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June 2008

Dear Feingold Association Members & Friends,

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NO-EXEMPTION VACCINE BILL ON THE FAST TRACK IN NY
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We were sent the following information by New Yorkers for Vaccination
Information and Choice (NYVIC). They have called for an ALERT on
proposed NY legislation affecting vaccine mandates for students and others.
According to them, this is a major crisis that will take away your
right to choose what vaccines to give your children and when. It
also involves mandated vaccines for adults. If you choose, it is
your chance to be involved. I am sending this to all our subscribers
nationwide, because although you may live in California, you may have
relatives and friends in New York. Moreover, what happens in New
York may well be repeated in every other state over the next few
months or years. I don't want to leave you out.

A new bill, A10942, was introduced into the State Assembly and
referred to the Assembly Health Committee on May 7, 2008. It will be
used to amend many of the existing vaccination laws.

You can see more information at http://nyvic.org/nyvic/ and at
http://www.mykidsmychoice.com/ (click on Albany Rally link).

You may read the bill summary here:
http://assembly.state.ny.us/leg/?bn=A10942

Be aware that the bill is carefully worded to sound much less
dramatic than it actually is. I had to read it several times to
"get" what they were saying.

BACKGROUND
Assembly Bill 10942 would make all vaccines the Center for Disease
Control & Prevention (CDC) recommends MANDATORY for all children in
order to attend school, and for the first time vaccines would become
MANDATORY for infants and toddlers.

Alternative proposed legislation, called A5468/S3031, would give
individuals a right to a philosophical exemption from vaccine mandates.

Here are a few more features of the proposed bill:

* Elected New York representatives would no longer determine the
schedule of vaccines to attend school; decisions made by the federal
Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) would
automatically become mandatory.

* All children - infants and toddlers included - in New York would be
required to get all vaccines recommended by the ACIP and according to
the ACIP schedule.

* All children in New York up to age 18 would be required to get
annual flu shots.

* All girls in New York would be required to get a human papilloma virus shot.

* All junior high school children and college students would be
required to get meningococcal shots.

* Vaccines would be provided WITHOUT parental consent being required.

* Doctors would be required to issue certificates for every shot
given and parents would be required to maintain the records and
provide them to school and other authorities.

It was not mentioned in the Alert, but upon reading the Summary it
was clear that vaccines would also be required for all adults in
healthcare and long-term care facilities - both the personnel and the
residents. And, again, their vaccination status would be reported and tracked.

IMMEDIATE ACTION REQUIRED:

This bill is fast tracked for a vote on TUESDAY, JUNE 10, so the
NYVIC asks you to please take two minutes of your time MONDAY to make
a phone call to each of the following:

     Governor David Paterson (518) 474-8390

     Speaker Sheldon Silver (518) 455-3791

Your message:

     'I AM OPPOSED TO ASSEMBLY BILL 10942 AND
      IN FAVOR OF A5468/S3031'

(A5468/S3031 is the one allowing philosophical exemption).

FURTHER ACTION:

If you wish, please write your Assembly Member and members of the
Assembly Health Committee, urging them to vote AGAINST bill A10942.

Find your assembly representatives here:
http://www.assembly.state.ny.us/mem/

Some 'talking points' are:

* This is an un-funded mandate for a never-ending list of vaccines.
In other words, the state (you, the taxpayer) will have to come up
with the money for the vaccines when state social service agencies
provide them to patients unable to pay.

* The bill would take the power to make decisions about vaccine
mandates away from the state legislature and give it to the federal
government. Ask your legislators if they want to surrender their
responsibilities to an agency of the federal government.

* In the future, there may be controversial or objectionable vaccines
that they, the legislators, would not want to give their children -
if they approve this bill, how would they be able to protect their
own child from such a vaccine?

* Critics of vaccine mandates argue that federal health agencies do
not use appropriate criteria for making vaccine recommendations, that
the different sources of recommendations are not uniform nor in
agreement, and that vaccine recommendations were never intended to be
mandated by law.

* If bill A10942 passes, the day may come when a new vaccine will be
so risky and controversial that the majority of NY parents will be
opposed to it, but there will be nothing they can do to stop it from
being mandated for their children.

Shula Edelkind
Feingold Association of the United States
http://www.feingold.org
http://www.ADDdiet.com
http://www.school-lunch.org
554 E. Main Street, Suite #301
Riverhead, NY 11901
1-631-369-9340
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