Swine Flu Vaccine: Will We Have A Choice?

by Barbara Loe Fisher

The summer will be over before we know it and it will be time for the school year to begin. This fall, many parents are wondering what will happen to their children when they enter the schools. Some public health doctors want to turn schools into vaccination clinics where children will be the first to be injected with experimental swine flu vaccines.

Less Than 50,000 Swine Flu Cases Worldwide

Every day we are being warned by doctors at the World Health Organization and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control to worry a lot about the H1N1 influenza A virus, which was first identified in Mexico in April 2009 and is being called the new swine flu. As of June 15, 2009, the World Health Organization states that 76 countries have reported more than 35,000 cases, including 163 deaths. 108 of those deaths have occurred in Mexico.

We are being told that nearly 18,000 Americans have gotten sick from the new swine flu virus, with about 5 percent being hospitalized and 45 dying. It looks like people, who are in poor health to begin with are at greater risk of having complications and dying from the new swine flu, which has symptoms just like regular influenza. This is not surprising because people in poor health are always at greater risk of having complications and dying from infectious disease.

Most Flu-Like Illness Not True Influenza

What a lot of people don’t know is that true type A or type B influenza only causes about 20 percent of all flu-like symptoms that people experience during any given flu season. 80 percent of all flu-like illness in a normal flu season is NOT caused by the type A and B strains of influenza contained in annual flu shots. And vaccine acquired immunity is temporary, while immunity gained after recovering from influenza is longer lasting.

1968 Flu Pandemic Killed 34,000 Americans

The new type A H1N1 influenza virus public health doctors say is making people sick around the world is an unusual combination of human, bird and pig viruses9. Nobody seems to know exactly how this new virus was created and why it suddenly emerged from Mexico in mid-April - or if it will behave like past pandemic influenza viruses that caused 68,000 American deaths in 1957 and killed 34,000 Americans in 196810. (The CDC states that 36,000 Americans die from influenza complications annually, with most of those deaths occurring in the elderly and those in poor health). Influenza pandemics usually start with mild symptoms and progress to more severe symptoms before populations acquire immunity to the virus and it dies out.

Older Americans May Have Antibodies Against Swine Flu

The good news about the new swine flu going around is that there are signs those of us born before 1957, may be naturally protected and at LOWER risk of being infected. Why? Because we recovered from influenza caused by similar influenza strains that circulated in past decades and have long lasting antibodies that help us resist infection. So the aging baby boomers have something to be happy about.

Vaccinated Children Don’t Have Natural Antibodies

But will health officials allow our children and grandchildren to get those same kind of natural protective antibodies to type A and B influenza, including this new swine flu? It doesn’t look like it. First, doctors in America have been insisting for the past few years that every child from six months old to age 18 must get an annual flu shot. Second, there are now calls by U.S. health officials to give American children the first doses of experimental swine flu vaccines in the school setting.

WHO Declares Phase 6 Alert; Public Health Doctors Exercise EUA

This is because the response by doctors at the World Health Organization, who immediately went into high gear within days of identifying the new swine flu virus emerging out of Mexico, was to declare a public health emergency. Now, they have increased the pandemic flu fear alert to Phase 6, which is the equivalent of the U.S. Homeland Security’s Code Red warning of an imminent terrorist attack. Doctors at the Centers for Disease Control, who followed the lead of the World Health Organization, have done the same and are exercising unprecedented power that Congress handed over to them after 9-11.

Fast Tracking of Experimental Vaccines With Novel Adjuvants

Whenever the CDC declares a public health emergency, that declaration allows the Food and Drug Administration to permit emergency use authorization for drug companies to fast track creation of experimental drugs and vaccines that do not have to be tested as thoroughly as vaccines that go through the normal FDA licensing process. In this case, Congress responded to the public health emergency declaration by giving a group of drug companies one billion dollarsto fast track experimental swine flu vaccines that may include whole live19, killed or genetically engineered human and animal influenza viruses, chemicals, and potentially reactive oil based adjuvants that manipulate the immune system to boost the vaccine’s potency.

States Enact Stronger Quarantine & No Free Assembly Laws

In some states, like Massachusetts, public health doctors have persuaded legislators to quickly pass pandemic influenza legislation that will allow state officials to enter the homes and businesses without the approval of occupants; to investigate and quarantine individuals without their consent; to require licensed health care providers to give citizens vaccines and to ban the free assembly of citizens in the state.

What Can You Do?

What does this declaration of a public health emergency in the U.S. mean for you and your family? It means that, right now, you need to become educated about vaccination, influenza, vaccine risks, and the public health laws in your state. You need to find out what your rights and options are under new public health laws that may require you and your children to get vaccinated or be quarantined.

Take Action Now

Go to www.NVIC.org and learn more. Register now to attend the Fourth International Public Conference on Vaccination Oct. 2-4, 2009 in Washington, D.C. and help organize in your state to protect your right to informed consent to vaccination. Call and write the state legislators you elected to make public health laws that govern you and your family. Make your voice heard.

