If It's Sunday, It's Meet the Hush: Chuck Todd Warns Presidential Candidates Against Vaccine Topic
(From the "Did you ever think you'd miss Nancy Snyderman" files...._
By Anne Dachel
Today Show: Chuck Todd: Politicians should leave measles alone
February 3, 2016,
Matt Lauer talked to Chuck Todd, moderator of Meet the Press, about why vaccines are a political issue.
Todd: "It's a combination of a few things that have all come together. Number one, you have the issue of religious freedom... The second thing is the rise of social media. And you throw in the combination of the scare about ten years ago ...the thought that there might be a connection between vaccines and autism, and how that spread like wildfire in social media. ...This is the perfect storm of what happens when the credibility of politicians goes badly. You have the spread of misinformation so easily on the Internet. ..."
Lauer quoted the New York Times. 'The vaccination controversy is a twist on an old problem for the Republican Party: How to approach matters that have largely been settled among scientists but are not widely accepted among conservatives.'
Lauer: "There are pockets of affluent America where parents don't want their kids vaccinated."
Todd: "We've been politicizing science in the last decade. ...[Politicians] ought to stay out of this debate. ...If you're a political leader and you care about this issue, you ought to step back and push forward medical experts on this. Because at the end of the day, the more politicians weigh in, the more this ends up splitting along political lines, and that's going to solve nothing."
Lauer: "Good point. Thank you very much."
Chuck Todd is NBC's "chief political director" and moderator of "Meet the Press." On February 3, 2016, Todd was interview by Matt Lauer on the Today Show. The topic was vaccines as a political issue.
Todd, backed by Lauer, warned candidates not to discuss vaccines. They should leave this subject to the "medical experts." The science has been settled.
This brief two minute conversation is extremely frightening. Todd called for censorship. The debate that won't go away, would essentially be shut down. Why? Because we're not qualified to discuss it. It's clear that Todd (and Lauer) doesn't want to go where this controversy leads. As a journalist, he's failing us all. The reason the issue doesn't go away, no matter how many "conclusive studies" they came up with, is because the evidence of damage, corruption and cover-up is everywhere.
Chuck Todd needs to wake up and realize that VACCINES ARE A POLITICAL TOPIC.
State governments mandate these vaccines.
The federal government oversees the vaccine schedule.
The U.S. Congress indemnified both the vaccine makers and those who administer vaccines.
The U.S. Court of Federal Claims hears vaccine injury cases (because yes, vaccine injury is real).
The government has compensated over 80 cases of vaccine injury involving autism.
In 2008 we learned that medical experts at HHS compensated vaccine-induced autism in the case of Hannah Poling.
State governments, after strong lobbying from a pharma-backed interest group, ALEC, are pushing for an end to exemptions.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the agency that runs the vaccine program, has stood by unconcerned and clueless as the autism epidemic consumed more and more of our children.
The CDC has long been in bed with the pharmaceutical corporations. Hundreds of individuals at the CDC have conflict of interest waivers because of direct financial ties to the industry they regulate.
The CDC has ignored thousands of studies by well-credentialed experts from leading universities showing our one-size-fits-every-child vaccine schedule is not safe.
Two years ago, news of corruption and cover-up regarding a study that showed a link between the MMR vaccine and autism in African-American boys surfaced, yet nothing has been done.
The CDC literally has oversight over itself. They produce the studies, all connected to the vaccine industry, that are used to show vaccines are safe.
When is Chuck Todd going to get up to speed and know what's really going on?
What does Todd want politicians to do?
Should we let Dr. Paul Offit have the last word on vaccine safety? He's everywhere in the news, usually described as an infectious disease specialist at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. What we're not told is that Offit made millions by developing a vaccine for rota virus.
How bad do things have to get before newsmen like Todd take an interest? The U.S. autism rate is at 2 percent of children. The predictions are that things will get worse. Our children are the most vaccinated in the world and some of the sickest.
Does it bother Chuck Todd that we have an ever-expanding vaccine schedule that is mandated for school attendance, yet there are absolutely no tests to determine which children might be at risk for a vaccine reaction? Every parent is expected to line up their child for vaccine roulette, hoping that the barrage of vaccines at each well-baby visit won't do permanent damage.
Chuck Todd and Matt Lauer need to explain why they want politicians to shut up about vaccines. The only people who benefit from the rest of us NOT TALKING ABOUT VACCINES, are those making money off of them.
Where do Todd and Lauer stand? On the side of the best possible health care for our children---or the profit-making of the vaccine industry?
And if Todd and Lauer don't know about the things I've talked about, what good are they as journalists?
It is concerning that Chuck Todd has basically told politicians to leave this issue alone. Discussing this prior exchange between Matt and Chuck is very timely, especially after I noted that at the end of Meet the Press yesterday Chuck ends the show by quickly slipping in an advertisement for CVS saying CVS is still open if you forgot something. I wonder how much they got paid for that plug?
Posted by: Karen T | May 09, 2016 at 08:01 AM
No, the point is we the public no longer trust the so-called medical experts to be truthful and to act in our best interest, so we have no recourse but to appeal to those whose job it is to protect the public from corruption and medical tyranny. So of course vaccination is a political issue, who else can protect us now? Only at the top level, can these decisions come down with the necessary authority to make a difference. If the so called medical field were trustworthy, we wouldn't be in this position to begin with. So stop thinking you can push off the critical issues of public health to the same institutions that are the one's guilty of the causing these problems.
And also stop thinking you can wave off the ever-increasing number of the public who are questioning, researching, and analyzing the *all the related science and related perspectives* as some residual, hysterical, uneducated sector of the population that just didn't get the memo about some outdated 'conclusively-debunked' scare that 'social media keeps erroneously perpetuating'. We are way ahead of ya, and are operating from the latest info, and are perfectly competent to put whatever 'dated scare of disinfo, blah blah blah' into it's proper place in the much larger discussion of this very real and (intentionally) unresolved issue.
Posted by: Randy | March 05, 2016 at 06:41 PM
Does anyone know how many vaccine products are now produced? Vaccines are the easiest pharmaceutical to make money with nowadays because companies don't have to be nearly as careful with staging their trials because of the Bruesewitz v. Wyeth decision.
Posted by: Birgit Calhoun | February 25, 2016 at 05:37 PM
3 vaccine injured children, one now deceased. Nobody in either family, including myself and my husband, has the serious health issues of my sons. Their 80 year old grandparents are healthier. More and more people are catching on to the"elephant in the room". It is absolutely THE single most important issue for those of us living this tragedy. And the reason why I am voting for Trump.
Posted by: dnj3forever | February 25, 2016 at 01:06 PM
The vaccine issue is one they will try to take out Trump with. Hate to be political (I respect all opinions) but we need to vote Trump into office
Posted by: Sean Burke | February 25, 2016 at 02:28 AM
I'm loving every time Trump takes a state. It's a kind of F you to all the mandate happy lobbyists.
Posted by: @Linda1 | February 24, 2016 at 08:17 PM
What they're really trying to do - is to stop the public and honest politicians from recognizing and interfering with corrupt crony capitalism, which is what the Vaccine Industry is based on.
https://www.prageru.com/courses/political-science/what-crony-capitalism
Posted by: Linda1 | February 24, 2016 at 04:56 PM
The irony is that it was NEVER about science. If it was, vaccines would have been gone a long time ago. The battle over the word, "science" is the real issue. The medical powers own the word. They own that word in the universities, doctor's offices and most people's minds. The word is equated with truth when in fact, the battle has been reduced to who you should blindly believe.
Posted by: Cynthia Cournoyer | February 24, 2016 at 02:45 PM
Hold on friends- Chuck and Todd are actually like- so RIGHT on one point- That we should listen to the EXPERTS ! So I would like them to call in the mercury toxicologists. I dont expect Chuck and Todd to really go out on the limb and saw it off- They could just ask a sort of soft question, like, "Do you think there is any possibility that mercury in vaccines causes autism? "
Posted by: Cherry Misra | February 24, 2016 at 02:30 PM
Chuck and Matt! "We've been politicizing science in the last decade." If you had been really serious about that you would have made more of autism and vaccination. The problem is not politicizing, it is not being serious about the subject. That's why Trump is winning. I am not a fan of his, but maybe you journalists need to wake up.
Posted by: Birgit Calhoun | February 24, 2016 at 11:40 AM
Also,
It is confounding that when is comes to police brutality against our African-American brothers and sisters, the collective agreement is that it does, and always had, existed, and thank goodness technology (cell phones) are raising awareness. When it comes to vaccine injury however, technology (social media and the internet)is raising awareness of something that doesn't actually exist.
When will this madness end?!
Posted by: Annie | February 24, 2016 at 10:14 AM
Freedom of religion and freedom of choice in health care including vaccines is very American and very Patriotic and these are rights that must be defended.
In addition if we stop brain damaging our children we'll have smarter, more productive people and we will
Make America Great Again!
Less vaccines will result in less autism. Amen Trump!
Posted by: Make America Great Again | February 24, 2016 at 08:14 AM
I think this is actually from Feb. 3, 2015 - when Chris Christie said that parents should have some choice, and then quickly backtracked and "clarified" his comment, saying that states have various vaccine requirements. And then Obama weighed in, saying that there's no reason not to vaccinate, and Hillary Clinton tweeted that "The science is clear: The earth is round, the sky is blue, and #vaccineswork. Let's protect all our kids. #Grandmothers Know Best"
Posted by: Twyla | February 24, 2016 at 02:37 AM
Thank you Anne - for all you do!
It sounds like NBC is desperately in need of a list of all the doctors that agree that vaccine-induced autism is a very real thing.
Don't you love how people on the TV get to tell you how people on the computer are compromised and untrustworthy, but theirs (of-course) is the unbiased and only true information.
Perhaps someone should also alert Todd and Lauer as to what decade it is, because I'm pretty sure voters are well aware.
Posted by: Annie | February 23, 2016 at 09:30 PM
The fact Lauer pimps this industry shill is just another example of why there's a high level of disgust for media and government. Go Trump!
Posted by: CT | February 23, 2016 at 09:26 PM
Lol push forward the paid shills, Chuck Todd means! They're so predictable. I would think Republicans would think of it also as a personal freedom issue. In fact many would think of it as a personal medical freedom issue rather than religious freedom. People are tired of being sickened and coerced into endless rounds of vaccines for the "greater good," "society rights VS individual rights." It's getting obvious they are manipulating for pHarma.
Posted by: Reader | February 23, 2016 at 09:20 PM
So suck-up Check Todd must have investments in Big Pharma companies. Don't want to hurt their bottom lines or scare of golden advertisers away from its network or others. Vaccines are the silver bullet, in their eyes. It is the only issue that both the left and right, liberal and conservative, Democrat and Republican agree on. Politicians and mainstream media have been bought off across the board.
Posted by: James Grundvig | February 23, 2016 at 08:47 PM
The press is no longer free. There used to be pride among journalists to find out about and tell the truth. Those that do tell the truth lose their jobs. Matt Lauer and Chuck Todd are bought individuals because of their affiliation with the companies they work for. We all now have to fend for ourselves to get to the truth. It's not by accident that Colbert invented the word "Truthiness."
Posted by: Birgit Calhoun | February 23, 2016 at 06:54 PM
The barrage of vaccines at each well-baby visit will do damage, larger or smaller, obvious or hidden, sometimes delayed so that cause and effect are not obvious.. Parents may hope that vaccine injury won't create major impediments for leading a normal life, but it will be there.
Posted by: Tim Lundeen | February 23, 2016 at 06:48 PM
Disclaimer: I typically avoid politics online so I understand if there are no takers on this request.
THE ASK: Can you facilitate getting some well known liberals (i.e. recognizable name and undeniably left leaning) to directly respond to the 2 main assertions of Mr. Todd and Mr. Lauer.
1) Refute the point of view that all parents concerned with vaccine safety are conservative. That is certainly not the case.
2) Refute the point of view that the science is settled.
I know the second item was part of your article, however I think the point would be better received if it were made by someone from the "enlightened" left. This approach would strike at the heart of the "journalists" claims that concerns about vaccines are only held by those on the right.
Thank you, as always, for the focus you bring to these issues.
Posted by: Eric | February 23, 2016 at 06:48 PM
We have to fight censorship on discussion about vaccination.
Vaccination policy is an important matter for all citizens on an international basis as there are serious implications for freedom of choice and bodily autonomy.
We urgently need to have an international conversation about the gross over-use of lucrative vaccine products being driven by an unfettered pharmaceutical industry.
It is my contention that children are being grossly over-vaccinated with a plethora of vaccine products and revaccinations. I suggest we should be considering if an over-use of vaccine products may have damaging long-term consequences similar to the over-use of antibiotics and the rise of superbugs. Unfortunately we do not appear to have any independent infectious diseases experts to consider this matter, as many academics working in this area are conflicted by their associations with vaccine manufacturers.
While I understand Donald Trump is a controversial candidate, his courage in speaking out on vaccination policy has impressed me as it is a most unpopular stance to take against the mainstream media which is largely protective of the interests of the pharmaceutical industry. (See Trump’s comment on Twitter: https://twitter.com/realdonaldtrump/status/507158574670573568 )
I wonder if the Murdoch media group’s (e.g. Fox News) antagonism towards Donald Trump is driven by Trump’s outspokenness on vaccination?
I appreciate Donald Trump speaking out about vaccination, a brave thing to do in a political campaign, i.e. risking the ire of powerful media forces. Other candidates participating in US political campaigns such as Ben Carson, Rand Paul and Chris Christie also raised questions relevant to vaccination policy, but they were also attacked and bullied into silence by the mainstream media and medical establishment.
