It is 6:40 am EST and parents are still testifying in the Connecticut Capitol in Hartford against HR 5044, a bill that would eliminate the religious exemption from vaccine mandates to attend school. They began testifying yesterday at 10:30 am.

     God bless these warriors.

     This horrible bill they are fighting, in addition to eliminating a precious human right, is an effort by the Connecticut Democrats, who control all three branches of the Connecticut state government, to give the drug and vaccine cartel of Merck, Pfizer, Sanofi and Glaxo complete control over what is injected into the children of Connecticut.  The Democrats are selling our kids to drug companies. It is as simple as that.

     All four of those companies are serial felons having paid $35 billion in penalties, fines and settlements in the US since 2000. And they produce 100% of the vaccines required to attend school in most states. The drug industry is the largest source of political campaign donations (bribes), and the largest advertiser in the US. They own the corporate media, and the Democratic party.

     The Democrats have passed similar laws in California, New York and Maine, and have attempted it without success (so far) in Washington, Oregon, Vermont, and New Mexico. They spectacularly failed twice in New Jersey. The Democrats recently submitted bills in Illinois and Virginia. Everyone of these states have across the board Democratic party control of their state governments.  

     These bills are not happening in states with even one of the branches of Government controlled by the Republicans. Not that long ago, vaccine rights was a bi-partisan issue. In fact, in New York and some other states, most of our friends were usually liberal Democrats. Not anymore.

     We didn't change. The issue didn't change. The Democrats changed.

     Last night in the Democratic presidential candidates' debate Bernie Sanders and others talked about how they were going to take on the drug companies and their extortionate drug prices. That's about as likely as crystal meth dealers calling for the end of the Mexican drug cartel.

     In New York, Governor Andrew Cuomo has a plan to allow minors (without parental consent) to get prescriptions for Truvada, a drug marketed as preventing HIV infections, and have the taxpayers pick up the tab. According to the CDC, Truvada and condoms are equally effective. The big difference though is that Truvada costs $24,000 per year and must be taken everyday to be effective. Everywhere else in the world Truvada costs $1200. That's correct, the price of this drug is 20x the world price.

     The price of insulin has skyrocketed from $21 per vial in 1996, to over $400, with 30 million Americans needing insulin daily. Across the country Democrats are trying to mandate Merck's Gardasil HPV vaccine to attend school. Gardasil is the most expensive vaccine ever marketed in the US, and two doses are required. And if you believe the research coming out of the UK, it neither prevents cervical cancer, and in fact is the probable cause of a huge spike in the number of women in their twenties getting cervical cancer in the UK.

     Not all Democrats are drug company shills, and there is no shortage of Republicans who would be happy to do the Cartel's bidding. But there has been a huge shift obvious to anyone willing to look.

     The drug cartel can throw around their money, and there will be no shortage of pimps willing to take it in exchange for our children, but I can't help but think a movement that can produce people willing to wait almost 24 hours to testify is bound to succeed.  Thank you good people of Connecticut.

jgilmore@autismactionnetwork.org