. Reassessing Compulsory Childhood Vaccination. New York University School of Law. Sept. 1, 2010.
[33] Field, RI Caplan A L. A Proposed Ethical Framework for Vaccine Mandates: Competing Values and the Case for HPV Vaccine. Kennedy Institute of Ethics Journal 18(2): 111-24. June 2008.
[34] New Award Winning Documentary: The Greater Good Movie. 2011.
[35] Catsoulis, J. Movie Review of The Greater Good: Vaccines and Autism, Continued. New York Times. Nov. 17, 2011.
[36] The Free Dictionary. Definition of the fourth estate.
[37] Nelson J. The Civil Rights Movement: A Press Perspective. Human Rights Magazine. Fall 2001.
[38] American Medical News. What Editorial Writers Are Saying About Vaccines. Sept. 11, 2011.
[39] Banks N, Baker C. Selling Drugs as Scholarly Opinion. Office of Medical and Scientific Justice. July 2011.
[40] Fisher BL, Wrangham TK. Comments to the National Vaccine Advisory Committee on the Vaccine Safety Working Group’s Draft Report and Recommendations on the federal Vaccine Safety System. June 6, 2011.
[41] Mooney C. Irrationality vs. Vaccines: Fighting for Reality. New Scientist. Jan. 13, 2011.
[42] Khan A. Pediatricians decry in-flight vaccine-questioning ad on Delta. LA Times. Nov. 16, 2011.
[43] Ropeik D. Vaccines & Fear: It is Time for Society to Say Enough Is Enough. Huffington Post. July 21, 2011. Also LA Times (July 18, 2011). Also NPR (July 18, 2011)
[44] Bethell CD, Kogan MD et al. A National and State Profile of Leading Health Problems and Health Care Quality for US Children: Key Insurance Disparities and Across-State Variations. Academic Pediatrics 2011; 11(3S): 22-33.
[45] Boyle CA, Boulet S et al. Trends in the Prevalence of Developmental Disabilities in US Children 1997-2000. Pediatrics. Published online May 23, 2011
[46] Ostrow N. Autism Leads Rise in Developmental Disabilities in U.S. Kids. Bloomberg News. May 23, 2011.
[47] Asthma and Allergy Foundation. Asthma Facts & Figures.
[48] Mathews AW. So Young and So Many Pills. Wall Street Journal. December 28, 2010.
[49] Stratton K, Ford A, Rusch E, Clayton EW, editors. Adverse Effects of Vaccines: Evidence and Causality. Committee to Review Adverse Effects of Vaccines. National Academies Press: 2011.
[50] Ibid. Page 70.
[51] CBS Pittsburgh. Local Pediatricians Refusing to See Non-Vaccinated Patients. CBS-TV. Nov. 2, 2011.
[52] Four Seasons Pediatrics Vaccine Policy. Four Seasons Pediatrics, Clifton, NY.
[53] NVIC. Cry for Vaccine Freedom Wall. Harassment reports.
[54] Matthews C. NY Health Care Workers Protest Mandatory H1N1 Flu Shots. USA Today. Sept. 29, 2009. http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2009-09-29-swine-flu-mandatory_N.htm
[55] Fisher BL. Forcing Flu Shots on Health Care Workers: Who Is Next? NVIC Vaccine E-Newsletter. Sept. 29, 2010.
[56] Fox Phoenix. HealthCare Group: Get a Flu Shot or Get Fired. Fox-TV. Aug. 31, 2011.
[57] NVIC. Cry for Vaccine Freedom Wall. Harassment reports.
[58] Neale T. Calif. 12-year olds Can Get HPV Vaccine Without Parental OK. MedPage Today. Oct. 11, 2011.
[59] Businesswire. NVIC Calls New CA Vaccine Law A “Violation of Parental Informed Consent Rights & Federal Law.” Oct. 10, 2011.
[60] Attkisson S. How Independent Are Vaccine Defenders? CBS-TV News. July 25, 2008
[61] Orange County Register. CORRECTION re: August 4, 2008 article “Dr. Paul Offit Responds.” April 18, 2011.
[62] Center for Science in the Public Interest. Integrity in Science: Corporate Support for Health and Environmental Professional Associations, Charities and Industry Front Groups. July 2003.
[63] Jacobsen M. Lifting the Veil of Secrecy from Industry Funding of Non-Profit Health Organizations. International Journal of Occupational Environmental Health 2005; 11:349-355.
[64] Fisher BL. Advocacy Panel Statement to National Vaccine Advisory Committee at Vaccine Safety Working Group Stakeholder Meeting. June 13, 2011.
[65] Businesswire. NVIC Calls Out AAP for Using Public Intimidation to Censor NVIC Flu Prevention Video Offered to Delta Travelers. Nov. 15, 2011.
[66] Fisher BL. Using Fear & Prejudice to Attack Vaccine Exemptions. NVIC Vaccine Newsletter. Aug. 4, 2010.
[67] Fisher BL. Amy Wallace & Yellow Journalism. NVIC Vaccine Newsletter. Sept. 9, 2010.
[68] See Reference #45.
[69] Poland GA. Adversomics: The Emerging Field of Vaccine Adverse Event Immunogenetics. Pediatr Infect Dis J 2009; May 28(5): 431-432.
[70] NVIC. National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of 1986.
[71] United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Children’s Tile Wall.
Click here to watch the video
By Barbara Loe Fisher
During this season of remembrance and thanksgiving, I am grateful for the blessings that I have had in my life, including the hard times, when I learned that faith and hope can overcome fear and doubt. Adversity can make us stronger but it is also an opportunity to feel and offer compassion to others to ease their suffering.
In great numbers,[1] Americans reach out to help victims of hurricanes,[2] floods, earthquakes,[3] poverty,[4] violence[5] and disease.[6] Journalists often profile individuals, who are suffering from adversity: the earthquake survivors in Haiti;[7] the victims of hate crimes;[8] children living in poverty dying from starvation and neglect.[9] These stories of human suffering are reminders of why we should listen to our conscience[10] and act in compassionate ways to lessen the suffering of others.
The ability to have compassion for others is an antidote to cruelty, inequality, injustice, and tyranny.
Valuing Individual Life, Freedom & Compassion
America was founded by men and women immigrants, who had personally suffered oppression and adversity, and knew how important it is to treat individuals with respect and compassion. There is a ringing endorsement in the U.S. Declaration of Independence for the individual’s right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness,[11] and in the Constitution for the right to freedom of speech and personal religious beliefs.[12] Perhaps it is that fundamental appreciation for the value of the individual, which is part of our history and culture, that has taught us to value conscience and compassion.
Vaccine Injured Not Treated with Compassion
So it is sad to see what happens in America today when babies, children and adults react to vaccines and become permanently injured or even die.[13] [14] [15] [16] When healthy people suffer complications from infectious diseases, they are treated with compassion.[17] [18] [19] [20] But when healthy people suffer complications from vaccination, often they are not treated with compassion.[21] [22] Many times, vaccine victims [23] [24] [25] are victimized all over again by those, who deny the reality of what happened [26] [27] [28] or use a utilitarian [29] [30] [31] rationale to dismiss them as acceptable losses in the War on Infectious Disease.[32] [33] [34] [35]
Media Failing to Protect Vaccine Injured & Safety Advocates
In the past decade, this persecution of a growing minority of vaccine-injured citizens has been facilitated by the fourth estate,[36] the free press, which has historically served as a check and balance on inequality and injustice in America.[37] The vital function of a free press, ensured in the U.S. Constitution, is failing to do what it could do to protect the health and lives of the vaccine injured[38] [39] or defend freedom of speech for citizens calling for inclusion of vaccine safety and informed consent protections[40] in public health policies and laws,[41] [42] [43] while the chronic disease and disability epidemic destroys the health and economic stability of our nation[44] [45] [46] [47] [48] and the public health community has no answers, so the band plays on.
Institute of Medicine Acknowledges Vaccine Safety Science Gaps
The Institute of Medicine issued an historic report this year that acknowledged there is not enough quality vaccine science in the medical literature to determine whether or not many of the vaccines routinely given to children and adults cause more than 100 different types of brain and immune system dysfunction.[49]
These are serious inflammatory brain and immune system disorders, which are part of the exploding chronic disease epidemic in America, and range from heart and blood disorders to strokes, sudden infant death syndrome, asthma, multiple sclerosis, fibromyalgia, GBS, rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, diabetes and encephalitis that can lead to seizures, learning disabilities and autism.
Institute of Medicine Acknowledges Individual Biological Susceptibility
In that historic report, the Institute of Medicine also acknowledged there are pre-existing biological susceptibilities that can make some individuals more vulnerable than others for suffering harm from vaccination, such as genetic variations; age or developmental stage at the time of vaccination; coinciding illness or other environmental exposures.[50]
If one-size-fits-all vaccine policies and mandates are putting an unknown number of biologically susceptible individuals at risk for injury and death, why do so few doctors care or want to do something about it?
Doctors Denying Medical Care to Families
It is disturbing to watch doctors, who we have always believed to be the most compassionate among us, coldly turn away families questioning the government policy of giving children 69 doses of 16 vaccines.[51] [52] Families wanting to choose or delay vaccines, are being denied medical care even if children have experienced previous vaccine reactions or have become chronically ill and disabled after vaccination and could be made sicker if more vaccines are given.[53]
How unethical.
Doctors Tell Employees: Get Vaccinated or Be Fired
It is shocking that health care professionals are being threatened by doctors running hospitals and medical facilities that, if they do not obey orders to get an annual flu shot, they will be fired [54] [55] [56] - even if they are pregnant; have had previous vaccine reactions or have medical conditions that could be made a lot worse if they get more vaccines.[57]
How heartless.
Doctors Strip Parents of Legal Right to Make Vaccine Decisions for Minor Children
It is hard to accept that doctors we have trusted are pressuring our elected state legislators to pass laws stripping us of the legal right to make medical risk decisions for our children so minor children can be given vaccines without a parent’s knowledge or consent.[58] [59]
How dangerous.
Pharma Funded Doctor Associations Attack Vaccine Safety Advocates
It is frightening to know that medical trade associations and doctors taking money from drug companies[60] [61] [62] [63] are mounting disinformation campaigns to demonize vaccine safety advocates[64] and censor public access to information about health and vaccination so the American people cannot make fully informed vaccine decisions.[65]
How ignorant.
