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| BIOTERRORISM LEGISLATION |
Florida SB 1262 - Signed into Law - May 2002
The Model Emergency Health Powers Act (MEHPA)
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In the aftermath of the September 11 attacks on our country, we are faced with the reality that terrorist attacks upon innocent citizens is the new standard of warfare for countries and organizations with criminal intent.
With fear and anxiety about terrorism in the hearts of free people everywhere, it is appropriate to ask how and whether or not we can protect ourselves from future attacks.
What should we do? Public health agencies should have a sound, workable emergency plan in place in the event of a public health emergency, particularly biological and chemical attacks.
In developing plans and legislation to protect Americans, however, government policies must always respect the dignity and rights of persons, and no policy should place the life and liberty of citizens in the hands of an elite few who will have the power to take both from citizens without their consent.
What are we doing? Immediately after the September 11 attacks, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) attempted to rush anti-terrorism legislation through state legislatures that gives overwhelming and unlimited power to an agent of the state to impose, at the agent's sole discretion, medical procedures on people, using any means necessary, including the kind of restraining methods that law enforcement use to apprehend criminals (guns, militia).
This legislation, innocuously entitled the "Model Emergency Health Powers Act" (MEHPA), contained a number of provisions that will grant broad new police powers to public health authorities to take over hospitals and other businesses, seize drug supplies, force mandatory vaccination, quarantine people, and destroy property without owners consent and without compensation to property owners.
(www.publichealthlaw.net)
- In an attempt to standardize local and state government responses to public health emergencies, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) wants all 50 states to adopt this model legislation.
To promote passage of this legislation, HHS promises federal dollars for new programs.
- The original version of the public health legislation was not received well by many states due to its coercive intent, so the CDC introduced a modified version in December 2001 -- this second version does NOT make vaccination mandatory.
However,
- Florida's version of this legislation, SB 1262, is the ORIGINAL model bill.
Thus, Florida's bill does grant unelected health officials the power to force vaccination, using any means necessary.
This bill passed both the House and Senate legislatures and was signed into law by Governor Bush's in May 2002.
(www.leg.state.fl.us)
What is wrong with this legislation?
According to the principle architects of the bill, this legislation is needed to protect the health and safety of citizens from epidemics and bio-terrorism.
A careful analysis of this bill, however, reveals that this legislation goes much further than necessary to perform the legitimate functions of the government.
It unnecessarily duplicates existing state natural-disaster statutes, but more importantly, it poses a real threat to civil liberties.
- The comprehensive emergency plan required under this act gives government agents broad powers that are not specifically spelled out in the act itself, and the bill uses vague language to define key concepts.
- This bill lacks detailed criteria for what constitutes an emergency.
Allowing for this key concept to be so broadly defined gives unelected health officers the power to declare anything an emergency, from HIV infection to a few cases of influenza.
- "Terrorism" is defined so as to allow citizens and legitimate domestic organizations that criticize the government to be designated as "terrorist."
As a result, the First Amendment rights of citizens who criticize government could feasibly be denied.
- This comprehensive plan fails to provide adequate judicial or legislative review of the emergency declaration and it protects those empowered with police powers from liability.
- In fact, the legislature is prohibited from reviewing the declaration for 60 days.
Only then can the legislature override the declaration by a 2/3 vote of both chambers.
By passing this legislation, the Legislature will effectively abdicate its governing authority since this law prohibits the Legislature from approving the declaration or from intervening in the actions taken by unelected public health officials.
- One may ask why the CDC is asking state legislatures to give up their authority in this unprecedented manner when Congress itself would not (and should not) give up it constitutional duty to provide the checks and balances of a divided government.
- This legislation shields the agents empowered by this legislation as well as subordinates working at their direction.
No governor, legislator, public health official or other agent can be held accountable for deaths or health damage suffered by quarantined or vaccinated bioterrorism victims, or for damage to or loss of private property.
This legislation changes the very nature of our government.
- This bill infringes on doctors' and other health care providers' freedom of conscience as it would force health care professionals to perform services they may object to.
- The coercive provisions of this legislation constitute the most serious threat to the ethical standard of informed consent for medical interventions since the Nuremberg Code was issued following World War II.
- The Florida bill has been amended so that individuals unable or unwilling to be examined, tested, vaccinated or treated for reasons of health, religion, or conscience may be subject to quarantine.
Yet in the event it is deemed that quarantine is not considered practical, the State Health Officer reserves the dictatorial power to use any means necessary to vaccinate or treat the individual, including the use of militia.
Do we really want to give one person this kind of unconstitutional power?
- Giving agents employed by the state the power to use the state militia to arrest, quarantine and forcibly medicate citizens without their having the right to informed consent, legal counsel or recourse has the potential for creating the same kind of terror and chaos that this bill is supposed to be preventing!
The issue of forced vaccination:
The issue of forced vaccination is not about whether an individual should or should not receive a vaccine.
