Shame on PBS The Vaccine War - New Blog Post

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Shame on PBS Frontline Show “The Vaccine War”

http://avn.org.au/nocompulsoryvaccination/?p=593Dr

Jay Gordon, a pro-choice paediatrician, was interviewed for 2-3 hours

for the recently-presented mockumentary, The Vaccine War. They omitted

all of his interview as well as every interview they conducted with any

doctors who believe that parents should have a choice. Instead, they

presented a united front of medicos who believe that everyone should

vaccinate and even said that the medical community speaks with one

voice on vaccination, ignoring the large and growing number of medical

doctors and specialists who disagree with the ‘one-size fits all’

approach to vaccination. They ignored the Association of American

Physicians and Surgeons, an organisation founded in 1944 with members

in every single US state. This organisation which represents thousands

of doctors and specialists, believes that vaccines should always be a

matter of parental choice and that many of the vaccines we use today

have not been properly tested for safety or effectiveness. These voices

of reason are ignored while Offit, a man who has made tens of

millions of dollars selling the rights to a vaccine he co-created with

Merck, is allowed to say – on air! – that this didn’t matter and he

should be listened to as if he had no vested interest in this subject.

Well, I’m sorry, but it DOES matter and PBS has done a huge disservice

to its viewers and the public that pays for it to be independent of the

forces which obviously controlled what went to air in this disgusting

bit of whitewash. You can watch the program here – http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/vaccines/?utm_campaign=homepage & utm_medium=proglist & utm_source=proglistYou will find a survey regarding the program at this page – please take it – http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/vaccines/etc/questions.htmlYou can participate in a forum on the PBS site here – http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/vaccines/forum/And post your comments about this program (and I urge you to do so) here – http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/vaccines/talk/index.html#commentsAnd now, for Dr Jay Gordon’s letter to the producer of this show:Dear ,

Last night, PBS aired a show called “The Vaccine War.” I was

interviewed at great length and in great depth about vaccines and my

point of view and expressed my ambivalence about the polarization of

this issue and the need for more calm reasoned discussion about the

number one question that new parents have. I told Kate McMahon, the

co-producer of the show, that there was a large group of doctors and

others who cannot be dismissed with the facile label “anti-vaccine”

because we still give vaccines and see a place for them in the practice

of medicine, but we do not agree with the current vaccine schedule nor

the number of vaccines children receive all at one time.A few days ago, Ms.McMahon emailed me to tell me that the decision

had been made to omit my interview from the show. There would not be

one word from me. She didn’t tell me that she had also omitted 100% of

Dr. Sears’ interview. And that any other comments from

physicians supporting the parents on the show in their ambivalence

about vaccines or their decision to refuse all vaccines would also be

omitted.She left this as a show with many doctors commenting very

negatively, very frighteningly and often disdainfully and dismissively

about vaccine “hesitation” as they called it.Below is my email response to Kate McMahon.Dear Kate,The “Frontline” show was disgraceful. You didn’t even have the

courtesy to put my interview or any part of the two hours we spent

taping on your web site.You created a pseudo-documentary with a preconceived set of

conclusions: “Irresponsible moms against science” was an easy takeaway

from the show.Did you happen to notice that , the child critically ill with

pertussis, was not intubated nor on a respirator in the ER? She had

nasal “prongs” delivering oxygen. I’m sorry for her parents’ anxiety

and very happy that she was cured of pertussis. But to use anecdotal

reports like this as science is irresponsible and merely served the

needs of the doctor you wanted to feature.No one pursued Dr. Offit’s response about becoming rich from the

vaccine he invented. He was allowed to slide right by that question

without any follow up. Dr. Offit did not go into vaccine research

to get rich. He is a scientist motivated by his desire to help

children. But his profiting tens of millions of dollars from the

creation of this vaccine and the pursuit of sales of this and other

vaccines is definitely not what he says it is. His many millions “don’t

matter” he says. And you let it go. McCarthy resumed being a “former Playboy” person and was not

acknowledged as a successful author, actress and mother exploring every

possible avenue to treating her own son and the children of tens of

thousands of other families.I trusted you by giving you two or three hours of my time for an

