Tag Archives: Topic: Vaccinations

Religion Clause: Today’s New York Daily News reports that two parents are suing school officials over decisions by two principals to send unvaccinated children home when other students at their schools contracted communicable diseases.

CBC News: The HPV vaccine for young males has been endorsed by a federal panel, but that doesn’t necessarily mean provinces and territories will pick up the tab.

The New American: The Alliance Defense Fund (ADF), a U.S.-based conservative legal advocacy group, noted that Edholm’s recommendation comes at a time when home school families in Sweden are under severe assault. The ADF, in partnership with another U.S. group, the Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA), has come to the legal aid of a Swedish home school family whose nine-year-old son was abducted by the Swedish government in 2009. According to an ADF press release, Swedish officials “seized the child because they believe home schooling is an inappropriate way to raise a child and insist the government should raise [him] instead, even though home-schooling was legal in Sweden at the time he was taken into custody.

WorldNetDaily: The HSLDA also works with the Alliance Defense Fund to challenge such violations of parental rights. Roger Kiska, a European-based attorney working with the ADF, warned, “Parents have the right and authority to make decisions regarding their children’s education without government interference. Swedish policy on home education is at odds with recognized international legal standards that uphold the right of parents to direct the education of their children. Those standards include the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other human rights documents, all of which recognize that parents have a fundamental right to choose what kind of education their children will receive.”

HSLDA: Roger Kiska is an ADF attorney stationed in Europe who has brought numerous cases before the European Court of Human Rights on family issues, including homeschooling. He says that the European Court of Human Rights has not been particularly supportive of homeschoolers. “The ECHR is giving aid and comfort to Sweden’s repressive home education policies. But ECHR jurisprudence and Swedish, as well as German, policy on home education is at odds with recognized international legal standards that uphold the right of parents to direct the education of their children,” Kiska said. “The United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other human rights documents all recognize that parents of children have a fundamental right to choose what kind of education their children will receive. We are committed to working with HSLDA and others to vindicate this right. We will stand with families like the Johanssons and Himmelstrands until we win.”

Christian Newswire: The Home School Legal Defense Association and Alliance Defense Fund and have applied to the European Court of Human Rights on behalf of one family whose child was abducted by the government in 2009 and have filed a brief in a Swedish appellate court on behalf of another family fined an amount equivalent to $26,000.

ADF, HSLDA say changes would violate int’l legal standards on human rights

WorldNetDaily: Michael Donnelly, director of international relations at Home School Legal Defense Association, says this decision offers a glimmer of light in the case. “I am hopeful that this is the beginning of the end to the horrific treatment these people have suffered at the hands of Swedish authorities over the past two and a half years,” he said. “The Johansson family have endured unspeakable tyranny over their decision to homeschool their child and then to attempt to leave Sweden. Sweden’s behavior in this case has been shocking.” His organization and representatives of the Alliance Defense Fund are pursuing a case over the custody battle before the European Court of Human Rights

ADF Attorney Benjamin Bull at Townhall : All Domenic Johansson really wants for Christmas is his life back . . . In this season, as so many of us are thinking – as we should – of the children who don’t have toys or a turkey for Christmas, let us also remember those children who long not just for something to eat or play with, but for the freedom to honor the deepest convictions of their souls.

HSLDA : Christer and Annie Johansson have won a small but hopeful victory in their quest to regain custody of their nine-year-old son Domenic who was taken from them over 2 years ago in a dramatic raid while the family was seated on an airliner departing the Nordic country. Ruby Harrold-Claesson, the couple’s attorney, reported to HSLDA that the Gotland District Court ruled in favor of the Johanssons, allowing them to retain their parental rights of Domenic . . . HSLDA continues to work with the Alliance Defense Fund and Harrold-Claesson at the European Court of Human Rights representing the family in their lawsuit against Sweden.

Telegraph: Parents of children who have been struck down with the sleeping syndrome narcolepsy claim that it could have been triggered by the swine flu vaccine.

News from The Associated Press: More parents are opting out of school shots for their kids. In eight states now, more than 1 in 20 public school kindergartners aren’t getting all the vaccines required for attendance, an Associated Press analysis found.

News from The Associated Press: A global vaccines group says it is working to buy shots to protect up to 2 million women and young girls in poor countries from cervical cancer.

Telegraph: ALL children could be vaccinated against flu in the future, the Department of Health has indicated.

Education Week: The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear appeals concerning mandated vaccines in public schools and a school district’s refusal to allow a religious group’s fliers to be sent home with students.

Chuck Norris at Townhall: According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1 in 110 children have autism spectrum disorders, which is strikingly more than just two decades ago. (ASDs are a group of developmental disabilities that can cause communication, behavioral and social challenges.) The National Autism Association calls the 644 percent increase of ASDs among U.S. children since the early 1990s “a tragic epidemic of autism.”

NCRegister.com: California governor authorized the measure on Oct. 9; children as young as 12 can receive vaccinations and other medications to prevent sexually transmitted diseases, including HPV, without their parents’ notification.

Rebecca Taylor at LifeNews.com: One of the most asked about and difficult ethical issues for Catholic parents to deal with is the issue with vaccination. Many vaccines are created with cell lines that originated from an aborted fetus.

News from The Associated Press: Worries about vaccine safety were common even among parents whose kids were fully vaccinated: 1 in 5 among that group said they think delaying shots is safer than the recommended schedule.

Rebecca Burgoyne at California Family Council: Parents currently have final authority to determine which vaccines their child receives, but it is getting more difficult. California law

News from The Associated Press: Last year’s class of California kindergartners had a record high percentage of parents who used a personal belief exemption to avoid immunization requirements, a development that concerns state health officials.

The Washington Post: Heated debate in the Republican presidential race over child vaccinations also is playing out in California as Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown considers whether to a sign a bill allowing children as young as 12 to get vaccinated against sexually transmitted diseases without their parents’ consent.

News from The Associated Press: Four years ago, Gov. Rick Perry put aside his social conservative bona fides and signed an order requiring Texas girls to be vaccinated against the human papilloma virus. He says he was trying to curb cancer. But it didn’t take long for angry conservatives in the Legislature to override a measure they thought tacitly approved premarital sex, and for critics to accuse Perry of cronyism.

OneNewsNow.com: GOP presidential candidate Michele Bachmann was on the offensive in Monday night’s debate when she suggested rival Rick Perry’s controversial vaccination order in Texas was payback to a campaign contributor.

The Pilot: The California Catholic Conference is urging Californians to call Gov. Jerry Brown Jr. and urge him to veto AB 499, which would allow children 12 and older to be vaccinated against sexually transmitted disease without parental consent or knowledge.

AP: Only about half of the teenage girls in the U.S. have rolled up their sleeves for a controversial vaccine against cervical cancer – a rate well below those for two other vaccinations aimed at adolescents.

WorldNetDaily: More than 100 children from Malawi’s southern district of Nsanje have been forced at gunpoint to receive measles vaccinations, according to a report from the southern African nation. And the partner in the forced medication program? The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, according to Natural News.

Religion Clause: Court Rejects Vaccination Exemption Claim: In Caviezel v. Great Neck Public Schools, (ED NY, July 23, 2011), a New York federal district court rejected parents’ claim for a religious exemption under NY Public Health Law Sec. 2164(9) from the requirements for vaccination of their child against certain diseases in order to attend public school.

LifeNews: The UN is about to ask governments to fund the vaccination of every girl in the world against the sexually transmitted disease HPV, human papillomavirus. The controversial campaign could cost as much as $300 per person, totaling billions.

Religion Clause Blog: In Workman v. Mingo County Board of Education, (4th Cir., March 22, 2011), the U.S. 4th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld West Virginia’s statute requiring vaccination for various diseases as a condition of attending school.

LifeSiteNews: It turns out that Gardasil’s flat and declining sales are due to a design flaw. To be completely immunized, women and girls have to receive a series of three injections over six months. Many women and girls didn’t do so.

Religion Clause Blog: “Natural News today reports on proposed legislation in Washington state and New Jersey that would place new limits on religious exemptions from mandatory vaccination requirements.”

Religion Clause: “In Winters v. Brown, (FL App., Jan. 26, 2011), a Florida appellate court upheld applying the ‘best interest of the child’ test to affirm a trial court’s award of control over health care decisions for his minor child to the child’s father.”

LifeSiteNews: “In the keynote address to the mHealth Summit held in November last year, Bill Gates introduced a plan to use cell phone technology to register every birth on the planet in a newborn vaccination database . . .”

Charles Hillel Baron, Blood Transfusions, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and the American Patients’ Rights Movement (February 15, 2010). ALTERNATIVES TO BLOOD TRANSFUSION IN TRANSFUSION MEDICINE, pp. 531-558, Alice Maniatis, Phillipe Van der Linden, Jean-François Hardy, eds., Wiley-Blackwell, 2010; Boston College Law School Legal Studies Research Paper No. 215. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1728983

“The litigation to protect Jehovah’s Witnesses from unwanted blood transfusions, which their theology considers a violation of the biblical prohibition against drinking blood, has produced important changes in both the right to refuse treatment and in the preferred treatment methods of all patients. This article traces the evolution of the rights of competent medical patients in the United States to refuse medical treatment. It also discusses the impact this litigation has had on the medical community’s realization that blood transfusions were neither as safe nor as medically necessary as medical culture posited.”

Ventura County Star [AP]: “A West Virginia woman urged a federal appeals court Thursday to reinstate her lawsuit claiming that Mingo County school officials violated her religious rights by insisting that her daughter receive state-mandated immunizations. A three-judge panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals heard oral arguments in the case and is expected to rule in a few weeks.”

LifeSiteNews: “The figures are leading some in Ireland to accuse the IMB is not showing due consideration for the health of young people vaccinated with the drug.”

The Iona Institute: “A judge who has given permission to the HSE to administer drugs to a baby at risk of HIV against the wishes of the mother said it was not a question of the State ‘acting as a superpower’ or ‘nanny knows best.’ The case shows once again that the law as it stands already allows the State to override the wishes of parents in certain circumstances.”

Balancing Public Health and Individual Choice: A Proposal for a Federal Emergency Vaccination Law
Sara Mahmoud-Davis, 20 Health Matrix 219 (2010)

“Part I discusses the relationship between vaccinations and informed consent, including exemptions. Part II examines the scientific foundation for compulsory vaccination law and looks at the inherent tension between immunization exemptions and the public health. Part III establishes the constitutional basis for permitting religious exemptions and conditional rights of refusal, while excluding philosophical opt-outs. Part IV presents arguments in favor of a federal emergency vaccination law and proposes amending the Federal Public Health Service Act. Finally, Part V explains how the mass vaccination clinics would operate and describes the informed consent and opt-out process.”

Lisa McElroy writing at SCOTUSblog: “Let’s start with Bruesewitz v. Wyeth, a case about whether vaccine manufacturers can be held liable for design defects in their vaccines. In 1986, Congress passed the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act (NCVIA), providing that vaccine manufacturers cannot be sued for injuries from vaccines if the injuries resulted from side effects that were ‘unavoidable’ . . . The petitioners in this case are the parents of Hannah Bruesewitz, who when she was six months old suffered severe seizures after receiving one of her childhood vaccines . . . This case is a great example of one major class of Supreme Court cases – cases involving statutory interpretation. Here, the parties disagree about what the statutory language of the Act means.”

New York Times Editorial: “[Bruesewitz v. Wyeth] is about whether the family of a girl, who they said was badly injured by a vaccine, can sue the manufacturer in a state court. Or are they barred by a 24-year-old federal law that blocks this sort of lawsuit if ‘the injury or death resulted from side effects that were unavoidable?’ That prohibition is called pre-emption, a hot issue in constitutional law because it is at the heart of the balance of power between states and the federal government — the meaning of federalism.”

NY Times: “The Supreme Court on Tuesday struggled to divine the balance Congress had meant to strike in a 1986 law that established a system to compensate people injured by vaccines while barring some, but not all, lawsuits against vaccine manufacturers.”

Post-Gazette.com: “Hannah Bruesewitz’s parents think a DPT vaccination caused the child’s seizure disorder, but the vaccine maker is protected from suits by federal law.”

ABC: “Northwest Indiana school systems today begin excluding students who have not yet received three new immunizations mandated by the state and federal government.”

Law.com: “A brief filed in a major upcoming pre-emption case makes a single point about the meaning of federalism and how Congress must speak clearly if it seeks to pre-empt states from an area of regulation . . . Kenneth Starr and Erwin Chemerinsky . . . joined together for the amicus filing in Bruesewitz v. Wyeth, which asks whether federal vaccine law pre-empts certain design defect claims against vaccine manufacturers in state courts . . . Their brief argues that the robust role for states under the concept of federalism requires Congress to give evidence of a ‘clear and manifest pre-emptive purpose’ when it seeks to take over a field of regulation from states.”

Fox News: “A New York couple is suing a Catholic high school for refusing to grant a religious exemption that would allow their 14-year-old son to enroll in ninth grade without state-required vaccinations, claiming immunizations are a ‘violation of God’s supreme authority.’”

CBS: “The first court award in a vaccine-autism claim is a big one. CBS News has learned the family of Hannah Poling will receive more than $1.5 million dollars for her life care; lost earnings; and pain and suffering for the first year alone . . . In acknowledging Hannah’s injuries, the government said vaccines aggravated an unknown mitochondrial disorder Hannah had which didn’t ’cause’ her autism, but ‘resulted’ in it. It’s unknown how many other children have similar undiagnosed mitochondrial disorder. All other autism ‘test cases’ have been defeated at trial.”

PipeLineNews.org: “This five page bill seems simple and straight forward, but it isn’t. It is a lot of words designed to hide the fact that the state’s legislators seek authority to mandate that schools be responsible for administering vaccinations to your child including HPV2 Cervarix for girls ages 10-25 or HPV 4 Gardasil for boys ages 9-26. That would be compulsory vaccinations without parental consent or notification.” AB354. Juan Arambula, [D- Fresno] Immunizations.

The Blog of LegalTimes: “The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has just upheld lower court findings that reject a causal connection between childhood vaccines and the onset of autism. The ruling came in Cedillo v. Secretary of Health and Human Services.”

Sunday News: “Members of the Apostolic Faith sect in Gwanda have vowed not to have their children immunised despite efforts by the Ministry of Health and Child Welfare to convince them to take heed to their calls.”

Rasmussen: “Vaccinations are common requirements for children all over the country in order to attend public school and college. However, half of American adults (52%) say they are concerned about the safety of vaccinations for children, including 27% who are Very Concerned.”

Chicago Breaking News Center: “Dr. Andrew Wakefield, who recently was barred from practicing medicine in his native Great Britain, is expected to tell a ‘vaccination choice’ rally this afternoon that he will resume his autism research in the U.S., even though his work linking a childhood vaccine to the disorder has been widely discredited.”

AP: “Britain’s top medical group ruled Monday that a doctor who claimed autism was linked to a childhood vaccine can no longer practice in the U.K . . . In a statement then, Wakefield said the medical council’s investigation was an effort to ‘discredit and silence” him to “shield the government from exposure on the (measles) vaccine scandal.’”

NY Law Journal (Law.com): “On Monday, in Caviezel v. Great Neck Public Schools, 10-civ-052, Eastern District Judge Arthur D. Spatt denied the injunction, ruling that Caviezel had not established that she held ‘genuine and sincere religious beliefs which prohibit vaccinations.’”

Tony Mauro writes at National Law Journal (Law.com): “In spite of recent courtroom losses, parents who blame their children’s autism at least in part on childhood vaccines say their legal battle is far from over . . . the U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to hear next fall the case of Bruesewitz v. Wyeth, a non-autism case that asks the justices to decide whether the federal vaccine law pre-empts state law tort claims of vaccine design defects . . . ”

Reuters: “The number of head and neck cancers linked to a virus spread by oral sex is rising rapidly and suggests boys as well as girls should be offered protection through vaccination, doctors said Friday.”

LifeSiteNews: “When Microsoft co-founder and population-control advocate Bill Gates spoke recently of using vaccines to reduce world population, he set off a wave of speculation over his possible allusion to covert sterilization programs. According to the Gates Foundation, however, the multi-billionaire in fact advocates vaccine use to decrease child mortality – something he claims actually decreases population growth.”

Reuters: “The Supreme Court said on Monday that it would decide whether a federal law protects vaccine manufacturers from lawsuits in state court seeking damages for alleged design defects.”

AP: “One in four U.S. parents believes some vaccines cause autism in healthy children, but even many of those worried about vaccine risks think their children should be vaccinated . . . ”

Catholic Culture: “The couple say that their daughter has been denied entrance into an archdiocesan pre-school program because she has not received all required vaccinations.”

