IMMUNIZATION ACTION COALITION SENDS PRESS RELEASE TO COUNTER RALLY
The folks at the Immunization Action Coalition have sent out an alert (pulled up the drawbridge) trying to diffuse the effect of the Jenny McCarthy GREEN OUR VACCINES rally on June 4th. (You can send Ms. Deborah Wexler of IAC an email, her address is at the end of this post. Be polite!)
Here's the opening paragraph from a letter they just sent out:
This summer will bring renewed efforts by anti-vaccine protestors to bring media and political attention to their cause. As a way of defusing the impact of their rallies and press releases, Voices For Vaccines, a newly formed immunization advocacy organization, is coordinating an Open Letter to Congress, to be distributed to every member of Congress before the first of these anti-vaccine rallies, stating the support of a wide range of professional societies, public health organizations, and immunization coalitions for immunization in general and concern for the potential impact of anti-vaccine activism on public health.
Before you read their full, heartfelt letter, take a moment to recall what Dr. Bernadine Healy, former head of NIH, has said about the government having turned a blind eye to the vaccine/autism problem in the name of protecting public health policy. In other words, the sum of the whole population is greater than each individual child when it comes to vaccines.
Dr. Bernadine Healy is the former head of the National Institutes of Health, and the most well-known medical voice yet to break with her colleagues on the vaccine-autism question. In an exclusive interview with CBS News, Healy said the question is still open. "I think that the public health officials have been too quick to dismiss the hypothesis as irrational," Healy said.
"But public health officials have been saying they know, they've been implying to the public there's enough evidence and they know it's not causal," Attkisson said. "I think you can't say that," Healy said. "You can't say that." Healy goes on to say public health officials have intentionally avoided researching whether subsets of children are “susceptible” to vaccine side effects - afraid the answer will scare the public. "You're saying that public health officials have turned their back on a viable area of research largely because they're afraid of what might be found?" Attkisson asked.
Healy said: "There is a completely expressed concern that they don't want to pursue a hypothesis because that hypothesis could be damaging to the public health community at large by scaring people. "First of all," Healy said, "I think the public’s smarter than that. The public values vaccines. But more importantly, I don’t think you should ever turn your back on any scientific hypothesis because you’re afraid of what it might show."
As an example, Healy points to the existing vaccine court claims.
CBS News has learned the government has paid more than 1,300 brain injury claims in vaccine court since 1988, but is not studying those cases or tracking how many of them resulted in autism.
The branch of the government that handles vaccine court told CBS News: “Some children who have been compensated for vaccine injuries…may ultimately end up with autism or autistic symptoms, but we do not track cases on this basis.”
"What we’re seeing in the bulk of the population: vaccines are safe," said Healy. "But there may be this susceptible group. The fact that there is concern, that you don’t want to know that susceptible group is a real disappointment to me. If you know that susceptible group, you can save those children. If you turn your back on the notion that there is a susceptible group… what can I say?"
Government officials would not respond directly to Healy’s views… but reiterated, vaccines are safe.
** TIME SENSITIVE ** ACTION NEEDED ** TIME
SENSITIVE ** ACTION NEEDED **
May 28, 2008
Dear Immunization Coalition Partners:
This summer will bring renewed efforts by anti-vaccine protestors to bring media and political attention to their cause. As a way of defusing the impact of their rallies and press releases, Voices For Vaccines, a newly formed immunization advocacy organization, is coordinating an Open Letter to Congress, to be distributed to every member of Congress before the first of these anti-vaccine rallies, stating the support of a wide range of professional societies, public health organizations, and immunization coalitions for immunization in general and concern for the potential impact of anti-vaccine activism on public health. The sign-on letter is attached as a PDF document&183;
Voices For Vaccines (VFV) has been formed to represent the enormous majority of individuals who acknowledge the scientific basis undergirding vaccination programs and want the public to better understand vaccines' safety and efficacy. VFV is beginning a membership campaign and aims to become a trusted source for media and policymakers seeking reliable information on vaccine issues. More information about our group is available at www.voicesforvaccines.org or see the second attachment to this message about VFV.
We invite your immunization coalition to sign onto the Open Letter to Congress. Because VFVplans to distribute this letter in advance of an anti-vaccine demonstration planned for June 4, please contact us with your assent no later than Sunday, June 1, 6pm ET.
If your immunization coalition wishes to sign onto the letter, contact Lisa Randall, JD,
Interim Executive Director, Voices For Vaccines, at [email protected]. You will need to include your organization's full name, and mailing address in order to be included.
We hope you'll join us in reminding our elected officials of the overwhelming scientific
consensus favoring sound vaccine policy.
