Des Moines, Iowa — A member of the Iowa House is planning an event at the Capitol that may feature one of the country’s most outspoken and controversial critics of the COVID vaccine.
Representative Jon Jacobsen, a Republican from Glenwood, has been working on a bill that would prevent employers from asking about an employee’s vaccination status and he hopes to have what he calls an evidentiary hearing on the legislation.
Kennedy — the nephew of President John F. Kennedy — founded a group that campaigns against vaccines in general. Some of Kennedy’s prominent relatives have publicly criticized him for spreading dangerous misinformation and Kennedy’s own wife publicly rebuked him this week for making a reference to Nazi Germany during an anti-vaccine mandate rally. Jacobson says the main aim of the bill he’s working on is to address privacy issues.
Jacobsen says employers can make suggestions about the health of their employees, but he says asking about vaccinations is a violation of privacy.
Last October, the legislature passed a law letting Iowans file their own claims for religious or medical exemptions from COVID vaccination mandates in their workplace. A copy of the bill Jacobsen is working on is not publicly available.
