Tag: forced vaccination

Reactions to SB 276 Passing the Assembly

On the same day that the LA Times wrote what some are calling a false balance about Bob Sears, SB 276 passed the California Assembly and Gavin Newsom called for the addition of amendments that would protect doctors who have been writing an excessive amount of medical exemptions.

Gavin Newsom's proposed amendments could weaken SB276.
Exempting individual medical information on exemptions from the Public Records Act is not a bad idea.

Coincidence?

Reactions to SB 276 Passing the Assembly

As the amendments only serve to weaken SB276, Governor Newsom should consider backing off on his request to change the bill, especially as he had previously said he would support it.

Protecting kids from vaccine preventable diseases is unethical and evil???
Protecting kids from vaccine preventable diseases is unethical and evil???

While the amendments will protect those who have been writing inappropriate medical exemptions, they won’t appease most people who are against SB 276.

Who is talking about forcibly injecting people with vaccines? Remember, mandates don't force anyone to get vaccinated and protected...
Who is talking about forcibly injecting people with vaccines? Remember, mandates don’t force anyone to get vaccinated and protected…

Especially as most of those folks still don’t understand exactly what SB276 does!

SB 276 does not eliminate all medical exemptions.
SB 276 does not eliminate all medical exemptions.

What silent loophole are these folks talking about?

The nephew of California State Assemblymember Lorena Gonzalez is immunocompromised.

“His doctor said no, he can’t have live vaccines, so no, he can’t be immunized against measles or chicken pox. Every time he is not in the hospital, he wants to be in school, but those diseases could kill him. Definitely put him back in the hospital. These are the children, the truly medically fragile children that we are trying to prevent from getting these diseases and why it’s so important.”

California State Assemblymember Lorena Gonzalez Assembly Floor Session, Tuesday, September 3rd, 2019

He has a medical exemption to getting vaccinated.

Unless the medical exemption is to all vaccines and not just live vaccines, he won’t lose his exemption and won’t need a “silent loophole.”

Having a “known severe immunodeficiency” is a well known contraindication to getting live vaccines, including MMR and the chickenpox vaccine.

Not only would his exemption be allowed, it not be one of only 5 exemptions that his doctor is allowed to make!
Not only would his exemption be allowed, it would not be one of only 5 exemptions that his doctor is allowed to make!

SB276 also doesn’t limit the number of medical exemptions that doctors can write. It just states that if a doctor writes 5 or more exemptions in a calendar year, then those exemptions will be reviewed by a medical panel to make sure that they are legitimate.

Why do 5 exemptions trigger a review? Because the average doctor will likely not need to write that many medical exemptions, as there are very few true medical reasons to avoid or skip vaccines. What if a doctor writes 10 or 15 legitimate medical exemptions? If they are reviewed and found to be legitimate, then 10 or 15 of their patients will have medical exemptions!

How will they revolt - because they don't want to vaccinate and protect their kids?
How will they revolt – because they don’t want to vaccinate and protect their kids?

Are Newsom’s amendments going to stop folks who are talking about revolutions?

Wait, which amendment is she talking about???

Is it going to protect kids from those who might continue to get unnecessary, permanent exemptions until the protections of SB 276 finally do take effect?

More on SB276

Will SB276 Revoke Legitimate Medical Exemptions?

Bob Sears has already said that SB276 will eliminate medical exemptions and stop doctors from writing medical exemptions.

ITP after MMR is not a reason to get a medical exemption for all vaccines…

What is he saying now?

Will SB276 Revoke Legitimate Medical Exemptions?

Bob Sears is saying that SB276 will revoke legitimate medical exemptions from children who have had “seizures, nerve injuries, and severe allergic reactions after vaccines.”

He also says that they “will be forced to continue just to stay in school.”

To be clear, neither SB276 nor any other vaccine law in the United States forces anyone to get vaccinated.

Yes Bob Sears, what do you mean forced to stay in school?
Yes Bob Sears, what do you mean forced to stay in school?

