Desperate to remain relevant, the National Vaccine Information Center is turning to sign spinners in its latest effort to circumvent skeptical news outlets and advertising media.
“There’s been a coordinated effort to suppress our right to free speech, paid for by the pharmaceutical industrial complex and the loose change in Paul Offit’s sofa,” says Barbara Low Fisker, NVIC founder, president, and spokesperson. “But that’s not going to stop us from sharing our message that vaccines are the most dangerous consumer product on the planet.”
Sign spinning contractors and volunteers will fan out in 12 US cities next month, focusing on shopping mall parking lots, airport drop off points, highway overpasses, drive-through ATM machines, car washes, and areas where prostitutes gather. Messages include “Thimerosal Thucks”, “Whistle Blow This!”, and “Vaccine Injury: The New Holocaust.”
“We will not be quiet. We will not go away,” says Fisker, whose movement has morphed into a punchline over the years. “We think sign spinning is the perfect vehicle for conveying the seriousness of vaccine choice and health freedom.”
When contacted by phone, other anti-vaccine groups declined to comment on NVIC’s campaign.
“To tell you the truth, I haven’t noticed. We’ve just been focused on finding a new acronym,” says Anne Pertussis, media editor of Thoughtful Woman Against Thimerosal. “It’s not easy figuring out what the public wants to hear.”
Fisker won’t say how many contractors NVIC has hired to hit the streets next month, but credits a coalition of homeopaths, diet supplement companies, essential oil industry engineers, and zeolite mining executives for the funding.
She grudgingly admits that these are hard times for the anti-vaccine movement.
“Journalists are not as receptive to covering this important story as they once were,” says Fisker. “The courts, in turns out, are a dead end, and don’t get me started on the scientists. Hell, we feel lucky if we can lease a fucking outdoor billboard.”
Fisker says that in addition to sign spinning, contractors, mostly drawn from community colleges and halfway homes, will be leaving printed leaflets on windshields, and randomly shouting “vaccines are bad” at funerals.
