The National Vaccine Information Center, founded under the name Dissatisifed Parents Together in 1982, is an American 501 organization that has been widely criticized as a leading source of fearmongering and misinformation about vaccines. While NVIC describes itself as the "oldest and largest consumer led organization advocating for the institution of vaccine safety and informed consent protections", it promotes false and misleading information including the discredited claim that vaccines cause autism, and its campaigns portray vaccination as risky, encouraging people to consider "alternatives."
Background
The organization was co-founded in 1982 by Jeff Schwartz, Barbara Loe Fisher, and Kathi Williams under the name Dissatisifed Parents Together. Each of them had observed the health of one of their children deteriorate at some point after receiving a dose of the DPT vaccine and had watched a television broadcast of the film DPT: Vaccine Roulette, which drew an erroneous causal link between DPT vaccines and illnesses of some children who received them. In 1985, Fisher and Harris Coulter co-authored a book, DPT: A Shot in the Dark, which asserted an association between the whole cell pertussis vaccine in the DPT shot and autism. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention now recommend the newer acellular pertussis vaccines, and whole cell pertussis vaccines are no longer used in the US. because of adverse effects unrelated to autism. In the early 1980s, the organization joined with the American Academy of Pediatrics to draft the original legislation for the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of 1986, which created a federal vaccine injury compensation program, mandated doctors to give parents vaccine benefit and risk information, and required the recording and reporting of vaccine injuries and deaths. The organization changed its name to the National Vaccine Information Center in the early 1990s.
Funding
Although the NVIC claims to be supported primarily by small donations, 40% of its funding came from the anti-vaccination activist and distributor of vitamin supplements Joseph Mercola, who provided $2.9 million between 2009 and 2018. The funds were provided through Mercola's Natural Health Research Foundation. Barry Segal's Focus for Health foundation is also contributing to NVIC, with $400,000 between 2011 to 2017.
Reception
The journalist Michael Specter described the NVIC as: The NVIC asserts that there has been inadequate research into the link between the rise in the number of children diagnosed with autism and mass vaccination programs. There have, however, been a number of peer-reviewed studies and meta-analyses that have shown no correlation between vaccine administration and autism diagnosis. The skeptic and science blogger Phil Plait notes that while "On their site they take "vaccine injuries" as given," the "litany of effects is interesting, given that to the best of my knowledge none of them has actually been linked to vaccines in real medical studies." The NVIC received criticism in April 2011 for ads that it placed on a jumbotron in Times Square. The ads criticized childhood immunization and promoted an alternative medicine website. In a letter to CBS, which owned the jumbotron, the American Academy of Pediatrics stated, "By providing advertising space to an organization like the NVIC... you are putting thousands of lives of children at risk." A controversial ad produced by NVIC regarding preventive measures for influenza was aired on some Delta Air Lines flights, prompting the president of the American Academy of Pediatrics to write a letter to the CEO of Delta on November 4, 2011, urging Delta to "remove these harmful messages." An online petition was also set up to urge Delta to remove the ads. The refusal of Delta Air Lines to stop showing the ad immediately prompted the Institute for Science in Medicine to protest and to call the decision:
