Help stop two bad vaccine bills in the Alabama Legislature!

Alabama Legislative Bills H.B. 290 and S.B. 229 would trivialize very real vaccine risks and serious reactions by allowing toddlers and young children to get vaccinated at the corner drug or grocery store pharmacy without a doctor’s prescription.

These bills allow a pharmacist to order a prescription for any of the following vaccines or immunizations:

A seasonal influenza vaccine for an individual who is two years of age or older.
Any vaccine that the pharmacist is authorized by law to administer to an individual who is 19 years of age or older.
Any vaccine to prevent Covid-19 for an individual who is three years of age or older.
Any vaccine on the Center for Disease Control’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices Immunization Schedules to an individual who is no younger than three years of age and no older than 18 years of age.

The only additional requirement for the pharmacist when administering vaccines to children is that the pharmacist discusses with the individual, or any adult accompanying the individual, the importance of an annual well-child appointment with a pediatrician or other primary care physician.

Any time pharmacists are allowed to vaccinate, let alone prescribe vaccines, creates significant risks. Pharmacists are not qualified to recognize or handle serious adverse reactions, nor are they likely to have full knowledge of patient or family history.

Please speak up! We need YOUR voice to defeat bills H.B. 290 and S.B. 229 today!

TAKE ACTION

Contact your Alabama State Representative and urge him/her to OPPOSE H.B. 290.
Contact your Alabama State Senator and urge him/her to OPPOSE S.B. 229.

You can enter your address here to look up who represents you (then scroll down to see your legislators listed under “State House District” and “State Senate District”):

https://alabama.maps.arcgis.com/apps/InformationLookup/index.html?appid=7edc0e327b6b4f128e0dd7492faeb61c

Contact the committee clerks and ask them to let the committee members know you OPPOSE H.B. 290 and S.B. 229.

House Health Committee (H.B. 290):

Mikelann Auburtin, mikelann.auburtin@alhouse.gov and 334-261-0488

https://alison.legislature.state.al.us/committees-house-standing-current

Senate Healthcare Committee (S.B. 299):

Mary Grayson, mary.grayson@alsenate.gov and 334-261-0863

https://alison.legislature.state.al.us/committees-senate-standing-current-year

Calls are more effective than emails and only take a few minutes. Below is a sample script along with additional Talking Points. Use your own words when you call or email – a personal message is always more effective than a form message!

SAMPLE SCRIPT:

“Hi, my name is ____ and I am a constituent. I am calling to ask Representative (or Senator) ____ to oppose H.B. 220 (or SB 229), which would allow pharmacists to administer and prescribe vaccines to children without a doctor’s prescription.

I oppose this bill because people need to be in a doctor’s care for medical procedures. Vaccines may have serious side effects that pharmacists are not qualified to recognize or treat.

It is reckless to allow pharmacists to prescribe vaccines, especially when they do not have access to a person’s medical history.

As recognized by the U.S. Supreme Court – and evidenced by the nearly $4.9 billion that has been paid by the federal government to victims – vaccines can injure and kill an individual.

I urge _______ to oppose this bill.”

You may wish to use a couple of the talking points below. Don’t copy all of them – just use them as ideas to help structure your own message.

TALKING POINTS:

Pharmacists do not have enough training about all the vaccines, risks, prescreening, contraindications, and emergency interventions for reactions, nor are they instructed on reporting reactions to the Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System and on advising parents and patients about the statute of limitations and instructions for filing a claim with the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program.

When pharmacists are allowed to prescribe vaccines, it diminishes the doctor/patient relationship and removes critical health history screenings prior to vaccination. Pharmacists do not have the necessary medical history of an infant or child or the time to prescreen for contraindications based on a child’s personal and family history and unique health needs prior to vaccination.

Most pharmacies and grocery stores don’t have lifesaving defibrillators as they do in doctors’ offices to save the lives of infants and children who have an immediate life-threatening reaction to vaccines. Will pharmacists have the equipment and training to be able to tell the difference between cardiac arrest, anaphylaxis, and fainting and act accordingly to save the lives of babies and children who react at the time of vaccination?

Vaccine Information Statements list many reasons why patients shouldn’t be vaccinated. It is highly unlikely that a pharmacist has the time to ask about all the reasons not to vaccinate them.

Allowing pharmacists to prescribe vaccines without access to a person’s medical records means that a person may receive unintended or duplicate vaccines.

Vaccine package inserts warn of the risk of brain damage, life-threatening allergy, and death, and no one knows in advance whom a vaccine will harm. Pharmacists are not equipped to recognize nor handle serious adverse reactions.

Vaccines are medical procedures that carry a risk of serious injury. Hundreds of thousands have reported an adverse reaction to vaccination to the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS). The U.S. Government has paid out nearly $4.9 billion as of 11/1/2022 to the victims of vaccine injury, per VICP Data Reports. https://www.hrsa.gov/vaccine-compensation/data

MORE INFORMATION

Read H.B. 290 and S.B. 229 text here: https://www.legislature.state.al.us/pdf/SearchableInstruments/2023RS/HB290-int.pdf

https://www.legislature.state.al.us/pdf/SearchableInstruments/2023RS/SB229-int.pdf

For text, status and history put 290 or 229 in the search engine https://alison.legislature.state.al.us/bill-search?tab=1

LINKS embedded in this alert:

Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System –

https://vaers.hhs.gov/

instructions for filing a claim –

https://www.hrsa.gov/vaccine-compensation/how-to-file

National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program –

https://www.hrsa.gov/vaccine-compensation

Vaccine Information Statements –