This was of course, unprecedented.  We're all used to reporters allowing CDC officials to have last word when it comes to vaccine safety, yet here was someone calling the actions of the agency into question.  Swann suggested that there isn't transparency when it comes to vaccine safety, something that many people might never have considered, and he was correct when he said we wouldn't see this kind of coverage anywhere else.  No one is allowed to question any aspects of vaccines.  Vaccination is truly the sacred cow of medicine.  Somehow, despite how absurd it sounds, we're all supposed to blindly accept that a one-size-fits-every-child vaccination schedule is really safe. 

Robert Kennedy, Jr. also wrote about Swann's reporting.  In CBS Reporter Ben Swann Tells the Truth About CDC Vaccine Cover-Up  on Nov 1, 2015, Kennedy called Swann "courageous" for telling the truth about what happened at the CDC.  Kennedy expanded on what was done by Thompson and his co-authors. 

Many in the autism community dare to hope that maybe, as more and more people are willing to talk about what's been done by officials, we'll honestly address what's happened to a generation of children under the guise of preventing disease.   

It's worth noting that this is not the first time Ben Swann has reported on this controversy.

On Dec 3, 2013, in Truth In Media: Vaccine Court and Autism, Swann interviewed Mark Blaxill.

Ben Swann Truth in Media takes a look at Vaccine Court established by Congress in 1985 and what that court has meant for families of vaccine injured children. Plus, has HHS secretly awarded families of autistic children damages while publicly stating there is no connection between autism and vaccines.

Ben Swann: "The claims that autism is caused by vaccines have been completely disproven, right?  We've all heard that claim. . . 

"What if I told you that while HHS says that there is no link between autism and vaccination, the federal government has quietly awarded families of autistic children damages as a result of vaccine injuries?

"The story we're talking about today is something that just doesn't get attention from mainstream media, and on the rare occasion when it does, the story is predictable:

"Scandal surrounding a doctor who claims autism and vaccines are linked.

"The bizarre parents who believe their child has autism because of a vaccine--a claim clearly not based in science.   

"But is there more to the story than what the media has told you?

“The real story behind vaccines begins in 1986.  That’s because it was in ’86 when the U.S. Congress created that National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act.  That alone is worthy of a story because what most Americans don’t know is that a family that has a child injured by a vaccine cannot simply sue the vaccine maker.”

Swann explained the creation of the Vaccine Court established to handle cases of vaccine injury.

He continued, “So what’s the problem?  In 1986 when the VICP was first created, vaccine makers were protected from lawsuits by the public.  . . . It requires the petitioners to bring their petition solely against HHS.  They may not sue manufacturers or health care providers.  . . .

“The 1986 law also permits the vaccine makers the right to not disclose known risks to parents or guardians of those being vaccinated based on something called the ‘learned intermediary doctrine.’  Manufacturers bear no liability for giving or failing to give accurate or complete information to those vaccinated.  

“In exchange for being subjected to the Vaccine Court, families of those injured would be compensated through an administrative process based on a table of presumptive vaccine injuries.  

“At its outset, ninety percent of claims were on table.  But almost thirty years later, things are very different today. . . .   Swann described how the number of vaccines has tripled while the list of acceptable injuries has been reduced."  

Next Swann interviewed Canary Party member, Mark Blaxill, the father of an autistic child.  

Blaxill: “The Canary Party is a social movement that’s created to stand up for the victims of medical injury, environmental toxins, industrial foods—the things that are causing these new health crises and epidemics that we’re seeing.”

Blaxill explained the liability shield that has been given to the pharmaceutical industry when it comes to vaccine injury.  

Swann described how the 5,000 cases of vaccine injury involving autism were reduced to several test cases that were rejected by the NVICP.  

Swann’s next disclosure was that despite the government’s official ruling denying any link, “there have been 83 cases of autism among those compensated for vaccine induced brain damage” by the government.

Blaxill summarized the goals of the Canary Party:

“We’re asking for justice, because you have many, many injured children whose families are struggling and they deserve support.

“We’re asking for awareness of this crisis in our health system.  We have the worse outcomes in the entire industrialized world here in America. We have the highest cost health care system, the most interventionist health care system in terms of medication and vaccination.  We have a dramatic dysfunction, so we need awareness of that—that we have a problem.  We need to shine a light on that.

“And then we need change. We need a fundamental renovation of our way of dealing with parental choice, with the rights of consumers, authority in the health care system—Who gets to choose?

“And then we need to find ways to treat and heal all the injured children and now adults who are suffering from this system.”

Swann cited the usual claim from health officials that all the autism out there is just better diagnosing of a condition that’s always been around and not related to dramatic increase in the number of vaccines in the schedule. Then he added, “Families point to dozens of studies that do find a link between vaccines and autism that public health authorities do not share with the public. . . . “

Finally someone who admits that there is science on our side and the government has concealed this information. 

(Actually it was hard to continue listening after Swann announced that vaccine makers don't have to tell the public what the risks are associated with vaccination.  Just how rigged is this system?)

There definitely is a ray of hope here in this coverage.  Now health officials need to be forced to respond.

We need congressional hearing.  Now.

More coverage:

Sept 8, 2014, Age of Autism,  Ben Swann Update: Congressman’s Office In Possession of 100,000 CDC Whistleblower Documents? 

Truth in Media stories:

Aug 12, 2015, Congressman Bill Posey Calls For Investigation Of CDC Whistleblower’s Claims

Sept 2, 2014, CDC Whistleblower Admits Suppressing Information Regarding Vaccines and Autism

 
Anne Dachel is Media Editor for Age of Autism and author of  The Big Autism Cover-Up: How and Why the Media Is Lying to the American Public, which is on sale now from Skyhorse Publishing.