(Des Moines) A bill banning gene-based vaccines, like some forms of the COVID-19 vaccine, received approval from a Senate subcommittee Monday.
Senate File 360 would prohibit health care providers from administering gene-based vaccines, with penalties of a misdemeanor charge and a fine of $500 for each violation, as well as requiring a review of the provider’s license. Gene-based vaccines are those using nucleic acids like messenger RNA (mRNA), creating proteins in order to trigger an immune response. While mRNA vaccines have been in research development for decades, the COVID-19 vaccines developed by Pfizer and Moderna were the first of this kind of vaccine to gain approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
Speakers supporting the bill said the measure was necessary because the mRNA COVID-19 vaccines were linked with adverse health outcomes.
Ed Dowd, founding partner of Phinance Technologies, who wrote the book “‘Cause Unknown’: The Epidemic of Sudden Deaths in 2021 & 2022” with a foreword by now-Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr., spoke at Monday’s subcommittee meeting. He said there has been an increase in members of the adult labor force who have excess disabilities in recent years, which he attributed to COVID-19 vaccinations.
“We believe that the mRNA vaccines is the cause of these trends,” Dowd said. “Regardless of my opinion, the trend has emerged, which is quite alarming, (and) needs to be investigated.”
Dowd has also advocated for the Trump administration to put limits on mRNA vaccines because of “safety concerns.”
Advocates with medical organizations said there are already measures in place through the FDA approval process to ensure that vaccines available to the public are safe and effective. Sandra Conlin with the Iowa Hospital Association also expressed concerns about the legislation penalizing health care practitioners for administering vaccines.
“We definitely oppose trying to get to that route by criminalizing health care providers, because we do have patients coming in voluntarily seeking these vaccines, and certainly it is everyone’s right in here not to go get one, but to … place a criminal penalty against the health care provider — it’s why we’re opposing this bill,” Conlin said.
Lindsay Maher with Informed Choice Iowa, a group founded in 2017 in opposition to vaccine requirements and health mandates, said there were specific concerns about mRNA vaccines as “gene therapy products intent on altering a person’s body” that are different from regular vaccines. Her statement is disputed by medical experts with organizations like the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia who say mRNA vaccines are not forms of genetic therapy.
Despite concerns about vaccine injuries and the expedited process of approval for the mRNA COVID-19 vaccines, Maher said Informed Choice Iowa had concerns about the legislation.
“We do not like the mechanism of enforcement for this bill or an outright ban,” Maher said. “Instead, we recommend a provision requiring the product manufacturers provide evidence that these tests have all been completed with no possibility of integration or transmission to the non-consenting public, as well as waiving their immunity from liability prior to allowing them to be available in Iowa.”
Lina Tucker Reinders, executive director of the Iowa Public Health Association, said there was an “irony” to this bill being introduced on “STEM Day” at the Iowa Capitol, when people gathered to celebrate and discuss science, technology, engineering, and mathematics in the state.
“This is the direction of vaccine research,” she said. “And stopping this research, making these vaccines not available for Iowans, puts our health at risk, puts their agricultural sector at risk, and quite frankly I think, also puts our research universities at risk if they cannot engage in this type of research as well.”
Sen. Dennis Guth, R-Klemme, signed off on the legislation, reading an email in the subcommittee meeting from a constituent who said they were injured by taking a gene-based vaccine. He said he was open to amending it to “make it more workable for our state,” but said the issue was something the Legislature should act on.
“I think the one thing that disappoints me the most today has been the medical field’s denial of the facts that are out there,” Guth said. “And not being able to say, ‘Maybe we need to compromise, we need to make some accommodations for some of this.’ But instead, I see them circling the wagons, and it just hurts your credibility even further.”
Sen. Doug Campbell, R-Mason City, also signed off on the bill. He said he would be open to amending the bill to expand liability for vaccine manufacturers whose products harm Iowans.
Sen. Molly Donahue, D-Cedar Rapids, was in opposition, saying the COVID-19 vaccine prevented millions of deaths during the pandemic and that the legislation to ban mRNA vaccines was “trampling” on the rights of Iowans.
She also said the legislation could harm Iowa in the future if passed, pointing to the measles outbreak in Texas and the spread of highly pathogenic avian influenza.
