Did the CDC Censor VaXxed? Report 2
By Louis Conte and Wayne Rohde
Has the CDC censored VaXxed at another film festival? The Houston Worldfest Film Festival has announced that they too have been forced to remove VaXxed from their festival’s line up.
To answer this question, we must review what we reported earlier this week.
On Tuesday, we asked if the Centers For Disease Control and Prevention – an agency of the United States Government – directed the Immunization Action Coalition (IAC), a not-for-profit organization to activate a panel of scientists, known as the Listserv, to pressure Robert De Niro and the Tribeca Film Festival to remove VaXxed: From Cover-up to Catastrophe from the film festival’s 2016 line up.
We asked if the CDC sought to have VaXxed censored because the film detailed research fraud within the CDC Vaccine Safety Division on the 2004 MMR study published in Pediatrics. This study by Frank DeStefano, Tanya Karapurkar Bhasin, William W. Thompson, Marshalyn Yeargin-Allsopp and Coleen Boyle is the vital research that the government claims shows no link between the MMR vaccine and autism.
On 3/25/16, Robert De Niro indicated that he and the Tribeca Film Festival team decided to pull VaXxed because of pressure from the scientific community.
“My intent in screening this film was to provide an opportunity for conversation around an issue that is deeply personal to me and my family. But after reviewing it over the past few days with the Tribeca Film Festival team and others from the scientific community, we do not believe it contributes to or furthers the discussion I had hoped for.”
Statements made by Alison Singer in a 3/29/16 article in the Guardian are absolutely clear that the IAC supplied the pressure De Niro was feeling:
“Four or five years ago we weren’t as well organized and people didn’t realize the importance of responding quickly and strongly,” said Alison Singer, the president of the Autism Science Foundation and a member of the IAC listserv.
“Today, we know that we have to respond to every incident however large or small, because if you leave any of these discredited theories unchallenged, it allows people to think that there’s something still to be discussed,” she said.
At the center of the network was a listserv group of more than 100 prominent individuals and science research bodies run out of the Immunization Action Coalition (IAC) based in St Paul, Minnesota. According to the Guardian article, the “listserv acts as an early warning system that sounds the alarm whenever the potent conspiracy theory that autism can be caused by vaccination surfaces.”
The Guardian states “Through the listserv, conference calls were quickly organized among top scientists across the country to discuss how to respond to the news that what was seen as a scurrilous and misleading film was to be given a high-profile airing. Leading figures in the documentary world were also enlisted to add their objections to the showing of Vaxxed, the film directed by the disgraced former British doctor Andrew Wakefield.”
While Wakefield directed it, VaXxed is not about the retraction of his 1998 Lancet article. VaXxed is about the disclosures of CDC scientist Dr. William Thompson – one of the co-authors of the 2004 Pediatrics MMR article - alleging that the agency manipulated and destroyed data which showed that the MMR vaccine is linked to autism in African-American male children and another subset of children that the authors described as Isolated Autism (autism without other co-morbid conditions).
While Wakefield’s controversial 1998 Lancet paper on gastrointestinal illness in several children with autism was a factor in the CDC decision to study the MMR vaccine, the pressing issue for the CDC was not the Wakefield controversy.
The pressing issue was that their boss was being sued.
The Secretary of Health and Human Services was facing billions of dollars in compensation claims from families filing thousands of petitions in the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (NVICP) in the Omnibus Autism Proceedings (OAP) alleging MMR vaccine induced autism.
The 2004 research that Thompson says was fraudulent was critical to the families with claims in the OAP. VaXxed makes the point that the CDC’s fraud amounted to obstruction of justice of federal judicial proceedings.
William Thompson issued this statement through his attorney Rick Morgan on 8/27/14 about the 2004 MMR study:. Morgan-Verkamp is a well-regarded legal firm specializing in Whistleblower litigation.
“I regret that my coauthors and I omitted statistically significant information in our 2004 article published in the journal Pediatrics. The omitted data suggested that African American males who received the MMR vaccine before age 36 months were at increased risk for autism. Decisions were made regarding which findings to report after the data were collected, and I believe that the final study protocol was not followed.”
Omitting statistically significant information and altering the design of the study to bury the elevated risk of autism for African-American boys and those with “isolated autism” due to the MMR vaccine is research fraud.
VaXxed details information Thompson gave to Dr. Brian Hooker, a scientist and father of a child with autism. VaXxed is constructed around excerpts of legally taped conversations between the two men where other serious allegations of misconduct within the CDC are disclosed.
