Del Bigtree is the founder of the nonprofit Informed Consent Action Network (ICAN) and host of The HighWire, an independent health news and talk show that has received an estimated 700 million views worldwide. Through legal action, advocacy, public education, and media, Bigtree has become one of the most prominent voices challenging public-health institutions on vaccine safety, informed consent, conflicts of interest, and medical freedom.
Before founding ICAN, Bigtree spent more than a decade in television, including as a producer on The Dr. Phil Show and the CBS medical talk show The Doctors, where his work earned an Emmy Award. His path into the vaccine-safety debate began with reporting on CDC whistleblower Dr. William Thompson, a senior scientist who provided thousands of documents and alleged that the agency had concealed evidence related to vaccines and autism. After network television outlets declined to pursue the story, Bigtree left his career in mainstream television to produce Vaxxed: From Cover-Up to Catastrophe. The documentary drew international attention after it was removed from the 2016 Tribeca Film Festival lineup. Bigtree traveled the country with the Vaxxed bus tour, meeting families who shared stories of vaccine injury and bringing their concerns directly to communities, state capitols, and the national conversation.
In 2016, Bigtree founded ICAN to pursue transparency and accountability in public health. ICAN’s work has included Freedom of Information Act litigation, challenges to government agencies and vaccine-policy practices, and advocacy for parental rights and informed consent. Among its most significant legal victories, ICAN helped secure religious vaccine exemptions for Mississippi schoolchildren, ending the state’s decades-long exclusion of religious exemptions.
Bigtree is also an executive producer of the award-winning documentary An Inconvenient Study, which tells the story behind an unpublished vaccinated-versus-unvaccinated comparison conducted within the Henry Ford Health system. He has appeared on ABC, NBC, CBS, and FOX, and has spoken to audiences around the world on the need for open scientific inquiry, honest public-health communication, and accountability for pharmaceutical and government institutions.
His work remains rooted in the families of children injured by vaccines, whose experiences, he argues, have too often been dismissed or ignored. Through The HighWire, ICAN, and a growing network of advocates, Bigtree continues to press for a medical system in which patients and parents have access to transparent information and the freedom to make informed decisions.
Founder
