The Kentucky Senate voted Tuesday to abolish COVID-19 vaccination requirements in Kentucky after years of debate about the safety, efficacy and constitutionality of the vaccines.
The legislation, Senate Bill 295, passed the Senate on a 25-11 vote. It now goes to the House for its consideration as lawmakers finish out the last few days of the 2024 legislative session.
As written, the bill would specifically prohibit COVID-19 vaccine mandates for schools, employment (including unpaid training and internships), occupational licensing and access to all types of health care.
Sen. Lindsey Tichenor (R-Smithfield) – a staunch opponent of COVID-19 vaccine requirements – is the lead sponsor of Senate Bill 295. Calling the issue a “matter of life and death,” Tichenor told the Senate before Tuesday’s vote that thousands of deaths and adverse effects have been linked to COVID-19 vaccine injections. The vaccine was first approved for emergency use in the U.S. in December 2020 with full FDA approval of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for those aged 16 and older in August 2021. Other vaccine authorizations followed.
Tichenor cited reports in the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) – a federal database of unconfirmed reports that include thousands of claims of COVID-19 related vaccine deaths – when calling for passage of the bill on Tuesday.
“The number of adverse events and deaths attributed to this vaccine are through the roof. We don’t have a count,” Tichenor told the Senate.
The federal Centers for Disease Control countered those claims last year when it said it has “confirmed just nine deaths caused by COVID-19 vaccines (as of January 2023). Those cases were causally associated with rare blood clots caused by the Johnson & Johnson shot,” according to a Jan. 2023 Associated Press report.
Tichenor, however, said Tuesday that common COVID-19 vaccines in the market today warn “of significant possible adverse reactions include but are not limited to blood clots, stroke, heart damage from myocarditis and pericarditis in youth and adults, miscarriages, and death. This leaves many to question if the risk is worth taking.”
All senators from the Northern Kentucky region except Sen. Chris McDaniel (R-Ryland Heights) voted for the bill. Sen. Shelley Funke Frommeyer (R-Alexandria) spoke out against vaccine mandates – and in favor of SB 295 – on the Senate floor Tuesday.
“When you’re in a small town and in one of the best places to work but your employer presses that upon you? That’s unreasonable. That’s unfair. You may not even know that you’re going to have a conflict with this injection,” she said before casting her yes vote.
SB 295 comes at a time when COVID-19 mandates have trended down. The U.S. government lifted its government-wide employee COVID-19 vaccination requirement in May 2023. Many health care systems followed suit after COVID-19 vaccine mandates were lifted for Medicaid-certified hospitals and facilities in 2023.
Despite a lack of apparent vaccine mandates now looming in the state, Tichenor told the Senate SB 295 is necessary to protect the public – at the same time citing new federal guidance on COVID-19 that puts the virus on par with the flu: an indication that potential new mandates might be far afield.
She also argued before the Senate that Kentuckians have no ability to claim “conscientious objection” to vaccine mandates under current Kentucky law.
Kentuckians should be allowed to object to vaccine mandates without being “forced to use their religion, or if they’re not religious, fake that” Tichenor said Tuesday.
“So I’m all for conscientious objections,” she said.
State law does currently include exceptions to state vaccine mandates for persons who sign a sworn statement objecting to immunization of their child or themselves on religious grounds, or on the basis of conscientiously held beliefs.
Republicans voting against SB 295 in the Senate included Senate President Pro Tem David Givens (R-Greensburg). The small business owner raised concerns specifically about the impact of the legislation on vulnerable populations including nursing home residents – a group hard hit by pandemic-related illness and deaths.
“Those employees caring for my great aunt at the nursing home or one of my family members in the hospital are not going to be required to be vaccinated, if they choose to not be upon passage of this legislation,” Givens told the Senate. “So I’ve got a concern about the health of my great aunt or any friend in my community who may end up in the hospital.”
The senator also raised concerns about nursing home liability under the bill. SB 295, he said, doesn’t appear to shield facilities from liability if a nursing home resident contracts COVID-19 from an employee and subsequently dies.
“Take a very serious look at this piece of legislation,” Givens said. “Do not presume that you can cover yourself with an easy vote on this and someday the consequences won’t come down.”