National Vaccine Information Center

Last updated

National Vaccine Information Center
Founded1982 (1982)
FoundersBarbara Loe Fisher, Jeff Schwartz, Kathi Williams
Type 501(c)(3)
Focus Anti-vaccination advocacy
Location
Funding Joseph Mercola
Website www.nvic.org
Formerly called
Dissatisfied Parents Together (DPT)

The National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC), founded under the name Dissatisfied Parents Together (DPT) in 1982, is an American 501(c)(3) [1] organization that has been widely criticized as a leading source of fearmongering and misinformation about vaccines. [2] [3] [4] While NVIC describes itself as the "oldest and largest consumer-led organization advocating for the institution of vaccine safety and informed consent protections", [5] it promotes false and misleading information including the discredited claim that vaccines cause autism, [6] [7] [8] and its campaigns portray vaccination as risky, encouraging people to consider "alternatives." [9] In April 2020, the organization was identified as one of the greatest disseminators of COVID-19 misinformation on Facebook. [10]

Contents

Despite its name, the National Vaccine Information Center bears no relation to the National Vaccine Advisory Committee, an advisory body of the United States Department of Health and Human Services.

Since 2003, the NVIC has maintained a website named Medalerts.org, which republishes the CDC's Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System data without its appropriate methodological transparency and warnings. This has led to misleading attributions of deaths to the COVID-19 vaccines. [11]

History

The organization was co-founded in 1982 by Jeff Schwartz, Barbara Loe Fisher, and Kathi Williams under the name Dissatisfied Parents Together (DPT). [12] : 8  Each of them had observed the health of one of their children deteriorate at some point after receiving a dose of the DPT vaccine and had watched a television broadcast of the film DPT: Vaccine Roulette, which drew an erroneous causal link between DPT vaccines and illnesses of some children who received them. [12] : 1–6  In 1985, Fisher and Harris Coulter co-authored a book, DPT: A Shot in the Dark, which asserted an association between the whole cell pertussis (whooping cough) vaccine in the DPT shot and autism. [13] The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention now recommend the newer acellular pertussis vaccines (DTaP and Tdap), and whole cell pertussis vaccines are no longer used in the US. [14] [15] because of adverse effects unrelated to autism. [16] [17]

In the early 1980s, the organization joined with the American Academy of Pediatrics to draft the original legislation for the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of 1986, [18] [19] which created a federal vaccine injury compensation program, mandated doctors to give parents vaccine benefit and risk information, and required the recording and reporting of vaccine injuries and deaths (see Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System). The organization changed its name to the National Vaccine Information Center in the early 1990s. [12] : 8 

Like other anti-vaccination groups, NVIC has been investing heavily into its social media presence in the 2010s. In addition to developing their own social media channels, the organization pushes anti-vaccination messages to online gatherings of young parents, anti-GMO activists and wellness enthusiasts. [20] However, due the group's decision to stick to Facebook as their main social media channel, they experienced only a small growth of their social media base, while other anti-vaccination groups such as Children's Health Defense saw their impact increase considerably on systems such as Instagram during the COVID-19 pandemic. [21] In April 2020, the organization was identified as one of the greatest disseminators of COVID-19 misinformation on Facebook. [10]

Funding

Although the NVIC claims to be supported primarily by small donations, 40% of its funding came from the anti-vaccination activist and distributor of vitamin supplements Joseph Mercola, who provided $2.9 million between 2009 and 2018. The funds were provided through Mercola's Natural Health Research Foundation. [22]

Barry Segal's Focus for Health foundation is also contributing to NVIC, with $400,000 between 2011 and 2017. [22]

In 2020 the NVIC took and received a federal loan of US$136,070 through the Paycheck Protection Program, even though it had opposed federal vaccination campaigns and spread misinformation about vaccines. Because of the latter behavior, in early 2021 Facebook disallowed the group from purchasing advertising on its networks. [23] [24]

