Media exploits Indiana family's grief to push vaccines; religious exemption threatened

I have been writing this article for days.

It is a terrible situation, and there is nothing anyone can say to change that.

I want to start this article with what matters most: offering sincere condolences to Liam’s family
.
Liam is the young Indiana boy at the heart of this story. He unfortunately passed away of meningitis after being infected with invasive Haemophilus Influenzae type B (Hib).

There are no words that can ease the pain of such a devastating loss.

If you are reading this, I am so sorry for your loss. Our thoughts and prayers are with you.

Liam’s life mattered.

Liam’s death deserves the utmost compassion—and the truth.

The loss of a child is heartbreaking. But we cannot let tragedy be the excuse for knee-jerk reactions and a lack of critical thinking.

My aim with this article is to ensure clarity. To prevent future tragedies, we must be equally committed to accuracy and accountability. Unfortunately, WTHR’s article, published May 29th, was filled with fear-mongering, pro-vaccine propaganda.

Sadly, it undermines credibility and trust in the medical community and public health. WTHR should be ashamed and retract or correct this article, focusing on the facts of the case.  

Worst of all, it exploits the suffering of this poor family to push the political agenda of WTHR. Targeting the unvaccinated and blaming them for the failed Hib vaccine. 

An agenda to create a greater divide between families who choose to vaccinate and those who don’t.

To add insult to injury, there is now a call to steal your right to religious exemption. This is precisely the kind of knee-jerk reaction we must avoid.

The petition to steal your religious exemption has garnered 12,000 signatures.
We need your voices NOW.

Sign the petition to protect Indiana’s religious exemption. We will dig into this more, but first, let’s break down the WTHR article step by step.

1. Liam tragically passed away due to invasive Hib, causing bacterial meningitis (bacteria infecting the brain/spinal cord and causing inflammation & swelling)
2. Hib is a bacterial influenza that is “extremely deadly.”
3. Babies are routinely vaccinated against Hib, including Liam.
4. Liam was diagnosed with “invasive Hib, which is the more aggressive form of Hib. Anybody who contracts it usually dies within 24 hours.”
5. “Complications, Dr. Eric Yancy said, pretty much ended when the vaccine was created in 1985. Dahlberg said Liam was vaccinated, but Yancy said the boy most likely contracted H. flu from an unvaccinated person, maybe even another child.“ (Bold added to quote for emphasis)
6. No additional children have developed invasive Hib, no reported additional deaths, including the suspected “unvaccinated” blamed for Liam’s death.

Again, I cannot stress how heartbreaking it is that Liam passed away.

Liam’s parents did everything right. They sought care before most would have considered it. I am so thankful they did. I would not have wanted his mother to lose those precious moments to say goodbye.

This situation could have ended with her finding her son cold and lifeless in his bed, wondering if she could have saved him.

I am not diminishing this loss. I am not trying to say they had it “easier”. I am simply recognizing the blessing they received in being able to say, “We did everything we could.”

Not all parents are granted the opportunity to say goodbye, or “that they did everything they could”, and love their children as they pass from this life.

But more on this later…

Liam was reported by Dr. Yancy as vaccinated in the article. His mother reports he was “fully vaccinated” in the petition. He likely would have received this series at each 2, 4, & 6 months with the potential for a booster between 12-18 months.

We must ask, WHY didn’t Liam’s vaccine protect him?

• Perhaps his body never developed antibodies?
  
• Was it because he received too many vaccines at once?
• Maybe this vaccination isn’t as effective as thought to be?
• Did he get a less effective batch?
• Does the protection wane over time, like the MMR?

We will never know, and sadly, WTHR doesn’t tell us if ANYONE is trying to find this out.

But if Hib vaccines are effective, Liam’s vaccine should have protected him. That is firmly where “blame” should lie.

WTHR and Dr. Yancy should focus on determining WHY someone who was supposed to be protected wasn’t.

If anyone should be called into question over Liam's death, it should be the billion dollar industry, free of liability and any accountability over safety and efficacy.

Instead WTHR and Dr. Yancy choose to persecute an individual who doesn't seem to exist, and as a byproduct they are vilifying you for exercising your right to freedom of religion. 

IF Liam’s vaccine failed him, HOW MANY OTHERS WILL BE FAILED BY THEIRS

WTHR and Dr. Yancy should be determining how Hoosiers can prevent this from happening again, rather than placing blame on people whom they have not been able to identify.

The article states that invasive Hib typically kills people within 24 hours.

If there is an unvaccinated child with a deadly Hib, why hasn’t that individual been identified?

Why is an unvaccinated individual not at greater risk than someone who has “protection”?

Wouldn’t an unvaccinated individual be at the same risk of succumbing to the bacteria as this young boy?

Certainly, if there were an additional case, the public would be notified just as with recent measles cases.

Indeed, there would be reports!

Surely our public health teams would conduct additional testing of those infected to isolate where the infection started.

Headlines would read "Unvaccinated child dies from vaccine preventable infection, aslo causing the death of another child. Public Health officials caution public." 

If the focus of the article were prevention, the public would be educated on the need for antibiotic treatment if exposed. CDC states that vaccination is NOT a replacement for antibiotics, so others exposed may need to be treated with antibiotics to prevent further spread.

Retrieved from: https://www.cdc.gov/surv-manual/php/table-of-contents/chapter-2-haemophilus-influenzae.html

According to the Cleveland Clinic, this bacteria typically impacts those under age 5 and over 65. Liam’s life was cut short at eight years old.

