When Sen. David Zuckerman (P/D-Chittenden) was a 13-year-old boy growing up in Massachusetts, his father, a thoracic surgeon, died of stomach cancer.
The son attributes his father’s death to the radiation he was exposed to while deploying a new medical procedure to treat cancer patients. Without protection from a now-standard lead vest, at least four physicians suffered the same fate, according to Zuckerman.
Science saves lives, he learned, but it can also take them.
As a state senator and now as the Progressive/Democratic candidate for lieutenant governor, that experience informed his position on childhood vaccinations: Zuckerman doesn’t think they should be forced on kids who may have adverse reactions to shots against diseases such as diphtheria, rubella, polio, mumps and whooping cough.
That so-called “philosophical exemption” was an option for Vermont families until this year, after the legislature voted in 2015 to abolish it in the interest of public health.
During 18 years as a state legislator, Zuckerman has defined himself as a champion of outlier causes. The organic farmer was an early supporter of same-sex marriage, of challenging genetically modified foods and of legalizing marijuana. But his stance on vaccinations — and his 2015 vote to preserve a parent’s right to choose — might just be the biggest outlier of them all.
His Republican opponent, Randy Brock, cited Zuckerman’s vaccination viewpoint as evidence that the pony-tailed Progressive from Hinesburg lacks the judgment to be a heartbeat away from the governor’s office.
“He’s a strong supporter of laws that would expose our schoolchildren to dangerous diseases by discouraging vaccinations,” Brock said in a radio advertisement.
But it’s not just polar-political opposites who question Zuckerman’s logic. His defense of those who question vaccines has put him at odds with some of the same people who support his other causes. That could cost him votes as he seeks statewide office for the first time.
“I don’t agree with the position he takes,” said Jack McCullough, a left-leaning activist from Montpelier who belongs to the pro-vaccine group Parents Against Preventable Infections. He’ll vote for Zuckerman anyway.
But for another member of Parents Against Preventable Infections, who asked not to be identified, Zuckerman’s stand could be a deal breaker. Although she agrees with him on nearly every other issue, “His position about vaccinations definitely turns me off to voting for him,” she said. “I think it’s important for our political leaders to make policy decisions based on the best science we have available.”
Meanwhile, those who want to restore the philosophical exemption have fully embraced Zuckerman. The group Vermont Coalition for Vaccine Choice is promoting his candidacy on its Facebook page, complete with a link to make campaign contributions.
“Zuckerman was one of only a few Vermont senators to stand up in support of parents making these important medical decisions in 2015,” wrote one commenter on the group’s Facebook page.
“I think David at the time was regarded by many as a hero,” said Jennifer Stella of Waitsfield, cofounder of the Vermont Coalition for Vaccine Choice. “He was truly trying to find a way to protect all children.”
Stella said her two children had bad reactions to vaccines — one had seizures, the other got full-body eczema — and their pediatrician supported a decision to forgo additional immunizations. With that doctor’s note, her children might have qualified for legal “medical exemptions” in Vermont, but Stella exercised her philosophical option instead.
Those who distrust vaccinations do so for a range of reasons that include allegations that they cause autism and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control is part of a conspiracy to cover up the evidence. Those who support them consider such theories a threat to public health. A critical percentage of people have to be vaccinated in order to preserve the “herd immunity” that keeps multiple debilitating diseases at bay. Children with compromised immune systems are particularly vulnerable if their un-immunized classmates carry the illnesses.
“Getting diphtheria, tetanus, or pertussis disease is much riskier than getting DTaP vaccine,” the CDC advises on its website.
When lawmakers took up the issue last year, measles and whooping cough were reemerging worldwide. Roughly 89.7 percent of the state’s kindergartners were fully immunized, according to the Vermont Department of Health. But at some schools, the rates were dramatically lower: Elmore Elementary School reported 68.4 percent; Windham Elementary, 53 percent. At the Lake Champlain Waldorf School, only 32 percent of the students had been fully immunized.
Medical exemptions and religious objections didn’t explain the variations. Many Vermont parents — some of them highly educated — weren’t getting their children immunized on the grounds that they were philosophically opposed.
Vermont Health Commissioner Harry Chen led the charge to change the law to eliminate that option. Initially, Gov. Peter Shumlin opposed him. Zuckerman did, too.
After the House voted to strike down the philosophical exemption, Zuckerman cautioned his colleagues in the Senate.
“We are adjusting the laws of our state to such that someone else is determining — we in this room are determining — what is going to go into every single person’s body,” he argued on the Senate floor.
At the time, Seven Days reported that Zuckerman used the word “disputed” to describe the science of vaccination safety.
