Let voices be heard against vaccine mandate

Last Thursday a group of people stood tall at the Statehouse to protest one of the most horrible pieces of legislation to come about in New Jersey — a flu shot mandate for preschoolers along with duplicative boosters.

The flu is a bad thing. Deaths from it happen. Theoretically, a flu shot, if the right strain is chosen, provides herd immunity. That means less chance of an outbreak, less chance of death among the most vulnerable — children, the elderly and the immune compromised.

Three of four persons in my family happen to fit into that last category, immune compromised. Two of those three are children. These children should not be vaccinated.

The vaccine developer did not study them when developing the vaccine, for it was too risky, yet the law requires we assume that risk at a family. The allegedly "mercuryfree" version can still have up to two percent mercury in it per FDA rules, adding a bigger burden for their little bodies. Then the ones with no mercury have aluminum, something they were smart enough to take out of the pet vaccines years ago.

The flu mist, I am told, spreads the flu. Public policy on vaccines generally was developed in response to outbreaks that occurred at a time when we shared outhouses. It is time to stop piling on more vaccines without considering the context. With regard to the flu mist, in places like day care centers and preschools, mandating such a thing may, in fact, provide an incubator for the very epidemic we are seeking to avoid.

Then there is the other topic. You hear it all the time — one in 150. In New Jersey, it is more like one in 94, but more recently, in our boys, I have heard one in 67. Autism is a political football. It is where the money is. That diagnosis is a blessing and a curse. A blessing because at least they are studying it, but a curse because what they choose to study matters.

Call me a cynic, but I just don't see how a government that promoted vaccines laced with known neurotoxins is going to want to study any connections between vaccines and autism. The truth is, be it vaccines, pollution, bad food, genetics or the combo, no one really wants to know.

Worse yet, it is not just autism. Today's children are not the same as kids of 20 years ago. Ask any pediatrician who has practiced for 30 years. Juvenile diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, other serious learning delays that may not be autism but sure are limiting are everywhere these days. Something is going on and whatever the cause, adding more vaccines, withholding personal choice and turning our state into nothing shy of Nazi Germany is not the answer.

It is time to rethink this stuff, get the [toxins] out of the vaccines, check titers to see if boosters are even needed on the individual child and consider genetics. It is time to make reasonable policy, not time to use scare tactics and strongarming. We pay dearly in this state for everything: property taxes, auto insurance and general living expenses. Must we now pay with our children? There has got to be a better way.

I urge everyone to call their local representatives and express their vehement opposition to this mandate. We are the children's voice. For so many children, their silence tells the story. Let them be heard loud and clear.

Elizabeth McGinnis

Milltown