Once again the controversial vaccine debate is centre stage in Australia, with doctors, mothers, physicians and activists losing their minds in what never seems to be a respectful debate. Everyone seems to have an opinion and much of the debating I have personally seen seems to be vilification and conjecture, as oppose to what the scientific data is actually showing us. While most doctors argue the benefits of immunisation far outweigh the risks, others remain firm in their stance against vaccines and somehow unqualified people have found it intolerable to allow for a difference of opinion.
A recent example of this vaccine stigma can be seen with the announcement of a medical documentary being released, called ‘VAXXED: From cover-up to catastrophe’, which was due to premier at the Tribeca Film Festival in the United States this month. The film tells the true story of a CDC (Centre of Disease Control) scientist turn whistle-blower (Dr. William Thompson) who publicly admitted to fabricating scientific data at the CDC in order to hide the known links between vaccines and autism. A 2 minute preview trailer to the unseen film had accumulated what can only be described as ‘an overload of criticism and reviews’ by the financially incentivised mainstream media outlets. Actor Robert de Niro, (who co-founded the festival) defended the decision to show the film, writing on Facebook that the film was “very personal” to him due to him having a kid afflicted by Autism. De Niro also went on to say that he (and the film itself) was not an anti-vaccination film and that they wanted to create an environment in which the conversation over vaccine safety could be had.
Under extreme pressure from lobby groups and the mainstream media, Robert De Niro made the call the very next day to pull the film completely from the Tribeca Film Festival and announced that after reviewing the unseen film with people from within the science community and that it had not been what they were expecting. The film, produced by Del Bigtree (producer of the daytime show The Doctors) had the opportunity to talk this out with the ABC news network who had decided to interview him, Del went on to respond to the criticism and said
Del Bigtree (Film Producer)
“I just want to say that, this is not an anti-vaccine movie, this is a movie about fraud… Scientific fraud, being committed by the CDC . It’s [about] the most important study body on health in the world and that’s what this films about.” Del went on to say
“We have a whistle-blower at the CDC who is still sitting at the CDC, an awarded scientist, who is being protected by whistle-blower status, and the media is saying we are making things up. They say they’ve debunked the whistle-blower, but you can’t debunk someone who hasn’t had his day in court, just like you can’t review a movie you haven’t seen.”
Mike Adams, A journalist at Natural News claimed that “The entire mainstream media blackballed all reporting on the Dr. Thompson admission, trying to bury one of the most astonishing admissions of scientific fraud in the history of modern medicine. All those same media outlets have now attempted to crush the free speech of independent filmmakers by maliciously smearing this film (and threatening Robert De Niro) even before anyone has seen it.”
Dr Sherri Tenpenny as seen on channel 9’s ‘Today’ show
Censorship over vaccine criticism is not new to the world, or Australia for that matter, it was only last year when shady lobby groups and organisations were calling for the visa cancellation of Dr Tenpenny, a prominent US anti vaccination campaigner who was forced to cancel her Australian tours. Not long after this, An Australian charity linked to Sherri Tenpenny has been struck off the federal government’s charity register. The charity known as ‘Get rid of SIDS project Inc.’ was put under review by The Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission, who decided to cancel their registration completely.
Newscorp’s James Murdoch
All of this was coming at a time when the Federal government was going into damage control mode over the public opinion of forced vaccination shifting into the public spotlight. Back in 2014, it was revealed that The No Jab No Play campaign was initiated by the Murdoch run Daily Telegraph.
James Murdoch (Son of the infamous Rupert Murdoch) was a Director of Glaxo Smith Kline one of the largest vaccine manufacturers in the world. The Murdoch’s were successful in having NSW State Law passed on the strength of supposed public support, which was largely developed by the Murdoch media. Under this law children could not be enrolled in Preschools if they had not been vaccinated.
Whether you are for or against mandatory vaccinations, there can be no doubt that a high level of censorship has emerged and the actual science on vaccine safety has been replaced with political rhetoric which only serves a monetary purpose.
Just in conclusion, I would like to state that I have a fairly neutral position on vaccination, as the topic itself is not purely black or white. I believe myself to be pro common sense and very much in favour of further improving the safety of vaccinations. I would hope to see a respectful discussion on vaccines in the future, in saying that, I’m not convinced that Australians are ready for a mature debate.
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