ICWA Weekly News 2-28-24
ICWA Weekly News 2-28-24
Olympia bill status with help from NVIC Advocacy; Has the DOH finally stood down from the COVID vax transmission debacle? Memes and Jenna McCarthy article sure to rankle Bill Gates
In this issue:
Status of Twelve Washington State Bills Tracked on the NVIC Advocacy Portal
DOH Finally Removes Misinformation That COVID-19 Shots Prevent Transmission
Radio Show Links
Upcoming Events
Meme o’ the Week: Forrest Gump on Vaccines
Status of the Twelve Washington State Bills Tracked on the NVIC Advocacy Portal
The National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC) is the longest continuously-operating vaccine risk awareness organization in the U.S. It was founded in 1982 by parents of children who were injured or killed by Diphtheria-Pertussis-Tetanus (DPT) vaccines. Their mission is to “prevent vaccine injuries and deaths through public education and to secure informed consent protections in U.S. vaccine policies and laws.” NVIC maintains a Washington State Vaccine Requirement page that is extremely useful for concerned parents, and is perhaps a better resource than the WA Department of Health site which just lists reader-unfriendly RCW and WAC citations. Both sites make it clear that vaccine law is complex.
In order to build awareness of upcoming and ongoing legislation, NVIC members started an offshoot lobby group called NVIC Advocacy, which tracks bills and makes recommendations at each state level. It is truly an impressive amount of work they’ve taken on and should receive our donations for such great efforts.
Their list for Washington shows twelve bills they considered related to their mission. There was much cross-over with the bills ICWA tracks. The majority of bills both groups tracked ‘died’ in committee on February 13th. The NVIC site will be updated soon to match the following status.
‘Dead’ Washington State Bills that NVIC (and ICWA) Tracked:
HB 1801: Eliminating COVID-19 vaccine requirements for new or prospective employees of state agencies.
HB 1545: Prohibiting institutions of higher education from imposing vaccine or immunization mandates on online-only students.
HB 1827: Preventing vaccination status discrimination.
HB 1610/SB 5596: Restoring Trust in Public Health Through Consumer Protection (authored by Informed Choice members)
HB 1601: Providing Parental Rights.
(Lives on since it’s part of I-2081 Parental Notifications, which could become session law. Scheduled for hearings 28-Feb-2024)SB5653: Protecting the childhood of children.
(Lives on since it’s part of I-2081 Parental Notifications, which could become session law. Scheduled for hearings 28-Feb-2024)HB1814: Concerning the reemployment and pension service credit of public employees separated from service due to a vaccination mandate.
SB5139: Providing protections for Washington residents who decline COVID-19 vaccinations or who were terminated for refusing vaccination.
HB1871: Concerning the Washington state ferries' treatment of employees and applicants without consideration of COVID-19 vaccines.
HB1029: Concerning reemployment of state workers dismissed from employment due to vaccine mandates.
Both ICWA and NVIC opposed HB 2157 and its companion SB 5982 updating the Vaccine Definition used by the bulk-purchaser Washington Vaccine Association. Unfortunately, SB 5982 is on its way to the Governor’s desk.
The NVIC writes the following about the bill:
Title: Changes definition of vaccine to include all FDA approved immunization recommended by the CDC regardless of their ability to protect against disease.
Status: HB 2157 placed on H. Rules X file on 2/20/2024 |SB 5982 passed full House on 2/22/2024; passed full Senate on 2/2/2024
Action: Contact Governor Jay Inslee (360) 902-4111 & ask to VETO SB 5982
Lobbying of HB 2157 / SB 5982: A Case Study
Let’s recap: to start out the New Year, the Washington Department of Health (DOH) reportedly requested the bill to update the definition of vaccine, and two identical bills were filed in the House and the Senate. For an administrative definition change, the bills received an inordinate amount of support in various forums. It’s almost as if the support was orchestrated…
Just kidding; we now know the support was choreographed. The Washington Vaccine Association (WVA) hired lobbyists Leonard & Kolan, to manage the campaign as we covered in the January 17 Weekly News.
Who came out to to support this bill?
