Did The CDC Censor Vaxxed? Watergate Rising Report 4
Read Part 3, Part 2 and Part 1 here.
By Louis Conte and Wayne Rohde.
A continued series. Please read Reports 1, 2 and 3 here
President Richard M. Nixon speaking to his aide, Charles Colson:
“We’ve got a counter-government here and we’ve got to fight it. I don’t give a damn how it’s done. Do whatever has to be done to stop those leaks.… I don’t want to be told why it can’t be done.”
Our pursuit of the identities of mysterious members of the Immunization Action Coalition Listserv continues.
From: Wayne Rohde
Sent: Thursday, April 14, 2016 11:27 AM
To: Admin (At the Immunization Action Coalition)
Subject: IAC List Serv in The Guardian article
Dr. Wexler,
After reading in The Guardian from March 29, 2016, I am very intrigued about the existence of the below mentioned IAC coordinated List Serv. Alison Singer, of the Autism Science Foundation, and a close associate of yours, stated the following in an interview with the Guardian:
“At the center of the network was a listserv group email list of more than 100 prominent individuals and science research bodies run out of the Immunization Action Coalition (IAC) based in St Paul, Minnesota. 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. 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, who was struck off from medical practice in 2010 for serious professional misconduct.
Having learned lessons the hard way in the past, this time the scientific community was ready for the fight. "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.”
I am asking for the opportunity to review the List Serv either in person at your offices or via email.
Sincerely,
Wayne Rohde
From: Teresa A. Anderson
Sent: Monday, April 25, 2016 9:25 AM
To: Wayne Rohde
Subject: RE: IAC List Serv in The Guardian article
Mr. Rohde:
For the record, the Immunization Action Coalition (IAC) neither conceived nor conducted any campaign regarding the Tribeca Film Festival.
As part of carrying out our mission, IAC manages several email listservs which enable discussion about vaccine-related topics.
IAC does not control activities conducted by listserv members who may wish to work together or with others.
We appreciate your interest in IAC but we are unable to accommodate your request to inspect our operations.
Regards,
Teresa A. Anderson, DDS, MPH
Immunization Action Coalition
2550 University Avenue West
STE 415 North
Saint Paul, MN 55114
Like an apparition, the IAC Listserv is vanishing into the shadows. According to IAC representatives, Alison Singer, the president of the Autism Science Foundation was either lying, delusional or misrepresenting the facts when she spoke to the Guardian in March.
According to IAC’s Teresa Anderson, the IAC never sought to promote the censorship of Vaxxed: From Cover-Up to Castrophe even though Alison Singer says that the organization and its’ members did exactly that.
Let’s be clear about what Alison Singer told the Guardian:
- The IAC runs Listserv
- The IAC Listserv is an early warning system designed to detect and respond “whenever the potent conspiracy theory that autism can be caused by vaccination surfaces”
- The IAC Listserv quickly organized conference calls among top scientists across the country to discuss how to respond to Vaxxed
- “Leading figures in the documentary world” were enlisted to object to the showing of Vaxxed at the Tribeca Film Festival
The Listserv also appears to be the group who pressured the Mayor of Houston to pressure the Worldfest Film Festival to remove Vaxxed from their lineup in April.
Philippe Diaz, the distributor of Vaxxed penned a 4/20/16 Op Ed in MovieMaker Magazine - The Tribeca Precedent and the Framing of Vaxxed - describing what it was like to be the recipient of the Listserv’s attention.
According to Diaz, one of the “leading figures in the documentary world” was a film maker named Penny Lane who has made just two films. Lane is best known for the documentary built around home movies of President Richard M. Nixon called Our Nixon. The home movies were taken into custody by prosecutors as the Nixon Presidency collapsed under the weight of the Watergate scandal that drove him from office.
Forty years after Watergate, Penny Lane was able to get a hold of the material and used it in Our Nixon.
The Listserv’s selection of Ms. Lane is more than a little ironic.
Del Bigtree, the producer of Vaxxed recently stated what has gone on at the CDC is “bigger than Watergate.”
He may be correct.
Some may recall that President Nixon authorized the creation of the “Dirty Tricks Squad” and the “White House Plumbers” to attack those he deemed opponents.
Nixon’s use of “Dirty Tricks” included unethical, duplicitous, slanderous and even illegal tactics to damage political or business opponents. The "dirty tricks" also included underhanded techniques to get ahead of opponents.
Nixon’s “White House Plumbers”, were responsible for breaking into the office of Daniel Ellsberg’s psychiatrist to steal information to discredit the journalist who leaked the Pentagon Papers to the media .