Mainstream Media Facilitates Public Attacks on Advocates
And it is tragic to witness the mainstream media facilitating the public attack on vaccine victims and those calling for a move away from one-size-fits all vaccine mandates[66] [67] that punish individuals, who are biologically vulnerable to vaccine reactions in part because of the genes they inherited.[68] [69]
How cruel.
Vaccine Makers & Doctors Giving Vaccines Shielded from Liability
In 1986, Congress passed a law acknowledging that vaccines can and do cause brain and immune system damage and that more should be done to protect individuals from vaccine injury and death.[70] In that law, Congress shielded drug companies selling vaccines and doctors giving vaccines from civil lawsuits when someone is seriously injured or dies after being vaccinated.
So why are doctors, who are shielded from liability, so unwilling to treat vaccine injured children and their families with compassion or understand the need for people to have the freedom to protect themselves and their loved ones from vaccine injury?
Loss of Compassion Leads to Exploitation
When you enter the Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C., you see an inscription that says “The first to perish were the children…. From these a new dawn might have risen.”[71]
The loss of compassion and, then, freedom in any society always begins with people looking the other way when those in power justify exploiting a vulnerable minority for what they say is the benefit of the majority.
NVIC: Three Decades of Defending Informed Consent Rights
It has been 30 years since the parent co-founders of our non-profit charity, the National Vaccine Information Center, launched the vaccine safety and informed consent movement in America. We were parents of children, for whom the risks of vaccination had been 100 percent, and we took on the mission of preventing vaccine injuries and deaths through public education and defending the human right to informed consent to medical risk-taking.
That is still our mission.
During this holiday season, please consider sending a donation – no matter how big or small - to the National Vaccine Information Center so we can continue to fight for the freedom for Americans to use every government vaccine, a few vaccines or choose other preventive health care options for staying well. You can make a tax-deductible donation online at NVIC.org.
You can also visit NVIC’s Vaccine Freedom Wall on our website and read the true stories told by Americans, whose parental and informed consent rights are being violated in schools, doctors’ offices, hospitals and state legislatures across our nation.
You can sign up to be a user of NVIC’s free online Advocacy Portal and learn how to stand up in your state for the legal right to make informed, voluntary vaccine choices.
And if you or a loved one has suffered a vaccine reaction, injury or death, please consider going to our website to share your story on NVIC’s Memorial for Vaccine Victims and make a report to the federal vaccine adverse event reporting system.
Compassionate Doctors Will Count & Minimize Vaccine Casualties
During this season of remembrance and thanksgiving, I pray that doctors developing, selling, giving and promoting the use of vaccines will stop to consider the way they are treating the vaccine injured and their families. I pray that they find it in their hearts to replace their fear, anger, doubt and prejudice with compassion and take positive steps to accurately count and minimize the numbers of vaccine casualties rather than dismissing them as a “coincidence” or unimportant.
Thank You for Your Encouragement and Support
Thank you to all who have financially supported the National Vaccine Information Center this year and throughout the past three decades. You have made it possible for us to continue this life-affirming work. We also are grateful for your cards and letters of encouragement as they help strengthen our faith and hope in the future.
Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah and may your New Year be filled with many opportunities to celebrate life and offer compassion to those facing adversity.
Watch a video profile of a family with three generations of vaccine reactions struggling to protect their healthy children from becoming vaccine injured.
Watch a video profile of a Professor of Nursing, who suffered a reaction to a flu shot and was left paralyzed.
REFERENCES
[1] The Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University. U.S. Charitable Giving Shows Modest Uptick in 2010 Following Two Years of Declines: Donations of 290.89 billion. June 20, 2011.
[2] Godlasky A. How to Help Victims of Hurricane Katrina. USA Today. Sept. 2, 2005.
[3] Sydell, L. Donations to Haiti Pour In Via Text Message. NPR. Jan. 14, 2010.
[4] Post T. Setting a Goal to End Poverty and Hunger in the United States. Bread for the World Institute. February 2009.
[5] National Network to End Domestic Violence.
[6] The Global Fund Welcomes U.S. Budget Allocation of U.S. $1.05 Billion for 2011. Press Release: The Global Fund to Fight ADIS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. Apr. 18, 2011.
[7] Hensel B. Haiti Quake Victim’s Surgery Successful. NBC. Aug. 10, 2011.
[8] Blair E. ‘Ten Years Later,” the Matthew Shephard Story Retold. NPR. Oct. 12, 2009. Stump S. Teen’s Parents: After Suicide, He’s Still Being Bullied. Today Show. MSNBC. Sept. 27, 2011.
[9] Associated Press. Once again, children are starving in Ethiopia. MSNBC. May 20, 2008.
[10] Merriam-Webster Dictionary. Definition of conscience.
[11] U.S. History.org. Declaration of Independence. July 4, 1776.
[12] U.S. History.org. First Ten Amendments to the U.S. Constitution: Bill of Rights.
[13] Coulter HL, Fisher BL. DPT: A Shot in the Dark. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich. 1985.
[14] NVIC. Memorial for Vaccine Victims.
[15] MedAlerts.org. Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System Database.
[16] Miller NZ,, Goldman GS. Infant mortality rates regressed against number of vaccine doses routinely given: Is there a biochemical or synergistic toxicity? Human and Experimental Toxicology: Published online May 4, 2011.
[17] PBS. American Experience: The Polio Crusade. Feb. 2, 2009.
[18] Friedman E. Viagra Used to Treat Rare Meningitis Attack, Student Fights for Her Life. ABC. Feb. 5, 2009.
[19] Sunseri G. Rick Perry’s HPV Stance Grounded in Case of Heather Burcham, Who Died of Cervical Cancer. ABC. Sept. 15, 2011.
[20] Yang L. Girl’s Death Believed to Be Flu Related in Nassau. ABC. Mar. 1, 2011.
[21] Wood RL. Vaccine Intolerant Child Wants Public Education. Gazette-Mail (WVA). Nov. 11, 2011.
[22] NVIC. Cry for Vaccine Freedom Wall. Harassment reports.
[23] Conrick T. Parents Find It Hard to Ignore Evidence of Vaccine Injury. Janesville Gazette (WI). Dec. 5, 2011.
[24] Planinz T. Federal Court Awards Compensation to Boy Injured by Vaccines. Examiner.com. July 20, 2009.
[25] HRSA. Vaccine Injury Compensation Award Statistics.
[26] Offit, P. Vaccines and Autism Revisited: The Hannah Poling Case. New England Journal of Medicine 2008; 358: 2089-2091.
[27] Wallace A. An Epidemic of Fear: How Parents Skipping Shots Endangers Us All. Wired Magazine. October 19, 2009.
[28] Melnick, M. The Dangers of the Anti-vaccine Movement. Time Magazine. Feb. 24, 2011.
[29] Business Dictionary.com. Definition of Utilitarianism.
[30] White R. The Principle of Utility. College of Mount St. Joseph.
[31] Gunn A. Peter Singer: The Most Dangerous Man on Earth? The New Doctor. Winter 2000.
[32] Holland M. Reassessing Compulsory Childhood Vaccination. New York University School of Law. Sept. 1, 2010.
[33] Field, RI Caplan A L. A Proposed Ethical Framework for Vaccine Mandates: Competing Values and the Case for HPV Vaccine. Kennedy Institute of Ethics Journal 18(2): 111-24. June 2008.
[34] New Award Winning Documentary: The Greater Good Movie. 2011.
[35] Catsoulis, J. Movie Review of The Greater Good: Vaccines and Autism, Continued. New York Times. Nov. 17, 2011.
[36] The Free Dictionary. Definition of the fourth estate.
[37] Nelson J. The Civil Rights Movement: A Press Perspective. Human Rights Magazine. Fall 2001.
[38] American Medical News. What Editorial Writers Are Saying About Vaccines. Sept. 11, 2011.
[39] Banks N, Baker C. Selling Drugs as Scholarly Opinion. Office of Medical and Scientific Justice. July 2011.
[40] Fisher BL, Wrangham TK. Comments to the National Vaccine Advisory Committee on the Vaccine Safety Working Group’s Draft Report and Recommendations on the federal Vaccine Safety System. June 6, 2011.
[41] Mooney C. Irrationality vs. Vaccines: Fighting for Reality. New Scientist. Jan. 13, 2011.
[42] Khan A. Pediatricians decry in-flight vaccine-questioning ad on Delta. LA Times. Nov. 16, 2011.
[43] Ropeik D. Vaccines & Fear: It is Time for Society to Say Enough Is Enough. Huffington Post. July 21, 2011. Also LA Times (July 18, 2011). Also NPR (July 18, 2011)
[44] Bethell CD, Kogan MD et al. A National and State Profile of Leading Health Problems and Health Care Quality for US Children: Key Insurance Disparities and Across-State Variations. Academic Pediatrics 2011; 11(3S): 22-33.
[45] Boyle CA, Boulet S et al. Trends in the Prevalence of Developmental Disabilities in US Children 1997-2000. Pediatrics. Published online May 23, 2011
[46] Ostrow N. Autism Leads Rise in Developmental Disabilities in U.S. Kids. Bloomberg News. May 23, 2011.
[47] Asthma and Allergy Foundation. Asthma Facts & Figures.
[48] Mathews AW. So Young and So Many Pills. Wall Street Journal. December 28, 2010.
[49] Stratton K, Ford A, Rusch E, Clayton EW, editors. Adverse Effects of Vaccines: Evidence and Causality. Committee to Review Adverse Effects of Vaccines. National Academies Press: 2011.
[50] Ibid. Page 70.
[51] CBS Pittsburgh. Local Pediatricians Refusing to See Non-Vaccinated Patients. CBS-TV. Nov. 2, 2011.
[52] Four Seasons Pediatrics Vaccine Policy. Four Seasons Pediatrics, Clifton, NY.
[53] NVIC. Cry for Vaccine Freedom Wall. Harassment reports.
[54] Matthews C. NY Health Care Workers Protest Mandatory H1N1 Flu Shots. USA Today. Sept. 29, 2009. http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2009-09-29-swine-flu-mandatory_N.htm
[55] Fisher BL. Forcing Flu Shots on Health Care Workers: Who Is Next? NVIC Vaccine E-Newsletter. Sept. 29, 2010.
