DES MOINES, Iowa — Iowa Senate Republicans advanced legislation at the beginning of the first funnel week that would prohibit a person from administering a gene-based vaccine to another in the state.

Gene-based vaccine is defined in the bill as “a vaccine developed using messenger ribonucleic acid technology, modified messenger ribonucleic acid technology, self-amplifying messenger ribonucleic acid technology or deoxyribonucleic acid technology.” To simplify, this definition means mRNA vaccines, like those developed for COVID-19.

A lot of people commented on the public forum of the bill, expressing their concern with it moving forward. The bill advanced by a vote of 2 to 1, with both Republican Senators voting for it: Sen. Campbell and Sen. Guth.

The bill would not allow a person to administer a gene-based vaccine to another, while classifying the penalty as a simple misdemeanor and a $500 fine per incident.

Lots of medical professionals and people lobbying for organizations and associations in the medical field were very frustrated with the legislation.

“Legislation has no right to take away patients’ individual choice, to be vaccinated or not,” said Dr. Patrick Keating, MD a child and adolescent psychiatrist.

“Our students want no part of practicing here with bills like this on the table,” said Dr. Johnathan Crosbie, a physician and assistant professor at Des Moines University. “You are chasing them off. So you go ahead, pass it, chase off the best and brightest, by all means go ahead.”

“I think that these tools need to be in the toolbox for innovation, to fight different diseases,” said Jessica Hyland, the Executive Director for the Iowa Biotechnology Association.

“Criminalizing the practice of medicine and the practice of pharmacy on a vaccine that is voluntarily received and sought after by a patient,” Kate Walton, a lobbyist for the Iowa Pharmacy Association.

Even some people that spoke in favor for the bill were not fans of the penalty mechanism that the bill outlined.

“These are gene therapy products, intent on altering a person’s body. With that being said we do not like the mechanism of enforcement for this bill, or an outright ban,” said Lindsey Maher with Informed Choice Iowa.

Some for the bill shared anecdotal stories about their injuries or illnesses after taking some variant of the COVID-19 vaccine.

“This is a non issue, the issue at hand is what is being injected into humanity and nobody in Washington, D.C. is going to do anything, nobody in the FDA,” said Dan Twelmeyer, from Des Moines.

Sen. Campbell said at the end of the subcommittee that he would be filing an amendment to the bill, which may end up changing it in its entirety. He briefly mentioned to members of the media that he would look at companies manufacturing the vaccine to drop liability protections in order to sell the vaccine in the state. That amendment is not filed yet so the details around what changes could come are not clear.

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