LIVING UNDER TYRANNY
“If people let the government decide what foods they eat and what medicines they take, their bodies will soon be in as sorry a state as are the souls who live under tyranny.”
Thomas Jefferson paraphrase from “Notes on Virginia”
NEW YORK ENDS RELIGIOUS EXEMPTIONS
FOR VACCINES AMID MEASLES PANIC
BY LUIS MIGUEL
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational and research purposes:
New York is the most recent state to impose a stricter compulsory immunization policy.
The state’s lawmakers on Thursday passed legislation that eliminates religious exemptions to vaccinations for schoolchildren. Democrat Governor Andrew Cuomo signed the bill just minutes after it made its way through both the Assembly and the Senate.
Proponents of the legislation painted the bill as a response to what many mainstream media outlets are calling “the nation’s worst measles outbreak in decades.”
Governor Cuomo called the outbreak a public health emergency and asserted that public health trumps religious liberties. “While I understand and respect freedom of religion, our first job is to protect the public health,” he said.
Assemblyman Kenneth Zebrowski, a Rockland County Democrat, argued that his county alone had 266 confirmed measles cases and over a dozen hospitalizations — which prompted his family to accelerate vaccinations for his one-year-old daughter.
“Our job is not just to react to epidemics,” said Zebrowski prior to his “yes” vote. “Our job as legislators is to prevent epidemics.”
Most of the measles cases have occurred in Orthodox Jewish communities in Brooklyn and Rockland County. Opponents of the bill were vocal at the Assembly vote, where cries of “shame” descended from the gallery after the legislation passed 77-53. It went on to pass 36-26 in the Senate.
The hundreds of protesters at the New York Capitol included children, families, and member of the state’s religious community.
Stan Yung, a Long Island father, said he is considering moving his family out of state because his Russian Orthodox views keep him from vaccinating his children. “People came to this country to get away from exactly this kind of stuff,” Yung explained.
Democrat Jeffrey Dinowitz, the bill’s sponsor in the Assembly, shot back at claims that compulsory vaccination infringes on religious freedom. “I’m not aware of anything in the Torah, the Bible, the Koran or anything else that suggests you should not get vaccinated,” Dinowitz stated. “If you choose to not vaccinate your child, therefore potentially endangering other children ... then you’re the one choosing not to send your children to school.”
The law will not eliminate exemptions for children who cannot receive vaccines for medical reasons, such as a weakened immune system.
With the new legislation, New York joins California, Arizona, West Virginia, Mississippi, and Maine among states that do not allow vaccine exemptions on religious grounds.
California removed its exemptions in 2015 following a measles outbreak at Disneyland that affected 147 people. The state is currently considering legislation that would tighten medical exemptions by requiring them to be issued by a state public health officer rather than a doctor.
On Instagram, Biel wrote that while she supports vaccines, she opposes SB 276 because it would interfere with parents’ “right to make educated medical decisions for their children alongside their physicians.”
Following the signing of the immunization bill in New York on Thursday, the American Medical Association stated it would increase its efforts to “incentivize states to eliminate nonmedical exemptions.” It also vowed to support legislation allowing minors to request vaccines without their parents’ consent.
Also on Thursday, the New York City Health Department shut down two Jewish schools for failing to comply with an order to keep unvaccinated children away.
New York City Mayor Bill De Blasio formerly called for misdemeanor charges and $1,000 fine on anyone who refuses a measles vaccine in response to measles cases in Brooklyn’s Orthodox Jewish community.
While much of the energy to establish mandatory vaccination comes from the recent measles “outbreak,” most measles cases are not severe. And although the media frequently remarks that the disease was declared eliminated in 2000, there have been over 100 confirmed cases of measles most years since 2008.
As The New American previously reported, there were no deaths from measles between 2003 and 2015 (even with 667 confirmed cases in 2014), but there were 100 child deaths linked to the measles vaccine, which contains a live virus.
While mandatory vaccination advocates treat all shots as infallible, the truth is that vaccines, like any other medication, carry risks.
The varicella vaccine, for example, has caused nearly 4,000 adverse effects as of mid-2018, including 200 deaths (most of whom were children under six). All that for an illness (chicken pox) with a mortality rate of 0.003 percent that most families used to see as a harmless, if inconvenient, part of growing up.
