Shout out to from Indianapolis-based WishTV for covering House Bill 1058 and including our concerns. You can see our public statement regarding this House bill here.
In his , Williams discussed Representative Ron Bacon’s reasoning for why the bill is needed, citing 100 Central Indiana deaths from the flu during this flu season. What Representative Bacon did not reference was how many of those who died had actually been vaccinated this year for the flu. He also did not indicate how many of the individuals had co-morbid conditions that contributed to the deaths. All loss of life is tragic! Which is why we are concerned about this bill mandating advertisements for the flu vaccine; a vaccine that, is only 10% effective but responsible for from all available vaccines. The flu shot alone has , making it the most dangerous vaccine on the market. With a failure rate of 90%, we are concerned that House Bill 1058 will push assisted living residents into getting the vaccine without weighing their risk to benefit ratio.
Representative Bacon also was either mistaken or intentionally misinforming the public when he said nursing homes require all residents to be vaccinated unless they have a religious objection. We have scoured the Indiana Code and can find no such law on the books. The aging population still retain their right to informed consent and absolutely may deny ANY medical procedure they do not wish to partake in, including the flu vaccine.
Our concerns with this bill have increased over the last few days as we have continued to research. One of our volunteers had this to say:
“I believe they’re doing this to get Medicaid and Medicare money. In March 2017 the CDC and CMS made a ruling that ALL residents and workers in long-term facilities be vaccinated. In regard to the residents, they want to be able to do this via “standing orders,” meaning they just automatically get the shot without having to see a doctor or be asked if they will take the shot. However, they can’t do that without “informed consent.” But they CAN do it if they inform the residents, or their representatives, about the policy upon entrance into the facility — even if the resident or representative hasn’t signed a thing permitting it: “Informed consent is required to implement a standing order for vaccination, but this does not necessarily mean a signed consent must be present.” Once the residents have been “educated” on this, they can now go forward with flu shots automatically, kind of like when a pediatrician leaves standing orders on kids’ charts that they get vaccinated at the recommended times (when the nurse just automatically shows up with the shots lined up and ready). I’m guessing that so far, Indiana has been having to ask residents if they want the shot, and of course some are turning it down. With this law all they have to do is inform them of the “policy” and they can make it a standing order — which, by nature of the CDC recommendation that ALL residents be vaccinated — means you’re going to have to put up quite a fight to not get a shot after this bill becomes law. ;
This echoes our concern that many residents suffer from dementia or Alzheimer’s and do not know whether or not they’ve already consented to the vaccine. Since they are able to go to any pharmacy and receive a flu shot without a doctors order, many are receiving more than one flu shot per year. Another volunteer shared this with us:
“My grandmother got 2 flu shots this year. She got one at the Dr then she went to Wal-Mart and got one. Then she said, ‘Wait, I think I already got one.’ The nurses all laughed. My mom told me that she ‘just forgot’ she had already gotten one. The nurses responded by saying, ‘Oh, it won’t hurt her.'”
We disagree. The nearly $2 Billion paid out to individuals who suffered flu vaccine injuries or deaths indicate otherwise.
SO WHAT CAN YOU DO?
1. Call your State Senator and tell them to vote NO on HB 1058. You can find your State Senator . Once you know their name, call (317) 232-9400 and ask to leave a message for them telling them that as their constituent you do not support House Bill 1058 and urge them to vote NO on this unnecessary use of taxpayer dollars.
2. Send an email to all 50 Senators stating your concerns. Copy the first email block into the TO field of your email and the 2nd block into the CC field of your email so that all 50 Senators will receive the email at once.
s22@iga.in.gov; s8@iga.in.gov; s17@iga.in.gov; s39@iga.in.gov; s50@iga.in.gov; s23@iga.in.gov; s37@iga.in.gov; s34@iga.in.gov; s10@iga.in.gov; s15@iga.in.gov; s21@iga.in.gov; s5@iga.in.gov; s28@iga.in.gov; s29@iga.in.gov; s26@iga.in.gov; s38@iga.in.gov; s13@iga.in.gov; s46@iga.in.gov; s18@iga.in.gov; s7@iga.in.gov; s19@iga.in.gov; s47@iga.in.gov; s20@iga.in.gov; s14@iga.in.gov; s25@iga.in.gov; s42@iga.in.gov; s16@iga.in.gov; s31@iga.in.gov; s48@iga.in.gov; s32@iga.in.gov; s24@iga.in.gov; s9@iga.in.gov; s1@iga.in.gov;
s6@iga.in.gov; s43@iga.in.gov; s27@iga.in.gov; s2@iga.in.gov; s3@iga.in.gov; s30@iga.in.gov; s45@iga.in.gov; s44@iga.in.gov; s40@iga.in.gov; s4@iga.in.gov; s33@iga.in.gov; s49@iga.in.gov; s41@iga.in.gov; s36@iga.in.gov; s12@iga.in.gov; s35@iga.in.gov; s11@iga.in.gov
3. Share a link to this blog post or with your friends and family and ask them to do the same. We don’t know when this bill will come before the Senate, but it’s likely to be early next week (Feb 26-28, 2018). Please make your calls and send your emails ASAP. If we flood their phone lines and emails with opposition, they will be forced to reconsider this use of taxpayer dollars to advertise a for-profit product with failing efficacy and high rates of death and injury.
As always, thank you to our concerned and vigilant followers for helping us protect our most vulnerable citizens from predatory industry interests. We could not do it without the thousands of supporters like you who follow us so closely and rally behind these just causes!
WishTV’s story can be found here: