FINAL UPDATE, Wednesday 11 AM: Distributor Cinema Libre Studio announced this morning that Vaxxed: From Cover-Up To Catastrophe will have its premiere at New York’s Angelika Film Center in an exclusive engagement starting April 1, following the deselection of film by the Tribeca Film Festival. TFF announced the doc as part of this year’s festival but canceled after questions were raised about the film.
“We chose to distribute this film to correct a major issue, which is the suppression of medical data by a governmental agency that may very well be contributing to a significant health crisis,” said Cinema Libre Chairman Philippe Diaz, adding that the film had been the victim of “hyper-mediatization…by some members of the media and the documentary community who had not even seen the film, as well as Tribeca executives, which condemned it as anti-vaccine. This film is not anti-vaccine” but “about making sure that vaccines are safe for children.”
Recent Comments
2ND UPDATE, 10:20 PM: The Vaxxed filmmakers responded this evening to Robert De Niro’s statement on behalf of himself and the Tribeca Film Festival canceling the premiere at next month’s fest:
“To our dismay, we learned today about the Tribeca Film Festival’s decision to reverse the official selection of Vaxxed: From Cover-Up To Catastrophe,” said Andrew Wakefield and Del Bigtree (the director and producer, respectively). “Robert De Niro’s original defense of the film happened Friday after a one-hour conversation between De Niro and Bill Posey, the congressman who has interacted directly and at length with the CDC Whistleblower (William Thompson) and whose team has scrutinized the documents that prove fraud at the CDC.
“It is our understanding that persons from an organization affiliated with the festival have made unspecified allegations against the film,” the statement continued, “claims that we were given no opportunity to challenge or redress. We were denied due process. We have just witnessed yet another example of the power of corporate interests censoring free speech, art, and truth. Tribeca’s action will not succeed in denying the world access to the truth behind the film Vaxxed.”
The statement did not explain how the filmmakers had been denied due process, when no issue of law has been raised with respect to the film. Nor did it address how Vaxxed was being censored by losing its platform at TFF. No effort is being made to keep the film out of the marketplace. As reported earlier by Deadline, the selection of the anti-vaccination documentary prompted an outcry from doctors, researchers and activists against the largely discredited science behind the film.
UPDATE: Robert De Niro and the Tribeca Film Festival have reversed their decision to screen Vaxxed: From Cover-Up To Catastrophe, now saying the anti-vaccine film does not contribute to the discussion De Niro had hoped for.
“My intent in screening this film was to provide an opportunity for conversation around an issue that is deeply personal to me and my family,” De Niro said in a statement. “But after reviewing it over the past few days with the Tribeca Film Festival team and others from the scientific community, we do not believe it contributes to or furthers the discussion I had hoped for.”
The statement continued: “The Festival doesn’t seek to avoid or shy away from controversy. However, we have concerns with certain things in this film that we feel prevent us from presenting it in the Festival program. We have decided to remove it from our schedule.”
PREVIOUS: Tribeca Film Festival co-founder Robert De Niro today took direct responsibility for the fest’s world-premiere screening of Vaxxed: From Cover-Up To Catastrophe, a documentary about a purported link between the MMR (measles/mumps/rubella) vaccine and an uptick in autism. That claim has been widely discredited in the medical community.
The controversy has provoked angry confrontations between those convinced of a conspiracy to cover-up the “truth” about the vaccine’s potential for irreversible damage and those who insist that no such link exists and that denying children the vaccination puts an enormous population at grave risk. Giving the film a major platform, they say, legitimizes a “debate” where none exists. Today’s statement from De Niro fanned the flames already surrounding the scheduled screening next month.
De Niro and his wife, Grace Hightower, “have a child with autism and we believe it is critical that all of the issues surrounding the causes of autism be openly discussed and examined,” De Niro said in a statement distributed by the TFF Friday afternoon. “In the 15 years since the Tribeca Film Festival was founded, I have never asked for a film to be screened or gotten involved in the programming. However this is very personal to me and my family and I want there to be a discussion, which is why we will be screening Vaxxed. I am not personally endorsing the film, nor am I anti-vaccination; I am only providing the opportunity for a conversation around the issue.”
It’s precisely that “conversation” that has drawn fire, however, from critics of the anti-vaccination movement in general and Vaxxed in particular. The film is directed by Andrew Wakefield, a gastroenterologist who first asserted the link in 1998 in a study based on 12 patients. Subsequent to its publication, Wakefield’s work was disavowed by The Lancet, the prestigious medical journal that first gave weight to his argument. After further investigation, Wakefield was stripped of his medical license. Later studies dismissed the idea of a link between MMR and autism, while the medical establishment responded emphatically that denying children the vaccine put the whole population at risk of contracting childhood diseases that had been all but erased.
“Andrew Wakefield has become one of the most reviled doctors of his generation, blamed directly and indirectly, depending on the accuser, for irresponsibly starting a panic with tragic repercussions: vaccination rates so low that childhood diseases once all but eradicated here — whooping cough and measles, among them — have re-emerged, endangering young lives,” The New York Times reported in a 2011 profile.
Yet the TFF promotional material could easily be taken to endorse Wakefield’s cause. “Digging into the long-debated link between autism and vaccines, Vaxxed: From Cover-Up to Catastrophe features revealing and emotional interviews with pharmaceutical insiders, doctors, politicians, parents, and one whistleblower to understand what’s behind the skyrocketing increase of autism diagnoses today.” Also this: “The most vitriolic debate in medical history takes a dramatic turn when senior-scientist-turned-whistleblower Dr. William Thompson of the Centers for Disease Control turns over secret documents, data and internal emails confirming what millions of devastated parents and ‘discredited’ doctors have long-suspected.”
Penny Lane, a documentary filmmaker with strong links to the TFF and an interest in quack doctors (NUTS!, about a Depression-era doctor who used goat testicle transplants to “cure” impotence, was shown at the Sundance Film Festival), released an open letter to Tribeca on the issue.
“Tribeca Film Festival, I love you but you made a very serious mistake,” Lane wrote. “Very possibly, some people will walk away from your festival having been convinced, in part because of your good name and the excellence and integrity of your documentary programming, not to vaccinate their children. And very possibly people will die as a result.”
As of this writing, Vaxxed is scheduled to have its world premiere at the TFF on April 24, followed by a public discussion with the creators and subjects of the film after the screening.
I think DeNiro’s unfortunate decision may be a delayed consequence of his having played Frankenstein’s Monster for Kenneth Branagh.
Nice try, but not funny
It’s not a science convention.
A FILM FESTIVAL IS
NOT A SCIENCE CONVENTION.
To promote unverified science as facts would incur a huge liability, and also, socially irresponsible for a film festival.
These issues are reserved for medical professionals in a medical setting,
NOT AT A FILM FESTIVAL.
Take your doc to a medical convention.
That’s just it… hellooo…. the Medical organization is NOT listening to evidence! What is wrong with showing EVIDENCE on film? All other untruths are constantly being shown on film. What is the prejudice against showing truths on firm? HELLO PEOPLE… Thompson was the leading scientist himself on the report that he studied and reported on himself AND later falsified under the CDC’s direction. Wake up.
HELLOOOOO………
That’s just it…….!!!!!
Take it somewhere else!!!!!!!!
Why dump this on a nice guy deniro.
He’s not a judge of medical facts and neither are you or a one time documentry trying to promote a name of the documaker.
Also,
the documaker or the film festival,
neither have permission to slander the
CDC !!!!!!!!!
IT’S A FILM FESTIVAL.
Not a slander machine!!!!!!!
Hi,
I’m unaware of preview process from the Tribeca Board, but I read above that no one had seen the film yet, so (humbly asking), how did they make the judgement to pull the film with no preview? Could they have just dropped the Q & A, or save it for a different date? Felt it was kinda of unfair, breaching freedom of speech.
Seeing De Niro has amassed such a huge network, plus Taxi’s 40th, I could understand the heavy contrast he was avoiding in the event’s settings. I feel adjustments should have been made though instead, now it looks bad for everyone, including Tribeca Film.
What if there’s a sliver of truth to the their story? It could further help and stop this severe illness. Or not, but people really wanted to see this film. That’s test it’s message.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr has written extensively on the dangerous ingredients contained in different vaccinations. The same is in our GMO FOOD. (“Forks Over Knives” ring ah tribeca bell?)
Taxi was controversial in it’s time; portrayed the city in ill, bad policing, city budgeting, and the harsh corruption of its officials. Was there an advisory board to test the cinematographic views of NYC? Could the State of NY claim this was defamation?
Should we only display De Niro’s Taxi in social study class instead of a Film Fest? Have we evolved? “Money makes a man strange” – De La Soul
(srry for typos, wrote this in the middle of a 3-some).
“Lighten up Francis”
We all have permission to speak the facts, if the facts happen to “slander the CDC” then the CDC needs to be investigated more thoroughly foe decades of corruption and lies. You are obviously a supporting member of the zionists. The rest of us are not.
Anonymous, Deniro is not a judge . By pulling the film from his festival he in a sense judged it and decided (been briefed most likely) not to show the film because it might cause other diseases if parents do not get their children vaccinated. My sons Girlfriend has two sons with Autism. Autism is not hereditary but both had the vaccination that has been controversial throughout the world for years. This film should very much be shown if for no other reason to check double check, triple check that the vaccination (which carries mercury?????) are removed if they cause harm. Should we sacrifice one child for the Pharmaceuticals?. Lets not fooled by these people. They have an agenda. They always have an agenda and it is not for the good of the small people.
Something is considered slander only if it is t true. If it’s true then it’s NOT slander. If it’s corruption of a govt agency then it’s prosecutable.
Amen!!!!
No its not but I’m sure there’s plenty of science fiction
Briefed ? he was taken into a room and told that if he stood with this movie he would die. The information in this movie is that powerful. They knew , and they falsified reports, this has been in front of a congressional investigative panel. Its all true , they knew what the vaccines were doing. Anyone that is standing for the cdc and not for freedom of expression is someone I wouldn’t trust. A movie is a movie watch it and make your own conclusion . What filth , to deny freedom.
What an idiot.
Agree. It’s irresponsible. And I think there’s even going to be Q&A with Wakefield! Hoping some of the smart folks who will be at the fest this year will start speaking out (I’m looking at you Tina Fey, JJ Abrams, Samantha Bee) about this terrible decision.
Two goofball comedians and a super nerd who all talk out of their rear ends is your hope for smart people? How about some actual scientists, and no, not meme scientist Bill Nye either.
You know people instinctively disbelieve everything a lucifer says. And I dont believe there is a profound link between mmr vax and autism but there is a link between lucifer and death. Happy Easter.
Where can this link be found?
Huh?
LOL! Happy Ishtar to you too, sucker.
And how much research past what
Fox News tells you have you done?
I have a science degree and worked in structural biology for years. So plenty. I also don’t watch Fox. Also there are these people called scientists who have dedicated their lives to this. Deniro is an idiot.
De Niro may be an idiot but in this case, I think he just may be another in a huge list of parents wanting to find something to blame their child’s autism on. Unfortunately, this isn’t how to go about it…
As a parent of two boys with autism you don’t look for an excuse to blame anyone ! With the rapid rise in autism over the last 10 years you hope you can find some answers and better understand this condition. People need to remain
calm and stop the finger pointing and put the energy into finding a cure. #Vaccines #environment #olderparents.
Did you bother to enquire whether their son developed autism after they left the clinic after the jab so could not be placed on the adverse reactions register. Or whether the mother was dismissed and ignored by the doctors like so many other mothers whose children’s lights went out soon after the jab. Mothers are to be trusted and not seen as hysterical and irrational when confronting the medical establishment. It maybe not the right way to go about it but a way to get heard and open up discussion.
Wow, you have a degree, which was from a school that probably got lots of funding from pharma. You know scientist believed 100% that the world was flat at one time. Scientist have always had 100% certainty about numerous things before, which have turned out to be wrong. If you consider yourself a true scientist, then you question everything. And until you see a perfectly healthy baby go to a non responsive one after they’ve received their shots, you really have no leg to stand on just because you read a book at school.
You have no understanding of how science works. Stop embarrassing yourself and endangering children.
Oh my god. So much wrong here.
Wow. Now knowledge and factual basis isn’t good enough for science? “You really have no leg to stand on just because you read a book at school.” You really don’t know how ignorant you sound when you say this? I’m actually impressed you could type that much without seeing the irony in your statement.
Wow, you have some courage, calling a guy out for his credentials then questioning the integrity of the university he graduated from, all the while using “Anonymous” as your handle (while the person you call out is clearly using his e-mail address.
Face it, you got owned when you called out the wrong person. Crawl away quietly back to the shadows where you belong.
Um, excuse me. Facts please. Name some “scientists” who believed that the earth was flat. Provide some specific examples, and proof, that “scientists have always had 100% certaing about numerous things before.” Yes. In the modern understanding of the scientific method, scientists question everything. They also do research that looks at large numbers of cases and understand the anecdotal “until you seen a perfectly healthy baby go to a non responsive one after they’ve received their shots” provides very little, if any, reliable data. Anyone engaged in science today understands that just because drownings increase as ice cream consumption increases doesn’t mean eating ice cream means you’re going to drown. Such an argument has about the same scientific validity as does the claim that vaccines cause autisim.
Scientists believed the flat because they did not do any experiments to verify it…
Scientists HAVE done experiments to verify that there is NO link between vaccination and autism at all…
They looked at more than 1.2 million subjects. Some who had been vaccinated in the US (Which has used Thimerosal in MMR) Some who had been vaccinated in Canada (Has never used Thimerosal in MMR) and a control group of unvaccinated people.
All three groups had the exact same rates of autism… Yes… The children who got Thimerosal had the exact same autism rate as children who never received a vaccination at all…
With a sample size of more than a million people.
THAT is how we know that there is absolutely no link between vaccination and autism.
So you are a proponent of climate alarmism. We cabt trust you either. I dont think Fox has linked aautism and mmr.
Doctors go to school for 8 years to learn how to treat symptoms not cure people. Why do I care about your degree? It’s a rhetorical question, I don’t.
So the next time you get seriously sick or injured, I assume you’ll just stay home rather than darkening any doctor’s door and die quietly on the couch? We can all hope.
With medical malpractice being between the 1st to 3rd leading cause of death it’s probably best to not consult a doctor…..might be safer….
agreed there are scientists who have dedicated their lives to this… http://autismoava.org/archivos/1-s2.0-S0162013411002212-main.pdf and http://labmed.oxfordjournals.org/content/labmed/33/9/708.full.pdf (second page second paragraph)
… links exist… even if secondary… they exist. now STFU
So excited that you may have something to support your side that you didn’t even read the articles…
Have any of these scientists taken any money under the table? That’s usually the normal course for these things….that’s or a few threats.
Do you know if they have ever had a tested case study of the current vaccination schedule?
Do you know if they have a case study on the vaccination schedule as it stands today?
A bit of money here, a bit of money there and a score of scientists for sale plus a few death threats here and there really makes good science. Then add in a public unwilling or or too busy to research the CDC’s VAERS database to even get a feeling for the thousands upon thousands of vaccine induced adverse reactions, paralysis, deaths or encephalitis cases and you have a gullible public willing to believe anything a corrupt institutional system along with their owned scientists tell them to believe…..throw in a few million dollars to feed some internet trolls and you get a bunch of you guys.
Honestly, what is it about actors and crazy beliefs? Why do so many of them accept anti-science on some matters like this??
Glad your government has never lied to you and you have no cause to doubt.
To be clear, our child got ALL of his vaccines, but we broke them up as we felt giving him EVERYTHING in one shot was too much for a small, developing body.
I could give a shit about what Lancet says, the underlying issues are still worthy of questioning and debate.
You’re an idiot too then.
