OPPOSE A279 – FORCED VACCINE TRACKING OF ALL ADULTS IN NEW YORK

Contact Assembly Health Committee BEFORE 10:30 a.m. on Thursday May 20th to VOTE NO!

1. Email Members of the Assembly Health Committee BEFORE 10:30 a.m. on Thursday May 20^th and ask them to STRONGLY OPPOSE A279. (email list below)  You can also try to call them.  We have received emails from many of our members telling us some aren’t taking phone calls, but you can try. Click on the individual member names on the page for the Assembly Health Committee to get phone numbers.
2. Contact your New York Senator and ask them to oppose S75 and your Assembly member and ask them to oppose companion A279.  If you do not know who your New York State Legislators are, login to the NVIC Advocacy Portal at http://NVICAdvocacy.org.  Click on “Check What is Happening in Your State” on the home page or “My State” on the STATE TEAMS Tab.  Your personal state legislators are listed on the right side of the page. You can click on their name to get their phone numbers, emails, and even links to their social media to connect to them.  You can also find your legislators using these search engines – https://www.nysenate.gov/registration/nojs/form/start/find-my-senator  and http://assembly.state.ny.us/mem/search/
3. Please share this email with family and friends, or you can tell your friends to go to http://NVICAdvocacy.org and click on the alert for New York A279,
4. Please forward any legislative responses to NYDirector@lists.NVICAdvocacy.org.
5. Sign up to get NVIC’s New York “Heads Up” text alerts by texting “New York” to 202-618-5488.
6. Login to the NVIC Advocacy Portal OFTEN to check for updates.  http://NVICAdvocacy.org.  We review bills and make updates daily. Bills can change many times over the legislative process and your timely visits, calls, and emails directed at the correct legislators are critical to this process.
7. Please watch NVIC’s Director of Advocacy Dawn Richardson’s 30-minute legislative advocacy training at https://vimeo.com/517580013.

• VOTE NO on A279/S75.
• A279/S75 forces all adults in New York into vaccine surveillance and enforcement systems by removing the current requirement in law for consent for inclusion.
• All who have access to the vaccine registry including health care providers will be able to tell if you haven’t had a COVID-19 vaccine by process of elimination since recording of vaccines is mandatory under this bill.  This information can be used to coerce or even force COVID-19 vaccines for access to healthcare or government services.
• Immunization information systems and vaccine tracking systems are being used for interventions including home visits, reminder and recall systems, community based interventions, and standing orders.
• Vaccine tracking systems and other public health databases can be and have been used to harass and coerce people.
• Data breaches happen frequently.
• HIPAA provides no privacy protection. The only way to protect privacy in a vaccine registry/information system/tracking system is to require prior written consent so those who do not want to participate can prevent their personal information from being put into the database.  “Confidentiality” is not the same as protecting privacy.  Once information is put into the registry, because of permissions for unconsented disclosure for public health purposes authorized by HIPAA, this information could be used to identify and target individuals who are not vaccinated by choice for interventions and harassment. This information could also be used to discriminate against these families down the road or shared with other databases.
• Adults are fully capable of keeping their own vaccine records.  This bill is unnecessary and government overreach.