The Murdoch media in particular is very intrusive in regards to vaccination policy. Recently it has waged an aggressive campaign with pro-vaccine lobby groups in Australia which has resulted in the Australian Federal Government implementing a coercive vaccination policy, i.e. the ‘No Jab, No Pay’ law, which means parents will have to have their children vaccinated with all the vaccine products and revaccinations on the Australian National Immunisation Program Schedule to access government benefits. (See for example this Daily Telegraph article which claims 'a stunning victory' for its 'No Jab, No Play' campaign: http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/nsw/antivaccination-parents-face-15000-welfare-hit-under-no-jab-reforms/news-story/9b2e49f83ef0c5b3b69fe3937c1fd28e )
In effect, the right to ‘informed consent’ before the medical intervention of vaccination has been trashed, thanks to the efforts of the Murdoch media and pro-vaccine lobby groups.
Do the Murdochs / Murdoch media group have any conflicts of interest in this matter, either financial or ideological?
For example, I understand James Murdoch was previously on the board of vaccine manufacturer GlaxoSmithKline (an association which ended around the time of the Leveson inquiry into the News of the World phone-hacking scandal), and that the Murdoch family is associated with the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute in Australia, an organisation which undertakes vaccination research.
It is important that any potential conflicts of interests are properly declared as the Murdoch media group has published grossly biased reporting on vaccination, polarising discussion on vaccination in Australia into crude ‘pro’ and ‘anti’ vaccination arguments, and impeding open and civil discussion among citizens on this matter.
In Australia, new vaccine products are added to the vaccination schedule without consultation with the community. With the No Jab, No Pay law we are now being set up to be compliant to every lucrative vaccine product and revaccination in the international vaccine industry’s pipeline.
In recent years there has been a dramatic increase in the number of vaccine products and revaccinations ‘recommended’ for children in Australia and around the world.
For example, according to the current Australian vaccination schedule, children aged from birth to teenage years will have at least 43 doses of vaccines via combined vaccines and revaccinations, (33 of these doses will be given in the first 18 months, this will rise to 36 doses when the PBAC approved 18 month diphtheria, tetanus and acellular pertussis ‘booster’ is implemented, therefore making a total of 46 vaccines up to teenage years). This does not include the dubious annual flu vaccinations we are all being pressured to have.
I suggest most people in Australia have no idea of the number of vaccines being given to children nowadays, and might blanch at the prospect of rolling up their own sleeves and having all these vaccines themselves.
Citizens are entitled to demand the right to give their ‘informed consent’ before administration of vaccine products to themselves and their children.
Citizens are also entitled to question what level of disease risk justifies mass vaccination, and to question the quality of ‘immunity’ being provided by vaccinations which are being ‘recommended’ repeatedly throughout life, e.g. so-called ‘boosters’ with the apparently defective acellular pertussis (whooping cough) vaccine, which may actually be causing new strains of the disease to develop and spreading the disease via vaccinated individuals. These rights are being denied by the No Jab, No Pay law.
It must also be recognised that there is a serious lack of transparency and accountability for vaccination policy and practice in Australia.
Academics involved in vaccination policy seldom publicly declare their potential conflicts of interest, e.g. their associations with vaccine manufacturers. I have been campaigning for transparency in this area since 2011, but only recently has brief conflict of interest information for members of the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (ATAGI) become publicly accessible, after I wrote to former Prime Minister Tony Abbott on the topic. See my webpage http://over-vaccination.net/letters-challenging-over-vaccination/letters-to-the-australian-prime-minister-challenging-vaccination-policy-and-practice-in-australia/letter-to-australian-prime-minister-re-vaccination-policy-in-australia/
Conflict of interest information for members of other groups influencing vaccination policy and practice is still not being publicly disclosed, e.g. the TGA’s Advisory Committee on the Safety of Vaccines (ACSOV); the Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee (PBAC); the TGA’s Australian Influenza Vaccine Committee (AIVC); the National Centre for Immunisation Research & Surveillance (NCIRS); and the Australian Academy of Science’s Working Group and Oversight Committee for the Australian Federal Government funded publication The Science of Immunisation: Questions and Answers.
Vaccination is an important ethical and political issue. We are on a slippery slope when potentially conflicted advisers to the Australian Federal Government on vaccination policy dictate lucrative medical interventions for healthy people, i.e. vaccinations, without adequate transparency of the process and consultation with the community.
