On November 7-9, 2002, the National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC) will mark its 20th year of preventing vaccine injuries and deaths through public education by hosting the Third International Public Conference on Vaccination at the Crystal Gateway Marriott Hotel in Arlington, Virginia.

In what may be its most significant conference yet, NVIC will explore the association between vaccination and chronic disease and disability by bringing together distinguished speakers from the United States and around the world.

The conference will feature more than 27 speakers with a broad spectrum of expertise, including immunology, epidemiology, genetics, biochemistry, microbiology, chiropractic, family practice, psychology, constitutional and public health law and bioethics.

Topics will range from mercury in vaccines and autism; anthrax vaccine and Gulf War illness; SV-40 in vaccines and cancer to conflicts of interest in clinical trials.

Eric Hurwitz, PH.D., D.C. Assistant Professor of Epidemiology, UCLA Department of Public Health, will speak on "Vaccination and Allergic Disease" and Gerard Clum, D.C, H.C.D., president, Life Chiropractic College-West, will discuss the "Role of Chiropractic in Health Care" in the context of the paradigm shift in health care.

A special fund-raising dinner will be held Friday night for British gastroenterologist Andrew Wakefield, M.D., whose ground-breaking research into MMR vaccine and regressive autism has made him the best known MMR vaccine critic. Dr. Wakefield will speak out about "Truth and Consequences in Science" as he relates what happened to him personally and professionally when he tried to tell the truth about what he discovered during the course of his research.

Saturday night's dinner speaker will be best-selling medical novel author, Michael Palmer, M.D., whose vaccine thriller, "Fatal," made it to the New York Times best seller list this past May after only four days on the market.

In what promises to be an important public statement on the threat to freedom in America posed by the CDC-funded Model State Emergency Health Powers Act being enacted in almost every state, internationally renowned public health law and bioethics expert, George Annas, J.D., MPH, will speak on "Bioterrorism, Public Health and Civil Liberties."

The threat to the religious exemption to vaccination will be analyzed by constitutional lawyer Matthew Staver, J.D., of Liberty Counsel. Lynn Friedman, D.C., whose son was thrown out of school after his religious exemption to vaccination was revoked and whose court case is on appeal in New York, will talk about the harassment she has suffered at the hands of state officials zealously enforcing mandatory vaccination laws.

NVIC's First and Second International Conferences on Vaccination, held in 1997 and 2000 were attended by more than 1,000 parents, health care providers, legislative staff members, lawyers, media representatives, public health officials and members of health and vaccine safety advocacy organizations from the U.S, Canada and Europe.