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

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

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TANYA ALFAMA - CONCERNED CITIZEN - HB 2207 - SB 1391 - HB 582 - Tanya Alfama, thank you. I wanna thank you for your time today. I am here to oppose the vaccine bills that are up for debate and in support of Representative Soter's bill. If these bills were to pass and our state loses the religious exemption to vaccination, this will not necessarily increase the vaccination rate of Massachusetts students. Please understand most of us will never comply or go against our faith and conscience, therefore, if necessary, we will be forced to pull our children from school. Many of us would absolutely flee the state as medical refugees in our own country if necessary. Others who cannot move such as underprivileged or low income families will instead lose access to proper education. The impact of this is far greater than an extremely small percentage of unvaccinated children who pose no risk to others. It will also undoubtedly embattle the state in costly litigation at the expense of Massachusetts taxpayers.

Additionally, if you pass107 a bill, allowing minors to109 consent to vaccination without parental knowledge or consent, you are setting a dangerous precedent. Our society has always recognized that children are not capable of understanding the ramifications of their decisions and that parents have a fundamental right to direct the upbringing and medical decisions of their children. We do not allow children to vote, smoke, or get tattoos because we understand that they are not fully developed mentally and cannot understand the consequences of those decisions. The topic here is ultimately not about vaccines, but that of freedom. Our constitution recognizes our First Amendment right to practice our religion as we see fit. You do not have the right to override our Constitution. We do not wanna inject aborted fetal cells and animal DNA into our children via vaccines, and we never will. We find it morally against our conscience. We often hear public health officials talk about the greater good as to why we should sacrifice our children and our freedom.
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SYLVIA FOGLE - CONCERNED CITIZEN - HB 582 - Hi. I'm Doctor Sylvia Fogle. Thank you committee members and chairs. As a psychiatrist and psychotherapist,215 I recognize how hard it can be to listen for so many hours especially when trying to remain open and unbiased. My comments today are personal opinions and not connected to any current affiliation. Many special needs children, including those with profound autism, face day to day challenges that are unimaginable to most people self injury, dysregulation, communication disorder, and challenges with basic tasks and hygiene. For even a handful of these families being253 barred from school would be255 devastating. They are crucially dependent on specialized services and therapies that cannot be replicated in a homeschool setting.

According to DESE, 19.2% of Massachusetts Public School students have a disability. Removing the exemption will not address the largest contributor to pockets of under vaccination, which is the gap population, the 4% of students without any exemptions and286 without full vaccination compliance who tend to be located income and communities of color. What is to be gained by removing the religious exemption for the roughly 1% who use it? At best, vaccine uptake will increase by a few tenths of a percent. In California where religious exemptions were removed, kindergarten homeschooling rates increased from 0.4% in 2012 to 1.9% in 2019, an almost fivefold increase. Removing and limiting the religious exemption will shut the schoolhouse door to some of the most marginalized and vulnerable children in the commonwealth, causing lifelong harm to them and their families.
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MARY MACKABRICK - CONCERNED CITIZEN - HB 582 - Hello. My name is Mary Mackabrick, and I am a resident in Massachusetts and born, and I am here to support H372 582 and oppose everything else. Now, I've watched some various things out there and they suggest that there are 3 different versions of the Pfizer vaccine, and each one shows that they've been continuously getting better. But from what I can tell, that just tells me that we're still in the trial phase of proving the vaccine and that they shouldn't really be in the main population for anybody. Now, I can't really say I trust my doctors anymore because the only ones that are allowed to chance to speak or the doctors that follow the narrative. And the doctors that don't have their papers and opinions either, you know, taken down or they're fired or retired.

Now, I see that most of the time people shut down anyone who talks against the COVID vaccine,430 but it's important that they do talk about the COVID vaccine because it shined a light on the serious issue, which is how442 much can we trust big pharma and the doctors who support them? That is why447 parental rights should not be infringed449 and religious exemption should be allowed. Religious exemptions are applicable depending on the makeup of a vaccine. It shouldn't be because, you know, they just don't feel like it. I'm not saying all vaccines are bad and should be banned. I'm just saying that all vaccines should be highly researched and that the parents should be advised of any adverse reaction and should be brought up by and talked about with the doctor.
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GRACE BROWN - CONCERNED CITIZEN - HB 2151 - SB 1458 - HB 2207 - HB 471 - HB 582 - HB 604 - SB 1391 - Dear, honorable committee members, thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak in front of you today. I live in Sutton, Massachusetts, I am a mother of 4 children, and I504 am testifying on behalf of myself, my husband, and my children. I am testifying against all of the bills here today except for Representative Soter's bill which I support. An act relative to childhood immunizations is unnecessary and discriminatory. There is no current public health crisis in Massachusetts, which warrants the removal of the religious exemption. If this bill were to become law, it would have an immediate negative impact on my family. My two oldest children returned to school last year after being homeschooled for two years during the pandemic. They were ecstatic to return to school and they are constantly praised by their teachers for their positive impact on the classroom. They are caring classmates and they are constantly told by their teachers that they appreciate having them in class.

The passage of this bill would result in their exclusion from public school which would absolutely devastate both of them. My 10 year old especially did not enjoy being homeschooled, and she begged me to564 come here today and plead for her to be able to stay in school. Every time this bill is introduced, it causes immense anxiety for my572 family. And I beg you, please do not allow574 this bill to my children of their576 right to a free and public education. The Community Immunity Act is also unnecessary and creates insurmountable barriers to using the religious exemption. The need for a doctor's signature on the exemption is particularly egregious considering that it is difficult for families like mine to even find a doctor who will see our children let alone sign a religious exemption. A doctor's signature has599 no place on the exemption and so I please implore you to vote no on both of these bills and do not support them. Thank you so much for your time.
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CAROLINE WILLIAMS - CONCERNED CITIZEN - HB 582 - B 2151 - SB 1458 - HB 2207 - HB 471 - HB 604 - SB 1391 - Okay. Good afternoon to the joint committee, and thanks for hearing my testimony. I'm a lifelong Massachusetts resident and a passionate pro choice advocate. I'm testifying in support of H 582 and in opposition781 of all other bills being heard today.783 I've already submitted written testimony. For now, I'd just like to share my personal story as a mom of 2 school aged kids. During the Boston COVID vaccine mandates, religious exemptions were not accepted anywhere due to the health crisis. And my family experienced firsthand what it means to be discriminated against on the basis of our religious beliefs. Museums, concert halls and many educational institutions shut their doors to us at that time. My children have grown up with the knowledge that their father came to this country from communist Cuba, a place where freedom of religion is non existent, and the government decides what's considered acceptable religious beliefs and practices.