Despite his oratory, the Senate voted 18-11 to eliminate the philosophical exemption as of July 1, 2016. The religious and medical exemptions were left in place.
Days after the debate, pro-vaccine backlash compelled Zuckerman to further explain his vote. “The past 48 hours have been some of the most difficult of my serving in political life,” he told colleagues, sharing the story of his father’s death.
“Why do I tell you this? Because science is good, but it is not perfect,” he said. “Such imperfection can cause harm. Absolutism can cause harm.”
Now running for higher office, Zuckerman has retold his family history on the campaign trail, at candidate debates and in online forums. He says his position on vaccinations has always been nuanced: He’s not anti-science, he considers vaccines effective in eradicating diseases and his own daughter is receiving the full slate of shots. “When I have the conversation with voters, they learn that the issue is not so bipolar. There’s complexity,” he said. “They don’t walk away with the perception that I’m an anti-vaxxer.”
Brock has called Zuckerman out for softening his position: “His vaccination stance seems to vary depending on the political season.”
Meanwhile, the Vermont Coalition for Vaccine Choice is trying to restart the debate over immunization safety by showing the film Vaxxed: From Cover-Up to Catastrophe at six locations throughout Vermont, including four the first week of November. Stella said the preelection timing is a coincidence.
Zuckerman said he’s open to seeing the film but not to stumping for it. Asked whether he bears any responsibility or credit for fueling the vaccination debate in Vermont, the lieutenant governor hopeful said, “I don’t think I created any more fuel than was already there.”
This article appears in Oct 26 – Nov 1, 2016.
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Gotta back Z on this one. He doesn’t jump on every issue I want, but in this case we have the son of a physician who delivered a thoughtful and reasoned case for a nuanced approach to this topic on Sunday at an election debate. I am confident he will move forward with public health given utmost priority regarding vaccinations.
Every Vermonter should watch VAXXED. You can rent it online or go to some of the upcoming showings. Whatever you think you know about vaccines, go with an open mind and watch the movie. The filmmakers did an interview recently about the responses that they are getting from the public after the film is shown, and what has shocked them (and what is not in the movie) is how many parents are coming up to them to tell them about their dead children. The movie is well documented and is about a whistleblower from the CDC who feels really bad about what he did.
Any film that involves Andrew Wakefield must be viewed as suspect. This guy faked the data that he used to convince Jenny McCarthy that vaccines were related to the development of autism. “After the publication of the paper, other researchers were unable to reproduce Wakefield’s findings or confirm his hypothesis of an association between the MMR vaccine and autism,[6] or autism and gastrointestinal disease.[7] A 2004 investigation by Sunday Times reporter Brian Deer identified undisclosed financial conflicts of interest on Wakefield’s part,[8] and most of his co-authors then withdrew their support for the study’s interpretations”
“Dr Ian Lipkin, professor of epidemiology and director of the Center for Infection and Immunity at Columbia Universitys Mailman School of Public Health, writing in the Wall Street Journal, said: “If Vaxxed had been submitted as science fiction, it would merit attention for its story line, character development and dialogue. But as a documentary it misrepresents what science knows about autism, undermines public confidence in the safety and efficacy of vaccines, and attacks the integrity of legitimate scientists and public-health officials.” [
I’ve been digging into vaccination issues for over 17 years now. There really are issues. The science isn’t settled. What I’m seeing (this article is a good example), is a very high-powered attempt to shut down any discussion of vaccines. When one side tries to shut down a discussion, I think it is a reasonable assumption that they don’t actually have strong or convincing arguments.
Why do parents question vaccines? Because the vaccine schedule has grown a lot since the manufacturers were handed liability protection in the 1980s. Because some of the vaccines added to the schedule and mandated for school attendance have little or nothing to do with protecting other children from deadly illnesses. Because the history of vaccines and diseases has been twisted to make it look as though vaccines have saved millions of lives in the US. That will do for a start.
Forcing people to accept medical interventions or lose access to public services is a very bad set-up, especially if the people pushing the interventions are protected from lawsuits and are guaranteed a steady level of profits by vaccines being mandated for school, and, more and more for employment.
I’m voting for him. I’m pro choice and this sealed the deal. Thank you. I’d never vote for anyone who wants to forcibly control what I put into my body.
John Searles, did you research the history of Wakefield’s paper or are you just believing what you’ve been told? Since you brought up “faked the data” and “Jenny MacCarthy” right away, I’m going to assume it’s the latter since those are the most oft used rhetoric filled buzzwords. Additionally, your citations are from newspapers, not scientific journal articles and are not valid sources of information. It might surprise you that if you search the scientific literature database, you’ll find that Wakefield’s findings have indeed been replicated many times. But this argument isn’t about science, which is why you aren’t aware of those studies. It’s about the repetition of the “vaccines save lives” mantra over and over again so people believe it as truth and don’t question it, just as you have done.
