Statement by Barbara Loe Fisher
Co-founder & President
National Vaccine Information Center
April 1, 2005
Anthrax Band Reunion Press Conference
New York City

My name is Barbara Loe Fisher. I am co-founder and president of the National Vaccine Information Center. We have been working for the past 23 years to prevent vaccine injuries and deaths through public education and to protect the human right to informed consent.

If you are thinking about going into the military, you need to know that after 9-11, Congress passed a law called Project Bioshield that gives the Secretary of Defense the power to order soldiers to take experimental vaccines without telling them they could die or be permanently injured and without getting their voluntary consent. After 9-11 many states also passed laws that gave power to government health officials to arrest and forcibly vaccinate citizens without their informed consent.

Now Congress wants to pass another law that would give more power to government officials to declare a potential emergency - whether the emergency is real or not - and force you and every other American to take vaccines - whether they are experimental or not - without giving you a choice. And without giving you the information you need about the vaccine's side effects! And if you get hurt, you won't be able to go to court to find out if the drug company or the doctor who gave you the vaccine could have done a better job of protecting you from harm.

The soldiers hurt by the anthrax vaccine, just like the children hurt by mandatory childhood vaccines, had no voice and had no choice. If you want to make sure that you have the freedom to decide which vaccines you are willing to risk your life for, you need to get informed, get involved and stand up for your rights just like the band, Anthrax, is doing today.

You can learn more about diseases and vaccines and protecting your right to informed consent to vaccination by contacting the National Vaccine Information Center at www.nvic.org. Thank you.

Barbara Loe Fisher is co-founder and president of the National Vaccine Information Center. The mother of a son injured by the DPT vaccine in 1980, she is co-author of DPT: A Shot in the Dark (1985), author of The Consumer's Guide to Childhood Vaccines and editor of THE VACCINE REACTION. She worked with Congress on the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of 1986 and led demonstrations at the CDC and White House that year before it was made law. She has served on the National Vaccine Advisory Committee; Institute of Medicine Vaccine Safety Forum and the FDA Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee.