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ACTION ALERT: Calls and Emails in Opposition Needed Before Hearing Tuesday 1/23/2018 3:30 p.m.
[Relased by the Florida National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC) Advocacy Team]
Your immediate action is needed to help stop two bills that will legally force Florida families to have their vaccine status monitored in a centralized electronic database by the state and allow the health department to share your personal and vaccine information without your knowledge or consent!
We need your help to request that Florida legislators OPPOSE:
SB 1680 filed on 1/5/2018 and sponsored by Senator Bill Montford
HB 1045 filed on 12/19/2017 and sponsored by Representative Cary Pigman
As you may know, the state health department operates a vaccine tracking and enforcement computer database. The law currently authorizes parents to refuse participation if they don’t want their child included. However, the health department has been openly circumventing the current law keeping everyone’s information without legal authority even after someone opts out using the state provided form. Instead of deleting records, the health department admits they will keep them and will only limit data sharing as they admit on their site: “If you choose to opt out, your child’s record will continue to be in the registry, but it will not be accessible to anyone but the child’s current doctor.” No should mean no!
While this behavior needs to be exposed and the health department should be removing records of those refusing participation in the vaccine registry, the focus of this alert is to fight these bills. This will have to be addressed later, but the point here is this is not an agency that should have more power and access to your private health information.
SB 1680 and HB 1045 are two really bad bills that have been filed to remove one’s ability to refuse participation in the registry. This legalizes the health department’s current illegal behavior of retaining data on everyone including those who refuse participation. The bills also expand the registry to add more adults. There will be NO WAY to stop the health department from tracking and sharing someone’s vaccine status if either of these bills pass.
These bills are a major attack on the medical privacy and informed consent rights of families who don’t agree with all doses of all required vaccines or disagrees with this intrusive government monitoring. Nobody should be forced to have their private confidential medical vaccination records tracked by their government. This should be an OPT-IN system for those families wanting this service. Families who are capable of keeping track of their own children’s records with their doctor or who claim a vaccine exemption should NOT be forced to be in a centralized government vaccine surveillance and enforcement database.
SB 1680 has a hearing this Tuesday on 1/23 at 3:30!
ACTION NEEDED NOW:
1) CALL and EMAIL your Florida State Senator and Representative and ask them to OPPOSE SB 1680 and HB 1045.
Tell them you do not want to have your or your child’s vaccination status tracked and shared in the state vaccine tracking system! Tell them the bills remove your ability to opt out of participation.
If you do not know who your Florida State Senator and Representative are or their contact information, you can login to the NVIC Advocacy Portal, click on the “State Teams” tab and then “My State,” and your elected officials are automatically posted on the right hand side of the page http://NVICAdvocacy.org/. You can also use these search engines to find your Florida legislators.
Representatives: http://www.myfloridahouse.gov/Secti..., Senators: https://www.flsenate.gov/Senators/F...
There is a sample email below.
2) ATTEND THE HEARING on Tuesday 1/23 at the Florida Capitol from 3:30-5:30 and REGISTER YOUR OPPOSITION to SB 1680!
SB 1680 will have a hearing in the Senate Health Policy Committee on Tuesday, Jan.23rd in the Pat Thomas Committee Room, 412 Knott Building, Capitol, Tallahassee. The hearing is scheduled from 3:30 to 5:30 and SB 1680 is currently 6th out of 8 bills on the agenda.
Preprint and fill out your form to register opposition at the hearing: http://www.flsenate.gov/UserContent...
Building Map: http://www.flsenate.gov/PublishedCo...
VISIT THE OFFICES OF YOUR OWN REPRESENTATIVE AND SENATOR BEFORE THE HEARING AND ASK THEM TO OPPOSE SB 1680 and HB 1045. Explain in person why it is important for them to vote NO and how it impacts your family.
3) CALL and EMAIL the Members of the Senate Health Policy Committee asking them VOTE NO on SB 1680 at Tuesday’s hearing.
Keep the calls and emails going until Tuesday 1/23 at 3:30 p.m.
CALLS: Tell them you do not want to have your or your child’s vaccination status tracked and shared in the state vaccine tracking system! Tell them the bills remove your ability to refuse participation. (phone numbers below).
EMAILS: See sample letter and committee contact information below. If you click on the Senator’s contact page, you can click on the button that says “Email This Senator” and you will be taken to their web contact form.
SAMPLE LETTER:
Please OPPOSE SB 1680 which is scheduled for a hearing on Tuesday January 23rd . I do not want to have my or my child’s vaccination status and personal information tracked and shared by the state in the state vaccine surveillance and enforcement system Florida Shots.
