Barbara Loe Fisher Calls for an Independent Agency to Oversee Vaccine Safety
By Anne Dachel

I listened to an interesting conversation between Barbara Loe Fisher of the National Vaccine Information Center and family medicine osteopathic physician, Dr. Joseph Mercola, that was released July 10, 2012.

The topic was “Merck Accused of Lying about Vaccine Effectiveness” and the lawsuit against Merck charging that the company falsified mumps vaccine test results to make it look like the vaccine is more effective than it really is.

Dr. Mercola pointed out that this was the same company (Merck) that VOLUNTARILY removed Vioxx from the market after it had killed 60,000 people. He said that internal documents revealed that Merck knew about the deadly side effects of Vioxx.

Barbara reported on the lawsuit filed by two former Merck employees, who allege that Merck was dishonest in their testing methods because they wanted to protect their sole source U.S. market of mumps vaccine in the MMR shot. The legal brief in the lawsuit is very strong, according to her. The question of federal oversight is critical here, yet the Dept of Justice seems very disinterested.

Mercola noted that the Justice Dept had been made aware of this but has done nothing was just another “confirmation of the enormous collusion between the federal government and the regulatory agencies and large multi-national corporations like Merck.”

Mercola pointed out that Dr. Julie Gerberding, former head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, is now head of the vaccine division at Merck and that the former head of the National Institute of Health is now CEO of Sanofi vaccines, calling it corruption and scandal. Barbara described the “public-private partnership” that now exists between the pharmaceutical industry and the regulatory agencies.

What really got my attention was something that Barbara Loe Fisher brought up during the discussion, namely that the NVIC has, for years, called for an INDEPENDENT, VACCINE SAFETY OVERSIGHT AGENCY—NOT CONNECTED WITH NIH, CDC, or any other federal agency. Instead, it would be truly independent, like a consumer protection agency.

I was intrigued by Barbara’s simple idea: if officials want to restore the rapidly eroding trust in the vaccine schedule, let’s have AN INDEPENDENT AGENCY with oversight authority. And by “independent,” I don’t mean people who have waivers because they also own stock in drug companies, or who made millions developing one of the vaccines on the mandated schedule, or anyone eyeing a future job in a drug company. I realize that eliminates thousands of possible candidates, but I’m sure others are available.

I asked Barbara about her idea and this is what she had to say: