The Political Economy of Vaccines (a thread):

The women of Generation X were going to be the first women in history to truly be free. Their grandmothers had fought in the first wave of the feminist struggle and their mothers had fought in the second wave and opened up... 1/

access to higher education and careers. For the first time in history women could control how many kids they would have. And they could choose whether they wanted to stay home or work. This was unprecedented in human history. 2/

But the gain of new rights happened amidst a general nationwide economic stagnation that began in 1970. Furthermore, corporate power was ascendant. Feminist gains in the workplace were not matched by more enlightened corporate practices or government paternal leave policies... 3/

or more men staying home to look after the kids. Instead, if families were ever going to get ahead or even just keep from slipping farther behind on their mortgage, car loans, & student loans, both parents would have to work (& work longer & harder than they ever had before). 4/

What this meant in practice is that no one was allowed to be sad anymore and no one was allowed to get sick anymore -- experiences that were formerly just a part of normal life.

Pharmaceutical companies took advantage in the first instance by pushing antidepressant pills... 5/

on an ever-growing proportion of the population, including 1 in 10 women. Pharma did not and could not outright claim that they were happy pills, but the images they used in ubiquitous advertising campaigns suggested as much and we all knew what they were selling. 6/

Starting in the 1987 with the release of Prozac, doctors wrote endless prescriptions for a drug that did not outperform a placebo for 90% of its users but produced billions of $$ in profits. We kept swallowing the pills because we wanted to believe the story they were telling. 7/

Workers were not allowed to get sick because that was depriving an employer of profits (Forbes literally ran a story saying that workers who got the flu stole $9 billion each year from their employers because of the lost productivity that these companies were entitled to). 8/

Children were not allowed to get sick anymore either because that would pull a parent out of his or her workplace and deprive parents of earnings and deprive companies of profits. So unpleasant rashes that formerly were rites of passage, like measles and chickenpox... 9/

had to be turned into threats to civilization that must be stopped at all costs. Pharma took advantage of the situation by pushing the 1986 National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act to give themselves complete liability protection from the harms, including death, that have... 10/

always gone along with vaccines. After the law passed, vaccines were pure profit & Pharma rushed to buy off regulatory agencies so that they could add as many vaccines as possible to the schedule. The schedule soon doubled & then tripled as regulators did as they were told. 11/

So starting in 1987, common sense & scientific standards went out the window as vaccines that were never tested against a saline placebo were required for all children and absurdities like the birth dose of hepatitis B,... 12/

a vaccine that was originally developed only for IV drug addicts and prostitutes, were passed off as best practices and enlightened parenting. 13/

So these intertwined dynamics — a stagnant economy, rising corporate power, massive deregulation, rising levels of debt, more people working, more kids in childcare, a logic that forbids illness, opportunistic pharmaceutical companies, and 40 years of accumulating toxins... 14/

in the environment, in our bodies, & in our food — including mercury, lead, DDT, Roundup, pesticides, PCBs, fire retardants, phthalates, BPA, and now antidepressants and vaccine adjuvants — created a perfect storm. 15/

The result is a tsunami of developmental disabilities & chronic illness — an entire generation of kids who will have worse health outcomes than their parents.

And many of the women of Generation X who were going to be the first generation who were truly going to be free... 16/

are now stuck at home with chronically ill children many of whom are socially impaired and some are violent.

But of course, only a few people can hear this because the LOGIC of our era tells us that we’re making progress, that things can only get better,... 17/

that this is the best of all possible worlds, that science & medicine & government & the internet, are good for us & here for our protection. The logic of our era tells us to play our part, that when we do everything will work out for the best, just like Adam Smith told us... 18/

back in the day. The logic of our era tells us that we CHOSE this, that no, WE were the ones who didn’t want to get sick, that WE were the ones with a genetic defect that could only be cured by a pill, and that IT'S WORKING. 19/

But if you take a step back & take a deep breath you see that the logic that drives our society is the logic of conquest that used to be directed outward that is now being directed inward at our own societies & our own kids & our own bodies. The dragon is eating its own tail. 20/

The logic that has always driven our society is the logic of a death cult dressed up to look like freedom.

So one long epoch is ending. Pharma & elite bourgeois society are rushing to pump as much wealth out of the system as they can before it collapses. 21/

They don't care who they maim or kill in the process. We're all just objects to them. But as we rush towards collapse, start thinking about what comes next. What comes after monopoly capitalism, patriarchy, & totalitarianism? What kind of world will we build from the ashes? 22/22

Or maybe I have the ending all wrong? Maybe we solve this catastrophe by repealing the Bayh-Dole Act of 1980 (that lets Pharma patent publicly funded research), repealing the 1986 National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act, & giving new moms 5 years paid medical leave? I don't know.

It is shocking though, how many otherwise smart people, participate so earnestly, in their own self destruction.

Politically, it's stunning how, even though the answers are so straightforward, corporations & the politicians they buy are determined to push society over the edge.

To the women of Generation X I want to say, I'm sorry. We all got played. The only way forward is to tear down the bougie structures that created this disaster and build something better. 3rd/4th wave feminism and the medical freedom movement should join forces.

8 studies show a statistically significant association between selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) use in pregnant women and subsequent autism in their children (Kaplan et al., 2016). Yet doctors are still prescribing SSRIs to pregnant women. We live in an insane world.