Homeland Security, Department of Defense & CDC

As Department of Homeland Security officials are declaring that any disease outbreak is a matter of homeland security as Department of Defense officials are defining public demonstrations as “low level terrorism;” as CDC officials make plans to re-route airplanes to designated airports with quarantine centers to screen all passengers for signs of swine flu; and as fast tracked experimental pandemic flu vaccines are being created to be given to American children first, it is time for all of us – whether we are public health officials addressing what we believe is a true public health emergency or whether we are ordinary citizens simply trying to protect our health and the health of our children - to act in rational and responsible ways.

Protect Health Choices

Every pharmaceutical drug, including vaccines, carries a risk and those risks are greater for some than others. In this time of fear, we cannot let that fear take away our freedom to make voluntary health choices, including vaccine choices, so we have the power to make sure that the cure is not more dangerous than the disease.

For live links to references for this commentary and to watch a video, click here:

NY Rally & Grassroots Action Defending Vaccine Choice

by Barbara Loe Fisher

As government-employed doctors and attorneys, along with drug company lobbyists, move to persuade legislators to deny citizens the legal right to make voluntary vaccine decisions, families in different states are working hard to raise public awareness about the need to protect the legal right to make informed, voluntary decisions about vaccination. Tomorrow, Tuesday, June 2 at 10:30 a.m., parents will rally at the Legislative Office Building in Albany, New York to protest proposed new vaccine mandates and support legislation protecting religious exemption and widening medical exemption. They are voicing opposition to a bill that would mandate HPV (Gardasil) vaccine for sixth graders and one that would allow state-designated vaccine providers to give children hepatitis B shots without the informed consent of their parents.

New York Rally for Vaccine Choice

Parent groups in New York have been working since the 1980's and 90's to protect vaccine exemptions. A New York high court ruled in 1987 that parents do not have to belong to an organized church or religion to receive a religious exemption to vaccination. However, that has not prevented New York state-appointed attorneys from grilling parents about their religious beliefs for the purpose of denying the religious exemption. For more information about the June 2 rally in Albany go to www.MyKidsMyChoice.com

Washington, D.C. Parents Challenge Gardasil Use Law

In Washington, D.C., members of the Parents and Citizens Committee to Stop Medical Experimentation in D.C. , a citizen health action group founded in 2007, testified in an April 9 D.C. City Council meeting about the HPV vaccine mandate requiring sixth grade girls to get three doses of Gardasil vaccine. Although there is currently an opt-out provision in the law, parents and health advocates are protesting the lack of vaccine risk information given to girls and parents prior to vaccination and the lack of public awareness that girls can opt-out of the HPV vaccine mandate.

New Jersey Parents for Conscientious Belief Exemption

In neighboring New Jersey, parent groups have been working since the 1980's and 90's on legislation to protect the freedom to make voluntary vaccine decisions. For the past decade, the citizen action group, New Jersey Alliance for Information Choice in Vaccination Choice (NJAICV) has been educating legislators about the need to enact a conscientious belief exemption bill. A newly formed coalition of organizations supporting vaccine choice in New Jersey has added support to the citizen-led vaccine education campaigns in a state which mandates more vaccinations for children than any other state (35 doses of 13 vaccines).

West Virginia Parents in Court to Protect Vaccine Injured Child's Life

Parents living in West Viginia and Mississippi, the two states which allow only a medical exemption written by an M.D. or D.O., continue to suffer discrimination in their struggle to obtain the legal right to file vaccine exemptions for sincerely held religious, conscientious or philosophical beliefs. A citizen action group, West Virginians for Vaccination Exemption, has been working for 10 years to obtain a religious and/or conscientious belief exemption to vaccination. Parents in that state are now going to court to defend their religious beliefs regarding vaccination, with one mother trying to protect her daughter, who regressed into autism after vaccination, from being forced to get more vaccines that could further damage her brain and immune system.

Mississippi Creates Anti-Discrimination Petition

In Mississippi, a recently formed parent support network, the Mississippi Vaccine Information Center, is working on legislation to end discrimination against unvaccinated and partially vaccinated children, whose parents are denied the right to non-medical vaccine exemptions in that state. The group has created a petition that endorses informed consent to vaccination and the inclusion of a religious and philosophical exemption in Mississippi state vaccine laws.

Vaccine Laws Should Protect At-Risk Populations

Doctors working with drug company reps are aggressively lobbying elected officials to pass laws forcing one-size-fits-all vaccine mandates on all children - even those who may be biologically at higher risk than others for suffering vaccine-induced brain and immune system dysfunction. Refusing to acknowledge biodiversity, doctors are clinging to the illogical and unscientific "coincidence" defense for the sole purpose of remaining in denial about vaccine risks. They are acting without conscience when they discriminate against and fail to protect individual children, particularly the already-vaccine injured, from further harm. Citizen activists working in states to insure that vaccine laws include respect for the informed consent principle are protecting both individual and public health.

NVIC's Oct. 2-4 Conference To Focus on Vaccine Choice

Speakers defending the human right to informed consent to vaccination will be featured at the Fourth International Public Conference on Vaccination sponsored by the National Vaccine Information Center October 2-4, 2009 at the Hyatt Regency Hotel (near Dulles Airport) in the Washington, D.C. area.

