My recent collision with mainstream media outlets provided a fascinating glimpse into the world behind the lens; where-in so called modern journalism now involves the coveting of misleading sound-bytes and “off the cuff” distorted rhetoric, while strategically editing out crucial material in order to support a pre-scripted slant or bias, employing loaded questions posed under pressure, designed to polarize issues, to the exclusion of balanced debate & enlightened, critical thinking type discussion – all of which reveals a growing disconnect between the dissemination of that which constitutes real news and the perpetuation of Western Medical Establishment & Vaccine lobby propaganda.
Where are the real journalists in this corrupted wilderness? Those with any integrity left must recognize that their work will never fit into the confines of the prime-time “news” format. For they are now the gatekeepers of information, whose role it is to manipulate public opinion, to keep our communities forever in the dark, and thus reward their paymasters.
This sentiment was echoed by a (semi-mainstream) journalist who interviewed me extensively in March; as a lead-up to our highly controversial VRM Vaccine Summit. He subsequently admitted that there, were, indeed, forces behind the scenes, imposing pressure upon mainstream media outlets (such as his own) to suppress our overall message from getting out. He alluded to the fact that he was on our side, but that, as a journalist, his hands were tied by his higher-ups, and therefore he couldn’t present a more balanced, informative report – the implication being that his directive, was, in fact, to discredit the anti-vaccine movement and deflect attention away from any meaningful discourse.
“I can’t go into any details about it, but I’m telling you, there was a LOT of pressure on me (to edit out specific content). This is a very dangerous issue you’re taking on here. You’re going up against a lot of powerful people.”
Following the release of his watered-down article on us, he spoke with a veteran doctor, none of whose children had been vaccinated, who, when asked why, quietly pointed out that vaccines are implicitly “dangerous”. My comment back to him? This is beginning to sound a lot like East Germany. In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act. It’s time more of us spoke the truth without fear of recrimination.
University Medical Departments are being used covertly to solicit biased Clinical Trial data in favor of new vaccine/drug products through the pipeline; with substantial financial “donations” from Vaccine manufacturing giants (ie. Merck, GSK); including millions of dollars worth of free medical equipment. This systemic problem of conflict-of-interest, throughout the Medical Industry, is thus nurtured long before these medical students ever reach the professional field.
The Health-Sciences Dep’t at Simon Fraser University (SFU), Vancouver, British Columbia, recently received a donation of 1.4 million dollars worth of lab equipment from Vaccine manufacturing giant Merck – producers of the Gardasil Vaccine; in addition to 2.7 million dollars from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to fund the development of a new Aids Vaccine. This is the real reason why they tried to deny the Vaccine Resistance Movement access to their campus. All mainstream media outlets conveniently buried this evidence.
‘Simon Fraser University scientists are busy opening boxes full of shiny new toys for their teaching and research programs. This seasonal excitement comes courtesy of a $1.4 million equipment donation from Merck Canada. Boxes containing scientific tools and equipment – from pipettes and balances up to an ABI 3730xl DNA Analyzer, the gold standard in high-throughput automated Sanger DNA sequencing – have arrived at SFU and will be used to support research and teaching in a number of areas that affect human health, including virology, immunology, toxicology, biochemistry and pathology.
“SFU’s faculty of health sciences is a pretty new faculty, and it typically takes many years to build up a critical mass of laboratory infrastructure. Merck has really enhanced our ability to do high level research by giving us all of this equipment at once.”’ http://www.sfu.ca/pamr/media-releases/2011/1-4-million-merck-gift-sets-holiday-season-in-motion.html
SFU HIV/AIDS vaccine research gets financial boost – ‘Jamie Scott, a Simon Fraser University professor and Canada Research Chair in molecular immunity, and three international collaborators are getting a hefty financial boost in their efforts to develop an effective HIV/AIDS vaccine.
The United States National Institutes of Health (NIH) has awarded the four researchers $2.7 million to help them improve the effectiveness of a DNA-based vaccine that Marinieve Montero first conceived of eight years ago. Montero was a student of Scott’s whose work was also funded by the NIH, the U.S.’s largest government-funded medical research agency. Scott’s current collaborators are at the University of the Basque Country, the University of Massachusetts School of Medicine and the University of California, San Francisco.
