NVIC battles biased reported on “60 Minutes”

The October 20, 2004 edition of CBS News’ “60 Minutes” aimed its big guns at parents who question the safety and effectiveness of vaccines and the National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC), an organization that provides the “other side of the story” on the controversial medicines.

Correspondent Dan Rather interviewed several medical doctors during the show, both of whom said that there is scientific evidence of vaccine safety. The MDs claimed that the decision not to vaccinate children was putting society at risk. The report noted that a research paper published in The Lancet was later “disavowed” by that journal because the researcher supposedly had financial ties to attorneys who were planning to sue vaccine makers. However, no mention was made of the fact that countless medical research projects are funded by pharmaceutical companies that stand to make billions of dollars in profit from their drugs and vaccines.

Barbara Loe Fisher, co-founder and president of the NVIC, was interviewed on the program and demonstrated her dedication as well as courage by stating: “The mass use of multiple vaccines in early childhood to prevent all infections is the biggest medical experiment that has ever been conducted on the human race. And I think the jury is still out as to whether or not it will be medical science’s greatest achievement, or its most tragic failure.”

After the episode aired, Fisher wrote a letter to the producers of "60 Minutes," berating them for their biased and inaccurate reporting. Among the most blatant of their errors of omission was a failure to tell viewers that the doctor they touted as their most respected vaccine "expert" was in reality a childhood vaccine patent holder and paid consultant to Merck, the drug company -- one of the largest childhood vaccine manufacturers.

Fisher, who co-authored “DPT: A Shot in the Dark,” was the recipient of the 1999 World Chiropractic Alliance “Humanitarian of the Year” award, in recognition of her struggle to alert the public to the potential risks of vaccines.

She has served on the National Vaccine Advisory Committee, is a member of the Vaccine Safety Forum at the Institute of Medicine, and is on the editorial board of the Journal of Vertebral Subluxation Research.

As a leading spokesperson for the anti-vaccine movement, Fisher has appeared on hundreds of radio and television programs, including “The Today Show,” “CBS Evening News” and “Nightline.”

READ the transcript of the “60 Minutes” program

READ Barbara Loe Fisher’s response to the broadcast

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