I absolutely OPPOSE amendment 12 VAC 5-90 which requires the reporting of detailed personal information of patients with confirmed or suspected flu.

This is an absolute violation of doctor/patient privacy, not to mention this amendment is not appropriate for fast-tracking as stated in Va. Code § 2.2-4012.1 Fast-track rule making process allows for "rules that are expected to be noncontroversial” to be rushed through the rule making process. The proposed amendments are 100% controversial in nature and application.

There is no scientific or legal justification provided for these proposed amendments that would allow our state officials to electronically gather personal data and share it with federal officials and other entities. 

The proposed amendments could result in the under-reporting of patients with influenza like symptoms who have received a flu shot and over-reporting of patients with influenza like symptoms who have no record of receiving a flu shot. Over the past 15 flu seasons, the CDC has reported that influenza vaccines have been less than 50 percent effective. Vaccinated and unvaccinated persons can be asymptomatically infected with influenza or show only mild symptoms and annual estimates of prevalence and associated influenza mortality are far from precise.

This is an absolute violation of our constitutional right to privacy and a gross overreach of power on the part of the government.