Educated Parents Respond to "ER"

DR. MERCOLA'S COMMENT:

As you may know, on February 15th, 2001, NBC's television drama "ER" contained a highly controversial story line about a family who chose not to vaccinate their children, and one of the children contracts measles and dies from complications while the doctors on the show lash out at the mother and categorically deny any risks posed by the vaccine.

NBC's lack of responsibility, compassion and sensitivity about a very real problem is highly disturbing. Measles containing vaccines do sometimes injure and kill children. A death or injury from a vaccine is just as awful as a death or injury from a disease.

Although I have a home theater set up in my home it is not hooked up to receive any commercial television for the many reasons that I site. TV is far to addictice for me, and if it were connected I know that I would watch it. I do watch one TV show regularly though, ER.

I am able to do this because my office manager tapes the show for me. I would have sent this message out this past Saturday if I had watched the show live, but I only saw it on Sunday.

I have been gradually growing less fond of ER as their story lines are full of moral corruption and it seems like the main characters are always suffering from some major life trial. Not a very encouraging series.

Anyway NBC went too far with this one. They dramatized one child dying from measles who had not been vaccinated. They were 100% clueless about what causes disease.

Children do NOT get sick and die from some bad scary virus unless they have some predisposing factors. The major ones would be eating sugar and drinking soda and juice instead of water.

I am absolutely certain that IF ANY child dies in the US from measles complications there are many more children who die from the disease who WERE vaccinated.

It is true that measles can be fatal. Perhaps 1 in 1,000 children who gets measles has complications, occasionally resulting in death. Measles is very rare these days, but vaccinated children can get it too. Of cases reported in Colorado between 1987 and 1998 (time interval probably chosen to include the epidemic of 1989-90), 45 were in "exemptors," but 137 were in vaccinated children (see JAMA of 12/27/00). In most cases, the source of the infection was not known or stated, but it was probably not indigenous to the U.S.

It would have been far more accurate to portray a child coming in with newly diagnosed autism after receiving the MMR vaccine or better yet portray the story of Michael Belkin who regularly forwards me news stories and has testified before Congress for his experience of his young daughter dying in his arms hours after receiving a hepatitis B vaccine.

Hepatitis B Vaccinations: Michael Belkin Testimony to Congress

Shots in the Dark

Yes folks the truth is that vaccines can and do kill. Had ER portrayed Michael with his daughter being rushed to the ER dying that would have been the truth which would have been far more powerful than the fantasy that NBC presented.

BUT to add insult to injury NBC had the unmitigated gall to run an ad for Prevnar, the pneumococcal vaccine immediately after they showed the scene with the child supposedly coming down with measles from not being vaccinated.

American Home Products is the manufacturer of Prevnar. It was American Home Products that brought us the failed rotavirus vaccine as well as the diet drugs Fen-Phen which has resulted in a multi-billion dollar proposed settlement due to heart valve damage that resulted in those taking the drugs.

Today there are a few news articles related to recent studies that look at the health of those who were taking the drugs Fen-Phen. Both articles talked about the study and suggested that the health outcomes appear to look good for those that were affected by the drugs and that valve damage has not gotten worse.

One article mentions the following: "American Home Products agreed last year to pay up to $3.75 billion in a proposed settlement that could cover all 6 million users of the drugs, sold under the brand names Pondimin and Redux."

The drugs were pulled from the market after a 1997 study found that patients who took fen-phen showed heart valve damage.

If your paying attention (which they hope you aren't) you'll notice that American Home Products is the parent company of Wyeth-Ayerst Laboratories. The parent company funds the lab who funds the research which finds that the problems encountered "do not worsen" and heart damage is "seen improving" in those who took the drugs that are responsible for a "proposed" multi-billion dollar settlement.

As an aside, many enjoy ER due to its accuracy which is helped by its many physician consultants. The one glitch though is they make their doctors look too good. It is hard to imagine ANY new ER attending being able to diagnose measles like super doc John Carter without ever having seen the disease in his life.

Anyway, it is not too late to voice your concerns to NBC. You can get an idea of how some have already responded by looking at some comments below.

Go to www.nbc.com, and on the right side there is a scroll box where you can select "your favorite show". Click on "ER" and then scroll to the bottom section entitled "Contact Us", and click on "Email ER". There is an online form where you can let the producers know what you think about this episode.