[56] Fox Phoenix. HealthCare Group: Get a Flu Shot or Get Fired. Fox-TV. Aug. 31, 2011.
[57] NVIC. Cry for Vaccine Freedom Wall. Harassment reports.
[58] Neale T. Calif. 12-year olds Can Get HPV Vaccine Without Parental OK. MedPage Today. Oct. 11, 2011.
[59] Businesswire. NVIC Calls New CA Vaccine Law A “Violation of Parental Informed Consent Rights & Federal Law.” Oct. 10, 2011.
[60] Attkisson S. How Independent Are Vaccine Defenders? CBS-TV News. July 25, 2008
[61] Orange County Register. CORRECTION re: August 4, 2008 article “Dr. Paul Offit Responds.” April 18, 2011.
[62] Center for Science in the Public Interest. Integrity in Science: Corporate Support for Health and Environmental Professional Associations, Charities and Industry Front Groups. July 2003.
[63] Jacobsen M. Lifting the Veil of Secrecy from Industry Funding of Non-Profit Health Organizations. International Journal of Occupational Environmental Health 2005; 11:349-355.
[64] Fisher BL. Advocacy Panel Statement to National Vaccine Advisory Committee at Vaccine Safety Working Group Stakeholder Meeting. June 13, 2011.
[65] Businesswire. NVIC Calls Out AAP for Using Public Intimidation to Censor NVIC Flu Prevention Video Offered to Delta Travelers. Nov. 15, 2011.
[66] Fisher BL. Using Fear & Prejudice to Attack Vaccine Exemptions. NVIC Vaccine Newsletter. Aug. 4, 2010.
[67] Fisher BL. Amy Wallace & Yellow Journalism. NVIC Vaccine Newsletter. Sept. 9, 2010.
[68] See Reference #45.
[69] Poland GA. Adversomics: The Emerging Field of Vaccine Adverse Event Immunogenetics. Pediatr Infect Dis J 2009; May 28(5): 431-432.
[70] NVIC. National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of 1986.
[71] United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Children’s Tile Wall.
Click here to watch the video
Vermont Parents Fight to Save Philosophical Exemption to Vaccination
To contact us Click HERE
Posted: 2/21/2012
by Barbara Loe Fisher
Informed consent to medical risk taking is a human right.[1] You have the right to be fully informed about the benefits and risks of pharmaceutical products – like vaccines - and be allowed to make a voluntary choice about whether or to take the risk without being punished for it.
More than $2 billion dollars has been awarded to children and adults in America, who have been seriously injured by vaccines. [2]
Vaccine Risks Are Greater For Some Than Others
We are not all the same. People are injured or die from vaccination because vaccine risks are greater for some than others [3][4][5][6][7] and sometimes vaccines fail to work at all. That is a big reason why there are vaccine exemptions in state public health laws for medical, religious and conscientious or philosophical beliefs. [8]
Vermont Philosophical Exemption Threatened
But in Vermont – right now – the legal right to take a vaccine exemption for philosophical beliefs is being threatened.
Two Vermont legislators, State Senator Kevin Mullin and State Representative George Till, have joined with the Vermont Health Commissioner, Dr. Harry Chen, to lead a crusade to take away philosophical exemption to vaccination with two bills before the state House and Senate - S. 199 and H. 527.[9][10][11][12]
Seven-Year Old Kaylynne Dies After Routine Flu Shot
Nicole is a Vermont mother, whose seven year old daughter, Kaylynne, died within 92 hours of a routine flu shot in December 2011. [13]
“Kaylynne was very outgoing. She was shy but she made herself known. She loved hugs. She loved every kind of animal. She was always trying to get her Dad to bring animals to take care of and nurture. She loved her brother and sisters. She was Miss Mom to her little sisters. She was Nate’s best friend. They did a lot together outdoors. She was a wild girl. She wasn’t really scared of anything. She was very, very intelligent. She means the world to our family,” said Nicole. Nicole described what happened the day Kaylynne died.
“She was a healthy seven year old child before her flu shot. She went from being very healthy, nothing wrong with her, to passing away 92 hours later. First, was a headache. Then there was a fever. After the fever, she started getting sick to her stomach, throwing up. And the, she was cold and she had purple blotches on her arms and legs. We rushed her to the doctor’s office. I was in the back seat with her. My mother was driving and she stopped breathing probably less than a mile away from the hospital. If I would have known then what I know now about vaccination, it would have been a whole different story. My daughter would still be here with us.”
More Informed Vaccine Choices Needed, Says Kaylynne’s Mom
Nicole believes that parents should be fully informed and able to make voluntary decisions about vaccination for their children.
“If I would have known the reactions and symptoms of adverse reactions to vaccination, I would have had her seen immediately. If I would have known about the risks and symptoms, I would have been most likely able to save my daughter,” said Nicole. “I feel that Vermonters need to be educated and be able to make their own decisions on whether or not they want to vaccinate their children and pediatricians and physicians, as well, need to be more educated.”
VT Health Commissioner & Pharma Funded Orgs Lobbying Legislators
The Vermont State Health Commissioner agrees. He told one reporter: “Of course, it’s important for parents to understand the risks and benefits, and I have absolute respect for their right to make their own decisions.” [14]
Then, why is he joining with medical trade organizations funded by vaccine manufacturers, like the American Academy of Pediatrics, [15][16][17][18][19] and trying to take away the right for Vermont parents to make their own vaccine decisions? [20] Especially when the state of Vermont is rated the Number One healthiest state? [21]
Parental Informed Consent Rights Protect Children
If the philosophical exemption to vaccination is removed from Vermont state law, Nicole and parents like Nicole will have no choice.
Kaylynne’s Dad, Justin, said “I feel strongly about protecting my children because, as parents, we should have the right to do the best for our kids.” Nicole added, “If I can’t get a medical signature from a medical physician to do an exemption for philosophical rights, my other children are at risk and that takes my rights as a mother away to protect my children.”
Vaccine Business A Multi-Billion Dollar Business
Today, the federal government recommends that children get 69 doses of 16 vaccines from day of birth to age 18. Most of these vaccines are required for children to attend school in the state of Vermont.
The vaccine business is a multi-billion dollar big business. [22][23][24] There are hundreds of new vaccines being created by drug companies [25][26][27] and most of these new vaccines will be federally recommended for children, like Syphilis Vaccine, [28] Gonorrhea Vaccine, [29] Genital Herpes Vaccine,[30] Hepatitis C Vaccine, [31] E-Coli Vaccine, [32] Salmonella Vaccine, [33] Chlamydia Vaccine, [34] Cytomegalovirus Vaccine; [35] HIV/AIDS Vaccine, [36] Tooth Decay Vaccine; [37] Anti-Smoking Vaccine, [38] Anti-Cocaine Addiction Vaccine; [39][40] Bad Breath Vaccine; [41] Diabetes Vaccine; [42] Asthma Vaccine, [43] Norovirus Vaccine [44] and many, many more.
In the future, the state of Vermont could add 10, 20, 30 or more vaccinations to state public health laws.
Should every vaccine that Big Pharma creates and doctors want legislators to mandate be legally required for all children without parents being informed and allowed to make a voluntary choice?
Vermont Parents Plead for Opposition to Proposed Legislation
Vermont families want options, especially when the risks of vaccination for their child turn out to be 100 percent.
Nicole and Justin are appealing to parents and Vermont legislators.
“Do your research on what is in vaccinations,” said Nicole. “Find out symptoms and reactions and then make your own decision. As of this moment, Vermonters have to fight to protect their right to be able to make their own decisions to protect their children. We are asking for the legislators to please oppose S. 199 and H. 527 to take away our philosophical exemption.”
“We, as Americans, should have our choice,” said Justin.
Fight for Right to Make Voluntary Vaccine Decisions
Help fight for the right to make voluntary decisions about vaccination in Vermont and every state. Go to www.NVICAdvocacy.org and take action today.
It’s your health. Your family. Your choice.
