Vaccine Awareness Week 2023
STORY AT-A-GLANCE
- It’s been 15 years since I first made the commitment to support the National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC), which has fought for medical freedom for 41 years. During the COVID epidemic we came to see just how crucial this work really is. Freedom of choice and bodily autonomy when it comes to decision-making regarding vaccines can truly be a matter of life and death
- In a special report shared with the U.S. House Judiciary Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government, NVIC cofounder and president Barbara Loe Fisher explains how mandatory vaccination has been used as a tool to accumulate power and money
- In 2023, NVIC tracked more than 1,000 legislative bills and posted more than 700 of them to the NVIC advocacy portal
- No U.S. state was able to pass a COVID vaccine mandate, thanks to public pushback against such legislation. All minor consent bills that would have allowed doctors to persuade children to get vaccinated without their parents’ knowledge or consent were also successfully blocked
- During our 14th Vaccine Awareness Week, I will match all donations made to the NVIC, so it’s a great time to contribute, as each dollar you give will be doubled
This week, we celebrate our 14th anniversary of Vaccine Awareness Week. In this video, Barbara Loe Fisher, cofounder and president of the National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC) — which celebrated its 41st anniversary as an organization in April 2023 — shares research on the censorship of vaccine information that she’s compiled for the U.S. House Judiciary Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government.
As usual, I will match all donations made to the NVIC during this week, so it’s a great time to contribute, as each dollar you give will be doubled.
It’s been 15 years since I first made the commitment to support this extraordinary organization that fights for medical freedom like no other, and during the COVID pandemic we came to see just how crucial this work really is. Consumer freedom of choice and bodily autonomy when it comes to decision-making regarding vaccines can truly be a matter of life and death.
The Why Behind 15 Years of Persecution
While the NVIC has worked against headwind since the beginning, the public attacks, persecution, demonization, discrimination and censorship really took on new dimensions during the COVID pandemic.
“I decided that I wanted to know exactly by whom, and why NVIC and my voice have been silenced online,” she says. “We knew, particularly in 2015, with the Disneyland measles outbreak, that the heat was on. Clearly, the goal by the pharmaceutical lobbyists that had joined with government was to have everyone take every federally recommended vaccine.
And they knew that our opposition — the work we … had been doing since 2010, to educate legislators about the fact that they need to have informed consent protections of vaccine laws — was a big obstacle. In my research, I realized that it was around 2009, when you lent your support to NVIC, that the persecution actually began.
Honestly, that’s what I realize now. In this report, I’ve gone in chronological order and I bring the reader along so they can see how, every step of the way, this was done.
Last night I said, ‘This reads like a crime novel.’ It’s unbelievable what has been done because a group of parents in 1982, whose children had been injured by DPT vaccine, decided to take on the pharmaceutical industry and big public health.
The 1986 National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act was a major piece of legislation that basically said vaccine safety should be a national priority; that vaccines do injure and kill, and that was the first time that had been acknowledged.
From that point on, the pharmaceutical industry knew that they had to do something to stop this. But it took them a long time. What I’ve done is, I’ve gone into the documents. What’s amazing to me is it’s all online. All you have to do is put it together.
This report is anchored by over 300 references, live linked. So as a reader, you are able to go in and read the documents yourself, and decide for yourself if what I have found here is one of the most incredible stories in the history of medicine.”
COVID Unmasked the Police State
Fisher goes on to review some of the most recent documents, such as a 2019 Department of Homeland Security (DHS) report on “Combating Targeted Disinformation Campaigns, a Whole of Society Issue.”1 Part 2 of that DHS report came out in August 2021.2
Mind you, the first part of this report came out before COVID-19 was declared a pandemic, clearly demonstrating that censoring the internet didn’t begin with the notion that people had to be protected from “misinformation” about COVID. They’ve been moving in the direction of controlling information online for a long time. The pandemic was just an excuse that allowed them to stop pretending that information control wasn’t a key goal.
