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Why Doctors (and Newspaper Columnists) Rarely Dare to Question Vaccine Safety

doctor with a vaccine

Do you need excitement in your life? If so, just write a column on the rewards and risks of vaccination. Then find a safe, secure hideout. Pour yourself a drink and wait for those who want to boil you in oil. This scenario happened to me when an editor pulled my syndicated article, “What You May Not Know About Vaccines,” balanced I thought, after it was published, due to criticism.

Some readers thought I’d been fired.

A professor of medicine in Calgary writes, “I was horrified that you would publish these remarks for unsophisticated readers.” This implies newspaper readers are stupid! Another reader wrote, “Your recent piece is a threat to public health. You should be ashamed for spreading lies and fear.” These are damning comments that must be challenged.

I also received an overwhelming positive response from readers. The general reaction was “Thank God a doctor has finally had the courage to speak out about this matter.” A few predicted I’d be fired. Another wondered why I wasn’t stoned at my front door!

WD from Toronto replied, “I cannot believe your column on vaccines was removed. What is happening in this world? Big pharma has its teeth in everything and people blindly follow. Your column simply advised people to look at both sides of the coin. We are living in a sad time.”

From the Prairie Provinces: “You are one of the brave. All mothers out in the trenches are celebrating your article.” Another reader in Massachusetts claimed that “Dropping the column was an attack on free speech.”

MG writes, “With my first and only flu shot I developed Guillain-Barre disease and became paralyzed. I’ve regained the ability to walk, but have permanent nerve damage. It’s so frustrating to hear that flu shots are safe as one nearly killed me. Thanks for speaking up.”

From Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario: “I’m a registered nurse who worked in Toronto and never took a flu shot. Like you, I take a lot of vitamin C, and also bee pollen to increase immunity.”

A doctor from Mexico says, “I wasn’t taught about immunology and I was impressed and shocked to read about the dangers of vaccines in your column.” 

What have critics missed in denouncing this column? Investigators always counsel, “Follow the money to find the answer.” This means following 3.6 billion dollars, awarded to families due to the complications of vaccines. It’s a huge pay out if nothing wrong ever happened. 

Critics also make the error in ignoring the fact that no therapy in this world is 100 percent safe. I could never guarantee that my surgical patients would have an uncomplicated recovery. Every day people die of blood clots after surgery and prescription medication. Vaccines are no exception.

Some things like apple pie, motherhood and vaccines have become sacrosanct. And if doctors analyze them they’re immediately damned.

Some critics claim that substantial amounts of mercury are no longer used in vaccines. But mercury even in small quantities is dangerous. Common sense tells us that something in the vaccine triggers occasional complications. To date, we regrettably do not have a utopian 100 percent safe vaccine.

I am a moderate, actually. I’ve previously written that vaccines have thankfully saved countless lives from infectious disease. I have never counseled anyone to refuse vaccines. Rather, the decision should always be made by the patient and his/her doctor. Informed consent should include the possibility of an unexpected, minor or serious complication. 

One thing I do know. I’m not related to the Almighty. I therefore can’t be infallible. I also know that readers often request that my column be discontinued when I write about controversial social and medical issues.

In view of what happened should I have bypassed a column on vaccines? I hate hypocrisy, so I’d be the world’s worst hypocrite if I followed the non-controversial path. Medicine is made up of many controversies.

An editor 45 years ago counseled me, “It’s the job of a journalist to make people think.” This has left me with scars. But if I get fired for writing what I believe should be said, it’s time to stop. After all, the motto of the Harvard Medical School is one word, Truth. I will live or die by it.


Note: The author (syndicated as W. Gifford-Jones, MD) is a Harvard-trained surgeon and outspoken advocate of nutritional medicine. His website is at docgiff.com.