The tactics being employed by the compulsory vaccination movement are typical of those who strive to grow government power. Fomenting fear is the best way to convince the average citizen to surrender his freedoms.
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New York Bill Removing Religious Vaccine Exemption Turned Into Law on One Day with No Public Hearings
BY NATIONAL VACCINE INFORMATION CENTER
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational and research purposes:
On June 13, 2019, the New York legislature quickly pushed a bill (A2371) to repeal the religious exemption to vaccination through both the Assembly and Senate in one day with no public hearings.1 The unprecedented legislative coup, which cut the citizens of New York out of participating in the law making process, culminated in the Governor of New York Andrew Cuomo immediately signing the bill into law.2 3 The Assembly narrowly voted 77 to 53 to approve the bill, after passing with a margin of only one vote out of the Assembly Health Committee, and then the Senate approved the bill 36 to 26.4
“This new law, which was rammed through the New York legislature in one day without public participation in the democratic process violates the human right to hold religious and spiritual beliefs that honor and protect bodily integrity,” said Barbara Loe Fisher, Co-founder and President of the National Vaccine Information Center. “ When a government has to resort to forcing parents to choose between violating their religious beliefs and conscience or giving their children a school education, that government has chosen to rule by fear and coercion and will lose the respect and trust of the people.”
The bill’s sponsors, attorney Senator Brad Hoylman (D-Manhattan) and attorney Assembly Member Jeffrey Dinowitz (D-Bronx), the New York State Health Commissioner and attorney Howard Zucker, MD justified the action based on more than 800 cases of measles reported in several New York City neighborhoods since September 2018. As of June 6, 2019, there had been 1,022 cases of measles reported in the U.S. population of 328 million people with 266 cases occurring in Rockland County, New York and 588 cases in New York City since last fall.5 However, there have been no cases of measles reported among children attending school with religious exemptions, and the CDC has stated that 97 percent of children attending kindergarten in New York in the 2017-2018 school year had received two doses of MMR vaccine.6
In a special report about measles and MMR vaccine published on May 25, 2019, NVIC provided scientific evidence published in the medical literature that:7
- Vaccinated mothers no longer have measles maternal antibodies to transfer to their newborns to protect them in the first year of life, so infants are susceptible to measles from birth
- Fully vaccinated children and adults can get wild type measles and infect others without showing any symptoms;
- Subclinical cases of measles in vaccinated persons are not being identified or reported;
- MMR vaccine strains no longer match currently circulating wild type measles strains;
- MMR vaccine acquired immunity is waning in older children and adults
- Many cases of measles in the U.S. and other countries are occurring in vaccinated adults with waning immunity
“It was a very dark day in New York for families with vaccine injured children,” said Dawn Richardson, NVIC’s Director of Advocacy. “They had to witness industry backed misinformation being manipulated for the purpose of denying parents the right to obtain an exemption for sincere religious beliefs for children dependent on critical special education and therapies received at school.” She added, “The democratic process is designed to be inclusive and move slowly and deliberatively over the course of an entire legislative session but, in New York this year the democratic process was subverted, betraying those affected the most by this one day political stunt. At the end of the day, removing longstanding religious belief exemptions will not prevent measles from circulating in New York or any other state.”
About 24,000 children in New York currently attend school with a religious exemption to vaccination (0.8 percent of all students).8 Those children now will have to immediately get all state mandate vaccines according to the schedule published by the federal Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices or be home schooled next school year.9 Some families have said they will have to move out of the state because their children are already vaccine injured or have brain and immune system disorders that do not qualify for medical exemptions under narrow federal vaccine use guidelines.10
“New York has joined Mississippi, West Virginia, Maine and California as states that do not respect freedom of thought, conscience and religious beliefs, which are foundational liberties considered to be among the most important human rights,” said Loe Fisher. “This action by the government of New York will only reinvigorate the vaccine safety and informed consent movement founded in 1982 by parents of DPT vaccine injured children. Today, more Americans understand that “no exceptions” public health laws, which force use of a liability free pharmaceutical product in the name of the greater good, is a prescription for tyranny.”
