ADVOCACY

A Day of Remembrance:
Vaccine Injured March on Capitol Hill

By Barbara Loe Fisher of the National Vaccine Information Center.
www.nvic.org



Barbara Fischkin, left, with Lujene Clark, a parent activist and
founder of No Mercury, See Fischkin's commentary about the rally on
the Huffington Post blog. tinyurl.com/4kot2l Photo by Christine Heeren
of Lighthouse Studios.

They came by the thousands from all over the America. On June 4,
2008, mothers and fathers with vaccine injured autistic children
marched down the middle of Independence Avenue and rallied at the foot
of the nation's Capitol. Some parents walked with, held or pushed
their children in strollers while others, whose children were too
severely brain injured to attend, carried signs and photos. They had
come to witness, in one way or another, what had happened to their
children after vaccination.
The day broke hot and humid with a threat of torrential rains
that would have drenched the marchers. But then, the skies cleared and
the sun came out in time for the determined parents and their children
to gather on the grounds of the Washington Monument and line up behind
Hollywood celebrities Jim Carrey and Jenny McCarthy leading the march
and the "Green Our Vaccines" rally that would follow.
Although the primary message of the march was to call on
government health agencies to "remove toxins" from vaccines and
"adjust the vaccine schedule" by reducing the numbers of vaccines
given to infants simultaneously, NVIC supporters carried signs
declaring "No forced vaccination. Not in America." As NVIC co-founder
Kathi Williams and I walked past the long line of families waiting to
begin the march, we and our now-grown children held up the signs
featuring the American flag and statue of liberty. All the way down
the line, the families of vaccine injured children clapped and cheered
the message of freedom we carried to honor and empower them as we passed.
And while many at the front of the line marching down
Independence Avenue chanted "Too many, too soon," those of us bringing
up the back of the line chanted "Hey, hey, Ho, ho - forced vaccines
have got to go!" with an African American father urging us to shout
louder and louder as we approached the Department of Health and Human
Services. "Let them hear you," he yelled. "Tell them what you want."
I looked at my 30-year old son, who became multiply learning
disabled after a neurological reaction to his fourth DPT shot in 1980
when he was two and a half, as he walked beside me resolutely holding
up our sign and shouting in a deep voice "Forced vaccines have got to
go." When he was eight years old, I remembered marching in Atlanta in
front of the Centers for Disease Control in 1986 with Kathi and the
young mothers of babies who had been brain injured or died after DPT
vaccination in the 1980's. We were the first generation to march in
protest against toxic vaccines and one-size-fits-all government
vaccine policies justified by the utilitarian premise that it is
ethical to throw a minority of children under the bus in service to
others.
The second generation, whose children were born in the 1990's
and developed autism after vaccination, held a series of rallies on
Capitol Hill sponsored by Unlocking Autism beginning in 2000 when
Congressman Dan Burton initiated congressional hearings on the link
between autism and vaccines. In the summer of 2005, parents protesting
mercury in vaccines marched and rallied on Capitol Hill. Today, the
third generation knows that vaccine damage is about more than mercury.
It is also about too much vaccination: 48 doses of 14 vaccines given
by age six and 69 doses of 16 vaccines federal health officials now
say children must get by the time they graduate from high school.
At the rally podium, Jim Carey delivered a remarkable address
that was also a sweet love letter to his partner, Jenny McCarthy. He
said "Autism is everywhere. It is on every street and in every town"
and he asked the CDC "How stupid do you think we are?"
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and physicians such as Jay Gordon, M.D.
and professor of chemistry Boyd Haley, Ph.D. called for removal of
toxins from vaccines. Jenny McCarthy, who is the celebrity
spokesperson for Talk About Curing Autism Now (TACA), held up the
government's childhood vaccine schedule and said "Parents need to know
it is called a recommended schedule, not a mandatory schedule."
Unfortunately, that may not be true in many states in the
future. Lobbyists for drug companies making vaccines, medical
organizations representing doctors who give vaccines and government
health officials are pressing state legislators in every state to pass
legislation that would automatically turn CDC new vaccine
"recommendations" into state mandatory vaccination laws.
This kind of proposed legislation was beaten back in the
California legislature by the education efforts of autism activist
Rick Rollens last year. But right now, the New York State legislature
is about to capitulate to the Forced Vaccination Lobby and force
children in New York to use every vaccine the CDC "recommends" or face
punishment, including loss of the right to get an education.
A rally of families protesting the proposed legislation will be
held in Albany, NY at the Capitol Building at 11:30 a.m. on Tuesday,
June 10. For more information, go to www.mykids mychoice.com
I will never forget marching with parents and their vaccine
injured children in Washington, D.C. on June 4, 2008. Just as I will
never forget all the marches that have gone before during the past
quarter century that parents have been asking those who operate and
profit from the mass vaccination system to make vaccines and vaccine
policies safer.
Three decades of begging is long enough. Now it is time for all
Americans - both those with vaccine injured children and those with
healthy children - to Stand Up and Be Counted for the human right to
make informed, voluntary decisions about vaccination. Our freedom and
the biological integrity of this and future generations is on the
line. Without the legal right to say "no" to vaccination, the people
have no economic or political leverage to protect themselves and their
children from toxic vaccines and dangerous vaccine policies.
The next march on Capitol Hill talking about vaccines should be
all about freedom.
(To view wonderful photos of the rally, go to the blog
Adventures in Autism). adventuresinautism.blogspot.com/




