CDC Swine Flu Vaccine Controversy

Dr. David Sensor, then head of the CDC,

the Center for Disease Control in Atlanta,

is now in private industry.

He devised the swine flu program, and he pushed it.

You began to give flu shots to the American people

in October of 76.

October 1st.

By that time, how many cases of swine flu around the world had been reported?

There had been several reported, but none confirmed.

There had been cases in Australia that were reported by the press,

by the news media.

There were cases in... None confirmed.

Did you ever uncover any other outbreaks of swine flu?

Anywhere in the world?

No.

Now, nearly everyone was to receive the shot in a public health facility

where a doctor might not be present.

Therefore, it was up to the CDC to come up with some kind of official consent form,

giving the public all the information it needed about the swine flu shot.

This form stated that the swine flu vaccine had been tested.

What it didn't say was that after those tests were completed,

the scientists developed another vaccine,

and that was the one given to most of the 46 million who took the shot.

That vaccine was called X53A.

Was X53A ever field-tested?

I... I can't say. I would have to...

It wasn't?

I don't know.

I would think that you're in charge of the program.

I would have to check the records.

I haven't looked at this in some time.

The information form, the consent form,

was also supposed to warn people about any risks of serious complications following the shot.

But did it?

No, I had never heard of any reactions other than a sore arm,

fever, this sort of thing.

Judy Roberts' husband, Gene, also took the shot.

Yes, I looked at that document. I signed it.

Nothing on there said I was going to have a heart attack or I'd get Guillain-Barre,

which I never heard of.

What if people from the government, from the Center for Disease Control, what if they had indeed known about it?

What would be your feeling?

They should have told us.

Did anyone ever come to you and say,

you know something, fellas? There's the possibility of neurological damage if you get into a mass immunization program.

No.

No one ever did? No.

Do you know Michael Hatwick? Yes.

Dr. Michael Hatwick directed the surveillance team for the swine flu program at the CDC.

His job was to find out what possible complications could arise from taking the shot and to report his findings to those in charge.

Did you know ahead of time,

Dr. Hatwick,

that there had been case reports of neurological disorders, neurological illness, apparently associated with the injection of influenza vaccine?

Absolutely.

You did? Yes. How'd you know that?

By review of the literature.

So you told your superiors, the men in charge of the swine flu immunization program,

about the possibility of neurological disorders?

Absolutely.

What would you say if I told you that your superiors say that you never told them about the possibility of neurological complications?

That's nonsense.

I can't believe that they would say that they did not know that there were neurological illnesses associated with influenza vaccination.

That simply is not true. We did know that.

I've said that Dr. Hatwick had never told me of his feelings on this subject.

Then he's lying.

I guess you would have to make that assumption.

Then why does this report from your own agency, dated July 1976,

list neurological complications as a possibility?

I think the consensus of the scientific community was that the evidence relating neurologic disorders to influenza

immunization was such that they did not feel that this association was a real one.

You didn't feel it was necessary to tell the American people that information?

I think that over the years we have tried to inform the American people as fully as possible.

As part of informing Americans about the swine flu threat,

Dr. Sensor's CDC also helped create the advertising to get the public to take the shot.

Let me read to you from one of your own agency's memos,

planning the campaign to urge Americans to take the shot.

The swine flu vaccine has been taken by many important persons, he wrote.

Example, President Ford,

Henry Kissinger,

Elton John, Muhammad Ali, Mary Tyler Moore,

Rudolph Nureyev, Walter Cronkite, Ralph Nader, Edward Kennedy, etc., etc.

True?

I'm not familiar with that particular piece of paper,

but I do know that at least of that group, President Ford did take the vaccination.

Did you talk to these people beforehand to find out if they planned to take the shot?

I did not, no.

Did anybody?

I do not know.

Did you get permission to use their names in your campaign?

I do not know.