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Come to CDC Public Forum on June 6 in SF to protest smallpox vaccinations

by health rebel boy
The Centers for Disease Control will hold a public forum in SF on June 6. Currently, the CDC does not recommend using smallpox vaccines on members of the general public but is considering a reversal of this policy. However, the efficacy of vaccinations is in great doubt and many in the medical field believe they are dangerous. In related news, the Model Emergency Health Powers Act could criminalize not receiving a vaccination if the governor of your state says so.
     
The art of social control is an ancient one. If you're in the rich and powerful class, how do you keep the rabble down? Throughout history, fear has been the most effective tactic. Stir up your subjects with a good scare, make them feel threatened in their very homes if possible, and then offer them protection. The price? A little less freedom. And then a little less, and a little less... But they'll feel safe! The only thing that changes from era to era and culture to culture is the name given to the monster under the bed.

Picture this: The U.S. is hit by a bioterrorist attack. Authorities say that small pox has been released and that everyone must be vaccinated. You refuse the shots; your religion forbids it, or you have studied enough to know that vaccinations are toxic and dangerous. But your local legislature recently passed the Emergency Health Powers Act, and your governor has declared a state of emergency, so you are fined, quarantined, and all your property siezed. Sound unlikely? It's not. Read up...

Since September 11, that monster has had an Arab face. Picking monsters with brown skin is an old favorite of the U.S. elite. It's shameful that it still works. We've gotten one breathless update after another about where it might be and what "we" will have to do to defend ourselves while "we" hunt it down to kill it. And it could take a while, folks! Maybe the rest of our lives. In the mean time, we have to give up the freedoms we are allegedly safeguarding and not make a peep about it. "If you're not with us, you're with the terrorists."

But wait, there's more! Those crazy terrorists will attack again!, the government tells us. At any moment now! Or maybe not for a year or two... But they will! And this next time, they might use bioterrorism: more anthrax in the mail, or poison in the resevoirs, or... small pox. Small pox? Hasn't that been a dead disease for over twenty years? Yes, no one has gotten it since 1977, but it's still out there, in government laboratories, and it could be stolen and sprung out on a hapless population without warning. What do we do now? Why, vaccinate the whole population against it. What's that, you say? Vaccinations have never actually been proven to stop a specific disease, and in some cases cause outbreaks, immune-deficiency problems, and sudden infant death syndrome? You crazy kook. You must be readin' books by crazy furners or be a rightwingnut.

Currently, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) does not recommend using smallpox vaccines on members of the general public, but in the wake of September 11, is now considering a reversal of that policy. According to a CDC press release, the agency will be holding forums from June 6-11 in San Francisco, San Antonio, New York City, and St. Louis to garner comments from the public on the topic. Anti-vaccination activists are encouraging people to attend these forums and express their disagreement with the proposed change. In the same press release, CDC reveals that "by the end of this year or early 2003, DHHS [the Department of Health and Human Services] expects to have a stockpile of 286 million doses of smallpox vaccine-enough to protect every United States citizen, if needed."

If you're against vaccination for whatever reason, why not just say "no" when the CDC comes knockin' on your door? Why fight them on this now? Because you might be forced to receive a vaccination when the time comes. A new piece of legislation called the Model Emergency Health Powers Act is being introduced to state legislatures across the country, and under its provisions, the governor of your state could order you to be vaccinated and imprison or fine you if you refused.

Unconvinced? Want to know more? Read on....

 

CDC Smallpox Public Forums - their purpose:

According to a May 30 media advisory, CDC "is hosting four public forums to provide health professionals and the general public with information about smallpox and smallpox vaccine, and to solicit comments on the use of smallpox vaccine before and after a potential smallpox outbreak or bioterroist attack."

"CDC and the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) have asked the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) and the National Vaccine Advisory Committee (NVAC) to review the current U.S. smallpox vaccine recommendations. These two groups advise the CDC and DHHS on vaccine use and policies."

