Author Archives: Katie Wilkinson

Action Alert: Call Your Representative TODAY to Ask Him/Her to OPPOSE the Brat Amendment

The House begins consideration of HR 6 the 21st Century CURES Act today (Thursday July 9th) This bill has bipartisan support and would establish an $8.75 billion Innovation Fund to provide NIH with an additional $1.75 billion a year and the FDA an additional $110 million for the next five years. The money for this Innovation Fund currently would come from mandatory spending instead of discretionary spending, which can get lost in the annual budget fights. The House Energy and Commerce Committee has already identified money for this fund from profits from selling some oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (see this FAQ for an explanation of the funding) and the Congressional Budget Office has estimated that this bill will reduce the federal deficit by more than $500 million over the next 10 years.

Rep. Dave Brat (R-VA) plans to offer an amendment to make the NIH Innovation Fund come from discretionary funding. Since this would defeat the purpose of the Innovation Fund, please ask your Representative to oppose Amendment #29 to the 21st Century Cures Act.

You can find your Representative’s number here:  http://www.house.gov/representatives/

Below is a sample script written by the American Physiological Society’s Science Policy Office:

Congressional offices expect to get phone calls from constituents expressing views for and against pending legislation. Therefore, you can explain the reason for your call to the receptionist.

WHAT TO SAY:

“My name is ___________, and I am a constituent of Rep. ________.”

“I support the 21st Century Cures Act because it will increase funding for life-saving biomedical research at the NIH. The bill is H.R. 6.

“Please ask Rep.______ to oppose Brat amendment #29 because it will undermine the Innovation Fund that is meant to help NIH meet crucial health challenges.”

Further talking points are provided below, but please call TODAY.

MORE REASONS TO SUPPORT THE BILL:

  • Provides funding for life saving research and treatment and contributes to the economic engine of research and development
  • Identifies funding to “offset” the cost of the Innovation Fund and reduces the federal deficit by more than $500 million over the next 10 years (according to the Congressional Budget Office)
  • Maintains the Appropriations Committees as gatekeepers to set funding levels annually for biomedical priorities

For more about the bill, see the House Energy and Commerce committee’s website http://energycommerce.house.gov/cures.)

Action Alert: Help Pass CA SB277 And Remove Personal Belief Exemptions for Vaccines

California SB277, which would eliminate the personal belief exemption for public school children in California, is currently working its way through the state legislature (discussed in a previous post). This week following a very heated public comment period, SB277 passed the Health Committee. On Wednesday April 15th the bill will be discussed in the Education Committee. Please join me in contacting your legislators and the members of the Education Committee to voice your support of the bill. The group Vaccinate California has made it very easy to contact your representative. You can also sign up for their web alerts to keep up to date about the progress of the bill.

Below are the phone numbers of all Education Committee members, please take the time to call and ask for their support. The anti-vaccination side has been quite vocal, so we need to let our legislators know that a clear majority of Californians know that vaccines are safe and effective and support this bill.

Sen. Bob Huff (916) 651-4029
Sen. Connie Leyva (916) 651-4020
Sen. Carol Liu (916) 651-4025
Sen. Marty Block (916) 651-4039
Sen. Loni Hancock (916) 651-4009
Sen. Tony Mendoza (916) 651-4032
Sen. Andy Vidak (916) 651-4014
Sen. Richard Pan (916) 651-4006 (SB277’s sponsor–you can call to thank his office)

Resources About the Safety and Efficacy of Vaccines

A sample call or email script (including an example of my personalized response in bold):

Dear State Senator/Representative ____,

I am writing/calling to encourage you to support the bill introduced by Senators Pan and Allen that would eliminate the personal belief exemption for vaccination in public school children. The science is clear, vaccines are safe and prevent millions of deaths a year. The efficacy of vaccination rests on herd immunity and California vaccination rates are dangerously low. This has led to recent outbreaks in whooping cough and the measles, which are incredibly dangerous diseases, especially to babies too young to be vaccinated and people with compromised immune systems. Controlling these diseases is also costly to the state and strains our public health resources. [if desired you can add something personalized here like: As a scientist and soon to be mother, this is a very important issue to me. When my baby is born in May, I am worried she will be needlessly exposed to dangerous diseases due to the high concentration of people who have chosen not to vaccinate in the Bay Area. I have a PhD in Biomedical Sciences and am trained to read and understand medical literature. I can assure you that the research supporting the safety of vaccines is sound. I would be happy to discuss this further with your office, provide you with easy to understand information about how vaccines work and the evidence that they are safe, or provide any other assistance you may need in making your decision.] Please help prevent needless outbreaks and deaths by supporting this bill and eliminating the personal belief exemption for vaccination in public school children.

Thank you for your consideration of this issue,

 

Action Alert: Ask Your Legislator to Support Federal Science Funding

Now is the time of year that the Appropriations Committees in Congress are starting to draft the budgets for FY 2016. Individual member requests for funding can be influential in setting the final appropriations request, so now is a good time to contact your representatives and voice your support for increased federal science funding. Currently there is a ‘Dear Colleague’ letter circulating in the House requesting an $32B for NIH and $7.72B for NSF. You can use FASEB’s action center to send an email to your House Reps asking them to show their support for increased federal investment in science by signing the Dear Colleague letter. Tomorrow members from the Society for Neuroscience will be on Capitol Hill meeting with legislators to ask for a 10% increase in NIH funding. You can contribute to their effort virtually by sending emails to your legislators through their action center.

Last year I attended the SfN Hill Day, which was an experience I’ll never forget. Many societies organize Hill Days for their members and it is a great way to make sure that your legislators hear about the value of federal science funding. It also gives you a firsthand glimpse into our political process. If you are an early career member of Society for Neuroscience or the American Physiological Society you should check out their policy fellowships.

Bill Reintroduced to Limit Overuse of Antibiotics in Agriculture

This week Senators Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) and Susan Collins (R-ME) reintroduced the Prevention of Antibiotic Resistance Act. This measure would act to strengthen recent FDA guidelines discouraging the use of antibiotics in order to promote weight gain in food animals. If passed, this bill would require the FDA to rescind approval of medically-important antibiotics for use in animals unless the manufacturer can show that there is no danger to human health. This bill would also require more veterinary oversight of antibiotic use.

Antibiotics are one of the most important medical advances in history, but antibiotic resistant bacteria are developing with alarming frequency. Antibiotics are widely used for non-medical reasons in agriculture and are over-prescribed in the clinic.  The combination of improper and overuse of antibiotics coupled with a drop in the number of new antibiotics developed each year is leading to worrisome increases in the prevalence of antibiotic resistant infections around the world. In India last year, over 58,000 infants died after contracting antibiotic resistant infections while in the US over 2 million people were infected by antibiotic resistant bacteria and ~23,000 died.

It is unclear how much this new bill will help to decrease the improper use of antibiotics, but any step taken to limit antibiotic use is at least a step in the right direction. You can support this bill by contacting your legislators and asking them to support the Prevention of Antibiotic Resistance Act.

Potentially a more effective way to limit the use of antibiotics in agriculture is to put pressure on major food producers and vote with your dollars. Many supermarkets carry meat from animals raised without antibiotics, although you will usually pay extra so this is not a practical option for everyone. The good news is that some companies are responding to public pressure about antibiotic use.  McDonald’s announced this week that it will stop buying chickens raised using antibiotics, saying that it was “listening to our customers”. Due to the huge purchasing power that McDonald’s has, this is likely to have a big impact on the use of antibiotics in chickens. If more large corporations do the same, antibiotic use in agriculture could be severely curtailed.

Resources About Antibiotic Resistance

“Imagining the Post-Antibiotic Future” by Maryn McKenna in Medium.com

“Resistance” documentary by Michael Graziano (reviewed in Nature News here)

“Hunting the Nightmare Bacteria” PBS Frontline

Action Alert: Contact CA State Legislators in Support of Bill to Eliminate Personal Belief Vaccination Exemption

California state Senators Richard Pan (D-Sacramento) and Ben Allen (D-Santa Monica) introduced legislation to eliminate the personal belief exemption for vaccination in public school children. Currently parents can claim an exemption from the state-mandated vaccination requirements for their personal beliefs. A 2012 law mandates that parents choosing this personal belief exemption must consult a licensed health care provider about their decision, which decreased the number of personal belief exemptions claimed by ~20% in 2013. Even with this decrease, 2.5% of children are entering CA public schools with personal belief exemptions, with this number rising in some communities to over 10% of children. California vaccination rates are ~91% of the population, which compromises herd immunity as we are seeing quite clearly with the current measles outbreak. Vaccines are safe and save literally millions of lives a year (1 or 2 in 1,000 kids who contract the measles will die). Those families who opt out of vaccines put the rest of us at risk, especially those most vulnerable including children too young to be vaccinated or those with compromised immune systems. (For more information on the safety and efficacy of vaccines see an earlier post). Controlling an outbreak of a previously vanquished disease like the measles is also incredibly costly and strains public health resources. Join me in contacting your state legislators to show your support for this bill which would make CA the 33rd state to eliminate personal belief exemptions for all children entering public schools.

How to Contact Your State Legislators

As the saying goes, the squeaky wheel gets the grease. Opinion polls consistently show the majority of Americans are in favor of vaccination and research overwhelmingly supports the safety and efficacy of vaccination. There is a very vocal minority opposed to vaccination, though, and you can bet they will be contacting their legislators. Let your state legislators know that you are in favor of this bill by contacting their offices through email or phone. You can find your state senator and representative here. You will be directed to you to your representative’s official website where you can find contact information for their offices and a web contact form. Below I have a sample email or phone script that I would encourage you to use and customize.

Dear State Senator/Representative ____,

I am writing/calling to encourage you to support the bill introduced by Senators Pan and Allen that would eliminate the personal belief exemption for vaccination in public school children. The science is clear, vaccines are safe and prevent millions of deaths a year. The efficacy of vaccination rests on herd immunity and California vaccination rates are dangerously low. This has led to recent outbreaks in whooping cough and the measles, which are incredibly dangerous diseases, especially to babies too young to be vaccinated and people with compromised immune systems. Controlling these diseases is also costly to the state and strains our public health resources. [if desired you can add something personalized here like: As a scientist and soon to be mother, this is a very important issue to me. When my baby is born in May, I am worried she will be needlessly exposed to dangerous diseases due to the high concentration of people who have chosen not to vaccinate in the Bay Area. I have a PhD in Biomedical Sciences and am trained to read and understand medical literature. I can assure you that the research supporting the safety of vaccines is sound. I would be happy to discuss this further with your office, provide you with easy to understand information about how vaccines work and the evidence that they are safe, or provide any other assistance you may need in making your decision.] Please help prevent needless outbreaks and deaths by supporting this bill and eliminating the personal belief exemption for vaccination in public school children.

Thank you for your consideration of this issue,

___________