Senate Bill (SB) 866, filed by Democratic State Sen. Scott Weiner, sought to lower the age of consent for all vaccinations to 15 years old. However, he acknowledged that his bill was "several votes short of 41" and that there was no "viable path" for "those final few votes." (Related: California to start vaccinating 12-year-old children without parental consent.)
"When we first introduced SB 866, it was unclear if the bill would make it out of a single committee. Instead, the bill passed the full Senate and made it all the way to the [California] Assembly floor, coming within just a few votes of passage," Weiner wrote in a statement. But with the turn of events, the state lawmaker "made the difficult decision not to call up SB 866 for a vote on the Assembly floor."
Weiner also pointed his fingers at the "small but highly vocal and organized minority of anti-vaxxers," whom he accused of "harassment and misinformation, including death threats against me and teen advocates."
"The anti-vaxxers may have prevailed in this particular fight, but the broader fight for science and health continues," he said. "This coalition isn't going anywhere."
Health freedom advocates, meanwhile, celebrated the victory.
Facts Law Truth Justice Founder Nicole Pearson said SB 866's defeat "was not the product of a minority, fringe, extremist group. It was the result of thousands of tireless hours of millions of Californians uniting, educating and empowering each other, and rising up together to take our seats at the political table where we belong and have the right to be."
"Years of grassroots activism have finally fortified enough legislatorial spines in Sacramento that assembly members are supporting children's health rather than Pharma profits," said Robert F. Kennedy, founder and chairman of Children's Health Defense. "We beat Big Pharma on its home turf. If we can win in California, we can protect kids everywhere."
State Sen. Richard Pan also put a similar vaccine bill on hold
State Sen. Richard Pan, Weiner's Democratic colleague, also filed a similar bill. The state lawmaker's SB 871, which he filed in January 2022, sought to mandate COVID-19 vaccines for school children. However, he was forced to put the proposal on hold four months after introducing it due to low COVID-19 vaccine uptake among Californian children.
"Unfortunately, COVID vaccination rates – particularly among children – are currently insufficient. [The] state needs to focus its [efforts] on increasing access to COVID vaccinations for children through physicians and other health providers who care for children and … [giving] families accurate information about the COVID vaccine," the senator said in an April 14 statement."
"Until children's access to COVID vaccination is greatly improved, I believe that a statewide policy to require COVID vaccination in schools is not the immediate priority," said Pan.
Edwin Kirby, communications director for Pan, echoed the state's senator's sentiment about COVID-19 vaccination.
"Given that the state's vaccination rate among five- to 11-year-olds is at 34 percent, essentially, it doesn't make sense until we deal with these access issues for the younger kids to move forward with the bill," he said. "We thought there would be a lot more uptake by this point."
Under SB 817, students who wish to enroll in either a private or public elementary or secondary school must be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 vaccine prior to their admission. The law would apply to all schoolchildren from kinder to twelfth grade in the Golden State.
VaccineWars.com has more stories about people standing up against vaccines.
Watch Peggy Hall of "The Healthy American" urge Californians to stand up against SB 866 below.
This video is from THE HEALTHY AMERICAN channel on Brighteon.com.
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Senator Richard Pan is pushing a bill that would make it a "crime" for anyone to question vaccines.
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