Other stories that should be mentioned as possible items of interest to NBC include:

1. Serious adverse reactions to vaccines (I have a Microsoft Excel data base of 25,000 adverse reactions to hepatitis B vaccine from the FDA and CDC Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System, VAERS, available on request).
2. The money trail: state agencies or school districts that get money for forcing children to receive vaccines, and conflicts of interest that compromise the "experts" who testify for mandates.
3. CDC stonewalling on requests for safety data on hepatitis B and other vaccines.
4. Parents or other caregivers jailed for murder when their babies die, possibly from a vaccine reaction, when there is no direct evidence that they ever abused the child in any way. (Was a vaccine history taken in the English nanny case, by the way?)
5. Parents whose children are excluded from school and reported to Child Protective Services because they have exercised a legal and conscientious objection to a mandated vaccine (even against a disease such as hepatitis B that is very rare in children and not ordinarily transmitted in a school setting).

Pass this on to anyone asking you questions about this latest pharmaceutical stunt so the truth can shine.

It is true that measles can be fatal. Perhaps 1 in 1,000 children who gets measles has complications, occasionally resulting in death. Measles is very rare these days, but vaccinated children can get it too. Of cases reported in Colorado between 1987 and 1998 (time interval probably chosen to include the epidemic of 1989-90), 45 were in "exemptors," but 137 were in vaccinated children (see JAMA of 12/27/00). In most cases, the source of the infection was not known or stated, but it was probably not indigenous to the U.S.

However, vaccine reactions can be fatal or seriously disabling too. The safety standards for vaccines are unacceptably low. Testing involves a limited number of subjects, who are generally followed for a very short time.

All medical treatments carry some risk, and the risk:benefit ratio is different for different individuals. Therefore, we believe that no one should be forced to undergo a medical treatment, even if a physician recommends it. Physicians have a duty to present the risks and benefits as accurately as they can, including an honest appraisal of gaps in our knowledge. Glibly assuming that "absence of evidence is evidence of absence"--when in fact studies of sufficient power have simply not been done--is a profound disservice to patients.

The Association of American Physicians and Surgeons passed unanimously a resolution condemning mandatory vaccines at its annual meeting in October, 2000. AAPS was founded in 1943 to preserve the traditional patient-physician relationship.

Anyone wanting to read some of the MMR vaccine adverse event reports can do so at http://www.fedbuzz.com/vaccine/vac.html.

ER Viewers Responses

I've been a faithful ER fan for years. It's the ONLY show I have ever been able to say that about. Last night was my last viewing. I was actually watching the show in my daughter's hospital room. She was admitted suffering from yet another side effect from one of the horrible treatments she received for her autoimmune disease.

An autoimmune disease caused by the MMR vaccine.

I'm thankful she was so sedated from her pain medication that she missed the whole show. We usually watch it together.

I found it sadly ironic that in the same show you showed such compassion for the man suffering from lupus, the disease that my daughter's hematologist believes she is developing. Are you even remotely aware of the connection between the vaccine and autoimmune diseases? You could have at least had the sensibility to catch that sad insult. After your condescending and reprehensible treatment of the parents, you cut immediately to a vaccine commercial. You left me spinning with nausea. Now I leave your viewing audience.

Shame on you.

Sara Smith
__________

As a pediatric physician in the alternative health care field, I am becoming increasingly alarmed by the growing incidence of chronic, debilitating auto-immune and immunodeficiency diseases in my pediatric patients. It is not merely coincidental that the disease symptoms presented by these helpless children, whose ages vary from six months to seventeen years old, either started or became severely aggravated shortly after a vaccination or series of vaccinations.

It is very frustrating, if not infuriating, to witness such a biased and obviously unethically promoted view of vaccination in a recent ER. You people have not done your homework. If, at a minimum, this promotion was a public service message courtesy of a government regulatory agency in need of more regulatory control over the lives of its people, your message is little more than propaganda for the sake of "the end justifies the means".

If, on the other hand, this advertisement was an attempt to educate your audience about the benefits of vaccination, your message will end up benefiting the pharmaceutical industry far more than it will the millions of children who are at high risk for adverse reactions and/or long term consequences from our very reckless mandated vaccine policy.

For your information, there is not only plenty of measurable scientific evidence to suggest that our reckless vaccine policy is dangerous; there also exists a number of ethical premises upon which the very notion of health is predicated (such as: "Doctor, do no harm") that lead intelligent people to question whether the application of our reckless vaccine policy is flawed.

Without considering or weighing the pros and cons of vaccination, one need only understand that the fundamental issue of importance in this vaccine controversy is the right of consent. You have not only done a disservice to people by insulting our collective intelligence with your biased view (and incomplete facts) of this controversial medical procedure, you have succeeded in leading us further down the slippery slope towards political expedience and moral decay by condoning the repression of our constitutional freedoms.

