The non-profit charity, National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC), is an educational (501c3) organization founded in 1982 by parents whose children were injured or died following DPT vaccine reactions. Located in Sterling, Virginia, NVIC’s mission is to prevent vaccine injuries and deaths through public education and to secure informed consent protections in U.S. vaccine policies and laws.
NVIC is publicly supported by individual donations from citizens and private foundations and does not accept funding from pharmaceutical corporations, government agencies or non-governmental organizations promoting one-size-fits-all vaccine policies and mandatory use of vaccines
National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of 1986
NVIC's co-founders worked with Congress on the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of 1986. This historic law acknowledged that vaccine injuries and deaths are real, that vaccine safety reforms are needed in the vaccination system, and that the vaccine injured and their families should be financially supported. The law set up a federal vaccine injury compensation program (VICP), as well as included legal requirements for vaccine providers to:
- give parents vaccine benefit and risk information before their children are vaccinated;
- keep written records of vaccine manufacturer names and lot numbers for each vaccination given;
- enter serious health problems following vaccination into a child's permanent medical record; and
- report serious health problems following vaccination to the federal Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System (VAERS).
By 2021, over $4 billion dollars in vaccine injury compensation had been awarded to individuals, who were injured or died after receiving federally licensed vaccines mandated by state governments for children to attend school. NVIC has monitored and been critical of the government’s implementation of the 1986 law, including congressional amendments and federal agency rule making changes that have removed or substantially weakened the law’s vaccine injury compensation and vaccine safety and research provisions. A 2011 US Supreme Court decision effectively removed all civil liability for vaccine injuries and deaths from vaccine manufacturers. Learn more about the 1986 law and the VICP.
NVIC Vaccine Safety and Informed Consent Advocacy
Since 1982, NVIC has monitored vaccine research, development, regulation, policymaking and legislation and advocated for the raising of government standards for vaccine licensure and policymaking. In 1996, NVIC realized a major goal when, after 14 years of public advocacy, the FDA finally licensed a purified pertussis vaccine (DTaP vaccine) for American babies. In 1999, the live virus polio vaccine (OPV) that can cause vaccine strain polio paralysis was replaced by the inactivated polio vaccine to prevent vaccine strain paralytic polio cases in America.
For more than three decades, NVIC co-founders, staff and volunteers have:
- Served as consumer representatives on the Advisory Commission on Childhood Vaccines, the National Vaccine Advisory Committee, the Institute of Medicine's Vaccine Safety Forum, the FDA Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee, the Vaccine Policy Analysis Collaborative, and other public engagement projects;
- Provided informed public comment to federal vaccine advisory committees and in response to federal rule making proposals that affect vaccine safety and the legal right to exercise informed consent to vaccination;
- Testified in Congress and in state legislatures on vaccine science, policy, law and the human right to informed consent to medical risk taking.
NVIC Educational Conferences
In 1989, NVIC held an International Scientific Workshop attended by pediatric neurologists, epidemiologists, neuroimmunologists, molecular biologists, bacteriologists and neuropathologists to evaluate the neurological complications of pertussis and the whole cell pertussis vaccine. In 1997, NVIC held the First International Public Conference on Vaccination, which brought together doctors, scientists, health officials, lawyers, ethicists, journalists and parents from 34 states and five countries to the U.S. Capitol to present new scientific data about vaccines and diseases and discuss the biological mechanism of vaccine-induced injury, death and chronic illness. NVIC also sponsored international public conferences on vaccination in 2000, 2002 and 2009 in the Washington, D.C. area.
2020 Fifth International Public Conference on Vaccination. In October 2020, NVIC sponsored the Fifth International Public Conference on Vaccination: Protecting Health and Autonomy in the 21st Century. Like the previous educational conferences NVIC sponsored between 1997 and 2009, the 2020 conference was scheduled in late 2018 to be held in 2020 in a hotel in the Washington, D.C. area. In early 2020, when coronavirus pandemic-related social distancing regulations and travel restrictions were implemented in the U.S. and other countries, NVIC staff quickly pivoted to the production of a pay-for-view virtual conference held online.
Like NVIC’s previous conferences on vaccination, the 2020 conference provides information and perspective on long-standing and emerging scientific, medical policy, legal and ethical issues related to health and vaccination that empowers individuals to make well-informed decisions for themselves and their children. The conference features video presentations by 51 speakers, including scientists, physicians, holistic health professionals, authors, attorneys, and civil and human rights activists, who openly explore controversial issues about vaccination and health.
NVIC Publications, Website and Social Media
Since 1982, NVIC has published print information about vaccines and diseases for the purpose of preventing vaccine injuries and deaths and protecting informed consent to vaccination. In 1995, NVIC launched the first consumer operated website publishing information on vaccination and diseases and dedicated to instituting vaccine safety reforms in the vaccination system.
Today, NVIC publishes both printed brochures, posters, guides and special reports, as well as vaccine information that can be downloaded from NVIC.org. Visit the Ask 8 Vaccine Information Kiosk to download information. Some of this information is translated into Spanish.
NVIC also publishes two free online publications: the monthly NVIC Newsletter and a weekly newspaper journal, The Vaccine Reaction, which are emailed to subscribers and feature news about vaccine-related news and special events. NVIC's posts breaking vaccine news 24 hours a day on our social media outlets - Telegram, Minds, Rumble, Parler, Gab and MeWe.
NVIC co-founder and president Barbara Loe Fisher has published referenced written and video blog commentaries since 2006, most of which are archived on Barbara Speaks Out on this website.
NVIC Vaccine Choice Advocacy
NVIC launched the free online NVIC Advocacy Portal in 2010, a communications and legislative advocacy network that electronically connects registered users with their own legislators and keeps them informed about pending vaccine legislation in their state. The NVIC Advocacy Portal helps users work to protect freedom thought and conscience and the legal right to obtain flexible medical, religious and conscientious belief vaccine exemptions in vaccine laws.
NVIC Counseling and Vaccine Reporting Programs
NVIC has operated a Vaccine Reaction Registry since 1982. Vaccine reaction reports can also be posted with photos on NVIC’s International Memorial for Vaccine Victims. Those families, who have suffered harassment when trying to make informed, voluntary vaccination decisions for themselves or their children, can publicly post their experiences on NVIC’s Cry for Vaccine Freedom Wall.
Conducting Your Own Research
The majority of information published on NVIC’s website is referenced with links to other websites and resources providing information about vaccination. In support of informed decision-making, NVIC encourages everyone to research and become fully informed about the complications of infectious diseases and complications of vaccines and consult one or more trusted health care professionals before making a decision about vaccination.
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