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• • •

Other Media Coverage

Green Our Vaccine Rally

CBS: Led by actors Jenny McCarthy and Jim Carrey, they're
marching against the medical establishment that says there's no
evidence vaccines cause autism, CBS News medical correspondent Dr. Jon
LaPook reports.
"We want to send the message to the CDC and our federal
government that vaccinations schedules are not one size fits all for
all children and that each child is different," said concerned parent
Michael Williamson.
Their new battle cry: Spread out the vaccine schedule.
"Thirty-six vaccines in the first few years of the life are too
many too soon," Carrey said.
By the time a child is two years old, the CDC recommends 14
different vaccines in as many as 28 doses. That may sound like a lot -
but these shots have helped to wipe out diseases like smallpox, polio
and measles, saving an estimated 33,000 lives a year, according to the
CDC.
Even so, some are asking: Why give so many vaccines over a
relatively short period of time? Dr. Paul Offit helped invent one of
those vaccines.
"There is no advantage to spacing out, delaying or withholding
vaccines," Offit said. "The only thing that will come of that kind of
behavior will be allowing for a period of time to occur when children
are at risk of vaccine preventable diseases."
The activists are also worried about the preservatives used to
keep vaccines sterile.
Safety concerns about a mercury-based preservative called
Thimerosol led to its removal from most childhood vaccines almost a
decade ago. But since then autism rates have gone up, not down. Still,
parents are asking lots of questions.
"I would say that as a pediatrician I spend about 50 percent of
my day talking about vaccines," said Pediatric Dr. Bruce Brovender.
He insists his patients be vaccinated, but he's willing to
compromise with parents - up to a point.
Brovender warns them about the risks if they don't follow the
schedule recommended by the CDC and American Academy of Pediatrics.
"They are 100 percent warned that by delaying or spacing them
out they are not going to get the protection they need," Brovender
said. "It's better to follow the academy's schedule, but it's better
to get something than nothing."
He says the marchers have forgotten the consequences of failing
to vaccinate properly.
"The child who didn't get the whooping cough vaccine and is now
on a respirator and now may have permanent brain and lung damage," he
said.

• • •

Washington Post: Marching for the Children

You never truly know what's real with any Hollywood couple, but
when Jim Carrey travels cross-country to support Jenny McCarthy--
well, the relationship looks like a keeper. They've been together for
two years, so there might be one of those ugly breakups around the
corner -- but right now they seem so happy that it's hard to be snarky.
The two came to Washington yesterday asking for changes in
vaccines that some have linked to autism. McCarthy has been an
activist since her 6-year-old son, Evan, was diagnosed, and the stars
led a march and rally for 8,000 parents at the Capitol wearing "Green
Our Vaccines" T-shirts (she paired hers with black jeans and black
Converse sneakers, he wore khakis), reports our colleague Marissa Newhall.
"Today I am not the celebrity," McCarthy told the crowd. "Today
I am a mom of a child who had autism, who has a voice that is willing
to shake the ground of those responsible until all of our children are
safe."
Organizers want to reduce what they say are harmful toxins in
children's vaccines. Autism has increased dramatically along with the
number of mandatory vaccines over the past 25 years; activists want
the feds to study both vaccine requirements and ingredients.
Carrey skipped the jokes and went straight to the heartstrings.
"My daughter Jane, Jenny and Evan are the greatest things that ever
happened to me, and learning how to love them has made me a man. So
dads, hang in there. You need these kids as much as these kids need you."

Here are some links to media coverage regarding the event:

tinyurl.com/6orl9d

tinyurl.com/3ko5vh

abcnews.go.com/GMA/OnCall/story?id=4987758

tinyurl.com/3ko5vh

www.people.com/people/article/0,,20204466,00.html

www.ageofautism.com/