Legislation Details:

UPDATE: 2/7/2023 - HB 1029 died after being postponed indefinitely by the House Health & Insurance Committee on 2/7/2023.  The vote was 8 yes and 3 no to kill the bill. 

UPDATE: 1/25/2023 - HB 1029 is scheduled for a hearing in the House Health & Insurance Committee on Tuesday 2/7/2023 upon adjournment in HCR 0112.  Agenda - https://leg.colorado.gov/content/health-insurance-2  The full House could adjourn as early as 9:00 AM. 

Members of the public can participate in the hearing by submitting written testimony; testifying before a committee remotely or in person; and listening to committee proceedings and watching floor proceedings over the internet. If you plan on attending the hearing and testifying, keep your testimony to 2 minutes or less. 
See-  https://www2.leg.state.co.us/CLICS/CLICS2023A/commsumm.nsf/signIn.xsp 

For contact information for the House Health & Insurance Committee Members see - https://leg.colorado.gov/committees/health-insurance/2023-regular-session

HB 1029 should be supported because it will prohibit minors from being administered a COVID-19 vaccine unless the child’s parent or legal guardian provides informed consent, prohibit a child from being required to receive a COVID-19 vaccine and prohibit public or private entities from discriminating against a minor based on whether they have received the COVID-19 vaccine.  See full text as introduced here.

Talking points:

• Vaccines are pharmaceutical products that carry a risk of injury and death. Minor children may not be aware of family and their own personal history of vaccine reactions or personal contraindications to relay to the vaccine administrator. 
• If a minor child consents to vaccination without parental knowledge and has a reaction, the parent may not recognize vaccine reaction symptoms and the reason for the child's sudden personality change and decline in physical, mental, or emotional health. This lack of knowledge could be life threatening for the child and may prevent the parent from seeking immediate medical care. 
• Children and adolescents are vulnerable to peer and authority-figure persuasion. Some doctors, who are frustrated with having to spend time talking with educated parents about vaccines, have identified minor consent as a way to coerce children into consenting to vaccines on their own, but children need to be raised by their parents who love them and know what is best for their individual child.  
• Current Colorado State Law C.R.S. 25-4-409 allows minors to consent to vaccination for sexually transmitted infections without parental consent.  Specifically, the law states, (2) The consent of a parent or legal guardian is not a prerequisite for a minor to receive a consultation, an examination, preventive care, or treatment for sexually transmitted infections. For the purposes of this section, health care provided to a minor is confidential, and information related to that care must not be divulged to any person other than the minor.  This is allowed because of the passage of SB 016 in 2021 that added “preventive care” to existing law that allowed minors to receive treatment for sexually transmitted diseases. Sponsors of SB 016 and the legislature refused to amend the bill to say “preventive care” does not include vaccines. Current sexually transmitted infection vaccines include HPV, Hepatitis B and Hepatitis A.  If COVID-19 is ever determined to be sexually transmitted, minors could be administered COVID-19 vaccines without parental consent or knowledge.
• Current Colorado State Law C.R.S. 25-4-904.5 Annual alignment evaluation requires the department of public health and environment to annually evaluate the state’s immunization practices, including an examination of updated best practices and guidelines recommended by the advisory committee on immunization practices (ACIP) of the centers for disease control and prevention in the federal department of health and human services. The state board of health shall review the department of public health and environment’s annual evaluation and may update the state’s immunization practices pursuant to the department of public health and environment’s annual evaluation.  This law went into effect with the passage of SB 163 in 2020.  ACIP recommends COVID-19 vaccines for children.  The department of public health could require COVID-19 vaccines for school.
• Medical practitioners, schools, and others should never be permitted to coerce impressionable minor children into a medical procedure that is capable of causing injury or death behind their parents' backs. 
• Children consenting to vaccination on their own are not likely to understand the legal ramifications when they are injured.  There is a strict statute of limitations for filing a claim when someone is injured. If someone is injured by a vaccine, U.S. Code, Title 42, Chapter 6A, Subchapter XIX, Part 2, Subpart a, Sec. 300aa-16 Limitations of Actions prohibits a petition from being filed for injury compensation later than 3 years after the first symptoms or a significant aggravation of an injury.  
• Federal legislative history provides evidence that Congress never intended for a minor child to make decisions to get a vaccine without parents' knowledge or consent. When the National Childhood Injury Act of 1986 was passed, the Act clearly stated that before the administration of vaccines to a child, a health care provider shall give a copy of the CDC's vaccine information materials to the "parent or legal representative of any child to whom the provider intends to administer such vaccine..."
• The CDC confirms that there is a requirement that their Vaccine Information Statement (VIS) is provided to the parent/legal guardian prior to vaccination of a minor child on their VIS Q&A page. Under the question, "is there a requirement to verify that parents/legal representatives have actually received and reviewed the VIS," the answer is a clear "YES."
• These requirements under federal law for a parent to be educated with CDC materials prior to their minor child being vaccinated will not be met if a child is allowed to make these decisions on their own.
• Under the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of 1986, Congress gave partial liability protection to vaccine manufacturers and then added an amendment giving vaccine administrators liability protection from vaccine injury lawsuits in 1987. In 2011, the U.S. Supreme Court judges in Bruesewitz et al v. Wyeth et al affirmed that government licensed and recommended childhood vaccines were “unavoidably unsafe” and effectively removed all remaining liability from vaccine manufacturers.
• Today, pharmaceutical companies making and selling vaccines and doctors and other vaccine administrators have no legal accountability or financial liability in civil court when a mandated vaccine causes permanent injury or death. Children consenting to vaccination on their own are not likely to understand the legal ramifications if they are injured. 
• Unlike medical, school, or other personnel administering vaccines, parents are legally accountable and financially responsible for the healthcare and education of a minor child when that child experiences a vaccine reaction and becomes chronically ill or disabled. 
• There is scientific evidence that the physical, mental, and emotional development of children, including adolescents, varies and is often not sufficient to enable children to make well-reasoned decisions about risk taking involving their health and well-being. 
• Children do not have the same kind of critical thinking skills or emotional maturity required to make a well-informed vaccine benefit-risk decision compared to an adult.
• According to the Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System (VAERS) there have been 34,122 Deaths reported where the vaccine is COVID-19 or COVID19-2 as of 1/27/2023 and 1,513,204 Adverse Events.  
• Search Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System Data Using MedAlerts, A Powerful VAERS Database Search Engine hosted by NVIC. How to use MedAlerts -   https://medalerts.org/vaersdb/help/help.php

HB 1029 was introduced and referred to the House Health & Insurance Committee on 1/9/2023. This bill is sponsored by Representative Bradley and Senator Baisley. 

This bill is titled the "COVID-19 VACCINE INFORMED CONSENT FOR MINORS PROTECTION ACT". 

This bill prohibits COVID-19 vaccines from being required for a minor in Colorado, a child from being administered a COVID-19 vaccine unless the parent or legal guardian provides informed consent, and public and private entities from discriminating against a minor based on whether the minor received a COVID-19 vaccine.

This bill also provides for a civil remedy.

https://leg.colorado.gov/bills/hb23-1029 - text, status and history for HB 1029