At the January 10 Board of Health (BOH) meeting, Jaime Bodden, the managing director of the Washington Association of Local Public Health Officials (WSALPHO) spoke to support the bill. As well, Kelly Cooper, Policy and Legislative Relations Director for the DOH supported HB 2157 and SB 5982 as the “Vaccine for Kids” bills, telling the board:
I know we are all extremely excited about having a new immunization for RSV for infants. The Washington Vaccine Association’s definition in statute does not allow for this new vaccine to be purchased under the Vaccine for Children federal program. And so we are asking for an amendment to the statute that will allow this vaccine to be purchased. I want to make sure that everybody knows that this is not about a mandate. No one would need this vaccine. It’s not for school entry. It’s not for childcare entry. It’s really about what we do to get the best price and how do we get it into provider’s hands to provide to families who want it.
We don’t think she meant to literally say “No one would need this vaccine” so we won’t pick on that part. A diligent board member could have picked this time to ask “But how did the Washington Vaccine Association already purchase over $14 million worth of RSV monoclonal antibody shots?” But there was no inquiry.
At the January 12th House Health and Wellness Committee hearing for HB 2157, ‘public’ comment in support was provided by:
Dr. Jeff Duchin, Seattle Public Health officer and ACIP member
Dr. Nari Hashmati, President of the Washington State Medical Association
Michelle Davis, Executive Director for the Washington State Board of Health
Jaime Bodden, the managing director of the Washington Association of Local Public Health Officials (WSALPHO)
Lacey Fehrenbach, Chief of Prevention Safety & Health, DoH
Hugh Ewart, Seattle Children’s
Dr. John Dunn, MD, Chair of WVA, Medical Director of Kaiser Permanente
Dr. Ducha Maria Wong, MD, WA Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics
At the same time on January 12, the Senate Health and Long Term Care Committee heard SB 5982, with supporting ‘public’ comment provided by:
Dr. Beth Harvey, MD for the WVA and the WA Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, who when president of the WA AAP, she helped pass the original legislation for the WVA. (Yes, that is many acronyms all mixed in there).
Katie Kolan, WA State Hospital Association
Dr. Tao Sheng Kwan Gett, Chief Science Officer, DoH
Dr. Amy Harvey, MD, Whatcom County Public Health, and WASALPHO member
Jennifer Ziegler, Associated Health Plans of Washington
While the above show of force to support a supposedly simple administrative definition change might boggle the mind, we highly suspect that the WVA hired a lobbying firm and recruited such luminary testifiers because they knew they’d face opposition from groups like ICWA and the Conservative Ladies of Washington. As well, we also suspect that they needed the legislature to look past their illegal purchase of RSV and COVID-19 shots by bringing such overwhelming support.
Unfortunately, it’s been much the same story with the other bill that ICWA has been lobbying against the most – SB 6095 – which would give the Secretary of Health Standing Order powers. NVIC listed the bill as one of four on “Watch” status, when it should have probably been listed as “Oppose.”
SB 6095 was also heavily supported by public health agency workers and large medical concerns, notably the Washington Pharmacy Association.
We regret to inform you, our stalwart members of truth in healthcare, that Senate Bill 6095 passed through the legislature and is on its way to the Governor’s desk after zero House floor debate on February 27, 2024. Only Representative Joe Schmick had the conviction to stand and speak against it. Thank you Joe!
According to Rep. Greg Cheney, who joined nearly all republicans (the minority party) in voting against: “Democrats will not be accepting amendments on the bill.” We hope that means favors will be returned when I-2081 Parental Notification is signed into law.
You can ask the Governor to veto SB 6095, or maybe line item veto to remove vaccine Standing Orders from the bill language. But given the bill’s momentum, we think there is no fight left in legislators or the executive branch this year to oppose the public health establishment.
Now for some better news.
DOH Finally Removes Misinformation That COVID-19 Shots Prevent Transmission
For the November 8, 2023, Board of Health (BOH) meeting, your humble author told the board for the third time that their Department of Health (DOH) should remove its erroneous last two bullet points on the Vaccinating Youth Page under safety and efficacy;
Add to the number of people in the community who are protected from COVID-19—making it harder for the disease to spread.
Reduce disruptions to in-person learning and activities by helping curb community transmission of COVID-19.
The first time I had told them about this overstatement was at their August 2023 meeting.
They were told they had no data to support their claim that the COVID-19 jabs prevent transmission of the disease. The board heard about FDA documentation that stated transmission ‘data are limited’ and that Janine Small of Pfizer had told the European Union that they never tested the COVID-19 shots for transmission.
