Conversations with Democrat Leaders on Medical Freedom in Albany NY
Assemblywoman Jaime Williams Supports NYC Fired Workers!
Over 200 people came to the Medical Freedom rally in Albany, New York on May 7. The rally featured over 20 speakers who were all live streamed on CHD.TV for nearly 3 hours. But the most important actions of the day were in the conversations we had with Democrat leaders at the Capitol, mostly behind the scenes.
Jaime Williams, a Democrat Assemblywoman from Brooklyn spoke at the rally promoting bill A9196 to bring back all NYC workers fired for declining the COVID shot. After her amazing speech we chanted the Assemblywoman’s name as the Spirit Drummers provided the theme music. Williams took pictures with fired workers (seen above) including firefighters, cops, teachers, sanitation workers and more.
After her speech Williams told me she fully supports us and we should reach out to her any time for anything.
Crucial Meeting
Once the rally ended, Mary Holland, John Gilmore, Dr. James Lyons Weiler, Curtis Cost, Tramell Thompson, Shannon Joy, myself and others met with Senator Gustavo Rivera’s Health Committee Director Tony Kergaravat.
This was a crucial meeting.
Rivera is the head of the Senate Health Committee. All bills that impact medical freedom have to start in his committee (with very rare exception). Kergaravat is the most important advisor to Rivera regarding what bills are, and are not, voted on in the Senate Health Committee.
We discussed 2 main bills with Kergaravat:
Minor Consent bill: A6761
Minor Consent Bill
Mary Holland, the CEO of Children’s Health Defense (and attorney) made it clear if the minor consent bill is passed CHD will be bringing a lawsuit against it. CHD brought a federal lawsuit in Washington DC that successfully overturned a similar minor consent law. They will do it again in New York if they need to.
Everyone present at the meeting made excellent points on why this minor consent bill was a horrendous and unnecessary idea. John Gilmore was encyclopedic in his display of knowledge in opposition to the bill.
It was of interest to note that Kergaravat does not have kids, and neither does his boss Senator Rivera who runs the health committee. This is an increasing trend in Albany - lawmakers who don’t have kids being in positions of high power to take away parental rights.
Mandatory Adult Vaccine Database
The bill that is the biggest threat right now in May and June of 2024 is S1531 that would make reporting of all vaccines in New York mandatory. Currently it is an opt-IN system, where individuals need to be asked if they want their name included in the database or not.
This bill has already passed the Assembly, and is the closest to becoming law of all the bad bills out there right now. We saw unknown people going into offices of Senators yesterday encouraging them to vote YES to this bill. It is unclear if those people were lobbyists or health department officials, but clearly this bill is a priority to some powerful people right now.
Autism Action Network will have an action alert coming out about this bill very soon, and we will republish that alert here at TEACHERS FOR CHOICE. Everyone needs to look out for that action alert and complete it!
Other constituents met with their lawmakers and found out important details on what is happening behind the scenes. We are not able to publish all the information we gained yesterday but we can say that there is certainly a very good chance we can prevent the bad bills from becoming law in 2024 as long as we follow through with a few more actions in the weeks ahead of us.
Stay tuned to TEACHERS FOR CHOICE for all updates.
Photos from the May 7 rally in Albany, NY
Never give up!
And the childhood vaccine schedule.