Secrecy also surrounds the cost of taxpayer funded vaccine products. I have sought information re costs from the Department of Health only to be told it is ‘commercial in confidence’. Why is this information kept from the public whose taxes pay for these vaccine products?
The mainstream media’s coverage of the vaccination debate in Australia has been appalling. Across the board the media, including Fairfax and the government funded ABC and SBS networks, has largely been biased in favour of aggressive pro-vaccine lobby groups, and has failed to provide critical analysis of the burgeoning vaccination schedule – the vaccine industry has plans to add many more lucrative vaccine products to this schedule.
The Murdoch media group in particular has been responsible for crude and highly biased reporting on vaccination. The Murdoch tabloids' 'No Jab, No Play' campaign has influenced vaccination policy, resulting in the Australian Federal Government's No Jab, No Pay law.
Again, do the Murdochs or Murdoch media group have any conflicts of interest to declare?
The situation I have outlined above is similar in other countries, particularly the United States which has mandatory vaccination policies in its states.
We need citizens to speak out and challenge the ever-increasing amount of vaccine products being imposed by pharmaceutical companies via potentially conflicted academics and willing government bureaucracies.
I have also written to the Editor-in-Chief of the Murdoch media’s The Australian newspaper on this matter, see: http://over-vaccination.net/over-vaccination-a-multi-billion-dollar-market/test-2/
Elizabeth Hart
http://over-vaccination.net/
Posted by: Elizabeth Hart | February 23, 2016 at 06:35 PM
"Todd, backed by Lauer, warned candidates not to discuss vaccines. They should leave this subject to the "medical experts." The science has been settled."
It is positively frightening to even think that Chuck Todd and Matt Lauer occupy positions that allows them to make critical decisions on what information the American people will be allowed to "discuss" with their elected representatives.
It would be hard for the American people to distinguish who is less trustworthy .. our establishment political elite .. BOTH PARTIES .. or .. our establishment MEDIA .. such as .. TODD AND LAUER.
GO TRUMP ..
Posted by: Bob Moffit | February 23, 2016 at 06:20 PM
These 2 dolts don't mind when politicians talk about how Pharma is ripping the public off or killing them in other ways. They aren't complaining when government allows other drugs on the market and then assesses fines, ie kickbacks, and a wrist slap, after the drugs are "found" to be dangerous, that is after they have sickened, killed and maimed. They don't mind when the government comes behind the scientists and their industries to say 'you committed fraud, now it will be your punishment to fill the government's coffers'. That kind of political involvement is ok.
The public and any representatives they elect are to shut-up, take their medicine and ignore the scam.
Posted by: Linda1 | February 23, 2016 at 06:17 PM
Booooo booooo to Matt Lauer; I never watch him; cut him out along with Anderson Cooper, and Megyn Kelly.
Hate - is that too strong a word?
Posted by: Benedetta | February 23, 2016 at 06:16 PM
I am a medical expert, yes I am!
I have lived vaccine injuries with six family members now -- for the past 30 years.
That makes me the expert.
Grrrrrrrr
Posted by: Benedetta | February 23, 2016 at 06:14 PM
And our great and glorious leaders are vetted long before and during learning at the great University's of the world...long before we ever get to vote on them,and we all think we vote them in..
"We've been politicizing science in the last decade. ...[Politicians] ought to stay out of this debate. ...If you're a political leader and you care about this issue, you ought to step back and push forward medical experts on this. Because at the end of the day, the more politicians weigh in, the more this ends up splitting along political lines, and that's going to solve nothing."
MMR RIP
Posted by: Angus Files | February 23, 2016 at 06:10 PM
Thank you, Anne, for this reporting, and for asking the right questions.
Posted by: Linda1 | February 23, 2016 at 04:36 PM
Thanks, Anne.
From my POV, the bar for being a petro-medical salesperson is pretty low...about all it takes is basic training in promoting gateway pharmaceuticals (that's mainly talking of vaccination as the most "important medical advancement" of the 20th century), and anybody with any "professional" background is allowed. Zero training in adverse vaccine effects is not only acceptable, but actually preferable, particularly if you are an M.D., though if you are comfortable with violating principles of informed consent and/or outright lying, or with letting others do that job for you, then you might get by in spite of your education ...
Analysis of "professional credentials" and "expertise" mainly comes up when one talks about the harm vaccines do. In fact if an individual even puts the two words "harm" and "vaccines" in the same sentence, whatever "credentials" that individual has are probably, if not obviously, suspect....
...so, I think you're very right that vaccination is political, probably the most political aspect in all pharma-land...
and talk of deference to experts equates to putting your best pitchman/woman forward.
Posted by: Jeannette Bishop | February 23, 2016 at 04:23 PM