ICWA News & Views

Weekly Stories about What’s Happening in Washington State and Stories of Interest to Washingtonians by Gerald Braude

In this newsletter:

  1. An Informed Life Radio references
  2. A Question of Future Damage of COVID-19 Shots on Washington Children
  3. Government Negligence Costs Kirkland Firefighters Their Jobs

October 21 Episode of An Informed Life Radio Notes and Links

Guest: Will Winter

Guest: Monica Corrado, MA, CNC, CGP

Amy Mihaly, Family Nurse Practitioner

Mary Holland, Esq. CHD

A Question of Future Damage of COVID-19 Shots on Washington Children

The hottest news of last week was the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) independent vaccine advisory committee (ACIP) voting unanimously (15-0) to recommend adding COVID-19 shots for children as young as six months old to the new Child and Adolescent Immunization Schedule, which will be rolled out in February 2023.

An Informed Choice Washington release reflected the widespread alarm of this recommendation:

“You’ve probably heard by now the disturbing news that CDC’s ACIP has voted 15-0 to add COVID-19 shots to the schedule for all children ages six months and up, effective in February. This does not mean they are “required” for Washington children—yet.”

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis already has stated the following: “As long as I’m kicking and screaming, there will be no COVID shot mandates for your kids.”

Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin has said the decision to give the COVID-19 shots to children should be the responsibility of the parents, not schools.

Gov. Glenn Youngkin: Virginia ‘Will Not Adhere’ After CDC COVID-19 Vaccine Vote (theepochtimes.com)

In Washington, the law says that Governor Jay Inslee’s hand-picked Board of Health (BOH) is authorized to add, or remove, shots from daycare and school requirement. The BOH convened a Technical Advisory Group (TAG) last winter to consider whether to add the COVID-19 shots to Washington’s school-“required” list. After hearing days of pro-vax presentations from public health bureaucrats, the TAG nonetheless voted not to recommend the addition, citing in part the 40,000 opposition comments from the public. In turn, the BOH voted unanimously in line with the TAG recommendation.

Facing the possibility of near empty classrooms if they vote to follow the ACIP recommendation, the Board of Health may very well opt for the more subtle approach of letting the Power of Providers (POP) Initiative do the work for them.

The Washington Department of Health (DOH) launched the program on July 16, 2021, and POP has grown to over 71,000 providers across Washington state.

Power of Providers (POP) Initiative | Washington State Department of Health

Greg Engler of the DOH said, “We are calling on all licensed healthcare professionals to talk to their patients about COVID-19 vaccines. It’s one person at a time. One conversation at a time. One vaccination at a time. It’s opportunities we should not miss at the diabetes check, at the blood pressure check, at the knee repair.”
In fact, on August 26, 2022, the Washington State Medical Association (WSMA) held a webinar for healthcare providers on “Strategies To Discuss the COVID-19 Vaccine with Your Most Reluctant Patients.” Techniques discussed were as follows:

  • Presumptive Approach instead of the Participatory Approach: The presumptive approach is the attitude for the healthcare provider to presume the patient or parent is going to go along with getting the vaccine whereas the participatory approach is to distinctly ask whether the patient wants the vaccine. “It’s time for your flu and Covid shots, the nurse will be right in with those.”
  • The Bundled instead of Unbundled Approach: It’s best to suggest to the patient or parent that, besides the shots that are due, the COVID-19 shot is also available.
  • A “3A” approach: Ask about concerns, Acknowledge the concerns, and then Advise.
  • Healthcare providers should tell their patients that they, themselves, and their family members have taken the COVID-19 shots.
  • If patients refuse the COVID-19 shots, healthcare providers are advised not to remove them from their practice, for that runs the risk of the patients finding a practitioner who would support their vaccine-hesitant view.
  • The two unfounded futuristic areas. First, more COVID-19 boosters are likely forthcoming, and this shows that the COVID-19 shots are becoming part of a needed regular schedule to keep oneself healthy, so it’s best to get one now. Second, the COVID-19 shots protect people from severe illness and other things that we may not know about yet.
  • The importance of creating a vaccine-positive clinic culture: The best way to do this is for healthcare providers to commit to frequent COVID-19 vaccine messaging that balances the media anti-vax information. (Since when is the media anti-vax?)

