Contact your State Representative and Senator to OPPOSE SB 64 and SB 674

[The following is a forward from National Vaccination Information Center (NVIC)]

 

 

 

Contact your State Representative and Senator to OPPOSE SB 64 and SB 674

OPPOSE SB 64: Removing Religious and Restricting Medical Vaccine Exemptions

OPPOSE SB 674: Minimum Vaccination Requirements for Child Care

Dear Florida NVIC Advocacy Team Members,

It is important for Florida families to maintain vaccine exemptions to be able to delay or decline vaccination for religious and medical reasons without restriction.

Your action contacting your state representative and senator to OPPOSE SB 64 and SB 674 is critical to maintaining vaccine exemption rights in Florida.

SB 64, filed by Senator Lauren Book on 8/2/2019, would eliminate the religious exemption to vaccines required for public and private school children.  It would also add a new section of law requiring the Board of Medicine and the Board of Osteopathic Medicine to jointly create a medical exemption review panel that shall review all medical exemptions.

SB 674, filed by Senator Lauren Book on 10/25/2019, would require a minimum percentage of all children enrolled in a child care facility to be vaccinated.

Both bills, if passed, would become effective on 7/1/2020. (Text Status and History:
SB 64 http://www.flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2020/64, SB 674 http://www.//flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2020/674)

We have seen what happens to families in California and New York where religious exemptions have been removed and medical exemptions are reviewed and restricted. SB 64 should be opposed strongly and defeated as it is unnecessary, it repeals religious rights and interferes with the individual doctor patient relationship. SB 674 will have the same effect on some children in child care.

The 2020 legislative session in Florida convened today on January 14, 2020. It is very important that families who support the religious and medical exemptions to state mandated vaccines get out ahead of Senator Book’s attack on vaccine exemptions and talk to their legislators and like-minded families right away as the Florida legislative session moves quickly!

ACTION REQUIRED:

1. Contact your Florida state senator and state representative and respectfully ask them to oppose SB 64 and SB 674 in the 2020 legislative session.
   1. As soon as possible, schedule an in-person meeting with your state senator and representative to express to them how important it is to your family to have religious and unrestricted medical exemptions available. Share your vaccine reaction, denial of medical care, and harassment or discrimination stories. Tell YOUR story.  More talking points are listed below.
   2. Email your state senator and representative also using their preferred method of contact (see d.)
   3. Call your state senator and representative and ask them to vote no on SB 64 and SB 674.
   4. Legislative contact information: you can login to the NVIC Advocacy Portal at http://NVICAdvocacy.org, click on the “State Teams” tab and then “My State,” and your elected officials are automatically posted on the right side of the page. You can click on their name to display contact information and social media accounts that you can follow. You can also find your representatives here and senators here.
2. Register for and login to the NVIC Advocacy Portal OFTEN to check for updates.  We review bills and make updates daily. Bills can change many times over the legislative process and your timely visits, calls, and emails directed at the correct legislators are critical to this process. Even though the Florida legislature is not currently in session, you can see how this is important because bills are already being filed.
3. Please copy this for family and friends and ask them to register for the NVIC Advocacy Portal at http://NVICAdvocacy.org and share their concerns with their legislators as well.  By registering, they will get email action alert updates.
4. Please forward any legislative responses you receive or a summary of your meetings to our Florida State Director Toni and our Florida affiliated group Health Freedom Florida at FLDirector@NVICAdvocacy.org.

ADDITIONAL TALKING POINTS

OPPOSE SB 64, by Senator Lauren Book. SB 64 would eliminate the religious exemption to vaccines required for public and private school children and add a new section of law requiring the Board of Medicine and the Board of Osteopathic Medicine to create a medical exemption review panel would review and be able to revoke medical exemptions. SB 64 repeals religious freedoms and interferes with the doctor patient relationship.

OPPOSE SB 674, by Senator Lauren Book.  SB 674 would require the Department of Children and Families to include in licensure standards for child care facilities a minimum percentage of children enrolled in a facility who must have received immunizations.  The Department would be able to set the percentage, which could be anything, even 100%. SB 674 makes one child’s religious rights and medical necessities subjective and dependent on whether or not other children exercise those rights and protections. SB 674, if passed, would be state sponsored segregation as it would eliminate the ability of only some babies and young children from using all vaccine exemptions in their preferred child care facility resulting in their exclusion.

