Those who promote vaccines have the responsibility to prove they are safe

The following extract is taken from my book ‘Anyone who tells you vaccines are safe and effective is lying: Here’s the proof’, which I wrote some years ago.

By Dr. Vernon Coleman

Far too many so-called medical and health journalists are wimpy incompetents who won’t print or broadcast anything which might damage their cosy relationships with the medical establishment and the international pharmaceutical industry.

The power of the pro-vaccination lobby is powerful and far spread. When I wrote a short-lived column for the Oriental Morning Post in China the editors were at first reluctant to publish a column I had written criticising vaccination. Eventually, the editors printed the piece (simply because I refused to provide an alternative). After the column appeared, my book publishers in China wrote to tell me that the Chinese Government had informed them that they could no longer publish my books. My publishers in China had produced four of my books, all of which had sold very well, but they had been told by the Government that only “medical publishing houses” could in future publish books concerned with health care. Other Chinese publishers who had shown great enthusiasm for publishing my books suddenly changed their minds.

I am sometimes told that, as a critic of vaccination, it is my job to prove that vaccines are dangerous and that I should stop criticising vaccination until I have evidence proving that vaccines can be dangerous and are often ineffective. That is a nonsense. It is the responsibility of those who are making, endorsing and giving vaccines to be sure that they are safe. The drug companies have a responsibility to prove that their products are safe and effective. Unfortunately, it is common these days for Governments to allow industries to do things without proving that they are safe, and to then expect opponents to prove that something is unsafe. The same thing happens, for example, with genetic engineering and genetically modified food. The fact is, of course, that it is impossible to produce evidence proving that a procedure doesn’t do something. The onus should, of course, be on those who promote these procedures to produce evidence proving that they are safe. There is no evidence that genetically modified food is safe to eat because the people selling the stuff haven’t done (or been expected to do) any research proving the safety of their product. Opponents and critics are dismissed airily and told that it is their responsibility to prove that genetically modified foods are unsafe. However, without vast sums of money, and access to the company’s laboratories, that simply isn’t possible.

In truth, of course, it is not the job of those who oppose vaccination to prove that it is not safe or effective. Indeed, even with unlimited resources it is nigh on impossible to prove a negative. How can I prove conclusively that the man down the road hasn’t ever cheated on his taxes? How can I prove beyond any doubt that the Government hasn’t ever tapped your telephone?

In a logical, sensible, scientific world it is the job of those who promote vaccination to prove that the procedure is safe and effective in general, and that individual vaccines are safe and effective in use.

Sadly, that isn’t going to happen.

The problem (as the drug companies know only too well) is that when you start doing really serious research there is a real risk that you will obtain results that are commercially inconvenient. And the drug industry, the Government and the medical profession all have a vested interest in ensuring that vaccination programmes continue. If inconvenient truths were uncovered the drug industry would lose billions, the Government would find itself paying out billions in damages and individual doctors would lose thousands of pounds a year in lost fees and bonuses. So, there is no incentive for anyone to do any proper research.

Supporters of vaccination, who ignore this absence of evidence in their favour, have been conned by the establishment into believing that vaccines save lives. They are often abusive and sometimes almost hysterical in their attacks on the few doctors who dare speak out, and on those who dare to try to share the truth about vaccination with patients and with parents of young children. It is, perhaps, not surprising, therefore, that most doctors who worry about vaccines say little and do nothing in public.

However, readers may be interested to know that, contrary to popular opinion, a good many doctors are worried about the medical profession’s unbridled enthusiasm for vaccination. Most (quite sensibly) prefer to remain anonymous.

Here is one (of many) relevant letters which I have received from practising doctors in recent years. This one came from a GP. He wrote:

“Your criticism of vaccines is entirely justified. The medical profession has come under the baleful influence of the drug companies and so doctors have to pretend that vaccines can do no harm. I am a doctor and regard vaccination as a fraud and a farce. The witches in Macbeth might well have included modern vaccines in their recipe.”

All of us who criticise vaccination should take heart from American producer Jerry Weintraub, who once wrote: “If a bunch of men are discussing you, meeting about you, and scheming to destroy you, it probably means you’re doing something right.”

The above is from the book ‘Anyone who tells you vaccines are safe and effective is lying: Here’s the proof’ by Vernon Coleman, which is available from the bookshop on his website.