USEnviroComments

Stop Congress from Gutting the Clean Air Act - House Vote this Week ⭑ 5 Calls Updates May 18, 2025: The House is expected to vote on S.J. Res. 31 the week of May 19th. On May 1, 2025, 52 Senators voted to repeal Clean Air Act …

I just called my reps to Stop Congress from Gutting the Clean Air Act - House Vote this Week — you should too: 5calls.org/issue/epa-cl...

Dozens of sections quietly restructure the federal government to match the far-right’s long-term goals:

- Guts environmental protections
- Sec. 42108: Repeals Clean Air Act provisions used to limit emissions.

[Also, as a final note: I read a sampling of the current (~6000) comments and there are a SHIT-TON of anti-vax comments; do not look at these links being passed around and think “oh everybody else has got this.” We need as vocal a response as possible to counteract these demons.]

You can include anecdotal evidence here as well – are you under the age of 65 and have been impacted by COVID? Explain why you care!

Effectiveness of 2-Dose Vaccination with mRNA COVID-19 Vaccines This report describes mRNA COVID-19 vaccine effectiveness between ...

COVID boosters have been proven effective already, and continued boosters are necessary to maintain protections against evolving strains of COVID. (ex: Embi et al., 2021 www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes...; Goldberg et al 2021 www.nejm.org/doi/full/10....; Voutouri et al 2023 www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...)

Indirect protection of children from SARS-CoV-2 infection through parental vaccination Parental Covid-19 vaccination confers substantial protection for unvaccinated children in the household.

Vaccine-powered protection is also critical for parents to protect their children from COVID infection, particularly for children who are unable to be vaccinated or who are otherwise vulnerable (Hayek et al., 2022 doi.org/10.1126/scie...

Protecting the Community Through Child Vaccination Vaccines provide substantial indirect protection of unvaccinated children and adults through community protection. This protection has sometimes been great

Young and healthy people choose to vaccinate to protect the vulnerable people in their lives; vaccination across the community, especially children, is critical to protect those who are most susceptible to infectious disease (Anderson et al. 2018 doi.org/10.1093/cid/...).

Post COVID-19 symptoms are common, also among young adults in the general population - Scientific Reports Scientific Reports - Post COVID-19 symptoms are common, also among young adults in the general population

(Ex: Mogensen et al., 2023 doi.org/10.1038/s415...; Herrera et al., 2023 doi.org/10.1038/s415...; Ripley-Gonzalez et al., 2023 doi.org/10.1038/s415...)

Post COVID-19 symptoms are common, also among young adults in the general population - Scientific Reports Scientific Reports - Post COVID-19 symptoms are common, also among young adults in the general population

... or socioeconomic status, age, sex, sexual orientation, race, ethnic group, or geographic location.” Multiple studies have already supported this, showing that post-COVID-19 symptoms can have devastating impacts on the daily lives of young adults...

Long Covid Defined | NEJM Members of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine describe the process and rationale for the development of the 2024 definition of persistent Covid-19 symptoms (long Covid).

[Explain why you are opposed, citing sources and evidence.]
Ex: Complications from COVID-19 are serious and long-lasting; Ely et al., 2024 (www.nejm.org/doi/full/10....) review 4 years of research and find Long Covid “can affect children and adults, regardless of health, disability....

SUGGESTED COMMENT TEMPLATE: I strongly oppose the FDA’s proposal to block Americans under the age of 65 from accessing booster vaccines to protect themselves from COVID-19....
[State as clearly as possible what your stance is, right up front. Seriously, do not bury the lede].

Advisory Committees About FDA public advisory committees, calendar of meetings, meeting materials, how to become an advisory committee member, guidance, and FAQs.

Note that the comment opportunity linked above is a notice that the vaccines advisory committee will be holding a public hearing about this on Thursday the 22nd from 8:30am-4:30pm; the link will be posted here (www.fda.gov/advisory-com...) on the day.

You can make your opposition known to the vaccine advisory committee by commenting here through May 22nd; I'll put references and suggestions for writing a substantive comment below. www.regulations.gov/commenton/FD...

You can also find templates here: publiccommentproject.org/comment-temp...

Sources:
The Public Comment Project publiccommentproject.org
Democracy in Practice: Public Participation in Environmental Decisions, Beierle and Cayford 2002
Union of Concerned Scientists www.ucs.org/resources/pa...

4. Check out the agency's mission statement and any statutes relevant to the regulation. Federal agencies' actions are driven by their mission and held to the standards dictated by statutes, so make your comment stronger by explaining how your information contributes to their mission.”

3. You do not have to come to a conclusion or judgement regarding the entirety of the regulation, but you do have to clearly communicate the implications of the research you present. Avoid leaving it up to the agency to infer how research or data relates to the regulation.

1. Your comment can report on scientific evidence that opposes or supports the theory behind the regulation.
2. Use an opening sentence to establish your credibility. State who you are and summarize any of your experiences that are relevant to the topic of the proposal.

Tips from the Public Comment Project publiccommentproject.org/how-to:

“The most valuable public comments are unique, fact-based, and succinct. The agency will have to sort through many identical form letters and expressions of personal opinion."

This is not like commenting on social media, though. SUBSTANTIVE comments that require agency response must have info pertinent to the proposed actions, like community impacts, scientific evidence, or other data. Non-substantive comments ("I don't like this!") only require a "Comment noted."

3. Advocacy groups and journalists often scour public comments to get ideas for their own comments and campaigns, and to contextualize proposed rules.

2. A good comment can be the basis for a court challenge. If the agency does not adequately address the new information in the comment, they can then be sued and the rule placed on hold until the issues raised by the new information are resolved.

Public comments are important for a number of reasons:

1. Agencies must consider all new information received during the comment period and address that new information before publishing the final rule; this includes revising the proposed rule.

This right is enshrined by the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) of 1946 and reinforced by the National Environmental Policy Act of 1970, which both require that citizens be able to take part in pre-decision communication with a federal agency.

The Public Comment Process (+ how to write effective public comments): a thread

The US federal rule-making process is founded around the right to comment: the public's opportunity to publicly address the agency responsible for a decision.