"The last natural case of smallpox occurred in 1977. The ACIP currently recommends that only scientists and laboratory personnel who work with viruses related to smallpox be vaccinated with smallpox vaccine. The ACIP does not currently recommend that any other people, including members of the general public, be vaccinated prior to a confirmed case of smallpox. By the end of this year or early 2003, DHHS expects to have a stockpile of 286 million doses of smallpox vaccine-enough to protect every United States citizen, if needed." [my emphasis]

"There is a strong and growing body of evidence that suggests that vaccine programs may be weakening the immune systems of our children and thus may be opening the way for other diseases as a result of immunologic dysfunction."
--Dr. Harold Buttman (The Dangers of Immunization)

"The ACIP-NVAC Smallpox Working Group review primarily involves three questions:

  1. "With no known cases of smallpox worldwide, should there be any change in the current recommendation for not vaccinating members of the general public before there is a confirmed smallpox case or a confirmed bioterrorism attack using smallpox?

  2. "In addition to laboratory workers who work with viruses related to smallpox, are there other individuals in specific occupational groups who should be vaccinated to enhance smallpox preparedness? If so, what guidelines should be used to determine which individuals should be vaccinated before there is a confirmed smallpox case or a confirmed bioterrorism attack using smallpox?

  3. "Should there be any change(s) in the recommendation that surveillance and containment ('ring vaccination') be the primary control and containment strategy in the event of a confirmed smallpox case or a confirmed bioterrorism attack using smallpox?"

Whether or not smallpox vaccinations ever had positive effects is an open question. According to research: "The public is now getting lots of medical propaganda about the eradication of smallpox through vaccination. But in fact, the consensus among leading medical historians that have studied the question have maintained that the eradication of the zymotic, or 'filth' diseases, like cholera, dysentery, typhus, plague, in the past that are popularly attributed to mass vaccination campaigns, had actually been due to improvements in diet, hygiene, sanitary measures, non-medical public health laws, and to a host of new non-medical technologies, like refrigeration, faster transportation, removing horse manure from cities, and the like."

 

Concerns about vaccination - "Have we traded mumps and measles for cancer and leukemia?"

"Nearly 90% of the total decline in the death rate of children due to whooping cough, diptheria, and measles between 1850 and 1940 occured before the introduction of antibiotics and widespread immunizations."
--Ivan Illich (Medical Nemesis)

Many people, including scientists and doctors, are concerned about the dangers of vaccinating people, especially children. For example, Robert Mendelsohn, M.D. writes:

There is growing suspicion that immunization against relatively harmless childhood diseases may be responsible for the dramatic increase in auto-immune diseases since mass inoculations were introduced. These are fearful diseases such as cancer, leukemia. rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis, Lou Gehrig's disease, lupus erythematosus, and the Guillain-Barre syndrome. An autoimmune disease can be explained simply as one in which the body's defense mechanisms cannot distinguish between foreign invaders and ordinary body tissues, with the consequence that the body begins to destroy itself. Have we traded mumps and measles for cancer and leukemia?

The Rev. Alan Phillips, Director of Citizens for Healthcare Freedom, in his "Dispelling Vaccination Myths: An Introduction to the Contradictions Between Medical Science and Immunization Policy", writes:

Health authorities credit vaccines for disease declines, and assure us of their safety and effectiveness. Yet these assumptions are directly contradicted by government statistics, published medical studies, Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Centers for Disease Control (CDC) reports, and the opinions of credible research scientists from around the world. In fact, infectious diseases declined steadily for decades prior to mass immunizations, doctors in the U.S. report thousands of serious vaccine reactions each year including hundreds of deaths and permanent disabilities, fully vaccinated populations have experienced epidemics, and researchers attribute dozens of chronic immunological and neurological diseases that have risen dramatically in recent decades to mass immunization campaigns.

Decades of studies published in the world’s leading medical journals have documented vaccine failure and serious adverse vaccine events, including death. Dozens of books written by doctors, researchers, and independent investigators reveal serious flaws in immunization theory and practice. Yet, incredibly, most pediatricians and parents are unaware of these findings. This has begun to change in recent years, however, as a growing number of parents and healthcare providers around the world are becoming aware of the problems and questioning mass mandatory immunization. There is a growing international movement away from mass mandatory immunization. [my emphasis]

And just in time, too. 'Cause here comes the Model Emergency Health Powers Act...

