Help stop two identical bad vaccine bills in the New Jersey Legislature!

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A1899 and S1981 would trivialize genuine vaccine risks and serious reactions by expanding the authority of pharmacy technicians and interns to administer vaccines and other drugs, including allowing all staff to give COVID-19 shots to children as young as five years old.

These bills amend Section 24 of Title 45 in several places to expand the authority of pharmacy employees by:

* Requiring a pharmacist to receive appropriate training to administer prescription medication directly to a patient but is no longer required to be certified

* Allowing a pharmacy technician to administer drugs to an individual 18 years or older

* Permitting a pharmacist, pharmacy intern, pharmacy extern, or pharmacy technician to administer Covid-19 injections to an individual who is five years of age or older

* Requiring a pharmacy technician to receive parental consent for vaccination for minors

* Allowing a pharmacy technician, under the supervision of a licensed pharmacist, to administer vaccinations by injection or by other methods

* Requiring vaccination to be reported to the New Jersey Immunization Information System

* Allowing a pharmacist, pharmacy intern, pharmacy extern, or pharmacy technician to administer influenza vaccines to children as young as five years old

Inadequately trained pharmacy employees should not be allowed to administer potentially life-threatening vaccines to either adults or young children. In fact, even pharmacists do not have the qualifications to provide vaccinations safely.

Pharmacists and their staff typically do not possess the extensive expertise needed for administering vaccines, comprehending associated risks, conducting thorough prescreening, identifying contraindications, executing emergency interventions for adverse reactions, reporting reactions to the Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System, and providing guidance to parents and patients regarding matters like the statute of limitations and instructions for filing a claim with the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program.

Furthermore, Vaccine Information Statements outline numerous reasons why patients may not be suitable candidates for vaccination. It is highly improbable that a pharmacist, technician, or intern would have the time to address all these potential concerns thoroughly.

A1899 passed the full Assembly by a vote of 58 Yes, 17 No, 4 Not Voting, and 1 Abstain on 6/28/2024.

Note: These are the same as the last session’s bills: A5752 and S4205.

Please speak up! We need YOUR voice to defeat A1899 and S1981 today!

TAKE ACTION

Contact your New Jersey State Representative and urge him/her to OPPOSE A1899.

Contact your New Jersey State Senator and urge him/her to OPPOSE S1981.

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 Representative (or Senator) ____ to oppose A1899 (or S1981), which would expand pharmacists’ and their technicians’ and interns’ authority to administer vaccines.

This bill would also increase the ability of pharmacists and their staff to give Covid-19 and influenza shots to children as young as five.

Pharmacists, technicians, and interns should not be allowed to administer possibly life-threatening vaccines to adults and young children.

Especially when the NJ Board of Pharmacy does not require pharmacy technicians to get formal training, and they are only required to have a High School diploma or its equivalent.

I oppose A1899 (or S1981) because people need to be in a doctor’s care for medical procedures. Vaccines may have serious side effects that pharmacists and their associates are not qualified to recognize or treat.

It is reckless to allow pharmacy employees 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 $5.1 billion that the federal government has paid to victims – vaccines can injure and kill an individual.

I urge _______ to oppose this bill.”

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:

When pharmacists are allowed to administer vaccines, it diminishes the doctor/patient relationship and removes critical health history screenings prior to vaccination. Pharmacists do not have the necessary medical history of an infant or child or the time to prescreen for contraindications based on a child’s personal and family history and unique health needs prior to vaccination.

Most pharmacies and grocery stores don’t have lifesaving defibrillators as they do in doctors’ offices to save the lives of people who have an immediate life-threatening reaction to vaccines. Will pharmacists 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 babies and children who react at the time of vaccination?

Vaccine Information Statements list many reasons why patients should not be vaccinated. It is highly unlikely that a pharmacist has the time to ask about all the reasons not to vaccinate them.

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

Pharmacy groups will support these bills, but it presents a serious conflict of interest because of the financial benefits they will receive if the bills pass. America’s biopharmaceutical research companies are developing 258 vaccines. The U.S. Vaccine Market alone was $36.45 billion in 2018 and is expected to reach $149 billion by 2026. Pharmacies stand to increase their profits substantially by allowing pharmacy technicians to put those shots into customers.

Neither pharmacists, pharmacy technicians, nor interns 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.

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 $5.1 billion to the victims of vaccine injury, per VICP Data Reports. https://www.hrsa.gov/vaccine-compensation/data
Covid shot manufacturers and providers are shielded from liability through the Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness Act, or PREP Act. The only option for compensating people injured by COVID-19 vaccines is the Countermeasures Injury Compensation Program (CICP). Only eight percent of all petitioners since 2010 have been awarded compensation through the CICP. No legal or medical expert fees are covered, no pain and suffering is awarded, lost wages are capped at $50,000 per year, and there is no judicial appeal. In other words, the victims will be severely under-compensated while the pharmaceutical companies get rich.

Prep Act – https://aspr.hhs.gov/legal/PREPact/Pages/default.aspx

Coverage by CCIP (see p. 7, Oct 2021) – https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/LSB/LSB10584

“Vaccine injury compensation programs overwhelmed as congressional reform languishes” (6/1/2022) – https://www.politico.com/news/2022/06/01/vaccine-injury-compensation-programs-overwhelmed-as-congressional-reform-languishes-00033064

There have already been 2,618,691 Covid-19 shot adverse events and 37,303 Covid-19 shot deaths reported in the U.S. to the Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System (per data released 7/26/24).

Run your own search – https://www.medalerts.org/vaersdb/index.php

Cases (adverse events) – https://www.medalerts.org/vaersdb/findfield.php

Deaths – https://medalerts.org/vaersdb/findfield.php?TABLE=ON&GROUP1=AGE&EVENTS=ON&VAX%5B%5D=COVID19&DIED=Yes

MORE INFORMATION

Read text A1899 and S1981 here:

https://www.njleg.state.nj.us/bill-search/2024/A1899

https://www.njleg.state.nj.us/bill-search/2024/S1981

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