This particular ER program was another example of ignorance on display in the media and another reason why more and more rational people are turning television off and looking for news in other places.

Toni Krehel
__________

I am a long time fan of ER but I was shocked last night by the inaccuracy of the measles story line. First of all to portray the parents in the light that you did is unconscionable. This is 2001. Not only do parents have a right to make an informed decision for their child it is their responsibility. Did the people who wrote this story have any idea that there are children being injured every day in the United States from vaccine reactions.

In 1986 Congress passed a law to compensate these individuals.

This government program has paid out over $1 billion to children who have been injured and killed by mandated childhood vaccines, including the measles vaccine.

To flat out say there is no connection between autism and vaccination is a lie and disservice to your audience.

There is evidence and studies are ongoing at the National Institutes of Health, the Institute of Medicine and the M.I.N.D. Institute to name a few. You have done a great disservice to your viewers by presenting such a biased story. About the only thing that was accurate were the way doctors treat parents on this issue. Many parents are berated by health care providers for exercising their informed consent rights on the vaccination issue which pushes parents away from their health care providers.

I would like to know why your producers would think that the life of a child that dies from a disease is more valuable than the life of a child who dies or is permanently injured by a vaccine?

As a viewer I have to wonder who brought this storyline to ER. I'm sure it was only a coincidence that the first advertisement was for a new childhood vaccine, Prevnar. You sold out and you should be ashamed of yourselves.

Kathi Williams

Co-Founder and Director National Vaccine Information Center Vienna, VA

__________

You've gone too far.

As a registered nurse, disabled with an 'undifferentiated connective tissue disease' and severe peripheral sensory neuron disease because of multiple vaccines including: influenza, DPT, hepatitis B and MMR series - mandated as a condition for clinical practice - I have a "desk job" which affords me the option of working flexible shifts. Uncharacteristically, I was home to see the 'ER' episode February 8, 2001, including previews for February 15th promising something outrageous in the way of infectious diseases.

'Lordie, what now?' I pondered. 'Small pox?' It was obvious that the Vaccine Machine had reached into their deep pockets and bought an episode of 'ER.' I chose to work my usual preferred evening shift and avoid watching the exaggerated infectious disease scenario, to miss this episode that promised further insult and condescension to vaccine casualties like myself.

It was my responsibility to do professional fee abstraction for the ER at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia in 1997, and for 15 months reviewed an average of 150 pediatric' ER medical records per day, 5 days a week.

I never read of one incident of death from wild measles virus presenting to Children's Hospital of Philadelphia's Emergency Room.

On the other hand, there were countless, daily reminders of the pervasiveness of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, Autism, Asthma, Diabetes, metabolic and other chronic disorders in this generation of vaccine mutated children. Are we going to tamper and promote chronic disabling conditions in our society by terrifying them with horror stories of infectious disease epidemics when we've barely shaken hands with human genome prototypes? Your ties to your sponsors, the promoters of Prevnar, were shamelessly transparent.

May I suggest, as a way of making amends with the increasingly large autoimmunity and otherwise vaccine-injured community - how about a story line about Dr. Green's pathology report, owning up to the fact that his malignancy is seeded with SV40? That Dr. Green was one of the hundreds of millions of citizens, 100 million in the U.S. alone, infected +/- 40 years ago from the polio vaccine that was contaminated by Simian Virus 40. You might win back a few of us, your Former Fans that you've offended.

If it is sensationalism you're after. Give credit that a few of us out here can still appreciate subtlety in ethical issues.

Disappointed RN, CPC
_________

I have been wondering over the years why ER and other medical shows haven't gone near this issue regarding the vaccination controversy. You have chosen to air one side of the controversy. Why not go to the Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System and select 1 of the thousands of reports of children who have reacted to a vaccination, been rushed to the ER in full blown tonic/clonic seizures, brain swelling, projectile vomiting, edema, rash all over the body, fever, etc. Have the ER crew valiantly try to save the child but fail.

Then {the doctors would} console the parents saying that most children that survive this sort of vaccine reaction are left severely damaged and maybe this outcome was best for all.

And as the parents slowly leave the hospital, Elizabeth Corday does a little research and finds that same lot of vaccine given to the child that died had 136 other reports of vaccine reactions, of which: 68 were rushed to the ER, 2 had life threatening conditions, 19 were hospitalized, 1 was immediately and permanently disabled, 19 had unknown recovery, 3 had no recovery, and 5 died, and the FDA new this, but didn't recall the vaccine. Then Elizabeth Corday would throw down her stethoscope in outrage and say "those bastards".

