MASSACHUSETTS Medical Exemption SB 784 Action Alert

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  • Kris_ChristineK

    Massachusetts Medical Exemption Bill, SB 784 An Act Relative to Rabies Vaccination for Dogs and Cats http://www.mass.gov/legis/bills/senate/186/st00/st00784.htm, received a "study order" from the Joint Committee on Municipalities and Regional Government on 3/9/10. In order for this bill to be reintroduced for passage, the Committee Chairs and the bill sponsors must write a letter to the Rules Committee asking that it be reintroduced.

    **What You Can Do to Help

    Please contact the Legislative Chairs on the Municipalities and Regional Government Committee (contact information below) and the bill sponsor, asking them to request reintroduction of Senate Bill #784 and ask everyone you know in Massachusetts to do the same.

    PERMISSION IS GRANTED TO CROSS-POST

    Members of the Joint Committee on Municipalities and Regional Government:
    http://www.mass.gov/legis/comm/j10.htm

    Senator James Eldridge, Co-Chair James.Eldridge@state.ma.us Phone: (617) 722-1120 Fax: (617) 722-1089
    Representative Paul Donato Rep.PaulDonato@hou.state.ma.us Phone: (617) 722-2090 Fax: (617) 722-2848
    Senator Steven Panagiotakos Steven.Panagiotakos@state.ma.us Phone: (617) 722-1630 Fax: (617) 722-1001**

    Kris L. Christine

    Founder, Co-Trustee

    THE RABIES CHALLENGE FUND

    www.RabiesChallengeFund.org

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  • Kris_ChristineK

    Letter from Massachusetts veterinarian, Dr. Patricia Jordan

    Ref; Massachusetts Medical Exemption Bill, SB 784

    Please write a letter to the Rules Committee asking that this SB 784 Rabies Vaccination Bill be reintroduced.

    As a licensed professional in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, a practicing veterinarian for 26 years, I implore each and every one of you; Senator James Eldridge; Co-Chair, Representative Paul Donato and Senator Steven Panagiotakos to step up for the citizens of Massachusetts.

    Rabies vaccination laws as they currently stand are woefully and disturbingly not up to par with the advancement of science. Our own veterinary professional associations and each institute of higher learning veterinary college in these United States are aware that the vaccine intervals are not in keeping with the duration of immunity studies. The rabies vaccines is the most adverse event associated veterinary vaccine as well as the only legally mandated veterinary vaccine and because of this is the focus of another movement, a movement to make a Veterinary Vaccine injury Compensation Act into FEDERAL law. The advocate for this Veterinary Vaccine Injury Compensation Act is one of our leading Veterinary Oncologists, Dr. Dennis Macy.

    In 1999 the World Health Organization in the IARC named the veterinary vaccine adjuvant a grade 3 out of 4 with 4 being the most powerful carcinogen. The vaccines are associated with cancer and the AVMA had enacted a Vaccine Associated Sarcoma Task Force that collected data and research that showed cats, dogs and ferrets were all developing cancer from vaccines.

    Perdue University has with the studies conducted on vaccinated versus unvaccinated dogs in the Haywood study established the fact that only vaccinated dogs developed auto antibodies and auto antibodies are the precursor to autoimmune disease. Autoimmune diseases are now the most prolific medical disease we see in both human and animal medicine and the link to the vaccines is no longer a matter of speculation. Even the drug insert from Pfizer about the rabies vaccines puts in print the link of exogenous proteins in the vaccines and the development of autoimmune disease. Because of the breakdown of tumor surveillance, the ingredient mercury and aluminum mutators in the vaccines, the viruses and microbial proteins which lead to autoimmune disease and the shifting of a healthy cell mediated immune system bias to a very unhealthy, chronic inflammatory humoral immune mediated bias, the animals over vaccinated are now a cause of emerging public health issues.
    If you do not see to it that the animals are not vaccinated into immune dysregulation and repetitive rabies vaccines that are unsafe and unnecessary are not used to ruin the health of the companion animals then the resulting public health crisis will be on your watch and on your hands.

    There are studies completed that already show both dogs and cats having at least 5 years of immunity conveyance from one set of rabies vaccines. Indeed there are no recorded cases of any animals receiving a minimum of the 2 rabies to a mature mammalian immune system to ever developing the rabies disease. In humans, who the AVMA is on record admitting the same mammalian immune system as the canine, at least 14 years of amnestic response to rabies vaccination has been demonstrated.
    The colorable laws of rabies must be changed to reflect the scientific knowledge that immunity to viral diseases are in many years, decades and that as Dr. Ron Schultz and Dr. Jean Dodds have reported good for the lifetime of the animals.

