Political Pressure Exacerbates COVID Vaccine Safety Concerns

The pressure is mounting for a COVID vaccine to be approved. Will there be transparency on its safety and effectiveness? Action Alert!

There have been a number of federal actions around the issue of a COVID vaccine in recent weeks. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released technical guidelines to states, telling them to be prepared to store, distribute, and administer a COVID vaccine as early as late October or early November. Lawmakers have also introduced a bill aimed at instilling public confidence in an eventual COVID vaccine, but the bill does anything but. These actions underscore the need for transparency and freedom of choice when it comes to the issue of vaccination.

Public health experts say that the CDC guidance is meant to prepare states for the monumental task of vaccinating millions of people, but the timing is ominous. We’ve been told, almost since the pandemic began, that the earliest a vaccine could be expected was in 18 months; now we’re told that a vaccine could be mere weeks away—and right before an election. Dr. Anthony Fauci has even said in interviews that vaccine trials could end prematurely if a certain level of safety and effectiveness is demonstrated.

Presumably to dispel fears of political tampering to get a vaccine approved before the election, a group of lawmakers have introduced a bill that would, in short, ensure that the normal procedures for vaccine approval take place and that the recommendations of the CDC and FDA are made public.

The “normal procedures” for vaccine approval hardly instill confidence that a vaccine will be safe. We need only consult the historical record: to date, the US Vaccine Court, in which it is notoriously difficult to win cases, has paid out more than $4 billion to families who have been injured by vaccines.

Note, too, that this isn’t the first time a vaccine has been rushed in response to a public health crisis. In 1976, hundreds of thousands of people were getting infected with a flu virus thought to be related to the 1918 virus. The Ford administration launched a massive government campaign that vaccinated 45 million people in 10 months. It turned out, however, that the virus was not related to the 1918 virus that caused the epidemic, and those infected had only mild symptoms. The vaccine, however, gave 450 people Guillain-Barré syndrome, an illness in which the body’s immune system attacks the nerves and can paralyze the entire body.

The HPV vaccine is another case-in-point, as we’ve reported previously, demonstrating that the “normal procedures” for approving and recommending a vaccine are completely inadequate:

• The US government’s vaccine adverse event reporting system (VAERS) lists a startling 57,287 adverse events from the HPV vaccine, including 419 deaths—far more than any other vaccine.
• A recent UK study that looked at the clinical trials underlying the efficacy of the HPV vaccine found “significant uncertainties undermining claims of efficacy in [the] data.” 
• We’ve seen evidence demonstrating that cancer risk increases by 44 percent with HPV vaccination if girls already have the HPV virus.
• We covered a study showing that women aged 25-29 who received the HPV vaccine were less likely to get pregnant.
• The American College of Pediatricians raised concerns that the vaccine could be linked to premature ovarian failure.
• A former Merck doctor said that Gardasil “will become the greatest medical scandal of all time,” that it “serves no other purpose than to generate profit for the manufacturer,” and, like some other vaccines, that it can cause “Guillain-Barré syndrome, paralysis of the lower limbs, vaccine-induced MS, and vaccine-induced encephalitis.”

Consider, too, the ingredients that the “normal procedures” allow in vaccines like aluminum, a well-documented neurotoxin that has been linked with Alzheimer’s disease, epilepsy, asthma, hyperactivity, and Down’s syndrome.

The HPV vaccines were approved under “normal” circumstances—that is, without the immense public pressure to approve a vaccine as quickly as possible. So, a federal bill to ensure “normal” vaccine approval isn’t nearly good enough to ensure safety and effectiveness.

According to our friends at ANH-International, “The timetable currently being considered by governments and health authorities does not allow sufficient time for the phased evaluation process normally used by regulatory agencies to evaluate effectiveness and safety, that typically includes animal studies (multiple species) and both preclinical and clinical trials.”

For these reasons, we’re joining ANH-International to call for full transparency on the approval of a COVID vaccine. We’re also fighting for vaccine choice at the state level, so scroll below to check if there are bills in your state that will remove vaccine exemptions or mandate certain vaccines.

The refrain in the media is that things can’t go back to normal until there’s a vaccine. The story that’s not being told, and is in fact being aggressively blocked by the federal government, is that natural medicines can help prevent or treat COVID-19. But because these medicines cannot get FDA drug approval, the government prevents us from learning about their benefits. This tips the scales in favor of drugs and vaccines that make billions for drug companies (and the FDA, which gets user fees from Big Pharma), and against inexpensive, safe, and natural compounds like zinc, quercetin, vitamin C, and others that have saved lives during COVID and could save many more. Until we address this unlevel playing field, the healthcare landscape cannot meaningfully change in this country.

We must work to reform this system that not only bars the use, but even the mention, of natural remedies that have not been, and never can be, put through an FDA approval process that commonly costs billions.

Action Alert! Write to Congress and tell them we need full transparency on any COVID vaccine approval.  Please send your message immediately. By sending this message, you will also be supporting our petition to ungag doctors so that they can share with patients the benefits of supplements and natural treatments for COVID.

Take action in your state to protect vaccine choice:

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New York

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