March 2, 2019

To: Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee House Energy and Commerce Committee

Senate Committee on Health, Education Labor and Pensions

Re: Statement Federal Vaccine Mandates

Dear Senators,

I have been a Registered Nurse in the field of Pediatrics for over 40 years and I vehemently oppose government (federal or state) interference in medical decisions. I implore you to consider the fact that removing a parent’s right to decide which substances are injected into their child is a serious violation of our individual rights and civil liberty.

Although the concept of vaccines is a good one (who wouldn’t want to protect our children from communicable illnesses?), the liability-free manufacturers of these vaccines do all they can to convince the American public that they have all been proven safe, reactions to them are rare and when they do occur- they are justifiable for the greater good. All these concepts propagandized by this industry are incorrect.

Many serious complications follow vaccines and are even listed in the package insert.  Just as individual adults react differently to taking specific medications, children, depending on their health status and their genetic predisposition, also react differently to vaccines especially when multiple doses are given simultaneously. This of course is why over $4 Billion dollars has been awarded to families of children who have been damaged or who have died as a result of vaccines.

Additionally, due to the fact that a mixture of toxic ingredients (including formaldehyde, aluminum, glutamate, propylene glycol, live and attenuated viruses etc,) is contained in vaccines and they are administered to our children in their most vulnerable, developmental stages, I believe, as do many others in the nursing and medical fields that the damage they are causing is affecting them in unintentional but very real ways.

I’m sure you are aware of that fact that 54% of the children in this country have one or more chronic illness. In 1986 – only 16% of our kids were diagnosed with a chronic illness.  Asthma rates have tripled in the past 30 years, 12% of our children have Type 2 Diabetes , 7 million suffer from allergies, ADHD affects 5 million children, 1 in 7 school aged children receive antipsychotic medication and unlike the 1-2 per 10,000 cases of autism per year back when I entered the field of pediatric nursing, we now have 1 in 43 children in this country with a diagnosis of autism.

Do you not find it interesting that during this same time period, the number of immunizations given to our children increased from 11 (administered before the age of 5), to the current number of 36-45 (with 26 given in the first year of life)?

Great effort has been taken to convince the public that these dire statistics have nothing to do with vaccines  and that their toxic ingredients  are perfectly safe to inject into the bodies of our babies. But as someone with extensive experience in pediatrics, I can tell you nothing could be further from the truth.  These substances are not without risk and this debate is not as cut and dry or black and white as the manufacturers would have us believe.

Many of the health professionals, parents and members of the general public who oppose vaccine mandates are highly intelligent, savvy individuals who have investigated this issue and dug deeply for the facts. If you pursue the idea of removing parental rights, I assure you, you will have a battle on your hands that will cause great divisions in our country and one that you will most likely not win.

Like each member of this committee, I value children’s health and wellbeing above all else. For that reason, I beg you to reconsider this critical issue and instead of legislators passing laws that infringe on our rights, continue to allow the parent’s (in consultation with their physicians) to be the ones to make these important medical decisions.

Finally, common sense dictates that strengthening our children’s immune system to help them resist infection and or minimize symptoms associated with an illness should not center around an ever- expanding immunization schedule. Rather, let our focus in the future include optimal nutrition, exercise, avoiding toxic chemicals and the judicious use of vaccines as ways to keep our children healthy and strong!

Sincerely,

Maureen H. McDonnell, BS, RN