The Missouri House of Representatives introduced legislation this week that would ban the government, schools, and employers from mandating certain vaccines. Like a vaccine microchip that doesn’t exist.
The bill, HB 700 (PDF), was sponsored by Republican Rep. Bill Hardwick of Waynesville. Hardwick told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that he believed people had “lost their minds” during the COVID-19 pandemic, and that authorities and employers could legally mandate life-saving vaccinations. What is forbidden is “the right thing to do” even for medical professionals.
The bill specifically prohibits the requirement for people to receive the COVID-19 vaccine. But that’s not all. It also prohibits the requirement that people receive a “dose of messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA)” and therefore prohibits the requirement for future mRNA-based vaccines should they become necessary in future pandemics or outbreaks. It also requires “treatments or procedures intended or designed to edit or alter human deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) or the human genome” and “mechanical or electronic devices” placed “under the skin.” is also prohibited.
These last two provisions reflect ridiculous but widespread conspiracy theories related to the COVID-19 vaccine. So the completely false idea that mRNA vaccines change people’s DNA and that the COVID-19 vaccine somehow contains a microchip. These fictitious microchips are said to be put into vaccines by the world’s elite, including Bill Gates, to track people’s location and “enforce compliance.” The ludicrous false idea ties in with other equally nonsensical conspiracy theories that vaccines will connect people to her 5G network and literally make human flesh attractive. The latter hogwash has led to a very disappointing number of online videos of people sticking metal objects to themselves.
Finally, the bill would require all employers and public colleges and universities if the person “has sincere religious beliefs, which may include deeply held non-theistic moral beliefs.” , request that exceptions to the vaccination requirements be granted if it prevents vaccination.
“absolutely insane”
In Tuesday’s informal ballot, the Missouri House of Representatives advanced the bill, but it must undergo a “third reading” before final passage, at which point it will be sent to the Senate.
Hardwick introduced a similar bill last year, but it failed. The current bill also faces opposition. Rep. Ashley Orne of Kansas City, Democratic Party, for example, called the proposal “totally insane.”
Kara Coaches, vice president for government affairs at the Missouri Chamber of Commerce, also said industry groups opposed the bill. “Missouri has a free corporate program, so I don’t think the government should intervene in corporate legal rights to request vaccines in the workplace,” she told the Post-Dispatch.
Still, the bill is one of many bills sponsored by Republican lawmakers across the country aimed at reducing public health policies and vaccination requirements, especially in the wake of the pandemic. Since the beginning of 2023, 53 bills have been proposed in 20 states related to vaccination exemptions, according to the database of health laws maintained by the National Congress of Legislatures.
In Kansas, for example, lawmakers are currently considering an anti-vaccine bill that broadly waives vaccination requirements. Meanwhile, in Idaho, a bill introduced in February criminalizes the administration of mRNA-based vaccines. A similar bill, first proposed in North Dakota in January, was edited to instead propose studying the safety of vaccines.