References:
[1] Nir E. Informed Consent. The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Fall 2011 Edition. [2] HRSA. National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program: Statistics Report (as of Feb. 2, 2012) [3] NVIC. National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of 1986 [4] Howson CP, Howe CJ, Fineberg HV, Editors. Adverse Effects of Pertussis & Rubella Vaccines. Institute of Medicine: National Academy Press. 1991. [5] Stratton KR, Howe CJ, Johnston RB, Editors. Adverse Events Associated with Childhood Vaccines: Evidence Bearing on Causality. Institute of Medicine: National Academy Press.1994 [6] Stratton KR, Howe CJ, Johnston RB, Editors. DPT Vaccine & Chronic Nervous System Dysfunction: A New Analysis. Institute of Medicine: National Academy Press. 1994 [7] Stratton K, Ford A, Rusch E, Clayton EW, editors. Adverse Effects of Vaccines: Evidence and Causality. Committee to Review Adverse Effects of Vaccines. Institute of Medicine: National Academies Press. 2011. Pages 70-78. [8] NVIC. State Law & Vaccine Requirements. [9]Vermont State Senate Bill 199. Statement of Purpose: This bill proposes to extend the termination date of the immunization pilot program and remove the exemption from immunization on philosophical grounds. [10]Vermont State House Bill 527. An Act related to requiring immunizations for attendance at school and childcare facilities. [11] Vermont Medical Society. Bills Seek to Boost Immunity by Eliminating Philosophical Exemption. [12] McGilvery K. Push to let parents opt of vaccines for kids losing steam in VT statehouse. Feb. 10, 2012 [13] Cleveland J.H. Medical Examiner Can’t Determine Manner of 7-Year Old’s Death. The Orleans Record. Feb. 21, 2012. [14] Picard K. Flu Shot or Not? State Health Officials Warn Against “Alarmist” Reaction to Young Girl’s Death. Seven Days. Jan. 11, 2012. [15] Attkisson S. How Independent Are Vaccine Defenders? CBS News. July 25, 2008. [16] Orange County Register. CORRECTION re: August 4, 2008 article “Dr. Paul Offit Responds.” April 18, 2011. [17] Center for Science in the Public Interest. Integrity in Science: Non-Profit Organizations Receiving Corporate Funding: American Academy of Pediatrics. [18] Clapp R. My Turn: Immunizations: Critical Protection for State’s Families. Burlington Free Press. Feb. 19, 2012. [19] Center for Science in the Public Interest. Integrity in Science: Non-Profit Organizations Receiving Corporate Funding: March of Dimes. [20] WAMC News. A Look at Vermont’s Debate Over the Philosophical Exemption to Vaccination. Feb. 9, 2012. [21] United Health Foundation. America’s Health Rankings: Vermont. [22] Reuters. BCC Research Press Release: Global Market for Vaccines Worth $36.3 Billion by 2013. Technologies and Global Markets. Jan. 24, 2008 [23] Drug Discovery & Development. Vaccine Market A Refuge for Big Pharma. January 13, 2011 [24] NVIC. Press Release: NVIC Cites “Betrayal” of Consumers by U.S. Supreme Court Giving Total Liability Shield to Big Pharma. Feb. 23, 2011. [25] Medical News. 395 New Vaccines Being Developed for Infectious Diseases: PhRMA. Sept. 10, 2010. [26] NIH. ClinicalTrials.gov: Vaccine Clinical Trials (4,097 – listed as of Feb. 21, 2012). [27] Mettens P, Monteyne. Life-Style Vaccines. British Medical Bulletin 2002; 62(1): 175-186. [28] NewsRx/Vaccine Weekly. Syphilis Vaccine: Antibody Partially Protects Against Syphilis. June 29, 2005. [29] Health.am. Progress Made Toward Gonorrhea Vaccines. Drug News. July 19, 2005. [30] Science Daily. Progress Made Toward a Genital Herpes Vaccine. Jan. 4, 2012. [31] Medical News Today. Hep C Vaccine Shows Promise in First Trial. Jan. 7, 2012. [32] Science Daily. Vaccine Developed for E-Coli Diarrheal Diseases That Kill Millions of Children. Apr. 14, 2009. [33] Fierce Vaccines. Research Paving Way to Salmonella Vaccine. Feb. 16, 2012. [34] CBS Detroit. WSU Researcher Files for Patent on Chlamydia Vaccine. Apr. 19, 2011. [35] Lite J. CMV Vaccine Shows Promise. Scientific American. May 18, 2009. [36] Robinson HL. Progress Toward An HIV/AIDS Vaccine. The Scientist. May 11, 2011. [37] Shivakumar KM, Vidya SK, Chandu GN. Dental Caries Vaccine. Indian Journal of Dental Research 2009; 20(1): 99-100. [38] Straightstocks.com. Anti-Smoking Vaccine from Glaxo. Nov. 17, 2009. [39] Kensey BM, Kosten TR, Orson FM. Anti-Cocaine Vaccine Development. Expert Rev Vaccines 2010 Sept; 9(9): 1109-14. [40] Quenqua D. An Addiction Vaccine, Tantalyzingly Close. New York Times. Oct. 3, 2011. [41] Liu PF, Haake SK et al. A novel vaccine targeting Fusobacterium nucleatum against abscesses and halitosis. Vaccine 209 March 4; 27(10): 1589-1595. [42] BusinessWire. Prevention Study with Diamyd’s Diabetes Vaccine Fully Recruited. Diamyd Press Release: Jan. 9 2012. [43] Daily Mail. How the Farmyard Bugs That Help Children Avoid Asthma Could Be Turned Into A Vaccine. Feb. 24, 2011. [44] Rettner R. Norovirus Vaccine Showing Promise. MSNBC.com. Feb. 21, 2012.
Click here to watch the video
by Barbara Loe Fisher
Informed consent to medical risk taking is a human right.[1] You have the right to be fully informed about the benefits and risks of pharmaceutical products – like vaccines - and be allowed to make a voluntary choice about whether or to take the risk without being punished for it.
More than $2 billion dollars has been awarded to children and adults in America, who have been seriously injured by vaccines. [2]
Vaccine Risks Are Greater For Some Than Others
We are not all the same. People are injured or die from vaccination because vaccine risks are greater for some than others [3][4][5][6][7] and sometimes vaccines fail to work at all. That is a big reason why there are vaccine exemptions in state public health laws for medical, religious and conscientious or philosophical beliefs. [8]
Vermont Philosophical Exemption Threatened
But in Vermont – right now – the legal right to take a vaccine exemption for philosophical beliefs is being threatened.
Two Vermont legislators, State Senator Kevin Mullin and State Representative George Till, have joined with the Vermont Health Commissioner, Dr. Harry Chen, to lead a crusade to take away philosophical exemption to vaccination with two bills before the state House and Senate - S. 199 and H. 527.[9][10][11][12]
Seven-Year Old Kaylynne Dies After Routine Flu Shot
Nicole is a Vermont mother, whose seven year old daughter, Kaylynne, died within 92 hours of a routine flu shot in December 2011. [13]
“Kaylynne was very outgoing. She was shy but she made herself known. She loved hugs. She loved every kind of animal. She was always trying to get her Dad to bring animals to take care of and nurture. She loved her brother and sisters. She was Miss Mom to her little sisters. She was Nate’s best friend. They did a lot together outdoors. She was a wild girl. She wasn’t really scared of anything. She was very, very intelligent. She means the world to our family,” said Nicole. Nicole described what happened the day Kaylynne died.
“She was a healthy seven year old child before her flu shot. She went from being very healthy, nothing wrong with her, to passing away 92 hours later. First, was a headache. Then there was a fever. After the fever, she started getting sick to her stomach, throwing up. And the, she was cold and she had purple blotches on her arms and legs. We rushed her to the doctor’s office. I was in the back seat with her. My mother was driving and she stopped breathing probably less than a mile away from the hospital. If I would have known then what I know now about vaccination, it would have been a whole different story. My daughter would still be here with us.”
More Informed Vaccine Choices Needed, Says Kaylynne’s Mom
Nicole believes that parents should be fully informed and able to make voluntary decisions about vaccination for their children.
“If I would have known the reactions and symptoms of adverse reactions to vaccination, I would have had her seen immediately. If I would have known about the risks and symptoms, I would have been most likely able to save my daughter,” said Nicole. “I feel that Vermonters need to be educated and be able to make their own decisions on whether or not they want to vaccinate their children and pediatricians and physicians, as well, need to be more educated.”
VT Health Commissioner & Pharma Funded Orgs Lobbying Legislators
The Vermont State Health Commissioner agrees. He told one reporter: “Of course, it’s important for parents to understand the risks and benefits, and I have absolute respect for their right to make their own decisions.” [14]
Then, why is he joining with medical trade organizations funded by vaccine manufacturers, like the American Academy of Pediatrics, [15][16][17][18][19] and trying to take away the right for Vermont parents to make their own vaccine decisions? [20] Especially when the state of Vermont is rated the Number One healthiest state? [21]
Parental Informed Consent Rights Protect Children
If the philosophical exemption to vaccination is removed from Vermont state law, Nicole and parents like Nicole will have no choice.
Kaylynne’s Dad, Justin, said “I feel strongly about protecting my children because, as parents, we should have the right to do the best for our kids.” Nicole added, “If I can’t get a medical signature from a medical physician to do an exemption for philosophical rights, my other children are at risk and that takes my rights as a mother away to protect my children.”
Vaccine Business A Multi-Billion Dollar Business
Today, the federal government recommends that children get 69 doses of 16 vaccines from day of birth to age 18. Most of these vaccines are required for children to attend school in the state of Vermont.
The vaccine business is a multi-billion dollar big business. [22][23][24] There are hundreds of new vaccines being created by drug companies [25][26][27] and most of these new vaccines will be federally recommended for children, like Syphilis Vaccine, [28] Gonorrhea Vaccine, [29] Genital Herpes Vaccine,[30] Hepatitis C Vaccine, [31] E-Coli Vaccine, [32] Salmonella Vaccine, [33] Chlamydia Vaccine, [34] Cytomegalovirus Vaccine; [35] HIV/AIDS Vaccine, [36] Tooth Decay Vaccine; [37] Anti-Smoking Vaccine, [38] Anti-Cocaine Addiction Vaccine; [39][40] Bad Breath Vaccine; [41] Diabetes Vaccine; [42] Asthma Vaccine, [43] Norovirus Vaccine [44] and many, many more.
In the future, the state of Vermont could add 10, 20, 30 or more vaccinations to state public health laws.
Should every vaccine that Big Pharma creates and doctors want legislators to mandate be legally required for all children without parents being informed and allowed to make a voluntary choice?
Vermont Parents Plead for Opposition to Proposed Legislation
Vermont families want options, especially when the risks of vaccination for their child turn out to be 100 percent.
Nicole and Justin are appealing to parents and Vermont legislators.
“Do your research on what is in vaccinations,” said Nicole. “Find out symptoms and reactions and then make your own decision. As of this moment, Vermonters have to fight to protect their right to be able to make their own decisions to protect their children. We are asking for the legislators to please oppose S. 199 and H. 527 to take away our philosophical exemption.”
“We, as Americans, should have our choice,” said Justin.
Fight for Right to Make Voluntary Vaccine Decisions
Help fight for the right to make voluntary decisions about vaccination in Vermont and every state. Go to www.NVICAdvocacy.org and take action today.
It’s your health. Your family. Your choice.
