Two Republican legislators in Idaho introduced a bill that would make it a misdemeanor to administer mRNA-based vaccines to anyone in the state. This is a life-saving, highly safe COVID-19 vaccine manufactured by Pfizer Biotech and Moderna. If passed in writing, it would also preemptively ban the use of the myriad of other mRNA vaccines currently in development, including immunizations against RSV, various cancers, HIV, influenza, Nipah virus, cystic fibrosis, and more.
The bill is sponsored by Senator Tammy Nichols of Middleton and Rep. Judy Boyle of Midvale. Both are staunch conservatives who claim to support freedom and the right to life. However, their bill HB 154 proposes that “no vaccines developed using messenger ribonucleic acid shall be offered or administered.” [mRNA] If the law is passed, anyone administering a life-saving mRNA-based vaccine could commit a misdemeanor and face prison terms and fines.
While introducing the bill to the House Health and Human Services Committee last week, Nichols said their anti-mRNA stance was that the COVID-19 vaccine was originally granted an Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) from the Food and Drug Administration, not the Food and Drug Administration. said it stems from the fact that it was allowed under Full regulatory approval from the authorities. She told her fellow lawmakers, “There is an issue that this was a quick response,” according to a report by local news outlet KXLY.com.
EUAs for two mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccines were issued in December 2020, after which the FDA granted full approval to both (Pfizer and BioNtech in August 2021 and Moderna in January 2022). This was pointed out to Nichols at the hearing last week.
safe and effective
“They were ultimately approved under the normal approval process and ultimately survived the scrutiny of undergoing all the normal tests,” said Rep. Ilana Rubel, a Democrat in Boise. rice field.
Nichols seemed unfazed by the point, but KTVB7 reported that she said the FDA approval “may not have gone the way we thought it should.” answered.
It’s unclear what Nichols meant with that statement, or why potential questions about regulatory review of two specific vaccines justify criminalizing the use of all vaccines using similar platforms. is.
More than 269 million people in the U.S. have received at least one COVID-19 vaccine so far, and more than 700 million mRNA-based vaccines have been administered to U.S. arms, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data . Government agencies monitor safety through various national surveillance systems. While shots carry some risk (as with any medical intervention), they have proven to be very safe with hundreds of millions of doses in widespread use in the United States and around the world. A study published late last year found that COVID-19 vaccination averted more than 18 million additional hospitalizations and more than 3 million additional deaths from the pandemic coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2.
Rarely, adverse events such as blood clots and inflammation of the myocardium and lining (myocarditis and pericarditis) have been reported. However, these problems are very rare and tend to be mild in cases of myocarditis and pericarditis. Independent health experts advising the FDA and CDC have consistently determined that the risks of developing these conditions do not outweigh the benefits of vaccination.
mRNA planning
Although mRNA-based vaccines were released to the public during the COVID-19 pandemic, researchers at the National Institutes of Health and pharmaceutical companies have been working towards these vaccines for decades. In fact, Moderna said that by 2016 he was working with the NIH to begin thinking about the general design of mRNA-based vaccines. One of his first targets for such a vaccine was the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) coronavirus, a relative of SARS-CoV-2. By 2019 Moderna and her NIH had plans for a clinical trial of an mRNA vaccine against the Nipah virus.
In general, vaccines work by delivering artificially stabilized fragments of the genetic code to our cells in the form of messenger RNA. In the case of the COVID-19 vaccine, part of the genetic code is to make a key protein from SARS-CoV-2 called the spike protein. A spike protein normally protrudes from the surface of the virus and helps it enter human cells. When the fat package of the vaccine is delivered, our cells translate the mRNA code into proteins (the spike protein in this case) and train immune cells to identify invaders with the same protein (SARS in this case). can be used to attack -CoV-2.
With the huge success of the mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccine, it is hoped that this platform can be used to target a variety of other infectious and non-infectious diseases. Moderna, for example, is developing a broad pipeline of mRNA-based vaccines. Already this year, the company reported results from a late-stage clinical trial showing that an mRNA-based vaccine against RSV (respiratory syncytial (sin-SISH-uhl) virus) is highly effective. It is a respiratory virus that can be fatal in the elderly and young children.
In Idaho, it is unclear whether the Nichols and Boyle bill will pass through commission and further into law. fits the alarming trend by
