COVID Legislative News
There has been some good news on the legislative front in the past week. But unfortunately, there are still a number of bills and regulatory policies pending that could change the very nature of a pandemic response worldwide. Policy that would allow public health to easily gain control of government during a bio-threat emergency. Policy that might allow public health to be weaponized for other purposes. What happens when emergency powers are written so that they can be granted for a severe flu season? Could we expect lock downs, masks, mandatory vaccination, censorship, propaganda and social distancing as seasonal events? What happens when there is civil unrest and these measures are used to control dissent.
Who gets to decide when emergency powers are authorized A governor? The President? The Senate? Congress? The director of the WHO? When and how do those powers end? Obviously, what is happening is a slippery slope.
Unfortunately, much of this pending legislation at the international level has been kept out of the public eye and is not readily transparent or available to be analyzed. Furthermore, the media is not doing its job in making these pending public policy measures available for people to assess for themselves.
But for today’s Substack, let’s now concentrate on the USA. Below is a breakdown of pending and recently passed COVID legislation in the states.
Tennessee:
Ivermectin will be available for the treatment or covid19 without a prescription in Tennessee.
The state’s Senate and House leaders voted overwhelmingly in favor of the bill the final approval on the bill SB2188/HB2746 (on April 8, 2022).
The bill will allow a pharmacist to provide ivermectin to a patient in accordance with a collaborative pharmacy practice agreement containing a non-patient-specific prescriptive order, developed and executed by one or more authorized prescribers.
New Hampshire:
Republicans in the New Hampshire House united this week to pass multiple bills dealing with COVID-19, with a focus on prioritizing individual rights and limiting the authority of entities to compel adherence to public health policies.
The action by the House moves the debate over COVID policy to the state Senate, which has so far heard far fewer bills related to the pandemic than the House. In fact, questions of masking, vaccines, and the reach of government have been on the front burner for House lawmakers all year.
The most high-profile bill, sponsored by House Speaker Sherman Packard, would bar the state from enforcing federal vaccine mandates. Before that proposal was voted through along near party lines. Rep. Mark Pearson of Hampstead, who is chair of the House Health and Human Services Committee, asked colleagues to recognize there is a long tradition of states bucking federal laws.
“In the 19th century, some northern states passed individual liberty laws, which made it illegal for citizens of their states to help enforce the Fugitive Slave Act,” Pearson said.
The House also voted to outlaw mask mandates in public schools (H.B. 1131), and to give the Legislature final say over any decision by the state’s health commissioner to add a vaccine to the list of required inoculations for children (H.B. 1379).
Lawmakers also backed a bill that would create a “right of conscience” (H.B. 1210) that would force any entity, public or private, that receives public funding to allow workers or students to opt-out of vaccine requirements for any sincerely held beliefs, not simply for religious or health reasons.
At the same time, the House voted to clear the way for pharmacists to dispense Ivermectin via standing order, the way birth control and Narcan are in New Hampshire. Ivermectin is an antiparasitic drug popular with vaccine-skeptics as a COVID treatment but not recommended by the FDA.
These bills now need to be passed by the Senate of New Hampshire - so stay tuned!
Florida:
Gov. DeSantis signs law guaranteeing visitation rights to residents, patients
“We thought that we needed to make sure Florida was leading the way on this, to protect patients’ rights,” DeSantis said as he signed SB 988 into law. “If you are hospitalized or in a long-term care facility, you have the right to have your family members present with you. And we have to stand up and say that.”
The “No Patient Left Alone Act,” creates a new section of health care law requiring health care providers to meet minimum visitation rights that must be guaranteed. Once finalized, facilities will have 24 hours to make them easily accessible on the homepage of their websites.
The law also prohibits facilities from requiring visitors to show proof of vaccination as a prerequisite for visitation.
Louisiana:
Asking someone about their shot status could become a crime in Louisiana as lawmakers debate a bill targeting "vaccine discrimination" in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
House Bill 54 by Republican Rep. Larry Bagley of Stonewall would prohibit barring anyone from entering a business, government office or home based on his or her vaccine status.
"I think as an American citizen it's my right to choose what I put in my body (without fear of discrimination)," Bagley said as he presented his bill to the House Criminal Justice Committee Thursday.
Bagley, who is fully vaccinated for COVID-19 but hasn't taken the booster, testified he believes the shot caused him to suffer a heart attack that he said caused him to die before being revived.
More news from Louisiana:
Louisiana lawmakers advance measure to ban vaccine passports on driver's licenses
Bill would prohibit the Office of Motor Vehicles from including vaccination information or immunity status on driver’s licenses or state ID cards.
California:
It is a hot mess, with a number of draconian bills pending. Please read the following bill descriptions (most are linked to the bills) and allow yourself to get unnerved and outraged. California is heading towards being a police state. BTW- The Unity Project is the best place to go to get information on these bills and to get to the links.
FIND YOUR CA REPRESENTATIVE AND TELL THEM TO VOTE NO ON THESE BILLS!
The Federal Level:
The New Orleans-based 5th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled on Thursday 2-1 that Jeffrey Brown, a federal judge in Texas and an appointee of President Donald Trump who blocked the mandate in January, did not have the jurisdiction to do so.
However…
The White House Thursday told agencies to delay enacting a Covid-19 vaccine mandate for federal employees shortly after the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals removed a lower court’s injunction against the mandate, which would require millions of employees to vaccinate or face possible termination, the Washington Post reported Friday.
Stay tuned for a future Substack article on international pending and passed pandemic legislation and how these “reforms” may impact the world.
Note that the good news is coming from red or at least purple states, and that the bad news is coming from Democrat controlled California and federal government. I don’t mean to bash the run-of-mill Democrats of days gone by. But the Democrat Party that is now controlled by the radical left, along with their compliant media, are the enemy of the people.
These legislative updates are helpful. I’m getting to some very resistant-to-the-truth folks with stuff like this so thank you.