References:
[1] Nir E. Informed Consent. The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Fall 2011 Edition. [2] HRSA. National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program: Statistics Report (as of Feb. 2, 2012) [3] NVIC. National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of 1986 [4] Howson CP, Howe CJ, Fineberg HV, Editors. Adverse Effects of Pertussis & Rubella Vaccines. Institute of Medicine: National Academy Press. 1991. [5] Stratton KR, Howe CJ, Johnston RB, Editors. Adverse Events Associated with Childhood Vaccines: Evidence Bearing on Causality. Institute of Medicine: National Academy Press.1994 [6] Stratton KR, Howe CJ, Johnston RB, Editors. DPT Vaccine & Chronic Nervous System Dysfunction: A New Analysis. Institute of Medicine: National Academy Press. 1994 [7] Stratton K, Ford A, Rusch E, Clayton EW, editors. Adverse Effects of Vaccines: Evidence and Causality. Committee to Review Adverse Effects of Vaccines. Institute of Medicine: National Academies Press. 2011. Pages 70-78. [8] NVIC. State Law & Vaccine Requirements. [9]Vermont State Senate Bill 199. Statement of Purpose: This bill proposes to extend the termination date of the immunization pilot program and remove the exemption from immunization on philosophical grounds. [10]Vermont State House Bill 527. An Act related to requiring immunizations for attendance at school and childcare facilities. [11] Vermont Medical Society. Bills Seek to Boost Immunity by Eliminating Philosophical Exemption. [12] McGilvery K. Push to let parents opt of vaccines for kids losing steam in VT statehouse. Feb. 10, 2012 [13] Cleveland J.H. Medical Examiner Can’t Determine Manner of 7-Year Old’s Death. The Orleans Record. Feb. 21, 2012. [14] Picard K. Flu Shot or Not? State Health Officials Warn Against “Alarmist” Reaction to Young Girl’s Death. Seven Days. Jan. 11, 2012. [15] Attkisson S. How Independent Are Vaccine Defenders? CBS News. July 25, 2008. [16] Orange County Register. CORRECTION re: August 4, 2008 article “Dr. Paul Offit Responds.” April 18, 2011. [17] Center for Science in the Public Interest. Integrity in Science: Non-Profit Organizations Receiving Corporate Funding: American Academy of Pediatrics. [18] Clapp R. My Turn: Immunizations: Critical Protection for State’s Families. Burlington Free Press. Feb. 19, 2012. [19] Center for Science in the Public Interest. Integrity in Science: Non-Profit Organizations Receiving Corporate Funding: March of Dimes. [20] WAMC News. A Look at Vermont’s Debate Over the Philosophical Exemption to Vaccination. Feb. 9, 2012. [21] United Health Foundation. America’s Health Rankings: Vermont. [22] Reuters. BCC Research Press Release: Global Market for Vaccines Worth $36.3 Billion by 2013. Technologies and Global Markets. Jan. 24, 2008 [23] Drug Discovery & Development. Vaccine Market A Refuge for Big Pharma. January 13, 2011 [24] NVIC. Press Release: NVIC Cites “Betrayal” of Consumers by U.S. Supreme Court Giving Total Liability Shield to Big Pharma. Feb. 23, 2011. [25] Medical News. 395 New Vaccines Being Developed for Infectious Diseases: PhRMA. Sept. 10, 2010. [26] NIH. ClinicalTrials.gov: Vaccine Clinical Trials (4,097 – listed as of Feb. 21, 2012). [27] Mettens P, Monteyne. Life-Style Vaccines. British Medical Bulletin 2002; 62(1): 175-186. [28] NewsRx/Vaccine Weekly. Syphilis Vaccine: Antibody Partially Protects Against Syphilis. June 29, 2005. [29] Health.am. Progress Made Toward Gonorrhea Vaccines. Drug News. July 19, 2005. [30] Science Daily. Progress Made Toward a Genital Herpes Vaccine. Jan. 4, 2012. [31] Medical News Today. Hep C Vaccine Shows Promise in First Trial. Jan. 7, 2012. [32] Science Daily. Vaccine Developed for E-Coli Diarrheal Diseases That Kill Millions of Children. Apr. 14, 2009. [33] Fierce Vaccines. Research Paving Way to Salmonella Vaccine. Feb. 16, 2012. [34] CBS Detroit. WSU Researcher Files for Patent on Chlamydia Vaccine. Apr. 19, 2011. [35] Lite J. CMV Vaccine Shows Promise. Scientific American. May 18, 2009. [36] Robinson HL. Progress Toward An HIV/AIDS Vaccine. The Scientist. May 11, 2011. [37] Shivakumar KM, Vidya SK, Chandu GN. Dental Caries Vaccine. Indian Journal of Dental Research 2009; 20(1): 99-100. [38] Straightstocks.com. Anti-Smoking Vaccine from Glaxo. Nov. 17, 2009. [39] Kensey BM, Kosten TR, Orson FM. Anti-Cocaine Vaccine Development. Expert Rev Vaccines 2010 Sept; 9(9): 1109-14. [40] Quenqua D. An Addiction Vaccine, Tantalyzingly Close. New York Times. Oct. 3, 2011. [41] Liu PF, Haake SK et al. A novel vaccine targeting Fusobacterium nucleatum against abscesses and halitosis. Vaccine 209 March 4; 27(10): 1589-1595. [42] BusinessWire. Prevention Study with Diamyd’s Diabetes Vaccine Fully Recruited. Diamyd Press Release: Jan. 9 2012. [43] Daily Mail. How the Farmyard Bugs That Help Children Avoid Asthma Could Be Turned Into A Vaccine. Feb. 24, 2011. [44] Rettner R. Norovirus Vaccine Showing Promise. MSNBC.com. Feb. 21, 2012.
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Americans Fight for Vaccine Choices
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Posted: 5/14/2012
Philosophical Exemption To Vaccination Saved in Vermont!
by Barbara Loe Fisher
“I never thought this would turn into the mess it turned into.” – State Senator Kevin Mullin (R-Rutland), co-sponsor of a failed bill to eliminate philosophical exemption to vaccination in Vermont.
In the first five months of 2012, NVIC staff and volunteers have helped citizens in Vermont and California take a stand in the historic state-based fight against Big Pharma, medical trade associations and government health lobbyists pressuring legislators to eliminate the legal right to exercise personal belief exemptions to vaccination in America. Personal belief exemptions include those for sincerely held religious, conscientious and philosophical beliefs.
The proliferation of new vaccines that have been added in the past 25 years to the government mandated child vaccination schedule, coupled with growing awareness that many highly vaccinated children are chronically ill, is powering the new citizen activism. Educated mothers and fathers have joined with enlightened health care professionals and are publicly defending the human right to exercise informed consent to medical risk-taking, which includes the legal right of parents of minor children to weigh the benefits and risks of vaccines and make voluntary vaccination decisions.
Educating One Legislator At A Time
Ground zero this year has been Vermont (S199) and California (AB2109). NVIC Director of State Advocacy, Dawn Richardson said, “We are educating one legislator at a time. Many are telling us that they have never taken a critical look at vaccine mandates and are surprised at what they are learning. They see smart, articulate parents taking a rational and principled stand for the freedom to make voluntary decisions about vaccinating their children and it is changing their views. They realize that a lot of the information being given to them by lobbyists, who are trying to take away personal belief exemptions, is just plain wrong.”
U.S. – More Vaccinations for Children Than Other Countries
U.S. government health officials tell doctors to give children more vaccinations more often than in any other country in the world – 69 doses of 16 vaccines from day of birth to age 18. 12 The majority of these vaccinations are legally required in every state for children to get a public education. 3
The world’s third largest country with a population of over 300 million people, America has one of the highest child population vaccination rates. Nationwide by age three, 95 percent of all children are vaccinated with three or more doses of pertussis, diphtheria and tetanus vaccines and more than 90 percent are vaccinated with three or more doses of polio, HIB, pneumococcal and hepatitis B vaccines plus one or more doses of measles, mumps, rubella and varicella (chickenpox) vaccines.[4] The majority have also received multiple doses of rotavirus and hepatitis A vaccines.
Today Everybody Knows Somebody
Today, everybody knows somebody who was healthy, got vaccinated and was never healthy again. Among America’s highly vaccinated child population, today 1 child 6 is learning disabled; 5 1 in 9 is asthmatic; 6 1 in 88 develops autism 7 and 1 in 450 becomes diabetic. 8 Children are paying a high price for being forced to submit to one-size-fits-all vaccine mandates as many American parents are placed in the untenable position of choosing between protecting the health of their children and educating their children.
One-size-fits-all state vaccine mandates do not take into account large gaps in the vaccine safety science and individual increased susceptibility for vaccine harm, which was acknowledged by the Institute of Medicine in their 2011 report Vaccine Adverse Effects: Evidence and Causality.9 State vaccine mandates do not take into account the fact that pediatricians are refusing to provide medical care to children unless they have received every dose of vaccine that the government and the AAP recommends, even when children have suffered previous vaccine reaction symptoms because very few vaccine reaction symptoms or health disorders now qualify for a medical exemption to vaccination. 10
Children Endangered by Elimination of Personal Belief Exemptions
The elimination of vaccine exemptions for personal religious and conscientious beliefs has very real consequences for those at increased biological susceptibility for suffering reactions, injuries and deaths from vaccines sold by profit-seeking pharmaceutical corporations that Congress and the U.S. Supreme Court have shielded from civil liability.11
As more pediatricians, who are also shielded from civil liability, refuse to acknowledge vaccine reactions or write medical exemptions to vaccination, the non-medical exemptions are the only option for many parents trying to protect their vaccine vulnerable children from further harm.
NVIC Educating Vaccine Freedom Fighters in the States
Citizen advocates, who believe in the human right to informed consent to vaccine risk-taking, are facing a wealthy, well-organized and politically powerful lobby of Pharma-funded medical trade associations, like the American Academy of Pediatrics12 13 that have joined with state public health officials to persuade state legislators to shut off all legal avenues for parents to make voluntary vaccine choices for their children. 14
NVIC’s Director of Advocacy, Dawn Richardson, who successfully led a seven-year effort to obtain conscientious belief exemption to vaccination in Texas in 2003, manages the online NVIC Advocacy Portal she designed in 2010. Assisted by Cindy Loveland, longtime Colorado vaccine choice advocate, she is educating users of the Advocacy Portal about how to become effective vaccine choice freedom fighters in the states. NVIC Vermont state Advocacy Director, Jennifer Stella, said “We would never have been able to navigate through the legislative process without NVIC and, specifically, without Dawn’s coaching and coordination.”
Vermonters Save Philosophical Exemption
The state of Vermont is rated the Number One “healthiest” state 15 in the nation. In 2010 in Vermont, the CDC measured a very high 96 percent pertussis vaccination rate, 16 as well as a 93 measles vaccination rate, 17 among children aged 19 to 35 months.
Even so, at the beginning of January, parents living in the “healthiest” state were shocked to find out that a bill (S199) was being pushed by the state’s Health Commissioner to strip the philosophical belief exemption to vaccination from state public health laws. 18 In 2010-2011, only 360 children in Vermont schools were exempted from vaccinations because their parents filed a philosophical belief exemption to vaccination.
Within a month, outraged Vermonters organized the Vermont Coalition for Vaccine Choice 19 and the Coalition’s co-founder, Jennifer Stella, volunteered to be NVIC’s Vermont state director.
