Florida Seeks to Ban Vaccine Discrimination
Florida lawmakers are considering state House-level civil rights bills to protect residents against discrimination based upon their vaccine or immunity status.
This protection would apply to all vaccines and not just the controversial COVID shots. Both Senate Bill 222 (sponsored by Sen. Joe Gruters, R-Fla.), as well as House Bill 305 (sponsored and sponsored by Rep. Webster Barnaby R-Fla.), have identical names. This simplifies their becoming law if both pass, Mo van Hoek of Health Freedom Florida, the group pushing the bill’s adoption, told The Epoch Times.
Van Hoek said the bills would also protect Floridians’ vaccine or immunity status from being shared with the federal government’s tracking database. In 2019, the state created a database of this nature and had to share it with federal officials to get its COVID vaccines.
“This isn’t a good bill, it’s a great bill,” van Hoek said.
The bill would expand and make permanent protections established in 2021 by temporary protections passed in a special session. Van Hoek stated that the law would expire on June 30, 2023 and will need to be replaced.
The 2021 law wasn’t tough enough, she said. It had originally been more comprehensive and didn’t pass in March 2021. She claimed that the ban against vaccine passports was taken out of it and attached to another bill which passed a couple months later.
“It had a good impact. It put Governor [Ron] DeSantis on the global map of creating that type of protection for people,” She spoke.
It had one major flaw. Although it was forbidden for companies to fire unvaccinated employees they were permitted to establish vaccination policies that could be used to force them out of compliance, she explained.
Nick Caturano is a Disney World employee who received such treatment.
“At Disney (if you weren’t vaccinated), you had to wear an N95 mask with a warning sign and face shield,” The Epoch Times heard from Caturano of Kissimmee. “The goal was to make your life as difficult as possible. I couldn’t have lunch with everyone. I had no choice but to eat behind the storage shed.
“The first bill told them they couldn’t fire people, but they could set policies. They could still put me through tests and discriminate by making me wear clothing that was not worn by others, or forcing me to avoid other people.
“There was no appetite to make a strong, clean bill at the time. I’m grateful for DeSantis, that he was willing to move forward, but this is politics,” Caturano said. “You have to have everyone on board. At the time, the legislators were not willing to risk political capital by doing this.”
Caturano continues to work at Disney for the past 18 years. He’s involved in an effort to sue the company for discrimination. He claimed they changed their policies and stopped isolating me when the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention(CDC) removed its mask requirements.
He felt the heat of his isolation at the time.
‘Pandemic of the Unvaccinated’
“It was the pandemic of the unvaccinated. We were the vectors of disease. We all got attacked. People attacked me, spoke down to me, and told me I was responsible for killing people.” He claimed that many objections against the jab have been proven to be false.
Health Freedom created Vaxbully.com as a way to collect stories from others who have been subject to such discrimination like Caturano.
Van Hoek claimed that the site had received over a thousand submissions. They will be used by bill supporters to convince legislators that the problem is real, she stated. They’ve heard from people like a medical student who couldn’t do hospital rotations without a COVID shot and a nursing student who couldn’t take final exams without one.
T.B., the student in nursing was identified as T.B. The Epoch Times received a copy of the interview from Jacksonville. It included his thoughts about attending a state college.
“There was not a single term in which I had confidence that my next term was guaranteed,” T.B. wrote. “For each new term, I was sent correspondence warning me that my continuing education was in jeopardy based on my vaccination status. A few courageous and understanding professors went to great lengths, in opposition to the administration, to help me finish. I persevered and stuck to my ethical and religious beliefs and am now gainfully employed as a nurse. My wife, also a nurse, was threatened with termination from (a large health care organization) nearly weekly for the same reasons. These same institutions that promote evidence-based medicine proved negligent in this area by trying to force an experimental medical procedure on their own people, then reacted in shocked innocence when rebuffed. Shame on them!”
M.B. M.B.
“As an employee of the federal government, I was bullied to take the jab. They threatened my job if I did not comply. I tried to request a religious exemption and they ignored it. I was ‘othered’ and not allowed to go into the office. At another point, they tried to force me to take a COVID test, which again I refused and asked for a religious exemption. Again they ignored it. At one point I was told I need to wear a mask but those that got the jab did not have to. I am a combat veteran and never expected to experience this kind of tyranny from my own government. This experience has taken a toll on my mental health and well-being. Although I am allowed the same freedoms as my coworkers, I sometimes worry they will come back around to bully me into taking the jab.”
Vaccine Requirements
Van Hoek said a pregnant Jupiter woman contacted her, looking for a pediatrician who wouldn’t require the baby to have shots.
“I made some phone calls,” van Hoek said. “I called every pediatrician’s office in Jupiter, and not one of them would allow a baby accepted as a patient unless they adhered to the CDC’s vaccine schedule. I called 11 pediatricians.”
Van Hoek’s interest in the issue predates the COVID pandemic. Jan, her son, was left disabled 13 years ago by strokes that she claims were caused by his childhood vaccines. He needs round-the-clock care now. Van Hoek stated that she has never been vaccinated.
She stated that the bill would not alter the requirements for childhood vaccinations to be required for children to attend school. Parents can already exempt their children for medical or religious reasons. Van Hoek believes the current exemption system is adequate to protect vaccine dissenters. Religious exemption “is extremely flexible,” she said, and can be obtained by the parent submitting the child’s name and birthdate. The medical exemption requires the completion of Form 680 by the child’s doctor.
She said she thinks childhood immunization shouldn’t be required of anyone but respects the rights of parents to make their own choices.
“But no one should force anyone to take something when the side effects include death, stroke, and seizure,” Van Hoek claimed that vaccine warnings have downplayed all side effects. “Everyone has a different risk-benefit ratio. They need to determine it for their own selves.”
She wonders if vaccines for childhood have been sufficiently tested for safety and efficacy when combined. The 72 required vaccines are required for children; COVID shots will add 18.
Van Hoek predicts the nation’s growing awareness of problems with the COVID vaccines—the side effects, the suppression of information, and their limited effectiveness—will prompt a reexamination of extensive childhood vaccination schedules.
She believes it will give the push to pass this bill. Republicans hold supermajorities at both the state legislatures. “This will create true medical freedom,” van Hoek said. “If they’re 100 percent for freedom, they should get behind it. It creates standard protection, across the board, for every Floridian.”
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