☕️ Coffee & Covid ☙ Tuesday, Nov. 16, 2021 ☙ TUESDAY IN NOVEMBER 🦠

It’s Day Two of Florida’s Special Session. Today I report on Day One, and in the spirit of legislative fixes, offer four policy proposals to address governmental-medical overreach. And news!

Good morning, C&C family. It’s Tuesday! And a big Tuesday — it’s Day Two of Florida’s Special Session. Today I report on Day One, and in the spirit of legislative fixes, offer four proposals for federal policy to address governmental-medical overreach. And a little news for you, too!

🗞 *SPECIAL SESSION UPDATES* 🗞

🔥 The first day of the Special Session is now in the can. And C&C is here to give you the highlights.

Yesterday the legislature held committee meetings, including the Pandemic Committee, the Judiciary Committee, and the Human Services Committee. The public commented during the hearings. From what I can see, there are three main groups. First, folks who support the bill. Second, leftists who oppose the bills, because without jabs how else are we supposed to create the workers’ paradise? Third, conservatives who oppose the bills because they don’t make poignant (but useless) obscene gestures toward the federal government.

Supporters — and I hope this includes all our C&C folks who attend rallies and speak at public comment — recognize that these bills are pretty good, if not great, under the circumstances. The bills will slow down the federal injection freight train long enough to let the courts work out the mandates’ unconstitutionality, which is the only permanent solution.

Not only that, but one of the proposed bills would delete the surgeon general’s ability to forcibly vaccinate people. That old law has irked anti-vaxxers since it was passed in 2002 or so. And the proposed bills add some other great stuff unrelated to the jabs, like parental rights to sue school districts making the districts pay for successful litigation, and — finally — an outright ban on mask mandates everywhere in the state.

Leftists oppose the bills for all the usual reasons. Democrats attempted to slide in several amendments yesterday during committee that would have made all the new laws useless, but the Florida republican majority was disciplined and effective and easily batted the poison-pill proposals away. The Senate panel ultimately voted to approve the legislation 7-3.

Conservatives who oppose the bill package have several issues. Some want the bills to just outright ban mandates. I’ve spoken with the leaders of these groups and they understand perfectly well that a ban on injection mandates won’t work, because the federal mandates have priority over any conflicting state law. But these folks want to send a message. They are worried that if the legislature saves jobs in the short term, then everyone will just relax and a political opportunity will be lost. They are willing to accept the collateral damage of thousands of Floridians being fired because they think it will make everybody even madder at the federal government.

Some of them told me they don’t actually believe that hospitals and federal contractors and other businesses will follow through and fire anybody. Since I represent a LOT of folks who have ALREADY been terminated, that is just magical thinking. Others told me they want to accelerate a “final showdown” between Florida’s Governor and the White House because “now is the time.”

Obviously, as a practical attorney, I disagree with the “let’s make a statement” approach at the cost of a ton of collateral damage. My view is that we take the incremental wins and build on them, saving as many jobs as we can in the meantime. It’s a marathon, not a sprint.

If you needed any more evidence of how wrongheaded an outright mandate ban would be, DEMOCRAT Matt Willhite (D-Palm Beach) tried to introduce an amendment to outright ban mandates. He’s the ranking dem on the Rules Committee. So.

Other conservative opposers have legitimate gripes about the lack of any protection for workers from discriminatory workplace policies designed to force them to get jabs so they can work in peace. But they think the only way to force the legislature to add more worker protections is to oppose the bills altogether. It’s an “all or nothing” approach. This is also somewhat bubbleheaded. The lack of discrimination protection is a problem, and we SHOULD be lobbying the lawmakers to add it. But killing the whole bill is harebrained. It would be like throwing the new laptop out with the Amazon packaging.

Finally, a third group of conservative opponents are upset that the bills “enshrine” injection mandates into Florida law. This is also wrongheaded. The injection-related bills all have sunset provisions and expire in June 2023, showing the lawmakers already had the same concern and dealt with that. This group is the most puzzling to me, to be honest.

My recommendation if you are in Tallahassee today and have a chance to make public comment is to say this: “Pass the bills and add worker protection against discrimination based on medical status.” Easy peasey.

🔥 TODAY’S SCHEDULE:

—The Senate Appropriations Committee meets to consider the Special Session bills related to vaccination mandates at 9am in Room 412 of the Knott Building.

—The House holds a floor session to consider the Special Session legislation at 10 a.m.

🗞*C&C POLICY RECOMMENDATIONS FOR 2022-24* 🗞

I have some thoughts about how we permanently fix some of the profound problems in this country that the pandemic has made clear. Here are four of my proposals related to our medical privacy and freedom.

🔥 First, the U.S. should defund the Centers for Disease Control and the National Institutes of Health. Just pull the plug. The CDC has been wrong at every turn during the pandemic, and has single-handedly manufactured uncountable economic damages and caused untold loss of life due to the agency’s lunatic lockdown policies. The NIH probably contributed to starting the pandemic in the first place with its shady investments in Wuhan. The federal health agencies are over-funded and over-powered and are distorting normal life in America. They need to go.

There’s nothing good that these agencies do that couldn’t be turned over to the private sector using grants and tax forgiveness. It’s time to end them.

🔥 We have a huge problem with corporate healthcare. Or as President Trump would say, “YUUUGE.” The big hospitals have failed badly, refusing patients inexpensive but effective Covid treatments while pushing wildly costly but deadly alternatives (remdesivir). Many citizens died.

We need to put small practices on an even footing with big corporate hospitals. I propose a 100% income tax exemption for small medical practices with forty or fewer doctors, and a tax credit for small practices that offer emergency medical treatment. Since we know now that dems value “community health” over just about everything, this should get massive bipartisan support. Right? Anyone?

🔥 We need to change the irresponsible economics related to vaccines. Several years ago Big Pharma convinced the government to give it liability protection for vaccines because they weren’t profitable. In other words, the liability shield is pretty new. And, it ain’t working out. We need to end broad vaccine liability protection. Florida’s malpractice statute could be a good example for a hybrid approach that balances the need for SOME protection with the need for accountability and responsibility.

Think about it this way. There’s a basic rule of economics that says you get more of what you subsidize and less of what you tax. Sometimes laws make sense, like taxes on pollution. Other times they make no sense, like taxes on labor and enterprise.

In 2020 we MASSIVELY subsidized Covid injections, and guess what? Now we have them coming out of our ears. You practically can’t walk across the bedroom without stepping on a needle. This was completely predictable from an economic standpoint. We subsidized vaccines like we’ve never ever done in history, and now we have a vaccine glut that is so large they are having to force people to take them.

So we need to end the subsidies for Covid vaccines (at least). We can argue later about whether we should have subsidized them in the first place. But now subsidies should end. If the vaccines work, let people pay for them. If they don’t work, let the market sort that out.

🔥 Finally, HIPAA needs to be expanded to cover ALL entities, private and government, not just healthcare providers. It should be a crime to disclose a citizen’s private medical information without express informed consent.

🎯 These planks will be part of C&C’s healthcare legislative agenda. If you agree with them, please consider supporting the Coffee & Covid movement.

🗞*COVID NEWS AND COMMENTARY* 🗞

🔥 I have a question for injected people. Have you realized yet that you will NEVER be “fully injected?” Just asking. Don’t cancel me.

🔥 Florida Politics reports that the State Board of Education will hold a meeting Tuesday “to discuss the federal government’s overreach and unlawful behavior.” I can’t wait.

🔥 Michigan has a case rate TEN TIMES higher than Florida. Hospitalizations and deaths are also rising there. New York reported 7500+ new cases today. But Florida only reported about 1,000.

So!

🔥 Oklahoma has stopped reporting breakthrough case numbers on its website. It explained that “At this time, we are currently working on refining the process for identifying breakthrough infections and reinfections. Once we have finalized this process, we will resume providing tables.” Uh huh. Don’t worry, Oklahoma. We see you. Of course, I guess it’s only fair. The CDC stopped reporting breakthrough cases in May.

Want to see something funny? Go to the CDC’s old breakthrough cases website and look at where it goes now: https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/covid-19/health-departments/breakthrough-cases.html. 😂

🔥 The University of Washington data modelers, who were so epically wrong in predicting Covid numbers last year, are back at it! They climbed out on a limb and predicted rising case numbers in the Northern Hemisphere. Good thing we have experts. But check out the second cause they attribute the increasing cases to: “Rising COVID-19 numbers in the Northern Hemisphere are due to: 1. Winter seasonality. 2. Waning immunity for those vaccinated. 3. Decreased mask use and increased mobility levels.”

Oops. More tipping. It used to be a social media crime to say the injections aren’t working.

🔥 Among other notables making the rounds in Tallahassee yesterday was popular conservative talk-radio host Ben Shapiro. He’s a Covid refugee from California who moved to Florida earlier this year. Our gain. Thanks Joe Biden!

Have a terrific Tuesday and stand by for updates from the Special Session. See you tomorrow.

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