Dear Ben,

It’s been awhile since we’ve spoken, how are things? Since Educating Ben Part I, have you had a chance to do learn more about vaccines?  I hope so. Because when we met back in March, you tried to convince me and a few other moms that, in America, we vaccinate as part of the schedule for TB.  (That’s me on the right, and two moms of vaccine injured children on the left.)

Sen. Ben Allen back in March with Concerned Constituents on SB 277, including MSJ Editor & Publisher Lori Gregory on the far right.

Do you remember that conversation? I know you’re busy, but since you ARE the co-sponsor of a bill to mandate vaccines or lose a public or private school education in the State of California, I would think it’s important for you to know these things.

Let me refresh your memory.

We were chatting about vaccines at a high school, and you tried to convince us that we regularly vaccinate for TB in the United States.  I remember, because I was quite surprised to hear you try to defend so adamantly a position that is untrue. When the mom standing next to me offered you a deal — that if she were right about vaccinating for TB and you were wrong, you would agree to table SB277 for one year to give AB 2109 even more time to add to the already 20% increase its added to California’s 95% vaccination rate — you did something very interesting.  You started to shake her hand and take the bet, but at the last second you balked.  Do you remember ? You pulled your hand away as you were about to shake hers and said “all of a sudden you sound so confident.” (With all due respect, she never didn’t sound confident from what I viewed).

You got scared that maybe she was right.

That’s the way I felt when I started listening to vaccine-injury stories. Stories from mothers and fathers about their vaccine-injured children.  I got scared that maybe they were right. Stories the same, over and over and over.  They had a child, and then in a *snap* that child was altered for the rest of their lives. And they were the ones who were following the rules. Stories that many of us just don’t want to believe are true, because it’s just too scary.

But it gets scarier.

Last week, 31 out of 52 infants suffered severe vaccine reactions in a hospital in Chiapas, Mexico.  According to CNN, two of the infants died, six were critically injured and in intensive care, 20+ more were seriously injured and hospitalized after receiving three vaccinations. One of those vaccines is part of the 11 awaiting the children of California, currently on your schedule of mandated vaccines under SB277: the rotovirus — which according to The New England Journal of Medicine in Jan. 2014 is linked to bowel obstruction in infants; and the hepatitis B vaccine included in SB277 — which according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services can cause anaphylactic shock within 4 hours of dosage.

In fact, since we’re having The Conversation, again, consider this.

In 2011, the U.S. Vaccine court awarded the family of Tambra Harris almost $500k in a wrongful death suit. Tambra was a little girl from Mississippi (one of only two other states to mandate vaccines and the highest infant mortality rate in the U.S.). Tambra died in 2009, and it was ruled she was infected with lupus as a result of her hepatitis B vaccine. Here’s the court case synopsis.

As of 2015, 625 cases of vaccine injury and 54 for death have been filed as a result of the hep b vaccine.

Are you thinking what I’m thinking?

Here’s more data about the dangers of the hep B vaccine. In 2009 by Sharyl Attkinson from CBS News, reported that former head of the National Institutes of Health the late Dr. Bernadine Healy had serious concerns at that time about the hepatitis B vaccine, especially since the U.S. Special Vaccine court ruled a woman who later died contracted multiple sclerosis from receiving her hep b vaccine. I’d love to show you that case as well, but the file has been removed.

By the way, the third vaccine given to the babies that died and were injured in Chiapas? That would be the TB vaccine, the same one you were trying to convince us is part of the CDC schedule for vaccines in the United States today.

Isn’t that interesting?

Since myself and other parents have been trying to tell you for months why SB277 is a nightmare for California and the United States, I thought you also might want to take a look at this: It’s the full list of vaccine injury claims from 2014 from the U.S. Special Claims Court, you know, the vaccine court I spoke of above, where you’re not allowed to see a judge you have to see a ‘special master’?

2014 U.S. Special Claims Court Annual Report, or Vaccine Court, sent to Vice President Joseph Biden

That’s the place where you go when you have a vaccine-injured child, or family member, and you have to sue the U.S. Government for vaccine injury, since we’re no longer allowed to sue vaccine manufacturers. Yes, one of big pharma’s most lucrative, profit-margin products, vaccines (which are estimated to be a $52 billion a year market by 2016), is free from accountability and has zero incentive to make a safe product — full-blown immunity from law suits, courtesy of the U.S. Government. This is the report sent to the Vice President every year.  There are 151 pages in this particular report, so you might want to sit for a spell and take a look.

I wonder how many of those people on the list are from California?

If I raised my kids the way the government handles vaccine manufacturers, we’d have a bunch of spoiled hellions running around…

I digress.

I never heard back from you after Educating Ben, Part I. I am guessing I won’t hear back from you after this one, either.  But I know you’ve got your hands full. And they’re actually about to get fuller, you know why? Because Californians are fed up.

We’ve complied with AB2109 which brought California vaccination rates up 20% to 95% vaccination rate — one of the higher statistics in the nation. We don’t NEED SB277, even though your colleague Dr. Pan is doing his best to take advantage of a miniscule incident at Disneyland by hijacking you to give him credibility.

And what about the 2.4% that remain, representing the personal belief exemptions still in place? They represent the very, very, very concerned parents who have strong reasons to believe that delay or opt out is the safest choice for their children. And they will sue, and they will fight, and they will not put their kids at risk just because your friend Dr. Pan is bullying them on the playground. They’ll just find a different playground, even if they have to build it themselves.

We can’t save you if you from yourself if choose to stay on the wrong side of history, Ben. We can’t save your political career, only you can do that. But we can save ourselves and our children.

If only there were a vaccine to prevent political self-sabotage…

Just kidding.

Not really.

Thanks for listening.

P.S. I thought you might want to check this out: it’s a cool cartoon on vaccines, narrated by Rob Schneider. By exercising his right to free speech about vaccines, he recently lost his State Farm commercial endorsement.  Seems somebody didn’t like it. Maybe former CDC Director-turned-Merck head of vaccines – turned VP Global Public Policy Dr. Julie Gerberding can lend him some cash: she just sold some of her Merck stock last Friday and pocketed a cool $2.3 million. Bet she had a nice Memorial Day weekend. Wonder what my moms in the photo above were doing on Memorial Day, trying to juggle real life while maintaining watch over their vaccine-injured kids…