COVID pandemic

On October 16–18, NVIC hosted the 2020 International Public Conference on Vaccination, which aimed to coordinate messaging between the main anti-vaccination groups in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. The attendees included Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s Children's Health Defense and Del Bigtree speaking for the Informed Consent Action Network, as well as Joseph Mercola, Andrew Wakefield and Sherri Tenpenny. [25] [26] [27]

Medalerts.org

NVIC's Medalerts republication of Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System data, done without CDC's detailed warning of the data limitations, had led to incorrect interpretations and misleading reports attributing deaths to COVID-19 vaccines. [11] The original United States Department of Health and Human Services VAERS website is willfully cautious, containing extensive and important warnings such as "Reports of death to VAERS following vaccination do not necessarily mean the vaccine caused the death" [28] and others. [29] [30] The website states :

"VAERS reports alone cannot be used to determine if a vaccine caused or contributed to an adverse event or illness. The reports may contain information that is incomplete, inaccurate, coincidental, or unverifiable. In large part, reports to VAERS are voluntary, which means they are subject to biases." [29]

HHS's VAERS data replicated by Medalerts is known to be frequently misrepresented by anti-vaccines sources. [31]

Reception

The journalist Michael Specter described the NVIC as:

"... an organization that, based on its name, certainly sounds like a federal agency. Actually, it's just the opposite: the NVIC is the most powerful anti-vaccine organization in America, and its relationship with the U.S. government consists almost entirely of opposing federal efforts aimed at vaccinating children." [2]

The NVIC falsely asserts that there has been inadequate research into the link between the rise in the number of children diagnosed with autism and mass vaccination programs. There have been a number of peer-reviewed studies and meta-analyses that have shown no correlation between vaccine administration and autism diagnosis, [32] [33] [34] and there is no biological plausibility for vaccines to cause autism, as autism is not an immune-mediated disease.

The skeptic and science blogger Phil Plait notes that while "On their site they take "vaccine injuries" as given," the "litany of effects is interesting, given that to the best of my knowledge (and I've looked) none of them has actually been linked to vaccines in real medical studies." [4] The NVIC received criticism in April 2011 for ads that it placed on a jumbotron in Times Square. [35] [36] The ads criticized childhood immunization and promoted an alternative medicine website. In a letter to CBS, which owned the jumbotron, the American Academy of Pediatrics stated, "By providing advertising space to an organization like the NVIC... you are putting thousands of lives of children at risk." [37]

A controversial ad produced by NVIC regarding preventive measures for influenza was aired on some Delta Air Lines flights, prompting the president of the American Academy of Pediatrics to write a letter to the CEO of Delta on November 4, 2011, urging Delta to "remove these harmful messages." [38] [39] An online petition was also set up to urge Delta to remove the ads. [38] [39]

The refusal of Delta Air Lines to stop showing the ad immediately prompted the Institute for Science in Medicine to protest and to call the decision:

"...indefensible from a public health perspective,..." and saying "The NVIC ad is, as one commentator aptly observed, a Trojan Horse. Delta passengers in November are being directed to the website of a prominent anti-vaccination organization, one that has tried to thwart national vaccine campaigns for three decades. Moreover, NVIC has the sort of name that sounds like a federal agency, one that passengers might mistake as a source of reliable information." [40]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vaccination</span> Administration of a vaccine to protect against disease

Vaccination is the administration of a vaccine to help the immune system develop immunity from a disease. Vaccines contain a microorganism or virus in a weakened, live or killed state, or proteins or toxins from the organism. In stimulating the body's adaptive immunity, they help prevent sickness from an infectious disease. When a sufficiently large percentage of a population has been vaccinated, herd immunity results. Herd immunity protects those who may be immunocompromised and cannot get a vaccine because even a weakened version would harm them. The effectiveness of vaccination has been widely studied and verified. Vaccination is the most effective method of preventing infectious diseases; widespread immunity due to vaccination is largely responsible for the worldwide eradication of smallpox and the elimination of diseases such as polio and tetanus from much of the world. However, some diseases, such as measles outbreaks in America, have seen rising cases due to relatively low vaccination rates in the 2010s – attributed, in part, to vaccine hesitancy. According to the World Health Organization, vaccination prevents 3.5–5 million deaths per year.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">DPT vaccine</span> Combination vaccine

