COVID
‘This Is a Winnable Battle’: Experts Explain How Citizens Can Work With Local Health Authorities to Get COVID Vaccines Removed
Local public health agencies don’t have to blindly follow federal agencies on COVID-19 vaccinations or public health and safety issues, Dr. John Tribble told The Defender. “They have the power and moral obligation to protect and educate their constituents.”
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Removing COVID-19 vaccines from public health departments across the U.S. is a “winnable battle” — but the battle won’t likely be won “from the top down,” according to Dr. John Tribble, a physician and board member of Idaho’s Southwest District Health.
Last month Tribble and his fellow board members made history when they voted 4-3 to pull COVID-19 shots from 30 healthcare sites.
The local health agency — which oversees six counties in southwest Idaho — became the first local health department in the U.S. to remove the shots from its taxpayer-funded clinics.
Other health districts in Idaho and beyond are now considering similar moves, Tribble told The Defender.
“There are two health districts in Idaho that I know of that are definitely considering it and one in Washington state,” he said. “My hope is they will be successful and continue the momentum we currently have.”
Tribble added:
“Local public health agencies aren’t obligated to blindly follow federal agencies when it comes to COVID-19 vaccinations or other issues of public health and safety. They have the power and moral obligation to protect and educate their constituents.”
In other words, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends COVID-19 vaccines and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approves them — but that doesn’t mean local health departments have to promote the shots. Tribble said:
“So much of what was inflicted upon us during COVID-19 — the COVID-19 vaccines, the mask mandates, the business, school and church closures — would have been prevented with local health departments that prioritized personal freedom and critical thinking over blind trust in federal health agencies.
“We need individual citizens willing to take accountability for their own local health officers and health boards.”
Get to know your health department, expert advises
To get one’s local health department to remove COVID-19 vaccines from its clinics, people first need to understand how their local public health department operates and how its leadership is appointed, Tribble said.
The structure of local public health departments varies from state to state.
For instance, Idaho has health districts. Each one has a board whose members are appointed by county commissioners and a physician adviser who is appointed by the board.
But in California, there isn’t a board. Instead, county health departments are headed by a public health director, appointed by the county’s board of supervisors. The supervisors are elected officials representing each of the county’s supervisory districts.
“Once you understand the structure of the health district or county you are in,” Tribble said, “you can typically go online and find your local health district website, which will have your public health officials listed and typically has an avenue to contact them.”
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‘Every single community can do this’
In addition to getting COVID-19 vaccines removed from local public health clinics, Tribble said he believes it’s possible for a grassroots movement of informed citizens to get the COVID-19 shots removed from the childhood vaccination schedule and, ultimately, from general use.
Three Idaho counties — Adams, Boise and Washington — have already passed resolutions against using COVID-19 vaccines due to the high number of people injured by them who are left with “no fair recourse for injury.”
The resolution states:
“We recommend they [the COVID-19 shots] be removed from the child vaccine schedule in our county, and in the state of Idaho, until a forensics investigation and a health audit of Idaho can be administered by qualified agents, as well as until transparent and accurate informed consent can be given to parents and families.”
Counties across the U.S. can pass such resolutions and local health departments can pull the COVID-19 vaccines from their clinics, according to Laura Demaray, an Idaho resident and nurse involved in educating Idaho legislators and county officials on the safety and efficacy concerns of the COVID-19 vaccines.
“Every single community can do this,” she told The Defender. And it’s important because passing a local resolution or facilitating a local-level health board vote against the COVID-19 shots “holds a line from the bottom up for humanity.”
Demaray said she knows many who have been “profoundly injured” by the COVID-19 shots. For the last year and a half, she and others have worked at the grassroots level to raise local officials’ awareness of the safety risks of shots.
They’ve compiled strategic templates on Substack — such as sample letters to send officials asking them to hear a presentation on the COVID-19 vaccine’s safety and efficacy — so others can do the same.
“People need to understand that nothing about it will be easy,” she said, “However, sometimes you have a win and it’s really, really worth it.”
For instance, Idaho’s Southwest District Health Board’s vote to remove COVID-19 shots from its clinics came right after the board heard presentations from several doctors who were informed about COVID-19 safety and efficacy concerns.
Individual citizens need to ask their local officials if they’d be willing to hear such presentations and then arrange for presenters to share evidence, Demaray said.
She stressed that working at the grassroots level is “absolute teamwork.”
Demaray ticked off the names of scientists, doctors and vaccine-injured people who have offered their time to present to local officials, including molecular biologists Christina Parks, Ph.D., and Janci Lindsay, Ph.D., cardiologist Dr. Peter McCullough, pathologist Dr. Ryan Cole, pediatrician Dr. Renata Moon, obstetricians and gynecologists Dr. James Thorp and Dr. Kimberly Biss, bioscience researcher David Wiseman, Ph.D., Doug Cameron, “an Idaho rancher now in a wheelchair due to a COVID-19 vaccine injury,” and G.I. Jane, “a military pilot who was terribly injured from the COVID shots and has to hide her identity.”
Tribble urged individual citizens to pay attention to who their community is electing or appointing to public health department positions.
“I encourage everyone to get involved,” he said, “even if it is only to follow what your public health department is doing and add public comment when allowed.”
For example, constituents in Idaho’s Southwest District Health sent 300 public comments to board members — before their vote — urging them to stop promoting the shots.
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Very little pushback on board’s vote so far
So far, there hasn’t been any significant pushback against the board’s decision, Tribble said. “There has been some negative media coverage by a few outlets, but there has been an overwhelming amount of positive coverage in the independent media.”
Viki Purdy, a board member who voted to pull the COVID-19 shots, told The Defender, “I can’t see anyone on the board changing their vote due to pressure from any federal — or global — agency.”
Kelly Aberasturi, the board’s chairman and trustee who voted to keep the shots on the shelves, told The Defender only a couple of constituents asked him if the board could reverse its decision.
Although Aberasturi voted to continue administering the COVID-19 shots, he recognizes why four board members voted to stop. “I understand how the board is not wanting to be a part of the possibility of hurting citizens with a vaccine that has not been fully tested on its viability and effectiveness.”
In the end, all board members want what is best for their constituents, Aberasturi said. “We just have a slight difference in how to go about it,” he said. “The four board members chose not to administer the vaccine. I would prefer to let the individual [who goes to a district clinic] decide whether they want the vaccine or not.”
Meanwhile, Demaray said she’s continuing to ensure more local officials know about the harms caused by COVID-19 vaccines and actions they can take to remove them from use — including voting to pull them from public health clinics and passing resolutions against having them on the childhood vaccine schedule.
“I hope to help any brave citizen, county commissioner or health board member that will facilitate these actions.”
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