Protect Medical Privacy in Florida

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Help us stop S.B. 354, which would force children and college students to be part of the Florida State immunization registry and tracking system!

This bill is scheduled for the Health Policy Committee tomorrow, 2-19-19. We need you to attend the hearing and contact your state legislators as soon as possible!

Current Florida Law allows a parent or guardian to refuse to have their child monitored by the state tracking system. S.B 345 would eliminate the right to opt out.

The proposed bill would:

Require all health care practitioners who administer vaccines to children from birth to 18 years of age to report those vaccinations to the registry/tracking system
Eliminate the ability of parents or guardians to refuse participation in the registry/tracing system
Expand the registry from a childhood registry into an adult vaccine tracking registry by:

Requiring the reporting of adult college and university students aged 19-23 vaccination records
Allowing for all other adults’ shot records to be submitted

Make vaccine records electronically available to entities other than schools and licensed child care facilities – and not specifying who can get the records

While parents and college students may choose to opt-out of the system, that in itself is still tracked: the “decision not to participate in the immunization registry must be noted in the registry.”

If S.B. 354 passes, every person from birth to age 23 will be tracked in this intrusive Florida vaccine tracking system either with their vaccine records or marked as a vaccine tracking refuser!

Also, if S.B. 354 passes, everyone who has vaccination records entered in the Florida SHOTS tracking system will never be able to remove them.

Similar bills failed to pass last legislative session because of grassroots activism. It is time to take action again.

All Florida citizens who want to protect privacy and freedom in vaccine choices need to act now!

Read the bill here:

http://www.flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2019/00354/?Tab=BillText

TAKE ACTION

Attend the hearing for S.B. 354 TOMORROW, Tuesday, February 19, 2019 from 10:00- 11:30 am. You will have an opportunity to testify and formally oppose this bill.

Location:

Senate Health Policy Committee

The Florida Senate

412 Knott Building

404 S. Monroe Street

Tallahassee, FL 32399-1100

(850) 487-5824

2) Call or email your state legislators (not US Congressmen or US Senators) and urge them to oppose S.B. 354.

You can find out who represents you here: https://www.flsenate.gov/Senators/Find

3) Call the primary sponsor of S.B. 354, Senator Bill Montford at (850) 487-5003 and politely ask him to pull this bill down.

Calls are more effective than emails, and take only a few minutes! See some suggested talking points, below.

Talking Points:

Keep your call or email short! Pick the 2 or 3 talking points that are most important to you, and be sure to explain why this issue matters to you personally.

Florida’s current tracking system is already problematic because it is an invasion of medical privacy and many people don’t know that they have the right to refuse to be tracked. http://www.nvic.org/Vaccine-Laws/state-vaccine-requirements/florida.aspx This new law would make things worse by eliminating the right to completely opt-out all together.
While current law only allows the information in the tracking system to be shared with schools and other entities that are required by law to obtain proof of a child’s immunization, S.B 354 does not limit what entities can obtain this personal, private medical information.
The bill expands the scope of tracking to include not only minor children, but also college students who get health care through university or college facilities.
There are concerns that information provided in vaccine registries could be used to refuse services such as school, insurance, or employment in the future.
Section 23 of the Florida Constitution, guarantees every resident of Florida the Right of Privacy: “Every natural person has the right to be let alone and free from governmental intrusion into the person’s private life except as otherwise provided herein.” Choosing between having one’s personal medical information tracked or being labeled by the state in a government database as a vaccine tracking refuser is unnecessary government intrusion.
Supporters of vaccine tracking systems claim they are a way to protect patients by guaranteeing patients don’t receive multiple doses of the same vaccinations by different providers. According to CDC’s own statements, though, it’s clear that one purpose of these registries is to create pressure on people who are unvaccinated or partially vaccinated. CDC openly stated that vaccine registries are a tool to identify areas of “undervaccination” so they can be “addressed” and brought into “compliance.” https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm6133a2.htm
Using Immunization Information Systems costs states millions of dollars. The money spent on vaccine tracking systems would be better spent to improve Florida’s roads, schools, etc.
Schools are required to protect the privacy of vaccine records as part of all student records under the federal law of FERPA, so an automated system to collect immunization records from the schools is in conflict with the principles of medical privacy.