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See Corresponding Action Alert for SB 144
UPDATE: 7/30/2024 - SB 144 was enacted, it has an effective date of 10/24/2024.
UPDATE: 7/15/2024 - SB 144 was sent to the Governor on 7/15/2024. Contact Governor Mike DeWine at (614) 466-3555 and ask him to VETO SB 144.
UPDATE: 6/26/2024 - SB 144, as substituted, was concurred in the Senate by a vote of 31 Yeas, 0 Nays, on 6/26/2024. View the Enrolled Version HERE.
UPDATE: 6/26/2024 - SB 144 passed the full House on 6/26/2024.
UPDATE: 6/20/2024 - SB 144 was reported favorably as substituted in the House Health Provider Services Committee by a vote of 10 yeas, 1 Nay, on 6/20/2024. The substituted bill can be viewed HERE. While there are many new parts in the bill, none of them are related to pharmacy interns and technicians giving vaccines. All parts of the bill described on the portal in the introduced version are retained in the substitute, therefore the bill description and our position of OPPOSE remain unchanged.
UPDATE: 6/17/2024 - SB 144 is scheduled for the 5th House Health Provider Services Committee hearing, taking testimony from proponents, opponents, and interested parties, on Tuesday 6/18/2024 at 1:30PM in Room 017 in the lower level of the statehouse building. View the hearing agenda and details HERE. You can view the hearing live HERE. You can view the hearing as an archive HERE. Continue to contact the House Health Provider Services Committee members until a vote is taken.
UPDATE: 6/5/2024 - SB 144 is scheduled for the 4th House Health Provider Services Committee hearing, taking testimony from proponents, opponents, and interested parties, on Tuesday 6/11/2024 at 4:00PM in Room 017 in the lower level of the statehouse building. View the hearing agenda and details HERE. You can view the hearing live HERE. You can view the hearing as an archive HERE. Continue to contact the House Health Provider Services Committee members until a vote is taken.
UPDATE: 5/15/2024 - SB 144 is scheduled for the 3rd hearing in the House Health Provider Services Committee, taking testimony from opponents, on Tuesday, 5/21/2024 at 3:30PM in Room 017. View the hearing agenda and details HERE.
UPDATE: 4/15/2024 - SB 144 is scheduled for the 2nd Hearing in the House Health Provider Services Committee, taking testimony from proponents, on Tuesday, 4/16/2024 at 3:00PM in Room 017. View the hearing agenda and details HERE and the video details HERE. Continue to contact the House Health Provider Services Committee Members until a vote is taken. Sometimes a vote is not taken on the day of the hearing.
UPDATE: 4/5/2024 - SB 144 is rescheduled for a hearing in the House Health Provider Services Committee on Tuesday, 4/9/2024 at 3:00PM in Room 017. View hearing agenda HERE. View video details HERE. Continue to contact the House Health Provider Services Committee Members until a vote is taken. Sometimes a vote is not taken on the day of the hearing.
UPDATE: 3/27/2024 - SB 144 is rescheduled for a hearing in the House Health Provider Services Committee on Tuesday, 4/2/2024 at 1:30PM in Room 017. View hearing agenda HERE. Continue to contact the House Health Provider Services Committee Members until a vote is taken. Sometimes a vote is not taken on the day of the hearing.
UPDATE: 2/2/2024 - SB 144 is scheduled for a hearing in the House Health Provider Services Committee on Tuesday, 2/6/2024 at 3:30PM in Room 017. View hearing details HERE.
UPDATE: 12/12/2023 - SB 144 was referred to the House Health Provider Services Committee on 12/12/2023.
UPDATE: 12/6/2023 - SB 144 passed the full Senate by a vote of 30 Yeas, 1 Nay on 12/6/2023.
UPDATE: 12/6/2023 - SB 144 passed the Senate Health Committee by a vote of 5 Yeas, 0 Nays, on 12/6/2023.
UPDATE: 11/30/2023 - SB 144 is scheduled for the 4th Senate Health Committee hearing, taking testimony from proponents, opponents, and interested parties on Wednesday, 12/6/2023 at 9:30AM in the South Hearing Room. View the hearing details and agenda HERE.
UPDATE: 11/10/2023 - SB 144 is scheduled for the 3rd Senate Health Committee hearing, taking testimony from opponents, on Wednesday, 11/15/2023 at 9:30AM in the South Hearing Room. View the hearing details and agenda HERE.
UPDATE: 10/5/2023 - SB 144 is scheduled for the 2nd Senate Health Committee hearing, taking testimony from proponents, on Wednesday, October 11, 2023 at 9:30AM in the South Hearing Room. View the hearing details and agenda HERE.
