By Teddy Rosenbluth
CONCORD MONITOR
Members of the public pleaded with a panel of lawmakers Monday morning to make diametrically opposed recommendations ahead of a slew of coronavirus bills in the upcoming legislative session.
The Committee to Examine the Policy of Medical Intervention Including Immunizations was established by HB220, a “medical freedom” bill signed into law in July, to determine which immunization and medical intervention policies are allowed under current law. The group’s recommendations for proposed legislation will be provided to the speaker of the house and president of the senate by Dec. 1, 2021.
Though the committee is tasked with studying all medical intervention policy, meetings have primarily focused on COVID-19, which will be a central topic of the upcoming legislative session. Already, representatives have filed 32 bills COVID-19, masking mandates and vaccinations, said Rep. Timothy Lang, the chair of the committee. Some of those proposed bills include legislation that would require school attendants to be vaccinated, make the state vaccine registry an opt-in program and prevent public places from discriminating based on vaccination status.
Thomas McLeod, the chair of the Liberty Defense Fund of New Hampshire, a nonprofit that has been a vocal opponent of mask and vaccine mandates, said the definition of informed consent needs to be further narrowed in state legislation to protect individual freedoms.
Several other opponents of vaccine mandates expressed concerns about the long-term effects of COVID-19 vaccines. Through decades of vaccine monitoring, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has found that side effects generally present themselves within six weeks of a vaccine, making aversive long-term side effects unlikely. However, the CDC continues to monitor reported side effects on a database called VAERS.
Louise Spencer, another member of the public, added that the long-term consequences of contracting the COVID-19 virus are unknown.
Before Monday’s meeting, she stood outside, holding a sign that read “vaccines are patriotic.” She said she hopes the committee will come out of the meetings with a statement that expresses support for vaccines, which she said
“I think it’s up to our leaders to set a better example for what’s happening so far,” she said. “Step up and counter the misinformation that enables so many of the statements here and in other places against vaccines.”
Some members of the public, like Deborah Richardson, spoke to members of the committee about their personal experience losing work over COVID-19 vaccine mandates.
Richardson, a nurse of 30 years who most recently worked in-home care, said that when her employer announced they would require vaccines Richardson provided a letter of religious exemption. She said she contracted COVID-19 in Nov. 2020 and still lives with lingering cardiopulmonary symptoms.
She said she feared the vaccine would exacerbate those symptoms. There are rare cases in which some age groups developed heart inflammation that have been mild and self-resolving. Most experts agree that the chance of developing serious illnesses, including myocarditis, from the virus itself is much higher than developing it from the vaccine.
Richardson said her exemption request was denied and she was terminated on Oct. 28, without severance pay.
“They were sadder than I was when I left,” she said. “I was given flowers, I was given a card telling me how wonderful I was and how sorry they were that they had to let me go.”
Gary York, a Hopkinton resident, came to speak on behalf of his son, who will be laid off over the next couple of weeks because he does not want to be vaccinated. He said vaccine mandates have not only cost his family jobs but friends.
“The mandates have allowed people to shame the unvaccinated,” he said. “We’re living in a dark and sinister world if we allow these things to happen.”
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