STOP Framing "us"

My testimony on #S2173: What does ‘protecting our troops’ and ‘keeping us safe’ really mean?

The most important question we must ask ourselves is the following. Are the vaccines that we are being asked, or rather forced to administer to our children, if this law passes, safe and effective?

I suspect that everyone else here today who opposes this law is here for the same reason. No parent wants to give their child anything that is unsafe, particularly a vaccine that may have the unintended consequences of resulting in a debilitating illness, which would certainly be devastating to both the child and his or her family members.

Many of you on this committee may respect those in positions of authority in the medical community and believe in the safety and efficacy of the vaccines that are recommended. However, what you may not be aware of is the fact the Department of Defense (DOD) went to great lengths to hide scientific evidence that led one of the military doctors to not only refuse to inject himself with the anthrax vaccine but he refused to administer the vaccine to our troops on the basis of medical scientific fact. What makes this story compelling and highly relevant to this hearing is that the U.S. military punished this officer by a court martial, and the judge overseeing his court martial precluded him from presenting any evidence to the jury about the medical scientific facts regarding the safety and efficacy concerns of the anthrax vaccine. So, when I read the language in section 3 (b) it is very disheartening to say the least. In fact, this makes me question who actually wrote this section of the bill, especially given what I know about the anthrax vaccination.

In 1997 the decision was made by the Department of Defense (DOD) to inoculate all 2.5 million soldiers with the anthrax vaccination in the name of “protecting our troops”. It is important to point out that a few weeks prior to the announcement of this decision Secretary of Defense William Cohen held up what appeared to be a 5 pound bag of sugar on national television warning us that if this bag were to contain anthrax, it could kill half of the people in Washington. Scaring us into action seems to be the way things get done in Washington, DC, since fear is certainly a powerful motivator. A similar tactic is being used right now by authority figures in positions of power to scare people into thinking that unvaccinated people are to blame for recent “outbreaks” of the measles, for instance. The solution that the two Democratic sponsors of this bill have come up with is to follow the advice of some unknown authority figure on health that claim it is imperative that we are all vaccinated in order to, “keep us safe.”

If the goal really is to, “keep us safe”, then why are we not debating the safety and efficacy of the vaccines the authority figures are recommending we administer to our children? Instead, what we are debating is whether or not to force residents of the state of NJ to vaccinate their children without their informed consent, without the ability to express any moral objection, philosophical objection, political objection, or even raise the possibility of objecting to the safety and efficacy of the vaccines. This is absurd in my opinion.

This brings me to the reason why I am here, which is tell members of this committee what has happened to our military soldiers and veterans in the name of “protecting our troops” by mandating that we receive the anthrax vaccination. This is very similar to “keeping us safe” by mandating that we are all vaccinated in the state of NJ.

Let’s take a closer look at the anthrax vaccination program.

The first sentence of an article entitled, The Anthrax vaccine program: An analysis of the CDC’s recommendations for vaccine use written by Dr. Meryl Nass states that the anthrax vaccine was never proven to be safe or effective. This is a very powerful statement. She goes on to discuss how the anthrax vaccine is an actual cause of Gulf war illness. This is the same conclusion that I reached after years of wondering and researching what was happening to my health, as I began to experience many of the debilitating symptoms characterized by what has become known as Gulf War Illness. These symptoms include chronic fatigue, headaches, joint pain and stiffness, muscle pain and weakness, unrefreshing sleep, difficulty concentrating and remembering, and brain fog.

What are the scientific facts surrounding the safety and efficacy of the anthrax vaccine?

The most shocking is that Gulf war illness is not some mysterious syndrome that no one knows how it came about, but rather an illness caused by an oil based adjuvant called squalene that was added to the anthrax vaccine without anyone’s awareness. This scientific fact was discovered by a world renowned virologist Dr. Robert Garry of Tulane University.

Why is this important? Because “according to the GAO (General Accounting Office) scientists have expressed safety concerns regarding the use of novel adjuvant formulations in vaccines, including squalene.” What’s even more important, and also very relevant to this hearing is that a key authority figure in the medical profession working at the DOD, Peter Collis, who was in charge of vaccination efforts refused to cooperate with the GAO’S investigation into the conduct of the DOD with regards to the possibility that squalene was added to the anthrax vaccine. The GAO stated that the DOD was “stonewalling” and repeatedly denied extensive squalene testing only to finally admit it after being confronted with the evidence.

