Students who are a part of Texas’s taxpayer-funded education system could soon be joining the state’s private employees in having the freedom to refuse the COVID-19 vaccine without punishment if a bill recently filed in the legislature becomes law.
If passed, the Texas COVID Vaccine Freedom for Students Act would expand on a recently passed law that bans all vaccine mandates in private businesses, to include students at colleges, nursing programs, and medical schools that receive federal funds.
The bill was filed on Nov. 9 by Texas State Rep. Brian Harrison, who told The Epoch Times that the bill’s passage is necessary to ensure that Texas students, as well as the staff at large state-run institutions, have the same freedom in determining their personal health decisions as the state’s private employees.
“I filed the Texas COVID Vaccine Freedom for Students Act to ban vaccine mandates in colleges, nursing, and medical schools because..Texas students deserve medical freedom too,” said Mr. Harrison.
Passage of the bill would amend the current legislation signed into law by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott on Nov. 10 that prohibits private businesses from imposing COVID-19 vaccine mandates. The state House had approved the bill in a 91–54 vote, while the state Senate passed it 17–11.
Mr. Abbott, a Republican, said as he signed the bill in Austin that it was necessary to protect the right of Texans “to make their own decisions about what health care they want to access and what health care they want to reject.”
The legislation stated that an “employer may not adopt or enforce a mandate requiring an employee, contractor, applicant for employment, or applicant for a contract position to be vaccinated against COVID-19 as a condition of employment or a contract position.”
Further, the bill bars employers from punishing employees, contractors, and applicants over COVID-19 vaccine refusal while employers that violate the law face a fine of up to $50,000 per violation, as well as potential legal action.
However, in the final version of the legislation several lawmakers had pushed in exemptions, which created a loophole that left thousands of Texas’s students vulnerable to the mandates.
The language inserted states that health care facilities, health care providers, and doctors “may establish and enforce a reasonable policy that includes requiring the use of protective medical equipment by an individual who is an employee or contractor of the facility, provider, or physician and who is not vaccinated against COVID-19 based on the level of risk the individual presents to patients from the individual’s routine and direct exposure to patients.”
The spread of COVID-19 vaccine mandates in the red state of Texas had already raised concerns over the diminishing state of health freedom.
In September the Baylor College of Medicine, a medical school and research center in Houston, Texas, announced that it would mandate the latest COVID-19 booster shot for its students, faculty, and employees.
Despite the unpopularity of COVID-19 vaccine mandates among Texans, protections for students were originally held up by fellow Republicans, including by Rep. Dade Phelan, the speaker of the Texas House, according to Mr. Harrison.
“Speaker Phelan and his democratic parliamentarian’s indefensibly protected those mandates,” said Mr. Harrison.
Mr. Phelan did not respond to a request for comment by the time of publication.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that nearly all Americans receive an updated COVID-19 vaccine. About 5 percent of Americans have received one of the new shots, according to the most recent available data.
“Unfortunately, a lot of Texan politicians who people believe are on their side have been captured by the medical establishment,” said Dr. Bowden. “We need to keep the pressure on.”
“Texas is not as red as many people would think,” she added.
Mr. Harrison, who represents Ellis County, Texas—which in September became the first Texas city to ban all COVID vaccine mandates— says that he is determined to make sure lawmakers act to close this loophole before anyone else is coerced into making a health decision they may feel is against their own interest.
“I am proud to have successfully led the charge to end most COVID vaccine mandates in Texas, and will not stop fighting until we ban them all,” he said.
