Doctors Denying Vaccine Risks: Bullying CBS On Right To Vaccine Information Ad
Managing Editor's Note: Imagine if doctors fought to make sure the pharma drug ads did not have to share the side effects with you, the consumer. Imagine if pediatricians, who have a government mandate to inject dozens of vaccines in your child, fought against your knowing the side effects of those vaccines. Welcome to the AAP in 2011. Can you handle the truth?
By Barbara Loe Fisher
It is a short 15 second public service message on the CBS Jumbotron on Times Square in New York City that encourages everyone to make informed vaccine choices. The message is sponsored by the nonprofit charity, the National Vaccine Information Center, and made possible by a donation from Mercola.com. It has been shown hourly since March 22, 2011 alongside much bigger ads for a variety of products marketed by large corporations.
AAP Strong Arms CBS
On April 13, the President of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) sent a letter to CBS containing misinformation about NVIC in an attempt to strong arm the network into taking the vaccine education message down before it is scheduled to end on April 28.
The AAP letter was provided to bloggers, who orchestrated an online smear campaign against NVIC and created a petition drive to increase pressure on CBS. Mainstream media outlets like The Guardian in Great Britain republished the AAP’s attack and added more disinformation.
AAP: Follow the Money
The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) is a trade association with 60,000 pediatrician members that publishes guidelines for giving vaccines to children. In recent years, the public has learned that the AAP has been taking lots of money from vaccine manufacturers and refusing to disclose to the media just how much money it gets from Big Pharma.
In the early 1980’s, the AAP lobbied Congress to give pediatricians and drug companies liability protection from vaccine injury lawsuits while parents of DPT vaccine injured children worked hard to get vaccine safety and informed consent provisions in the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of 1986, which has already paid out more than 2 billion dollars in federal compensation to children and adults harmed by vaccines.
Today, when a pediatrician continues to vaccinate a child after the child has experienced vaccine reactions that get worse after each round of shots, that pediatrician is not held liable in a civil court of law when the child ends up brain damaged or dead because of the pediatrician’s negligence…..CLICK HERE to read the entire commentary with references, watch a video and read the letter that NVIC sent to the AAP.
CLICK HERE to read NVIC's press release.
In his Medscape interview Paul Offit takes a swipe at Lea Thompson's investigation of the DPT vaccine: http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/741343
But who is Lea Thompson really?
"Thompson’s stories on Dateline NBC brought about new warning labels on Infant Tylenol and new procedures at Sears to keep used batteries from being sold as new. Her work brought about legislation in California requiring all bedding and mattresses be flame retardant and all home health aides have background checks. West Virginia’s Attorney General forced two water filter companies out of business, North Carolina’s AG cracked down on a huge auto dealer chain, South Carolina’s AG says many Irish Travelers have been jailed – all as the result of Lea's Dateline stories. South Carolina’s legislature, after Thompson’s landmark investigation of the Irish Travelers, passed a law making it illegal for very young Travelers to marry older men. Some of the nation's largest grocery stores adopted new policies following Dateline's discovery of adulterated ground beef and a quack U.S. doctor has been thrown out of the Dominican Republic. Burger King launched a clean up campaign after Thompson’s Dateline story showed it to be the “dirtiest” fast food chain. As a result of Thompson’s Dateline stories, unsafe toys have been removed from shelves and her segments are being used as training films by the Secret Service, police departments, banks, home care agencies, auto dealers and the shellfish industry.
Lea Thompson is a journalist who makes a difference. Her work was the driving force behind three acts of Congress. Her Peabody Award-winning "Deadly Mistakes" was an investigation into doctors' office errors that cause unnecessary surgery and death. It helped bring about the Medical Laboratory Improvement Act of 1988. Her National Emmy winning investigation of children being harmed by the DPT vaccine not only helped bring about the passage of the Vaccine Compensation Act of 1987, but, Thompson is also widely credited for bringing about the use of a new DPT vaccine in this country. The Infant Formula Act of 1980 followed her testimony before Congress about her discovery that some children had been brain damaged by their baby formulas (Columbia duPont Award)...."