Deborah L. Wexler, MD
Executive Director
Immunization Action Coalition
[email protected]
Voices For Vaccines Steering Committee Member
Lisa Randall is the best friend Eli Lilly ever bought!
Posted by: Timothy Ziegeweid | August 04, 2008 at 12:05 AM
For what it's worth, here is my letter:
Dear Ms. Randall & Dr. Wexler,
We are not anti-vaccine! We are for safer vaccines! Why can't you understand that? Or perhaps you do understand that but prefer to spread propaganda which is not related to reality?
We are for the following vaccine reforms:
- Study the cumulative effect of so many vaccines.
- Weigh the risks and benefits of all vaccines. For example, why are we giving the Hepatitis B vaccine to all newborns?
- Study the toxicity of ingredients such as aluminum. Dr. Robert Sears could not find any studies on the safety of injecting aluminum into babies. He did find that the level of aluminum in vaccines exceeds what is recommended for enteric feeding. The purpose of aluminum as an adjuvant is to provoke a response from the immune system. Especially when several vaccines containing aluminum are given at the same time, is this too much? Is the immune system over-provoked?
- Remove ALL mercury from vaccines, including the flu shot.
- Study health outcomes among vaccinated and unvaccinated children. Kids these days are suffering from higher rates of many immune system disorders including diabetes, asthma, severe allergies, autism, IBD, and ADD. Do we really know what we are doing when we give babies two dozen vaccines by the age of 2 and another dozen by the age of 5? Are we derailing the developing nervous system?
- Study vaccine reactions. Many, many credible parents report their toddlers received vaccines followed by high fever, shrieking all night, arching back, and seizures, followed by loss of language and regression into autism. The CDC knows that vaccines can cause febrile seizures. Is it so implausible that a more serious reaction has an impact on the brain and nervous system? The CDC and FDA and AAP should be very interested in studying these adverse events to better understand why they happen, how to prevent them, and how to treat them. Instead, parental accounts are summarily and cavalierly dismissed: "Don't confuse coincidence with causation! Parents don't understand science!"
These adverse events are not going to go away. The more vaccines added to the schedule, the more babies are affected.
These parents are not going to go away. Hell hath no fury like a parent who watched their child turn autistic after vaccines.
These kids are not going to go away. Many of them are growing up to be adults who cannot live independently, earn a living, cope with society.
These problems cannot be denied.
Our schools are paying a huge price.
Our families are paying a huge price.
The Social Security Administration will soon be paying a huge price.
There is no point in denial. It won't work. More and more people are affected, some of them powerful. Can we afford for 1% of our population to be autistic? The medical establishment and FDA and CDC need to look for solutions to these problems, not just keep trying to sweep them under the rug. It won't work.
Sincerely,
Twyla Ramos
mother
Posted by: Twyla | May 31, 2008 at 12:21 AM
Immunization Action Coalition is funded by 6 figure grants from the CDC. In addition, IAC receives grant money from vaccine manufacturers.
Taxpayer dollars are being used to try to defuse the impact of the Green Our Vaccines rally. How nice.
Posted by: Kevin Barry | May 30, 2008 at 09:24 PM
My letter to Lisa...
(Sorry, I was as nice as I could have been without telling her where to stick her vaccines!!!!)
Lisa,
How can you be a spokesperson for safe vaccines? You take money from PHARMAS and vaccine companies. Do you think the world is listening to you?
How about “Voices for those Vaccinated Who No Longer Have Voices”. Try as you might, the tide has come in, and you can no longer hold back the ocean. I hope you sleep well at night with all of your lies and corruption. I volunteer countless hours for the vaccine injured, and I raise money for them WITHOUT a single dime in pay. I sleep great!
You will not win, and you are slowly becoming outnumbered. My normally developing toddler quit talking the day he got the MMR. To you, he is collateral damage so your kids won’t get sick. I would gamble with ALL the diseases your vaccines protect against before I would ever watch my child suffer with autism for one day. HE is my inspiration for my work. Your inspiration is a BIG FAT PAYCHECK. I tell the truth. You take the money. As the incidence of this disorder rises, I pray that your children won’t suffer the effects of your poisonous promoted cocktails. Then, and only then, will you change your mind. Don’t say we never warned you. God forbid, at the rally, we would be trying to make something safer for ALL children. That includes yours!!!
“A Rescue Angel”
Posted by: Here's where you can stick your vaccines!!!!! | May 30, 2008 at 06:19 PM
Lets put it this way. Back 7 years ago I would have probably laughed at the parents that thought vaccines were the cause to their children's onset to Autism. If my child would not have become seriously ill and stopped speaking after his second set of vaccines then I too would have most likely been a part of the "voices for vaccines." I cannot wait till more and more parents change sides from "voices for vaccines" to "Green Our Vaccines" because it will never go the other way. All it takes is for it to happen to you. What are these parents going to do when their child or children go down hill from getting vaccinated? Are they still going to be chanting and fighting for something that caused your child to become seriously ill or worse? I just hope that those parents whose children become sick or worse are not too proud or embarrassed to switch sides.