The DPT vaccine or DTP vaccine is a class of combination vaccines against three infectious diseases in humans: diphtheria, pertussis, and tetanus. The vaccine components include diphtheria and tetanus toxoids and either killed whole cells of the bacterium that causes pertussis or pertussis antigens. The term toxoid refers to vaccines which use an inactivated toxin produced by the pathogen which they are targeted against to generate an immune response. In this way, the toxoid vaccine generates an immune response which is targeted against the toxin which is produced by the pathogen and causes disease, rather than a vaccine which is targeted against the pathogen itself. The whole cells or antigens will be depicted as either "DTwP" or "DTaP", where the lower-case "w" indicates whole-cell inactivated pertussis and the lower-case "a" stands for "acellular". In comparison to alternative vaccine types, such as live attenuated vaccines, the DTP vaccine does not contain any live pathogen, but rather uses inactivated toxoid to generate an immune response; therefore, there is not a risk of use in populations that are immune compromised since there is not any known risk of causing the disease itself. As a result, the DTP vaccine is considered a safe vaccine to use in anyone and it generates a much more targeted immune response specific for the pathogen of interest.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vaccine hesitancy</span> Reluctance or refusal to be vaccinated or have ones children vaccinated

Vaccine hesitancy is a delay in acceptance, or refusal, of vaccines despite the availability of vaccine services and supporting evidence. The term covers refusals to vaccinate, delaying vaccines, accepting vaccines but remaining uncertain about their use, or using certain vaccines but not others. The scientific consensus that vaccines are generally safe and effective is overwhelming. Vaccine hesitancy often results in disease outbreaks and deaths from vaccine-preventable diseases. Therefore, the World Health Organization characterizes vaccine hesitancy as one of the top ten global health threats.

The Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) is a United States program for vaccine safety, co-managed by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). VAERS is a postmarketing surveillance program, collecting information about adverse events that occur after administration of vaccines to ascertain whether the risk–benefit ratio is high enough to justify continued use of any particular vaccine.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act</span> US law

The National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act (NCVIA) of 1986 was signed into law by United States President Ronald Reagan as part of a larger health bill on November 14, 1986. NCVIA's purpose was to eliminate the potential financial liability of vaccine manufacturers due to vaccine injury claims to ensure a stable market supply of vaccines, and to provide cost-effective arbitration for vaccine injury claims. Under the NCVIA, the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (NVICP) was created to provide a federal no-fault system for compensating vaccine-related injuries or death by establishing a claim procedure involving the United States Court of Federal Claims and special masters.

The Vaccine Safety Datalink Project (VSD) was established in 1990 by the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to study the adverse effects of vaccines.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joseph Mercola</span> American alternative medicine proponent and purveyor of anti-vaccination misinformation

Joseph Michael Mercola is an American alternative medicine proponent, osteopathic physician, and Internet business personality. He markets largely unproven dietary supplements and medical devices. On his website, Mercola and colleagues advocate unproven and pseudoscientific alternative health notions including homeopathy and opposition to vaccination. These positions have received persistent criticism. Mercola is a member of several alternative medicine organizations as well as the political advocacy group Association of American Physicians and Surgeons, which promotes scientifically discredited views about medicine and disease. He is the author of two books.

Thiomersal is a mercury compound which is used as a preservative in some vaccines. Anti-vaccination activists promoting the incorrect claim that vaccination causes autism have asserted that the mercury in thiomersal is the cause. There is no scientific evidence to support this claim. The idea that thiomersal in vaccines might have detrimental effects originated with anti-vaccination activists and was sustained by them and especially through the action of plaintiffs' lawyers.

