NC bill would prevent mandatory COVID-19 vaccines for schools, government employees

Public schools, colleges, state agencies and local governments couldn’t require students or employees to get a COVID-19 vaccine under legislation moving forward at the North Carolina General Assembly.

The bill doesn’t affect any vaccines already required to attend public schools in North Carolina.

House Bill 98 also once forbade school systems from requiring masks, but that was dropped during negotiations with the state Department of Health and Human Services.

Bill sponsors also softened the bill’s language to allow UNC Hospitals to require the vaccine for its employees, a carve out among state entities. The hospital system risked losing federal funding without this change.

The measure moved through the House Health Committee Tuesday on a divided voice vote, with Republicans supporting it and many of the committee’s Democrats voting against after some back-and-forth about the effectiveness of various COVID-19 vaccines. The bill needs to move through two other committees before coming to the House floor for a chamber vote.

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The measure’s Republican sponsors said Gov. Roy Cooper’s administration was largely satisfied with the bill after the masking ban was dropped and the UNC Hospitals carve out was added, signaling the potential of bipartisan support.

There’s no government effort underway in North Carolina now to require the vaccine now at schools, Republican bill sponsors said, describing the bill as a preventative measure. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last month added the COVID-19 vaccine to its list of recommended ones for children, and states work off that list in deciding what vaccines schools require, but nothing can be required without a separate decision-making process.

Rep. Brian Biggs, one of the bill sponsors, said the COVID-19 vaccine is still too new and that the legislature needs to take a potential requirement off the table.

"It's still being pushed, and I think there needs to be more research done,” said Biggs, R-Randolph.

Rep. Donnie Lambeth, a committee co-chair as well as a retired hospital executive, said he took the COVID-19 vaccine but that he supported the bill because government shouldn’t demand it.

"That's my choice,” said Lambeth, R-Forsyth.

The measure moved forward without the Health Committee taking public comment. Committee Chairwoman Erin Paré said there wasn’t time for that on a busy legislative day.