Page 88 - Summer 2019 Journal

VACCINE LEGISLATIVE UPDATE BY KENDALL NELSON
Thank you for standing with us in the fight to protect the basic human right to exercise full, informed consent to vaccination. With your help and with the tireless work of important partner organizations like the National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC), we have defeated dozens of bad vaccine bills during the 2019 legislative session, while also lending support to several good vaccine bills. Not all the news is good, though.
Because vaccination is mostly addressed by state law, each bill must be supported or fought against in individual states. To aid in this, the Weston A. Price Foundation regularly sends action alerts encouraging folks to get involved with state vaccine laws and policies. It is your advocacy that can educate legislators and protect informed consent rights.
That work is getting more difficult. Last year, thirty-six states considered one hundred forty-three vaccine-related bills. Forty-seven bills were actually worthy of supporting, promoting greater informed consent and choice in vaccina- tion. Out of the eighty-two bad vaccine bills proposed, only seventeen bills passed. And only four of the bills that passed were significant problems: New York A. 9507, which authorizes pharmacists to administer flu vaccines to children two years and older and to track both vaccinations and refusals; Louisiana H.B. 176 and Maine L.D. 1664, which mandate the meningitis vaccine; and Alabama H.B. 76, which requires religiously-affiliated private daycares and preschools to give the Department of Human Services vaccine records on request.
Most importantly, in 2018 no state lost or restricted existing vaccine exemptions for school, daycare or other state- wide requirements.
The year 2019, however, has proven more challenging. As in 2018, the majority of the bills introduced have sought to eliminate vaccine exemptions, while adding more mandated vaccines—including bills that allow minors to receive vaccines for sexually transmitted diseases without parental consent. And the numbers and scope are increasing. So far this year, we have analyzed and tracked one hundred eighty-seven vaccine-related bills in thirty-seven states, a 30 percent increase.
The leading excuse for pushing vaccine mandates was a measles outbreak, which sickened over one thousand children between January 1 and June 13, with no reported deaths. Consider that there have been more than eighty- nine thousand adverse reactions and four hundred forty-five deaths reported to the Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System [VAERS] related to the measles, mumps, rubella [MMR] vaccine—and it is estimated by the government that only 1 percent of all reactions are ever reported.
But the outbreak helped the vaccine industry lobbyists find politicians willing to push an agenda that benefits pharmaceutical manufacturers (in some cases, helped along by campaign contributions). Some politicians went so far as to use their political power to push for censorship in the media; for example, Congressman Adam Schiff (D-CA) sent a letter to the CEOs of Google, Facebook and Amazon asking them to censor information that discourages parents from vaccinating their children.
The decision whether or not to undergo a medical procedure is a fundamental personal freedom, and your ability
Chapter leader Diane Smith (right) at the Minnesota Capitol getting signatures from senators.
ACTIVISM IN MINNESOTA
Diane Smith (right) is part of a group that is fighting at the state Capitol to overturn part of the 1986 National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act, which exempted vaccine companies from liability for injuries caused by childhood vaccines. Since then, vaccines have been responsible for a silent holocaust of horrific damage and even death to Americans. The U.S. Court of Claims has awarded over four billion dollars to vaccine victims for catastrophic injuries through the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program created by the act—this sum represents only a third of petitioners, while two out of three have been denied compensation or are still waiting. Initially, the act preserved vaccine-injured persons’ right to bring a lawsuit in the court system if federal compensation was denied or was not sufficient or when there was evidence that a drug company could have made a vaccine safe. The Supreme Court removed this provi- sion in 2011 with its Bruesewitz v. Wyeth ruling, which eliminated the ability to sue vaccine manufacturers based on design defects. The Minnesota group’s goal is to bring back design defect liability.
86 Wise Traditions SUMMER2019