Fascinating exchange: Citizen says state should apologize for harm to children from pandemic response - Democrat legislator is incredulous!

Don't give $300 million more to fund state health department until health commissioner says sorry for decisions that harmed children, Leah Wilson said.

Leah Wilson of Stand for Health Freedom testified before an Indiana House committee last week, telling representatives that they should not give an extra $300 million to the state health department until there is an apology for the harms caused by the state’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic — including the harm to children.

Wilson is the co-founder and executive director of Stand for Health Freedom, a national health freedom group based in Indianapolis that has more than 22,000 members in Indiana.

She told members of the Indiana House Ways & Means Committee on Feb. 9 that she is against the “extreme expansion” of public health funding in the governor’s two-year budget, contained in House Bill 1001.

“President Reagan famously said, the nine most terrifying words in the English language are, ‘I’m from the government and I’m here to help,’” she said. “I know that the Governor’s Public Health Commission was born out of a desire to improve the health of Hoosiers. We all want better access to health care, and to lower the rate of obesity, smoking, diabetes, etcetera. But the point where we start to diverge in this effort is in thinking that more government involvement in health care is the solution.”

Click on the image above to watch, or go to:

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The Governor’s Public Health Commission, which was co-chaired by Judy Monroe, head of the CDC Foundation (the private arm of the CDC), held listening sessions around the state of Indiana from September 2021 through July of 2022 and in August, released a report calling for hundreds of millions more for the Indiana Department of Health for a program that will put county health departments under the control of the state.

Of 105 public comments that were submitted, 75 were in opposition to expanding the public health bureaucracy, Wilson noted.

“So those are the voices of the taxpayers that you’re asking to pay for this gross expansion,” she said.

She went on to point to the state’s pandemic response, saying we “cannot ignore the role that public health agencies have played over the last few years in the destruction of the fabric of our society…”

“We had 60 percent of restaurants across the country permanently close over the last few years. We also saw here in Indiana the Indiana Department of Education issue a 25 percent reduction in our education standards on the heels of this pandemic. And most Hoosiers are even struggling to buy a carton of eggs or fill up their gas tanks today as we speak. All of this was caused by and large by guidance from public health agencies at both the federal and the state level who issued ongoing quarantine orders and lockdown orders. While that guidance mostly originated from the CDC, we watched as the Indiana Department of Health reposted the same guidance within mere minutes, leaving zero time for independent analysis of whether the specific guidance would benefit Hoosiers more than it would cost Hoosiers.”

And then she explained how this relates to House Bill 1001:

“Why does this matter? Because you’re considering handing an additional $300 million in this budget over to the agency that has not once apologized or taken accountability for the mishandling of pandemic responses and the devastating consequences that we have witnessed. Without accountability, why would we believe that anything will change with a new degree of power and money that we are considering within House Bill 1001?”

When she finished speaking, Rep. Jack Jordan (R-Bremen) commended her testimony, saying most of his constituents would “violently agree” with what she’d said.

But Democratic legislator Rep. Ed Delaney seemed incredulous that she would want an apology, or accountability, from the Indiana Department of Health, led by gynecologist Dr. Kristina Box.

“Speaking of personal accountability, are you suggesting that Dr. Box should apologize to the citizens of the state for her efforts during Covid? Is that your suggestion?” he asked.

Dr, Kristina Box

Wilson said she thought it should at least be a subject of discussion, and referred to CDC director Rochelle Walensky’s apology for mistakes made by federal health officials.

“I think it’s a conversation that needs to happen,” she said.

What do YOU think?

Should there be apologies coming from governors who issued lockdown orders and closed small businesses and churches?

Should there be apologies from state public health commissioners who unquestioningly adopted the CDC’s latest guidance, neglecting their duty to examine that guidance in the light of the latest evidence, to see whether it was truly best for the citizens of their state?

Should there be apologies for the harms caused by the vaccines — harms that include permanent disability and death?

What is the purpose of an apology? It’s two-fold, I think.

One, it’s to require that a person who has wronged another person acknowledge the error — in order that their behavior might be modified in future (for if someone is truly sorry, he or she is not as likely to repeat that same behavior in the future.)

Second, it’s to make the other person whole.

An apology can give someone who is wronged the ability to breathe, and then to move forward. The bitterness, the anger, the grief, can be laid aside, and a person can live again.

It may not be possible for all to accept an apology, especially if the loss is great.

But some will be able to, and for them, an apology can be life-changing.

What if there was a move in every state to require an apology from public officials before any more money was awarded to state health departments?

State legislators hold the purse strings. They pass budgets to fund state agencies. They decide how much money is spent where. It would not be so difficult in some states to get key legislators to hold up funding for the state health department until an apology is heard.

And it’s so, so little to ask.

Personally, I’d also like to see state-level compensation funds, with all state surplus money going to compensate those injured (or worse) by the vaccine.

What’s stopping states from doing this? Nothing, as far as I can tell.

Citizens can make it happen.