On June 7, 2019, Crain’s New York Business reported that The Partnership for New York City, which represents more than 350 major city employers, wrote a letter to legislators calling for an end to religious exemptions to vaccinations.11 Among the business group’s members and partners are Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson, Google, Inc., Microsoft Corp., Omnicon Public Relations Group, Anthem Empire Blue Cross/Blue Shield and top corporate investment and entrepreneurial firms. In what may or may not be a coincidence, according to Albany Business Review, ILUM Health Solutions, a subsidiary of vaccine industry giant Merck & Co, Inc., announced plans on June 12, 2019 to create 115 new jobs in the Albany area over the next five years, investing 48 million.13
References:
1 New York State Assembly. A02371 Bill to Repeal Exemption to Vaccination for Religious Beliefs. Bill History Summary of Actions. June 13, 2019.2 Office of NY Governor Mario Cuomo. Press Release: Governor Cuomo Signs Legislation Removing Non-Medical Exemptions from School Vaccination Requirements. June 13, 2019.3 Allyn B. New York Ends Religious Exemptions for Required Vaccines. NPR June 13, 2019.4 Precious T. New York Ends Vaccination Exemptions Based on Religious Beliefs. Buffalo NewsJune 13, 2019.5 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Measles Cases and Outbreaks. June 10, 2019.6 CDC. Vaccination Coverage for Selected Vaccines and Exemption Rates Among Children in Kindergarten – United States, 2017-2018 School Year. MMWR Oct. 12, 2018; 67(40): 1115-1122.7 Fisher BL. What’s Going On With Measles? The Science and Politics of Eradicating Measles. NVIC Newsletter May 25, 2019.8 Precious T. New York Ends Vaccination Exemptions Based on Religious Beliefs. Buffalo NewsJune 13, 2019.9 CDC. Recommended Child and Adolescent Immunization Schedule for ages 18 years or younger, United States, 2019. Feb. 5, 2019.10 CDC. Recommendations and Guidelines of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP): Contraindications and Precautions. Table 4-2. Conditions incorrectly perceived as contraindications or precautions to vaccination (i.e., vaccines may be given under these conditions). Jan. 10, 2019.11 Deffenbach R. City’s largest business group supports bill to end religious exemption for vaccines. Crain’s New York Business June 7, 2019.12 Partnership for New York City. Members.
13 Young L. This Merck subsidiary is expanding in Albany — and hiring. Albany Business ReviewJune 12, 2019.
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AMA Wants Minors to Get Vaccinated
Without Parental Consent
The American Medical Association (AMA) has voted on June 10, 2019 to give “mature” children the power to consent to vaccinations and override the wishes of their parents if they choose. According to Sarp Aksel, MD, who represents the AMA in New York, “Minors who have demonstrated capacity and who are able to provide informed consent should be able to receive vaccinations regardless of the flawed beliefs of their guardians.”1 2
The resolution by the AMA was voted on at the organization’s 2019 annual meeting in Chicago, Illinois earlier this week. The measure itself carries no binding legal authority. It is a policy recommendation, and it is aimed at influencing state legislators throughout the United States to introduce legislation and pass laws reflecting the AMA’s policy.
As reporter Kate Raines wrote in a recent article in The Vaccine Reaction:
As it applies to vaccination, several states already use the “mature minor” doctrine to give minors the right to make vaccines decisions and other decisions about medical interventions without parental knowledge or consent.3
“Mature minor” laws are already in place in Alaska, Arkansas, Alaska, Arkansas, Delaware, Idaho, Illinois, Kansas, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee and West Virginia. A bill was introduced earlier this year in New York that would permit children 14 years of age and older to be vaccinated without the permission of their parents.3
AMA board member Bobby Mukkamala, MD said, “Allowing mature minors to provide informed consent to vaccinations will ensure these patients can access this type of preventive care.” Neither Dr. Mukkamala nor the AMA defined what they mean by “mature” children or specified who should have the authority to make that determination.1 2
Kevin Reilly, MD of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) noted that, despite the AMA resolution allowing minor children to ignore parental consent rights and get vaccinated if they wish, parents would still be required to pay for the vaccinations. He also pointed out the danger the new AMA policy poses in the form of “chipping away at parental rights.”1
References:
