Idaho Republican legislators want to make vaccine decisions for you | Opinion
It’s stunning that Idaho’s Republican legislators, who constantly claim that they favor small government, don’t see Senate Bill 1346 as an egregious and flagrant demonstration of government overreach.
The bill would ban pregnant women from getting an mRNA vaccine and ban you from giving your child an mRNA vaccine, even if your doctor recommends it. Even if you want them to have it.
Never mind the fact that Operation Warp Speed during the first Trump administration led to the development of successful mRNA vaccines against COVID-19.
The development of the COVID vaccine, in just 11 months, was one of the greatest medical achievements in history and helped slow and mostly shut down the global pandemic.
It’s not, as Sen. Glenneda Zuiderveld, R-Twin Falls, argues, “a mistake.”
It’s not experimental, as the bill’s sponsor, Sen. Brandon Shippy, R-New Plymouth, said.
And it’s no longer under emergency authorization, as it was when it first rolled out in 2020.
After 13 billion doses worldwide, it’s a proven and safe treatment, according to Jeff Coller, professor of RNA biology and therapeutics at Johns Hopkins University and executive committee member at the Alliance for mRNA Medicines.
I spoke with Coller; Dr. David Pate, former president and CEO at St. Luke’s Health System; and Clay Alspach, executive director for the Alliance for mRNA Medicines, about Shippy’s bill and the harm it would cause if approved.
“This is being billed as medical freedom,” Pate said. “My impression of freedom is it’s something that belongs to all of us. … If you’re giving some people some freedom not to do something, but taking away the freedom for others, that’s not medical freedom.”
The Senate Health and Welfare Committee voted 5-4 to send the bill to the Senate’s 14th order for amendments. Three Republicans — Mark Harris, Julie Van Orden and Camille Blaylock — joined Democrat Melissa Wintrow in wisely voting against the bill.
Spreading mRNA disinformation
Proponents of this bill are just plain wrong about the science.
Shippy found “leading experts” who repeated specious claims and spread disinformation that the vaccine causes cancer, leads to deformities in babies born to mothers who had the vaccine, and leads to homicidal and suicidal thoughts.
“I don’t think it’s freedom to lie to people and to manipulate them to make their choice,” Pate said. “That’s not a free choice. The free choice is to tell you the truth. Here’s the options: You could do this, and here’s the risk and benefits, and you could do this, and here’s the risk and benefits. That’s freedom.
“Lying and scaring people about gene therapy — that’s not freedom, that’s manipulation of people.”
Not called to testify were thousands of experts who could easily refute every single false claim from the Republicans.
And make no mistake, Senate Bill 1346 is the state government making a medical decision for everyone.
And that medical decision is in complete opposition to the consensus of doctors in Idaho and everywhere else — most likely your doctor right now.
Shippy’s argument that the state government bans children from dangerous substances, such as tobacco, alcohol and even meth, is laughable. If he equates mRNA vaccines with meth, that demonstrates the very problem with allowing someone who owns a sprinkler company to make medical decisions for us.
Vaccine mandate in reverse
Think about it this way: People like Shippy were all up in arms over vaccine mandates during the COVID pandemic — they didn’t want the government telling them how to handle medical decisions, even in the interest of public health and safety during a health care crisis.
This is a vaccine mandate in reverse, against public health, with no current crisis. This is the government mandating that children and pregnant women may not get the vaccine — whether you like it or not, and even though your doctor very likely thinks it’s the best medical option for you.
Shippy’s bill puts a two-year moratorium on mRNA treatments “while available safety data is reviewed.”
“What more data do you need?” Coller said. “I mean, you’ve got 13 billion doses and multiple studies around the world, in different countries. You can make claims that maybe the FDA is in bed with Moderna or Pfizer, and they’re hiding it, but you really think the (European Medicines Agency) is? You think the Canadians are? You think the Australians are? You think the Brazilian government is doing the same thing?
“So this would really represent one of the largest conspiracies in human history.”
I suspect that after the two-year moratorium expires, they still won’t be satisfied. These people will never be satisfied, no matter how many studies or how much data. They will always favor conspiracies and debunked studies.
Bill supporters continued to erroneously cite data from the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System, or VAERS, database, which merely reports an event, regardless of whether any correlation or causation has been determined.
If someone drinks a cup of coffee in the morning, then dies of a heart attack that afternoon, that doesn’t mean the coffee caused the heart attack. But that’s what Republicans are suggesting here with vaccines.
Gene therapy vs. mRNA treatment
The bill also confuses mRNA technology with “gene therapy,” wrongly referring to mRNA as “certain human gene therapy.”
Shippy said “my understanding” of the difference between human gene therapy and the COVID vaccine is that mRNA vaccines “are very targeted to specific cells and specific areas,” while gene therapy applies “to the entire body, where it kind of goes everywhere.”
This is the guy we’re letting override your doctor? His “understanding” is a complete misunderstanding.
Pate explained that mRNA technology is different from gene therapy in that mRNA technology does not modify genetic material. It instructs the body how to make a viral protein, but it does not enter the nucleus or modify DNA.
In mRNA vaccines and other mRNA drugs, lab‑made mRNA is delivered into cells so they briefly make a target protein (for example, a viral spike protein such as COVID-19) that triggers an immune response or has a therapeutic effect. It does not integrate into or modify DNA and is broken down after use.
“The mRNA is not changing the cookbook … the DNA,” Pate said. “If I wanted to take one of your articles, and I copy it by hand, I haven’t changed your article. I’ve just copied it. And that’s what the mRNA does. It’s not gene therapy. We can change the DNA. We have technologies to do that. That’s not what this is.”
Coller noted that mRNA technology was developed long before the COVID pandemic by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA, an independent research and development agency within the U.S. Department of Defense to prevent some sort of technological surprise attack on the United States.
“DARPA recognized the mRNA technology … as a national security asset,” Coller said. “And it’s really important for people to understand that it still is an incredibly important national security asset, because there’s no other technology that could possibly develop as rapidly and be scaled at the level of a population to fight an emerging pathogen, or an engineered pathogen, like mRNA.”
Because here’s the other thing: Who knows what will come in the next two years, whether it’s another COVID-like pandemic or an attack from a foreign nation. What then?
In addition, mRNA technology has shown significant promise in a variety of areas, including cancer and rare diseases.
Yes, mRNA vaccines are safe
Concerns about the safety of the COVID vaccines are unfounded, Coller said.
“The study of these two vaccines is the largest study ever conducted (for) any drug in human history, and the safety profiles are incredible, meaning that there’s no other drug and no other vaccine that comes close to a safety profile like this,” he said.
Yes, there are cases of adverse effects, but they’re minuscule compared with the 13 billion doses administered.
The most common side effect associated with either the Moderna or the Pfizer vaccine is myocarditis, and this occurred in boys between 12 and 18, Coller said — adding that COVID infection alone caused myocarditis at a much higher rate than what occurred with the vaccines.
The incident rate of myocarditis with the vaccines was 0.006%.
“(Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.) used that as evidence of how dangerous these drugs are,” Coller said. “OK, 0.007% is your likelihood of getting hit by lightning and dying in your lifetime. You’re equally likely to be hit by lightning and die than to have myocarditis associated with a COVID vaccine.”
So what would he say to Idaho parents who feel uncertain or frightened by the idea of mRNA medicines?
“Talk to your pediatrician and make a decision based on a conversation,” Coller said. “You don’t have to (get the vaccine), but don’t deny another parent that option, who has done their research. This is, you know, about freedom of choice for the health care of your child.”
Taking away medical freedom
And that’s the real problem with the bill.
The decision about whether to give your child the vaccine or take the vaccine if you’re pregnant would be taken out of the hands of doctors and patients.
“It’s probably one of the most egregious demonstrations of government overreach imaginable, by telling a mom and a dad that they cannot give their child something that a doctor has prescribed,” Coller said. “This is putting government officials, legislators, in the middle, in the examining room with the doctor and that child’s parents. That seems like not in the spirit of small government in any way.”
I could spend hours refuting the so-called “experts” that Shippy brought up to testify.
In short, they were simply wrong, and their claims were well outside the consensus of the medical community and actual experts.
If you want to go to a quack doctor and listen to their bogus advice, go right ahead.
I’m going to go with the smart people, the overwhelming majority of doctors and medical experts, who say mRNA technology is safe.
If you want to go to a doctor who believes in the science and the hundreds of studies that show the vaccine is safe, you should be able to.
But Senate Bill 1346 says you can’t listen to your doctor. You have no choice in the matter. You have to listen to the anti-science crowd. The state says so.
“This is another example of extreme government overreach, and that’s what voting no on this bill really is about preventing,” Coller said. “It’s not about mRNA vaccines; it’s about preventing the government from telling you what’s best for you.”
Scott McIntosh is the opinion editor of the Idaho Statesman. You can email him at smcintosh@idahostatesman.com or call him at 208-377-6202. Sign up for the free weekly email newsletter The Idaho Way.
