Every Last One

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How to Force Total Vaccine Compliance by Controlling the Conversation and Eliminating Choice

We want healthy children. We want a healthy society. But we won’t always agree on the road to get there. And that road, paved over with “good intentions,” may nonetheless deliver us to the same unfortunate destination.

This brings us to the topic of vaccination. With almost no exceptions, the trifecta of government, industry, and organized medicine want every child vaccinated. To achieve total compliance, they’re controlling the conversation and taking away our rights.

Let’s roll up our sleeves and get right down to it. When it comes to vaccines, there are two kinds of people in the world. You’re probably thinking pro-vaccine and anti-vaccine, right? It’s neat and pat, and there’s millions of dollars behind this PR campaign. But this singular narrative—parents versus the science—is a false one, carefully shaped for reasons that have nothing to do with vaccines, public health or children.

So how about those two different kinds of people in the world? A much better way of looking at this is pro- and anti-health freedom. The truth is, when it comes to vaccination—like any other diagnostic, therapeutic, or other medical intervention—it doesn’t really matter what I think or do, and what you think or do. What matters is the freedom to choose.

“REFUSERS” ARE PUTTING US ALL AT RISK

Sound familiar? Parents who refuse to vaccinate endanger us all. Here’s some of the arguments we are hearing:

• USA Today: Jail “anti-vax” parents¹
• Slate Magazine: How to Deal with Anti-Vaxxers. Try to persuade them. And if that fails, give them no choice.²
• Fox News: Dr. Manny: Should Obama make vaccines mandatory for all children?³ “I am calling on the federal government to mandate vaccinations for all children, and to eliminate all of the silly loopholes that are creating chaos in so many communities throughout America.”³
• Reason.com blog: Shame and Shun Anti-Vaccine Parents.⁴
• The Verge: Vaccine Deniers: inside the dumb, dangerous new fad.⁵

These headlines are everywhere. Mainstream media have been on a rampage since the beginning of 2015. Read enough of these stories and you’d feel pretty comfortable concluding that there’s a serious public health problem on our hands. Right? Wrong.

AMERICA VACCINATES ITS CHILDREN

The truth is that America vaccinates its children. Using the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s own data, I would like to impress upon you that “The Vaccine War,” as styled by Frontline,⁶ isn’t about vaccines, public health, or even children. The CDC reports that over 99 percent of children are vaccinated, and 90-95 percent are fully vaccinated.

The median exemption rate is 1.8 percent. They will try to tell you this means that 1.8 percent of children are fully unvaccinated.⁷ They think we don’t know how to do math.

With over 99 percent of children vaccinated, it’s reasonable to assume that most children receive their core vaccines. State health department records bear this out, as shown by an analysis of Vermont’s data.⁸ An exempted child could be fully vaccinated except for a single dose of chickenpox vaccine, or hepatitis B vaccine. State lawmakers looking to blame parents for rising exemption rates should look in the mirror instead. They will find that rising exemptions are tied to the recent, dramatic increase in the number of mandated “non-core” vaccines, including chickenpox, hepatitis B and flu. Parents are doing their own research and concluding that not all diseases and not all vaccines are the same.⁹

BUT WHAT ABOUT DISNEYLAND?

From late 2014 through April 17, 2015, the date by which the California Department of Public Health determined the outbreak had ended, the agency recorded one hundred thirty-six confirmed cases of measles that started in Disneyland in Orange County, California.¹⁰ Shortly after the first cases were reported, mainstream media proceeded to “freak out.”¹¹

What the press failed to communicate, however, is the fact that the overhyped Disneyland measles affair was completely unrelated to school vaccine exemption laws.

• It started at an amusement park, not at a school.
• It originated from an overseas source, not from an exempted child.
• It affected more adults (56 percent) who are not subject to school vaccine laws.
• It never spread into the state of California let alone the entire United States.

In fact, during the past two years, California’s coverage rate for measles vaccination has increased—now at 96.2 percent¹²—while its philosophical exemption rate has fallen by 19 percent. Is the CDC trying to tell us that rising vaccine coverage and declining exemptions cause outbreaks? I don’t think so.

THEY WANT MORE

These high compliance rates, in the low- to mid-90th percentile, weren’t reached until the 1990s. Public health could give itself a gold star for achieving these rates. But they’re not satisfied. They want more.