A vaccine adverse event (VAE), sometimes referred to as a vaccine injury, is an adverse event caused by vaccination. The World Health Organization (WHO) knows VAEs as Adverse Events Following Immunization (AEFI).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program</span> U.S. no-fault system for litigating vaccine injury claims

The Office of Special Masters of the U.S. Court of Federal Claims, popularly known as "vaccine court", administers a no-fault system for litigating vaccine injury claims. These claims against vaccine manufacturers cannot normally be filed in state or federal civil courts, but instead must be heard in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims, sitting without a jury.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Diphtheria vaccine</span> Vaccine against diphtheria

Diphtheria vaccine is a toxoid vaccine against diphtheria, an illness caused by Corynebacterium diphtheriae. Its use has resulted in a more than 90% decrease in number of cases globally between 1980 and 2000. The first dose is recommended at six weeks of age with two additional doses four weeks apart, after which it is about 95% effective during childhood. Three further doses are recommended during childhood. It is unclear if further doses later in life are needed.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pertussis vaccine</span> Vaccine protecting against whooping cough

Pertussis vaccine is a vaccine that protects against whooping cough (pertussis). There are two main types: whole-cell vaccines and acellular vaccines. The whole-cell vaccine is about 78% effective while the acellular vaccine is 71–85% effective. The effectiveness of the vaccines appears to decrease by between 2 and 10% per year after vaccination with a more rapid decrease with the acellular vaccines. The vaccine is only available in combination with tetanus and diphtheria vaccines. Pertussis vaccine is estimated to have saved over 500,000 lives in 2002.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tetanus vaccine</span> Vaccines used to prevent tetanus

Tetanus vaccine, also known as tetanus toxoid (TT), is a toxoid vaccine used to prevent tetanus. During childhood, five doses are recommended, with a sixth given during adolescence.

Frank DeStefano FACPM is a medical epidemiologist and researcher at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, where he is director of the Immunization Safety Office.

A hypotonic-hyporesponsive episode (HHE) is defined as sudden onset of poor muscle tone, reduced consciousness, and pale or bluish skin occurring within 48 hours after vaccination, most commonly pertussis vaccination. An HHE is estimated to occur after 1 in 4,762 to 1 in 1,408 doses of whole cell pertussis vaccine, and after 1 in 14,286 to 1 in 2,778 doses of acellular pertussis vaccine.

Children's Health Defense is an American 501(c)(3) nonprofit activist group mainly known for anti-vaccine disinformation and has been identified as one of the main sources of misinformation on vaccines. Founded under the name World Mercury Project in 2007, it is chaired by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. The group has been campaigning against various public health programs, such as vaccination and fluoridation of drinking water. The group has been contributing to vaccine hesitancy in the United States, encouraging citizens and legislators to support anti-vaccine regulations and legislation. Arguments against vaccination are contradicted by overwhelming scientific consensus about the safety and effectiveness of vaccines. Its $15-million budget is funded through donations from individuals and affiliate marketing revenues.

The Informed Consent Action Network (ICAN) is one of the main anti-vaccination groups in the United States. Founded in 2016 by Del Bigtree, it spreads misinformation about the risks of vaccines and contributes to vaccine hesitancy, which has been identified by the World Health Organization as one of the top ten global health threats of 2019. Arguments against vaccination are contradicted by overwhelming scientific consensus about the safety and effectiveness of vaccines.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vaccination policy of the United States</span> Overview of the vaccination policy in the United States of America

Vaccination policy of the United States is the subset of U.S. federal health policy that deals with immunization against infectious disease. It is decided at various levels of the government, including the individual states. This policy has been developed over the approximately two centuries since the invention of vaccination with the purpose of eradicating disease from the U.S. population, or creating a herd immunity. Policies intended to encourage vaccination impact numerous areas of law, including regulation of vaccine safety, funding of vaccination programs, vaccine mandates, adverse event reporting requirements, and compensation for injuries asserted to be associated with vaccination.

