In January, the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare introduced two new bills to the Idaho Senate Health and Welfare Committee that would make it impossible to remove a child’s name and date of birth from the “voluntary” vaccine registry and extend the vaccine registry to all Idahoans with the stated purpose of monitoring their vaccine status. At first blush, this type of information gathering might seem relatively benign, but is it really harmless in practice? Is there potential for abuse and what are the ramifications if we allow this type of information gathering?
The original Idaho legislation from 1999 created a voluntary system into which parents opted their children IN. In recent years however, and as is often the case, the vaccine registry morphed into a system where parents must opt their children OUT. The legislation introduced this year would have allowed the system to morph further by tracking the vaccine status of every person and making it difficult to get all their information out – thankfully the legislation was stopped but back to the real issue – this sort of regulatory creep is something we should all fear and guard against.
To the casual observer, tracking vaccination status may seem innocuous but this information can be used to bully, pressure, and even coerce people to follow national vaccination guidelines even if those people have educated themselves and chosen a different vaccination schedule or to avoid vaccinations entirely. Federal legislation already exists that allows Federal health officials to forcibly vaccinate people against their will in the event a flu pandemic is declared. These bills represent a vast intrusion on personal rights and privacy and an overstepping by the State. As Americans, we value our freedoms such as how we educate our families, how we feed them, how we worship, spend our free time, who our friends are, and how we maintain our wellness in general. Why would we accept State interference with a such a personal and private decision as whether we vaccinate?
This intrusion into our private lives also sets a dangerous precedent to allow further state intrusion into decisions we make for ourselves and our families. If it is deemed acceptable for the state to monitor a family’s use of vaccines, will it also be deemed acceptable to monitor our consumption of junk food, vitamins, sugar, alcohol, and tobacco? Will it be acceptable for the State to track and vet the type of health care practitioner we choose whether it be a western medical doctor, a naturopath or a chiropractor? Will it become the norm for the State to monitor whether we have had fertility treatments or sought mental health services (I know, this part is already happening in the aftermath of the slew psychiatric drug-induced shootings)? Do we face a future in which the State will bar unvaccinated people from attending church, boarding airplanes, sporting events, shopping malls, large public functions, and places of employment? Although it may not be the intention today, could any of this information be used to refuse services such as school, hospital, insurance, or employment?
The people we have met through making The Greater Good do not want to be told how to keep themselves well and don’t think that someone else should make those decisions for them. From their perspective, the medical industry has way too much influence on how we live our lives and they have huge influence on public policy. They spend millions undermining things like chiropractic, supplements, acupuncture, nutrition, naturopathy and all other healing modalities that compete with theirs. They spend more money lobbying than any other group. And their money buys influence. The end result is that much of our public policy is based not on what is true or best in science, but what works best and produces the most profits for the loudest lobby. This can be seen in many ares of our lives where chemicals are used that are known to cause harm yet government allows it, where FDA’s rank and file scientists reject approval of genetically modified crops due to safety concerns but are overruled by politically appointed superiors, where drugs that are known to be dangerous by the manufacturer and FDA are allowed to remain on the market for years, and countless other examples.
The point is that no medical issue including vaccines is black and white yet there are people in positions of great power and influence who tell us that they are. These same people also have huge conflicts of interest. They tell us that the information they gather about those of us who question their perspectives won’t be used in any negative way, yet health care workers are losing their jobs across the nation for not getting a flu shot despite ample science that the flu shot does not work, CPS is charging parents with child medical neglect and removing their children from them for not vaccinating, and children are being summoned to school nurses offices and vaccinated against their express written wishes. THIS IS THE REASON people don’t want their information being given out – because no doctor or bureaucrat should be able to force a certain course of medical treatment on another or charge a parent with child medical neglect just because they think they know better, and because the gathering of information allows this to happen – no matter how well intentioned it might be initially. We are all human, we make mistakes, we compromise our principles and many people do all sorts of things to “get ahead”. Just because someone works at FDA, CDC, IOM, a hospital, a university, or anywhere else does not mean that they are not and cannot be influenced. Given this fact of life, it is imperative that we as citizens and parents retain the right to determine how we keep our families well and what information the State has access to.
CDC has openly stated that vaccine registries are a tool to identify areas of “undervaccination” so that they can be “addressed” and brought into “compliance”.1 People oppose vaccine registries because they have educated themselves, chosen their own path, want to retain the right to choose that path, and don”t want their rights to be compromised for doing so. The stated objective of vaccine registries directly conflicts with personal rights and freedoms and as such vaccine registries are a step in the wrong direction down the slippery slope of State intrusion into our personal lives. Any truly free society should want to stop them.
[…] colleague Leslie Manookian, writer and director of the movie The Greater Good, wrote in a recent article, the “CDC has openly stated that vaccine registries are a tool to identify areas of […]