Interview Preamble
AndersonVision would like to thank Dr. Andrew Wakefield and Cinema Libre for making this interview possible. At AndersonVision, we choose to present views from all sides rather than pushing certain agendas. The simple notion that we’re even covering Vaxxed today will cost us readership. However, it is important to let everyone speak on a subject that some find disconcerting.
Thank you,
The Management.
THE AV INTERVIEW
Dr. Andrew Wakefield (d: Vaxxed)
ANDERSONVISION: After my fourth time viewing Vaxxed, I was intrigued by the construction of the film. Why appeal to emotion and then hint at an underlying conspiracy with players that can’t go public?
DR. WAKEFIELD: Firstly, thank you for taking the time to watch our movie, not once but four times. I just want to be clear on the ‘players’ that ‘can’t go public.’ Do you mean DeStefano, Yeargin-Allsop, Bhasin, Boyle, Gerberding, and Orenstein? I am not aware of any constraints on these individuals that would not have allowed them to respond positively to our invitation and participate in the documentary, nor indeed, have they made us aware of any such constraints. DeStefano has interviewed with Sharyl Attkisson on this topic. He was certainly able to go public.
The film itself simply intended to intercut the narrative of the admitted CDC fraud with that of the experiences of families impacted by MMR vaccine injury.
AV: How much material was cut from the film to get it into its final shape? At points in the interviews with the families, I felt like the audience was missing healthy portions of the discussion.
DR. WAKEFIELD: As with any film of this nature, hard cuts needed to be made to reduce it to a reasonable length. I agree that there is much more that one would like to hear from the families, in particular. Some of this is available in some of the additional materials on the DVD.
AV: Much was made by the lack of transparency in the removal of Vaxxed from the Tribeca Film Festival. Do you feel that major documentaries/features are due an explanation when these situations happen?
DR. WAKEFIELD: Official selections to any film festival should never be censored after having been accepted, provided that the submission complies with the festival’s rules. We are aware that VAXXED was censored under duress from the Sloan Foundation, a major sponsor of Tribeca. Such action is totally unacceptable and damages Tribeca forever. The filmmakers were denied any due process. It was a very sad day for the film industry.
AV: While Professor Walker-Smith seems to have been exonerated in the charges against the original 1998 paper, why do you feel that certain aspects of the media keep targeting you?
DR. WAKEFIELD: Because, to restore the credibility of me and the Lancet paper – the correct course of action – would be to not only admit fault on their part but give entirely justified credence to the parent story of MMR vaccine injury.
AV: How were the families included in the documentary screened for participation?
DR. WAKEFIELD: They had a story to tell and a willingness to tell that story on camera.
AV: Will there be a follow-up to Vaxxed?
DR. WAKEFIELD: Vaxxed – the Booster! On a more serious note, yes. Hopefully another major whistleblower story.
AV: While doing my research, something stood out to me quite glowingly. Why do you think between the publication of the initial 1998 paper and the autism-vaccine link outrage, the Western world had three years of zero response?
DR. WAKEFIELD: A very good question to which I don’t know the answer. I think they were waiting for science to say it was wrong. The CDC took up the challenge and by 2001 had proved that the MMR-autism link was real. They then embarked of a calculated and deliberate cover-up.
AV: Do you feel that your initial insight into a possible vaccine-autism link has produced a climate where research scientists are now scared to bring forth their findings to the public?
DR. WAKEFIELD: I am certain that the reaction of the medical-industrial complex to this insight has intentionally had that effect.
AV: Do you feel that “Hear the Silence” will ever get released properly in America? I wasn’t aware of this dramatized take on your earlier work until a medical friend passed it along to me in preparation for this interview.
DR. WAKEFIELD: For reasons of copyright, this is unlikely.
AV: While a degree of time has passed, do you feel that America is giving you more credence than you experience in the last 18 years in the United Kingdom?
DR. WAKEFIELD: Yes. The extent and public awareness of vaccine injury is so much greater in the US due to the very aggressive vaccine schedule here, that almost all parents are aware of this issue and many are sympathetic to it.
