Friday, March 23, 2012

Let's Stop AB 2109

This is an e-mail from NVIC asking for your help.


Hearing Set on AB 2109 – Tuesday April17th at 1:30 pm Room 4202 – Be There!

Dear California NVIC Advocacy Team Members,

We recently sent an alert informing you of a dangerous bill in the California Assembly, AB 2109, which seeks to place significant barriers on your access and use of a personal belief exemption to mandatory vaccination in California. The bill specifically would make the use of a personal belief exemption dependent on a very limited set of medical care providers providing you with “vaccine education” and their signature attesting to this fact on your exemption form.

This bill, if passed, would effectively make the personal belief exemption another type of medical exemption. Because there is no religious exemption in CA, this would make the only exemption option in California one in which a parent has to go through a medical provider.

We all know of doctors who bully, harass, and even fire their patients for even questioning a vaccine, never mind making an informed and educated decision to delay or decline one. It doesn’t take a crystal ball to see what will happen to accessibility of the exemption if AB 2109 becomes law.

We wanted to give you an update and let you know that a public hearing on AB 2109 has been scheduled in The Assembly Committee on Health on Tuesday April 17th at 1:30 p.m. in Room 4202, at the State Capitol. We are asking all of you to seriously think about what the freedom to be in control of the vaccination decisions for your children means to you now and what it will mean to you in the future and to make a commitment to attend the hearing and write to the committee members.

The address for the Capitol is 1301 10th Street, Sacramento, CA 95814 and the committee hearing agenda is posted at http://ahea.assembly.ca.gov/hearings.

Please contact your California NVIC State Directors Dawn Winkler and Michelle Gutierrez at CADirector@NVICadvocacy.org if you are able to attend the hearing or give oral testimony at the hearing. You can also call Dawn Winkler at 530-283-1018.

In order to have written letters of opposition reflected in the committee analysis performed before the hearing and the vote, they must be received by 12:00 p.m. on Wednesday, April 11th. Letters must be signed and on official letterhead if submitted on behalf of an organization or association.

Faxed letters will be accepted. Electronic versions are subject to the discretion of the committee, so it is best to fax your letter or mail it.

Send letters addressed to the California Assembly Health Committee Members to the attention of:

Assembly Member Bill Monning

Chair, Assembly Health Committee

Capitol Office:
State Capitol
P.O. Box 942849
Sacramento, CA 94249-0027
Tel: (916) 319-2027
Fax: (916) 319-2127

http://asmdc.org/members/a27/

Please also send a copy to your letter to your NVIC California State Directors at CADirector@NVICadvocacy.org .

For more information on AB 2109 and the reasons why it must be opposed, see our previous alert: http://nvicadvocacy.org/members/Resources/CAOPPOSEAB2109RestrictingVaccineExemptions.aspx

If you would like to read a wonderful blog entry from Dr. Bob Sears about the problems with this bill, please link to http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-bob-sears/california-vaccination-bill_b_1355370.html to read “California Bill AB2109 Threatens Vaccine Freedom of Choice.”


Sincerely,

Dawn Richardson, Director of Advocacy
National Vaccine Information Center
http://NVIC.org and http://NVICAdvocacy.org

Dawn@NVICAdvocacy.org

Monday, March 19, 2012

Big Pharma Bullies

Big Pharma wins anytime its cohorts, like doctors, can force parents to administer their chemicals when normally, the parents would decline. Please click on this link to get an idea of the way parents are being bullied around the world now. This is just one story.

http://www.hslda.org/hs/state/mi/201203130.asp

Saturday, March 17, 2012

Anemia Sufferers─Improve Your Absorption of Iron

Even people who are aware of their bodies and make healthy choices with food and beverages may find themselves in an iron-deficient anemic state. At times, simply knowing which foods are high in iron may not be enough to prevent becoming anemic. Understanding which habits support, and which may inhibit, the body’s absorption of iron is necessary to balance an iron-deficient anemic condition.

