Stand for Health Freedom policy statement for South Carolina H4690
Stand for Health Freedom supports public policy that removes the authority from unelected medical experts to issue vaccine mandates for school attendance.
Stand for Health Freedom’s mission is to empower all individuals, including parents of children, to make informed health care decisions without coercion or penalty. School vaccine mandates do not allow for informed consent, making it necessary to protect children from the expansion of current vaccine mandates for school attendance. One way to do that is by making sure that all new mandates go through a deliberative process and that there is not a single, unelected medical expert making these decisions for the entire student population in a given state or county.
In 1855, Massachusetts initiated the first vaccine mandate for smallpox. Over 100 years later, vaccine mandates resurfaced. By 1963, 20 U.S. states had implemented mandates for school attendance. Then, in a remarkable display of global collaboration in 1977, the U.S. joined forces with the World Health Organization (WHO) to launch a childhood vaccination initiative. The ambitious goal was to boost the number of vaccinated children in the country to 90% within two years. The U.S. and the WHO succeeded, and by 1980, vaccination rates among U.S. children starting school were 96% for measles, rubella, and diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis (DTP), 96% for polio, and 92% for mumps. By 1998-1999, all but four U.S. states had vaccine mandates for students from kindergarten through 12th grade, and all 50 states have them today.
Vaccines are not without risks. It’s important to note that certain vaccines have been removed from the childhood schedule due to their tendency to cause injury. The most notable is the controversial diphtheria-pertussis-tetanus (DTP) vaccine. Released to the general public in 1948, it became a primary source of debate. The question was whether the whole-cell pertussis component of the DPT vaccine caused permanent brain injury known as pertussis vaccine encephalopathy. By 1985, 38 years later, vaccine manufacturers had difficulty obtaining liability insurance due to the ever-increasing cases of child injury as a result of the DTP vaccine. The price of the DPT vaccine skyrocketed, leading providers to curtail purchases and limit availability. Only one company was still manufacturing the pertussis vaccine in the U.S. by the end of 1985.
Because of this, Congress passed the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act (NCVIA) in 1986, establishing a federal no-fault system to compensate victims of injury caused by mandated vaccines. The NCVIA protects vaccine manufacturers and medical providers from liability for vaccine injury or death. According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (VICP)allows individuals to file a petition for compensation, since the courthouse doors are closed, and has paid more than 4.8 billion dollars for injury and death since 1988. This dollar amount, however, represents less than 1% of vaccine injuries or deaths. The CDC childhood schedule is the basis for school mandates and has ballooned from 24 doses before 1986, to more than 72 doses today. How many of these 72 doses are mandated for school attendance is a decision made within each state.
In the state of South Carolina, an unelected official currently has the authority to issue new vaccine mandates for school attendance with the stroke of a pen. The choice to exclude children from school based on a medical decision needs legislative oversight.
New vaccine requirements should be vetted in a legislative committee where expert testimony, as well as testimony from the public and all other stakeholders, can be heard. Some might argue that a medical professional should be making these decisions, not the lawmakers. That’s a very dangerous position because it puts a single expert or single school of thought before freedom. Lawmakers are positioned to assess expert opinions and decide if the least restrictive means are being used to address public needs and ensure the constitutionality of any proposed public policy. The wide variety of opinions on various COVID-19 policies reminded us that experts do not always agree on what the best public policy might be, and committee hearings provide the best forum for necessary debate.
There’s always a concern that a good vaccine bill could be overtaken by special interest groups and end up doing more harm than good for health freedom. If a bill meant to protect from medical mandates is amended to strengthen mandates and harm health freedom, health freedom advocates and constitutional lawmakers must make it well known that their position on the bill would change to oppose the bill becoming law.
Stand for Health Freedom supports policy that ensures legislative oversight of any new potential vaccine mandates for school-aged children.