COMMENTARY
Voices for Hiding Vaccine Risks: Follow the $$
By Barbara Loe Fisher
www.vaccineawakening.blogspot.com
When it comes to hiding vaccine risks from the people, all you have to do
is "follow the money" to find out who has always done it the best. There are a
number of influential non-profit organizations such as the American Academy of
Pediatrics (AAP), Every Child by Two, and Immunization Action Coalition (IAC)
that have been funded by drug companies selling vaccines and/or have been paid
by federal agencies using taxpayer dollars to push vaccine use.
On July 25, CBS News reported on some
of the financial ties between vaccine manufacturers and non-profit organizations
or individuals (i.e., rotavirus vaccine patent holder Paul Offit, M.D.) who are
aggressively promoting vaccination and refusing to acknowledge vaccine risks.
The report infuriated a new "non-profit" organization, Voices for Vaccines, that
demanded CBS News retract its story and "apologize" for informing the public
about the money connection between the pharmaceutical industry and individuals
and organizations urging people to buy and use vaccines. On August 1, CBS News
issued a statement defending the public's right to know:
"Our report last Friday represents one part of the extensive reporting CBS
News has done, and will continue to do, on the issues surrounding vaccines and
possible links to autism. That continuing coverage has repeatedly reported on
the critical importance of the nation's maintaining a robust vaccination program
for children. Reporting on what critics, including members of Congress, believe
to be potential conflicts of interest for vaccine advocates who receive funding
from vaccine makers is also an entirely legitimate aspect of our overall
coverage. We believe our report was in no way defamatory of any institution or
individual, and that no retraction is warranted."
While parents are doing their own research so they can make educated
vaccine choices for their children that minimize vaccine risks, celebrities
questioning vaccine safety such as Jenny McCarthy are being challenged by
celebrities defending vaccine safety such as Amanda Peet, Yesterday, Peet became
the celebrity spokesperson for Every Child by Two.
When you connect the dots in a "Follow the Vaccine Money" exercise, you
don't have to look very far to see who is paying who to promote unquestioning
faith in the safety of vaccines and one- size-fits-all vaccine policies. It
takes a lot of money for the drug companies and their allies to persuade parents
that it is necessary to pump 69 doses of 16 vaccines into children from birth to
age 18 to keep them healthy.
Here are some of the major players:
• The Carter Center, founded in 1984 by Jimmy and Rosalyn Carter is
affiliated with Emory University and sponsors vaccination programs funded by
drug companies and operated by former employees of the CDC. (Rosalyn Carter co-
founded Every Child by Two with Betty Bumpers in 1991 with funding from vaccine
manufacturers.) Several vaccine manufacturers have donated more than $1 million
to the Carter Center.
• The International Task Force for Disease Eradication is sponsored by the
Carter Center and operates programs that are funded by vaccine manufacturers
(see "Health Program Partners"at ) and directed by present and former CDC
officials for the purpose of eradicating infectious diseases including polio,
mumps and rubella through mass vaccination programs.
• The Carter Center is a partner with the Task Force for Child Survival
and Development, which sponsors programs funded by vaccine manufacturers and
directed by former CDC officials such as William Foege, M.D., M.P.H. and Alan
Hinman, M.D., M.P.H.
• The Task Force for Child Survival and Development is sponsoring Voices
for Vaccines, which has a Steering Committee composed of individuals employed by
an affiliate of the Carter Center or Every Child by Two and non-profit
organizations, many of whom receive funding from vaccine manufacturers such as
the American Academy of Family Physicians and Immunization Action Coalition and
P-Kids and Families Fighting Flu.
These are only some of the major players keeping the Vaccine Machine up
and running smoothly in the U.S. It is a machine powered by a national and
international web of individuals working for and with major pharmaceutical
corporations, government health agencies, non-profit medical organizations,
world banks, the World Health Organization and wealthy philanthropic foundations
such as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to make sure that people in every
country continue to purchase and use many vaccines without thinking about it.
The public health program that began with a mandate to eradicate smallpox
from the earth using smallpox vaccine has turned into a lucrative ATM for the
drug companies. It provides a kind of money laundering scheme for "non-profits"
who pretend to be free from conflicts of interest with an industry whose
products they are hawking. It has also become a money pit for the American
taxpayer feeding the insatiable Vaccine Machine creating hundreds of new
vaccines being tested in more than 2,000 clinical trials that will no doubt be
candidates for future vaccine mandates.
Amanda Peet, who is being coached by doctors to tell parents to "trust the
doctors," has learned her lines well but neither she nor Jenny McCarthy will
ultimately decide the fate of the vaccine safety and informed consent movement
begun by parents of vaccine injured children in 1982. Because what is at stake
is not the outcome of a Hollywood celebrity face- off but the ability of the
American people to free themselves from the tyranny of the "medical experts" who
have betrayed the public trust by failing to do their job. (See article Peet
Heads "Campaign Urging Vaccinations For Kids", below under PUBLIC HEALTH.- ed.)
For nearly three decades, before and after passage of the National
Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of 1986, parents have been calling on doctors in
charge of the mass vaccination system to find out how and why vaccines injure
and kill some children. We have been asking doctors to give us a good
explanation for why so many of our highly vaccinated children are so chronically
ill with 1 in 6 becoming learning disabled; 1 in 9 suffering with asthma and 1
in 150 developing autism. And the only explanation we get or action we have seen
is doctors and government health agencies sticking their heads in the sand and
twisting themselves into pretzels yelling "it's a coincidence" every time a
child regresses into chronic poor health after vaccination.
The last thing we need to do is return to the dark ages when we allowed
ourselves to be treated like the infants whose lives we entrusted without
question to paternalistic pediatricians patting us on the head. You don't have
to have an M.D. or Ph.D. written after your name to become an informed health
care consumer and weigh the benefits and risks of vaccination in order to make
an intelligent, well considered vaccine decision for your child or yourself.
Unquestioning faith belongs in a church and not in a doctor's office.