NVIC Says AAP Destroying Public Trust by Bullying Parents Instead of Being Partners in Preventing Vaccine Reactions

WASHINGTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The nonprofit educational organization, the National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC), is calling on the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) leadership to stop bullying parents and do more to urge pediatricians to become compassionate partners with parents in preventing vaccine reactions, injuries and deaths. NVIC is responding to an April 13, 2011 letter that AAP President O, Marion Burton, M.D. wrote to CBS pressuring the network to remove a 15-second message on the CBS Jumbotron in Times Square encouraging informed vaccine decision-making.

“The AAP leadership is destroying the trust that should exist between parents and pediatricians. Instead of leading by example and encouraging pediatricians to first, do no harm, they are acting like bullies. It is a shame”

The AAP letter to CBS was also provided to bloggers, who orchestrated an online smear campaign to discredit NVIC, which is the oldest and largest vaccine safety consumer advocacy organization in the U.S. The 15-second vaccine education message, sponsored by NVIC with a donation from Mercola.com, began on March 22 and will run hourly through April 28.

“It is inappropriate for a wealthy trade organization representing pediatricians, that gets a lot of money from vaccine manufacturers, to be attacking a small charity representing families with vaccine injured children,” said NVIC Co-founder & President Barbara Loe Fisher. “NVIC has a 30 year record of working responsibly inside and outside of government to improve the safety of vaccines and vaccine policies. The AAP, which encourages pediatricians to follow the advice of vaccine patent holder Dr. Paul Offit, should be spending less time denying vaccine risks and more time encouraging pediatricians to educate parents about how to identify and prevent vaccine reactions so fewer children become vaccine damaged.”

In the early 1980’s, the AAP successfully lobbied Congress to shield vaccine manufacturers and doctors from civil liability for vaccine injuries and deaths in the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of 1986. At the same time, NVIC co-founders worked to secure vaccine safety informing, recording and reporting provisions in the 1986 law, which has paid out more than $2 billion to the vaccine injured since 1988.

In recent years, the AAP has been criticized for failing to divulge to the public the amount of money it receives from vaccine manufacturers. On April 18, 2011, The Orange County Register published a retraction for printing Paul Offit’s defamatory accusation that veteran CBS journalist Sharyl Attkisson lied when she accurately reported in 2008 that Offit failed to inform CBS about exactly how much money he and his employer, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, are paid by vaccine manufacturer Merck.

“The AAP leadership is destroying the trust that should exist between parents and pediatricians. Instead of leading by example and encouraging pediatricians to first, do no harm, they are acting like bullies. It is a shame,” said Fisher.

Click here to read the April 18, 2011 letter NVIC sent to the AAP.

Click here to watch a video and read a commentary with references.

Click here to download a vaccine education brochure.