STOP FEDERAL VACCINE DATABASE BILL H.R. 550

Members of Congress are seeking to pass H.R. 550, which would enable the federal government to track Americans’ vaccination status, infringing upon their privacy.

H.R. 550,
( [link to www.congress.gov (secure)] ),
the Immunization Infrastructure Modernization Act of 2021, is sponsored by Rep. Ann Kuster D-NH and cosponsored by 14 representatives. The bill passed the House by a 294-130 vote on November 30, 2021, and it is currently pending in the Senate.
If enacted, H.R. 550 would spend $400 million for “immunization system data modernization and expansion,” and to “[expand] CDC and [state and local] Public Health Department Capabilities.”

Specifically, H.R. 550 would require the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) to create national standards for vaccine database records — it authorizes the use of grants to pressure state and local officials to adopt these standards. Additionally, the bill requires that states make their databases accessible to the federal government, “non-governmental entities,” and “other persons.”
These state vaccine databases — called immunization information systems (IIS) — that the federal government would have access to and that would be expanded under H.R. 550, “remind patients when they are due for a recommended vaccine,” among other functions. H.R. 550 includes other provisions that empower the federal government and infringe upon Americans’ privacy.
Additionally, H.R. 550 allows the HHS to use fascist-style public-private partnerships to implement the bill’s provisions.

H.R. 550 represents a serious erosion of medical privacy and yet another socialist, unconstitutional enlargement of federal power. First and foremost, the U.S. Constitution does not delegate any public health-related powers to the federal government. The only powers that Congress has are specifically enumerated in Article I, Section 8. Under the 10th Amendment, these powers are reserved to the states and the people.
Additionally, H.R. 550 opens the door to a federal vaccine database and, by extension, the coercion and punishment of those who do not abide by the government’s wishes. Although the bill’s sponsors and supporters claim that the bill has “guardrails” against government tracking, Biden’s own HHS secretary, Xavier Becerra, has claimed that it is “absolutely the government’s business” to know who has received the COVID shot.