As the confession of CDC whistleblower Dr. William Thompson appeared to be getting corked into a bottle of sorts last week, the story took a rogue and unexpected turn, by way of an accidental citizen reporting campaign.
CNN Senior Medical Correspondent Elizabeth Cohen, who has a masters degree in public health, addressed the population that media often deride as “anti-vaxxers” (though they are all parents who did vaccinate their children) in tones that sounded quite condescending: “Vaccines are safe,” she said, leaning forward. “Autism is not a side effect of vaccines or to say it another way because some people don’t hear this well, vaccines do not cause autism.”
Little did she know what she would soon spark—a social media campaign among afflicted families that has come to be called the “Hear This Well” revolution.
Catalyzing Event
It all started with Polly Tommey.
Tommey, veteran vaccine safety advocate, and director of the Autism Media Channel, which broke the whistleblower story last week, was at home in Austin, Texas when somebody sent the CNN clip to her.
Tommey has two vaccinated grown children. Her daughter is fine, but her son suffered what she describes as a classic regression immediately after getting his MMR and DPT shots in the UK 17 years ago. He is now 18, and though improved through diet and gut restoration, still severely autistic.
“Exactly the same story as every parent tells,” Tommey told Epoch Times when asked about her son. “He was totally normal at 13 months before he got his shots. As soon as he got them, he got the raging fevers, seizures, high pitched screaming, all of it. Then we lost him. He lost eye contact, didn’t know who his parents were, he had horrendous bowel disease, diarrhea, bashing his head into the walls. The classic, unfolding stream of disasters.”
Tommey says she felt something shift inside when she watched the Cohen clip. “It was awful … The fact that she made such a public, categorical declaration. I realized that thousands of mothers with newborn babies around the country would hear that, believe her, go vaccinate and possibly land in the same hell we all live in, daily. I couldn’t let it go.”
Tommey quickly created an amended clip, in which Cohen’s voice, saying “Vaccines do not cause autism,” was slowed down, until it sounded male, then sounded monstrous. Then the clip cuts to Tommey herself, saying her name, and explaining that her son was damaged by vaccines. “Some people don’t hear that well,” she stressed, raising her voice.
She posted it to her group of fellow parents.
“People started to say, ‘Can we also make videos?’ And I said yeah, that’s a great idea.” It quickly snowballed into a catalyzing event for this extremely pained community.
Mothers, father, grandmothers, grandfathers, children, siblings, and even unaffected people began recording videos ranging from 10 seconds to a minute and a half, telling very short versions of their stories, along with the line, “Some people don’t hear this well,” or just, “hear this well: Vaccines can and do cause autism.”
Stories
Each story is unique, yet with a deeply troubling thread that stays consistent. Each testimonial reports a normal child, developing extreme symptoms within hours, or sometimes even minutes of getting certain shots—often, but far from only, the MMR vaccine (MMR stands for measles, mumps, rubella).
Soon a YouTube page was set up, and by Labor day, there were some 300 videos posted. They are also trickling in from other countries, in foreign languages.