Editor’s note: This commentary is by Jennifer Stella, of Waitsfield, who is and the executive director of the Vermont Coalition for Vaccine Choice.
[G]iven all the talk of how “Hope and Healing” (May 20 seminar in Stowe) is creating a dilemma for those who make a living from promoting vaccines, I wonder how many people are aware that vaccination has always been a voluntary procedure in the state of Vermont? And, that Vermont citizens have long-held reservations against compulsory vaccination? Indeed, for more than a century (and long before the industry was indemnified from product liability – in 1986), this debate has been quite active.
For example, in 1912, there was a “Vigorous Discussion Over Vaccination” (in the era of smallpox) that was captured in the Barre Daily Times, Nov. 15, 1912. One can also read about the grave concerns expressed by citizens like F.E. Simpson of Glover: He warned about our fundamental rights and liberties being at risk due to medical politics (see the Orleans County monitor, Jan. 12, 1921).
In more recent times, there was Marcia Bruno’s insistence that parents have the ultimate choice when it comes to vaccination for their children. She wrote her letter as the state board of health and pediatricians were pushing for a mandatory school vaccination law in 1979. Marcia Bruno’s plea ended in a vote that added broad discretion in vaccine decision-making for Vermont parents that year.
So in 1979, “moral exemptions” and “religious exemptions” were built into the original school immunization law in Vermont. Lawmakers and doctors are on legislative record as saying that they absolutely respected that parents must always reserve the right not to inject a serum into their children, whether they are religious or not, because the product could cause harm. The original “exemption” form parents were asked to sign, stated: “I request that following immunization(s) be waived because they conflict with free exercise of religious rights and /or moral (philosophic) rights.”
Just seven years later, in 1986, Congress passed the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act, shielding vaccine manufacturers and doctors from civil product liability and malpractice lawsuits when a vaccine causes a permanent disability or death.
If the American Academy of Pediatrics and Centers for Disease Control’s vaccine recommendations are followed, babies born in 2016 will receive 50 injections by age 18. This is seven times the number of injections recommended in 1983, before industry was freed from liability for product harm.
“If the American Academy of Pediatrics and Centers for Disease Control’s vaccine recommendations are followed, babies born in 2016 will receive 50 injections by age 18.”
In 2007, Merck and some legislators tried, but failed, to mandate the HPV vaccine for school entry in Vermont. At that time, “moral exemptions” were renamed to “philosophical exemptions.”
In 2011, the Supreme Court decided Bruesewitz v. Wyeth, prohibiting any individual from filing a civil suit for a defectively designed vaccine in any U.S. court. Pharmaceutical companies and doctors now enjoy extraordinary protection against liability for vaccine injury or death that may occur after they “give” a vaccine.
In 2012, philosophical exemptions were upheld in a vote of 133-6. At that time, the Vermont Legislature displayed an overwhelming support for parental choice in such medical decision-making. It was only in 2015 that industry pressure became too much.
In 2015, using a national campaign to spread fear of measles, and after intense lobbying by pharma and the medical industry, philosophical exemptions were deleted from Vermont law on July 1, 2016. In addition, Health Department employees have modified “required educational material” and are choosing to withhold important product risk information from parents.
Today, only religious exemptions remain available to Vermont parents, unless a parent can secure a medical exemption from a doctor. Parents tell us they are impossible to get, because today’s pediatricians refuse to acknowledge or make any connection between vaccines and their side effects.
I hope that this information helps parents — especially those signing petitions saying we don’t want “those people” at “our school” — to understand how critical it is to have informed consent and vaccine choice, not to mention critical thought, in a free society.
