[Correction: Kevin Ellis is a former member of the Vermont Journalism Trust. An earlier edition of this story stated he is a current member.]

By Michael Bielawski

Vermonters visiting the Statehouse on Thursday were able to board a bus that was customized to interview people with stories of vaccine-related injuries or death. The visit coincides with the release of a new book that details studies on comparing vaccinated with unvaccinated populations.

Jennifer Stella the executive director of the Vermont Coalition for Vaccine Choice spoke with VDC about the event.

“So this is actually the second stop in Vermont, we had another stop last weekend in Southern Vermont that saw almost 50 people and then all of the stories are being streamed live so you can watch them on CHD.TV,” she said.

“The purpose is to collect stories of vaccine injuries, deaths, and disabilities, as well as healthy unvaccinated stories. … We’ve had doctors, nurses, moms, daughters tell stories. They are all being featured on CHD.TV live and they’ll be cataloged there.”

She talked some about the book Vax-Unvax: Let the Science Speak, by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Brian Hooker, Ph.D.

“It coincides with a book launch with the Vax/Unvax book,” she said. “That has just come out, it reviews all the scientific studies that compare vaccinated populations with unvaccinated populations and so this is a supplement to that book basically.”

The book highlights that the pharmaceutical companies apparently only focused their safety studies on one vaccine which is the MMR (Measles, Mumps, and Rubella), and one ingredient which is thimerosal, a mercury derivative.

Another point is that all new vaccines are apparently only tested against pre-existing vaccines, not a placebo as is traditionally the standard in science.

She highlighted some key stats.

“Here are the odds of getting autism after the MMR vaccine, basically 1.5 times [the unvaccinated population] in all, and in African Americans it’s 2.5 times,” she said. “Those were data that the CDC was aware of and they actually concealed from the public.”

She reiterated this data only accounts for just getting the one MMR shot, it doesn’t include the entire vaccine schedule.

She shared stats illustrating a rise in Guillain-Barre syndrome after receiving the flu shot. She also noted that the Hepatitis B vaccine has a “horrendous” safety record.

Families speak out

She said one family who featured their story lost their daughter to Myocarditis just 36 hours after receiving a flu shot. Nicole Sabens, the girl’s mother, spoke with VDC.

“It feels good that people are getting their stories out,” she said. “People walking by can look at the bus and see that vaccine injury and death do happen.”

She encourages families to do their own research before making a decision.

“Do your research, and if you feel like you want to vaccinate go for it, and if you don’t, go for it. Unvaccinated kids are not a threat, actually nonvaccinated children are healthier than the kids that were vaccinated.”

Susan Bowen of Shelburne said that she also had a serious reaction involving her daughter.

“My daughter’s name is on the bus because she was injured by three different vaccines when she was six months, one year, and two years old. And I found out that it was caused by vaccines from the pediatricians I brought her to and then I read a book by Barbara Loe Fisher who wrote A Shot in the Dark.

She explained how she was able to recognize the pattern of injuries that were cited in that book as similar to what she was seeing with her daughter.

“The symptoms that her sons had had were the same that my daughter had had but she kept on giving her children the shots and they got more and more injured whereas I stopped after the third and final terrifying injury,” she said.

She said her daughter did eventually recover, she shared her story on the bus. She said these stories are an effective way to reach out to people rather than constantly focusing on studies.

“The true experts are the people that live vaccine injury,” she said.

A pedestrian shares his thoughts

Kevin Ellis of East Montpelier, a former member of the Vermont Journalism Trust that operates VTDigger, said he agrees with the need to get stories out.

“Regardless of how you feel about vaccinations or non-vaccinations, government power or not government power, they are out here, they are saying their piece. It’s a free society. We need more [of that].”

“The vaccine court in Washington DC and the vaccine stories are real, so to the point that liberals like me deny that aspect of the debate, I think that’s a mistake. Let’s engage with it and talk about it.”

The author is a reporter for the Vermont Daily Chronicle.

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