    More vaccines are not innocuous and are not health promoting but rather health deconstructing now that the association of cancer, autoimmune disease and immune system dys regulation is a matter of record. To not allow the letter of waiver from additional rabies vaccines when a titer can demonstrate an individual?s antibody to rabies virus is sufficient or an animal with any type of immune system impairment, cancer, loss of tumor surveillance ,autoimmune disease,allergies,asthma,atopy,anaphylaxis,ezchema,liver,kidney,heart,neurological disease or inflammatory myopathies, skin disorders, weight loss or any other type of disability like spleen removal or infections is to directly be responsible for the endangerment of not only the death or disability of the companion animal but also to the endangerment of the community and specifically to the public health of the Commonwealth?s citizens. To not act responsibly in seeing that the immune dysregulating vaccines do not continue to be administered is to personally be culpably responsible for the results of this decision.

    Our rabies laws are antiquated and do not reflect what we now know about the genetic expression of disease from the vaccines that have been administered.
    Dr. Ron Schultz has also established that additional vaccines are more of a menace to processed patients then a reinforcement of immunity. In contrast more is not better, it is disabling to the immune system.

    It has been known since 1947 and a matter of scientific study and published papers since 1954 that only one antirabies vaccine administered to a healthy mammalian immune system is sufficient to confer immunity for the lifetime of a mammal. Indeed, humans are now realized to have 92 years of immunity from one small pox vaccine. Titer requirements can be made mandatory after rabies vaccine processing but right now the legislation must be enacted to protect the public health from over vaccinated companion animals with dys regulated immune systems that will weaken the protection of community health.

    I am familiar with Joann Camilli and the disservice the Commonwealth of Massachusetts did to her family, to her children and especially to her companion dog ?Louie?. For her Louie to be mandated an unsafe and unnecessary rabies vaccine in the face of obvious kidney disease, weight loss and hematuria
    (all the hallmark of serum sickness from prior vaccine administration and antibody antigen complex damage to the kidneys) so that the vaccination lead to the immediate further decline and death which occurred in front of the eyes of Mrs. Camilli?s? young daughter is a reflection of just how barbaric and irrational our culture has become. The treatment that Mrs. Camilli received from her veterinarian during this event also which was very well documented is behavior unbecoming of a veterinary medical professional and constitutes not only poor judgment but a lack of comprehension of every line of our Veterinary Hippocratic Oath from ensuring animal welfare to promotion of public health and keeping up with the advancements in science.

    The law should be intelligent and purposeful and not something used against man and beast neither to invoke physical, mental and emotional pain and suffering nor to kill. Enact a rabies vaccination waiver and in the process be a champion for public safety and health .Indeed I would be willing to supply your committee with the scientific papers necessary to document this position and to also provide cases, all from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts which show the current situation in the veterinary practices all across the Commonwealth with the over use of vaccines to unhealthy animals. These cases establish the fact that Malpractice is the Standard of Care and this is why emerging public health issues exist.

    Respectfully Submitted,
    Dr. Jordan

    Kris L. Christine

    Founder, Co-Trustee

    THE RABIES CHALLENGE FUND

    www.RabiesChallengeFund.org

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  • Kris_ChristineK

    **Update MA Medical Exemption Bill SB 784: 6/29/10 I spoke with a staff person in Senator Eldridge's office this morning, and they said the Senator has been receiving calls requesting that he write the Rules Committee asking that SB 784, the rabies medical exemption bill, be reintroduced for passage and that "It is on his radar." Please continue to call the two Co-Chairs of the the Massachusetts Municipalities and Regional Government Committee asking them to request reintroduction of Senate Bill #784

    Senator James Eldridge, Co-Chair James.Eldridge@state.ma.us Phone: (617) 722-1120 Fax: (617) 722-1089
    Representative Paul Donato Co-Chair Rep.PaulDonato@hou.state.ma.us Phone: (617) 722-2090 Fax: (617) 722-2848**

    Kris L. Christine

    Founder, Co-Trustee

    THE RABIES CHALLENGE FUND

    www.RabiesChallengeFund.org

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  • Kris_ChristineK

    **Below is a copy of the letter I have just sent to the Chairs of Massachusetts' Joint Commitee on Municipalities and Regional Government on behalf of The Rabies Challenge Fund.

    PERMISSION GRANTED TO CROSS-POST**

    June 30, 2010

    Representative Representative Paul Donato, Co-Chair Senator James Eldridge, Co-Chair
    Joint Committee on Municipalities and Regional Government
    State House Room 540 State House Room 213-A
    Boston, MA 02133 Boston, MA 02133

    RE: Massachusetts Rabies Medical Exemption Bill, SB 784

    Greetings Representative Donato and Senator Eldrige:

    On behalf of The Rabies Challenge Fund Charitable Trust and the many Massachusetts pet owners who have contacted us, we respectfully request that you write the Rules Committee and ask them to reintroduce SB 784, Senator Steven Panagiotakos? rabies medical exemption bill.

    Chapter 140: ?145B of the General Laws of Massachusetts implicitly exempts animals from vaccination under some circumstances in the wording _?the animal shall be vaccinated against rabies prior to being discharged **if the animal's medical condition permits.? However, the law does not explicitly state that a medical waiver exempts an animal from the requirement of being currently immunized against rabies.

    The states of Alabama, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Vermont, Virginia, and Wisconsin all have medical exemption clauses for sick animals in their rabies laws, and a bill is currently pending in the California legislature to include a waiver in its statutes.

    The labels on rabies vaccines state that they are for _?the vaccination of **healthy cats, dogs?,? and there are medical conditions for which vaccination can jeopardize the life or well-being of an animal. Reintroduction and passage of the medical exemption bill, SB 784, clarifying the circumstances under which sick animals could receive exemptions would allow Massachusetts veterinarians to write waivers for animals (such as those who have had anaphylactic reactions to vaccination, or suffer from cancer, kidney/liver failure, hemolytic anemia, thrombocytopenia, grand mal seizures, and chronic autoimmune disorders) whose medical conditions would be exacerbated by rabies vaccination. The State of Maine inserted such an exemption into their 3 year rabies protocol, 7 M.R.S.A., Sec. 3922(3), which became effective in April 2005 – not one rabid dog has been reported in the more than 5 years since that date. Colorado?s data reflect the same – there have been no rabid dogs reported in the state since passage of their medical exemption in July 2008.

    Without a clearly worded medical exemption in Chapter 140: ?145B, Massachusetts law imposes an ethical dilemma on veterinarians with seriously ill patients who must either violate their Veterinarian?s Oath and administer a rabies vaccine contrary to the manufacturer?s labeled instructions, or make a recommendation against vaccinating for rabies -- advice which is contrary to the law. Being compelled by law to vaccinate unhealthy animals against rabies also puts veterinarians at risk of being held liable for adverse reactions the animals may suffer, and owners of critically ill animals may decide to not comply with the law rather than jeopardize the lives of their pets by immunizing them.

    The Rabies Challenge Fund Charitable Trust urges you to write the Rules Committee requesting that SB 784 be reintroduced for passage. You may contact me at the number below if you would like any scientific data on the rabies vaccine or have any questions.

    Sincerely,

    Kris L. Christine
    Founder, Co-Trustee
    THE RABIES CHALLENGE FUND
    www.RabiesChallengeFund.org
    ledgespring@lincoln.midcoast.com

    cc: Dr. W. Jean Dodds
    Dr. Ronald Schultz
    Senator Steven Panagiotakos****

    Kris L. Christine

    Founder, Co-Trustee

    THE RABIES CHALLENGE FUND

    www.RabiesChallengeFund.org

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  • Kris_ChristineK

    MASSACHUSETTS Medical Exemption Bill SB 784 Update: "Neal" from Senator Eldridge's office left a voice mail on 8/6/10 saying that Senator Eldridge is working on trying to get SB 784 recommitted from Committee and is in negotiations with his House counterpart and hopes to have the bill "reported out" by next week or the week after.

