Background: MMR uptake in the Minnesota Somali community has been steadily dropping over the past few years, so MDH has been devising ways to persuade Somalis to give their children the MMR vaccine – rather than respecting the Somalis’ faith, their intelligence, their life experiences, and their personal health choices.

The purpose of the forum was innocently framed as simply providing information about autism and vaccine hesitancy, but having attended several MDH “informational” forums in the past, I knew better. For example, during a small measles outbreak in 2011, MDH held an “informational” forum where people could learn from the “experts”. The forum presented very little information about autism, except that they did not know what causes it. But every “expert” on the panel emphatically stated that autism is NOT caused by vaccines. These “experts” included a Somali autism mom with no vaccine research experience, a man they referred to as a doctor, but whom has never had a license to practice medicine in the US, and various MDH spokespeople. During the forum, MDH set up a free mobile vaccine clinic (stocked with 600 doses of the MMR vaccine) as if they believed the Somalis would fall for the propaganda and immediately jump in line to roll up their sleeves. There were exactly ZERO takers, by the way.

The Somalis who attended felt betrayed by the doctors and health officials they put their trust in. They witnessed the immediate and dramatic health decline of their beautiful children after a round of vaccines. Only then did they do their own research and soon realized that doctors were not providing the facts about serious side effects of vaccines, nor about the complete lack of accountability that exists when vaccine injuries occur. They now know that while the measles may be deadly to malnourished children in third-world countries; it is mostly a benign childhood disease that was killing very few people in the US long before a vaccine for it was developed. To quote one Somali parent: “Who cares about the measles? Measles is temporary, but autism is forever.”

As you can see from their power point, MDH has been working since 2008 to dispel the Somali parents’ fears of vaccine-induced autism. Since all of their efforts have failed, they are now enlisting the aid of Somali health professionals to help them coerce the Somali parents who have thoughtfully (and legally) chosen to avoid the MMR vaccine.

Here’s an overview of some of the forum speakers:

Maggie Diebel of the MDH gave a brief introduction, during which she stated “Engaging with the community is absolutely critical”, and went on to say that MDH has hired two more Somali staff to conduct training in the community on autism and vaccine-preventable diseases. She also made the claim that MDH tracks immunization records “to ensure people are protected from dangerous diseases”.

The tactic of using leading terminology (like the term “immunization” instead of the actual act of “vaccination”, and claiming diseases are “vaccine-preventable”) grossly oversimplifies the issue – as if to say that “vaccinated” automatically equals “immune” or “protected from dangerous diseases”.

Side note: During the aforementioned small measles outbreak in 2011, up to 38% of the people who got the measles had been vaccinated for it, but MDH rarely makes a point of telling people that.

Ms. Diebel also said “We are obligated to do what we can to improve vaccination rates”.

What she didn’t say: Anything to acknowledge the truth of what Somali parents have been telling the world for years: Their previously healthy children regressed into autism after vaccination. She said nothing about the well-known side effects of vaccines, including brain damage and death, nor that the US government has compensated many families for vaccine injuries resulting in autism. She did not say that MDH is “obligated” to protect Minnesotans from vaccine injuries, even though vaccine injuries are just as devastating to the health of Minnesotans as any communicable disease.

Read the full post here.