Vague language tanks ‘natural immunity’ legislation in West Virginia Senate
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CHARLESTON -- A bill passed by the West Virginia House of Delegates last week dealing with allowing antibodies levels to count the same as vaccination to COVID and other diseases hit a brick wall in a state Senate committee Monday.
The Senate Government Organization Committee voted Monday afternoon against recommending House Bill 4320, requiring natural immunity or antibodies to any illness be treated as equal or better to vaccines to induce immunity to the full Senate and the Senate Health and Human Resources Committee in a 6-8 vote.
HB 4320 states employers who require employees to show proof of immunization from communicable diseases to allow those employees to show proof of biological immunity by presenting medical proof of protective antibodies. The committee approved a strike-and-insert amendment in an 8-3 vote making technical changes to the bill.
Committee members had concerns about the broad language in the bill. The bill, a response to private sector COVID-19 vaccine requirements, appears aimed at additional diseases but it doesn't define or specifically say what communicable diseases. It also doesn't include what levels of antibodies a person should have.
"This says if you have antibodies. Is there some reference to a level of antibodies," asked state Sen. Chandler Swope, R-Mercer.
"There's no level anywhere in the bill," said Carl Fletcher, counsel for the Senate Government Organization Committee. "It does not provide what is a protective antibody level. The issue is there is no level that has been established as of yet that would say if you have x number of antibodies or this level of antibodies, this will prevent you from contracting systematic COVID."
The National Institutes of Health lists several examples of communicable diseases, including HIV; hepatitis A, B and C; measles; salmonella; and blood-borne illnesses.
"Communicable diseases are illnesses caused by viruses or bacteria that people spread to one another through contact with contaminated surfaces, bodily fluids, blood products, insect bites, or through the air," according to a NIH report released on Oct. 31, 2021.
The bill also doesn't say how someone would be able to show an employer whether they have the antibodies. There are no requirements to show medical records in the short bill.
"I'm troubled with the language of this bill," said Sen. Owens Brown, D-Ohio.
"It is broadly written," Sen. Mike Maroney, R-Marshall, a physician said. "It doesn't differentiate what a protective level is for each and every disease. All viruses are different, that's the problem."
HB 4320 is one of several bills floating around during the last week of the 2022 legislative session. House Bill 4012, prohibiting the showing of proof of a COVID-19 vaccine, passed the House last week and is in the Senate Health and Human Resources Committee. House Bill 4071, eliminating COVID-19 mask, testing, and quarantine requirements, also passed the House last week and is in the Senate Education Committee.
Steven Allen Adams can be reached at sadams@newsandsentinel.com.