Now that it looks like ABC-TV executives are backing Barbara Walters’ hire of celebrity Jenny McCarthy to join the popular daytime talk show "The View",1 the blood that spilled on the ground of the Fourth Estate during 10 hot days in July is beginning to dry. It was fascinating to watch the well-orchestrated response by online mainstream media, which took on the frenzy of an old fashioned witch hunt to burn a heretic at the stake. Reviewing 29 articles published in major print and broadcast media outlets between July 9 and July 18, 20132 with 19 of them written by males, it became obvious that some of them are really upset about “blonde” girls expressing politically incorrect opinions about vaccine side effects, a topic that has become the biggest taboo talk in America. Several media outlets used her gender to take the first punch with headlines such as “Putting Jenny McCarthy on the View: Good Sex Over Bad Science”3 and “ 'View' Host Jenny McCarthy’s Vaccine-Autism Claims: Beauty vs. Science.”4
Some tried to bash McCarthy’s brain by focusing on her body. Cat calls like “buxom physique," “blonde bombshell,” “sex symbol,” “object of teenage boys' fantasies,” "bleached blonde hair,” “pulchritudinous,” “ the pretty idiot,” “Playboy Playmate of the Year”, and so on were effortlessly tossed into the story.5, 6, 7, 8, 9 Once the boys' club firmly established that she is really only good for one thing, they moved on to alleging that if she is allowed to open her mouth and talk on “The View,” she will in fact and without question threaten the very survival of the human race. One of them took bizarre name-calling to new heights by hurling the epithet “homicidal maniac” at her.10 I am not sure how presumably well-educated men expected people to swallow the vacuous argument that the woman is both a dumb blonde and a threat to mankind, but for some inexplicable reason that is exactly what they tried to do. And, further embarrassing themselves, they desperately tried to persuade all the rest of us to be as emotionally invested in her hire on “The View” as they are and immediately write to the bosses at ABC to express our shock and horror.11, 12
It could have been amusing summer entertainment watching guys fall all over themselves to one up each other with hysterical hyperbole, but it quickly became obvious that it was about much more than slapping around a celebrity Mom because she has talked publicly about her son’s vaccine reaction and how she helped him get better.13 Way more. And, although males outnumbered females in suggesting that mothers should not be allowed to talk about vaccines in public unless the script is pre-approved by a politically correct M.D. or Ph.D., a few of the female writers going after McCarthy and ABC were just as adamant about the urgent need to muzzle vaccine talking Moms challenging the status quo.14, 15, 16 Four of the 29 headlines featured the word “dangerous.”17, 18, 19 One apocalyptic headline screamed “Dear ABC: Putting Jenny McCarthy on ‘The View’ Will Kill Children”20 while an article written by a female pediatrician used the same threatening approach: “ABC’s Hiring of Jenny McCarthy: A Decision That Could Cost Lives.”21 The collective howl of indignation escalated when Barbara Walters and ABC did not flinch. Using poison pens and heavyweight media platforms, the writers ridiculed the intelligence, values and beliefs of mothers like McCarthy taking matters into their own hands when a healthy child suddenly develops brain and immune system dysfunction after vaccination, a condition doctors can’t explain and often label “autism” but dismiss as “just a coincidence” or bad parental “genes” without looking any further.22, 23, 24
Never mind that there is more than a century of medical literature documenting the fact that vaccines can cause: Brain inflammation; Chronic nervous system dysfunction; Seizures; Arthritis; Vaccine strain viral infection; Shock and “unusual shock-like state;” Protracted inconsolable crying Death The indisputable fact that vaccines can do that has been acknowledged by the Institute of Medicine in a series of peer-reviewed reports published between 1991 and 2013.25, 26, 27, 28 The last one pointed out that there is not enough scientific evidence to determine if the current recommended schedule of 49 doses of 14 vaccines between day of birth and age six29 is or is not associated with the development of a whole host of health problems in children - everything from autoimmunity, allergies, asthma, epilepsy, ADHD and learning disabilities to – yes – autism.30, 31, 32 The indisputable fact that vaccines can hurt people and that doctors still don’t know which individuals are more biologically susceptible to suffering vaccine damage33 was codified into law by Congress in the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of 1986.34 That law has awarded more than $2.7 billion dollars to Americans harmed by vaccines in exchange for shielding drug companies and doctors from vaccine injury lawsuits in civil court.35, 36 With vaccine failures among highly vaccinated children playing a big role in outbreaks of B. pertussis whooping cough,37, 38 the hype about Jenny McCarthy joining “The View” could be just a red herring. But it is going to take a lot of red herrings to distract millions of parents from talking about why 1 child in 6 in America is learning disabled,39 1 in 9 suffers with asthma,40 1 in 50 develops autism41 or why there has never been a large, well-designed study comparing the health outcomes of highly vaccinated children and those remaining unvaccinated or using fewer vaccines.42
Most of the writers who wrote stories about a vaccine talking celebrity Mom joining “The View,” including those calling for censorship and the gutting of journalistic standards that ensure fair balance - when it comes to writing stories about vaccination43 - are journalists by profession. 28 of the 29 articles were written by individuals without medical degrees, although one is a pharmacologist, one is an astronomer and one has a PhD in biological sciences. The majority have degrees in Journalism, English, History or Political Science with some also listing expertise in public relations and communications, marketing and fund raising, political media campaign management, TV and entertainment.44 Even though these writers do not have medical degrees, the U.S. Constitution guarantees them the liberty to express their views about Jenny McCarthy, Barbara Walters, ABC and vaccines, just as the media outlets publishing their opinions are protected by the First Amendment. That legal right to engage in critical thinking and to hold personal beliefs and to exercise free speech, belongs to every American - not just to those articulating talking points made or approved by citizens with M.D. or Ph.D. written after their names.
