2023-07-26 00:00:00 - Joint Committee on Public Health

2023-07-26 00:00:00 - Joint Committee on Public Health (Part 3 of 4)

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STACIE BORIOS - CONCERNED CITIZEN - HB 582 - My name is Stacey Borios, I'm a mother of two, I have been a physical therapist for almost 20 years. I support H 582, but oppose the rest of the Bills on the docket. I am not a health threat, my family is not a health threat, and the small percentage of the state with medical and the lizard's exemptions are not a health threat. As the joint committee on public health, I urge you to focus your efforts on things like increasing access to mental health care, not restricting or eliminating exemptions. Doctors need to be able to use their clinical judgment and assess an individual's complex immune system, not just refer to a list of two contraindications. Two years ago, I lost my job because my religious exemption from my previous five years of employment was no longer good enough. I'm here today to ensure the same thing does not happen to my children. The argument that there are no religions against vaccination is a moot point as our country was58 founded on religious freedom. That means religious beliefs are not simply what you learn in church or what you hear the Pope say on the news, religious beliefs can be new, uncommon, or not part of a formal church. In Christianity, we are taught to follow in70 Jesus' footsteps, but to also follow our morally formed conscience. Lastly, allowing minors to consent76 to preventative care without a parents knowledge is unfathomable. As a 42 year old adult, I have a hard time asking questions about my own health care, and I am a health care provider. In fact, studies have shown the health literacy of adults is only at a 6th grade level, a child does not have the capacity to make health related decisions and should never be forced to accept a product that comes with such great risk. These Bills are overreach and unnecessary. Please let doctors be doctors, parents, be parents, and let everyone have freedom of religion. Thank you.
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MEGHAN VALENTINE - CONCERNED CITIZEN - HB 582 - My name is Megan Valentine, and I've been a Massachusetts residents for over 37 years. I'm testifying against the Bills that we speak today, and I'm also supporting Bill H 582.133 I'm a Christian mother of two135 amazing boys. My husband and I work very hard to send our children to a private Christian school. We pay for them to attend classical Christian education, but these Bills I'm opposing against, if passed will take away that right of their education from them. Education is extremely important and denying my children education goes against for what Massachusetts stands for, a state that has equality for all not having discrimination towards any person, sex, religion, or gender, or race, or even education. These Bills I oppose discriminate, against all that I've stated, Massachusetts has the highest vaccination rate, and only 1% use religious exemption. What is going to happen to myself and my family if these Bills pass? Will we move, homeschool to another state? I love and grew up in this state as much. I already work very hard keeping my children in a private Christian school. If these Bills pass and deny a great education opportunity for them, how many families have already left the state due to these dangerous Bills? I can't even understand why my parental rights keep being stripped away from me. My Senators work for me, not against me. Government should not take away religion education, parental rights, or mandate certain vaccines in order to get education. School systems have failed our children during the pandemic, so many children have fallen behind. My children are God's children, this is my responsibility to protect them as a parent. Consider not passing these Bills and please stand by the parents of Massachusetts to have an equal education with no mandates for education and to honor religion. This is why I support Bill H 582. Keep the religious exemption, support, protect doctors for medical exemptions. Children, a wonderful mate by God, and are a gift. Please remember this when you guys are discussing these Bills. Please,241 do241 not pass these Bills. Thank you.
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AUDREY FOX - CONCERNED CITIZEN - HB 582 - Dear Chairs and committee members, my name is Audrey, I'm a single working mom of two, and I oppose all Bills today except H 582, which I thoroughly support. My oldest daughter is very medically complex, I've spent hundreds of hours in doctor's offices, therapies of various sorts, ensuring she receives the best care possible. Four medical professionals have told me that if she or my other child were to ever be324 vaccinated, the risk of serious life altering disability or death is highly likely. She has had a consecutive medical exemption since the age of four due to genetic complications and widespread severe anaphylactic allergies. Two years ago, at her physical, I was informed that her doctor would be unable to renew her medical exemption due to pressure from the state and threat of loss of license. It's already happening with the current laws in place, how much worse will it be if these Bills move forward? Because the doctors followed my child since toddlerhood witnessed her reactions, and the state has decided that her medical judgment might be worth possibly seizing their license over. Since then, she's been forced to use a religious exemption because it would be abuse in my God's eyes to intentionally harm my child. Taking care of a special needs child is mentally, physically, and financially challenging. These Bills add another layer of hardship, it is fundamentally wrong. Have we not been through enough? We are so focused on protecting one group of children, but where is the protection from my child? No child is acceptable collateral, why should I have to spend hundreds of hours fighting and replying and signing statements of four speech from my child's right to an education and services she so desperately needs and deserves for her quality of life. The Supreme Court has also unequivocally held for years that parents have the final medical right to make medical decisions for the their child. Thank you.
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MITCHELLE FREE - CONCERNED CITIZEN - HB 582 - Thank you. What you are doing to families with beliefs that differ from your own is abhorrent. I want you to visualize the reality of this right now for the majority of the folks on this call who could not stand in person. They are distraught, shaken and absolutely crushed listening to Representatives justify this discrimination against people that hold different beliefs. We've been ostracized and vilified for years and you are inflicting more upon us. Our children are guaranteed access to a free and fair public education, this is targeted bullying, and you should be ashamed and you should expect to be sued. All of you, every single one of you, champion, personal individuality, my body, my choice when it535 is politically convenient for you to do so, yet here you are, insistently pursuing the removal of bodily autonomy. Medical autonomy and ethics have544 been summarily crushed by people like you, this lies at your feet. It doesn't matter if the intervention makes you fly, if I do not want in my body or my children's body, it is no place for you to remove my rights to coerce me to do it. How many times do we tell you no? This is wildly unacceptable, most especially using immunocompromised children, and you're a clear disdain for other beliefs to provide biopharma, Massachusetts, its sacrificial offering. I'd like to point out the reason for the rising vaccine hesitancy is directly due to the Blinkland campaign to remove rights from people who made a contrary choice. There is no one that can deny the level of propaganda and coercion surrounding Covid response. You are steamrolling these families instead of addressing the base issue, this all lies at your feet. Our government's heavy handed response to people who do not feel safe or comfortable is the direct reason for the destruction of ethics. This is why people people who are attacked and segregated from public life are not falling in line. You have awoken a beast that will not rest, take a good look and retain a good attorney.
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CHARLES LONGEWAY - CONCERNED CITIZEN - HB 582 - I would just like to say that as lifelong residents of Massachusetts, growing up from a dire economic position, and being treated and trampled upon my entire life, this is yet another in a long string of political agendas just trying to act your way and dig away at our rights, and the abomination of the fact that you would allow anyone that could think a child should go into a doctor's office and get a medical treatment, it's just beyond me, you've clearly sold your soul, and you will have someone to answer705 to at some point in time. I gravely fear and pray for you. I lost a 20 year career because I didn't want to get a poison, a pharmaceutical poison that Covid vaccine is nothing but a poison, and it has been designed to control population and to kill us. These people want your children dead, they're coming for your children, they're coming for your rights. The next step will be who knows what medical procedure that the doctor could go in and perform on your child, and you'll have no say, no knowledge. You know, I'd like to also point out that, you know, certain sponsors of these Bills you know, such as Rebecca Rausch, was a lawyer for Perkins Elmer, Pharmaceutical, and Hopkins Mass, that's why she's sponsoring this Bill. You know, nobody really cares about whether anyone's healthy, because if they really did, they wouldn't be trying to poison everyone. As someone who has been directly affected, my family has been destroyed almost but we will survive, and I thank everyone who has come together to testify and fight these Bills. Your people are disgusting, abomination and you are traders and should be tried for treason. Thank you.
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EMILY BODDY - CONCERNED CITIZEN - HB 582 - Thank you for your time, Chairs and committee members. I live in Northampton, Massachusetts. I am here in opposition to most of the Bills, but in favor of Bill H 582. It's easy to think of this as a partisan issue, Republicans opposing and Democrats supporting. This is not the case, I am a829 lifelong Democrat, as are a huge number people I know opposing these Bills. I have voted for your esteemed colleagues, Senator Comerford and Representative Sabadosa, and appreciated their open mindedness and attention to my perspective. I have a degree in public844 policy, and my work prior to being a846 full time mom was a nonprofit child and family advocacy organizations and public schools. I give countless hours to my children's school to ensure that all children have access to a high quality education. I oppose these Bills in part because, one, they will disproportionately negatively impact the people of the Democratic Party has always purported to advocate for, including single parents, low income families, children with special learning needs, to name a few. These families are unlikely to have the resources to exit the public school system if religious exemptions are revoked or rendered by the community immunity Bill immensely difficult or impossible to obtain. Two, they discriminate based on religion, and three, they are a clear violation of choice and bodily autonomy and the principles of informed consent. Let me be clear, these Bills would be punitive and cause immense difficulty and potential trauma to my children and family but we have the resources to homeschool higher tutors, or move out of state or country. These Bills will cause greatest harm for families with fewer resources, and greatest need. Those families that I have advocated for through my adult life and my party, and that of the authors of this Bill claims to support. We must do better. My full comments will be submitted in writing. Thank you for your time.
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FRANCESCO SPAGNA - CONCERNED CITIZEN - HB 582 - HB 604 - I strongly support Bill 582 and oppose the rest of the Bills in the docket today. With regards to 604, it needs to be said that, yes, it's true that the exemption rate increased by 500% since the 1980s, but in 1988, the religious exemption rate was 0.18%, 2018, it was 1.08%, extremely low rates, you play with the975 math, you arrive at 500%. So I think that number is used to being misleading although factual, it makes a mountain under the moor heal. Regardless, of the above numbers, rate percentages, this is a Bill blatant supports991 religious discrimination and if they call it a loophole, it's quite insulting to call it a nonmedical exemption. I think it is also misleading, and it misses our true litigious beliefs. The exemption is not based on any particular religion, religious doctrine that transcends them, it needs to be understood that. The exemption is that one's moral's conscience. The Catholic church was involved earlier today by the Bill sponsor. So lifelong devout Catholic tell you that church teaches that a person is morally required to obey his or her conscious, so basic to net of the Catholic church and the Bill expressly contradicts that Catholic teaching. The community immunity Bills of Wolf and sheep's clothing, the Trojan horse of a Bill, it purports to preserve to preserve both the religious medical exemptions would have tightened the requirements of both to a point that each would be nearly impossible to obtain. As such, discriminates both on a basis of religion from one's medical conditions. Closing that, I did move out of state because of these Bills and because of religious discrimination but I'm here to testify in our position because I want to come back, and I will come back. Support of brothers and sisters in Massachusetts who also oppose these Bills. Thank you.
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AMY BACCHIERI - CONCERNED CITIZEN - HB 582 - Honorable members. My name is Amy Bacchieri, and I'm here to testify in opposition to all of the Bills today with the exception of H 582. I'm the mother of two, and my husband and I have a combined 40 years of public service in Massachusetts Public Education. I'm pleading with you today to please listen to differing viewpoints, because it seems as if so many have already made up their minds. I am a lifelong Democrat, an engaged member of my community, and I voted in every single election since I was 18. I deeply value the American ideals for which the state is known including freedom from tyranny, tolerance, open minded discourse, and the preservation of the Bill of rights. We are stronger as a people when we allow for differing viewpoints. Coercion and the suppression of dissent are the hallmark of corrupt governance, and it weakens our state by exacerbating division stoking the fires of intolerance destroying sub liberties that should be fiercely protected. I like some of you, am deeply disturbed by the radical overturning of Roe V Wade, and I'm similarly disturbed as some states including Massachusetts that are also trying to take away bodily autonomy when it comes to vaccines and religious choice. Though many try to split hairs on this issue, there is no gray area here. Bodily autonomy is bodily autonomy and religious freedom is religious freedom period, not just when it comes to some world's stance with what you happen to agree. The cognitive dissonance surrounding this issue is astounding1157 to me. The premise that there1159 is consensus among the medical community regarding1161 vaccines and vaccine injury and the vaccine schedules that pharmaceutical companies put forth is categorically1166 false. I personally know doctors and other healthcare providers that are more qualified than legislatures here and they are alarmed by what they are seeing. Do they feel unsafe to be able1177 to speak up against what they are seeing and against the broad brush with which we1181 are1181 painting1181 vaccine safety. We should be very alarmed and concerned that we are creating a situation in this society where doctors and medical professionals feel1189 unsafe to offer any dissenting viewpoints. The last few years have left me feeling disillusioned and alarmed by the divisive authority in turn that my party and some members of this legislature have taken. This is un American, this is authoritarian thinking, and this is inhumane. Thank you.
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DAN SULLIVAN - CONCERNED CITIZEN - HB 582 - Good afternoon, members. My name is Dan Sullivan, and I'm a registered nurse. Vaccines are medicines, like all medicines, vaccines have side effects, adverse effects, contraindications, and even black box warnings. Given the potential of harm, including injury or death, the decision of whether or not to vaccinate infants and children should lie squarely and solely between the licensed independent practitioner, their patients and the parents or legal guardians, and not unilaterally by politicians or bureaucrats. Within this trusted decision making triad of the LIP, the patient, their parents, or legal guardians, the best interest of children can be assessed and managed. In light of the exponential increase in the number of incidences of injury and even death reported to the vaccine adverse event reporting system, the decision to vaccinate must not be taken casually,1316 callously or coercively. Every medical decision requires an assessment of the individual's past medical history, potential risk and benefits, and sincerely held personal beliefs as well as the individual's personal autonomy and medical freedom. One size fits all medicine is not safe, efficacious, or ethical medicine, but medical tyranny plain and simple. Let us defend autonomy, confidentiality, sanctity, and veracity of the physician patient relationship and preserve the rights of parents and legal guardians to make informed choices for their children's health and wellness. Let us enact legislation that promotes individual health and wellness and not the interest of big government or big pharma. Thank you.
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JENNIFER ANDREWS - CONCERNED CITIZEN - HB 582 - Good afternoon. I support Bill H 582 and oppose the other Bills as they are unnecessary and harmful. These Bills would put parents in an impossible position violating their sincere religious beliefs if they wanted to send their children to school. The refusal to recognize religious exemptions will needlessly harm these children by forcing their parents to homeschool or move out of the state often directly across the border to attend school in a neighboring state while otherwise continuing to live their lives in Massachusetts. Children will be four sided school, and an educational crisis will ensue. The special needs population would1429 lose their essential services like speech and occupational therapy. Education is the tool for equality, removing education will create a much bigger public health threat and will adversely affect the vulnerable. The children of thousands of illegal immigrants that have been flown into Massachusetts are now attending our public schools. The vaccination status of these children is unknown as many do not have such evidentiary documentation, therefore, the hypocrisy cannot be overstated. A child who is an American citizen, a Massachusetts resident would not be able to obtain an education if just one vaccine on a required schedule conflicts with their families sincerely held religious beliefs. However, a child who is illegally residing in Massachusetts who cannot show any proof of their vaccination history can attend school without issue. The authors of these Bills have simply chosen not to accord an exemption when it come to someone's religious beliefs. The Commonwealth of Massachusetts would afford a secular exemption to those with medical reasons that prohibit vaccination and to illegal immigrants who cannot provide vaccination history proving that it can accommodate students that are unvaccinated. Please uphold your hold to the constitution and sweep these communist Bills into the dust bin of history.
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NANCY GRIGORIADIS - CONCERNED CITIZEN - HB 582 - I'm a mom of a child who had an adverse reaction to the hepatitis vaccine. Like many parents have testified today, no doctor ever reported her adverse reaction to the vaccine and this goes to show that the percentage of actual reactions is unclear to all the medical doctors, to parents, the risk that we're taking on our children is based on fictitious data that we don't have. So if you're going to remove religious exemptions, we don't have any other option. My child cannot have another vaccine, she is at serious risk, and I don't have any options,1622 you are not protecting parents whose children have been harmed by a vaccine in any way, shape, or form. The only avenue we have is a religious exemption and unbeknownst to me, now that I know that they actually had fetal cell tissue in the vaccines had I known that from the beginning, I never would have allowed my child to take these vaccines because I'm completely opposed to that as a religious person. So1650 I'm opposed to all the Bills except for H 582. I appreciate the time to speak and I need you to consider that you're harming a lot of children by doing these Bills. Thank you.
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SARAH BERNADI - CONCERNED CITIZEN - HB 582 - This is like I've never been here before, and I've lived in Massachusetts my whole entire1707 life, so I brought my girls because this is amazing. So I didn't write anything either, and I'm sorry about that, but I am opposed to all except H 582. What I wanted to say is talk about the lifelong learners, what a lot of people, they're talking about, they're religious exemptions and everyone else, but what you're missing is the lifelong learners. If any of you want to go to college, and you'd and the colleges decide that they want you to get all1742 five boosters or flu shot or something that you're opposed to and you don't have this religious exemption, you're in trouble. I was a school nurse for three years, and I was grateful to be in a district that did not mandate the vaccine for the staff members. So, in DESE, in five years, you have to get a master's degree, so any school health, anyone that works in the school system, a teacher, has to get their master's degree in five years. So what about those What are the colleges going to say in mandate if you approve this Bill? I don't really have anything else to say, but I think your name should be a lot bigger because up there, I have no idea who you are. Thank you.
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LAURA DYER - CONCERNED CITIZEN - HB 582 - So I'm Laura Dyer, I am testifying against all of the Bills except H 582, an act relative to medical exemptions. I'm testifying for my rights, for my family, and everyone adversely affected by vaccines. My healthy grandmother who had never had been on a medication in her life, she died from the Covid-19 vaccines. She developed atrial fibrillation after the first injection, then developed shortness of breath and swelling up to her thighs. In other words, congestive heart failure two days after the first Covid- 19 booster leading her to be put on Lasix, Cardizem, and Eliquis. She died after multiple boosters. Another one of my family members' daughters immediately lost her speech and eye contact after receiving the MMR vaccine, it took her two years to get this back. Let me just remind you of the 56 year old obstetrician in Florida who died from a hemorrhagic stroke, platelets were zero, developed a severe form of thrombocytopenia that wasn't treatable, and this is all post injection. People like this need a choice whether or not they become permanently disabled from a vaccine or die, especially children in schools. There needs to be alternatives than to just force and mandate these injections that cause harm to people in the public or private school systems. This severely discriminates against this population of people, this targets our families, and this takes away our human rights and it's by far unconstitutional. It's also very unclear exactly what vaccines in large do because people still contract the viruses severely that they're supposed to prevent, okay? More research and getting to the root causes of illness should be a priority and not just claiming vaccines are going to solve the issue. I urge you to reject these Bills except H 582, an act relative medical exemptions. Thank you, and God bless.
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JASMINE BETZ-MORETTI - CONCERNED CITIZEN - HB 2151 - SB 1458 - Thank you all for having me here today, allowing me to speak, and I would like to thank all1988 the committee for your public service and all that you do. I'm a Massachusetts resident, and I take great pride in this one Commonwealth for all that's rich, diverse history, culture, and people. I'm speaking in support of promoting community immunity, to require immunizations against preventable diseases and preventing future disease outbreaks. About me well, more importantly, my son, my son is immunocompromised. He was born premature early at 25 weeks and was initially hospitalized for over 20 weeks, and he has since been hospitalized three more times, and he's got at least one more hospitalization coming up in about three months' time. Among the many medical issues that my son battles, he continues to have chronic lung disease and must be connected to a pulse oximeter and receive oxygen when he becomes infected with any upper respiratory disease. He is dependent on the herd immunity of our community for certain diseases and to be able to not contract them. Enabling exemptions for vaccines further compromises my son's safety. Our son who has complex medical needs has impacted our family not just in terms of medical impacts2053 and physical suffering, but emotional, spiritual, and financial impacts as well. We've had the opportunity to keep them him until age two, however, even with that protection, our son required hospitalization twice for upper respiratory diseases. I'm not sure if you are aware, but my son requires incredibly intensive, I guess, interventions if he does get sick. He has an IFSP, which is an IEP precursor for PT, OT speech and seizure developmental specialist. Closing loopholes as proposed in these bills2084 will help protect my son, help us protect2086 one another in this community, and help protect the great state of Massachusetts. Thank you so much for your time and your consideration. I am in support of everything except I believe it's 582,

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ROGER MAZZELLA - CONCERNED CITIZEN - HB 582 - Thank you very much. So I am opposed to all of the Bills on hand except for the one allowing for exemptions. I'm a biomedical engineer, master's degree, I work with the FDA, and I'll tell you it's all about trust, ladies and gentlemen, the trust has been gone with this last round of vaccines. The Cleveland Clinic peer2172 reviewed study found that the more vaccines you've had, the higher your Covid-19 risk. So as opposed to Senator Cyr who said that, no one has said that anyone gets Covid after having the vaccine is absolutely incorrect, people are getting and transmitting Covid. So that's one vaccine, now, I've had the vaccine for polio, that was over 30 years, 50 years, 60 years of long term studies. This vaccine that came out was short. So the parents should have the decision to vaccinate their children or not based on their own studies and research. I'll tell you the vaccine that we just had got brushed out. Sorry, it did. And then let's look at other statistics. Childhood vaccines in 1983, 10 vaccines, the schedule for vaccines in 2013, 32 vaccines, schedule for vaccines 2022, 74 vaccines, autism rates, 1983, one in 10000, 2013, one in 88, 2022, one in 36, they estimate then 2025, the autism rate will be one in two. These are correlated with vaccine schedules. I'm not saying that you know, people shouldn't get the vaccine. I don't tell you that people should get a vaccine. I say that is their choice and to give a child the option to choose if they can get a vaccine or not. I'm trying to keep my kid away from peer pressure of drugs and alcohol, what happens when a school nurse or a teacher coerces her into getting one? So, no, the decision should be with the parents. Thank you very much for your time.
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CRAIG MORRIS - CONCERNED CITIZEN - HB 582 - Thank you. I oppose all the Bills with the exception of House Bill 582, Soter's Bill. I know a lot has been said about religion and about religion doesn't prevent you from getting a vaccine, and, you know, that is technically correct, but according to the second Vatican counsel and its declaration of dignity to human, it basically says that both religious and civil authorities have the duty to respect the consciousness of a person as a civil right and quote from the document, and all his activity, a man is bound to follow his conscience in order that he may come to God, the end and purpose of life, it follows that he is not to be forced to act in a manner contrary to his conscience. So that is right from the bank and counsel. So first, people have religious exemptions and want to get the religious exemption, that is very important to us. Also, I noticed on one of these Bills that we2393 want to add the HPV vaccine to the child schedule. I'm not sure if the council or the committee realizes that the most widely used HPV vaccine, Gardasil is right now part of a federal lawsuit that is actually being managed by the US District Judge, Robert Conrad, and the Western District of North Carolina that was from a May 2023. He's overseeing the pre discovery proceedings, part of the adverse effects that they're looking at is autoimmune diseases, premature ovarian failure, premature menopause, polycystic ovarian syndrome, lupus, neurological disorders, fibromyalgia, nerve damage, menstrual disorders and problems, and that's just a small list. So I think the committee needs to relook at these vaccines and the adverse effects before they start pushing them on to our children. Thanks.
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CHRIS SCARPINO - CONCERNED CITIZEN - HB 582 - Greetings to the Chair and our committee. I am providing testimony in support of Bill H 582. During the previous academic year, I was a lecturer in the Physics Department at Brandeis University. During the previous 11 years, I was a full time teaching faculty member at Worcester Polytechnic Institute where I taught the university's premier Laboratory course. Prior to joining these colleges, I worked for nine years at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary Hospital, where I served on multiple, institutional biosafety committees, including two positions with pharmaceutical Companies and one at Brigham and Women's Mass General. These2510 experiences have colored my views of safety in healthcare. As a laboratory lecturer, my teaching and scholarship requires access to my laboratories and equipment. However, WPI had instituted intrusive vaccine mandates. College required all employees to be vaccinated even those who are fully remote or to provide a medical or religious exemption. HR confirmed2536 to me that if they did not accept my exemptions, any of them, I would indeed be fired. I could not obtain a medical exemption, even though my termination would have nothing to do with my performance. Eventually, I lost both faculty positions, so instead of being a successful engineer and faculty instructor after many years, I became unemployed, and I'm now perhaps unemployable, the Commonwealth should ask itself whether it wishes me to be on unemployment or work on technical issues. Because of WPI's forced mandates and ruthless quarantines, seven WPI students died from seizures or suicides. WPI's policies2579 were a failure, in the end, the President of the college, former President resigned. This is the college campus of today and tomorrow, a dangerous place where students die and faculty are fired. I recommend that your committee investigate, the number of
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JESSICA RODZIN - CONCERNED CITIZEN - HB 582 - My name is Jessica Rodzin, I'm here to oppose many of the Bills you're hearing about today, I will email my written a testimony in opposition to these Bills. Today, though, I would like to focus on Representative Soter's amazing Bill and thank him publicly for fighting for our rights, Bill H 582. Myself and my son both experienced permanent, lifelong, incurable vaccine reactions that are recognized in the FDA contraindications, but not by the CDC as the Community Immunity Act utilizes. My son's condition was listed right on the vaccine package insert and is life threatening, it affects our lives, every single day and night and cost thousands of dollars a year in medical care. The original doctor who diagnosed him filed his VAAR's report and gave us a medical exemption, a year later, she moved out of state. The practice threw us out and would not even speak to me. Even though the doctor spoke on our behalf for continued care, they would hear none of it. It took me years to find another doctor that would grant us medical exemptions once again even though most doctors agreed with me, our genes obviously put us at high risk for further damage from additional vaccination. We need strong protections for medical exemptions that propose changes to the medical exemptions and attempting to track doctors included in the community immunity act are extremely dangerous, but Soter's Bill helps to keep medical decisions in the hands of actual doctors, not our government. Many of these proposed Bills would subject my family to further discrimination, not just in my children's education, but in their right to health care. Representative Soter's Bill helps protect us and keeps medical decisions in the hands of our providers. Thank you.
