The non-profit (501c3) charity National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC) was established in 1982 by parents of DPT vaccine injured children to prevent vaccine injuries and deaths through public education. NVIC co-founders worked with Congress to secure vaccine safety informing, recording, reporting and research provisions in the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of 1986. 1
NVIC does not make vaccine use recommendations. NVIC advocates for protection of human rights, including the right to autonomy and freedom of thought, speech and conscience, and supports the ethical principle of informed consent to medical risk taking. 2 3 4 5 NVIC works to secure informed consent protections, including flexible medical, religious and conscientious belief exemptions to vaccination, in public health policies and laws. 6 NVIC supports adoption of the precautionary principle based on the Hippocratic “first, do no harm” approach to public health policymaking. 7 8
To encourage well-informed and voluntary vaccine decision-making, NVIC sponsors national vaccine education campaigns. In 2011, NVIC sponsored a digital vaccine education billboard in New York City’s Times Square on New Year’s Eve and produced a flu prevention video for Delta Airline’s in-flight programming. In 2013, NVIC launched a national vaccine education billboard and ad campaign that featured billboards on highways and buses New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Oregon, Washington, Arizona, Illinois, Texas, Georgia and Colorado, Vermont and other states. In 2015 and 2016, NVIC’s message advocating for vaccine education and choice was up in Times Square, as well.
NVIC’s “Vaccination: Know the Risks and Failures” and “No Forced Vaccination” animated digital message was up in Times Square between February and April 2019. After the New York state legislature eliminated the religious exemption to vaccination in June 2019 and state health officials also effectively eliminated the medical exemption, NVIC is once again displaying our “No Forced Vaccination” message on a giant 56 foot by 29 foot electronic screen in the heart of Times Square Plaza at 1500 Broadway (where the ball drops on New Year’s Eve).
More than one million people pass through Times Square daily. NVIC’s 10-second spot (as seen at the top of this screen – click on it to view) will be broadcast a minimum of three times per hour for 20 hours per day from 6 a.m. to 2 a.m. from Oct. 14, 2019 through Jan. 31, 2020, which includes the Thanksgiving Day parade and New Year’s