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A sweeping ban on COVID-19 vaccine mandates for employees of private Texas businesses passed the Texas Senate early Friday, although medical facilities would be allowed to enact other policies to help lower the risks to vulnerable patients.
Senate Bill 7, by Galveston Republican Sen. Mayes Middleton, would subject private employers to state fines and other actions if they fire or punish employees or contractors who refuse the shot.
The bill does not provide any exemptions for doctors’ offices, clinics, or other health facilities. However, senators have reached a consensus to permit these entities to enforce measures such as requiring unvaccinated employees to wear personal protective gear like face masks or implement other reasonable actions to control the spread.
The legislation has been passed with a party line vote of 19-12 shortly after midnight, and it is now moving on to the House. Similar attempts to pass this legislation were unsuccessful earlier this year. Currently, it is awaiting referral to a House committee.
After years of Republican efforts to control COVID-related restrictions such as mask mandates and vaccine requirements, the vote has finally taken place. Advocates argue that this bill is crucial for safeguarding individual rights to make personal healthcare choices without suffering detrimental effects on their livelihoods.
During a recent bill hearing, Middleton addressed the senators, emphasizing that individuals should not be compelled to choose between providing for their family and prioritizing their health or personal preferences regarding vaccines.
Critics contended that the coronavirus remains a significant threat to numerous individuals, capable of causing long COVID even in those with mild symptoms. They further argued that the imposed ban hampers healthcare professionals’ ability to implement vaccine policies that minimize viral transmission risks for their patients. Additionally, some opponents assert that the ban encroaches upon business owners’ rights to establish their own policy decisions.
Including health care facilities and doctors’ offices in the ban triggered objections by two members of the Senate Health and Human Services committee who have had kidney transplants — Sen. Kelly Hancock, R-North Richland Hills, and Sen. Borris Miles, D-Houston.
It also drew skepticism by the Republican chair of the committee, Sen. Lois Kolkhorst, R-Brenham, who on Thursday supported allowing health care facilities to enact other policies for employees who choose not to be vaccinated.
During the floor debate, Kolkhorst expressed her belief that we have successfully formulated a well-structured policy that allows hospitals or healthcare facilities to address the concerns of unvaccinated healthcare workers by providing them with personal protective gear such as masks and gloves. However, she emphasized that these measures must be reasonable.
According to medical and scientific professionals, the COVID-19 vaccine may not completely halt the spread of the virus, but it does have the potential to lower transmission rates and substantially alleviate symptoms and severity of the disease.
Bill purists strongly opposed any attempts by health care providers to bypass, even to a small extent, the ban proposed by Middleton’s legislation. They advocated for the bill to be passed exactly as it was originally drafted.
Both Middleton and state Sen. Bob Hall, R-Edgewood, have openly said they don’t trust the vaccine’s safety and efficacy. Hall said earlier this week that he believes the pandemic and vaccine response was a test by the government to find out how people will react when the state forces them to mask up, lock down, and take a vaccine — then subsequently controls their lives.
In late 2021, Republican Gov. Greg Abbott issued an executive order banning the mandates, but it led to confusion over who was covered by the order and how enforceable it was. That order expired in June, triggering a legislative attempt to codify it during the regular session earlier this year. After that attempt failed, Abbott added the issue to the agenda for this year’s third special legislative session.
Last month, a newly enacted state law came into effect, prohibiting governmental entities from mandating the COVID-19 vaccine.
Earlier this week, Kolkhorst expressed her belief that the ongoing debate ultimately stems from a lack of trust in science, which is rooted in the absence of what she and several others consider to be dependable information regarding the COVID-19 vaccine’s safety and effectiveness.
Legislation she and Middleton carried during the regular session earlier this year included exemptions for all private employers that allow employees to opt out for medical or conscience reasons.
In addition, the proposal would have granted health care facilities an exemption from the vaccine mandate prohibition, provided they did not compel employees to receive the vaccine in cases where their physicians deemed them medically unsuitable.
In either scenario, the business or facility would have had to implement protocols for safeguarding other employees from potential exposure by unvaccinated staff members.
That bill passed the Senate but died near the end of the regular session in May without a hearing in a House committee. A similar effort died in 2021 after business groups rallied against it.