Help stop two dangerous vaccine bills in New Jersey!

New Jersey legislators are considering companion bills A920 and S354, which would allow optometrists to administer COVID, Influenza, and Varicella-zoster shots to adults and require vaccine tracking to the state registry.

The bills propose amendments to the practice of optometry in several areas. Under the existing “Emergency Health Powers Act” (P.L.2005, c.222 (C.26:13-1 et seq.)), optometrists were permitted to “administer immunizations against a coronavirus or influenza during a public health emergency involving an outbreak or epidemic … limited to administering immunizations against the specific disease for which the public health emergency was declared.” Recipients of these vaccines had to be 18 years or older, and the vaccination records were required to be reported to the New Jersey Immunization Information System (IIS) for inclusion in the patient’s registry.

The proposed bills, A920 and S354, would:

Remove the public health emergency requirement for optometrists to administer vaccines, allowing them to provide vaccines to patients aged 18 and older even when no public health emergency is in effect.
Expand the range of vaccines optometrists can administer, adding the varicella-zoster virus vaccine to the existing list, which includes vaccines for coronavirus and influenza.
Maintain that all immunization records be reported to the New Jersey Immunization Information System (IIS) for inclusion in the patient’s registry.

Allowing optometrists to vaccinate creates significant risks. Optometrists are not qualified to recognize or handle serious adverse reactions, and they are unlikely to have full knowledge of patients’ or families’ histories.

WAPF does not take a position on sections of the bill that are unrelated to vaccination.

Please speak up!

TAKE ACTION

Contact your two New Jersey State Assembly Members and Senator and urge them to oppose A920 and S354.

You can look up who represents you:

By municipality: http://www.njleg.state.nj.us/districts/municipalities.asp

Interactive map: http://www.njleg.state.nj.us/districts/njmap210.html

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 Assembly Member (or Senator) ____ to oppose A920 (or S354), which would allow optometrists to order and administer vaccines even when there is no public emergency.

I oppose this bill because it undermines the primary doctor-patient relationship. Just like all pharmaceutical products, vaccines can cause injury and death in some people. Optometrists are not medical doctors, and they are not qualified to recognize or treat serious vaccine side effects.

It is particularly reckless to allow optometrists to give 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 $5.1 billion that has been paid by the federal government to victims – vaccines can injure and kill an individual.

I urge Assembly Member (or Senator) _______ to oppose A920 or (S354.)”

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:

Optometrists are not medical doctors and do not have enough training about all the vaccines, risks, prescreening, contraindications, and emergency interventions for reactions, nor are they necessarily 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 optometrists are allowed to administer or prescribe vaccines, it diminishes the primary physician/patient relationship and removes critical health history screenings prior to vaccination.

Most optometrists do not have lifesaving defibrillators as they do in doctors’ offices to save the lives of individuals who have an immediate life-threatening reaction to vaccines. Will optometrists 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 individuals who react at the time of vaccination?

Will optometrists screen for allergic reactions to vaccine ingredients, such as checking for yeast allergies in children (contraindication for HPV vaccine)? Will they assess vaccine components, including checking for contraindications like fever, as stated in VIS statements? Are they knowledgeable about a child’s compromised immune system due to conditions like cancer, HIV/AIDS, or medical treatments (e.g., radiation, immunotherapy)? Additionally, will they screen for factors like easy bruising, bleeding tendencies, pregnancy, or aspirin intake and be informed about previous serious reactions to vaccines?

America’s biopharmaceutical research companies are developing 258 vaccines. The U.S. Vaccine Market alone was $36.45 billion in 2018 and is expected to reach $86.81 billion by 2025. Optometrists stand to increase their profits substantially if allowed to order and administer vaccines to customers.

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

Allowing optometrists to order 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. Optometrists 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 approximately $5.1 billion as of January 2024 to the victims of vaccine injury, per VICP Data Reports. As of 11/29/2024, 48,750 deaths and 2,646,555 adverse events were reported to the US government’s Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System. https://www.hrsa.gov/sites/default/files/hrsa/vicp/vicp-stats-01-01-24.pdf

Optometrists will have no liability for the injuries and deaths caused by the vaccines they administer. Vaccine administrators are shielded from liability for vaccine injuries and deaths through the combination of the law passed by Congress in 1986 establishing the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program and the 2011 Supreme Court Decision BRUESEWITZ ET AL. v. WYETH LLC, FKA WYETH, INC., ET AL.

There have already been 1,656,140 COVID-19 shot adverse events and 37,662 COVID-19 shot deaths reported in the U.S. to the Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System (per data released 11/29/24).

Run your own search – https://www.medalerts.org/vaersdb/index.php

MORE INFORMATION

Read text, status and history of the bills here:

https://www.njleg.state.nj.us/bill-search/2024/S354

https://www.njleg.state.nj.us/bill-search/2024/A920

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