Parents can safely presume that their healthcare providers will not be referring to CDC’s Vaccine Adverse Event Recording System (VAERS).
As of October 7, 2022, the VAERS data included a total of 31,470 reports of deaths following the COVID-19 shots, including 205 in Washington. Two of those reported deaths in Washington were of a seventeen-year-old girl and a seven-year-old boy.
Washington has had 119 cases of myocarditis reported, and 30 of them are in the age range of six to seventeen.
Washington has had 98 cases of pericarditis reported and 11 of them are in the age range of six to seventeen.
Washington has had 123 seizures reported and 14 of them are in the age range of six to seventeen. Furthermore, a girl listed at 1.33 years old reported a seizure on July 26, 2022 following one dose of Moderna.

Below is the submitted write-up to VAERS:

“The day following her first does of the COVID-19 vaccine, we were battling fevers up and down all day, but right before we put her to bed, she was behaving abnormally and was very lethargic. We kept her up until we were able to give her another dose of Tylenol. When we put her to bed, we put her pulse oxygen monitor on. While she was sleeping, her levels dropped into the 70s. When we went to check on her, she was not responding in the way we had hoped. Her temperature was at 103.5, and it is believed that she had a fever induced seizure. Paramedics came to our home, and we noticed that she was unresponsive, and they advised that we take her directly to the emergency room. Once she was evaluated at the emergency room, they gave her a dose of Ibuprofen as her temperature was still elevated. They monitored her for an hour or so after that and determined that she was safe to be sent home. She continued to run fevers for a few days after and is finally getting back to normal levels as of today, July 28, 2022.”

Government Negligence Costs Kirkland Firefighters Their Jobs

Under the premise that the COVID-19 shots would protect others in the workforce, Kirkland Mayor Penny Sweet sent out the following December 2021 Holiday letter that led to the termination or early retirement of a dozen Kirkland firefighters:

“As a public servant and representative of the citizens of Kirkland, working with my peers on the council, the last two years have been incredibly difficult, as I know you are all aware. Every policy decision we have made with management has been to assure the safest and most science driven outcomes that we possibly can. The decision, moving forward with separating from unvaccinated firefighters is one of those.”

On March 7, 2022, Kirkland resident Alexia Trapp wrote to the Kirkland City Council about the injustice of such a decision:

“I care about this issue because as a tax payer, I do not condone having to pay overtime to our understaffed and overworked first responders. It is unfair for both the vaccinated and unvaccinated and further divides our communities and civil servants that support our great city. I am alarmed that this foolish vaccine policy is purging our most experienced and dedicated first responders. This is not only unethical, discriminatory and irrational, but also a recipe for disaster. We know that the vaccine does not stop the spread or the infection of this virus – it clearly has become political when science is ignored. This unlawful and discriminatory mandate needs to end immediately, and these civil servants should be given back pay along with their jobs back now.”

At a July 19, 2022 Kirkland City Council meeting, Kirkland resident Katherine Freire , who is also an activist for Informed Choice Washington, made a similar plea to the city council:

“The Kirkland firefighters have been asking month-after-month for your assistance, your intervention. What impact have your inactions had to our firefighters health, their mental health, their safety? What impact does this have toward our community? What are you waiting for you? You guys have spent$ $1.2 million on overtime; you’ve completely blown out your budget. Lastly, I say enough is enough. People, we need to start standing up. The city council does not care what you think. They think they can wait you out.”

At that same meeting, Council Member Toby Nixon passed the responsibility of the letting go of Kirkland firefighters to the Kirkland city manager.

“We have had multiple people come to us over the past few weeks and accuse of inaction as though we actually had the ability to take action. The fact is state law prohibits us from taking action.” He then read a section from RCW35A.13.080 about city manager interference by council members in which neither the city council nor its committees or members are allowed to give orders to the city manager, not publicly or privately. “So it is a question of the council member not breaking the law,” Nixon said.

