Vaxxed - Go see it!

http://vaxxedthemovie.com/  

Last weekend I saw Vaxxed: From Cover-up to Catastrophe - while hardly a pleasure (given the topic) it is an important tool for enlightenment regarding some of the issues surrounding vaccines and a variety of scandals associated with their use. 

The documentary is directed by Andrew Wakefield, and while he makes an appearance early in the film (to debunk myths regarding his still retracted paper about GI issues associated with measles vaccine) the film itself is not even a little bit about him. 

The first half of the film lays the foundation for the second half where the three pieces of evidence supporting allegations of fraud at the CDC are laid out. While a documentary is not a court of law I think the filmmakers have a sound case for what they allege (though I could rightly be accused of bias and would agree I am no longer neutral on this subject) and this should make us all think long and hard about what, if any, vaccines we (or our children) receive. 

Woven throughout the film are the stories of families whose children were injured by vaccines. You know, children/people who caught a bad case of "coincidence" (hmm, I wonder when there will be a vaccine for that?!) 

This film covers the risk of vaccination that most parents fear - autism (though officially there is no link, of course!) But there are other risks of vaccination - just read the package insert. 
But one of the primary problems is that the risks of vaccination (especially the long-term risks) are not even known as we have yet to do a study comparing the long-term health of a vaccinated population against an unvaccinated population (let alone a randomized, double-blind controlled trial - the gold standard for evidence based medicine). So the information on the package inserts (and from any study about vaccine safety) is incomplete at best, and if not fraudulent, it may be inaccurate. 

The CDC is a governmental entity - they work for us, the tax-payers. They are entirely capable of legitimate research, even of vaccines, but given the level of conflict of interest embedded in their programs it seems prudent to verify before trusting. 

Given what we know and don't know about vaccination the decision should be left to the parents (of minor children) and the individuals who are bearing the risks. Any product that requires coercion, manipulation, or force to be used is likely one that should be avoided at all costs!