Even if you get every kid vaccinated how do you get all of the adults to keep up with their vaccinations to ensure the herd immunity you’re seeking? How do you keep the immune compromised away from the masses of adults who aren’t current on their vaccinations and can carry the virus?
You don’t understand the topic you’re asking about, so let the experts handle this and just get your shots, please.
I understand the topic is ultimately about eradicating a disease by achieving herd immunity. So my only question is how do you get adults to stay current on their vaccinations so they along with all the children don’t carry the disease and spread it to the immuno-compromised? I’m a middle aged man, I’m not going to ever be current on my vaccinations and nobody I know has gotten a vaccine since childhood. When was the last time you were vaccinated? They don’t last a lifetime. Given that we all can be carriers of measles how do you rectify that?
Big Pharma must not pay you very well, you shills are easy to detect.
Most diseases do not require adult vaccinations once you’ve been vaccinated in childhood and for those that do, presumably adults have the common sense and planning skills to keep themselves up on they vaccines. Children are dependent on adults for those things.
I go to Kaiser Permanente in California, and after every visit I get a printout of my upcoming schedule of screenings and tests, including any needed vaccines. Not to complicated. Millions of people manage to get themselves vaccinated for the flu every year. However do they accomplish such a complex task?
Must be nice to have all that health insurance. There’s a lot of people who don’t. Adults even. Some of them may be in this country undocumented. Some people just can’t afford them or afford to seek them out. How do you propose to eradicate a disease when you can’t guarantee everyone will keep current with their vaccinations? Unless it’s a really scary disease like Poiio or Ebola, you can’t. Measles just aren’t scary enough. More people die from the flu and most people don’t get that shot.
You do realize that there is no one flu vaccine because there are many flu viruses? There is no intention of creating herd immunity w/ flu shots.
Of course they are. That doesn’t mean the underlying issues are illuminated by a discredited, disgraced pseudo scientist.
Of course it does when that discredited, disgraced pseudo scientist is the ONLY one to have found any connection whatsoever.
Which discredited pseudo scientist are you referring to? The original Gastroenterologist that proposed a link between GI issues in Autistic patients that occurred after the MMR vaccine, or one of the CDC scientists that covered up the link they found between the MMR vaccine and the rate of Autism? There were several. One of which saved all the documentation the others discarded. So which one of these pseudo scientists is the ONLY one?
“I could give a shit about what Lancet says, the underlying issues are still worthy of questioning and debate.”
That’s because you’re a stark, raving mad idiot.
There comes a point when the “underlying issues” are identified and there is no longer any need for questioning or debate.
Immunizations do not cause autism. That is 100% fact.
Move on.
And to be clear, my son got all his immunizations on the regular schedule and he was fine.
Same with me, my brother, my son’s half-brother and two -half-sisters. My nephew. My 9 cousins and all of their kids.
My anecdotal argument is larger than your anecdotal evidence so I win!
Huzzah!
…..idot
Actually our own government just put the cdc to task for destroying thousands of scientific documents showing that there is a 350% increase in autism and autism like symptoms when the MMR vaccine is given to black boys between the ages of 5 months and 2 years. Republican senator Posey who is PRO vaccine led the assault on the cdc, demanding they be held accountable and put on trial. This film plays the audio recordings of the top cdc scientist admitting that they did this! And yet here you are saying that there’s no damn link to autism?!!! Are you that damn dense? The facts AND the science are there, but they are being covered up by of profit and be ppl in charge of Merck etc don’t give a damn about ppl dying when the world is overpopulated anyway.
They knowingly poison our water (flint) they openly and willingly poison our food (Monsanto) but you believe that vaccines are safe and without further investigation?!
Billions are made every year from vaccines and billions more made from all of the auto immune ppl who are constantly sick. We have the highest vaccine rate and schedule and the highest infant mortality rate in the developed world. FACT! Look it up. By the age of 6 a child in this country will have received upwards of 50 different ‘shots’. Compared to the handful we had in the 80s. The fda gets funding from Merck phizer etc. so you think that they are really regulating the drugs without bias?! Big pharma is the single highest financial contributor to politics/politicians. Lol. And you think that doesn’t sway someone’s perspective. Wow. Clearly the shots have already affected you.
You hit the nail square on the head Charlie
I have twins, one was fine and the other is autistic and I was there when he suddenly was not responding and went mute. They’re still up to date. Everybody in my family as well got all the vaccines and they’re fine. But there is no doubt that autism has become a serious concern and the families of those affected find it cruel when others are insensitive. Until we don’t find the cause and the numbers decrease we don’t know. How does it help to tell others you are fine?
@truth Well said. Critical thinking is crucial even when you end up agreeing with what others said. Blind acceptance is dangerous.
Right because I’m sure you’re a bigger expert on medicine than Lancet.
Thank you for seeking truth on this important topic.
Awesome!
Sheer insanity to let this screen. Wakefield was entirely in it for the money. Google his name and read the countless science and medical journals that methodically break down his scam (and it truly was that). But the tragedy is that he helped reintroduce whooping cough and measles when parents opted out of vaccinating their children because of his money-grubbing scare tactics. A true scumbag.
Love how everyone’s loosing their minds.
Wakefield directed it. Whatever. But Dr. William Thompson’s case is strong. He’s from the CDC. He’s admitted to tampering CDC vaccines studies to omit a correlation with autism. He’s a whistle-blower. And his case is very much on-going.