When trying to overcome anemia, it’s best to avoid eating foods with high levels of oxalic acid─rhubarb, tomatoes, spinach, and chocolate─because oxalic acid can interfere with the absorption of iron from non-plant sources. However, spinach can be boiled for a minute in order to reduce the oxalic acid levels.

Foods and beverages with tannins (biomolecules that bind to proteins) also need to be avoided or taken in moderation because they interfere with iron absorption. Red wine, grapes, coffee, black tea, and green tea are a few foods that contain tannins. The website “Home Birth With Love” states, “Coffee, soda, black tea, dairy foods, bran, antacids, calcium and magnesium supplements, and certain medications actually inhibit iron absorption.” Antacids are not recommended because iron is absorbed in the duodenum in an acidic environment. It’s best to avoid pasteurized dairy foods because pasteurized dairy may cause undetected bleeding to occur in the GI tract. When anemic, it goes without saying that bleeding should be avoided. Calcium phosphates in supplements, phosphates found in milk, and the phytates in legumes and grains also block iron absorption. Keep in mind, refining grains lowers the phytates’ ability to block iron, but, unfortunately, decreases the iron within the legume or grain itself.

According to the “American Journal of Clinical Nutrition,” researchers report, “Zinc and manganese may interfere with iron absorption because of the similar physicochemical properties and shared absorptive pathways.” This is something to keep in mind if you take a multivitamin and are having iron absorption issues. About the topic of foods that are high in the mineral manganese, Alexander Schauss, the CEO and Senior Director of Natural and Medicinal Products Research at AIBMR Life Sciences in Washington, writes, “Unrefined whole grains and cereal products are the richest dietary sources of manganese.” However, Schauss notes that it’s too much manganese rather than manganese itself that inhibits iron absorption. Each person could note how his or her intake of manganese affects his or her complete blood count numbers and how they feel in general.

While taking iron supplements or eating foods that are high in iron, have at least 500 mg of vitamin C or foods that are high in vitamin C in order to help with absorption. Yoga can also help an anemic condition through the breathing and the poses performed. Breathing deeply has been shown to improve the red blood cell count, increase blood circulation, and improve digestion. The poses themselves work particular organs and stimulate them to function better as well. Yoga can also increase energy through unblocking qi, which is a result welcomed by tired, weak anemic sufferers.

When anemic, the road back to health isn’t necessarily only focusing on foods high in iron. It makes sense to stop blocking the absorption of iron and to start supporting the absorption of iron to balance an iron-deficient anemic condition.

http://www.aibmr.com/about-us/staff-bios/bio.php?id=1

http://www.ajcn.org/content/54/1/152.abstract

http://www.faqs.org/abstracts/Health/Calcium-supplementation-effect-on-iron-absorption-

http:/www.homebirthwithlove.com/id55.html

http://www.homemademedicine.com/home-remedies-anemia.html

http://www.ivillage.com/iron-absorption/6-n-145851#ixzz1PqvyOQ40

http://www.livestrong.com/article/179348-good-yoga-poses-for-increasing-absorption-of-nutrients/

http://www.mineralresourcesint.com/docs/research/manganese.html

http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=43

http://www.vegfamily.com/dietician/calcium-iron-absorption.htmhttp://www.vivo.colostate.edu/hbooks/pathphys/digestion/smallgut/absorb_minerals.htmlhttp://books.google.com/books?id=JOoDAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA47&lpg=PA47&dq=yoga+for+nutritional+absorption&source=bl&ots=XbYzCKfjNU&sig=gTcbF_ym8Ih7NyzoWSRItkioED0&hl=en&ei=v04PTtDdFOXX0QGBq52NDg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=4&ved=0CCgQ6AEwAw#v=onepage&q=yoga%20for%20nutritional%20absorption&f=false

Thursday, March 15, 2012

AB2109


California Pediatrician Legislator Pushing Bill to Make Parents
Pay For a Dr. Appointment to TRY to Obtain a Personal Belief Exemption

Contact California Legislators NOW to Oppose AB2109

Dear California NVIC Advocacy Team Members,

Your rights to make informed independent vaccination choices for your family are under attack by forced vaccination proponents in California who want to profit from restricting your independent access to a personal belief exemption to mandatory vaccination. We need your timely help to contact California legislators to oppose Assembly Bill 2109.

