Huge Victory for Vaccine Rights in Vermont

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Sheri

Huge Victory for Vaccine Rights in Vermont

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Citizen Activists Stop Pharma Cold

Advocates for vaccine choice rights delivered a humiliating defeat to the

vaccine industry in Vermont this week with the defeat of S 199, a bill

that would have eliminated the right of Vermont parents to refuse

mandatory vaccines to attend school for “philosophical” reasons. A

coalition of citizens and health rights organizations stopped the very

well funded effort by the vaccine industry in the first full-scale

attempt to repeal a state’s philosophical exemption law. And this victory

is bound to resonate in the statehouses were similar efforts are under

way.

S 199 was introduced by State Senator Bill Mullin, the Vermont Chairman

of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) Chairperson for

Vermont. ALEC is lobbying organization that attempts to pass legislation

in the states that reflect the interest of the large corporations that

fund it , which includes all the giant drug and vaccine companies. In the

Vermont House of Representatives the bill was introduced by Till,

MD, an OBGYN. Dr. Harry Chen, the Commissioner of the Vermont Department

of Health Services, pushed hard for the bill claiming that vaccination

rates for young children were declining. Chen continued to make this

claim throughout the debate even though the Center of Disease Control

claims that vaccination rates for the DTP, MMR and Polio vaccines are at

their highest levels ever recorded in Vermont and have gone up in

children aged 3 ever year for the past three years. Chen’s argument

features an odd logic: if people exercise their rights then that right

must be taken away.

The bill was quickly passed by the Vermont Senate and then went to the

House, by the time it got to the House parents throughout Vermont

organized and fought back hard. First the bill failed to pass the House

Health Committee, and then a modified bill was soundly defeated on the

House. Floor. A bill still called S199 emerged from the

legislature, but it left the philosophical exemption intact. Parents will

now have to submit letters on any annual basis and must sign a statement

that inaccurately states that they acknowledge not vaccinating puts

others at risk, but these provisions are face saving bones thrown to

assuage what amounts to a complete drubbing by the opponents S 199.

This is an important defeat in the nationwide effort the vaccine industry

has launched to reduce parental control over vaccine decisions for their

children. Last year California passed a bill, AB 499, that allows

children to get vaccines and medical treatment for any of a long list of

disease that must be reported to the California Health Department,

including anthrax, all sexually-transmitted diseases, diphtheria,

pertussis, tetanus, measles, mumps, rubella, Hepatitis A, B and C and

many others.

Washington State, home of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, passed a

bill that requires parents there to have a physician sign a form and give

them a lecture before they can exercise their right to refuse.

California has a similar bill, AB 2109, currently moving through the

legislature. Hopefully, people in California and other states will follow

Vermont’s lead. Senator Mullin the sponsor of the Vermont bill said, “I

never thought this would turn into the mess it turned into.” And house

sponsor Till gave credit for defeating the bill to involved

citizens “They were here every single day in people’s faces,” Till

said. “It was hard for a lot of members to remember that they were

hearing from a very small but vocal group.” (Hallenbeck, 2004)

The bill sponsors may regret their efforts, 2012 is an election year in

Vermont and activists on S199 have said they will be continuing the job

by assuring that Mullin and Till are not returned to office.

Please share this message with friends and family and please post to

Facebook and other social networks. And if you support the work of the

Autism Action Network please consider making a donation at

www.autismactionnetwork.org/donate.html

Hallenbeck, Terri, Legislature votes to preserve vaccination

exemption, Burlington Free Press, May 4, 2004,

http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/article/20120504/NEWS03/120503050/Legislature-votes-preserve-vaccination-exemption?odyssey=tab%7Ctopnews%7Ctext%7CFRONTPAGE

Sheri Nakken, former R.N., MA, Hahnemannian

Homeopath

Vaccination Information & Choice Network, Washington State, USA

Vaccines -

http://vaccinationdangers.wordpress.com/ Homeopathy

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