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Attorney
Deborah G. Stevenson, Executive Director
Bulletin #68 Another Reason To Homeschool Your
Children? 07/10/09
Did you know? Mandatory swine flu vaccinations for school
children may be implemented in your state come fall 2009.
Apparently,
that’s what the federal government would like to see happen. On the website for the U.S. Department of
Health and Human Services, (http://www.hhs.gov/news/press/2009pres/07/20090709a.html)
it was announced that the federal government is
committed to “developing a national response framework and
action plan” to prepare for a more serious outbreak of the swine flu in the
fall.
Although the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
website does not state that the vaccinations will be “mandatory”, it does say
that the federal government is “partnering” with state and local governments in
this effort. That’s primarily because the federal government inherently does
not have any Constitutional authority to mandate that school children receive
any vaccinations. That authority is a
power that is left to the States and to the people pursuant to the Tenth
Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. Over
time, however, the people in most states have allowed their elected officials
to implement state laws that do mandate vaccinations for school children. According to the Congressional Research
Service, in a report released in 2005, http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/RS21414.pdf every
state has a law requiring children to be vaccinated before they enrolled in a
public or a private school. The report
indicates that, generally, states use the federal government’s Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention’s schedule of immunizations as a guide, and
require children to be vaccinated against a number of diseases. While most states’ laws do provide for
parents to exempt their children from mandatory vaccinations, the exemptions
are very limited. The Congressional Research
Service report also notes that, at least in 2005, there “did not appear to be
any regulations regarding the implementation of a mandatory vaccination program
at the federal level during a public health emergency.” It remains to be seen whether Congress will
enact legislation, unconstitutional or not, that may change that situation.
For now, at least, it would appear that the
federal government is relying on a more familiar technique to accomplish its
goals. It is, once again, dangling
federal tax dollars in front of state officials to get the states to do its
bidding. The Health and Human Services Department website notes that the
federal government will make available to the states “preparedness grants worth
a total of $350 million” so the states can “step up” their “preparedness
efforts.”
It is also highly interesting for parents to note
that the Health and Human Services Secretary, Kathleen Sebelius, also indicated
in news reports that “no final decision has been made on whether to vaccinate
Americans” yet because it “depends largely on studies with experimental
batches…[of the vaccine] to see if they’re safe and seem to work…” (Emphasis added).
Not to
worry, though. She hopes that “all goes well”.
If it does, she added, the federal government would buy the vaccine from
manufacturers and share it among the states to get it to the “targeted
population as soon as possible.” Whom
did she say was first in line for the vaccine?
School children, of course, would
be first. In fact, the federal
government’s Education Secretary Arne Duncan said, “Schools are natural places”
to offer those vaccines.
As can be
seen, some questions remain to be answered in this scenario, not the least of
which is, “Will the vaccines be safe for your child?” It’s hard to find the answer to that
question, although the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons, Inc.
has on its website, some things to ponder. The website http://www.aapsonline.org/testimony/mandvac.htm contains a “Fact Sheet on Mandatory
Vaccines”. Among the facts cited there
are:
“The Centers for Disease Control admits that the reported number of adverse effects of
vaccines is probably only 10% of actual adverse effects;”
“Rampant
conflicts of interest in the approval process has
been the subject of several Congressional hearings, and a recent Congressional
report concluded that the pharmaceutical industry has indeed exerted undue influence
on mandatory vaccine legislation toward its own financial interests;”
“The vaccine approval process has also been
contaminated by flawed or incomplete clinical trials, and government officials have chosen to ignore negative results;” and
“Mandatory vaccines violate the medical
ethic of informed consent. A case could also be made that mandates for vaccines by school districts
and legislatures is the de facto practice of medicine without a license.”
Aside from
the controversies surrounding the possibility of adverse side effects, the
efficacy of the vaccine, and whether or not parents actually will be provided
with sufficient information to offer informed consent, parents need to consider whether they will have any ability to consent,
at all, before their children are required to receive the vaccine.
Before this
fall, parents need to ask, “Is my state mandating that my child obtain the
swine flu vaccine as a prerequisite to attending school? After all, the states already require
children to receive other vaccinations as a prerequisite to attending
school. Will the swine flu become just
another one of the vaccinations already required?
An even better question to ask is, “Will the
State be compelled to require children to receive the swine flu vaccine as a
condition of the State receiving its share of the $350 million dollars that the
federal government is providing to the States for swine flu preparedness?” That is the preferred method, to date, when
the federal government wants to mandate the implementation of its will. Why
wouldn’t the federal government utilize that same method when it comes to
dictating what vaccinations your child will receive?
If the
federal government does make such a deal with the States as a means to
achieving its goal of having children vaccinated, what is a concerned parent to
do? If a child cannot attend school,
public or private, (private schools also already must comply with State imposed
vaccination laws), without receiving the swine flu vaccination, and the parent
objects to the child receiving the swine flu vaccine out of concern for
possible adverse effects, the parent then either risks the child’s health, or
risks the possibility of having the child be considered truant. Or, is there
another solution? The answer to that is
yes. At that point, the parent can
choose to homeschool. Most state
laws regarding vaccination only apply to children upon entrance to public and
private school. They do not require children who are homeschooled to obtain
those vaccinations. That’s because the purpose of vaccination of the population
in public and private school is to stop the spread of the disease in that
community where the children congregate in large numbers, and where it is more
difficult to control the spread of germs and to maintain a clean
environment.
The purpose
of the vaccination no longer exists, however, at least not anywhere near to the
same extent, when children are educated at home. Their numbers are smaller and
their environment is easier to maintain in a relatively germ free manner. While
normally homeschooled children are not recluses, in the midst of an epidemic
there is no need to fear that they will either get, or spread, the infectious
disease because the parents can regulate their contact with other children. Nor
is there any need to fear that their education will suffer when their education
takes place in the home in any case.
Their parents likely will remain highly motivated to keep the children
from exposure during the outbreak, while at the same time to continue their
educational routine unabated.
While there
are many diverse reasons why parents homeschool, and while it is still
uncertain at this time whether swine flu vaccinations will become mandatory,
come this fall, there may be one more very good reason why parents may choose
to homeschool.
Attorney Deborah Stevenson - Executive Director of National Home Education Legal Defense – email : info@nheld.com
Judy Aron - Director of Research, NHELD – imjfaron@sbcglobal.net