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Parent group protests, calling out to govt to reconsider vaccine mandates

Vaccine mandate protesters
ausage@samoanews.com

Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — A peaceful protest organized by some parents, held yesterday early morning, called out to government leaders to reconsider their vaccination mandates and let the people decide what to put inside their own body.

At approximately 7:50a.m, Gov. Lemanu Peleti Mauga passed by and waved at the people who were protesting.

Close to 50 people, including parents and children, lined both sides of the Utulei Beach road, around 6:30a.m, holding and waving posters and signs displaying their messages.

Samoa News spoke to organizers, Feo Lagafuaina, who is a military veteran, and Tanya Ma’o.

“Vaccinated or not, our personal decision should not cause us any harm financially or emotionally let alone divide us,” Ma’o told Samoa News.

Lagafuaina added, “We are not anti vaccine, we are not anti mandates. This is about freedom to make the choice for yourself and for your family. We believe that a threat to an individual’s freedom is a treat to freedoms of all the people. The government’s COVID-19 mandates have caused confusion and division within our own families, villages and communities.”

Lagafuaina said that their message is very clear and their protest is a very peaceful protest.

“We are just here to make a stand and to let our voices heard, all we’re asking is for our leaders to reconsider their vaccine mandates.”

According to the organizers, there is not enough data about these vaccines for people to understand more about the side and long term effects in their lives.

They said doctors have spent many years studying and collecting information about many vaccines so that people will know what those vaccines are all about, but for the COVID-19 vaccines, it was just only a year ago when doctors in the U.S came up with the idea and the information about the vaccines, and now the American Samoa Government (ASG) is telling people to take the vaccines.

“We just don’t believe that this is something that should be done in a free society. We are a free society and we should do what ever we want to do instead of the government telling us that if we aren’t fully vaccinated then you should not do this or do that,” Lagafuaina said.

“I’m a veteran and I’m unvaccinated and I can’t go off island for my medical appointment because I have to be fully vaccinated. At one point in my life I raised my hands to defend the Constitution of the United States and its territories, but now I’m in my own home and being told to put this in your body or you’re not allowed to enter this place.”

According to Lagafuaina, there are a lot of things happening in the communities due to the vaccines mandates. People are not allowed to enter restaurants or dine inside with their family due to the vaccine mandates.

Employees are not allowed back to their work place because they are unvaccinated. Students were unable to go to school for their indoor study because of the mandates.

“Even my niece is not allowed to sit her SAT because she’s unvaccinated and she’s not allowed to entered the school compound or the classroom,” Lagafuaina.

“We’re here to respectfully ask our leaders to please reconsider your mandate and let us do our own decision,” Ma’o said.

BACKGROUND

VACCINE MANDATES AND CIVIL LIBERTIES

(Provided by the American Civil Liberties Union — ACLU)

Many employers and schools are putting in place rules that require employees and students to receive COVID-19 vaccines; these requirements are often referred to as “vaccine mandates.”  Each mandate’s permissibility must be analyzed independently. However, based on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on public health, and based on long-standing and recent court decisions, our current view is that many of the recent vaccine mandates being imposed by the government, schools, and private employers to address COVID-19 would likely be held constitutional. 

ARE VACCINE MANDATES NEW?

While COVID-19 vaccine mandates are new, there is a long history of vaccine requirements in our country, including in schools, health care facilities, and the U.S military. As far back as 1905, the U.S. Supreme Court, in a case called Jacobson v. Massachusetts, upheld the authority of states to enforce mandatory vaccination laws on public health and safety grounds.

ARE VACCINE MANDATES A VIOLATION OF MY RIGHTS?

Vaccine mandates may raise civil liberties concerns, but that does not mean that all vaccine mandates are impermissible. While people have a fundamental right to make their own health care decisions, there are circumstances in which vaccine mandates can be warranted to protect public health and save lives.

Given the widespread and devastating impact of COVID-19, the effectiveness and safety of the vaccines approved or authorized for emergency use by the FDA, and the absence of an equally effective and less intrusive alternative, COVID-19 vaccination mandates can be consistent with civil liberties principles.

However, the permissibility of any mandate will depend on a fact-specific, case-by-case inquiry, and changing circumstances. Further, any mandate must ensure that there are accommodations or exemptions in place for those who are unable to be vaccinated for medical reasons.

Notably, where proof of vaccination can be legitimately required, people must always have the option of providing paper or non-digital proof and should not be required to download and use a specific app or be required to give up their private data to companies. Further, where the government is enacting a vaccine mandate, it is vital that officials set and enforce the requirement neutrally and equally and remain vigilant against disproportionate enforcement efforts — namely those that target communities of color or other historically disadvantaged groups.

CDC INFORMATION ON VACCINES

On May 17, 2022 the World Health Organization issued the following advisory to heathcare professions titled “How COVID-19 vaccines are regulated for safety and effectiveness. The report also included a questions and answers portion and one that answers concerns voiced by the protesters is reprinted here, as well as a link to the entire report:

Q: How have the vaccines been developed so quickly? Does this mean that their safety and efficacy has been compromised?

A: The speed of development of COVID-19 vaccines has been unprecedented for several reasons, but the safety and efficacy requirements for vaccines have not been compromised, Vaccine development was facilitated by:

•           New technologies adapted from the development of other vaccines – mRNA vaccines were developed for COVID-19 very rapidly after the sequence of the COVID-19 virus was determined, but the underlying technology had been under development since much longer and therefore production could be scaled up very quickly. The adenovirus technology used for adenovirus vector vaccines was first tested with SARS, MERS and Ebola virus over thelast 20 years, and so was able to be adapted quickly to COVID-19, which has several similarities to these viruses.

•           Clinical trial successes - it has been possible to rapidly recruit large numbers of volunteers into clinical trials and, with unfortunately high rates of infection in several countries, to complete trials with 10,000 to 50,000 people in a short period of time. Under normal circumstances, it may take many months or even a few years to carry out trials of this size to determine whether a vaccine is effective.

•           Very close collaboration - between regulators internationally, industry and clinical researchers enabled clear indications of regulatory requirements and early access to results.

•           Intensive and insightful research - researchers predicted that the “spike protein” on the virus would be a good target for vaccine development, and almost all vaccines have been designed to induce a response to this protein. So far, the spike protein has produced a strong immune response in those vaccinated, and for those vaccines that have reported clinical results have been shown to be highly protective from COVID-19 disease.

•           The massive financial investment by governments, industry and philanthropic organisations in vaccine development and the redirection of much of the global research and commercial infrastructure for the development and manufacture of vaccines has taken place. Governments also enabled companies to take the commercial risk of manufacturing some vaccine stocks ahead of regulatory approvals.

•           Real world safety experience. As of March 2022, about 11 billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines have been administered globally, and so there is an immense global data base on the safety of these vaccines. The benefit-risk ratio remains overwhelmingly positive.

Link here to the latest WHO information on COVID-19 vaccines: https://www.who.int/news/item/17-05-2022-statement-for-healthcare-profes...