FEARS OF BIG PHARMA
Many don’t trust industry. Why would they trust its vaccines?
Bernadette Pajer doesn’t trust the pharmaceutical industry. And she doesn’t trust vaccines.
The founder of a Washington state advocacy group says drugmakers have a “pretty poor record overall” on safety and transparency. Not to mention the opioid epidemic, though Pajer often does.
As distrust of the pharmaceutical industry grows, so has the antivaccination movement – a critical issue as the number of measles cases in the USA surges.
Vaccine supporters – including federal, state and local officials, the public health community and most doctors – say it wasn’t drugmakers’ idea to require protection from largely eradicated deadly diseases. It’s the government’s doing.
It’s also the government that shields drugmakers from liability when vaccines are found to cause injury. To skeptics, including drug safety advocate Kim Witczak, this suggests they may be hiding or at least getting away with something.
When voters were surveyed in January about their feelings toward industries that benefit from the
“Vaccines are largely a victim of their own success. If you don’t fear the disease, you’re more likely to fear the vaccine.” Paul Offit Author and infectious disease physician at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia