Health Impact News Editor Comments:

Big Pharma’s vaccine products are a huge failure. But since the Pharmaceutical industry is one of the largest sponsors of the dying mainstream media, and since they also have more lobbyists than any other industry influencing U.S. government policy, they continue to grow their market. Consider the vaccine market today in America:

1. U.S. law protects vaccine manufacturers from any liability due to faulty vaccines, or damages and deaths caused by them. There were so many people were suffering or even dying from vaccine injuries in the 1980s, that Big Pharma basically blackmailed Congress by threatening to stop manufacturing vaccines if legislation was not passed to protect them from lawsuits. So now vaccine pushers have a blank check to put as many vaccines into the market, regardless of the consequences.

2. Research to develop new vaccines is largely funded by tax-payer dollars. The NIH and probably other government agencies hold patents and earn royalties on vaccines.

3. The largest purchaser of vaccines is the government, both the U.S. government and the United Nations through UNICEF, which distributes vaccines free of charge around the world.

What a great business to be in! You don’t need consumers to be on board and be willing to purchase the products – the government hands you a turn-key multi-billion dollar market. It also doesn’t matter if the vaccines don’t work, such as the failed pertussis (whooping cough) vaccine. No problem. Keep selling them until they can develop a new one to replace it. It’s a risk-free lucrative market!

But they’re not satisfied. If you read the market reports for the pharmaceutical industry, they are not happy about blockbuster drugs having their patents run out and allowing cheap generics to enter into the market, like what happened with the popular drug Lipitor.

So vaccines are seen as the key market area for growth, as we recently reported regarding new cancer vaccines that are in the pipeline.

There is one massive problem standing in their way, however, threatening their march forward and potential complete market dominance: parental choice and anti-vaccine parents (a growing segment of the population).

But they have a strategy for that too: pass legislation at the state level to remove parental choice. The only way they can really increase their market among children is through forced vaccination, against the will of parents.

So here is the National Vaccine Information Center to update us all on 58 bills in 24 states. If you don’t act, you may soon lose your ability to choose to refuse vaccines.

2014 State Vaccine Legislation in America: Battle Lines Are Drawn & Your Participation is Needed!

By Dawn Richardson, NVIC Director of Advocacy

Vaccine related legislative activity in states across the country is at an all time high in 2014.  The National Vaccine Information Center has been busy monitoring the bills filed in different states and analyzing them for their potential impact on vaccine freedom of choice.

The NVIC Advocacy Portal (NVICAP) is already tracking 58 bills across 24 states.  With many bill filing deadlines weeks away, and several upcoming opportunities for amendments on other proposed measures, we expect the number of bills needing grassroots support or opposition to continue to rise.

Battle Lines Being Drawn in States

In 2014, the battle lines are being drawn in the states between those, who want to force citizens to use every federally recommended vaccine and those, who respect and value the legal right to exercise informed consent to medical risk-taking, including vaccine risk-taking. Your participation and action is urgently needed to defend the human right to exercise informed consent to vaccine risk taking in America and push back the Pharma-Medical Trade-Government Health lobby working hard to eliminate or restrict legal vaccine exemptions.

Along with actions you can take in your state to support good legislation or help defeat bad legislation, bill information is being posted on the NVIC Advocacy Portal. It is very important that you take the time to register for this free communication and vaccine choice advocacy network so you can stay informed and get involved.

Education or Marketing and Coercion?

The lines between “education,” marketing and coercion are getting blurred. Public health officials are joining with lobbyists working for pharmaceutical companies and medical trade associations to pressure state legislators to pass bills that require “vaccine education” and signatures of doctors or other state-designed health workers in order for parents to file non-medical exemptions to vaccination for their children to attend daycare or school. Pregnant women are also a target population. For example, both AL SB 294 (Alabama) and PA HB 1567 (Pennsylvania) require expectant parents to receive information about the pertussis vaccine.

Some proposed legislation this year goes so far as to require schools to provide vaccine education programs for children and parents, which is effectively turning our schools into marketing departments for vaccine manufacturers.  AL  SB 75 (Alabama) and NY A 3703/S 2070 (New York) would require schools to provide meningococcal vaccine education/promotion, while GA HB 162 requires schools in Georgia to educate the parents of sixth-graders about why their children should get HPV vaccine.

Turning Schools into Vaccine Delivery Clinics

Some state legislators are not satisfied with creating school-based vaccine marketing and “education” programs, they want to bring vaccines to children in schools and turn our schools into vaccine delivery clinics.  Several states are proposing to set up school- based vaccination clinics, including Pennsylvania (PA SB 251) where state health officials would be authorized to give flu vaccines to kids while they are attending school and SC HB 3236 (South Carolina) that will give the green light to state health officials to give the HPV vaccine to girls entering  seventh grade while in school.

Other state legislators want to require schools to post their vaccination rates in the town square. Vermont Senator Kevin Mullin, who unsuccessfully attempted to remove the state’s philosophical vaccine exemption in 2012, is proposing a bill (VT S 194) to require schools and child care facilities to publically post their specific vaccination rates.