 

23 Responses

  1. My mother taught me as a child that science was greatly affected by politics and status quo: that right does not will out. That “science” is held by the few vis a vis grant approval and filtered publishing. She was a neuro anatomist at a prominent university studying the primate brain. As a woman she experienced first hand the discrimination and bias in the scientific community. She’s a very stubborn person and just kept showing up, ultimately publishing many papers and achieving Professor Emeritus status.

    After the birth of my firstborn, she hastily scrawled out in pencil the growth curve of the human brain after birth and implored me to not vaccinate the baby. She was concerned about the thermisol – and had objected when my sister’s baby was over vaccinated. My sister didn’t listen, and we all watched as her toddler son began lining up his toys in order, walking on his toes, hand flapping. My mother was desperate to prevent another grandchild from this fate.

    My nephew was diagnosed w/ learning disabilities, left HS early, cannot hold down a job and is supported by his parents. My daughter is at UCLA. No, it’s not quid pro quo, but it’s a story isn’t it? A true story that we should be allowed to be curious about.

    If I tried to write this as a letter to the editor or even in a Disqus forum post, I am censored. My esteemed mother would be censored. Instead I do what my mother did: a scrawled graph on paper, an arm grab, an implorement to see beyond the veil. There is no allowable discourse, all information is simply shut down. Heck, even Robert DeNiro got scared. It’s hard to keep showing up/ speaking up when the real gangsters show up at your door.

    1. Thank you for sharing that story. It takes courage to stand up for the truth. We’re constantly expected to uphold everything PC. I wrote about my experience of having my measle titers come back negative twice even after receiving a booster. As a result,I received a barrage of negative feedback. One guy thought all conversation about vaccine safety and effectiveness should be shut down because, as far as he was concerned, there was no debate.

  2. thank you and bless you! i started advocating for truly informed consent as a student nurse 56 years ago…..i am grateful any time any legitimate member of the ‘medical world’ stands up and talks the truth. The assumption (or is it a hope?) on the part of the so-called medical-gov’t.-pharma world that every day ppl can’t decide for themselves is not only totally wrong, it is an insult to their own intelligence (assuming they have at least some). MOST ppl can choose what they want for themselves when given ALL the known facts. thank you for presenting the ugly facts in a way that is balanced with the known / assumed benefits and remaining calmly steadfast in the face of nonsensical attacks. i think you know there are millions more who are longing for the truth told in a credible way…….and that number is growing. the ‘status quo’ “powers” cannot stop this wave of ppl waking up and getting active. be safe

  3. I would love to see more discussion on vaccine safety. I hear too many people saying “the science is settled”, when nothing could be further from the truth. First of all, science is never “settled” or we’d still believe the earth is flat. Science is about investigation and an open mind. Unfortunately, where vaccine safety is concerned, there are few open minds, but lots of propaganda.

    Thank you for speaking up, and shame on the newspaper for pulling your article.

  4. A very good report. Thank you! However, vaccines have NOT saved countless lives! Please read the excellent recent report by Dr. Gary G. Kohls and Dr. Suzanne Humphries exposing this myth at bit.ly/2OR5ZFJ, and how it all got started at bit.ly/2peNakC.

  5. It takes courage for a journalist or a doctor to tell the truth about vaccines. They have a lot more to lose than most of us. We might lose a few friends by being honest but we won’t lose our jobs and our professional reputations. We need more brave professionals to speak up but I understand why they don’t.

  6. A world where there is no room for dissent is not a world I want to live in. I am often frustrated that the media divides the world into two camps in regards to vaccination. Pro and Con. Where are the rest of us in this discussion? I am not inherently opposed to vaccination. My concern is with unnecessary flu shots for healthy people and the sheer amount of vaccines a young immune system is expected to process in a very short amount of time. But it’s like people like me don’t exist. They don’t want us to exist so that they can perpetuate the myth that anyone who looks critically at this subject is either a irresponsible charlatan or a raving lunatic!

