Investigators working to understand the motive of the man who shot 500 bullets at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last week have uncovered his history of distrust toward vaccines, blaming the COVID-19 vaccine in particular on his health ailments.
Scientific research repeatedly has shown the vaccine to be safe and effective, a sentiment echoed by health officials in the state.
However, lawmakers in the Georgia General Assembly have sponsored and passed bills since 2020, when the pandemic began, that frame vaccines with caution.
In 2022, the Legislature banned state and local agencies, governments and schools from requiring anyone to get a COVID-19 vaccination. A year later, members restricted state agencies from requiring proof of a COVID-19 vaccination as a condition to receive services or access facilities.
Republicans, who have been behind the bills, say their measures are about personal freedom and choice and don’t prevent anyone who wants a vaccine from receiving one.
“There has not been any anti-vaccine rhetoric coming from this well. I believe you have heard from every one of us who has spoken from this well that we have received the COVID-19 vaccine,” said Bonnie Rich, a former Republican House member who sponsored one of the bills.
The issue is not about whether the vaccine is good but whether government should mandate them, she said.
Other Republicans have filed bills that would prevent health care providers from considering someone’s COVID vaccination status to determine whether they should receive an organ transplant and would allow those who chose not to receive a COVID vaccine to collect unemployment if their employer mandated it.
Some modest support has returned among the Republican ranks. Earlier this year, two Republican legislators filed bills that promoted the education and availability of vaccines.
One measure, following a previous Democratic effort, would have required the state Department of Education to provide middle school parents with information about meningococcal meningitis, human papillomavirus (HPV), and tetanus, diphtheria, and pertussis (TDAP). It passed a House committee but never reached a full House vote.
Another allows hospitals to offer the flu and pneumonia vaccines to patients starting at age 18, lowered from 50, prior to their discharge. The provision was included in a different bill, which eliminates requirements that residents and staff at long-term care facilities test for COVID-19.
“Some people desperately need (vaccines) to keep from being sick and causing other life-determining issues. Age is also a part of it,” said state Rep. Katie Dempsey, a Republican from Rome who sponsored that legislation.
She said she has received the flu shot to stay healthy, especially among large crowds at the state Capitol.
“But it’s a personal decision,” she said. “I did not ever send anything out telling people they needed to go get a shot.”
State Rep. Michelle Au, a Democrat from Johns Creek, said she has seen several bills that seek to diminish vaccine access in the community. As an anesthesiologist and former pediatrician, she said she cautions her colleagues in the Legislature not to practice medicine.
“To write medical practice into law is a generally bad idea, even if it is narrowly carved and specific,” she said.
The underlying messages these kinds of bills signal can be risky.
“Hundreds of millions of people have gotten this vaccine around the world, but when they say it’s experimental and not safe, it gives legitimacy to the general community that even their leaders do not trust this vaccine.”
The violence that occurred last week is likely the result of a corrosion of trust around public health that has accelerated in the last five years, she said.
“I can’t even begin to think about how we undo some of this damage that’s been done right now. We’re looking at a patient who’s bleeding out and instead of being able to even start to try to slow down bleeding, we’re actively making more holes,” Au said.
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