Latest news with #TexansforVaccineChoice
Yahoo
29-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Senate Approves Bill Holding Vaccine Makers Accountable
(Texas Scorecard) – Legislation to hold manufacturers liable for advertising harmful vaccines passed out of the Senate on Tuesday with a 21-10 vote. House Bill 3441, authored by State Rep. Shelly Luther (R–Sherman), allows manufacturers to be held liable if they advertise their vaccines in Texas and it causes an injury. 'HB 3441 was an unexpected and unprecedented success for medical liberty champion Shelley Luther, and represents a huge step toward holding vaccine manufacturers accountable for their products,' Michelle Evans, political director for Texans for Vaccine Choice, told Texas Scorecard. 'We are excited to see this signed into law to protect Texans from products deemed 'unavoidably unsafe.'' According to the legislation's text, vaccine manufacturers can be held liable for actual damages and court costs up to three years after the date of the injury. The measure does not include doctor-patient discussions, written materials provided by a healthcare provider, or promotional materials found in a provider's office regarding a vaccine. State Sen. Bob Hall (R–Edgewood), the Senate sponsor of the bill, stated in his opening remarks on the floor that the measure does not concern whether or not someone should be vaccinated. Instead, it simply gives individuals peace of mind by providing accountability that any other company would have. 'Currently, due to the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of 1986, vaccine manufacturers hold no liability [for] a vaccine or countermeasure harm or interest in Texas,' stated Hall. 'This is the only product that I know of that cannot be held responsible for any injury to a consumer.' 'Imagine what our society would look like if any other manufacturer had this same protection.' The proposal has cleared both the Senate and the House. Now, Gov. Greg Abbott must either sign it, veto it, or allow it to take effect with no further action from him. The bill is set to take effect on September 1, 2025.
Int'l Business Times
28-05-2025
- Health
- Int'l Business Times
Texas Lawmakers Look to Make Child Vaccine Exemptions Easier for Parents as Measles Outbreak Continues
Texas lawmakers have approved a bill to simplify the vaccine exemption process for schoolchildren—just as the state contends with its worst measles outbreak in decades. On Sunday, the Texas Senate passed House Bill 1586 in a 23-9 vote. The legislation, authored by Rep. Lacey Hull, doesn't alter the state's vaccine schedule but makes it easier for parents to opt out by allowing them to download exemption forms online rather than requesting them through the mail, as reported by the Texas Tribune. Since 2003, Texas law has allowed parents to claim vaccine exemptions for their children based on medical, religious, or conscientious grounds. Over the years, demand for exemptions has surged, doubling from 45,900 in 2018 to over 93,000 in 2024. The move to make vaccine exemptions easier comes as the state is currently experiencing a major measles outbreak, with 729 cases reported since January and two confirmed child deaths. Supporters, including groups like Texans for Vaccine Choice, hailed the bill as a win for parental rights and government efficiency. Meanwhile critics, including public health advocates and The Immunization Partnership, warn the bill will lead to a drop in vaccination rates and a rise in preventable diseases. They argue that easier access to exemptions will compound current health risks, especially as the state grapples with an ongoing measles crisis. Gov. Greg Abbott now has the final say on whether the bill becomes law. Originally published on Latin Times
Yahoo
26-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Texas Legislature approves making vaccine exemption process easier
A bill that makes it easier for parents to opt their children out of school-required vaccinations is closer to reaching Gov. Greg Abbott's desk after passing the Texas Senate 23-9 late Sunday. State Rep. Lacey Hull's House Bill 1586 does nothing to change the childhood vaccine schedule. Instead, it will allow parents to download the state's conscientious exemption form at home. Currently, parents have to contact the Texas Department of State of Health Services and request the exemption form be mailed to them. HB 1586 now heads to Gov. Greg Abbott's desk for his approval, according to Sen. Lois Kolkhorst, R-Brenham, who carried the bill in the upper chamber. Hull and the two main groups supporting the bill – Texans for Vaccine Choice and Texans for Medical Freedom – tried to steer clear of the heated debate about vaccination requirements by emphasizing her bill was merely 'about a form' and reducing the bureaucratic effort and cost surrounding that form. 