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The Fifth Big Lie of Vaccinology

The Fifth Big Lie of Vaccinology

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The Fifth Big Lie of Vaccinology: Declaring Vaccines Fundamentally “Safe and Effective” as a Class, is a manipulative, unethical propaganda device that must be brought to an end.

Slogans, catch phrases, and advertising jingles comprise an enormous amount of the information that the media sends out to all of us every day. Marketing is largely based on attaching simplistic, positive connotations to whatever product is being sold.

Sometimes manipulative advertising is easily identifiable and seems harmless enough. Depending on your personal preference for fast food, you may either decide that “You rule,” or instead choose to make sure “I’m lovin’ it.” When purchasing an automobile, you can be content just to say “Let’s go places,” or you can insist on owning “The ultimate driving machine.”

However, marketing, news, and yes, government directives frequently overlap – and even merge – to an extent that can be very difficult to detect. If an advertising jingle takes hold firmly enough, it can become conventional wisdom. Sometimes it can even be assumed to be objective fact. 

Generations of Americans grew up accepting as an article of faith that “breakfast is the most important meal of the day.” However, this claim was first made – without evidence – in 1917 by a protégé of breakfast cereal magnates named the Kellogg Brothers. While this assertion about the primary importance of breakfast has been challenged in recent years, it still resonates in the minds of many as a basic truth of daily life.

“Safe and Effective:” An Advertising Slogan, Not a Medical Fact 

With the rollout of the Covid vaccines, starting in December 2020, patients worldwide were barraged with another baseless (and completely untrue) marketing slogan: that the brand new, warp-speed developed Covid vaccines are “safe and effective.” (Should anyone have forgotten the intensity of the marketing blitz, please watch this, this, and – gulp – this to refresh your memory.)

We were told that Covid vaccines are “safe and effective.” Period. This advertising slogan was repeated endlessly, despite the fact that it referred to a variety of different products, using multiple different technologies, all produced in extreme haste. 

Almost overnight, there were shots by Pfizer/BioNTech (mRNA technology), Moderna (also mRNA), Johnson & Johnson (viral vector technology), AstraZeneca (also viral vector), and Novavax (protein subunit technology). 

Didn’t matter. We were told that Covid vaccines are “safe and effective.”

We were told to take whichever Covid shot might be available. We were told that it didn’t matter which vaccine might be offered to you. We were told its mechanism of action didn’t matter. We were told you could even “mix and match!” Covid vaccines are “safe and effective.”

That advertising jingle persists even today. Never mind that two major Covid vaccines (the Johnson & Johnson and the AstraZeneca products), both previously hailed as “safe and effective,” were pulled from the market for, well, killing people. Covid vaccines are “safe and effective.”

Never mind that the CDC’s own Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) catalogued over 38,000 deaths due to the Covid vaccines. Covid vaccines are “safe and effective.”

Never mind the drip-drip-drip of media reports describing the waning effectiveness of the Covid shots, an utterly predictable outcome. All that means is that you need another booster shot! Covid vaccines are “safe and effective.”

To review: two of the original Covid shots – previously hailed as “safe and effective” – have been pulled from the market because they were unsafe. New, updated versions of the remaining shots are constantly being produced, because previous versions – also previously promoted as safe and effective – are ineffective. Furthermore, their disastrous safety record is reflected in the low public uptake of the newer versions. 

Nevertheless, Covid vaccines are still officially “safe and effective.”

The “Safe and Effective” Slogan Is Applied to All Vaccines

At this writing, the CDC website maintains a page singularly devoted to promoting the “safe and effective” advertising jingle for all vaccines. This webpage is rather unimaginatively titled “Developing Safe and Effective Vaccines.”

By my count, in this 722-word document, the CDC uses the phrase “safe and effective” or a very slight variant, at least nine times. A full 3.7% of the text – one in every 27 words – is a verbatim or near-verbatim repetition of the “safe and effective” advertising jingle:

  • “Developing Safe and Effective Vaccines”
  • “FDA regulates vaccines to make sure they are safe and effective
  • “Before a vaccine can be approved, it must go through years of testing to show it is safe, effective, and its benefits outweigh the risks”
  • “Clinical trials ensure the vaccine is safe and effective”
  • “This is how researchers learn if the new vaccine is safe and effective in people”
  • FDA approves the vaccine if: It’s safe and effective
  • “Phase 4 is an ongoing study that looks at the vaccine’s safety and effectiveness
  • “ACIP carefully reviews all data about a vaccine. This includes: The safety and effectiveness of the vaccine for people in different age groups”
  • “The vaccine safety system in the U.S. ensures vaccines remain safe and effective for use”

This is not honest information designed to educate American citizens. This is deliberate, manipulative, tendentious, government-directed advertising. This is propaganda.

Never mind that the Covid shots were rushed to market in a matter of months (as are each year’s influenza shots). Forget the “years of testing.” 

Never mind that no product with admitted “risks” can be unconditionally deemed “safe.” 

Never mind that the “clinical trials” are often much too small and far too brief to truly demonstrate safety or efficacy. 

Never mind that the vaccine manufacturers – many of whom have long criminal rap sheets for fraud – design and conduct their own “clinical trials.”

Never mind that the CDC’s own “vaccine safety system” (VAERS) was attacked by its own career bureaucrats once it recorded tens of thousands of deaths from the Covid shots.

Never mind that historically, numerous approved vaccines have been pulled from the market for problems with safety and/or efficacy. Examples include:

  • Swine flu vaccine
  • Rotavirus (Rotashield) vaccine 
  • Oral polio vaccine
  • Lyme vaccine
  • Killed measles vaccine
  • Plasma-derived HBV vaccine
  • Johnson & Johnson Covid vaccine
  • AstraZeneca Covid vaccine

It would be revealing to perform a detailed review of the websites of the CDC, FDA, and State Health Departments – not to mention the promotional materials of vaccine manufacturers and the vaccine literature in medical research journals – to obtain a total count of the propagandistic use of the “safe and effective” slogan.

My prediction is the count would number in the tens of thousands.

The Fifth Big Lie of Vaccinology – declaring vaccines fundamentally safe and effective as a class – is deliberate, dishonest, grossly unethical, and deadly propaganda. It must be brought to an end.


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Author

  • Clayton-J-Baker

    C.J. Baker, M.D., 2025 Brownstone Fellow, is an internal medicine physician with a quarter century in clinical practice. He has held numerous academic medical appointments, and his work has appeared in many journals, including the Journal of the American Medical Association and the New England Journal of Medicine. From 2012 to 2018 he was Clinical Associate Professor of Medical Humanities and Bioethics at the University of Rochester.

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