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UPDATE: 1/8/2024 - S8113 was filed and referred to the Senate Health Committee on 1/8/2024.
UPDATE: 1/3/2024 - A2125 carried over and was referred to the Assembly Health Committee on 1/3/2024.
A2125 was introduced and referred to the Assembly Health Committee on 1/23/2023. This bill is sponsored by Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz.
S8113 is sponsored by Senator James Skoufis.
A2125 and S8113 prohibit any organization or entity from permitting any vaccine exemption other than medical and repeals religious exemptions for certain post-secondary students:
§ 2164-a. Immunization exemptions. No organization or entity, including a local government, school board, business, or employer, which requires immunization against any disease shall permit any exemption from such requirement except a medical exemption. Any provision of a law, rule, regulation, or policy adopted by any entity that allows for a non-medical exemption to an immunization requirement shall be deemed null and void. A medical exemption shall be established in the same manner as set forth in subdivision eight of section twenty-one hundred sixty-four of this title.
§ 2. Subdivision 9 of section 2165 of the public health law is REPEALED. (religious exemptions for certain post-secondary students)
9. This section shall not apply to a person who holds genuine and sincere religious beliefs which are contrary to the practices herein required, and no certificate shall be required as a prerequisite to such person being admitted or received into or attending an institution.
To summarize, § 3. (Severability) of these bills' state that upon passage, if any part of this statute will be decided by any court to be invalid, the decision will not effect or invalidate the rest of the statute, but will be confined to the specifics that was brought to the court for judgment. The legislature declares that the bill would have been enacted even without the specific provisions found to be unlawful or unenforceable.
Upon passage, effective immediately.
In 2019, the legislature passed a bill sponsored by Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz that removed all non-medical exemptions from immunization requirements for children who attend school (Chapter 35). That act was adopted before the COVID vaccines were rushed and developed under the guise of the Emergency Use Authorization. Now more than ever, with 1,595,001 adverse events reported to VAERS where the vaccine is COVID-19 or COVID-19-2 as of 9/22/2023, protecting freedom of choice and establishing informed consent regarding immunization is crucial for our safety and the public health.
NVIC OPPOSES A2125 and S8113 because they remove certain immunization exemptions and would preserve the rationalizing of "protection of the people" as incorrectly more important than actually protecting people, including those who have religious or conscientious beliefs and those who cannot meet the extensive burden of acquiring a medical immunization exemption.
Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz filed an identical bill, A8398, in 2021 which died in committee. On 10/24/2022 the New York State Supreme Court ordered that all employees of New York City who were fired for refusing COVID-19 vaccine to be reinstated and to receive backpay. Click here to read a news article about the decision.
https://assembly.state.ny.us/leg/?default_fld=&leg_video=&bn=A02125&term=2023&Summary=Y&Actions=Y&Text=Y - text, status, and history of A2125
https://www.nysenate.gov/legislation/bills/2023/S8113 - text, status, and history of S8113
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