Scientists, pediatricians, bioethicists, legal experts, journalists and consumer advocates will be discussing the science, policy, law, and ethics of vaccination and the conference will feature advocacy training sessions to help attendees educate their legislators about vaccination.

The conference forum is being created for families and health care providers who want to defend vaccine freedom of choice and work in their communities to protect vaccine exemptions. For more information and to register for best rates before June 30, click here.

Click here to watch a video about NVIC's October Conference.

Click here to watch a video of 11-year old music prodigy Sam Debold, who is recovering from vaccine-associated regressive autism, playing the piano at Autism One. Sam is the son of NVIC's Director of Patient Safety, Vicky Debold, PhD, and Sam will be performing again in October at the banquet at NVIC's conference.

NVIC's October 2009 Vaccine Conference: It's About Informed Choices

by Barbara Loe Fisher

As many parents head for the Autism One conference in Chicago next week to learn how to heal their children's vaccine-related brain and immune system dysfunction and worldwide anxiety about the swine flu lingers, the National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC) is opening registration for the Fourth International Public Conference on Vaccination to be held Oct. 2-4, 2009 at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Reston, Virginia near Dulles International Airport and Washington, D.C. The largest and oldest non-profit vaccine safety organization in North America, founded in 1982, is sponsoring the event to provide a public forum for open discussion about vaccine issues of concern to parents and health care professionals. The conference theme "Show Us the Science & Give Us A Choice" reflects NVIC's three decade pro- education and pro-informed consent stand defending the right of citizens to make fully informed, voluntary vaccine decisions for themselves and their children.

More than 35 speakers from the U.S. and traveling from Canada, United Kingdom, Italy, Japan, and Kenya will speak about the science, policy, law and economics of vaccination; the human right to informed consent to vaccination; as well as holistic health care options for preventing illness and staying well. Pre-conference state organizing sessions start Thursday evening, Oct. 1, and Friday and Sunday advocacy training, holistic health education and vaccine injury family networking sessions precede a post-conference Monday, Oct. 5 bus trip to Capitol Hill.

Friday, Oct. 2 Highlights: Peggy O'Mara, founder & editor of Mothering Magazine and Jane Bryant, founder & editor of the UK internet news service, One Click, start the first day with a discussion about freedom of the press. The keynote address will be delivered by renowned bioethicist George Annas, JD, MPH, Chair of the Department of Health Law, Bioethics & Human Rights at Boston University School of Public Health. HPV vaccine researcher Professor Diane Harper, MD, MPH of the University of Missouri, Kansas City School of Medicine, will examine informed consent issues involving Gardasil vaccine. Evidence for influenza vaccine efficacy will be reviewed by Italian epidemiologist and physician Tom Jefferson, MD, Cochrane Vaccines Field Coordinator.

Coming all the way from Kenya is cell biologist and vaccine researcher Bonnie Dunbar, PhD, who co- founded the Africa Biomedical Center, to inform the audience about the multi-disciplinary approach to meeting unique health challenges in Africa. She is joined by Canadian pediatrician Colin Forbes, MD, who will recount his more than 40 years of experience caring for children in Kenya and how he helped reduce child mortality in some of the most impoverished child populations in the world.

Returning briefly from a health research position in Japan, MIT doctoral candidate Peter Doshi will outline the impact on democracy of U.S. and global vaccine policies. Human rights activist Shiv Chopra, B.V.Sc., M.Sc., PhD, who was former scientific advisor to Health Canada, and is author of "Rotten to the Core" will give a presentation entitled "Public Health or Corporate Interests?"

During what promises to be an historic conference, pediatrician Bob Sears, M.D. offers an alternative schedule for use of 16 U.S. government recommended vaccines and will debate pediatrician Lawrence Palevsky, M.D., who presents an alternative view of how to maintain health and prevent chronic illness. Holistic health pioneers Joe Mercola, DO and Gary Null, PhD will talk about how good nutrition and understanding how to make healthy life choices is the key to staying well, while holistic veterinarian and immunologist, Richard Pitcairn, DVM, PhD, will teach the audience about how good nutrition and homeopathy can keep pets well and Life University Professor Matthew McCoy, DC, MPH will give a chiropractic perspective on informed consent to vaccination.

"Will the Law Protect Health Freedom?" is the question that constitutional and federal law experts, along with leading medical privacy and health freedom advocates will discuss. Vaccine injury and product liability law will be the topic explored by attorneys, who have won vaccine injury cases in the federal Vaccine Injury Compensation Program, and also have expertise in vaccine contamination and use of experimental vaccines in soldiers. Longtime vaccine choice lobbyists like PROVE President Dawn Richardson will join longtime autism activists M.I.N.D. Institute co-founder Rick Rollens and Unlocking Autism President Shelley Reynolds and others to help parents organize to educate legislators and protect the right to make informed vaccine choices.