interview and multiple background discussions. I expressed my heartfelt

reservations about both vaccines and the polarizing of this issue into

“pro-vaccine” and “anti-vaccine” camps. I told you that there was at

least a third “camp.” There are many doctors and even more parents who

would like a more judicious approach to immunization. Give vaccines

later, slower and with an individualized approach as we do in every

other area of medicine.What did you create instead?“The Vaccine War.”A war. Not a discussion or a disagreement over facts and opinions,

but a war. This show was unintelligent, dangerous and completely

lacking in the balance that you promised me–and your viewers–when you

produced and advertised this piece of biased unscientific journalism.

“Tabloid journalism” I believe is the epithet often used. Even a good

tabloid journalist could see through the screed you’ve presented.You interviewed me, you spent hours with Dr. Sears of the

deservedly-illustrious Sears family and you spoke to other doctors who

support parents in their desire to find out what went wrong and why

it’s going wrong and what we might do to prevent this true epidemic.Not a measles epidemic, not whooping cough. Autism. An epidemic

caused by environmental triggers acting on genetic predisposition. The

science is there and the evidence of harm is there. Proof will come

over the next decade. The National Children’s Study will, perhaps by

accident, become a prospective look at many children with and without

vaccines. But we don’t have time to wait for the results of this

twenty-one year research study: We know that certain pesticides cause

cancer and we know that flame retardants in children’s pajamas are

dangerous. We are cleaning up our air and water slowly and parents know

which paint to buy and which to leave on the shelves when they paint

their babies’ bedrooms.The information parents and doctors don’t have is contained in the

huge question mark about the number of vaccines, the way we vaccinate

and the dramatic increase in autism, ADD/ADHD, childhood depression and

more. We pretend to have proof of harm or proof of no harm when what we

really have is a large series of very important unanswered questions.In case you were wondering, as I practice pediatrics every day of my

career, I base nothing I do on Dr. Wakefield’s research or on

McCarthy’s opinions. I respect what they both have done and

respectfully disagree with them at times. I don’t think that Dr.

Wakefield’s study proved anything except that we need to look harder at

his hypothesis. I don’t think that McCarthy has all the answers

to treating or preventing autism, but there are tens of thousands of

parents who have long needed her strong high-profile voice to draw

attention to their families’ needs: Most families with autism get

inadequate reimbursement for their huge annual expenses and very little

respect from the insurance industry, the government or the medical

community. has demanded that a brighter light be shone on their

circumstances, their frustration and their needs.I base everything I do on my reading of CDC and World Health

Organization statistics about disease incidence in the United States

and elsewhere. I base everything I do on having spent the past thirty

years in pediatric practice watching tens of thousands of children get

vaccines, not get vaccines and the differences I see.Vaccines change children.Most experts would argue that the changes are unequivocally good. My

experience and three decades of observation and study tell me

otherwise. Vaccines are neither all good–as this biased, miserable PBS

treacle would have you believe–nor all bad as the strident anti-vaccine

camp argues.You say the decisions to edit 100% of my interview from your show

(and omit my comments from your website) “were purely based on what’s

best for the show, not personal or political, and the others who didn’t

make it came from both sides of the vaccine debate.” You are not

telling the truth. You had a point to prove and removed material from

your show which made the narrative balanced. “Distraught, confused moms

against important, well-spoken calm doctors” was your narrative with a

deep sure voice to, literally, narrate the entire artifice.You should be ashamed of yourself, Kate. You knew what you put on

the air was slanted and you cheated the viewers out of an opportunity

for education and information. You cheated me out of hours of time,

betrayed my trust and then you wasted an hour of PBS airtime. Shame on

you.The way vaccines are manufactured and administered right now in 2010

makes vaccines and their ingredients part of the group of toxins which

have led to a huge increase in childhood diseases including autism.

Your show made parents’ decisions harder and did nothing except

regurgitate old news.Parents and children deserve far better from PBS.Jay Gordon, MD, FAAPhttp://www.drjaygordon.comMy TwitterFeed

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