Ban on COVID Vaccination Mandates by Private Businesses, Including Healthcare Facilities, Passes Texas Senate

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A sweeping ban on COVID-19 vaccination mandates for employees of private businesses in Texas passed the Texas Senate on Friday, although medical facilities would be allowed to adopt other policies to help reduce risks for vulnerable patients.

Senate Bill 7, introduced by Galveston Republican Sen. Mayes Middleton, would subject private employers to fines and other measures if they fire or punish employees or contractors who refuse to fire.

The bill offers no exceptions for doctors’ offices, clinics or other healthcare facilities, but senators agreed to allow those entities to require unvaccinated employees to wear personal protective equipment such as face masks or take other reasonable steps to manage the spread.

The bill passed 19-12 just after midnight and is on its way to the House, where similar efforts failed earlier this year. It now awaits referral to a House committee.

The vote comes after years of Republican attempts to control COVID-related restrictions, such as mask mandates and vaccine requirements. Supporters said the bill is critical to supporting individual rights to make their own health care decisions without negative consequences on their livelihoods.

No one should be forced to make this terrible decision between earning a living for their family and their health or individual vaccine preference, Middleton told senators during a hearing on the bill earlier this week.

Opponents have argued that the coronavirus is still dangerous for many people, that it can lead to long COVID even in those with mild symptoms, and that the ban takes away the ability of health professionals to institute policies vaccines that reduce the risk of spreading the virus. for their patients. Some critics say it also infringes on the rights of business owners to make their own policy decisions.

The inclusion of health care facilities and doctors’ offices in the ban triggered objections from two members of the Senate Health and Human Services Committee who have undergone kidney transplants, Sen. Kelly Hancock , R-North Richland Hills, and Sen. Borris Miles, D-Houston.

It also drew skepticism from the committee’s Republican chairwoman, Sen. Lois Kolkhorst, R-Brenham, who on Thursday supported allowing health care facilities to adopt other policies for employees who choose not to to get vaccinated.

I think we’ve managed to put in place words that give us a good solid policy, that going forward, if a health worker doesn’t want to get vaccinated, the hospital or health facility can help alleviate this problem with a mask, gloves and different things, but it has to be reasonable, Kolkhorst said during the floor debate.

Experts in the medical and scientific community say the COVID-19 vaccine does not entirely prevent the spread, but it can reduce transmission and significantly lessen the symptoms and severity of the disease.

Bill purists fought against allowing health care providers to even slightly circumvent the ban proposed by Middleton’s legislation and wanted to see it passed as originally written.

Middleton and Sen. Bob Hall, R-Edgewood, have openly said they don’t trust the safety and effectiveness of vaccines. Hall said earlier this week that he believes the pandemic and vaccine response is a test of the government to find out how people will react when the state requires them to mask up, isolate and get vaccinated, then to control their lives.

In late 2021, Republican Governor Greg Abbott issued an executive order banning the mandates, but this caused confusion over who was covered by the executive order and how enforceable it was. That order expired in June, sparking a legislative attempt to codify it during the regular session earlier this year. After that attempt failed, Abbott added the issue to the agenda for this year’s third special legislative session.

A new state law prohibiting government entities from requiring the COVID-19 vaccine took effect last month.

Kolkhorst said earlier this week that the debate boils down to a distrust of science stemming from a lack of data that she and others consider reliable on the safety and effectiveness of the vaccine against COVID-19.

Legislation she and Middleton passed during the regular session earlier this year included exemptions for all private employers that allow employees to opt out for medical or conscience reasons.

It also would have exempted health care facilities from the mandatory vaccine ban provided they did not require employees to take it if their doctors determined they were not medically a good candidate.

In either case, the company or establishment should also have had procedures in place for unvaccinated staff to protect other employees from exposure.

That bill passed the Senate but died near the end of the regular session in May without being heard by a House committee. A similar effort failed in 2021 after business groups mobilized against it.