Louisiana House splits on vaccine ‘discrimination’ proposals
Dr. Obi Nnedu, Infectious Disease specialist, receives his COVID-19 vaccine injection at Ochsner Medical Center in Jefferson on Monday, Dec. 14, 2020. (Photo provided by Ochsner Health)
The Louisiana House of Representatives approved a proposal Tuesday to prohibit what its author considers “discrimination” at K-12 students on the basis of vaccination status. But lawmakers rejected a bill that would have placed similar restrictions on businesses and governmental entities.
Both bills are authored by Rep. Beryl Amedee, R-Schriever, who has carried several pieces of legislation dealing with vaccines and medical consent in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic. She has consistently been critical of vaccine mandates, insisting that the COVID shot did not prevent spread of the virus while failing to acknowledge vaccine rates were well below herd immunity status.
Amedee told House members unvaccinated students were discriminated against during the peak of the pandemic by being seated separately from their classmates and not being allowed to participate in extracurricular sports. Her bill to prevent such actions would apply to all vaccinations.
“A student who has not been vaccinated is of no particular harm to another student. It’s only a student who is carrying an illness who could pass an illness,” Amedee said.
Lawmakers questioned Amedee on how her measure would affect immunocompromised students, such as those who are undergoing chemotherapy for cancer. Amedee said she believed such students would be kept away from public settings while in treatment.
Current law allows for schools to send immunocompromised or unvaccinated students home during an outbreak. Amedee said a student’s vaccination status is only important during such an event when state law allows schools to keep students out of school.
Her proposal would not allow teachers or school administrators to use a student’s vaccination status to determine their eligibility for athletics or other extracurricular activity or to allow or deny their participation inside and outside of the classroom. Teachers would not be allowed to organize seating arrangements based on vaccination status, nor would schools be allowed to issue surveys to students asking about what vaccines they have received.
Amedee acknowledged she did not contact the Louisiana Department of Health regarding her bill, which the House advanced with a 66-36 vote.
Another bill from Amedee would have prevented businesses or any state political subdivision from taking actions against people who refused certain medical services. Her legislation specifically mentions any treatment federal health officials have “authorized for emergency use” – a status given to early versions of the COVID-19 vaccine.
Under the proposal, businesses could not fire or refuse to hire, deny service or access, segregate, penalize or use financial coercion against someone who declined the aforementioned treatments.
The bill failed in a 38-58 vote.
Early last month, the House narrowly rejected another Amedee measure that would have required coroners to include the immunization record of infants in their autopsy reports.
Amedee offered a bill in 2022 that would have prohibited adding any vaccine with emergency use authorization status to the list of immunizations required for school and child daycare entry. It failed to advance from a House committee.
Other unsuccessful measures Amedee sponsored two years ago targeted on-campus vaccination events, civil remedies for unimmunized students denied access to school and health and life insurers who denied coverage based on someone’s vaccine status.
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