“Who do we have meeting [here]? The FBI, Fannie Mae, the MITRE Corporation, National Oilwell Varco, Booz Hamilton, University of Florida, Levin College of Law, Northern California Regional Intelligence Center.
This is a meeting that is basically trying to say that the internet needs to be policed, that social media platforms need to be sure that information that is not officially blessed, if you will, is not on the internet.”
Then came a 2020 report by the Sabin-Aspen Vaccine Science & Policy Group, “Meeting the Challenge of Vaccination Hesitancy.”3 This report was funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which is massively invested in vaccines and vaccine development.
A Hate Group Doing What Hate Groups Do
In the summer of 2020, the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) also published “The Anti-Vaxx Industry,”4 after which the demonization of those questioning the COVID jabs really took off.
That report was followed by “The Anti-Vaxx Playbook: Exposing Anti-Vaxxers’ Deadly Plan to Disrupt COVID Vaccines, and How We Can Stop Them,”5 published by the CCDH in December 2020, three months after the NVIC held its fifth international public conference on vaccination.
“That was really the all-out frontal assault on anybody that is branded an anti-vaxxer,” Fisher says. “And in that report, again, NVIC, myself, you [Dr. Mercola] and others who spoke at the NVIC conference are targeted and demonized in vicious language.
Imran Ahmed, who founded the Center for Countering Digital Hate, is a political operative out of England who now has come to the United States in the Washington, D.C., area to do his work, trying to discredit, demonize and stop anybody who does not conform with what the World Health Organization and U.S. government decides is the correct vaccine information.”
In a December 22, 2020, Twitter post,6 the CCDH stated that “Anti-vaxxers have been meeting secretly to plan how to stop the COVID vaccine. We were there. Today we’re exposing their playbook.” The report also claims to quote “leaked audio” from the conference.
The reality of the situation was that there was no audio to be “leaked” because it was a PUBLIC conference, open to absolutely anyone and everyone. It was about as far from a “secret meeting” as you could possibly get. Since the CCDH admitted “being there,” they must have paid the nominal attendance fee, as did thousands of others. So, the entire premise and context of that report was a lie.
CCDH Is the True Misinformation Superspreader
The CCDH also fabricated data to support a false narrative in it’s March 21, 2021, “Disinformation Dozen” report,7,8,9 in which Ahmed falsely claimed 12 people and/or organizations were responsible for 65% of all anti-vaccine content on social media and 73% of vaccine misinformation on Facebook.
In mid-August 2021, after conducting an internal investigation, Monika Bickert, vice president of Facebook content policy, publicly called out the falsehoods in “The Disinformation Dozen” report, stating:10
“There isn’t any evidence to support this claim … In fact, these 12 people are responsible for about just 0.05% of all views of vaccine-related content on Facebook. This includes all vaccine-related posts they’ve shared, whether true or false, as well as URLs associated with these people.”
Bickert highlighted the fact that Ahmed had preselected the 12 individuals listed in the report, and that his “faulty narrative” was based on nothing more than “a narrow set of 483 pieces of content over six weeks from only 30 groups, some of which are as small as 2,500 users.”
Despite that, a long list of officials continued to cite the CCDH’s fabricated claims. What’s more, even though Facebook admitted the CCDH’s claims were bogus, they still took action against accounts by applying penalties and/or bans.
The Rise of the Censorship Industrial Complex
In February 2021, the WHO issued the “WHO Public Health Research Agenda for Managing Infodemics.”11
“How they define ‘infodemic’ is basically ‘too much information.’ We have too much information. They’ve got to be the arbiters of what is truth; they’ve got to be the ones to tell everybody what to think,” Fisher says.
The following month, the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security at the Bloomberg School of Public Health published “National Priorities to Combat Misinformation and Disinformation for COVID-19 and Future Public Health Threats: A Call for National Strategy,”12 and in June, the National Security Council issued “National Strategy for Countering Domestic Terrorism.”13
The next month, July 2021, the U.S. surgeon general issued an advisory, “Confronting Health Misinformation,”14 which, like so many others, referenced the CCDH’s fabricated “Disinformation Dozen” report that targeted me, the NVIC and the Organic Consumers Association (OCA) — two of my Health Liberty partners — for destruction.