Powerful Doctors Push Eliminating Personal Belief Exemption
S199 was introduced in the state Senate by Kevin Mullin, who is VT chair of the Pharma-funded American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC),20 and was introduced in the state House by Representative George Till, M.D., at the request of Harry Chen, M.D., Vermont’s Health Commissioner. Dr. Chen, who was a Vermont state representative and former chair of the Vermont House Health Care Committee for four years, has publicly downplayed vaccine risks. 21
S199 was supported by the VT Dept. of Health and state government supported institutions, such as the University of Vermont, as well as medical trade associations that receive money from pharmaceutical corporations selling vaccines in the U.S., including the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), March of Dimes, Every Child by Two and the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). Other organizations endorsing elimination of the philosophical exemption included the Vermont Academy of Family Physicians, Fletcher Allen, Vermont Association of Hospitals and Health Systems, Voices for VT Children, Vermont Pharmacists Association, Rutland Medical Center, and Vermont Medical Society.
Bill Rammed Through in the Senate
Senator Mullin introduced S199 in early January with strong backing from Pharma and medical trade association lobbyists. The bill was quickly rammed through the Senate without a public hearing and passed overwhelmingly with a nearly unanimous 25-4 vote.
“The Senate vote came after lobbyists gave senators misinformation that parents were making decisions about vaccination based on bad information they were finding on the internet,” said Jennifer Stella. “The lobbyists claimed that the unvaccinated were to blame for disease outbreaks and that exemption rates were rising and vaccination rates were low in Vermont when none of that was true.”
Parents Speak Out and Demonstrate Against Bill
By the end of February, the parents of seven year old Kaylynne Matten, who died in Vermont after a routine flu shot in December 2011, began speaking out about the need to keep the philosophical exemption intact. Watch an NVIC video referenced commentary that includes an interview with Kaylynne’s parents.
By March 15, the newly formed Vermont Coalition for Vaccine Choice held a public demonstration in Montpelier, the state Capitol. 22 The Vermont Coalition founders created a website and Facebook page and secured 1500 signatures on a petition opposing the bill. They worked closely with NVIC to develop strategy and keep parents informed on a daily basis with nightly conference calls, email and web and Facebook updates and through Action Alerts posted on the NVIC Advocacy Portal.
Dawn Richardson commented that parents in Washington state learned a lot last year from the fast track passing of legislation (SB5005) that forces parents to pay to get the signature of a medical doctor in order to obtain a philosophical belief exemption to vaccination. “NVIC Washington state volunteer, Karl Kanthak, fought against the passage of SB5005 last year and he brought his experience to the table in counseling parents in Vermont,” she said. “He emphasized how important it was to quickly educate legislators with the “facts,” including the fact that vaccination rates for core vaccines like pertussis and measles continue to be high in Vermont and were not falling like the Vermont Health Commissioner Chen claimed.”
Parents Pack House Hearing Room
After Vermont parents protested that the VT Senate had held no public hearings on the bill, in March the House Health Care Committee held a hearing with invited testimony and an evening public hearing. During invited testimony, Dawn Richardson presented orally via telephone on behalf of NVIC’s Vermont supporters in opposition to the bill. Also testifying in opposition were the Vermont Coalition for Vaccine Choice (Jennifer Stella); Vermont Chiropractic Association (Dr. Julia McDaniels, Dr. Erik Hemmit); Center for Personal Rights (Mary Holland, JD) and Alan Philips, JD.
At an evening meeting on March 21, Vermont families and health professionals opposing the bill packed the House hearing room and, at public comment time, each had a chance to face off with a few medical doctors, who attended to endorse the bill. 23
Bill Amended to Include Parental Admission of Risk
An amended version of S. 199 that retained the philosophical exemption was voted out of the House Health Care Committee and overwhelmingly approved by the full House in a vote on April 13 after bill sponsors Dr. Till and Paul Poirer tried to block the amendment. 24 While the amended version kept the philosophical exemption intact, it required parents to review vaccine benefit information and sign a statement every year acknowledging that taking the exemption will pose a risk to the health of their child and society.
In the media, Jennifer Stella argued that the bill’s sponsors were exaggerating the “decline” in vaccination in the state by counting kids “unvaccinated” if they have missed just one dose of state mandated vaccines and she questioned vaccine effectiveness, pointing to reported cases of disease in fully vaccinated children.25
VT Coalition & NVIC Oppose Conference Committee Compromise
On April 30, a specially appointed House and Senate Conference Committee created and voted on a compromise to S199 that would retain the philosophical exemption unless the statewide vaccination rate drops below 90 percent for pertussis and MMR vaccine and then the Health Commissioner would suspend the philosophical exemption for those vaccines.26 27
The Vermont Coalition for Vaccination Choice and NVIC opposed the compromise that included an arbitrary 90 percent vaccination rate cap for certain vaccines that could be used in the future to eliminate the right to obtain a philosophical belief exemption. Jennifer Stella commented “It basically says that only 10 percent of Vermonters get to use that right.”
Through NVIC Advocacy Portal Action Alerts and information posted on the NVIC Facebook and Vermont Coalition Facebook pages, the public was kept informed day to day about what was happening in the Vermont state Capitol. Vermont parents and health professionals called, emailed and traveled to Montpelier to educate legislators and their staffs one-on-one with factual, referenced information about vaccination issues.
A Delayed Vote and Language Inserted Targeting Teachers
A vote had been scheduled in the House on May 2 on the S199 compromise but it was postponed.
On May 3, behind the scenes modifications to the bill were made that removed the 90 percent vaccination rate cap and kept the philosophical exemption intact. However, the language, which forces parents to sign a statement that they agree that taking the exemption endangers their child and society, remained in the bill. In addition, a “feasibility study” was added by bill supporters to pave the way for teachers and all school personnel to be required to show proof they are up-to-date on all government recommended vaccines in order to stay employed.
Philosophical Exemption Saved, Bill on Governor’s Desk
There were no public hearings on the amended bill and it passed the House on May 3 with a nearly unanimous 133-6 vote. On May 5, the Senate followed suit with a 20-5 vote. The bill is now on Governor Peter Shumlin’s desk for signature. Governor Shumlin was on record in April as supporting retaining the philosophical exemption, which was in direct conflict with the lobbying efforts by state Health Commissioner Chen to remove it.
A front-page article in the VT Burlington Free Press noted that this attempt to eliminate the philosophical exemption to vaccination from Vermont public health laws failed. Tom McLeod, a key member of the Vermont Coalition for Vaccine Choice, was quoted as saying, “The most dangerous place in the woods is between a mother bear and her cubs.” 28
NVIC Advocacy Portal Played Key Role
Vermont’s experience demonstrates how effective the free online NVIC Advocacy Portal can be in offering citizens in every state the opportunity to plug into a network of experienced and motivated, vaccine choice advocates. You can join with like-minded citizens in your state today and educate your state legislators about the importance of protecting informed consent and parental rights.
If you are not a registered user of NVIC’s Advocacy Portal please sign up today. When legislation starts moving in your state that will take away your right to make voluntary vaccine choices, you will receive an Action Alert and be put in instant touch with your legislators via your smart phone or computer.
Remember to thank your legislators for listening to your concerns and voting to protect vaccine exemptions with a thank you email or phone call. In Vermont, please send copies of any correspondence you send or receive from your legislator to VTDirector@NVICAdvocacy.org.
California Anti-Choice Legislation Needs to be Stopped
In late February, a California pediatrician legislator, Assemblyman Richard Pan, M.D., introduced a bill to impose restrictions on the personal belief exemption to vaccination. The bill has moved quickly through the Democrat-controlled California legislature.
California law allows a personal belief exemption to vaccination, which includes both religious and conscientious or philosophical beliefs. The bill will force parents, who are filing a personal belief exemption with the state so their children can attend school, to pay a medical doctor or other designated medical practitioner (D.O., medical assistant, nurse practitioner or N.D. under the supervision of an M.D.) for an appointment to have the personal belief exemption form signed. Without a medical provider signature, the personal belief exemption form will not be valid and the child will be barred from attending school.
The bill was amended by the House on April 23 and passed by the House with a 44-19 vote on May 10. It is headed for the VT Senate.
With many pediatricians refusing to treat children, whose parents decline to give their children every AAP and government recommended vaccine on schedule, a majority of families wanting to file a personal belief exemption to vaccination for religious or conscientiously held beliefs, may effectively be denied that right.
Watch an NVIC public service message about this bill.
Watch a public hearing on this bill, which included testimony opposing the bill from Dawn Winkler, NVIC California Advocacy Co-Director and pediatrician Bob Sears, M.D..
If you are in California, you can join the fight against AB2109 at http://NVICAdvocacy.org. When you register, you will automatically be placed on your California state email list to receive critical action alerts to fight this bill. Bill status information and steps you can take to fight AB2109 in the Senate are posted on the California state page on the NVIC Advocacy Portal.
SC Bill to Promote HPV (Gardasil) Vaccine
On April 18 South Carolina’s Committee on Medical, Military, Public and Municipal Affairs passed H 4497 - “The Cervical Cancer Prevention Act” and is being fast tracked. The bill, if passed, would require beginning with the 2012-2013 school year the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control to offer the HPV (Human Papillomavirus) Vaccine to all female students enrolling in the 7th grade.