But BAN THE FILM! BAN THE FILM! Don’t let our precious snowflakes and their parents question BigPharma and the government.
The film has not been “banned”…
1) it’s called sarcasm. 2) Not my line, but look at the vitriolic response to shutdown rational discourse in this comment section before the film got pulled genius.
Don’t worry, we’ve all seen your vitriolic response to shutdown rational discourse in this comment section.
Anonymous below, time to take your medicine!
Anonymous ABOVE…not below, needs to take their meds. Deadline, please expand the replies in your comments section.
The Below Anon is right — Wakefield has not made bank. People pushing vaccines and owning patents–like Dr. Paul Offit, who said “healthy infants could safely get up to 100,000 vaccines at once”–has made millions encouraging vaccine mandates while owning his own patents. Talk about dipping your hands into the honey jar.
Oh yeah, Wakefield was in it for the money. Have you ever researched how much money he has? My son got his booster for Whooping Cough and then got Whooping Cough months later. Please do us all a favor and do your research before calling someone a Scumbag. Whenever I see name calling I know this person has no facts to back up their claim. That’s why they name call. They have nothing else. Sad, very sad. :-(
For those of you who forgot just how idiotic actors are. Thanks for reminding us, Bob.
As if Dirty Grampa didn’t remind us enough.
Good for him… It’s amazing how fast the response is when anything threatens big pharmas stranglehold on the weak minded is challenged. Almost like they’ve been brainwashed by all the injections… Now that’s a movie I would watch… This is just the beginning folks. The curtain is getting pulled back…
It’s amazing how fast the response is when kids are dying of preventable diseases. Fixed it for you.
Measles deaths have fallen 95% from 2.6 million per year before the vaccine became widespread. Now there are 115K deaths per year. It should be zero, but DeNiro, Wakefield and you are slowing or stopping the spread of the vaccines.
You should read about the symptoms of measles. You should read about how much the children suffer before they die.
All of those deaths are completely preventable. There is no excuse for the evil you and other vaccine deniers are perpetrating. Every single child who dies suffering because of these preventable diseases should keep you up at night.
After losing a childhood friend tomeasles many years ago, you bet your ass my kid is vaccinated.
John, let’s get a little less dramatic and panicky. Let’s look at USA instead of the worldwide estimates from WHO.
CDC http://tinyurl.com/k85gpvd says: “In the decade before 1963 . . . It is estimated 3 to 4 million people in the United States were infected each year. Also each year an estimated 400 to 500 people died, . . .”
How about the stats for 1863? Because that’s where the anti-vaxxers want to drag us back to.
Diseases were in the decline BEFORE vaccination permeated the population because of drastically improved sanitation and more available food supply.
He’s very brave for giving an outlet to an opposing view considering the times we live in wherein people go to great lengths to shut down any opposing viewpoint.
Le’s see how brave he is by screening a movie that shows an opposing view about the “refugee” crisis (a.k.a. invasion).
Exactly, the content is irrelevant. Look at the vitriolic response to shutdown rational discourse. That is a red flag, no matter what the topic.
This isn’t a matter of rational discourse. This is about scientific fraud that has led to the deaths of real, actual children. It should be shown and mocked just like a flat earth doc would be, but we don’t have that luxury because people are dumb enough to believe it.
But the earth is flat! I saw someone post it on fb!!!!
In all seriousness, I don’t understand the anti-vaccine crowd. If they looked to science they would find an answer to autism as well. It’s pollution people!! “Better living through chemistry” is biting us in the ass.
They’re parents who are angry that they had the bad luck to have autistic kids and are looking for an easy villain to blame rather than just accepting that sometimes, shit happens, and you have to deal with it.
People really have lost the ability to emotionally handle setbacks in life and have gotten the idea that life should be a walk through a rose garden and when it isn’t, they look around for someone to blame.
Society is much more brittle than it used to be. Read a history book about Americans in the 19th C sometime – I can’t even recognize those people. They were so tough and stoic, they got thru shit that would kill a boulder. We’re all such whiny wimps by comparison.
Exactly
I’ve only watched the trailer, but I’m familiar with the case; this film seems to be about Dr. William Thompson, a CDC scientist and whistle-blower, granted IMMUNITY by the OBAMA administration (!), currently WAITING to testify before congress about his participation in the cover-up of studies showing a connection between the MMR vaccines and autism, particularly among African-American boys.
I say WAITING, because it’s up to Congressman Jason Chaffetz to allow him to testify. If he’s not called, his case, his testimony, his evidence….it all goes away.
Ask yourself if BigPharma has you and your families interests at heart (Vioxx) before you start slamming the door on this film. I’d also suggest you watch the 1976 “60 Minutes” Swine Flu Scare segment. It’s all over YouTube.
Thank you De Niro.
Please,go toot your horn somewhere else. Its not needed on a trade mo ie/tv site.
No. I work in sho.
Second, go back to kindergarten, re-read the article and respond to my comment with something real. Thanks.
They are too afraid to take you seriously but I am grateful for your effort to wake up the sheeple.
Back at you Dawn. Political correctness/herd mentality is strong on the vaxx issue. So much blind faith an arm of Pharma that has (well, was granted…) zero liability. It’s ridiculous.
Pissed De Niro caved.
DeNiro has the courage to present what he believes.. Stranger things have been true. He needs to be respected for that. God Bless him.