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ADRIENNE MONKS - CONCERNED CITIZEN - HB 582 - My name is Adrienne Monks, I'm a resident of Massachusetts for the past 47 years. I'm here today to testify for myself, my children, Cali and Liana Monks, who are 12 years old. I am here to oppose all the Bills except to support the H 582 bill. At 24 months, we saw a setback in my child's eye contact, speech, and lo and behold, she was vaccine injured. After receiving the autism diagnosis at 2.9 months, it was extremely difficult. She now lives, we had to make the hard decision, she now lives at a residential school for autism since nine years old. It was due to safety reasons, and it was the best decision we ever made. She thrives at the school and would be an extreme hardship if we had to homeschool her or move out of state. My other daughter, misses her sister desperately, and she has a severe peanut allergies, soy allergies, sodium phosphate allergies, she was diagnosed with ADHD, anxiety, and2855 now in a treatment facility for anorexia. Looking back, I felt uninformed on the adverse reactions in the ingredients in each vaccine that was recommended on the doctor's schedule. These vaccines ingredients affects each person individually, it's not a one size fit all for everybody. There are genetic mutations like MTHFR that I carry are affected the body's way to produce and it toxify the foods and things that we eat. If we had an apple that contains aluminum, mercury, formaldehyde, MSG, and fetal DNA, would you eat it? These are our rights and we should be informed daily on what we have. God's children are not an experiment, and I ask the committee2906 to oppose the proposed legislation, and thank you for your consideration.
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SARGENT GOODCHILD - ACTIVE HEALING - HB 582 - Good afternoon. Thank you, committee members for the opportunity to address you all today. My name is Sargent Goodchild, I am the founder and President of Active2933 Healing. I have been working with the 25% of our kids who have developmental disabilities, which is over half my lifetime. Over those years, I have seen an enormous number of kids coming through my office who are vaccine injured. I know firsthand because I was vaccine injured, and I know firsthand because I have numerous clients whose kids have been vaccine injured, that vaccines are, as the CDC, has already told us, unavoidable, unsafe. We also know through the institutes of Medicine that a lot of the claims that we would tend to attach to vaccines are not, in fact, born out in the science, that there isn't enough evidence to suggest that they have as much efficacy as we might think. The kids that I serve, they desperately need access to their education, they need their speech and language therapists, they need their OTs, they need their PTs, and they need the services that can only be offered through the public school system. As what is3011 in the best interest of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts is not to put barriers in the way of educating our most vulnerable class of citizens, we need to remove those barriers and ensure that all of our kids have a right to education because without it, all of our health is going to suffer. So I'm here in favor of Representative Soter's Bill, H 582, and I oppose the rest of the Bills on the docket today. Thank you very much for your time.
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LAURA KAYAS - CONCERNED CITIZEN - HB 582 - My name is Laura3076 Friedman Kayas, and I noticed as I was sitting up there on the bleachers that I'm kind of shaking, and it might because it's kind of cold, but it could be because of the intensity of the stories that are being brought and talked about. I want to thank the committee members and the Chairs for holding a space to hear the intensity of these stories. I imagine it's not easy to hear all of these things that touch so deeply on life and death and to make3118 a space, so thank you for doing that. I support H 582, I'm in opposition to the other Bills. Again, I'm so moved by everybody's courage in this3134 room, everybody. So it's important to protect medical exemptions if a vaccine truly protects a willing recipient from a transmissible disease. Why require or force others to take it? The justification has always been that it protects those who can't get a vaccine for medical reasons. Under this line of thinking, we must protect a doctor's ability to write a medical exemption for the unique individual with whom they're working as they see fit without fear of reprisal. Otherwise, the entire justification for forcing anyone to take a medical procedure that they don't want falls completely apart. You3191 can't be a champion for individuals with medical vulnerabilities while turning your back on them.
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COLLEEN CALENDRELLI - CONCERNED CITIZEN - HB 582 - Good afternoon. Please note that I won't be testifying with a lot of data, I can save that for my document submission, instead, I'll use my two minutes to talk straight from the heart. Let me trust by saying that I can't believe that the state I live in that I've been so proud of for so many years is at the turning point to strip parents of the basic human rights as caregivers to the God given miracles that we've been blessed with. I am here to support H 582, an act relative to the protection of medical exemptions, inclusive of also to religious exemptions, I oppose the rest of the Bills being presented today. I'm a discouraged, middle aged mother of two.3248 My youngest daughter is still in high school, and instead of celebrating the joy3253 of this exciting time in her life, we've lived with worry over the3257 past several years whether or not she'll be able to continue attending3260 school or will be forced to homeschool her way to graduation. We are now even considering3266 selling the house we've lived in all of my adult life and leaving family and my aging mother in hopes of settling into a state where laws are to protect the people, not marginalized, and demean parents' rights to make the best decisions for their children. Of all the Bills being presented today, the most disturbing to me is the promotion of community immunity act. What kind of a people are we turning into? Allowing physicians to administer medical treatments without parental consent, restricting criteria that physicians and consider when evaluating medical exemptions for vaccinations, putting the ability to have religious beliefs validated by the Department of Health, I can't believe this is happening in the state I live in. I beg for you to please open your eyes and see that these Bills are not the way for the future of Massachusetts. Thank you.
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YVETTE SILVA - CONCERNED CITIZEN - HB 582 - Thank you for hearing my family. These are the faces affected by these Bills, they have been fired from two PCP practices, we went through countless offices3365 before finding one that would accept us. We respect others' rights to choose to vaccinate, we only ask not be treated as second class citizens for our rights of choose to vaccinate. We seek empathy, understanding and acknowledgment for our rights as citizens, let us unite as compassionate community, celebrating the diversity that makes our society strong. Together, we can create a world where love and understand triumph over adversity. We support H 582 and oppose the other Bills. Thank you.
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GIANNI SILVA - CONCERNED CITIZEN - HB 582 - My name is Gianni3408 Silva, thank you for having me today. I'm here to testify about religious vaccination. God made my body perfect, my body, my choice, do you want to take that away from me? Thank you.

