Dear Ms. Collins:

The following comments are submitted on behalf of Children's Health Defense, Virginia Chapter. The mission of Children's Health Defense, Virginia Chapter is to restore and protect the health of children by eliminating exposures to environmental toxins, holding responsible parties accountable, and establishing safeguards to prevent future harm to children's health. As such, we strongly oppose the pending citizen petition that requests the Virginia Department of Health to consider mandating COVID-19 vaccines for all school employees and for all students for whom the vaccine is approved. 

The below points are just a few of the ethical and scientific reasons Children's Health Defense, Virginia Chapter opposes the mandating of any COVID-19 vaccine:

1) The ethic of informed consent includes the rights of individuals to accept or to decline a pharmaceutical product or medical intervention. This right has been universally affirmed as a human right by ethicists, medical societies, Virginia regulation, institutional patient bills of rights, and the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

2) Phase III clinical trials for the available COVID-19 shots will not be completed until April 6 ,2023(Pfizer/BioNTech), Februrary 14, 2023 (Moderna) and January 3, 2023 (Johnson and Johnson). 

3) These are new pharmaceutical products and there are no animal studies or long-term safety profiles. Specifically, it is not known whether these experimental products may cause autoimmune disease, allergy, cancer, reproductive harm, or cardiac, vascular or neurodevelopmental disorders. 

4) The natural immunity of those who have recovered from COVID-19 has been shown to be robust and durable. 

5) Vaccinated individuals are capable of contracting the SARS-CoV2 virus and transmitting it to others. 

6) In June of 2021, the CDC reported a "likely association" between injection with the mRNA COVID-19 shot and heart inflammation. The FDA subsequently required that a warning about myocarditis and pericarditis be added to the manufacturer's insert. Myocarditis and pericarditis are inflammatory conditions that can lead to cardiac arrhythmia and death. Individuals have the right to decide whether the risks associated with this pharmaceutical product are ones they are willing to accept for themselves or their child(ren). 

We thank you for the opportunity to comment. 

Sincerely

Caroline Kennedy on behalf of Children's Health Defense, Virginia Chapter