Posted by: Elucidatus | May 30, 2008 at 04:39 PM
Translation
"Dear Senator/Congressperson,
I am writing on behalf of the vaccine coalition. If you want pharma to continue to support your re-election efforts, fund vacations disguised as meetings, fly you on corporate jets or pay for your staffers lunches you will not listen to these parents.
enc: tickets redeemable for access to Autism Speaks private jet, suites and/or accommodations at any NASCAR/NFL/NBL/PGA event. Photo ops courtesy of Thomas Glocer and Reuters"
Posted by: Keith | May 30, 2008 at 04:13 PM
Exactly how are we -Anti-Vaccine- when most of our kids were fully vaccinated! That's how they became Dammaged! DUH
We need to be labbled as -PISSED OFF PARENTS- wanting to say something about not being aware of what they were injecting into our babies!
Posted by: momtodavon | May 30, 2008 at 03:57 PM
"VFV is beginning a membership campaign and aims to become a trusted source for media and policymakers seeking reliable information on vaccine issues."
Note the choice of words - they want to become the source of *reliable* INFORMATION on vaccine issues. Even they don't seem to believe in the efficacy of vaccines anymore. The whole letter is about them being a reliable front for vaccine information FOR the folks who believe in vaccines.
Clever, clever. I wonder who wrote that letter, they need to be congratulated for it. Now here's someone who knows how to put out a message to fool everyone. Maybe Autism Speaks ought to learn a thing or two. They seem to be hiring the wrong people.
Posted by: Who wrote that? | May 30, 2008 at 03:54 PM
Promoting the vaccines to members of Congress at the same time 10,000 people are expected to rally in Washington to demand an overhaul of the mandated schedule seems like a last ditch effort to hold back the tide. It's somewhat like standing up for "separate but equal" in the face the 1963 Civil Rights March where Martin Luther King delivered his "I have a dream" speech at the Lincoln Memorial. We have a generation of children with autism and officials can't tell us why. A once rare disorder is so common that we all know affected children. It makes no sense to defend the state of denial when the evidence is mounting and well-credentialed doctors and scientists are joining the countless parents linking unsafe vaccines to autism. The VFV's letter to Congress will never have the impact that parents and their children coming to Washington will.
Anne Dachel
Media editor
Posted by: Anne Dachel | May 30, 2008 at 03:37 PM
How am I ANTI-VACCINE, vaccinating my kids according to a mandated schedule?
Waiving my right to informed consent and legal recourse(other than the very victim hostile VICP).
100% trusting that the CDC,FDA,IOM and NIH have galvinized safety standards.
Then as an American Citizen utilizing my rights to speak to my representatives in Washington DC when the entire system FAILED my kid and 1:150 others?
This letter is fascist and unAmerican.
The current "one size fits all" vaccination program has poisoned our kids with 100s of times over the EPA's allowable guideline of toxins.
Allowing *indemnified* Pharmaceutical companies to mesh with government agencies and set standards to profit from mandates, over the health and well being of our children!
As a vaccine compliant parent I will be attending the Rally.
As consumers we have a first amendment right to speak out about vaccine reform without bigoted stereotypical labels.
Were those who had fiery wrecks with Firestone tires anti-car, anti-tire?
Please explain how one who is anti-vaccine, vaccinates?
No rather, I am a very disgruntled consumer who thought the United States government protected and preserved our greatest national treasure-children.
Thank you - it will be nice to research the conflict of interests of the above signed, to add to the thick packet going to my legislators.
With a note: I vaccinated to schedule and my 4 children were poisoned with Mercury ,,, oh and I VOTE!
Posted by: KarenAtlanta | May 30, 2008 at 02:40 PM
There are so many families currently that have chosen to either post-pone, stagger, or not vaccinate at all and the numbers are rising. It is a decision these parents have already made for themselves so the study groups are already formed and fully consented. How difficult would it be to have pediatricians enter this data into a national databank and follow these kids for 3-5 years to see the prevalence of all these epidemic illnesses...esp ASDs. It would require pediatricians to be on board and some kind of a validation system on the part of the families that the data was being entered truthfully - a partnership between pediatricians and families (imagine that?!!) to finally put this debate to rest once and for all. Then again, they could have studied the current vaccinated vs un-vaccinated population. Perhaps Dr. Healy could lead the effort. OK, now its time to wake up from my dream.....
Posted by: Sonja | May 30, 2008 at 02:25 PM