'If someone is testifying today that makes this bill about vaccination themselves, they are not being truthful and honest about what this bill is actually about,' said Jackie Schlegel, executive director for Texans for Medical Freedom, when the bill came before the Senate Health and Human Services Committee on May 21. 'HB 1586 simplifies the process for Texas families to exercise a right that is already protected by state law.' Rebecca Hardy, president of Texans for Vaccine Choice praised the Senate's quick action Sunday, calling it a historic win for parental rights. 'This common sense legislation will allow Texas parents to conveniently print vaccine exemption forms from home, ending the unnecessary, costly, and outdated requirement of waiting for forms to be mailed by the state,' Hardy said. Schlegel, reached Sunday, echoed Hardy's sentiment. 'It's a huge step for retaking every Texan's medical decisions and freedom back,' she said by text message. 'Texans are relieved and the country watches closely as we regain our constitutional rights back!' But Terri Burke, executive director of The Immunization Partnership, which advocates for disease prevention through vaccine use, had argued that making the exemption form easier to access will inevitably drive down vaccination rates for school-age children. 'It is disheartening that, like the House of Representatives, the Senate chooses to believe this measure is simply about the way a form is delivered,' she said late Sunday. 'How they can ignore a near epidemic of measles in places with already high exemption rates and think this won't encourage more disease outbreaks is beyond my ability to understand or explain.' The argument that the exemption form was hard to access resonated with lawmakers, including Kolkhorst, the chair of the Senate health committee. 'I will just say this about the form. It actually happened to me,' Kolkhorst said at the May 21 committee meeting. Last summer, her then-20-year-old son Jake needed to show proof of his meningitis vaccination to stay in the dorms at Baylor University to take two summer school classes. He had taken it years earlier but needed to get another one when the senator suggested getting an exemption form. The process, she said, was not easy. 'Oh, my goodness, that was a lot. I mean, like a lot, to be able to get that and get it in time for him to get into Baylor summer school,' Kolkhorst said. 'I just thought that I could go online and do it.' It was a winning pitch as Hull's bill sailed through both chambers despite the fact that it drew far more critics than supporters in both House and Senate committee hearings. Those critics insist the measure will make vaccine exemptions easier to obtain, making it easier for childhood diseases to spread, as the state battles the nation's worst measles outbreak since 2000. Since January, there have been 728 cases of measles connected to an outbreak in West Texas. Two children have died from measles so far, according to the state health agency. 'House Bill 1586 is an effort to fix something that is not broken,' said Rekha Lakshmanan, with The Immunization Partnership, which advocates for disease protection. 'This bill is more than just a form. The form in question is a choice that comes with real responsibilities.' Lakshmanan said the bill will make it so easy to opt out of childhood vaccinations that the vaccination rates of schools will drop even more. 'Sadly to say, the consequences of this bill will not be unintended. Instead, they are completely foreseeable,' she said during last week's hearing. 'If this bill becomes law, Texas is likely to see more illness, more death, and higher health care costs for families and businesses.' Data shows Texans' growing interest in obtaining exemptions to vaccines since 2003, when then-state Sen. Craig Estes offered a measure that allowed Texans to claim a conscientious exemption in addition to established exemptions based on medical and religious reasons. Since 2018, the requests to the Texas state health agency for an exemption form have doubled from 45,900 to more than 93,000 in 2024. All requests for exemptions are granted. Disclosure: Baylor University has been a financial supporter of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune's journalism. Find a complete list of them here. First round of TribFest speakers announced! Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Maureen Dowd; U.S. Rep. Tony Gonzales, R-San Antonio; Fort Worth Mayor Mattie Parker; U.S. Sen. Adam Schiff, D-California; and U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Dallas are taking the stage Nov. 13–15 in Austin. Get your tickets today!
