Summary and Highlights of the Debate – How this gets us closer to a Vaccine Passport
by Michael Kane
6-3-23
ACTIONS in the BRONX & QUEENS to stop these bills from becoming law!
On June 1 bill A7154 to create a mandatory adult vaccine database in New York State inched closer to becoming law. The bill was debated on the floor of the Assembly then swiftly passed in a vote of 92 YES 48 NO. The vote fell mostly along party lines with the overwhelming majority of Democrats voting YES and Republicans NO. The bill is not law at this point. It would need to be passsed in committee in the Senate, then moved to the floor of the Senate. If passed there it would then go to Governor Kathy Hochul’s desk to be signed into law. This would need to happen next week before the end of the session on Friday June 9.
The debate can be watched by clicking here, and begins at 3:29:15
The floor vote listing how every lawmaker voted can be viewed here.
At the onset of the debate it was revealed by the sponsor of the bill, John McDonald, that every COVID vaccine is tracked automatically without the consent of the vaccinated individual. This is a federal requirement started by the Trump administration and continued by the Biden administration. Every other vaccine (flu, shingles, etc…) given to adults in New York there is currently an opt-in system. The vaccinated individual has to check the opt-in box in order for their information to be included in the New York State vaccine registry. If A7154 becomes law this will change to an opt-out box that few will check or know exists, and there will be no requirement for the individual to be told they have the legal right to opt-out.
The most important exchange during the debate on the Assembly floor came from Rep. Jodi Giglio when she asked McDonald, “In your opinion is this legislation going to serve as a precursor to enforce vaccine passports that would impede an individual’s ability to work, go to college, access health care, access public places or travel?”
To this question McDonald said, “No,” and went on to say that he can’t get into “predicting” what the future would be on vaccines. The point that was missed is that a mandatory database is a technical necessity to enacting a state-wide vaccine passport whether that is the current intent or not.
This database certainly is a pre-cursor to enforce vaccine passports but it was easy for McDonald to say he disagrees with that; it’s a simple opinion. It’s important to realize in order to have a state-wide vaccine passport this bill is needed to slowly get all the technical pieces in place to have optimal tracking mechanisms. It isn’t hard to see a mandatory database being manipulated by DOH regulations to fulfill the needs of a vaccine passport system.
McDonald even shockingly stated that there have been no covid mandates, just “situations” that prevented “admission to certain places” for the unvaccinated. Tell that to over 2,000 fired NYC educators and over 30,000 fired state-wide Heatlhcare workers (and firefighters, cops, sanitation workers, etc…)
McDonald also stated that he was not a “mandate person” in general.
Rep. Ed Ra asked McDonald if he thought patients coming into a Pharmacy to get vaccinated would be aware they had the right to opt-out of being in the state-wide database if this bill becomes law. Surprisingly McDonald responded he doesn’t think any patient knows what any of their options are. He referenced the covid vaccine being automatically reported without consent as the perfect example of this. What’s shocking to me is McDonald has no concern with making this reality even worse than it already is! Essentially McDonald’s argument was since there are already situations where informed consent isn’t properly provided, we can continue to expand upon this reality!
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Of note to all who remember the repeal of the religious exemption for children to attend school back in 2019: Nader Sayegh is a Democrat who voted NO to the database bill twice – once in the Health Committee on May 16 and then on the floor of the Assembly on June 1. Many people remember Sayegh as being the decisive “flip” vote on June 13, 2019, where he voted NO to repealing the religious exemption to vaccination in the Health Committee, but then flipped his vote to YES after Party Boss Carl Heastie called him over and whispered into his ear.
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