In our first report we noted that Alison Singer, the Director of the Autism Science Foundation (ASF) and the apparent spokesperson for the IAC Listserv, is the mother of a child with autism and not a scientist. She held a leadership position at Autism Speaks before starting the ASF.
Dr. Paul Offit, who often acts a spokesman for vaccines, is on the ASF board. In other words, Offit is Singer’s boss.
Singer serves on the external advisory board of the CDC’s Center for Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities.
Regarding IAC, we noted that the not-for-profit receives significant money from pharmaceutical companies – AstraZeneca, GlaxoSmithKline, Merck, Sharp & Dohme Corp., Pfizer, Inc., Sanofi Pasteur and Seqirus. However, the CDC - listed at the top of the page - is the biggest donor to the IAC. This relationship is on-going as this spreadsheet details. And a 2011 IAC press release details a CDC grant award of 1.4 million dollars in 2011. Alison Singer indicates in the Guardian article that the IAC Listserv was initiated at approximately that time.
Powerful members of the vaccinology community – Dr. Stephen Cochi, Dr. Bruce Gellin, Dr. Neal A. Halsey, Dr. Samuel L. Katz, Elyse Olshen Kharbanda, Dr. Paul Offit, and Dr. Walter Orenstein, Dr. William Schafner, Dr. Anne Schuchat, Dr. Stanley A. Plotkin and Dr. Gregory A. Poland, among others – pack the IAC Advisory Board. Many are past or present employees of the CDC or have received grants from the CDC. Many have served on CDC boards. Virtually all of the members have regular business and professional relationships with the CDC.
The 10/25/11 press release states: “This cooperative agreement will support three key current IAC functions: (1) creation and distribution of weekly editions of IAC Express to IAC's email subscribers; (2) publication of the feature "Ask the Experts," in which CDC and IAC immunization experts answer questions from vaccine providers; and (3) creation of new immunization education materials designed to respond to the needs of immunization providers, parents, and patients…”
The Listserv is described by Singer as a sort of vaccinology rapid response team which is at the ready when “anti-vaccine groups” publicly link autism to vaccine injury.
Did the IAC Listserv Strike Again?
On Wednesday, Anne Dachel received a forwarded email from a Mr. Hunter Todd,
The Chairman and Founding Director of Team Worldfest – the group responsible for the 49th Annual Houston Worldfest Film and Video Festival.
From Mr. Todd:
Hola! from WorldFest...
Howdy Dawn~
We are happy to hear from you... we are also very sorry that we were forced to cancel this special premiere due to threats and pressure...
It was out of our hands, as we would lose more than $50,000 in support if we showed the film!
No worries, this will only make it more popular... and it will show in a regular theater in Houston very soon! On the Internet also...
God's Blessings on you and yours...
My Thanks and Best regards,
Hunter Hunter Todd Chairman & Founding Director TEAM WORLDFEST The 49th Annual WorldFest-Houston!
We called Hunter Todd later Wednesday afternoon and spoke at length:
"The powers that be told me we would lose all our grants," Todd said. “City and County officials called.” We asked if he knew who called the local government leaders, and he indicated that state health authorities seemed to be making calls along with federal government officials. “My sponsors were called. I called them to give them a heads up but they had already been spoken to.”
“No one’s called me like this in the forty-nine years that I’ve been doing this.” And the calls were not pleasant. "It was amazing the force they used."
Todd then noted that he has an employee with a 15 year old grandson who regressed after vaccination. "I felt it was important to show this film. The movie was really well done."
"This is the power of big pharma,” Todd said. “They have the power to suppress and censor…People don't like censorship in Texas and this is censorship....I tried to defend the film and they attacked the doctor (Wakefield)...Maybe he lost his license because pharma attacked him."
Mr. Todd stated that he was concerned that his funding will be cut if he is identified - he has employees who could lose their jobs if funding is cut.
However, by Wednesday evening, Mr. Todd’s name - and the second incident of censorship of VaXxed - was all over the internet and social media. Todd’s letter to Phillipe Diaz, Chairman of Cinema Libre, the film’s distributor was reported by Celia Farber on the Truth Barrier.
Unanswered Questions Continue
It is absolutely clear that the Immunization Action Coalition receives financial support from the CDC. This not-for-profit assembled a panel of unnamed scientists who called for the censorship of a film that exposed alleged research fraud corruption in the CDC.
Is the IAC Listserv also behind the censorship of VaXxed at the Houston Worldfest Film Festival? We know that Alison Singer took credit on behalf of the IAC for VaXxed being removed from the Tribeca Film Festival.
We ask again, who are these scientists? Are they employees of the CDC? Were they acting on behalf of the CDC? Who called Houston’s mayor? Who were the state officials acting on behalf of?
Is the CDC – through the Immunization Action Coalition and its affliates – engaged in a continuing pattern of conduct to censor VaXxed to protect itself?
Our phone calls to the IAC have not been answered. We will continue to reach out to the IAC and others to resolve some of these questions.
Hunter Todd has run a successful film festival for the City of Houston for forty-nine years. He went to bed Wednesday night wondering if he had made the right choice: opting for the freedom to show a film he believed in and allowing people the freedom to consider that film -- or seeing his film festival and his employees’ jobs threatened.
What would you do?
VaXxed is about corruption in the CDC and its role in the autism epidemic. Artists and film makers and people who show films are receiving threatening phone calls from people acting on behalf of others who remain unidentified.
This is the deeply troubling state of affairs in the United States of America on April 8, 2016.
Louis Conte and Wayne Rohde
Louis Conte, author of The Autism War and co-author of Vaccine Injuries
Wayne Rohde, author of The Vaccine Court – Dark Truth of America’s Vaccine Injury Compensation Program
All books published by Skyhorse Publishing – New York City
Even "Orac" disapproves of out-in-the-open government interference with the Houston film festival: "It makes me want to fly to Houston, march right down to city hall, grab the mayor by his lapels, and yell right in his face, 'What the hell were you thinking?'"
Actually, I think that sentence was written by Cam of "Modern Family."
Posted by: Carol | April 14, 2016 at 11:34 AM
The following World Net Daily article by Barry Farber .. is about the movie Vaxxed .. and .. the lies and corruption at the CDC that remains "uninvestigated" .. asks "why"?
http://www.wnd.com/2016/04/big-pharma-cdc-lie-on-vaccines/
Posted by: Bob Moffit | April 13, 2016 at 03:35 PM
http://www.today.com/video/robert-de-niro-on-anti-vaccine-film-controversy-let-s-find-out-the-truth-665031235642
Robert Deniro says he may well be an advocate for vaccine safety and says he regrets pulling the film Vax from the festival and says there is a link to autism.
Posted by: Richard | April 13, 2016 at 02:44 PM
False scientists...,
Not surprising since Gorski and followers are likely on the same payroll with Megan's Mommy Bloggers, all accessories to the CDC's crimes.
Posted by: Linda1 | April 11, 2016 at 02:24 PM
Over at RI now there is talk of "being hanged together or hanged alone," lol I would imagine some of the rats are getting it. Rats. Ship.
Posted by: False scientists make me laugh | April 11, 2016 at 01:04 PM
Hi Tim
Yes, I was aware of that problem but it is a very interesting and detailed extrapolation.
Posted by: John Stone | April 09, 2016 at 02:37 PM
@john stone @robert
The Jain study ( http://jama.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=2275444 ) is not valid because of healthy-user-bias. The problem is that parents with at-risk kids stop vaccinating, and this decision skews the statistics. The result is that all of these epidemiologic studies are invalid, and more invalid today than ever (because more and more parents with kids are aware of the risks of vaccines).
For more detail and supporting evidence, see http://vaccinepapers.org/review-of-jain-et-al-jama-2015-and-comments-on-mmr-autism/ and http://vaccinepapers.org/healthy-user-bias-why-most-vaccine-safety-studies-are-wrong/
Posted by: Tim Lundeen | April 09, 2016 at 02:14 PM
Maureen,
Very true. Your examples nagged me as I wrote that. I think the difference might be that now we are not allowed to talk about it. It seems to me that the boot of censorship is coming down harder and more brazenly than ever before.
Posted by: Linda1 | April 09, 2016 at 08:32 AM
Robert
"Conclusions and Relevance In this large sample of privately insured children with older siblings, receipt of the MMR vaccine was not associated with increased risk of ASD, regardless of whether older siblings had ASD."
This is amazingly convoluted at best - this incidentally was the study that Tom Insel told Rep Posey was the study untainted by association with Thorsen which was going to settle the matter. Why not just do a vaccinated vs unvaccinated study? Why not just use the old studies before the data was manipulated in one way or another to cover up an association? After all, the main differece between DeStefano 2004 and the IOM studies is that someone confessed, but the virtually all buried an association.
