It's official, New York Assembly Bill A 10942, the "worst vaccine bill ever" and the mandatory meningococcal vaccine bill it morphed into late in the session are dead. And they were killed by parents who just aren't going to let pharma kick them around anymore.

Another vaccine bill that would have allowed minors to get vaccines for sexually-transmitted diseases without parents permission or knowledge went down to an ignominious defeat when the Assembly Health committee refused to even consider it.

This represents the fourth defeat in a row, with no wins, for the vaccine industry in New York, last year a mandatory HPV bill was killed.

As usual with most vaccine bills in New York, they were submitted late in the session which limits the time that the opposition has to make arguments against a proposal. The original A 10942 was submitted at the request of the Health Department and would have caused a sweeping restructuring of NY vaccine policy; all CDC recommended vaccines would have become mandatory for all children, including those too young to enter school, and all new CDC recommended vaccines would automatically become mandatory.

A 10942 was greeted by a rally of hundreds of parents from all around the state, many were parents of vaccine-injured children, others though have healthy children and would like to see them stay healthy. A broad cross section of organizations were involved; autism organizations, holistic health groups, libertarians, and many others came together for the first time in joint political action. Legisltive aides report a flood of phone calls, faxes, letters and emails in opposition.

The legislature responded with scaling the bill back to require the menigoccocal shot for seventh graders. This new version was introduced last Friday and on Monday there were new demonstrations by parents both in Albany and in front of the Long Island office of State Senator Kemp Hannon who introduced the meningitis legislation. The bill died today with the adjournment of the legislature.

Future Plans
Organizers of the successful campaign will be holding meetings and conferences to make sure that in the next session of the legislature the philosophical exemption bills sponsored by State Senator Frank Padavan and Assemblymember Mark Alessi are passed. And in a new twist on vaccines rights, New Yorkers will be working to introduce legislation that will drop vaccines from the mandatory list. The first target will be hepatitis b, a shot given to newborns ostensibly to prevent a sexually transmitted disease.

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