During the past few years, there have been calls for elimination or severe restrictions of vaccine exemptions by doctors with ties to the vaccine industry and by government health officials seeking a 100 percent vaccination rate with all government recommended and mandated vaccines. NVIC has long taken a public stand for the basic human right to protect bodily integrity and the October conference provides a public forum not only for those, who want the freedom to make voluntary choices about using pharmaceutical products and medical interventions that carry known and unknown risks, but also for scientists, doctors, journalists and health safety advocates to present information and defend their right and responsibility to investigate and speak about improving vaccine science and policies to protect individual and public health.

The conference is supported by an educational grant from the Albert and Claire Dwoskin Family Foundation, which has made it possible for NVIC to keep the registration fee for those registering by August 30 at $195 for the three day, three night conference featuring top speakers from around the world. There is a low $95 per night hotel rate, which is unheard of in the Washington, D.C. area for a fine hotel like the Hyatt Regency. Meeting and hotel room space is limited in the only hotel in the village of Reston. Conference registration and hotel room reservation is on a first come, first serve basis. For more information about speakers, sponsorship opportunities and registration, go to www.NVIC.org

Politics, Profits & Pandemic Fear Mongering

by Barbara Loe Fisher

Are you grabbing your face mask, stocking up on food and Tamiflu, locking your doors and keeping your TV tuned to the news to find out just how bad the "swine flu pandemic" really is going to get? While Americans are being scared to death, few are noticing how much of their tax money politicians are giving to drug companies and government health officials to grease the skids to create more experimental flu vaccines and drugs and more effective ways to quarantine or force their mass use whenever a "public health emergency" is declared in the future.

Call me cynical but not clueless. The bird's eye view I have had for the past 27 years at the National Vaccine Information Center has taught me one thing: the global alliance between Big Pharma and Big Public Health is a prescription for disaster that could extend far beyond a bout with the flu.

The international drama playing out right now before our eyes is an example of how citizens around the world can be easily manipulated by doctors and politicians engaging in fear mongering in the name of disease control to forward agendas that have more to do with ideology, power and corporate profits than health. When the U.S. Director of Homeland Security is the government official doing the talking rather than the U.S. Director of the Centers for Disease Control, put a copy of the U.S. Constitution in your pocket and take a look at federal and state legislation passed since September 11, 2001 to understand which civil rights you don't have anymore when government health officials declare a "public health emergency."

But before we take a look at the threat to civil liberties that pandemic fear mongering poses, let's take a look at how creation of a global human market for influenza vaccines works. It is a blueprint for Successful Marketing 101 (or perhaps it is all just a coincidence).

In 2006, the World Health Organization (WHO) issued an international call for all nations to do whatever it takes to increase public appetite and demand for annual influenza shots as the main strategy to prepare for an influenza pandemic. In April 2007, the WHO used money donated by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) to fund the creation of influenza vaccine manufacturing plants in Mexico and other countries one week after the FDA gave Sanofi Pasteur a license to produce an experimental bird flu (H5N1) vaccine. Sanofi Pasteur is just one of many drug companies the U.S. government has given millions of dollars to for the creation of bird flu vaccines.

On February 19, 2009, the FDA's Vaccines & Related Biological Products Advisory Committee (VRBPAC) discussed whether to give approval for the testing of experimental bird flu vaccine on American infants. VRBPAC consumer member, also NVIC's Director of Patient Safety Vicky Debold,PhD, warned that testing of an experimental pandemic bird flu vaccine on infants in the absence of a real epidemic and without assurances that unapproved novel oil based (squalene) adjuvants (AS03, MF59) are safe, could pose unacceptable risks in terms of inducing severe immune dysfunction.

On February 27, 2009 it was confirmed that an influenza vaccine maker, Baxter International, had released a mixture of seasonal influenza viruses mixed with unlabeled live bird flu viruses to facilities in Czechoslovakia, Germany, and Slovenia. Baxter, which is waiting for a license to manufacturer bird flu vaccine, explained it was an "accident" and that no harm was done.

On April 23, 2009, the world heard the first news reports about a mysterious pig (H1N1) and bird (H5N1)and human hybrid influenza virus that was making people sick near a Mexican pig farm. By April 30, the WHO had issued a Phase 5 "Alert" warning that the world was facing an imminent pandemic influenza epidemic on the strength of several hundred cases of "swine" flu and less than 10 confirmed deaths.

The pandemic flu panic that has an especially strong grip on people living in Mexico and the U.S., thanks to the governments of both countries declaring a "public health emergency," has been a good thing for pharmaceutical companies in the pandemic flu business. Wall Street revealed that the pandemic scare sent stock prices soaring for drug companies making anti-viral drugs, rapid flu diagnosis tests and influenza vaccines. Sanofi Pasteur, GlaxoSmithKline, Novavax, Baxter, Johnson & Johnson, Roche, BioCryst, and Vical are among the drug companies likely to benefit from the world pandemic panic.

