About 30 people gathered for a 7:30 p.m. showing of Vaxxed II: The People’s Truth, a sequel to the controversial 2016 film that purported vaccines pose unknown dangers to children. The sequel debuted Wednesday at 50 theaters around the country — including Montpelier’s Savoy Theater.
Producers of the film sold tickets quietly in advance of the debut to avoid calls to block the movie from playing, according to the Guardian.
Health Choice Vermont, which advocates for parents to choose whether their children are vaccinated, brought the movie to Vermont through Gathr, a film distribution company that allows people to request single screenings at select theaters.
“It takes some guts to be able to show a film like this,” said Heather Rice, a chiropractor who serves on the Health Choice board, of the Roxy. “They’re really defending the right to freedom from censorship.”
Like its predecessor, Vaxxed II prominently features former British doctor Andrew Wakefield, one of the researchers behind a 1998 paper published in the Lancet medical journal that sought to establish a link between autism and the vaccine for mumps and measles. Most researchers named on the paper withdrew their support of its conclusions six years later, when the UK newspaper the Times reported that Wakefield had been paid by attorneys seeking evidence to use in lawsuits against vaccine manufacturers. The Lancet retracted the paper.
Wakefield was later struck from the British medical registry, but he has discovered an audience among some parent groups in the U.S. who believe that the government and medical community are waging a campaign to force dangerous vaccines on children.
A Q&A session after the film put those beliefs on display.
“I really challenge people to walk boldly and confidently in what we believe in,” said one attendee. “Our beliefs and the message that we’re sending here — people need to hear this.”
Christine Finley, the immunization program manager with the Vermont Department of Health, told Seven Days Friday that films like Vaxxed “exploit people’s fears and desires to protect their children.”
“The myths and the misinformation about vaccine safety is really difficult, because it confuses parents who are just trying to make the best decision to protect their child,” Finley said.
When vaccines work well, they prevent diseases, Finley said. That leaves parents balancing the alleged risks of a vaccine against the risk of a disease they’ve never encountered.
“Basically, [vaccines] are a victim of their own success,” Finley said.
Still, Finley said “overwhelming scientific evidence” shows there are no links between child vaccinations and autism. “Sometimes, the truth is inconvenient to some people,” Finley said.
The majority of the 90-minute doc features interviews with the parents of so-called “injured children,” or those who suffer from various mental or physical issues the filmmakers blame on vaccines.
Several states have passed laws in recent years to limit vaccination exemptions. New York, for example, recently ended religious exemptions for public school students, forcing more than 25,000 parents to decide whether to vaccinate their children, homeschool them or move, according to the New York Times.
Vermont has strengthened vaccine regulations twice over the last decade but still allows a religious exemption.
Finley said as far as she knows, the health department isn’t promoting any further changes. But some parents at the Burlington screening believe legislators aren’t finished.
“They’re not only coming for our children. They’re going to come for all of us,” said one man. “They want to hook it to your credit, they want to hook it to your ability to travel … you need to realize this and we all need to fight.”
Rice, the chiropractor, encouraged attendees to reach out to their state legislators and share their opinions. She said Health Choice Vermont is hosting three upcoming work sessions at which people can “groom” their skills in talking to lawmakers. She shared a few impromptu tips, suggesting that people first strike up a conversation about an issue the legislator cares about.
If that doesn’t work, she said, then just show up at the Statehouse and find them in the cafeteria.
“You can go right up to them,” she said. “Where are they gonna go?”
For the Roxy’s owner, Merrill Jarvis III, the showing was “just [another] theater rental.” He said it’s not his role to judge right from wrong.
Would any movie be too controversial for the Roxy? “I haven’t come across one yet,” Jarvis replied.
“There’s always somebody that has something against something,” Jarvis said. “That’s the way the world is. There’s always two sides to every coin. I don’t make the movies. I just play them.”
Jarvis’ indifference extends to vaccinations. “I don’t know anything about it, really,” he said. “I know when I was a kid, my mom got me vaccinated.” Moments later, he added: “I’m going to get a flu shot, if that means anything.”
Correction, November 8, 2019: Andrew Wakefield is prominently featured in the film Vaxxed II. His involvement was mischaracterized in an earlier version of this story.
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This wasnt under the radar – the Roxy promoted the screening on Facebook.
I got my flu shot which will help protect all the people who paid to see this film.
Rice’s ignorant anti-vax stance just reinforces that chiropractic is a modern form of anti-scientific quackery. Shame on her for exploiting fear in a way that may hurt people… ‘first, do no harm”? Oh wait, it’s real doctors who take that oath.
This story chronicles a bus which traveled to 45 states and collected video story after story of thousands of parents saying the same thing. I believed in vaccines, I did what my doctor recommended, and my child was either harmed or in some cases died. Over 7000 signatures of injured or dead human beings have been written on the side of this bus. These parents were once pro-vaccine and because of what happened to their children they choose to no longer vaccinate. Maternal instinct is more valuable than someone in a white coat. To write these stories all off as coincidences is irresponsible. The vaccination program has gotten out of control. More and more vaccines are mandated and there is ZERO liability. You cannot sue. Now states are taking away the right to opt of this program in which harm is not recognized and parents are belittled for speaking out. Enough is enough. That is what is movie is about. You even ridiculed parents in this article “The majority of the 90-minute doc features interviews with the parents of so-called injured children, or those who suffer from various mental or physical issues the filmmakers blame on vaccines.”
The filmmakers are just documenting what the parents are telling the world. It’s time we listen to the parents. Shame on you for your lack of humanity. This film is not easy to watch and every story is heartbreaking. Families are changed forever and torn apart. And all along the way people are turning their backs on them. These families have nothing to gain by telling these stories. They are sending a warning. Sounds like history is repeating itself doesn’t it?
Our bodies are not or should not be property of the State. In Japan, doctors have levels of recommendations for vaccines, from highly recommended to optional, it is not mandated. Our bodies are our own sacred temples, and in our freedom to choose we learn. I am not convinced that big pharma is to be trusted in vaccines, they have shown a propensity to err on the side of profit, to encourage sickness for profit, and to exploit people’s fear, rather then to build peoples ability to take of their health and be attentive to their diet and wellbeing. Add to that the fact that vaccines companies have been made legally immune to lawsuits ( a fund has been set up for injuries) means that the public never hears about the extent of injury, it never goes to trial, we never have the benefit of the proof. The establishment has brought our planet to the dire place it is, big pharma is part of that. I do not believe they are truthful, at any rate, my body and yours should not belong to them to do what they will.
People are fed propaganda every day, most of it without their even knowing it. People eat up the evening news like it’s all true or not sponsored by the same people who make the vaccines. We’re fed propaganda daily, witness the fact that the Iraq War was fought for nearly two decades.
The right wing has climate deniers; the left wing has the anti-vaccine crowd. They are all paddling the same boat, a crew of dangerous idiots who do not understand the difference between an opinion and a fact.
“People eat up the evening news like it’s all true or not sponsored by the same people who make the vaccines.”
And your evidence for this alleged fact is? Speaking of propaganda . . .
What an asinine, ignorant and biased article this is. Give a left wing child a platform and watch him drivel.
Pull your kids from the public fool system people, it’s the best thing I ever did.
You absolutely have the right to refuse vaccines on behalf of yourself and your children. You just shouldnt have a right to then come to a public school and expose other children to dangerous diseases. Exercise your rights, if you wish. Just dont expect the world to indulge and accommodate your risky choices.
In February of this year, Japan was experiencing the worst measles outbreak they’d had in years.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/22/world/a…
And, their vaccine policy is nothing to brag about. It’s been called “backward”.
https://www.japantimes.co.jp/opinion/2018/…
Anyone have a little Polio nostalgia? I mean how bad could it have been anyway?
@Thee Lewis “In February of this year, Japan was experiencing the worst measles outbreak they’d had in years.”
So what happened? Was the entire country of Japan wiped out from this “outbreak”, of one of the most benign diseases ever to exist? Was there even a single death or not even a measurable increase in the sales of tissues?
You want to inject yourself & YOUR kids based on such blatant stupidity, go right ahead, have a blast, overdose on the stuff if you want. Darwinism will take care of the rest. My progeny will still be able to reproduce when your warped and demented gene pool gets done pushing french fries at McDonalds & ceases to exist.
You want to try to push your drugs on my kids, I’m going to push back. This country has a history of dealing with tyrants and dictators and history is soon to repeat itself.
So, science is *stupidity*?
And people who believe in the cold, hard, irrefutable, successful science of vaccines have a *warped and demented gene pool* and are only capable of *pushing french fries at McDonalds* and are doomed to extinction?
So everyone who isn*t you is only capable of pushing french fries?
What a smug, foolish attitude. You got your Ph.D in Public Health Douchbaggery?
Hope your progeny doesnt get smallpox and polio, pal.
I would think that the relatively recent revelations of how manufacturers of opioids pushed their drugs–via misinformation given to medical doctors & pharmacists who then prescribed them to their patients–to create the current opiate addiction crisis would be a stark reminder of how our capitalist system of profit promoting public relations misinformation campaigns can harm We the People.
It took decades to overcome the misinformation promoted by Big Tobacco. It took decades to overcome the misinformation promoted about Co2 emissions effect on climate change. That same 0.01% who control the economy use that wealth to buy public relations campaigns to promote whatever they choose in the name of profit.
CH & Emily Peyton say enough in these comments to reveal something of the roots of the problem and an attempt to overcome the current situation around vaccines.
Pay attention & Wake up!
As always, keepin’ it classy!
knowyourassumptions
What is it exactly you are purporting as “science”?
If you’re talking about the contrived studies the pharma companies do on their own, multi-trillion dollar products, the ones where they do 50 or more “studies” until they finally come up with two that are passable enough and then discard all the bad ones, then you are as naive as you sound.
How many pharma products over the years have been declared “safe & effective” over the years by FDA “science” only to be recalled years down the road after killing thousands of people? I guess you believe in waffle science.
Here’s some more science for you;
https://www.pentacel.com/
“”Carefully consider benefits and risks before administering Pentacel or Quadracel vaccine to persons with a history of: fever 105F, hypotonic-hyporesponsive episode (HHE), or persistent, inconsolable crying lasting 3 hours within 48 hours after a previous pertussis antigen-containing vaccine; seizures within 3 days after a previous pertussis antigen-containing vaccine; Guillain-Barr syndrome occurring within 6 weeks following receipt of a prior vaccine containing tetanus toxoid; or adverse events after a previous dose of Pentacel or Quadracel vaccine or receipt of any other tetanus toxoid-, diphtheria toxoid-, or pertussis antigen-containing vaccine. “”
And here’s some of the benefits;
Efficiency
Having fewer vaccines may help allow for increased staff efficiency and prevention of administration errors.
Nothing like cherry-picking “info” to back up your “point”… Well done, Trumper!
The Oracle – Please provide some sort of reasoned argument, if that’s not too taxing for you.