How to convince a State Legislature that they have been wrong in 4 minutes

My testimony in support of bill H734

Last month I gave a 15 minute presentation to MA state house representatives in support of two separate bills, both that sought to ensure that Covid-19 vaccines could never be required for employment, entry into public buildings or state borders. Only one Representative attended in person.

It was a challenge to compress all that we now know into a summary that could be understood by a person without any scientific background. I and my friend John Beaudoin, Sr. did our best:

An effort to Educate Massachusetts State Reps hamstrung by biased reporting

This week, the committee heard public commentary around Bill H734 which

• prohibits requiring proof of Covid-19 vaccination for entry into MA, public buildings and places of public accommodation

• prohibits any private business from requiring proof of Covid-19 vaccination as a condition of entry to the business or access to employment by such business

• prohibits requiring proof of Covid-19 vaccination as a condition of enrollment, access to campus or attendance of in-person classes for public and private schools, colleges or universities

Presenters were given four minutes each. I chose to testify by zoom which allowed me some time to recover from a 24 hour shift the day before.

How does one convince a legislative committee that their entire view of the Covid-19 mRNA vaccines was wrong in just a few minutes?

Rather than showing them the key points from the Pfizer trial data that demonstrated that most symptomatic participants were never tested for Covid and that serious adverse events were ignored while meaningless metrics like “efficacy” were pushed on a frightened public without qualification or explanation, I decided to explain how the second pillar of ethical medical practice, Informed Consent, was violated on a massive scale.

I modeled how I would have obtained informed consent from a patient that was deciding on the Covid vaccination way back in June, 2021, given what should have been known to all the primary care providers and pharmacy techs at Walgreens, CVS and pop-up clinics at the time:

• The vaccines would not prevent infection

• The vaccines were NOT tested for stopping transmission, so there was no known benefit to friends, family or the public by getting vaccinated

• Though the Pfizer interim trial data showed a slight protection from Covid-19 death, there was greater mortality from all causes if vaccinated

• Nobody knew (or knows) what is in the vaccines

• Pfizer received over 1200 reports of death following vaccination. None have been investigated

• If an injury resulted from vaccination the manufacturers were immune from liability

Obviously these known facts were never disclosed to the public by those who offered the “miracle vaccine” in their offices, clinics and pharmacies. If a practitioner does not adequately inform their patients of the possible risks of an intervention and an untoward event occurs, the practitioner is open to litigation in a malpractice suit. It was the failure of the system to recognize uncertainty and patients’ rights that destroyed ethical medical practice in my state and around the world. Bill H734 would prevent this from ever happening again, even if providers choose to remain tragically uninformed.

Here’s a recording of my testimony from HealthRightsMA on twitter that can be retweeted or shared with your MA representative:

https://twitter.com/HealthRightsMA/status/1668752332971028483

or on Rumble and FB.

If you live in my state of MA, please visit healthrightsma.org where you can get involved here.

If you wish to support similar bills in your own state, please visit righttorefuse.org.

It’s unclear how my or other’s pleas fell on the Representatives. Coincidentally, one committee member, Rep Francisco Paulino recognized me at the end of my testimony. He said:

“I just want to say thank you. One of the babies that you helped bring onto this planet was mine, my first born, Jackson. Thank you so much.”

The transcript of my commentary:

“Thank you for your attention. My name is Madhava Setty. I have held a license to practice medicine in MA for 15 years. I have been a Board Certified Anesthesiologist for 20. I give my testimony today freely. I am not being compensated in any way by any third party for my commentary. I am speaking out on behalf of the residents of MA whom I have cared for for most of my career as a doctor.

It is vitally important that bill H734 gets passed into law immediately.

There isn’t enough time to present the volumes of data from official sources that indicate that much is still unknown about the Covid-19 vaccines. However it should be clear that differing opinions around the safety and utility of this intervention are emerging and emerging rapidly.

How does one proceed ethically when so much is unknown?

This is not a novel question in medicine. It is one that we, as medical providers, deal with every single day. Our tried and true approach to this quandary is, in fact, the second pillar of ethical medical practice: Informed Consent.

Only after a person demonstrates that they are adequately informed can an intervention, any intervention, be offered. This is because medicine is largely a mystery. We deal with probabilities. We never know which patient may be of the unlucky few who get injured from a procedure or medicine that we call “safe”.

Let’s go back in time two years from today, to June 2021. Roughly half of the adults in this country had been vaccinated against Covid-19. I suggest that very few, if any, were properly informed prior to getting the primary series.

Why? It’s because the data was irrelevant to many people. Many got the vaccine because they had to. They needed it in order to work, to go to school, to participate in society. It were these unprecedented restrictions that quickly eroded the ethics in medicine here and around the world. That is why this bill is so important.

I have personally taken care of over 20 thousand patients in my career. I obtained informed consent from all of them, whether it be for anesthesia for a heart bypass operation or an epidural for a woman in labor.

I will now entertain you with how informed consent should have been obtained two years ago, knowing what was known then. (The citations are included in my written testimony).”

“Doctor Setty, will the vaccine prevent me from getting Covid-19?”

No. Although that is what the initial data seemed to show, we now know that it won’t.

“Will it protect my family and friends if I get the shot?”

We don’t know. The vaccine was never tested to see if it would prevent transmission.

“Is there a lower chance that I will die of Covid if I get vaccinated?”

Data from the vaccine trials indicate that there is a tiny reduction in mortality from Covid if vaccinated. However the same study showed that more people died from all causes if they got the vaccine. That is the best data we have to date.

“What is in the vaccine?”

I don’t know. Neither does the FDA. It’s proprietary information.

“Has anyone been injured from the vaccine?”

We don’t know this either. Pfizer’s post-marketing analysis shows that they received over 1,200 reports of death following Covid-19 vaccination with their product. None of them have been investigated.

“If I get injured from the vaccine, who will pay for my medical bills? Pfizer?”

Unfortunately, no. The vaccine manufacturers are immune from any liability under the PREP act.

I ask you now, how many discussions like this occurred in the offices of primary care physicians or at the local CVS two years ago? I would say zero. This is due to three reasons:

Doctors are trained to follow the edicts and guidelines coming from agencies like the CDC.

Any doctor who accurately expressed what was known was labeled a misinformation spreader and risked losing their license.

Patients often do not know enough to ask the right questions. It is incumbent upon the provider to offer relevant information. Because few details were known, doctors were reluctant or unable to provide what they knew.

The point I am trying to make here is that our citizens were not adequately informed about a medical intervention that they were forced to accept in order to participate in society and provide for their families. 

If there is no option, why ask questions, especially if the answers may be disquieting?

Some MA residents chose to get vaccinated. Others didn’t have a choice. They were coerced because their rights of life, liberty and pursuit of happiness, rights spelled out in our own Declaration of Independence, were trampled upon without any hearing or public discussion. 

Bill H734 protects our residents from this form of medical coercion, something that would be indefensible in a malpractice court.

This Bill needs to be signed into law so that this will never happen again.”

References:

1. Table S4, Six month results as published in the New England Journal of Medicine

2.  Pfizer post marketing analysis