Re: Do not pass, "The Model State Emergency Health Powers Act"
Letter regarding:
Model State Emergency Health Powers Act (MSEHPA)
This letter may be modified (in any way), your name substituted for
mine, and used in any state. [Do modify line 2 to suit your needs]
Re: Do not pass, "The Model State Emergency Health Powers Act"
This open letter is being sent to President Bush, Montana Governor Judy Martz, and all Montana
legislators.
In a time of natural disaster, epidemic or war the citizens of the U.S. typically give their utmost.
Yet always there are a few who think that freedom is a dangerous condition requiring 'correction'
and the present time of public attention upon terrorism makes ripe the conditions leading to loss
of freedoms.
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has commissioned the creation of a Model (Template)
Act which is being sent to all states. This is the "Model State Emergency Health Powers Act."
(MSEHPA) Each state will be encouraged to fill in certain blanks with information specific to
their state and enact the resulting document into law.
The full 40 page copy of MSEHPA may be found at:
http://www.PublicHealthLaw.net/MSEHPA/MSEHPA.pdf
Read it carefully, because in any state in which this Act is signed into law the Governor may
declare a 'state of public health emergency' with serious consequences both to the constitutional
rights of citizens as well as posing a direct threat to the health of impacted citizens, the exact
opposite of what the Act is supposed to prevent.
Basically this act is based on the assumption that certain diseases are highly contagious and/or
infectious, the detection of which requires responses including far reaching emergency powers by
public health officials. The list of diseases which are named in this category are: anthrax, botulism,
smallpox, plague, tularemia, and viral hemorrhagic fevers. While the act does not confine itself to
these diseases, these diseases are the 'backbone' of the argument that all 50 states need a plan for
granting great emergency powers to public health officials including control of the police,
National Guard, and all citizens including Doctors and other health providers. I believe that
overall, this Act would give greater power to health departments than Congress plus the President
currently possess.
Let us look at the center piece diseases:
Anthrax:
The following is from a question and answer page on anthrax from Health.mil, Military Health
System related news:
" 7. Can anthrax be spread from person-to-person?
Direct person-to-person spread of anthrax is extremely unlikely to occur.
Communicability is
not a concern in managing or visiting with patients with inhalational
anthrax."
Botulism:
Botulism (Clostridium bolulinum) is the disease that occurs with
improper canning of foods.
Symptoms usually begin 18-38 hours after infection and include weakness but may be delayed for
a few days, and include blurred vision, slow heartbeat, low blood pressure, vomiting and diarrhea.
Clostridium botulinum may be spread by aerosol or food contamination. [British Medical Bulletin,
Volume 54, 1998] (from an article: By Bill Sardi, Knowledge of Health, Inc., Copyright 2001)
Smallpox:
Recent news has popularized the statement, "Smallpox is highly contagious and has a 30%
mortality rate." It is well to ask, under what conditions might this statement be true? Look at a
statement by ALFRED RUSSEL WALLACE, LL.D. DUBL., D.C.L. OXON., F.R.S., ETC.
"Now an immense body of statistics of the last century[1700-1800]�, gives an average of from
14 to 18 per cent as the proportion of small-pox deaths to cases; ", From VACCINATION A
DELUSION. by ALFRED RUSSEL WALLACE, LL.D. DUBL., D.C.L. OXON., F.R.S., ETC.
The same authority says "in the forty years 1728�57 and 1771�80,� [annually] the mortality
per million would have been under 3,000." A little math shows this to be 3 per 1000, of the
general population and about 1 in 5 or 1 in 6 mortality for those contracting smallpox. Thus it
would take a combination of very poor sanitation, malnutrition and medical mistreatment to bring
about a 30% mortality rate. [This figure 3000 per 1,000,000 is for London, a very unsanitary city
in the 18th century.] To be brief, under present conditions of sanitation and nutrition the U.S. has
no smallpox because we are immune.
Under these conditions of sanitation and nutrition,
smallpox is not contagious human-to-human, except perhaps rarely.
Plague:
We all know the famous plagues were spread by fleas carried by rats.
The last time a Human-to-Human transmission of plague occurred in the
United States was about 1924.
(graph by
JAMA 1999:281; 61-6) This is in spite of the 10 to 20 cases of plague experienced each year in
the western USA in individuals who have extensive contact with wildlife.
" The plague (Yersinia pestis) �
Treatment with antibiotics is effective.
[British Medical
Bulletin, Volume 54, 1998, cited above.]
Tularemia: (or rabbit fever) From Illinois Department of Public Health http://www.idph.state.il.us/public/hb/hbtulare.htm
"What is tularemia?
Tularemia, or rabbit fever, is a bacterial disease associated with both animals and humans.
Although many wild and domestic animals can be infected, the rabbit is most often
involved in disease outbreaks. Tularemia is relatively rare in Illinois; about four cases are
reported each year.
Who gets tularemia? The disease occurs throughout the United States in all months of the year. The incidence,
however, is higher for adults in early winter during rabbit hunting season and for children
during the summer when ticks and deer flies are abundant.
How is tularemia spread?
Many routes of human exposure to the tularemia bacteria are known to exist. The common
routes include inoculation of the skin or mucous membranes with blood or tissue while
handling infected animals, the bite of an infected tick, contact with fluids from infected deer
flies or ticks, or handling or eating insufficiently cooked rabbit meat. Less common means
of spread are drinking contaminated water, inhaling dust from contaminated soil or
handling contaminated pelts or paws of animals.
Tularemia is not spread from person to person."
Viral hemorrhagic fevers:
The best known disease in this category is Yellow Fever, carried by mosquitoes. Probably the
next best known are Hanta Virus and Ebola.
Some facts: [source CDC]
"Hantaviruses that cause HPS are carried by rodents, especially the
deer mouse.
HPS is not
contagious from person to person in the United States. "
"Ebola virus is animal born and not native to North America."
In the CDC's fact sheets, the most severe Viral hemorrhagic fevers are described as needing
barrier nursing facilities. However, Joseph M. Henderson the Chief of Program Operations for
Bioterrorism Preparedness and Response Initiative at the CDC says in an interview, " Anthrax and
Smallpox along with Viral Hemorrhagic Fevers, Tularemia, Botulism toxins, and Plague top our
list of critical diseases because they:
-can be easily transmitted person-to-person
-cause high mortality, with potential for major public health impact
- might cause public panic and social disruption
-require special action for public health preparedness"
As we have seen above, health departments tell us that Anthrax, Tularemia, and Plague are not
spread human-to-human. A little study of infectious disease history, gained from outside the slick
brochures of the pharmaceutical companies, will inform anyone that smallpox died out as a result
of sanitation and nutrition not as a result of vaccines, plus smallpox poses very little
human-to-human transmission danger. Botulism caused by spoiled food [improper canning] does not call
for special powers by the CDC or any other health department. And while it is not so obvious,
diseases which are carried by animals and are so sufficiently rare that they were only discovered
recently (Viral Hemorrhagic Fevers) likewise do not call for giving away our freedoms and
putting our health care choices in the hands of CDC or any other public health officials.
Here is a quote someone who worked in the biological warfare field:
"Finally there's biological warfare. There's not much to cover here. Basic personal hygiene and
sanitation will take you further than a million doctors. Wash your hands often, don't share drinks,
food, sloppy kisses, etc., ... with strangers. Keep your garbage can with a tight lid on it, don't
have standing water (like old buckets, ditches, or kiddie pools) laying around to allow mosquitoes
breeding room. This stuff is carried by vectors, that is bugs, rodents, and contaminated material. If
biological warfare is so easy as the TV makes it sound, why has Saddam Hussein spent twenty
years, millions, and millions of dollars trying to get it right?
Published: 102401 Author: SFC Red Thomas, USA(Ret)"
Here is a list of good reasons why the MSEHPA should not be passed:
(1) In any genuine emergency, the overwhelming majority of U.S. citizens will stand up and do
what is right without any dictator or dictatorial department telling them what to do.
(2) The potential need for this Act is very small; the potential for abuse is extremely large.
(3) Health departments choices will be overly subject to the influences of money and politics while
adequate scientific studies will be over ridden with sales pitches including 'junk science.'
(4) Individuals will be deprived of choices. Otherwise the individual
could make choices with a
greater depth of information, gained from independent study, than is readily available to or
utilized by the health department.
(5) Doctors will be deprived of choice in recommending treatment. The golden rule of medicine
is to "do no harm". Doctors must be free to make recommendations; patients must be free to
make choices. The public health departments must first obtain their freedom to do their job
correctly which is that of assisting both the public and doctors with INDEPENDENT
information without interference motivated by either money or politics.
(6) In the case of genuine need for quarantine, which will occur rarely, hospitals are poor places
to confine patients with contagious diseases. Prison camps, no matter if the sign out front
does say 'Quarantine Facility' are notorious places for rampant disease. Thus the logical place
for quarantine is ones own home; this is especially true in our rural western states where even
our city homes have good separation between each other.