Barbara Loe Fisher of the National Vaccine Information Center could be your medical consultant/expert.

Michael Framson
__________

I am writing to you today because of the ER episode in which a non-vaccinated child died on your show. My suggestion to you is that you do your homework on vaccines.

You see, my son is vaccine injured. He is one of the victims of vaccination. We should all be allowed to do our homework and decide what is best for our children and protect them the best way we know how. The way you portrayed the family was wrong. I am an educated person from the medical field. The condescending tone you used to the family was disgusting.

My son is severely and permanently brain injured. He had many complications following his vaccinations. He eventually had an aneurysm rupture in his brain, he died three times and was resuscitated, his aneurysm ruptured a 2nd time 10 days later. He was only 4 months old. He was hospitalized for over 4 months and he was not expected to live many, many times during this stay.

No one can understand the pain that this can cause. Since this happened to my son I have done extensive research and have been sickened by what I have uncovered. My son will never receive another vaccine. I will not play Russian Roulette with his life again.

I suggest that you do your homework, read the package inserts, and hopefully you will never need to deal with vaccine injury personally. I also noticed that you ran an ad for Prevnar during this show. You can view a 33 page research paper on this which shows all the conflicts of interest in getting this vaccine approved. I would be happy to supply you with this research paper. It has killed children already. No child should be expendable in the name of the public good.

When one child died from getting locked inside a trunk of a car the world was mortified and made changes in automobile manufacturing. The result was a release latch inside the trunk. One child's death was one too many. Why does this rule not apply to my child? To the millions of vaccine injured children?

Because shows like yours mislead people about the truth.

I am shocked that you would run something like this and I am never going to watch your show again. I truly believe that you owe the entire vaccine injured community (there are millions of them out there) an apology.

Tammy Carrington
__________

How much research did the writers for this script do on MMR's & Autism? The actor, Anthony Edwards who plays Dr. Mark Green - (CAN - Cure Autism Now Board Member) was he ever asked about Autism? Does anyone on one's staff have a child who has suffered from receiving a vaccination or even died from receiving one?

I have a child who was born without traces of Autism. He developed "normally"; however, after receiving his MMR shot at 14-15 months of age - within a few amount of weeks, he started to lose speech and as time went on - he developed Autistic Traits. Fortunately, today (3 1/2 years later), he still is weak in the speech area but has dramatically improved in other areas due to our intense therapy approaches, supplementations, testing, gluten/free - casein/free diet and other approaches as well.

He has had a colonoscopy and an endoscopy - he is currently having tests run in Ireland which is a Measles Virus Detection Analysis Report. He has had DMSA (heavy metals detoxification) treatments to remove the vaccine parts of Mercury that is in the MMR shot.

I understand that TV scripts cover only a short version of the truths. However, though my thoughts will more than likely be overlooked - I do feel that how one portrayed the family on the show which aired (Feb. 15, 2001) regarding MMR vaccination truly did an injustice to families regarding their decisions not to vaccinate. If one really wants to pass judgment - then I suggest that one does an episode on Merck Industries the makers of vaccines and other drugs.

Check on the legal levels of Mercury and other toxins that go into vaccines (aborted fetus tissue is in some vaccines).

I assure NBC that the network will be receiving numerous comments regarding the airing of ER and MMR-Vaccines. Anthony Edwards - please help to educate in this area. I'm sure you are aware of the effects and possibilities regarding vaccines.

Though I'm not totally against vaccines, I'm against all of the additives that are going into them and the increasing amount of vaccines that one feels forced to give to such small children.

To let one know, I felt somewhat offended due to one's true lack of knowledge regarding vaccines - today. The toxin levels of heavy metal encased in a vial and injected into an innocent child who doesn't understand what is happening.

As days go by this child could develop high fevers, seizures, lose speech, or begin living a life of dazed looks and withdrawing from the world. This is AUTISM. My son lives it and so does his family. We are doing everything in the world to make his world a better reality. He will not ever receive another MMR vaccine. His levels of MMR in his blood system (Titer's Test) are extremely above normal - meaning that his body had a reaction to that vaccine - the tainted MMR shot.

Please ask one's self this question, what if this were my child? What would I do to make a difference in his world? Educate people about vaccines and the effects that vaccines could cause.

Contact me for info. I am an advocate, consultant, and an educator regarding Autism, vaccines, and disabilities.

Darlene Carl

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