Robert De Niro expressed regret for pulling Vaxxed from the Tribeca Film Festival and expressed concern over the pressure to pull the film. “I think the movie is something that people should see. There was a backlash which I haven't fully explored, and I will,” De Niro said on the Today Show.
Hunter Todd, the director of the Houston Worldfest Film Festival said that he was the victim of censorship. "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.
Todd added, “No one’s called me like this in the forty-nine years that I’ve been doing this.” The callers were not pleasant. "It was amazing the force they used."
The IAC now disavows any responsibility for Listserv and has thrown Alison Singer under the bus.
Why?
Because the IAC’s biggest funder is the Centers for Disease Control. The vast majority of their Advisory Commission members have direct financial connections to the CDC.
Vaxxed has been running for a month now. Even members of the main stream media are acknowledging that Vaxxed is not an anti-vaccination film.
It’s an anti-corruption film.
Vaxxed reveals corruption at the CDC that is so profound that the agency’s autism research can no longer be trusted.
Corruption that involved CDC scientists manipulating and destroying data that associated vaccines with autism; Corruption that lead to obstruction of justice in federal judicial proceedings (The Omnibus Autism Proceedings in the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program) and may well be responsible for the autism epidemic.
The CDC has a lot of motivation to keep Vaxxed from being seen.
Are members of the Listserv CDC employees? Have they received CDC money or contracts or grants? Were they working for the CDC during the hours that they made the telephone calls pressuring Robert De Niro and Tribeca Film Festival staff? Were they working for the CDC when they called the Mayor of Houston?
Singer spoke proudly about her activities as a member of the Listserv. We know that Alison Singer serves on the external advisory board of the CDC’s Center for Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities.
The other members of the Listserv have not stepped out of shadows.
It is profoundly disturbing that members of the “scientific community” are willing to engage in a strategy, as described by Ms. Singer, that involves surveillance of Americans and suppression of speech through the intimidation of artists and film makers. It is even more disturbing when these individuals remain anonymous.
Are they doing so because they were working for the CDC? Is the Listserv a CDC version of Nixon’s “White House Plumbers” or “Dirty Tricks Squad”?
The censorship of Vaxxed is not simply annoying behavior. If the members of the Listserv were agents of the United States government, they may have violated the First Amendment:
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.
If members of the Listserv were members of the government acting to prevent Vaxxed from being shown, then they may have engaged in the law as Prior Restraint, defined as “government action that prohibits speech or other expression before it can take place. There are two common forms of prior restraints. The first is a statute or regulation that requires a speaker to acquire a permit or license before speaking, and the second is a judicial injunction that prohibits certain speech. Both types of prior restraint are strongly disfavored, and, with some exceptions, generally unconstitutional.”
Alison Singer knows who is on the Listserv. She knows who made the calls.
Congress has an obligation to provide oversight of the CDC.
Did the CDC censor Vaxxed through surrogates on the Listserv?
Alison Singer knows and Congress should ask her.
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
http://www.voanews.com/content/john-kerry-countries-lacking-free-press-nothing-to-brag-about/3314087.html
Kerry: Countries with No Free Press Have Nothing to Brag About
Ken Schwartz, Pamela Dockins
May 03, 2016 6:37 PM
STATE DEPARTMENT—
A country without a free and independent press has nothing to brag about and nothing to teach the world, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said Tuesday.
Kerry spoke at the State Department to recognize World Press Freedom Day.
"No government, whatever its pretensions or whatever its accomplishments, can fairly claim respect if its citizens are not allowed to say what they believe or denied the right to learn about events or decisions that affect their lives," Kerry said.
He said the struggle between truth and outright lies is at the heart of a lot of the turbulence shaking the globe, including what is happening right now in Syria, Afghanistan, Ukraine, on the Korean Peninsula and in the South China Sea.
"You will see in all of those places ... a fundamental battle to define reality,” he said. “And you will see efforts by some people to invent out of whole cloth or to obscure the truth, the facts — to cover up events that did happen and make up stories about thing that didn't."
Reporting the truth is not a crime, but a badge of honor, Kerry said. He vowed that the U.S. will never stop speaking out in public and behind the scenes to defend the rights of the press and its members who have been threatened, abducted or unjustly imprisoned.
To that end, the U.S. will spend another $2.5 million this year on a program to provide digital and security training to more than 750 journalists around the globe.
Posted by: John Stone | May 04, 2016 at 03:58 AM
Let’s see check my math, but with 160 new Autism cases each and every day, 3 million dollars each to take care of these children, times 365 days a year...
that would bring the total for,,, just one year’s worth ... to 175 billion.
The CDC has been responsible for this disaster for 25+ years... I would suppose they would continue to TRY to cover it up.
It would be much cheaper just to cut a check to Pharma for 50 billion dollars each year... and tell them to PLEASE STOP trying to do anything.
Posted by: go Trump | May 03, 2016 at 07:55 PM
Thank you for looking into the roots of efforts to prevent discourse.
If anyone wondered why VaxXed was pulled from one Arizona theater but not another, this quote from the Arizona AAP may explain (thanks to Arizona Center for Advanced Medicine for posting this review):
http://www.arizonaadvancedmedicine.com/Articles/2016/May/Vaxxed-A-Film-Review.aspx
"In attempt to limit the exposure of this film and the amount of people who view it, which is our ultimate goal, Harkins and AzAAP are in agreement that full censorship and banning films only drives media attention and increases the number of people who seek out the film. The film will be available via online streaming in a few weeks, and we don’t want publicity of it being pulled from theatres to have the unwanted adverse effect of increased viewership in people’s homes."
It's not full-blown censorship, just censorship-like, in intent, admitted openly (at least to other AAP members)...
Posted by: Jeannette Bishop | May 03, 2016 at 06:54 PM
Ok, John Stone! In that case, maybe she is L. in the flesh!
Posted by: Birgit Calhoun | May 03, 2016 at 05:58 PM
That's great Dawn.
Posted by: Sun~Rose | May 03, 2016 at 05:56 PM
Oh Alison Singer. The week my son was diagnosed was the week I found AOA and she had announced her leaving autism speaks. I remember struggling to understand this larger than life issue, and tangled web of deceit, that found its way into my kid's vial at the ped. office and into my poop smeared living room. I'm smarter today, and so get it....even when I don't want to. I hope they do throw her under the bus. She should've minded the company she kept. It's funny how it's always implied that these foundations speak for people. How about we stop censoring and let people speak for themselves. The only way the tide will turn is when there is more to gain from telling the truth than keeping their lies. C'mom Alison, they're not your real friends anyway....
Posted by: angie | May 03, 2016 at 05:52 PM
Birgit
Indeed, an ordinary member of the public may just not know. Singer has been in the middle of this for at least a decade. She took place in the sureptitious IACC vote to reverse a previous vote to investigate vaccines: she is committed to opposing any such moves: she cannot be naieve and her real devotion is to the reputation of vaccines at all costs. It doesn't mattter whether they do harm, providing nothing interferes with the project.
Posted by: John Stone | May 03, 2016 at 05:38 PM
John Stone! I don't feel like giving her that much credit. Some people don't deserve being given the credit of knowing, no matter how true it is that they know. Whether we know or don't know about her makes no difference in this matter. I'll give her credit for unsavory motives.
Posted by: Birgit Calhoun | May 03, 2016 at 05:26 PM
Oh it's an endorsement all right. The pro vaccine extremists have just pushed too hard, never relenting or showing any concession for the health of children, even when it's obvious there are problems with specific vaccines, the schedule bring too aggressive, the poor risk vs harm aspect of hep b at birth...
Posted by: @False Skeptics | May 03, 2016 at 04:48 PM
There are some people who know and some people who sort of know and then there are some who neglect to want to know, and she is one of the latter. There are those among my friends I can't get mad at because they feel safe in their certainty about what they know, and I know they are just the way I would be if I had not needed to find out the hard way. But Singer is one who really should know and she doesn't even try.
Posted by: Birgit Calhoun | May 03, 2016 at 03:59 PM
Once again, excellent article, Wayne and Lou.
Please keep at it.
Keep their feet to the fire. Keep exposing their dirty, unethical, immoral, and illegal deeds.
Keep waking up the American people to the corruption underlying our nation's vaccine program from manufacture to mandate, and beyond.
Keep reminding Americans that censorship is illegal in the U.S.A. Then take a moment to think of all the vile, disgusting, and morally abhorrent things that are not censored, yet our public "health" officials, government regulators, and elected officials have the unabashed audacity to censor a documentary that shines a bright light on corruption at the highest levels adversely and gravely affecting millions of Americans, including babies?! Despicable people, to say the least.
Let the light continue to expose the dark, Gentlemen. Thank you!
Posted by: Laura Hayes | May 03, 2016 at 03:55 PM
Birgit
Oh, I think she knows well-enough really.