In all the chaos that has Americans running to drug stores to buy face masks, closing schools to wipe desks down with rubbing alcohol and avoiding public transportation, there is action being taken behind the scenes by politicians and government health officials to prepare the way for implementation of future quarantine and mass vaccination of citizens with experimental vaccines and drugs that have by- passed normal FDA regulations for demonstrating purity and potency of pharmaceutical products. A "public health emergency" has become an excuse to grease the skids and rush to market experimental drugs and vaccines that are not subject to product liability in the civil courts.

The creation of this pharmaceutical company stockholder dream scenario and simultaneous erosion of civil liberties in the name of disease control began in earnest in 21st century America after the tragic events on September 11, 2001. In a time defined by shock, fear, anger and deep sadness, Congress reacted quickly and passed the Homeland Security Act while CDC officials pulled out model state legislation (Model State Emergency Health Powers Act) that gave sweeping new powers to public health officials to use the militia, if necessary, to quarantine citizens and force them to use experimental drugs and vaccines after the U.S. Secretary of Health declares a "public health emergency."

The stampede in 2001/2002 to re-write long standing public health laws in this country was fueled by reports that terrorists were in possession of weaponized smallpox and anthrax, a fear that was fostered by U.S. government officials and New York Times journalists reporting Iraq had secret stockpiles of weaponized smallpox and anthrax. This myth played a role in public support for the U.S.-Iraq War and persuaded Congress to pass Bioshield and pandemic influenza vaccine legislation that gave billions of dollars to vaccine manufacturers, the Department of Defense (DOD) and the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) to create experimental bioeterrorism and pandemic flu vaccines while protecting drug companies and doctors from liability for vaccine injuries and deaths that will occur.

The mandated, mass use of multiple vaccines has become big business in the last quarter century since the U.S. Congress passed a law in 1986 shielding vaccine makers and doctors from liability for vaccine injuries and deaths and the numbers of vaccines recommended by the federal health officials for American children multiplied from 23 doses of 7 vaccines to 48 doses of 14 vaccines from birth to age six. For older children and adults, there are several dozen more federally recommended or state mandated vaccinations.

All of this liability protection and government vaccine mandating has been a boon for vaccine profit- making and public health agency empire building. In 1986, four drug companies made and sold vaccines in America and, by 2007, after corporate mergers and acquisitions there were six drug company giants making and selling vaccines in the U.S. Today, there are more drug companies seeking to enter the lucrative multi- billion dollar U.S. vaccine market as financial predictions for global profits from the worldwide vaccine business by 2010 have climbed to more than $20B.

A true global influenza pandemic that could take out projected millions of people is something all nations should prepare for using reasonable strategies to ensure the public health and safety. However, it is a matter of legitimate debate as to whether the primary strategy being urged by the WHO, pharmaceutical companies and government health agencies around the world - ramping up production and use of seasonal influenza vaccine and fast tracking the creation and human testing of influenza vaccines using novel but potentially risky adjuvants and cell substrates - is the way to effectively deal with public health or a future influenza pandemic.

Certainly, the loss of the human right to bodily integrity and informed consent to taking pharmaceutical drugs and vaccines that may pose serious health risks is not justified in the name of controlling pandemic influenza or any other infectious disease outbreak. Politicians should not bow to additional pressure from vaccine manufacturers and public health officials to by-pass normal FDA standards in proving safety and efficacy of pandemic flu vaccines and their components for the purpose of rushing them to market in response to the pandemic panic that has been created. The swine flu debacle of 1976 should have taught Congress that lesson.

A rational perspective that reduces pandemic fear and includes common sense advice for staying healthy in every season is being offered by holistic health doctors, such as Joseph Mercola, D.O. and physician Congressman Ron Paul, M.D. The next time you turn on the TV or the radio or search the internet for the latest news on the flu pandemic, take a deep breath and consider all the natural ways to stay healthy and resist influenza or any illness : washing your hands; eating nutritious food; drinking plenty of water; getting enough exercise, rest and sunshine, and lowering stress - which includes not walking around filled with fear, anxiety and dread.

Doctor-Heroes Standing For Better Vaccine Science

by Barbara Loe Fisher

The cry that was heard around the world in the early 1980's, when mothers and fathers realized an old, crude pertussis vaccine was killing and damaging the brains of their children, is being echoed today by new generations of parents struggling to raise vaccine injured children. As in the 1980's, mothers and fathers today are forced to watch doctors hold the needles, pull the trigger and then turn their faces away when children are cut down at the beginning of their lives.

Over the decades, we have seen a handful of doctors demonstrate intellectual honesty and rare courage by standing up publicly to acknowledge that vaccine injuries and deaths are real and that more scientific research is needed to fill the gaps in knowledge about why and how vaccines cause harm. Despite criticism and even threats from colleagues to remain silent, these doctor-heroes have chosen commitment to good science and respect for human life to take precedence over protection of the status quo.

On April 3, 2009 on CNN's "Larry King Live," the only woman to have served as director of the National Institute for Health, Bernadine Healy, M.D., firmly countered allegations that scientific research into the vaccine-autism connection should be ended because science has proven "vaccines do not cause autism." Politely disagreeing with Margaret Fisher, M.D., a pediatrician spokesperson for the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and pediatric neurologist Max Wiznitzer, M.D., who testified against compensation for vaccine injured autistic children in the U.S. Court of Claims, Healy said "I really don't believe that this is a closed case from a research point of view."

