Police Powers, Tracking System and Privacy

Below are selected statements that provide the public with general information relating to local, state and federal government attempts to enact law and policy changes which violate informed consent,  autonomy and the expectation of privacy. We encourage the public to explore our website to more fully understand this topic. NVIC offers many resources for your use like our original and refferenced commentaries, information on vaccines and disease and more.

Press Releases

• NVIC Calls U.S. Proposal to Apprehend and Involuntarily Quarantine Travelers for Rashes and Cough A "Violation of Civil Liberties" - A Notice of Proposed Rule Making (NPRM): Control of Communicable Diseases was published by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) on Aug. 15, 2016 to amend the federal public health law to allow health officials to take into custody and involuntarily quarantine travelers, who have symptoms of or have been exposed to someone with symptoms common to measles, chickenpox and a wide range of other communicable diseases. If the NPRM becomes law, it will affect American and non-American travelers entering the U.S. or traveling between states, particularly on commercial airlines and ships. The CDC is proposing to enlist commercial airline and other public transportation personnel to step up surveillance on and report “unwell” passengers with rashes, cough, diarrhea and other symptoms of illness. Read the NPRM and join over 1,500 individual who have made public comments about the CDC's attempt to gain police powers by adding your public comment here by October 14, 2016.
• Vaccine Safety Group Calls Liability Protection With No Compensation For The Vaccine Injured "Heartless" - "It is heartless to leave the victims of a government-sponsored mass vaccination program without any recourse to either civil litigation or federal compensation for the vaccine injuries they sustain. It is wrong for the US government to tell Americans to take the smallpox vaccine and then, when someone dies or is injured because of that public policy, nobody takes responsibility," said NVIC President and Co-founder Barbara Loe Fisher. January 17, 2003
• Homeland Security Bill Could Allow DHHS To Force Smallpox Vaccination While Nobody Is Liable For Harm. - “This bill is a violation of freedom in the name of protecting freedom. At the very least there should be informed consent protections in the bill to allow exemptions to vaccination and medical treatment for conscientious and religious beliefs as well as quarantine protections for those who exercise them," said Fisher. Nov 15. 2002

• NVIC Public Comment on the National Vaccine Advisory Committee (NVAC) National Adult Immunization Plan. NVIC opposed the report recommendations relating to the use of electronic medical records and state immunization information systems (vaccine registries) due to the lack of consumer protection language, informed consent and lack of consumer autonomy relating to sharing of sensitive health information with federal, state and local health agencies. Mar 9, 2015.
• Ethical Issues Associated with Countermeasures for Children: Proposed Government Experiment to Test Anthrax Vaccine on Children. “Your Commission of bioethicists is being asked by Secretary Sebelius to turn its mission upside down as well: you are being asked to undermine Federal child protective regulations, and bless the sacrifice of children at the behest of DHHS, the Commission’s parent agency. You would do better by paying heed to the Maryland Court of Appeals…” Alliance for Human Research Protection (AHRP). Feb 18, 2013.
• Economic Stimulus Bill Mandates Electronic Health Records for Every Citizen without Opt-Out or Patient Consent Provision. "Without those protections, Americans’ electronic health records could be shared—without their consent—with over 600,000 covered entities through the forthcoming nationally linked electronic health-records network," says Sue A. Blevins, IHF president. Institute for Health Freedom. January 23, 2009.
• Tracking Your Children Down: State and Federal Immunization Registries. “The creation of these state databases have been accomplished in no small measure to several federal agency mandates and a mammoth 1996 health care bill, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). Health and Human Services Secretary Donna Shalala signed an order that allowed the Social Security Administration to release all newborn's Social Security Numbers (SSN) to the states for the establishment of the state databases.” Vaccineinfo.net. Apr 5, 2008.
• Immunize against privacy violations: Uphold Law. "Since the only way TDH is willing to populate a statewide immunization tracking system is through deceit and brute force, maybe it doesn't need to exist at all. Certainly the legislature should not reward unethical and illegal behavior with more power and control..." Editorial by Dawn Richardson and Rebecca Rex. Houston Chronicle. Sep 15, 2002
• NVIC Statement on CDC Plan To Release Smallpox Vaccine. “The National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC), the oldest and largest vaccine safety advocacy organization in the U.S., endorses the June 21 decision by the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) of the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) advising against releasing vaccinia (smallpox) virus vaccine for mass use by the general population. However, we maintain that the federal advisory committee's recommendation to use the live virus vaccine in up to 20,000 health care workers is premature in the absence of actual disease.” Barbara Loe Fisher. Jun 24, 2002.
• Proposed Standards for Privacy of Individually Indentifiable Health Information. NVIC Public Comment to U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. “The National Vaccine Information Center opposes the medical privacy regulations proposed by the Department of Health and Human Services and published in the Federal Register on November 3, 1999 as currently written (Standards for Privacy of Individually Identifiable Health Information, 45 CFR Parts 160-164, Rin: 0991-AB08). The proposed regulations exceed reasonable interpretation of the executive branch’s rule-making authority with regard to developing privacy standards for release of individually identifiable health information under the provisions of PL 104-191, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) passed by Congress in 1996.”. Barbara Loe Fisher. Feb 15, 2000.
• The National Electronic Vaccine Tracking Registry: History of Forced Vaccination: How the Plan to Force Vaccination Gave Birth to the National ID, A Government Health Records Database and the End of Medical Privacy Overview of history and legal precedent for state authority to enact and enforce mandatory vaccination with commentary on the conflicts with privacy, ethics and voluntary vaccine choices. National Vaccine Information Center. July 1999.
• Public Comment to the National Vaccine Advisory Committee (NVAC) on Immunization Registries Workgroup on Privacy and Confidentiality. “What American citizens from all walks of life are telling us is that they don't want Big Brother breathing down their necks and telling them what health care choices to make anymore than they want Big Brother breathing down their necks and telling them who to vote for on election day. They are telling us in a loud and clear voice that they are tired of being forced, without their informed consent, to use every vaccine the drug companies produce and public health officials decide to mandate.” Testimony by Barbara Loe Fisher. May 14, 1998.