    For more information, contact Neal from Senator Eldridge's office: 617-722-1120

    Kris L. Christine

    Founder, Co-Trustee

    THE RABIES CHALLENGE FUND

    www.RabiesChallengeFund.org

    0

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  • Kris_ChristineK

    NEW MEXICO Rabies Waivers Action Alert

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    Kris_ChristineK
    NEW MEXICO: HB 341 Rabies Waivers Bill–Hearing this Friday, 2/25/11 ACTION ALERT http://www.nmlegis.gov/Sessions/11%20Regular/bills/house/HB0341.html Contact Representative Dodge (505) 986-4255 georgedodge63@yahoo.com and Representative Madalena jrmadalena@fsipinc.org (505) 986-4417 in support of bill ATTEND HEARING if you can. This is your chance to get a rabies medical exemption bill passed in New Mexico! I urge all New Mexico residents to contact the two Representatives above to voice support for HB 341. If you can, please attend Friday's hearing. This bill faces stiff opposition from the Department of Health, the NM Veterinary Medical Association, and the NM Livestock Board – it is up to the public to get this bill passed, and it will if you take a couple of minutes to call or e-mail Representative Dodge and Representative Madalena. Please ask your friends in New Mexico to do the same. Below is a copy of my letter on behalf of The Rabies Challenge Fund in support of HB 341. PERMISSION GRANTED TO CROSS-POST February 18, 2011 Representative George Dodge, Jr. Representative James Roger Madalena, Chair House of Representatives Agriculture & Water Resources Committee Room 203 CAN, State Capitol Room 314 A, State Capitol Santa Fe, NM 87501 Santa Fe, NM 87501 RE: HB 341 Exemption from the Requirement for Rabies Vaccination Greetings Representatives Dodge and Madalena: The Rabies Challenge Fund Charitable Trust fully supports the rabies medical exemption language contained in HB 341 and strongly urges the Agriculture & Water Resources Committee to vote that this important legislation ?ought to pass.? The Centers for Disease Control?s National Association of State Public Health Veterinarians[1], the American Animal Hospital Association[2] (AAHA), the American Veterinary Medical Association[3], and the American Association of Feline Practitioners[4] all recommend that rabies vaccines be administered in accordance with the manufacturer?s labeled directions, which clearly specify their use in ?healthy? animals. This explicit specification counters the New Mexico Livestock Board?s (NMLB) contention, expressed in the Fiscal Impact Report, that there are no known contraindications for the rabies vaccine ? rather, the vaccine manufacturers? labels specifically instruct veterinarians to limit their products? use to the **healthy population of the animal species. Furthermore, the Pfizer Defensor 3 rabies label warns that ?[a] protective immune response may not be elicited if animals are incubating an infectious disease, are malnourished or parasitized, are stressed due to shipment or environmental conditions, are otherwise immunocompromised.? In concurrence with rabies vaccine manufacturers? precisely labeled directions that they are for ?healthy? animals, the American Association of Feline Practitioners advises that ?[c]ats with acute illness, debilitation, or high fevers should not be vaccinated.?[5] A Certificate of Exemption from Rabies Vaccination in Appendix 1 of their Vaccine Advisory Panel Report is published for veterinarians to use as a model for exempting sick animals. Passage of this bill would give veterinarians the option, not the mandate, to write waivers for the small number of sick pets diagnosed as being too ill to be vaccinated and for whom vaccination may not elicit a proper immune response. It would also enable responsible pet owners with ill animals to comply with New Mexico?s rabies laws instead of being forced to jeopardize their pet?s health with a mandated vaccination or to break the law to avoid a medically unsound immunization. Several concerns have been raised in the Significant Issues section of HB 341?s Fiscal Impact Report which need to be addressed. The NMLVB stated that the rabies vaccine ?is considered worldwide to be among the safest?vaccines? – this statement is false. A special report published in 2008 in the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association announced that the **"[r]abies vaccines are the most common group of biological products identified in adverse event reports received by the CVB ." [6] Immunologically, the rabies vaccine is the most potent of the veterinary vaccines and associated with significant adverse reactions such as polyneuropathy ?resulting in muscular atrophy, inhibition or interruption of neuronal control of tissue and organ function, incoordination, and weakness,? [7] auto-immune hemolytic anemia,[8] autoimmune diseases affecting the thyroid, joints, blood, eyes, skin, kidney, liver, bowel and central nervous system; anaphylactic shock; aggression; seizures; epilepsy; and fibrosarcomas at injection sites.