References
1 Centers for Disease Control. 2012 Child & Adolescent Immunization Schedules. 2 Miller NZ, Goldman GS. Infant mortality rates regressed against number of vaccine doses routinely given: Is there a biochemical or synergistic toxicity?Human and Experimental Toxicology: Published online May 4, 2011. 3 NVIC. State Law & Vaccine Requirements. 4 CDC. Estimated Vaccination Coverage with Individual Vaccines and Selected Vaccination Series Among Children 19 to 35 months of age by State U.S., National Immunization Survey - 2010 5 Boyle CA, Boulet S et al. Trends in the Prevalence of Developmental Disabilities in US Children 1997-2000. Pediatrics. Published online May 23, 2011. 6 CDC. Asthma in the U.S.: Growing Every Year. May 2011. 7 CDC. Press Release: CDC Estimates 1 in 88 Children in the U.S. Has Been Identified As Having An Autism Spectrum Disorder. March 29, 2012. 8 CDC. National Diabetes Fact Sheet - U.S. 2003. 9 Stratton K, Ford A, Rusch E, Clayton EW, editors. Adverse Effects of Vaccines: Evidence and Causality. Committee to Review Adverse Effects of Vaccines. Institute of Medicine: National Academies Press. 2011. Pages 70-78 10 NVIC. Vaccine Freedom Wall. Public reports of threats, coercion and sanctions for making informed choices about use of one or more vaccines. 11 Fisher, BL. The Health Liberty Revolution & Forced Vaccination. NVIC Vaccine E-News. Aug. 23, 2012. 12 Attkisson S. How Independent Are Vaccine Defenders? CBS News. July 25, 2008. 13 Orange County Register. CORRECTION re: August 4, 2008 article “Dr. Paul Offit Responds.” April 18, 2011. 14 Fisher BL. Vermont Parents Fight to Save Philosophical Exemption. NVIC Vaccine E-News. Feb. 21, 2012. 15 Harding A. Vermont, New Hampshire Top List of Healthiest States. CNN Health. Dec. 6, 011. 16 CDC. See Reference # 1. 17 CDC. See Reference #2. 18 The Vermont Legislative Bill Tracking System. 2011/2012 Legislative Session. S. 199 Bill Text and Status. 19 Panebaker A. Parents Hold Fast to Exemptions for Vaccines. Vermont Digger.org. Feb. 28, 2012. 20 Kentish E. Kentish: ALEC’s Ugly Duckling (OpEd). VTDigger.org. April 19, 2012. 21 Picard K. Flu Shot or Not? State Health Officials Warn Against “Alarmist” Reaction to Young Girl’s Death. Seven Days. Jan. 11, 2012 22 ABC 22 (Burlington, VT). Parents Rally Against Vaccine Bills. March 15, 2012. 23 Panebaker A. Lawmakers Hear Impassioned Testimony on Vaccine Bill. March 22, 2012. 24 Gram D. VT House Debates Childhood Immunization Law. Boston Globe. April 12, 2012. 25 Gram D. Associated Press. Lawmakers, Parents at Loggerheads About Philosophical Exemption for Kids Vaccines. April 22, 2012. 26 Panebaker A. Conference Committee Agrees on Vaccine Compromise. VTDigger.org. April 30, 2012. 27 Hallenbeck T. VT Buzz: Vaccinations Prove Vexing to the End to VT Lawmakers. Burlington Free Press. April 30, 2012. 28 Hallenbeck T. Legislature Votes to Preserve Vaccination Exemption. Burlington Free Press (front page). May 4, 2012.
Philosophical Exemption To Vaccination Saved in Vermont!
by Barbara Loe Fisher
“I never thought this would turn into the mess it turned into.” – State Senator Kevin Mullin (R-Rutland), co-sponsor of a failed bill to eliminate philosophical exemption to vaccination in Vermont.
In the first five months of 2012, NVIC staff and volunteers have helped citizens in Vermont and California take a stand in the historic state-based fight against Big Pharma, medical trade associations and government health lobbyists pressuring legislators to eliminate the legal right to exercise personal belief exemptions to vaccination in America. Personal belief exemptions include those for sincerely held religious, conscientious and philosophical beliefs.
The proliferation of new vaccines that have been added in the past 25 years to the government mandated child vaccination schedule, coupled with growing awareness that many highly vaccinated children are chronically ill, is powering the new citizen activism. Educated mothers and fathers have joined with enlightened health care professionals and are publicly defending the human right to exercise informed consent to medical risk-taking, which includes the legal right of parents of minor children to weigh the benefits and risks of vaccines and make voluntary vaccination decisions.
Educating One Legislator At A Time
Ground zero this year has been Vermont (S199) and California (AB2109). NVIC Director of State Advocacy, Dawn Richardson said, “We are educating one legislator at a time. Many are telling us that they have never taken a critical look at vaccine mandates and are surprised at what they are learning. They see smart, articulate parents taking a rational and principled stand for the freedom to make voluntary decisions about vaccinating their children and it is changing their views. They realize that a lot of the information being given to them by lobbyists, who are trying to take away personal belief exemptions, is just plain wrong.”
U.S. – More Vaccinations for Children Than Other Countries
U.S. government health officials tell doctors to give children more vaccinations more often than in any other country in the world – 69 doses of 16 vaccines from day of birth to age 18. 12 The majority of these vaccinations are legally required in every state for children to get a public education. 3
The world’s third largest country with a population of over 300 million people, America has one of the highest child population vaccination rates. Nationwide by age three, 95 percent of all children are vaccinated with three or more doses of pertussis, diphtheria and tetanus vaccines and more than 90 percent are vaccinated with three or more doses of polio, HIB, pneumococcal and hepatitis B vaccines plus one or more doses of measles, mumps, rubella and varicella (chickenpox) vaccines.[4] The majority have also received multiple doses of rotavirus and hepatitis A vaccines.
Today Everybody Knows Somebody
Today, everybody knows somebody who was healthy, got vaccinated and was never healthy again. Among America’s highly vaccinated child population, today 1 child 6 is learning disabled; 5 1 in 9 is asthmatic; 6 1 in 88 develops autism 7 and 1 in 450 becomes diabetic. 8 Children are paying a high price for being forced to submit to one-size-fits-all vaccine mandates as many American parents are placed in the untenable position of choosing between protecting the health of their children and educating their children.
One-size-fits-all state vaccine mandates do not take into account large gaps in the vaccine safety science and individual increased susceptibility for vaccine harm, which was acknowledged by the Institute of Medicine in their 2011 report Vaccine Adverse Effects: Evidence and Causality.9 State vaccine mandates do not take into account the fact that pediatricians are refusing to provide medical care to children unless they have received every dose of vaccine that the government and the AAP recommends, even when children have suffered previous vaccine reaction symptoms because very few vaccine reaction symptoms or health disorders now qualify for a medical exemption to vaccination. 10
Children Endangered by Elimination of Personal Belief Exemptions
The elimination of vaccine exemptions for personal religious and conscientious beliefs has very real consequences for those at increased biological susceptibility for suffering reactions, injuries and deaths from vaccines sold by profit-seeking pharmaceutical corporations that Congress and the U.S. Supreme Court have shielded from civil liability.11
As more pediatricians, who are also shielded from civil liability, refuse to acknowledge vaccine reactions or write medical exemptions to vaccination, the non-medical exemptions are the only option for many parents trying to protect their vaccine vulnerable children from further harm.
NVIC Educating Vaccine Freedom Fighters in the States
Citizen advocates, who believe in the human right to informed consent to vaccine risk-taking, are facing a wealthy, well-organized and politically powerful lobby of Pharma-funded medical trade associations, like the American Academy of Pediatrics12 13 that have joined with state public health officials to persuade state legislators to shut off all legal avenues for parents to make voluntary vaccine choices for their children. 14
NVIC’s Director of Advocacy, Dawn Richardson, who successfully led a seven-year effort to obtain conscientious belief exemption to vaccination in Texas in 2003, manages the online NVIC Advocacy Portal she designed in 2010. Assisted by Cindy Loveland, longtime Colorado vaccine choice advocate, she is educating users of the Advocacy Portal about how to become effective vaccine choice freedom fighters in the states. NVIC Vermont state Advocacy Director, Jennifer Stella, said “We would never have been able to navigate through the legislative process without NVIC and, specifically, without Dawn’s coaching and coordination.”
Vermonters Save Philosophical Exemption
The state of Vermont is rated the Number One “healthiest” state 15 in the nation. In 2010 in Vermont, the CDC measured a very high 96 percent pertussis vaccination rate, 16 as well as a 93 measles vaccination rate, 17 among children aged 19 to 35 months.
Even so, at the beginning of January, parents living in the “healthiest” state were shocked to find out that a bill (S199) was being pushed by the state’s Health Commissioner to strip the philosophical belief exemption to vaccination from state public health laws. 18 In 2010-2011, only 360 children in Vermont schools were exempted from vaccinations because their parents filed a philosophical belief exemption to vaccination.Within a month, outraged Vermonters organized the Vermont Coalition for Vaccine Choice 19 and the Coalition’s co-founder, Jennifer Stella, volunteered to be NVIC’s Vermont state director.
Powerful Doctors Push Eliminating Personal Belief Exemption
S199 was introduced in the state Senate by Kevin Mullin, who is VT chair of the Pharma-funded American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC),20 and was introduced in the state House by Representative George Till, M.D., at the request of Harry Chen, M.D., Vermont’s Health Commissioner. Dr. Chen, who was a Vermont state representative and former chair of the Vermont House Health Care Committee for four years, has publicly downplayed vaccine risks. 21
S199 was supported by the VT Dept. of Health and state government supported institutions, such as the University of Vermont, as well as medical trade associations that receive money from pharmaceutical corporations selling vaccines in the U.S., including the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), March of Dimes, Every Child by Two and the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). Other organizations endorsing elimination of the philosophical exemption included the Vermont Academy of Family Physicians, Fletcher Allen, Vermont Association of Hospitals and Health Systems, Voices for VT Children, Vermont Pharmacists Association, Rutland Medical Center, and Vermont Medical Society.
Bill Rammed Through in the Senate
Senator Mullin introduced S199 in early January with strong backing from Pharma and medical trade association lobbyists. The bill was quickly rammed through the Senate without a public hearing and passed overwhelmingly with a nearly unanimous 25-4 vote.
“The Senate vote came after lobbyists gave senators misinformation that parents were making decisions about vaccination based on bad information they were finding on the internet,” said Jennifer Stella. “The lobbyists claimed that the unvaccinated were to blame for disease outbreaks and that exemption rates were rising and vaccination rates were low in Vermont when none of that was true.”
Parents Speak Out and Demonstrate Against Bill
By the end of February, the parents of seven year old Kaylynne Matten, who died in Vermont after a routine flu shot in December 2011, began speaking out about the need to keep the philosophical exemption intact. Watch an NVIC video referenced commentary that includes an interview with Kaylynne’s parents.By March 15, the newly formed Vermont Coalition for Vaccine Choice held a public demonstration in Montpelier, the state Capitol. 22 The Vermont Coalition founders created a website and Facebook page and secured 1500 signatures on a petition opposing the bill. They worked closely with NVIC to develop strategy and keep parents informed on a daily basis with nightly conference calls, email and web and Facebook updates and through Action Alerts posted on the NVIC Advocacy Portal.
