Florida Senate - 2021 SENATOR AMENDMENT
Bill No. HB 1-B
Ì741132mÎ741132
LEGISLATIVE ACTION
Senate . House
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Senator Farmer moved the following:
1 Senate Amendment (with title amendment)
2
3 Delete everything after the enacting clause
4 and insert:
5 Section 1. The Legislature declares that the
6 misrepresentation of science and the partisan politics that
7 prompted the consideration of proposed laws that ban, restrict,
8 or penalize mandatory vaccines by private businesses are
9 condemned.
10 Section 2. This act shall take effect upon becoming a law.
11
12 ================= T I T L E A M E N D M E N T ================
13 And the title is amended as follows:
14 Delete everything before the enacting clause
15 and insert:
16 A bill to be entitled
17 An act relating to COVID-19 mandates; providing
18 legislative findings; providing an effective date.
19
20 WHEREAS, the United States of America and the State of
21 Florida have a long history of mandates and regulations tied to
22 the health and safety of citizens during outbreaks and
23 pandemics, including mandatory quarantine and vaccination, and
24 WHEREAS, during the Revolutionary War, 90 percent of deaths
25 among American troops were caused by disease, with the smallpox
26 virus being the most vicious of all, to the point that General
27 George Washington mandated inoculation of all American troops,
28 beginning with the Battles of Morristown and Princeton, and that
29 action is credited with victory at the Battle of Saratoga, which
30 tipped the scales of the war, and
31 WHEREAS, in 1889, Leon County ordered quarantines to
32 protect local residents from the outbreak of yellow fever, and
33 WHEREAS, in 1895, the State of Florida empowered the
34 president of the Florida State Board of Health with the duty to
35 investigate, and the authority to quarantine during, emerging
36 viruses, including yellow fever and cholera, and other
37 infectious diseases, and this authority was expanded further in
38 1901 and 1906, and
39 WHEREAS, in 1971, the State of Florida enacted a law
40 ordering the State Board of Education to require immunization of
41 all children against a litany of dangerous diseases, including
42 polio, smallpox, diphtheria, pertussis, and tetanus, as a
43 condition of attendance in the public schools, and
44 WHEREAS, the principle of separation of powers through the
45 establishment of three separate but equal branches of government
46 is one of the fundamental underpinnings of our nation and our
47 state, and
48 WHEREAS, s. 1, Article IX of the State Constitution
49 guarantees that adequate provision must be made by law for a
50 uniform, efficient, safe, secure, and high-quality system of
51 free public schools, and
52 WHEREAS, s. 4, Article IX of the State Constitution
53 establishes local control over education by granting local
54 county school boards the authority to operate, control, and
55 supervise all free public schools within their school districts,
56 and
57 WHEREAS, the State of Florida has a long and distinguished
58 history of protecting and promoting public records and Sunshine
59 Laws, including the first public records law in 1909, which
60 provided the right of inspection of formal records and opened
61 meetings to all Floridians, followed by expansion of that law in
62 1967, and recognition of the importance of public records laws
63 by their enshrinement in the State Constitution in 1992, and
64 WHEREAS, world history reminds us of long conflicts between
65 religion and science, beginning with the Inquisition and
66 continuing to the Renaissance, during which artists, professors,
67 and others were persecuted as heretics for depicting or
68 believing in science or other newly emerging truths that
69 conflicted with religious beliefs, and during which those
70 believing in science were forced underground to avoid
71 persecution, jail, or death, and
72 WHEREAS, irrational hysteria against science reached
73 perhaps an all-time high during the time of the first smallpox
74 vaccines in England, where unreasonable mistrust of the newly
75 developed vaccine included false stories of births of half-cow
76 babies, and
77 WHEREAS, today, we have seen an increase in entirely
78 unfounded rumors and the citing of false science regarding the
79 dangers of vaccines, claims that exceed the dangers of COVID-19
80 itself, and
81 WHEREAS, all objectively established and recognized science
82 is unanimous as to the inherent and extreme dangers of COVID-19
83 and as to the fact that vaccines represent our country’s best
84 option to avoid extreme sickness and death, and
85 WHEREAS, since 2020, the Senate has followed the Centers
86 for Disease Control and Prevention and Food and Drug
87 Administration protocols and recommendations for protection
88 against and testing for infection of COVID-19, including the
89 institution of mask mandates and mandatory testing for all
90 Senators and staff, and
91 WHEREAS, former President Donald Trump and, now, Governor
92 Ron DeSantis have embarked on a path of misrepresentation of
93 established science and the perpetuation of fraud on the
94 American people, all in the name of red-meat, partisan politics
95 at the expense of the very health and lives of all Americans
96 and, in the case of Governor DeSantis, all Floridians, and
97 WHEREAS, the hypocrisy and inconsistency of our current
98 Legislature is best seen when comparing proposed anti-vaccine
99 mandates that have been filed and promoted under the guise of
100 the right to privacy and independence when the same Legislature
101 and Governor seek to eliminate a woman’s right to determine her
102 own medical health, and
103 WHEREAS, data, statistics, and current evidence show that
104 such places as schools, where mask mandates have been invoked,
105 have had markedly lower infection rates than places without mask
106 requirements, and
107 WHEREAS, recent data and polling reveal that a strong
108 majority of Floridians favor mask mandates in crowded public
109 spaces, including schools, and that a majority of Floridians
110 have been vaccinated, NOW, THEREFORE,