43
Madeleine tapped her fingers impatiently on the wooden table before her. It was only the third day of the trial, but yet it felt like the third year.
Her nerves were absolutely shot, and while she understood that it was standard to get through all of the plaintiff’s witnesses first, it was beginning to feel like each and every person going on the stand had it in for her.
In particular, that Health Service representative yesterday, who seemed to be holding her personally responsible for the recent decline in MMR vaccination uptake that had the Health Board concerned about the herd-immunity threshold. Which had even resulted in government pressure to bring this very trial date forward “in the interest of public safety.”
That was all they needed, to be held responsible for a public health epidemic as well as Rosie O’Hara’s plight. The judge really needed to hear from someone who would paint her and Tom in a more impartial and sympathetic light.
Because Madeleine had realized a long time ago that it wasn’t just her and Tom’s decision on vaccination that was on trial here—it was their parenting.
She stole a sidelong look at her husband and Matt Townsend. As per the norm, they had their heads pressed together with Michael McGuinness discussing strategy, and only rarely did they include her. This made her mad, as well. The case was affecting her life...she was heavily involved...and she had lots of opinions—shouldn’t she be included in these discussions, too?
Not for the first time, Madeleine started to doubt that the team was taking the right direction. Every once in a while she thought that their barrister might display a flash of brilliance from a legal standpoint, but all too often she felt that they freely allowed the plaintiff’s side to make everything too personal, so as to make circumstances more real and heartbreaking to the judge.
And their side was missing that.
This was a very personal thing, too, and her and Tom’s decision to not vaccinate the kids was not something they took lightly. They had to be able to convey that and put an end to the conspiracy-theory nonsense that had been endlessly spouted by the media and everyone else who disagreed with their stance.
Of course, she had said as much many times, but Matt and the barrister had said just “Wait until the plaintiff rests and then we’ll have our say.” She guessed that she would have to trust them and believe Tom that his family’s testimony would do the necessary in that regard. However, Madeleine suspected that no one was going to be able to hit that point home more than her.
Then again, she’d tried that last year with the blog post, hadn’t she? Tried speaking from the heart and explaining her position—only for Tom and Matt to insist she take the piece down before it had made barely a ripple.
Hardly anyone had viewed it, and she was almost certain Kate hadn’t, which was a shame. Because, more than anything, Madeleine had wanted to get through to Kate and let her know that she was so sorry for what had happened.
But she had never truly been allowed to have her say.
* * *
The plaintiff side duly confirmed that their case had rested, and Matt Townsend was ready to start presenting the Coopers’ defense.
The last few days had been character assassinations of his clients at best, and while Michael McGuinness had experienced a few wins during cross-examination of the plaintiff’s witnesses, he felt Madeleine’s and Tom’s frustration growing—not to mention his own.
Of course, it wasn’t uncommon for clients to get upset during the trial, but he really needed to regain some lost footing here—especially since the other side couldn’t actually prove that it was the Coopers’ kid who spread the disease. Their very own witnesses had confirmed that.
Looking down at his notes, he heard the defense barrister announce to Judge Dowling that the first witness they would like to call was Dr. Terrence Pitt.
Matt had of course vetted this guy thoroughly in preparation, but it was Tom who had found him initially. It seemed that Pitt was used to appearing in courtrooms all over the world, and he seemed very legit.
Hopefully, his viewpoint would go a long way toward undoing some of the damage the Roe & Co. had caused, and help present his clients in a more rational, levelheaded light.
Dr. Pitt stood up from where he sat and regally made his way forward, almost as if he expected to be saluted for his stature within the medical community. After taking his spot on the witness stand, he was sworn in and then placed an expectant look on his face, awaiting the first question.
“Dr. Pitt, for the benefit of the court, could you give us an overview of your professional biography?”
The man nodded and Matt assessed that the guy couldn’t be more than forty-five—compared to the plaintiff’s expert witnesses, he looked baby-faced.
“Of course, and I am happy to be here today, thank you,” stated Dr. Pitt with some significant bluster, as if he was about to accept an Academy Award. “I graduated with my medical degree from the University of California in Los Angeles in 2002. I am a ranking member of the California Medical Review Board and ran a lab as an assistant professor of neurology at Caltech.”
“And can you tell us why you came to Dublin to testify today?”
Pitt nodded. “Well, for the majority of my career, I confess I believed in the power of vaccines, and I never questioned any of it until I met my wife. She is a chiropractor, and her experience truly opened my eyes to the world of holistic medicine and natural therapies.”
“And can you explain what you mean by that?” McGuinness asked.
“Of course,” Dr. Pitt replied easily. “Diseases like chicken pox, measles, mumps, rubella and the like are all part of the natural world. It is actually vaccines that are unnatural and man-made. The human body, for thousands of years, has had the capability and the biological ability to counter these viruses, to attack these attackers, essentially. And our bodies still do. Vaccines, in essence, are a manufactured solution to a problem that doesn’t exist.”
“And where do you believe the danger lies with vaccines?” inquired the defense barrister.
“Vaccination requires unnatural chemicals and components to be applied to an otherwise healthy individual. Think about it: virtually all other invasive medical interventions occur only once someone has actually fallen ill. And this is where the risk lies—and I suspect that the plaintiff herself would agree with me on this—”
Patrick Nevin jumped up from where he sat. “Objection. Speculation.”
“Sustained,” replied the judge a moment later.
“Yes, well, without bringing the plaintiff’s opinion into the equation, can you please continue?” pressed McGuinness.
“Certainly,” replied Dr. Pitt, continuing with his testimony. “In my studies, I’ve found that the dangers of vaccines are just as real as the diseases they profess to fight; the effects of the ingredients used in some can themselves be substantial, lifelong and, for some people, life ending. For instance, vaccines have not been subject to intensive toxicity studies for many ingredients, such as aluminum and mercury, which are known neurotoxins. Vaccines have also not been studied for adverse effects in the combinations in which they’re given—for example, when multiple shots are given in a single day to infants and children. Furthermore, and perhaps most important of all, most vaccines are not even guaranteed to provide the benefit of immunity for which they are given.”
Matt was heartened to see the judge raise his eyebrows at this. “Explain further please, Doctor,” he interjected. “Do you have statistics to back that up?”
“I do, but the plaintiff’s own expert agrees with me. I believe Dr. Goring proclaimed that the MMR vaccine has a 97 percent effective rate for measles. That means we can vaccinate a child but there is still a 3 percent chance they will contract the virus at some point in their lives. And I have to stress that point—some people can still contract the illness, even if they have been vaccinated.”
“And you are quoting which study?” McGuinness coaxed.
“One conducted by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention as a follow-up to the California measles outbreak in 2014, again already mentioned in this court,” stated Dr. Pitt matter-of-factly. “Some people who have both recommended doses of the MMR vaccine are considered nonresponders, meaning they can still get sick from the virus. So if you think about it, you cannot say that vaccines alone prevent a virus from spreading, as so many in the pro-vaccination community like to claim. To illustrate this: if there were one million people infected in an outbreak, ten thousand of the people who received vaccinations would still get sick. In the scheme of things, that’s something worth thinking about. It completely undermines this so-called herd immunity, and the fact that disease is going to spread, regardless. The mere fact that more people don’t get sick is a testament to nature alone.”
“Objection,” said Nevin, again. “Speculation.”
“Overruled,” answered the judge just as quickly as before, and Townsend couldn’t help but smirk. Pitt’s testimony about vaccination effectiveness really was having an impact on the judge.
Looked like they were getting somewhere.
“Go on, Doctor,” encouraged Judge Dowling.
“I was about to say, this is nature at its best. Children should be contracting various infections. It strengthens humanity’s immune system as a whole. This is survival of the fittest. However, it’s impossible to place blame on who spread what and who caught it, or when, because no one is at fault when nature is doing what it is supposed to do. Nature needs to thin the herd.”
