New Federal Vaccine Mandate Proposed: All Shots Required, No Parental Exemptions

by Autism Action Network

Florida Congresswoman Frederica S. Wilson (D-24) has introduced a bill, House Resolution H.R. 2232, that will require all states to mandate all students enrolled in public schools receive all the vaccines recommended by the Advisory Committee on Immunization Policy, a federal body compromised of vaccine-industry representatives, which includes vaccines for HPV, hepatitis A, hepatitis B, Paul Offit’s rota virus vaccine, annual flu shots, and dozens of others. States that do not comply will not be eligible for grants for “preventive health services” under the Public Health Services Act.

Please Take Action to send a message to your member of the House expressing you opposition to this bill.

And please call Rep. Wilson’s office in Washington, DC, and let them know politely why this bill is a bad idea: Rep. Frederica S. Wilson, 202-225-4506

Wilson’s bill, if passed, would for the first time establish a federal vaccination requirement to attend school. Current vaccines policies are set by the states, but with the increasing federal control over schools with No Child Left Behind and the Common Core, Wilson’s bill maybe an indicator of what is coming. This bill would also deliver to the vaccine industry two of their primary goals: completely removing any parental involvement in vaccine decisions for our children, and requiring the entire ACIP schedule, which no state currently does.

Exemptions would not be allowed for either religious or secular reasons. Medical exemptions are quite tenuously allowed provided a physician submits a letter “demonstrating (to the satisfaction of the individual in charge of the health program at the student’s school) that the physician’s opinion conforms to the accepted standard of medical care.” So the final authority rests with the person in charge of the health program at the school who probably would not be a physician, and this language obviously allows the physician’s judgment to be overridden by anyone who disagrees with the exemption, regardless of that person’s qualifications. They aren’t even required to examine the child, or even the child’s medical records before overriding a physician.

As a Democrat in the House there is little likelihood Wilson’s bill will pass. As of today it has no co-sponsors, but similar legislation with stronger support may emerge and we must act to protect our rights and our children.

This would be an unprecedented expansion of the federal government into an area of law and policy long recognized as the preserve of the states.

The bill would allow anyone, without any medical training, to override the medical decision of a physician.

It ignores the principle of informed choice as the bedrock of any ethical medical procedure, and eliminates any parental say over what is injected into their child’s body.

It violates the ethical code of the American Academy of Pediatrics, which requires that vaccines should be administered only to minors with the informed consent of a child’s parents.

This bill is wildly out of line with existing state policy, 48 of which allow religious exemptions, and 19 states, where more than half of the American population lives, allow exemptions for secular reasons, essentially providing the parent final say on what is injected into their children’s bodies.

H. R. 2232 defies the de facto vaccine standard of the developed democracies, which allow parents to make the final choice. There are no such things as required vaccines in Canada, Japan, Germany, the UK, Ireland, Israel, Holland, Belgium, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland, etc.