The final panel of the day, “Restoring Health Freedom to Our Courts and the Legislatures,” was equal parts celebration and urgent call-to-arms. Moderated by CHD President Mary Holland, the room heard from the attorneys and families who have been in the trenches for five years straight.
“Every Case Is a Victory — Even Filing It”
Senior CHD counsel Ray Flores set the tone:
(00:00:48) “Victories sometimes come in small doses. It can be a filing of a case… raising awareness… press coverage. They all matter.”)He rattled off a string of wins that forced policy reversals:
NYC mandatory student PCR testing withdrawn while on appeal (2020)
Washington, DC minor-consent law allowing 11-year-olds to vaccinate without parents — repealed after CHD intervention (2021)
No U.S. school district ever mandated the COVID-19 vaccine for students (00:02:19 “We pushed back hard… and no school district in the country ever mandated COVID-19 vaccine.”)
Rutgers University dropped its mandate two years after losing in district court (2024)
National Park Service cashless policy lawsuit still active (2024)
Flores v. HHS forced HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to re-establish the dormant Vaccine Safety Task Force required since 1986 (00:04:43–00:07:27). Flores noted HHS never filed a single safety-improvement report to Congress in almost 40 years, meaning “every single vaccine injury and death for the last 40 years can be blamed on HHS.”
A Teenager’s Year-Long Fight to Return to SchoolJane and Sarah Doe (pseudonyms) received a standing ovation after recounting their federal victory in New York.
(00:16:00) Sarah, denied school for missing one hepatitis B dose despite seven medical exemptions, described her sophomore year:
(00:18:30 “I went from sitting in my bed every day thinking ‘why is this happening to me’… to because of Children’s Health Defense, being able to go to school. It’s unreal.”)
Their August 2025 preliminary injunction under the Americans with Disabilities Act created binding precedent that medically fragile children cannot be excluded.
“We Are Begging the New Administration to Switch Sides”
Warner Mendenhall of Freedom Council highlighted the December 3, 2025, oral argument in Jackson v. Pfizer at the Fifth Circuit:
(00:10:46 “We’re not appealing against Pfizer… we’re appealing against the federal government” that intervened to dismiss the case under Biden.)
He urged the Trump DOJ to reverse position, saying it would “wipe out the PREP Act protections.”
Landmark Legislative Win
Leslie Manookian, president of Health Freedom Defense Fund, announced the biggest structural victory yet:
(00:34:23 “On April 4th, 2025, the governor of Idaho signed the Idaho Medical Freedom Act — the first legislation of its kind anywhere in the world prohibiting medical mandates of any kind.”)
Model legislation and grassroots toolkits are now posted at healthfreedomdefense.org for every state to replicate.
Priorities for 2026
The panel agreed 2026 is make-or-break:
End the PREP Act and the virtually useless Countermeasures Injury Compensation Program (CICP) — only 41 claims paid, average $4,100 (00:38:06)
Create a real national vaccine-injury compensation system
Pass Medical Freedom Acts in all 50 states
Restore religious & medical exemptions (especially NY, CA, CT, ME, WV)
Pursue $1 trillion in False Claims Act recoveries for pandemic fraud (00:39:00)
Final Call to the Audience
(00:45:23) Ray Flores: “Start living a healthier life… when you reach a point of health you reach a point of enlightenment.”
(00:47:03) Warner Mendenhall: “All of the stuff that we do is based on your courage… When we take a stand individually it reverberates in ways we cannot predict.”
(00:51:55) Leslie Manookian: “This is not the time to let our guard down — this is the time to put the pedal to the metal.”
As the panel closed to sustained applause, the message was clear: the tide has turned, precedents are being set, culture is shifting — but the fight to reclaim bodily autonomy and informed consent is only entering its decisive phase.