Posted by: John Stone | May 03, 2016 at 01:18 PM
Autismgate! The more the agencies attempt to Censor the film "Vaxxed" from people learning the truth, regaining ethics, and uncovering the fraud.. the more important it becomes for uninformed people and the mainstream media to see it. There is now a glimmer of hope that children's brains will be saved from exposure to the harmful Aluminum, thimerosal, formaldehyde, cells of pigs, cows, dogs, monkeys, insects, aborted fetal cells, deadly peanut oils leading to anaphylaxis, ammonium salts and others that bring forth brain Encephalitis leading to autism behaviors.
Posted by: Shelley Tzorfas | May 03, 2016 at 01:17 PM
Seems to me that Alison Singer doesn't know the difference between "flat and round." I wonder if she knows that during the times when flat v. round was discussed those scientist had to deal with the real threat of being persecuted, prosecuted and burned at the stake a la Joan of Arc. Johannes Kepler's mother was under suspicion of being a witch simply because somebody didn't like her. If the current witch hunt regarding good science continues, we'll soon be without any credible science and only the witch hunt of corporations will prevail.
Posted by: Birgit Calhoun | May 03, 2016 at 12:53 PM
@@Hans
Yes, Gorski and his merry band of sycophantic butt-sniffers are doing much of the wailing and gnashing of teeth about Trump. The insults, ad hominem fallacies, and hate-filled rhetoric of Gorski's sycophants are truly delicious.
If Gorski and his lickspittles hate Trump so much, it's almost as good as an endorsement for everyone else to vote for him, wouldn't you say? I know that Gorski's hatred of Trump has changed the mind of some of my circle of friends about who to vote for.
Posted by: False Skeptics Make Me Laugh | May 03, 2016 at 12:38 PM
Interesting and excellent article. When reading this, and other similar articles of corruption, both in US and UK, it feels like being part of a surreal film. Growing up in 1950s, we were taught to respect our politicians and people in authority. It has been a huge leap, over several years, to realise that they often get things wrong. What has come to light, for me, over the last couple of years is that, not only do they get things wrong, but that they have conspired to protect wealth, power and reputation at the expense of children (and their families') health and well being. As far as I am concerned, they have deliberately damaged hundreds of thousands children (and families) and are planning to continue doing so for as long as they can get away with it. This is what is so surreal, who would have thought that so many in authority could be so evil?
Posted by: susan | May 03, 2016 at 12:22 PM
Yes, David Gorski and the "science" gang are becoming panicked that their beloved corporatocracy and corrupted relationship between "health" orgs and the people may soon be voted the hell out. Go Trump!
Posted by: @Hans | May 03, 2016 at 11:20 AM
Has anybody ever thought of the actual word, "CONgress"? Definition of con: an instance of deceiving or tricking someone. Definition of gress: comes from Latin where it has the meaning "step or move".
As far as the fierce advocates of vaccines that serve on non-profit boards go, I really think we need to take a close look at their personal bank accounts before coming to any conclusions.
Posted by: Dawn | May 03, 2016 at 10:32 AM
"Alison Singer knows who is on the Listserv. She knows who made the calls.
Congress has an obligation to provide oversight of the CDC.
Did the CDC censor Vaxxed through surrogates on the Listserv?
Alison Singer knows and Congress should ask her."
I would suggest .. Congress not only has a obligation to resolve Lou and Wayne's excellent questions regarding the commission of potential crimes .. such as .. obstruction of justice .. and .. violating prior restraint law .. there is also a great potential that ongoing violations such as these would qualify for prosecution under RICCO laws.
RICCO LAW DEFINED:
RICO law refers to the prosecution and defense of individuals who engage in organized crime. In 1970, Congress passed the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act in an effort to combat Mafia groups. Since that time, the law has been expanded and used to go after a variety of organizations, from corrupt police departments to motorcycle gangs. RICO law should not be thought of as a way to punish the commission of an isolated criminal act. RATHER, THE LAW ESTABLISHES SEVERE CONSEQUENCES FOR THOSE WHO ENGAGE IN A PATTERN OF WRONGDOING AS A MEMBER OF A CRIMINAL ENTERPRISE.
Therefore .. in my humble opinion .. a criminal enterprise could apply to ANY government agency (CDC) .. who has established a PATTERN OF WRONGDOING .. such as .. the crimes alleged in VAXXED .. in a desperate attempt to protect themselves and their profitable criminal enterprise (CDC) from being exposed for the FRAUDS they are alleged to have become.