AB2109, introduced by Assembly Member Richard Pan, who himself is a pediatrician, would impose these additional costly and time consuming burdens on parents wanting to use a personal belief exemption to:

1) pay for an expensive appointment at a medical doctor’s office to be given vaccine risk and benefit information that is already available online for free; and

2) jump through the bureaucratic hoops of obtaining yet additional new forms provided by the Department of Public Health which state that the health care practitioner has provided risk and benefit information to the parent; and

3) find a health care provider actually willing to take the appointment and then sign the new forms within 6th months of starting school for the exemption to be valid.

This raises many questions legislators need to answer including:

· How will the state pay for all these extra required office visits for families on public assistance and for the kids of state employees who have their health coverage provided by the state?

· What happens to a parent who can’t find a provider willing to make these types of appointments and then sign the form?

· What will stop doctors from using this law to deny access to philosophical exemptions? It is already hard enough for families to find providers who are willing to just treat children in their practice at all when they deviate from the required vaccination schedule.

The bill has been referred to the Assembly Committee on Health. Text of the bill can be found here: http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/pub/11-12/bill/asm/ab_2101-2150/ab_2109_bill_20120223_introduced.html. We will let you know as soon as we know the hearing date.

In the meantime, we need you to take the following actions to help oppose this bill:

1) Contact members of the Assembly Committee on Health and ask them to oppose AB 2109 (suggested phone call outline below).

Assembly Member

Phone and Fax

Link to Contact Form

William Monning (D) - Chair

Tel: (916) 319-2027
Fax: (916) 319-2127

Contact Assembly Member William W. Monning

Dan Logue (R) - Vice Chair

(P) 916-319-2003
(F) 916-319-2103

Contact Assemblyman Dan Logue

Tom Ammiano (D)

Tel: (916) 319-2013
Fax: (916) 319-2113

Contact Assembly Member Tom Ammiano

Toni Atkins (D)

Tel: (916) 319-2076
Fax: (916) 319-2176

Contact Assembly Member Toni Atkins

Susan Bonilla (D)

Tel: (916) 319-2011
Fax: (916) 319-2111

Contact Assemblywoman Susan Bonilla

Mike Eng (D)

Tel: (916) 319-2049
Fax: (916) 319-2149

Contact Assembly Member Mike Eng

Martin Garrick (R)

(P) 916-319-2074

(F) 916-319-2174

Contact Assemblyman Martin Garrick

Richard .S Gordon (D)

Tel: (916) 319-2021
Fax: (916) 319-2121

Contact Assemblyman Richard S. Gordon

Mary Hayashi (D)

Tel: (916) 319-2018
Fax: (916) 319-2118

Contact Assembly Member Mary Hayashi

Roger Hernandez (D)

Tel: (916) 319-2057

Fax: (916) 319-2157

Contact Assembly Assistant Majority Whip Roger Hernández

Bonnie Lowenthal (D)

Tel: (916) 319-2054
Fax: (916) 319-2154

Contact Assembly Member Bonnie Lowenthal

Allan R. Mansoor (R)

(P) (916) 319-2068

(F) (916) 319-2168

Contact Assemblyman Allan R. Mansoor

Holly J. Mitchell (D)

Tel: (916) 319-2047

Fax: (916) 319-2147

Contact Assembly Member Holly J. Mitchell

Brian Nestande (R)

(P) 916-319-2064

(F) 916-319-2164

Contact Assembly Member Brian Nestande

Richard Pan (D) – sponsor

Tel: (916) 452-0505

Fax: (916) 452-5525

Contact Assembly Member Richard Pan

V. Manuel Perez (D)

Tel: (916) 319-2080
Fax: (916) 319-2180

Contact Assembly Member V. Manuel Peréz

Jim Silva (R)

(P) 916-319-2067

(F) 916-319-2167

Contact Assembly Member Jim Silva

Cameron Smyth (R)

(P) 916-319-2038

(F) 916-319-2138

Contact Assembly Member Cameron Smyth

Das Williams

Tel: (916) 319-2035

Fax: (916) 319-2135

Contact Assembly Member Das Williams

Additional contact information for district offices is available by clicking on the assembly members name here - http://ahea.assembly.ca.gov/membersstaff

Emails are listed as assemblymember.lastname@assembly.ca.gov , however most assembly members prefer to be contacted via the online contact form linked in the table above.