The researchers will use their new funding to strengthen a vaccine they’ve made from a DNA fragment taken from the HIV genome. The fragment encodes something that is highly prized in HIV/AIDS vaccine research. Called the MPER, it’s a region of the HIV envelope that retains mutations at a very low level compared to the rest of the virus’s genome, which continually mutates.’
http://www.sfu.ca/pamr/media-releases/2012/sfu-hiv-aids-vaccine-research-gets-financial-boost.html
Statement from the Dean of FHS (Faculty of Health Sciences) on the Vaccine Resistance Movement Event at SFU Harbour Centre: ‘It has recently come to our attention that the “Vaccine Resistance Movement” (VRM) has rented space in the SFU Harbour Centre building to host their Summit 2013 conference. Downtown SFU space is routinely rented for commercial purposes to community and corporate groups. We are deeply concerned that the public may interpret this as an indication that SFU supports the perspective of the VRM. Nothing could be further from the truth. Renting downtown campus space does not convey in any way that these events are supported or promoted by SFU. Although we believe strongly in free and open debate of public health issues, the Faculty of Health Sciences believes that VRM promotes a dangerous, anti-science message that is a threat to the health of children and communities globally. Vaccines are rigorously tested for efficacy and safety and there is no scientific evidence whatsoever to support the claims of the VRM that vaccines are responsible for autism and other auto-immune conditions.
The VRM has based their claim of a link between vaccines and autism on a paper published in 1998 in The Lancet, a prestigious medical journal, by Andrew Wakefield. It later emerged that Wakefield had received funding from litigants against vaccine manufacturers and that Wakefield had not informed colleagues or medical authorities of his conflict of interest. Had this been known, publication in The Lancet would not have taken place. A 2011 article in the British Medical Journal concluded that the data in the Wakefield study had been falsified. An accompanying editorial in the same journal described Wakefield’s work as an “elaborate fraud” which led to lower vaccination rates, putting hundreds of thousands of children at risk and diverting energy and money away from research into the true cause of autism.
In contrast, scientific evidence for the effectiveness of large-scale vaccination campaigns is well-established. Full vaccination, from birth to adolescence, of all US children born in a given year, saves an estimated 33,000 lives and prevents an estimated 14 million infections. Lack of complete vaccine coverage increases the risk of disease for the entire population, including those who have been vaccinated. Public reaction to vaccine controversies has contributed to a significant increase in preventable diseases including pertussis (whooping cough), which is currently experiencing its worst outbreak in 70 years as a result of reduced vaccination rates. Pertussis continues to be a major health problem in developing countries, where mass vaccination is not practiced; the World Health Organization estimates it caused 294,000 deaths in 2002.
VRM critics have accused the vaccine industry of misrepresenting the safety and effectiveness of vaccines and influencing health policy decisions for financial gain. There is no evidence to support this claim and conversely, many groups profit by promoting the controversiality of vaccines, such as lawyers who receive fees, expert witnesses paid to provide testimony and to speak at conferences, and practitioners of alternative medicine offering ineffective and expensive medications, supplements, and procedures. In summary, the Faculty of Health Sciences at SFU is dismayed and disappointed that the VRM group may have attempted to establish credibility by using SFU name to further promote dangerous misinformation about the efficacy and safety of vaccines. We advise the public not to make any connection between the scientific integrity of SFU and the VRM conference.’ John O’Neil, PhD Professor and Dean http://www.sfu.ca/content/dam/sfu/fhs/news-and-events/news/2013-2014/VRM-Deans%20Statement%202013Mar5.pdf
The Academic community have graciously come forward at this time, in defence of our cause, with formal statements:
From Scientific researcher Lucija Tomljenovic, a close colleague of Neuroscientist Dr. Chris Shaw – ‘I would like to congratulate you for not yielding to the pressure of cancelling the vaccine summit from taking place at Simon Fraser. Censorship as a form of opposition is usually employed by those who have no better arguments and fear that the general public is intellectually inferior and unable to critically assess the data presented.
If vaccine concerns are no more than a quackery as some insist, then why is it so dangerous to allow the alleged quacks to voice their opinion? No one should take them seriously anyhow. Truth is however that evidence for vaccine concerns continues to grow.’
From Neuroscientist Dr. Christopher Shaw, Ph.D, Professor Dept. of Ophthalmology, University of British Columbia. Editorial to Province newspaper -‘Dear Mr. Clark: Yesterday’s editorial in the Province concerning the letter which requested that SFU distance itself from the Vaccine Summit was a timely reminder to all that in our society restrictions on freedom of speech and academic freedom should rarely be tolerated. SFU rents its space to a range of groups and one would hope that, as in your editorial, it will continue to do so regardless of how unpopular pr wrong-headed some views may be. One assumes that their guidelines restrict such rentals to groups promoting hatred, violence or illegal activities. Short of these, no restrictions should apply.
