Citizens AWOL at Indiana legislature's first Public Health Committee hearing of the year

Committee chairman Rep. Brad Barrett says he knows what's in VAERS and is watching it, but says no bills on the Covid-19 vaccines have been referred to his committee

The Indiana Statehouse (Creative Commons license)

I just got back from the Indiana Statehouse, from the first meeting of the year of the Indiana House of Representatives Public Health Committee.

The room was overflowing with representatives of the healthcare industry.

Among them were Brian Tabor of the Indiana Hospital Association, Andrew Berger with the Indiana Manufacturers Association, and a representative of the Indiana chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics.

There didn’t appear to be any citizen activists in the room — or if there were, they did not testify on any of the four bills the committee was hearing.

I’m kind of shocked.

This was a great opportunity to be heard and to insist on some accountability for the disastrous vaccine rollout that has killed — how many? — 50,000 at least nationwide, and probably close to ten times that, and injured more than 100,000.

Are people content to just keep sharing information on Twitter and Facebook, and listening to more interviews by Dr. Peter McCullough and Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.?

Don’t you have enough information at this point?

Isn’t it time to act?

Maybe you can’t go to Washington, D.C., but anyone can go to their state capitol and testify at a public hearing before a legislature’s health committee.

The vaccine was pushed by every governor and every state public health agency, and it seems like they should be called to account.

If not now, when?

If not by you, then by whom?

I was able to catch up with our state health commissioner, Dr. Kristina Box, as she exited the room after testifying on a bill.

Dr. Kristina Box explained to the members of the committee why the state health department needs almost $350 million more over the next two years. Former State Sen. Luke Kenley, the co-chair of the Governor’s Public Health Commission, is behind her.

The Indiana Department of Health is seeking a $120 million budget increase in 2024 and a $227 million increase in 2025.

Imagine that.

You’re in part responsible for the worst public health debacle in at least 100 years, and instead of apologizing and resigning, you want more money?

Only in government.

It’s too bad citizens weren’t there to testify on any of the four bills being heard, because all they would have had to say in their testimony was: “I do not support the Indiana Department of Health getting any more money until they lay out a plan to compensate those people in our state who have been seriously injured by the Covid-19 vaccines and those families who lost a loved one in a ‘died suddenly’ scenario a few days or weeks after vaccination.”

It would have been so easy.

(I’ll write up a separate piece about my interaction with Dr. Box, which has video to go along with it!)

I was also able to talk briefly with the chairman of the committee, Rep. Brad Barrett, who is a physician.

I had called his office last week and asked if the committee was going to look at VAERS injuries from the Covid-19 vaccines and conduct some oversight.

His staffer took down the message, but Barrett never called me.

So I approached him after the hearing.

I briefly highlighted the VAERS data for Indiana, including the 165 reports of deaths following Covid-19 vaccination and 69 cases of myocarditis and asked whether the committee was going to look into this.

His response was:

“I’m just sorting though a lot of the bills that are filed,… I’m not aware personally of anyone that’s got language filed, from what I’ve seen…”

Rep. Brad Barrett (R-Richmond)

He went on to say that he and the Public Health Committee are just “working on bills that have been filed…”

I asked him if he’s aware of the many reports in VAERS.

“Oh, yeah, absolutely,” he responded.

I mentioned the huge number of reports of deaths and injuries and said it seems it’s been hidden and that it’s not been reported in the media.

“Oh, I know. I’ve seen a lot of media about that,” he said.

I said, “So you’re watching it?

“Absolutely,” he said.

I’m glad he’s aware of what’s in VAERS. I’m glad that he’s concerned about it, or seemed to be. But it doesn’t sound like he’s interested in doing much about it.

Maybe he could have filed a bill himself calling for the state to compensate Indiana residents for the loss of loved ones who died within days or a few weeks after vaccination. But looking at his contributors, that probably isn’t something he’d be really excited to do.

But I could be wrong.

The committee did give serious consideration to a bill sponsored by Rep. Donna Schaibley (R-Carmel) that will require that non-profit hospitals, which the legislature has mandated to hold public forums around the state, allow questions and provide answers at those forums, post notice of them 45 days in advance, and refrain from holding them on strange dates (between Christmas and New Year’s, for example) and at strange times (10 a.m. on a weekday, for example) so people in the community have a very hard time attending. Also, they must allow people to participate via audio or video streams.

The hospitals and the Indiana Hospital Association are surely not happy about this bill. But state representatives — both Republicans and Democrats — seem determined to go forward with it.

On the issue of the Covid-19 vaccines, none of them will feel any compulsion to act if they don’t hear from constituents, or have to listen to citizens at public hearings telling them they must.

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