She said that doctors must "listen to the families of these [autistic] children" because when doctors "listen to the patients the patients will teach." She added that there is an "embarrassing recognition that we know so little about [autism] in terms of what causes it, in terms of how to treat it" and she called for a "comparison of children who have and have not been vaccinated."

As I watched Bernadine Healy, M.D., mother of three, former director of the Red Cross and member of the Institute of Medicine, eloquently argue for good science, common sense, compassion, and cooperation, I remembered the brave physicians in decades past who chose to speak out at critical moments in the history of the vaccine safety and informed consent movement. They include physicians no longer with us such as the late pediatrician Robert Mendelson, M.D.; pediatrician and immunologist Kevin Geraghty, M.D.; and pediatric neurologist John Menkes, M.D., and those still working to prevent vaccine injuries and deaths such as pediatric neurologist Marcel Kinsbourne, M.D., pediatrician Bob Sears, M.D., pediatrician Larry Palevsky, M.D., pediatrician Jay Gordon, M.D., family practice physician Joseph Mercola, D.O., gastroenterologist Andrew Wakefield, M.D., and others like pediatrician Jerry Kartzinel, M.D., who appeared on Friday's Larry King Live show with father and actor Jim Carrey; mother, actress and autism activist Jenny McCarthy; and father and Generation Rescue founder JB Handley, to shine a bright light on vaccine associated regressive autism.

In every generation there are heroes in positions of power, who listen to their conscience and demonstrate uncommon courage by refusing to look the other way while people are being harmed. They are different from the rest because they engage in critical, independent thinking and are not afraid to do the right thing.

On Friday night, Dr. Bernadine Healy single handedly re-instilled faith in many parents that the time honored Hippocratic oath for physicians to "First, Do No Harm" is still alive and embraced by compassionate, enlightened doctors like her. Undoubtedly, there are more doctors wanting to do the right thing when it comes to standing up, speaking out and taking action to prevent vaccine injuries and deaths. When they do, they will join the distinguished ranks of physician heroes who will be remembered and honored for caring about children for whom the risks of vaccination are 100 percent.

Go to http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPT S/0904/03/lkl.01.html to read the CNN transcript of the April 3 "Larry King Live" show, which includes the following quotes:

"I made a deal with God, the day Evan was diagnosed with autism, I said if you show me the way, God, and show me how to heal my boy, I will continue to teach the world how I did it. And within one year of that kind of conversation with God, Evan was undiagnosed with autism.....autism is treatable and preventable." - Jenny McCarthy

"The AAP is financed by the drug companies.... This is a huge business. Vaccines are the largest growing division of the pharmaceutical industry: $13 billion. What we're asking is for them to take a loss for the good of our children." - Jim Carrey

"The American Academy of Pediatrics listens very closely before a vaccine is recommended for use. It goes through extensive trials. It goes through extensive information. All of that information is reviewed very quickly. It's both efficacy and safety information. There's never a rubber stamp. We work very closely before, while the vaccine is being tested to see if it works, it is safe? And only if it's been determined to be safe and effective is it recommended for use. It's not a rubber stamp." - Margaret Fisher, M.D.

"When I was training in medical school I saw one child with autism and they said, Dr. Kartzinel, now, come look quick, here's a child with autism and you'll never see it again....it was very rare....I was just doing general pediatrics and after my son regressed after the mumps, measles and rubella and my wife said, you broke them now you fix them, that's when I started saying, OK, what can I do?" - Jerry Kartzinel, M.D.

"It's going to be shocking for parents to learn that the CDC and AAP don't actually acknowledge that there's been a real rise in autism cases....the Department of Education in 1992 said 16,000 kids were getting autism services. Today - 225,000. That means in 1992 they were missing 93 percent of kids with autism. Where are all the adults with autism? They don't exist. These numbers are real. But if you never acknowledge there's been a real rise, you don't have to find an environmental agent that caused it." - JB Handley

"Initially the complaint was Mercury. That was disproven. Then the complaint was MMR. That was disproven. Now we've got a new moving target, which is that the combined vaccines all together that do this. We can only spend our research money so far before we basically say, let's put it where we know for sure we can help, and not just on speculative ideas. Studies have been done .... and they've shown that issues such as diagnostic substitution, which means they had previous diagnosis, that we have loosening of the diagnostic criteria.... When you change the rules of how you make diagnosis, and that to some degree has happened, people are loosening up. Kids with social issues are being labeled as autistic. The majority -- I think we can account for at least 80 percent of the increased prevalence with those numbers." - Max Wiznitzer, M.D.

Vaccine Bullies & Fighting Back

By Barbara Loe Fisher

During the past decade, families in the United Kingdom, Canada and America have witnessed the demonization of brave doctors and parents of vaccine injured children. It has been both sickening and frightening to watch physicians and some journalists engage in a relentless persecution of Dr. Andrew Wakefield, who first published research in 1998 examining the potential association between MMR vaccine and autism. It has become obvious that their goal is to turn him into a horrible warning to any physician who dares to investigate vaccine injury, especially regressive autism. Not satisfied with trying to destroy the doctor, who refuses to recant and defends pursuit of scientific truth, forced vaccination proponents are now acting to kill not only freedom of thought and scientific inquiry but also freedom of speech and informed consent to voluntary use of vaccines.