2) Contact your state senator and state assembly member and ask them to oppose AB2109. If you log in to the NVIC Advocacy Portal at http://NVICAdvocacy.org and view this alert on the California state page, we will automatically lookup who your legislators are and display them to the right of this alert. You can click on their names to open up their contact information. This free confidential service requires your registration and login in order for us to be able to calculate who you legislators are.

3) Let us know if you can help with the hearings by contacting NVIC CA State Directors, Dawn Winkler or Michelle Gutierrez, at CADirector@NVICAdvocacy.org or call Dawn Winkler at (530) 283-1018 if you

a) are willing to attend the committee hearings and/or testify against the bill; or

b) have a family member who has suffered an adverse reaction to a pertussis containing vaccine and are willing to provide written or oral testimony against the bill while describing that reaction; or

c) you have been thrown out of your doctor’s office for delaying or declining a vaccine and are willing to share your story with legislators; or

d) you are a health care provider who is willing to provide testimony against the bill.

4) Send this to as many friends and family in California that you can and ask them to please register for the NVIC Advocacy Portal at http://NVICAdvocacy.org so they can get added to this state email list and receive updates how they can help fight this bill during this session. TO LIKE AND SHARE THIS ALERT ON FACEBOOK, link to http://nvicadvocacy.org/members/Resources/CAOPPOSEAB2109RestrictingVaccineExemptions.aspx and click on “like” or “send” by the Facebook tag on the top of the page.

Sample Phone Plan:

· Call the office number and introduce yourself and ask to talk to someone about AB 2109. If this is your assembly member’s office, let them know you are a constituent and what town/city you are from.

· Let the appropriate person know you are opposed to AB 2109 because it requires you to have to pay for an extra medical office visit you don’t want or need, it requires additional bureaucratic paperwork, and as a parent if this passes, you have no guarantee you will be able to find a provider who will take these appointments or sign the form. (If you’ve ever been harassed by a doctor before or denied care, this is a great place to talk about this).

· Let the legislative office know that this bill wastes your time and money because you are already well educated on vaccine risks and benefits (explain the steps you have taken to educate yourself above and beyond any handout could provide).

· Let them know about your personal story what got you involved in this issue and why an unrestricted personal belief exemption is important to your family especially if anyone in your family has had a vaccine reaction.

Additional Talking Points Against AB 2109 to be used in your written letters/email:

· Forcing parents into a paid contractual relationship with a health care provider they wouldn’t otherwise utilize for their children’s health care is not only a violation of basic parental rights, it creates distrust and resentment towards public health programs run by the state.

· Especially in California, many families utilize health care providers not reliant on pharmaceutical drugs and vaccines, and only practitioners part of the pharmaceutical paradigm or medicine are allowed to provide the information and sign the form under this bill.

· AB 2109 discriminates against families utilizing complementary and alternative medicine by forcing them into paying money to a medical practitioner they wouldn’t otherwise use who is already philosophically opposed to the parent’s personal and religious convictions regarding vaccination.

· Parents who utilize vaccine exemptions are typically more educated regarding the risks and benefits of vaccination than both the parents who choose vaccination and aren’t required by this bill to receive this information and the health care providers who would be required to sign the exemption in order for it to be valid.

· Many doctors’ offices throw families out of their practice for delaying or declining a vaccine. There is nothing in this bill to prevent a doctor’s office from refusing to take these appointments to begin with or for refusing to sign the form once a family pays for a visit. These real obstacles will restrict or deny access to the personal beliefs exemption for some families currently using it.

· The state is not in the financial position to pay for all these extra required office visits within 6 months of school starting for families on public assistance and for the kids of state employees who have their health coverage provided by the state and who want to delay or a decline one or more vaccines.

