Please Help to Stop AB 2109

 Dr. Pan has amended his AB2109 brain-child.  He has included nurses in his short list of who will be able to sign a vaccination waiver allowing a child to be exempt from having vaccines.  I cannot even imagine asking a school nurse to sign my vaccination waiver.  Dr. Pan obviously has had no experience with schools.  For one thing, he is unaware of the constant phone calls that go out stating that our children will not be allowed in school without their shots.  A friend told me she had to escort a kid to the nurse on the first day of school because he did not have his Tdap.  Schools do not inform parents that they can sign a waiver right now and opt out of shots.  Instead, they make it seem mandatory already.  What makes Dr. Pan think a nurse would gladly sign the paper when they are calling home saying, "Sorry.  Your child is not allowed in school until you show me proof that he had his shots."? 

When my daughter started kindergarten, her school staff claimed they could not find the present waiver.  What kind of tricks and lies will occur if waiver-signing is placed in the nurse's hands?  Dr. Pan, how about allowing licensed health care practitioners for the state of California sign them.  Acupuncturists should be included.  You know why we are not included in the amendment?  Because many of us would not only sign it for free, we would advertise that shots are not REALLY mandatory if you know how to play the game. 

It is positive for us that he feels AB 2109 will not pass without an amendment.  Let us keep the pressure on.  The following is a call for help from Dawn Richardson, the director of the Advocacy Portal.  Please call the Assembly members as Ms. Richardson recommends.  Thank-you.

8/22/2012 UPDATE
Don’t Be Fooled by Dr. Pan’s Amendment Adding School Nurses
California Bill to Restrict Vaccine Exemptions ReScheduled for Senate 3^rd Reading Today

ACTION: Contact Senators NOW to OPPOSE AB2109 and Tell Your Senator Dr. Pan’s School Nurse Amendment DOES NOT FIX THIS!

Dear California NVIC Advocacy Team Members,

AB2109, was amended by Dr. Pan to add school nurses to the short restricted list of providers allowed to sign off on the exemption form.  This does not address the problems with this bill and ignores the fact that with over 10,000 schools in California, less than one out of four (2,474) have school nurses. 

This new version is scheduled to be voted on by the California Senate today. 

Even if you have already contacted your senator before, we need your calls and faxes AGAIN now asking  that they vote NO on AB2109

Senator Contact Information can be obtained by clicking on http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/yourleg.html and entering your zip code to lookup who your senator is and then finding their contact information on http://senate.ca.gov/senators or you can log into the NVIC Advocacy Portal at http://NVICAdvocacy.org, select your California State Team Page,  and click on your senator’s name displayed on the right side.

Ask Your Senator to Vote NO on AB2109 because

·         There is no language in AB2109 compelling a provider to sign the form and most won’t based on their current behavior of already denying care to families using vaccine exemptions.

·         Too many medical offices already deny medical care, harass and bully, and even dismiss patients for making informed and educated vaccination decisions.  It is extremely difficult if not impossible for many families to find medical providers who will even see their children if they are electing to delay or decline a vaccine. 

·         Dr. Pan’s recent amendment adding school nurses DOES NOT fix the access problem that concerned parents and the Senate Health Committee.  There are approximately 10,000 public schools in California and there are only 2,474 school nurses.  School nurses don’t have time to have lengthy conversations about vaccines.  Three out of four schools don’t have a school nurse. Also, what about day care, private schools, pre-school, and home schools?  In committee, Dr. Pan opposed including pharmacists who give vaccines - there are over 300,000 in California  - because this is not about vaccine education, it is about how to remove access to the exemption by only including who is more likely to refuse to sign the form.   

·        Dr. Pan has misled the legislature by giving false information about Washington State’s new exemption law. In testimony he has claimed a hotline set up to take complaints about a provider required signature has not received many calls.  That is because that hotline does not exist according the Washington Department of Health. In a personal email note to NVIC dated June 28^th, 2012, the Washington Department of Health Immunization Department stated, “I’m not aware of an 1-800 number to call in to report providers not willing to sign an exemption. As far as I know there is no number to do this.”  Also, Washington has a religious exemption that DOES NOT require a doctor signature, and California Law DOES NOT have a religious exemption at all.

Also, if this bill passes it will go back to the Assembly and that could happen today. PLEASE CALL AND FAX YOUR ASSEMBLY MEMBER after you’ve contacted your Senator stressing that Dr. Pan’s school nurse amendment does not fix the problems with this bill and they NEED TO VOTE NO ON AB2109.  You can look up your Assembly member, obtain their contact information and determine who they are with your address at http://assembly.ca.gov/assemblymembers.  Or you can just log into the NVIC Advocacy Portal at http://NVICAdvocacy.org and your legislators are displayed automatically on the California State Team Page for our members.

Please let us know what you learn from your calls and faxes by sending a quick email to myself Dawn Richardson and our California State directors Dawn Winkler and Michelle Gutierrez by writing to CADirector@NVICAdvocacy.org.

Sincerely,

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