“Next you have ‘Memes, Magnets, and Microchips: Narrative Dynamics Around COVID-19 Vaccines,’15 by the Virality Project, put out by the Stanford International Observatory, the NYU Center for Social Media Politics, the University of Washington Center for an Informed Public and Graphika. It goes on and on …
And what is so unbelievable is that what it shows is that the federal government, the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of State, the Department of Health and Human Services, the Department of Defense and more, joined with businesses and institutions in society, particularly universities, to create what is known now, or is described by some, as ‘the censorship industrial complex,’ or ‘the disinformation industrial complex.’
It is an unbelievable story about how ordinary citizens in this country, particularly myself and NVIC, who have been working for 41 years with the federal government, with state governments, doing work in a civil and responsible way — the way we’re supposed to do it in this representative constitutional republic when we want to change something — we were targeted for elimination from the digital public square simply for trying to be good citizens.”
Government Has Been Weaponized Against Its People
As mentioned, Fisher’s report will be presented to the U.S. House Judiciary Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government, chaired by Rep. Jim Jordan.
“He’s a very courageous man,” Fisher says, “because he is digging down in the testimony that’s being submitted. One of my references is ‘The Weaponization of CISA: How a ‘Cybersecurity’ Agency Colluded With Big Tech and ‘Disinformation’ Partners to Censor Americans’16 [an interim staff report of the subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government].
[CISA] is the cybersecurity agency within the Department of Health and Human Services. The testimony that’s already been submitted to that committee is phenomenal, and that testimony is in these more than 300 references that I have in the report.
I’m very glad I did it, but it was a sobering experience. I’m still trying to deal with what I learned, and I feel like everyone needs to understand that this is a moment in history when we have a choice to make. We are either going to stand up … and fight for our right to freedom of thought, speech and conscience, or we will live as slaves for the rest of this century.
It reads like a crime novel, and I feel like I’ve lived through it. And, look … we’re still standing. We’re still here, we’re still able, at least right now … to communicate online with our followers, through your newsletter, through the NVIC websites.
How long that’s going to last, I don’t know … because our websites have dropped by half in terms of visitors. We’re off of Facebook, we’re off of Instagram, we’re off of YouTube. All my commentaries for more than a decade, completely gone. When Elon Musk purchased Twitter … NVIC was restored to that platform, but other than that major platform, we’re blocked [everywhere].
And on December 21, 2021, 18 members of the U.S. House of Representatives from one political party wrote a letter to PayPal and told them to take me and NVIC off that platform, so that nobody could donate to NVIC through PayPal. I mean, this is an all-out assault, trying to obliterate a small nonprofit charity.
We’re a small charity, but we were able to strike a chord within many Americans and many legislators who understood the importance of protecting informed consent rights when it comes to taking a medical risk, in this case, a vaccine risk.”
A Great Awakening Is Underway
Following Fisher’s report, Dawn Richardson’s report on the NVIC’s legislative efforts in 2023 will be released. The good news there is that NVIC has tracked more than 1,000 legislative bills and posted more than 700 of them on the NVIC advocacy portal, and not a single state ended up passing a COVID vaccine mandate.
Also, no state passed a minor consent bill that would allow doctors to persuade children without their parents’ knowledge or consent to get vaccinated.
“There has been an awakening in the state legislatures,” Fisher says. “So, there are two times as many positive vaccine bills, which we supported, than negative vaccine bills. It’s an incredible story … It’s a miracle, with everything they’ve thrown against us …
So, I urge everybody to please tune in on November 1, when we release this report. Read it, share it with your friends and family, and please, we’ve been ghosted and we do need donations. We need your support to continue to do this work that we’ve been doing for 41 years.”
Who Benefits From the ‘Greater Good’ Narrative?