Although implying forced vaccination is a common anti-vaccine tactic, even his own followers called him out on it…

What else can you see from reading the comments to Bob’s post?

Some medical exemptions might be revoked under SB276, but it isn’t because they are legitimate.

ITP would not be a reason to get a medical exemption to all vaccines.
ITP would not be a reason to get a medical exemption to ALL VACCINES.

A rash that turned in ‘purple blobs’ after the MMR vaccine sounds like it could be ITP, which is actually a table injury.

Since the ACIP lists that as a precaution to getting another dose of MMR, you would almost certainly get a medical exemption, but not to all vaccines!

While scary for parents, ITP typically goes away on its own without treatment in about two weeks to six months.

Anyway, SB276 doesn’t revoke legitimate medical exemptions.

If you actually read SB276, as amended, what it does do is trigger a review by medical professionals to “identify those medical exemption forms that do not meet applicable CDC, ACIP, or AAP criteria for appropriate medical exemptions” if:

  • a school’s immunization rate drops below 95%
  • a doctor writes five or more medical exemptions in a single year (although that doesn’t sound like a lot, keep in mind that true medical exemptions are not very common, so the average doctor who is only writing medical exemptions for their own patients likely won’t write that many each year)
  • a school doesn’t report it’s immunization rates

And once reviewed, inappropriate medical exemptions can be revoked, although that process can be appealed by a parent who thinks that their child does indeed have a legitimate medical exemption.

Keep in mind that just because a doctor writes more than 5 exemptions in a single year, that doesn’t mean that they will automatically be revoked. That simply triggers a review. Even if the doctor writes 10 or 20, if they are legitimate exemptions, then they will be allowed.

Again, SB276 doesn’t revoke legitimate medical exemptions.

Why does Bob Sears think that it does?

Maybe because many of things that Bob Sears considers to be legitimate medical exemptions actually aren’t, which is why he is already under investigation, even before SB276 is enacted…

More on Legitimate Medical Exemptions

More Anti-Vaccine Protest Signs

Anti-vaccine folks think that they have come up with a winning tactic, especially as they get kicked off of more and more social media platforms.

They are taking it to the street, literally, to protest their kids needing vaccines to protect them from life-threatening vaccine-preventable diseases and attend school.

More Anti-Vaccine Protest Signs

Fortunately, like their signs, this is a very black and white issue.

Just like other anti-vaccine signs we have seen, these signs are made up of classic anti-vaccine talking points and misinformation that we have refuted a thousand times.

First things first though.

Why are these protestors dressed up like they are about to head to a 50’s sock hop?

That’s easy.

They still think kids only got 3 to 5 shots in the 1950s and 1960s.

5 in 1962? Have you looked at an immunization schedule from the 1960s?

Although kids did get many more vaccine doses than they imagine back then, most of these folks likely long for days when kids still got measles, pneumococcal meningitis, epiglottitis, mumps, and all of the other now vaccine-preventable diseases.

It shouldn’t be a surprise that these other signs are just as easy to explain and debunk…