The issue of forced vaccination is about the value of human life and liberty.
- No state of emergency in a free society justifies the sacrifice of the most sacred human right: the right to voluntarily decide what you are willing to risk your life or your child's life for.
What it means to be free doesn't get more basic than that.
The MEHPA is a direct assault on civil liberties protected by the Constitution and it is a dangerous precedent for a nation that has always rejected any form of state sponsored repression under any circumstances.
- The best way to protect all citizens without infringing on an individual's freedom of conscience is to have an adequate supply of safe vaccines for those who want them.
The argument for vaccination is to confer protection against disease.
Unvaccinated people pose no harm to those who are protected with effective vaccines.
- While the public is anxious for government assurances that bioterrorism response plans are in place in the event of an attack, we must be careful about what we ask for.
In the event of a medical emergency involving an infectious disease, most people will gladly vaccinate or quarantine themselves voluntarily.
Precautions for vaccination:
There has been a rush to act without fully understanding the potential consequences of these actions.
All one needs to do is study vaccine literature to see that the damages from a mass vaccination campaign would be extensive and devastating.
- All mass vaccination campaigns result in casualties because every vaccine, like every drug, carries an inherent risk of injury or death.
- In the case of smallpox, the CDC estimates thousands (1 in 4,000 people) would suffer a serious adverse reaction to the smallpox vaccine, the most common reaction being postvaccinial encephalitis.
It is further estimated that between 25-50% of those affected with postvaccinial encephalitis would die within a week due to a lack of effective treatment.
(June 22, 2001 CDC Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR).
- Given the likelihood of adverse side effects and thousands of deaths from vaccination, a mass smallpox vaccination campaign is not medically advisable, especially when the risk of exposure to the disease is unknown.
(Dr. Phillip Russell, John Hopkins University School of Public Health and an expert on infectious diseases).
This is why infectious disease experts are encouraging caution and why they are reluctant to implement mass vaccination for smallpox or anthrax at this time.
How are states dealing with this proposed legislation?
It is interesting to note how some states are coming to grips with this dangerous sanction of government power.
Four states (Idaho, Washington, Wisconsin, and Wyoming) have either defeated or inactivated this model legislation.
- The state of Wyoming defeated 8 to 1 their version of this anti-terrorism bill, citing that one of the most objectionable aspects of the bill was the provision that an "incident commander" would have powers over everyone, including personnel and resources made available to him/her from any source.
Wyoming legislators expressed outrage that anyone would even attempt to pass a bill that would place American citizens under the authority of anyone with such dictatorial power.
- Florida legislators have sanctioned this unconstitutional deprivation of legislative authority and responsibility. It is now up to Governor Bush to decide its fate.
Who is concerned about this legislation?
It would appear that citizens have been too complacent about government's actions to put appropriate emergency plans in place to safeguard the public in the event of bioterrorist attacks.
Supporters of legislative bioterrorism action may not understand the scope of MEHPA or Florida SB 1262.
They may assume that civil liberty issues will be dealt with elsewhere or in practice.
This legislation should be a concern to every American and all defenders of liberty.
Elements of this legislation arguably violate the first, fourth, fifth, sixth and eighth amendments to the Constitution.
Furthermore, it treats American citizens as if they are the enemy (George Annas, Chairman, Health Law Department, Boston University School of Public Health).
The Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS) (www.aapsonline.org) urges that states should emphasize abilities to mitigate the situation, not powers to seize, commandeer, coerce, punish, and disrupt.
- Better laboratories with surge capacity; stockpiles of vaccines, drugs, medical equipment and supplies, protective gear; and decontamination equipment; and improved training of both officials and citizens would help prepare us for an emergency, yet they are not part of the MEHPA. (www.aapsonline.org).
- AAPS urged Governor Bush to veto SB 1262, claiming that the Florida legislation is even more frightening than other MEHPA bills because it gives unlimited life and death powers to an unelected bureaucrat.
- "Fallible human beings should not be imposing medical treatments or other coercive measures on unwilling citizens at gunpoint.
They should not be imposing threats of taking children from their parents or obliterating informed consent and due process of law.
The medical consequences as well as the consequences for the American system of government could be disastrous." (Dr. Jane M. Orient, Executive Director, AAPS)
The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) (www.alec.org) recommends that all legislators seriously consider the impact of this legislation before taking immediate action.
- While many people would argue that this model legislation is well intentioned, ALEC finds that a closer reading of the bill reveals that the intention of the drafters is to push Americans closer to government-run health care, and to do so in the name of the common good.
"The MEHPA blatantly ignores the key role of the private sector and of individuals in responding to crisis situations, and assumes Americans should rely instead on the government."
- "We must take a much more deliberative approach in crafting effective policy without sacrificing the rights and liberties of individuals and families. (Director, Health and Services, ALEC)
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THE DECISION TO VACCINATE IS YOURS AND YOURS ALONE.
The information provided here is for educational purposes only and is not to be construed as medical or legal advice.
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