Finally, this month the DOH removed those erroneous statements so that their Vaccinating Youth Page now only has three bullet points on COVID-19 Childhood Safety and Efficacy:
Now the DOH site only says:
Getting your child vaccinated against COVID-19 can:
Help lower the risk of them getting infected with COVID-19
Reduce their chance of getting seriously ill if they do become infected with COVID-19
Reduce their chance of needing hospitalization and lower their risk of dying from COVID-19
The DOH really needed to remove this misinformation because there are so many sources trying to correct it. Most recently in a February 15 congressional hearing, FDA and CDC officials admitted to Texas Representative Michael Cloud that people who took the COVID-19 jabs could still transmit the virus.
“It does not absolutely prevent transmission,” said Dr. Peter Marks, one of the hearing witnesses and the director of the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research at the FDA.
Rob Roos, a minister of the European Parliament from The Netherlands, openly pleaded in October of 2022 that everyone should stop using vaccine status as a condition for anything because they didn’t stop transmission.
This is a far cry from the year 2021 when Dr. Anthony Fauci, the one touted as America’s most trusted scientist, pontificated the following benefits about the COVID-19 shots:
You want to be a dead end to the virus. So, if the virus gets to you, you stop it. You don’t allow it to use you as the stepping stone to the next person.
In the same video montage gathered by Rob Anderson, this “stop the spread for the greater good” lie permeated all the way through the DOH to as low as our “trusted” local county public health officers, such as Dr. Alan Melnick in Clark County, Washington.
Here’s Dr. Melnick’s bit of misinformation: “As we progress in that direction, the more people who get vaccinated, the more the virus is blocked from being transmitted. The more people we get vaccinated, that helps prevent transmission. The good news is that if you’re fully vaccinated, you can be with other people. The fact is that the more people we get vaccinated, that helps step down transmission and spread of the virus.”
Now to clean up the rest of the DoH misinformation.
February 23, 2024, Informed Life Radio—Notes and Links
Health Hour: Your Brain Health (on CHD.TV)
Liberty Hour: WA State News; Laws, Bills & Initiatives Update (on ICWA/Rumble)
6 Initiatives sponsored by Let’s Go Washington
Multiple health freedom lawsuits filed by Silent Majority Foundation
Brian Ward’s Twitter post on CDC Playbook
Brian Ward’s Website explaining multiple lawsuits in WA: COVID Penalty
The Next Vaccine for the Masses? Does cytomegalovirus sound scary?
Upcoming Medical Freedom Meetings
The Clallam Freedom Alliance will have its weekly meeting this Friday, March 1, from 10:00 a.m. to noon at Joshua’s Restaurant and Lounge, 113 Del Guzzi Drive in Port Angeles. One can buy breakfast or just come for coffee/tea. With an emphasis on freedom of health, the alliance creates “calls to action” they can all take and then share those actions with one another. For example, at their last meeting, they discussed calling in support of an Amish farmer by making three phone calls.
On Wednesday, March 6, the Health Freedom Information group in Jefferson County will hold its weekly breakfast club meeting at the Highway Twenty Roadhouse, 2152 West Sims Way in Port Townsend, from 10 a.m. to noon. One can buy breakfast or just come for coffee/tea. The club discusses areas of health freedom education.
That same evening (Wednesday, March 6), Be Brave Washington will hold its monthly meeting.at 7 p.m. at the VFW, 7011 Hannegan Road in Lynden.
Other Upcoming Events:
April 16 - #CHDBUS in Olympia – 12-2 PM Lunch with Legislators.
April 17 - #CHDBUS in Seattle, Westlake Park, 9 AM - 4 PM. The Refusers band at noon. Speakers Brian Hooker, PhD, and Dr. Paul Thomas at 1 PM.
April 19 - #CHDBUS in Spokane. 8 AM - 5 PM. Get your tickets for the speaking event at 4 PM. Dr. Scott Jensen, Dr. Paul Thomas, Dr. Kelly Victory.
April 19-20 WSRP State Convention, Spokane Convention Center, find us at the ICWA table.
Medical Freedom Northwest April 20 retreat in Spokane; continuing ed credits for providers: Kelly Victory, Scott Jensen, Mary Talley Bowden, Kim Overton.
Memes in the News:
(Sorry, not sorry, if you’ve seen it before)
In regards to SB6095- the ruling party can just flat out say they won’t accept any amendments?