Please Help Stop AB 2109

It would be nice if the people of California could vote for new legislation rather than having the politicians take it upon themselves to make laws that strip us of our rights.  Please help us stop AB 2109, the legislation that would force parents to take their kids to MDs when they normally wouldn't, in order to secure a vaccination waiver.

The NVIC has sent out the following.  Please click on the links and learn what you can do to help and call some of the senators.  Thank-you.

Dear California NVIC Advocacy Team Members,

A hearing on AB2109 is scheduled in the Senate Health Committee for June 27^th at 1:30 P.M. in the John L. Burton Hearing Room (4203) at the California State Capitol, 1301 10^th Street, Sacramento, CA  95814.  Please be there if you can. 

The committee hearing agenda is posted here:  http://shea.senate.ca.gov/agenda.

The text of most current version of AB2109 is posted here: http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/pub/11-12/bill/asm/ab_2101-2150/ab_2109_bill_20120620_amended_sen_v97.html.

ACTION NEEDED:

1)    Call and write members of the Senate Health Committee and tell them to VOTE NO on AB2109.  Please see the contact information in the table below.

2)    Plan on attending the hearing on June 27^th. Please contact your California NVIC State Directors Dawn Winkler and Michelle Gutierrez at  CADirector@NVICAdvocacy.org if you are able to attend the hearing.  You can also call Dawn Winkler at 530-283-1018. You can either give oral testimony, submit written testimony, and/or just register in opposition to the bill.  We need a strong constituency of Californians opposing this bill to be in attendance!  If you would like to provide written information to the committee, have 12 copies available for members and staff.  Please see more information below from Dawn Winkler if you are attending.

3)    BRING your video and still cameras to the capitol and film and take pictures! Great advice from Vermont’s NVIC State Director Jennifer Stella, who recently helped lead the fight against an attack on the philosophical exemption in Vermont, is to record everything in the legislative process.  Legislators need to know the families in California are watching and keeping track of what they say and do to affect their rights!  If you are able to video record the hearing or take pictures of the hearing room and people inside testifying, please email our research assistant and Colorado State Director, Cindy Loveland at CODirector@NVICAdvocacy.org and she will share with you instructions after the hearing for helping us archive and save the video and pictures.  

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 on how they can continue to help fight this bill.

POINTS TO BE MADE TO THE SENATORS:

The most important point to make with Senators is to let them know that if parents are unable to comply with the requirement in AB2109 to have a health care practitioner meet with them and sign their exemption form, their child cannot go to school!!!   This can lead to truancy charges and a lapse in the child’s education.

Listed below are some of the many valid reasons why families who use the personal belief exemption may not be able to comply with this burdensome and expensive proposed mandate.

·         The parent cannot find a physician who will accept appointments with unvaccinated or partially vaccinated children in their practice. Parents are being kicked out of medical practices all over California for not fully vaccinating.

·         The healthcare practitioner refuses to sign the form because nothing in the bill requires them to.   

·         It is against the parent’s religion to go to the type of healthcare practitioner required to sign the form.

·         The parent cannot afford the work time off or money for a visit to the healthcare practitioner to get the form signed, especially if they have multiple children.

·         The parent selectively vaccinates and utilizes an RN, a school nurse or a pharmacist who can all administer vaccines in CA, but cannot sign the form.

·         The parent only utilizes alternative medicine.

·         The parent only has access to a health department or school clinic that only has an RN or School Nurse on staff, who is not allowed to sign.

·         The parent currently is in the Healthy Families program and may have difficulty finding a medical provider after the Healthy Families Program is rolled over to Medi-Cal.

·         The parent knows a child (their own child, a relative, a neighbor, a friend's child, a child in their community) who has been harmed, disabled, made chronically ill, or killed by their state mandated vaccines, and as a result, the parent does not to have their child fully vaccinated.

SENATE HEALTH COMMITTEE CONTACT INFORMATION:

Senator	Capitol Phone and Fax Number	District Phone and Fax Number	Contact Form or Email
Ed Hernandez (D) – Chair	Phone: (916) 651-4024 Fax: (916) 445-0485	West Covina Phone: (626) 430-2499 Fax: (626) 430-2494	http://sd24.senate.ca.gov/contact
Tom Harman (R) – Vice Chair	Phone: (916) 651-4035 Fax: (916) 445-9263	Costa Mesa Phone: (714) 957-4555 Fax: (714) 957-4560	http://cssrc.us/web/35/contact_us.aspx
Elaine Alquist (D)	Phone: (916)651-4013 Fax: (916)324-0283	Gilroy Phone: (408)847-6101 Fax: (408)847-6096	senator.alquist@sen.ca.gov http://dist13.casen.govoffice.com/
Joel Anderson (R)	Phone: (916) 651-4036 Fax: (916) 447-9008	Temecula Phone: 951-676-1020 Fax: (951) 676-1030 El Cajon Phone: (619) 596-3136 Fax: (619) 596-3140	http://cssrc.us/web/36/contact_me.aspx
Sam Blakeslee (R)	Phone: (916) 651-4015 Fax: (916) 445-8081	San Luis Obispo Phone: (916) 651-4015 Fax: (916) 445-8081	http://cssrc.us/web/15/contact_me.aspx
Kevin de Leon (D)	Phone: (916) 651-4022 Fax: (916) 327-8817	Los Angeles Phone: (213) 612-9566 Fax: (213) 612-9591	http://sd22.senate.ca.gov/
Mark DeSaulnier (D)	Phone: (916) 651-4007 Fax: (916) 445-2527	Walnut Creek Phone: (925) 942-6082 Fax: (925) 942-6087	http://sd07.senate.ca.gov/contact
Michael Rubio (D)	Phone: (916) 651-4016 Fax: (916) 327-5989	Fresno Phone: (559) 264-3070 Fax: (559) 445-6506 Bakersfield Phone: (661) 395-2620 Fax: (661) 395-2622	http://sd16.senate.ca.gov/contact/email-me
Lois Wolk (D) Senate Sponsor for AB2109	Phone: (916) 651-4005 Fax: (916)323-2304	Vacaville Phone: (707)454-3808 Fax: (707) 454-3811 Stockton Phone: (209)948-7930 Fax: (209) 948-7993	senator.wolk@senate.ca.gov http://sd05.senate.ca.gov/

HEARING NOTES FROM CALIFORNIA NVIC STATE DIRECTOR DAWN WINKLER:

Please, if at all possible, plan to attend the hearing in the Senate Health committee on this Wednesday, June 27^th at 1:30 at the State Capitol in room 4203. It is best to arrive around noon to find parking and get to the hearing room. Please let me know if you are coming at CADirector@NVICAdvocacy.org. There is still much to be figured out with respect to people testifying. Everyone should get a couple of minutes, but there will be a few who get more and we need to determine who those will be. We'll have stickers and wearing black seemed to look nice and work well last time. Make a sign if you like, but it will have to go in the trash before you go into the building. We'll meet outside at the main steps again at noon. By all means, bring your children if you can.  

Above is the contact list again for the committee. More faxes and phone calls certainly would not hurt.

I am told by the chair, Hernandez, that more testimony will be allowed and that people won't be cut off if they stay within reason. I can't guarantee anything, but in my experience, the Senate side seems to accomodate more testimony from more people. So prepare about 2 minutes. I do not know how long this hearing will go on or when our bill will be up so you need to be prepared to go with the flow and be ready for the long haul. Bring snacks and drinks.

I look forward to seeing as many of you as possible and if you can't be there, please keep the faxes and calls rolling in to the committe up until 1:30 on Wednesday. 

Thank you so much to everyone for your help and support through these last 4 months! I have no idea what Wednesday's outcome will be, but we MUST try our best to save parental rights and medical freedom in California. We do have some hope as there have been some recent developments which may or may not go anywhere, but it is hope nonetheless. 

Hope to see many of you there!!!

In Health and Liberty,
Dawn Winkler
CA State Co-Director
National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC)
www.nvicadvocacy.org
Executive Director
Health Advocacy in the Public Interest (HAPI)
hapi.vaxinfo@gmail.com
530-283-1018
970-209-3919
Sincerely,

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

Migraine Tidbits

According to Dr. Dulce Maria Corrales when a person notices a migraine coming on, he or she should suck on a lemon.  Corrales says, “Suck on a lemon.  Not drinking.  Sucking on it.  Within five minutes, the blinding aspect of the migraine is gone.  The headache stays, but my eyes are effected immediately if I don’t suck on a lemon.  I have lemons in my car.  It works that well.”

According to Christiane Northrup, M.D. in the Wisdom of Menopause, “Imbalanced hormone levels contribute to so-called menstrual migraine during perimenopause and menopause” (127).   The headache referred to here occurs just prior to the woman’s period due to estrogen and progesterone levels falling dramatically.  Northrup is an advocate of 2 percent progesterone cream, which is not the synthetic progestins which doctors usually prescribe.  Northrup advises, “Apply ¼-1/2 tsp (of the cream) to your skin daily for the two weeks prior to your period, or three weeks out of every month if you’re no longer having periods” (127).  Note: If you’re looking for a company that sells progesterone cream that you can trust, please visit http://zellersnaturalhealth.com/natural-progesteron-cream/.

According to Giovanni Maciocia in The Practice of Chinese Medicine, under the category of Intracranial, there are two kinds of differentiations of headaches: inflammatory (meningitis) and non-inflammatory (migraine), which is vascular (53 & 54).  Maciocia says that vascular headaches under the non-inflammation category are “the most frequent cause of recurrent headaches.  It consists in an initial constriction of the head arteries (giving rise to prodromal [learn cause of] symptoms) followed by vasodilatation and distension of vessels (which causes a throbbing pain)” (54).  With this headache, the eyes may have become sensitive to light, along with a throbbing pain around the eye, “radiating to the side of the head,” and nausea or vomiting (54).  Maciocia warns, “The attacks are precipitated by ,of theMaciocia warns, “The attacks are precipitated by stress, cheese, chocolate, red wine and the  contraceptive pills” (54).  I would dd that Maciocia would be referring to pasteurized cheese and regular mainstream chocolate.
According to James and Phyllis Balch in Prescription for Nutritional Healing, “There are two types of migraine, common and classic.  The common migraine occurs slowly, producing a throbbing pain that may last for two to seventy-two hours” (387).  The common type of headache’s pain is severe and felt behind an ear, or at the temples.  It may even “begin at the back of the head and spread to one entire side of the head,” which is where migraine got its name: “Greek hemikrania, which means ‘half a skull’” (387).  The common migraine may be accompanied with feeling ill, having vision issues, and “tingling and numbness in the limbs that can last up to eighteen hours,” said the authors (387).


Visit AuthenticSelf Acupuncture & Beyond on fb.  Message me if you are interested in a saliva test and treatment for balancing your system.

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 17^th 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 10^th 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 11^th. 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

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

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

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.