A Christian home schooling family could permanently lose custody of their only child simply because they home-school. Attorneys with the Alliance Defense Fund and the Home School Legal Defense Association are joining forces as legal advisors to the couple in order to persuade the Swedish government to return the seven-year-old child to his parents.

Christian Post: “‘We are pleased that the path has now been cleared for the government to grant Davis citizenship without forcing her to violate her religious beliefs,’ said Alliance Defense Fund Senior Legal Counsel Joel Oster. ‘The government should not be forcing applicants for citizenship to violate their sincerely held religious beliefs in order to become a citizen, especially when the same requirement is not placed on natural-born citizens. We are glad that the government has stopped this double-standard.’”

LifeSiteNews: “The U.S. Center for Disease Control announced Friday that starting December 14 it will no longer require female immigrants, ages 11 to 26 seeking permanent resident status, to receive the controversial human papilloma virus (HPV) vaccine Gardasil before entering the United States . . . In response to the CDC announcement, ADF Senior Legal Counsel Joel Oster told LSN, ‘We are pleased that the path has now been cleared for the government to grant Simone citizenship without forcing her to violate her religious beliefs.’”

“Starting Dec. 14, the HPV, or human papillomavirus vaccine will no longer be on the list of immunizations female immigrants ages 11 to 26 must receive before becoming legal permanent residents.”

ADF attorney Joel Oster appeared on Reality Check Live with Mike and Clairie Monokian to discuss this: Teen should not be denied citizenship for saying no to HPV vaccine.

The MP3 runs just over 9 minutes.

OneNewsNow: “A Florida teenager could be denied citizenship for rejecting the HPV vaccine which helps prevent an STD that leads to one form of cervical cancer . . . ‘The facts of the case are that a 17-year-old British girl who has been adopted by her mother who is a U.S. citizen, they live in Florida, is now being required to get the HPV vaccination in order to receive full U.S. citizenship,’ [Daniel] Blomberg explains. ‘Miss Davis doesn’t believe that she should have to do that, and it’s a violation of her religious beliefs to be vaccinated against something that she can only contract through immoral activity.’”

LSU Daily Reveille: “Davis has met nearly all requirements for U.S. citizenship, but has yet to receive full status because of her refusal to take Gardasil, which has been a required vaccination for female immigrants since 2008. Gardasil is designed to inoculate women against cervical cancer . . . The Alliance Defense Fund agrees with Davis. The organization believes the vaccine would force her to choose between “her beliefs and legal citizenship,” according to the brief filed in support of Davis.”

WorldNetDaily: “‘Christians shouldn’t be forced to violate their faith in order to gain U.S. citizenship,’ said ADF Senior Legal Counsel Joel Oster. ‘Requiring a young girl to choose between her beliefs and legal citizenship is a clear violation of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which prevents the government from putting a substantial burden on a person’s religious beliefs except under extreme circumstances.’”

George Delgado, M.D. writes at the Ruth Institute Blog: “No one likes the feeling that something has been shoved down his or her throat. Merck, the pharmaceutical giant is looking like a bully in how it thrust Gardasil, the first genital human papilloma virus (HPV) vaccine, on the US market.”

“Alliance Defense Fund attorneys have filed a brief with U.S. immigration officials on behalf of a 17-year-old British girl denied permanent resident status because she declined to be injected with a vaccine . . . ”

Politics on the Hudson: “A Poughkeepsie nurse who is suing Dr. Richard Daines, state health commissioner, over the H1N1 vaccine is also a plaintiff in a federal lawsuit against the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and Department of Health and Human Services.”

S.E. Cupp writes at Townhall: “New York health-care workers are protesting the emergency regulation adopted this summer by the State Health Department making seasonal and swine flu shots mandatory. As well they should. So should good conservatives, libertarians – and yes – the pro-choice left.”

CNSNews: “British health officials temporarily suspended a vaccination program in an English city Tuesday after a 14-year-old girl died a few hours after being vaccinated against the virus that causes cervical cancer.”

AP: “A federal appeals court has ruled that members of the military can be required to be vaccinated against anthrax.”

Rempfer v. Sharpstein, No. 08-5117 (D.C. Cir. Sept. 29, 2009)

Newsday: “Despite a planned rally in Albany Tuesday to protest a state regulation requiring health care workers be vaccinated against influenza — both seasonal and swine flu — New York’s top public health official predicts dissenters will ultimately extinguish their anger and roll up their sleeves.”