Will the Citizens of Maine Become the First to Overturn a Mandatory Vaccine Law by Popular Vote?

On May 24, 2019, Maine’s House of Representatives passed a bill (LD798) removing religious and philosophical vaccine exemptions to block Maine residents from getting an education in a public, private, parochial or trade school or enrolling in educational courses online. The bill was strongly opposed by grassroots health freedom groups and passed the state Senate by only one vote.  Unless it is vetoed by Maine voters in a ballot vote on Mar. 3, 2020, the new law will go into effect on Sept. 1, 2021. Mainers for Health and Parental Rights, a political action committee (PAC), filed paperwork with the state for a veto ballot referendum that would overturn the vaccine exemption repeal. In September 2019, the campaign filed 95,871 raw signatures, of which 79,056 were valid, exceeding the minimum of 63,067 signatures needed. On October 17, 2019, Maine Secretary of State Dunlap announced that the veto referendum qualified to appear on the ballot at the statewide election on March 3, 2020.

U.S. Congress Holds Hearings on Vaccines: Will Lawmakers Look at BOTH Sides of the Issue?

Congress has announced two hearings to discuss vaccines in light of the recent "measles outbreaks" that have affected 127 people in 10 states since the Fall of 2018. The first hearing is in the House, tomorrow, February 27, 2019. The second hearing is in the Senate on March 5, 2019. The hearing in the House will be with the subcommittee Oversight and Investigations, of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, chaired by Representative Frank Pallone from New Jersey's 6th congressional district. Will this hearing look at both sides of the vaccine debate, or simply represent the most extremist view of vaccines promoted by the pharmaceutical companies and their powerful lobbyists and allies in government? The extremist pro-vaccine view states that the "science has been settled" on vaccines (an obvious non-scientific view), and that ALL vaccines are safe and effective for ALL people, ALL the time, by force if necessary. This extremist view, however, is NOT the majority view of medical doctors and scientists. Judging by the memorandum published by Congressman Pallone, himself a career politician with a law degree and no apparent medical background, and which reads like a press release for the Merck pharmaceutical company which manufactures the MMR vaccine and contains factual errors, and based on the only two "witnesses" invited to the hearing who represent the CDC and NIH, it would appear that the hearing is going to be one-sided representing only the most extremist view of vaccines. The public's action is desperately needed to contact these lawmakers and put pressure on Congress to present BOTH sides of the vaccine debate.

Federal Government Moves to Restrict Vaccine Exemptions as they Pay Out Billions of Dollars for Vaccine Injuries and Deaths

In response to several measles outbreaks that have been reported across the US by the CDC, the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee is planning to meet on March 5 to discuss vaccine-preventable diseases and efforts to boost vaccination rates and fight vaccine hesitancy. A House subcommittee is holding a similar hearing next week. Ahead of these hearings, FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb has warned states offering vaccine exemptions that the federal government may intervene. This attack on exemptions is unprecedented. We must ensure that Congressional members are properly educated about the numerous safety issues that have been demonstrated. We must also respond in force to protect vaccine exemptions from federal interference.

Legislative Update on Battle to Oppose Mandatory Vaccines in Each State

The corporate-sponsored "mainstream" media, along with Big Pharma and the U.S. Government, would like the public to believe that the "science is settled" when it comes to vaccines, and that all vaccines are safe and effective. They spend a great deal of effort to try to convince the public that this is the only view held by medical doctors and scientists. This message to the public, however, is not true, and can be properly called "propaganda." As we have previously written, there are a variety of opinions and viewpoints regarding the science of vaccines among medical doctors and researchers. The extremist view regarding vaccines, and not the one necessarily held by most doctors and scientists, is the view that ALL vaccines are safe and effective for ALL people, ALL the time, by force if necessary. Propaganda is used to try and achieve their agenda, which is a form of medical tyranny by taking away people's choice to refuse vaccines for themselves or their children. Fortunately, the National Vaccine Information Center has volunteers in all 50 states opposing legislative efforts to impose mandatory vaccines and take away informed consent and the freedom to refuse medical treatments like vaccines. They have successfully mobilized the American public through grassroots efforts to oppose most of these bills that have been proposed in recent years. The following is their 2018 annual report. To keep up to date on what is going on in your state regarding vaccine laws, be sure to sign up for their portal on their website.

Mandating Ineffective Vaccines Creates Public Health Crisis as Ineffective Vaccines Can Actually Enhance Disease

It’s clear that some vaccines don’t work as well as advertised. And yet, instead of first making a vaccine with better effectiveness, the solution is to use the force of law to make everyone get more shots of the failing vaccine. Even when significant vaccine failure rates for vaccines are acknowledged, the legislative solution remains fully supported. Concerns over the need for more effective vaccines are dismissed by apologetics pointing out that the current vaccines are better than nothing. The assumption is implicit: low immunity is better than no immunity. So, until a better vaccine comes along, accept the current shot at whatever level of immunity it provides. But the notion that any amount of antibodies is preferable to no antibodies at all, is dangerously wrong. The same exact antibodies that prevent disease at higher concentrations, can enhance the disease at lower concentrations.

