Vaccines are biological products used to suppress or eradicate infectious diseases. Medical interventions like vaccination can have benefits and risks. Just as with medical procedures and prescription drugs, vaccines carry the risk of side effects, injury, and death. Some people have a higher risk than others for having an adverse reaction to vaccination.
Vaccination should be a choice.
The National Vaccine Information Center advocates for the right to informed consent to vaccination.
The National Vaccine Information Center also educates the public about how to reduce the risk of serious vaccine reactions, and provides support to people who have been injured by vaccines.
Vaccines are big business in America.
Americans buy and are required to use more vaccines than citizens in any other nation in the world. The market for pediatric vaccines is predicted to quadruple by the year 2016 to more than $16 billion.
Vaccines are the only commercial products marketed and sold for profit that are not subject to product liability laws. The lucrative pharmaceutical industry enjoys the subsidization and legal protection of the Federal Government for its vaccine products. State officials then mandate that all children use federally recommended vaccines. And for the past 25 years, every vaccine created by the pharmaceutical industry for children has been recommended by the Federal Government for use by all American children.
You can support vaccine safety and informed consent protections in vaccine policies and laws.
Although pharmaceutical companies have powerful friends in Congress, grassroots efforts by parents and enlightened health professionals have been effective in promoting vaccine safety.
In 1982, parents of DPT vaccine injured children launched the U.S. vaccine safety and informed consent movement to prevent vaccine injuries and deaths through public education. They founded the National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC) to protect the right of every citizen to make informed, voluntary vaccination decisions.
Through their efforts, the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act was passed by Congress in 1986. Nearly $2 billion in compensation has been awarded to families. Still, two out of three persons injured by vaccines are left empty-handed.
Serious vaccine reactions include brain damage and even death.
More vaccines may not make our children healthier.
In 1982, the Centers for Disease Control recommended 23 doses of 7 vaccines for children up to age six. Today, the CDC recommends that children take 48 doses of 14 vaccines by age six. With the recent addition of annual flu shots for all infants and children, the CDC now recommends that children get 69 doses of 16 vaccines by age 18.
In 1983, one in 10,000 children were diagnosed with autism. Today, 1 child in 150 develops autism.
One out of 6 American children is learning disabled. One in 9 has asthma and one in 450 is diabetic.
Americans can be arrested for not vaccinating their children.
The supporters of the National Vaccine Information Center believe Americans should be allowed to make informed, voluntary decisions about vaccination for themselves and their children.
Yet, in November 2007, government officials in Maryland ordered several thousand parents and their children to line up at a county court house under threat of jail time and stiff fines if they did not prove the children had been vaccinated for chickenpox and hepatitis B. Most children were vaccinated on the spot, with no questions asked.
US Soldiers must take experimental vaccines or face court martial and prison.
Our service men and women deserve the basic human right of informed consent to using pharmaceutical products or undergoing any medical procedure that carries a risk of harm. Learn more
