The House of Delegates passed two bills that react to covid precautions of the past two years, and another is on deck for passage.
House Bill 4012 would forbid government entities at the state or local level, higher education institutions or hospitals from requiring proof of covid-19 vaccination as a condition for entering. The bill would invite people who believe they are being harmed by such policies to sue.
The House passed that bill 80-16, and it now goes to the Senate for consideration. Some delegates argued against the bill by asking for concrete examples of where in West Virginia proof-of-vaccination is actually required for entry.
Another bill that delegates passed today, House Bill 4071, would forbid mask or covid-19 testing mandates in schools from here on out. Moreover, the school system could not force anyone to quarantine or isolate without a positive test. The bill also specifically opens school systems to lawsuits if they run afoul of the act.
That bill also passed on an 80-16 vote and goes to the Senate. Some delegates pushed back on the bill by saying that society is already opening up, that school systems would be better situated to determine their own precautions and that the bill could hinder future precautions if some worse strain of covid emerges.
Yet another, similarly-themed bill is on track for passage Wednesday. House Bill 4320 would put into law that if employers have vaccine requirements then evidence of natural immunity or antibodies would suffice.
Over the course of the pandemic, state officials have attributed 6,339 deaths of West Virginia residents to covid-19.
West Virginia is in the bottom quarter of states in terms of the percentage of population considered fully vaccinated.
But the omicron wave is easing, and society is rapidly shedding some of the earlier precautions. The Centers for Disease Control & Prevention, for example, eased mask recommendations last week for most areas of the country, although the covid levels in many areas of West Virginia are still considered high.
Just six West Virginia school systems have across-the-board mask requirements, while another 11 have mask requirements that depend on local circumstances. The remaining 38 counties have no mask mandate, according to the state Department of Education.
Nevertheless, some members of the Republican supermajority in the House of Delegates said laws are necessary to roll back the pandemic-era precautions.
Delegate Roger Conley, R-Wood, said he’s sick of hearing some of his colleagues make arguments about science.
“What science are you talking about?” he asked. “For every one of you that shows me a scientist or a spreadsheet that says these masks work, I’ll show you a doctor and a scientist and a spreadsheet that’ll tell you they don’t work. For every one of you that tells me the vaccines work, I’ll show you a doctor, a nurse practitioner who tells you they don’t work.
“This is not hard-core science. This is political science. Masks don’t work.”
The CDC still suggests properly-fitting masks can provide an extra layer of protection for people in communities with high covid levels or who are already at risk for severe illness. The CDC concludes covid-19 vaccines are effective in protecting people from getting seriously ill, getting hospitalized or dying.
West Virginia’s statistics show that only a very small number of vaccinated residents have been among the state’s covid-19 deaths, .068 percent.
Delegates who expressed skepticism about the bills asked whether the force of law is necessary.
Delegate Kayla Young, D-Kanawha, spent some time asking the vice chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, Tom Fast, to cite some specific examples of government offices, medical facilities or higher education institutions in West Virginia with proof-of-vaccination requirements to enter.
Young: “Do any of them currently require proof of vaccination, or has that happened here in West Virginia that you know?”
Fast: “I have only heard that some that do.”
Young: “Who?”
Fast: “I have just heard that some do, not by name just in general.”
Young: “Which group?”
Fast: “That would be hospitals and government buildings. But that would just be a matter of research that one would have to do on their own.”
Ten minutes later, the majority of delegates voted to pass the proof-of-vaccination bill.