Richard H. Hughes, IV, Member of the Firm in the Health Care & Life Sciences practice, in the firm’s Washington, DC, office, was quoted in Axios, in “Idaho Restricts Vaccine Mandates,” by Maya Goldman.
Following is an excerpt:
Idaho will enforce a first-in-the-nation ban on vaccine mandates in businesses and schools this summer after legislators on the last day of their session passed a revised "medical freedom" bill.
Why it matters: The ban reflects a growing distrust of immunizations among Americans that helped install vaccine skeptic Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as the nation's top health official.
More than a dozen states have introduced bills to ban medical intervention requirements or restrict the use of certain vaccine types, sometimes singling out mRNA shots, according to Bloomberg Law.
State of play: Gov. Brad Little (R) signed a bill last week that prohibits government entities, schools and companies doing business in Idaho from denying admission or services to a person because they haven't received a "medical intervention," including a vaccine, procedure or medication.
Little vetoed a similar bill last month, saying it infringed on parental freedom by jeopardizing schools' ability to send home kids with contagious conditions.
State lawmakers then passed a revised version clarifying that the policy is subject to existing school requirements, making that provision effectively moot. Entities that receive Medicare or Medicaid funding are also exempt from the anti-mandate requirements.
Little signed the revised legislation on Friday, and it goes into effect on July 1.
Idaho already had the highest rate of kindergarteners with vaccine exemptions of any state in the 2023-2024 school year, according to Centers for Disease Control data.
What they're saying: "The law itself is probably the best that could be done to make sure that mandates were preserved," said Richard Hughes, a professor of vaccine law at George Washington University and a partner at Epstein Becker Green.
But Hughes said he's concerned Idaho's separate parental rights law will be invoked in ways that undermine the vaccine requirements that are allowed to continue under the legislation.
"That is the beginning of an era of vaccine mandate policy and litigation that I'm really concerned about," Hughes told Axios.
What to watch: Idaho is one of three states that debated banning mRNA vaccines this year, though no states have actually passed such a policy.