  • 4 Billion Paid by Us Government for Vaccine Injuries and Deaths – yes, $4,060,857,713.42 has been paid by the Vaccine Court for 6,355 compensated claims for vaccine injuries since 1989, during which time billions of doses of vaccines have been given
  • Vaccine Ingredients Animal Blood Pig Gelatin Monkey and Dog Kidney Rabbit Brain Insect Cells Human DNA + More – scary stuff until you learn what’s really in our vaccines
  • Keep the Road to Informed Consent and Medical Freedom Open – these signs are a perversion of the idea of informed consent, as they not only misinformed people about vaccines, but they also leave out all of the risks of not getting vaccinated and protected
  • Understand the Risks Allergies Seizures Brain Damage Paralysis Autoimmunity ‘Classic’ Vaccine Reactions – folks should understand both the real risks of vaccines and the risks of delaying or skipping vaccines and getting a vaccine preventable disease, which can be life-threatening
  • The Same Industry That Has Half The Nation Addicted To Opioids Wants To Mandate Vaccines – it shouldn’t be surprising that many of these signs simply reflect ideas about Big Pharma conspiracy theories
  • The CDC Vaccine Schedule Is Turbo Charged. Do Your Research. – turbocharged to protect us from 16 vaccine preventable diseases that used to kill our kids?
  • Pharma Profits Should Not Outweigh Individual Rights – more Big Pharma
  • No Shots No School Not True. Get an Exemption. – yes, all states allow medical exemptions for vaccines and some allow non-medical exemptions, but that leaves your kids unvaccinated and unprotected
  • Vaccine Makes Are Exempt From Liability – this is not true
  • Vaccine Science Is Not Settled. It’s Corrupt. – more Big Pharma
  • Parents in the Driver’s Seat on Vaccines. Not the Government. – since there are no forced vaccinations, parents always make the ultimate choice on whether or not to vaccinate their kids
  • Sounding the Alarm on Vaccine Science. Science is Never Settled. – sure, let’s replace vaccines science with anti-vaccine pseudoscience
  • Vaccines Can Cause Injury and Death – although possible, it is extremely rare for vaccines to cause serious, life-threatening injuries
  • Get Charged Up About Protecting Medical Freedom. Forced Vaccines Are Not American. – since vaccine mandates don’t actually force anyone to get vaccinated, this sign doesn’t really make sense
  • Ready… Set… Know… Vaccines Are Not Placebo Safety Tested. – except for all of those times when they are, including saline placebos…
  • Vaccines Reactions Are Not Rare. They are Rarely Reported. – while mild vaccine reactions may not be rare and may be under-reported, serious vaccine reactions are very rare.
  • Put the Brakes on Vaccine Mandates. – if these folks weren’t out scaring parents away from vaccinating and protecting their kids, we wouldn’t need new vaccine laws and mandates!
  • Aluminum. Good for Cars. Not for Vaccines. – aluminum salts in vaccines work as an adjuvant so that we can use fewer antigens and still get a good immune response.

If you see any of these signs, now you will know what they really mean.

Put the brakes on misinformation about vaccines.

Vaccines are safe, with few risks, and they are obviously necessary.

More on Anti-Vaccine Protest Signs

About Those Anti-Vaccine Signs Some Folks Are Making

Sadly, even as some of us are working to fight measles outbreaks, others are actually protesting against getting kids vaccinated and protected. And they have gotten someone to finance the making of hundreds of anti-vaccine signs.

Signs that list the typical anti-vaccine talking points that we have been refuted a thousand times…

About Those Anti-Vaccine Signs Some Folks Are Making

Not surprisingly, there is nothing new about these signs.

It will be nearly impossible to eradicate measles with all of these folks scaring parents away from vaccinating and protecting their kids!
It will be nearly impossible to eradicate measles with all of these folks scaring parents away from vaccinating and protecting their kids!

Remember, every anti-vaccine argument is essentially a PRATT, a point refuted a thousand times.

72 vaccines??? Kids routinely get 14 different vaccines to protect them against 16 different vaccine-preventable diseases
72 vaccines??? Kids routinely get 14 different vaccines to protect them against 16 different vaccine-preventable diseases.

Whether it is in a book, on Facebook or Twitter, or on a sign, don’t let this type of anti-vaccine misinformation keep you from vaccinating and protecting your kids.

Vaccines are safe, with few risks, and are obviously necessary.

“One is morally free to use the vaccine regardless of its historical association with abortion. The reason is that the risk to public health, if one chooses not to vaccinate, outweighs the legitimate concern about the origins of the vaccine. This is especially important for parents, who have a moral obligation to protect the life and health of their children and those around them.”

National Catholic Bioethics Center FAQ on the Use of Vaccines

“A moral obligation” to vaccinate your kids…

Maybe we should put that on a sign!

More on Anti-Vaccine Signs