5-19-15 TESTIMONY FOR HB170
Chairman Young, Vice Chair DeVitis, Ranking Member Lepore-Hagan and members of the Commerce
and Labor Committee, thank you for allowing me to provide testimony on House Bill 170.
My name is Anthony DiBiase. I am a retired Professional Engineer.
I am an advocate for legislation HB170 because I have family and friends who have been negatively
impacted by receiving the influenza vaccine and by employer-mandated influenza vaccination policies.
First, I think it is important for legislators to know why HB170 is needed.
The emerging employer-mandated influenza vaccination policies resulted from the National Vaccine
Advisory Committee (NVAC) Report of February 8, 20121 that came about from a directive from the U.S.
Health and Human Services Assistant Secretary to develop recommendations and strategies for
achieving the Healthy People 2020 annual goals.
What is Healthy People? Healthy People is a program of goals set up by the U.S. Department of Health
and Human Services. For 3 decades, Healthy People2 has established benchmarks and monitored
progress over time in order to: 1) encourage collaborations across communities and sectors, 2)
empower individuals toward making informed health decisions and 3) measure the impact of
prevention activities.
On December 2, 2010, things changed. Health and Human Services, under Secretary Kathleen Sebelius,
unveiled Healthy People 20203, the nation’s new 10-year goals and objectives for health promotion and
disease prevention which included a goal of 90% influenza vaccine coverage. Prior to that report,
influenza vaccination was largely voluntary.
The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services had recently adopted a rule whereby the entity’s
vaccination rate would be made available on the HospitalCompare.gov website for public view and
would reflect on the health care entity’s achievability of the 90% rate. The health care entity will be
subject to a 2% payment reduction (page 12 of the report1) if the hospital failed to participate in
reporting these quality measures.
The NVAC Report even acknowledges that mandatory vaccination requirements (page 17 of NVAC
report1), as an effort to achieve the 90% vaccination rate, are coercive and infringe on workers’
autonomy to make informed choices about their health and may violate a worker’s religious convictions
and culture and result in adverse reactions. In addition, the report cautions the healthcare entity to
ensure that their exemption policies are in accordance with state-defined legislation (page 17 of NVAC
report1). Employees, while under the threat of job loss, are in a position whereby they do not have the
time or financial resources to pursue tenuous legal action and thus need protective state legislation.
Unfortunately, Ohio has no law on its book to uphold the personal and civil rights of its citizens from
the consequences of this. THAT IS THE REASON FOR STATE LEGISLATION HB170. Even The AMA’s Code
of Medical Ethics4 recognizes medical, religious, and philosophic reasons to not be immunized.
When thoroughly examining the historical development and appendices of this NVAC report1, plus its
subgroup5, there was and still is a serious lack of unanimity reflected by various participants and by
outside professionals and affected groups.
These mandatory influenza vaccination policies have and will continue to have the following effects if
HB170 does not become law:
1. Loss of an employee’s working career and livelihood unless the employee consents to an elective
medical procedure as a condition of employment. Mandating an elective medical procedure is an
egregious violation of a person’s freedom and right to informed consent.
2. Serious concerns of the vaccine’s efficacy and documented serious side effects, up to and including
death of an employee, due to the vaccine. The National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of 1986 (Public Law
99-660)6 shields a vaccine manufacturer from vaccine injury liability. Per the Health Resources and
Services Administration7 (March 5, 2015 Meeting Book, pages 51-60), the flu vaccine is considered the
most injurious vaccine.
3. Violation of the autonomy of workers in Ohio.
4. Violation of a person’s civil rights guaranteed by the US Constitution’s First Amendment and Title VII
of the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, but surprisingly not
protected by the Ohio Civil Rights Act. For those employees who pursue vaccine exemption through
federal law, the employee must bear the financial burden and time-consuming legal process to keep
one’s job. (For some this needs to be repeated annually.)
It is very surprising to me, that the Healthy People group advocates “to empower individuals toward
making informed health decisions,” but simultaneously allows the group to be integral to
recommendations and strategies that trample upon the freedom and rights of individuals.
In February of this year, the NVAC has issued a draft of a National Adult Immunization Plan8, which set
the stage for similar influenza vaccination rates for society as it has done for healthcare entities. You will
eventually be impacted as well. To me, this is big government overreach.
Throughout this whole mandatory vaccination debate, I question how many personnel amongst all
healthcare entities and the public are aware that the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program6
(Public Law 99-660) shields a vaccine manufacturer from vaccine injury liability.
I will close my testimony with the following: When we allow government or an entity the power to
dictate medical decisions for us, we in essence accept that the government or the entity owns our
human life. And this repeatedly causes me to question: WHAT IS BECOMING OF THIS NATION?
Thank you for your time.
Anthony E. DiBiase
1393 Dahlia St NW
Hartville, Ohio 44632
1 http://www.hhs.gov/nvpo/nvac/influenza_subgroup_final_report.pdf
2 http://www.healthypeople.gov/2020/About-Healthy-People
3 http://www.healthypeople.gov/sites/default/files/DefaultPressRelease_1.pdf
4
http://www.ama-assn.org/ama/pub/physician-resources/medical-ethics/code-medicalethics/opinion9133.page
5 http://www.hhs.gov/nvpo/nvac/meetings/pastmeetings/morita_nevinwoods_091311.pdf
6 http://www.hrsa.gov/vaccinecompensation/index.html
7 http://www.hrsa.gov/vaccinecompensation/commissionchildvaccines.html
8 http://www.hhs.gov/nvpo/national_adult_immunization_plan_draft.pdf