{"id":31277,"date":"2022-01-28T09:05:47","date_gmt":"2022-01-28T15:05:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/?p=31277"},"modified":"2022-01-28T14:50:28","modified_gmt":"2022-01-28T20:50:28","slug":"covid-19-vaccine-exemption-sought","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/?p=31277","title":{"rendered":"COVID-19 vaccine exemption sought"},"content":{"rendered":"

Some Nebraskans would be able to opt out of an employer COVID-19 vaccination mandate under a bill heard Jan. 27 by the Health and Human Services Committee.<\/p>\n

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

LB906, as introduced by Blair Sen. Ben Hansen, would have applied to all employer vaccine mandates. Hansen brought an amendment to the hearing to limit the bill\u2019s provisions to COVID-19 mandates.<\/p>\n

The bill would require the state Department of Health and Human Services to create and publish a form on its website to be filled out by employees seeking an exemption based either on a health care practitioner\u2019s recommendation or the individual\u2019s sincerely held religious beliefs.<\/p>\n

The federal government, any corporation wholly owned by the federal government, Indian tribes and bona fide private membership clubs, other than labor organizations, that are exempt from federal taxation would be exempted from the bill\u2019s provisions.<\/p>\n

Under LB906, employers could require unvaccinated employees to wear personal protective equipment or submit to COVID-19 testing at the employer\u2019s expense.<\/p>\n

Hansen said COVID-19 vaccines have not been effective in stopping infection or the spread of the disease and called the federal vaccine mandate \u201cmorally and medically unjustified.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it is your decision to make,\u201d Hansen said.<\/p>\n

Nebraska Chief Medical Officer Dr. Gary Anthone testified in support of LB906. COVID-19 vaccinations are safe and effective and have prevented an estimated 3,200 hospitalizations and 700 deaths in Nebraska, Anthone said, but individuals who choose not to be vaccinated should be allowed to continue their employment.<\/p>\n

Charlotte Ralston testified in support of the bill, saying that members of her family have been threatened with termination of employment if they did not become vaccinated.<\/p>\n

\u201cBy supporting this bill, you secure our constitutional rights as citizens who choose to be exempt rather than to violate their conscience or gamble with their health,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Dr. David Watts, president of the Nebraska Medical Association, testified in opposition to LB906. Watts said physicians and clinics should be able to keep their facilities safe and that the bill could hinder the response to a public health crisis.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe hope that it would not become the ongoing policy of the state of Nebraska to interject matters of private employment into a public health issue,\u201d Watts said.<\/p>\n

The committee took no immediate action on LB906.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Some Nebraskans would be able to opt out of an employer COVID-19 vaccination mandate under a bill heard Jan. 27 by the Health and Human Services Committee.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":31254,"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-31277","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health-and-human-services","tag-sen-ben-hansen"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/LB906BHansen1-27-22a.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31277","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=31277"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31277\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31305,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31277\/revisions\/31305"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/31254"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=31277"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=31277"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=31277"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}