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3949442/ns/dateline_nbc/
It goes on. You can see why someone like Paul Offit wouldn't think much of someone like Lea Thompson.
Posted by: Carol | April 28, 2011 at 12:51 PM
"Dr. Offit: He's an interesting guy, Andrew Wakefield. What he did was he published a paper in 1998 in a general medical journal called The Lancet, which is a very well-respected journal. It was really a case report. It was a case series of 8 children who had recently received the combination measles, mumps, rubella vaccine or MMR vaccine. They all, according to the parents, had developed symptoms and signs of autism within a month of receiving that vaccine. He also believed that when he looked by endoscopy at their intestines that they had something called ileal lymphoid nodular hyperplasia, which is to say, a swelling of groups of lymphoid tissue like the Peyer's patch or mesenteric node.
He believed he had found something. He believed he identified an important syndrome. Get the MMR vaccine, develop intestinal symptoms, and then get autism. Now, that was wrong --
Dr. Adashi: Based on 8 cases.
Dr. Offit: Based on 8 cases. Obviously, to his credit, in the discussion section of that paper he actually said, I cannot say that this vaccine caused autism because this is not a controlled study; I haven't looked at large groups of children who did or didn't receive the vaccine. He did say that in the discussion section, but that was the last time he said it. I mean, the next day with the lights shining and the cameras rolling, he said exactly that -- that he feared the MMR vaccine caused autism.
Now what is interesting about Dr. Wakefield is a few things. One is that since that study or that case series was reported there have been many, many studies -- about 14 -- that looked at large groups of children who either did or didn't receive MMR to see whether the risk for autism was greater in the vaccinated group. Clearly, it wasn't -- again and again and again. What makes Dr. Wakefield interesting is that he simply holds onto this belief. It's like a religious belief, which is remarkable for a scientist, and that's why he can do so much damage. He's convincing because he's convinced. I've never seen anything like him."
http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/741343
Sounds like Paul Offit needs to debate Andrew Wakefield. How about it, Paul? Are you up to it?
Posted by: Carol | April 28, 2011 at 12:26 PM
The AAP has a long history of espousing logic that runs contrary to reality.
There are many examples, but one of the most revealing that I've ever seen came from Mike Wagnitz, a toxicologist who is well known in these parts
In response to the myth that there are volumes of data which show thimerosal is safe, just part of his response was ".. You can go to the medical search engine "Pubmed" and type in thimerosal. You will get references to 1087 published papers. Except for the papers published in pediatrics (.. a magazine owned by AAP), all the other papers focus on the extreme toxicity of thimerosal..."
I'm not one bit surprised that the AAP is willing to challenge this 15 second ad. Because the truth is slowly seeping through the cracks, and they fully realize that when it does, the spotlight of shame will be shining directly on them. And there will be nowhere to hide.
Posted by: Barry | April 28, 2011 at 07:09 AM
Dear AAP,
Do you believe "informed consent" means we have to have your consent to be informed?
Posted by: JenB | April 28, 2011 at 02:55 AM
If there was any doubt about what we are up against...When the AAP needs to challenge a fifteen second ad regarding making informed vaccine choices something is dreadfully wrong. What could possibly wrong in making informed choices? Frightening. Truly frightening.
Posted by: 4Bobby | April 27, 2011 at 03:37 PM
Bullying!! Am I over reacting or was Mr. MacNeil bullied in last nights closing episode into discounting vaccine as a major factor in the development of autism?
