New AANP position paper on vaccines 3 (cont.)

Colleen Huber, NMD
Message 15 of 20 , Aug 4 5:27 AM
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This is precisely NOT the time for silence on the massively important issue of vaccination.  Especially if silence is taken for consent and agreement, as it was by the writers of the AANP position paper.

Please write to member.services@....

Before any more state legislatures pass more mandatory vaccination laws, such as recently happened in California, AANP needs to hear from all of us who are concerned about the AANP position paper on immunization, from members and ex-members and never-members.

Please feel free to send them the following paragraph, or for better effect, one that you write yourself.

Their address is Member.Services@....

Re:  AANP position paper on immunization

Why did AANP not report results of the surveys done of their members regarding vaccination?  AANP members who compiled survey results saw that the majority favors individual choice, for either a delayed vaccine schedule, a limited schedule, or no vaccines at all.  Why was that not reported?  Rather, a blatantly false description of the views of naturopathic physicians was presented in the recent AANP position paper.  This does not inspire confidence in your organization, and it does not reflect our long-held role as upholding patient choice in medical care.  For many of us, vaccination is a violation of First Do No Harm, due to the increasing evidence of the role of vaccines in chronic and autoimmune diseases, as well as the steep historical decline in infectious disease incidence prior to the development of vaccines for those diseases.  For those reasons and others, a huge number of naturopathic physicians have never administered a vaccine injection and never will.  Your paper contradicts that reality.

Of course, AANP has no jurisdiction anywhere, and cannot dictate any aspect of a naturopathic physician's practice.  But AANP's voice is one of the loudest in our profession, and can contribute to some more  mandatory vaccination laws coming out of state legislatures over the coming years, such as the recent debacle in California.

So this is much too important to keep quiet about.


Colleen Huber, NMD
Naturopathic Oncologist (FNORI)



bjarham
Message 16 of 20 , Aug 4 6:46 AM
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My name is Dr. Brian Archambault and I am currently the Vice President for the AzNMA, which is the Arizona
Naturopathic Medical Association.  The AzNMA polled its membership when the initial draft of the vaccination position paper was released from mthr AANP and for a membership of almost 500 doctors we had 100 responses.  The sad part is that as a board we were excited to have 100 responses.  Here is a topic that "could" have direct consequences on; the way you practice, your patients and furthermore your family.  California citizens just lost their right to personal exemptions for vaccinations.  Don't you think that this will set a precedence?

We have such great ways for people to stay in touch; this group, Facebook, your own social connections that you have made with your colleagues and class mates.  People are communicating amoungst each other all the time.

If you can't take 5 minutes out of your time to vote or voice your opinion on topics of this importance then your silence or your complacency becomes your vote, so don't complain when decisions are made that you don't agree with.  Leaving it up to others to voice their opinion or to make decisions leaves YOU without a decision.  Our profession is growing, quickly in all aspects of the word.  Much like many organizations we have a small percentage of people who are doing a lot of the work, with a lot of people complaining.

GET INVOLVED, if you are involved then make sure that you are participating, not just along for the ride.  We all have chosen this career path for a variety of reasons and I for one want to be sure that I have the capacity to keep doing what I am doing within all of my scope to keep helping people achieve their best health possible.

if you are not a member of your state association join it, if you are a member, then ask the board if you can participate on a committee.  You don't have to be a board member to join a committee.  The more participants on a committee the more work can get done.  Most of your board members all have their own personal practice and families are are volunteering their time so that YOU can continue to be successful as a Naturopathic Physician in your state.

I encourage you to please GET INVOLVED.

Thank you
Brian Archambault
Phoenix, Az



Emily Kane
Message 17 of 20 , Aug 4 10:47 AM
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I think one of the main problems is violation of process by the AANP board. Why did they vote to NOT have members weigh in on this paper?  The AANP board should have polled all members on this issue.  I understand compromise but not pandering to allopathic norms which have caused massive harm. We can do better if we allow all our voices to weigh in on some form of consent. Consensus will not be possible but I believe we can settle on language that will satisfy our commitment to Vis Medicatrix Naturae, Tolle Causum and Primum Non Nocere.
Emily Kane ND
currently in Oakland CA



Eric Blake
Message 18 of 20 , Aug 4 4:32 PM
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Hi Michael

I haven't seen you since breakfast at ICNM. Hope things are well. You have a bit of crap sandwich on your hands here.

I think perhaps you are missing the point of concern. The current Facebook groups and natchat converstions are concerned around the process itself. Yes the passion and concern is fueled by the topic of the paper.  However - it is the process itself that is of concern.

Apparently the paper was intentionally withheld from general membership before the adoption vote -  And apparently that process is the normal procedure? That seems very odd.  What other secret policy papers have been adopted by the HOD?

I have seen no refutation of the claim by several involved that the policy was to be kept from the knowledge of the membership until it was voted upon. Despite the knowledge that the policy would not be in accord with the survey the aanp conducted.  That seems very odd.

We are only having this conversation because thankfully someone or some ones broke rank. If that had not occurred the vote would have proceeded without general membership. That is again very odd.

If you believe for a moment we are not all congizant of the second class segregation that is our day to day reality I am sure any of us could correct that. We get it. And while it has apparently made things more challenging for licensure it appears that those obstacles were overcome despite ( what is perhaps an aged and out of date ) the current vaccine paper. No one has doubted, in fact most posts have been suspicious, that the position paper was primarily a politically motivated piece.  And your post confirms that, and the justifications on every thread I have read all center around that.

This last point is beyond odd -- that is inherently unethical.

You call it politics - sadly it's not. Politics is jockeying for position, this is corruption.  It is an attempt to misrepresent our profession in attempts to manipulate political process by presenting us as something we are not. More disturbing is that it appears by all accounts that this was done by efforts at manipulating our own internal political process.  That is corruption.   It has and will sow the seeds of division, frustration, and alienation.

Of course we appreciate the work of volunteers and those involved in the AANP.  I hope that the AANP board and volunteers appreciate those of us out in the field seeing patients, running clinics, etc at the front lines. We are a community of activity.   As for hurt feelings - I'm sure you can well understand how distressing this is for NDs at large.  The idea that the leadership would not recognize that quietly manipulating the political process to push forward a position not in line with the professions perspective is disconcerting and unsettling.  It undermines our faith in the process or our representation.

Unfortunately - and I can bet this will send you into a tear - I believe that an independent ethics panel should review the process of policy making and specifically this policy process.  Evaluate what went wrong, if anything, and make recommendations.

I don't think anyone would disagree that we need a policy that respects the variability , breadth AND political reality of our profession.


Sincerely
Dr. Blake

Eric Blake ND, DAc
Naturopathic Physician,



James Prego, ND
Message 19 of 20 , Today at 8:33 AM
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As a delegate of the HoD since about 2007, I want to clear up a few things:

In theory, its not the purview of the AANP board to adopt, or have any control over, position papers or their availability.  Position papers are under the control of the HoD.  The HoD is made up of delegates chosen by state affiliate groups (I am from the NYANP myself), ND universities, and associations such as the OncANP.

It is votes by the HoD that determine if a position paper passes or fails.  If it passed, by our house rules, it is supposed to be posted for public consumption.  Now this process had been not working too well over the years, and I also felt that position papers was a wasted resource for public and media attention of our profession, and it was my main passion since I joined.  Sadly I, and a number of others, got burnt out on trying to make it better.

The HoD has standing and ad-hoc committees.  The PPRC (position paper review committee) is a standing committee which I was on for about 7 years until just a few weeks ago.  (I am also on the only 2 other standing committees - AANP by-laws committee, and the house rules committee)

The main job of the PPRC is to review position papers, review changes to current papers, and to new papers, to make sure they follow the proper format, and the procedure was followed by people putting in changes properly, and then give its recommendations to the HoD.

ANY AANP member can put in requests for changes, new papers, etc.  There are forms on the AANP website for this.

ALL HoD and committee meetings are totally OPEN.  ANY AANP member can attend, join, help with work, etc...and as I always do, I beg you to do so.  The ONLY thing a non-delegate can't do in the HoD is vote.

One job of the delegates is to bring back things to be voted on to the orgs they represent, to gather option and stance of their associations s they can vote at the HoD.

What frustrates me since I have been a delegate:
1.  No matter how early, and often, information gets sent out, people (both within and outside of the HoD) act last minute as if its never been put out there before, and then accuse others of 'hiding' information.
2.  How the work of the PPRC often has gotten ignored, and fell victim to #1.  We lost many good people from the PPRC over the years because of this.
3.  When the HoD rules and AANP bylaws are not properly followed.  This has happened a few times with this vaccination paper issue, which is why it seems like things were deliberately hidden when it was really ignorance/misunderstanding of the rules and by-laws.

Now I will say that my stance is that it was misguided for the HoD to make the decision to not let the delegates send out the vaccination paper to its organization's membership.  For a few reasons:  1.  It is actually in the delegate job description to do send out this information!  2. How can delegates properly vote if they do not fully know the positions of their organizations they represent?  3.  Making decisions out of fear (afraid the paper will 'leak' before its voted upon) is always a bad choice, even moreso when what you fear happening has already happened (the draft paper leaking).

I am actually not a big fan of lots of rules and such, BUT if we spent the time to make them, to vote them in, and to maintain them, then I certainly want them to be understood and followed.

Dr. James Prego
BayShore, NY



Sheila Frodermann
Message 20 of 20 , Today at 9:40 AM
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Thank you, James, for your summary about the critical issue being the 'misguided' decision by HoD to not let delegates release the vaccine paper to our state association members. It is an issue which I hope the AANP will reassess in the name of a "healthier" ND community and for a more optimal health of our profession at large. Transparency between the AANP board and membership, between the AANP and our State boards, and between State boards and their membership is as critical as the politics of this vaccine position paper.
Sheila


Sheila M. Frodermann, MS, ND, DHANP, CCH
Naturopathic Doctor