Posted by: John Stone | April 09, 2016 at 04:50 AM
http://jama.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=2275444
Posted by: Robert | April 09, 2016 at 02:31 AM
Has everybody expressed their unhappiness to the Mayor of Houston? Their office has hit their limit in emails to the Mayor and can no longer take anymore. However, they took my phone call. I encourage others to do the same. The woman on the other end was not too happy - I was the 8th caller of the day (and it wasn't even the afternoon yet). I said, "Do you know that this story about your office is VIRAL - all over the internet about your censorship of this documentary? Do you know how many people across the country are furious with YOUR OFFICE?"
What a fantastic win this has been for all of the vaccine injured! Has everybody called their local movie theaters (or movie chains) to express sincere interest in seeing this movie? I have and I also sent them supporting links - Fandango's 5 star reviews from over 100 people, the highly successful weekend that the Angelika had, etc. I was told that it would be available in their theaters next month!!
Posted by: DC | April 08, 2016 at 08:23 PM
The censorship is backfiring, and will blow up in their faces. I believe the unofficial state motto in Texas is, "Don't mess with Texas."
Posted by: Gary Ogden | April 08, 2016 at 06:55 PM
Democracy didn't come to a dead stop with the banning of "Vaxxed"
It came to a stop for us because it has affected us personally and we know exactly why it occurred. Democracy has been walking out the door for decades, but it probably hasn't touched us in the same way.
The continued rise of big corporations, money in the hands of a few, and a congress that rubber stamps everything they do has been building for a long time. Think what happened in Viet Nam.The Gulf of Tonkin affair(perfectly planned) precluded any chance for congress to vote on the War. How about after 9/11? More and more of our fundamental rights stomped on like trash. Then look at SB277. I don't think we should delude ourselves into thinking that the banning of Vaxxed is the "straw that broke the camel's back."
(maybe for us though it is), but the camel hasn't been able to walk for years in America. We have the best propaganda system the world has ever seen.
Posted by: Maurine Meleck | April 08, 2016 at 05:35 PM
@ Joy B
"We need a Listserv or two, too."
At the conclusion of Vaxxed in Manhattan .. Producer Del Bigtree asked those in the audience to visit this site:
http://www.vaxxedthemovie.com/
You can sign up on this site .. to volunteer your efforts to promote the movie .. hope this helps.
Posted by: Bob Moffit | April 08, 2016 at 02:55 PM
Everybody should read this extraordinary blog piece by investigative journalist Jon Rappoport https://jonrappoport.wordpress.com/2016/04/08/why-vaxxed-was-shot-down-at-tribeca-up-close-and-personal/. It provides a very credible alternative explanation for what might have happened at Tribeca. Watching the video linked within (of DeNiro with his clearly stressed-out handler) makes it easy to believe. On the other hand, it would seem that Houston pulled out for a mere $50,000. And the Houston Worldfest chairman then dares to suggest that their craven crumbling was a good thing.
One thing's for sure: big or small, money talks.
Posted by: Rae | April 08, 2016 at 01:40 PM
We need a Listserv or two, too.
Posted by: Joy B | April 08, 2016 at 01:32 PM
What's next?
Intimidating individual theaters?
A legal ban on vaccine talk, films, reports?
Is this China or America?
Worried about Bernie's "socialism"? We're already there - and worse - without him.
Posted by: Linda1 | April 08, 2016 at 01:28 PM
Piggybacking on Linda1's comment.
Yesterday, in J.B. Handley's article re. the Houston cancellation of Vaxxed, he reported that part of the mayor's office's response re. the cancellation included this:
"The mayor felt it inappropriate for the city to endorse an event that would be screening a film that is counter to the city’s efforts to ensure children receive vaccinations."
As I covered in my interview with Jeanie Keltner this past Wednesday (46:05 mark through 48:30), it is NOT a mayor's, state senator's (CA's Richard Pan), or ANY elected official's job to ensure, mandate, or even advocate that children/people they have NEVER MET receive ANY medical procedure or treatment, including scores and scores of vaccinations, each which carries the VERY REAL RISKS of chronic illness, permanent disability, and DEATH!
Our elected officials have GREATLY overstepped their authority and TRAMPLED the Constitution with regard to the serious and risky, potentially-fatal, medical procedure of vaccination (via mandates in the first place, and subsequently via the restriction and/or elimination of exemptions), and with their censoring, including the use of threats, of anything that threatens our nation's immoral, barbaric, health-and-nation-damaging vaccine program.
Shame and disgrace on these immoral and unethical thugs posing as representatives of the people.
Posted by: Laura Hayes | April 08, 2016 at 01:05 PM
So. The City of Houston has decided that this film goes against the City of Houston's policy that all children be vaccinated?
WHAT THE HELL IS THAT?