[9] [10] A ?killed? vaccine, the rabies vaccine contains adjuvants to enhance the immunological response. In 1999, the World Health Organization ?classified veterinary vaccine adjuvants as Class III/IV carcinogens with Class IV being the highest risk,"[11] and the results of a study published in the August 2003 Journal of Veterinary Medicine documenting fibrosarcomas at the presumed injection sites of rabies vaccines stated, ?In both dogs and cats, the development of necrotizing panniculitis at sites of rabies vaccine administration was first observed by Hendrick & Dunagan (1992).? [12] According to the 2003 AAHA Guidelines, "…killed vaccines are much more likely to cause hypersensitivity reactions (e.g., immune-mediated disease)."[13] The NMLVB stated that ?this bill could result in a large number of exemption requests? that could weaken the current level of rabies control. In the 13 states with rabies medical exemptions (Alabama, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Vermont, Virginia, and Wisconsin), this has not been the case. In the more than 5 years since Maine?s medical exemption for dogs went into effect, not one rabid dog has been reported in the state. Colorado?s data reflect the same ? there have been no rabid dogs reported since passage of their medical exemption in July 2008. The Department of Health (DOH) expressed concern that passage of this bill would create an_?area of low rabies vaccine coverage in dogs and cats,?_ however, the World Small Animal Veterinary Association?s 2010 Vaccine Guidelines estimates that in ?developed? nations such as the U.S., 50%-70% of the pet animal population is unvaccinated. This large estimated percentage of domestic animals in non-compliance with rabies vaccination requirements is what creates the_?area of low rabies vaccine coverage in dogs and cats,?_ not the minimal number of sick pets whose medical conditions should exempt them from the requirement. Potential overuse or misuse of exemptions was also raised by the DOH, yet passage of this bill would give veterinarians the option, not the mandate, to issue waivers based on their assessment of an animal?s medical condition. The Results of the Statewide Survey of New Mexico Veterinarians on rabies waivers conducted by the state indicated that a 55% majority of veterinarians were not opposed to medical exemptions. In addition to HB 341, medical exemption bills are currently pending in the states of California and Pennsylvania. On behalf of The Rabies Challenge Fund Charitable Trust, I again express our full support of HB 341 and urge the Agriculture & Resources Committee to vote that it ?ought to pass.? Sincerely, Kris L. Christine Founder, Co-Trustee THE RABIES CHALLENGE FUND http://www.RabiesChallengeFund.org ledgespring@lincoln.midcoast.com cc: Dr. W. Jean Dodds Dr. Ronald Schultz Representative James Roger Madalena Senator Steve Fischmann Representative Richard C. Martinez Representative Gail Chasey New Mexico Legislature –----------------------------------------------------------------------------- [1] CDC's National Association of State Public Health Veterinarian's 2008 Compendium of Animal Rabies Prevention and Control [2] American Animal Hospital Association Canine Vaccine Task Force. 2003 Canine Vaccine Guidelines, Recommendations, and Supporting Literature, and ibid. 2006 AAHA Canine Vaccine Guidelines, Revised, [3] American Veterinary Medical Association 2007 RABIES VACCINATION PROCEDURES [4] American Association of Feline Practitioners, Vaccine Advisory Panel Report, Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association Vol. 229, No. 9 Nov. 1, 2006 [5] American Association of Feline Practitioners, Vaccine Advisory Panel Report, Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association Vol. 229, No. 9 Nov. 1, 2006 p. 1412 [6] Frana, T.S. et als, Postmarketing Surveillance of Rabies Vaccines for Dogs to Evaluate Safety and Efficacy, Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association Vol. 232, No. 7 April 1, 2008 [7] Dodds, W. Jean Vaccination Protocols for Dogs Predisposed to Vaccine Reactions, The Journal of the American Animal Hospital Association, May/June 2001, Vol. 37, pp. 211-214 [8] Duval D., Giger U.Vaccine-Associated Immune-Mediated Hemolytic Anemia in the Dog, Journal of Veterinary Internal Medicine 1996; 10:290-295 [9] American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) Executive Board, April 2001, Principles of Vaccination, Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association, Volume 219, No. 5, September 1, 2001. [10] Vascelleri, M. Fibrosarcomas at Presumed Sites of Injection in Dogs: Characteristics and Comparison with Non-vaccination Site Fibrosarcomas and Feline Post-vaccinal Fibrosarcomas; Journal of Veterinary Medicine, Series A August 2003, vol. 50, no. 6, pp. 286-291. [11] IARC Monographs on the Evaluation of Carcinogenic Risks to Humans: Volume 74, World Health Organization, International Agency for Research on Cancer, Feb. 23-Mar. 2, 1999, p. 24, 305, 310. [12] Vascelleri, M. Fibrosarcomas at Presumed Sites of Injection in Dogs: Characteristics and Comparison with Non-vaccination Site Fibrosarcomas and Feline Post-vaccinal Fibrosarcomas; Journal of Veterinary Medicine, Series A August 2003, vol. 50, no. 6, pp. 286-291. [13] American Animal Hospital Association Canine Vaccine Task Force. 2003 Canine Vaccine Guidelines, Recommendations, and Supporting Literature, 28pp. and ibid. 2006 AAHA Canine Vaccine Guidelines, Revised, 28 pp.****
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