2016: The back story of the CHD Bus coming to Winston-Salem and Charlotte in 2023

If you weren’t yet in the movement in 2016, you may not know about the Vaxxed Bus that traveled the US to collect vaccine injury stories that year. That was the year that portended the extreme censorship and gaslighting of the COVID scandal.

It all started when the groundbreaking documentary, Vaxxed, was released and promptly censored. Vaxxed laid out the unbelievable fraud at the CDC surrounding the MMR vaccine – fraud that was uncovered by CDC whistleblower William Thompson.

The censorship of Vaxxed followed the same playbook we’ve seen with COVID and the many controversaries surrounding it. A media firestorm erupted when the Tribeca Film Festival abruptly censored its documentary selection, VAXXED: From Coverup to Catastrophe, amid pressure from pro-pharmaceutical interests.

However, when actor and founder of the film festival, Robert De Niro, appeared on the Today Show to discuss the “controversial” documentary, he surprised his hosts by sharing that his own son has autism, and his wife believes it was caused by vaccines. He encouraged everyone to see Vaxxed and decide for themselves if it has merit. For us old-timers in the movement, the national promotion of a vaccine documentary was one of the most glorious days in vaccine safety advocacy history!

The cancellation of Vaxxed backfired! All of the publicity about it being removed from the festival and De Niro’s public statements led to a demand to see the movie. However, movie theaters refused to show the film. (Sound familiar?) Activists around the country got creative and found theaters that would show the movie. However, the theaters weren’t willing to show movie posters in their lobby or advertise it. All advertising and collection of funds had to be done by volunteers.

Vaxxed was a huge success and cemented the cry for medical freedom in many people. The movement grew tremendously. Directors and producers who created Vaxxed such as Del Bigtree, Andy Wakefield, and Polly Tommey attended showings wherever possible to host a Q and A. In addition, Polly interacted with the crowd before and after the movie and interviewed people who had stories of vaccine injury.

Though the team were long-term vaccine skeptics, they were shocked by the sheer number of injuries Polly was hearing about in her interviews. Vaccine injuries were even more widespread than they knew. They were especially surprised by the number of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) accounts they heard.

The people sharing their stories found the experience of being heard very validating and healing after being gaslighted about their story in so many other situations. Polly and the team decided that it was important to hear and record as many stories as possible. They refurbished an old RV, donning it with the Vaxxed logo and drove around the country recording people’s stories and allowing them to write the name of the injured person directly on the outside of the bus.