The Greater Good (film)

The Greater Good is a film purportedly discussing the risks and benefits of vaccines. It originally debuted at the Dallas International Film Festival on April 2, 2011,^[2] and which then began playing in Los Angeles, California on October 14, 2011,^[3] which won awards from the Sidewalk Moving Picture Festival as well as the cinematic vision award at the Amsterdam Film Festival.^[4] The film has been described as "pure, unadulterated anti-vaccine propaganda".^[5]

Stories covered in the film include those of:

• Gabi Swank of Wichita, Kansas, who received an HPV vaccine and attributes a number of adverse reactions, including a seizure, to this experience,
• Jordan King of Portland, Oregon, who was claimed to have regressed into autism following routine vaccination, and was one of the test cases for the autism omnibus proceedings and whose case was rejected by the Special Master, and
• Victoria Grace Boyd Christener of Tulsa, Oklahoma, who died at the age of 5 months after receiving a vaccine.

Well-known vaccine experts who appear in the film include Paul Offit, Melinda Wharton, and Norman Baylor of the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research. The film was endorsed by Joseph Mercola on his website, as part of "Vaccine Awareness Week", a joint venture with anti-vaccine propaganda organisation the National Vaccine Information Center.^[6]

The filmmakers, Kendall Nelson and Chris Pilaro, are from Sun Valley, Idaho.^[7]

List of appearances grouped by position on vaccinations

The film positions a number of experts on vaccines, against activists and others who oppose vaccination, an example of false balance.

Discussing vaccine benefits

• Dr. Paul Offit an American pediatrician specializing in infectious diseases and an expert on vaccines, immunology, and virology.
• Dr. Melinda Wharton of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
• Dr. Norman Baylor, Director of the Office of Vaccines Research and Review in the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research.
• Mark B. Feinberg, Vice President for Medical Affairs and Policy for Merck Vaccines and Infectious Diseases at Merck & Company, Inc.
• Walt Orenstein, who formerly held a post at the Centers for Disease Control where he led the National Immunization Program^[8]

Discussing vaccine risks

• Dr. Lawrence B. Palevsky, a "holistic" pediatrician
• Dr. John Green III, a fellow of the American Academy of Environmental Medicine, a questionable group promoting unrecognised environmental causes for multiple diseases.
• Diane Harper, an investigator at one of the sites where the original clinical trials of Gardasil was conducted.
• Kevin Conway and Clifford Shoemaker, lawyers who represented the families in the autism omnibus trial, where the claim that vaccines cause autism was assessed and rejected as unfounded.^[6]
• Renee Gentry, a lawyer at Shoemaker's law firm.
• Christopher Shaw, PhD, a professor in the Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences at the University of British Columbia.
• Barbara Loe Fisher, an anti-vaccine activist
• Bob Sears, a doctor promoting controversial alternative vaccine schedules.

Criticism

From the medical establishment

• David Gorski criticized the movie in a blog post,^[9] lamenting that the film "which could have been a provocative debate about current vaccine policy based on asking which vaccines are necessary and why, in the end opts to be nothing more than pure anti-vaccine propaganda of the lowest and most vile sort."^[6]

From the media

• The New York Times criticized the movie, calling it "emotionally manipulative," and "heavily partial."^[10]
• Variety's John Anderson reviewed the film, saying that it is "swimming in ethical contradictions." Anderson also stated, with regard to the film's potential bias, "Admittedly, it would have been difficult for the filmmakers to show the other side of those scenes; how do you focus on subjects who haven’t died from smallpox, diphtheria or pertussis because they were immunized as children? But that would require an approach that doesn’t take advantage of the audience’s emotions."^[11] The conjecture presented in the movie that vaccines might cause autism is contradicted by all existing scientific evidence on the subject.^[12]

References