My husband moved all to experience the same type of religious discrimination here in Massachusetts, a place where religious persons once sought freedom to practice according to their own spiritual beliefs as opposed to the decree of an appointed religious leader such as the church of England or the pope in Rome. I ask that this committee reject the argument that today's hearing is about the safety vaccines or their benefit to society. And to reject hypothetical and alarmist scenarios presented by advocates of these bills. The less than 1% minority of school children in Massachusetts who utilize religious actions are not a threat to hard immunity in classrooms. But if these bills pass with the exception of H 582, they pose a collective threat to religious liberty in Massachusetts. And will effectively deny an education to a vulnerable and in many cases medically fragile minority Thank you for your time.
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RETSEF LEVI - CONCERNED CITIZEN - Yeah. So good afternoon, everybody. My name is Retsef Levi. I'm a Newton resident. I'm a father of 6 children that all spend time in the public system of Massachusetts. I'm a faculty at MIT, and my expertise are in risk management and safety specifically in the context of healthcare systems and936 biologic drugs. I would like to express my strong objection to many of the bills that are discussed today because I believe that they represent a narrow and a wrong view of health that is really based on inducing fear from viruses among people and worse peer from each other as a source of harm, and then use that to promote requirements and mandates of vaccination. And furthermore, using the education system as a mechanism for control and coercion, ignoring the fact that these systems of education is a fundamental right, but also that these systems are absolutely for the well-being and health of many of the most vulnerable children and young people in the state.

I also want to point out that many of the claims that science supports these requirements are absolutely988 not correct, and I'm gonna take the polio vaccine that was992 mentioned here. I vaccinated my kids against polio, because it does protect people that vaccinate with these vaccines against the potential devastated outcomes of polio. But it certainly does not protect or prevent these people, vaccinated people to carry the virus and infect others. And even the case of polio that was mentioned in New York City is, in fact, a vaccine derived poliovirus, and it's not the wild type. So the old premise that we are vaccinated to protect others is in most cases, if not in all cases, is absolutely wrong. And1026 I encourage you to really rely on the sense that this is a matter of a choice of oneself to protect it himself or herself or protect their children in collaboration and trust with their physicians. Thank you very much.
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JAIME BUNTON - CONCERNED CITIZEN - HB 582 - Hi. Thank you for taking the time to meet with me today and all of us. I know it's a very difficult job that you have, but I do appreciate that you are our elective officials. And I see that1062 you are hearing from many of your constituents and constituents across the state that we do not want to see our right of religious freedom and our religious to be removed from us. So there are many bills here that are gonna impact my family and many families. Some of us are not able to get medical exemptions, and there just, it isn't a matter of lack of believing science. It's just there's, many people just have not including the CDC has recently talked about the1102 vaccines that people are getting are not, were never to protect other people.

And I do understand that there are some federal lawsuits going on right now. So the idea that Massachusetts right now is trying to force this on its citizens is shameful. It's very, it's just wrong. We are supposed to be where freedom began, the shot heard ran around the world Lexington Concord. We were the state that that fought up against taxation without representation. So in reality, if my1138 child is not allowed in public school, I am going to be paying taxes and not being able to1144 use it. But I do support H 582 because medical professionals that are trying to help religious exemptions and have a different viewpoint should not be silenced and should be allowed to protect their patients and to handle that without repercussions. I did personally have a situation where a doctor offered an EpiPen because I had an adverse effect to a medical treatment, and I was not comfortable with the COVID-19 vaccine. So I would appreciate
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JUSTIN CHANDLER - CONCERNED CITIZEN - Good afternoon. These statistics are pulled from the CDC website. In1250 the 70s when we gave 3 shots to our children, the approx rate of autism in children was 1 in 10,000. In the late 80s and early 90s when we raised the number of vaccines given to children to nearly 40, the rate miraculously raised to 1 in 300. As of right now according to the CDC, we give our children about 70 some odd shots and the rate of autism as of right now is approximately 1 in 36. Incidentally, the shot that everybody tried to mandate on us, the COVID-19 bioweapon which was paid for by DARPA and the Department of Defense and nearly sealed by the FDA for 75 years, all the test data not allowed to be looked at, apparently, is now causing polyethylene glycol to be growing inside of our bodies1297 creating blood clots that are indissolvable by typical blood thinners.

In addition to that, we now have turbo cancers, massive heart attack problems, people dying all over the place, sudden adult death syndrome, which in my 45 years of life has never occurred before, incidentally sudden infant death syndrome, about 90% of all cases of that occur within 2 days of taking the second dose of their shots. Please do not force these things upon people. And frankly, I think that you should all be investigating these pharmaceutical companies for crimes against humanity. Thank you.
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EDWARD KAMP - CONCERNED CITIZEN - Okay. Quickly, I'll do the end. When in the course of human events or, you know, what does Lincoln say? I'll figure it out offhand. In seeking to remove the religious exemption of Massachusetts law by current Mass state lawmakers in 2023 is to claim the power of God1368 over our children but especially over the parents, who are the best caregivers.1373 If the proposed legislation passes, our citizens of the United States and especially Massachusetts today will now live, and breathe and move under a diminished standard of justice, diminished right to bodily autonomy, a diminished 4th amendment, a diminished Hippocratic Oath, a now broken HIPAA system, and a weakened 9th Amendment, and clearly, a muted United Nations' declaration on human rights. This is not hyperbole. Either we retain all rights of bodily autonomy at 18 and respect parental rights before 18, if not, we are effectively abandoning our parents and forbears ethical system.

While pharmacological agencies, government officials,1425 and much of our institutional media have told us for a1429 good 25 plus years that reasonably questioning this 2000% increase to the childhood vaccination schedule since the 1960s somehow makes us dangerous Americans. Not a loyal opposition, but dangerous. Moderna, Pfizer at J&J and1448 the1448 CDC are recommending 24 new syringe shots to our children. We should not look the other way while large money forces attempt to impose this new regimen on our student and amazing and emancipated young adults at 18. We must restore the right of informed consent and the right of refusal the natural air that all Americans breathe under our constitution.

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BETH INGRAM - CONCERNED CITIZEN - HB 582 - Thank you very much. I appreciate being heard today, and I appreciate your attention to everyone who's here. It's a really hard job and so thank you for doing it well. I'm in support of H 582 and oppose all other bills on the docket. Little background on me, for the past 30 years in addition to being a full time forensic science teacher at a high school, I run an organic farm in the Catholic Worker tradition inspired by Dorothy Day and, Peter Moring. If you have any recollection, Dorothy Day was one of the people the pope told the Americans to pay attention to, one of 3 people. The other 2 were Martin King and Abraham Lincoln. So my farm, I believe, is public health. So, whose research and conclusions on safety and efficacy are behind these public health bills? What if you're wrong, will you take responsibility for even one child killed or left neurologically damaged from the mandated shot in the arm?

