MAKE A DIFFERENCE

Advocates for Physicians’ Rights (AFPR) is a California non-profit corporation set up to protect the rights of physicians and their patients. AFPR believes that the relationship between a doctor and patient is fundamentally both sacred and confidential. We further believe that this basic tenet must remain intact in order to protect both the practitioner and the patient’s best interests.

Unfortunately, in the current situation of COVID-19, the practice of medicine is not infrequently being alloyed by state and business interests which — we would contend — are often practicing medicine without a license by subjecting citizens to medical protocols, and/or insisting that citizens release private medical information like illness status or vaccination status as a prerequisite for entry or service.  Despite this climate, Advocates for Physicians’ Rights remains resolute in believing that a person’s private medical information and status is just that:  private.  In the same manner that an HIV-positive person cannot be made to disclose that status in order to enter a store or school, we believe neither may vaccination status legally be considered a prerequisite for entry (particularly given that the vaccine is currently considered an experimental procedure under the Emergency Use Authorization Act, and as such, cannot be mandated).

We further believe — like the ACLU and the World Health Organization and many travel associations — that a digital vaccine passport system is fundamentally inequitable, as nearly 20% of the poor, 15% of certain minorities, and more than 30% of elderly people in certain areas lack smartphones, and thus would be disenfranchised from society by such a program.  The people in these sectors have a right to buy food, take their child to ballet, and participate in all manner of commerce and programs — and a digital system that restricts entry and requires technology they lack is not just immoral and unfair, it is also unconstitutional.  We further object to the surveillance state and overreach of Big Tech that would be required to roll out and support such a system.  Of course, most specifically and of most relevance to our mission, we object to the forced disclosure of private medical data that would be required by any such vaccination passport system, which medical data is the province of a patient and his physician ONLY, and which data should be protected to the utmost from the prying eyes of commercial interests and state actors.

Through its lobbying and advocacy work, AFPR is committed to ensuring that licensed physicians and medical professionals are alone allowed to practice medicine in California, that state actors and laypersons are not allowed to countermand doctors’ orders with respect to patients, that the sanctity and confidentiality of the doctor-patient relationship is preserved to the utmost, and finally that patients are never forced into choosing between disobeying their own doctors’ recommendations and submitting to State-sponsored medical treatments, or alternatively, failing to capitulate to the State and losing their right to attend school. With these goals firmly in mind, we ask that you both join our group to remain apprised of further developments as well as make a monthly or one-time donation to our cause.