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UPDATE: 5/28/2024 - SB 133 was enacted and signed by Governor Ned Lamont on 5/28/2024. It will become effective on 10/1/2024. Public Act No. 24-73
UPDATE: 5/22/2024 - SB 133 was transmitted to the Secretary of State and then transmitted by the Secretary of State to the Governor on 5/22/2024. The bill will become law within fifteen calendar days after it has been presented to the Governor, unless the Governor transmits the bill with his objections to the Secretary of State. In this case, the bill will not become law unless it is reconsidered and re-passed by the General Assembly by at least two-thirds of the members of each house at the time of its reconvening to reconsider vetoes. Read more about the Connecticut legislative process HERE.
UPDATE: 5/8/2024 - SB 133 was adopted by the House on 5/8/2024 and passed as amended by Senate Amendment Schedule A by a concurring vote of 147 Yeas, 0 Nays, and 4 Absent or not voting on 5/8/2024.
UPDATE: 4/23/2024 - SB 133 passed the Senate as Amended by Senate Amendment Schedule A 4165 by a vote of 36 Yeas and 0 Nays on 4/23/2024.
UPDATE: 4/23/2024 - SB 133 was amended in the Senate as Amendment A 4165 and was adopted by the Senate on 4/23/2024. This amendment strikes everything after the enacting clause and substitutes a new version of the bill retaining the language NVIC opposes that expands the types of vaccines pharmacists are authorized to administer and retaining the age ranges from existing law for whom they can vaccinate. This new amended version of SB 133 also would change existing law to allow pharmacists to also order and prescribe vaccines instead of just administering them. This change makes the bill even more concerning because now a patient's doctor who knows the patient's medical history and contraindications to vaccination is removed from the process of deciding which vaccines to give. A new subset of pharmacy technicians are classified as advanced pharmacy technicians, and pharmacists are able to delegate vaccinating authority to advanced pharmacy technicians as well as registered pharmacy technicians who are already able to vaccinate when delegated by a pharmacist under existing law. Amendment A 4165 is summarized as follows:
SECTION 1. defines "Advanced pharmacy technician" to mean a pharmacy technician who receives an endorsement from the Department of Consumer Protection and is qualified in accordance with SECTION 2. of this act.
SECTION 2. (c) (1) authorizes a pharmacist who directly supervises an advanced pharmacy technician to delegate the task of (B) the pharmacist's authority to administer vaccines in accordance with the provisions of Section 20-633 of the general statutes, as amended by this act.
SECTION 6. (a) authorizes a pharmacy technician student to engage in the duties of a pharmacy technician, as part of the curriculum, under the direct supervision of a pharmacist who is an instructor for such pharmacy technician education program. This includes the authority to vaccinate as granted to a pharmacy technician in Section 20-633 (c) (1).
SECTION 9. (a) (1) authorizes any licensed pharmacist to order, prescribe, and administer the following:
(A) any vaccine, approved or authorized by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) that is listed on the National Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) "age-appropriate immunization schedule." This is a change from existing law that only authorizes a pharmacist to administer a vaccine on the CDC's "Adult Immunization Schedule" or any vaccine not on the Adult Schedule provided the vaccine administration instructions were available on the CDC's website. Additionally, in existing law, a pharmacist can administer any vaccine pursuant to a verbal or written prescription of a prescribing practitioner for a specific patient. This section bypasses the physician and allows the pharmacist themselves to prescribe and order any vaccine on the CDC schedule, not just the Adult Immunization Schedule, for any adult aged eighteen (18) and older or child aged twelve (12) and older, with parental consent. Parental consent is not required for an emancipated minor with proof of emancipation; and
(B) Any vaccine not included on the CDC's Adult Immunization Schedule to any patient who is eighteen (18) years of age or older if the instructions for administration are available on the CDC's website.
SECTION 9. (a) (4) authorizes a pharmacist to delegate the authority to vaccinate to the advanced pharmacy technician, as described in subparagraph (A) of subdivision (1) under the direct supervision of such pharmacist.
NVIC is still OPPOSED to this new amended version of SB 133 because it expands the authorization to vaccinate from a pharmacist who is already not a licensed medical doctor and a pharmacy technician who is even lesser qualified than the pharmacist to another group of lesser qualified individuals, including pharmacy technician students and advanced pharmacy technicians who do not have the medical training of a physician or a registered nurse who commonly administer vaccinations. This amendment trivializes the seriousness of potentially life-threatening adverse events that can happen following vaccination. Additionally, this amended version of SB 133 authorizes pharmacists, pharmacy technicians, advance pharmacy technicians, and pharmacy tech students to administer additional vaccines above what is authorized in existing law, expanding the vaccines allowed by age to the full CDC schedule which increases the risk associated with the practice of allowing pharmacy employees to vaccinate. This amended bill also allows a pharmacist to prescribe vaccines in addition to ordering and administering them which will allow pharmacy employees to vaccinate in institutional pharmacies where an order is required as well as outpatient-type settings where a prescription is required. This could also allow a pharmacist to offer a written prescription for a vaccine to a patient for them to use at another store location.
This amended version of the bill necessitates a title change in the NVIC Advocacy Portal from "Authorizes pharmacists to order & administer vaccines to adults & children 12 & up with parental consent for all vaccines on CDC schedule" to a new title "Authorizes pharmacists to order & administer vaccines to adults & children 12 & up with parental consent for all vaccines on CDC schedule."
