The governor of Texas on Nov. 10 signed a bill that bars businesses from imposing COVID-19 vaccine mandates.
The legislation helps 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,” Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, said as he signed the bill in Austin.
“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,” Senate Bill 7, the legislation, states.
The bill also bars employers from punishing employees, contractors, and applicants over COVID-19 vaccine refusal.
“This is the most comprehensive ban on COVID vaccine mandates in the nation—it’s five times stronger actually than Florida’s bill, which is the next strongest—and it covers prospective contractors and prospective employees, and that’s part of what makes it so broad,” state Sen. Mayes Middleton, a co-sponsor of the legislation, said at the signing.
Because the word benefit was added to the bill, the bar on mandates does cover medical students, interns, and fellows, according to Mr. Middleton, a Republican.
Employers that violate the law face a fine of up to $50,000 per violation, as well as legal action.
Employers could avoid the fines if they agree to hire the applicant or reinstate the worker or contractor. Employers would also need to give backpay.
The new law enables people to file complaints with a state commission and empowers the commission to investigate possible violations.
The legislation was approved by the legislature during a special session called by Mr. Abbott to consider specific issues, including the matter of vaccine mandates.
Employers Started Requiring Vaccines
Mr. Abbott in an executive order in 2021 had banned private employers from imposing COVID-19 vaccine mandates on workers or customers. The order was predicated on emergency declarations that the governor ended over the summer.Some employers in the state then started requiring the shots, including the Baylor College of Medicine.
The governor had called for the legislature to codify the ban, and lawmakers had been trying for two years to do so.
Republicans in the legislature previously approved a law that bars local governments from imposing vaccine mandates, as well as mask mandates.
Texans for Vaccine Choice is among the supporters of the bill that the governor signed on Friday.
“It is well beyond time to end COVID tyranny in Texas, and this is one of the final hurdles we face in prohibiting vaccine discrimination,” the group said in a recent statement.
Adjustment Made
Critics of the new bill said it’s an example of government overreach.“Are you telling me if I’m making my living running a food truck, and I want to hire someone to help me flip the burgers, and I happen to be one of those crazy people who think that COVID is bad for me, I can’t precondition their employment on them being vaccinated?” said state Sen. Nathan Johnson, a Democrat, said recently. “Where’s the balance in that?”
Dr. Jimmy Widmer, representing the Texas Medical Association, told senators as the bill was being considered that the legislation should contain “reasonable exceptions for patient safety.”
“Doctors’ offices in Texas should have the freedom to set their own vaccination policies in alignment with the best interests of the patients we serve and balanced with the medical and conscious needs of our employees and contractors,” he said.
The final version of the legislation does provide exceptions.
It 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 U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) currently recommends that nearly all Americans receive one of the updated COVID-19 vaccines, which were recently cleared by federal regulators with study data from just 50 humans.
About 5 percent of Americans have received one of the new shots, according to the most recent available data.
Vaccine makers like Pfizer have adjusted their earnings forecasts downwards in recent months due to the lack of demand, though some executives maintain that every person who received one of the bivalent shots, available for about a year until the clearance of the updated shots, will receive one of the updated vaccines.