As an academic, I’m sometimes embarrassed by some of my academic colleagues who seem to have forgotten the fundamental nature of our civil, democratic society. I’m gratified that both SFU and the Province saw fit to educate the letter writers about these issues which are, in the end, vastly more important for our democratic traditions than any single meeting. Lastly, I’m not sure why the editorial views the meeting participants as being “leftie”. In addition, the issues of vaccine safety and efficacy are not quite as “undebatable” as your editorial -or our grandfathers- may suggest.’
From Dr.Toni Bark – ‘I want to say thank you for allowing the vaccine summit to happen at Simon Fraser. I teach at Boston University Medical Center in the masters program for healthcare emergency management and hold a doctorate as well. We have been educating our students about the “Hype” of the flu vaccine and the lack of scientific methodology in regards to vaccine harms trials as the placebos used are anything but inert and safe.
It is imperative that we have the forum for an open discussion regarding the safety, efficacy and necessity of drugs and vaccines without being stymied.’
Vaccination debate continues in Vancouver – Interview with Joel Lord (Georgia Straight) http://www.straight.com/life/358866/vaccination-debate-continues-vancouver
The problem with vaccines – Feature article by Joel Lord (Common Ground Magazine) http://commonground.ca/2013/03/the-problem-with-vaccines/
SFU urged to block anti-vaccine gathering – University president points to policy on freedom of expression (Province Newspaper)http://www.theprovince.com/health/urged+block+anti+vaccine+gathering/8054023/story.html#ixzz2OTKo99eZ
Anti-vaccine movement coming to Vancouver: Centre for Inquiry says SFU should not host conference (CBC News – national/local) http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/story/2013/03/06/bc-vaccine-sfu.html
Vaccination horror stories featured at Vancouver forum: BC Centre for Disease Control says medical science supports continued use of vaccines (CBC News – local) http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/story/2013/03/10/bc-vaccine-stories-forum.html
B.C. university criticized for hosting anti-vaccine conference (CTV News) http://www.ctvnews.ca/health/b-c-university-criticized-for-hosting-anti-vaccine-summit-1.1193586
Controversy surrounds vaccine forum set to take place Tuesday (Global News) http://www.globaltvbc.com/controversy%20surrounds%20vaccine%20forum%20set%20to%20take%20place%20tuesday/6442825112/story.html
Controversial vaccine symposium on today in Vancouver: “Vaccine Summit: Vancouver 2013″ meets at SFU campus (News 1130) http://www.news1130.com/2013/03/12/controversial-vaccine-symposium-on-today-in-vancouver/
Medical Experts Outraged Over Anti-Vaccination Event at Simon Fraser (Marketwire) http://www.marketwire.com/press-release/medical-experts-outraged-over-anti-vaccination-event-at-simon-fraser-1764419.htm
The Vaccine Resistance Movement: Setting The Record Straight – Interview with Joel Lord (Press For Truth)
http://www.pressfortruth.ca/interviews/the-vaccine-resistance-movement-setting-the-record-straight/
Canadian Hysterics and the Vaccine Dilemma (Age of Autism/Neil Z. Miller) http://www.ageofautism.com/2013/03/canadian-hysterics-and-the-vaccine-dilemma.html
‘It’s Selfish Not to Vaccinate Your Child’ – Senior editor/Huffington Post
http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/joshua-ostroff/immunization-conspiracy-theories-child-vaccination_b_3225398.html
As I begin to distance myself from that auspicious date, it’s clear to me that we were fixed to a battering-ram issue here. Whether we had a seamless success or stumbled through the process, either way we would face imminent criticism. We may have achieved more than our intended goals here by virtue of the debris left scattered in the effort. The heightened controversy & targeted censorship of views which incurred throughout mainstream media circles speaks for itself.
Vaccine Summit Vancouver — Round-table discussion with parents of vaccine-injured children http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0k9r1XztLsI&feature=youtu.be
Vaccine Summit Vancouver — Presentation by Tetyana Obukhanych PhD http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M1MSjEQDqKQ
Vaccine Summit Vancouver — Presentation by Joel Lord, Founder of the Vaccine Resistance Movement http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U77GCp9UI3g&feature=youtu.be
Note: Regrettably the video/audio quality was sub-par here, as we had to rely on an unsteady Ustream feed. Our primary camera crew bailed at the last minute, leaving us few options. We have presented this material for archival purposes.