Misinformation related to immunization and the use of vaccines circulates in mass media and social media in spite of the fact that there is no serious hesitancy or debate within mainstream medical and scientific circles about the benefits of vaccination. Unsubstantiated safety concerns related to vaccines are often presented on the internet as being scientific information. A high proportion of internet sources on the topic are "inaccurate on the whole" which can lead people searching for information to form "significant misconceptions about vaccines".

OpenVAERS is an American anti-vaccine website created in 2021 by Liz Willner. The website misrepresents data from the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) to promote misinformation about COVID-19 vaccines.

References

  1. ↑ IRS Exempt Organizations Select Check
  2. 1 2 Specter, Michael (2009). Denialism: How Irrational Thinking Hinders Scientific Progress, Harms the Planet, and Threatens Our Lives . The Penguin Press. p.  7. ISBN   978-1-59420-230-8.
  3. ↑ See also:
  4. 1 2 Plait, Phil. "Antivaxxers Using Billboards to Promote Their Dangerous Message". Slate.
  5. ↑ Canon, Gabrielle (March 2, 2015). "Is Your State Trying to Outlaw Vaccine Exemptions?". Mother Jones. Mother Jones and the Foundation for National Progress.
  6. ↑ Haelle, Tara. "Sears and Gordon: Should Misleading Vaccine Advice Have Professional Consequences?". Forbes. Retrieved January 29, 2018.
  7. ↑ Park, Alice. "Study Linking Vaccines to Autism Is "Fraudulent"". Time. ISSN   0040-781X . Retrieved January 29, 2018.
  8. ↑ Haberman, Clyde (February 1, 2015). "A Discredited Vaccine Study's Continuing Impact on Public Health". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved January 29, 2018.
  9. ↑ "On the Internet, anyone can speak persuasively about vaccines". Los Angeles Times .
  10. 1 2 "Tracking Facebook's COVID-19 Misinformation 'Super-spreaders'". Newsguard. April 23, 2020. Archived from the original on January 11, 2021. Retrieved February 15, 2021.
  11. 1 2 Goldin, Melissa; Gregory, John; EDT, Kendrick McDonald On 05/25/21 at 12:01 AM (May 25, 2021). "How a well-meaning U.S. government database fuels dangerous vaccine misinformation". Newsweek. Retrieved August 6, 2021.
  12. 1 2 3 Offit, Paul A. (2010). Deadly Choices: How the Anti-Vaccine Movement Threatens Us All . Basic Books. ISBN   9780465023561.
  13. ↑ Morales, Tatiana (December 4, 2002). "To Vaccinate Or Not". CBS News. Retrieved November 16, 2014.
  14. ↑ "Diphtheria, Tetanus, and Pertussis Vaccine Recommendations". CDC. U.S. Department of Health & Human Services. December 19, 2018.
  15. ↑ "Pertussis Vaccination: Use of Acellular Pertussis Vaccines Among Infants and Young Children Recommendations of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP)". CDC. U.S. Department of Health & Human Services. March 28, 1997.
  16. ↑ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on March 3, 2017. Retrieved February 15, 2019.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  17. ↑ "Pertussis Vaccination: Use of Acellular Pertussis Vaccines Among Infants and Young Children Recommendations of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP)".
  18. ↑ Committee to Review the Adverse Consequences of Pertussis and Rubella Vaccines, Institute of Medicine (1991). Howson, Christopher P.; Howe, Cynthia J.; Fineberg, Harvey V. (eds.). Adverse Effects of Pertussis and Rubella Vaccines. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. p. 324. doi:10.17226/1815. ISBN   978-0309103688. PMID   25121241 . Retrieved August 29, 2013. The American Academy of Pediatrics and Dissatisfied Parents Together conduct more than 8 months of discussions to develop recommendations for a federal compensation program for children with vaccine-related illnesses and injuries