No, he really doesn’t. He is not a smart man.
Trango22… Are you Donald trump? Every response is, he’s not a smart man or your an idiot…
Definitely not Trump. And while Donald throws insults left and right, but at least he questions–among other things–lobbyists, the vaccine schedule & skyrocketing autism rates.
By the way, you just shot your credibility straight to hell by linking Drumpf to your position.
@Anonymous
His credibility was shot way before that.
@Anonymous 1&2,
Trump worth billions. He’s smarter than all of us. Get over it. And that retarded John Oliver segment that sends a tingle up your leg.
Merck’s in house. This pay to play in the comments section is getting old. You’re not fooling anyone.
Who the hell makes you an expert. I live daily with a child that was brain injured by the Pertussis vaccination. He is now 29 and has lived his life as an infant totally dependent on our care. Yes proven in court, a doctor for the government was testifying while my step son was having a pertussis seizure. He changed his testimony immediately.
Case closed.
People want answers to how the federal government has given immunity to all drug companies and doctors who administer vaccinations. It’s all about money.
“An opportunuity for a conversation around the issue”. This is on a par with Creationists demanding that we “teach the controversy”. The conversation’s been had and Wakefield’s assertions tested and debunked with evidence-based science. Meanwhile, children are at risk from those who demand that their own instinct and suspicions be given weight without the benefit of scrutiny.
This reminded me of the climate-change deniers. There’s a real tendency of people to think they are some kind of huge experts in areas where they have no training or expertise, and denigrate people who work hard to understand their field and get where they are in their career through talent, effort and brains. As though expertise is just a function of yelling real loud. It’s so arrogant and lazy.
The Creationists and climate change deniers are right wing, the anti-vaxxers are left wing but they’re all egotistical idiots.
I don’t agree with anti-vaxxers. But I have to laugh how the supposedly “tolerant” left will do ANYTHING to shut down discussion of viewpoints the conflict with their own. They sicken me.
There is no conflict. The supposed theory was debunked as nonsense. This is a scientific fact.
This corresponds to giving “flat earthers” a respected forum for their ridiculous views.
Folks need to boycott Tribeca to give Deniro a wake up call.
There is a conflict. It’s called Dr. William Thompson (CDC).
Do some research.
You name one dissenting scientist who was discredited four years ago and has since moved on to other theories about the causes of autism? Thanks for enlightening the rest of the world to the other side of the issue.
Seriously though, this was pretty pathetic.
“Based Dad” is just desperate for something to blame for his kid’s condition. I get it, and I sympathize, but you’re right, it’s still pathetic.
No I’m not. YOU’RE confusing Wakefield with Dr. Thompson whose confession was recorded by Brian Hooker in 2014. Story broke around 2015, he’s been granted immunity by Obama, but needs to be called before the Congressional Oversight and Reform Office and subpoenaed to testify.
I have too many friends with autistic kids. My two teenagers are based. They’re received 3 vaccines we cherry picked. Healthy. No allergies. Never sick. Super healthy diet though, wife is hardcore paleo. No sugar, no gmos, no crack in the house. Ok? That’s part of the secret.
“trango22” is following the paid pharma troll pattern. Go away. You bring nothing real to the table.
@Based Dad
YOU’RE confusing Dr. Thompson with someone who hasn’t been thoroughly discredited. But hey, you have friends with autistic kids. You know wishing hard doesn’t make it so, right?
Any research people do is just going to pull up a bunch of information about how your claims are inaccurate. Stuff like this:
http://www.snopes.com/medical/disease/cdcwhistleblower.asp
How about you try doing some research?
The same scientific fact that the pharm industry used to test all the other drugs that they are paying billions of liability dollars to.
Hello! I love the truth in your perspective!
God you re an idiot, brainwashed, slave idiot.
Yeah, those intolerant liberals with their science and their facts. They’ll be sorry when Jesus comes back.
I’m against anti-vaxxers, but liberals hold on to plenty of thoroughly debunked myths like the wage gap so glass stones, Anon. And last I checked, it was liberals like Jon Stewart who helped give anti-vaxxers a platform years back.
Vaccines cause autism because women have lower incomes than men? No desperation here.
The same nice little liberals who howl that you can’t trust the evil bought off scientists seem perfectly fine with trusting the bought off scientists promoting the science of climate change. Can’t have it both ways. This just proves there’s no correlation between a person’s politics and their willingness to dismiss science that doesn’t support their agenda.
And yeah, I think the agenda here is parents who want an easy villain to blame for their kids’ disability, which could be caused by having kids too late in life after focusing on your career or maybe just bad luck. There is such a thing as bad luck in the world, and all your liberal pieties won’t save you from it.
As someone on the autism spectrum, what I find most striking is how none of these anti-vax parents seem to realize that by refusing a vaccine that could save the lives of their children because of the *possibility* of autism, they are essentially telling children that they’d rather they be dead than be autistic.
Think about the message you are sending your children. Autism does not equal stupid.
You are absolutely right.
While no fan og big pharma, anyone can Google ans see for themselves they make very little from vaccines compared to the obscene amounts for drugs for treating pain disease. That is why you don’t see ads for vaccines.
