As a requirement for discussing and appreciating the imperative of health freedom in the U.S., we must first define what is meant by health freedom.
A simple definition is the right of every American to decide what medical interventions to put into or onto one’s body, the right to access and use the medical and healing modalities of one’s choice, the right to maintain one’s health according to one’s conscience and the right to live free of involuntary medication be it via the food supply, the water supply or something airborne.
In a free and moral society, health freedom is not simply a convenience; it’s an imperative.
In this vein, in the event of injury or illness, all Americans must possess the absolute right to choose what medical interventions and treatments to accept and what medical or healing modalities to utilize in order to address illness or injury; Americans must be free to choose how to maintain their health whether that be through nutrition, supplements, herbs, drugs or a myriad of healing modalities; Americans must have access to truthful information regarding how the seeds for plants and animal feed and the food in our food supply has been grown or developed, medicated, processed and packaged; and Americans have the right to exist in a society free of water and airborne medications, insect vectors and chemicals.
Health freedom can only exist in a free and moral society that values each and every member of that society. This prerequisite thus excludes medical mandates of any kind. It is immoral to force another individual to risk their life for the theoretical benefit of another.
Moreover, the government does not have the moral authority or power to dictate what medical products any American puts into or on his or her body. If anyone in government does possess that power, then no American is truly free, nor does he or she possess any meaningful right whatsoever — Americans are merely chattel.
In order to create a society based on true health freedom, the following policy shifts should be implemented, as a first step. There are many more changes that should be implemented as well, but these proposals would address some of the most glaring, pernicious anti-liberty and anti-health aspects of our system as it exists today:
1. Ban all medical mandates
The Declaration of Independence states, “that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” Medical mandates are prima facie violations of our founding documents.
Health freedom demands prior voluntary informed consent before a medical treatment or intervention is administered. Medical mandates are thus, by definition, antithetical to voluntary consent and therefore must be prohibited in a free and moral society.
No single individual in government knows the medical history of any American, knows what is best for Americans, or has to live with the repercussions of any choices made by Americans, thus, medical mandates are never justified in any circumstance.
2. Repeal the Bayh-Dole Act
“The Bayh-Dole Act, formerly known as the Patent and Trademark Act Amendments, is a federal law enacted in 1980 that enables universities, nonprofit research institutions and small businesses to own, patent and commercialize inventions developed under federally funded research programs within their organizations.”
Under this program, government scientists may receive up to $150,000 per year on their patents.
In theory, Bayh-Dole incentivizes bright scientists to seek employment at federal health agencies rather than entering more lucrative private industry by allowing these taxpayer-funded scientists and other individuals and entities to retain the patent rights to intellectual property developed during their taxpayer-funded research and development activities.
In practice, this Act forever realigned the interests of taxpayer-funded scientists away from the American people and toward their own interests and profits and the profits of the private industries with which they collaborate.
Dr. Anthony Fauci and his team at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases infamously owned half of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine patent which incentivized the misguided COVID-19-era policies leading to a colossal violation of the rights of Americans demonstrating the perverse incentives created by Bayh-Dole and the necessity of repealing the act.
3. Repeal the Prescription Drug User Fee Act (PDUFA) of 1992
“The Prescription Drug User Fee Act (PDUFA) was created by Congress in 1992 and authorizes FDA [U.S. Food and Drug Administration] to collect user fees from persons that submit certain human drug applications for review or that are named in approved applications as the sponsor of certain prescription drug products. Since the passage of PDUFA, user fees have played an important role in expediting the drug review and approval process.”
In 2022 alone, the pharmaceutical industry paid $2.9 billion in user fees amounting to 46% of the FDA’s entire budget including $1.4 billion or 66% for their drug approvers’ salaries and $197 million or 43% of the biologics (vaccines) program budget.
As a direct consequence of PDUFA, the FDA has a vested interest aligned with the profits and success of the pharmaceutical industry rather than the health and well-being of the American people.
4. Repeal the Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness Act (PREP Act) which authorizes the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to issue a PREP Act declaration.
“The declaration provides immunity from liability (except for willful misconduct) for claims:
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- of loss caused, arising out of, relating to, or resulting from administration or use of countermeasures to diseases, threats and conditions
- determined by the Secretary to constitute a present, or credible risk of a future public health emergency
- to entities and individuals involved in the development, manufacture, testing, distribution, administration, and use of such countermeasures
“A PREP Act declaration is specifically for the purpose of providing immunity from liability, and is different from, and not dependent on, other emergency declarations.”
