vaccine
Once again, Ohio House ices vaccine mandate bill: ‘We don’t have the votes’
For the second time in three months, House Speaker Bob Cupp halted legislation Wednesday aimed to limit the ability of employers, colleges, hospitals and others to impose vaccine mandates. Cupp’s announcement came amid a flurry of private caucus meetings, unseen proposed amendments, aggressive lobbying tactics and tense rhetoric from members on a heated issue focused […]
Anti-vaxxers rally outside residence of House Health Chairman
A cohort of roughly 15 anti-vaccine activists gathered around an apartment in Gahanna where they believed Ohio House Health Chairman Scott Lipps, R-Franklin, resides — one of three similarly sized protests at residences Friday where they figured he might be. They gathered to protest the Health Committee’s failure to pass sweeping legislation to ban vaccine […]
Ohio House restarts efforts to ban vaccine mandates; Dem calls it ‘pandering’
It’s déjà vu all over again, but with longer hearings this time. An Ohio House committee is meeting twice this week to take a scheduled 14 hours of testimony on legislation to ban vaccine mandates — the eighth and ninth such legislative hearings, now occurring under a second House committee. An initial, expansive version of […]
Man whose wife sued hospital to force it to administer ivermectin dies of COVID-19
An Ohio man whose wife sued a Cincinnati area hospital for refusing to provide him ivermectin as he was intubated due to COVID-19 has died, according to one of her attorneys. Jeffrey Smith, 51, died Sept. 25, according to the family’s attorney, Jonathan Davidson. While he was on a ventilator, Julie Smith filed a lawsuit […]
Taking heat from all sides, House GOP shelves anti-vaccination bill
Ohio House Republicans have pumped the brakes on what was once turbo-charged legislation aimed to restrict abilities of employers and colleges to require vaccination against COVID-19. The House Speaker and top lawmakers introduced the legislation Tuesday afternoon with the intent of the whole House passing it Wednesday. The House Health Committee passed it 11-3 on […]
House health committee passes vax mandate ban; full vote expected Wednesday
Republicans on the Ohio House Health Committee passed legislation Tuesday banning some COVID-19 vaccine mandates, teeing up fast-tracked passage from the full chamber on Wednesday. The legislation, unveiled minutes before the committee met, is a significantly narrowed approach when compared to some of the other six pieces of proposed legislation targeting vaccine mandates. Unlike earlier […]
Ohio House Speaker leans into ‘medical freedom’
The Republican Speaker of the Ohio House, under mounting pressure from the nascent anti-vaccination movement within the GOP, said his caucus is soon to unveil consensus legislation to ban vaccine mandates. Speaker Bob Cupp, R-Lima, said to reporters Wednesday that House leadership is in the “final stages” of putting together a bill to erect legal […]
Ohio House GOP bill would ban vaccine mandates and shield COVID-19 spreaders from lawsuits
An Ohio House Republican proposed legislation Monday that would shield COVID-19 spreaders from lawsuits and ban vaccine mandates for primary education and college students. Rep. Kyle Koehler, R-Springfield, introduced the bill as people infected with the hyper transmissible delta variant crowd area hospitals and Ohio’s vaccination rate sags far below the national average. House Bill […]
COVID-19 hospitalizations climb; vaccination rate trickles
An average of more than 6,400 Ohioans continue to contract COVID-19 per day, according to data from the state health department. The recent surge of cases is driven by children aged 18 and below, who comprise nearly 3 in 10 infections statewide. Nearly 3,700 Ohioans are currently hospitalized with COVID-19, according to data from the […]
Ohio Medical Board renews license of doc who claims vaccines make you magnetic
They’re forcing freedom loving Americans to choose between injection of a “deadly” vaccine or testing those who will not comply via torturing them with nasal swabs looking for a “virus that, by some claims, doesn’t even exist.” This claim, equal parts baseless and conspiratorial, appears on a website that solicited funds to the address of […]
History Thursday: When the Supreme Court said yes to vaccine mandates
The vaccine mandate debate may be rejuvenated, but it’s hardly new. The U.S. Supreme Court answered the can-they-do-that question more than 115 years ago. In an era when infectious diseases killed more Americans than any other cause of death, smallpox was ripping through Cambridge, Massachusetts. State lawmakers passed a statute allowing local boards of health, […]
Fewer than 1 in 2 vaccinated against COVID-19 in most Ohio counties
In 66 of Ohio’s 88 counties, fewer than 1 in 2 residents have received at least one dose of vaccination against COVID-19, which has killed more than 661,000 Americans since the pandemic began. The low vaccination coverage, found via an analysis of state data from Sunday, indicates vast swaths of the state remain vulnerable to […]