Health Impact News

The State of Washington seems to be leading the nation in the rush to take away personal liberties associated with medical procedures such as vaccines, according to some.

The following letter-to-the-editor was sent to Health Impact News:

Losing your civil liberties? Thank the Washington Legislature

States, like Washington, are passing legislation undermining reunification of families, preventing adoption, further burdening licensed foster homes, and ultimately eroding our civil liberties.

WAC 388-148-1320 was enacted in January of 2015. All persons in a licensed foster home with foster youth two years of age or younger are required to have proof of full immunizations. It restricts foster homes from caring for dependent children under two years of age if the family does not vaccinate themselves and their children.

How the WA legislature failed to perceive a fallout from this law is beyond comprehension. If we, a collective society, are going to protect our kids, all kids, we have to start by protecting our right to choose. I want to focus on three inevitable ‘fallouts’ from this law.

First: Anyone who presently cares for dependent children (children of the state) have until mid-February 2015 to have their families vaccinated in order to maintain custody, or they must relinquish rights to caring for those children two and younger. As a state with a burdened foster care system the potential loss of more licensed homes will inevitably impact the kids.

Second: In order to adopt a child, a prospective adoptive family, much like a prospective foster family, must undergo a home study. Now, as a result of WAC 388-148-1320, home studies will require prospective adoptive families adhere to the new requirements implemented on licensed foster homes. Families must adhere and vaccinate themselves or fail a home study. Failure of a home study results in ones inability to adopt. The result is less eligible adoptive parents to take in these kids.

Third: If the state removes an infant/toddler from his home the family may petition the court and regain custody. However, if returned to the family but under the supervision of the state, the family must adhere to this new law or potentially permanently lose all parental rights.

WAC 388-148-1320 was passed by a heavily lobbied legislature and the ill effects are only beginning to unfold. How will other states react? At what point will the federal government attempt to mandate vaccinations? Historically, starting in 1974, states did not receive certain federal funding unless they provided a religious exemption to vaccinations. However, that religious exemption to acquire federal funding was removed in 1983. Now, we are at the mercy of the state upholding religious and philosophical exemptions because the federal government has consistently refused to recognize a federal religious and philosophical exemption.

While difficult, it is much less difficult to prevent tyranny than overturn it. With states folding to the pressure isn’t it reasonable to expect a federal power grab?

Let us all retain the right to choose.

Capt. Luke D. Miller USMC (ret.)

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Washington State House Committee Passes Bill to Remove Vaccine Exemptions

The Washington House Health Care & Wellness Committee approved a bill that would remove personal and philosophical exemptions for those who refuse vaccines by a 10-5 vote Wednesday (February 18, 2015). It could be considered for a vote by the full House in the coming weeks.

Currently, Washington allows parents to claim school-vaccination exemptions for children at public or private schools or licensed day care centers based on medical, religious and personal or philosophical beliefs. House Bill 2009 removes the personal or philosophical belief allowance for an exemption. Washington is among 20 states that allow for personal-belief exemptions and 48 that allow for religious exemptions.

Take Action if You Want to Preserve Your Liberties!

If you live in Washington and want to retain your freedom to choose which vaccines you need for your children, and which ones are not needed, here are some action items as published by the National Vaccine Information Center Advocacy Portal:

We are asking everyone in Washington who cares about the right to be able to make informed vaccination decisions for their children, which includes the right to delay or decline one or more vaccines, to immediately contact your representative and senator and ask them to oppose HB 2009.

HB 2009 creates a hostile environment for Washington families who don’t agree with safety, efficacy, or necessity of every single dose of every single government mandated vaccine. http://lawfilesext.leg.wa.gov/biennium/2015-16/Pdf/Bills/House%20Bills/2009.pdf – text for HB 2009.

Do not put this off thinking somebody else will do it. If this issue is important to you, make the time to educate your legislators and come and testify on Tuesday because if you don’t, the only information they are getting is the pharma/medical lobby funded forced vaccination agenda that has been responsible for instigating the current frenzy in the media.

