This past year, we have seen many lawmakers in the U.S. and other countries vote to eliminate or severely restrict civil liberties in the name of the public health.1 2 3 One of the most outrageous legislative actions violating parental and human rights took place in Washington, DC in November 2020 when City Council officials gave doctors the power to vaccinate children as young as 11 years old and hide what they did from parents.4 5 6 7 8 The DC Mayor refused to veto the bill 9 10 and, in January 2021, the U.S. Congress sat on its hands11 12 and gave tacit approval to enactment of the most dangerous child vaccination law in America.
In a breathtaking violation of medical ethics and several federal laws, the new vaccine concealment law in Washington, DC allows doctors to extract âinformed consentâ from young children too immature to know what informed consent13Â means or what a vaccine reaction looks and feels like.14Â 15Â 16Â The DC City Council majority, with only three members dissenting, cruelly disempowered parents by voting to make it illegal for a doctor, insurance company or school administrator to divulge a childâs vaccination history in records that can be seen by the childâs mother or father.17
Parents Wonât Have Information to Protect Child From Vaccine Injury
An 11-year old child does not know or understand his or her personal health history but most parent do. If a child has experienced previous vaccine reactions, has severe allergies or other health conditions that could increase vaccine risks,18Â 19Â parents kept in the dark will not have a way to protect their child from further harm.
Parents who donât know which vaccines their children have been given will not be able to monitor them for signs of a potentially life-threatening vaccine reaction that requires immediate medical treatment.20Â If the child is injured or dies after vaccination, parents will not know they must apply to the federal Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (VICP) before the filing deadline expires.21
Parents will not know their insurance company has been billed for vaccines. Parents will not know that a school the child attends is in possession of their childâs secret vaccination records even when there is a vaccine exemption for religious belief reasons on file with the school.
This blatant violation of a parentâs moral right and legal responsibility to make medical risk decisions on behalf of a minor child was endorsed by the American Academy of Pediatrics22Â and pushed through by the DC City Council, while the Mayor and the US Congress looked the other way.
Washington, DC Vaccine Concealment Law Violates Federal Laws
First, DCâs vaccine concealment law violates vaccine safety provisions of the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of 1986, a federal law that confirmed vaccine injuries and deaths are real and made preventing vaccine reactions a national priority. Parents of DPT vaccine injured children secured vaccine safety provisions in the 1986 Act, which directs doctors and other medical workers to give parents written vaccine benefit and risk information before a child is vaccinated 23 and also mandates that vaccine providers record which vaccines the child is given in a record the parents can access.
Specifically, the 1986 Act mandates that âhealth care providers who administer a vaccineâ must give a childâs legal representative âa copy of the information materialsâ developed by the Centers for Disease Control QUOTE âprior to the administrationâ of a vaccine.24Â 25Â The 1986 law also requires each person administering a vaccine to QUOTE âensure that there is recorded in such personâs permanent medical record or in a permanent office log or file to which a legal representative shall have access upon requestâ certain information: Number 1: the date of administration of the vaccine; Number 2: the vaccine manufacturer and lot number of the vaccine; and Number 3: the name and address and, if appropriate, the title of the health care provider administering the vaccine.â26
These informing and recording vaccine safety provisions were included in the 1986 Act specifically to provide parents with information they need to make well informed vaccine decisions for their minor children; and to help parents recognize and prevent vaccine reactions; and to ensure a vaccine reaction is reported to the governmentâs Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS).27Â 28
If a doctor can secretly inject a young child with one or more vaccines and hide the vaccination records, how will parents know what is happening when a vaccine reaction occurs? They wonât have the information they need to take their child to an emergency room or be able to make the connection between the vaccinations and a childâs regression into poor health.
This lack of critical information about their childâs medical history also means parents will likely miss the deadline for filing a claim in the federal Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (VICP), which has awarded more than 4.5 billion dollars to the vaccine injured over the past three decades.29
DCâs vaccine concealment law violates the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, known as FERPA, which guarantees parents the legal right to have access to their childrenâs education records, including health and vaccine records, at the primary and secondary school level.30
Vaccine Concealment Law Violates Informed Consent Rights
DCâs vaccine concealment law also violates the long standing ethical principle of informed consent to medical risk taking,31Â which has governed the ethical practice of human research and medical practice since the Nuremberg Code was published in 1947 after the Doctorâs Trial.32Â 33Â Informed consent is exercised on behalf of minor children by parents, who are morally and legally responsible for the well-being and financial support for their children until they are old enough to live independently.34Â 35Â 36
Child development specialists have documented how young children and teenagers lack the critical thinking skills and emotional maturity to exercise good judgment when assessing risks.37Â 38Â 39Â 40Â Pre-adolescents are more susceptible to pressure from peers and authority figures.41Â 42Â 43Â 44
Doctors and Other Vaccine Administrators Have No Liability for Vaccine Injuries and Deaths
Doctors are the ultimate authority figures in our society today, and many are serving as authoritarian implementers of one-size-fits-all federal vaccine policies and state vaccine mandates.45Â 46Â Like vaccine manufacturers, doctors and other persons who administer vaccines cannot be held liable in civil court when a child dies or is injured.47Â Congress passed special legislation in 2020 to make sure that doctors or anyone else who administers a Covid-19 vaccine cannot be sued.48
When the risks of vaccination turn out to be 100 percent for a child, it is the mother and father raising that child on a day-to-day basis who will be left with the life-long consequences – not the doctor who has been given the power to secretly persuade the child to take vaccines, and not the politician who voted to give doctors that power.
The DC Council sponsor of the bill entitled the âMinor Consent for Vaccinations Amendment Actâ originally wanted doctors to be able to vaccinate children of any age â no matter how young – without the knowledge or consent of their parents. She argued that minors of any age can get an abortion in Washington, DC and get treated for a sexually transmitted disease or substance abuse without the knowledge or consent of their parents.49
She told Medscape Medical News that parents with âanti-scienceâ beliefs were not vaccinating their children based on a âdisproven beliefâ that vaccines may cause harm, which puts other people at âextreme riskâ for disease.50
A dissenting DC City Council member countered with âMedical professionals and schools should not b permitted to coerce impressionable minors into procedures capable of causing injury or death behind their parentsâ back.â51
DC Vaccine Concealment Law A Profound Betrayal of Public Trust
The Universal Declaration of Bioethics and Human Rights states that:
âThe interests and welfare of the individual should have priority over the sole interest of science or society;â and âFor persons who are not capable of exercising autonomy, special measures are to be taken to protect their rights and interests;â and âAny preventive, diagnostic and therapeutic medical intervention is only to be carried out with the prior, free and informed consent of the person concerned, based on adequate information.â52
It is a profound betrayal of public trust for any city, state or federal government to strip parents of their God given right to protect their children from harm by allowing a doctor to give a child a pharmaceutical product without getting a parentâs permission. Science is not perfect, doctors are not infallible, and pharmaceutical products like vaccines come with risks that can be greater for some individuals than others,53Â 54Â 55Â which is why parents must retain the human right to exercise informed consent to medical risk taking on behalf of their minor children.
Will the vaccine concealment bill that is now law in Washington, DC be exported to your state next?
Take Action Today To Protect Parental Rights
If you want to protect parental and informed consent rights, register for the free online NVIC Advocacy Portal today and stay up to date on vaccine laws being proposed in your state so you can contact your legislators and take positive action.
Never be the one who has to say you did not do today what you could have done to change tomorrow.
Itâs your health. Your family. Your choice.
And our mission continues: No forced vaccination. Not in America.