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New York lawmakers on June 10 ended the 2023 legislative session in Albany without passing any of the four pending vaccine-related bills.

This is the fourth consecutive year that grassroots efforts, including those undertaken by Children’s Health Defense (CHD), have prevented any new vaccine-related legislation from becoming codified into New York state law.

The four bills pending before the legislature that did not move forward included legislation that would have allowed:

  • S762A: Minors to be vaccinated without parental knowledge or consent.
  • S1946: Tracking of medical exemptions.
  • S1531: Mandatory tracking of all adult vaccinations.
  • S7356: Dentists to administer COVID-19 and flu shots.

Additionally, Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz permanently revoked two of his bills related to COVID-19 vaccination — one that would have required COVID-19 shots for children in grades K-12 to attend school, and one that would have required college students to get the COVID-19 vaccine.

These will not come back during the next legislative session, which is slated to begin in January 2024.

Nearly a dozen more bills related to vaccine mandates never moved an inch during the entire session.

The New York Assembly said it will hold a 2-day session before the end of June. However, the only legislation that would have any chance of getting passed during a summer session is S7356, the bill to allow dentists to administer COVID-19 AND flu shots.

The other bills would require the Senate to reconvene and, thus far, there is no indication this will happen.

Activists in New York have been battling these bills since January. On January 10, more than 1,000 activists led by CHD and CHD’s New York Chapter rallied at the Capitol in Albany.

Activists also scheduled meetings between New York residents and state lawmakers to educate the elected officials on the impacts of more than a dozen proposed bills related to vaccination.

Activists and constituents continued to meet with their lawmakers in their home districts in the months following the rally. They also made phone calls and sent emails to remind lawmakers of their position regarding vaccine-related bills.

It wasn’t until May 5 that vaccine-related legislation began to gain traction in the state legislature.

The minor consent to vaccination bill was scheduled for a vote in the Senate Health Committee on May 9. However, thousands of calls and emails from activists stopped the vote from happening. The vote was rescheduled for May 16 — the same date activists had scheduled a second rally in Albany.

When we arrived in Albany on May 16, we directed everyone to go right to the Health Committee hearing. Forty of our people were in the committee room to witness the vote, while another approximately 150 people waited in the hallway.

The debate over the minor consent bill came up first. People in the hallway began chanting “Protect parental rights” and “No!” which prompted Health Committee Chair Amy Paulin to have the door closed.

Activists working on behalf of CHD.TV filmed the vote, which was broadcast on CHD.TV and on CHD’s social media platforms:

The Defender published a report on the minor consent to vaccination bill immediately after it passed the Health Committee.

Not only did the minor consent bill pass during this committee vote, but so did the mandatory adult vaccine database bill and a medical exemption reporting bill — three bills that we had been tracking all session made it past the first committee vote hurdle in one swoop.

After the vote, we rallied in Albany in front of the Capitol. Later, we held strategy meetings on how to get the word out and influence voters in our own communities — especially in New York City, as the city controls much of the politics in Albany.

CHD New York compiled photos of all 16 lawmakers who voted yes on the minor consent bill and put it out on social media. These photos were pushed by many grassroots groups including Teachers For Choice, which did a good job of exposing the lawmakers and their support for stripping away parental protection of children.

Mona Davids of LittleAfrica News published an op-ed I wrote: “Right now lawmakers in Albany are trying to take away your parental rights!”

LittleAfrica News is an online and print publication distributed in 400 locations across New York City. It also is distributed in print across the country and the world. The African community is one of the fastest-growing immigrant communities in the city and state.

CHD Senior Staff Attorney Rolf Hazlehurst wrote a letter delivered via FedEx to all the most critical leaders in Albany and every member of the Senate Health Committee, informing them CHD had won a preliminary injunction in federal court against a similar minor consent to vaccination bill in the District of Columbia. A minor consent law like the one Albany was proposing violates the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of 1986, which requires that, prior to vaccinating a minor, the healthcare provider must provide to the minor’s representative (i.e., parent or guardian) a Vaccine Information Sheet, according to Hazlehurst.

We educated the public in Flatbush Brooklyn about the sound of drumming — an idea proposed by spirit drummer Kevin Nathaniel — and broadcast the session on CHD.TV (go to the 5-minute mark to view the footage from the streets of Brooklyn).

We then did a similar action in Queens, where five of the yes votes came from for the minor consent to vaccination bill. Activists executed the action in front of Assemblyman Edward Braunstein’s office in Bayside.

Bronx activist Curtis Cost held a multi-day action in the Bronx in front of state Sen. Gustavo Rivera’s office. The event was a wild success, educating people on the mandatory adult vaccine database bill.

Rivera is a powerful lawmaker in Albany who is the chairman of the Senate Health Committee. Activists handed out more than 1,000 flyers in both English and Spanish, which caught the attention of Rivera’s office. A sitdown meeting with Rivera and his staff is currently being discussed. Read about the actions in the Bronx at Curtis Cost’s Newsletter where multiple photos from the streets of the Bronx were published as well.