Urgent, NY Take Action: Call, tweet, email, FB to stop State getting all vaccine records
Now in Assembly Health Committee. Save medical privacy!
Yesterday the Senate Health Committee passed S75, a bill that ends our right to medical privacy by requiring all vaccination records to be entered into a State-run database. This bill is all about forcing adults to get shots, and making a vaccine passport system possible by keeping track of who has and has not received shots.
The vote yesterday was 9 to 5 on straight party lines with all Democrats in favor and all Republicans opposed. The Assembly Health Committee was supposed to consider the identical bill A279 today but the meeting was cancelled, which gives us a little more time to try and stop this bill.
Please get on the phone and your computer and contact the following members of the Assembly Health Committee.
We need 13 votes to kill the bill. We believe we have 9 definite Noes including all seven Republicans. We need four more Democrats. It is highly unlikely that any member who co-sponsored the bill will vote against it.
Please click here Take Action to send emails to the leadership of the legislature and your own State Senator and Assembly member,
Please call your own Assemblymember and politely ask them to vote against the bill. Talking points are below.
Asm. Richard Gottfried (D), (518) 455-4941, (212) 807-7900
Please get on the phone and your computer and contact the members of the Assembly Health Committee. Numbers below
Please comment on the members’ Facebook pages. Ask them to vote no. Please be polite. Ranting, threats and name calling, etc. doesn’t do us any good and may alienate people whose vote we may be able to get in the future. Please keep it civil, calm and polite.
Please tweet them it you use Twitter.
And please email them directly with your own reasons for opposing the bill. Again, be civil, calm and polite.
Many of the phone numbers will go directly to voice mail and frequently voice mail boxes are full, so use the other methods of communication.
We need 13 votes to kill the bill. We believe we have 9 definite Noes including all seven Republicans. We need four more Democrats. It is highly unlikely that any member who co-sponsored the bill will vote against it.
Please start at the top with Speaker Carl Heastie (the Boss) and work your way down. Staffers are saying the Assemblymembers Bichotte Hermelyn, Cymbrowitz, Sayegh, and Solages have not taken a position on the bill yet. Solages voted against the bill in committee in 2019 hopefully we will get her vote again.
Before you start on that if you support the work of the Autism action Network please keep us in business by donating here:
https://grouprev.com/AutismActionNetwork2021
Democrats
Carl Heastie, Speaker of the Assembly
(518) 455-3791, (718) 654-6539
speaker@nyassembly.gov
Twitter: @carlheastie
https://www.facebook.com/carl.heastie
Richard Gottfried, (518) 455-4941, (212) 807-7900
gottfriedr@nyassembly.gov
Twitter: @dickgottfried
https://www.facebook.com/richard.gottfried
Rodneyse Bichotte Hermelyn: 518-455-5385, (718) 940-0428, bichotter@nyassembly.gov
Twitter: @NYSBichotteHerm
https://www.facebook.com/RodneyseBichotte
Steven Cymbrowitz: (518) 455-5214, (718) 743-4078
cymbros@nyassembly.gov
Twitter: @cymbrowitz
https://www.facebook.com/AssemblymanStevenCymbrowitz
Nader Sayegh: (518) 455-3662, (914) 779-8805
sayeghn@nyassembly.gov
Twitter: @naderjsayegh
https://www.facebook.com/naderjsayegh
Karines Reyes, (518) 455-5102, (718) 931-2620
reyesk@nyassembly.gov
Twitter: @karinesreyes87
https://www.facebook.com/KarinesReyes87
Michaelle Solages: 518-455-4465, (516) 599-2972
SolagesM@nyassembly.gov
Twitter: @solagesny
https://www.facebook.com/SolagesM
Edward Braunstein: (518) 455-5425, (718) 357-3588
braunsteine@nyassembly.gov
Twitter: @edbraunstein
https://www.facebook.com/EdBraunstein
Aileen Gunther: 518-455-5355, (845) 794-5807 and (845) 342-9304
Gunthea@nyassembly.gov
Twitter: None
https://www.facebook.com/Aileen-Gunther-291645097649558
Kevin Cahill: (518) 455-4436, (845) 338-9610, Co-sponsor
cahillk@nyassembly.gov
Twitter: None
https://www.facebook.com/AssemblymanCahill
Sandy Galef: 518-455-5348, (914) 941-111, Co-sponsor
galefs@nyassembly.gov
Twitter: @SandyGalef
https://www.facebook.com/SandyGalef
Amy Paulin: (518) 455-5585, (914) 723-1115. Co-sponsor
paulina@nyassembly.gov
Twitter: @AmyPaulin
https://www.facebook.com/assemblywomanpaulin
Linda Rosenthal: (518) 455-5802, (212) 873-6368, Co-Sponsor
rosentl@nyassembly.gov
No Twitter
No Facebook
Phil Steck: (518) 455-5931, (518) 377-0902, Co-sponsor
steckp@nyassembly.gov
Twitter: @PhilSteck
https://www.facebook.com/PhilSteck110
Andrew Hevesi: (518) 455-4926, (718) 263-5595, Co-Sponsor
HevesiA@nyassembly.gov
Twitter: @AndrewHevesi
https://www.facebook.com/assemblymanandrew.hevesi.3
Jeffrey Dinowitz: (518) 455-5965, (718) 796-5345, Co-Sponsor
dinowij@nyassembly.gov
Twitter; @JeffreyDinowitz
https://www.facebook.com/JeffreyDinowitz
John McDonald III, (518) 455-4474,Co-Sponsor
McDonaldJ@nyassembly.gov
Twitter: @johnmcdonald108
https://www.facebook.com/JohnTMcDonaldIII
Daniel Rosenthal, (518) 455-4404, (718) 969-1508, Co-sponsor
rosenthald@nyassembly.gov
Twitter: @DanRosenthalNYC
https://www.facebook.com/daniel.rosenthal.568847
Charles Barron: (518) 455-5912, (718) 257-5824,
barronc@nyassembly.gov
https://www.facebook.com/charles.barron.1420
Twitter: @CharlesBarron12
Tom Abinanti, (518) 455-5753, (914) 631-1605,
abinantit@nyassembly.gov
Twitter: @Tom Abinanti
https://www.facebook.com/Abinanti2010
Republicans:
Kevin Byrne: (518) 455-5783, (845) 278-2923
byrnek@nyassembly.gov
Twitter: @Byrne4NY
https://www.facebook.com/Byrne4NY
Marjorie Byrnes: (518) 455-5662, (585) 218-0038
Twitter; @Byrnes4Assembly
byrnesm@nyassembly.gov
https://www.facebook.com/marjorie.byrnes.1
David McDonough: (518) 455-4633, (516) 409-2070,
mcdonoughd@nyassembly.gov
Twitter: AssemblymanDGM
https://www.facebook.com/AssemblymanDaveMcDonough
Jake Ashby, (518) 455-5777, (518) 272-6149,
ashbyj@nyassembly.gov
Twitter: JakeCAshby
https://www.facebook.com/jashby4NYS107
Josh Jensen, (518) 455-4664, (585) 225-4019,
jensenj@nyassembly.org
Twitter: @JoshJensen134
https://www.facebook.com/joshjensen134
Missy Miller, (518) 455-3028, (516) 431-0500,
MillerML@nyassembly.gov
Twitter: @MIssyMillerNY
https://www.facebook.com/AssemblywomanMissyMiller
John Salka, (518) 455-4807. (315) 361-4125,
salkaj@nyassembly.gov
Twitter: None
https://www.facebook.com/AssemblymanJohnSalka
Talking Points:
The State of New York already has a database for adult vaccination records, but participation is voluntary for both physicians and patients. Currently, physicians can put a patient’s information into the database if they choose. The bill will require them to enter the data. A physician may only enter the data in the database they get permission from the patient. This bill takes away the patients right to consent
This bill takes away our right to keep our medical information private. If the state has access to vaccination records, why not other records? Bureaucracies are always seeking to expand their reach and authority. It is only a matter of time before there will be pressure to add other medical information: prescription drugs, HIV status, other STI status, etc. Once we lose the right to medical privacy we will not get it back.
In the discussion in the Senate Health Committee on the companion bill, Senator Hoylman had little more to say than, “We need this because of Covid,” without explaining how this bill will make the Covid situation any better. More than half of the adults in New York have received at least one Covid shot. Some of those records are in the database already, but most probably aren’t. How useful is an incomplete database? And what will the database be used for? And if it is to fight Covid why record all the other vaccinations?
And what about adults who have already had Covid and recovered? That status will not be recorded in the database, and there is growing evidence that vaccinating people with a Covid vaccine who have already had Covid have a much higher rate of serious adverse reactions. Some research shows recovered people probably have more robust immunity to Covid than vaccinated people. That is yet another aspect of Covid that is insufficiently studied. But law and policy are being made as if all those questions are known.
We currently have the exact same type of database for school children. It is used to monitor whether children are current with the vaccine schedule and, if not, to coerce their parents to get them up to date, and if the parents do not comply then the child loses their right to an education. This is a tool for surveillance, enforcement and punishment.
The adult database will be used for the same purpose. It will be used too surveil all adults, track their vaccine status, coerce those who are out of compliance, and eventually punish those who do not obey.
A database of this kind will be necessary to enforce any system of vaccine passports, such as the current Excelsior Pass. Vaccine passports are systems of medical apartheid or segregation, but these can only work if there is a database like this bill would create. It is telling that the list of states that have resumed normal life is growing, but here in New York we are implementing invasive systems to allow more isolation, control and segregation.
Please share this message with family and friends, and please post to social networks while we still can.