Doctor Marcia Angell, an American physician and author first woman to serve as editor in chief of the New England Journal of Medicine wrote in 2013, it is simply no longer possible to believe much of the clinical research that is published or to rely on the judgment of trusted physicians or authoritative medical guidelines. I take no pleasure in this conclusion, which I've reached slowly and1604 reluctantly over 2 decades an editor of the New England Journal of Medicine. The current CDC childhood vaccination schedule mandates 70 doses of 17 different vaccines by the age of 18. As with any medicine, there's a remote chance of a vaccine causing a severe allergic reaction and other serious injury or death.
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PAM DUFFY - CONCERNED CITIZEN - I'm Pam Duffy, I'm from Haverhill. I have no skin in the game. My kids are all vaccinated, and we're going to go to, they're gonna go to school no matter what. But I don't believe for 2 seconds that anyone should have the right to make that imposition between a physician, and their family, and their kids. I could just pick up and move if I wanted to. It's all our other families that can't move if this decision goes against what they want. That's all I got.
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JARED HANSEN - CONCERNED CITIZEN - HB 2151 - SB 1458 - Great. So I'm speaking in opposition to the proposed act of promoting community immunity as what it removes from the law is vital, but what it adds is unnecessary. Informed consent to a medical treatment is a fundamental right. By changing the existing law, Section 6 and 7 of the proposed act undermine the conformed consent that is vital to medical practice. A child cannot be expected to weigh the benefits and risks of a medical procedure. The parent or guardian who knows the child's medical history and is ultimately responsible for their1762 care must be involved in these decisions. The state cannot allow a child to be vaccinated without the consent of the parent legally responsible for their care and then hide the record of the medical procedure from the parent as this change in the law would allow them to do.

Adverse reactions to a vaccine, though rare do occur. And if a child goes into anaphylactic shock due to an allergic reaction to a vaccine or has a febrile seizure later that night, which is a common adverse reaction, how can that child receive proper diagnosis and medical care if the state allows the medical records to be concealed? Section 13 of the act, the proposed act states that any covered program that has not achieved herd immunity shall be designated as1810 an elevated risk program, and herd immunity is defined as a population wide resistance to the spread of infectious disease resulting from a sufficient percentage of citizens receiving a vaccine. As Senator Rausch mentioned earlier today, approximately 5% of1826 students in Massachusetts are missing one or1828 more vaccine. This is not a problem. 100% compliance is not needed to achieve herd immunity. 95% coverage that we have is more than sufficient to prevent transmission which is the goal of the public policy. I urge you not to pass this act as it will undermine trust in the very public health policies at a promote. Thank you.
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SUSAN ROSE - CONCERNED CITIZEN - Thank you so much. My name is Susan Rose, and I'm testifying an opposition of all the bills today on the panel with the exception of bill H 582, in which I support. And thank you Representative Soter for having the courage to introduce a bill that protects medical freedom. President Obama once said and I quote, this is America and our commitment to religious freedom must be unshakable. The principle that all faiths are welcome in this country and that they will not be treated differently by1904 their government is essential to who we are, end quote. Well, ladies and gentlemen, our religious freedom is being shaken and we1910 are being treated differently by our government because of our religious beliefs. COVID protocols are just one example of the discrimination and ostracization many of us experienced in the last 3 years. This is my 3rd time testifying in opposition of bills that threaten our religious freedom, third time. But due to overwhelming majority opposition, our bills never move forward.

We, the people, have spoken. We spoke in 2019, we spoke again in 2021, and here we are again in 2023. Instead of listening to your constituents, you go back to the drawing board and rewrite and reword your bills. Then you introduce them as new bills, once again, coming after our religious freedom. It is your job to protect our religious freedom, yet here we are fighting for it. You represent we the people. You swore under oath to protect the United States Constitution. The First Amendment guarantees religious freedom and the establishment clause prohibits government from passing legislation that threatens religious freedom. It enforces separation of church and state. Please, I implore you to uphold your oath to the United States Constitution, and retract these discriminated bills because the commitment to religious freedom in America must be unshakeable. Thank you so much for your time.
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AMANDA DIAZ - CONCERNED CITIZEN - HB 2151 - SB 1458 - HB 2207 - HB 582 - Yep. Thank you. My name is Amanda Diaz. I'm here to oppose bills H 2151, S 1458, H 2207, and the remaining bills. I'm a mother of two children, one with autism, both who have suffered adverse effects from vaccinations, yet do not qualify for a medical exemption and would lose access to the services they receive2023 through the public school system. These bills violate basic human rights, religious freedom, right to privacy, medical ethics, and principles of informed consent. I've worked in clinical risk management for over 15 years, and these bills go against the basic teachings of what true informed consent is, and the parent's right to participate in shared decision making when it comes to the health of their child. I would also like to show support for Bill H582, and thank Representative Soter for having encourage to advocate on behalf of children and medical2056 professionals in Massachusetts. Thank you.
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NICOLE AMERY - CONCERNED CITIZEN - Hi Thank you for this opportunity to speak today. My name is Nicole Amery. I'm a2085 mother of 4, a registered nurse. I'm here to speak in opposition to all bills being heard with the exception of H 582 which I support. If these bills are passed, families like mine would suffer. My children will suffer. My son who currently receives 36 hours a week of therapeutic and behavioral health services would catastrophically suffer. Like many other families, homeschooling is not an option. My husband and I both work, we are not in the financial position to leave our job in order to homeschool. But if it did come to that, we would be forced to apply for state financial assistance. Families who hold a sincerely held religious belief like mine will not waiver from their faith. These bills will not increase our vaccination2122 rates that are already very high here in Massachusetts. It will only serve to place an unnecessary and profound burden on families like mine. As a mother to 4 children who all love and value their public education, I beg you to please vote no on these bills. Thank you.
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CRAIG WILGA - CONCERNED CITIZEN - Alright. Thank you to the elected officials here today. I testify as a parent who has been openly threatened and clearly bullied by four UMass doctors at the time of my son's birth for choosing not to vaccinate within hours of his birth. Four of them stood in our hospital room and stared2216 us down until we complied. So here we are again today trying to overstep and mandate under proven and underreported vaccines. In 2018, a court ordered subpoena required pharmaceutical companies to put forward any and all safety studies since 1986. The requirement came as a massive fallout under hundreds of lawsuits that were bought against these pharmaceutical companies due to vaccine injuries.

Zilch studies were put forward. They cannot be called safe. It's black and white. Additionally, a trustworthy study by Harding Medical stated that approximately 1% of2259 adverse reactions to vaccines had been reported to bears, the system that was supposed to be tracking all reactions. How many children are suffering from vaccines that we don't know about? What is the true fallout? That being said, passing this bill that requires vaccination, and takeaway exemptions is nothing less than a massive overreach of government power. Many of us spoken to your team, thank you very much.

Beyond that, standard vaccinations today are adopting the quoted MRNA technology, so historical data just got thrown out the window. We're starting a. If you want vaccines to take them, if you wanna tell the world they're important to do so, but do not push out your views on others, specifically when it comes to religious freedoms. I'm sorry for interrupting your emails and text messages, which seem to be pretty important to you guys today on the panel. This is a big deal to a lot of families in Massachusetts that may have to move out of the state.
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KEVIN MARKEY - CONCERNED CITIZEN - HB 582 - HB 471 - HB 604 - HB 2151 - I'm Kevin Markey from Northampton. I support H 582 because this bill has the potential to be an olive branch to practitioners that lost trust in the DPH when threatened with loss of licensure during COVID for treating their patients using their2374 professional judgment when it clashed2376 with DPH guidelines. The bill opens the door2380 to heal the relation between DPH and practitioners, fostering cooperation and productivity that improves care for all. I oppose H 471 because HPV and Hep A are not commonly transmitted in school. The issues they create are best fought by increasing cancer screening availability and combating homelessness and drug addiction. I oppose H 604 because removing the religious exemption is unconstitutional on its face. Everyone has the rights to religious practice and bodily autonomy without sacrificing an education.

I oppose H 2151 because it gives the DPH too much power to track, report, and regulate how programs, providers, and families interact with each other regarding exemptions. This bill2435 is intrusive, expensive, and continues COVID's pattern of undermining the public trust by implementing methods to make an example out of those who get, give or accept exemptions. The methods employed will create resentment not between the programs, providers, and families, but between the public and the DPH. The in fighting will cost everyone money, time, and educational opportunities. Let's learn from COVID's mistakes, not repeat them. Thank you.
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RICHARD MANN - CONCERNED CITIZEN - I used to teach chemistry at Boston University years ago and I've been following what's been going on. I think one of the things that's coming to mind is to call the COVID shots vaccines is wrong. As the gentleman 15 to 20 minutes ago said, it's a bioweapon. And I put in my email to the committee, you need to take a look at Doctor David Martin and his testimony, 20 minute testimony, to the EU parliament. And you can see the sequence of refinements of the spike protein and so on so that it's a bioweapon, and it should be separated you shouldn't be using that as a vaccine.

Don't call it a vaccine, call it something else. And one of the other things is that I this morning, as I'm walking up here on my email or a a sub stack that I was looking at a guy who has diabetes insulin, a doctor, and he had some kind of heart attack and ultimately bypass surgery. But then subsequent to that, a month or so later, he gave his insulin to someone who does some microscopy. They found out the spike protein is in is insulin. And so that's another issue for public health is not only in insulin, but in food, especially in food. Thank you very much.
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AARON SIRI - SIRI & GLIMSTAD LLP - Good afternoon. My name2637 is Aaron Siri, I'm an attorney. My firm has over 30 professionals that engage purely in vaccine related work. We do not represent pharmaceutical companies, so we represent people that are injured by vaccines, we do vaccine policy work. We brought, for example, a lawsuit in Washington DC challenging a law that had permitted doctors to vaccinated minors without parental consent and it got struck down. We also recently brought a lawsuit to Mississippi which challenged the lack of religious exemption there. And the federal court held that it violated the First Amendment right to free exercise not to have a religious exemption. And the state of Mississippi has now reinstituted the religious exemption in that state.

You've heard a lot of testimony today from parents. Some are very emotive. I really do wanna stress these are real, real hardships. These families are gonna suffer greatly if you remove the religious exemption. Folks don't always listen to what parents have to say, but when they're telling you this is their convictions you should trust them, you should believe them. That's what this country was founded upon, was letting people live out their convictions. And if I can't appeal to your emotion, maybe I can appeal to some of your logic. Let me read you some quotes. Here's a quote from the CDC about an activated polio vaccine, the only vaccine for polio used in the United States for the last 20 years.

Quote, IPV, Inactivated poliovirus vaccine does not contain live virus and cannot cause disease. It protects people from polio disease, but does not stop transmission of the virus, end quote. That's the CDC. Because it creates a systemic immunity in the blood it doesn't create any mucosal immunity where polio proliferates. The same is true about at least 4 of the 6 vaccines that you are talking about. They do not prevent transmission. Not my words. That's government words. There is what you're told about2754 vaccines, then there's a reality. When you litigate it, you have to actually look at the facts and proof. And I can tell you what you're often told is not accord with what the facts are. Thank you.
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ROHIL MOHAN - MASS HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES - HB 582 - Good evening now, I guess. My name is Rohil Mohan. I'm a high schooler from Shrewsbury, Massachusetts, I'm actually working here as2879 an intern. I'm here to express my personal support for all of the bills here with the exception of H 582. In particular, I wanna talk a bit about HPV vaccines. Something commonly that's not really talked about with HPV vaccines, like, why do we need to give these to children? Why can't we wait? Kids aren't sexually active. Well, first of all, the only way to get HPV is not only through sexual contact, obviously. It can be transmitted through infected bodily fluids, maybe a parent has a disease that can be transmitted in the house, etcetera, etcetera.

But what makes vaccinating, sorry, what makes vaccinating against HPV early so crucial is that it is only effective before that initial infection with HPV. Once a patient has been infected with a single different strand of HPV, the vaccine is ineffective from that point onwards. So that's why and I can understand the concern. Why are we vaccinating children against sexually transmitted diseases? Well, obviously, we're not expecting these children to be sexually active. But if we are proactive and vaccinate early, we can make sure we account for every different strain of HPV. So thank you for your time. Yeah. Thank you.
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JORDAN BAIN - HEALING BOSTON - Thank you honorable committee chairs and members. My name Jordan Bain. I'm an ordained minister, a business owner, property owner, taxpayer, father, and also a lifelong resident of Massachusetts. I just wanna say that history is never on the side of forcing medical treatments on others. Those are the marks of authoritarianism and control all over the world. This is done always in the name of safety or making society better, but the control of others' health is always wrong. Our society has been heading in the wrong direction with medical control of individuals for decades and the COVID pandemic presses this issue to the forefront. To think that coercing or forcing others to participate in medical interventions that are shrouded in poorly designed clinical trials that have never had proper control groups have hidden and distorted their data or outright lied with science that has been bought and paid for with an industry that has captured its regulatory agency since the 1980s, and with products that are shielded from liability and lawsuits is insane.

Pfizer's COVID vaccine data had over 55 pages of documented side effects many of them so severe that numerous individuals dropped out of the trials because they became nonfunctional as human beings. Their data was not included in the safety reporting. HPV vaccine side effects are horrific, maiming teenagers and leaving them in hospital beds for the rest of their lives. Please, be on the right side of history and instead pass bills to regulate vaccine products, require long term studies with true saline solution control groups which examine all affected symptoms and side effects of vaccines. Please also consider passing right to refuse bills that have been passed in other states around our country, and make sure everyone always has the right to bodily autonomy and health freedom. Section 2 of the constitution of our Commonwealth of Massachusetts states that it is the right as well as the duty of all men in society, publicly in its stated season, to worship the supreme being God, the great creator, and preserver of the universe. And no subject shall be hurt, molested, or restrained in his person, liberty, or estate, for worshipping God in the manner and season most agreeable to the dictates of his own conscience.
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CARLA LECLERC - CONCERNED CITIZEN - HB 582 - Thank you for letting me speak today. My name is Doctor. Carla LeClerc and I'm a practicing chiropractor in Westford, Massachusetts but I actually live in New Hampshire with my 2 children and husband. My daughter was born with a severe developmental disability, and for most of her life, she attended public school in New Hampshire. Upon entering middle school it was determined that the3134 public school in New Hampshire, in Nashua actually, no longer met her needs and that she should transition to a private school. So, we looked extensively for schools in New Hampshire and nothing met her needs all throughout the state. And we were recommended a school in Andover where she goes right now. As people were saying all day, the schools in Massachusetts are incredible and people come here, you know, for the education and specifically for kids with special needs. So, my daughter has a severe speech delay and a developmental delay and requires many hours of one on one speech therapy, occupational therapy, and physical therapy each week. And this school in Massachusetts is highly trained to meet her needs.

If this bill were to pass and the religious exemption, which we use based on our beliefs, were to be removed she could no longer attend the school, and, obviously, homeschooling a child with special needs is almost impossible.3199 These bills are extremely unfair, discriminatory, and unnecessary, and unconstitutional. We aren't able to get a medical exemption because she just doesn't qualify as most of the parents here today you've heard. So I am in favor of Bill H 582 but opposed to all the other bills. The bottom line is that these bills should not pass because they are3224 unnecessary and discriminatory and3226 basically just unfair. As a mother of a child attending school in Massachusetts who needs to stay in Massachusetts to attend school, I strongly oppose these bills. Please consider the parents and the parents of kids with special needs and don't turn our state into California or New York. Thank you.
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JULIE CZESNOWSKI - CONCERNED CITIZEN - HB 582 - Good afternoon members of the committee. My name is Julie Czesnowski, I'm a resident of Barnstable County. As a soon to be first time mom, I'm here to support Bill H 582, and strongly oppose all other bills on the docket. I moved to Massachusetts in 2015 on my own, worked hard to make a career for myself, to buy my first home, and to3278 become an active member of my community here3280 in Cape Cod. After longing to be a mother and struggling with infertility for many years, my fiance and I are blessed to be pregnant with our first child. The thought of having to leave our jobs, our home, family, community, our church, and our lives that we worked so hard to build here in the Commonwealth is the only thing that brings me stress during this pregnancy.

The mere thought that our strongly held religious beliefs might no longer3304 be protected is absolutely sickening3306 and simply put unAmerican.3308 I should not have to, and no one should have to worry about this sort of infringement on our God given rights and religious beliefs. If we no longer have sovereignty over our own flesh and blood, then we have truly lost3321 everything. As you are all aware, Massachusetts has one of the highest vaccination rates and one of the lowest religious exemption rates in the country. Needless to say, this bill is unAmerican. To all the elected officials involved, please consider your duty as public servants to protect individual freedom and liberty of those whom you serve. Please consider continue to respect and protect religious freedom and the choice to bodily autonomy in the state of Massachusetts. Thank you.
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KRISTEN TRU - CONCERNED CITIZEN - HB 582 - Thank you. My name is Kristen Tru, I'm here to speak on behalf of the children of Massachusetts. As a Christian, I believe that we are endowed with inalienable rights by our creator, religious freedom is guaranteed to us by the First Amendment, and I want to speak to the fact that safety data has not been released concerning these COVID studies. I recently read a study out of Saudi Arabia that found a relationship between the COVID vaccines and new autoimmune disorders as well an exacerbation of existing autoimmune disorders, including those previously found to be in remission within 7 days of vaccination.

I will be sending a copy of this study to you with written testimony. Furthermore, I stand against all bills except H 582 which I strongly support. During the pandemic, America's frontline doctors in fear for their lives stood for our religious freedoms and against these vaccines. The reason why religious exemptions are so important is our medical providers are often afraid to speak, afraid of retribution if they grant medical exemptions or go against the flow. So thank you for hearing me and I appreciate your time and your attention to this important heartfelt break to bodily autonomy for Massachusetts workers and students. Thank3484 you.
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KRISTIN PAPANICKOLAS - CONCERNED CITIZEN - HB 582 - SB 1391 - HB 604 - Great. Good afternoon, thank you. My name is Kristin Papanickolas, I'm a mother of 2, a teacher, a coach, and a concerned citizen. Thank you for taking the time to hear all of our testimonies today. I'm seeking in support of Bill H 582 and in opposition to the others. I love my country and my state, but I'm concerned by the government overreach that is happening across the US and I worry for the future of my beloved home state of Massachusetts. In reference to bills S 1391 and H 604, there are some fear tactics involved in trying to remove the religious exemption. As a math teacher, I feel the need to shed some light on data that was shared earlier. Both Representative Vargas and Senator Kennedy stated that we've had a 500% increase in religious exemptions. And without sharing any other data, that number sounds huge and dangerous to public health. I assure you that it is not.

The approximate 500% increase in religious exemption use is over the last 30 years and it went from 0.18% to 1.1%. This is not a public health emergency or crisis. Please protect the 1% using these exemptions and our rights to choose for our families based on our sincerely held religious beliefs. In reference to the bills promoting community immunity, I will not sign a document stating that I acknowledge, quote, that refusing to immunize as against public health policy and may result in serious illness or death of the participant or others, because I do not believe this to be true. In fact, if you consider the COVID vaccines, which I know this bill is not specific to, I3584 would argue the opposite. Immunizing may result in serious illness or death.

I implore you to take some time to look at the stories around the world and consider the true damage that they've caused. I know you cannot turn a blind eye and ear on the families who have shared their emotional vaccine injury stories with you today. I have not heard one person in opposition of these bills say that they would suddenly catch up on the vaccine schedule for their kids if these bills pass. Instead, many of us will have hardships in our families and communities due to a loss of access to education. Are you aware that there are currently Gardasil vaccine lawsuits active in all 50 states for families who have been injured or killed by the HPV vaccine? Please do not add this to the schedule. Please protect3623 our rights,
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ASHLEY MAKRIDAKIS - CONCERNED CITIZEN - Hi. Thank you so much. Good afternoon members of the committee. My name is Ashley Makridakis. I am a devout Christian resident of Sudbury, Massachusetts, and mother of 4. When I was 20 years old, I had a nannying job for a beautiful little 18 month girl who I saw go from an articulate milestone hitting, strong healthy child, to a vegetable as a result of her routine childhood vaccines. I was not a mother yet. It was just my nannying job, and it terrified me. And although this may be anecdotal evidence, I did decide from that point on that when I became a mom, I would do a lot of research and most likely be abstaining from those vaccines. So when I read the inserts, when my first daughter was born, I was very, I felt very blessed to be able to deny them.

And I am not interested in co parenting with anyone, really, except for my husband, and certainly not the government. I think it's wildly unAmerican and quite frankly sickening and cruel to deny individual freedom and bodily autonomy as it pertains to medical freedom, and that goes for adults or children. And I adamantly stand against all bills that violate religious exemptions as it would inevitably deny children really who need specialized education the most the right to that education. And I would kindly like to say that the last thing standing between a child and an industry of corruption, as well as gross government overreach, is a mother. Thank you very much.
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JESSICA BRITTON - CONCERNED CITIZEN - Alright. So, my name is Jessica Britton and I'm from Westfield, Massachusetts. First and foremost, I am the mother of my 3 children. I am the primary caretaker not the state or the government. All of my children were born completely perfectly normal and healthy. Then one developed autism by age two, nut allergies, seasonal allergies, and severe asthma by age 5. It wasn't until he had a serious adverse event to the flu shot in 2019 at age 10, and the doctor covering it up as soon as I said those magic words, vaccine side effect then I realized and finally did my research, that it's all for profit and not for our health. Millions of dollars are raked in through pediatric practices that maintain a high vaccination rate. And now you want to mandate it so you could appease your benefactors.

How do I know this? I've worked in the pharmaceutical industry for over 16 years. Most recently, the last 8 in immunology and inflammation. The immune system is my specialty. I'm not going to bore you with the intricacies, or the MOA, or the real science. But, yes, vaccines that are being injected into children that contain foreign DNA, foreign aborted fetal cells, for animal cells are negatively affecting their immune system. Couple that with the other adjuvants that are in additives, that are exponentially and the exponentially increasing vaccine schedule, our children will be forever pharmaceutical patients. 8 years ago, I interviewed for the HPV vaccine job. The manager had said, we had cornered that girl market and now coached me on how we were going to sell to the little boys. Again, it's about profit. How do I know you're beholden to my3897 benefactors? I worked for your daddy,3899 the big one, the one with the vaccine. And they incessantly pandered for employee contributions to the political action committee to pay you guys off.
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ESTHER HAWKINS - CONCERNED CITIZEN - HB 582 - Hello. My name is Esther Hawkins, I'm a mother of 5, a school teacher to elementary3933 age students. I live in Woburn, Massachusetts, and I'd like to thank you all for taking the time to hear our testimonies. There are two issues that should be of utmost priority to all of us, our children and their health. You have heard from some very concerned passionate parents of whom I am. We're here, I'm here to oppose all of these bills on the docket except for H 582. I have spent the last 6 years helping my 9 year old son fight an autoimmune disease. I find it egregious, offensive that this bill and these bills here today would allow any physician to administer vaccinations to my child without my consent and furthermore, concealing the medical records from me.

We've spent thousands of dollars on specialists, doctors, health coaches, he's had painful procedures, hospital stays, and I've heard in friends in California that have similar autoimmune diseases that he would not be able to get a medical exemption from vaccinations. As his mom, I'm his greatest advocate, health support, and coach. And I can't imagine that as a mom, the number one caretaker of my son, that I would be bypassed, ignored, and silenced. And that it would come down to the decision of lawmakers as to what is best and the best health choice for my son. We're United States of America, 1776. We have freedom in our First Amendment, the US constitution that everyone has the right to practice his own religion. I am a practicing bible believing in Christian. My husband and father are both pastors. What we put4035 into our body and how we take care of our body is utmost important to me. And when you look at the National Library of Medicine, they give insight as to new onset autoimmune diseases after COVID-19 vaccines. There have not only been growing evidence that there's new on-site.
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THOMAS JOHNSON - CONCERNED CITIZEN - HB 582 - HB 2207 - Thank you for the opportunity to testify today. I'm testifying in support of House 582, bill presented by Representative Soter and against all the other bills on the docket. I wanted to say that the House bill 582 is about Parents' rights and parental freedom, but primarily what I would like to bring up is the need to free our medical professionals from the pressure and the threat to their work and practices that they've experienced over the past few years, especially in the COVID era, and parents who've explained and experienced the denial of their medical exemptions because the fear of the medical professionals to grant those obvious exemptions.

The rest of the bills I have been well researched, I mean, well presented today. But with the exception of House bill 2207, an act ensuring the fair and appropriate distribution of vaccines. I'd like to mention a statement about that. It seems to me that the prioritization of healthcare and emergency personnel led to high death rates and disability among the valuable people that we had during the last emergency. And forcing them to be vaccinated to be able to do their jobs reduced the number of people that were available to serve us in that way.
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TERI BOTTICELLI - CONCERNED CITIZEN - HB 582 - SB 1458 - HB 604 - Thanks very much. Good afternoon chairs and committee members. I support Bill H 582 and strongly oppose all other bills being heard today. Many of the parents heard today did vaccinate their children and subsequently observe their children suffer adverse reactions or worse. It is a moral unethical and unconscious institutional to dictate, coerce, or compel anyone into a medical decision, especially ones that come with risk. All medical interventions come with risk. Many of the children for which we advocate require intensive medical interventions and specialized education in order for them to make progress. Education is not a bargaining chip and it is beyond inappropriate to use education as a method of coercion.

You may be comfortable with the state's current childhood immunization schedule. However, the schedule will continue to increase if exemptions are restricted or removed and when DPH mandates additional vaccines or other injections, you will have no choice in deciding what is injected into your children4279 for them to receive special services or to attend school, extracurricular activities and camps. The sponsor of Bill S 1458 testified this morning that school and daycare data were not reported to DPH since it's a voluntary submission. It was stated that DPH needs to, quote, unquote, plug the holes in the data sets, close quote, in admission of incomplete data while referencing graphs actually being used to advance the bill.

Proposing and promoting severely restrictive legislation on the basis that exemptions are a problem when this is unsubstantiated is disingenuous at best. The sponsor of Bill H 604 states that religious exemptions increase 500% in 30 years while religious demographics have not changed and uses this as a reason to remove the religious exemption. While 500% may sound alarming, in reality, that percentage is calculated from 147 kindergarteners in 1987 to 749 kindergarteners in 2018, an overall percentage of only 1.15%. 1.15% does not come close4338 to breaking herd immunity for any vaccine and is extremely low percentage for a student population. Families continue to be accused of abusing religious exemptions. However, Article 2 of the Massachusetts Constitution preserves a religious freedom.
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LINDSEY LAWRENCE - CONCERNED CITIZEN - Hi, so I'm opposing all the bills except for the one that contact, medical assumptions. I'm actually on my vacation right now with my kids, and I've been spending most of the day watching4429 them4429 but4429 this is important to me especially because I do have 4 children, and 3 out of 4 have developed autoimmune disorders. Their doctors and their natural health doctors have all, you know, we've discussed this and trying to find vaccine options and heavy metals and vaccines. So giving the kids vaccines at this point would definitely go against my religious beliefs as I don't believe God would want me to give my children something that can hurt them. So with that being said, they would be deprived from an education in Massachusetts with these laws that the legislators are faced with deciding whether they're going to pass them or not. I ask you with my whole heart to consider children who are like my children who cannot take these vaccines without the possibility of further health damage to them. They need people in Massachusetts to be looking out for them not making life hard harder for them and depriving them of their right to an education which Massachusetts claims that, you know, all children should be granted the right to a fair and public education. I thank you. I thank you for your time. Thank you.
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JEANINE FLYNN - CONCERNED CITIZEN - HB 582 - Oh, well, thank you very much. Thank you Public Health Committee. My name is Janine Flynn. I'm a mother and I'm a licensed social worker. I support Bill H 582 because it would maintain religious and medical exemptions while protecting doctors who allow for medical exemptions. This bill gives real validity to the medical exemption because if doctors don't feel free to honor the exemption, then they won't ever give one. I strongly oppose the rest of the bills. To the extent that a minor can consent that young children can be responsible to, as young children do not have the brain development to their medical decisions independently from their parents. Parents need to make these decisions. And for any bill that suggests doctors should not be responsible for their decisions making is unacceptable.