Vaccination rates for Florida school children are already high and exemption numbers are already low. Kindergarten vaccination rates for all required vaccines including measles and pertussis containing vaccines are 93.8% and 7^th grade rates are 96.3%. Out of 210,607 kindergarten students there are only 6,472 religious exemptions and 828 medical exemptions.  Out of 243,835 7^th graders, there are only 4,217 religious exemptions and 959 medical exemptions. (http://www.floridahealth.gov/statistics-and-data/immunization-coverage-surveys-reports/state-surveys.html)

Exemption rates are being misrepresented. An expanded bloated vaccine schedule is not accounted for in claims of rising of exemption numbers. Having an exemption doesn’t mean unvaccinated.  Children today receive 69 doses of vaccines for 16 different viral and bacterial illnesses which more than doubles the government childhood schedule of 34 doses of 11 different vaccines in the year 2000.  A vaccine exemption is filed regardless of whether the exemption is filed for one dose or all doses. 35 doses and 5 more unique vaccines have been added to the schedule in the last 20 years leading to more possibilities for an exemption. Don’t be fooled by those who incorrectly assume a student with an exemption is unvaccinatedas most students with exemptions are partially vaccinated.

Personal religious beliefs are included in rights granted by the U.S. and Florida Constitutions.  There have been unsubstantiated claims including by the bill author that parents in Florida are misusing religious exemptions. Those who are asserting this think that one has to belong to a recognized or organized religion to have constitutionally protected religious beliefs. This is not true.  Personally held sincere religious beliefs are protected as well. Many families who experience trauma turn to closer to religion. Vaccine reactions and deaths are traumatic.

Vaccine exemptions need to be expanded and preserved for many vaccines in the future.  America’s biopharmaceutical research companies are developing more than 260 vaccines.  The U.S. Vaccine Marketalone was $36.45 billion in 2018, and is expected to reach $50.42 billion by 2023. This is a very powerful industry with lots of resources to lobby and influence policy to remove parental rights to be able to delay or decline a vaccine. The industry benefits financially from forced use.  

Vaccines cause injuries and deaths for some and manufactures and doctors have no liability. The United States Government has paid out more than $4 billion dollars to vaccine victims through the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (VICP). The law passed by Congress in 1986 establishing the VICP along with the 2011 Supreme Court Decision BRUESEWITZ ET AL. v. WYETH LLC, FKA WYETH, INC., ET AL shield vaccines manufacturers and the doctors who administer vaccines from liability for vaccine injuries and deaths. As of July 1, 2019, there have been 1,274 claims filed in the federal Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (VICP) for injuries and deaths following just measles vaccination, for 82 deaths and 1,192 serious injuries.

State health and education agencies already have broad unrestricted statutory powers (Education Code 1003.22) to adopt rules concerning vaccination including adding more vaccine mandates, enforcing a schedule, and excluding students from attendance in a time of declared emergency.

Sincerely,

NVIC Advocacy Team
National Vaccine Information Center
http://NVIC.org and http://NVICAdvocacy.org
https://nvicadvocacy.org/members/Members/ContactUs.aspx

The National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC) works diligently to prepare and disseminate our legislative advocacy action alerts and supporting materials.  We request that organizations and members of the public forward our alerts in their original form to assure consistent and accurate messaging and effective action. Please acknowledge NVIC as originators of this work when forwarding to members of the public and like-minded organizations. To receive alerts immediately, register  at http://NVICAdvocacy.org, a website dedicated to this sole purpose and provided as a free public service by NVIC. 

NY Gov. Cuomo killed religious exemptions, now poses as champion of tolerance

[Comment: John Gilmore, Executive Director of Autism Action Network (autismactionnetwork.org), wrote the following on December 30, 2019. We find it relevant to the fight facing us right now, here in Florida. Please, take action to help defeat SB 64.]

—

NY Gov. Cuomo killed religious exemptions, now poses as champion of tolerance

By John Gilmore

What could be more hypocritical than New York Governor Andrew Cuomo posing as a champion of religious tolerance? In the wake of yet another violent crime directed at New York’s ultra-orthodox Jewish community, the Governor who kicked 26,000 students out of school in New York this summer for having religious beliefs with which he disagrees, said in a press conference last night, “We are founded on the premise of tolerance for differences.”