Yahoo
07-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
States loosen vaccine rules — even as measles outbreak rages
The U.S. is on track to surpass 1,000 measles cases this year as the viral illness — once so rare that most young doctors don't recognize the telltale rash — makes an alarming comeback. The outbreak, which has spread to 29 states as of May 1 and claimed three lives, hasn't stopped some local lawmakers from considering or implementing policies that could make it even easier for parents to opt out of school vaccination requirements for their children. Idaho Gov. Brad Little signed into law last month an unprecedented ban on vaccine mandates for schools and businesses in the state, which already boasts the highest vaccine exemption rate for kindergarteners nationally. On his first day in office, West Virginia Gov. Patrick Morrisey issued an executive order permitting religious exemptions from school and day care immunization requirements — a major shift in one of the few states that had only allowed medical exemptions previously. And lawmakers in red states like Florida, Louisiana and Texas are weighing measures that would make it more difficult for health providers to deny care — from organ transplants to pediatric well visits — to people who aren't vaccinated. Those state efforts, alongside separate measures to limit or ban the use of messenger RNA vaccines like those developed for Covid, come amid longtime vaccine skeptic Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s ascent to power in Washington as Health and Human Service secretary. But they're hardly a new phenomenon — immunization coverage has declined nationally for kindergarteners since the 2019-2020 school year — and their roots can be traced back to a group of moms in Texas. The Lone Star state has been the cradle of domestic vaccine resistance for the last decade and is now the epicenter of an exploding measles outbreak that could end the U.S.' status as a country without sustained spread of the virus. 'The nation has caught up to Texas, because we have been dealing with this rhetoric and these little micromovements,' said Rekha Lakshmanan, chief strategy officer at The Immunization Partnership, which promotes vaccination in the state. Rebecca Hardy founded Texans for Vaccine Choice in 2015 to lobby against legislation to end religious and philosophical exemptions in the state. Since then, the group's clout has solidified, and more state lawmakers, predominantly Republicans, offer public support at events like its annual rally at the state Capitol building in Austin. 'A group of moms got together and basically said, 'Not on our watch,'' Hardy said. The social contract around vaccination — that individuals choose to get immunized to help protect their communities — in the U.S. is seemingly fraying as more parents survey social media to find pediatricians who won't force them to vaccinate their children. Parents increasingly question why their providers recommend so many shots for their kids when they didn't have to get anywhere near that number in the 1980s and 1990s. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data shows that national immunization coverage among kindergarteners in the 2023-2024 school year dropped to 93 percent, with exemptions from at least one vaccine increasing to 3.3 percent of those students. Fourteen states reported exemptions above 5 percent. That dip threatens herd immunity against highly contagious diseases, like measles and whooping cough, that demand coverage rates of at least 95 percent. Measles was officially eliminated in the U.S. in 2000, but that designation is now in jeopardy. Measles is no longer considered eliminated if a chain of infections lasts for more than 12 months, which public health officials expect to happen because of this latest outbreak. Public health experts fear that skepticism and the rising 'medical freedom' movement — which has dovetailed with Kennedy's 'Make America Healthy Again' mantle — will lead to more cases of vaccine-preventable illnesses in children, many of which can cause serious complications and even death. Measles, they say, is the proverbial canary in the coal mine for other sinister but lesser-known illnesses, like whooping cough and Hib disease. Some public health experts are now puzzling over who might be 'trusted messengers' to promote vaccination as scientific institutions are falling out of favor. 'Right now, we're losing trust in our institutions in general,' Dr. Seth Berkley, the former CEO of Gavi, a global vaccine alliance, said last month at a vaccine conference in Washington. A first-in-the-nation move The bill Little signed into law in early April prohibits Idaho schools and businesses from requiring a 'medical intervention' — like a vaccine — as a condition for enrollment or employment. The measure, which goes into effect July 1, was tweaked by legislators after the governor vetoed an earlier iteration that he said would have hampered schools' ability to send home children with communicable illnesses from measles to pink eye. The legislation Little ultimately endorsed includes explicit references to sections of Idaho law permitting both school immunization requirements and exemptions, as well as allowing schools to keep students with contagious diseases out of class. Richard Hughes, a vaccine law expert at Epstein Becker Green who advised on the changes, said they leave intact Idaho's existing infrastructure for mandates and exemptions. But the law also references Idaho's parental rights statute, making its full ramifications unclear. Hughes said he fears that, as a result, vaccine opponents could challenge any school that tries to keep its existing requirements intact. The Health Freedom Defense Fund, the group that says it wrote the original Idaho bill, said in a statement days after passage that the law ensures 'no Idahoan will ever again be compelled to undergo unwanted medical interventions as a condition of employment, education, or daily life.' Louisiana lawmakers are scheduled to consider similar legislation this week in committee. 'It was definitely disappointing to see that pass in Idaho, just to know it can be used to set a precedent for potentially doing things like that in other states,' said Jennifer Herricks, founder of Louisiana Families for Vaccines. While all 50 states permit medical exemptions to vaccine requirements, only five have prohibited exceptions on religious or personal grounds. But Morrisey in West Virginia has made his own move to overhaul the state's longstanding policy of limiting vaccine exemptions to medical reasons. Morrisey, a Republican, signed an executive order in January directing health officials to establish a process for residents to object to school or daycare immunization mandates on religious or conscientious grounds, citing a 2023 state religious protections law. But the state House rejected a Senate bill to codify his directive weeks before the legislature adjourned. 'I'm not a doctor — the experts that I rely upon absolutely are rock solid, rock solid, behind the fact that we need to be taking the vaccines,' GOP Sen. Jim Justice, Morrisey's predecessor who vetoed an earlier attempt to loosen vaccine policies there, told POLITICO last month. West Virginia's public health agency says it's still reviewing religious exemption requests. A webpage outlining its medical exemption process explains why — until the January order — the state didn't grant them previously. 'Non-medical exemptions have been associated with increased occurrence of vaccine-preventable disease outbreaks originating in and spreading through schools,' the state website for the Office of Epidemiology and Prevention Services says. Expediting exemptions In Texas, members of the state House's health committee spent nearly two hours considering testimony last month for and against Texans for Vaccine Choice-backed legislation to make it easier for parents to access vaccine exemptions from the state. The majority of the dozen-plus witnesses opposed the measure, which would allow guardians to print exemption affidavit forms at home instead of waiting for the state to mail them upon request. Overall, Texas' vaccination coverage of kindergarteners during the 2023-2024 school year was 94.4 percent for required immunizations. But there's wide variation across the state — nearly 100 private schools and public districts reported MMR vaccine rates below 75 percent. Some legislators suggested they were sympathetic to TFVC's perspective — that the bill would fix a paperwork and taxpayer burden and wouldn't necessarily increase the number of exemptions. 'This legislation doesn't affect whether kids can opt out of these vaccinations,' said Republican state Rep. Mike Olcott. 'It just has to do with the expediency of how quickly they can opt out.' But public health advocates and parents opposing it argued that's exactly what would happen — and that the state's raging measles outbreak clearly illustrates the consequences of exemption-friendly policies. 'Texas has given countless rights and protections to parents who choose not to vaccinate,' parent Heather Lacy Cook told the panel. 'I'm happy for that, but my rights are dwindling.'