After a three year long investigation it was revealed that squalene was, in fact added to the anthrax vaccine. The GAO characterized the actions of the DOD officials as “a pattern of deception”, and that DOD officials expressed a “willingness to jump out and use everything” when discussing experimental vaccines that contained adjuvants that were not approved by the FDA. This report was initiated by Congressman Jack Metcalf in the year 2000. The report concluded that the anthrax vaccination program be halted. More importantly, “it further states that an aggressive investigation must be undertaken to determine the source of the squalene, and the potential health consequences to those who have been vaccinated, both during and after the Gulf War”.

Although these recommendations may sound like good news. This advice was not taken, and no aggressive investigation or actions were taken either. How do I know this? Because the corporation behind the anthrax vaccination, Emergent biosolutions, who literally took over the state of Michigan’s Public Health Service in a sealed auction courtesy of the corrupt Governor of the state of Michigan at the time, proceeded to extract over $1 billion dollars in pure profit as he defrauded our federal government, wasted taxpayer money, and most importantly betrayed countless men and women in uniform, many of whom now suffer as I do from this debilitating Gulf war illness. To make matters worse, Emergent biosolutions continues to make vaccines!

I sincerely hope that the sponsors of this bill are not relying upon this company for any of the vaccines that our children will be forced to receive if this bill passes. In fact, I believe that the people residing in the state of NJ have a right to know who is behind the language of this bill. What medical authorities are being relied upon, and which specific companies are supplying the vaccines that we may be required to force our children to take. The reason this is important is because scientists have recently discovered that the adjuvants being added to vaccines are actually causing numerous autoimmune conditions.

In fact, a new syndrome referred to as ASIA, which stands for autoimmune inflammatory syndrome induced by adjuvants (ASIA) details how the adjuvant squalene is implicated in Gulf War illness, as Dr. Garry’s research already confirmed, aluminum hydroxide (Alum) is implicated in post vaccination phenomena associated with rheumatic diseases that include vasculitis, systemic lupus, inflammatory myopathy (IM) and rheumatoid arthritis (RA), as well as neurological syndromes such as multiple sclerosis (MS), transverse myelitis (TM) and others, and silicone with siliconosis associated with systemic sclerosis. All of these conditions are a result of the adjuvants being added to the vaccines.

The main question then, becomes, how can we trust the manufacturers of vaccines like the CEO of Emergent biosolutions? Especially when considering the fact that an unprecedented 13 congressional hearings exploring the issues of the safety and efficacy of the anthrax vaccine culminated in the decision to halt the mandatory program due to blatant abuses of power, and yet this CEO continued to reap enormous contracts with the federal government during and even years after the recommendation was made to halt the program, as investigators were encouraged to find the source of the squalene.

What happened with the anthrax vaccination in the military sounds strikingly similar to what is taking place here today in the state of NJ. We are being scared and forced into submission. The fact that we are not allowed to object to the safety and efficacy of the vaccines we will be forced to give our children is literally outrageous! It is important for me to share that the fact that I asked for this information prior to receiving the anthrax vaccination. I was assured that it was safe and effective. I trusted the doctor, who was in a position of authority. The unfortunate consequence of this trust is that I must now suffer for the rest of my life. If this vaccine was optional I certainly would not have taken it due to the some of the same objections that Section 3 of this bill seeks to take away from us.

The sad, but ugly truth is that we cannot be confident that the people in positions of power in the medical community, or CEO’s that manufacture these vaccines have our best interests in mind. What we can be certain about is that there is rampant corruption taking place in our government that also appears to apply to vaccinations as the anthrax story can attest. The adjuvant squalene which we now know is causing Gulf war illness was never approved by the FDA for use in the anthrax vaccine, but yet it was somehow extensively studied and mysteriously found its way into the anthrax vaccine without anyone becoming the wiser. So, how can we be certain that other novel adjuvants like squalene will not find their way into the vaccines we will be forced to give to our children if this law passes. The short answer is that we can’t. The more disturbing answer is that this may already be happening without our awareness in other vaccines, which only increases the risk to families throughout the state of NJ.

Thank you for this opportunity to express my concerns, and I sincerely hope that the people of this committee can make the right choice by allowing families to make their own choices when it comes to the health and safety of their family members, which I have no doubt is the most important choices they will ever make.