The Anti-Vaxxer Stigma
Advocate for informed consent, Bernadette Pajer sheds light on the dirty word
The term “anti-vaxxer” is attached to all manner of undesirable imagery—at least for about half of Americans. Talk show hosts evoke subhuman entities from drooling simpletons to horned grandma killers. Bernadette Pajer is neither of these, but she’s had the label slapped onto her cause plenty. Pure in intention and intentional about research, Pajer’s work is focused on “informed consent,” a process in which healthcare providers fully explain the costs and benefits of treatments and procedures to their patients, who are then empowered to make knowledgeable decisions.
Pajer has witnessed firsthand the effects of withheld or misrepresented information, and seeks to be a force against it. She shared with me how she got started on this mission and what she wants to see in the future.
MOM ON A MISSION
Everything began for Pajer in Washington state, where her son went to public school. The building itself was full of a federally banned toxic compound, Polychlorinated Biphenyls (PCBs). Created and sold by Monsanto as “Aroclor” starting in the 1930s, PCBs were often used industrially in adhesives and paints until 1978. They were found by the EPA to have adverse health effects: reproductive, neurological, and even carcinogenic.
The PCBs in her son's school had dried and become airborne. While she couldn't provide the full details due to an ongoing lawsuit, she revealed that some people got sick and her son was impacted. Pajer found herself in an online community centered around detoxing and healing children harmed by institutional negligence. At the same time she joined the board of Informed Choice Washington, where she remains an advisor. The nightmare Pajer endured ignited something within her, motivating her to learn anything she could to prevent anything like it from happening to anyone else.
When Pajer and her family moved to Tennessee, she was already connected with other activists. These “moms on a mission” brought doctors before our state legislators, ultimately helping to pass the bill that allowed Ivermectin to be sold over the counter in Tennessee. They also worked to pass the Natural Immunity Advocation Bill, which decreed that there can be no law that fails to acknowledge natural immunity is as effective as the Covid vaccination. Continuing on, they helped to pass the Mature Minor Clarification Act—a federal and state law that says all minors need parental consent to receive a vaccination. Pajer jokes that you can't expect informed consent from a “14 to 15 year old who you still have to tell to clean their room and turn SpongeBob off.”
These laws don't ban vaccines. They don't blanketly condemn all modern medicine. What Pajer and people like her work for is choice: to prevent things which may be harmful to some from being compulsory for all. At the same time, she warns that a sound choice can't be made without complete information—information that, oftentimes, has to be actively sought out. “We’re not given enough information to make informed decisions,” she says. “And really, sometimes we’re being lied to.”
THE STRUGGLE TO BE UNDERSTOOD
The lack of understanding in what Pajer fights for, she states, has a lot to do with money and where it goes. “Pharma has captured every aspect of science and medicine,” she states. From school, to media, to government policy, “all has been flavored and formed by pharma.” She believes that most people in medicine are good people—they have entered the industry because they want to heal and help. However, the way major pharmaceutical companies operate means they are out to sell products. Medical professionals are fully immersed in that influence, which Pajer describes as “tragic.”
It takes a lot of humility to overcome that immersion and change when presented with new information. What Pajer sees more often, however, is cognitive dissonance. Even when she sends sources and studies, pleading for a listening ear, she's been dismissed. “They can't admit they're wrong, because they're so horrified they just can't go there,” laments Pajer. She cites the example of the Covid vaccine, which we now know did not prevent infection or transmission, but could cause harm. People were encouraged to look into it themselves at the time, and some did. Unfortunately, she remarks, “there was propaganda that if you even look you're an anti-vaxxer.”
From the left to the right, it's no secret that Big Pharma has overstepped its bounds. Pajer is simply a mother who wants Americans to be informed and healthy, while acknowledging that massive influence. “Our whole culture has to shift so that asking questions is the respected thing to do, not just blind trust in authority,” she pleads. It wasn't too long ago we seemed to be headed that way, and Pajer believes things are coming back around.
She urges voters to elect the right people to office, as a start—and that will mean local and state politicians. There must be education on these matters, “transferred into legislation that requires informed consent.” The three key words she presents are education, legislation, and litigation. People mustn't be too intimidated to read and speak. Pajer sees this happening, even suggesting that people in the federal government are getting involved. “I’m absolutely floored by the possibilities of the changes to come,” she says. “We need a tidal wave of Maha at every level.”
HER PART
Pajer is undeniably part of that tidal wave. She volunteers with Children's Health Defense, which is now gaining momentum thanks in no small part to RFK Jr. However, she knows that “not everything can be changed at a federal level,” and that most things federally “come down as a recommendation.”
That's why Pajer's “main hat” is serving as the Tennessee director of Stand For Health Freedom, an organization dedicated to informing Americans and protecting their health. By signing up via email, people receive alerts for both state and federal levels, as well as calls to action. Stand For Health Freedom also sends out well-sourced educational materials.
Pajer hopes that her work and the work of other advocates will result in a complete overhaul of the medical industry. The dream is that the shadow of Big Pharma can be overcome with that tidal wave—an educated population, speaking up and fighting for the right to simply say yes or no. Pajer believes that if a standard of informed consent can be reached the medical industry will once again focus not on finances, but on the wellness of the people who rely on it.