Exactly what was the sin that British gastroenterologist, Andrew Wakefield, M.D. committed in 1998 that made him a target for persecution? He dared to hypothesize that a subset of children may be vulnerable, for immunological reasons, to developing vaccine strain measles virus infection triggered by MMR vaccination that causes acute and chronic inflammation in the body and can lead to persistent health problems, including a form of inflammatory bowel disease and brain dysfunction manifested by autism. It is hardly a radical hypothesis. Since smallpox vaccine, evidence that vaccines can cause acute and chronic immune-mediated inflammation in the brain and other parts of the body has been well documented in the medical literature (A literature review of evidence is featured in the 2008 book "Vaccines, Autism & Chronic Inflammation: The New Epidemic.")

What has so infuriated the vaccine establishment is that the live vaccine strain viral infection mechanism not only has strong biological plausibility but has been acknowledged by physicians and scientists for decades, particularly with regard to live vaccine strain paralytic polio and death from persistent vaccine strain measles infection. In fact, vaccine strain viral infection has been associated with not only live virus polio and measles vaccine, but also with live BCG, chicken pox and, now, rotavirus vaccine. A late-breaking report at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology discusses the development of live vaccine strain rotavirus infection following rotavirus vaccination in children with immune deficiencies. The human-bovine genetic hybrid vaccine, Rotateq, for which Paul Offit, M.D.is a co-patent holder, caused diarrhea, acidosis, failure to thrive, dehydration and shock in two babies with undiagnosed immune system dysfunction within two months of vaccination. Molecular analysis of rotavirus isolates taken from the babies indicated that the rotavirus vaccine strains mutated.

All of the biological mechanisms involved in vaccine induced neuroimmune dysfunction and the biological high risk factors for suffering vaccine injury and death have not been scientifically investigated, and few methodologically sound vaccine risk studies get funded and published in the medical literature, which makes the attempt by doctors and scientists to block the search for scientific truth and limit the public's right to know and act even more repulsive. On February 26, 2009, bully boy Dr. David Salisbury, the Director of Immunization at the UK Department of Health, threatened The One Click Group, a UK internet based news service founded by Jane Bryant, that he would sue them for publishing facts about MMR vaccine risks unless One Click removes the information he wants censored and apologizes for publishing it without his permission.

On March 7, a British newspaper reported that no longer would duly elected legislators have ultimate responsibility for saying "yes" or "no" to new vaccine mandates but that the power to force vaccine use in Britain would be wielded by unelected physicians and scientists, who are members of the government's Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI). A day later, another British newspaper reported that many members of the JCVI have financial ties to vaccine manufacturers, including Merck, GlaxoSmithKline, Sanofi Pasteur and Novartis and that the JVCI has been involved in past attempts to hide evidence that MMR vaccine can cause brain inflammation and permanent brain damage.

On March 12, a reporter writing for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation called for a "legalized type of censorship," a ban on talking about the "vaccine/autism hypothesis" because he pronounced it "the modern equivalent of falsely crying 'fire' in a crowded theatre." Pointing to opinions issued by three individuals working for the U.S. Court of Claims denying federal compensation to MMR vaccine injured autistic children as if he was referring to the tablet Moses inscribed with the Ten Commandments, bully boy Stephen Strauss demanded that legislatures "draft a law or courts should hand down a ruling prohibiting anti-vaccine promoters from claiming that vaccines cause autism."

This rabid foaming at the mouth, which is being exhibited by physicians and journalists promoting forced vaccination, would be comical if it wasn't for the decidedly Stalinist bent to their rants. Bully boys always choose to use fear and intimidation to try to control the thoughts and actions of others and those calling for censorship and punishment for exercising freedom of thought, expression and informed consent to vaccination are no exception.

But educated citizens committed to defending their right to know and freedom to decide, are acting to protect themselves. Following is listing of events in New Jersey and New York which promote vaccine education and freedom to choose:

Merck Write-In Campaign: Sponsored by the New Jersey Coalition for Vaccination Choice (NJCVC ), an Action Alert that was also published by Age of Autism, urges vaccine maker Merck to continue to market the individual measles, mumps and rubella vaccines rather than forcing parents to give their children the combination MMR vaccine. Write-In Campaign coordinator Louise Habakus says "Let's send a strong message from parents that Merck must resume manufacturing the monovalent vaccines." Click here for more information and a sample letter.