Dawn Richardson commented that parents in Washington state learned a lot last year from the fast track passing of legislation (SB5005) that forces parents to pay to get the signature of a medical doctor in order to obtain a philosophical belief exemption to vaccination. “NVIC Washington state volunteer, Karl Kanthak, fought against the passage of SB5005 last year and he brought his experience to the table in counseling parents in Vermont,” she said. “He emphasized how important it was to quickly educate legislators with the “facts,” including the fact that vaccination rates for core vaccines like pertussis and measles continue to be high in Vermont and were not falling like the Vermont Health Commissioner Chen claimed.”
Parents Pack House Hearing Room
After Vermont parents protested that the VT Senate had held no public hearings on the bill, in March the House Health Care Committee held a hearing with invited testimony and an evening public hearing. During invited testimony, Dawn Richardson presented orally via telephone on behalf of NVIC’s Vermont supporters in opposition to the bill. Also testifying in opposition were the Vermont Coalition for Vaccine Choice (Jennifer Stella); Vermont Chiropractic Association (Dr. Julia McDaniels, Dr. Erik Hemmit); Center for Personal Rights (Mary Holland, JD) and Alan Philips, JD.
At an evening meeting on March 21, Vermont families and health professionals opposing the bill packed the House hearing room and, at public comment time, each had a chance to face off with a few medical doctors, who attended to endorse the bill. 23
Bill Amended to Include Parental Admission of Risk
An amended version of S. 199 that retained the philosophical exemption was voted out of the House Health Care Committee and overwhelmingly approved by the full House in a vote on April 13 after bill sponsors Dr. Till and Paul Poirer tried to block the amendment. 24 While the amended version kept the philosophical exemption intact, it required parents to review vaccine benefit information and sign a statement every year acknowledging that taking the exemption will pose a risk to the health of their child and society.
In the media, Jennifer Stella argued that the bill’s sponsors were exaggerating the “decline” in vaccination in the state by counting kids “unvaccinated” if they have missed just one dose of state mandated vaccines and she questioned vaccine effectiveness, pointing to reported cases of disease in fully vaccinated children.25
VT Coalition & NVIC Oppose Conference Committee Compromise
On April 30, a specially appointed House and Senate Conference Committee created and voted on a compromise to S199 that would retain the philosophical exemption unless the statewide vaccination rate drops below 90 percent for pertussis and MMR vaccine and then the Health Commissioner would suspend the philosophical exemption for those vaccines.26 27
The Vermont Coalition for Vaccination Choice and NVIC opposed the compromise that included an arbitrary 90 percent vaccination rate cap for certain vaccines that could be used in the future to eliminate the right to obtain a philosophical belief exemption. Jennifer Stella commented “It basically says that only 10 percent of Vermonters get to use that right.”
Through NVIC Advocacy Portal Action Alerts and information posted on the NVIC Facebook and Vermont Coalition Facebook pages, the public was kept informed day to day about what was happening in the Vermont state Capitol. Vermont parents and health professionals called, emailed and traveled to Montpelier to educate legislators and their staffs one-on-one with factual, referenced information about vaccination issues.
A Delayed Vote and Language Inserted Targeting Teachers
A vote had been scheduled in the House on May 2 on the S199 compromise but it was postponed.
On May 3, behind the scenes modifications to the bill were made that removed the 90 percent vaccination rate cap and kept the philosophical exemption intact. However, the language, which forces parents to sign a statement that they agree that taking the exemption endangers their child and society, remained in the bill. In addition, a “feasibility study” was added by bill supporters to pave the way for teachers and all school personnel to be required to show proof they are up-to-date on all government recommended vaccines in order to stay employed.
Philosophical Exemption Saved, Bill on Governor’s Desk
There were no public hearings on the amended bill and it passed the House on May 3 with a nearly unanimous 133-6 vote. On May 5, the Senate followed suit with a 20-5 vote. The bill is now on Governor Peter Shumlin’s desk for signature. Governor Shumlin was on record in April as supporting retaining the philosophical exemption, which was in direct conflict with the lobbying efforts by state Health Commissioner Chen to remove it.
A front-page article in the VT Burlington Free Press noted that this attempt to eliminate the philosophical exemption to vaccination from Vermont public health laws failed. Tom McLeod, a key member of the Vermont Coalition for Vaccine Choice, was quoted as saying, “The most dangerous place in the woods is between a mother bear and her cubs.” 28
NVIC Advocacy Portal Played Key Role
Vermont’s experience demonstrates how effective the free online NVIC Advocacy Portal can be in offering citizens in every state the opportunity to plug into a network of experienced and motivated, vaccine choice advocates. You can join with like-minded citizens in your state today and educate your state legislators about the importance of protecting informed consent and parental rights.
If you are not a registered user of NVIC’s Advocacy Portal please sign up today. When legislation starts moving in your state that will take away your right to make voluntary vaccine choices, you will receive an Action Alert and be put in instant touch with your legislators via your smart phone or computer.
Remember to thank your legislators for listening to your concerns and voting to protect vaccine exemptions with a thank you email or phone call. In Vermont, please send copies of any correspondence you send or receive from your legislator to VTDirector@NVICAdvocacy.org.
California Anti-Choice Legislation Needs to be Stopped
In late February, a California pediatrician legislator, Assemblyman Richard Pan, M.D., introduced a bill to impose restrictions on the personal belief exemption to vaccination. The bill has moved quickly through the Democrat-controlled California legislature.
California law allows a personal belief exemption to vaccination, which includes both religious and conscientious or philosophical beliefs. The bill will force parents, who are filing a personal belief exemption with the state so their children can attend school, to pay a medical doctor or other designated medical practitioner (D.O., medical assistant, nurse practitioner or N.D. under the supervision of an M.D.) for an appointment to have the personal belief exemption form signed. Without a medical provider signature, the personal belief exemption form will not be valid and the child will be barred from attending school.
The bill was amended by the House on April 23 and passed by the House with a 44-19 vote on May 10. It is headed for the VT Senate.
With many pediatricians refusing to treat children, whose parents decline to give their children every AAP and government recommended vaccine on schedule, a majority of families wanting to file a personal belief exemption to vaccination for religious or conscientiously held beliefs, may effectively be denied that right.
Watch an NVIC public service message about this bill.
Watch a public hearing on this bill, which included testimony opposing the bill from Dawn Winkler, NVIC California Advocacy Co-Director and pediatrician Bob Sears, M.D..
If you are in California, you can join the fight against AB2109 at http://NVICAdvocacy.org. When you register, you will automatically be placed on your California state email list to receive critical action alerts to fight this bill. Bill status information and steps you can take to fight AB2109 in the Senate are posted on the California state page on the NVIC Advocacy Portal.
SC Bill to Promote HPV (Gardasil) Vaccine
On April 18 South Carolina’s Committee on Medical, Military, Public and Municipal Affairs passed H 4497 - “The Cervical Cancer Prevention Act” and is being fast tracked. The bill, if passed, would require beginning with the 2012-2013 school year the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control to offer the HPV (Human Papillomavirus) Vaccine to all female students enrolling in the 7th grade.
References
1 Centers for Disease Control. 2012 Child & Adolescent Immunization Schedules. 2 Miller NZ, Goldman GS. Infant mortality rates regressed against number of vaccine doses routinely given: Is there a biochemical or synergistic toxicity?Human and Experimental Toxicology: Published online May 4, 2011. 3 NVIC. State Law & Vaccine Requirements. 4 CDC. Estimated Vaccination Coverage with Individual Vaccines and Selected Vaccination Series Among Children 19 to 35 months of age by State U.S., National Immunization Survey - 2010 5 Boyle CA, Boulet S et al. Trends in the Prevalence of Developmental Disabilities in US Children 1997-2000. Pediatrics. Published online May 23, 2011. 6 CDC. Asthma in the U.S.: Growing Every Year. May 2011. 7 CDC. Press Release: CDC Estimates 1 in 88 Children in the U.S. Has Been Identified As Having An Autism Spectrum Disorder. March 29, 2012. 8 CDC. National Diabetes Fact Sheet - U.S. 2003. 9 Stratton K, Ford A, Rusch E, Clayton EW, editors. Adverse Effects of Vaccines: Evidence and Causality. Committee to Review Adverse Effects of Vaccines. Institute of Medicine: National Academies Press. 2011. Pages 70-78 10 NVIC. Vaccine Freedom Wall. Public reports of threats, coercion and sanctions for making informed choices about use of one or more vaccines. 11 Fisher, BL. The Health Liberty Revolution & Forced Vaccination. NVIC Vaccine E-News. Aug. 23, 2012. 12 Attkisson S. How Independent Are Vaccine Defenders? CBS News. July 25, 2008. 13 Orange County Register. CORRECTION re: August 4, 2008 article “Dr. Paul Offit Responds.” April 18, 2011. 14 Fisher BL. Vermont Parents Fight to Save Philosophical Exemption. NVIC Vaccine E-News. Feb. 21, 2012. 15 Harding A. Vermont, New Hampshire Top List of Healthiest States. CNN Health. Dec. 6, 011. 16 CDC. See Reference # 1. 17 CDC. See Reference #2. 18 The Vermont Legislative Bill Tracking System. 2011/2012 Legislative Session. S. 199 Bill Text and Status. 19 Panebaker A. Parents Hold Fast to Exemptions for Vaccines. Vermont Digger.org. Feb. 28, 2012. 20 Kentish E. Kentish: ALEC’s Ugly Duckling (OpEd). VTDigger.org. April 19, 2012. 21 Picard K. Flu Shot or Not? State Health Officials Warn Against “Alarmist” Reaction to Young Girl’s Death. Seven Days. Jan. 11, 2012 22 ABC 22 (Burlington, VT). Parents Rally Against Vaccine Bills. March 15, 2012. 23 Panebaker A. Lawmakers Hear Impassioned Testimony on Vaccine Bill. March 22, 2012. 24 Gram D. VT House Debates Childhood Immunization Law. Boston Globe. April 12, 2012. 25 Gram D. Associated Press. Lawmakers, Parents at Loggerheads About Philosophical Exemption for Kids Vaccines. April 22, 2012. 26 Panebaker A. Conference Committee Agrees on Vaccine Compromise. VTDigger.org. April 30, 2012. 27 Hallenbeck T. VT Buzz: Vaccinations Prove Vexing to the End to VT Lawmakers. Burlington Free Press. April 30, 2012. 28 Hallenbeck T. Legislature Votes to Preserve Vaccination Exemption. Burlington Free Press (front page). May 4, 2012.
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