Pennsylvania H.B. 2037 would allow pharmacists to administer more vaccines to children – a dangerous practice!
This bill was amended and voted out of the Children and Youth Committee on June 5, 2024. It would allow pharmacists and pharmacy interns to administer any of the vaccines on the CDC-recommended schedule to children ages 5 and up with a prescription from a medical professional. Additionally, it would permit pharmacy technicians to vaccinate children ages 8 and up with influenza and Covid-19 shots.
Any time pharmacists are allowed to vaccinate creates significant risks. Pharmacists are not qualified to recognize or handle serious adverse reactions, nor are they likely to have full knowledge of patient or family history. How many people will assume vaccines must be safe for their children if a pharmacist is allowed to give them, only to have an adverse reaction?
There is an enormous national push to authorize pharmacists and technicians to administer vaccines. At this time of year, bills can move quickly and unexpectedly.
Please help stop this bill today!
TAKE ACTION:
Contact your Pennsylvania state Representative and ask him/her to OPPOSE H.B. 2037.
You can find out who represents you at: http://www.legis.state.pa.us/cfdocs/legis/home/findyourlegislator/
Calls are more effective than emails and only take a few minutes.
Sample script:
“Hi, my name is ____, and I am a constituent. I am calling to ask Representative ____ to OPPOSE H.B. 2037.
I oppose this bill because young children need to be in a doctor’s care for medical procedures. Vaccines may have serious side effects that pharmacists, their interns, and technicians are not qualified to recognize or treat.
It is reckless to allow pharmacists to administer vaccines, especially when they do not have access to a person’s medical history.
As recognized by the U.S. Supreme Court – and evidenced by the $5.2 billion that has been paid by the federal government to victims – vaccines can injure and kill an individual.
I urge _______ to oppose this bill.”
Be sure to explain why this issue is important to you. You may wish to use a couple of the talking points below. Don’t copy all of them – just use them as ideas to help structure your own message.
TALKING POINTS for calls and emails:
- When pharmacists are allowed to vaccinate, it diminishes the doctor/patient relationship.
- A press statement issued on August 21, 2020, from the American Medical Association opposed expanding pharmacists’ ability to provide childhood vaccines. Their statement points out that they want pharmacies to have important protocols in place before allowing pharmacy access, such as requiring a prescription order from a physician. They stated, “We urge HHS to reconsider the negative health repercussions of funneling children away from their primary care physicians and rescind this declaration.”
- Federal law recognizes vaccines kill and disable some recipients. These risks depend on a person’s medical history and family history. Pharmacists do not have knowledge of, nor the time to learn about a person’s medical history. This is dangerous.
- Pharmacist continuing education units (CEUs) often emphasize addressing vaccine hesitancy rather than educating about vaccine reactions. Moreover, a recent survey of 80 accredited U.S. pharmacy schools revealed that the mean “contact hours” dedicated to vaccines in the curriculum is only 8.4 hours. Considering that children receive over 80 doses of 17 different vaccines and there are 57 unique vaccines on the market, 8.4 hours is insufficient education to administer them responsibly!
- Allowing pharmacists to vaccinate without access to a person’s medical records means that a person may receive unintended or duplicate vaccines.
- Pharmacies are not equipped to deal with vaccine adverse reactions, and pharmacists do not have the necessary medical training to distinguish between cardiac arrest, anaphylaxis, and fainting and act accordingly to save the lives of individuals who react at the time of vaccination.
- Vaccine package inserts warn of the risk of brain damage, life-threatening allergies, and death, and no one knows in advance whom a vaccine will harm. Pharmacists are not equipped to recognize or handle serious adverse reactions.
- The CDC’s Vaccine Information Statements (VIS) list numerous contraindications to receiving vaccines and it is highly unlikely that a pharmacist has the time to adequately review that information with the family.
- It is highly unlikely that pharmacists will perform an exam at the pharmacy and take the child’s temperature to make sure they don’t have a fever. A fever is a contraindication to many vaccines as noted in the CDC’s Vaccine Information Statements (VIS).
- The U.S. Supreme Court recognizes vaccines as “unavoidably unsafe” and as causing injury and death in some recipients. The US government has paid out more than $5 billion to the victims of vaccine injury. Thousands have reported an adverse reaction to vaccination. Additionally, no one knows in advance who will be harmed by a vaccine. It is careless to permit pharmacists to administer a product that carries such risks.
- Neither pharmacists nor pharmacy technicians will have liability for the injuries and deaths caused by the vaccines they administer to children. Vaccine administrators are shielded from liability for vaccine injuries and deaths through the combination of the law passed by Congress in 1986 establishing the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program and the 2011 Supreme Court Decision BRUESEWITZ ET AL. v. WYETH LLC, FKA WYETH, INC., ET AL.
MORE INFORMATION:
View H.B. 2037 here: https://www.legis.state.pa.us/cfdocs/billinfo/billinfo.cfm?syear=2023&sind=0&body=H&type=B&bn=2037
To read more about the dangers of vaccines, click here:
Federal law (42 U.S.C. 300aa-1 to 300aa34) – The National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of 1986
https://www.nvic.org/injury-compensation/origihanlaw.aspx
🖨️ Print post
Leave a Reply