Florida Senate - 2021 SENATOR AMENDMENT Bill No. HB 1-B Ì741132mÎ741132 LEGISLATIVE ACTION Senate . House . . . Floor: 1/FC/2R . 11/17/2021 07:08 PM . ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— 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,