IMANI SILVA - CONCERNED CITIZEN - HB 582 - I am Imani Silva and I support Bill 582 and oppose the three other. Thank you for having me.

IMARI SILVA - CONCERNED CITIZEN - HB 582 - My name is Imari Silva and I am here to support Bill H 582 and oppose the other three. Thank you for having me.
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DEBORAH CALENDRELLI - CONCERNED CITIZEN - HB 582 - Thank you, Chairs, and committee members. I am testifying today in support of 582 and oppose all the others. I am a healthcare worker of 30 plus years, I am still working because I was blessed by God to work for the federal government, a government that has to respect my religious beliefs. Again, a government that has to respect my religious beliefs and has allowed me to keep my 30 year career. Unlike the private sector that kicked medical workers to the curb, I speak3521 today representing my daughter who has been in public school for3525 nine years without incident. Last year, we went to her 9th grade parent teacher conference, my wife and I, and we were told by the teacher that the best thing about our daughter is that she is kind, she is kind to everyone, she helps kids, she is respectful, and she said that the world needs more of that. Every year well, at least the last three years, my daughter worries, sometimes to the point of depression, wondering if this Bill will be the year she is unable to go to school to be with her classmates, to be inspired by teachers, to grow in3568 her heart and mind, and to be kind. Will this be the year that she has shut out? I beg you as a mom to please allow my3578 daughter to continue her education, I am at your mercy, please find a solution or a way where all kids can go to school. You're all very smart, intelligent people working for the good of everybody, there has to be a way that all kids can get an education. That being said, in regard to the Community Immunity Act, as a3603 healthcare worker, I would never advise3605 somebody who's going through a tough time in medical procedure not3609 to confer with their family and decide which best thing and to think that any medical care worker or anybody would treat a child without conferring with a parent, it just blows my mind, but thank you for your time.
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ALISON CHAPMAN - CONCERNED CITIZEN - HB 582 - Thank you for having me. I've met with many legislators over the last 20 years. I have three children who had severe adverse events, and I have a son who will be special needs and with me for life and seizures stopped breathing, rashes, high fevers, I've experienced it all. I also experienced a mother who had an adverse to the flu shot and was in the hospital for 3.5 months. Today, I'm going to talk to you from the heart because for all those years, I helped other3684 people come talk to you respectfully about their stories. I trained them to be able to walk in3692 here and have their conversation without the emotional content, sometimes that's very unavoidable. I did all that not because of me, or sometimes I feel like the terminology gets put on the parents, the pejorative commentary, and the name calling, it has nothing to do with us, really. What we did over these last years was advocate for our children, I advocated for my children to have an education because I think it's the number one most important thing on the planet, food, water, shelter, education. I fought for those rights because not everybody is the same, has nothing to do with politics, has nothing to3732 do with any of these other commentary terms, it is about every child deserving an education and every one of us being different no matter if we are a different religious beliefs, different races, different sexual orientations or genders, or different cultures, different underlying familial background and maybe a triggering things that happen to us medically, we all experience different things. Every single kid needs to have an education, when we don't have education, like we saw during Covid, we have a huge increase of mental health crises and other related problems. I really wish that you would support 582 and oppose the others. Thank you.
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CHRISTINA RYCE - CONCERNED CITIZEN - HB 582 - HB 2151 - Thank you. I am here to support H 582, and I oppose 2151 and all the others. I am here to share a very tiny clip into my personal life as a mother and pneumatically fragile children. My oldest son has a primary immune deficiency, common variable immune deficiency to be exact. He gets IVIG, which is donated plasma every three weeks. A part of his illness, he cannot get live vaccines or hold antibodies to any of them. He cannot get a medical exemption for any of his other vaccines that he's had adverse reactions to. When he was a year old, he did have an adverse reaction, and his3868 doctor still refuses to give one in risk of her license. My concern3872 with this bill is that if it goes through, my child may be allowed to potentially receive this vaccine without the full understanding of his health risk and without my consent as his mother and advocate. I have shared in the past here during the Covid pandemic, I got the Covid vaccine when I was told it was safe and effective. At 30 and 35 weeks pregnant, which resulted in my daughter to be born prematurely due to developing intrauterine growth restriction, and she almost died. She currently has half a dozen other health issues directly correlated to the Covid vaccine. She has autism that requires ABA services and a list of to go into public preschool this fall. However, I cannot get a medical exemption because even though she was advised to not get admit any other administered vaccines on the childhood list due to her medical exemption due to her metabolic disorder, they can't list any of her issues because there's not enough evidence from the Covid vaccine to say that her issues are caused by that The CDC and the V safe is currently using us specifically in our situation to start collecting data that's climbing at an alarming rate. Taking exemptions away will be discriminatory towards my children's medical issues as well as others. Thank you for listening.
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MARCHANN BLAKE - CONCERNED CITIZEN - HB 582 - HB 604 - HB 471 - Thank you so much for this opportunity. It's an honor to be here. My name is Marchann Blake, I'm a Topsfield resident. I'm a mother, and I'm an attorney testifying today in strong support of H 582, which protects doctor patient relationships from unwarranted government intervention. I strongly oppose the rest of the Bills on the docket, these latter Bills diminish parents' rights to protect their children the way that only parents can.3987 They erode our medical freedom and rights to bodily autonomy, and they give the government far more power over our lives than it should have. I'll start with H 604, which prohibits the free exercise of religion, and thus is in violation of the US and Massachusetts constitutions. Just because other states no longer have this exemption doesn't mean their laws are constitutional, they just haven't lost in court yet.4011 For some, free exercise of religion means saying no vaccines. Reasons might include, as already stated, the use of aborted fetal cells, there's also genetic modification and gene therapy in certain vaccines. All of this can be proven upon close examination of vaccine package inserts. Other people might object to vaccinating their children against sexually transmitted diseases. Over the last few years, there's been a literal tsunami of vaccine related legislation, numerous Bills in different states that are strikingly similar in substance, alarming Bills, which promote government overreach and take away people's rights. My best guess is that this4055 is due to intense pharmaceutical lobbying. The Bills I'm objecting to here all seem to be part of this tidal wave. Who benefits from their passage? Not the people of Massachusetts, but the pharmaceutical industry. You don't need to spend millions of dollars advertising something that the government forces people to take. Please say no to all of these bills and yes to 582.4076 One last thing, since I have time, why H 471 shouldn't be passed until the Covid vaccine4082 roll out, it was the responsible for the most serious adverse reactions in of all the vaccines. Thank you.