The Governor, who along with many of his Democratic colleagues in the legislature, and the corporate media, just spent the last year vilifying the ultra-Orthodox Jewish community. Rolling out ancient anti-Semitic tropes and blaming families who had religious exemptions from vaccine mandates as the cause of the ridiculously hyped measles outbreak. The public health authorities never produced any data showing that any children with religious exemptions got the measles. No matter, the most visibly Jewish Jews were the problem. Now we see a huge spike in violent attacks on the ultra-Orthodox community. Coincidence?

Cuomo took to the media last night following the most recent violence directed at the Jewish community, this time an attack by a machete-wielding man on the home of a Rabbi and his family celebrating Hannukah in the ultra-Orthodox enclave of Monsey in Rockland County. Nobody was killed, but five people were injured. “Hostility based on religion,” Cuomo said in front of the TV cameras, “It is an American cancer spreading through the body politic.” He should know, Cuomo is one of the carcinogens spreading the disease.

We will be gathering in Albany on Jan. 8, the first day of the 2020 legislative session to fight a slate of bills, all introduced by Democrats, adding more than 20 new doses of vaccines to the mandated schedule, and eliminating parents’ right to even know what is injected into their children. Cuomo will also deliver his annual State of the State Address that day. We need to be there in large numbers. Tickets are available for Cuomo’s speech through a lottery. Please apply for a ticket (it’s free) at the address below. Today is the last day to apply. Winners of the tickets will be announced on Jan. 6.

https://www.governor.ny.gov/content/2020-state-state-address

Please call the Governor’s office today and politley express your thoughts to the staffer on his new found enthusiasm for religious tolerance:

(518) 474-8390

“New York is about diversity,” Cuomo went on to say in the press conference, “New York is about tolerance.” Says the man who almost single handedly shut down the Amish school system in New York. A group of people who fled Germany 300 years ago seeking religious liberty who found it in colonial America, and who haven’t bothered anybody since. This is the Governor who created a new group of people: religious refugees from New York. The same Governor who within fourteen days of signing the repeal of the religious exemption was kicking special needs children, some of New York’s most vulnerable people, out of school, utterly abandoning them and their families.

Credible people, organizations, and legislators from the Governor’s own party warned that the Governor’s course could lead to violence. That is exactly what State Senators Simcha Felder and Brian Kavanaugh said, as well as Assemblymembers Joe Lentol, Simcha Eichenstein, Steven Cymbrowitz, William Colton and others. And Agudat Israel, an umbrella group of Orthodox organizations, made exactly that argument trying to stop the repeal of the religious exemption.

The drug industry, which is also the vaccine industry, is the largest source of advertising dollars in the US. It is also the single largest source of campaign money (legal bribes). Eliminating any parental choice over what vaccines a child gets is a top legislative goal for the drug industry. And Cuomo and the Democrats produced for them in New York. So it took stoking anti-Semitic flames, it will pass.

This is the same Governor who said, “Right to life, pro-assault weapons, anti-gay – if that’s who they are, they have no place in the state of New York because that’s not who New Yorkers are.” Let that soak in, the Governor of New York, who claims to be a Roman Catholic, is willing to say that anyone who agrees with the pro-life stance or the traditional view on marriage of his purported own Church, and the entire Hasidic community he claims to care so much about, should leave New York. Yeah, Andy, tolerance.

Last night the Governor said, “If someone thinks there isn’t something poisonous then they are in denial.” Absolutely Governor, but who is in denial?

Cuomo makes no secret of his presidential ambitions, so we are sending this New York-focused Action Alert nationwide. There are still rumors he may enter the Democratic primary.

See the press conference here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kvi8Sx7GmRo&fbclid=IwAR0_QcpseLpE8Kqvjv2CZKp3kc9dQ7LO-OAyJXAKDRPjQqX7msAnV0mWW3Q&app=desktop

Massive Public Pushback Sinks New Jersey’s Attack Upon Religious Exemptions For Vaccines

Last night, after citizens won a historic victory in New Jersey to preserve religious exemptions from vaccination, comedian Rob Schneider captured our feelings in a series of tweets which evoked the courage of the Chinese protesters in Tiananmen Square in 1989:

— source: https://twitter.com/RobSchneider/status/1206749795789897729

—

FLORIDIANS: Let’s learn from the good folks of New Jersey! Please be vocal and active now, in order to defeat SB64, which would remove religious exemptions in Florida! WE CAN and MUST DEFEAT SB64!

