The House Committee on Health, Welfare and Institutions killed two bills Tuesday morning that would have allowed Virginians to opt out of a potential COVID-19 vaccine mandate.
The bills, HB 5016 and HB 5070, gave individuals and parents the option to object on religious ground to a vaccine mandate by the Health Commissioner, who has authority to institute immediate immunization during a public health crisis, such as COVID-19, under Virginia law.
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A number of vaccines are being developed to protect against the coronavirus, with results expected as soon as a few weeks, but it could be a year and a half before a final product hits the market.
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The Kentucky Department for Public Health has announced that Location Vaccination, a company that provides vaccinations for businesses, is currently being investigated for causing an untold number of infections across Ohio, Kentucky, and Indiana. According to the Department of Public Health (DPH) Report, there is no issue with the actual vaccination, nor are there any issues with vaccination supply. Instead, the report says it appears that “improper storage and handling of the vaccine” led to contamination which is responsible for the infections. The provider has suspended shipping vaccinations indefinitely. Some patients have reported signs of infection as soon as a few days, while others have had symptoms appear more than twelve weeks after immunization. As a precaution, the DPH is advising anyone that has been vaccinated by this organization to immediately seek medical evaluation. In addition, there is a concern that the infection has hindered the effectiveness of the vaccinations and individuals should be revaccinated to ensure the integrity of the process. No numbers have been provided as to how many people were immunized with contaminated vaccinations, though we know the provider was primarily operating in Kentucky will smaller operations in Indiana and Ohio. While contaminated vaccinations are deeply concerning, the potential…
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by Peter J. Hotez As a pediatrician-scientist who develops new vaccines for neglected diseases, I spent most of my career in the Boston-Washington, D.C. corridor. While working in the Northeast, I had heard a few things about the anti-vaccine movement. As both a vaccine scientist and a father of four, including a daughter diagnosed with autism and intellectual disabilities, I followed the emergence of doubt over vaccine safety in the general public. Ultimately, in scientific circles, any debate ended when an overwhelming body of scientific evidence demonstrated there was no association between vaccines and autism. But then, in 2011, I relocated to Houston’s Texas Medical Center. I soon learned that, unlike in the Northeast, where the anti-vaccine movement so far seems restricted to small groups, the Texas anti-vaccine movement is aggressive, well-organized and politically engaged. There are now at least 57,000 Texas schoolchildren being exempted from their vaccines for nonmedical reasons, about a 20-fold rise since 2003. I say “at least” because there is no data on the more than 300,000 homeschooled kids. I’m worried these children, who are mostly concentrated either in the Austin area and towns and cities in north Texas, including Plano and Forth Worth, are…
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