HJNO Nov/Dec 2024

HEALTHCARE JOURNAL OF NEW ORLEANS I  NOV / DEC 2024 19 THE PROMPT Abraham [Shakes his head in agreement.] Rep. McCormick I’m kind of veering off stay- ing on vaccines, but veering off a little bit on COVID. I know there’s been lots of testimony in this room about there’s not been enough studies to prove whether early childhood vaccines and autism are connected. And I guess my question to you in the new posi- tion you’ve created, can we pass any laws in Louisiana that can gather information from the doctors to help you do some type of in- state study to determine if there is possibly any connection between early childhood vaccines and autism? Can we do our own study? Is that a possibility? Abraham I think so. I mean Rep. Amedee alluded to that. We have the data, we want to access the data. We are trying to access some of the data even ourselves – in house, and sometimes that’s problematic – work- ing out the kinks. But, why not open up the data to everyone that wants to see it? Have a discussion. As Dr. Coleman says, “Have a debate.” There’s nothing wrong with that. That’s the way things get solved, and that’s what we want to do from the surgeon general. Rep. McCormick We we need that trust back. And I’ll tell you what concerns me about that is in October 2020, I run a bill saying that you couldn’t make the COVID-19 vac- cine mandatory and I was positive they were going to make it mandatory. My testimony was wrong because I said there’s millions, no, maybe even billions of dollars at stake here. And it was actually tens of billions. So, you know that drives the train. I knew they were going to make it mandatory. And that was in October of 2020. It was voted down and in committee, they told me I was a solution looking for a problem, and actually, sadly, two of the people that voted against my bill wound up vaccine injured from the COVID-19 vaccine by their own admis- sion under testimony later. So, we’re talk- ing about our children here when it comes Rep. Tarver If it was, I’m just curious why we weren’t able to use it more during the recent years. For instance, with ivermectin, I should have a right to try that if I under- stand the law, and I don’t know why it was rejected. Abraham If your doctor prescribed that and you agree with the treatment, I totally agree you should be able to try. Rep. Danny McCormick This is a little bit more friendly environment than I had the first four years of my term here. You know, it was fear, I think that has the spiritual aspect but that’s something out of our realm here. It’s the people were fearing the government and personally I believe we’re in a better sit- uation when the government actually fears the people. Abraham That’s the way it is supposed to work. Rep. McCormick That’s right. During COVID, it didn’t take about two weeks for me to fig- ure out it’s the elderly and those with under- lying conditions were at the biggest threats and those we need to protect the most. I was kind of part of the group that led the rebellion down here against the, the shut- down. We had a real radical idea – liberty. And that was if you want to get the vaccine, get it, and if you didn’t want to get the vac- cine, don’t get it. Abraham Absolutely. Rep. McCormick I think that’s important for the people in the room to knowwhat liberty is – is freedom to choose. You did talk about the 70% approval rate on doctors down 40%. And I think that’s the tragedy that has actually come out of this. I mean, when we have another situation, we’re just going to not trust the establishment – whether they’re right or wrong we’re not going to trust them. with COVID — everybody had such a knee jerk reaction, got way ahead of their skis, and it got out of control very quickly. On the federal level, to Dr. Coleman’s point, they wouldn’t reevaluate. They were scared to admit mistakes, and so the mistakes con- tinued, and they grew. Rep. Tarver Will it be easier for you to maybe be a little more removed from the narrative because you develop policy within what’s good for Louisiana. Is that going to enable you to be less dependent upon the CDC and the federal issues and all those kinds of things. Not that you won’t give them some credence, but you’ll be able to analyze what’s the impact and what the what the activities in Louisiana need to be based on our culture and our … I’mnot trying to put words in your mouth, but I’m trying to understand where we might be. Coleman Well, I think one place that we could take a right turn where a wrong turn was taken last time is just facilitating debate and discussion between doctors and mak- ing sure that they’re open to say what they think in real time; because I don’t think they were doing it for the wrong reasons, they were just trying to help. And there’ll be some people whomake wrong decisions then, too, but I think that’s the way you get to the right decision quicker, is by facilitating speech rather than discouraging it. Rep. Tarver Thank you. Last thing I was wanting to ask about was the right to try. Do we have a law? Abraham I voted on the right to try in Con- gress, if I remember right. Rep. Tarver That’s a federal law. Do you know if we have a Louisiana version or a Louisi- ana law about that? Abraham I am pretty sure that is a law, yes, I think that was implemented. You can check, but I’m pretty sure.