The PREP Act desecrates the ethical principle of informed consent by protecting individuals from liability even when they expressly act contrary to patients’ wishes and instructions and must be repealed.
5. Repeal the Affordable Care Act
The Affordable Care Act anchors Americans to the pharmaceutical and drug-based medical paradigm even though a majority of Americans used at least one form of “alternative” medicine in 2021 and spent $30.6 billion in out-of-pocket expenses for those holistic medicine services in 2023 according to Statista.
Instead, implement a health savings program that permits Americans to access the health and medical modalities of their choice which in turn would foster more competition and reduce the exorbitant healthcare costs in the U.S. by breaking the extant monopolies held by the medical and insurance industries.
6. Repeal the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act (NCVIA)
NCVIA shields vaccine makers from liability (except for willful misconduct), creating a perverse incentive to industry to develop a never-ending stream of vaccines which are then mandated by the states.
Further, the NCVIA protects industry and vaccine programs by creating a separate administrative federal court structure lacking due process and discovery, managed by “Special Masters” instead of judges, all in violation of the constitutionally protected right to due process.
While NCVIA contains other provisions designed to protect American families and ensure the safety of the national vaccine supply, Congress is not conducting proper oversight and the promises made in 1986 at the time of the Act’s passage have not been upheld.
As such, Americans who have been injured or killed by vaccines are left with astronomical medical bills and to fend for themselves.
7. Prohibit private donations to government entities
Prohibit private individuals, foundations, corporations, contractors and any other person or entity from donating or otherwise giving money to any agency or entity of the federal government.
The FDA and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) accept money from private actors such as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Pfizer, thus skewing the interests of the agency in favor of these private actors and away from the American public.
Gates has collaborated with the FDA and the CDC Foundation takes money from the pharmaceutical industry whose products the CDC is responsible for monitoring for safety.
8. Cooling-off period for senior federal employees
Enact a five-year cooling-off period before which agency leadership, deputies and other key officials may depart federal agencies in order to enter the companies they regulate in the private sector.
9. Prevent conflicts of interest
Eliminate conflict-of-interest waivers so that no person serving on a health agency committee, board or other regulatory entity may have a conflict of interest. Disclosure of conflicts of interest is insufficient to ensure the agencies pursue the interests of the American people. Individuals with financial or ideological conflicts of interest should not serve as decision-makers in any capacity.
10. Prohibit government grants to nonprofits
Prohibit the government from allocating taxpayer dollars to nonprofits. Nonprofits exists to serve the public interests and should be funded directly by American citizens. If a nonprofit has a worthwhile mission, the public will gladly support it.
Government exists to protect our rights and should not be in the business of picking winners and losers nor should it be using third parties to pursue policies outside the reach and review of the public.
11. Ban water fluoridation
While water fluoridation programs are widespread, they are not only dangerous from a health standpoint, they are forced medication in violation of the ethical principle of informed consent.
Research comparing the health outcomes and IQs of communities that do and do not fluoridate their water supply reveals that children in the fluoridated water communities have reduced IQs and therefore inferior prospects in life. Other research has documented the health hazards of fluoride, an industrial waste product.
In addition, as fluoride is added to municipal water supplies, residents of those communities have no way to opt out and therefore are subjected to involuntary forced medication. No one should be forced to consume drugged water in order to maintain a biological necessity.
12. Ban the release of genetically modified insects
Two tenets of good health are abundant exposure to sunshine and fresh air; however, in some states, the state governments have collaborated with private businesses to release genetically modified mosquitoes into communities.
While these mosquitoes are often designed to breed with one another and eliminate the dangerous species going forward, the health impacts of humans being bitten by these insects are not well understood. Nor should a person have to risk being bitten by one of these creatures in order to venture outside. This amounts to a form of forced medication absent any form of consent and must be ended.
These recommendations should be understood as necessary first steps to begin correcting the disastrous health policy environment that exists in the U.S. today and to restore true health freedom in the U.S., which would allow all Americans to decide what medical interventions to allow into or onto one’s body, which health and medical modalities to utilize in maintaining their health and the ability to live free of involuntary medication be it via the food supply, the water supply or the air we breathe.
Originally published by Brownstone Institute.
Leslie Manookian is the president and founder of the Health Freedom Defense Fund. She is a former successful Wall Street business executive. Her career in finance took her from New York to London with Goldman Sachs. She later became director of Alliance Capital in London running their European growth portfolio management and research businesses.
Madison Area Lyme Support Group 