When Fort Fairfield schools offer the untested, potentially unsafe H1N1 vaccine later this year, parents will have the opportunity to exempt their children from receiving it.

School Administrative District #20 Superintendent Marc Gendron said a letter to parents is currently being drafted and will contain the opt-out information. “It is my understanding that the consent form for the H1N1 virus is still being developed. I do not have a copy yet,” said Gendron. “We will actively promote the waiver option. We are not doing that now because we do not even have a date or any confirmation concerning H1N1.”

Even though the waiver form listed by the Maine Department of Education’s website on www.maine.gov  does not specifically list H1N1 as a choice for exemption, Gendron says Fort Fairfield schools will not pressure students to receive the vaccine.

“The vaccine is 'totally voluntary' and the wishes of any parent who does not want their child to participate will be respected,” he said.

Health experts are warning about the serious long term effects of a vaccine expected to become available within the next few months that would combat Swine Flu, a mild virus associated with only one death out of over 300 cases in Maine so far this year.

Doses of the vaccine could contain two controversial compounds: Thimerosal and squalene, said Peter McCarthy, chair of the Texas Health Freedom Coalition, a natural health lobbyist organization.

McCarthy said Thimerosal has been included in the H1N1 vaccine despite protests by public health officials. Maine has some H1N1 vaccines without Thimerosal set aside for children, but the older population will receive Thimerosal-tainted vaccines. Thimerosal is a preservative comprised primarily of the neurotoxin, mercury.

Maine Governor John Baldacci recently issued a proclamation of emergency in order to allow legal protection for those who administer the untested, potentially unsafe vaccine, prohibiting people from suing for damages that may result from it.

Obama's current 'science czar', John Holdren has advocated in the past for forced sterilization of the public via tainting the food and water supplies in order to quell population expansion. It is unclear if such population-culling additives have been covertly added into the abnormally hyped H1N1 vaccine, or not.

Dr. Dora Anne Mills, director of the Maine Center for Disease Control, told the Bangor Daily News that schools are no more liable for injuries associated with the vaccine clinics than they would be for injuries incurred at a basketball game or other community event.

Vaccine manufacturers are generally not liable for ill effects of the vaccines they produce, but the federal government does have a compensation fund for vaccine-related illnesses or injuries that is comprised of ‘judges’ from the pharmaceutical industry and has strict limits on financial compensation that might be awarded.

Of his emergency proclamation, Governor Baldacci said, “It’s our goal that every person in the state has access to vaccines for the seasonal and H1N1 flu.” However, the vaccine is not mandatory and parents may opt their school aged children out of the program with a vaccine waiver.

In Maine, parents may opt their children out of the vaccine programs for either religious or philosophical reasons. Philosophical simply means they do not believe in the use of vaccines as a legitimate preventative, when their religion may or may not have anything to say on the matter. Because vaccine waivers are made available, parents may not sue for damages resulting from vaccines because, by law, they had the opportunity to opt out of the program, whether their school administration was forthcoming with that information, or not.

In the event the local school nurse is unable to produce a copy of the vaccine waiver form, Maine has a sample template available online at: www.maine.gov/education/sh/immunizations/exemptionform.pdf