Why Are Childhood Vaccination Rates Declining? Thank the COVID Vaccine and HHS (Opinion)

I’m sure you’ve seen the news about increasing measles cases across the country, including the latest news regarding increasing measles cases amid declining childhood vaccination rates in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and other places across the country. And while it’s easy to blame anti-vaccination sentiment for increasing disease cases (a debate I am NOT going to dive into here), the harder question nobody seems to be asking is why the sudden uptick in anti-vaccination sentiment?

It is my firm belief that anti-vaccine sentiment is due to what is increasingly apparent as the botched COVID-19 vaccine, which according to VAERS has been linked to over 1.6 million adverse events, including my own. And with a nearly impossible burden of proof required for compensation for vaccine injuries, only 3% of COVID vaccine injuries submitted to the Health and Human Services (HHS) Countermeasures Injury Compensation Program (CICP) were eligible for compensation as of December, 2024.

We don’t truly know the actual adverse event rate, but with an estimated 270 million people receiving at least one injection of the COVID vaccine, this places the adverse event rate somewhere between 0.5% and 1%. While at face value these odds seem extremely low, it’s important to note that not only are VAERS reports typically underreported, but this also means that 1 in every 100 people who receive a COVID vaccine will experience an adverse event – with a percentage of these adverse events resulting in lifelong suffering, or possibly even death. It’s like playing Russian Roulette, just with a little better odds.

When I was injured by the COVID vaccine, I filed a workers compensation claim. That claim was denied, because even though I was under immense pressure by my employer at the time to take the vaccine (including veiled threats to terminate me if I didn’t get vaccinated and got COVID, as well as veiled threats to cut off my health insurance), and later required to have that vaccine in order to continue my position as a Federal contractor (a position I eventually had to leave due to neurological issues caused by the vaccine), the vaccine wasn’t “required by my employer” and therefore my claim was denied. My next option was the CICP, which would have required me to submit my entire medical history for a 3% chance that they’d pay my co-pay for going to the hospital. My medical records no longer exist, as my doctor quit practicing medicine due to Obamacare, and since I was generally healthy my whole life I didn’t see any need to get my medical records when he closed his practice. The system was designed to stack the odds against me, and prevent me from getting any compensation for taking a vaccine which I took due to my employment and requirements from the Federal government. Oh, and the only recommended treatment which could be provided to me was “take Advil and drink lots of water”. Why? Because it was taboo in the medical community to admit that COVID vaccines could cause serious adverse effects, let alone research treatment protocols.

As a result of this, I’ve lost a lot of faith in the medical industry, and others have as well. Part of losing faith in the medical industry is losing faith in not only the safety of vaccines, but the ability and willingness of the medical industry to help if someone is injured by a vaccine. There were already concerns about the potential for vaccines to cause autism, and even though studies have shown that there is no link, the COVID vaccine mandates, lack of help for those injured, and the government coordinated silencing of those injured by the COVID vaccine has only served as validation for those already skeptical of all vaccines.

It will take decades to rebuild trust in vaccines after what happened with the COVID vaccine. Labeling people as “conspiracy theorists” for not wanting to vaccinate their children will not help, and only make things worse. After all, even the New York Times has admitted that we were misled about the origins of COVID. The first step in restoring trust in vaccines isn’t to claim “the science changed”, but admit that the “science” promoted by the government and media was manipulated, and that the vaccine mandates were wrong. Then actually help those who were injured by the COVID vaccine who are still suffering. Including me.

Opinion article by Ken Buckler, President of RFHC. All opinions are his own and do not reflect those of our clients or sponsors.

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