Smallpox in America: Into the Garden of Delights By Jennifer Van Bergen, 14 January 2003.

We are told that there is new grave threat to our welfare. Smallpox. If we are indeed in danger of a smallpox outbreak (which is contradicted by medical testimony), the threat appears to be inflated. A far more grave threat, however, is the Model State Emergency Health Powers Act (MSEHPA, MEHPA, or EHPA), portions of which were incorporated into the Homeland Security Act (HSA). The EHPA provides for forced vaccinations and confiscation or destruction of personal property under the mere threat of a threat of an outbreak.

The Model Health Emergency Health Powers Act is a draconian piece of legislation that is quietly making its way through the State legislatures, as health is a State responsibility. It would allow a State's governor to declare a "public health emergency", and without consulting with public health authorities, law enforcement, the legislature or courts, to:

• Require any individual to be vaccinated. Refusal constitutes a crime and will result in quarantine.
• Require any individual to undergo specific medical treatment. Refusal constitutes a crime and will result in quarantine.
• Seize any property, including real estate, food, medicine, fuel or clothing, an official thinks necessary to handle the emergency.
• Seize and destroy any property alleged to be hazardous. There will be no compensation or recourse.
• Draft you or your business into state service.
• Impose rationing, price controls, quotas and transportation controls.
• Suspend any state law, regulation or rule that is thought to interfere with handling the declared emergency.

  Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson is urging all State legislatures to adopt the Model State Emergency Health Powers Act. HHS will tie passage of the Act to billions of dollars in federal funding: the usual method of bribery/coercion to get States to pass legislation that would otherwise never be considered.

ALEC Concerns about the MEHPA:

• Strips individuals and families of their rights and liberties at the expense of government
• Represents unnecessary and duplicative legislation given existing state natural disaster statutes
• Provides a number of potential legal loopholes for trial lawyers to extort.
• Grants overly sweeping takings rights to the government.
• Fails to consider individual state needs.
• Consolidates broad power to Public Health Officials, most of whom are unelected.
• Erects barriers to states ability to respond, slowing down response times
• Utilizes vague language to define key concepts, including when an emergency can be declared
• Grants additional, duplicative due process rights for quarantined persons
• Allows public health authorities to ration drugs and other items, but does not specify the manner in which these items would be rationed.
• Ignores potential costs, both dollar and human.

Association of American Physicians and Surgeons concluded that MEHPA Turns Governors Into Dictators.

States can and should improve their ability to respond to disaster, including bioterrorism. However, having the Governor play doctor and dictator is not the right response.

The state-by-state drive ran into problems (except Florida of course) and so they, using the standard federal funds blackmail, slipped a federalized version of MSEHPA into the Fatherland/Homeland Security Act in Novermber 2002:

Now it seems however that Secretary of HHS Tommy Thompson who wouldn't take the small pox vaccine, by the way, when President Bush supposedly took his, now holds these powers regardless of individual state legislation.

Now with the easy passage of the Homeland Security Bill 11/13/02 in the House (299-121-11) and 11/19/02 in the senate 90/9, it leaves quite a few of us downright angry and many scratching our heads, still not sure what happened.

Senator Robert Byrd (Dem. W.V.) stated in the Senate discussion prior to vote on the Homeland Security Bill:

And this is one of the most far-reaching pieces of legislation I have seen in my 50 years. I will have been in Congress 50 years come January 3... Never have I seen such a monstrous piece of legislation sent to this body. And we are being asked to vote on that 484 pages tomorrow. Our poor staffs were up most of the night studying it. They know some of the things that are in there, but they don't know all of them. It is a sham and it is a shame. 20 But the way this bill was brought in here, less than 48 hours ago, a brand-new bill. It had not been before any committee. It had undergone no hearings, not this bill. It is a bill on our desks that has 484 pages. There are 484 pages in this bill.

As Ron Paul and Robert Byrd explain, and Sandy Mintz outlines, we've federalized the Emergency Health Powers, overstepping individual and state's rights in one clean sweep!

The Homeland Security Bill Could Allow Dhhs To Force Smallpox Vaccination While Nobody Is Liable For Harm

107 HR 5710 opens the door to allowing federal health officials to force Americans to use the highly reactive smallpox vaccine and other "substances" while removing all liability from the pharmaceutical industry and health officials for the injuries and deaths which will result. The bill allows the Secretary of DHHS to issue a "declaration" after concluding that "an actual or potential bioterrorist incident" or "other potential public health emergency" warrants the administration of "a substance or substances" to "individuals during the effective period of the declaration."

"The language in this bill hands over unprecedented power to federal employees and does not preclude allowing them to use the military to strip citizens of informed consent rights and force them to risk their lives with highly reactive vaccines, such as the smallpox vaccine, that will injure or kill thousands of Americans if used on a mass basis," said NVIC president and co-founder Barbara Loe Fisher. NVIC maintains that Section 304 of the bill is fulfillment of a federal plan in development for several years to allow public health officials to force vaccination and medical treatment on Americans without their informed consent while removing all accountability from drug companies and those who participate in enforcement of the policy when harm is done.

It was passed into law in November 25, 2002 as Public Law No: 107-296, the Homeland Security Act.

The British Parliament has introduced similar legislation as amendments to the already controversial Civil Contingencies Bill (CCB). The Canadian version, 37/2 C-17 was passed by the House of Commons 7 October 2003; see CanadasPatriotAct3. See our page: WhatsNext.

Links:

• http://www.publichealthlaw.net/MSEHPA/MSEHPA.pdf
• Model To Monstrosity: The Emergency Health Powers Act Joanna Rohrback - January 17, 2003.
• Homeland Security Bill Could Allow Dhhs To Force Smallpox Vaccination While Nobody Is Liable For Harm
• Why Government and Medicine Shouldn't Mix
• MEHPA
• Model State Emergency Health Powers Act Source Document, Letters, comments, news, etc.
• MSEHPA (Model State Emergency Health Powers Act)
• Bush Signs $4.6 Bil Bioterror Bill
• Health Emergency Health Powers Act
• International Advocates for Health Freedom - Vaccinations
• ALEC's Tracking of MEHPA in the States
• Are you ready to take your vaccine and "experimental drug"?