A New and Improved Louisiana Department of Health

Under John Bel Edwards (JBE), the Louisiana Department of Health (LDH) exemplified the worst of government malfeasance. In 2020, instead of verifying information provided by federal health agencies, LDH leadership amplified the COVID propaganda presented by Tony Fauci, Deborah Birx, and others. The agency became useful idiots, maintaining the illusion of a deadly pandemic for years and disregarding medical ethics and human rights in the process.

LDH promoted and then mandated untested non-pharmaceutical interventions like masking, social distancing, testing, and quarantining healthy people by validating JBE’s executive orders. Those mitigation measures were then presented to BESE as mandates within the schools, as required by Act 9, authored by former Representative Buddy Mincey. LDH was complicit in the large-scale, unethical experiments in behavior modification that Louisiana children were forced to undergo to attend school.

Under Edwards, the Louisiana Department of Health promoted medical interventions without supporting data.

In February of 2021, we watched in horror as LDH and the State Health Officer Dr. Joseph Kanter recommended experimental COVID “vaccines” for pregnant women without any trial data to support the recommendation. As COVID “vaccines” became available under Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) to more age groups, LDH never hesitated to recommend the “vaccines” to the public at large despite increased warnings about myocarditis and the lack of efficacy.

On May 20, 2021, State Epidemiologist Theresa Sokol shared that her minor child participated in a COVID “vaccine” trial and encouraged parents to get their children “vaccinated.” The next day, LDH issued a Health Alert Network Message to healthcare providers titled Reports of Myocarditis/Pericarditis Occurring After COVID-19 “Vaccination” With Either the Pfizer or Moderna “Vaccines” but made no mention of it in subsequent press conferences to the public. LDH even minimized the risk in a June webinar intended to address parent concerns.

In fact, despite this known myocarditis risk, LDH granted requests from colleges and universities to require COVID “vaccination” for school attendance, knowing the shots did not prevent transmission or infection. Then, in violation of RS 17:170, which requires that proof of immunity from natural infection be accepted in place of vaccination, LDH required students to repeatedly test for COVID, ignoring state law and the long-standing principle of natural immunity.

Under John Bel Edwards, LDH repeatedly violated medical ethics and human rights.

In June 2021, while the COVID mRNA shots were still EUA and after the risk of myocarditis was known, LDH implemented Shot At A Million. This lottery incentive was intended to increase vaccine uptake in every eligible age group, including minors. Then, in December 2021, along with the attempt to add COVID “vaccination” to the list of required vaccinations for school attendance, LDH rolled out the contemptible Shots for Santa program. It paid parents $100 to “vaccinate” their children at a time when millions of Louisianans were in dire financial circumstances because of business closures and vaccine mandates.

“GONNA FIND OUT WHO’S VACCINATED AND NICE.”

Programs like Shots for Santa, initiated to entice people to get vaccinated, violate the most basic tenets of informed consent, which states that voluntary consent from the human subject is absolutely essential. The psychological manipulation in the messaging crosses ethical boundaries. Neither children nor their parents should equate vaccination with being “nice.” It is a medical procedure with clearly stated risks. Consent is no longer voluntary when such an element of manipulation is involved. Additionally, programs like this target vulnerable populations and offer many opportunities for abuse.

We attempted to raise awareness of the very real possibility that because these events took place outside the clinical setting (in malls), children would be subjected to repeated COVID “vaccinations” as parents seized the incentive of getting $100 with each shot their child took.

Underscoring the egregious medical ethics and human rights violations initiated by LDH was the insidious messaging from JBE. To be a good neighbor, wear a mask and get a vaccine for the community’s benefit. For years, LDH instilled a fear of harming others — our family, friends, and community — if we didn’t obey and wear a mask or get a vaccine. The greater good became the priority. Individual rights and freedoms, including parental rights, were forfeited. JBE notoriously stated in an interview that “people need to worry less about their rights and more about doing the right thing.”

This is the weaponization of public health: the loss of individual rights and freedoms in exchange for “the greater good.”

“For the greater good”: the phrase that always precedes the greatest evil. ― Jakub Bożydar Wiśniewski, Fellow of the Mises Institute

Throughout the four years that JBE wielded COVID as a sledgehammer to attack our economy and freedoms, personal responsibility for our health and well-being was conspicuously missing. Despite being ranked 49th in the country for health outcomes in March of 2020 — 50th when behaviors like physical activity were included — LDH messaging never focused on improving individual health with nutrition, exercise, or lifestyle. This, even though comorbidities were a significant factor in outcomes of COVID infection.

We are thrilled to see a shift in focus at LDH under the leadership of Surgeon General Dr. Ralph Abraham.

On Christmas day, the Surgeon General’s office and LDH shared the same promising message. They urged Louisianans to take personal responsibility for their own physical and mental well-being. This is a paradigm-shifting approach to public health in Louisiana.

As America faces an unsustainable chronic health crisis, once again, Louisiana is in the unenviable last place with the worst health ranking of all 50 states. We did not get into this position due to lack of funding. Louisiana’s most recent budget allocates over $19 billion for the Department of Health, including Medicaid costs. That’s almost half the state’s budget of approximately $40 billion. If personal responsibility is prioritized in Louisiana’s public health policy, the state’s overall health will improve, ultimately easing a significant tax burden.

More importantly, emphasizing personal responsibility will shield Louisianans from the fearmongering often seen in public health by placing the responsibility for health where it belongs: on the individual rather than the broader community. If a person’s overall health can be a predictor of viral infection outcomes — as was the case with COVID — then the best way to reduce our susceptibility to future “novel” viruses, is to improve our health. While we know societal benefits will naturally occur due to this change in philosophy at LDH, perhaps the most important is that it is not accompanied by a false moral imperative, such as lighting yourself on fire to keep your neighbor warm.

Americans have lost trust in physicians and public health.

Louisiana Surgeon General Dr. Ralph Abraham testified before the legislature in September that Americans have lost trust in physicians and public health. To regain that trust, he advised that public health must “tell the truth.” LDH has been very forthcoming and transparent with the recent bird flu infection and subsequent deaths in Louisiana. We do not doubt that had this bird flu “epidemic” had occurred under JBE / Kanter, Louisiana would already be in a declared state of emergency. Instead, we have been afforded enough information to indicate that the patient’s overall health most likely affected the outcome. As was noted in a very recent CDC study and by LDH, general public health risk from bird flu remains low.

LDH shifts away from flu, COVID, and mpox vaccine promotion.

We also noticed the absence of vaccine propaganda on LDH’s social media channels and were pleasantly surprised to find that this was intentional. While the local press reported the “leak” about this policy shift with bias, we have to point out that the local media was complicit in the years-long COVID propaganda campaign.

Abraham is wise in shifting away from vaccine promotion. LDH under JBE damaged the reputation of public health to such a degree that no one will take vaccine recommendations for flu, covid, or mpox seriously — and they shouldn’t. These vaccines offer more risk than benefit, and you have no duty to society to accept that risk. Since vaccine manufacturers have no liability even for the known harms associated with these products, governments should be prohibited from mandating and promoting their use, except to say, “Buyer beware.”

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