Assemblyman Bill Monning says freedom is not the issue.

Cheap Shot: Monning backed a bill allowing schools to administer HPV vaccine Gardasil without parental consent. His campaign received $1,500 from Gardasil’s maker, but he calls the suggestion of influence “ludicrous.”

Assemblyman Bill Monning says freedom is not the issue.

By Kera Abraham

Thursday, April 26, 2012

Assemblyman Bill Monning, D-Carmel, presided over a heated hearing April 17 for a bill opponents are casting as an attack on parental choice.  

AB 2109 would require a doctor’s permission to let parents opt out of children’s vaccinations before enrolling them in public school.  

“This bill is about making it more difficult for parents to exercise their right under the law to a personal-beliefs exemption from vaccination,” said Dawn Winkler, California co-director of the National Vaccine Information Center. “Parents will not be able to obtain the signature of a health-care practitioner for this exemption.” 

But Monning, chair of the Assembly Health Committee, said it’s important to bear in mind the bill mandates counseling, not vaccination. “The critical thing to understand: This does not remove the right of families to make a choice they feel is best for their child,” he says.  

AB 2109 was introduced by a physician, Assemblyman Richard Pan, D-Sacramento, and sponsored by the American Academy of Pediatrics, California Medical Association and Health Officers Association of California.  

At the hearing, the strong show of support for the bill included an infectious disease expert, representatives of doctors’ unions and the California Pharmacy Association. An equally passionate opposition included Winkler, celebrity pediatrician Bob Sears and scores of parents and students. 

Thirty to 40 percent of doctors in the American Academy of Pediatrics kick out patients who choose not to vaccinate their children, Sears told the committee. “While I support vaccination,” he said, “I also support vaccination choice.” 

The bill passed out of committee by a 10-4 vote, with Monning’s support. It heads next to the Assembly floor.

I know how he feels if I lose my job my insurance is gone too. But people should know about "Penny Health" and also if you dont have means of paying for treatment the hospital will file the form and get reimbursed by medicaid.

I don't think I can vote for Assemblyman Bill Monning ever again. I am really disappointed in him. I just googled the CDC and found out 71 people have died from Gardasil or Cervarix over the last couple of years. Why doesn't this vaccine get the same kind of treatment an organic spinach farmer gets when there is a death associated with spinach? As a parent I would be livid if my kid got a vaccine without my consent. Like the report said, it's not about vaccine rather it is about freedom and it looks like Monning is trading cash for his constituent's freedoms.

The number of people that have died from Gardasil is much higher than 71, unfortunately, and there are many other serious side effects in addition to death. As a parent who is aware of this significant risk, I would seriously "go postal" on anyone who forcefully injected my child with dangerous chemicals without my consent. This is insanity. Pure arrogance by politicians. And to say that financial motivations are not at play is complete hogwash. The pharma industry generates billions from these vaccines... thanks to these paternalistic politicians acting as their salesmen!

Ridiculous that Monning received $9,000 from the CMA and headed up this committee. Amazing how many health care workers lined up to voice their support of this bill and that they would "gladly sign exemptions after educating parents". Then the next day when another bill was up for having health care workers having to get vaccines - everyone was up in arms. So they can force others, but don't you dare force them. Hypocritical and self-serving is what I think all these health care practicioners were who lined up to voice support of AB2109. So much "eagerness" to educate all these "stupid" parents. Of course they support ab2109 - just more control over patients and more office visits forced. Medical schools are training a bunch of robots. I would guess that 90% of those who choose not to vaccinate have almost certainly spent more time studying vaccinations than any of these "health care workers".

Bill Monning and Richard Pan should be voted out of office. AB2109 is a travesty, just as is the bill allowing children to be vaccinated without parental consent. Both of these politicians received funding from the vaccine indu$try. They have no respect for parents but, worse, they have no regard for protecting the true health of children; one of them is even a pediatrician who expediently ignores the dangers and ineffectiveness of vaccines. Parents who do not allow their offspring to be injected with toxic poisons know more than MDs who have almost no training about vaccines or knowledge of what their harmful ingredients do to adolescent bodies and developing brains. They are compromised, just like the MDs who took part in the Simpsonwood meeting coverup. At the link below, Neurosurgeon Russell Blaylock, blows the whistle on that meeting, wherein doctors and government officials collaborated with vaccine industry reps to keep secret the findings linking autism, and other neurological disorders, directly to vaccines: http://www.whale.to/a/blaylock.html

Monning's treatment of the parents and families opposed to this bill couldn't have been more adversarial and unprofessional. Listen to the youtube video of the hearing. He thanks the medical doctors and students for appearing at the hearing. He does not offer parents, children the same courtesy. Then he admonishes all floor comments to limit their comments to name, affiliation, if any, and statement of opposition or support. He then allows all these doctors to add to their testimony that they will sign the forms. Then gets nasty with parents as they share the numbers of pediatricians that have fired these parents for questioning whether vaccines are safe. Let me repeat: medical students and residents say they will sign. Parents share their real experiences of being refused treatment by pediatricians who won't even allow conscientious vaccine refusers to enter their practice. For Monning to suggest this doesn't prevent philosophical objections is at best DENSE, and at worst blatant lying.

Well Bill Monning is at it again. Last we heard he did not want kids or young adults to eat what they wanted by restricting food trucks away from campuses. (Bill AB1678). Now Bill Monning is pushing AB2109 which apparently could allow schools to administer the HPV vaccine Gardasil without parental consent. With the economy the way it is, requiring parents to go to a doctor's office ($100 - $150 for the visit) so they can get a doctor's note so their own child can opt out of vaccinations is ludicrous. For families without healthcare insurance this would be taking money from groceries, rent or other needed expenses. In case Bill Monning doesn't know it, parenting is the parents' right, not his. I voted for Bill Monning previously, but not again. Bill should be thinking about July when the budget is due. Bill stop trying to regulate us, don't run again and go back to chasing ambulances. Manuel Lopez Monterey

Today I got one of those patronizing letters from a politician you get when you voice your opinion and they don't agree. In this case I had called Bill Monning, whom I voted for in the last election, about AB2109, which requires a parent to get a permission slip from an MD for refusing, delaying, or omitting any vaccines instead of signing a waiver as is the current policy. Bill Monning told me that the lobbying medical students and MDs brought in for the CMA Legislative Leadership Day dog and pony show convinced him that MDs in the State of California will sign this form even though 39% of pediatricians surveyed won't even take unvaccinated patients in their practice. He also said that he hoped this bill will encourage a dialogue between parents and their physicians, although he knows good and well that anyone who has ever taken their child to a doctor has had many dialogues about vaccines, particularly those parents who have ever dared to delay one. If Bill Monning is going to waste $.45 of California money on a letter to me, he should at least be honest. Honesty would be refreshing and more respectable. He should say, "I think parents are too stupid to make their own decisions about their children and that they deserve to be harassed for their personal and religious beliefs by an MD who will make more money if he can successfully bully them into compromising their beliefs. I could barely contain my contempt for you people at the hearing, moms, dads and families who drove, flew and took off work to voice their opposition, so I was rude and did whatever I could to silence your inferior non-MD voices. I am sending you this letter so I can pretend to care about you and hope that you are absent-minded enough to forget about this by the next election so you will vote for me.
According to Maplight, I get 58% of my money from out of the district, most of it from Sacramento, so if I want to get even more money from my friends in Sacramento, I must continue to sell off my constituents' freedoms to the highest bidding pharmaceutical company. To sum up my positions: 12 year olds should be able to get vaccinated at school without parental consent (AB499), 12 year olds should not be able to eat food from food trucks (AB 1678), and 12 year olds' parents are way too uneducated to make decisions about vaccines so we should take that freedom from them and put them in the hands of MDs, who will also make lots of money off this bill. Remember, we're not taking your freedom, we're just 're-educating' you." Now an honest letter like that would be worth $.45.

There is a reason doctors don't take kids who aren't immunized. Quick example, an unimmunized sick kid comes in with measles. The child sits in the waiting room next to a baby who is not fully immunized. the sick child coughs and sneezes and the baby breathes in the germs and gets sick. Measles in a baby can be deadly. Unimmunized children are at risk as well as putting others at risk.

I support a parent's right to choose. However, it is best to get clear and truthful information before making that decision.

AB2109 has passed out of appropriations so it is on its way to the assembly floor now. This is pretty amazing considering that if a doctor's visit only cost 10 dollars for each Medi-Cal kid to go to the doctor for the waiver (and there are about 3.5 million of those, so let's guess that 1% or 35,000 non-vaccinated children), then this bill is going to cost on the order of $350,000 each year to the state of California. This is well over the $150,000 cap the bill has to cost less than to leave appropriations. My numbers have simplified assumptions and extremely conservative low ball figures, so my question what is driving this bill? The answer is if you want to know, then just follow the money.

KMSmith, this bill is not about kids getting measles in a doctor's office (which is pretty hypothetical) nor is just about vaccinations. This bill is about taking away rights of parents to make decisions for their children.

If this bill was going to do what they say it is supposed to do then it wouldn't be private doctors who had to grant the vaccine waiver. It would be a county or city office where all law abiding citizens would have to go and hear the government's talk before getting the waiver (and this version be cheaper than what Medi-Cal is going to have to pay out).

Instead of a vaccines, what if this was about riding a bike and a bike rider had to go to the local gas station to get a waiver to ride a bike for the year. It is not lawful to make a private citizen responsible for granting or taking away rights of other private citizens. That is what this bill is about regardless of what degree is hanging on the guy's wall.

This is a rebuttal to Bill Monning's rebuttal on Sunday, May 6. First we need to correct "extensive Misinformation" on Bill Monning's rebuttal. Bill Monning never mentions anything about the $100 to $150 office visit fees that would be genereated in order to get the signed waiver. The way the economy is, some parents will find this a hardship. Second, Bill never mentions the donantion he recieved from the pharmacutical company. Bill, do the right thing. Give the money to charity so as to not look like a conflict of interest, then take your grandkids down to be vaccinated to show us this shots are safe and you really support it. Wouldn't your time and our money be better spent if you worked on the upcoming budget, education, the budget, pension reforms and of course the Budget. Manuel Lopez Monterey

My two children are now adults, the younger 23. I was a pick-and-choose parent, agreeing to some recommended vaccinations and rejecting others, as well as asserting preferences re vaccination schedules (age of child, how many vaccines at a time, etc.).

There are more resources available now to help discerning parents, and I urge parents to do their own research. Monterey Public Library's collection includes an important film, "The Greater Good." https://montn.ci.monterey.ca.us/search/t?SEARCH=greater+good&sortdropdown=-&searchscope=9 Or go to greatergoodmovie.org

This outlines the absolute summation of the Democrat's Folly.

Where the Republican Party is fueled by Greed, and promotes a wolf eat dog mentality (and say's it's Christ mandated), the Democratic party is fueled by arrogance, and presumes to know better than I how I should live my life (with a panel of crack-pot "experts" funded by big pharma to back them up).

For examples see the above story, Obama-care, Indefinite Detention without Trial, the Patriot Act 2 and Rahm Emanuel (yes, he gets his own category)

Vote local and spend better.

The presidential election is as much a societal sedative as the fluoride and lithium they pump into our water.