The truth about vaccine defenders

Dear Friend,

I've told you for years that many of the pro-vaccine crowd are hardly as unbiased and independent as they claim. I've long contended that many of these "independent" vaccination advocates are financially tied to Big Pharma and other pro-vaccine lobby groups. And now, finally, the mainstream media has started to follow the trail of pennies to the source of the vaccination issue. And guess what? Turns out I was right.

CBS News investigative correspondent Sharyl Attkinson discovered that some of the most prominent proponents of vaccination safety have "strong financial ties" to the Big Pharma companies that produce the vaccines they so vehemently defend.

In particular, CBS's Attkinson found significant financial connections between the American Academy of Pediatrics, Every Child By Two (an organization that promotes early childhood vaccination), and pediatrician Dr. Paul Offit.

Nobody seems to have paid much attention to my accusations over the years. Now that CBS News is on the case, maybe people will start to take notice. Then again, this kind of financial corruption and paid advocacy is so common these days (believe me, congressmen and senators are routinely courted by special interest lobbyists who make massive campaign contributions in order to influence votes), it's likely that people will just shake their heads in disgust and move on.

How bad are these financial ties? Judge for yourself:

The American Academy of Pediatrics received $342,000 from pharmaceutical giant Wyeth, producers of the vaccine pneumococcal (a product which generates a whopping $2 billion in annual sales for the company). And the year that the AAP endorsed Merck's HPV vaccine, they received a $433,000 "contribution" from Merck. Hmmm… do you think that "contribution" would have been as generous if the AAP had spoken out against the HPV vaccine?

Personally, these facts show another distasteful side to Big Pharma: they're as cheap as the day is long. The HPV vaccine makes $1.5 billion in sales, and all they gave for the AAP's "endorsement" is less than half a million bucks? Wonder if they said, "don't spend it all in one place?" I'm being facetious, of course; where there is one $433,000 payment, my guess is there are surely others.

As for Every Child By Two, they wouldn't even admit to the amount of contributions that they receive from Big Pharma, though they did admit that they do take money from the vaccine industry. A spokesman for Every Child By Two claimed that "there are simply no conflicts to be unearthed." Oh yeah? Then why is one of the group's treasurers an official from Wyeth Pharmaceutical?

But organizations are one thing; individuals quite another. And that's why to me the worst of the three on the Big Pharma payroll is Dr. Offit. This man has been quoted as saying that babies can tolerate – get this – "10,000 vaccines at once." Sickening, right? Well, Attkinson found that he also holds a Merck-funded $1.5 million research chair at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. Oh, and he also personally HOLDS THE PATENT on an anti-diarrhea vaccine that's produced by – who else? – Merck! The future royalties on this vaccine just sold for a staggering $182 million… no wonder Dr. Offit loves vaccines so much — he's apparently fully immunized himself against poverty.

Shining the light on Big Pharma's pro-vaccine roaches,

William Campbell Douglass II, M.D.