Note: This letter is no longer being circulated. - SM

Re: Letter to the producers and sponsors of NBC’s “ER” 

Instructions on how to sign: 

I've written an open, ongoing letter to the producers and sponsors of NBC's "ER", which I intend to keep adding "signatures" to, and sponsors who will receive the letter, indefinitely.  The idea is to eventually get enough signatures (I don't see why there can't be thousands of us signed on), and enough sponsors repeatedly getting the letter (I add them as I get them and their addresses, email or otherwise), that the sponsors pressure NBC to do the other side of the vaccine story.  If you are interested in “signing” this letter, the instructions follow: 

If you want to add your name to this open letter and have it sent to NBC et al, please email and include the following:  1) city (preferred), 2 state (required), 3) vaccine injured people you know, your relation to him/her, and the vaccine involved, if you know it (optional); 4) degrees you have, and in what (optional).   Any or all of this information may be included in the letter to NBC et al.  NBC et al now includes one reporter who wrote a story on this subject.  There may be others in the future who will be sent this letter. This letter is out in cyberspace; so if that bothers you, please do not sign.

Also, please pass this on to everyone you think might be interested. 

The letter (and a more recently added introduction to the letter) follow.  There are over 650  "signatures" so far.  Hope you will join us.  Thanks, Sandy Mintz   

Dear Sponsor of NBC’s “ER”: 

What follows is a letter that is circulating on the Internet concerning a highly misleading and inflammatory  “ER” measles episode.  Signatures will continue to be collected, and you will continue to be updated about them, indefinitely.  So far there are at least 650 individuals who have “signed” the letter.  Please note the number of medical professionals who have added their names to the list, as well as relatives and friends of the vaccine injured.   

As sponsors are added, and their email or other addresses obtained, the list of companies receiving this letter will grow.  As of now, over 60 sponsors are receiving this letter, either via email, fax, or the U.S. Postal Service. 

Perhaps you did not realize that there is another side to the vaccine story.  Please give thoughtful attention to your consideration of this very important matter and what your response might be.  Please bear in mind that as a sponsor of this show you bear both some responsibility for and power over its content.  

Sincerely,  

Sandy Mintz

Anchorage, Alaska

Dear Producers and Sponsors of NBC’s “ER”: 

We, the undersigned advocates of vaccine safety, wish to make the following statement: 

We are surprised and disappointed that a company with the financial resources of NBC would be willing to play so fast and loose with the facts about vaccine safety.  That you would be willing to risk any fraction of these resources, because of not using them to thoroughly investigate this complex issue, for the dubious purpose of propounding vaccine company financed propaganda/”research”, seems the height of folly and irresponsibility.  Had you done more than blindly accept the information such conflicted research yields, you would have discovered that there is considerable reason to question both the safety and benefits of vaccination.   You will have only yourselves to blame if one or more of the many parents of vaccine-damaged children cites your promotion of vaccination as the reason they decided to vaccinate.  (Perhaps you are unaware that the vaccine manufacturers found the burden of liability so great that they sought and obtained relief from the U.S. government.) 

We no more expected such a one-sided view of the issue and the parents who responsibly question vaccines, than we would have expected an episode of ER promoting smoking, using cigarette company financed “research”, and ridiculing those who chose not to smoke. 

An example of an unexamined “fact” you presented to your viewers was the statement that 1 out of 500 measles cases die.  Perhaps your sources did not explain this to you, but the U.S. measles death rate used to be far lower prior to vaccination.   So if this statistic is correct, one should ask what is the likely reason for this increased measles death rate.  The probable cause is that adults and infants, for whom measles can be quite serious, now get the measles, rather than children, for whom it is generally benign.  (Please bear in mind that the greater risk for adults and infants is not our opinion, but the opinion of many, including Dr. Sam Katz, one of the developers of the measles vaccine.  In a chapter on measles vaccine in the Third Edition of “Vaccines”, he writes with two others:  “The risk of serious complications and death is increased in infants and adults.”  And later, “The highest risk of death was in children younger than 1 year and adults.”)*   

This increased death rate is most likely happening for one reason and one reason alone - because children are being vaccinated.  Neither vaccination nor revaccination is a guarantee that one will be protected from the measles and could well be a significant problem in the future.  (Again from Katz et al, “Boosting of antibody titers appears to be transient, with several investigators finding decay of antibody levels to the pre-revaccination level within months to years”).  It is attested to by the outbreaks among 100% vaccinated populations, presenting as full-blown, mild or subclinical measles cases.  Hence a parent who was convinced by your one-sided portrayal of the issue might vaccinate their child, and that child as an adult might get the measles and die in future large outbreaks among the previously vaccinated.  Had that child been allowed to get the measles, he or she would not be at risk for measles as an adult.  Is that a responsibility you wanted to take on? 

We believe that the only responsible goal is one that promotes unbiased safety research and the right to choose what is best for our children.  We believe that informed choice should be the cornerstone of a free society, one in which the rights of individuals are honored and the imperfect nature of science recognized. We hope you will find a way to rectify this terrible wrong by fairly presenting the other side of this important story. 

*It is interesting to note that in a 1990 article on measles vaccine, written by Drs. Walter Orenstein, Director of the National Immunization Program at the CDC, and Lauri Markowitz, one of the co-authors of both the 1990 article and the Katz article and formerly of the CDC, it was stated:  “From 1950 to 1959, an annual average of more than 500,000 cases and 500 deaths were reported.  However, the true number of infections was estimated to be 10 times as high.”  In other words, if only reported cases are considered, the death rate appears to be 1/1000.  If you factor in the number of unreported cases, quite high during the era when measles was common, the death rate drops to 1/10,000.  In the more recent Katz “Vaccines” article, co-written with Redd and Markowitz, it says that the death rate is 1 to 3 in 1000 cases, even though later in the article they say that there used to be, “in the prevaccine era”, around 500 deaths among 4,000,000 cases (actually 1.25/10,000 cases).  Either they are exaggerating the current death rate, or it has gone up.  We submit that if the death rate has risen, measles vaccine is the cause, having changed measles epidemiology so that high-risk groups now more often get the measles. 

Signed,  

Names already sent to NBC et al (over 500 strong and still growing)

New names   

Vaccination News Home Page

ALL INFORMATION, DATA, AND MATERIAL CONTAINED, PRESENTED, OR PROVIDED HERE IS FOR GENERAL INFORMATION PURPOSES ONLY AND IS NOT TO BE CONSTRUED AS REFLECTING THE KNOWLEDGE OR OPINIONS OF THE PUBLISHER, AND IS NOT TO BE CONSTRUED OR INTENDED AS PROVIDING MEDICAL OR LEGAL ADVICE.  THE DECISION WHETHER OR NOT TO VACCINATE IS AN IMPORTANT AND COMPLEX ISSUE AND SHOULD BE MADE BY YOU, AND YOU ALONE, IN CONSULTATION WITH YOUR HEALTH CARE PROVIDER.