Media

One of the most frequent questions I've been asked is how long have I been involved with vaccine issues.  Those who have read my book will know the broad sweep of it.   Hopefully examples from the media, will give you a tiny feel for the media of the time, who in comparison to today, were a lot more "investigative" and far less "tabloid" than today. In my opinion, there has been little serious investigative journalism done on vaccination issues since 1997. 

Vaccination wasn't an issue with mothers, when I first became a mother.  Most people just did it without thinking.  And because there weren't very many vaccines at all, it was something that people just "got out of the way" so that they didn't have to think about it any more.  I haven't kept everything I've written, or that has been written about me, but here is a small selection.  The whole lot would really make for a page that was much too long.

1985{module_literature,i,26480}In 1986, the medical profession started the beginning of what I felt was zealous vaccine pushing without any factual basis. the pamphlets of the day were a total joke. A journalist at the Herald heard about me and wrote an article.  At first she was quite frosty, but after being given the run around by the Health Department who produced three completely different set of measles data, she started to get the gist of what I was saying:  {module_literature,i,26481}After the Herald article there were many invites to do talks around the country, the first in February 1987:{module_literature,i,26482}By June 1987, we were in the middle of the Menomune A campaign, with all its raffles, competitions and issues, which are covered in JALP:{module_literature,i,26483}The editor of the local paper invited me to do a guest column as things heated up with reactions denied as "coincidental".{module_literature,i,26484}By 1987, I was talking with researchers overseas, and had started to study Polio vaccine cultures in more depth:{module_literature,i,26485}By 29th August, the Menomune A campaign had gone really badly wrong, but still you wouldn't know there was an elephant in your living room.  However, the Listener, listened:{module_literature,i,26486}On 14th September, the New Zealand Woman's Weekly decided to talk about the issue as well:{module_literature,i,26488}On September 23rd, I weighed in over the Tasman as well:{module_literature,i,26487}In October, More Magazine did an extensive article.  This was an interesting time for us, and the journalist concerned was pro-vaccine to start with.  As she spent time going through my files, books and other material, she started to get a bit annoyed.  Her partner was regaled with lots of information which was totally new to her.  It's never ceased to amaze me how little most journalists know, yet they think they know... until they realize that they just... don't know.

As one mentioned to me... that's the definitions of "ignorance".  Not knowing what you don't know.  The More magazine journalist was fantastic though.  She asked lots of tough questions, but in the end, dealt with the tough issues  This article is in two parts: {module_literature,i,26489}{module_literature,i,26490}In mid 1988, a drug company which made a yeast based Hepatitis B vaccine, started a scaremonger campaign about blood based vaccines, and the finger was pointed at me :lol: {module_literature,i,26491}A talk at Thames centred on a video produced by Dr Robert Strecker featuring documents he obtained under the OIA which lead him to believe that AIDS wasn't totally a freak of nature.{module_literature,i,26492}In December, Peter Calder from the Listener did a series of people who spoke out on various things:{module_literature,i,26494}1989 we attended a conference in New Plymouth.{module_literature,i,26495}and in December, Broadsheet did an article.{module_literature,i,26496}1991 was the year of a measles outbreak,{module_literature,i,26497}which, by 1997, would have the cases and deaths vastly inflated, as is detailed in JALP. Healthy Options did an article on measles,{module_literature,i,26498}Metro Magazine came out with an article called "Measles on Elm Street", {module_literature,i,26499}{module_literature,i,26500}and then Little Treasures sandwiched a mother whose fear of measles knew no bounds.{module_literature,i,26501}
1992 Manukau Courier did an article because of the talk about monkey viruses.{module_literature,i,26562}  Then Next Magazine wanted to talk about it.{module_literature,i,26563}1993 there was talk in Parliament of making vaccination mandatory with financial penalties as well as medical practice financial inducements.{module_literature,i,26565}1994  Very few magazines were interested in the issue.{module_literature,i,26566} Most of 1995 newsclippings were small letters to the editor. In 1996 there was a humungous "fight" in the Northern Age, a newspaper in Whangarei about the Hepatitis B vaccine.  Letters went back and forth, and in one, Sandy Milne who did much of the research on the Hep B vaccine in New Zealand, replied to a letter by Jan Clark, a nurse who had been permanently disabled as a result of a booster shot, mandated when her detectable antibody level dropped to zero.  He talked about memory immunity, something we all know about, but something doctors don't talk about.  He said she would never have needed the booster because even though antibodies couldn't be detected, the test was crude, and that there wasn't a test to look for the ability of the immune system to act on memory immunity.  He raised other points, but some of what was said warranted a reply.{module_literature,i,26567}1997 things picked up with a measles outbreak, which was predicted to be a dire epidemic.  Afterwards an amazing piece of rubbish was written about how many lives were "saved", which was utter rubbish. The most galling this to me about this year was being written to by the Minister of Health, and told that there was no basis for the use of vitamin A in the treatment of measles, and basically, that it was time for me to shut up.  This is a very small selection of the fire that was 1997 {module_literature,i,26568}.{module_literature,i,26569} The Listener though, alerted the country that meningitis was back again, 11 years after the menomune A campaign, but this time, was meningitis B.  Funny how the medical profession kept saying that had no idea why.{module_literature,i,26570}{module_literature,i,26571}{module_literature,i,26572}1998, started with a local doctor making comments about asthma.{module_literature,i,26573} Then the possible connection between MMR and autism was discussed,{module_literature,i,26575} and then yet another whooping cough epidemic being blamed on unvaccinated children as usual.{module_literature,i,26576}2000 started with an article about vaccines and sids,{module_literature,i,26577} and the rest was minor brushfires: chorinated water{module_literature,i,26578} and more whooping cough blamed on unvaccinated children.{module_literature,i,26579}2001 started on an interesting note with an employee of IMAC making some classic statements in two papers.  Outraged, I wrote the following letter,{module_literature,i,26581} but the editors wouldn't publish it without the evidence, so I sent them the relevant information.  After that they published very happily, though perhaps blushed when I asked them if they asked IMAC to provide proof of their claims.  In July, the same doctor made yet more strange statements in the GP Weekly which also deserved a reply.{module_literature,i,26578}2002 the whooping cough debate continued in the Herald, with a Dr from IMAC contradicting my comments about the whooping cough in Australia.  Even though I sent the reporter the URL to the Australian report, and the report itself, he wouldn't put that in.  That's when you see that journos now, are basically protecting the system. The days of anything that even pretended to be "investigative journalism" pretty much ground to a halt in 1997{module_literature,i,26584}
2003 - 2006.  These years, I spent most of my time on internet boards in USA, and writing the first of out books, "Just a Little Prick, and left any battles to others. However, in 2006, after researching Bird Flu, after an altercation with a doctor involved in influenza research, and becoming incensed at the stupidity of the party line, decided it was time to write about what was NOT being said about bird flu.{module_literature,i,26585}2007, the year was kicked off by a letter in the SST by Dr Paul venting spleen about nonvaxxers.  Though my reply was vastly abridged, at least it got in.  Dr Paul, though, did get a copy of the original much stronger one.{module_literature,i,26588}  After JALP came out, we decided to talk about why the medical profession no longer talked about whooping cough, even though it was as bad as it ever has been.{module_literature,i,26587}2008.  After FOPTA came out, we decided to talk about what parents had not been told about Gardasil.{module_literature,i,26589}

So as you can see, it's been an ongoing issue since 1985.