Yesterday, the Senate Rules Committee pushed through S9598 with a party line vote completely skipping any of the usual committees and sent it straight to the floor.

The bill is intended to allow the Governor to ignore any of the reforms coming out of the federal public health agencies, especially the decision by Sec. Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. to drop 11 of the “routinely recommended” shots for children, and give her complete control over the vaccine regime in New York. 

This may be hard to believe but don’t forget that Asm. Amy Paulin, the sponsor of A10711, co-sponsored A6761, a bill you may remember,  that would have allowed minors of any age to consent to any medical procedure or product without parental knowledge or consent. 

Here is the language the bill would delete from current New York law:

This language obviously violates US law and the Supremacy Clause of the Constitution, but, as we have seen time and time again, New York State government ignoring federal law is a standard operating procedure. 

The Autism Action Network fully supports the recent HHS withdrawal of routine use recommendations for children of the COVID, influenza, hepatitis A, hepatitis B, meningitis ACWY, meningitis B, RSV and rotavirus shots, and the reduction of the recommended number of HPV shots from 2 to 1. All these products remain available to all children whose parents and healthcare providers believe that the child would benefit from them. We believe this is an excellent start on the way to replacing mandates with healthcare based strictly on informed consent of individuals for themselves and parents for minor children. 

TAKE ACTION

Please use the panel to the right to send messages to Gov. Hochul and your State Senator and Assemblymember opposing the Governor’s attempt to grab control over the recommended vaccine schedule in NY.

Please call the following decisionmakers and let them know that you oppose A10711/S9598.

Gov. Kathy Hochul (518) 474-8390

Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart Cousins, (518) 455-2585

Speaker of the Assembly Carl Heastie, (518) 455-6791

Bill Sponsor Sen. Toby Ann Stavisky, (518) 455-3461

Bill Sponsor Asm. Amy Paulin, (518) 455-5585

 Please call your State Senator and Assemblymember and let them know that you oppose A10711/S9598. Their contact information should be below. 

Or look them up here:

 nyassembly.gov/mem/search/  and nysenate.gov/find-my-senator

TALKING POINTS

No unlicensed shot may be paid for with federal funds. Only vaccines licensed by the federal government and routinely recommended by the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices can be paid for with federal funds, such as Medicaid and Medicare. Medicaid alone pays for more than 50% of the shots given to New York’s children. How will New York pay for any non-federally approved shots?

Shots not approved by the ACIP do not provide legal immunity to doctors of manufacturers . We fully support repeal of legal immunity for vaccine injuries. However, the fact that this issue is not even referred to in this bill indicates the haste and lack of meaningful thought behind the Governor’s power grab. If there is no legal immunity from vaccine injuries, no doctor will use that product.

This is a power grab by the Governor.  All states, until the past few months, universally followed the recommendations of the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices. This bill, if passed, would allow New York to use the recommendations of private trade associations, including the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), the American Academy of Family Practice (AAFP), the American College of Obstetricians (ACOG), the American College of Physicians (ACP), or any other organization that the Governor wants to use,

Privatizes formation of the vaccine schedule. The organizations named by the Governor are all private, and unaccountable to either the public or elected officials.  They all have direct professional and financial incentives to maximize vaccine usage. Asking the AAP if a child should get a shot is like asking the National Association of Automobile Dealers if people should buy cars. 

Foreign organizations could be used by countries that do not use American licensed products. Unidentified “international” organizations, presumably the World Health Organization (WHO), can be used to form recommendations for New York but there is no requirement that these countries make their recommendations based on the products available in New York.

Most of the affected shots are not mandated in New York. Only meningitis B and hepatitis B injections are required to attend school in New York. Influenza shots are required by the City of New York to attend daycare or pre-school regulated by the City of New York. COVID, flu for K-12, meningitis b, HPV, rotavirus, RSV, and hepatitis A are not mandated to attend school in New York.

Anybody can get the shots if they want them. All the shots that are still available to parents who want them for their children and are still covered by public and private health insurers. 

Many parents do not want these shots of their children. The point is to keep up demand for products that are not required to attend school in New York, and that most people do not want for their children. Only 7% of minors got the current COVID booster, according to the CDC, and more than half of American children did not get the flu shot.

Oppose Gov. Hochul's power grab

Oppose A10711/S9598.