UPDATE: 9/20/2023 - SB 144 was heard in the Senate Health Committee's first hearing on Wednesday, 9/20/2023.
UPDATE: 9/18/2023 - SB 144 is scheduled for a hearing in the Senate Health Committee on Wednesday, 9/20/2023. The agenda is here.
UPDATE: 9/13/2023 - SB 144 was referred to the Senate Health Committee on 9/13/2023.
SB 144 was introduced on 8/28/2023. It is sponsored by Senator Mark Romanchuk.
SB 144 would allow pharmacy technician and pharmacy interns to administer vaccines. It also lowers the age to 5 years or older for flu and COVID vaccine administration by pharmacists, pharmacy interns, or pharmacy technicians.
According to the Ohio Board of Pharmacy, a pharmacy technician must "be at least 18 years old and have a high school diploma, GED, or foreign school diploma equivalent to a U.S. high school diploma."
NVIC is opposed to this bill because it trivializes very real vaccine risks and serious reactions by allowing teenagers and inadequately trained pharmacy employees to administer possibly life-threatening vaccines to adults and young children. Pharmacy technicians and interns are not anywhere close to being health care providers and shouldn’t be giving vaccines, especially to young children. They do not have enough training about all the vaccines, risks, prescreening, contraindications, emergency interventions for reactions, reporting reactions to Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System, and advising parents and patients about the statute of limitations and instructions for filing a claim with the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program.
Vaccine Information Statements list many reasons why patients shouldn’t be vaccinated, and it is highly unlikely a pharmacy technician or intern has the time to ask about all the reasons not to vaccinate in them.
Below are listed some of the reasons to not vaccinate that are recorded in federally required vaccine information statement. It is unlikely that a pharmacist, pharmacy intern or technician would catch these problems:
- Will pharmacists or pharmacy technicians screen for things like allergic reactions to ingredients in the vaccine and are they going to cover all these ingredients of every vaccine?
- Will they check if a child is allergic to yeast (contraindication in HPV vaccine)?
- Are they going to perform an exam at the pharmacy and take the child’s temperature to make sure they don’t have a fever since fever is contraindicated for some vaccines in the VIS statements?
- Are they going to know if the child has a weakened immune system due to disease (such as cancer or HIV/AIDS), medical treatments (such as radiation, immunotherapy, steroids, or chemotherapy), if they have a history of seizures, if they have a parent, brother, or sister with a history of seizures, or if they have a parent, brother, or sister with a history of immune system problems?
- Will they screen if the child has a condition that makes them bruise or bleed easily, if they might be pregnant (some vaccines cannot be given in pregnancy), or if they are taking aspirin?
- Will they know if a child has recently had a transfusion or if they have ever had Guillain-Barre syndrome post vaccination?
- Will they know if a child has had a serious or a life-threatening reaction to any vaccine?
Most pharmacies and grocery stores don’t have lifesaving defibrillators like they do in doctors’ offices when life-threatening reactions to vaccines occur. Will pharmacists or pharmacy technicians have the equipment and training to be able to tell the difference between cardiac arrest, anaphylaxis, fainting, and act accordingly to save the lives of children who react at the time of vaccination?
This bill undermines the doctor patient relationship and removes critical health history screenings prior to vaccination. Neither pharmacists nor less qualified pharmacy interns and pharmacy technicians have the necessary medical history of an infant or child or the time to prescreen for contraindications based on a child’s personal and family history and unique heath needs prior to vaccination. Vaccines, just like all pharmaceutical products, can cause injury and death in some people. As of September 1, 2023, The United States Government has paid out more than $5 billion dollars to vaccine victims through the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (VICP). As of 8/25/2023, There were 46,093 deaths and 2,518,732 adverse events reported to the US government's Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System. Clearly, there are dangers associated with vaccines that should not be ignored with increasing those who can administer them.
There is no doubt the pharmacy groups will support this bill, but it presents a serious conflict of interest because of the financial benefits they will receive if this bill passes.
America’s biopharmaceutical research companies are developing 258 vaccines. The U.S. Vaccine Market alone was $36.45 billion in 2018, and is expected to reach $58.4 billion by 2024 and pharmacies stand to increase their profits substantially by allowing pharmacy technicians to put those shots into customers.
This conflict is compounded by the fact that neither Pharmacists nor pharmacy technicians will have liability for the injuries and deaths caused by the vaccines they administer to children. Vaccines administrators are shielded from liability for vaccine injuries and deaths through the combination of the law passed by Congress in 1986 establishing the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program and the 2011 Supreme Court Decision BRUESEWITZ ET AL. v. WYETH LLC, FKA WYETH, INC., ET AL.
https://www.legislature.ohio.gov/legislation/135/sb144 - text, status, and history of SB 144
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