Scandals - 3/22/02

"There are no secrets that time does not reveal" - Jean Racine

What time and the legal system are beginning to reveal about what vaccine manufacturers and the CDC know

Waters & Kraus, the lead law firm in a consortium of law suits concerning thimerosal in vaccines and consequent neurological damage resulting in autism, just released its most recent bombshell:  Eli Lilly, as early as the 1930's, was apparently aware of the harmful nature of thimerosal in vaccines.  In an earlier press release Waters & Kraus also revealed that the CDC withheld critical evidence to the Institute of Medicine, instead supplying inconclusive information which contributed to the IOM's (lack of) conclusions regarding thimerosal in vaccines.  These facts have only been obtained as a result of the judicial discovery process and would not be known now were it not for pending lawsuits.

In an earlier lawsuit, private letters were obtained documenting significant contributions made by vaccine manufacturers to the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP).  This issue of conflict of interest between the AAP and vaccine manufacturers would probably still be unknown were it not for a lawsuit.

The cigarette companies played dumb and blind until lawsuits forced them to tell the truth.  It would seem that the vaccine manufacturers have much in common with the cigarette companies if they, too, are not voluntarily revealing all they know.   If so, given the fact that vaccines, unlike cigarettes, are recommended, even mandated -  and because parents have been convinced of their safety, they do not object to the recommendations and mandates concerning their use - the situation is all that more deplorable.

What else do the vaccine manufacturers know?

When will the medical profession, and in particular pediatricians, stop being complicit partners in this growing familial and societal nightmare?  When will doctors start listening to the parents of vaccine-injured children and stop patronizing them and dismissing their concerns?  When will they begin to honor the right of parents to determine what is best for their children?   When will they return to the precept of the Hippocratic Oath to "first do no harm"? 

Since they can no longer be sued by patients for vaccine damage (only the government can go after doctors, and then only if a government vaccine-damage award has been made on the basis of medical negligence), why the resistance to acknowledging and reporting vaccine-associated reactions?

When will pediatricians begin to act as advocates for all their patients, including the vaccine-injured and those who choose not to vaccinate?

How much evidence do we, the public, need before we begin to object to what is happening to our children?  When will we realize that until we stop automatically believing everything we are told, we, too, are responsible for the wrongs being done to our children?

When will we all begin to see how conflict of interest compromises everything that is allegedly "known" about vaccine safety?

When when will we begin to demand both our rights and the truth?