· The information required by this bill is already available to parents online for free and coercive measures like this bill do nothing but create and further distrust and resentment towards public health programs run by the state.

· There is NO current crisis that would indicate that CA needs to make it more difficult to obtain exemptions from vaccination.

· Most vaccination rates in CA for children 19 to 35 months old for individual vaccines are at or above the CDC Healthy People 2020 goal of 90%. (http://www2a.cdc.gov/nip/coverage/nis/nis_iap2.asp?fmt=v&rpt=tab03_antigen_state&qtr=Q1/2009-Q4/2009)

· Vaccination rates for children entering kindergarten in California have increased from 2010 to 2011 and are at or above the CDC Healthy People 2020 goals of 90%, except for one category, which is at 89.4%. (http://www.cdph.ca.gov/programs/immunize/Documents/2011SelectiveReviewResults.pdf)

· Bill Sponsor Assembly Member Dr. Richard Pan, claims in a press release that his bill will help prevent outbreaks of pertussis. It is important for legislators to understand that the pertussis outbreaks in CA are due to waning immunity of the vaccine, and not because of families taking the exemption. Here are some references to back this point.

o "The rise in pertussis doesn’t seem to be related to parents’ refusing to have their children vaccinated for fear of potential side effects. In California, pertussis rates are about the same in counties with high childhood vaccination rates and low ones. And the C.D.C. reports that pertussis immunization rates have been stable or increasing since 1992."(http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/08/16/vaccination-is-steady-but-pertussis-is-surging/ )

o Children can be susceptible to pertussis even if they are completely vaccinated. (http://www.inewsource.org/2011/03/28/experts-zero-in-on-waning-immunity/ )

o The acellular pertussis vaccine’s failure to deliver durable infection protection to children aged 7-10 years led to the 2010 California pertussis epidemic. (http://www.internalmedicinenews.com/news/conference-news/infectious-diseases-society-of-america-conference/single-article/acellular-pertussis-vaccine-s-waning-immunity-caused-california-epidemic/71de9826f4.html)

o The pertussis vaccine has been found to wane after only 3 years, leaving a much larger population of fully vaccinated children susceptible to pertusssis than unvaccinated children. KPBS and the Watchdog Institute performed a joint investigation into the recent increasing pertussis rates in California and found the majority of cases of pertussis were occurring in fully vaccinated populations of children in the 8-12 year old age group. They went on to show that the vaccine wanes after only 3 years. (http://www.kpbs.org/news/2011/sep/20/whooping-cough-vaccine-wanes-after-three-years/)

· Bill supporters claim that vaccines are safe. The reality is there is real risk. The Vaccine Injury Compensation Program was established by Congress in 1986 to protect vaccine manufacturers and doctors from liability for vaccine injuries and death. As of Jan. 3, 2012, there have been 14,073 claims filed for vaccine injury and 1077 death claims. The total dollar amount of vaccine injury and death awards granted and paid to families of vaccine victims by our government is $2,366,649,931.96. (http://www.hrsa.gov/vaccinecompensation/statisticsreports.html#Claims)

· Just for pertussis containing vaccines alone administered in the state of California, 11,516 reports of Vaccine Adverse Events have been filed with the federal government’s Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System where 77% of the reports of adverse events are for children 6 and under. There have been 5,775 disorders of the nervous system reported and 172 deaths. 96% of the deaths reported were in children three and under. (http://www.medalerts.org/)

Sincerely,

Dawn Richardson, Director of Advocacy
National Vaccine Information Center
http://NVIC.org and http://NVICAdvocacy.org

Dawn@NVICAdvocacy.org

The National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC) works diligently to prepare and disseminate our legislative advocacy action alerts and supporting materials. We request that organizations and members of the public forward our alerts in their original form to assure consistent and accurate messaging and effective action. Please acknowledge NVIC as originators of this work when forwarding to members of the public and like-minded organizations. To receive alerts immediately, register at http://NVICAdvocacy.org, a website dedicated to this sole purpose and provided as a free public service by NVIC.