(7) In any situation calling for health care, it is fundamental that patients retain their choice as to
who their doctor will be and what treatment if any will be accepted. This health freedom must
include choice about what medical model the patient desires to follow. The public should be
guaranteed the right to full and ACCURATE information, something which is often lacking
even in normal times. This right to full and accurate information will be even further restricted
and likely made impossible to obtain in a declared emergency.
(8) MSEHPA is not about health. MSEHPA is about fear, misinformation and power, namely a government agency, the
CDC, gone crazy with lust for power. Under MSEHPA a few individuals in the CDC acting in
concert, can declare that the USA is besieged by some invisible germ, ask the cooperation of
one or more state governors, and easily obtain dictatorial powers to target minorities, disrupt
the economy of a locality, state or the entire country, confiscate guns, etc.
In Short, I see no legitimate need for MSEHPA and I see very serious disregard of the rights of
individuals to chose where they get health information and sickness care in any state where
MSEHPA passes.
I ask you to do everything in your power to see this unnecessary Act is defeated.
Thanking you for your interest in the real needs of America, I sign;
Sincerely Yours
Dewey Ross Duffel
841 Blue Slide Rd.
Thompson Falls, MT 59873-9410
Telephone: 406-827-4451 Email: duffel@blackfoot.net
Further comments and highlights of MSEHPA follow:
Section 103
Purposes.
[Emphasis added.]
(a) To authorize the
collection of data
and records, the control of property, the management of
persons, and access to communications.
(b) To facilitate the early detection of a health emergency, and allow for immediate investigation
of such an emergency by
granting access to individuals' health information under specified
circumstances.
(c) To grant State officials the authority to use and
appropriate property as necessary for the
care, treatment, and housing of patients, and for the destruction of contaminated materials.
(d) To grant State officials the
authority to provide care and treatment to persons who are ill
or who have been exposed to infection, and to separate affected individuals from the
population at large for the purpose of interrupting the transmission of infectious disease.
[Note: this says infectious disease(See Section 104, Definitions)
which need not be a
contagious disease. In other words, a non-contagious disease resulting from eating spoiled
potato salad or a contaminated hamburger would "justify" the health department ordering the
sick individual to be treated by methods of their choice. Any disease labeled 'contagious' allows
the health authorities to cause an individual or group to be removed to a "quarantine facility"
better labeled as a "prison camp."]
Section 104 Definitions.
(h) "Isolation" and "quarantine" mean the compulsory physical separation (including the
restriction of movement or confinement) of individuals and/or groups believed to have been
exposed to or known to have been infected with a contagious disease from individuals who
are believed not to have been exposed or infected, in order to prevent or limit the transmission of
the disease to others.
(l) A "public health emergency" is an occurrence or imminent threat of an illness or health
condition, caused by bioterrorism, epidemic or pandemic disease, or novel and highly fatal
infectious agent or biological toxin, that poses a substantial risk of a significant number of
human fatalities or incidents of permanent or long-term disability. such illness or health condition
includes, but is not limited to, an illness or health condition resulting from a natural disaster.
Section 301. � A state of public health emergency shall be declared by the Governor,
�"Nothing in the duty of the Governor to consult with the public health authority or the
discretion to consult with public health or other experts shall be construed to limit the Governor's
authority to act without such consultation ..."
[Where the Act contains wording regarding constitutional rights, the immediate following
paragraph removes or makes unnecessary the observance of the constitutional safeguards.]
Emergency powers.
Suspend the provisions on any regulatory statues...
Utilize all available resources of the State...
Transfer... agencies... response and recovery programs...
Mobilize all or any part of the organized militia into service of the State. ...
Identification.
..special identification for all public health personnel ...The identification shall indicate the
authority of the bearer to exercise public health functions and emergency powers during the state
of public health emergency.
Section 304 Enforcement. During a state of public health emergency, the public health authority
may request assistance in enforcing orders pursuant to this Act from the public safety authority.
The public safety authority may request assistance from the organized militia in enforcing
the orders of the public health authority.
Section 402 Access to and control of facilities and property - generally.
(c) Control of materials. To control, restrict, and regulate by rationing and using quotas,
prohibitions on shipments, price fixing, allocation or other means, the use, sale, dispensing,
distribution, or transportation of food, fuel, clothing and other commodities, alcoholic beverages,
firearms, explosives, and combustibles, as may be reasonable and necessary for
emergency response. [Now just why do health departments need to control firearms?
If the "Damn germs" are big enough to justify calling for an emergency, then the germs are
large enough to require a gun to shoot them. ]
(d) Control of roads and public areas.
