Boise, ID (WorkersCompensation.com) – Legislation to compensate employees that become sick after taking a mandated COVID-19 vaccine has now cleared the house panel in Idaho, according to a report from AP News.
Supporters of the bill state that there are workers that are falling ill after receiving the COVID-19 vaccine mandated by their employer, and some are running into trouble with compensation for their illnesses. Opponents state that Idaho workers compensation already addresses compensation for workers who get sick from a vaccine, and that changing the bill could be costly to employers. One issue in the face of the new bill is that illnesses from vaccines are hard to prove, especially newer vaccines such as COVID-19.
Overall, Idaho lawmakers reviewed around 36 bills dealing with pandemic issues on Monday. Approximately 13 bills were either dropped, or provided an informational hearing only.
Meanwhile, according to a recent report from the Wall Street Journal, at least three large labor unions are pushing for Biden’s vaccine mandate to extend past only applying to large businesses. AFL-CIO and United Food and Commercial Workers International both filed a federal petition asking that the Occupational Health and Safety Administration review the new mandate. Additionally, SEIU, Local 32BJ which is a branch of the Service Employees International Union filed a petition in federal court last week.
By comparison, at least 12 states have filed a lawsuit to stop the mandate. Additionally, OSHA has suspended its actions as well pending the outcomes of litigation. While the future of the mandate may be up in the air at the moment, there still may be many issues to deal with long term.
Just this week, Bloomberg reported on French study that called for more investigation in which researchers found 5 times as many cases of myocarditis with the Moderna vaccine than the Pfizer vaccine, even though they both passed phase 3 trials. Incidents of myocarditis have been consistently reported in studies worldwide, and while the overall rate has been significant but low, studies have shown an increase in males under the age of 39, which is a large portion of the healthier workforce.
While there has been a systemic push to mandate the COVID vaccine, taking into account the clear controversy that has helped to fuel the Idaho bill, it will be interesting to see what the final legal and financial ramifications may be, especially in light over ever-evolving vaccine studies.