  19. ↑ Mariner, W K (1992). "The National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program". Health Affairs. 11 (1): 255–65. doi: 10.1377/hlthaff.11.1.255 . PMID   1577380. Parents' groups, notably Dissatisfied Parents Together (DPT), which joined with the American Academy of Pediatrics to draft the original legislation, believed that agencies within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) were unsympathetic to compensating vaccine-related injuries.
  20. ↑ DiResta, Renée (December 20, 2020). "Anti-vaxxers Think This Is Their Moment". The Atlantic. Archived from the original on December 21, 2020. Retrieved December 20, 2020.
  21. ↑ "The Anti-Vaxx Industry" (PDF). Center for Countering Digital Hate. 2020. Archived (PDF) from the original on December 21, 2020. Retrieved January 3, 2021.
  22. 1 2 Satija, Neena; Sun, Lena (December 20, 2019). "A major funder of the anti-vaccine movement has made millions selling natural health products". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on December 21, 2019. Retrieved December 20, 2019.
  23. ↑ Dwoskin, Elizabeth; Gregg, Aaron (January 18, 2021). "The Trump administration bailed out prominent anti-vaccine groups during a pandemic". The Washington Post. Retrieved January 18, 2021.
  24. ↑ "FederalPay.org PPP Loan Data — National Vaccine Information Center, Sterling, VA". FederalPay.org. Archived from the original on January 19, 2021. Retrieved January 18, 2021.
  25. ↑ "Fifth International Public Conference on Vaccination". Archived from the original on January 11, 2021. Retrieved January 23, 2021.
  26. ↑ Gavura, Scott (January 21, 2021). "The Anti-Vaxxer Playbook to Destroy Confidence in COVID-19 Vaccines". Science-based Medicine. Archived from the original on January 21, 2021. Retrieved January 23, 2021.
  27. ↑ "The Anti-Vaxx Playbook" (PDF). Center for Countering Digital Hate. 2020. Archived (PDF) from the original on December 30, 2020. Retrieved January 3, 2021.
  28. ↑ "Fact check: Reports of adverse effects in US database aren't confirmed to be linked to vaccination". Reuters. February 14, 2021. Retrieved August 6, 2021.
  29. 1 2 "VAERS - Data". vaers.hhs.gov. Retrieved August 6, 2021.
  30. ↑ "VAERS - Guide to Interpreting VAERS Data". vaers.hhs.gov. Retrieved August 7, 2021.
  31. ↑ "Data from vaccine reporting site being misrepresented online". AP NEWS. April 20, 2021. Retrieved August 6, 2021.
  32. ↑ Gerber, Jeffrey S.; Offit, Paul A. (2009). "Vaccines and Autism: A Tale of Shifting Hypotheses". Clin. Infect. Dis. 48 (4): 456–461. doi:10.1086/596476. PMC   2908388 . PMID   19128068.
  33. ↑ The Rise in Autism and the Mercury Myth. Lawrence Scahill, MSN, PhD and Karen Bearss, PhD
  34. ↑ DeStefano, Frank; Price, Christopher S.; Weintraub, Eric S. (April 1, 2013). "Increasing Exposure to Antibody-Stimulating Proteins and Polysaccharides in Vaccines Is Not Associated with Risk of Autism". Journal of Pediatrics. 163 (2): 561–7. doi: 10.1016/j.jpeds.2013.02.001 . PMID   23545349 . Retrieved April 11, 2013.
  35. ↑ The ad that could help fuel a health crisis, Salon.com, April 25, 2011
  36. ↑ Doctors demand the removal of anti-vaccine ad from Times Square, The Guardian
  37. ↑ Consumer Health Digest #11-10, National Council Against Health Fraud, April 28, 2011
  38. 1 2 Herper, Matthew (November 7, 2011). "Pediatrician Group Slams Delta Airlines For Running Video Made By Vaccine Skeptics," Forbes .
  39. 1 2 Khan, Amina (November 16, 2011). "Pediatricians decry in-flight vaccine-questioning ad on Delta," Los Angeles Times .
  40. ↑ Delta’s Decision Doesn’t Fly with Us. Airline Continues to Show Anti-Vaccinationists’ Ad. Institute for Science in Medicine, Nov. 2011
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.