Des Moines, Iowa — Half of the Republicans in the Iowa House are co-sponsoring a bill that would prevent schools and child care centers from requiring children be vaccinated against COVID-19.
Representative Skyler Wheeler of Orange City is a member of the House subcommittee that advanced the bill Tuesday.
The prohibition would end in 2029, but Representative Henry Stone of Forest City says the bill may be changed, so the policy would be permanent.
During a House subcommittee hearing, members of Informed Choice Iowa raised questions about the effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines and suggested it was unethical to vaccinate children to protect adults from contracting the virus. Chaney Yeast, a lobbyist for Blank Children’s Hospital in Des Moines, says 50 percent of kids admitted to the ER last week tested positive for COVID.
Iowa’s largest hospital, the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, has admitted 66 pediatric patients with COVID so far this year. Under current Iowa law, students must be immunized against nine contagious diseases, including polio and measles, before they can be enrolled in elementary school and older kids have to get a shot to prevent meningitis before they can start 7th grade.
