Fox 9, Minneapolis: UNfair and UNbalanced coverage of Aaron Siri/vaccines

On August 30thFox 9reported on recent measles cases in the US and growingvaccine skepticism. 4:58 Video: New data from the CDC shows Minnesota is one of the three worse states in the country at getting children vaccinated by the time they start school. The rate is steadily declining and it coincides with an explosion in measles cases across the country, although Minnesota has not seen any major outbreaks yet. Fox 9's Corin Hoggardtalked to doctors, skeptics, and supporters to show us what's driving the drop and what the consequences could be. While it may sound like Fox 9 tried to present both sides in this issue, in truth the 'skeptics' were outnumbered by a doctor and a vaccine promoter along with reporterCorin Hoggardwho was clearly on the pro-vaccine side in his coverage. There was great concern over the rising number of measles cases and parents not vaccinating. The measles are making a comeback in the US. 2025 was eight times worse than 2024, and 2026 is already worse than 2025 with the number of cases approaching 3,000, the most since 1990. And at the same time, vaccination rates are falling. The CDC recently reported Minnesota's kindergarten vaccination rate at about 86%, ahead of only Wisconsin and Idaho. It's down more than six percent since the COVID pandemic. In the middle of this coverage was a brief clip ofAaron Sirigiving his presentation to an audience of 200 on August 27th in Minnesota. Hoggard: One person believed by a lot of vaccine skeptics isAaron Siri,a vaccine lawyer and an advisor toHHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Almost 200 people attended his lecture in St. Louis Park Thursday night and got his book,Vaccines Amen,comparing vaccine support to religious fervor. He questions all of Minnesota's required vaccines, including polio and pertussis, which he says don't stop virus transmission. He said their purpose to to protect the vaccine recipient only, not the community as a whole. Aaron Siri: 'It's still no different than any other product you would take for personal benefit, for personal protection. 'If you let the government mandate this product, I don't see what line they can't cross.' Hoggard: Doctors say keeping kids healthy with vaccines actually does protect the community. Plus, MMR, HepB, MMR, and chicken pox vaccines do stop transmission, andcomplications are one in a million and often treatable like an allergic reaction. But Siri argues we don't know how safe the vaccines are because of the original trial designs. Siri: 'There is not a single, routine injected childhood vaccine on the CDC schedule, save COVID vaccine, that was licensed based on a placebo controlled trial.' Hoggardimmediately said; That may be true, but most vaccines actually have been tested by placebo-controlled trial either before or after licensing.That includes shots for rubella, pneumococcal, polio, measles, Tdap, and even COVID. And all of the vaccines now have long safety records. After saying,'That may be true,'Hoggard contradicted himself by telling viewers that vaccines are thoroughly researched. Dr. Lisa Mattson, President MN Medical Assoc: That is a decision that should be made with your doctor, and it should be based on medical concerns and the potential for complications because of those underlying medical conditions, not just conscientious belief that vaccines are bad and my child should not get this vaccine. Karen Ernst, Voices for Vaccines: 'We don't stop studying vaccines just because they're licensed. So we have all sorts of information about this vaccine.' Hoggard didn't mention thatVoices for Vaccinesis an organization funded by the vaccine makers. Their funders include PhRMA, GSK, Pfizer, Sanofi U.S., Merck and Moderna. Fox 9 did includeKatie Christensen, Minnesotans for Health and Parental Rightsbut the two sentence clip made it sound like objections to mandates only involved choice. 'Conscientious exemptions are not a loophole. They recognize that Minnesota is a diverse state where families hold deeply held religious and moral convictions.' Actually there was nothing in the coverage about the very real side effects from the ever-increasing vaccine schedule. Normally mainstream news outlets don't cover a speaker like Aaron Siri talking to a group of 200 people, but in this case, he seems to have been included in the story in order to discredit him and his views. At one point Hoggard stated: Complications are one in a million and often treatable like an allergic reaction. I can't imagine more disingenuous reporting on an issue. Hoggard and Fox 9 clearly had one intention here: promote vaccines and deny injury.. IF Hoggard had wanted to authentically cover this topic, HE WOULD HAVE ACTUALLY INTERVIEWED AARON SIRI. Instead, he had people discredit his claims with no chance for rebuttal from Siri. Hoggard said that the Minnesota Medical Association will likely encourage the new legislature in 2027 to end conscientious exemptions. He added: . . .but at least six lawmakers who could cast votes attended Siri's lecture. Hoggard didn't bother to talk to any of the legislators who were at Siri's presentation to get their reactions. Hoggard referred to Siri as 'a vaccine lawyer,' but didn't explain to viewers that he is part of a national law firm that represents individuals in very real vaccine-related injury claims. Hoggard said nothing about Siri's testimony in September 2025 in front ofthe Senate Homeland Security Subcommittee. There he testified that in 2013 the Institute of Medicine found there have never been studies on the cumulative effect of all the vaccines on the childhood schedule. There has never been an official study comparing health outcomes of vaccinated vs unvaccinated children. The truth is, health officials make vaccine safety claims based on easily flawed and manipulated population studies, the weakest kind of science. While Hoggard made the unsubstantiated claim that there's onlya one in a million chanceof a vaccine injury, and if there is, it would only be minor, he does not tell the viewers thatthe vaccine industry has no liability for injuries from their products.Any compensation has to come from the federal government. There is no incentive to make a truly safe product. Siri also testified about this during the Senate hearing last September. Video clip: 8:06 Siri: If vaccines are so safe, why are they the only consumer product where you cannot sue the manufacturer for injuries? Since the 1980s, it's been over 30 years. They're telling you the HepB is safe. Hib is safe. These are safe. You still need immunity? Let me tell you my definition of vaccine.It's a product that causes so much injury that it has to have immunity for the injuries that it's causing. We sued the CDC for the studies that support that the vaccines given in the first month of life do not cause autism. We sued them because they wouldn't give it to us. . . . You know what they provided? NONE. We sued them in federal court. . . .They gave us 20 studies. Not one of them has to do with those vaccines. This notion that there's a mountain of studies out there that show vaccines don't cause autism is ridiculous. . . . Hoggardended his report like this: And Minnesota's declining vaccination rate seems to confirm the public's trust in vaccines is trending down just as the measles are trending up. The truth is, the declining trust is due to coverage like this which denies any risk from vaccination. Vaccine makers were protected from liability byCongress in 1986because they were facing so many lawsuits from injuries. After that act passed, the number of shots on the childhood schedule exploded with many more in the pipeline currently. Notice that Hoggard did not once mention the heated controversy over vaccines causingautism.The possibility of side effects was totally ignored by Fox 9. Pretending that there is no risk is dishonest and does nothing to reassure parents. When news reporting becomes propaganda, it ceases to be trustworthy. The folks at Fox 9 should expect to seevaccine skepticismonly increase. Please comment, share, restack, subscribe (it's free and it helps spread the word) Leave a comment --MovieArgo2012