Get Vaccinated or Get Fired

Health care workers, teachers, daycare employees and students in NINE states are targets of new legislation that proposes to force children and adults to get federally-recommended vaccines or suffer economic and other sanctions –  from denial of employment and education to denial of parental rights to be informed if a minor child has received one or more vaccines for sexually transmitted diseases!

Health care workers in Illinois (Il SB 1610) and Massachusetts (H 1975) may be required to get flu shots every year in order to keep their jobs. If either of the Vermont bills pass (VT H 114 or VT S 103), Vermont would become the first state in the country with pertussis containing vaccine mandates for teachers that could result in teachers being fired for declining vaccination (daycare workers in Vermont are also being required to get pertussis vaccines in these bills).

Legislation has been introduced in Illinois (HB 4406) that would require day care centers in the state to mandate all day care workers get federally recommended vaccines.

Last year, influenza vaccine mandates for all healthcare workers in New Jersey (NJ A 2172/S 1464) was vetoed by the Governor after vocal citizen opposition, but the Pharma-Medical Trade-Government Health lobby is back again this session with a vengeance. A proposed new law (NJ S 1176) would require healthcare facilities to require all personnel to get an annual flu shot or be fired and denied new employment.

Mandates and Ignoring Parental Rights

Meanwhile in Indiana (IN HB 1236) some legislators want to pass a law mandating that all boys get HPV vaccinations and the bill also is trying to raise the overall HPV vaccination rates in the state. All sixth grade students in Kentucky will be required to get HPV vaccine if the lobbyists pushing KY HB 311 get their way.

Some of the most disturbing bills are out of New York: NY A 497 and NY S 3134 would make it possible for doctors to give minor children vaccines for sexually transmitted diseases (such as hepatitis B and HPV vaccines) without their parents’ knowledge or consent if the minor child  agrees to get the vaccine.

Missouri (MO SB 748), Nebraska (NE LB 460) and New York (NY A 4221) all have bills filed that would require meningococcal vaccinations for students in different age groups.

Papers, Please?

Since the 1990’s, the National Vaccine Information Center has been warning Americans about the systematic erosion of civil liberties and violation of privacy and informed consent rights when citizens are forced to participate in government-operated vaccine tracking systems without their voluntary consent.

The Centers for Disease Control continues to report on and support the expansion of Immunization Information Systems (IIS).   These electronic medical record monitoring systems are used to identify, track down and harass those not compliant with the federally recommended child and adult vaccine schedules to enforce use of a growing list of vaccines promoted by public health officials, pharmaceutical companies and medical trade groups like the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP).

Iowa (IA HSB 530), Indiana (IN HB 1352) and Missouri (MO HB 1445 and MO S817) all have bills that will require doctors and other vaccine administrators to enter vaccine records into state vaccine tracking registries operated by government health officials.

Foster Parents’ Informed Consent Rights Attacked

Some legislators don’t want to accept laws protecting vaccine informed consent rights from last year’s legislative session.  For example, last year the Arizona legislature passed a common sense law giving foster parents the right to make voluntary vaccination decisions for their own children and still be foster parents.  This was particularly helpful in cases where the children of foster parents had medical contraindications to vaccination or had filed non-medical vaccine exemptions. Now there is a proposed law (AZ SB1243) that would basically repeal this law and instead force foster parents to vaccinate their biological and legally adopted children or be denied the right to be foster parents.

Restricting Vaccine Exemptions in Oregon

Last legislative session, the state of Oregon suffered a setback when OR SB 132 was passed and eliminated the religious exemption to vaccination. The new law requires parents and guardians, who file a nonmedical exemption for their child after Mar. 1, 2014, to receive state-approved “education” about vaccination before being allowed to file the exemption.  If a parent already has a non-medical exemption form on file with schools and daycare facilities, the form does not need to be resubmitted. Only parents filing non-medical exemptions after Mar. 1, 2014 will have to comply with the new regulations.

Details on this new law and how to obtain the current form for a non-medical exemption before the Mar. 1 change goes into effect are posted in the Announcements section of the Oregon State page on the NVIC Advocacy Portal.

Colorado Vaccine Stakeholder Work Group Issues Report

NVIC is closely monitoring developments in Colorado for any attempts by the Pharma-Medical Trade-Government Health lobby to push for legislation that would restrict non-medical vaccine exemptions.  In December, the Colorado Department of Public Health issued a press release on a recent stakeholder report discussing Colorado’s personal belief vaccine exemption.  NVIC’s Executive Director, Theresa Wrangham, represented NVIC during the stakeholder engagement project and took the position that it is both unnecessary and coercive to make it more difficult for parents to file non-medical exemptions in Colorado.

The report recommends requiring state-approved education and/or counseling prior to a non-medical vaccine exemption being filed. Parents would need to obtain the signature of a doctor or other state-designated health worker or public health official and the exemption would have to be reviewed annually by the state under this workgroup’s recommendations.