Sure enough, in a September 2, 2022 letter to the terminated Kirkland Firefighters, Kirkland City Manager Kurt Triplett took on that responsibility:

“To the extent that you have been sending correspondence directly to the city councilmembers, I’ll note that the council does not have the authority to make employment decisions for the city related to firefighters. That authority is granted by statute directly to the city manager pursuant to RCW35A.13.080. This statute prohibits councilmembers directing the city manager to appoint or remove anyone from city employment. The city manager and fire chief evaluated whether you and other unvaccinated firefighters could be accommodated and determined that it was an undue hardship to the city to provide a reasonable accommodation given the health, safety, operational, financial and administrative burdens and impacts, and thereafter the city manager and fire chief made the decision to separate you and other unvaccinated firefighters. The city council had no role in the decision. That said, the city council has been kept apprised throughout the process about the decision the city manager and staff have made.”

The middle of the above statement echoed the mayor’s premise for firing these firefighters for not taking the COVID-19 jab: To protect others in the workforce.

The Kirkland firefighters then appealed their case to the United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). On September 27, 2022, the terminated Kirkland firefighters received a determination from Isabel Jeremiah, who investigated the case for the Seattle Field Office of the EEOC. Her premise for denying their appeal was the same as those from the Kirkland mayor and city manager, which was to protect others in the workforce:

“Costs to be considered include not only direct monetary costs, but also the burden on the conduct of the employer’s business—including, in this instance, the risk of the spread of COVID-19 to other employees or to the public.”

Unfortunately for the Kirkland firefighters and taxpayers, Kirkland Mayor Penny Sweet, Kirkland City Manager Kurt Triplett, and EEOC Investigator Isabel Jeremiah failed to look at the federal government research data showing the uncertainty on whether the COVID-19 shots prevent transmission of the disease. Had they done so, one would think that such a factor as transmission uncertainty would keep them from taking on the risky venture of dissolving the firefighters’ livelihoods and the safety of the community.

The first clear evidence that the COVID-19 shots may not prevent transmission came from a December 10, 2020 Federal Drug and Administration (FDA) briefing document for the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine. During the Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee Meeting, the following was revealed under 8.2:

Vaccine effectiveness against transmission of SARS-CoV-2 Data are limited to assess the effect of the vaccine against transmission of SARS-CoV-2 from individuals who are infected despite vaccination.

Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee December 10, 2020 Meeting Announcement – 12/10/2020 – 12/10/2020 | FDA

An FDA news release on December 11, 2020 for Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 shot affirmed this uncertainty, for the last sentence under the “FDA Evaluation of Available Effectiveness Data” heading reads as follows:

“At this time, data are not available to make a determination about how long the vaccine will provide protection, nor is there evidence that the vaccine prevents transmission of SARS-CoV-2 from person to person.”

FDA Takes Key Action in Fight Against COVID-19 By Issuing Emergency Use Authorization for First COVID-19 Vaccine | FDA

As for the Moderna COVID-19 shot, the Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee Meeting on December 17, 2022 revealed an FDA Briefing Document in which page forty-nine read as follows:

8.2 Unknown Benefits/Data Gaps
Data are limited to assess the effect of the vaccine against transmission of SARS-CoV-2 from individuals who are infected despite vaccination

Page forty-nine also revealed, “Data are limited to assess the effect of the vaccine in preventing asymptomatic infection as measured by detection of the virus and/or detection of antibodies against non-vaccine antigens that would indicate infection rather than an immune response induced by the vaccine.”

According to a Pamela Popper newsletter dated April 12 2021,the World Health Organization (WHO) had written the following on its web site in 2020: “We do not know whether the vaccines will prevent infection and protect against onward transmission.

The current WHO site has the following question and answer:

“Does it prevent infection and transmission?”
“There is only modest impact on preventing mild infections and transmission, particularly in the context of Omicron. 

What this means is had the firefighters given into the mandates, they still could have passed COVID-19 onto others. And the remaining firefighters are capable of transmitting to others.

As for the “trusted” government scientists, Dr. Anthony Fauci was quoted in a July 28, 2021 CNBC article: “We know now as a fact that [vaccinated people with Covid] are capable of transmitting the infection to someone else.”

Dr. Fauci on why CDC changed guidelines: Delta is a ‘different virus’ (cnbc.com)

Even as one of the most publicized proponents of the COVID-19 shots, Dr. Peter Hotez said the following in Medpage Today on November 5, 2020:

“Even as the first vaccines become more widely available they may be only partially protective to reduce severity of illness and won’t stop transmission anyway so we won’t need to pay people for that purpose. So I don’t foresee a reason to pay anyone to get vaccinated against COVID-19.”