Yahoo
27-01-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Several bills filed to weaken vaccine mandates as more Texas families opt out of immunizations
When speech pathologist Rebecca Hardy recalls her up-close seat to lawmaking during the 2015 state legislative session, she remembers how tough it was to find anyone interested in what she wanted: more choice for Texans when it came to getting vaccinated. After forming Texans For Vaccine Choice the year before, she came to Austin to see if she could find lawmakers interested in policies to help parents who believe it's their responsibility, not the government's, to decide if and when a vaccination is administered to their child. 'We were on the scene far before COVID was even a word that anybody knew and 10 years ago, we did kind of have to sneak around the Capitol, have these conversations about vaccine mandates in the shadows,' the Keller resident now recalls. 'And it was really hard to find people willing to put their names on protective pieces of legislation.' What a difference a global pandemic makes. Today, Hardy's group and others in the vaccine hesitancy or anti-vaccine space have the ears of state lawmakers, especially on the heels of Texans for Vaccine Choice's successful push back on mandatory COVID-19 vaccinations in the workplace in 2023. While most of the vaccine bills 10 years ago were filed by Democrats to strengthen vaccine use, the opposite is now true — Republicans are filing most of the bills which aim to claw back vaccine requirements. There is even a House joint resolution proposing an amendment to the Texas Constitution that would preserve Texans' right to refuse a vaccination. The proposal is among more than 20 bills endorsed by Hardy's group that have been filed, most of them before the legislative session began this month. Among them include legislation that would: Make it easier for parents to opt out of vaccinations. Ensure no one is denied medical care based on vaccination status. Keep across-the-board vaccine mandates at bay. Give the Texas Legislature final approval on any new vaccinations required by schools. Apply more rules for dispensing the COVID-19 vaccination. Demand more transparency when it comes to a national clearinghouse on adverse effects of vaccines. 'TVC is not anti-vaccine,' Hardy said. 'We're not here to restrict anybody's access to vaccines or to dismantle the vaccine program. So we do not take a stance on if children should get all, some or no vaccines.' Instead, she insists, she wants laws that better support families' right to choose what medical care they receive, including vaccines. It's a sentiment that is gaining more traction, particularly after President Donald Trump's re-election and his selection of Robert F. Kennedy as his choice for U.S. Health and Human Services secretary. And it's a somewhat counter trendline at a time studies have consistently shown that vaccines save lives and money. A study by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, released last summer, found the immunization of children born between 1994 and 2023 have saved the United States $540 billion by preventing illness and costly hospitalizations as well as preventing more than 1.1 million deaths. But this move away from vaccines worries health care workers. A Texas Hospital Association's position paper stresses concerns that vaccines have become politicized and the importance of vaccines is now overlooked because they work so well. Carrie Williams, an association spokesperson, said any decision about opting out of a vaccine should be a careful one that considers the ripple effect on others. 'Vaccine decisions impact the availability of care, hospital workforce and wait times, and the people around you,' she said. 'We're always going to be on the side of policies that help prevent epidemics.' Texas requires children and students to obtain vaccines to attend schools, child care centers and college. An individual can claim they are exempt if they are in the military, they have a religious or personal belief that goes against getting immunized or if a health provider determines it is not safe to do so. Currently, those who want to claim an exemption for their children from vaccination must request from the state Department of State Health Services that an affidavit be mailed to their home, a process that can take up to three weeks. Once it's received, the requestor must get the affidavit notarized. 'It's very inefficient,' Hardy said. Her group wants the form to be downloadable. Any one of three measures filed so far could do that: House Bill 1082, House Bill 1586 or House Bill 730. She also wants providers to stop denying medical care to individuals who choose to delay or opt out of vaccinations altogether. 'If you don't have the right in what you inject or not inject in your body, then what rights do we have?' Hardy said. Travis McCormick, a government affairs professional, has formed the group Make Texans Healthy Again that is advocating for better affordability, access and transparency in health care. As a new dad, he said he was taken aback by medical providers' rigid adherence to the vaccine schedule for newborns. 