NVIC supports the ethical principle of voluntary informed consent to medical risk-taking and opposes restrictions on vaccine exemptions that make it more difficult for citizens to exercise their informed consent rights.  While a bill or proposed rule to restrict vaccine exemptions in Colorado has not been filed yet, there is still time so we are watching this carefully.

Other Attempts to Suspend or Eliminate Exemptions

Some legislators in Vermont would like to see all philosophical and religious exemptions suspended if the vaccination rate falls below 90% (VT H 138 and VT S 102).  These two bills fortunately did not make any progress in 2013 but they have carried over to 2014 and need to be watched and opposed.
The battle to protect vaccine exemptions in New Jersey continues with NJ S 1147 attempting to restrict religious exemptions.

Bills Introduced to Expand and Protect Exemptions

NVIC Advocacy Portal users in Mississippi, New Jersey and New York have been very busy communicating with their legislators to brief them about why securing expanded vaccine exemptions is necessary to protect parental informed consent rights and children’s health.  Bills have been introduced in Mississippi (MS HB 1420) New Jersey (NJ A 1534) and New York (NY A 6359 and NY S 3934) to add a philosophical or conscientious belief exemption to state vaccine laws.

There is another bill in New York (NY A2689), which provides protection to parents who file a religious belief exemption from being persecuted.

Legislators in Oklahoma and Wisconsin have stepped up to the plate on behalf of health care workers whose employers are attempting to require flu shots or other federally recommended vaccines as a condition of employment. Codified exemptions are being proposed in Oklahoma (HB 1892) and Wisconsin (WI AB 247).

Additional support for health care worker informed consent rights has surfaced in Wisconsin (WI AB 608).  This bill prohibits a health care provider or health care system from refusing to affiliate with or join another health care provider network or health care system based on the influenza vaccination status of a health care provider or the percentage of fully vaccinated employees.

A recently filed bill in New York (NY S 6443), would give Nurse Practitioners and Physician Assistants the right to grant and write medical exemptions to vaccinations. Under current law, only state licensed physicians have the legal right to write medical exemptions. The bill would also guarantee that the physician or other state-designed health worker who writes a medical exemption will not be pressured by public health or other government officials to withdraw the medical exemption.

Lawmakers in Virginia are looking out for homeschooled students and students with vaccine exemptions to protect their right to participate in interscholastic activities funded by state tax dollars. A Virginia bill (VA HB 63) has been introduced that would prohibit a public school from becoming a member of any organization or entity regulating or governing interscholastic programs that refuses to allow a student, who is homeschooled or has a valid legal exemption to vaccination, to participate in activities.

Get Involved and Take Action

By registering for NVIC’s Advocacy portal at http://NVICAdvocacy.org, you have access to:
more detailed information about all vaccine bills pending in your state;

• NVIC’s position on supporting or opposing the bill;
• a direct electronic connection through your computer or cell phone to enable you to contact your personal legislators, and
• talking points and steps you can take to educate your legislators and make your voice heard.

When you log in to the free NVIC Advocacy Portal, you are immediately connected. When you register and become an active user of the NVIC Advocacy Portal, you will automatically be signed up to the Portal’s email alert system for your state so you will receive real-time Action Alerts that will guide you about what to do about a particular bill that NVIC is monitoring.

Our amazing NVIC volunteer state advocacy team directors are on the ground in your state working to monitor legislation and help you protect your informed consent rights . They welcome and need your help to background and communicate with legislators in your state.

Raise Awareness About the NVIC Advocacy Portal

Please forward this NVIC Newsletter to family and friends who care about their parental and informed consent rights and ask them to register for the NVIC Advocacy Portal. You can log in to the Portal and use NVIC’s “Tell a Friend” feature under the “Resources” tab where all you have to do is enter a friend or a family member’s name and email address and we will send information about the NVIC Advocacy Portal and an invitation to register for the Portal. It is free and just by registering, they will automatically receive email alerts with step-by-step instructions about how to educate their legislators when vaccine safety and choice issues arise in their state.

NVIC’s goal is to have dedicated and educated vaccine freedom of choice advocates in every legislative district in the country willing to take a few moments to educate their elected officials regarding vaccines and exemptions whenever their voices need to be heard.  Please contact everyone you know who cares about the right, free from coercion and harassment, to be educated and have the final say in whether or not to use vaccines marketed and recommended for mandates by public health officials.  Please stress to them the importance of becoming an informed voice of reason in their state legislature.  Encourage them to sign up for NVIC’s Advocacy Portal at http://NVICAdvocacy.org, and we will do our job by providing them with well referenced information they can trust when their grassroots action is needed.

We are excited for the opportunity in 2014 to make a memorable impact in state legislatures by joining hands with tens of thousands of families and enlightened health care professionals across America and defending the ethical principle of voluntary informed consent to vaccination!

NVIC Social Networking

Please also follow NVIC on Facebook and follow the Advocacy Portal on Twitter @NVICAdvocacy! To view detailed information for the bills below you must register to use the Advocacy Portal. Please sign up – it is free!

Current Action Alerts

Positions on Monitored Bills

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