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ALYSSA COLBURN - CONCERNED CITIZEN - HB 582 - Good afternoon, sir, and Madam Chair and members of the committee. My name is Alyssa Colburn, and my husband and I are life long residents of Massachusetts. I am testifying on behalf of my children. I hold a bachelor's degree in science,4121 and also a master's degree in science. I'm not anti science, I do not belong to a so called religion, but I am a bible believing Christian with a close relationship with God. Today, I am testifying in support of H 582 and in opposition of the other Bills on the docket. My children deserve the same right as any other child to attend school, summer camp, and any other activity regardless of their vaccination status. This is my third time testifying against these Bills or similar Bills and this is an unfair burden on the roughly 1% of minority families of faith like mine. Our stands will not change based on any law, we will never vaccinate our children. This is an attack on our religious freedoms, which is protected by Massachusetts state law, Article 46 section 1. No law4172 shall be passed prohibiting the exercise of free religion. Based on that law, no one can define my relationship with God or the decision I make for my family based on my relationship with him and him alone. As with any Pharmaceutical product, there's risk involved with vaccinations,4188 which are clearly outlined in4190 the vaccine package inserts. 2,498,000 and some after that, is the number of vaccine adverse reactions that have been reported to theirs. Ingredient such as heavy metals, and also animal blood and insects and aborted fetal tissues will not be injected into my children, we use holistic health methods, healthy eating, active lifestyle and prayer to maintain our health. I ask you to please oppose all Bills other than H 582. Thank
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ROBERT BURKE - CONCERNED CITIZEN - HB 582 - My name is Robert Burke, and I live in Ashby. I'm an engineer, father of six, and a grandfather. I thank you for this opportunity to speak in support of H 582 to protect and expand medical exemptions to vaccination. Any medical procedure has risk, including receiving vaccinations. I know this to be true because my son was injured by his childhood vaccinations. Where there is a risk, there must be choice. To force this as the price to attend school is too high of a cost and to have a cost to risk your children's health and your children's life. Children can be injured and die from this medical procedure. The lack of a medical or religious exemption as the cost to attend school would be a form of discrimination and will create a medical apartheid in this Commonwealth. I have personally have seen this happen when I was living in California and they removed their medical and religious exemptions. Had I not moved my family out of California, my children would no longer be able to attend school, they wouldn't be able to attend any school in the state of California. I do not want to face this choice of having to move again, please do not discriminate against those who have already had medical problems with this medical procedure. Do not make Massachusetts into the next California, we are better than that here, I moved here because of that. Thank you for your consideration, I strongly support 582 and oppose the other Bills on the docket today. Thank you very much.
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BIANCA MENDEZ - CONCERNED CITIZEN - HB 582 - My name is Bianca Mendez, I live in Bellingham, Massachusetts, and my state Representative4464 is Mike Soter. I want to thank you in advance for my time, I'm not one to really provide any testimony, I'm not one to even get involved in politics, I've never done this before, but I feel that it's important to speak my family's experience as a consideration for myself and all other families going through the same struggle. At eight days old, my newborn son at the time was rushed to Boston Children's Hospital inside the trauma unit as he was suffering a medical emergency. After 10 days at BCH, countless tests and referrals, and multiple diagnoses, which I will keep private to protect my son, we were discharged. My new son's lifelong medical condition is so rare that it is estimated one in 100,000 babies would get it as a neonate. Who would have thought that my little 14 day old had a medical diagnosis that completely arose from thin air? Luckily, genetics testing has proved it wasn't a gene or a mutation, therefore, something else has caused my son's diagnosis. My son now, whose 20 months, is under DPH care, he has a IFSO, he gets monthly visits from nurses and is constantly reevaluated. You see with my son's conditions, secondary effects are known to be present, such as speech, feeding, and motor delays. Well, how does the vaccine4539 schedule play a role? The4541 vaccine schedule is designed to be a one size fits all approach when indeed not all kids are one size. Each family has their own reason as to why they may or may not wish to vaccinate their kids I'm one of those parents who wish to pause my son's vaccine schedule.
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STEPHANIE QUIRK - CONCERNED CITIZEN - HB 582 - The Massachusetts residents have given a resounding no on these Bills at the last few hearings, and I'm surprised that we're here again. These Bills should really be analyzed through the lens of the constitution, that's the document that everyone swore up there to uphold. The constitution was written to restrict the limited authority of government, and the singular reason government was instituted is to protect the natural self evident rights of men. Rights are not given, they cannot be given, and they cannot be taken away by governments, they're given by God. Medical products can't be mandated on children to enter public buildings, that's discrimination. As part of one of these Bills, a citizen would have to apply to exercise their right religion, that can't be denied. One's faith cannot require definition or approval by a government entity. My right to execute my faith is by God and is protected by the Massachusetts constitution. Another Bill would try to just eliminate our constitutionally protected right4644 to exercise our religious beliefs, all of these Bills are just unacceptable, they're in violation of the Massachusetts Constitution. So I want to remind Article 46 says that no law shall be passed prohibiting the pre exercise of religion. Article 5 says all power resides in the people, and being derived from them, the officers of government are their substitutes and are at all times accountable to them. You are not in office to make laws based on your conscience, or whatever you think is best for4672 public health, you are public4674 servants, you report to4676 the citizens of Massachusetts and I demand that you vote no on all of these Bills. Even if they get signed by the Governor, it is not only the right, but the duty of Massachusetts citizens to say no, we won't comply with laws that conflict with our Constitution. Any such legislation will be considered null and void. So I suggest citizens of Massachusetts start educating your fellow citizens, the police and most importantly, your sheriff, you will need him. Thank you.
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LAURA DESANTIS - CONCERNED CITIZEN - HB 582 - Thank you for the opportunity, and I appreciate you being able to hear everything that the people of the Commonwealth have to share. This is going to be hard for me not to be emotional through. I'm speaking in support of Bill H 582 to protect medical exemptions for immunizations and I'm speaking in opposition of all of the other Bills that have been brought forth. I'm a mother, I'm a teacher, my children are six and four years old. They're in school and if all of those other Bills pass, that I am in opposition of, my children will not be able to go to school in the state of Massachusetts any longer. I don't understand how legislators4850 think they have the power over people's own personal medical choices that should be between them and their doctors. Take pharmaceutical companies, for example, they are for profit companies, and just, for example, take the medicine of Vioxx, there were the settlements not too long ago, and it was determined that4883 it was responsible, that medication alone that was created by one of the pharmaceutical companies that was responsible for over 80,000 heart attacks and over 30,000 deaths. These are for profit companies that the government is trusting to inject something into our bodies that is not one size fits all for people. Thank you.