Liam was not in the age range of the most significant risk. Some states don’t even require reporting of invasive Hib in children over the age of 5.

Retrieved from: https://www.cdc.gov/surv-manual/php/table-of-contents/chapter-2-haemophilus-influenzae.html

Cleveland Clinic discusses how “invasive” types invade areas that typically don’t get infections, like the spinal cord and brain. They state, “Invasive diseases usually require hospital treatment and can sometimes be fatal.” (bolded for emphasis)

Correlation is Causation?

Again, the loss of Liam is incredibly tragic. No one should have to suffer the pain of losing a child, but we must not allow WTHR to sensationalize this story, exploit this family, and fail to collect and acknowledge the evidence.

While emotionally compelling, the statement by Dr. Yancy that Liam contracted Hib from an unvaccinated individual was made without supporting evidence; he assumed causation from correlation.

The exploitative article & Dr. Yancy made this statement without:

• An identified source case.
  
• A confirmed unvaccinated contact.
• A mention of genetic testing to trace the infection.
• A report of another child hospitalized—or dead—from the same bacterial strain.
  
• And worst of all, without acknowledging the failure of Liam’s Hib vaccine

Now, as a result of these baseless claims pinning the unvaccinated as the enemy, the government control crowd is seeking to remove your right to religious exemption from vaccination.

I have a question…

If Dr. Yancy can assert causation from correlation, does that mean grieving mothers like Kari Bundy get to do the same?

Kari is an Indiana mom who lost her son in 2011, finding him lifeless in his crib.

Kari’s son, Mason, died just 3 short days after his routine 4-month vaccinations.

Kari had hesitations due to her son’s hospitalization for RSV two weeks prior. The doctor used fear tactics to pressure her and her husband to give Mason the routine vaccinations during that visit rather than waiting.

A coerced decision, they soon regretted.
They never got to say goodbye.
And they are left wondering,

“Would Mason be alive had they waited a couple more weeks?”
“Could we have done something different?”
“Should the doctor have known better?”
Mason’s death was labeled as “unexplained”, but Kari knows differently.

Kari now advocates for change, testing, truth, and children.

Mason’s story is just one of the thousands that I have heard. Likely one of HUNDREDS of THOUSANDS across the country...

Kari messaged me yesterday. She was frustrated by the push to remove your ability to use a religious exemption despite “baseless accusations” and the price her son paid for taking vaccinations.

Here is a snippet of what she had to say, “

baseless accusations get a megaphone, even sparking a petition to strip religious exemptions, while I can’t get a single outlet to acknowledge my son’s death from a vaccine. It’s infuriating.”

So many just like Kari are left to suffer alone in silence, many of them being dismissed and gaslit.

Worse yet, some of them are investigated or blamed for their own children’s demise.

Vaccine manufacturers and Congress recognize that adverse events, including death, can and do happen, yet not a peep of media coverage, let alone a call for an investigation into who might be at the most significant risk.

Kari continues, 

Pointing fingers at unvaccinated kids without evidence? That’s reckless, and the media’s complicity is maddening. Thousands of us are screaming about sudden deaths, regressive autism, encephalitis, and autoimmune diseases after vaccines, and it’s crickets from the press. They’re not just ignoring us—they’re propping up unverified stories to push an agenda. It’s beyond frustrating; it’s a gut-punch to every parent like me who’s been silenced”.

We couldn’t agree more, Kari.

Fact is, Vaccines failed both families.

Liam took the risks of vaccines and failed to receive the benefit, losing his life.

Mason took the risks of vaccines and lost his life without any benefit.

There is already too much tragedy in these stories. We cannot allow it to divide us, too!

Liam’s Mommy & Daddy weren’t told that the vaccine he received may not protect him. Like everyone else, they were likely told, “safe & effective”.

Mason’s Mommy & Daddy were actually told they were “signing his death certificate” if they didn’t vaccinate him.

We must stand together and demand better! We must not allow political agendas to get in the way of our children’s health and safety.

We certainly shouldn’t allow fear to drive decisions without weighing it against the evidence.  

We are all collectively concerned about the safety of our children.
We all want them to live long, healthy lives.
We are desperate for answers, but turning against each other is not the answer. 

Removing religious exemption is not the answer.

DEMANDING to know how "SAFE & EFFECTIVE" vaccines are and having the ABILITY to make an INFORMED DECISION is the key to better health for Hoosiers.

As long as there is a risk, there must be choice, and both of these stories exemplify the reason that Hoosiers for Medical Liberty believes in the right to accept or decline vaccination for any reason, not just religious reasons.

Here is what we need you to do:

1. Sign the petition demanding the preservation of religious exemptions, expanding them for philosophical beliefs, and the data to make informed decisions.
2. Demand that WTHR correct or retract the speculative elements of this article. Liam’s story is worthy of being told. His mother’s grief is real and should be honored. But allowing unsubstantiated claims to stand as implied fact does not serve his memory—it distorts it for political effect. Phone: 317-636-1313 Mail: WTHR 1000 N. Meridian St. Indianapolis, IN 46204
   
3. Share this article or the petition with your friends, neighbors, and colleagues.
   
4. The petition calling for the removal of religious exemptions has already received 12,000 signatures. We must MOBILIZE.  Download our "Activist Kit" and use it to collect petition signatures at all your local events.