| Founded | 1982 (1982) |
|---|---|
| Founders | Barbara Loe Fisher, Jeff Schwartz, Kathi Williams |
| Type | 501(c)(3) |
| Focus | Anti-vaccination advocacy |
| Location |
|
| Funding | Joseph Mercola |
| Website | www |
Formerly called | Dissatisfied Parents Together (DPT) |
TheNational Vaccine Information Center (NVIC), founded under the nameDissatisfied Parents Together (DPT) in 1982, is an American501(c)(3)[1] organization that has been widely criticized as a leading source of fearmongering and misinformation about vaccines.[2][3][4] While NVIC describes itself as the "oldest and largest consumer-led organization advocating for the institution of vaccine safety andinformed consent protections",[5] it promotes false and misleading information including the discredited claim that vaccines cause autism,[6][7][8] and its campaigns portray vaccination as risky, encouraging people to consider "alternatives."[9] In April 2020, the organization was identified as one of the greatest disseminators ofCOVID-19 misinformation on Facebook.[10]
Despite its name, the National Vaccine Information Center bears no relation to the National Vaccine Advisory Committee, an advisory body of theUnited States Department of Health and Human Services.
Since 2003, the NVIC has maintained a website named Medalerts.org, which republishes the CDC'sVaccine Adverse Event Reporting System data without its appropriate methodological transparency and warnings. This has led to misleading attributions of deaths to theCOVID-19 vaccines.[11]
The organization was co-founded in 1982 by Jeff Schwartz, Barbara Loe Fisher, and Kathi Williams under the name Dissatisfied Parents Together (DPT).[12]: 8 Each of them had observed the health of one of their children deteriorate at some point after receiving a dose of theDPT vaccine and had watched a television broadcast of the filmDPT: Vaccine Roulette, which drew an erroneous causal link between DPT vaccines and illnesses of some children who received them.[12]: 1–6 In 1985, Fisher and Harris Coulter co-authored a book,DPT: A Shot in the Dark, which asserted an association between the whole cellpertussis (whooping cough) vaccine in the DPT shot andautism.[13] TheCenters for Disease Control and Prevention now recommend the newer acellularpertussis vaccines (DTaP and Tdap), and whole cell pertussis vaccines are no longer used in the US.[14][15] because of adverse effects unrelated to autism.[16][17]
In the early 1980s, the organization joined with theAmerican Academy of Pediatrics to draft the original legislation for theNational Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of 1986,[18][19] which created a federalvaccine injury compensation program, mandated doctors to give parents vaccine benefit and risk information, and required the recording and reporting of vaccine injuries and deaths (seeVaccine Adverse Event Reporting System). The organization changed its name to the National Vaccine Information Center in the early 1990s.[12]: 8
Like other anti-vaccination groups, NVIC has been investing heavily into its social media presence in the 2010s. In addition to developing their own social media channels, the organization pushes anti-vaccination messages to online gatherings of young parents, anti-GMO activists andwellness enthusiasts.[20] However, due the group's decision to stick to Facebook as their main social media channel, they experienced only a small growth of their social media base, while other anti-vaccination groups such asChildren's Health Defense saw their impact increase considerably on systems such as Instagram during the COVID-19 pandemic.[21] In April 2020, the organization was identified as one of the greatest disseminators ofCOVID-19 misinformation on Facebook.[10]
NVIC claims to be supported primarily by small donations. However, a 2019 Washington Post analysis found that between 2009 and 2018, 40% of its funding ($2.9 million) came from the anti-vaccination activist andsupplements sellerJoseph Mercola. The funds were provided through Mercola's Natural Health Research Foundation.[22]
Barry Segal's Focus for Health foundation has also contributed to NVIC, with $400,000 having been donated between 2011 and 2017.[22]
In 2020, the NVIC took and received a federal loan ofUS$136,070 through thePaycheck Protection Program, even though it had opposed federal vaccination campaigns and spread misinformation about vaccines. Because of the latter behavior, in early 2021 Facebook disallowed the group from purchasing advertising on its networks.[23][24]
On October 16–18, NVIC hosted the 2020 International Public Conference on Vaccination, which aimed to coordinate messaging between the main anti-vaccination groups in the context of theCOVID-19 pandemic. The attendees includedRobert F. Kennedy Jr.'sChildren's Health Defense andDel Bigtree speaking for theInformed Consent Action Network, as well asJoseph Mercola,Andrew Wakefield andSherri Tenpenny.[25][26][27]
NVIC's Medalerts republication ofVaccine Adverse Event Reporting System data, done without CDC's detailed warning of the data limitations, had led to incorrect interpretations and misleading reports attributing deaths to COVID-19 vaccines.[11] The originalUnited States Department of Health and Human Services VAERS website is willfully cautious, containing extensive and important warnings such as "Reports of death to VAERS following vaccination do not necessarily mean the vaccine caused the death"[28] and others.[29][30] The website states :
HHS's VAERS data replicated by Medalerts is known to be frequently misrepresented by anti-vaccines sources.[31]
The journalistMichael Specter described the NVIC as:
The NVIC falsely asserts that there has been inadequate research into the link between the rise in the number of children diagnosed with autism and mass vaccination programs. There have been a number of peer-reviewed studies and meta-analyses that have shown no correlation between vaccine administration and autism diagnosis,[32][33][34] and there is no biological plausibility for vaccines to cause autism, as autism is not an immune-mediated disease.
The skeptic and science bloggerPhil Plait notes that while "On their site they take "vaccine injuries" as given," the "litany of effects is interesting, given that to the best of my knowledge (and I've looked) none of them has actually been linked to vaccines in real medical studies."[4] The NVIC received criticism in April 2011 for ads that it placed on ajumbotron inTimes Square.[35][36] The ads criticized childhood immunization and promoted an alternative medicine website. In a letter toCBS, which owned the jumbotron, theAmerican Academy of Pediatrics stated, "By providing advertising space to an organization like the NVIC... you are putting thousands of lives of children at risk."[37]
A controversial ad produced by NVIC regarding preventive measures forinfluenza was aired on someDelta Air Lines flights, prompting the president of the American Academy of Pediatrics to write a letter to the CEO of Delta on November 4, 2011, urging Delta to "remove these harmful messages."[38][39] An online petition was also set up to urge Delta to remove the ads.[38][39]
The refusal of Delta Air Lines to stop showing the ad immediately prompted theInstitute for Science in Medicine to protest and to call the decision:
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link){{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)The American Academy of Pediatrics and Dissatisfied Parents Together conduct more than 8 months of discussions to develop recommendations for a federal compensation program for children with vaccine-related illnesses and injuries
Parents' groups, notably Dissatisfied Parents Together (DPT), which joined with the American Academy of Pediatrics to draft the original legislation, believed that agencies within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) were unsympathetic to compensating vaccine-related injuries.