A sampling of the studies replicating Wakefield’s original work:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10547242
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11241044
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15031638
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16494951
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12849883
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15870662
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19758536
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18791817
Thank you, Mr. Zuckerman! Medical decisions are for people to make for themselves, the state should not have this power over people.
Vaccines are chemical concoctions that can contain Aluminum, thimerosal/mercury, cancer causing formaldehyde, aborted fetal cells in the live vaccines that Shed Illness onto others for a month such as an MMR vaccines, cells of Pigs cows (Containing Leukemia cells too small for them to be removed in a financially balanced sort of way) monkeys chicks insects, MSG Ether Ammonium salts and more. Not one vaccine is looked at for its ability to cause cancer. Why..because vaccine maker’s got total immunity from lawsuits while children’s Cancers have gone way up-little children too young to have gotten cancer from the food or environment. We went from 1 in 10,000 kids with Autism to 1 in 25 boys. Autism is Brain Encephalitis as a result of chemical toxins.
Many of us appreciate Zuckerman’s thoughtful stance on vaccinations & his support of vaccination choice. Over my 30 years raising children, I’ve done my homework. There is more to this issue than meets the eye, and I wish the “public health” argument folks could see how radical and out-of-touch with the spirit of science & skepticism their position has become. Calm down, step back and look at the big picture of what makes an ecosystem thrive, including the human body. Do you believe that pouring chemicals and toxins into the atmosphere, the oceans, the earth and our bodies will save us? Does the near total control of our medical systems by the pharmaceutical industry and insurance companies give you pause? Consider that the one percent has much to lose by the world getting healthier through good diet, stress reduction and alternative therapies. I am not against the targeted use of vaccines when warranted by major outbreaks of serious illnesses, but moving towards mandates created by “experts” paid to do research by those same pharmaceutical companies is sheer madness. Let’s put the truly academic independent, ethical scientist back on the job and publish their findings without censorship.
Thank you Seven Days for a balanced article on this highly polarized issue involving personal and public health. Vermonters are sick and tired of media outlets robotically reiterating the talking points of the CDC and the American Academy of Pediatrics without much investigation into the matter. the time is now for media to emancipate themselves from the pharma dollars that drive ad revenue and do some real reporting again!
Cochrane group are reknowned for their integrity in the face of corporate science. They’ve lately raised a complaint in the Eu’s equivalent of the CDC,. its worth consideration for any who claim to be scientific.
http://nordic.cochrane.org/sites/nordic.cochrane.org/files/public/uploads/ResearchHighlights/Complaint-to-ombudsman-over-EMA.pdf
Sen. David Zuckerman is most definitely RIGHT in wanting to SEE VAXXED and is absolutely CORRECT in his stance on vaccinations! I’m an adult HARMED via three vaccines, I got maybe five vaccines as a child, now babies are expected to receive around 70 vaccines in their LIFETIME! CAN YOU IMAGINE HOW MUCH ALUMINIUM, MERCURY ALONE THIS RELATES TO?!
Injected with Post partum Rubella , I HEMORRHAGED 17 STRAIGHT months, then two major operations) In my forties to strengthen immune system, Tetanus and Pneumonia vaccines were injected into me, succumbing me to hemifacial spasms, twelve pneumonia bouts, hospitalized for four of them, three times within 2012 alone. Enduring thyroid cancer and elongation of styloid process surgery (Eagle Syndrome, performed at the same time. I mention these as I am one of seven kids yet NEVER had Pneumonia as a child, ONLY got Pneumonia AFTER that fateful vaccine!
Now, I’m performing chelation once a month, having HIGH amounts of a drug in me that I’ve NOT had injected in seven years… An illegal drug you might ask?! NO!… known as a *”Gadolinium Based Contrast Agent” AN * FDA approved DRUG, has caused me to have a SECOND tonsillectomy and tongue tie surgery (UNDER TREATED LYME DISEASE CREATES IT’S OWN WAY OF FIGHTING BACK!) at which time I picked up an extremely supposedly RARE infection, that s for a 57 year old NJ housewife, it’s called **Acinetobacter Cacloaceticus Baumannii or Iraqi-bacter, yes it comes from Iraq via our brave soldiers, infects OUR Operating Rooms when they’re patched back up here!