 

The dangers posed by the Model Emergency Health Powers Act

The Model Emergency Health Powers Act [PDF] (MEHPA) was released on October 30, 2001, shortly after the attacks of September 11. MEHPA has been presented as a response to those attacks that attempts to safeguard public health and safety in case of bioterrorism attacks against the United States. The act would do this by granting enormous powers to state governors to declare emergencies, force people to have medical exams, force individuals to be vaccinated, treated or quarantined, and mobilize state militias to enforce orders and impose fines and penalties.

Opposition to the MEHPA has emerged across the political spectrum, on the Right among anti-big gummit folks, and on the Left by the American Civil Liberties Union and by those advocating for natural living and against the chemical abuses of allopathic medicine.

The Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS) is one organization that has taken a strong stance against MEHPA, and believes that "it is likely that HHS [Department of Health and Human Services] will tie passage of the Act to billions of dollars in federal funding: the usual method of bribery/coercion to get States to pass legislation that would otherwise never be considered." With former Wisconsin governor Tommy Thompson heading HHS, that's a distinct possibility. Currently, the Act has been or will be introduced to a majority of state legislatures around the country.

"The Act lets a governor declare a state of emergency unilaterally and without judicial oversight, fails to provide modern due process procedures for quarantine and other emergency powers, it lacks adequate compensation for seizure of assets, and contains no checks on the power to order forced treatment and vaccination."
--ACLU, on MEHPA

 

Tying it all together - a call to action

With the CDC moving to allow smallpox vaccinations to be used on the general population, and with MEHPA a possible reality, we are living in very frightening times. The government has all but promised us another terrorist attack, possibly of a biochemical nature, at some point in the future. Taking advantage of the fear that would result, governors could use MEHPA to turn their states into little militarized zones. Social control through a "medical emergency". In some ways, this is worse than the USA PATRIOT Act: with MEHPA the corporate-government powers could take not only your freedom but your health.

Naturally, the pharmaceutical industry stands to make a killing in a future where vaccinations or medications can be force-prescribed onto entire populations at once. Big Pharm pours lots of money into political campaigns to buy their influence -- millions and millions of dollars of it.

What can I do?

  1. Go to one of these forums if you live in, or can travel to, any of these four cities. Make your voice heard during the public comment period, stand outside with signs and flyers, and write your local newspaper.

  2. Submit comments about CDC's smallpox vaccine recommendations online at http://www.cdc.gov/netinfo.htm or in writing to:
    ACIP-NVAC Smallpox Working Group
    Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
    MS E-05
    1600 Clifton Road, NE
    Atlanta, GA 30333.

  3. Watch your state's legislature carefully. When MEHPA is introduced, contact your representatives and tell them you oppose it. Organize, write letters, call radio talk shows, etc.

  4. Educate your friends and neighbors about all these issues.

"Health is the only immunity there is. Health depends on certain definite factors of hygiene - proper food, pure water, fresh air, sunshine, rest and sleep, mental poise and feedom from all devitalizing habits -- and not on artificial and disease producing agents. So called immunity, natural or artificial, is a snare and a delusion."
--Dr. Herbert M. Shelton (The Hygienic Care of Children)

 

     

CDC Smallpox Public Forums - Where and when they will be held:

Thursday, June 6, 2002
New York, New York
Mt. Sinai Hospital
Stern Auditorium
One Gustave L. Levy Place
8:00 AM - 5 PM Eastern Time

San Francisco, California
San Francisco Marriott Downtown
55 Fourth Street
8:00 AM - 5 PM Pacific Time

Saturday, June 8, 2002
St. Louis, Missouri
Renaissance Airport Hotel
9801 Natural Bridge Road
8:00 AM - 5 PM Central Time

Tuesday, June 11, 2002
San Antonio, Texas
Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center
200 East Market Street
8:00 AM - 5 PM Central Time

 

Links:

 

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