Where are all the studies on unvaccinated children?? How many unvaccinated infants died from sids??? Do these studies exist ? Are all these vaccines really necessary? I think less people died from chicken poxs compared to the number of kids that have been diagnosed being on the spectrum . I think more reasearch needs to be done regarding vaccines … They are not all 100% safe and effective as I was told by my child’s allergist.
lol, k
Easy. http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm6433a1.htm
Just need to do a tiny bit of research to find that vaccination is one of the major contributors to reducing mortality in public health history.
What anti-vaxxers don’t get is they can afford not to vaccinate because the rest of the “sheep” vaccinate their kids. I guarantee if Polio were to return, many of them would be lining up to get their kids to their doctors for their shots.
What deadly virus are they going to die from? A the ones children are vaccinated for disrupt the natural process of catching them and proper immune system development. For instance the chicken pox virus, if you don’t get it as a child and contract it as an adult the result can be much worse up to and including death. Read what the researchers and front line doctors saying, not the pharmaceutical companies cover-ups and discrediting the research that goes against theirs. By the way Bob who said they don’tmake much money on vaccines because they don’t advertise them on TV, are you high?
Did any of you actually read Deniro’s statement? He’s not endorsing anything. He’s simply opening a discussion. Isn’t that what films are supposed to do? Whether you agree or not, it’s listening than deciding if you agree with the points or not. Calm down people.
The discussion has been had, by actual scientists. Wakefield is a fraud and should be in jail. Deniro doesn’t want to take responsibility for the increased risks in having a child at 55, so he’s desperate for something else to blame.
You bring up the point that is most impt- and it’s sad it probably won’t be brought up anywhere but in a comments section. The science actually is there on this one.
Autism is caused by bad genes. Naturally some parents don’t want to accept this fact and take responsibility for it so, instead, they choose to blame everyone and everything else. Don’t get me started on those who have one autistic kid and then selfishly decide to continue churnign out a half dozen more.
“bad” genes? More like unknown genes. You are correct though that science says the leading factor is heritability. I haven’t seen Vaxxed & I don’t mind DeNiro wanting to start a conversation, but it’s irresponsible of him if this film doesn’t clearly portray the risks of failing to get vaccination. Each year more people will die of MMR than will be diagnosed with autism.
Agreed. I believe there is a genetic predispostion and possibly an allergy. But there is no documentation to say what the numbers are for vaccinated children with autism. I understand the parents wanting something to blame. But vaccines have saved many more lives and eradicated deadly disease. That is a fact.
That’s because proper reporting isn’t done. Some ridiculously small percentage of vaccine reactions are even reported and what is reported is scary enough.
I wonder how many of you realize that Big Pharma has a shield of absolute immunity thanks to our government in regards to vaccine damage, injury and death. Instead their is a kangaroo court where parents lucky enough to even get a chance at a hearing are treated with the utmost contempt and yet that court has still awarded damages to children who developed autism from vaccination and then carefully covered it up to continue their denial denial denial.
How can you trust so blindly? How can you not see the corruption of a revolving door with the FDA and CDC and big Pharma companies execs working for private then for the agencies supposed to be watchdogs on those same companies only to go back after to large bonuses, huge salaries and stock options. And it’s not just about vaccines but drugs and chemicals and good and more.
We are all property if the corporation state now… Socialism having gone on reverse as almost always happens when one gets to control the other money bribes and power corrupts and we worship with blissful and blind ignorance safe in our belief that Big Brother loves us and would never allow us to be exploited or abused. War us Peace, Slavery is Freedom, Ignorance is Strength and now Sickness is Health. If you dare to disagree or question you are automatically some type of idiot or radical or terrorist.
Look at your hatred towards us that dare to question. Look at your anger and fear. Ask yourself why and then start asking more questions and never stop.
Read “The Panic Virus”. Wakefield is a crook. (Full disclosure: I own the film rights to it.)
This doc is preaching to the choir: Smart, upper-class white people are the ones educated about side effects and brain damage vaccines cause (NYTimes, Slate, and Wired have all written demanding Silicon Valley corps try to bully their employees to vax their kids).
Unfortunately, it’s the trusting middle-class families and lower class people who buy these things. My heart goes out to them, and I hope that we can speak to them, rather than rich whites, who already know.
Upper middle class white panicked scientific illiterates, you mean. There is no link to autism. My heart goes out to your brain. It is clearly not up to the task.
In your rage, you screwed up the party line. Everybody admits there’s a correlation (“link” in your unscientific terminology) between vaccines and autism. The pharmaceutical companies and their toadies simply say, “Vaccines don’t CAUSE autism.” and the “link” is a coincidence.
No, again, you have no idea what you’re talking about. There is NO LINK between vaccines and autism. None. Period. Zero. Please do a simple google search before you embarrass yourself and bring down the discussion any further.
Incorrect.
Yeah, because the adjuvants are neurotoxins – they’re added precisely BECAUSE they’re poisonous, thereby triggering an allergic reaction to hyperstimulate an immune response – there have been hundreds of clinical studies about their side effects.
In fact, the brain damage they cause is listed on the packaging. Read the part marked, “SIDE EFFECTS”.
Also, check out: “124 Research papers supporting Vaccine/Autism Causation” at Scribd. Great database!
No one in the scientific community, besides the singular paper written by Andrew Wakefield, thinks there’s a correlation. The ‘educated’ upper middle class who listen to this nonsense are idiots. One man against a the entire scientific community, it’s even more lop-sided than the people who claim there’s no scientific consensus that Global Warming is man-made.