*www.gadoliniumtoxicity.com
**Iraqibacter can live up to twenty days on surfaces!
http://journals.lww.com/infectdis/Fulltext/2008/01000/Drug_Resistant_Acinetobacter.1.aspx
(Continued)
(continued from previous message)
and what am I being TOLD by the medical community at large? That THIS doesn’t happen to those who have no KNOWN kidney disease, this GADOLINIUM BASED CONTRAST AGENT/drug should NOT be in me (Despite three tests done and showing up POSITIVE!) This drug too has FDA approval as do ALL of the vaccines injected daily into countless MILLIONS of kids, adults. NOW we’re dealing with AUTISM and VACCINE INJURY EPIDEMICS! IT is NOT our better medical community vigilance, it’s vaccine mandates, incessant HOUNDING to Inject babies when they are merely hours old, with HPV Vaccine, meant to protect patients from sexually transmitted diseases! I was even hounded entering a dying relative into Hospice, WHY?! SHE WAS DYING! DISGUSTING!
I URGE everyone reading this, PLEASE GO SEE VAXXED, I’ve seen it twice as well as having spoke to Dr Andrew Wakefield, Polly Tommey and Del Bigtree. Hear that CDC has LIED to us, tried to cover it up, they’re in bed with BIG PIG PHARMA! NO ONE should be forced to inject their bodies with anything they don’t want nor need. Studies proving that rampantly escalating AUTISM IS the most preventable illness on the planet!
GO SEE VAXXED then tell me what you think! I know that you will do the right thing!!
Sen. David Zuckerman is most definitely RIGHT in wanting to SEE VAXXED and is absolutely CORRECT in his stance on vaccinations! I’m an adult HARMED via three vaccines, I got maybe five vaccines as a child, now babies are expected to receive around 70 vaccines in their LIFETIME! CAN YOU IMAGINE HOW MUCH ALUMINIUM, MERCURY ALONE THIS RELATES TO?!
Injected with Post partum Rubella , I HEMORRHAGED 17 STRAIGHT months, then two major operations) In my forties to strengthen immune system, Tetanus and Pneumonia vaccines were injected into me, succumbing me to hemifacial spasms, twelve pneumonia bouts, hospitalized for four of them, three times within 2012 alone. Enduring thyroid cancer and elongation of styloid process surgery (Eagle Syndrome, performed at the same time. I mention these as I am one of seven kids yet NEVER had Pneumonia as a child, ONLY got Pneumonia AFTER that fateful vaccine!
Now, I’m performing chelation once a month, having HIGH amounts of a drug in me that I’ve NOT had injected in seven years… An illegal drug you might ask?! NO!… known as a *”Gadolinium Based Contrast Agent” AN * FDA approved DRUG, has caused me to have a SECOND tonsillectomy and tongue tie surgery (UNDER TREATED LYME DISEASE CREATES IT’S OWN WAY OF FIGHTING BACK!) at which time I picked up an extremely supposedly RARE infection, that s for a 57 year old NJ housewife, it’s called **Acinetobacter Cacloaceticus Baumannii or Iraqi-bacter, yes it comes from Iraq via our brave soldiers, infects OUR Operating Rooms when they’re patched back up here!
*www.gadoliniumtoxicity.com
**Iraqibacter can live up to twenty days on surfaces!
http://journals.lww.com/infectdis/Fulltext/2008/01000/Drug_Resistant_Acinetobacter.1.aspx
(continued)
(continued from previous)
and what am I being TOLD by the medical community at large? That THIS doesn’t happen to those who have no KNOWN kidney disease, this GADOLINIUM BASED CONTRAST AGENT/drug should NOT be in me (Despite three tests done and showing up POSITIVE!) This drug too has FDA approval as do ALL of the vaccines injected daily into countless MILLIONS of kids, adults. NOW we’re dealing with AUTISM and VACCINE INJURY EPIDEMICS! IT is NOT our better medical community vigilance, it’s vaccine mandates, incessant HOUNDING to Inject babies when they are merely hours old, with HPV Vaccine, meant to protect patients from sexually transmitted diseases! I was even hounded entering a dying relative into Hospice, WHY?! SHE WAS DYING! DISGUSTING!
I URGE everyone reading this, PLEASE GO SEE VAXXED, I’ve seen it twice as well as having spoke to Dr Andrew Wakefield, Polly Tommey and Del Bigtree. Hear that CDC has LIED to us, tried to cover it up, they’re in bed with BIG PIG PHARMA! NO ONE should be forced to inject their bodies with anything they don’t want nor need. Studies proving that rampantly escalating AUTISM IS the most preventable illness on the planet!
GO SEE VAXXED then tell me what you think! I know that you will do the right thing!!