Any parent that hears the details of the Community Immunity Act is shocked that it is even being considered here today. HPV and Hep A are vaccines that are personal choices and not spread in schools. This is not a safety issue. If Massachusetts removed the religious exemption, children, adolescents and college students would not be able to have a right to an education. And for over 25 years as an adolescent mental health and substance abuse clinician, I have seen firsthand the negative reactions, depression, anxiety, helplessness, loneliness, and hopelessness that occurs when children are ostracized or left out of school, or experience these feelings. These feelings trigger substance abuse as well as suicide. It is critical that these children have these, that they are able to have this education and are protected in this way. And as a community we are still dealing with mental health crisis from COVID, and the passage of these bills would definitely multiply that emergency. Thank you.
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GEORGE RICKARD - CONCERNED CITIZEN - Hello? Yep. I came in here to the lay and the land. Somebody on the radio's talked about it so I'm here. I ended up sitting with a bunch of women there in the back. They've left, but they didn't wanna do all of this stuff. So I call on Governor Healey, that's her name I think, to veto all of it. She may make a spectacle of herself with the Democratic Party but that's the way it is for me. You have a plaque the 8th Air Force, I was raised4710 by those people, and they would have a different opinion today if they were around. They're all probably gone. One of them, when he4725 was dying of cancer, said I want to go down to the lake and take the last swim. We swam out to a float that was maybe 25 feet out. And he4735 said, you know, I used to swim across this4737 lake when I was a lifeguard and around it. I could barely make4741 it out here.

And I said, well, you went through a4743 depression, a war, you raised 6 kids with 2 women, that speaks for itself. And he says, yeah, but a man is not supposed to end up like this. Historically, there was a movie that Wood Allen made with Michelle Pfeiffer and Michael Cain called Sweet Liberty. John Adams talked about Sweet Liberty and you should see the movie and get what he raised. The other thing is when they were signing the constitution, they were raggling there, and George Washington said, what's taken you so long, don't you see what I see? So the particulars of what we're projecting and what we're doing is, anyway, it's up to Governor Healey to just sign everything and make us spectacle of herself. Thank you.
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NADIA CHERKASSKY - BUMC - HB 582 - Hi. Thank you very much for your time. I really appreciate, it must be very difficult long day. Third year in a row, not in a row, but. I speak on behalf of myself, of my family, of my husband, and 2 children who are in public schools. They're 11 and 7 years old. I do support the H 582 bill, and I oppose oppose all of the other bills. I am a scientist. I am doing research at Boston University Medical School. I have a master's degree in science, I have a PhD in biochemistry. My husband is in science as well. He has taken a part in developing newborn screening tests for all of the babies. We both believe in science, we are pro science. However, we also do believe in God. We immigrated from Soviet Union. He's from Ukraine. I'm from Russia. Believe it or not, we are a family. And we moved here because America has religious freedom. We can believe in God freely here, which was not the case in our former countries.

My faith tells me to do no harm. And whenever there is a risk, there should be a choice. Religious exemption provide me with such a4885 choice for my children. My older son was injured with the vaccine when he was 1 year old, and he did not qualify for exemption. I did do a lot of research since then, as I am a scientist, I had just started my PhD at the time. And I can assure you that I my second degree learning about all of the vaccines injuries, and stuff. So my religion forbids me to provide harm to my kids. It's my responsibility that they're healthy and4913 they're thriving. In fact, they are right now after even for my older son, he has gone through quite an extensive health care. But both of my children are now in public schools, and they're thriving. They're doing soccer, wrestling, swimming, music, you name it, everything, and I will not be happy if they cannot go to school anymore.
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AE - CONCERNED CITIZEN - HB 582 - Hello. Thank you for having me. I'm a little nervous so bear with me. I am here in support of H 582 and in strong opposition of the remaining bills for the Community Immunity Act. My primary concern is I have 2 children with dyslexia that are in 4th grade that are still learning to read. We attend a specialized4972 school where we spend tens of thousands of dollars to be able to have the right to read. We've done lots of tutoring individually. We've attended public school, homeschooled. It is essential for my children to be able to receive services for dyslexia and also dysgraphia, which is a neurological writing disorder, OT, speech and language.

One of my little one has an oral language disorder. So we receive a lot of services that we've worked very hard for. If these bills are passed, I have concerns for all of youth that struggle with dyslexia, and services being allotted to5025 them fairly. I worry about children that don't have access to funds to get them the services that they need. I also think about the children that receive free lunch and free breakfast from public school system. What will happen to these kiddos? Another question5047 I have, an additional question is, to my knowledge children5051 that have peanut allergies, tree nut allergies, or any anaphylaxis allergies that are working in exposure therapy. I believe that they recommend not to dose the day of a vaccine, and my concern with that is if the parents aren't notified and they have a reaction. Thank you.
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VALERIE A - CONCERNED CITIZEN - HB 471 - SB 1458 - HB 2151 - SB 1391 - HB 604 - Religious rights are protected under Title 5, under Title 6 Education of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. H 471, S 1458, H 2151, S 1391, and H 604 are unconstitutional as every child has the God given and constitutional right to attend5139 school without religious discrimination. I am in complete opposition to these bills. Recent rulings in New York, the marines, the Air Force, the Air National Guard, internal review by the Pentagon's inspector general, and the ruling via federal court in Mississippi have ruled that removing5155 the religious exemption to vaccines5157 is illegal. A recent ruling in DC determined allowing minors of any age to consent to vaccines without parental consent is also illegal. We have age limits in this state to vote, to drink, to use a tanning bed, to smoke, to drive, and everything else, but not an age limit on providing consent to medical treatment?

It is my job not some politician I've never met to make informed decisions from my children. My children belong to me and God and not the government. My children were born healthy until the government intervened and told me vaccines were safe and effective. My son is vaccine injured and I have just been able to see him start to become himself again after treatment. I will not lose my son again. My daughter has made lifelong friendships at our Catholic school that I chose because of our religious beliefs. These laws would require me uproot my children from school and move out of state and cause unrepairable mental health damage to my children. My children do not deserve to be marginalized and discriminated against and their health matters just as much as every other child in this state. Massachusetts has the highest rate in vaccination in the country and not one outbreak of preventable diseases and K through 12 in a decade, and the RE rate in Mass is 1%. There is no basis for these bills other than government authoritarian overreach.
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MARY ALAMSETTI - CONCERNED CITIZEN - HB 582 - Thank you for giving me the opportunity just to5263 testify on behalf of House bill 582 and in opposition to the others. I am the mother of two children, one of whom is diagnosed with a rare autoimmune disorder. Nothing is more important to me than protecting their health and well-being. It is it is deeply important to me that my children's medical decisions be made by those who care most about them and are most familiar with their medical histories. As progressives, and I do consider myself a progressive, we say that we support a person's right to make their own healthcare decisions and that the government shouldn't get between doctors and their patients. The proposed bills would interfere with, capacity medicine, and would5308 allow non medical professionals to mandate medical interventions and would mandate vaccine for the HPV virus that has virtually no chance of being chance of being transmitted in schools.

Both of my children have received vaccines, and my one school age child has received every vaccine required for school without exception. I'm hardly anti vaccine, but as a parent, I'm not afraid of the tiny minority of families with religious exemptions to vaccines. Massachusetts has one of the highest vaccination rates in the country. But I am afraid that the Legislature wants to exert my abilities to make medical decisions for my young children together with their pediatricians. Or that wants to interfere with my ability to trust my children's doctors by encouraging them to vaccinate my young children without my knowledge and consent. One of my children has a condition known as Aquagenic urticaria, meaning that she is literally allergic to water among other things. Needless to say, it would not be appropriate for anyone to give her a vaccine or any medication without her parent's knowledge, consent or5365 even knowledge. So please consider families like mine when voting on these bills. Thank you.5369
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LIANNE KENEALY - CONCERNED CITIZEN - HB 582 - SB 1458 - HB 2151 - SB 1391 - HB 604 - Good afternoon and thank you sir and madam chairs and the Committee on Public Health. My name is Lianne Kenealy and I support Bill H 582, but I oppose all other bills. Today I'll speak specifically to my well founded objections the proposed legislation within bills S 1458, H 2151, S 1391, and, H 604. I believe and Massachusetts Department of Education Regulation 603 CMR 26 States that everyone has a free and equal right to a public education no matter his race, his or her race, sexual orientation, religion, underlying medical dysfunction or disability. Bills S 1391 and H 604 are discriminatory and unfounded given the status of vaccination rates in the Commonwealth.

Under the standard of strict scrutiny, in order to pass a law that discriminates against religions and a First Amendment right, the government must show that the law meets a compelling government interest and that the regulation is being implemented using the least restrictive means. Further, by law, there needs to be an imminent danger to the public. There simply isn't a danger to the public and we do not have an emergency in Massachusetts. We have the strongest vaccination rates in the country. For the measles mumps rubella vaccine, our rates are at 98.2% for 7th grade students in the 2022 to 2023 school year, well above the threshold for herd immunity. Not only are our rates that high but they've been over the herd immunity threshold since 1991.

In addition, Massachusetts has been one of the strongest, has one of the strongest quarantine protocols in the country. There are procedures in place to ensure that stop of outbreaks already. Regarding Bills S 1458 and H 2151, there are several concerning components. But for the sake of brevity, I won't get into them because I see only have 13 seconds left. What I will say is on its face, this bill seems to satisfy the extreme natures of the other bills I just mentioned. But when you look deeper at what's required keep one's religious exemption, there are many controversial elements to consider. Thank you for your time.
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DARLENE ORVIETO - PARENTS OF MASSACHUSETTS - HB 582 - Okay, very good. Thank you so much. Okay, hello. My name is Darlene Orvieto, I live in Western Massachusetts and I represent Parents of Massachusetts corruption exposed on all platforms including YouTube. I have no skin in this game, my children were taken and given to an abusive individual against the strong recommendation of professionals. I have not seen my children in 2 years due to the actions of the abusive individual who's a principal in the public school. Committee members, thank you for providing this public forum, as you should, with attempts of such egregious overreach put forth by legislators that obviously need removal. Individuals who forget who they work for, who it is that provides for their family, who have also become misguided, power hungry and emboldened.

Senator Rausch and Kennedy, Representative Donato, Driscoll and Vargas, shame on you. The humbling required will likely be served by your creator.5586 Having said that, I'm not shocked by this behavior. Having had nauseating experience by being told by my reps, John Velis, Daniel Perry and Ann Gobi, that they would not put forward a bill for me, all violated their oath and our constitution. John Velis was only concerned with getting in trouble for not helping a constituent he's required to help. I would like to bring to everybody's attention that while the bills brought forth by the reps on5612 the bills before us today are5614 despicable and a disgusting violation of our human rights, Massachusetts Constitution, and the US constitution, this is not rocket science. Rep Soter's bill sounds good and looks good, but he supports empowering medical professionals with vaccines that can have potent dangerous and fatal results, and many doctors failed us completely through the COVID nonsense, with the exception of a brave few. Do not trust the science our government corrupts, as Doctor Fauci has proven, it is junk science. We do not need Bill H 582 to give us rights we already
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MAUREEN SATRIANO - CONCERNED CITIZEN - HB 582 - Thank you for listening to us5671 today. My name is Maureen, I live in Hadley. I'm a teacher,5675 family nurse practitioner, I have a degree in public health, and I'm a mother. I'm speaking today as a healthcare provider who has experience with these issues. I'm here to support Bill H 582 and to oppose all the other bills.5689 As a healthcare provider, I was taught that vaccines are safe and effective and I gave them very little thought until I5695 became a school nurse years ago5697 where my job was to enforce the vaccine law. I've seen over the years is while it is safe and effective is true for some people, it is not true for everyone. I've personally seen vaccine injury when I was the one who sent students to be vaccinated in order to attend school.

When the measles outbreak hit one5713 religious community on Auckland County, New York, it led to the removal of the religious exemption from vaccines for school despite 0 cases outside of that community. 26,000 children in New York state were kicked out of school unless they received 5 vaccines on the childhood5728 schedule within 14 days. Special needs children at my school who already had well documented vaccine injury were kicked out of programs where they received essential services, and no, getting a medical exemption was not a reality. I can assure you that comprehensive public health is not solely about vaccines and infectious diseases. It also should include access to education, mental health services,5750 medical and dental care.

I now see patients in a primary5754 care office. The public health issues5756 that I'm worried about are teenagers at risk of suicide and children not getting healthcare because their pediatricians have kicked them out of their processes for not getting vaccinated. For a state that prides itself on inclusivity, taking kids out of school because of their religious belief is definitely not inclusive. I implore you that when voting on this proposed legislation please stand on the right side of history. Please respect the parents right to decide what is best for their child and understand that vaccines are not safe and effective for everyone. Please respect the doctor patient relationship because the medicine is not a one size fits all. Please trust me and my fellow healthcare providers.
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MARY COX - CONCERNED CITIZEN - Okay. Thank you very much. I'd like5809 to say that I oppose all vaccine mandate bills that are being proposed here. Grandchildren were to go through, they would not get their needs met. One of them is learning how to read at 9 years old with dyslexia, who does not want to co parent with the government. And I can't believe that someone might vaccinate a child without the parents' knowledge and hide it from them. I just can't believe this is happening. I just wanted to say, I really hope that you look at this. And like this woman that just spoke, one size does not fit all, so why force it on everyone? Thank you very much.
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