  7. A world where there is no room for dissent is not a world I want to live in. I am often frustrated that the media divides the world into two camps in regards to vaccination. Pro and Con. Where are the rest of us in this discussion? I am not inherently opposed to vaccination. My concern is with unnecessary flu shots for healthy people and the sheer amount of vaccines a young immune system is expected to process in a very short amount of time. But it’s like people like me don’t exist. They don’t want us to exist so that they can perpetuate the myth that anyone who looks critically at this subject is either a irresponsible charlatan or a raving lunatic!

  8. The kind of journalism that Dr. Walker practices is exceedingly rare today. Most journalists are either too captured by the vaccine mythology, or are intimidated into silence. I’ve stopped reading and watching mainstream media because it is only serving the interests of corporations. Journalism today is not about telling the truth or inviting dialogue to deepen our understanding of a topic. Journalism has an agenda and it is mostly about money for the advertisers and corporate owners. Thankfully there are still a few like Dr. Walker.

  9. I am glad you decided to speak out. It can save lives to have someone the public considers an expert tell them to look at the risks of vaccines. I believe the risk of not saying anything is silently growing. Since any criticism of vaccines is highly censored here in America, at least from “mainstream” sources, knowledge is being effectively shared parent-to-parent via social media as well as through bold scientists, doctors and researchers who literally risk their lives and careers to mention vaccine risks and dangers. What happens when a large percentage of the population is vaccine risk aware and yet “mainstream” doctors, journalists and others are silent? It will be damning for them. The CDC has already quietly updated their MMR, MMRV and varicella VISs to indicate that some people should not be vaccinated. How will truthful reporting of the suppressed CDC vaccine research fraud documented in the “Vaxxed” movie affect physicians and health care providers who for YEARS have denied the link between vaccines and autism? I think you can imagine what is impending. I believe the time is fast approaching when all faith in public vaccine programs will be lost and the public will completely reject them.

  10. Yes Dr. Walker, right became wrong and wrong became right.Is an old Biblical prophecy and at this time of age this fact is unavoidably evident.Critical times, that is.But it goes further: “Woe to them, who exchanges sweet for bitter and bitter for sweet”.

  11. Thank you because upon taking the Shingles Vaccination l developed a skin condition that no one three separate dermatologists and a rheumatologist could not treat or diagnose. The pneumonia vaccination effected my immune system to the point that it took months after being sick for a month to recover. Have not been the same since. Tried to question the Manufacturer and got nothing but a prerehearsed response. I don’t believe in introducing unnecessary manmade products into my body especially with disclaimers and no seeming honest monitoring by the government entities responsible.

  12. As an RN, in my own experience, in the last two years of my practice I have taken care of a perfectly healthy co-worker who developed Guilain-Barre a week after receiving the flu shot at work. She went home with a feeding tube. As healthcare workers we are bullied into taking these vaccinations. Thank you for your work!

  13. I would like to add my thanks to the doctor/journalist who wrote this article. I’m not in the camp that posits that all vaccines are useless, but am appalled at the brainwashing that has convinced so many otherwise rational people that taking all these vaccines should be mandated and there’s never any harm.

    My own children were not vaccinated although all three eventually did take the DT shot for various reasons. If one of us were traveling in a country with widespread outbreaks of disease for which there is an effective vaccine, we would take it.

    I’m appalled at the stories posted on the freedom wall of doctors and nurses who simply ignore counter indications for vaccination and demand the parent submit their children to the vaccine schedule no matter what. This is not science based medicine.

  14. Most of this is not because of ignorance.To the contrary common sense and lived experience are enough for anybody who cares to know that something is terribly wrong.. Pecuniary-interested forces rule; since corporatism dominates every facet of life. That makes it costly to speak up, when everybody is expected to shut up. It is a damn shame. A plague on all their houses.

  15. This is my response to a AZ columnist who berated Mrs Townsend who doesn’t believe in mandatory vaccination. Since then a second columnist at Az Republic reinforced the bias.

    I’m disappointed that your column was not balanced and was a denunciation of those who believe we have gone to far in our vaccination policies not for good health, but for profit. You need to ask the question why my children 50 years ago received only two vaccines in the first 6 months of their lives and today it is mandated in California that children receive 26. You also have to ask why 50 years ago autism was a rare issue and today about 1 in 50 children become autistic and create hardships for the parents and increase the likelihood of a divorce. I cry for those families that have to deal with a autistic child.

    A medical research report published in 2017 by learned medical researchers identify that our Life Style Medicine of today is the root cause of the majority of illnesses we endure in the US.
    I’ll be happy to provide the citation if you want to learn the truth. Some of the issue today is the influx of illegal immigrants who are carrying diseases including measles into our cities today. Fear is being pushed by the vaccine manufacturers to create a over abundance of vaccination on a mandatory basis not for good health, but for profit.

    In 1900, bacterial diseases account for 53% of deaths in the US and vaccines were created to counteract this crisis. Today, less than 3% of deaths are caused by infection and are in the majority of cases the result of complications due to other factors such as cancer treatment.

    The physicians role is to determine when a vaccine should be administered as environmental lifestyle issues warrant. Mandatory vaccination policies remove the physician from the equation and create a over vaccinated child which causes many detrimental health issues besides autism.

    If you have a medical background and you paid attention in the course on immunology you would understand the human body is designed to reject non-self entities. A immune system response is created. Some times violently.
    Too many trace toxins administered in too many vaccines in infants under a year when their immune system is still immature can illicit unexpected results. Autism is the result due to the number of vaccines being given beyond which the infants body can cope with, especially if they have not been born 100% whole. The vaccine manufactures created the Autism Vaccine court to absolve themselves from any liability and too push vaccines unfettered on the American public. The fact remains there have never been safety tests performed on vaccines too prove they are safe.

    If there is a mercury spill in a home, a hazmat team comes out to clean up the mess since it is a poison. If it is in a vaccine it is OK??? Mercury thermometers have been banned but not thimersol in vaccines. You can’t buy thimersol (mercury disinfectant tincture) in a drug store today. The FDA has banned it. But not in vaccines.

    The Union of Concerned Scientists have identified the Disinformation Playbook that is commonly used today, not only by the vaccine manufacturers, but also other corporate entities that need to spin the truth to maintain their profitability and growth at the expense of the citizens of the US. Happy to provide this info also.

    The vaccine manufacturers have totally brain washed our Congressman as well as out Medical leadership in Medicine and Pharmacy to the concept that vaccines are a mandated necessity. I do not agree.

    Based on your statements in your article, you have bought into the spin.

    It is a Triumph of Good Drug Marketing Trumping Good Medicine in the US.

    Google this video to hear what a California physician believes:
    https://thevaccinereaction.org/2019/02/interview-with-anthony-phan-md/

    Interview With Anthony Phan, MD – The Vaccine Reaction
    What God gave me was this mentor that […] taught me the Hippocratic Oath—the real meaning of the Hippocratic Oath. First, do no harm. So, do no harm means… your oath is to the patient. Not to the CDC. Not to the government. Not to the FDA. Your oath is to the patient. And he also said to me …
    thevaccinereaction.org
    Do no Harm has become meaningless in regards to vaccines and no one speaks out on the harm that has been created. There has been much fear created to denounce anyone in Congress or Medicine who speaks contrary on this issue.

    I am happy to provide you with solid research that documents the analysis I have provided from a pharmacist view who has for over 60 years been involved in protecting the health of people.

    We have lost our way and I cry for our future generations.

    Thomas A Braun RPh.
    N2E+ for Life, President

    PS: We lived in a middle class neighborhood and my children had a healthy upbringing. The only time they had issues was from Rx drugs prescribed by physicians. Two vaccines was adequate.

    I can also give you documentation about a Illinois Baby doctor who delivered 10,000 babies in his life time and never had given any of the infants a vaccine. Also, no cases of Autism!

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