Since when does a CITY GOVERNMENT decide what it's citizens can see and hear so as not to conflict with it's own policies? Since when does a CITY GOVERNMENT decide that the people can't hear a report about a medical intervention that it is recommending?
REGARDLESS OF WHO IT IS FROM?
Since when does a CITY GOVERNMENT decide to censor accusations of fraud within the FEDERAL GOVERNMENT that does or does not impact its own policies?
This is not Tribeca bowing under pressure and changing their mind, as disgusting as that was. This is GOVERNMENT COMING FORWARD IN BROAD DAYLIGHT TO CENSOR A FILM AS THOUGH THEY HAVE EVERY RIGHT TO DO SO.
IF THE CITY OF HOUSTON GETS AWAY WITH THIS, THIS DEMOCRACY IS REALLY OVER. GONE.
NOT KIDDING, I THINK WE SHOULD ALL BE FLYING OUR FLAGS AT HALF MAST TO MOURN THE DEATH OF OUR DEMOCRACY.
Posted by: Linda1 | April 08, 2016 at 11:30 AM
Very true, Bob Moffit. Just been totally silenced in a court of "law" and escorted from the building by two doddery old policemen! They are more afraid than they can ever make us.
Posted by: Grace Green | April 08, 2016 at 10:43 AM
They added one more vaccine to the kiddos between 0 and 17 years.
No matter how big you are, a human being is a human being; They are trying to quickly as Ms Singer says respond quickly and to all things vaccine injuries- to a rather large injured population that is growing. That is a lot of leaks in the damn they are trying to plug up.
I am really disgusted that there are such people that think this way in our society with such a long history of liberty and freedom of speech.
Down with the CDC. Close it's doors completely put these guys out in the street with not even a stapler.
We need to track trends and stats - start it up with limited money, can curbed power and totally new and very vetted people.
Instead of drug test - a moral test would be best.
Posted by: Benedetta | April 08, 2016 at 10:41 AM
Perhaps now is the time to remind people to see the powerful movie based upon Andy Wakefield: Hear the Silence
https://search.yahoo.com/yhs/search?p=hear+the+silence&ei=UTF-8&hspart=mozilla&hsimp=yhs-002
Posted by: Introvert | April 08, 2016 at 10:00 AM
Hey Bob M. I, too, remember the under the desk nonsense. Lest we not forget that the US has been the only country to actually use the atomic bomb on another country. Our government uses fear to control the masses and be the all powerful one in the world. And to control with fear there has to be an enemy. Thus, bring on the "Cold War"so we can hate and fear Russia, and then bring on the Middle East terrorism.Throw in a lot of patriotism and you've got the perfect storm. I see the "war on anti-vaxers" as part of the same campaign of propaganda to control the masses, both in the US and the world.
We ARE the inside enemy.
Posted by: Maurine Meleck | April 08, 2016 at 08:54 AM
Who are these "leading figures in the documentary world" who don't want people to see a film they haven't even seen themselves? What were their objections to the trailer? I hope it wasn't that Skeptic thing about needing to include everything after "hello." That was beyond stupid.
Posted by: Carol | April 08, 2016 at 07:31 AM
"Mr. Todd stated that he was concerned that his funding will be cut if he is identified - he has employees who could lose their jobs if funding is cut."
If history is our guide .. as per what was done to Dr Wakefield and others who dared speak truth to power .. I am very fearful that Mr. Todd's career and his employees will suffer dire consequences as a result of his name being identified. Consider ....
The dark forces .. governmental, corporate, medical, academia, media, etc .. that have aligned themselves to silence TRUTH are not only very powerful .. they have proven themselves to be extremely vicious .. their favorite method and goal is the ultimate destruction of lives, careers, families, children, etc .. whatever and whomever .. they are soooo DESPERATE to SILENCE.
Think about it for a moment.
The only reason the dark forces go to such extreme lengths to DENY FREE SPEECH .. is because they are TERRIFIED that FREE SPEECH WILL SPEAK THE TRUTH.
How would you like to live your life fearing the TRUTH of who you really are .. and .. what you have really done .. becomes known to everyone you so desperately want to keep from knowing.
I have this memory .. as kids .. crawling under our desks in class .. supposedly our way to defend ourselves .. should an atom bomb hit our community.
I have a similar image in my mind today .. those numerous dark forces .. trembling with fear .. ready to crawl under the nearest rock .. should the TRUTH .. like an atomic bomb .. finally expose them.
Posted by: Bob Moffit | April 08, 2016 at 06:46 AM