Should We Pay People to Take the COVID-19 Vaccine? | MedPage Today

So, if Dr. Hotez recommended against paying people to take the jabs for they “won’t stop transmission,” why did the Penny Sweet, Kurt Triplett, and Isabel Jeremiah go even further by mandating the jabs?

At the September 27, 2022 Kirkland City Council meeting, Katherine Freire even called out the council’s negligence when it came to following the United States Constitution. During her forty second address, she held up a copy of the constitution and said the following:

“Because, you see, there is something when you broke your oath, when you spoke to uphold the oath of office, for without this oath of this office, this constitution is worthless, This is why, we the people have you take an oath of office that we knew that you would honor the oath of office that you will keep our constitution. Did you keep our constitution? Because there’s a penalty that happens when you don’t keep it.”

As Freire stomped away, Penny Sweet told the crowd, “I’m sorry, but we do not allow for an applause in the audience.”

At the October 4, 2022 Kirkland City Council meeting, Sweet wore a black mask as she took the following oral shots from Freire:

“I would like to read parts of Mayor Penny Sweet’s holiday letter for the public record.

‘First off, I want to express my gratitude that the large majority of you have chosen to be vaccinated and report it. However, I cannot express how very disappointed I am in those of you refusing to do so. I realize that it is a choice but as someone who spent a career in healthcare it is one that I would expect care givers to embrace.’ Is it really a choice, Penny? When you are violating our constitutional rights, and just to be clear what you are doing is coercion. You then state, ‘Getting vaccinated is something about which to be proud.’ What are you? Their mother? And in closing you say, ‘As a public servant and representative of the citizens of Kirkland, working with my peers on the council, Every policy decision we have made with management has been to assure the safest and most science driven outcomes that we possibly can. The decision, moving forward with separating from unvaccinated firefighters is one of those.’ Katherine then responded to that part of the letter:

“Regardless of how that has impacted our community? By your own admission, you have direct involvement in your separation. In closing, I would like to point out to you the United States Supreme Court 416 U.S. 232 (1974) Scheuer versus Rhodes 416 U.S. 232, says ‘When a state officer acts under a state in a manner that is violative to the federal constitution, he comes in conflict with a superior authority of that constitution, and he is in that case stripped of his official and representative character and is subject in his person to the consequence of his individual conduct. The state has no power to impart him with immunity from that responsibility to that supreme authority of the United States Constitution.’ My hope is that every firefighter returns the favor.”

Governor Jay Inslee may be coming to Penny Sweet’s rescue when his lifting of all COVID-19 emergency proclamations go into effect by October 31, which is eight days before the midterm elections. The Kirkland City Manager’s Office issued a memorandum on the day of this October 4 city council meeting, stating that, in alignment with the governor’s announcement, the city would also end its emergency proclamation by October 31. After this city proclamation, the city manager, Kurt Triplett, would recommend removing the standing COVID-19 update from the special presentation section of the council’s agenda, starting with the November council meetings.

Under the heading “Status of Unvaccinated Firefighters,” the memorandum read as follows:

One important change resulting from the governor’s announcement is the lifting of the state mandate that professionals who provide medical services, including firefighter/emergency medical technicians, are required to be vaccinated for COVID-19.

This memorandum would not have been necessary had Penny Sweet, Kurt Triplett, and Isabel Jeremiah paid attention to the government documents that showed the uncertainty pertaining to whether the COVID-19 shots prevented transmission. With this in mind as the process of the possible rehiring of the Kirkland firefighters takes place, these three government officers may want to read and learn from an October 23, 2022 essay by Jeffrey A. Tucker in the Brownstone Institute, titled “Sorry Seems To Be the Hardest Word.”

Sorry Seems to Be the Hardest Word  ⋆ Brownstone Institute

In the essay, Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan apologized for the lockdowns in April 2020. He said the following:

“When we sought a total lockdown without thinking about the consequences for the daily wage earners, the street vendors, the laborers, all of whom face poverty and hunger for themselves and their families. May Allah forgive us our sin of neglecting our dispossessed and poor citizens.”