Click here to download the transcript.
Disclaimer: The following is an actual transcript. We do our best to make sure the transcript is as accurate as possible, however, it may contain spelling or grammatical errors. We suggest you watch the video while reading the transcript.
Good morning, everybody. This is Bharon Hoag, the executive director of OneChiropractic and the Chiropractic Defense Council coming to you today, Monday, November 15th for your weekly update. So, um, not a whole lot to share with you, nothing very different this week. I’m going to kind of break down some of what’s been happening nationally. Um, and for those of you in the U S I do want to give you a little bit of an update of what’s going on around the world. So as always, I want to thank so much all of the different organizations that have supported what we’re doing by helping to disseminate information. I know people are watching this from various different formats, whether it be from our emails, our Facebook page, I know ChiroSecure has been pumping it out on their Facebook page. We have all the other organizations that have been emailing it out to their groups.
Um, and we appreciate that because again, one of our commitments is to ensure that the, that we’re clarifying information, not creating confusion. So, uh, this week around the country, we still have not had a single report of a chiropractor, um, having any visitor challenging or requesting information to validate, um, their compliance with any mandate. So that is great. Um, that is what we have expected. We expect that to continue to be the same moving forward. Um, uh, in Illinois, obviously we have that little bit of an issue a couple of weeks ago with our governor ramming through legislation. Again, that doesn’t go into effect until June of 2022 and even so, um, it’s just going to put them in the same boat as every other state in the country using religious exemption as their ability to, um, maintain their right to choose, um, in Rhode Island.
Um, we are, we will be back in front of the courts on the 19th of this month. Um, we do expect to have a very similar result as last time we expect that we will not be successful with our injunction and our argument. Um, we kind of need to fail in the lower courts in order to go to the higher courts. So that’s somewhat expected, um, at this point, but I do want to reiterate kind of what happened with the Supreme court. Um, I know I talked about this last week a little bit, but I’ve had some questions over this week about really what all of that means. The fact that, you know, if you’re going to lose, that’s probably the best way that we can lose by having a couple of the members of the Supreme court tell us that they want us to bring it back, but in a different manner, even those that voted against it never really gave real reasons why, which is a good thing, because it does not really give our opponents the ability to use any of the language from the Supreme court to justify why they’re ignoring the first amendment and not allowing religious exemptions.
So, um, we are in the process of going through that, I know Maine is re-introducing their claim through different channels to get back to the Supreme court. I know New York is doing the same thing, and we’re obviously working our case in Rhode Island. I want you to know that we’re, we’re conscious of our docs and Rhode Island and what you’re doing every day, hold the line. Um, we’re not getting any arguments, we’re not getting any complaints. We’re not having any reports of anyone being badgered or harassed. Um, so just keep doing your thing and know that we’re here for you. Remember the beauty of the defense counsel is that you’re not alone, that in the event, anyone comes at you and they threatened to find you or, or, you know, shut you down or anything of that nature, our team is ready, willing, and able to defend you and ensure that your rights are protected.
So please know that that’s there. Um, hopefully every day that you move forward is not another day of anxiety. It’s a day of belief, right? We move forward in faith, not fear. Um, and we’re still here and we’re going to continue to defend you any possible way that we can. Now I do want to talk a little bit about what’s going on federally. Um, as you know, you had Biden put out the OSHA mandate and the CMS mandate at this point, the OSHA mandate as been stalled and been frozen, it was frozen by the federal courts, just at the end of last week. We had this, uh, us appeal court uphold that freeze. As a matter of fact, they didn’t just uphold that decision. They adamantly said that that mandate through OSHA is unconstitutional and they use some pretty strong language in that, which is good for our side.
Um, as long as our courts continue to uphold that that’s a bit overreach, it’s too draconian, um, for our government to be entrenching on employers in that manner. Um, those are good things. There are things we can use when we’re doing our arguments. So we’re happy with that. Now the CMS side is not a part of that. So the only thing that’s been frozen by the federal courts is the OSHA side, which is employers with a hundred or more employees on the federal side, which is your CMS side. If you remember, that was part of what Biden had put out was that anyone that was reimbursed through the Medicare system was also going to be mandated to vaccinate them and their employees that does not affect chiropractors at this point, that is still only for Medicare facilities. Chiropractors are considered non facility, um, for the most part, unless you’re a multi-disciplined or you’re a part of a hospital system, um, this is still does not apply to you even if it happens to apply to you because it’s federal, they have to accept a religious exemption.
So we want you to go to our website. We want you to download that information, follow that process and submit your exemption form so that you still have the right to choose. So nothing that’s really happening in the U S with the exception of New York, Maine, and Rhode Island, and in New York and Maine, they don’t affect chiropractors. It’s just, they’re denying the exemption for everyone else, but in Rhode Island, that mandate does affect chiropractors. And they’re claiming that there is no exemption accepted. So we are, you know, we feel very confident that the pendulum is swinging. Um, we are confident when it gets back in front of the U S Supreme court, that we are going to be successful in supporting, um, the, of the first amendment everywhere in the country. So, um, for the most part in the U S things are moving as we expect, we’ve had no new mandates be introduced to anywhere any other state in the country.
Um, nothing more has happened. I think everyone’s waiting to see what’s happening with Biden’s executive orders. So we are, we’re going to continue to monitor those things. Our attorneys are ready. We still have everybody on retainer. Um, we’re waiting to see at this point, um, a lot of what we have been doing really has been in, in New Zealand and Australia, um, it’s a pretty scary place over there. They now have five states in Australia that are mandating for chiropractors, New Zealand. The entire country is mandated. Um, we’re actually really, uh, aggressive in what we’re doing in those countries, because they don’t have the protection of our laws. They don’t have the first amendment. They don’t have the ADA, they don’t have the civil rights act. So because of all of those things, we have to have a bit of a different strategy in those markets, but it’s extremely important that people understand anywhere in the world that chiropractic is under attack.
It affects us that that’s really the whole infrastructure of the CDC, is that we’re protecting chiropractic as a whole, has nothing to do with what zip code they happen to be in. It’s all about ensuring that the rights of practicing chiropractors are protected. Um, we’re also really adding, um, a lot of other specialties to our fight in Australia, uh, because of the infrastructure there. And I think I’ve shared this with you before, but I want to remind you that yes, a lot of this stuff is very scary. I, I understand the reality of the implications on your livelihood, your ability to provide for your family, your profession. I really, I deal with this every day. I, in no way take that lighthearted, that you are dealing with severe decisions to make with your family, but in the midst of all of this chaos, there’s an unbelievable amount of opportunity for chiropractic.
And that’s what drives me every single day. The work that we’re doing around the world to elevate the recognition of chiropractic, how organized we are, how, how, um, decisive we are in the ability of our infrastructure to move on things the minute they need to be moved on. Remember that was really our purpose. We wanted to do something different. We wanted to have an organization that function differently and, and our strategies have been effective. And we were able to move and give people hope and, and make sure that there’s an argument that happens. As a matter of fact, in Australia, we believe now we have the, a team and we look like we might be able to go after the actual, uh, emergency order in the entire country. So we believe we have a strategy and we’re going to be doubling down on that strategy to take down the whole infrastructure in Australia.
Um, so, uh, you know, I’m excited for that. I want you to know that your contributions to us are helping that fight. Um, and, and that’s an important fight for us to have, because if we can get that done in Australia, it gives us merit to go into other countries and do this as well. So thank you so much for believing in who we are and what we’re doing. Thank you for, you know, jumping on board as early as you did. Thank you for continuing to support. We’re spending a lot of money around the world and that’s happening. A bunch of people are willing to do a little bit. So I am going to ask you to continue to spread the word with your colleagues. Um, yes, right now in the United States, we, for the most part, we have things under control, but who knows, what’s going to shift what change is going to happen.
As we enter the holiday season, we fully expect there’s going to be another quote unquote outbreak, um, because they’re running out of their executive authority. Um, so all kinds of crazy things are about to happen. We believe. And so we want to be prepared for that. We feel like we have a good handle on it, but who knows? So I’m asking you to not give up on the vision. I know a lot of you joined because you are very afraid of what was going to happen in your neck of the woods, but I need you to have the long game vision and continue to support what we’re doing by sharing it with other people. So send people to defendchiropractic.org, help them. We are now just under 2,400 contributors. Remember our goal by the end of the year was 5,000. Um, we’re going to be going on a kind of a marketing campaign to really push and hit that goal by the end of the year, because it gives us a lot of confidence to be able to take on the tasks that we’re taking on across the world.
So please continue to spread the word about who we are and what we’re doing. If you need anything, reach out to me. I know a number of you have been with different issues that you’re facing with your patients, or maybe your other loved ones, anything we can do to help, um, we will do. Um, so we just want you to know that we’re here. You’re not alone. We’re building something that’s never been built before. And we just so very much thank you for being a part of what we’re doing. So with that, I’m going to let you be for here a week. Uh, again, good news for the most part in United States. And we’re going to continue to push forward with that. So we will be back at you next Monday, if anything happens between now and then we’ll be sure to reach out other than that, don’t ever stop telling the story of chiropractic, keep loving and serving in your communities. Stay out of the things that put a target on your back and make sure that we put our focus and emphasis on keeping people adjusted. We love you. We appreciate you have an incredible week and we’ll talk to you next week. God bless.