Florida’s Collier County passes health freedom bill of rights, a template for all.
Local sovereignty and health freedom are thriving in Collier County, Florida, where the Board of County Commissioners has passed a health freedom bill of rights. Fresh from taking a stand for their autonomy by refusing a CDC grant with strings attached, these freedom supporters took an additional step on April 11, 2023, by unanimously passing an ordinance to further protect health freedom.
Commissioner Chris Hall, who ran for his post because of government overreach during the COVID pandemic, brought this ordinance to the board. He said the mandates issued in the past few years were “a violation of personal liberty like I’ve never seen in my life in this country.” And although state laws enacted by Governor Ron DeSantis in 2021 already prohibit mask mandates and vaccine requirements, Hall said the ordinance ensures that “in case anything changes at the state level, we have liberties protected in Collier County.”
In addition to the ordinance, the board also considered a resolution, which passed 4-1. Hall said the resolution means, “As a commission board, we’re gonna have your back as the people. We’re gonna protect and secure your personal liberty.”
“There’s a difference between liberty and freedom,” Hall continued. “Any time [one person’s freedom infringes upon] another person’s freedom, that’s a violation of liberty. … Our rights are given to us by God. Our job is to protect and secure those liberties that are given to us and that’s what we hope to do with this ordinance and this resolution.”
The ordinance will prohibit COVID-19 vaccine mandates, mask mandates, quarantines, and vaccine passports. It also rejects health directives by the World Health Organization and other international bodies. The goal of the two measures is to protect individual freedoms by preventing a repeat of mandates, shutdowns, and quarantines in the future.
Despite claims bythe federal government and manufacturers that the COVID shots created at warp speed are “safe and effective,” it’s becoming clear that this claim is questionable at best. Although the drug companies knew these shots were not worthy of the glowing marketing they were given, patients were not told of the risks. Informed consent was trampled underfoot in the rush to “protect” us all from the COVID virus.
And now, people are injured and dying. This scenario perfectly outlines why health freedom is so important. We must protect our right to informed consent and the freedom to make our own health choices without coercion or mandate.
At the commissioners’ board meeting, many spoke in support of the ordinance and the resolution. Doctors, nurses, pilots, researchers, and parents stepped up to the podium to paint thepicture of why informed consent and the freedom to make health choices is so critical.
Scott Kiley, member of the COVID Tyranny Task Force, walked the commissioners through the points of the resolution. (See the provisions of the ordinance and the resolution below.) On the resolution’s first point, the right to no medical mandates, he said, “The use of a biological agent on civilians without informed consent is considered human criminal experimentation and is in violation of international laws that protect human rights, including the Nuremberg Code and the Geneva Convention.”
“Hospitals, doctors, and pharma companies often have no liability and huge financial incentives to push new medications,” Kiley continued. “This is an unacceptable conflict with mandating anything and in violation of our right not to be harmed, injured, or deprived of life without due process of law under the Fifth and 14th Amendments. Commissioners, it is our resolve to never allow this again by working toward no medical mandates.”
Explaining the right to no discrimination, Kiley said, “If we allow this nonsense to continue, they can mandate any treatment or procedure and humanity will be forced to comply. We must resolve to preserve freedom of choice without discrimination.”
Kiley encouraged the commissioners to pass both measures saying, “Collier County will be the beacon of freedom in all of Florida.”
“Here in Collier County, you are at the tip of the spear,” said Ann Vandersteel, president, and chair of Zelenko Freedom Foundation. “You have the opportunity to lead the country out of the darkness and prove that we the people can make the best decisions for ourselves, that we the people, in fact, govern.”
Pilot Josh Yoder, who flies for a major airline, is the co-founder and president of U.S. Freedom Flyers. He stated that the institution of vaccine mandates caused “tremendous chaos” in the airline industry in late 2021. “As pilots, as you know, we are very focused on our health and we’re very reluctant to take medications or anything that could potentially violate our flight physical, harm our health, and therefore, harm our careers,” he said.
Many airline employees pushed back against the mandates. “We stood up in force,” said Yoder, “first with just a few people, then tens, then hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands, across the industry.” They stood up and pushed back in the interest of preserving “individual liberty and freedom.”
Eventually, the airlines backed down, accepting religious and medical exemptions where they had initially threatened termination for noncompliance. “It’s because we stood up in force,” said Yoder. “They knew that they couldn’t afford to lose 20-25% of their workforce.”
Yoder went on to make it clear that the airlines didn’t back down “out of the kindness of their hearts.” But instead, “they did it because we stood together as citizens,” he explained. “Look at how this country was founded. Normal people who stood up to their government and they brought forth freedom. … And we’re now experiencing the benefits of that even today.”
The emergence of a pandemic was frightening for everyone. But mandating treatments of any kind – especially if they’re largely untested – is clearly not the answer. It’s critical to maintain bodily autonomy, informed consent, and health freedom moving forward to avoid another series of costly, life-altering mistakes. One way to do this is for everyone to stand up where they are and say, “Not here.”
Freedom begins at home – in the schools, organizations, cities, and counties where we live, work and play. We congratulate Collier County for paving the way for local leaders to take a stand for health freedom in counties across the nation.
Use their health freedom bill of rights as a template for your county. Ask your county commissioners to put a stake in the ground protecting health freedom in your area. As Vandersteel said at the commissioners’ board meeting, the goal is “local action having a national impact.”
It’s not about whether you agree with a certain treatment. It’s about having the option to make your own health decisions. Commission Chairman Rick LoCastro summed it up when he said, “I’m for choice. We are talking about rights.”
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Steps you can take
Step One: Getting involved at the county level is so important. Need some help getting started? Check out our interview and action step with Sheriff Richard Mack. founder of the Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association.
Step Two:Knowledge is power. Action is change. Take the Collier county ordinance and resolution to your city or county commissioners and work on passing health freedom policy at the local level. If your home is your castle, local government is the castle walls.
