Mandatory! Vaccination Legislation in the works!

[Guest guest]

" Pat " <pat

Wed, 7 Nov 2001 21:03:44 -0500

 

Mandatory Vaccination Legislation in the works

...... " Despite early press reports that there are no government plans

forforced vaccination with smallpox or anthrax vaccines, the attached news

report

published in the Boston Globe is the first public admission that there is a

federal plan to militarize the public health infrastructure in order to

force vaccination.

 

You can access the full text of this model state

legislation by going to the website of the Center for Law and the Public

Health http://www.publichealthlaw.net/ funded by the Centers for

Disease Control

and headed by Lawrence Gostin, a lawyer and professor at Georgetown

University. Please take the time to read this piece of proposed legislation

if you haven'talready...

Model State Emergency Health Powers Act (Adobe Acrobat Reader required)

http://www.publichealthlaw.net/cgi-bin/dl.cgi

Click below to download the free Adobe Acrobat Reader

http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html

..... " Gostin is a longtime AIDS activist and forced vaccination

proponent. He embraces the utilitarian rationale that individuals can be

sacrificed for the greater good and he has invoked the 1905 Supreme Court

decision, Jacobsen v Massachusetts, which upheld state mandatory vaccination

laws, as justification for this model state legislation. He will be working

with the National Governors Association, National Conference of State

Legislatures, Association of State and Territorial Health Officials,

National Association of City and County Health Officers, and National

Association of Attorneys General to get this model law passed in state

legislatures.

...... " Essentially, this law would give police powers to public

healthofficials

and those they designate to isolate, quarantine and force vaccination and

medical treatment upon citizens during a state of emergency declared by the

Governor. Public health officials could receive assistance from what is

referred to in the law as the â?omilitiaâ?? to enforce compliance. Those who

refuse to be vaccinated or receive medical treatment would be charged with a

misdemeanor and imprisoned until the state of emergency was declared over.

There is no detailed criteria for what constitutes an â?oemergencyâ?? and we

have to remember that one case of smallpox will be considered an epidemic.

...... " A quick read of this proposed legislation calls into question whether

elements of it violate the first, fourth, fifth, sixth, and eighth

Amendments to the Constitution. It goes without saying that it is the most

serious threat to the bioethical standard of informed consent since the

Nuremberg Code was issued after the Doctorâ?Ts Trial following World War II.

...... " During this anxious and confusing time for our country, there aregoing

to

be those who will take advantage of the situation to forward political

agendas they have long held prior to Sept. 11. The model state legislation

which Gostin and the CDC are proposing was being developed a year ago.

Please contact your state reps and senators and have them be aware of what

this willpotentially do to YOUR health, and to the health of those you care

about.....They needto know the " other side " of vaccination!!Sherri

====================================================Source:Boston Globe

http://www.boston.com/globe/Model health law empowers states

http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/304/business/Model_health_law_empowers_sta

tes+.shtmlDrugs, quarantine could be forced

This story ran on page D4 of the Boston Globe on 10/31/2001.

By Bloomberg News, 10/31/2001

WASHINGTON - States would be able to force patients to take medication under

model legislation outlining when and how governors can use emergency powers

to address public health crises such as recent anthrax attacks.

The model law, commissioned by the US Centers for Disease Control and

Prevention, also would give people the right to appeal states' decisions to

quarantine or isolate them. Individuals with contagious diseases, such as

smallpox, wouldn't be able to appeal orders for treatment or vaccination

under the law.

State governments are concerned that laws are inadequate to address new

kinds of public health threats such as the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on

buildings in New York and Washington or the use of germ or chemical weapons.

Fifteen Americans have been infected with anthrax, a deadly bacterial

disease, and thousands more are taking antibiotics as a precaution.

Lawrence Gostin, chief author of the model law and a professor at Georgetown

University Law Center, said the academic panel that drafted the proposal

tried to balance the need to control disease with individuals' civil

rights - something he said isn't done under many current state laws.

''We felt if we were too Draconian and didn't respect people's rights, that

meant the terrorists would win,'' Gostin said.

Emergency powers allow governors to suspend normal government temporarily,

letting states swiftly address disease epidemics or natural disasters such

as earthquakes. Legal and public health experts at Georgetown University and

Johns Hopkins University examined all states' emergency-powers laws in

crafting the model.

Under the model law, states could quarantine or isolate individuals who are

infected with a contagious disease, though the patients would have the right

to appeal that decision in court. The patient would remain quarantined or

isolated until the appeals process was exhausted, Gostin said.

Patients could be forced to take medicines or receive vaccines for

contagious diseases that pose a public health threat, such as smallpox,

under the model law. Patients wouldn't be allowed to appeal a state's

decision, though the state would likely quarantine anyone who refused to

comply, triggering an appeals process, Gostin said.

States would avoid civil liberties violations if they enact laws that spell

out penalties such as the loss of public benefits, instead of incarceration,

for patients who refuse treatment, said R. Alta Charo, a professor at the

University of Wisconsin Law School.

Copyright 2001 Globe Newspaper Company.