A gravely concerning piece of legislation pertaining to vaccinations continues to be heard by the House Health Committee. House Bill (HB) 248-11 has been framed as a bill to stop COVID-19 vaccines from becoming mandatory, but it would actually apply to ALL immunizations, including childhood vaccines.
The Ohio Academy of Family Physicians has submitted testimony in strong opposition to this legislation but your legislators need to hear individually from family physicians in their districts. Help us tell legislators that HB 248-11 is extremely dangerous. By taking away the rights of individuals who have businesses in Ohio to implement important safety measures meant to protect their employees, clients, and others, HB 248-11 would tremendously weaken our state’s current public health framework, and most importantly, jeopardize countless Ohioans’ lives.
Please utilize the Ohio State Medical Association’s Advocacy Action Center to email your elected officials urging them to reject HB 248-11.
The greatest progress in the health of the general population of the earth has been made because of the evolution of immunology. Many of the deadly epidemic diseases of the past have been eradicated because of the implimentation of vaccines. Now a legislative campaign has been initiated to do away with the Covid vaccines as well as many others. The advocates are disbelievers in science and are willing to unnecessarily put at risk many lives . Those who support the abrogation of vaccines are not the proponents of liberty but the advocates of unnecessary illnesses, suffering and deaths. Any legislator who supports HB 248-11 should be required to spend a week in a ICU full of patients in extremis due to Covid and other similar preventable diseases and watch them suffer and die.
I urge all lawmakers in Ohio to reject HB 248-11 as a dangerous and senseless proposal that would seriously weaken our state’s public health initiatives, lead to countless needless deaths, severely cripple our economy, and stain our state’s reputation as a desirable place to live. Common sense and scientific facts agree that prevention of disease is far less expensive than treatment of disease . Mandatory vaccination has been enacted as far back as the mid 1800’s. Why are republican politicians trying to negate the many highly beneficial advances of modern medicine in regards to vaccinations?
Since polls show that a surprisingly high percentage of Ohioans state that they will not receive the Covid vaccine, support for a law that makes all vaccinations optional will certainly lead to persistence of the Covid pandemic and increased risk for development of dangerous strains of Covid , as well as measles, mumps, whooping cough, and other viruses. Obviously, health care expenditures will increase at a time when our country already spends an unsustainable fraction of GDP on health care. Already hospitals and nursing homes have severe shortages of critical personnel, which would only intensify with increasing infectious diseases.
Our elected officials have a duty to protect Ohioans. HB 248-11 would result in massive waste of government and private sector dollars, increased loss of life( especially children), and deleterious effect on our economy. This is the time for strong, informed, wise leadership from our elected officials. I urge active opposition to HB 248-11. Be pro-life, not pro-“do your own thing”.