NY Vaccine Mandates & Exemption Action: New York has pending legislation to mandate HPV vaccine (A778) and Hepatitis A vaccine (A6008) as well as legislation protecting medical exemptions (A880/S2339); religious exemptions (A883/S2338); and adding philosophical exemption (A4886/S2337) to vaccine laws. Parents are organizing vaccine education campaigns for legislators and the public. Contact New Yorkers for Vaccination Information Choice (NYVIC)

Learn how important it is to fight for the right to exercise vaccine exemptions by watching an arrogant New York state attorney grill NY Mom Rita Palma about her religious beliefs concerning vaccination. For more information go to www.MyKidsM yChoice.com

March 24: In Albany, NY, the Autism Action Coalition (AAC) holds the First Autism Advocacy Day that will include a 10:30 a.m. rally and Noon meeting with state legislators to advocate for autism support services and the need for a philosophical exemption to vaccination. Click here for more information about the rally and day's events.

March 25: In New York City at 6:30 p.m., pediatrician Lawrence B. Palevsky, M.D. gives a three hour presentation on the safety and efficacy of vaccines. For more information and tickets, go to www.drpalevsky.com

Americans cannot sit back and assume that we will always be free to make choices about use of pharmaceutical products, including vaccines, that physicians and government officials invoking the "greater good" direct us to use. Censorship in science and on the internet combined with forced medical risk taking is a prescription for tyranny and will become a reality if we don't become activist citizens and stop the bully boys from taking away our right to know and freedom to choose. For more information, go to www.NVIC.org.

Talking Vaccine Science with Government: Why Do It?

by Barbara Loe Fisher

After the historic election in November that saw Barack Obama elected President, I wondered what he and his Administration would do about addressing the question that is on the minds of many parents: Why are so many vaccinated children today chronically ill, suffering with learning disabilities, ADD/ADHD, autism, asthma, diabetes and other brain and immune system problems? Would the Obama Administration acknowledge the importance of looking at whether national vaccine policies are having an unintended negative effect on a growing number of children and adopt a robust vaccine safety research agenda to answer outstanding questions?

Part of the answer came one day after the President took office, on January 21, when he sent a memo to the heads of all federal agencies and told them "My Administration is committed to creating an unprecedented level of openness in Government. We will work together to ensure the public trust and establish a system of transparency, public participation and collaboration."

The door is opening and there is a lot of work to be done. Concerned citizens getting involved will keep the participatory democracy process and work products truly transparent, collaborative and meaningful.

This Monday, March 16, there will be an open meeting in Washington, D.C. sponsored by the CDC to get input from the public about the kinds of scientific studies that should be included in the national vaccine safety research agenda.

At stake is a proposal by a vaccine stakeholder Writing Group that met in Salt Lake City last month to look at whether a study comparing the health of vaccinated and unvaccinated children should be included that evaluates whether there are pathological differences in brain and immune system development and function and whether there are biological high risk factors that place some children at higher risk than others for suffering vaccine reactions.

If you want to weigh in, this is an opportunity to make your voice heard either by showing up at the meeting, participating online or by conference call.

Who: National Vaccine Advisory Committee

Where: Department of Health and Human Services; Hubert H. Humphrey Building, Room 800; 200 Independence Avenue, S.W., Washington, D.C. 20201

Why: To talk about the draft vaccine research agenda of CDC's Immunization Safety Office (ISO). Draft documents prepared by the vaccine stakeholder Writing Group that identify potential gaps in the ISO draft research agenda and proposes prioritization criteria for the agenda will be reviewed. These documents are available at: http://www.hhs.gov/nvpo/nvac/PublicEngageme nt.html and include Writing Group Draft Statements on (1) Outcomes; (2) Gaps in the Research Agenda; and (3) Criteria for Assessing ISO Research Topic Priorities. Participants at the March 16 meeting will be asked to comment on potential gaps in the draft agenda and options for developing research priorities.

How to Attend: The meeting will be webcast and audio conferencing is available. Contact Kirsten Vannice (kirsten.vannice@hhs.gov if you want to come to the meeting or be hooked up by computer or phone. Draft agenda, call-in numbers, a link to the webcast and additional materials will be provided to registered participants and posted on the NVPO website in advance of the meeting.

Importance of Meeting: The government's scientific research agenda to investigate vaccine associated brain and immune system dysfunction among children is of great interest to a growing number of Americans living in every state who have children with learning disabilities, ADD/ADHD, autism, asthma, diabetes and other kinds of chronic illness.

The CDC held public engagement meetings in Birmingham, Ashland and Indianapolis in the past few months to ask citizens about their vaccine safety concerns. A vaccine stakeholder meeting in Salt Lake City Feb. 20-21 was also held, coordinated and facilitated by The Keystone Center, to create a suggested framework for setting national vaccine safety research priorities.

There are individuals, special interest groups and corporations opposed to a robust scientific research agenda addressing vaccine safety concerns that involve input from and participation by the public. Those who support both the participatory democracy approach to government policymaking, which is defined by government transparency and collaboration with the people, should consider attending in person, online or on the telephone to voice their concerns.

One way Americans can change government and government policies is by becoming activist citizens advocating for constructive change. President Obama's call for transparency, accountability and public engagement is an opportunity to stand up and make a difference by helping to reform government policy, such as vaccine policy, which affects the health of our children and grandchildren.

The power does belong to the people if the people will stand up and exercise it wisely.