{"id":29096,"date":"2021-02-05T10:55:50","date_gmt":"2021-02-05T16:55:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/?p=29096"},"modified":"2021-02-05T11:51:12","modified_gmt":"2021-02-05T17:51:12","slug":"vaccination-opt-out-sought","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/?p=29096","title":{"rendered":"Vaccination opt-out sought"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nebraskans would not be required to comply with a mandatory vaccination order under a bill considered Feb. 4 by the Health and Human Services Committee.<\/p>\n

\"Sen.
Sen. Ben Hansen<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

LB643, introduced by Sen. Ben Hansen of Blair, would allow individuals to refuse a mandatory vaccination directive issued by the state of Nebraska, either for themselves or their children, and would allow companies to refuse such an order for their employees.<\/p>\n

There currently are no such general mandates in the state, but Hansen said he wants to stop such an effort before it starts.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis legislation is in no way against vaccines, or the COVID-19 vaccine,\u201d Hansen said. \u201cThis is more saying that the state doesn\u2019t have the right to inject anything into our bodies, mandatorily.\u201d<\/p>\n

Robert Borer testified in support of LB643. He said compulsory vaccinations violate human rights and that government shouldn\u2019t be allowed to practice medicine.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a fundamental right to make our own health care decisions,\u201d Borer said. \u201cConsent is the antithesis of compulsion.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bonni Meckel, a registered nurse, testified in support, saying vaccines are a one-size-fits-all treatment that can have serious side effects. Meckel said she is \u201cmorally, legally, ethically\u201d bound to tell patients that they are not required to take a course of treatment with which they aren\u2019t comfortable.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can encourage, I can education, but it is not my business nor my choice,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Also speaking in support was Stephanie Remus. She said she does not oppose anyone choosing to get a vaccine, but that she wants the same ability to choose not to do so.<\/p>\n

Dr. Michelle Walsh, President of the Nebraska Medical Association, testified in opposition to the bill. As written, LB643 would last in perpetuity \u2014 beyond the current COVID-19 pandemic \u2014 and would limit the state\u2019s ability to ensure public health, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf this bill were adopted, it would result in an increase in preventable diseases that children are currently immunized for and a substantial drop in immunization rates,\u201d Walsh said. \u201cThis would have the effect of raising the risk of future types of preventable disease outbreaks which have been under control for decades.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cora Schrader, testifying on behalf of the Nebraska Nurse Practitioners, also opposed the bill. In written testimony, she said vaccinations have greatly reduced cases of deadly disease and that numerous studies have shown them to be safe. LB643 would increase vaccine hesitancy, Schrader said.<\/p>\n

\u201cChanging the mandate to allow more vaccine refusal will lower the high vaccination rate in Nebraska,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

The committee took no immediate action on the bill.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Nebraskans would not be required to comply with a mandatory vaccination order under a bill considered Feb. 4 by the Health and Human Services Committee. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[12],"tags":[252],"class_list":["post-29096","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-health-and-human-services","tag-sen-ben-hansen"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29096","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=29096"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29096\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29100,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29096\/revisions\/29100"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=29096"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=29096"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=29096"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}