All fifty states have medical exemptions to mandatory vaccination. This is not the issue at hand. Medical exemptions are not a realistic option for most children. For starters, they’re almost impossible to get. The CDC’s list of accepted medical contraindications to vaccination¹³ is so narrow that a child must be sacrificed, or nearly sacrificed, before a parent learns that the child cannot be vaccinated. The CDC is so clear that most sick and immunocompromised¹⁴ children should be vaccinated that it published “Conditions Commonly Misperceived as Contraindications to Vaccination”¹⁵ lest parents and clinicians falsely assume that the following serious conditions qualify as valid reasons to skip vaccination: fever greater than one hundred five degrees, immunosuppression, seizures, autoimmune disease and nonvaccine allergies. Not even a family history of injury, death, seizures or sudden infant death syndrome following vaccination will qualifiy a child for a medical exemption. Even a child who has already had a vaccine reaction will have trouble getting an exemption— doctors hate to give them and many refuse outright.

The issue at hand is non-medical or parental vaccine exemptions. According to the National Vaccine Information Center, seventeen states provide for a philosophical exemption, forty-eight states offer a religious exemption, and two states (Mississippi and West Virginia) have no choice at all.¹⁶ This was pre-Disneyland.

And the post-Disneyland response? State legislatures across the country, propelled by industry lobbyists, are moving to eliminate parental vaccine exemptions, or to restrict them so severely that they are effectively eliminated. Since late last year, parental vaccine exemptions are or have been under fire in eighteen states representing well over half of the U.S. population. During the brief window that I was writing this article, Vermont became the first state in the country to remove a philosophical exemption to compulsory vaccination.¹⁷

It’s not enough that vaccines are mandatory for day care and school admission, and over 99 percent of children are vaccinated. They want to eliminate the idea that you could have a choice. They want every last one.

HERE’S WHAT THEY’RE NOT TELLING YOU

Measles is not deadly. The CDC reported no measles deaths from the Disneyland cases and told Fox News that there have been no measles deaths in over ten years.¹⁸ (This CDC report, however, lists two deaths, one each in 2009 and 2010.¹⁹) The World Health Organization states that measles mortality is clinically insignificant.²⁰

The official health journal of the U.S. Public Health Service asserts that measles is benign; we’ve had a stable relationship with measles for centuries; complications are infrequent; fatality is rare; and after contracting measles, immunity is solid and lifelong.²¹ And for those who have succumbed to the narrative that the measles vaccine has saved millions of U.S. children’s lives, take a look at the chart below from the CDC’s Department of Vital Statistics.²²

There’s an untold story about measles that has been suppressed because it doesn’t fit today’s PR-engineered tale of vaccine triumphalism. The inconvenient truth? Measles deaths in America had declined by over 98 percent and in England by almost 100 percent by the time the measles vaccine was first used. And this huge decline in mortality before a vaccine is brought into use is true of almost every infectious disease for which there is a vaccine on the childhood and adult schedules. In fact, many infectious diseases such as scarlet fever declined to zero mortality without any widespread use of a vaccine.

That’s not to say that people aren’t dying of infections in the U.S. They are— to the tune of one hundred thousand per year. They’re dying of healthcare-associated infections in hospitals.²⁴ Many of our hospitals have woefully subpar hygiene and infection prevention practices. Procedures such as meticulous hand hygiene and cleaning of equipment and rooms between patients are known to reduce infections by up to 75 percent.²⁵

One hundred thousand deaths and no one is clamoring to legislate mandatory hygiene practices in hospitals.

Zero measles deaths, total PR hysteria, and state governments are poised to legislate away your right to choose.

A MASTER CLASS TO FORCE TOTAL VACCINE COMPLIANCE

Government, industry, and organized medicine have been co-teaching a master class on how to turn one hundred thirty-six cases of measles at Disneyland into a permanent public health emergency and force total vaccine compliance.
Here’s their curriculum:

1. Commandeer the science using industry-sponsored research, then close the book.
2. Claim dominance over women’s bodies, medicalize pregnancy, and use fear to compel vaccination.
3. Teach parents to ignore the brain damage in children that’s all around us. Just realize it’s always been there, and understand that we’re simply better at seeing it.
4. Demonize parents and obliterate the right to choose.

They are attempting to control the conversation and force total compliance.

A MASTER CLASS ON HEALTH FREEDOM

Educated citizens,²⁶ however, know that there’s more to this than meets the eye. And any conversation that’s worth having is one that goes both ways. We reject their curriculum. It’s time for a new master class— one that’s about personal responsibility, individual agency and collective advocacy:

1. Take back the science for yourself.
2. Reassert control over your body—the decisions belong to you.
3. Look into the eyes of the children and accept the truth.
4. Above all, fight for your rights. Fight for health freedom. Or it will be gone. Here’s my course description on health freedom.

RECLAIM THE AFFIRMATIVE MESSAGE

Who says that industry, government, and organized medicine get to define the narrative? We’re not against. We’re for. We’re for independent science. We’re for health freedom. We’re for our rights.

GO TO SCHOOL ON HUMAN RIGHTS

UNESCO, the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization, has over one hundred ninety member countries around the world. In 2005, UNESCO drafted the Universal Declaration on Bioethics and Human Rights.²⁷ It’s a foundational document that establishes informed consent as the international human rights standard around the world. I urge you to read it; it’s spectacular. Here are some highlights, paraphrased for simplicity:

• Because human beings have a unique capacity to give expression to ethical principles…
• Because of rapid developments in science and technology…
• Because we should respect human dignity…and observe human rights and fundamental freedoms…
• Because health isn’t just about science and technology…
• Because ethical issues in medicine can affect all of us, from individuals and families, to communities and all of mankind…
• Because innovation cannot be invoked at the expense of our rights and freedoms…
• Because a person’s identity is comprised of many significant, valuable dimensions, including social, cultural, psychological, and spiritual components…
• Precisely because of all these magnificent things…
• Any preventive, diagnostic and therapeutic medical intervention is only to be carried out with the prior, free and informed consent of the person concerned, based on adequate information. The consent should, where appropriate, be expressed and may be withdrawn by the person concerned at any time and for any reason without disadvantage or prejudice. [Article 6 – Consent]

In other words, when it comes to any medical intervention, all human beings must have a choice. No one can do anything to you unless you agree. You must be adequately informed. You can change your mind at any time for any reason. And look carefully… there’s no special exception for vaccination.

FREEDOM AND TRANSPARENCY

We have the right to know and understand what we’re putting into our bodies. This means:

• independent scientific research;
• access to the providers, supplements and treatment options of our choosing;
• high certification standards; and,
• truth-in-labeling.

We need to be health freedom fighters! Something has been happening over the past thirty years. Health freedom has declined in lockstep with all these vaccine mandates. Mandatory vaccination takes away your health freedom.

WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE FREE?

What is freedom? Our founding fathers made clear that government should not come between man and his God and conscience. It’s not just about human rights law. Divine law, natural law, and the laws of this land, the United States of America, uphold fundamental freedoms and inalienable rights. These rights cannot be surrendered. They aren’t supposed to be voted on. They belong to you and to me.

But governments will try because that’s what they do, as any student of history can tell us. They overreach. They attempt to pass bills that sweep too broadly. Today, there are over one hundred bills in thirty-four states seeking to increase vaccine mandates; expand state police powers; facilitate monitoring and enforcement; and eliminate our right to choose.²⁸

You may think these bills are about public health and children, but they’re not. Many of these bills are attempting to legislate away what’s rightfully ours. They’re a land grab and nothing less than our bodies and our rights are at stake.

Vaccination is the exception that proves the rule. It lays bare the reality that we do not have health freedom in this country.

INTRODUCING HEALTH FREEDOM ACTION™

We’re proud to introduce Health Freedom Action, a new 501(c)(4) organization for legislative advocacy, to advance the bills that uphold our rights and to oppose the ones that aim to take them away.

We must organize to assert our rights. There’s one true currency in politics. When you see a large amount of money being spent, you can be sure the politicians don’t have the support of the people. It’s time to expand our political center of gravity to promote informed consent and health freedom. We need scale, and consistent and uniform messaging. And we must cross state lines, coordinate across disciplines, and gather our allies.

We have professional knowledge. We need professional infrastructure, including:

• best practices;
• talking points, handouts, letters, flyers
• legislative and legal analysis;
• media coordination and training;
• strategic communications;
• speaker’s bureau; and,
• political organizing.

Informed consent for vaccination, as for every other medical intervention, is a vital expression of health freedom and human rights.

CONSUMER PROTECTION AMENDMENT

Governments are supposed to regulate the activities of corporations and others who provide products and services to the public. Sometimes they fall short. Sometimes they participate in infringing our rights. The modern consumer protection movement hasn’t been around that long—about fifty years or so. It is characterized by nonprofit advocacy groups and grassroots activism. Today, there’s a rising chorus of voices about compulsory vaccination.

Are vaccines safe or unsafe? People are angry and confused about mixed signals.

• If they’re so safe, why are vaccine makers shielded from liability?
• If they’re so safe, why must governments force people to get them?
• If they’re so safe, why is there a vaccine injury compensation program?
• If they’re so safe, why are thousands of people across the U.S. protesting?
• If they’re so safe, why not let the markets decide?
In 1986, Congress passed the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act (NCVIA), which gave manufacturers and health care professionals complete immunity from any vaccine injury. Why did the federal government remove the most important consumer protection for safer vaccination? How can governments mandate vaccination and eliminate exemptions after blocking lawsuits against vaccine manufacturers? Why don’t most people, lawmakers included, know about this?

Will legislators continue to support the removal from parents of their ultimate right to choose when they understand that the vaccine industry enjoys near total liability protection?

As the controversial bill advances through the California legislature, SB 277 has been met with strong and growing public resistance. Thousands have traveled to Sacramento to testify and rally. This citizen movement is drawing attention to the legal implications of the arcane National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act (NCVIA) of 1986.

The Consumer Protection Amendment (CPA) was brought forth in California on May 28, 2015 to strike a balance between vaccine mandates and the absence of vaccine manufacturer liability highlighted by SB 277. CPA gives consumers in California the opportunity to sue vaccine manufacturers in the event of injury or death. It also creates the opportunity to challenge the constitutionality of the federal government’s attempts to block any lawsuits against vaccine manufacturers. While urging the adoption of this amendment, supporters uphold their opposition to SB 277. Read more about CPA and our call to action at healthfreedomaction.org. There’s no time to waste. Let’s be fearless and formidable. Together.

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It’s time to catalyze a national health freedom movement. Here’s how you can help:
• Sign up at HealthFreedomAction.org and share us with your friends and colleagues.
We must show our numbers. It’s vital for political organizing.
• Follow us on social media:
Facebook.com/HealthFreedomAction
Facebook.com/groups/HealthFreedomAction
Twitter.com/HFA4Rights
• Share your resources and recommend aligned organizations. Volunteer your
skills.
And if you can, please donate. Our paypal email address is info@healthfreedomaction.org.

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REFERENCES
1. usatoday.com/story/opinion/2015/01/27/jail-anti-vax-parents-vaccines-cdc-measles-disney-worldcalifornia-column/22420771/
2. slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2015/02/anti_vaxxers_resist_persuasion_if_they_refuse_we_have_to_force_them_to_vaccinate.html
3. foxnews.com/health/2015/01/30/dr-manny-should-obama-make-vaccines-mandatory-for-all-children/
4. reason.com/blog/2015/02/04/shame-and-shun-anti-vaccine-parents.
5. theverge.com/2013/10/21/4767530/vaccine-deniers-inside-the-dumb-dangerous-new-fad
6. pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/the-vaccine-war
7. cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm6341a1.htm
8. scribd.com/doc/114630984/Vermont-Vaccine-and-Exemption-Rates-2011-2012-Vaccines-Up-Exemptions-Down
9. healthfreedomaction.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/HFA-Which-Vax-Kids-Need-5-19-15-3.pdf
10. cdph.ca.gov/HealthInfo/discond/Documents/Measles_update_4-17-2015_public.pdf
11. globalresearch.ca/whats-behind-big-pharmas-freak-out-mediablitz-over-measles/5430542
12. cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm6341a1.htm
13. cdc.gov/vaccines/recs/vac-admin/contraindications-vacc.htm
14. fearlessparent.org/what-about-the-immunocompromised/
15. cdc.gov/vaccines/recs/vac-admin/contraindications-misconceptions.htm
16. nvic.org/Vaccine-Laws/state-vaccine-requirements.aspx
17. burlingtonfreepress.com/story/news/politics/2015/05/28/shumlin-vaccine-philosophical-exemption/28079499/
18. foxnews.com/health/2014/04/25/deaths-from-measles-outbreak-may-be-inevitable-as-cases-surge-in-us/
19. cdc.gov/mmwr/PDF/wk/mm6153.pdf
20. jid.oxfordjournals.org/content/189/Supplement_1/S4/F3.expansion.html
21. probeinternational.org/library/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/pubhealthreporig00027-0069.pdf
22. business.financialpost.com/fp-comment/lawrence-solomon-the-untold-story-of-measles
23. Ibid
24. reuters.com/article/2011/07/21/us-safety-idUSTRE76K45R20110721
25. hva.typepad.com/001_ridbooklet.pdf
26. chicagomag.com/city-life/March-2014/Why-Is-Vaccine-Refusal-More-Prevalent-Among-the-Affluent/
27. portal.unesco.org/en/ev.php-URL_ID=31058&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html
28. nvicadvocacy.org/members/Home.aspx.

 

This article appeared in Wise Traditions in Food, Farming and the Healing Arts, the quarterly journal of the Weston A. Price Foundation, Summer 2015

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