I am strongly opposed to SB 1680 because it:
- forces tracking by removing the legal right to refuse participation -Title XXIX 381.003 (1) (e) 2 in current law which guarantees the right of a parent or guardian to refuse to have their child included in the Florida State immunization registry/tracking system: “The parent or guardian of a child may refuse to have the child included in the immunization registry by signing a form obtained from the department, or from the health care practitioner or entity that provides the immunization, which indicates that the parent or guardian does not wish to have the child included in the immunization registry” [Bill Lines 58-64];
- automatically populates the intrusive tracking system with every newborn's birth certificate data behind parents' backs without their consent ignoring if a parent doesn't want their child tracked and eliminating their ability to refuse [Bill Line 52];
- requires all health care practitioners who administer vaccines to children from birth to 18 years of age to report vaccinations and personal information to the registry/tracking system even if somebody doesn’t want their child or themselves to be included [Bill Lines 71-77];
- substantially expands the current registry/tracking system to adults by requiring the reporting of shots given to college students at the college or university health care facility [Bill Lines 71-77];
- adds the option for reporting of any adult vaccinations on an optional basis with no ability to refuse or remove data later [Bill Lines 77-79];
- permits data to be uploaded from existing automated systems without the knowledge or consent of the person to whom the information is related with no way to get out later [Bill Lines 79-81];
- expands the scope of how the tracking system can be used in the future to unlimited unchecked purposes at the whim of the health department as restrictions defining the purpose are deleted from current statute and instead are left open ended through the rule process [Bill Lines 101-118];
- eliminates the specific rule making authority for the health dept. to adopt rules which allow parents or guardians to refuse participation in the registry/tracking system [Bill Lines 113-114];
- expands tracking to non-attending students taking exclusively online classes by deleting the word "present" in existing statute [Bill Line 129];
- and forces all children attending K-12 public or private school in Florida, including those whose families don't want their children in an intrusive state vaccine surveillance and enforcement database, to be electronically tracked statewide by requiring an online certification of immunization on file with the state registry and eliminating the option of filing paper certificates of immunization locally at the school only [Bill Lines 124-138].
While this bill does not amend the section of law providing exemptions to vaccination, 1003.22(5), it is possible with the expansion of the health department's rule making authority under this bill that children who are exempted for medical or religious beliefs would also be forced into this tracking system too.
Nobody should be forced to have their private confidential medical vaccination records tracked by their government. This should be an OPT-IN system for those families wanting this service. Families who are capable of keeping track of their own children’s records with their doctor or who claim a vaccine exemption should NOT be forced to be in a centralized government vaccine surveillance and enforcement database. Please OPPOSE SB 1680.
CONTACT INFORMATION:
Senate Health Policy Committee: If you click on the Senator’s contact page, you can click on the button that says “Email This Senator” and you will be taken to their web contact form.
Senator Dana Young - Chair: (850) 487-5018: http://www.flsenate.gov/Senators/S1...
Senator Kathleen Passidomo – Vice Chair: (850) 487-5028: http://www.flsenate.gov/Senators/S2...
Senator Lizbeth Benaquisto: (850) 487-5027: http://www.flsenate.gov/Senators/S2...
Senator Lauren Book: (850) 487-5032: http://www.flsenate.gov/Senators/S3...
Senator Dorothy L. Hukill: (850) 487-5014: http://www.flsenate.gov/Senators/S1...
Senator Travis Hutson: (850) 487-5007: http://www.flsenate.gov/Senators/S7
Senator Bill Montford - Bill Sponsor: (850) 487-5003: http://www.flsenate.gov/Senators/S3
Senator Bobby Powell: (850)487-5030: http://www.flsenate.gov/Senators/S3...
4) Login to the NVIC Advocacy Portal often to check for updates. http://NVICAdvocacy.org/. Bills can change many times over the legislative process.
5) Please forward this post to family and friends and ask them to register for the NVIC Advocacy Portal and share their concerns with their legislators as well.
Sincerely,
NVIC Advocacy Team, National Vaccine Information Center
The National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC) works diligently to prepare and disseminate our legislative advocacy action alerts and supporting materials. We request that organizations and members of the public forward our alerts in their original form to assure consistent and accurate messaging and effective action. Please acknowledge NVIC as originators of this work when forwarding to members of the public and like-minded organizations. To receive alerts immediately, register at http://NVICAdvocacy.org, a website dedicated to this sole purpose and provided as a free public service by NVIC.
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