![]() Kennedy Jr., said the bills that have advanced this year “hold the line” against new mandates for shots that have yet to receive full FDA licensure, rather than emergency authorization. Mary Holland, president and general counsel at Children’s Health Defense, an anti-vaccine group founded by Robert F. This year there are even more bills “due to the additional Covid-19 vaccine bills and a focus on adults,” she said. Many focus on creating or expanding exemptions to school inoculation requirements or eliminating such exemptions. Hundreds of vaccine-related bills are usually introduced in state houses each legislative session, said Tahra Johnson, program director for public health and maternal and child health at the National Conference of State Legislatures. But Florida went even further, preventing businesses - along with government agencies and schools - from requiring customers to prove they’re vaccinated against, or have recovered from, Covid-19. Many of the latest laws and executive orders focus on preventing public agencies from denying jobs or services to people based on their immunization status. Other governors and legislatures have banned the use of “vaccine passports” for travel or other services, despite the Biden administration’s vow not to pursue a national document. The Republican governors of Arkansas and Montana already have signed into law measures ensuring Covid-19 vaccination status can’t be made a condition of employment in certain settings. The efforts have taken hold in states like Texas and Oklahoma, where anti-vaccine political action committees have grown in power and influence in recent years. “This is the first time that they’ve been able to attach themselves to an issue that has successfully passed,” she said. The anti-vaccine movement saw an opportunity at the pandemic’s onset to bring more people into the fold by shifting its message from the shots themselves to governments’ often-unpopular promotion of masks and social distancing, said Erica DeWald, director of strategic communications and partnerships at Vaccinate Your Family, a vaccine education group co-founded by former first lady Rosalynn Carter. “And things I think the public take for granted for safety” - such as health departments’ ability to react quickly to outbreaks of food- and waterborne-illnesses - “are not going to be so safe anymore.” ![]() “We’re very concerned about that because it really undermines everything we do,” said Marcus Plescia, chief medical officer at the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |