Physicians for Informed Consent Testimony Urges Medical Board of California to Oppose SB 276

Medical Board of California
2005 Evergreen Street, Suite 1200
Sacramento, CA 95815
(916) 263-2389 phone
(916) 263-2387 fax

May 28, 2019

RE: Physicians for Informed Consent Testimony on SB 2761

Dear Board Members and Executive Staff,

My name is Dr. Shira Miller and I am the founder and president of Physicians for Informed Consent2, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, which since the passing of SB 2773, has been educating hundreds of doctor members from across the nation on how to better identify vaccine contraindications, precautions, and adverse events, in order for them to be able to provide informed consent and prevent as many vaccine injuries as possible. In addition, we perform statistical analyses of infections and their respective vaccines, which can be used for public-health decision-making.

The purpose of my testimony is to explain how SB 276 contradicts the Medical Board of California’s mission to “protect healthcare consumers” and “promote access to quality medical care,4” and urge you not to support it.

The standard of care for recommending a medical exemption was established by SB 277 in 2015, and to date, although 153 cases related to medical exemptions have been investigated…none were found to be fraudulent. As there has not been a single case of a patient or a patient’s parent complaining about a doctor in these situations, it may be that actually the fraudulent accusation has been misplaced. And, if SB 276 passes, it would circumvent the 4th amendment5 protection against the unreasonable search and seizure of patient medical records without any probable cause.

Since the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of 19866 which indemnifies both vaccine manufacturers and physicians from liability for vaccine injuries, and the creation of the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program7 which has awarded about $4 billion8 in compensation to only 1/3 of petitioners, it has mostly been those families with a history of vaccine injuries and their physicians who have had a heightened awareness of their risk of suffering more vaccine injuries. This latter explains why less than 1% of schoolchildren have medical exemptions in California, and why there are a relatively small number of physicians who are able to meet their needs. Although the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention has helpful guidelines9, these are not all-inclusive, it can take decades for medical research on vaccine injuries to become a CDC guideline, and medical exemptions are not one-size-fits-all. If SB 276 passes, patients will no longer be able to effectively access the care of physicians who specialize in recognizing and preventing vaccine injuries, and who are best able to protect them from vaccine injuries.

For example, the risk of seizure after the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine occurs in up to 1 in 25010 in siblings of children with a history of febrile seizures (and 5% of those would develop epilepsy11). Although SB 277 permits a physician to exempt such a sibling from the MMR vaccine, CDC guidelines would not.

In terms of measles, before the measles vaccine was introduced in 1963 there was a 1 in 10,000 (0.01%) chance of dying from measles (that’s about the same as one’s lifetime chance of being struck by lightning), not 1 in 1,000, which is the often-publicized misrepresentation of historical data. In addition, three treatments are available for the rare severe complication: Vitamin A, immune globulin12, and the antiviral medication, ribavirin13, 14, 15.

By comparison, the chance of a child dying in his or her first year of life (the infant mortality rate) is currently 1 in 17016 in the U.S. overall (0.6%)—which is 60 times the risk of a child dying from measles in 196217, a time period when almost every child had measles by age 1518 and 99.99% fully recovered.

Infant mortality rate (IMR) is a major indicator of the health of a population, not the number of measles cases nor the medical exemption rate. West Virginia and Mississippi, which only allow state public health officers to approve medical exemptions to vaccination (like SB 276 would do) have about double the infant mortality rate of California. And Massachusetts and Washington have a lower infant mortality than California, even while allowing non-medical exemptions. This means that SB 276-like laws are unlikely to improve public health and may worsen it.

Physicians for Informed Consent urges you not to support SB 276.

Respectfully,

Shira Miller, M.D.
Founder and President (Volunteer)
Physicians for Informed Consent

 

References

  1. http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=201920200SB276
  2. https://physiciansforinformedconsent.org/
  3. https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201520160SB277
  4. http://www.mbc.ca.gov/About_Us/
  5. https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/fourth_amendment
  6. https://www.congress.gov/bill/99th-congress/house-bill/5546
  7. https://www.hrsa.gov/vaccine-compensation/how-to-file/index.html
  8. https://www.hrsa.gov/sites/default/files/hrsa/vaccine-compensation/data/monthly-stats-may-2019.pdf
  9. https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/hcp/acip-recs/general-recs/contraindications.html
  10. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15265850
  11. https://academic.oup.com/aje/article/165/8/911/184889
  12. https://physiciansforinformedconsent.org/government-doctors-make-gross-errors-concerning-measlesstatistics-misinform-senators-threaten-public-health/
  13. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22480102
  14. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7008941
  15. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23629813
  16. https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/pressroom/sosmap/infant_mortality_rates/infant_mortality.htm
  17. https://physiciansforinformedconsent.org/measles/dis/
  18. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1522578/

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Soon, It May Become Illegal for California MDs to Protect Children in Their Practice from Vaccine Injuries or Deaths

Physicians for Informed Consent Doctors and Scientists Alert California Legislators

Although medical doctors and vaccine manufacturers have been protected from liability for vaccine injuries and deaths since the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of 1986, soon California doctors may no longer be able to protect their patients from vaccine injuries or deaths.

In 2015, California removed the personal belief exemption to vaccination for both private and public school attendance, and the responsibility of recommending a medical exemption to at-risk children then fell on their physicians. Now, SB 276 seeks to prevent medical doctors from using their expertise and knowledge to protect at-risk children in their practice from vaccine injuries and deaths.

“If SB 276 becomes law, children at risk of severe vaccine injuries will be at the mercy of public health officials with whom they have no patient-doctor relationship, and past, current, and future medical exemptions will only be approved if a child’s medical circumstances are found on a short government checklist,” explained PIC Founder and President Dr. Shira Miller.

Physicians for Informed Consent has sent an open letter to California legislators opposing SB 276, citing that it is unscientific and unethical. “The chance of dying from measles in the United States is 1 in 10,000, based on data from the pre-vaccine era—when about 4 million U.S. children got measles every year,” said Dr. Miller. “1 in 10,000 is about the same chance as being struck by lightning once in your lifetime. The problem is that the risk of dying or being permanently disabled by the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine has not been proven to be less than 1 in 10,000. This makes mandating the MMR vaccine unscientific and unethical.”

“We all want healthy children,” Dr. Miller continued, “and one of the best ways to accomplish that is by educating parents and doctors, not by using bad science and medical bullying, which are the antithesis of the ethical principle of informed consent—upon which modern medicine hinges.”

“We all want healthy children,” Dr. Miller continued, “and one of the best ways to accomplish that is by educating parents and doctors, not by using bad science and medical bullying, which are the antithesis of the ethical principle of informed consent—upon which modern medicine hinges.”

Physicians for Informed Consent is a nationally recognized 501(c)(3) nonprofit educational organization representing hundreds of doctors, as well as scientists and attorneys, whose mission is to safeguard informed consent in vaccination. In addition, its Coalition for Informed Consent consists of over 150 member organizations which represent millions of Americans.

 

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