UPDATE: 3/25/2024 - SB 133 was reported favorably out of the Joint General Law Committee and is eligible for a full Senate vote as of 3/25/2024.
UPDATE: 3/7/2024 - SB 133 was substituted in the Joint General Law Committee by a vote of 22 Yeas and 0 Nays on 3/7/2024. View the committee substitute HERE. This new substituted version of the bill still contains the language of the bill that NVIC OPPOSES in SECTION 9. related to vaccination, as described below in NVIC's analysis of the introduced bill. This substitute does not change NVIC's position on the bill or the title of the bill on our NVIC Advocacy Portal. NVIC does not take a position on any provisions in the bill unrelated to vaccination.
UPDATE: 2/16/2024 - SB 133 is scheduled for a public hearing in the Joint General Law Committee on Tuesday 2/20/2024, at 12:00 PM in Room 1E of the LOB and Zoom and YouTube Live. View the hearing agenda HERE. To register to speak at the hearing, click HERE. To Submit written testimony, click HERE. To view the livestream of the hearing on YouTube, click HERE.
SB 133 was introduced in the Senate and referred to the Joint General Law Committee on 2/15/2024. This bill is introduced by the Joint General Law Committee.
SB 133 authorizes a pharmacist to order a vaccine, in addition to the authorization to administer a vaccine in existing law and expands the vaccine schedule by which the pharmacist is authorized to follow for adults and children ages (12) twelve years and older. This bill also authorizes pharmacy technician students to administer vaccinations under the direct supervision of a pharmacist who is an instructor for the program.
SB 133 repeals various sections of Title 20 of the 2024 supplement to the general statutes, related to professional and occupational licensing, certification, title protection and registration, and examining boards, and replaces it with the following, summarized as follows:
SECTION 6. of SB 133 repeals Subsections (a) to (c) of Section 20-598a of the general statutes, related to the registration and certification of pharmacy technicians, to add new language to Subsection (a) that authorizes an individual who is enrolled in an accredited pharmacy technician education program to engage in the duties of a pharmacy technician, as part of the curriculum, under the direct supervision of a pharmacist who is an instructor for the program. This includes the authority to vaccinate as granted to a pharmacy technician in Section 20-633 (c) (1).
SECTION 9. of SB 133 repeals Subsection (a) of section 20-633 of the 2024 supplement to the general statutes, related to the administration of vaccines and epinephrine cartridge injectors by pharmacists and pharmacy technicians, disclosures, training, recordkeeping, and regulations, and replaces it with language that (a) (1) allows any licensed pharmacist to order (A) any vaccine approved or authorized by the US Food and Drug Administration that is listed on the National Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) age appropriate immunization schedule. Existing law allows a pharmacist to administer a vaccine to an adult per the Adult Immunization Schedule and to a child at least twelve years of age with parental consent or without consent if the child shows proof that they are an emancipated minor. This bill changes existing law to allow the pharmacist to additionally order the vaccine and now administer any vaccine on the "age-appropriate immunization schedule" to adults and children ages 12 and older rather than just those vaccines on the Adult Immunization Schedule.
Because pharmacists have the authority in existing law to delegate the administration of vaccines to a pharmacy technician, this section of the bill is essentially expanding the authority of pharmacy technicians to administer more vaccines as authorized in existing law in Section 20-633, related to the administration of vaccines and epinephrine cartridge injectors by pharmacists and pharmacy technicians.
If passed, SECTION 6. of SB 133 will become effective on October 1, 2024, and SECTION 9. will be effective immediately upon passage.
NVIC OPPOSES SB 133 because it trivializes the very real vaccine risks and serious reactions by allowing inadequately trained pharmacy employees to administer possibly life-threatening vaccines to adults and children. The pharmacist, advanced pharmacy technician, pharmacy technician, and pharmacy technician student do not have adequate training on each vaccine, the risks, prescreening for risks, patient contraindications, emergency interventions for reactions, and how to report reactions to the Vaccine Adverse Event Report System. Additionally, pharmacists and pharmacy technicians do not have the medical training to act if a life-threatening reaction to a vaccine does occur. They are not trained to differentiate between cardiac arrest, anaphylaxis, or fainting and act accordingly to save the lives of the children and adults who react at the time of vaccination. This bill undermines the doctor-patient relationship and removes critical health history screenings that are supposed to take place in a physician's office prior to vaccination. Neither pharmacists nor lesser qualified pharmacy technicians, advanced pharmacy technicians, or pharmacy technician students have the necessary medical history of an individual and their family medical history and unique health needs prior to vaccination.
Vaccines, just like all pharmaceutical products, can cause injury and death in some people. As of May 1, 2024, the United States Government has paid out more than $5.22 billion dollars to vaccine victims through the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (VICP). As of May 31, 2024, there were 47,991 deaths and 2,608,515 adverse events reported to the US government's Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System.
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 of interest 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. 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. With bills like SB 133, pharmacies stand to make large profits taking a piece of the vaccine market pie while enjoying liability protection from the US government.
https://www.cga.ct.gov/asp/cgabillstatus/cgabillstatus.asp?selBillType=Bill&which_year=2024&bill_num=SB133 - text, status, and history of SB 133
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