Guide to Effective Public Comments

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UPDATE: On April 6 We’re having a Zoom Webinar on Writing Effective Public Comments. Join Us!

ICWA Webinar: What to say to the WA State Board of Health

Listen to ideas from experienced activists, scientists, and healthcare providers on how to interact with the WA State Board of Health.

Time: Apr 6, 2022 05:30 PM Pacific Time (US and Canada)

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Are you motivated to send a message to your legislator or a government agency but not sure how to be effective?

We created this quick guide to help you. It’s much easier than you may think.

For our example, we’ll show you how to write an effective email to the WA State Board of Health regarding their upcoming April 13, 2022 meeting — when they will be voting on whether or not to add COVID-19 shots to daycare and school entry requirement. Absurd, right? But that’s what they’re doing, and so we must all let them know how we feel about it. Politely, professionally, and passionately.

Send YOUR comments to: wsboh@sboh.wa.gov

This guide works for drafting oral public comments, too. Follow the same format, except you should begin with your name and location. Practice reading out loud, timing yourself. The range is between 2 and 5 minutes, with most public comment situations limiting you to 3 minutes.

Personal impact stories can be about:

  • vaccine injuries of those you personally know
  • what you will do if the shots are added (file a religious exemption, pull your children out of school, explore legal options against the mandate and/or against the board)
  • how the focus on ineffective “vaccines” to the neglect of early treatment and individual health status caused you or a loved one harm
  • how if they do add the shot to the schedule despite their inability to prevent transmission and their unprecedented level of risk, you will lose any shred of trust you had in public health

Give enough detail to show your story is authentic and personal, but keep in mind your letter will become part of the public record. Do not include anything you don’t want made public. You may not want to include your full physical mailing address (but do give your city and state), or your phone number. Send from an email address that you don’t mind being public. Offer to provide more detail if they contact you.

If you prefer not to share a personal story, try an appeal to reason in that portion of your letter. You could ask:

  • Since the minimal protection afforded by the shots wanes in a matter of weeks or months, will you require multiple shots every school year? How will school manage the paperwork and tracking?
  • Since the shots don’t prevent transmission, will a Covid shot requirement mean every case of Covid forces an entire class or school to quarantine for five days?
  • Since studies are showing a 4th booster dose is leading to “immune exhaustion”, what will schools do the second year of any shot requirement?
  • How can you hope to stop future virus variants with shots that target a strain no longer circulating? That have been shown to have negative efficacy for the latest variants?
  • Does it make sense to mandate a product the CDC has acknowledged can cause myocarditis, blood clots, Bell’s palsy, and Guillain-Barré syndrome in children?
  • Does it make sense to mandate a product that hasn’t completed Phase 3 trial studies and that has no long term studies? That uses a mRNA technology never used as a “vaccine” before?

It can be tempting to include everything in your letter, but we encourage you to choose three points that speak most to your heart. The Board has been sent—literally—hundreds of thousands of pages of data and studies, links to videos and podcasts, over the past two years. They have information. What they need now is YOUR voice, YOUR concerns, YOUR personal stories, added to the voice of others. We the people.

Consider cc’ing others on your letter. Who? Your legislators, mayor, local school board. Whoever you think would benefit from hearing what you have to say.

You can provide your citations to your key points as hyperlinked footnotes or attach pages to your one-pager. Here are some resources to explore for studies and data:

Click HERE to hear Bernadette, Xavier, and Bob discuss drafting an effective letter on the March 25, 2022 episode of An Informed Life Radio.

 

 

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