The public health industry began recognizing the last week of April as National Infant Immunization Week (NIIW) in 1994 to promote the belief that vaccination has spared millions of children the ravages of childhood diseases. This year’s NIIW celebration has expanded to include nations throughout the western hemisphere and NIIW promoters are cooperating with the observance of Vaccination Week in the Americas. Both celebrations will occur the week of April 21-28.

Nationwide, vaccine awareness activists are educating the public about the fact that organizers of Vaccination Week have ignored the contributions of improved sanitation and year around availability of fresh fruits and vegetables in the decline of infectious disease rates. Vaccine proponents have vigorously denied the legacy of vaccine-induced epidemics and the burden upon families devastated by vaccine-related injuries.

As public health departments proselytize the eradication of several infectious diseases as the result of mass vaccination programs, a counter movement consisting of New Medical Awareness Seminars, Voices of Safety International (VOSI), People Advocating Vaccine Education (PAVE), Vaccination Liberation (VacLib), Dr. Leonard Horowitz and Dr. Tim O’Shea will be educating the public about the known dangers of vaccination. Vaccines are comprised of neurotoxins and carcinogens including thimerosal (49.6% ethyl mercury), aluminum hydroxide and formaldehyde. Vaccines intentionally contain specific pathogens that are cultured in cell lines from both animal and human origin and, when injected, are capable of adversely modifying human DNA. Another problem is the unwanted pathogens ending up in vaccines such as the millions of polio vaccines contaminated with simian virus number 40 (SV-40) that have been linked to the development of cancerous tumors.

Even the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) admitted through its January 2004 release of “Autism Alarm” that one in six children now have a developmental or behavioral disorder and one in 166 children are currently diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder. However, the CDC denies the obvious cause of this nationwide epidemic: The dramatic rise in the number of vaccines it currently recommends for our developing children. To date, the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (VICP) has paid $1.2 billion to families who have proven that their children suffer permanent disabilities or have died from a vaccine reaction. Less than 25 percent of families who apply through VICP ever get compensated. Many more families never apply for compensation since they do not recognize the symptoms of vaccine damage.

In 1990 the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) was set up as a national database for doctors and healthcare providers to report adverse reactions from vaccines. It is admitted that less than 10 percent of doctors report adverse reactions to VAERS. Even this small percentage of the total speaks volumes about the relatively hidden epidemic of serious vaccine reactions, including permanent disabilities and death. Shockingly, there is no system in place to pull a “bad” batch of vaccine from the market. The manufacturer must “voluntarily” recall a batch of vaccine recognized as a “hot” lot – a batch of vaccine resulting in more adverse reactions than usual. This is why severely contaminated batches of vaccine continue to be administered to our children.

The recent release of two important books: Vaccine A: The Covert Government Experiment That’s Killing Our Soldiers and Why GI’s Are Only The First Victims by Gary Matsumoto —and— Evidence of Harm: Mercury in Vaccines and the Autism Epidemic--A Medical Controversy by David Kirby, have documented ample evidence for parents to unite in collective outrage against the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) of the CDC. Both Matsumoto and Kirby are award winning investigative journalists whose books shine bright lights on the institutionalized graft and collusion between the CDC, the Institutes of Medicine (IOM), the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and pharmaceutical companies. What is most clear, and well-documented in these two books, is the lack of basic long-term vaccine safety studies. Poor pre-license testing, inadequate adverse reaction reporting, almost non-existent follow-up to adverse reactions, mandatory vaccine laws and the removal of unvaccinated populations from vaccine “studies”—all combine to form non-scientific, pro-vaccine public health policy.

Parents nationwide are calling for a reassessment, and revamping of our government’s current push for more and more vaccines for our most vulnerable citizens: infants, young children—and the elderly. They have vowed to use whatever creative means at their disposal to alert the public of the true dangers inherent in all vaccines. As a result, National Infant Immunization Week has gained a new meaning for activists nationwide: Vaccination Danger Awareness Week.