The simple fact is, the only correlation is that what constitutes autistic has changed over the years, and numbers have risen simply because we have come to understand it and it’s many different forms better. It’s a false correlation to say that autism is on the rise because vaccines have come along. A person could make the same argument that organic foods cause autism.
organic foods cause autism ; hey I got my treatment of that copyrighted, back off buddy…
wow. someone in hollywood willing to have a discussion on a topic? and not just shut it down? kudos to DeNiro. these days almost everyone – especially hollywood – wants to blacklist anyone with opposing views instead of arming themselves with the tools (facts) to debate and win. what a concept.
The anti-vaxxers are certainly armed with tools. (Hint, the tools are them!)
Wow great joke. Merck knows how to pick their paid trolls. Quality.
Watch out hollywood!!!!
Trango’s coming to steal a staff job stat.
The question of whether or not to screen Vaxxed is a first amendment issue. To deny this film because we are afraid of its content would be intellectual cowardice, dangerously close to censorship. TFF is to be applauded for this decision, as are the De Niros for their courageous leadership. Let’s not under-estimate the ability of film viewers to decide for themselves what they think. We’ll done ,TFF. We’ll done, De Niros.
The first amendment protects against GOVERNMENT censorship. Please learn something about what you’re typing before you waste everyone’s time again.
A conversation about bullshit and lies is still bullshit and lies.
I don’t understand why everyone thinks people can just slip an article into a journal like the Lancet. No idea if there is a link between mmr and autism, but Wakefield was published in the Lancet with lots of people reviewing, having their name on the paper, etc. It’s not like he just slipped one in. Why aren’t people questioning that?
People did question that, it’s what got the Wakefield discredited.
I’m no expert, or would ever claim to be one… But I’ve never had a flu vaccine and have never had the flu (I did get swine flu once though). I get sick for maybe one every couple years… Makes me feel like Bruce Willis from Unbreakable, except that other non-vaccinated people I’ve met hardly get the flu either. Hardly definitive, though, just my case.
“‘Vaxxed’…features revealing and emotional interviews with pharmaceutical insiders, doctors, politicians, parents, and one whistle-blower to understand what’s behind the skyrocketing increase of autism diagnoses today.”
There is NO “skyrocketing increase in autism diagnoses,” any more than that the heavens suddenly cracked open and started raining undocumented aliens. In each case, the incidences have been well within historical norms. The only difference is that those who are misinformed, or who willfully misinform to gain notoriety, political gain or financial profit (or some combination of the three) are being allowed to drive the narrative, to the point there they’ve convinced not only many casual observers, but even the news media that there is any kind of controversy at all. When one side has all the tangible evidence, and the other has none, there can be no controversy — except in the minds of those who allow the side with none to control that narrative.
As man who has, for fifty-one years, been in the business of constructing DRAMATIC narratives as actor, producer and director, Mr DeNiro really should have known that he was being manipulated. It’s not just in wars where the dog is wagged, Bob.
I agree! I have read quite a bit on this topic. I do not portend to be an expert. However it sounds like the parameters for diagnosis and the widening of the spectrum are part of the supposed increase in percentages. Plus in my dealings with anti vaxxers they just spew facts and throw supporters names at you. If you try to discuss they get angry and scream that you cannot know what it is like to have an autistic child. They say we are sheeple but yet it seems they are following along blindly themselves. I have not been able to find any evidence of support that vaccines are causal. All evidence needs to be looked at scientifically. And not ALL doctors and scientists are paid off by Pharma. Come on ppl. Statistics can be shown to prove any case if you choose to make it so. A forced correlation does not equal direct causation by any sense.
They throw facts at you? God forbid they actually use facts! Lol
The withdrawal of showing Vaxxed is making much more attention to this vaccination subject matter.
This is a stunt maneuver, deliberate or not, is going to make waves (already making?) which crashes louder than just merely quietly showing the film.
no rise in autism?…. http://autismoava.org/archivos/1-s2.0-S0162013411002212-main.pdf
Well Bob, chew on this historical norm: there has been no evidence of Autism prior to the advent of vaccines in the whole of medial academia records, know your medial history before you angrily slight someone else’s views. At the last count I heard of, Autism was less than 1 in 50 kids, meaning it’s a huge increase and considered a real epidemic. Why the word epidemic? Well they treated Polio as a huge crisis at 1 in 300 so do the math, before you angrily try to discredit someone else. I could yet, won’t go on, as you cannot reach those who think inside the box and live life like it’s all solved already for them and are on auto-pilot. Please get some help for that anger.
Glad he reversed his decision. It just would’ve been completely irresponsible to screen this documentary as part of the festival.
Agreed
Yes. Free speech and differing opinions must be stopped.
They still have their right to free speech. Nothing in the first amendment says that a private entity (TFF in this case) has to give anyone a platfrom to air their “free speech”.
The film maker is free to shop the film around to a platform that approves of his films message.
So yeah, in this case, free speech hasn’t been stopped, just the venue for it to be spoken has changed.
You bet! Nobody should be allowed to state opinions that are different. How criminal.
Nobody is stopping anyone from speaking, but giving them a platform is irresponsible if what they want to say is useless. I could say the moon is made of swiss cheese, doesn’t mean it’s useful to say that.
If you really believed the moon was made of Swiss cheese you should be free to start a conversation about it, and let people hear the arguments and not try to shut them down. Let’s not treat people like idiots. Scientists are not gods. Neither do they all agree