The partisan divide over the country's pandemic response has reinvigorated the anti-vaccine movement nationwide, with mostly Republican lawmakers in nearly 40 states backing bills to restrict Covid-19 vaccine mandates or vaccine passports
Anti-vaccine people protest and hold signs in front of the Massachusetts State House in Boston, Massachusetts. | Scott Eisen/Getty ImagesThe partisan divide over the country's pandemic response has reinvigorated the anti-vaccine movement nationwide, with mostly Republican lawmakers in nearly 40 states backing bills to restrict Covid-19 vaccine mandates or vaccine passports.
“We're very concerned about that because it really undermines everything we do," said Marcus Plescia, chief medical officer at the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials. "And things I think the public take for granted for safety" — such as health departments' ability to react quickly to outbreaks of food- and waterborne-illnesses — "are not going to be so safe anymore.
The efforts have taken hold in states like Texas and Oklahoma, where anti-vaccine political action committees have grown in power and influence in recent years. The Republican governors of Arkansas and Montana already have signed into law measures ensuring Covid-19 vaccination status can’t be made a condition of employment in certain settings.
Mary Holland, president and general counsel at Children's Health Defense, an anti-vaccine group founded by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., said the bills that have advanced this year "hold the line" against new mandates for shots that have yet to receive full FDA licensure, rather than emergency authorization.
Many state legislatures have already adjourned for the year or will later this month. It's unclear whether similar measures will be introduced once they reconvene. But some states have already adopted major changes to public-health policies through legislation.
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