Texas Children Hurricane Victims Have Legal School Enrollment and Vaccination Exemption Rights

Many parts of Texas have suffered severe flooding and damage where families have had their lives drastically affected. This is just the start of a challenging journey ahead recovering from Hurricane Harvey. If your family has been displaced and/or your property damaged and need to find new health care practitioners that will take care of your family and respect your vaccine refusal or delay decisions, we can check in with our community to find you the referrals you need where you need them. If you are reading this and have a great referral for a health care provider that is supportive of your rights to decline or delay vaccines, please let us know their names, contact information, and location so we can pass that information on to families in need. You can reach Dawn in Austin and Rebecca in Houston by emailing TXDirector@nvicadvocacy.org. If you have become temporarily homeless or your school has become damaged and your child needs to re-enroll somewhere else, please know you have rights. “Students who are experiencing homelessness are to be enrolled immediately. Districts cannot require students experiencing homelessness to provide proof of residency, immunizations, birth certificates guardianship documents, or any other sort of required paperwork before enrolling. Requiring missing paperwork or any other delay to enrollment is a violation of the McKinney-Vento Act.”

Vaccine Exemptions and Civil Liberties at Risk in Virginia

Virginia’s historic Act for Religious Freedom authored by Thomas Jefferson in 1786 and reaffirmed by the General Assembly in 2007, states that, “Almighty God hath created the mind free” and that “all attempts to influence it” by punishments are an “infringement of natural right.” The law affirms that no person has the right to assume “dominion over the faith of others, setting up their own opinions and modes of thinking as the only true and infallible” and “impose them on others.” Pointing to differences of opinion among scientists and philosophers, the law states, “Our civil rights have no dependence on our religious opinions any more than our opinions in physics or geometry.” Congress and the U.S. Supreme Court have declared federally licensed and government mandated vaccines to be “unavoidably unsafe” and shielded drug companies and doctors from vaccine injury lawsuits. Under the 1986 National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act, 3.5 billion dollars in federal compensation has been paid for vaccine injuries and deaths caused by government mandated vaccines. Who has the moral authority to deny anyone the right to pray to God for guidance and obey our conscience when making a decision about a pharmaceutical product that can brain injure or end our life or our child’s life? Virginia has one of the lowest vaccine exemption rates in the nation, with 1.1 percent of children attending kindergarten exempted for medical or religious reasons. Where is the compelling state interest to discriminate against these families? Please reaffirm freedom of religion and conscience and the right of physicians to exercise professional judgment and conscience in the Commonwealth of Virginia by recommending that no change be made to current vaccine laws.

Colorado Health Department Wants to Track Parents Filing for Vaccine Exemptions

Through an audacious political maneuver, The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE) is pushing a bill, HB 1164, attempting to hijack control of vaccine exemptions and force all families using a vaccine exemption to submit it online directly to them for their storage and use. In the words of the sponsor of this offensive bill himself, Rep. Pabon, “This is some of the most sensitive data that the government can collect.” Parents and individuals who have exercised their legal right to delay or exempt their child or themselves from one or more of the vaccines required for daycare, school or college do not want their most sensitive, personal medical information handed over to the state department of health.

Local Health Department Lies to Parents: Refuses to Provide Vaccine Exemptions Required by Law

The medical system's attempt to remove all vaccine exemptions in states around the U.S. is troublesome enough, but there is growing evidence that where laws currently exist for vaccine exemptions, that the public is being denied their legal rights to apply those exemptions. Megan of LivingWhole.org reports how a parent in Missouri contacted her this week stating that a local health department had informed them that “the state wouldn’t allow them to pass out exemption cards anymore.” Not only was this illegal, it was an outright lie as Megan explains after contacting the Health Department at the State Capital. Every vaccine currently approved by the FDA and recommended in the childhood vaccine schedule has side effects and warnings listed in the package insert, and the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program has paid out billions of dollars in damages due to vaccine injuries since the program was started in the 1980s to grant pharmaceutical companies total legal immunity from damages due to vaccines. If doctors, health departments, and other medical officials were actually following the law, and following the advice printed on vaccine inserts in regards to monitoring those most at risk for vaccine injuries, the medical exemptions alone would be astronomical in this country. But that would be a huge financial drain to Big Pharma. So what is happening instead? The medical system is fighting for 100% vaccination rates for "the greater good," and sacrificing the lives of those who will have vaccine injuries or deaths due to adverse reactions by attempting to remove all vaccine exemptions, whether medical or religious. Every state currently offers vaccine exemptions. Know your rights, know the law, and don't be intimidated. May Megan's example below be a warning to everyone that you may need to take a stand and fight for your rights if you do not want to become another vaccine damaged statistic allowed for "the greater good."

Doctors in Pennsylvania Intimidating Parents over Vaccines and Misrepresenting State Laws

A mother submitted a photo from a physician's website in Pennsylvania stating that since 2012 "children who are not fully vaccinated will be denied entry to the school building." She asks: "Is that legal? We live in Pennsylvania." No, the information is incorrect, even though it is written on a physician's form. Find out what the actual law states in Pennsylvania, and in other states regarding legal vaccine exemptions that allow unvaccinated children to continue attending school.