(1) To prescribe routes, modes of transportation, and destinations in connection with evacuation
of persons or the provision of emergency services.
(2) To control ingress and egress to and from any stricken or threatened public area,
the movement of persons within the area, and the occupancy of premises therein, if such action is
reasonable and necessary for emergency response.
Section 405 Control of health care supplies.
(c) Distribution. During a state of public health emergency, the public health authority may
procure, store, or distribute any anti-toxins, serums, vaccines, immunizing agents, antibiotics,
and other pharmaceutical agents or medical supplies located within the State as may be
reasonable and necessary for emergency response, with the right to take immediate possession
thereof.
[Great, the public health authority may order 'tons' of expensive, unneeded pharmaceuticals,
while overlooking cheap, effective, and natural healing substances.]
Section 407 Destruction of property. To the extent practicable consistent with the protection of
public health, prior to the destruction of any property ... institute appropriate civil proceedings...
[Hum, I wonder how often it will prove to be impractical to wait before destroying property?]
Section 501 Control of individuals. During a state of public health emergency, the public health
authority shall use every available means to prevent the transmission of infectious disease and to
ensure that all cases of infectious disease are subject to proper control and treatment.
[Once again we see the word "infectious" -which may be a non-contagious disease requiring the
public health authority to 'control and treat.' Whether or not the treated individual agrees and
without any justification for public health.]
Section 502 Mandatory medical examinations. The public health authority may exercise, for such
period as the state of public heath emergency exists, the following emergency powers over
persons--
(1) [... to compel exams, testing]
(3) ...without resort to judicial or quasi-judicial authority.
(4) ...refusing to submit... misdemeanor. �subject the individual to isolation or quarantine as
provided in this Article.
(b) Health care provider assistance. To require any physician or other
health care provider to perform... shall be liable for a misdemeanor.
[So the Doctor must also comply with the order, and if the Doctors' judgment is that the test is
bogus, unnecessary or harmful that judgment under MSEHPA will be over ridden by a political
decision to order such tests. Who is it that will actually be practicing medicine?]
Section 504 Vaccination and treatment. ...
(a) In general. To compel a person to be vaccinated and/or treated for an infectious disease.
(b) Refusal. Individuals refusing to be vaccinated or treated shall be liable for a misdemeanor. If,
by reason of refusal of vaccination or treatment, the person poses a danger to the public health, he
or she may be subject to isolation or quarantine pursuant to the provisions of this Article.
[Guess who gets to determine if the person who refuses a treatment 'poses a danger to the public
health'? An unfortunate situation, currently is that the pharmaceutical companies and the public
health have a great SCAM whereby the pharmaceutical companies tell consumers that
vaccinations are "EFFECTIVE", but the public health tells anyone that is unvaccinated that they
(the unvaccinated) 'pose a RISK to the vaccinated individuals unless everyone gets the vaccine.'
So even though the vaccine IS NOT PROVEN TO WORK, if everyone (actually nearly everyone
the party line goes) gets vaccinated, then and only then will vaccines work. Under situations of
emergency powers, what little logic exists in this area will be rapidly thrown to the winds.]
Section 505 Collection of laboratory specimens; performance of tests. ...
(d) Criminal investigation. Recognizing that, during a state of public health emergency, any
specimen collected or test performed may be evidence in a criminal investigation,...
[Whoa! Where did this 'Criminal Investigation' come from? How does this relate to misdemeanor
or to public health?]
Section 702 Public Health Emergency Plan.
(a) Content. ...
(7) Guidelines for the vaccination of persons, in compliance with the provisions of this Act;
(8) Guidelines for the treatment of persons who have been exposed to or who are infected with
diseases or health conditions caused by bioterrorism, epidemic or pandemic disease, or novel and
highly fatal infectious agents or biological toxins, that pose a substantial risk of a significant
number of fatalities or incidents of permanent or long-term disability. The guidelines should
cover, but not be limited to, the following diseases: anthrax, botulism, smallpox, plague,
tularemia, and viral hemorrhagic fevers;
[Which pharmaceutical company or companies gets to "advise" the CDC and other health
departments as to what vaccine and 'medicines' are 'absolutely necessary' to deal with each of
these wonderful opportunities for profiteering? What if a person wants Homeopathic Vaccines
rather than Allopathic Vaccines? What if insufficient information exists to make an informed
choice about the vaccine?]
[I suggest this Act should be renamed, "The Model POLICE State Emergency WAR Against
the People Act."]
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