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 Bloomberg Law Daily Labor Report, in “States Echo RFK Jr. Agenda in Push for Ban on Vaccine Mandates,” by Celine Castronuovo and Nyah Phengsitthy. (Read the full version – subscription required.)
Following is an excerpt:
State legislators are moving to advance US Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s push for greater scrutiny of vaccines, introducing a wave of bills that would limit or ban the use of messenger RNA shots and prohibit vaccine mandates. …
The bills echo Kennedy’s skepticism of vaccine safety, which includes promoting discredited theories and holding positions connected to an anti-vaccine group. Proposed prohibitions on mandates have come up in previous state legislature sessions, but momentum is ramping up with a secretary that shares supporting views, attorneys say.
“There’s been this underlying freedom of choice movement that’s been there for a long time around vaccines,” said Richard H. Hughes IV, a member at Epstein Becker & Green PC and an expert on vaccine access.
“This is like a populist movement behind President Trump, sort of spurred on by the Covid-19 pandemic, which meets up with Robert F. Kennedy Jr.,” Hughes said. “You blend all this together, and we’re living in a time where anti-vaccine policy is finding its way into the books.”
