Oh, All These Johnny-Come-Latelies

Ever since the COVID-19 pandemic and the accompanying draconian policies implemented by governments around the world, there has been an acceleration in the growth of public concerns and skepticism over forced vaccination and the safety of vaccines. Much of this has been fueled by a new crop of medical doctors and scientists who have taken cues from the COVID era vaccination missteps of politicians in partnership with the public health, medical, and pharmaceutical industries to revisit the traditional assumptions surrounding vaccines in general.

These physicians, public health professionals, and researchers have become the latest heralds and prophets warning that all may not be well within the science of vaccination and perhaps hasn’t been for a very long time. Their eyes have apparently been opened to the possibility that what they thought to be true in this area of modern medicine is not so black and white after all.

The reality is that the ballgame started many innings ago. Yes, way before RFK, Jr. picked up a bat. Yes, before Joe Rogan came along and started giving airtime to the contrarians. Before Dr. McCullough and Dr. Malone and Dr. Ladapo. Before Frontline Doctors. Before Del. Before the well-produced Vaxxed movies. Yes, even before Andy Wakefield and so many countless other latecomers.

The DPT Campaign

In the modern age, on the issue of vaccine safety and informed consent rights with regard to vaccination, the struggle began in 1982 with the establishment of the Dissatisfied Parents Together (DPT) parent-led charity, which launched a national campaign against vaccine mandates led by Barbara Loe Fisher. By the late-1980s, the group, which successfully lobbied to get the crude whole cell pertussis vaccine in DPT (diphtheria-pertussis-tetanus) replaced in 1996 with the less reactive acellular pertussis vaccine in DTaP, had evolved into the National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC).¹

The DPT campaign was followed up in 1985 with the publication of Fisher and Harris L. Coulter’s seminal book DPT: A Shot in the Dark. The book, published by Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, traced the development of the DPT vaccine, provided cases studies of injuries and deaths caused by the shot, and critiqued the system of mandatory vaccination.^{2 3}

In 1986, the DPT campaign organized the first public protest at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta calling for a safer pertussis vaccine and more accurate reporting of vaccine reactions. Later that same year, Congress passed the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act, which was an historic acknowledgment by government that federally recommended and state mandated vaccines can cause injury and death. Fisher has stated that, for the first time, preventing vaccine injuries and deaths was elevated to a national priority in a federal law.^{3 4}

In 2023, acknowledging NVIC’s fifth decade of defending autonomy and protection of bodily integrity with regard to vaccination and other medical interventions, Fisher wrote:

The modern vaccine safety and informed consent movement opposing mandatory vaccination laws launched by parents of DPT vaccine injured children in 1982 has changed the course of medical history.³

While the history of vaccine policy and science continues to evolve, it should not be minimized or forgotten that this history spans much farther back than just the past few years. While there has been an awful lot of change and new public awareness packed into the years since COVID, much of this has been facilitated by a select few who came along with the early foresight, wisdom, courage, and energy half a century ago.⁵

The Quest for “Health Freedom” Ain’t New

The so-called “health freedom movement” is considered a relatively new phenomenon, viewed largely as a reaction to COVID vaccination policies, as is the saying, “your body, your choice.” Case in point… A 2022 article by Davey Alba in The New York Times noted:

The phrase “your body, your choice” emerged as a central rallying cry for bodily autonomy and medical freedom during the COVID-19 pandemic. Dr. Robert Malone—a scientist known for his early contributions to mRNA research—famously championed this concept, positioning himself as a leading critic of government-imposed vaccine mandates…⁶

But there really isn’t anything remotely recent about this. After all, what more represents the legacy of Barbara Loe Fisher than watching her looking into the camera and saying, “It’s your health, your family, your choice.” It has been a recurring, underlying theme of nearly every article written by her for decades, as well as every video commentary recorded by her, every speech given by her, and every interview with her.^{7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15}

It was fascinating to witness during COVID how so many of the things about which Fisher had long ruminated and warned with respect to forced vaccination, censorship, travel and assembly restrictions, and other violations of basic civil and human rights actually came true. Who would’ve thought we would sink so low?

The warning bell she began ringing decades ago remains one we should take seriously:

If the state can tag, track down and force individuals to be injected with biologicals of known and unknown toxicity today, then there will be no limit on which individual freedoms the state can take away in the name of the greater good tomorrow.⁴

It’s good to have all the Johnny-come-latelies. Welcome. Better late than never.

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