Parents, doctors, legislators and journalists started talking publicly about vaccine safety issues in America in 1982,45 16 years before a paper about MMR vaccine and autism was published in The Lancet. Mothers were talking about what happens to their children’s health after vaccination long before the Library of Medicine was posted online and the world wide web became the biggest talk show on the planet. Vaccine talk will continue in the kitchens and on the smart phones and tablets of critical thinking women, who are using the brains and mother’s instincts they were born with to make informed health care choices for their children. Vaccine talk will continue because, today, many more mothers either have a child or know a child who was healthy, got vaccinated and was never healthy again. Evangelistic doctors should stop trying so hard to shut down vaccine talking and just do the credible science that will answer the question on everybody’s mind: what exactly is causing the 1 child in 50 $126 billion dollar a year46 public health disaster doctors call autism, but still can’t agree on how to define it or how often it happens. One thing doctors say they know for sure is that vaccines don’t have anything to do with autism because the Earth is not flat, there is nothing more to be learned about vaccine side effects and autism cannot be cured, so parents should just forget about it. That empty rhetoric is not flying these days with thinking Moms and Dads digging deeper and learning that good health is about more than using lots of vaccines to prevent infections. Become educated about diseases and vaccines. It’s your health. Your family. Your choice.
With all the uncertainty surrounding the safety and efficacy of vaccines, it's critical to protect your right to informed consent to vaccination and fight to protect and expand vaccine exemptions in state public health laws. The best way to do this is to get personally involved with your state legislators and the leaders in your community. THINK GLOBALLY, ACT LOCALLY. Mass vaccination policies are made at the federal level but vaccine laws are made at the state level. It is at the state level where your action to protect your vaccine choice rights can have the greatest impact. It is critical for EVERYONE to get involved now in standing up for the legal right to make vaccine choices in America because those choices are being threatened by lobbyists representing drug companies, medical trade associations and public health officials, who are trying to persuade legislators to strip all vaccine exemptions from public health laws. Signing up for NVIC's free Advocacy Portal at www.NVICAdvocacy.org gives you immediate, easy access to your own state legislators on your Smart Phone or computer so you can make your voice heard. You will be kept up-to-date on the latest state bills threatening your vaccine choices and get practical, useful information to help you become an effective vaccine choice advocate in your own community. Also, when national vaccine issues come up, you will have the up-to-date information and call to action items you need at your fingertips. So please, as your first step, sign up for the NVIC Advocacy Portal.
If you or a family member has suffered a serious vaccine reaction, injury or death, please talk about it. If we don't share information and experiences with each other, everybody feels alone and afraid to speak up. Write a letter to the editor if you have a different perspective on a vaccine story that appears in your local newspaper. Make a call in to a radio talk show that is only presenting one side of the vaccine story. I must be frank with you; you have to be brave because you might be strongly criticized for daring to talk about the "other side" of the vaccine story. Be prepared for it and have the courage to not back down. Only by sharing our perspective and what we know to be true about vaccination will the public conversation about vaccination open up so people are not afraid to talk about it. We cannot allow the drug companies and medical trade associations funded by drug companies or public health officials promoting forced use of a growing list of vaccines to dominate the conversation about vaccination. The vaccine injured cannot be swept under the carpet and treated like nothing more than "statistically acceptable collateral damage" of national one-size-fits-all mandatory vaccination policies that put way too many people at risk for injury and death. We shouldn't be treating people like guinea pigs instead of human beings.
I encourage you to visit the following web pages on the National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC) website at www.NVIC.org: NVIC Memorial for Vaccine Victims: View descriptions and photos of children and adults, who have suffered vaccine reactions, injuries and deaths. If you or your child experiences an adverse vaccine event, please consider posting and sharing your story here. If You Vaccinate, Ask 8 Questions: Learn how to recognize vaccine reaction symptoms and prevent vaccine injuries. Vaccine Freedom Wall: View or post descriptions of harassment and sanctions by doctors, employers, school and health officials for making independent vaccine choices.
If your pediatrician or doctor refuses to provide medical care to you or your child unless you agree to get vaccines you don't want, I strongly encourage you to have the courage to find another doctor. Harassment, intimidation, and refusal of medical care is becoming the modus operandi of the medical establishment in an effort to stop the change in attitude of many parents about vaccinations after they become truly educated about health and vaccination. However, there is hope. At least 15 percent of young doctors recently polled admit that they're starting to adopt a more individualized approach to vaccinations in direct response to the vaccine safety concerns of parents. It is good news that there is a growing number of smart young doctors, who prefer to work as partners with parents in making personalized vaccine decisions for children, including delaying vaccinations or giving children fewer vaccines on the same day or continuing to provide medical care for those families, who decline use of one or more vaccines. So take the time to locate a doctor, who treats you with compassion and respect and is willing to work with you to do what is right for your child.
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