Posted by: Bob Moffit | May 03, 2016 at 06:37 AM
Lou and Wayne,
Some good questions here. Interesting to revisit the article by James G Hodge Jr and Doug Campos Outcalt in The Jurist in the December "Legally Limiting Lies About Vaccines" which might have been more truthfully phrased "limiting discussion".
Besides the incompetent arguments deployed which were rebutted in an article by Mary Holland the authors failed to disclose their relations with the CDC which the Jurist evidently prevented her from stating openly. Mary writes:
"It is perhaps unsurprising that the authors would prefer to muzzle the vaccine-autism debate. By all appearances, they have staked major part of their careers on the safety and efficacy of vaccines, working closely with government on vaccines."
Hodge is evidently retained by the CDC as a "senior scholar" and Campos Outcalt sits on the ACIP (Working Group Chair)
http://www.jurist.org/forum/2015/12/mary-holland-vaccines-autism.php
http://www.publichealthlaw.net/
http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/acip/meetings/downloads/min-archive/min-2015-06.pdf
I wonder whether these guys were breaching the letter or the spirit of the first amendment by being afilliated to the CDC (particularly undisclosed), noting that they used factually flawed arguments anyway.
http://www.jurist.org/forum/2015/11/hodge-campos-vaccines-speech.php
The other thing you can say is that these people are striking out wildly. These institutions have been ridiculously protected from enquiry for too long which is why of course they are going so badly wrong. And they know it.
Posted by: John Stone | May 03, 2016 at 06:31 AM
We are tantalising close to the END .
Posted by: Hans Litten | May 03, 2016 at 06:16 AM
I found this in my AoA archives, but it is well worth repeating, particularly for the Nature biopic of Alison Singer.(The URL still works)
http://www.nature.com/news/2011/111102/full/479028a.html
(Autism's fight for facts: A voice for science)
Singer resigned from the charity ‘Autism Speaks’ in a huff, because at that time the charity was still sponsoring research into possible vaccine autism links. Singer devoted herself to promoting immunisation, setting up the ‘Autism Science Foundation’ charity. From above:-
“Convinced by the evidence that vaccines do not cause autism, Alison Singer started a research foundation that pledges to put science first……..Singer had followed the growing number of studies that debunked any link between autism and the once-suspect measles, mumps and rubella vaccine, or between autism and thimerosal, a mercury-containing preservative that was used in some early-childhood vaccines until 2001. For the past several years, she says, the data have been very clear. "There were no studies indicating a link between autism and vaccines."
ASF funding:-
“(A significant amount has also come from large donors, including Offit, who has donated all the royalties from the sales of his books challenging the anti-vaccine movement to ASF — an amount he estimates in tens of thousands of dollars.) Singer does not think that her opposition to vaccine research limits the group's ability to raise funds — far from it. She says the organization has mobilized the thousands of families who were sick of the autism story being hijacked by the vaccine hypothesis. "ASF is their voice."
Singer devoted herself to promoting immunisation, setting up the ‘Autism Science Foundation’ charity. Later, she co-founded the ‘Immunisation Partnership’ which lobbies extensively for vaccinations of all kinds and provides public platforms for pro-vaccine advocates including herself (of course).
http://www.immunizeusa.org/
“The Immunization Partnership helps individuals, physicians, and others with an interest in immunization to make smart choices about protecting our community from vaccine-preventable diseases.
Vision: A community protected from vaccine-preventable diseases.
Mission: To eradicate vaccine-preventable diseases by educating the community, advocating evidence-based public policy and promoting immunization best practices.
To fulfill our mission, we advocate evidence-based public policy that supports high immunization rates, encourage the use of immunization best practices, and provide educational resources to individuals and healthcare providers.
Did you know that effective January 1, 2012, The "Jamie Schanbaum and Nicolis Williams Act" will require all college students under age 30 and attending class on a Texas campus to be vaccinated against meningitis prior to school entry?”
Texas Immunization Summit 2012
Sponsored by The Immunization Partnership
Special Topics Include: Ways to Effectively Communicate the Immunization Message, Implementation of the Meningitis Law, Healthcare Reform and Immunizations, Vaccine Refusals and the Impact of Exemptions on Disease Rates.
Posted by: Jenny Allan | May 03, 2016 at 06:13 AM
Didn't Alison Singer take Dr Wakefield's advice and obtain SINGLE (monovalent) measles, mumps and rubella vaccines for the younger sibling of her autistic child?
Then UK Prime Minister Tony Blair, still hasn't 'come clean' about whether son Leo (16 this month) had MMR vaccine or single jabs. We are entitled to draw our own conclusions.
Posted by: Jenny Allan | May 03, 2016 at 06:04 AM