Across the way, Matt heard Kate O’Hara gasp, realizing what Pitt was implying, that if her daughter had died, it would have been nature simply “taking its course.”
Damn. Too harsh.
A rustle duly came from the media gallery and Matt Townsend winced, worried that Pitt might have taken things too far. Hopefully, McGuinness would steer him back on track.
“But, Dr. Pitt, surely you are compassionate to the plight of the families in this courtroom—to the plight of all children who might be affected by this terrible disease—” The barrister was about to move on to another line of questioning, but Dr. Pitt cut him off.
“I don’t think you understand my point, sir. Children should be getting these infections,” he said, his voice raising. “We do not need to inject chemicals into ourselves and our children in order to boost our immune system. I personally am a big fan of paleo-nutrition. My children eat foods that our ancestors have been eating for millions of years. This is the best way to protect. And then you don’t play into the hands of Big Pharma, either. I completely support the Coopers’ belief that governments, pharmaceutical companies and multinational corporations are not helping our children, but profiting from them.”
Shit... Matt Townsend’s eyes opened wider as Dr. Pitt became more inflamed and passionate in his speech. McGuinness held up a hand to quiet the man, but to no avail.
“You know, I have been watching the media coverage of this trial since the defendant sought out my help, and I have to say that that is one of the reasons I agreed to be here today,” the doctor continued. “There is so much misguided anger at anti-vaccination proponents like the Coopers, and this needs to be redirected—not at ordinary parents but at the authorities who herd us all like sheep and force us to needlessly consume chemicals and toxins so as to line their own pockets.”
“Dr. Pitt, if you would allow me to redirect our conversation,” pleaded McGuinness, his words falling on deaf ears, Matt realized, worried.
“We need to be angry at big corporations. Sugary cereals, cookies and cupcakes lead to millions of deaths worldwide every year. At its worst, chicken pox, for instance, kills one hundred people annually. Only one hundred! We should be calling up soft drink and candy companies and complaining—they are the real killers. Why aren’t we protesting their products, sending them hate mail? And that’s before we even consider the fast-food restaurants: tortured-meat burgers, fries dipped in pesticide, milk shakes pumped full of hormones. Honestly, measles is a mere drop in the ocean of our kids’ problems.”
Townsend could feel a murmur go through the courtroom. At this point, Pitt looked almost ready to spring up and start pounding on his chest. And alongside him, Matt saw his clients shoot him horrified glares. He didn’t even want to look in Declan Roe’s direction; it was likely the guy was tap-dancing in his seat. Why didn’t McGuinness get this guy to shut up?
“Dr. Pitt, if you would be so kind...”
“And we should also be angry with the corporations for spewing pollution into the environment while they make our toxic laundry detergent to make our clothes smell nice while simultaneously poisoning us. It’s these chemicals that cause autism, heart disease and cancer.”
“Dr. Pitt,” admonished the judge, now looking less than impressed, “I’ll advise you to lower your voice and sit down, or I’ll hold you in contempt.”
“And we should also be angry at our parents, the mothers who didn’t breastfeed us or cosleep with us. Instead, they stuffed our faces with pizza! And washed our clothes with fancy detergent that will likely cause us to have brain cancer—”
At that moment, a court bailiff, along with another security guard, approached Dr. Pitt and, without further ado, escorted him from the stand. They led him out of the room while he continued to insist that vaccines weren’t the problem, but that capitalism and the government were hell-bent on controlling everyone via chemical injections and Starbucks lattes.
Matt Townsend stood with an open mouth, looking at the back of the courtroom, unable to believe what had just happened. He couldn’t believe that Pitt had been their first defense witness, or that the erudite man who’d presented so well over the phone in preparation for this trial was in fact certifiably unhinged.
So much for not painting the Coopers as conspiracy theorists—their very first witness was the personification of one.
As Judge Dowling demanded order in the court, and silence eventually reigned, Patrick Nevin stood up and humbly smoothed his tie.
“Your Honor, I believe it’s fortunate that I have no questions.”