Earlier today, we received an interview request from CBC radio’s morning
program,
The Current to be aired tomorrow, Wednesday, January 28th on
it’s time slot following the 8:30 am news. The topic, (in the wake of
the recent measles outbreak in the United States) is a segment about the
“anti-vaccination movement”.
The email stated,
“I'm looking for a voice for the show to tell us more
about the anti-vaccination movement - is there anyone at Vaccine Choice
Canada available for a pre-taped interview this afternoon?” Heather Fraser, VCC Board member and author of
The Peanut Allergy
Epidemic: What's Causing It and How to Stop It kindly agreed to a taped interview. Please tune in to the broadcast and provide us and CBC with your feedback.
Many of us who have worked long and hard to counter the prevalent myth
that “the benefits of vaccines far outweigh the risks”, take issue with
the blanket reassurance of safety and efficacy. We take issue with
being labeled the “anti-vaccination movement” because we are concerned
about vaccine risks and injuries. There is no “anti-vaccine” movement.
What there is, is a growing storm of heartbroken families whose children
have been damaged to varying degrees by the aggressive,
one-size-fits-all vaccine schedule which demands that a child receive up
to 41 doses of 14 vaccines by the time he/she is 18 months old. At
issue is CHOICE and INFORMED CONSENT and upholding the right to refuse
or delay vaccines if we believe the injection of complex biochemical
ingredients starting at 2 months of age is not in our child’s best
interest.
We were all trustingly “pro-vaccine” when we obediently allowed our
children to be vaccinated according to the state sanctioned, out of
control vaccine schedule. Following the vaccine reactions, injuries and
deaths of our precious children, increasing numbers of families are
taking a hard look at what happened and making a choice to either delay
or reject vaccines.
We now know that the pseudoscience of vaccinology was developed in an
era when virtually nothing was known about the complexities of the
immune system or the impact of vaccines on the cellular level. Vaccines
are pushed relentlessly without regard for the immaturity or fragility
of the infant immune system and developing brain. One thing we do know
with certainty, is
how little they actually know –
“….the immune system
remains a black box,” says Garry Fathman, MD, a professor of immunology
and rheumatology and associate director of the Institute for Immunology,
Transplantation and Infection . . . “It’s staggeringly complex,
comprising at least 15 different interacting cell types that spew dozens
of different molecules into the blood to communicate with one another
and to do battle. Within each of those cells sit tens of thousands of
genes whose activity can be altered by age, exercise, infection,
vaccination status, diet, stress, you name it. . . . That’s an awful lot
of moving parts. And we don’t really know what the vast majority of
them do, or should be doing…” Today, parents are taking back their power and the responsibility for
their children’s health. We are learning, we are studying the medical
and scientific literature, and we are sharing with others the emerging
research about the mechanisms that have injured our children. As well
we are learning about the health modalities which can help our vaccine
injured children recover their health. After one or several children in
a family have suffered a vaccine injury, trust in the vaccine paradigm
fades, which leads parents to make carefully considered choices as to
whether or not to vaccinate subsequent children.
We stand in solidarity with the
Vermont Coalition for Vaccine Choice and other groups
defending informed consent today, “As the pharmaceutical and insurance
industries and the government increasingly dominate health care, it
becomes ever more urgent to hold onto our right to informed consent
regarding all medical choices–including the highly personal matter of
whether to accept vaccination for oneself or one’s children. Informed
consent, a cornerstone of medical ethics, is
summarized by the AMA as a
communication process to
“elicit a better understanding of the treatment
or procedure, so that he or she can make an informed decision to
proceed or to refuse a particular course of medical intervention.” We provided CBC’s The Current with the following statement:
The term "anti-vaccination movement" is a polarizing and
insulting phrase used by the media to describe anyone or any group with
concerns about the safety and efficacy of vaccines. Vaccine Choice
Canada was formed by families whose loved ones have suffered severe
reactions, injuries and death following vaccination.
Many parents in Canada, the US and elsewhere strive to inform others of
their children's vaccine injuries because vaccine risks and injuries are
real, are unpredictable and cannot be quantified in advance of getting a
vaccine. They do this NOT because they are anti-vaccine, but because
they bear witness to what happened to their own child in the wake of
vaccines in the hope of preventing more vaccine injuries, and more
suffering in other families.
An example of the cost of vaccine injuries, to date, the U.S. vaccine
injury compensation system has paid out close to $3 billion to vaccine
injury victims. This disclosure from the U.S. Department of Justice of
adjudicated settlements for vaccine injuries for a 4 months period -
February to June 2014, gives you an indication of the kinds of injuries
associated with various vaccines:
http://www.hrsa.gov/vaccinecompensation/dojpresentation.pdf. Canada has no comparable vaccine injury compensation system, except for the province of Quebec.
We encourage families to make educated, voluntary and fully informed
health care decisions when considering vaccination. As with any other
invasive medical procedures that carry a risk of injury and death, we
believe that full disclosure of all risks must be made prior to
vaccination in order for a person to give fully informed consent.
In an era when disease outbreaks are occurring in fully vaccinated
populations and vaccine injuries remain unacknowledged and unsupported
by the Canadian government and vaccine policy makers, we believe that a
deeper and more thorough understanding of this complex issue better
enables people to make fully informed decisions about the risks
associated with a disease, or a vaccine.
Our mission is to protect health freedoms and the individual's right to
exercise the basic human right to voluntary, informed consent to any
medical intervention or drug, including vaccines, that carry a risk of
injury or death.
We continue the work started many years ago by the Committee Against
Compulsory Vaccination whose efforts in 1984 won an amendment
to Ontario's Immunization of School Pupils Act to include an exemption
of conscience clause, which to this day, enables children in Ontario to
attend school regardless of their vaccine status.