Representative Robinson, a bill sponsor, who works for Public Health Seattle-King County, said in a news article the philosophical exemption

“just makes it too easy for parents to not think about the effect that they’re having on the community. I think people really need a legitimate reason to send their kid to school and not have them vaccinated,” she told The Associated Press. “They’re putting the rest of the school, the rest of the community, at risk by doing that.”

In the same news article, Representative Eileen Cody, another bill sponsor and the chairwoman of the House Health Care & Wellness Committee, said “There is momentum, and I think we should strike when the iron’s hot.” http://www.komonews.com/news/local/Washington-lawmaker-aims-to-limit-vaccine-exemptions-290871601.html

Do not let these decisions be made for you by those whose power, positions or profit are dependent on forced vaccination.

LEGISLATIVE EDUCATION ACTION NEEDED NOW

Contact your Washington State Representative and Senator and ask them to OPPOSE HB 2009. If you do not know who your Washington State Representative and Senator are, you can login to the NVIC Advocacy Portal and your elected officials are posted on the right hand side of your state page http://NVICAdvocacy.org.

You can also use this search engine to find your legislators.

http://app.leg.wa.gov/DistrictFinder/

You can also use this form to send comments to your representative: https://app.leg.wa.gov/pbc/bill/2009.

Contact Governor Inslee ask him to support maintaining philosophical and personal exemptions to mandatory vaccinations and to oppose any effort, like HB 2009, to repeal or restrict these exemptions.  http://www.governor.wa.gov/contact/contact/contact-gov-inslee

TALKING POINTS:

Introduce yourself and identify yourself as a constituent. Ask your legislator to OPPOSE HB 2009 which eliminates the philosophical and personal belief exemption to vaccine mandates.

Explain why it is important to your family to be able to delay or decline vaccination using the philosophical or personal exemption.  This is where you could BRIEFLY share your vaccine reaction, harassment, or vaccine failure story to personalize your communication.

Explain that there are some very important reasons why legally protecting the right to informed consent to vaccination without penalty by the state should be a priority:

·   Vaccines are pharmaceutical products that cause injury and death for some. The United States Government has paid out more than $3 billion dollars to vaccine victims. Many more people have adverse reactions. Nobody can predict who will be harmed from vaccines..

·   Vaccines manufacturers and the doctors who administer vaccines are completely shielded from liability for vaccine injuries and deaths.

·   Vaccines fail sometimes where even fully vaccinated people become infected.  Nobody can predict who will or will not respond to vaccines.

·   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 15 years. Those supporting forced vaccination are being dishonest by not acknowledging the exploding vaccine schedule while sounding alarms over small increases in overall non-medical exemptions.

·   There are hundreds of new vaccines in development including some of the following in clinical trials: HIV, herpes, E. coli, dengue fever, avian influenza, smallpox, tuberculosis, typhoid, norovirus, cholera, smoking cessation, syphilis, and gonorrhea. If vaccine manufactures and others who profit from forced vaccination convince legislators take away our right to delay or decline a vaccine now, what will our future look like?

·    In the past 5 years, drug makers have paid the U.S. Government $19.2 billion in criminal and civil FRAUD penalties. Skepticism of the pharmaceutical industry is well deserved, and it doesn’t imply a skepticism of science.

·    Physicians, in the American Medical Association Code of Ethics, affirm philosophical exemptions for themselves. See Opinion 9.133 Routine Universal Immunization of Physicians.  Parents should have that same right.

Refer to NVIC’s “Reforming Vaccine Policy and Law” guide for answers to questions your legislators may have.  The fully referenced version can be found on our site posted at: http://www.nvic.org/Vaccine-Laws/state-vaccine-requirements/Reforming-Vaccine-Policy—Law-Guide.aspx. You can include this link in your letters as well.

Refer to “Measles in Disneyland: Third MMR Shot and Vaccine Exemption Ban?”  by NVIC’s President Barbara Loe Fisher for some illuminating insight into facts that need to be exposed about the California measles outbreak and other vaccine failures.
http://www.nvic.org/NVIC-Vaccine-News/January-2015/measles-in-disneyland-third-mmr-shot-and-vaccine.aspx

* Indicates the representative is a sponsor of HB 2009

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See Also:

Spokane Board of Health Member Being Threatened for Questioning Vaccines

Saying NO To Vaccines
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