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ERIN JONES - MARCH OF DIMES - HB 604 - SB 1391 - Thank you for inviting us to speak, and thank you for giving us the time. My name is Erin Jones, and I serve as legislative council for the March of Dimes and we're here today in support of House Bill 604 as well as Senate Bill 1391. Basically, what we want to just clarify that this Bill would only permit exemptions from Massachusetts vaccine requirements is for patients who have a medical condition that would place patients who are immunized at risk for adverse outcomes as well as strengthen the data collection that we have here in the state of Massachusetts. Immunizations protect infants, they protect children, they protect adults from preventable diseases and are considered the cornerstone of public health. Vaccines are one of the most successful and cost efficient public health interventions and have saved countless lives and are responsible for preventing more than 2.5 million deaths every year. Without immunizations, dangerous diseases would become more rampant. The public health system would be overburdened, and treatment costs would be astronomical, as well as the increase in children's deaths which could possibly increase and be dramatic. We've also seen recent times recently, I should say, as far as even last month, what we saw it in New York, we had a resurgence of polio. We've also seen it in some of our wastewater, not just here in the United States, but also overseas.

As you know, we are not a society that just stays in one place, we are transient, we go all over the place. So we're very concerned that if people are not immunized and they're traveling, they're bringing it back to the United States and vice versa. Universal immunization or herd immunity5068 is a central component of disease control throughout the world, as I just mentioned. I'm going to take you a little trip on history lane here. So since we're in Massachusetts, I would be remiss if I didn't talk about back in 1902, we had a smallpox outbreak and at that time, there was a pastor here in Massachusetts who did not want to vaccinate his family. He didn't, and he was fined. He then was upset because he was fined, and he came to the state and said, why did you fined me? At that time, the courts decided in Jacobson Versus Massachusetts that the Supreme Court has long held that a state can mandate vaccines and accompany those vaccine mandates with a criminal fine for those who are not in compliance. I'm not saying that that's what we want to do as a criminal fine. More broadly, the rules that the state can impose reasonable regulations to protect the public health even when such regulations interfere with individual rights.
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JONATHAN DAVIS - TUFTS MEDICAL CENTER - HB 604 - SB 1391 - I'm the Chief of newborn medicine at Tufts and an attending physician at Boston Children's Hospital. I work within the office of the commissioner of the FDA as a member of the pediatric advisory committee. As you've heard, all children need to be protected from vaccine preventable diseases and there's been many cases of measles in the last several years in the United States and it can be associated with death and serious complications. New cases of polio appearing for the first time in three decades is reason for concern. The FDA must approve every vaccine and the CDC must initiate use of that vaccine. It's very different than drugs, if you take your child to the pediatrician or to the hospital, only half of the drugs that we use in children have ever been studied and approved for children. If you're in the hospital, in the newborn intensive care unit, 10 to 20% of the drugs we use are approved for use in the NICU, very, very different. There's no reason to expand medical exemptions, these are established by the World Health Organization, the CDC, and have general consensus, and that's important. It's really important to note that multiple states that have initiated these laws have not found an increase5213 in children leaving school.
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ANITA LIEBERMAN - CONCERNED CITIZEN - HB 471 - SB 1458 - HB 2151 - SB 1391 - HB 604 - HB 582 - Thank you so much to everyone for having us be able to speak today.5256 I'm a registered Democrat, I oppose H 471, S 1458, H 2151, S 1391, H 604, and I support H 582. I have a unique perspective as my career has been in diagnostic and pharmaceuticals. Before the arrival of my first child in 2015, I sent all family5277 members an email to get up to date on their TDAP and flu vaccine, a minimum of one month before meeting my new baby. I say this to drive home the point of believing in science. Fast forward, a few years, having more children and twins. At the hospital, one of my children was inadvertently fed breast milk from a mother who was tested positive for HIV, that ensued several medications and a lot of treatment including additional vaccinations. This all compromised her immune system, the doctors didn't know at that point that she should not have any additional scenes, so she had another one a few months later. She had a severe reaction to that, her reaction turned our life upside down. Even though it was documented in her notes as well as many several medical studies that she should not have vaccines because she would be an over responder, she still had them. I've had two physicians tell me, one at MGH and one at Boston Children's that she should not have any more vaccinations, unfortunately, both of them refused to give her an exemption, they are worried about the contentious climate. It's really unfortunate that some children have to suffer because doctors want to keep their ability to help other children, they have hundreds of patients that they should be caring for, and mine is just one of them, and it's sad5354 that we live in a climate where this is so contentious5356 that some children can't get what they need. Please don't remove the religious exemption as it would drastically affect so many children who are already down on their medical lock. Thankfully, my child is extremely bright very, very gifted and should have the ability5370 to continue to go to school. There5372 is no reason why she should be removed from school, and her siblings should have the ability to go because they're fully vaccinated while she should not.
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PAIGE WELBORN - CONCERNED CITIZEN - HB 582 - Dear Representatives and Senators, I'm speaking on behalf of myself and my husband who is unable to leave work in opposition to most of the Bills but in support of H 582. I'm a mother of two children; four years old and five months old, and we have chosen to limit vaccinations due to our sincerely held religious beliefs. I am concerned that the removal of religious exemption will negatively impact my children and our family and our community. My husband is a physician, a child psychiatrist, and has seen firsthand the terrible consequences of children not receiving the educational and social benefits of being with peers in school. He is observing increased rates of depression, anxiety, and substance use5488 in awake of schools being closed during Covid. He often comments to me on the levels of despondency and alienation experienced by children who are not in school, and who have been thrown off what would have been a normal course of5500 their development. We also recently lived in a low income area where my husband worked at a clinic for underprivileged populations. Our neighbors struggle to make ends meet and relied on school, not only for childcare and education, but even for meals. These families, many of whom are our friends, would be devastated created by the removal of the religious exemption. The changes reflected in these Bills we are posting would create a tremendous void in my older child's life, he would miss out on the enrichment that being part of our school community brings. This would also disrupt our home life and create a situation where our baby would not be able to5535 have the school experiences which have5537 been so vital, nourishing, and helpful in shaping our oldest thus far. We understand that the intention is to create a healthier community, but our understanding is that Massachusetts is already highly vaccinated and that there have not been community outbreaks of the diseases the vaccines are for. We feel that the proposed changes to the current whys that would exclude families and children from schools would do more harm to Massachusetts than good. Thank you very much.
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