I read an old interview this morning where Dr.Herbert highlighted some of her beliefs . She is correct, we need to think of this in the 21rst century. We are not , we are clinging onto good ole boy medicine with all of the paternal clout. It's disgusting that we allow such nonsense when it determines the future of our children. We are bullied! Even with those that are outspoken, I often see such reluctance to mention good work or science if that science has been blacklisted by the "bullies".
http://www.medicalveritas.com/MarthaHerbert.pdf
Posted by: barbaraj | April 27, 2011 at 03:12 PM
CBS is doing at least one favor for the AAP. See Seth Mnookin's latest lies on the CBS News Website.
In his Tweet, he taunts Sharyl Attkisson. This is all a big game to him.
sethmnookin Seth Mnookin
Check out my "Childhood vaccine dangers: fact or fiction?" slideshow on @CBSNews http://ht.ly/4HiHQ cc @SharylAttkisson
He claims doctors make no money from vaccines by saying they don't earn a "bonus" from each one when of course, they do earn money from each vaccine, as well as the income from the additional "well baby visits." He also says there's no vaccine/autism link. (Hannah Poling does not exist?) He flatly states there is no mercury in childhood vaccines. (What about the flu shot? What about the trace levels of mercury that remain in the other shots?)
Please Contact CBS and explain why this list will greatly mislead parents about vaccines.
Click on "contact" at the bottom of the CBS page featuring Seth Mnookin's "10 myths" about vaccines.
Posted by: Tweet Tweet | April 27, 2011 at 01:12 PM
I went into the ped's office to talk about what I was going to do about my son's next DPT shot.
---This was after I had a daughter with Kawasaki's
----This was after the ped had found my son's boot shaped heart and a heart mummur after the first first DPT shot.
----This was after I told him that both my kids had very high temperatures.
He had his hand on the door knob when I asked if there was a way to divide the DPT shot up?
He lied and said no, they do not come in separate shots, and then after telling me off, calling me not a very smart person to endanger my son if I did not get that DPT shot today - and I refussed at that time - he left.
So Barbara is telling no lies here.
It is true;
"Today, when a pediatrician continues to vaccinate a child after the child has experienced vaccine reactions that get worse after each round of shots, that pediatrician is not held liable in a civil court of law when the child ends up brain damaged or dead because of the pediatrician’s negligence…"
I tried to tell a woman that was going to get a flu shot for her 14 year old that had Kawasakis as a child, and still has swollen blood vessels leading to the heart. She even at one time was suspicious that it was the vaccines, but since all the studies and science says that it is not she has decided it was not the vaccines. She told her duaghter's ped that if anything happens with this flu shot that she would sue the good doctor.
I told her that she could not do that, it was not allowed to sue.
That information passed right over her, she did not believe me.
Posted by: Benedetta | April 27, 2011 at 10:11 AM
Recently .. the AAP called for "an overhaul of the nation's chemical management policies because the current system fails to protect children and pregnant women, who are most vulnerable to hazardous chemical exposures."
One prominent pediatrician specifically listed the hazardous chemicals a child can be exposed to simply by "sucking on a rubber duck, playing on a chemically treated carpet or drinking from a plastic cup".
Unfortunately, this particular pediatrician did not mention the list of numerous "injected" chemical exposures children are routinely exposed to prior to the age of six.
In any event .. among the AAP strong recommendations are:
"The regulation of chemicals must be based on evidence, but decisions to ban chemicals should be based on reasonable levels of concern rather than demonstrated harm."
Would tens of thousands of families reporting their child's health deteriorated immediately following vaccinations be considered a "reasonable level of concern"?
Would parents be expressing a "reasonable concern" that vaccinating their newborn infant with the HEP B vaccine may not be in the best interest of their child's health? After all, the HEP B vaccine is known to contain the following chemicals:
"Amino acids, Aluminum Hydroxyphosphate Sulfate, Dextrose, Formaldehyde or Formalin, Mineral Salts, Sodium Borate, Soy Peptone, Yeast protein"?
Indeed, does the AAP believe chemicals in vaccines ought to be exempt from the stringent recommendations they would require of other "products"? If so .. why?
Posted by: Bob Moffitt | April 27, 2011 at 08:51 AM