'I had a pediatrician who said if we didn't get all four (vaccines) in one day we couldn't be a client,' McCormick said. In 2023, Gov. Greg Abbott signed Senate Bill 7, which bars private employers from mandating COVID-19 vaccinations for employees and contractors. Those employers who violate the law face a $50,000 fine and are subject to an investigation by the Texas Workforce Commission. That same year, House Bill 44 passed, prohibiting Medicaid and Child Children's Health Insurance Program providers from denying services to patients based on their vaccination status. Hardy said her group lobbied hard for both bills. 'In my perspective, our movement is just beginning,' Hardy said of the 2023 victories. 'We're barely chasing the pickup.' Data shows a consistent rise in interest in obtaining exemptions to vaccines since 2003, when then state Sen. Craig Estes offered a measure that allowed Texans to claim a conscientious exemption in addition to established exemptions based on medical and religious reasons. It's a decision that he still stands by today, he recently told The Texas Tribune. Since 2018, the requests to the Texas Department of State Health Services for an exemption form have doubled from 45,900 to more than 93,000 in 2024. A spokeswoman for the agency, Lara Anton, said all requests for exemption affidavits are granted. 'There is no gatekeeping,' Anton said. In the 2023-24 school year, more than 13,000 kindergarteners had a non-medical exemption from at least one vaccination in Texas, twice the number a decade ago. While other states had higher rates, Texas led the nation in total exemptions. Still, most Texas children are vaccinated. More than 90% of kindergarten and 7th grade students had each of the required vaccines. As Texans emerged from lockdowns and navigated a new vaccine for COVID-19 that became more widely available in 2021, views about shutdowns and the vaccine shifted dramatically. While Abbott moved quickly with executive orders keeping businesses and schools closed when infections spread in the United States beginning in March 2020, by November, he was resisting calls for more lockdowns. The public's weariness of mandates is now impacting vaccine rates, worrying public health officials and advocates who see the number of vaccine bills as problematic. Terri Burke, who heads The Immunization Partnership, a pro-vaccine advocacy group, has the same Texas vaccine bills on her group's watch list that Hardy does. 'I fear the vaccine issue is something they (state lawmakers) will continue to chip away at, like abortion, the border,' Burke said. 'It's like death by 1,000 cuts.' She anticipates a hard legislative session, which runs through June 2, that will relax the exemption process as well as put more burden on health providers who could face more outbreaks if exemptions are made easier. 'It's going to be tough. It's really going to be tough,' she said. 'All we can do is block them. Some of the legislation filed so far focus on the Vaccine Adverse Reporting System, or VAERS, a collection of self-reported post-vaccination health issues. Others mandate physicians to report o the U.S. Food and Drug Administration of health-related problems that result in death or incapacitation after a vaccine was administered. State Sen. Charles Perry, R-Lubbock, who said he declined the COVID-19 vaccine on advice of his doctor, has filed one such bill, Senate Bill 269, because he wants to see better transparency about vaccines. He believes the process during the race to get a COVID-19 was so fast that he and other Texans did not have enough details to evaluate potential risks for themselves. 'I hope RFK can get a more transparent system,' Perry said, referring to Kennedy if he is approved as U.S. health secretary. 'We like to believe our doctors and our science' but Texans, Perry insists, want more information. Health experts like Dr. Peter Hotez of Houston, say vaccine choice or vaccine hesitant groups exaggerate the adverse effects of vaccines and downplay the good they do in keeping deadly diseases from killing more Americans. Hotez, one of the nation's leading vaccine experts, is worried about any reduction in the nation's vaccination rate, and that Texas specifically could be setting itself up for becoming the stage for the next pandemic. Whooping cough is now returning to pre-pandemic levels. After the measles was officially eliminated in the United States in 2020, the disease has returned, occurring usually after someone has contracted it in another country. Polio, another disease thought to be eradicated, was detected in New York State wastewater in 2022. Hotez is concerned that hesitancy and refusal of the COVID-19 vaccine is having a 'spillover' effect on childhood immunizations. 'I'm worried about it unraveling our whole pediatric vaccine ecosystem,' he said. Disclosure: Texas Hospital Association has been a financial supporter of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune's journalism. Find a complete list of them here.