—

Massive Public Pushback Sinks New Jersey’s Attack Upon Religious Exemptions For Vaccines, Says ICAN’s Del Bigtree
https://thehighwire.com/massive-public-pushback-sinks-new-jerseys-attack-upon-religious-exemptions-for-vaccines-says-icans-del-bigtree/

EXCERPT:
TRENTON, NJ (December 16th, 2019) — In a big victory for New Jersey citizens and medical and religious freedom, the State’s Senate failed in its attempts to pass a new bill that would have eliminated religious exemptions for vaccinations, according to non-profit Informed Consent Action Network (ICAN).

Thousands of parents protested inside and outside the State Capitol for over ten hours on Monday, chanting “Kill the Bill,” “We Will Not Comply” “My Child, My Choice” and “Stay Strong, Lagana!” referring to NJ State Senator Joe Lagana.

“This is a victory for the people of the state of New Jersey,” says Del Bigtree, founder of ICAN. “This bill was fast-tracked to steamroll its way to passage, but the good people of New Jersey rose up and reminded politicians who’s really in charge of their children.”

Controversial bill S2173 would have put an end to a rule that allowed more than 14,000 state students to skip their vaccines because of their family’s religious beliefs. It was similar to recent bills passed in California and New York State.

Earlier Monday, the New Jersey bill passed the State Assembly in a 45-24 vote with seven abstentions

State Sen. Joseph Vitale (D-Middlesex), who sponsored the bill, said that he was one vote shy of passage, thus a Senate vote would not be held.

The New Jersey Legislature will have an opportunity to revive the bill in January, before its two-year session ends Jan. 13. But if the bill does not pass before Jan. 13, the entire process would have to start over next session.

Weekly online medical news program “The HighWire with Del Bigtree” was the only media source to cover the protests live, garnering more than 250,000 views over their Facebook, YouTube and Twitter platforms over the course of the day.

—-

N.J. Senate calls off vote to eliminate religion as reason to skip child vaccines as protestors roar
https://www.nj.com/education/2019/12/senate-calls-off-vote-to-eliminate-religion-as-reason-to-skip-child-vaccines-sponsor-says.html
EXCERPT:
Once Senate President Stephen Sweeney, D-Gloucester, ended the session without taking up the bill, a huge and sustained cheer from the hundreds of parents who turned out to oppose the measure erupted from the gallery and hallway outside the Senate chambers in Trenton.

Opponents had staged one of the largest, longest, and loudest protests in Statehouse history, lawmakers remarked. And it came on an already busy day in which lawmakers in both houses of the state Legislature considered more than 100 pieces of legislation.

… And Sweeney insisted that the Senate will attempt to vote on the bill again, possibly in the coming weeks.

—-

Civil Rights Lawyer: Repealing Exemptions is Wrong Way to Fight Measles
https://fearlessparent.org/repealing-religious-exemptions-wrong-way-fight-measles/
EXCERPT:
In summary, I urge you to reject the “nuclear option” here, represented by repealing the religious exemption will displace thousands of children from your state’s schools and not improve public health. It will be a signal that your state does not respect essential constitutional principles and is prepared to expel thousands of students and make any education beyond their reach in your state.

—

Measles in Samoa: Why are So Many Dying?
https://thevaccinereaction.org/2019/12/measles-in-samoa-why-are-so-many-dying/
EXCERPT:
Curiously, no mainstream media outlet covering the measles outbreak in Samoa is asking why there have been so many deaths in that country, yet there have been no deaths associated with measles outbreaks in the U.S. From Jan. 1 through Dec. 5, 2019, there have been 1,276 confirmed measles cases in the U.S. but no child or adult has died.

What makes measles a far more serious disease in developing countries than it is in developed countries like the U.S.? It is important to understand the history of measles and measles vaccine because it is different for different countries.

—

HPV: WHO calls for countries to suspend vaccination of boys
https://www.bmj.com/content/367/bmj.l6765
EXCERPT:
The World Health Organization is calling on countries that are vaccinating boys against the human papillomavirus (HPV) to suspend these programmes until all girls who need the vaccine can get it.

—

Author Response to Journal of Toxicology and Environmental Health Retraction of “A lowered probability of pregnancy in females in the USA aged 25-29 who received a human papillomavirus vaccine injection”
https://www.ageofautism.com/2019/12/author-response-to-journal-of-toxicology-and-environmental-health-retraction-of-a-lowered-probabilit.html

NVIC CALLS FOR URGENT ACTION IN NEW JERSEY VACCINE LEGISLATION

—-

By: THE NATIONAL VACCINE INFORMATION CENTER
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 14, 2019
https://www.jeffereyjaxen.com/blog/nvic-calls-for-urgent-action-in-new-jersey-vaccine-legislation
EXCERPT:
Dear New Jersey NVIC Advocacy Team Members,

The forced vaccination agenda is spinning out of control in New Jersey.
The fate of forced vaccination of children and adults through 5 bills will be decided Monday afternoon, December 16th, in the full Senate and Assembly sessions. S2173, S1003, A3818, A1576, and A1991 all need to be stopped!

It is critical that you make calls and send emails this weekend and Monday morning to your Senator, Assembly Member and the Governor to oppose these bills. Go to your Senator and Assembly Member’s offices in the Capitol on Monday morning. Talking points are below or download and print in a handout here.

—-

New Jersey Bills S2173 and A3818 “Exemptions from Mandatory Immunizations”
https://childrenshealthdefense.org/news/new-jersey-bills-s2173-and-a3818-exemptions-from-mandatory-immunizations/
EXCERPT:
If S2173 passes on Monday, it will effectively marginalize those with religious convictions against vaccinations. It will take effect in six months and eliminate all non-medical exemptions. Guidelines for medical exemptions will be provided to state health authorities. Thus, the state will review the validity of medical exemptions. There will be no religious exemption for future mandates. Judging by California, New York and Maine, such medical exemptions would be exceedingly narrow.

S2173 contains no carve-outs for special needs students entitled to a free and appropriate public education under federal law. There are no carve-outs for private, religious schools. It will apply to daycare, primary school and higher education. There is no upper-age limit for the repeal. Unlike New York or California laws, the New Jersey law would apply to higher education. Thus, under the terms of the law, a 60-year old taking a cooking class at a community college could be required to prove vaccination status before enrollment. This could include even online courses at any institution of higher education in New Jersey.

In my brief testimony, I called out the fact that three Senators who had promised to maintain the religious exemption were absent and had been replaced by the Chair with three legislators who voted in favor of the repeal of the religious exemption.

There were hundreds of people at the hearing, outside, in overflow rooms and in the hearing room.

—-

ACTION ALERT!! New Jersey S2173 12/16 Signing to Remove Religious Vaccine Exemption
https://www.ageofautism.com/2019/12/action-alert-new-jersey-s2173-1216-signing-to-remove-religious-vaccine-exemption.html

—-

Dear Governor Murphy, Protect Religious Exemptions, Veto S2173/A3818

Dear Governor Murphy, Protect Religious Exemptions, Veto S2173/A3818

By Louise Kuo Habakus
EXCERPT:
With your leadership, New Jersey can take a different approach. Wrestling with these difficulties, many states are not clamoring to be out in front. Nearly a dozen states chose not to advance similar bills. Concerned about measles, Washington state removed the philosophical exemption to MMR only and preserved exemptions for all other vaccines. It preserved the religious exemption — can’t we do the same? The National Conference of State Legislatures acknowledges the permeability between philosophical and religious exemptions, that personal belief exemptions are encompassed in states which only provide for religious exemptions. There are different names in 47 US states for the laws (and rights) that serve the same non-medical exemption function.

—-

NETFLIX DAYBREAK SHAMELESSLY MARKETS HPV SHOT TO KIDS
https://www.jeffereyjaxen.com/blog/netflix-daybreak-shamelessly-markets-hpv-shot-to-kids

—-

CONNECTICUT MOBILIZES: BLACK COMMUNITY QUESTIONS RISE IN CHRONIC ILLNESS AT STATE CAPITOL
https://www.jeffereyjaxen.com/blog/connecticut-mobilizes-black-community-questions-rise-in-chronic-illness-at-state-capitol