These SC lawmakers want to limit COVID-19 vaccine requirements
As health providers across the nation scramble to distribute the first doses of COVID-19 vaccine, some South Carolina legislators are taking steps to prevent rules requiring residents get vaccinated against the sometimes deadly disease.
Two bills against vaccine requirements were filed at the State House in early December, one in the House and one in the Senate.
The House bill, filed by S.C. Rep. Stewart Jones, R-Laurens, would bar state officials from accepting money from the federal government to enforce a vaccine mandate issued by Congress, a federal agency or the president. Specifically, the bill would serve as a safeguard from any mandate that Congress would put into the federal budget or other spending bills, Jones said.
It’s common practice for Congress to put unrelated rules and mandates in spending bills. For example, Congress gave federal workers 12 paid weeks of family leave as part of a December 2019 defense spending bill.
The S.C. bill would also extend to a federal mask mandate.
“The point of this bill is to protect the liberties of the people of South Carolina and to give them freedom to make their own decisions,” Jones told The State.
The Senate bill, filled by S.C. Sen. Tom Corbin, R-Greenville, is a resolution that would stop employers from taking action against an employee who chooses not to get the COVID-19 vaccine. The bill would also stop the Department of Health and Environmental Control from requiring a person to isolate or quarantine if they choose not to get the vaccine.
DHEC officials have said the agency will not require anyone, including children attending school, to get the COVID-19 vaccine. Requiring citizens to get a vaccine is also not part of President-elect Joe Biden’s public coronavirus plan.
Vaccine distribution in the U.S. is still in its nascent stages. Pfizer’s vaccine was approved in mid-December, and Moderna’s is expected to receive emergency authorization any day now.
South Carolina received its first doses of the vaccine Dec. 14, which it distributed to health care providers. The first residents who received it were health care workers at places like the Lexington Medical Center and the Medical University of South Carolina.
The S.C. Legislature is divided when it comes to what to do to combat the coronavirus.
While S.C. Gov. Henry McMaster has said he is not willing to implement any more coronavirus restrictions, Senate Democrats called on McMaster to issue a 60-day mask mandate in response to a streak of record-breaking case numbers, which reached more than 3,000 cases on some days.
Meanwhile, some Republican lawmakers introduced a bill to block state employees from enforcing any potential federal mask mandate, while some House Democrats introduced a bill that would require residents to wear masks in public.
Senate Majority Leader Shane Massey, an influential Republican in the Legislature’s upper chamber, has voiced support for requiring South Carolinians interacting with one another to wear masks in public, but largely has said the government’s role should be limited to responding to demonstrable problems, like adding limitations to places that can be linked to COVID-19 spread.