At the end of the day, the censorship of negative vaccine information comes down to protecting profits — pharmaceutical profits — even though lives will be lost in the process. In this sense, the vaccine agenda is very similar to the war industry, which sacrifices the lives of young men and women to protect private central bank interests. Fisher notes:
“For many years, I said it’s about ideology, and my dear husband would say, ‘No, Barbara, it’s about business, it’s about the money.’ Well, you know what? It is about money.
At the end of the day, this is about a pharmaceutical industry and their partners, including academia, including a lot of other institutions in society, who have decided that there will be no opposition to the mass use of vaccines — every vaccine that the pharmaceutical industry creates.
But vaccination has been used as a political tool, no question. And that’s where ideology comes in, this idea that you do not have the right to protect your bodily integrity, or that of your minor child; that you must take the risk for the good of society. That’s the utilitarian rationale, ‘for the greater good.’
A minority of people can be sacrificed in service to the rest … Well, that’s a very convenient ideology to adopt when you want power, and when you want to profit from the exploitation of people.
And that’s, to me, what it all comes down to: power and profit, and the people are the victims of this hierarchy that has been established globally, this infrastructure that those who have the wealth of the world are operating in …
I have been very focused on that pseudo-ethic and defending informed consent. But when I did this report, I went, ‘Wait a minute, this is about the money. Pure and simple, it’s business.’ And that’s disturbing.
I’m disturbed by the fact that so many institutions in society, particularly academic institutions, have been co-opted by the money. It is very dangerous. And really, we’ve got a melding of government with big business, which is fascism. It’s frightening, really, and needs to stop.
Government money should not be used to try to demonize people and drive them out of the public square. The whole issue of freedom of thought, speech and conscience is such a fundamental freedom issue, and I really hope that the report I’ve written will help open some people’s eyes to how the issue of vaccination has been used to try to discriminate against and silence people in the public square …
The other thing that just blows my mind is, they have all these behavioral psychologists trying to figure out how to change everybody. All of these papers published in the academic journals are about ‘How can we figure out ways to change the values and beliefs of people who are resisting vaccination?’
Is that the role of government, really? Is the role of government to come in and try to screw around with your mind and your personal beliefs so that you’ll do what they want you to do? That’s truly Orwellian.”
Of course, the reason government is trying to brainwash people into using certain products is because their interests are the same as the corporations’ interests, which, again, is the very definition of fascism.
Push for Vaccine Mandates Has Backfired Big-Time
A silver lining to the devastating fiasco of the mRNA COVID shots is that Americans have finally realized that not only do they not work, but they’re also incredibly dangerous. As of October 12, 2023, only 7 million Americans had rolled up their sleeves to receive the latest reformulated mRNA shot.
Assuming the U.S. population is 340.47 million people,17 7 million is only about 2.06%, and an October 2023 study18 tells us the reason for this drop-off — 54.9% of previously jabbed people are skipping further boosters due to fears about their safety.
Another 39.5% are skipping it because they’ve already had COVID, 28.6% doubt the booster will provide additional protection over the shots already received, and 23.1% don’t believe it’ll protect them from infection.
But people are not only waking up to the potential risks of mRNA shots. They’re also starting to question the safety and effectiveness of conventional vaccines as well, which is the exact opposite of what all this censorship was intended to achieve.
“The polls are showing a lessening of confidence in vaccination because of what they did with the COVID vaccine,” Fisher says. “So, a lot of people are just going to skip that flu shot this year.
There’s an uneasiness about vaccination right now, and I think it’s their own fault. It’s the fault of the federal agencies and the pharmaceutical companies that tried to oversell this product, tried to make everybody afraid that they were going to die if they didn’t get it.
There was like an 80% uptake in this country of one COVID shot. That’s a huge, huge uptake. However, now, on the fifth booster people are just saying, ‘I don’t think so.’ So, Pfizer announced this week that they’re having to cut $3 billion in expenses and in staff, et cetera, because they are not able to meet the projections for their stockholders of the uptake of the COVID booster.”
Consumer Advocacy Is Essential
In closing, it’s important to realize just how impactful the NVIC has been over the past 41 years, and why it’s so essential to support its continued work.
“If NVIC had not formed in 1982, if we had not gone into the states in 2010 and educated legislators on this issue and worked with families in the states, this country would’ve had a COVID vaccine mandate for children. I don’t have any question in my mind about that,” Fisher says.
“The combination of education and advocacy has absolutely changed the landscape of the mandatory vaccination infrastructure in this country. And it was done because parents of vaccine injured children decided that their children were not an acceptable sacrifice.
This is an important point, because all of the groups that have formed since 1982, particularly in the last 10 years, are riding on the back of the ground that we plowed. And I couldn’t be happier or more satisfied about that because our influence has allowed other groups to form and be bigger megaphones to warn people that this is a problem.
The mandatory vaccination system is not humane, it’s not something that should be allowed. You cannot throw people under the bus. You have to care and value every life. And despite all of this persecution and all of this ghosting and removal from online platforms, we are still standing. I feel very much that you, and all the people who have donated to us over the years, played a huge role in helping us survive.”
Help Us Protect Medical Freedom
Funds are tight for many right now; we understand that. But if you can make a donation, even if it’s only a dollar or two, please do. Every dollar counts, and I will match whatever you give. This is crucial work, and we cannot do it alone.
If you donated in the past, know that your generosity is ultimately what helped prevent COVID shot mandates in this country, and that is no small feat. It truly speaks to the power of consumer advocacy and education.
“It’s a truly grassroots movement, and it’s of ordinary people who are doing extraordinary things because they believe that in this country, we should have freedom of thought, speech, and conscience, and we should have the right to speak in the public square civilly, constructively.
That’s what America’s always been about. I believe this is a shameful, shameful era in U.S. history and I pray that it is consigned to the dustbin of history sooner than later. Like I say, we’re at a cross-roads in this country. These culture wars are tearing us apart. But hopefully, we can all agree on the Bill of Rights …
At the same time, you can’t do something about something you don’t understand, and that’s why I did this report. I wanted to understand, what exactly had happened and why. It’s clear to me now, and I hope it’ll be clear to other people, how the issue of mandatory vaccination was used as a tool to accumulate power and money.”
So, again, if you can, please make a donation to NVIC today, and be sure to sign up with the NVIC advocacy portal, so that you can stay abreast of legislative efforts involving medical freedom issues in your home state.
Resources Where You Can Learn More
| NVIC Advocacy Portal — Become a registered user of this unique and free online communications network that connects you directly with your own legislators and emails you action alerts about vaccine-related bills moving in your state, so you can be an effective vaccine choice advocate and protect your rights.
You will only receive emails related to your own state but, as a registered Portal user, you also can stay up to date on vaccine-related bills being proposed in other states.
Use it to inform your legislators about why it is necessary to protect vaccine exemptions and your legal right to make voluntary vaccine decisions for yourself and your children.
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| Ask 8 Vaccine Information Kiosk — Download brochures and reports on vaccination and how to recognize vaccine reaction symptoms, as well as posters and web badges you can share with your family and friends. Access the illustrated and fully referenced “Guide to Reforming Vaccine Policy & Law” to educate your legislators when you advocate for vaccine informed consent rights. |
| State Law & Vaccine Requirements — On this NVIC.org page, you can easily obtain your state’s current vaccine policies and laws. |
| Vaccine Reaction Reporting — Search for and read descriptions of vaccine reaction reports made to the federal Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System (VAERS). |
| Cry for Vaccine Freedom Wall — Read real stories from people who have been threatened, bullied and sanctioned for trying to make voluntary decisions about vaccination for themselves or their minor children. Post and share your own experience. |
| Guide to Flu & Flu Vaccines — The “Mini Guide to influenza & Flu Vaccines” summarizes facts about influenza and influenza vaccines. |
Sources and References
EDITORS NOTE: This MERCOLA column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.
