Help stop two bad vaccines bill in the New Jersey Legislature!

New Jersey Legislative Bills A. 5445 and S. 3841 would trivialize very real vaccine risks and serious reactions by allowing optometrists to vaccinate.

Previously, under the Emergency Health Powers Act, optometrists were allowed “to administer immunizations against a coronavirus or influenza during a public health emergency involving an outbreak or epidemic … limited to administering immunizations against the specific disease for which the public health emergency was declared.” Those receiving vaccines from optometrists had to be 18 years or older and the records were required to be reported to the New Jersey Immunization Information System for inclusion in the patient’s registry.

A. 5445 and S. 3841 would:

Remove the public health emergency requirement for optometrist vaccine administration
Allow optometrists to administer vaccines to patients over 18 years old even when no public health emergency is declared
Expand the number of vaccines optometrists are able to give by adding the varicella-zoster vaccines to the list of vaccines optometrists can give
Continue to require that all immunization records be reported to the New Jersey Immunization Information System for inclusion in the patient’s registry

All immunization records would be forwarded to the state vaccine database tracking system.

Any time optometrists are allowed to vaccinate, it creates significant risks. Optometrists are not qualified to recognize or handle serious adverse reactions, nor are they likely to have full knowledge of patient or family history.

The Weston A. Price Foundation does not take a position on other sections of the bill dealing strictly with eye care procedures.

Please speak up!

TAKE ACTION

Contact your New Jersey State Senator and two Assembly Members and urge them to oppose A. 5445 and S. 3841.

You can look up who represents you here:

By municipality: http://www.njleg.state.nj.us/districts/municipalities.asp

Interactive map: http://www.njleg.state.nj.us/districts/njmap210.html

Calls are more effective than emails and only take a few minutes. Below is a sample script along with additional Talking Points. Use your own words when you call or email – a personal message is always more effective than a form message!

SAMPLE SCRIPT:

“Hi, my name is ____ and I am a constituent. I am calling to ask Senator (or Assembly Member) ____ to oppose A. 5445 and S. 3841, which would allow optometrists to administer vaccines.

I oppose this bill because people need to be in a doctor’s care for medical procedures. Vaccines may have serious side effects that optometrists are not qualified to recognize or treat.

It is reckless to allow optometrists to prescribe 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 nearly $4.9 billion that has been paid by the federal government to victims – vaccines can injure and kill an individual.

I urge Senator (or Assembly Member) _______ to oppose A. 5445 and S. 3841.”

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:

Optometrists do not have enough training about all the vaccines, risks, prescreening, contraindications, and emergency interventions for reactions, nor are they instructed on reporting reactions to the Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System and on advising parents and patients about the statute of limitations and instructions for filing a claim with the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program.

When optometrists are allowed to prescribe vaccines, it diminishes the doctor/patient relationship and removes critical health history screenings prior to vaccination.

Most optometrists don’t have lifesaving defibrillators as they do in doctors’ offices to save the lives of individuals who have an immediate life-threatening reaction to vaccines. Will optometrists have the equipment and training to be able to tell the difference between cardiac arrest, anaphylaxis, and fainting and act accordingly to save the lives of individuals who react at the time of vaccination?

Vaccine Information Statements list many reasons why patients shouldn’t be vaccinated. It is highly unlikely that an optometrist has the time to ask about all the reasons not to vaccinate them.

Allowing optometrists to prescribe vaccines without access to a person’s medical records means that a person may receive unintended or duplicate vaccines.

Vaccine package inserts warn of the risk of brain damage, life-threatening allergy, and death, and no one knows in advance whom a vaccine will harm. Pharmacists are not equipped to recognize nor handle serious adverse reactions.

Vaccines are medical procedures that carry a risk of serious injury. Hundreds of thousands have reported an adverse reaction to vaccination to the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS). The U.S. Government has paid out nearly $4.9 billion as of 11/1/2022 to the victims of vaccine injury, per VICP Data Reports. https://www.hrsa.gov/vaccine-compensation/data

MORE INFORMATION

Read A. 5445 and S. 3841 text here:

https://www.njleg.state.nj.us/bill-search/2022/A5445

https://www.njleg.state.nj.us/bill-search/2022/S3841

LINKS embedded in this alert:

Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System –

https://vaers.hhs.gov/

instructions for filing a claim –

https://www.hrsa.gov/vaccine-compensation/how-to-file

National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program –

https://www.hrsa.gov/vaccine-compensation

Vaccine Information Statements –