The Final SB 276 Push: What Might Help with the Legislators and What Won’t
By all accounts, SB 276 will come out of the suspense docket next week. That means it goes for a vote in the Assembly and presumably back to the Senate to consider the amendments made during its travels through the Assembly, then to a Senate vote, and if it passes, on to the Governor’s desk.
Caveat: I am not an expert on the California legislative process. Nonetheless, I do have opinions on what I think might impress the legislators and what won’t.
First, here are the loser arguments in order of loser-ness:
The Biggest Loser argument: “I have a constitutional right and absolute freedom not to vaccinate my child and send him/her to public school.”
No, you don’t! That argument was made in at least four different SB 277 lawsuits, and it lost every time. You may have that right someplace, but not in California.
The Second Biggest Loser argument: “It will cost a lot of money to put SB 276 in place.”
The job of government is to protect the public. In the public health context, whatever it takes to protect the public from risks identified by the authorities designated to make such decisions is cheap at 10 times the cost. Money is irrelevant to avoid a perceived/misperceived/manufactured public health crises.
The Third Biggest Loser argument: “If the law passes, thousands of vaccine aware families will leave the state.”
As my grandfather used to say, “Don’t let the door bump you in the ass as you leave.” Respectfully, and as you most likely know, at this point in time, the vaccine aware are considered the modern-day lepers. There are recent examples of official and social actions against unvaccinated children. In this environment, you’d be more apt to get an offer of bus fare out of the state than support from most legislators if you argue that the vaccine concerned will leave if the bill passes. Actually, making life more difficult for you, if and after SB 276 passes is probably in the cards, all with an eye to accomplish exactly what you are threatening them with, namely the exodus of the vaccine aware from California. So, don’t make their day.
The Fourth Worst argument: “Doctors should be making these decisions, not state officials.” The recent amendment puts an appeals process in place where the review of physician exemptions is in the hands of physician specialists, not public health officials. That was the criticism of early versions of the bill, and it was addressed and changed.
What about the variation of the argument that a physician who has seen the patient has to have the final say on a medical exemption?
The problem is that SB 276 was supposedly introduced to eliminate the handful of physicians writing fake exemptions. Of course, to date, there are no board orders making such conclusions, but there are several doctors under investigation for doing so, as has been recently reported in several NorCal papers. So, while I would not say it’s a complete loser argument, I don’t see it swaying many legislators in light of all the drumbeat pounding out the fake exemption narrative. But for sure, it might be worth a shot.
Ok, so what is the best arguments to make to legislators?
I wish I knew, but I don’t.
But what I can tell you is what impresses and moves me, and what keeps me up nights: The stories of the families of the vaccine injured. Most of these(you) folks never gave much thought to vaccination and followed your pediatricians’ advice and the “proven” vaccine schedule, and then something bad happened after one of these visits. Most of you haven’t or couldn’t prove causation in vaccine court, and many have other children. Few or none of you will qualify for a medical exemption under CDC guidelines for either your vaccine injured child or your other children, and you are being asked to sacrifice your other child/children for the greater good on the alter of “evidenced-based guidelines.” For most of you, that’s an unacceptable option, and understandably so.
Even back when Congress passed the national vaccine immunity act in the mid 80’s Congress knew that there would be a small number of children who would permanently disabled from the 22 doses of the 7 or so vaccines given back then, despite the CDC guidelines or vaccine package inserts. The problem then and now is that despite CDC guidelines, children are still being injured by vaccines and there’s no accurate way to predict injury, witness your child. One child sacrificed ought to be enough. That won’t be possible under SB 276.
So, the most effective argument you can make with your legislator is to tell your story.
I know you already know that. Call this reaffirmance of what you are doing and will continue to do.
Good Luck
Rick Jaffe, Esq.
rickjaffeesquire@gmail.com
4 thoughts on “The Final SB 276 Push: What Might Help with the Legislators and What Won’t”
Amen.
Why does nobody ever attack the idea of contagion?
Yes, getting people to turn their backs on what they were taught is the cause of disease is tough and you are not going to do it in one sitting with a politician.
However, these politicians have two things in their mind. 1) Bodily autonomy. 2) Protect the public from dreaded diseases.
They know that attacking 1) will be politically difficult and create awful precedents but they are so determined to fulfill 2) that they see attacking 1) as a necessary evil.
So why don’t we make them feel more comfortable about 2)?
Why don’t we point out (repeatedly) that vaccines are given in doctor offices that are filled with sick people germs? Why don’t we point out that being around sick people germs can’t be anywhere near as dangerous as journalists and doctors make out because if it was, nobody would visit (much less become) a doctor?
Now, you don’t have to persuade the politician to turn their back on germs as the cause of disease, you just need to make them feel a whole lot more comfortable about the spread of diseases and therefore a whole lot less comfortable about destroying bodily autonomy.
I have done this with many people (including politicians) and it is amazing how easy it is to get people less scared of contagious disease the moment you point out that doctor offices are filled with sick people and their germs. It works. And once they are less afraid they are vastly more likely to listen to your stories of vaccine injury.
I handed the stories from 7 dead children from vaccines to senators and cried while I did it. It was effective at invoking emotion. I also said that Otto was in a wheelchair but worse than that is to lose the mind and ability to know and communicate with your child. Knowing you and your doctor chose this and did this is worse than if god took your child with a virus. Ron Kennedy our that together and I thank him
The main point the legislature has been making, in both the senate and the assembly, is that they believe vaccines protect the vaccinated from getting the disease. There is no use in arguing that vaccines do not work, or that they depress the immune system. But they need to understand that vaccines do not protect anyone on earth from getting sick.
Vaccine science, going all the way back to Louis Pasteur and still supported by mainline medicine though not explained to the public, is that vaccines supposedly ignite an immune response and form antibodies. When the vaccinated person is exposed to the disease, their body’s antibodies recognize the disease and mounts a defense that still gives them the disease but at a reduced severity. But they can still get sick because this process doesn’t prevent it. That is why they must get a booster shot every few years.
When one naturally catches the wild (natural) disease the infected develops lifetime immunity to the full blown version. I also explain that the measles epidemic being feared by everyone hasn’t produced a death in many years. I was vaccine injured per my doctor testing me after the horrible reaction I suffered after my initial vaccination. The day before my shot I was very healthy, the day afterwards I was wheezing with asthma. I suffered for 30 years until I began taking organic supplements which detoxed me and 90% of the asthma went away. Today as a Boomer I am healthier than I have ever been, and I still have an allergy to roses and cats, but I don’t wheeze. Because of my reaction to the shot, I caught all the childhood diseases, measles, mumps, chicken pox, rubella, and whooping cough, despite being immune compromised.